How to reduce an 11 year old boy to tears of joy

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope it was a good one. We had a terrific Christmas. I've had to adjust over the years to a new sort of Christmas experience than what I was used to as a child, but I enjoy quality time with my husband and children and this was 2 days of good quality time. A few years ago, we started a tradition of going to our local Boomer's and going miniature golfing on Christmas Eve (as long as it's not Sunday and it's not raining at least). Fortunately, the weather was wonderful. A little windy, but still in the upper 60's for both days. The kids had a blast. We told them that whoever won got all the presents, so both Brennan and Tori were super competitive. Luckily for all of them Mom won with a score of 61 - and since I like to share I decided to let them divide up the gifts. Tori came in a close second at 67. Shelby surprised us all and turned out to be quite a good golfer - she beat Brennan. We spent Christmas Eve night together with just our family. We watched "Home Alone" and had Christmas S'mores and hot chocolate. The kids all got new pajamas and were easy to put to bed.

Christmas mornings at our house are interesting in the fact that our kids don't get up at the crack of dawn. They can - they just don't. I woke up at 8 thinking that they were all watching TV and found only Brennan and Scott awake. The girls all appeared a few minutes later and the craziness began. Santa threw us all off this year and wrapped his presents. The little girls got to open theirs first. Kendall asked for and received a race track with cars that crash. Shelby asked for and received a Barbie and a bonus remote control Corvette to go with it. Brennan and Tori had asked for a Wii, but due to the extreme shortage, had been warned that it was a slim chance that it would come. Luckily for all of us Santa came through and we received a Wii. Brennan was so overcome with joy he started shaking and crying. (What a year NOT to pull out the video camera - AFV material for sure!)

Needless to say we've spent the last few days with the Wii - which is really quite fun. Its amazing the things you can do. We enjoy bowling, playing pool and ping pong, air hockey, tennis, boxing, baseball. It is a great family game console.

Scott's mom and dad came over for Christmas brunch as usual. Scott made amazing stuffed french toast (strawberries and cream cheese anyone?) - they were very yummy and I am surprised Dad didn't go into a diabetic coma.

We went over to the Rosenlof's for dinner. Dana & Jeff and all of their kids came up a day early due to Jon having surgery on the 26th. Everyone was there so it was a houseful. We stayed for a while and then came home. We don't really fit in there (stories for private conversations) - so we don't last long - and the kids were missing the Wii. I have a lot of frog-eye salad to eat. So if you feel like having a little, come on over!

See you in the New Year!

Temple Commemoration Day

On Dec. 1st Scott & I had a unique and once in a lifetime experience - along with 550 members of our Stake. As part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the L.A. Temple each of the 42 stakes in the district had a commemoration day where we were able to meet in the Assembly Room of the temple (did you know there was one?) and then participate in an endowment session with our ward and another ward.

It was a wonderful day. We have lived in Santa Maria for 13 years now and feel as if our ward members as well as many in our stake are family. It was a glimpse for me of the Celestial Kingdom. We sat in a room the length of a football field with our family members and felt angels in our midst. The matron of the temple sang in the choir that was there for the original temple dedication in 1957. That year there was a flu epidemic and many members of the choir had laryngitis, but had angels to sing with them that day. It was an amazing and incredibly spiritual experience. It was great to be in the temple with hundreds of our family members and to sit with friends and participate in an endowment session.

Satan made sure that there were many obstacles, physically and mentally to get to the temple that day and I am glad that we were able to overcome them.

We are extremely grateful to Scott's sister Dana for watching our kids. It made for a long day for us, but was well worth it and our kids had a blast. We made the trip home that night - not getting home until about 1AM, but were very glad we made the effort to go to church the next day. Our Sacrament meeting was a spiritual continuation of our temple day - it was one of the best Fast & Testimony meetings we've had in recent memory.

We will never forget that day and have tried to share as much with the kids as possible. We hope that they're around for the 100th year celebration.

If we're in the desert, where are the kangaroos?

For all my good intentions, this sure has taken a while to update. So here goes nothing.

First, my apologies to all those in Utah who we didn't see during our trip at Thanksgiving. I always think I have a ton of time and next thing I know we're leaving the next day. So maybe we'll catch you in the Spring.

We had a great week in Utah for Thanksgiving. The weather the first couple of days, was just like home - warm and windy. Apparently, the weather was a little behind in the news of our coming, but quickly caught up and turned bitter cold as soon as it heard we were around. It never fails, bitter cold in the winter - blazing hot in the summer. We're going to throw in a trip at Spring Break - that should be interesting.

We can thank Shelby for our title this time. That was her question after we hit Mojave on the way. Our kids had a lot of good material this trip. Brennan was relieved that we would not have to be concerned with dehydration on this vacation, just hypothermia. (Update: Brennan learned how to treat hypothermia at his last Scout meeting, whew!!) He was also amazed at people who can draw on Etch-a-Sketches, because he can barely do a rendering of the Ogden Utah Temple! (???) In the meantime, Scott and I somehow always get a hankering for a Panguitch with a side of Kanab, somewhere between Cedar City and St. George.

We managed to throw in ice skating, movies, shopping (I only bought soup), the U of U game, oh and Thanksgiving. It was a lot of fun! Tori, of course, was a whiz at ice skating. I managed to give myself a good bump on the head. Shelby was very persistent, falling at least 100 times, but never gave up.

Last, but not least was our fun 18 hour trip home, which included 120 miles in 5 hours and a 40 minute wait to get off of the freeway in Baker and another 20 minute wait for the bathroom. That was after the 30 minute wait for the bathroom in Jean, NV, where the attendant insisted on mopping the floor, while the line was out the door. Don't forget the 1 1/2 hour wait just before Barstow - where we got to see a Medivac land on the overpass and about 18 ambulances. However, we learned that we can get from Barstow to Santa Maria in less than 4 hours. We will not travel home on Sunday again, but it was fun to try.

That will conclude today's session. I have a lot more to say, but will save it for later. Thanks for reading! (My apologies to our family who have already heard or were there for all of this!)

Busy Doing Nothing

We have been busy doing nothing for a few weeks. You moms know what I mean. I don't have a spare minute in my day, but when you ask me what I've done, well... it amounts to nothing. At least nothing noteworthy or exciting.

The Red Sox won the World Series! That is very exciting at our house. Even Scott is a convert to Red Sox Nation. Ask Shelby and Kendall to sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" sometime. (We root, root, root for the Red Sox) Yes, they are brainwashed.

Halloween was fun. Our Ward and 2 others put on a carnival and trunk-or-treat every year. The kids always have a great time. I remember to eat before we go - I can't stand hot dogs. Anyway, you can tell from the pictures that it was fun.

All the kids are in the middle of parent teacher conferences. So far, I've had Tori's and Shelby's. They are of course brilliant and doing very well. Shelby's teacher said that she is one of the brightest students she has ever had. (She had Brennan and Tori as well.)

Tori has really improved her behavior, both in the classroom and on the playground. She has matured over the last 6 months or so and isn't as moody and volatile as she used to be. I haven't been to see Brennan's teacher yet, but he has had a much better year as well, so I'm expecting good things.

We will be heading to SLC for Thanksgiving at the end of the week. Kendall is into this not talking to people outside of our family (except Skyler's mommy). So don't expect much. She has been out with Grandpa Rosenlof for 3 hours and has not said a word. She is a pro.

Our older 3 sang a song for the Primary program a few weeks ago and are now in demand for the Christmas season. They sang "Love is Spoken Here" and did a fantastic job. Today, Brennan sang a duet with a girl for our Ward Choir performance and did a very good job. Its fun to have musical kids, its part genes and part osmosis. We have music all the time.

As for Scott and I. Scott was made Sunday School President last week (he gets to ring the bell!).

I've been spending a lot of time working with Jon and one of his clients so I've been busy, but I am making money so its not all bad.

That's it for now - we'll be back!

It's Good to be a Red Sox Fan!!

Just thought you all should know...

WE LOVE THE RED SOX!!

Another Week in the Life....

This week has been a typical one. Busy doing nothing as usual.



Brennan and Scott went on an 11-year old Scout Campout this weekend. Apparently, the boys learned that starting dinner as soon as they get there is the preferred way to do stuff. They decided to set up their tents and didn't eat until almost 9. Good lessons. We have a great Scout leader who really is trying to teach the boys responsibility and how to work and work as a team.



Tori had a soccer game today. We've been off for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, it wasn't their best showing. The other team (who outweighs our team by at least 300 lbs) scored 9 goals in the 1st quarter! We did end up holding them to only 3 or 4 (I lost track) other goals and we scored 3 as well. Our defense today was not awake and poor Tori as goalie had to deal with it - oh well - at least she looks great in her uniform!



Shelby has spent the week making up songs. She won't sing them to me so I really don't know how they go - but Tori says they are quite amusing. We finished another great week of Kindergarten and she read her first book. It's hard to believe we've already been in school for 44 days!



Kendall is at the age where she says funny stuff all the time. This week she said "Mom! You're 'mazing with that 'mote!" (my skills with the TV remote are something to behold). The funniest saying of the week however, goes to her best friend Skyler. He is telling everyone that he is going to be Frank Stop Sign for Halloween (ie Frankenstein??). That one has me laughing still.



Someone asked me why I didn't elaborate on Scott and myself last week. Unfortunately, the funny things we say are quickly forgotten or unprintable ;-) and we really haven't done anything too unusual or exciting. I did make quite an impressive flyer for Relief Society Super Saturday today. See? That's an exciting note. I will be sure to note anything of interest in the future.

The First One Ever!

I've been checking out this blogging thing for awhile now and decided it might be a fun way to share the comings and goings of our family with our family members who live far away (that includes almost everyone). So here goes.

School has been in for several weeks now and things are going great. This has been a really good year so far. Our kids have been doing very well. NO after school detentions yet!! This time last year it had been almost every day for one or the other.

Brennan is 11 and in the 6th grade this year. He has improved immensely in maturity and responsibility this year. It's been nice to only hear good things about him from his teacher. Brennan earned his Arrow of Light this summer (the highest award in Cub Scouts). He has moved on to 11 year old Scouts and has a fantastic Scout Leader that has regular camp-outs and is working them hard. His proudest accomplishment this month has been memorizing "We'll Bring the World His Truth" on the piano.

Tori had her 9th birthday last week and we had a slumber party with her best friend Britney whose birthday is the week before hers. We had a spa night and did manicures, pedicures and facials and some fun crafts like making body glitter. I discovered that girls are much louder than boys and they don't sleep!

Tori also was Student of the Month (first time since kindergarten!) for September. The virtue this month was Responsibility which made it even better. She had been President of her class for the first few weeks and had done an excellent job handling all her responsibilities plus keeping up with her schoolwork.

YEA TORI!!

Shelby also had a birthday in the last few weeks. She has wanted to be 5 since she was about 2 1/2 - so it's a dream come true. She started kindergarten this year thanks to the late cut-off date in California. Thank heavens! She is the only student to start the beginning reader program and she also has almost completed her practice math book that was supposed to last the whole school year. Thankfully, her kindergarten teacher knows how to challenge my kids!

Kendall is 3 and loves her position as being the baby - however DO NOT call her a baby - she is a big kid! Kendall loves Buzz Lightyear, Cars, playing ball and riding her trike. She also loves to do whatever her big sisters are doing. She's done a lot of growing up this last 2 months. No more bathroom accidents and she can dress herself from head to toe.

Shelby brought home a page with all the alphabet to post on the refrigerator. After about a week, Kendall had all the letters and most of the sounds down.

As for the last few days, Brennan was up until after 11 PM last night because he had procrastinated on his National Park report (he picked Zion). We are hoping he learned a lesson. ;-)

Tori came home sick from school - we are starting to think she has migraines. She didn't even make it into the classroom - threw up in line. She is doing much better tonight after resting today.

This was a long one. My hope is to post every few days or when something exciting happens. So keep checking back!!