Sweet

Chad and I couldn't give Grace a sister, so we got her a doll instead. She has hair Grace can brush and they have matching dresses. Her name is Addie. She "talks" to me, calls me mom, and I have to kiss her goodnight.

The Present House

I bought Chad a rather large Christmas present. After my neighbor and I wrestled it into the house there was no hope of hiding it because it was so heavy I couldn't move it by myself (we barely made it up the stairs!). I made an executive decision to wrap it and leave it by the tree. It was, however, a big impediment to getting around so Chad moved it into a corner of the living room. It looked quite hysterical. The kids, however, thought it was the best thing ever and quickly realized that they could squirm behind it and hide. They made the corner where the present lived into a "house" complete with pillows for their comfort. They are quite clever, my little beasties.

They missed the present house after it was gone, but Christmas morning and it's toys made up for the loss...Grant got a robot...hello bed head!

Merritt got Witch Doctor...bed head redux!

Grace got a tea set...and lovely bedhead! I see a pattern here.

Joseph got a stacking toy. He would have bed head too...if he had more hair. Give it a year.

And Chad? Well, he finally got to open that huge present. It was...

a reading chair.

Take A Little Trip

Well, it wasn't a little trip...quite a big one actually. Salt Lake to Houston, Houston to Gulfport and then hello Jaime! It was just me and my lap baby who was the best little travel buddy one could hope a baby would be. I snapped a picture of Joseph while we waited to switch planes in Houston (we flew in a tiny little commuter jet...one aisle with two seats on one side and one on the other...we actually boarded on the tarmac!) and who knew that would be my only picture of the entire trip!! Somehow my camera got switched on in my backpack and the battery was drained. It didn't even occur to me to bring the charger cord. So that meant no pics of Jaime and her cute prego belly, no soon after pics of beautiful Dallin's welcome to the world, no pics of Nathan, Jocelyn, Caleb, and Chase's ecstatic little faces upon meeting their new brother and no pics of me holding that precious baby boy. Wah!! Despite the lack of photographic evidence, I was indeed there and had a wonderful time. Yeah for family and especially for adorable new nephews. Here's a pic I snagged from Jaime...

My Parents are Awesome

On Monday, December 5, my parents entered the MTC for the second time. They were slated for a week's worth of training before flying out to France (the Paris mission this time around). I decided to make the pilgrimage and went with

and

and

We got there before mom and dad so I was able to snap a fun picture of them coming through the doors. (I have to say that you usually say goodbye to missionaries in the parking lot but we got to go in the building because we were taking their car and needed to meet to get their keys after their luggage had been dropped off. Lucky us!!)

Then there was lots of this...

and this

and this

And then they were gone. That is why my parents are amazing...they love us enough to leave us. And what do they leave us? A legacy of service, love, testimony, faith, and obedience. Thanks mom and dad!

O Christmas Tree - 2011

We usually go to a tree lot for our annual Christmas tree and we usually go at night. This year we went to a store (Harmon's to be exact) in the middle of the day. Weird, I know, but we got a great tree at a great price plus lots of free samples in the store (eggnog cheesecake...yum!).

Merritt thinks his mom is super cheesy! Merritt's mom thinks he is super fantastic!

Contemplating Christmas trees is hard work!

Grant is having a good time. He also thinks his mom is super cheesy.

I couldn't resist snapping a picture of this genuine Charlie Brown tree.

Then it was back home for our traditional gingerbread men and hot chocolate!

I Survived the Wind Apocalypse!

On November 30th I had the stomach flu. It crept up quietly and then pounced and I was sicker than I've been since I was pregnant. As I heaved up my guts in the middle of the night, I listened to an almighty windstorm begin to brew. The wind howled around the house and I was able to feel grateful that at least I had had a warm and snug place in which to be sick. It was a small comfort, but a comfort all the same. When the sun came up in the morning, the wind blew on unabated. It was a first class gale! We woke up to an odd scraping sound in accompaniment to the wind and found that garbage cans were sliding down the road. Chad left for work after many fervent prayers for his safety and I couldn't be at ease in my mind until I knew he had made it there in one piece. His account of swerving cars, flying debris, toppled semis and treed trampolines made the hand of the Lord in his safe arrival at work very evident.

I was feeling vastly better but still had that loose-jointed, hollowed out feeling that comes after a bout of the stomach bug. I had been watching the news and knew that the schools were still open and after debating internally about whether or not the kids should go, I decided that they would be just as safe there as at my home and that with only the little ones to care for I would be able to rest and get my strength back. We piled into the van and drove to school without any problems but we could see evidence of the storm's destruction on every hand. Roof tiles were everywhere, fences were down, and four whole trees plus even more tree limbs were strewn every which way over houses, cars, lawns and on the street. I dropped off the kids and then, on the way home, a HUGE pine tree keeled over about 75 feet in front of us and sent sidewalk concrete slabs flying. We got around that terrifying obstacle and back to the house, only to find ourselves locked out of the garage because the power had been knocked out. I climbed the fence, let myself in the back and called Chad with my work cell to get directions on how to unlock the garage door and lift it manually. At about that point the wind actually got worse, if you can imagine that, and everything shook: the doors, windows, the whole house! Joseph, Grant and I climbed into bed and pulled up the covers, trying to shut out the windy world. I found that it was important for me to be upbeat so that Grant would not be overwhelmed by the sound and force of the wind. The winds finally peaked and things got better after that, but the power was off and on all day, with an outage after dark that helped us to realize that we really needed to put our candles and LED lanterns in a more accessible place. We were grateful that night to have heat and light where so many did not, and to have survived the wind apocalypse of 2011.

Here are a few pictures that I took. My one of the gas station with all its east facing windows blown out didn't turn out well so I didn't include it. :( The first two show downed trees in front of houses. You can see how shallow the roots of pine trees are...they popped out of the ground in large circles at the base of the trees. In the third picture there are four pines on the left side off the house cut and stacked, ready for a landfill run. The last two pics are on my boss' family farm. The wind picked up that barn and rolled it 20 feet from its foundation.

Prima Ballerinas

Sister Sandra and cute family came to visit. They'd been at the house about 30 minutes when our girls went for a quick change. It was so much fun for Grace to have someone to play dress up with!