Senior ball

Emily had a great time at the senior ball. She took Brady and they had fun with their own version of fear factor. It included fetes of strength and daring taste buds. Emily and her friend made the t-shirts and each team wore matching bandanas. I

t was girls choice so I didn't get to get a picture of them together but I did make his boutineer.

decorating for Christmas

The boys headed up the mountain on Saturday to get our tree. They felt the need to help the neighborhood and came home with 7 trees. Luckily only one was ours the rest were handed out including John and Elise having their own. We got half the house decorated on Saturday and are leaving the basement and real tree for family night. Unfortunately I have to agree with Julie, there were real moments of frustration but we did have a good time and mostly we love the end result. Now if we could just get some winter weather to go with it all, it might feel like Christmas.

Debbie talking

Debbie has been talking more and understanding more. It is so fun. She says wawa, da (for dad and dog), ma, she will often imitate what we say and is learning some sign language. I took her upstairs to put warm clothes on for the light parade and she started signing 'bath'. This morning when I went to get her out of bed she said d and pointed to her diaper for a diaper change. She babbles a lot and we often get the gist of what she is saying by the tone. We get chewed out, asked nicely, told stories and never understand a word. She also is quite good at scowling. She loves shoes and tries on any that get left out. I like her in her brothers cowboy boots. She still doesn't walk much on her own but she will scoot even with big boots on--such talent.

Thanksgiving pie morning

We had a great Thanksgiving and of course, it began with pie. We made pecan, pumpkin, cherry, seafood quiche, razzleberry, banana cream, apple, coconut cream. The Van Ormans brought banana cream, and a raspberry white grape juice ice cream pie. We had two more families join us with their pies along with some of Emily's friends. We had a sweet friend, Sister Pegues join us for dinner and then headed to another friends house for trap shooting and playing games. It was a great day of enjoying some of our favorite blessings. Hope you are all well and happy.

Direction needed--my thoughts

Having just listened to a talk on being better I feel that it has come at a time when I so need the reminder—not just to be better but to not be scattered doing many things and still feeling like I am getting absolutely nothing of value done or complete. “Doing more things faster is not a substitute for doing the right thing” was a good starting point to make me think about where I am headed. If I don’t know where I am going or even which direction I am pointing, it is not very likely I will get someplace worth being. Basically, I need direction; I need priorities written down so that I don’t forget them. It is way too easy to wander from one good thing to another. I don’t get distracted too often by bad things just too many good things. “Don’t let the things that matter most be at the mercy of those things that matter least” (David O. McKay). I want to have purpose, a plan, a mission. I pray that I may know what is most needful. Thinking of Mary and Martha and Thanksgiving dinner, I could easily be distracted by the food preparations and martyrdom of being mom and forget the building of relationships and happy family memories. What is my focus? What do I really want the end result to be—is it just good food or is it a warm feeling at the end of the day that lets me know that it was a day that will live on because we enjoyed being together counting our blessings.
Ultimately, at the end of the day—every day—can I say that I have been guided by the spirit in what I have done, felt, given, thought and that I am acting on that guidance. As I set priorities, are they His for me? Am I moving forward in my mission and purpose? Am I allowing my children the same privilege? Am I becoming what He would have me be?

This one is for Grandparents. I asked Isaac and Simeon to sing a song or something and they said they would rather go up to their room. Isaac had an idea that would be good for Grandma and Grandpa. Obviously Simeon wasn't as impressed or impressive but they are cute! We will have to work on something a little cuter next time. We have been moving kids around. We got Dane moved in with Peter yesterday and then Isaac and Sim's room rearranged today. It is very tidy at the moment and we are excited about how nice it is looking. If we could just get Simeon to sleep in his own room. He still comes to my room in the middle of the night and sleeps on the floor.

Today Dane had a doctor's appointment for his leg. It is healing and staying straight with the help of a nice big plate and 8 screws. Dane was given permission to start walking on it with just one crutch working towards no crutches in two weeks. We go back in January to make sure all is healing well. He first broke his leg on Dec 28 so we will pass the one year mark at the next appointment. He is still not allowed to run, ride a bike, or skate board. Some day he will be whole again. He has been amazingly patient and is quite good at hopping on his good leg.

My niece, Anna, married Kyle Curtis on November 10. This is her with parents, 3 brothers and grandmother.

Kyle and Anna cutting the cake that Lauri had made. It was beautiful with family names on the foundation "family, the roots that gave us wings".

The back drop was great with furniture brought from Lauri's home. They decorated with pine cones, green apples, nature and corragated cardboard.

For Halloween Simeon was a cowboy with a cape, Dane a deer hunter, Isaac was a hunter, Emily was a teen constantly texting, and Debbie was our bumble bee. They spent the evening trick or treating. I stayed home to pass out candy. We only had two groups come by. I finally set the bowl out and at 10:30 it was still full. I thought at least some teens would come and empty it. I must live in an honest but boring place.

pumpkin carving

I have kept Dane from touching the computer and we are finally successful. He is almost like a toddler who want to push all the buttons except he thinks he knows what he is doing. Enjoy Debbie's walking, we continue to practice and I think she might finally take off on her own. Notice her red left foot. That was where she has a severe burn that probably slowed down her desire to walk but know she is healing great and back to wearing shoes.

More of Debbie practicing. We are in Elise and John's apartment getting ready to open presents. They go lots of nice gifts. The duplicates were crockpots. Many people were very generous.

With Dane's help we are trying to share some videos and pictures but are still learning all of this together. I must thank my dear husband for getting the pictures from camera to computer. I don't know why it has to be so hard but he had to reload something to make it work. It seems like everytime I get on to do something something has changed. So our goal is to share Debbie learning to walk, then Halloween then Debbie refusing to walk.

Deseret News, Tuesday, November 6, Emily is named All State Soccer first team forward. She received academic allstate at the final championship game and now she was pleased to be listed for the 2A allstate first team. This means that all the coaches in 2A voted on most valuable players making up an allstate team. Her picture was in the paper with a full color page of each of the all star teams. She is amazing. We will let you know when the allstate game is.