Let There be Light

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After almost two weeks of grey skies and fog, the Sun is finally shining today! I am soooo happy. I almost bought one of those special lights that imitate sunlight because I was getting so blue. The weather is the reason I posted this picture. It's pretty much all the kids could do and they did a lot of it. At least they're getting a small amount of exercise, so I don't feel too guilty.

Almost everyone came down with a cold this past week so we haven't had much exciting stuff to Blog about. Megan is going to be participating in the opening ceremonies for The Special Olympics Winter Games here in Boise. Hopefully we'll have some cool stuff to report back to you about what she saw and experienced at the Winter Games.

Birthday and Christmas

Emma's 9th birthday

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Making Cookies for Santa

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Megan's cool MP3 player
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Emma and Logan playing their DS games
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Trevor's Paintball gun
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A week ago today was Emma's 9th birthday. She lucked out and only had a half day of school and then we went to Pojo's (similar to Chuck E Cheese) and ate pizza, rode bumper cars, played games etc..

Christmas came and went in a blur. We did our kinda new tradition of Cheese, Apples, Sausage, Chicken spread and crackers for Christmas Eve. Then we hid the pickle ornament in the tree and Emma found it so she got to be first to open her one gift of pajamas on Christmas Eve. After everyone was all changed into their new P.J.'s we read The Night Before Christmas and The Christmas Story from the scriptures. Then we set out the cookies for Santa and checked to see where Santa was one last time on the NORAD Santa Tracker website and then headed to bed.

Christmas morning was loads of fun! Everyone played and played for hours. My favorite gift was from Megan. She was pretty sneaky this year. My Grandma had a cookie jar that everyone loves and I happened to find one very similar to it at a local gift shop. It was way too expensive though so I just hoped someday it might go on sale. I stopped in a couple weeks later to pick up a gift and was so disappointed to see it was gone. The saleslady was so sweet and took down my name and said she would look for another one. Well Christmas morning when I opened my gift from Megan, It was the cookie jar. She'd saved her babysitting money and got it for me. I think we'll keep her.

We had our traditional Prime Rib roast for Dinner and then collapsed, stuffed to the brim and watched movies for the rest of the night. What a day!

Christmas Letter

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Merry Christmas!

Thanks for taking the time to see what we've been up to. We were kinda lazy with our Christmas letter, but we've pretty much got all the info from the past year here in our blog. But just to recap .

Trevor is still playing the Trombone and has his learners permit. We are in no rush to get him his license, especially since at this moment the roads are sheets of ice. He has grown so much this past year. He's pretty much taller than his Mom and still growing.

Megan is our hard working, highly motivated, obsessed with The Twilight books and Movie teenager. She is on the Junior National Honor Society and gets straight A's and A+'s. She is always booked for babysitting jobs on the weekends. She does a great job at it.

Logan is enjoying Scouts and has done a lot of fun things in it this year. He likes to play outside with friends and tries to stay out of trouble. He's excited to turn 12 because he'll finally get to go to Scout camp. He got braces this year and is sporting a very colorful smile.

Emma is our little artist. She also LOVES dragons. So between the two, she is always drawing dragon pictures. She won 2nd place in the local essay contest about The True meaning of Christmas. She got to read her essay and ride in the local Night Light parade.

Dave is still with United Pipe and Supply. He's back at the Boise branch and staying busy. He's busy with church, activities committee, Elder's Quorum instructor and Scouts.

Ginger is still the Taxi driver, Accountant, Waste Management, Cook, Repair person, Personal Assistant and waaaaay too many other job titles to list.

We feel fortunate to have you as friends and family and wish you all a Very Merry Christmas!!

Holiday Events

Trevor's Holiday Concert

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Emma riding a float in the Kuna Night Light Parade

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Emma reading her Essay
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The Awesome Firepit at the Christmas Tree Nursery

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We've been pretty busy since Thanksgiving , so here's a recap on what we've been up to. We got our Christmas tree at a really nice Nursery, but it took us a few days to get it decorated.

Emma entered a local essay contest about The True Meaning of Christmas. She won 3rd place for her entry. She got to read her essay at the awards ceremony and part of her prize was getting to ride on a float in the Night Light parade, here in Kuna.

Trevor's Holiday Band Concert was a couple nights ago. He did a great job. My computer is not letting me upload a short clip of Trevor playing so I guess you'll just have to take my word for it.

We are still working on getting all the lights up on the house. I'll post a picture when we get it done. Or maybe you should just Google Earth and you can see it from space!

Thanksgiving

Trying to catch a Tennis Ball
The tennis ball launcher
Making suckers with Grandma

We took advantage of the gas prices and made a quick trip to Utah for Thanksgiving. We got to Logan Wednesday evening. We had a nice Thanksgiving with Dave's Grandma Tippetts, His Sister Ann and Mike and their family of 6. His Nephew, Naveed and Kian and His Mom and Dad.

That night the grandkids helped Grandma make suckers. They thought that was pretty cool.

We did the crazy 4:00 in the morning shopping the next day. We even got home early enough that everyone was still asleep so we took a quick nap. The Menfolk and the Boys went rabbit huntin' that afternoon, so Ann and I took everyone else to see Bolt. It was a cute show.

Saturday as we were packing up, a neighbor brought over his Tennis Ball launcher (it's kinda like a potato gun) and everyone had fun trying to catch the balls as they re-entered the atmosphere.

On our way out of town, we stopped at Maddox to have lunch with my Mom. I've lived in Utah for a long time but had never eaten in the restaurant. It was worth the wait. It was a blur of a trip but we're glad we got to visit and have fun with Family.

Trevor's Sixteen!!

Trevor 2008
1st year playing Trombone 2004

Soccer and T-Ball 2000

Trevor and his cousin Braden 1993

Trevor 1993


Can you believe it? I know I can't. Trevor is sixteen today. It's been an exciting journey these past sixteen years.

We've all been so amazed at what a Great and Awesome young man Trevor has grown into. I'm always in awe at the things he's doing and accomplishing on his own (without my nagging) in school and church duties.

His childhood was full of a lot of questions about what he would be like at this age. He's struggled through a lot of trials and learned things the hard way a lot of times. Yet he managed to keep on trying no matter how frustrating things got for him and just look at him now.

Those of you who may not know what I'm talking about as far as struggling is concerned, Trevor was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome when he was in 1st grade. He had been in Speech Therapy since he was three and it wasn't until 1st grade that they figured out what was causing his speech and social problems. We've had a lot of ups and downs in learning what to do to help him learn and make friends and function as normally as possible but I can honestly say that I know he is completely capable of anything he wants to do and be when he decides what that is.

Trevor you are an incredible son and we can't wait to see what's in store for the next few years. Happy Birthday!

Halloween

Our House on Halloween
The Graveyard

Logan's the Grim Reaper and Emma's a Werewolf

Trevor's the scariest of all, The Candy Distributor

Megan is supposed to be a Sleepwalker, but everyone thought she was a Housewife.

The Masterpieces

Yesterday was a big blur of a day. The kids didn't have school so it was nice because we had all day to figure out costumes and get ready.

Megan went with a friend so Dave just had Emma, Logan and Logan's friend to take around the neighborhood. They filled their buckets and came home and emptied them and went back out and filled them once more. Trevor is much too old and mature to trick or treat ;) so he stayed and did the grown up thing of handing out the candy.

Trevor is having his 16Th Birthday party today at Boondock's. It's an arcade with Laser Tag and Racetracks and Miniature Golf and Virtual Rollercoaster Rides, etc. Dave is enduring the task of Chaperone. I'm sure he's miserable (Ha Ha). Trevor doesn't officially turn 16 until Monday so I'll have to write more about him then.