Logan's Birthday

Logan's 12Th Birthday was on Friday. He got to celebrate it a little early this year because of events happening on his Birthday. He decided instead of a big party at home, he would rather take a friend to the local arcade / racetrack. Dave, Trevor, Logan and His friend Jared played at Wahooz for the afternoon last Saturday.

We had to have Cake and Presents a day early because Logan and Trevor had to attend a Klondike Derby on his actual Birthday. Luckily one of Logan's presents was a sleeping bag. It was in the single digits the night they camped so I'm glad he got the sleeping bag. I didn't hear too much about the things they did at the Klondike Derby. They just said it was really cold.

Yesterday Logan received the Priesthood and he is really looking forward to passing the Sacrament. He's also excited about Scout Camp and all the other things involved with being a 12 year old. I got all tearful in Sacrament meeting because they brought Logan up to the pulpit with the Bishop to talk about him becoming a Deacon and then right after that, Trevor blessed the Sacrament(like a pro). The combination of those two things occuring back to back made me realize that they are growing up waaaay too fast.

First Date Anniversary

Dave and I celebrated our First Date Anniversary last night. Most people probably find it odd to celebrate that date, but for us it's a way to avoid the Valentines Day crowds and go out for a nice night. It's been 19 years since our first date so we thought we ought to try something new.

We went to a Fondue restaurant. It was really fun and the food was great. It was a four course meal that started with a cheese fondue. There were about 8 different ones to choose from. Then came the salad and I didn't think you could make salad exciting but even that was really good. Then came the meat and vegies. You cook the meat and vegies in a simmering broth and they had a variety of dipping sauces. And last but not least was the chocolate fondue. We chose a caramel and chocolate mixture and they even served it Flambe'. It was cool.

Our Ward had a formal dinner and dance on the 13th for the adults to celebrate Valentines Day. Luckily I had some clothes from when we went on a Cruise. There were actually a few men who wore tuxedos and a few women in actual formal attire. The Dinner was o.k. but the dancing was pretty fun. It's just too bad Dave and I can't remember the moves we learned in the Ballroom Dance class we took while we were dating. It was a nice night.

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.