Christmastime

We had a typical lounging around and playing with new toys kind of Christmas this year. I woke up at 6:30 to the sound of Greta saying "ooh!" and then a loud "thump!" Brian bought me a croquet set and had arranged the mallets and balls under the tree unwrapped. Greta was picking up the balls and dropping them back on the ground. Luckily, she didn't break any of the other presents! The girls were so excited about their stockings, I began to wonder why I bothered to get them other presents. The girls got a bunch of stuff for their play kitchen, games, movies, books, clothes, a Little People farm, and beautiful dolls made by Grandma Clayton.


Brian got me the croquet set, movies, books, a fun new shower curtain, and an iPod dock.


I decided that maybe I'm actually married to a 10 year old boy because Brian wanted Hot Wheels and a kid basketball hoop for Christmas this year. I also got him some movies, games, and a Radiohead album on vinyl.




Brian also made freezer paper stencil shirts for me and the girls that have the states we were born in on them. Here's my "Oregon Love" shirt:


We had a wonderful holiday and we hope that you all did as well! Merry Christmas!

New Calling

When we went in for our tithing settlement earlier this month, the Bishop asked me to be the new Primary president of our ward. I've been working as the 2nd counselor for like the past 6 months, but it was time for the current president to be released since she'd been in for about 2 1/2 years. I feel like my brain has been in overdrive since then. They sustained me on Sunday and I've been trying to wing it until we can get through the end of the year (just one more Sunday!) and start to plan for the new year and new theme. I told the Bishop that my main concern is that I don't have a "commanding presence". I'm not a loud and in-charge kind of person, so the kids don't always listen to me. I think that I found some good counselors who will help with this though and I think that this will be a good experience for me. I like being in Primary because of the "simpleness" of the teaching. The kids just want to know the basics and I don't have to get nervous that they're going to ask me complicated things that I don't know. The theme for 2011 is about the scriptures and I think it'll be a fun challenge to get the kids to search them and learn from them.

No Body Sings It better than Alan Jackson for Christmas

**Note: This was actually posted by Brian. When we were driving today he heard this on the radio and said "Is this Alan Jackson?" And he was correct.

Family Pictures

Brian's wonderful cousin Katy emailed me a few of the pictures that she took for us while we were in Utah:

Rough Day

So, Greta fell out of a shopping cart today. And three hours of my afternoon were soon spent like this:

- Filling out an accident report at Walmart
- Taking the girls to the ER to get Greta checked out
- Greta freaking out every time one of the nurses wanted to weigh her, look in her ears, check her pulse, etc.
- Lots of dramatic crying
- More freaking out for the same reasons when the doctor came in
- Jade getting mad that I had to put her down
- Greta being completely uncooperative when they tried to do a ct scan
- Nurses strapping her chin down so she would keep her head still for the ct scan
- Finally getting some tylenol with codeine
- Watching Phineas & Ferb while we wait for the results
- The doctor says that the scan came back fine and we can go home

It's been a rough day.

Trip to Utah

We made it to and from Utah safely for our Thanksgiving trip. We took off after work on Tuesday night and drove as far as Amarillo. This is what Greta looked like when we stopped for the night. She can sleep anywhere! I'm a little jealous.


Brian wanted to drive all the way from Amarillo to Tooele on Wednesday, but it ended up taking longer than we thought and we had to stop in Salina and then drive the last couple of hours on Thanksgiving morning. The girls had fun running around with all of their cousins and Greta was very excited to get to play in the snow.





On Saturday, we headed down to Provo to spend some time with my sisters.

Maranda gave us hair cuts, and we had some family pictures taken by Brian's cousin Katy. I'll share those when we get them from her later. On our way back up to Tooele, we stopped in to see Brian's grandma and then headed into Salt Lake to see the Christmas lights at Temple Square.

It was freezing! Thank goodness for the heated visitor's centers! Between Sunday and Monday, we got like 18" of snow in Tooele. blech. I'm not a big fan of the stuff. But we managed to go out Monday night to the Jazz game with my sisters and brother-in-law which was a ton of fun!


We headed out on Tuesday morning and drove as far as Gallup the first day. On the second day, we drove 2 hours to Albuquerque and stopped off at the zoo and aquarium for a few hours. It was a little chilly, but nothing compared to Utah.


We drove on to Amarillo for the night and then made it home on Thursday afternoon. It was a lot of time in the car and it's good to be back home (where it isn't snowing) and settling back into our normal routines again.