16 degrees

I have to give myself a little pat on the back for going to the gym this morning. I got up early to go before Jeff goes to work. I went in the garage to get in my car and it was FREEZING...literally. There was some water on the ground where the snow had melted off the car and it was totally frozen. Then I was driving to the gym and looked to see how cold it was and it was 16 degrees!!! I could barely breathe walking into the gym because the wind was blowing the snow everywhere and the air was SO cold! Just thought you'd like to know! You probably don't, but I had to make myself feel good! :)

More snow!

Friday was so nice....high of 50! Then there was some crazy wind all night. Our Christmas tree was laying on the ground outside our back door and when we got up in the morning, it had blown across the whole yard, probably at least 20 feet. Then it rained Saturday morning and almost all the snow was melted. It was great, we played Disney Scene It with the kids and by the time we were done with the game, we looked outside again and it was snowing like crazy. I shoveled the driveway at 2:00 and the snow was about 6 or 7 inches deep....it took forever!! (Don't get upset, I know I'm over 7 months pregnant. I told Jeff I wanted to because I couldn't go to the gym because the weather was so bad. I counted it as my exercise for the day!) Here's some shots from the day!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Wow, it's already 2008! We had a fun New Year's Eve. We went to our friends' house for a few hours and got back to my parents' house about 11:15. Caleb fell asleep on the way to our friends' house and slept the whole time we were there. He woke up when we brought him into Grammy and Papa's house and he was SO grumpy. He wanted to be part of the party but was so tired. He put a hat on and sat on the couch and cried and whined almost the whole time until midnight! It was kind of funny because I asked him if he wanted to go upstairs and watch a movie or go to bed and said, "No, then I'll miss the party!" Looks like it was a fun party for him!

Chloe, our little nightowl, is such a poser! She's always up for a late night party!

Abbie just couldn't make it!

Merry Christmas!

All the grandkids in front of their stockings at Great Grandma's (my grandma's) house! This used to be a tradition that we all did as the grandkids, now all the great grandkids do it!

The kids singing Away in a Manger after acting out the Nativity story. This is the first year we've done this and I think everyone liked it...I did. I made all the costumes (nothing elaborate) and the kids had fun dressing up. Abbie LOVED being baby Jesus and had everyone cracking up while she was sitting in the manger.

Chloe opening her Rayna the Cloud Queen doll that she got from Santa! Santa had to work hard to get that toy for her!

Caleb opening his Air Hog Remote Control Havoc Helicopter from Santa...they were so specific about what they wanted this year!

Christmas.....finally!

I'm way behind in posting Christmas stuff!

Here are some pictures of the kids in their Christmas clothes!

CONGRATULATIONS CHRYSTA

Chrysta, Kyler, Ashlyn, Hannah and Kate

After lots of hard work, Chrysta graduated with a Bachelor of Science-Nursing from Sac State! She'll take her RN test after the 1st of the year to become a Registered Nurse! Good Job Chrysta!!!!

YES!

I just have to say how wonderful it is in my house right now! Chloe is at school and Caleb is ASLEEP!! He hasn't taken a nap in so long and it's not because he didn't need it. It's been so cold and snow everywhere lately that they haven't played outside near as much and they're starting to go crazy in the house! I can finally get things done....like cleaning and maybe even Christmas cards. K, probably not both! The bad thing is that CHloe gets out of school at 2:30 (in an hour and 15) so I'm going to have to wake hime up! I'll enjoy it while it lasts!!

Busy Sunday

Sunday was a busy day for us. First, Jeff had to go meet with the Bishop for a new calling. He was called to be the Young Men's Secretary. That will be good for him, he's never been in Young Men's before, except for working with them as a Bishopric member. I got called to be Laurel advisor (teaching 16-18 year old girls on Sunday) and I'm really excited about it. There are a really good group of girls, I think there are 19 total! Jeff said that Young Women's is my life long calling, which it kind of seems like. But I love it!
Then we all got to speak in Sacrament Meeting. Chloe wrote her own talk all by herself (she told me word for word what to type), then gave it in Sacrament Meeting all by herself. She did an awesome job. Jeff and I spoke about Christmas! It went really well. We've both given so many talks lately that I don't really mind it, I actually kind of like it.....is that weird? Caleb could have given a talk, but he decuded not to...we'll give him a year or two. But he did sit up on the stand with us and gave his own different kind of talk. When the sacrament was being passed, Chloe took the cup of water next to mine (Caleb always takes the one right next to the one I took), so he got upset and wouldn't take one. We waited a little bit, but he refused, so we gave it back to the boy passing it and Caleb got so mad and cried really loud saying, "That wasn't very nice Mommy. That wasn't very nice for you to give it back!" while we were sitting up on the stand, so Jeff took him out. When the Bishopric member that was conducting stood up he said, "We've had the opportunity to hear from Caleb, and now we'll get to hear from Chloe...." Kind of embarrassing that he did that, especially since he was telling me how not nice I was, but I guess it was funny too.
We went to a stake Christmas sing a long program that was really good. I love Christmas music!

A whole year!

It's been a year today since we moved to Utah! I can't believe how fast that went by. A couple people told me that it takes a good year to year and a half before they loved it here...I'm still waiting to really love it! :) I like it, but it'd probably be better to ask me on a day where there isn't still snow everywhere and the forecast for Thursday-Tuesday is not SNOW!!! The snow is very pretty though. I love looking out in the morning when it has snowed all night and seeing the perfectly smooth snow on the ground and on the branches of trees...BUT I am still not a fan of the freezing cold temperatures. Highs in the 30's is WAY too cold! (That's just how cold it's been so far, last year there were a couple days where the highs were single digits....brrrr!) We are really liking our new ward. We have gotten involved pretty quickly...we're speaking this Sunday, I got a calling last Sunday and Jeff will get one this coming week. We're excited to really feel part of the ward and getting to know everyone. We love our new house and have great neighbors. It's fun for the kids to have kids next door to play with all the time. They love it. Jeff is loving his job at XanGo. It's a great, fun environment and he finally has a guy for a boss....way less emotional! He has gained a lot of great experience professionally working here. It is still really weird for me that this baby will be born in Utah (I'm already 6 months along..wow). I never thought that would happen. Kind of cool that we'll have her at the same hospital that Jeff was born at...I just always thought all of my kids would be "from" California...like me! I still miss California and everyone there as much as in the beginning. But I know that this decision was right for us and I've learned a lot since being here.

A fun busy day

Chloe being silly

We started off the day with a visit to Santa at the mall!!

Then the kids took a ride on the train at the mall. It goes around where Santa sits!

Then we got our Christmas tree. It was totally snowing and freezing. Chloe was fine, but Caleb is kind of a wimp in the cold weather...needless to say, it wasn't quite the experience we had at Apple Hill. It was more like, "That one looks good, tell them we want it...I'm taking the kids to the car!"

Jeff bringing the tree in. I love it...our whole house smells like a Christmas Tree!

And mom, we got a Noble Fir...HA!!!

Then Jeff went out and shoveled the snow off the driveway and walkways. It snowed a ton....like 6 inches or so. Our street is still completely ice packed. We live on a small street that nobody realy goes on unless they live there, so basically it probably won't get plowed very often. I found myself asking Jeff more than once yesterday and today, "Are you sure we want to live in Utah?"

The kids got their jammies on and we turned the fire on and warmed up. Then of course, the BYU v. San Diego game....and they won again! Then the ward Christmas party. We really didn't feel like going, but I had signed up to bring treats, so I just took Chloe. And that was our day!!