Wow, an update!

Just a quick update for everyone.

Christmas was great. The kids enjoyed their presents. (Or so they say.) This was a Wii year for us. The kids received a Wii from Mike and me, while Santa brought them each a remote. Santa brought Guitar Hero (which, by the way, is extremely addicting) for Elizabeth, and Mario Cart for Alesea and James along with Wii play games. I never knew the technology behind the Wii was so cool. We have been hooking up to the internet and playing with people from all over the world. (So, any of you with a Wii that would like to play against the Bonds, let us know and we can exchange the Wii numbers. I'm serious. And we thought just the kids would be thrilled about the Wii. Nobody knew I love video games too, right?) Anyway, the kids also received clothes, toys and books, but I think the Wii was the most popular gift.

Evan is 7 months old now. Two weeks ago he had his two bottom teeth break through. He is rolling all over the place and starting to do pretty well sitting up. H is still a little wobbly, but getting there. No crawling yet, but he loves playing with his feet. He is growing way too fast.

James is so loving and caring, yet can still be pretty ornery. He started primary in January. The first several Sundays were a real struggle. (He does not like change unless it is him making up his mind.) He would refuse to sit down with his class and would stand in the back or the side of the room. When it was time to go to class he would refuse to go. Then it was a fight to get him to go and when we finally would get him to go, it was a struggle to get him to stay in the door and behave. Now he his doing really well and loves class. He loves to sing and listen to the lessons.

Alesea will be 7 in 2 weeks! I can't believe it! She is doing really well in school. We learned at her paretn teacher conference she is at a 3rd grade reading and comprehension level, being in first grade. She loves to read and has been invading Elizabeth's chapter books. She is a little comedian and inventor. She is continually making us all laugh. We are currently painting the room that she will be moving into for her birthday. She chose the colors of Pink and Dark purple, and has high hopes for Hannah Montana bedding and accessories. Pictures coming soon.

Elizabeth is surviving the world of Middle school and all of its drama. She has awesome grades and enrolled in Honors classes and seminary for her ninth grade year in the fall. She continues to be a HUGE help at home. I really wouldn't have any hair if it weren't for her help. She turned 14 in December. She has started earning her own money by babysitting.

Mike started his MBA in January and only has approx. 65 more weeks to go. Yeah! He continues to work hard at his job and be a great support at home as well. Mike has also been a HUGE help with the kids. I think he has more patience with them than I do.

I am still working at Maceys 2 nights a week and doing occasional portraits.

We are all doing well and keeping busy. We hope everything is going well for all of you. Love to you all!

Happy Holidays!

3 months in a "nutshell"...

Ok, I have been terrible at updating. I had plans to a couple of times, but then other things came up. So here I am doing a quick update at just about midnight, while kids are sleeping.

We are doing great. We are healthy for the most part, other than we all went through a short bout of a stomach bug of some sort during this last week. We are anticipating Christmas, just like everybody else. We had a great Thanksgiving with our families over to our house. My mom and step-dad were here along with Mike's mom, one of his sisters, and 2 brothers and their families. We had a great time. Lots of food and visiting. The rest will be in pictures, as long as all goes well.

Here goes....

Fun in the fall, and James being cool... He is growing too fast and will be in Primary after the new year. He can't wait to go to school like his sisters. He has been an awesome big brother, sometimes a little too loving, though.

Halloween 2008 was great... By the way, the largest pumpkin in the picture was one of the three pumpkins we grew in our garden this year. It was cool to be able to plant them and watch them grow, then actually carve them for Halloween!

An awesome visit at the airport with my brother David and my mom on her birthday...

Evan's first smile on camera, first cereal, first pic with Santa, and just being cute sleeping. Also, Evan was blessed in November, but I am a horrible mother and did not get a picture of him in his blessing suit yet. He has grown so much and is now rolling over and "talking" etc.

For those of you who don't know, Alesea is extremely creative, and funny. She comes up with things that are just the funniest things I have ever seen and heard. One of these days I am going to do a spotlight on her and tell of some of the things she says and does. Here is a picture of one of those things. She made these whiskers and tail out of sticker scraps the other night. She also had her 1st grade Christmas program, and then her picture with Santa at our neighbors house.

Elizabeth just turned 14 and now gets to wear MAKEUP! (Picture coming soon!) She is a 4.0 student, and is just starting the Jr. Jazz basketball season. Here is just a pic from her b-day party and just a pic I took in the fall.

I was recently called as a Laurel Advisor in church, and Mike as the Elders Quorum 2nd Counselor. I am also back at Macey's Grocery Store for a couple of nights a week, as well as back in to doing portraits for a few people here and there. Exciting news! I am moving my studio in to the basement of our house, which will give me more room than the spare bedroom I have been in. Alesea will be moving in to the bedroom, and Evan into the bedroom to share with James. We all gave up our theater room in the basement for me to be able to do this, so thanks to my family for this sacrifice! (We enjoy our family movie nights, so this was hard to do. We will just be having movie nights in our not so exciting and cool living room.)

We hope everybody is doing great and that your holidays are safe and wonderful. Please remember the reason for the season! Love to all!

NOT 4 weeks and counting... Surprise!

Well, as all of you know, the baby came 4 weeks early. Evan William Bond decided that he needed to make a statement of some kind. Not only did he arrive 4 weeks early at 6 pounds and 3 ounces, but he decided he needed to confirm the name we had chosen for him. We were visiting some friends of ours in Evanston, WY. We were there just for a one night trip to have a BBQ and see the new houses of a couple of our friends up there. We decided we better go up there while we still had time before I had the baby. For those of you that don't know, we had picked out the name Evan William Bond since we found out the baby was a boy. So we have had this name picked out since about April. One of the reasons we picked the name is because Mike's mom's maiden name is Evans. We liked the name Evan as well and decided it worked because it was a family name. Well, when we were in Evanston, we spent the night at one of our friends house. We stayed up till about 2:30 in the morning talking to our friends because it had been a long time since we had seen them. We went to bed and about 4:00 in the morning I woke up with some cramping. I went back to sleep for about 20 minutes and woke up with more cramping. I tried to walk off the cramping and tried going to sleep again, the whole time wondering if there was any chance I could be in labor. For those of you who don't know, I don't feel contractions until it is time to push and deliver the baby. So I wasn't exactly sure if this was labor or not. Being 4 weeks early, I thought there was no way I could be in labor. The cramps did not go away and only got worse, so I finally decided to wake Mike up. I woke him up about 4:50 and had to convince him we needed to go to the hospital. He kept asking if I was joking, or pulling his leg. We were trying to decide if we could make the drive down to Ogden or not because neither of us wanted to have the baby in Evanston. And besides, I still wasn't even sure if I really was in labor. We decided we better stop at the hospital in Evanston to get checked out just in case, and it is a good thing we did. We got to the hospital at 5:20 a.m. and discovered I was completely dilated and my water was leaking. I had to wait for the on call doctor to get to the hospital before I could start pushing. That was about 15 more minutes. Well, Evan was born August 3 at 5:49 a.m., delivered in Evanston, WY by Dr. Evans. I guess Evan needed to confirm the name we had chosen. He was on oxygen for several hours after just to make sure he was ok. We spent the night in the hospital and went home the next day. We were a little un prepared so we had to borrow a car seat from Mike's mom's neighbor. It was quite the surprise. I had no indication that I would go in to labor that weekend. Evan did have jaundice and had to have the lights on him for almost a full week. We spent everyday taking him in to the hospital to have his bilirubin count tested. He had his little feet pricked so many times. He is doing well now and is up to just about 7 1/2 lbs. He is already growing to fast. Despite being a preemie, he was quite strong and trying to lift his head the first day.

Alesea and Elizabeth started school on August 25 and they both seem to enjoy it so far.

James is hanging out at home with mom and Evan. He is doing well with the baby so far. Just a little "Father Hen"

Mike was able to take a week off of work to stay home and help me with the kids after Evan was born. He was also able to get our roof re-shingled. It looks great and takes a weight off our shoulders. He has also started re-building our fence on the side of our house. 3 months after we moved in to this house someone crashed their car through our fence and ripped half of it down. We are just now getting it fixed.

I am doing well. I am getting fairly decent sleep. Just enough that I don't feel myself going crazy. But still not enough that I don't fall asleep while feeding Evan.

Things have been crazy busy, but we are all hanging in there. Hope all of you are doing well! All our love to you and take care!

4 weeks, but who's counting???

Ok, I better get an update out before the baby comes, because then it will never be done.

Well, I have 4 weeks officially left to go. I think this has been the longest feeling pregnancy I have gone through. I guess it doesn't help that I have been counting down since the day I found out. I am healthy, and the baby's heart beat and growth has been healthy thus far. We expect a normal delivery. I will be released from my nursery calling pretty soon, which will be kind of a relief. I am having a hard time running around chasing kids right now.

Mike has been working hard on our shed. He just needs to finish the door and it will be ready to go. Mike's big project for two weekends from now will be re-shingling the roof on our house. This will not be a fun task. We have a very tall house.

Elizabeth went to one girl's camp and enjoyed it. She is now headed off to the official YW's camp next week. She made a great assistant for Mike and helped him build the shed. She actually cut wood with a chop saw, helped frame and shingle the shed. She has been a tremendous help with her brother and sister and helping around the house. She is counting down the days for school to start again. She will be in the 8th grade.

Alesea has also been a great help keeping James entertained at times. She is excited for school to start. She will be in the first grade. She has been reading a lot and playing school. We have been to Lagoon a few times this year and discovered she is just a hair too short for most of the big rides which has been kind of disappointing for her. Better luck next year.

James turned 3 on June 28th. I can't beleive how fast time flies. We celebrated with a BBQ and cake and ice cream and enjoyed the company of family and friends that were close by. James has been doing pretty good at potty training. There was a week where he was having accidents at night, but we have that under control as of right now. It has been just about two months since we have had to change a diaper and it has been great. We discovered that James is allergic to cats, just like I was when I was his age. I have a picture to post. The sad thing is that the picture was after he had benedryll in his system for a while and the redness and puffiness had started to go down. One of his eyes swelled almost completely shut and had red and white hives surrounding his entire eye and down part of his cheek and up on to his forehead. Poor guy! We need to keep an eye on him for other allergies now. For those of you who don't know, I am allergic to farm animals, and deathly allergic to horses. The girls have shown no signs of allergies. Oh, we also discovered that James likes his chocolate milk "shaken, not stirred." I was fixing his chocolate milk one day in a sippy cup and he said "I don't want you to stir it, mommy. I want you to shake it." Sound familiar??

We hope everybody is doing great and that summer is going well. We are waiting for our tomatoes to ripen in our garden. We have had a couple of cucumbers already. Mike is waiting for signs of his giant pumpkins that we planted. I don't know what will happen there. We are also just waiting for the baby to come. Hopefully he will be here and will be the subject of our next update. Take care and love to all.

A miracle, and some great family time...

Ok. It is about time I get another update out. I never did get pictures posted last time, and I have some I want to post this time, but lets see if I ever get around to it. We have had a lot going on the last couple of months, I just hope I remember it all.

I am going to start with James this time. He will be three in 2 weeks. We have seen the most changes from him. His tantrums are getting farther and fewer in between, but they are still BIG when he has them. He is learning his ABC's and can now recognize a majority of his letters. He has been doing really well with his colors for quite some time now. He is also doing really well at counting to 11 correctly. He still is a car/truck/anything with wheels fanatic. The big miracle, however, is over a week and a half ago he woke up and after his bath he told me he didn't want his diaper anymore. He wanted his underwear. At first I thought Oh great, how am I going to convince him to use the toilet, because up to that point, he wouldn't even sit on it. Right after that thought he simply said "I want to pee on the toilet." Well, he did use the toilet immediately and has been using it ever since. He has had a couple of accidents, in the morning he hasn't woken up in time to get to the toilet, but hey, I am ecstatic. It has been almost two weeks since any of us has had to change a diaper. Hallelujah!

Alesea finished kindergarten with excellent grades and reports from her teacher. She took the end of year Kindergarten assessments. She finished the required portion with 100% and was able to finish the 2 extra tests both with a hundred percent as well. They are given 45 minutes to get the required test completed and the extra tests are for those who have extra time to spare. She is excited to move on. She is also excited for the summer. Her last soccer game is tomorrow. She scored her first goal last week. Unfortunately I missed it because I was taking James to the bathroom. Her summer is going to be filled with sleepovers in Elizabeth's room, which is her favorite thing to do. Before her school year ended she started reading the book Matilda. She has finished it halfway with great comprehension. She has been a great help with James. She finds ways to help keep him entertained. She plays school with him among other various activities.

Elizabeth finished soccer last week. Her team had a great season. They won eight and lost 2 games. She finished up school with fantastic grades as well. She will miss a lot of her friends, because she will not be able to see many of them over the summer. I think she will survive. Elizabeth was just called as the Beehive President in our ward. She is excited about that. She will be attending Oakcrest camp in July this year, which is a camp that has about 300 girls each week. It is through our Stake, but it is not only for LDS young women. Any religious group can enroll their groups. It is only for girls, however. She will then attend YW camp in August. Wow, two weeks away from the family this summer. I don't know what I will do without her. She helps me keep the kids entertained during the summer. She is a huge help and both James and Alesea adore her. They look up to her and want to be with her all of the time.

Mike just recently made a job change within the same company. He applied for a position last summer and then the opening was put on hold for all applicants until further notice. Mike received a letter from his boss last week offering him the position if he still was interested. He took the offer. His official title is now Business Warehouse Administrator. We were happy about that. Mike is starting a big project this weekend. He is building a shed for us in the backyard. We were blessed and received all the wood to build it for free, so our out of pocket expense will be greatly reduced.

I have made a change at work as well. I am no longer in the Deli. YIPEE! I have moved up front as a cashier, and I like it much better. I don't go home smelling like grease, fried chicken and meat. I like the job a lot better as well. I don't have to do dishes and clean out fryers, and sweep and mop and prepare food. I get enough of that kind of work at home. My hours have been cut back, but I don't mind that very much either. I work 2 - 3 days a week rather than 4, and that time home, to me, makes a huge difference. The baby is doing really well. He is moving a lot, at all times of the day and night. Heart burn is kicking in. The end of August is still a very long ways away. Especially now that the weather is starting to warm up. The unusually cool weather has been nice in many ways- green grass, growing gardens, cool air. But sometimes it is still too cool.

We have plans for Lagoon this year, and hopefully some 4 - wheeler riding, but not too much beyond that. We went up to my mom's house for Mother's day and enjoyed a great meal with some great visiting. David and Patty returned from the Middle East and Italy and were out in Utah for Mother's Day. They were supposed to be here for just a week, but it was extended to 2 weeks. They are now in South Korea for 2 years. It was great visiting with them while they were here. Mother's Day was great to visit with everybody. I will hopefully post some pictures of that visit. If I ever get around to it. The truck is fixed too. You would never know about the little ding that I put there. Mike is, however, looking for a minivan for me now. One that he says I can do whatever I want to do to it. I have been taking pictures still, here and there. Sporadic business, but I still love it. I have a few sittings lined up for this summer as well. I have many pictures I need to post there as well. One of these days I will get to it.

Ok, I have rambled enough. Hopefully you are not all bored to tears. Hope all is well with all of you and your families. Take care and keep in touch!

IT'S A.......... A........... A............

BBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!


We are excited to announce that we are having another boy. We are glad that Mike and James will no longer be out numbered. Things are looking great so far according to the ultrasound.

We are all doing well here. We don't really have any other exciting news for an update.

The girls have started soccer. Alesea has her first game this Saturday, and Elizabeth will be having her third game.

Love and thoughts to all, and enjoy life!

A Friendly Poll and A Not So Friendly Pole...

I guess I should just plan on a monthly blog rather than a weekly blog. Hopefully I can remember the important happenings for the month.

Lets see...

The first part of March was uneventful. The middle is where things started happening.

Elizabeth's middle school was evacuated due to a bomb threat. Just one of several in the state during that week.

My step-dad, Ed, had a mild heart attack on the 20th. He ended up staying in the hospital and going in for heart surgery on the 24th. Things went very well in surgery and he is now home and doing very well.

Alesea turned 6 on the 21st. Wow, time flies by fast. We celebrated on the 22nd by having family over for Hawaiian haystacks, cake, and ice cream. A pinata and an Easter egg hunt were the highlights for the kids.

Our Easter Sunday was spent visiting Ed in the hospital for part of the day, then we came home and cooked a small Easter Dinner for just our family and spent the rest of the evening relaxing and doing nothing. Oh, the morning was spent having a Easter egg hunt and snacking on goodies from Easter baskets.

Mike and I decided to find out what the baby will be. I want to to just a little poll to find out what every body's guesses will be on what it is. (That is if I can figure out how to post a poll here.) So look for the poll on this page somewhere and take a guess. Sorry, there will be no prizes or anything if you guess correctly. Just the pure satisfaction of having guessed correctly.

My lesson learned for the month.... It is not a good idea to sideswipe a pole in your husbands "dream truck" only 2 1/2 weeks after you bought it.



We send our love to all and hope everything is going well wherever you may be. (Oh, I will be posting a few more pics so check back in a few days, if you want!)

Fight with a floor and battling strep...

Hello everybody! Well, I didn't quite get an update out any sooner this time around. Oh well. This one will be fairly quick and no pictures this time.

Elizabeth had to endure swimming in PE for the past couple of weeks in school. She loves swimming, just not in the school P.E. setting. She registered for the 8th grade a couple of weeks ago. Her YW basketball team won every game and will begin region games next week. Her Jr. Jazz basketball team won every game except for one, so her team was thrilled about that. School is going really well for her.

Alesea has battled strep throat all week. No fun. She is finally on the up side again. It is great to see her cheerful again. She received an excellent report from her teacher for parent teacher conferences yesterday. She also lost another tooth yesterday. She does not have a gaping hole, however, because her permanent tooth grew in during the last month right behind the baby tooth. Alesea will be turning 6 this month and I can't believe it! Kids just grow too fast.

James had a fight with our wood floor this month and is the first of my kids to have stitches. He was running around the house playing SUPERMAN and tripped on his cape and fell chin first on to the floor splitting it open. He was not happy about the whole stitching procedure. When we took Alesea in to the same Insta Care for her strep throat James flipped out. He had been there just a week and a half earlier and feared what they might have to do to him. I had to explain a dozen times that we were there for Alesea and not for him. Finally, the promise of a sucker helped calm him down.

We are all ready for the spring and warm weather to get here. We are tired of being cooped up.

My brother, David, and his wife Patty will be arriving back in the States in April and will be here in the U.S. until they head out to South Korea for 2 years in June.

Finally, we just want everybody to know that the 6th member of our family should be arriving the end of August.

Take care and we hope life finds you happy and well!

Awards and a flashback...

Ok. Once again it has been way too long since I made an update. Kids are back in school. Work keeps chugging along. And it has been WWWAAAAYYY too cold. I am ready for the cold to be over. We need the precipitation, but I am tired of the snow.

Elizabeth had spirit week in school last week. They participated in various activities for the week. On Monday Elizabeth was in an oreo stacking contest for the "Anything Goes" assembly which was boys vs. girls. Her team won. Tuesday brought back the 80's. It was fun finding clothes for Elizabeth to dress up in for 80's days. It brought back A TON of memories. Did we come close enough?

Wednesday brought crazy hair day; Thursday brought pajama day; and Friday brought superhero day. Friday also brought a special award for Elizabeth. She was one of 6 recipients in her grade for the LION OF THE QUARTER award. Six students from each grade were chosen for their outstanding academics, citizenship, friendship and all around attitude displayed for the 2nd quarter. We are very proud of her and her accomplishments. She received another outstanding report card this semester.

She has one game left for Jr. Jazz on Saturday. They have won every game except for one. She has just started Young Women's Basketball and they have won every game so far.

Alesea's reading has skyrocketed. She reads anything and everything she can get her eyes on. She has also taken up the "hobby" of trying to spell everything she can. Her teacher recommended that she test for the ALPS program, which is the Accelerated Learning Program for Students. This is the program that Elizabeth was in. Alesea starts testing for the program tomorrow morning. She will have another test in two weeks. We will then be notified of her results in April. She is doing outstanding in school as well. She is still our little comedian.

James is doing better as far as tantrums and fits go. He doesn't bully kids as much anymore either. He hasn't completely stopped, but he is getting better. He loves to hang out with his big sisters. He is trying to learn to sing the alphabet song. He loves music and stories. He is also trying to learn to count. He is becoming a little comedian as well.

Mike's work is going well. He finally received a much deserved raise.

My work is going well.

I am going to add a section for my brother, David. Hopefully he doesn't shoot me for this, because he is very humble, but I am very proud of him and his accomplishments. He received an award from the Secretary of the Air Force for some of his accomplishments. Here are a couple of links to the article. Please be aware the photo is courtesy of U.S. Air Force photo/staff Sgt. Christina M. Styer.

http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,161571,00.html

http://activepaper.olivesoftware.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=U1NFLzIwMDgvMDIvMDcjQXIwMjEwOA==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

I hope everyone is doing well. I will try to post an update more quickly next time, and until then, enjoy your days.

Christmas loot and a lost tooth...

Well, the crazy Christmas Season is over! I feel like Christmas is becoming WAAAYYY too commercialized. I know I am guilty at times about losing sight of the real reason for Christmas. Hopefully among all the goodies and presents we can also think about the birth of Christ and his ultimate love for all of us. It is pretty amazing.

Christmas day started about 8:30 a.m. for us. YES! Somehow our kids let us sleep in a little bit! Don't ask me how or why! As for the loot, here is a quick summary...

Elizabeth came out with some accessories for her i-pod, as well as clothes, shoes, games, and art supplies, a skateboard, and guitar picks, among a few other things. (For those of you who don't know, Elizabeth has taken a few guitar lessons and is waiting to be able to start them back up.)

Alesea came out with dolls, stuffed animals, games, clothes, and a toy laptop computer among a few other things.

James mainly came out with anything with wheels on it, and some clothes. After every present he opened, it had to be taken out of the packaging and played with before he would open anything else.

We spent the day at our house being completely lazy and enjoying each others company. A small ham, "funeral" potatoes, corn, and homemade rolls filled our stomachs at dinner.

Last but not least, Alesea lost her very first tooth that evening. As you can see in the picture, her permanent tooth had already started growing in behind it, so she officially did not have a tooth-less smile. She needs to lose the tooth next to it because that permanent tooth is already growing in as well. (To Shawn - my orthodontist friend - do you foresee any problems because of this??? j/k)

We hope all of you had a great and relaxing Christmas and were able to spend valuable time with family. Take care and we hope your new year is great!

Oh, just to elaborate on the crashing Christmas tree from my last post...

Mike woke up at 2:30 in the morning to a crashing sound and checked through the house to find nothing. Except for after he crawled back in to bed he realized he did not check the living room. He got back out of bed and checked the living room to find that our whole Christmas tree had fallen over. He ran upstairs and woke me up to help him. Sappy Christmas tree water had spilled all over our carpet and ornaments had fallen off. We ended up cutting extra limbs off of our tree to fit it in a larger and deeper tree stand. Fun times at 2:30 in the morning.

2:30 A.M. and the cRAsHinG ChRiSTmAs tReE

Ok... I was going to make a story out of this one too, but I think I have written enough for this week. I think the title of this post explains it all. If anybody would like me to elaboarate, let me know. HAPPY HOLIDAYS to EVERYONE! Take care!

The Plywood Christmas Tree

It was December 2004. Mike was studying for and taking his finals in order to graduate with his Batchelors Degree that semester. I was pregnant with James, and in the beginning stages of taking and reviewing applications for the people that would replace our job as managers of the aprtment complex we lived in. We were also trying to make as many repairs and fixes as possible around the apartment complex before we had to leave. On top of that, we had started looking for jobs for Mike and looking for a place to move. You might say things were a little busy. We normally take a day and head up to the Uinta Mountains to cut down our Christmas tree. 2004 was a different story. We really had no time that year to head up to the mountains as usual, so we scoped out a few tree lots around town. The price of trees seemed to be outrageous, and for trees that did not seem to be what we wanted. We somehow had it in our mind that if we went tree shopping on Christmas Eve, we could find a tree at a discounted price. We would spend Christmas Eve as a family decorating our tree. Christmas Eve came and as we drove to the first lot we had browsed earlier in the month, the tree lot had packed up and left. No worries, we would just continue on to the others that we had scoped out. As we went to every lot we had found, we discovered they had all packed up and left town. We were getting worried and frustrated, hoping we wouldn't have a Christmas without a tree. We were getting desperate and started driving around the buldings of local businesses hoping they had thrown out their trees in the dumpsters or back behind the buildings. No luck. We drove by many trees that were planted on the property of some of the businesses and briefly thought about breaking the law and cutting one of them down. (Don't worry, it was just a brief flash of desperate thoughts, we never would have really done it! LOL) It was very late and there were no trees to be found. The mood was somber as we drove home empty handed. We got home and put the kids to bed. Mike was determined and would not let our kids wake up Christmas morning without a tree. He disappeared in to the storage shed of our apartment complex for about an hour. I heard banging and power saws sawing. Finally Mike emerged with saw dust all over him and spray paint on his fingers. He told me to go out to the shed and take a look. Mike had created a 3 foot 2 dimensional Christmas tree out of plywood. He had spray painted the tree green and the stand red. (The couple that had managed the apartment complex before us had done many Christmas projects in the past and left cans of green and red spray paint. I almost threw them away on many occassions, but never did.) I have to say I have never seen anything so creative, and made with as much love as Mike put in to that tree for his kids. We brought the tree in to the living room and decorated it with Christmas lights and candycanes that could hang on the "branches". We now use the plywood christmas tree in our holiday decorating and laugh about the year we almost had no Christmas tree.

Our month in a minute... or two.. or three...

Ok, it has already been a month since I had an update. It seems only like a couple of weeks. A lot has happened in the last month. Here goes...

Elizabeth received her first report card with amazing grades, academically and citizenshiply (Is citizenshiply a word? LOL). She started basketball and has had two games. Her team kicked heiny both games. I should add that she made two baskets the first game. Yeah! She is now officially a teenager. The big 13! I can't believe it!

Alesea received all 100% in a round of kindergarten testing. She also has two loose teeth. The fun part is her first two permanent teeth are halfway grown in right behind the two loose baby teeth. Yikes! She was sick for two days the last week and a half, just the two days were a week apart. She is doing well now. She has been having fun with a new friend that I babysit after school for an hour.

James is still throwing fits and tantrums, but has his adorable moments too. He still can't get enough of trucks and cars. He is learning so many new words and new things, he amazes me every day. His new argument is any time we ask him to do something his response is..."YOU!" As in you do it. He is getting big, but still has no desire to start potty training. Any tips or hints from any of you out there?

Mike is still working for BD. He went "surfing" with a couple of his buddies at the new Solamon Center in Ogden about a week ago and enjoyed that, even though he took a beating. The Solamon Center has fun games and activities including rock climbing, surfing and swimming, indoor skydiving, video games and I think bowling, among other activities. We both would like to try the indoor skydiving sometime, as well. (I'd prefer that over the real thing any day.)

I quit my job at the Target Portraits Studio because the hours were too crazy. I was working 5-6 nights a week just to get 17 hours of work. I am now working in the Macey's Grocery Store Deli. It has been a good job so far. I especially enjoy the times when we are required to sample meats, cheeses, and salads so we can tell the inquiring customer whether they are good or not, or what the flavor differences are, or what we recommend. I really like the people I work with, and the time goes by fast. Plus, I work more hours than at Target in 3-4 days. That gives me more time with family. I have been busy taking portraits of several families for their holiday cards and gifts, as well.

As a family we finally went up to the Uinta Mountains and cut down our Christmas tree yesterday. We took our snowmobile and a couple of sleds and made a day of it and played around. It was freezing, but we had a great time.

We hope everybody enjoys the Holidays. Merry Christmas and just in case it is another month for an update, Happy New Year.

How sweet!

Hello everybody!

Halloween is over, thank goodness. We have so much candy it is not even funny. We purchased a bunch of candy to hand out, but it didn't get handed out. Mike and I both took James and Alesea out trick-or-treating so no one was home to hand out the candy. The kids collected even more candy, so we are overwhelmed with the stuff. Trick-or-treating was great this year because the weather was so nice and warm compared to past Halloweens nobody was "freezing to death". After the candy collecting was finished for the night we went to a haunted house that is put on by a friend of ours. He does it out of his garage every year just for people who want to take a few minutes to go through. He changes it every year. He hands out king sized candy bars at the end. The haunted house is actually really good for being in a garage.

Alesea and Elizabeth are still chugging along in school, and doing well.

I am looking for a different job. I love working at the portrait studio, however the hours are crazy. During the off season, I only get 5 hours a week. During the holidays I get the 20 hours I would like, but they are spread over 6 days a week. I am looking for a job that will give me 20 hours, but over 3 days instead of 6. I interviewed at a local grocery store over the weekend. I will let you know how it turns out.

Mike is doing great. He took a trip down to the "Sand Dunes" last weekend to go 4-wheeling with some buddies and some of the Young Men in our ward and had an enjoyable time.

We are all doing great. Just moving through life at a steady pace. Hope all is well with everyone. Belated Happy Halloween!

It took 5 years...

Ok, everybody! Hold on to your hats! We finally have an updated "family portrait"! This is as good as it gets for now! Enjoy it, because it might be another 5 years before we have another one. We took a drive while listening to the last session of conference on Sunday. Our first attempt was up Big Cottonwood Canyon. We hiked up a little area that Mike has been to for rock climbing, hoping to take a family picture by the waterfall that is there. Within 3 minutes of being up there and trying to get set up for the picture a very large group of geologists showed up and took over the small area. They all stared at us as if we had invaded their party (even though we were there before them) and continued to stare at us until we pretty much felt shamed enough to leave. The rest of the canyon was pretty busy from sight seers taking pictures of the leaves. So much for that idea. So we headed way back out west to Butterfield Canyon (which is closer to our house) hoping that it would be less busy. Well, it was less busy and had no slushy snow to hike through. Voila! Here is one of our favorite pictures that came from that day. (Please scroll to the very bottom of the page.) Enjoy!

Now for a quick update...

Elizabeth did not get elected as a class officer. She is totally ok with it though. Out of 13 students that were running, six were elected. She is still enjoying school. Recreational soccer is now over for the season, and basketball will start soon.

Alesea still has a crush on the same boy in her class. Her kindergarten teacher approached me telling me that Alesea and Declan are best buds and do everything together in class. She is doing very well at learning to read. At first it seemed she didn't have a whole lot of interest in learning to read, but we have worked with her on helping her realize that part of reading is sounding out each letter and putting it all together. She seems to have grasped the concept and is doing really well and seems more interested.

James is still James. Throwing fits and tantrums at times, and being cute and adorable other times. He is doing better in Nursery at church. He hasn't had any biting incidents for a while. He loves to copy what Alesea does, which drives Alesea crazy. He is still infatuated with anything that has wheels. He is very particular on how he plays with his cars and trucks. The setting has to be just right or he gets upset. He is also very particular on the clothes he wears now. There are only a few shirts and pairs of pants that he will wear. I hope he grows out of that stage soon.

Nothing has changed for Mike and me. Just the same old stuff going on. I am working more hours at the portrait studio for holiday hours, but that is about it.

Hope everything is well with everybody! Take care and keep in touch!

Love,

All of us!

Welcome to our first blog!

For those of you who know me, I am terrible at keeping in touch with everybody. However, I will probably be terrible at keeping this blog up to date. I truly want to try, however. We will see how it goes.

Just to start, Elizabeth is now in 7th grade. She loves school and is doing very well at it. She applied to run for 7th grade student government and her application was accepted. She is required to make an essay poster to be on display in the lunch room until elections on Oct. 1. She is in recreational soccer right now and is hoping her middle school has a basketball and soccer team she can try out for.

Alesea started kindergarten and seems to enjoy it. She has her first crush on a boy that is in her class AND on her soccer team. She is in the process of learning to read. She is in recreational soccer as well. She is our little comedian and class clown. We don't know where she came from.

James is 2 years old and is a handful. He is our biggest tantrum thrower yet. He does have his moments where he is just too adorable. He and mom hang out in the mornings until Alesea comes home from school.

Mike is still working for BD Medical, and I am still working for the Target Portrait Studio. Not much is going on here. Just keeping busy with family life.

Hopefully we will have a family portrait to post soon. I am working on it!

Until next time!