Merry Christmas!!!!

Hope all of you have a great Christmas...we will post pictures later!!!!

Yes, Zachary, there is a Santa Claus......just not what you think...

It was a heart breaking conversation we had with our son. When asking him what he wanted for Christmas, he wanted to know why we needed a list. Didn't Santa Claus give us our Christmas presents???
I have always told my kids that anyone can be a Santa Claus, it's something we have always talked about around the holidays. He said he understood this, but he believed there was still a Santa Claus.
Without getting into too much detail, our son was crushed.
He said we had lied to him. I told him that with all of the evil in the world today, children need something good to believe in.
I also told him that long ago someone wanted to give gifts to people anonymously, and that was how Santa Claus came about.
We talked about Christ and his birth and how his life represents giving.
This was all good and fine, but when a childhood fantasy is put to rest, a tear or two are often seen.
I read the newspaper article that Virginia wrote to the editor.
Here it is..

"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.


What I say is Long Live Santa Claus, no matter the shape or form he takes...... I love this time of the year!! We all need something fun to believe in.....

Kevin had a conference in Las Vegas last week and wanted me to go with him. Kass watched the kids while we went on our adventure.



This is the place we stayed at. It was a really nice hotel....







I did feel spoiled with all of the amenities that were available, turn down service with chocolates on our pillows every night....



This is a picture in the canal shoppe area. There were stores everywhere.... of coarse none that I felt I could venture into.....cost way too much!



There are cranberries in the water! Nice decor for the holidays



Another area where the shops were.



On our last night there, we ventured out....The M&M store was fun to go to as well as the Ghiradelli chocolate store!!

During the days I would either stay in the hotel, or go shopping....now I got directions to a mall and Target...

We ate every night at my favorite restaurant. The Grand Lux Cafe. It is a sister company to the Cheesecake Factory Restaurant. We went here in Chicago and I thought I would never eat at one again!!!!! Happy Day, was I excited to see it right there in the casino area!!!!

My verdict of Vegas, I really do not have a desire to ever go back.....unless it is once again an all expense paid trip to keep my husband company!!!!!

Tagged

So apparently I've been tagged! This is going to be interesting...

5 things I was doing 10 years ago

1. I lived in Arizona
2. I babysat my cousins
3. I went to Sea World with Eric and Amy's Family
4. I learned how to make pomegranate jelly
5. I visited my grandpa 5 days a week


5 things on my to-do list

1. Clean out pantry

2. Organize food room

3. wrap presents

4. write Christmas letter

5. be nice


5 snacks I enjoy

1. candy
2. ice cream
3. chips and salsa and bean dip
4. cheez-its
5. Anything Yummy


5 things I would do if I was a millionaire

1. pay off my house
2. put my children through college
3. go on a lot of vacations
4. pay taxes!
5. and if any left, put in the bank....


5 places I've lived

1. Twin Falls, Idaho
2. West Valley. Utah
3. Mesa, Arizona
4. Gainesville, Florida
5. Payson, Utah

4 things I'm passionate about

1. Family
2. Religion
3. good deals
4. Eating good food!

4 things I say often

1. I'm sorry
2. because...
3. love you
4. Is your homework finished

4 things I want to do before I die

1. world cruise...stopping everywhere
2. pay off house....14 years left ...ugh!
3. travel with Kevin when the kids have all moved out!
4. I do have a long "bucket list"


4 things I want/need

1. I don't want for much....
2. Kevin to always have a stable job
3. Kids to always choose the right
4. to someday finish college....actually I don't want that, I just need to do it, someday


4 places I want to see/visit

1. Australia
2. Austria
3. Hawaii
4. fall colors in NorthEast

4 TV shows I can't live without (I can live with out these I just like them)

1. Office
2. Amazing Race
3. News
4. any CSI show

4 things you don't know about me

1. I don't like people dishing up my food, unless I am at a restaurant
2. I actually don't mind doing the laundry now that I have a new washer/dryer!
3. Did you all know I love going on vacations???
4. I really don't like confrontation......I get all shaky!!!!

Okay, now it is Glenna's turn and anyone else my girls did not hit!!

Being Thankful.....

I love this time of the year. I could do without the cold weather, however!!
I love the holidays in the fall and winter.....Halloween is always fun at our house with all of the parties we do, then Thanksgiving. A time to get together with those you love and have fun with. Then Christmas...everyone should love the season of giving and finally New Year's. We love having our annual New Year's eve party with all the good food, family and friends.
As we head up north for Thanksgiving I have been pondering what matters most to me....
Here are a few of my blessings.....




I simply adore my sweetie!! He spoils me rotten (although I think I have always been spoiled rotten!) I love spending time with him, I await his arrival home everyday!! He makes me laugh everyday of my life, it keeps life in perspective!! I can't believe we have been married for over 18 years!! We have so much fun together....yep, I truly love this man!



I can't believe she will be going to college next year!!!! The time has truly flown by! I love the way she can communicate with adults. She is a hard worker striving for good grades to get into the university she wants....She is responsible and dedicated to what she believes in and she has such a strong testimony. She is a true friend..... What a fabulous daughter she is!!!!



Middle child like her mother! She is a great helper!! She is committed to what she believes in and what she strives for! She has a gift of learning and she does what is right. She is a great friend to have and a fabulous sister. She is a blessing in my life.




Only son..... He does what is asked of him.... He has a good heart and he has a gift of loving little children. He does great in school...he loves writing stories. I can't believe he is taller than me....by only a smidge though!! My little boy...



Oh, the firecracker! She loves being around people! She likes having something to do!!!! I love walking to school with her everyday, although she is so far ahead of me on her scooter! I can't believe my baby is 8!! She is a sweetheart, wanting to do what is right and be a good girl. She is a delight to have in my family.

So you see.....these are a few of my blessings. My life would have been so different if they did not exist. I am thankful this season for my blessings......we do have so much fun together making memories to last for an eternity!

DC Part 2

Okay! Here is part two! I've decided that I am going to post pix and explanations of the days first, and after the pix are done, I'll post funny stories about what happened while I was there!

Monday morning we went to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. We broke off into our workshops. (I was Bus 1 Workshop 2), and we talked about Jefferson, his views, and his significance. Then we got to walk around and look at the quotes. Afterward we discussed what we thought Jefferson's opinion would be on current issues.




Here's Mr. Thomas Jefferson himself, with one of his quotes behind him; on a side note, some of the quotes were from the constitution.






This is Taylor (my roommate) and me in front of Thomas Jefferson! She didn't realize how short I am until this point, because she was standing next to me with her arm around me, it became glaringly obvious, especially since she is tall.








The Air and Space Smithsonian Museum was a blast (pun intended, haha)! Here is a pretty spiffy astronaut space suit... I just thought it was a great intro to the museum!!









Look... I am holding up the moon w/ my head! Ha ha ha!! Yeah, I wanted to be underneath it and have it on my back... but I'm kinda short... so it wasn't working very well, so I settled for my head.





So this is kinda what old seats in airplanes used to look like. Freaky, huh? Actually, planes used to be considered to be so dangerous, that some actors actually had a clause in their contract that said they could not ride a plane while working on the movie. Eventually they became popular, obviously...




Okay, it is hard to tell... but this is the Franklin D Roosevelt Monument, I thought it was pretty cool... we walked through four "rooms," but they weren't really rooms...






This is a statue of the bread line ... it's from the Great Depression.








There was a series of waterfalls in each "room" each one more magnificent than the last... this is the third or fourth. My camera gave out... so I'm not sure.






This is Wednesday morning... I forgot my camera on Tuesday... so I'll post pix when I get them from someone else. Anyway, there was no vanity mirror, so Taylor and took pictures of each other's hair in order to see if it was done in the back.





Just to give you a taste of what's to come... This is the Capitol building *under a bit of construction to prepare it for Jan. 20th* I had a tour of it... and I took a ton of pix!

DC Part 1

Saturday, November 1-Sunday, November 2
Okay, so I promised that I would do this... so I'll start it... this will have to be a continuing thing.
So, on Saturday, the twelve of us who were going, met w/ Mr. Alexander(adviser going with us) and Mr. and Mrs. Ford(Vice principal and wife, they drove the suburbans). It was exciting, and we were all chatting up a storm of course. We went through security (which of course I had no idea I would have to repeat EVERY time we went into a building in DC), and we waited to board the plane. We flew to Denver, had a layover, and then went on to DC. I had a window seat and I saw the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building as we flew it at around 9:59 DC time. We checked into our first rooms before the actual program started, and we stayed up WAY too late. The next morning I had my first experience w/ the metro. Here is a picture of what the escalator looked like, I'm probably just over halfway down at this point.
Anyway, it was huge. After we purchased our passes we got a group picture, it's not the greatest quality, but it will have to do.












I'll start in the top left. Taylor (my roommate), Mr. Alexander, Hayden, Morgan, you can kinda see David's big poofy hair by Morgan... I'll post a picture of him later, Matt and WAY over there is Steve. second row is me, Liz, Katelyn, Hailey, then Candace.
Our stop was Rosslyn on the blue and orange line, we stayed at the Keybridge Marriott in Arlington, Virginia.

Our first stop was Arlington National Cemetery. It was amazing. We saw the changing of the guard, Kennedy's grave, and of course a million other things like the burial place for the astronauts on the Challenger, etc. Here are a couple of pictures to show you some of the things I saw.


This is just the sign w/ Matt and Steve hiding behind it.








This is just to show the massive amounts of graves everywhere, I can't even describe how many there were.









This is a ship's mast, I can't remember exactly which one it is, I took a picture that said it's name somewhere. But it is a grave site for all who died on that ship.






That is me, on a sweet stone chair. this is where they hold official
funerals that you see on TV when they bury someone here I think... I'm not 100% positive...









This is the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier. He walked in perfect timing back and forth...









This is the tomb... every war since WWI I think they have put a soldier whose identity is unknown in this tomb.







This is where they walk... they are so precise that it wears their footprints in the carpet and cement!!







This is the tribute to the Mormon Battalion.




I really do have a lot more pictures; however, if you want to see any specific pictures, you can ask me, and I'll see if I have them.

After that we went to the Holocaust Museum. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of that, but rest assured that it was amazing. They did a phenomenal job of portraying the horrible things that were done in those concentration camps.


After the Holocaust Museum we ate and then went to the old, old, HUGE post office. Inside it has been turned into sort of a food and shopping place, but on the tenth floor it has a lot of really old, really huge bells, and there is a looking point up at the top on the tower that isn't in the picture where you could overlook DC. Here is a picture of the outside of the building. It really is super massive. We went to the top and got an excellent view of DC... but I didn't take pictures... I did from the top of the Washington Monument, but that is for another day.

That night we started the actual Close-Up program. I met my other roommate Shemijah, who we called Shem. I don't have a picture of her, so just imagine Emily Osment (Hannah Montana's best friend) and you can imagine her. After a fabulous dinner (we had McDonald's for Breakfast, but it was kinda cool, because the McDonald's building was there stories high, and our lunch was kinda gross, it was just pizza at a little shack place across from the Washington Monument), we went to the Iwo Jima (sp?) monument. As workshops 1 and 2 rode on our bus (I was in workshop two), our program instructors told us to look out the window. We did, and it looked like the soldiers were rasing the flag. It was all about angles, but it was really cool. I thought it was a great monument to start off the program. It was night so the pix aren't great, but here are a couple.

No picture!

Yesterday was retro day at the Jr High, Zach did not dress up, however, Audrey did!
Audrey had a side ponytail and the good ole' leg warmers that are coming back in style!!!
To top it off she wore my letterman jacket from High school. She thought it was a great addition to her wardrobe. If the jacket wasn't so 80's she would have wanted one for herself because she said it was so warm!!!

Now, for today it is opposite day. Last night Zach said he had something really good for this day.
So, this morning Audrey comes up the stairs and she has a polo shirt on backwards, mismatched shoes and one pant leg rolled up. I looked at Zach wondering what he did that was "so good". His pants were on right, as well as his shirt. He then flips his fanny pack (full of snacks, and meter) back around. (He usually wears it in the front/side. He had it upside down in the back. He was so proud of himself. Audrey thought it was lame, I laughed because he is so his father's child!!

Stay tuned....

When Kassidy gets caught up with her homework she will give a report on her trip to Washington DC......

Picture time

Our family got our pictures taken a few weeks ago up the canyon by one of favorite places.
Our good friend takes pictures professionally and so we hired her to take ours. I figured since Kass would be leaving us next summer I would like a really nice portrait to hang in the living room. This is one of my favorites of the kids. It was such a fun night.
I am so excited to pick the pictures I really want!!! (which is all of them!!)

Halloween week!

Audrey and her BFF. These two have been friends for almost 7 years now!! Although the BFF is 8inches taller, they do have a lot of fun together. This particular day they stole the camera and had a great time with it!!






Here is Emy and her BFF.......she also stole the camera and had a fun time taking pictures this week....








Em wanted to carve pumpkins.....so we could roast the seeds!!!

Here is Audrey's master piece!!!! She also did a growling fish!!



It's party time again!!!! Here is a picture of the mummy cookies I made for the parties. The menu also consisted of petite pickles and ham, pigs in a blanket, beefstick and cheese and crackers, apples and caramel, scones, pizza rolls, chicken nuggets...you get the point...


One of the games for Zach's party they had to wrap each other in toilet paper. There were 3 to a team... It was so funny watching the kids do it.



Zach's team won! He made the comment that it was a waste of good toilet paper!!



Candy corn toss was a lot of fun also. They played this game 3 times.



Halloween day!! Well, morning at 6:50. Audrey, Zach and Kass headed out for school all dressed up!! Of coarse they were all in different time eras!



Emily was excited for school today. She was going to have a party the last hour, and we all know that Halloween brings about lots of yummy treats.
Emily was a southern belle, while Jolene was Belle



On Friday I got a couple of my nieces and a nephew to stay with me for a couple of nights. It was a lot of fun taking them trick or treating. Niece loved going. She would tell people, "welcome to Halloween", or "do you have some candy for me". She is 3 and it was just fun to watch and laugh!



Even the neighborhood policeman had treats for the kids!!!!


Kassidy had her Halloween party on Halloween. She had a great turn out. It started at 6:30 and the last kids left at 11:40. She had lots of fun and food for the night!!

Saturday Kevin and Zach went to a scout pow-wow where Zach is now working on 3 merit badges.
Audrey played in a volleyball tournament for the ward,
but our biggest news......
I took Kassidy to the school where she got in a Suburban and headed to the airport bound for Washington DC. My baby is clear across the country.
She called last night and she had a window seat flying in. She saw the Washington monument all lit up as well as the capitol building. Today she went to the Arlington Cemetary where she saw the changing of the guards. She also went to the Holocaust museum and to the first post office. Kassidy is with a goverment group called close up. She has a week filled with classes and fun. She comes home on Saturday.

So that is my week in a nutshell!!!!! Always something going on, not too many dull moments!!!