Halloween 2012

This year for Halloween, Melissa was in middle school so I didn't think I had to worry about costumes any more.  Wrong!  Jeremy reminded me that they still wear costumes to school all through high school, so we had to come up with a costume for Melissa.  Well, we thought and we fretted and came up with nothing until the night before Halloween.  Finally she agreed to a Hawaiian shirt, lei and straw hat - normal clothes yet still a costume of sorts.

Jeremy (no longer in school, so a costume was not entirely necessary) found his costume idea and couldn't resist making his own costumer this year.  And I still have to come up with costumes for myself every year because Herriman City employees do that (besides, I get a $10 gift card if I dress up to entertain the residents).  I have come up with a new costume every year for six years now, so I figured I could start to recycle and wore the witch outfit mom made me many years ago.

Labor Day Fun

Thanks to Jen for planning a get-together for the McFarlane girls and families.  We had fun with those who could come and missed those who could not.  Here are some snapshots from the day.

(Anthony was there too for a while, unfortunately I didn't get a picture before he had to leave for a show.)

4th of July 2012

We celebrated the 4th of July with our usual tradition of taking a picnic dinner to the Sandy City promenade. Rose and her family met with us to share in the celebration.

We watched the parade - we managed to get some bleacher seats which after a while were fairly shady.  The weather was warm, but there was a light breeze which made the evening very enjoyable.

We enjoyed our dinner and played some games and listed to the concert and basically hung out until the fireworks.

Happy Birthday America!

New Year New Callings

For the last 10 years I have had the same calling at church - making and handing out the Sunday sacrament meeting programs.  That has not been my only calling, but it has been the longest lasting.  At the same time I also had the callings of information specialist (I suspect that was a made up job that included making the ward directory, flyers for firesides and other activities, the yearly lesson schedules, ward calendar and anything else they could think up - don't get me wrong, I loved it), choir director, ward music chairman and of course visiting teacher all at one time.

I think I loved being choir director the most.  Over five years I progressed fromg leading choir like I would lead sacrament meeting, to really learning how to lead dynamics, pauses, breaks, etc, to actually arranging some music for the choir.  It has been a lot of work, but it's been a lot of fun and my reward was always our Christmas program.  I know I'm really going to miss it, but now it's someone else's turn.

Over the last month I have been released from all five of my callings and given one new calling.  The Bishopric told me they had to call three different people to replace me and the Ward directory is online.  That made me feel pretty good and well appreciated which was nice.

My new calling is 2nd Councilor in the Young Women's presidency.  I have never been in the Young Women before and am a bit overwhelmed.

I'm not the only one with a new calling, Anthony was recently released from his callings as Employment Specialist and Ward Missionary and was called as the Sunday School President.  He is really enjoying his calling and is working very hard to do all he can.

Jeremy also received a new calling just before the new year as Assistant to the Bishop.  And Melissa will shortly be graduating from Primary and will start going to Young Women's.  I hope she will like having me in there with her.  So far Jeremy has found it "weird" to have his mom at mutual with him - lucky for him it's only once a month during combined activities.

Jessica has also recently had a change - of employment.  She is now a nanny, taking care of two young children and a 6 week old baby.  This is VERY new for her.  She never did much babysitting as a teenager except for a few times for cousins, so this is a brand new experience for her.  I hope it will be a good one.

Well, there's nothing as constant as change!

Lights at Temple Square

Wednesday after Christmas, we decided to go downtown to see the lights and Christmas displays at Temple Square.  I thought that since Christmas was over, the crowds would be gone or at least a lot smaller.  They weren't.  Also, I didn't realize that there was a Jazz game playing that night.  We gave up trying to find a spot or a lot and parked in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building parking lot and prepared to pay $2 per hour.  We parked just before 8 pm and didn't leave until after 10.  The building closed at 10, so when we left the garage - since no one was there to take our payment, we got to park for free.  Yay!

The weather was excellent and the lights were lovely.  We introduced the kids to the Assembly Hall and the Tabernacle where there was an organist playing.  We watched the nativity display and walked around the Visitor's Centers, and took a lot of pictures.

The Spirit of Christmas

Christmas this year has been a bit harder on me than in the past, I just couldn't get into the spirit, nearly until Christmas Eve.

We have been trying to catch up on missed tithing, paying off a credit card and keeping up with bills, all on my income and whatever Anthony can bring home.  When Anthony was given the opportunity to take over a friend's business of selling magic items online a couple of months ago, it turned out the business was woefully out of date and was operating at a loss.  After two months of trying to update it and get it working again, the losses were too much and the foreseeable future was not looking any better, so he gave the business back.  Now how do you prepare for Christmas with that kind of financial hardship hanging over your head?

So it was about a week and a half to Christmas and I hadn't bought a thing, when I got a Christmas bonus from work.  Then a kind, generous soul sent me an anonymous card with $100 cash.  The Lord must have inspired them that we were in need, Anthony said it was a blessing for paying the tithing.  Then Anthony got quite a few Santa gigs for some more kind people who gave generous tips on top of Anthony's fee.  Those blessings allowed me to catch up a couple of bills, pay our tithing in full and still get something for Christmas for my family.  Luckily my family is used to non-extravagant Christmases, so they were all happy.

I finally caught the Christmas spirit as I prepared for my family Christmas Eve party, which I hosted this year.  We were able to book the use of our church building and we (my kids, my sister and I) got there early to decorate.  It was fun getting out the decorations and all my holiday bears and some of my Christmas toys.  We dragged couches and comfy chairs from the foyers to make the rooms more cozy, set up a Christmas tree and set up the tables and chairs for lunch.

It was so nice to have everyone there this year!  We had a lovely lunch, then had our traditional talent show with cute nieces and nephews singing songs they had learned - very cute; then some of the more grown up kids sang - such talent.  I'm so grateful they are willing to share.

We had a gift exchange and a piñata, but the best part was our live nativity with the little kids dressing up and acting out the story as we read the scriptures and sang the hymns that went with them.  It truly brought the Christmas spirit into my heart!  No more worrying about spending money for gifts, or organizing everying for the party or the pressure of the holidays - just the pure spirit of celebrating the birth of our Savior with the love of my family surrounding me.  It was just what I needed to help me truly feel the spirit and joy of Christmas!

I was determined to take better pictures this year, I think these are pretty good!  From youngest sister and family to oldest - here's our family:

 Jen, Karen, Michael, Neils

 Zach, Cindy, Hayden, Jeff, Josh

 Pam, Quinn, Troy (top row), Haylee, Heather, Wesley, Amanda (bottom row)

 Isaac, Richard, Rose (top row), Mikaela, Callista (bottom row)

Jessica, Kathleen (me) (top row), Jeremy, Santa (Anthony), Melissa (bottom row)

Merry Christmas to all!

Thanksgiving 2011

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving with my side of the family.  Pam offered to be our host this year, so we all went to her house (unfortunately minus Cindy's family) and shared a wonderful dinner together.  We had a nice visit, and had a great time playing games after dinner.  Jessica brought Nate and stayed for dinner, but left shortly after that to attend 3 more dinners.

The teen table

Cute turkey favors Pam and her girls made

I am very thankful for family!  I am thankful for holidays that give us the opportunity to spend time together.  I am thankful for the gospel and priesthood blessings and for prayer and for the knowledge that families can be together forever.

Moments Remembered from 2010

While trying to remember what I should have blogged about during the past year, I couldn't remember very much.  We didn't go on vacation, we didn't even go camping with the White family this year.  There were no real stand out moments or events.  But I knew we must have done something worth remembering, so I looked back at the pictures I took.  Then I started remembering . . .

How could I not have blogged about Melissa breaking her leg?!  Last November Melissa found a short skate board that had been abandoned in the neighborhood and decided that she would learn to skateboard.  Yep, she lost her balance and fell off twisting her foot as she went down.  At least we thought it was just twisted or sprained.  When she complained that she couldn't walk because she hurt so bad she didn't want to go to school, we decided to take her to the Instacare to get it checked out.  The x-ray showed two twist fractures just above her ankle and they sent her home in a splint.

After about a week in the splint, she got a hot pink cast and a pair of crutches. But it was so hard for her to get around on the crutches, she traded them in for a wheelchair (her grandma had an extra travel wheelchair that she loaned Melissa for the three weeks she had to be off her foot).  The wheelchair made it so much easier for Melissa to get around and the kids at school liked pushing her around in the chair and being her special helper.  Melissa loved being waited on hand and foot!

After three weeks she got the cast off and was able to use a walking boot. She didn't need the chair and only needed the crutches for about a week. Then she was able to walk in the boot with no crutches for another couple of weeks.  After a little more than three weeks in the boot, she was done! I still can't believe how fast she healed!

We spent Thanksgiving with the White family and after dinner we played the candy bar game. The day after Thanksgiving we got together with the McFarlane family at Jennifer's house and watched the BYU/Utah game. Utah won!  It was awesome.  Too bad I didn't get a picture of Pam's whole family wearing their BYU shirts and the rest of us in red!

Christmas Eve with the McFarlane family was at Pam's house with dinner and the traditional talent show and dress up nativity and presents for the grandkids.

Then we continued to Grandma White's house for more presents.  Then we went home and each opened one gift before bed.  Christmas Eve is a long day!  But it's a great day.

Now I'm looking forward to the holidays this year.  I should take better pictures.

Time Flies

Wow, I can't believe that it's been over a year since I blogged.  Time sure flies!

I guess nothing seemed very blog worthy over the last year, but now I look back and wonder what happened during the last year.  This blog has been a fun record of my family - if for no one else but me to look back on.  I'll have to try to do better.

The most recent fun was Halloween.  We had a trunk-or-treat at the church on Friday before Halloween, and then on Halloween night, Anthony didn't have a magic show this year so he took Melissa trick-or-treating with his sister and the cousins this year - the first year since Jessica was little!  I got to stay home and relax since I can't walk very far any more.  Trick-or-treating with the White family kids is an ordeal of speed and endurance that I was just not up to this year.  Jeremy stayed home with me and manned the door dressed up to scare!

Since I didn't blog last Halloween or the year before, I thought I'd include pictures from the past as a little Halloween "memory lane" just for fun.