Jare-bear is home!

Jaron came home. He was about 20 minutes early but we got to the airport early. Poor guys had to take the red-eye flight so he's pretty tired.

Man.....it's so good seeing him.....and he looked so awesome!!!

At 10am we went to the Stake Pres. office where he was released. Also Nathan was ordained an elder. It was so cool having Steve ordain him and all the brothers in the circle. It was really emotional to me to see them all there. It's been so many years since they have all been together.

I took tons and tons of pics so I will put more on later. We also celebrated Christmas today and had Christmas Eve dinner. A pretty crazy day!!!.....but good!!!

Just for Jaron

Jaron said he missed the snow. This is what mother nature is giving him as a welcome home gift. And it is still snowing.

He will be home tomorrow. We'll see how thin his blood has gotten in 2 years :)

Hole in the wall

We HAD this big whole in our wall from Steve's old chair (that we don't have anymore) banging up against it. It's been needing fixed for months!!!
Steve has been meaning to fix it but as most of you know......he's been very, very busy with work. He knows how to do it but there are so many other things that are higher up on his list than fixing the wall. Plus the chair hides it.......out of sight, out of mind.

When Timothy saw it he said he could do it. I already had all the stuff so I told him to go for it. Nathan likes doing this kind of stuff too so he assisted Timothy in getting this job done.



I had fun watching and taking pictures.




They got it all caulked and this morning I sanded it and vacuumed up the mess.
Now I have to paint the wall. My only question is......what color to paint it?

Thanks Timothy and Nathan!!!!

All in the timing

Here are some pictures of T's arrival. I couldn't put anything on earlier cuz I didn't want Jaron to see them. It's a surprise!!!
Jaron can't know T is here and today was his p-day and he's on the internet. Jaron is now off so the coast is clear.

Timothy got here safe and sound and it's so much fun to see him. It's fun seeing the brothers together goofing off and it will be much more fun when Jaron finally gets here Thursday!!

Jaron has no idea Timothy is here and it will be a fun surprise when he comes home!!!

We Rock!

Christopher and Lesa got a new for Christmas. They brought it over tonight and showed us how to play. We played the best 2 out of 3 games.

Guess who won 2 games????

Guess who won 1????

It's a very fun game and I highly recommend it!!

Our non-Christmas

It's kinda weird waking up Christmas morning and you're not celebrating Christmas. It was a little sad but Jaron called and it distracted me from it. All of us got to talk to him for over an hour. We'll see him soon!!!....like Thursday!!!

I'm not sure why I have a pic. of Nathan on the computer but I took it this morning so it's on here.

We did go and see "Sherlock Holmes". We left 40 minutes early. Steve didn't understand why we were leaving so early. He knew that we would be the only ones there. When we got there it was packed with lines of people outside. When we got to the actual theater it was filling up fast. We got some of the last seats that were in the 2nd half of the theater. The theater ended up being completely full. Even the front seats....ugh!!! Steve is still shocked that so many people go and see movies on Christmas........live and learn.

If you're a Sherlock Holmes fan I think you'll like it. I thought it was fun and there are some funny parts in it.

The best tummy medicine

Do you know what this is a picture of? It's a ginger root. And when you slice a little of it up and boil it in water it makes the best tea. Just add a little honey to it and it helps make those tummy aches go away. Ginger is great for the stomach and today Steve and I found some at the store and bought it. This amount (1/4 pound) will give us 4 nights of ginger tea. In Hawaii they grow tons of this stuff......and it was cheap!!! So we would drink ginger tea almost every night for the 2 1/2 years we lived there.

If your stomach isn't feeling too hot cuz of stress or whatever.....make some of this and I think it will help.

Parent show for Emily's dance

Tonight was the parent show for Emily's ballet class. It was so much fun watching her dance and to see how much she has improved.

I took tons and tons of pictures. You are seeing only a very small amount of them

Look!! Emily is in the air!!! And it's focused!!!

Emily's class and her teacher.

And pointe.....lots of pointe!!!

And here is a small video of her dancing. You'll love seeing Steve's feet at the end!!! He's so funny!!!

Steak!!

We celebrated Nathan's birthday dinner last night. We bought some nice, thick steaks at Costco and Steve cooked them on the grill.........in the snow.

Christopher, Lesa and Maddox came too.

Lots of

steak.....potatoes....what more could a 19 year old guys want?


Besides a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake. The poor cake looks torched :)



Happy Birthday Nathan.......again!!

The Last Letter

This is it!!!! The last letter that we will be writing Jaron on his mission. It will go out early Monday morning. We have a habit, that started when Timothy was on his mission, that we write our letters during Sacrament meeting. I'm sure many people in our ward think that we are being very reverent with our heads bowed during the talks but we are actually writing.......and listening :)

We will have a 3 month break from writing and then back to the bowed heads again. I can't believe he's almost home!!!

Lower.....lower....

Every Christmas season I try with all my might to lower my expectations of Christmas. I try so, so hard to make it more about Christ, family and friends and by this time of the season.......I am so stressed and my goals are totally out the window. Why is that? I had great intentions but it never fails......it doesn't work that way.

I know what one of my problems is....I try too hard to make EVERYONE happy. It's very exhausting and it's impossible to do. I know it's something I need to change in me.

So today Steve is taking me to Red Lobster and we are doing ZERO Christmas shopping and were just going to have fun.....a very much needed break!!

Emily's 1st band concert

Last night was Emily's band concert. She wanted to dress up so she thought it would be fun to curl her hair. She has very thick and straight hair so I knew it would be a challenge. We got it wet and coated it in hair gel and rolled it. When it was almost time to go it was still a little wet but we took it out anyways....since we had to leave.

This was the result of her curled hair :) But she still looks adorable!!!

She did great and I think she really had a lot of fun!!!

She's in front second from the right. The one with the santa hat on...ha ha!!

And here is a recording of one of the songs they played....enjoy!!!

Oooops...

I forgot to put this awesome picture of Jaron up. He's gone totally Hawaiian!!! He'll be home in 2 weeks!!! He's such a goofball!!

This has been the main staple in our house for the last two weeks. We go through cans of this stuff.

The scene.....wake up, stay in pajama's, drink hot chocolate while checking emails and surfing the net....it's wonderful!!!

Also we just found out that Emily made the cut for Labyrinth.We're excited for her!!!

The Day.

Can you guess what Nathan got for his birthday? Or are you too distracted by him trying to put up with me taking his picture first thing in the morning? It's tradition to wake the birthday person up early in the morning and shower them with birthday presents and sing to them.

Nathan got 2 suits. I thought I wrapped them up pretty good.


We went to Los Hermanos for lunch.



Nathan told me NOT to tell them it was his birthday but I couldn't resist.....he got sang to :)


We had chicken pizza for dinner. We'll have his BIG birthday dinner Sunday when Steve is here. I still can't believe he's 19. Where does time go?

Happy 19th Birthday Burger!!!

Yep.....Nathan is now 19. Isn't it crazy how they grow up so fast? Nathan is the youngest of the 4 boys and I think he is the loudest of the 4 also. He has to be......he has to be heard above the 3 older brothers!!!

This pic. was taken while we were camping at the Smoky Mountains in NC. The park ranger kept calling Nathan "porcupine" cuz his hair stood straight up. I thought it was cute!!!

Nathan also did marching band all 4 years of high school. He was basically the life of the party. I think just about every day in marching band was a party :)

Nathan has received his mission call to Finland. He's already pretty experienced with living in Europe. Look.....he already drank milk in Melk.......he's ready to go!!!

You rock Nathan!!! You are a wonderful son and you make me so happy. Plus I think you are a goofball!!! You are going to do great on your mission!! I will miss you so, so much!! I still think I should be able to hang out with you in Finland be your companion. Who wouldn't want their mom with them on their mission???

Happy Birthday Nathan!! I love you!!!!