mr. muscle

i'm pretty sure he's flexing.

should this be documented? not sure, but it was cute. sadie needs a sister around, but she has great problem solving skills. poor max looks like he is dancing but sadie was holding a basketball above her head to make him pose. tricky. plus, max just LOVES sadie and would follow her anywhere.

utah man

way to go utes! i even found myself cheering for them, but sadie couldn't quite do it (notice her face, actually she was just wanting to watch disney channel). dave on the other hand is a ute man all the way. he was giddy all day and since we have no reception at our house, we met him at "granny's closet" to watch the game. it was a great set up with our own hd tv. the kids did get to watch disney channel at half time and then i took them all home so dave could really watch the second half. unbelievable! kai-yai!

one year ago

one year ago (as of last night at 11pm) we arrived in flagstaff. dave started his first day of work today (one year ago) and the kids and i woke up, on the floor, with none of our stuff, ready to explore the house we had never seen before. i think back on that time and remember it being a little crazy and not at all the smooth transition we were hoping for as we ended residency and started into the real world. our first job at bear lake was eye-opening and we ended up resigning, then dave went to american samoa where he had previously done a month rotation and loved it. the hospital management was all messed up and dave ended up getting dengue fever. it wasn't a good situation and as much as we wanted that adventure we decided to take the job here in arizona. i think about everything that happened and it was pretty hard. i also know that we are in a good spot and felt like we had help getting here. i have thought a lot about the scripture ether 6:5

"and it came to pass that the lord god caused that there should be a furious wind blow upon the face of the waters, towards the promised land; and thus they were tossed upon the waves of the sea before the wind."

it wasn't just a calm ride to where they needed to be...god sent furious wind to get them there. sometimes i think it takes hard stuff to get us where god wants us to be.

but then i love in verse 10 "and thus they were driven forth; and no monster of the sea could break them, neither whale that could mar them; and they did have light continually, whether it was above the water or under the water."

i don't know about you, but there have been times when i have felt under the water and other times when i feel above the water, but it is great to know that we have light continually.
anyway, i am grateful to look back on the past year, the guidance that we've had, the things that we've learned and all the good that has happened. i appreciate elder wirthlin's words from conference, "come what may, and love it."

plunging into 2009

there is not really a better way to welcome in the new year than with a "polar plunge". dave had to work but the kids and i spent new years eve at my big bro's house. each new years eve he offers anyone FIVE DOLLARS to jump in the pool and swim across, a.k.a. the polar plunge. his kids know how cold it is but since my kids love to swim and $5 is A LOT of money, sadie and abe were the only brave souls.

sadie wondering how cold it really could be.

the swim. pretty cold, but pretty fun.

abe...testing the waters.

he does it!deeper and colder than expected!

but still worth it for $5

luckily aunt karen was ready and waiting with towels and rushed them to a warm shower. they had time to get warm and dry just before the countdown to 2009!

every new year's eve my family plays "let's make a deal". it's an old game show that was before my time. my family has played this on new year's eve ever since i was a kid. even though my kids have no idea about the original show, they look forward to the costumes, the signs and the DEALS. my big bro. was monty(the game show host). the kids dress up in costumes. a sign that correlates with their costume, that begs for a deal is also a necessity. someone gets called out of the audience to pick box #1, #2, or #3. they pick the box they want but then "monty"tries to make a deal with them. my brother would put money on top of another box to try to get them to change their pick or he would say they could have what was in his pocket. the tricky part is that there is always a zonk so the thing in his pocket could be money or it could just be a note that says your mother thinks you're wonderful or something. the kids always get into it, even the teenage cousins are willing to come dressed up, waiting to make a deal (as long as the game ends before ten and then they are outta there:)

kai was always sure about the box he wanted...no deal changed his mind.

he also had the best reactions. he got the play-dough from behind box #3, he lifted it high above his head like it was a trophy!

abe and kai dressed as soccer players with signs that said,

"give me a deal that is better than a goal" sadie and her cousin made this cute airplane costume for max. he is holding his sign that said something like, "fly a great deal my way".
sadie and kari spent days making their (and max's) costumes and signs. they were buildings and their signs said, "knock me down with a good deal." sadie and abe stayed awake until midnight and then some. with cousins, let's make a deal, the polar plunge and the utah game (utah barely pulling it off, winning gonzaga in the final seconds) it was a happy new year!

he's a fake

have you seen the movie "elf"? it's one of my favorites. we watched it a handful of times this christmas. one of my favorite scenes is when buddy is working in the children's toy department at the store and santa comes. only it's not the real santa and buddy rips the beard off while yelling, "he's a fake, don't tell him anything, he's a fake!" well, i really felt like buddy when i was at our ward christmas party. i saw santa with his QUILT BATTING BEARD and it was all i could do not to rip it off and start yelling, "he's a fake!" the kids were not fooled...well, actually sadie and her friend busted him getting changed. they thought it was some older kids who were holding the door shut and playing a joke so they snuck to the other door and opened it to find "santa" changing his clothes and YELLING 'get out now!!' we got a good laugh.

the best part of the night though was watching kai. none of this stopped kai from getting right to business. it didn't matter if it was santa, santa's helper, or his sunbeam teacher in disguise (which it was) he knew that the things he told this santa would have some effect on the christmas gift he received and there was no messing around.

max on the other hand kept sliding in by "santa's" knee and just wanted to stand there touching him, but definitely not looking at him, maybe hoping for another candy cane.

dirty socks

i know this life is not always a joy ride, in fact we were coming home from phoenix where our brand new car broke down right after christmas. but life is made up of moments that are full of joy. who knew one of my joyful moments would come from dirty socks. we just started our commute home in our rental car. max was sitting in his car seat holding his bare feet saying one of his new words, "cold, cooold". it was late and dark outside and his cute little toes were cold. out of the corner of my eye i saw abe, who was sitting next to him, take off his shoes and then his socks. then he put his dirty, gi-normous socks on max's cold little feet. i looked back at abe who was smiling pretty big at the sight of max's unusually big, but warm feet. isn't that what life is all about?

a love for the ocean

before this beautiful christmas season began, i was thinking. it hit me hard that as soon as christmas time was over, abe would be baptized...how fast he is growing up and in a blink of an eye he will be twelve and ready to get the priesthood. i had one of those motherly moments where it all hit at once and i began wondering what am i doing to help him so he will be ready...

i read about the priesthood in pres. monsons' conference talk. he called the priesthood "the great plan of service" at the same time i also ran across a quote and i don't know who it was by or where i found it. it said if you want people to build a boat then don't fill their time with menial tasks that have to do with boat building...instead create inside them a love for the ocean.

in my mind i mixed these two quotes and it all made sense that if i am to help abe prepare i need to create in him a of love people through service. what luck that the christmas season had just arrived and we could start our prep. my goal this christmas was to have my kids be more excited about our service and the gifts we were giving than what they would get on christmas morning. i can honestly say i worked hard at this.

we also had our own beautiful christmas. we were lucky enough to have my parents here. on christmas eve we had a wonderful christmas dinner and program that dave put together, his attempt to make it my mom's kind of fun. the kids did some great musical numbers. abe played his strum stick, sadie, kai and abe played jolly old st. nicholas with their boom whackers(plastic tubes that you hit on your head), sadie sang, and dave and sadie did a violin/guitar duet. it was wonderful. the dinner was delicious.

christmas morning finally arrived. santa left no names on his gifts, just magical dust to sprinkle on dave, which amazingly let him tell who each gift was for. it was fun to see the kids excitement and hope that they would find the things they asked for. max loved his converse. he had to have them on top of his footed pj's. with his new, awesome shoes on he danced, more like rocked back and forth (all morning) to his new musical caboose singing, "choo, chooo". sadie was thrilled with her american girl doll accessories (she even screamed once), abe loved the soccer wii game and goal and kai loved it all the same. abe wrote in the note to santa the night before christmas, that he would like santa to find his nintendo ds that had been missing for a month. i'm sure santa loves those last minute requests. he must have done a mad search and somehow found it, leaving it on the table with a bow.

these are all great memories and we had a wonderful christmas, but when i think of our christmas i will remember the kids and dave sneaking up someone's driveway...well, trying to be sneaky, which is hard when you are carrying a fully decorated christmas tree. without any notice, the car in the driveway started....the tree, the kids and dave quickly turned and discretely as they could (with a christmas tree) ran back out of the forever long drive way and joined me, hiding behind snowy garbage cans. it is that moment of laughing, hiding behind garbage cans, watching, wondering if they saw us, waiting...i hope somewhere in that moment that my children felt a love for people, a love for our savior....that it created in them a little bit of love of the ocean.

merry, merry christmas.