Our Christmas

We had a very nice low key Christmas. In the afternoon we went to see the new Adam Sandler movie Bedtime Stories. Then we came home and ate our traditional Christmas dinner...Mexican food. We played Taboo after dinner and got a good competition going, everyone had a great time.

Present Time

Some of our favorite gifts this year were:
Alayna: Zune 120GB MP3 player (for Bday and Christmas)
Dakota: Cabela's hunting game for Wii
Arissa: DS game and stuffed Bobby Jack
Ariana: Guitar
Doug: Roomba
Jen: Foodsaver and camera's (Both Doug and Santa gave me 1 so now I need to decide which I like better and the rest of the family can use the other one).

Christmas Letter

We hope you all are enjoying your holiday season. It is snow, snow, snow here in Wisconsin! It sure does make for a pretty Christmas. In case you don't hear enough about what our family is up to, here is the run down:

Doug is enjoying his job with Miller Electric. He survived the first round of lay-offs and we are very grateful for that. He is also busy with scouting (again)and loves snow blowing our (and the neighbors) driveways whenever he gets the chance.

Jen is tired. Normally my job is part time and mainly I am in my tiny office doing my human resources tasks. The past month or so I have been working full time (except when I was in UT). I have been out on the floor more than in the office. I'm looking forward to things calming down a bit after Christmas. I'm also getting back into school starting January 20th. I'll be attending UW-Platteville online. Interestingly, this is where my grandfather graduated from and my dad was born in Platteville. In addition to this I am still teaching primary and the activity days leader at church.

Alayna is now 16 and gets her license in a month. She is working in the men's department at Younkers department store, the same one I work at. I think she is starting to realize work is hard and inconvenient! She has been getting many life lessons lately. It has been an exciting year for her with the big 16, driving, work, and being a bridesmaid for her cousin Sabra's wedding.

Dakota has grown lots this year! He is 13 now and has just about caught up with me in height. He is 5'7". He is still playing cello and loves his video games. He is getting more practice with the snow blower lately. Dakota occasionally likes to cook and he does a great job with it. I told him that his future wife will love that!

Arissa got braces this year. She has also grown tons. She 11 now and is about 5'3" or 5'4". She enjoys school and safety patrol, working in the lunchroom on Fridays, and science club. One of her favorite TV shows is NCIS and she has decided (at least for now) that she wants to be a forensic scientist like Abby on the show.

My baby Ariana is 8. She was baptized this year. Ariana loves playing with her friends...especially Allison. She is very artistic and loves to write people love notes. Ana is very thoughtful and tries to be a peacemaker. She is getting more grown up every day even though I tell her she needs to stop it.

Wisconsin may not be perfect, mainly because it lacks many of our loved ones and mountains, but we enjoy living here anyway. We are so blessed. We are thankful to have so many wonderful friends and family members. We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and that 2009 bring you much happiness, health, and peace.

Sabra's Wedding December 13, 2008

Alayna and I flew over to Cache Valley Thursday afternoon for my neice Sabra's wedding to Troy Clark. Like a dummy, I forgot my camera. So more pictures will be posted after I mooch them off of other people! (Got some...thanks Jess and Dan) The morning of her wedding was a horrible snowstorm that dumped 5 or 6 inches really fast so when we left to go help decorate I was white knuckling it from Hyrum to Smithfield...at least 1/2 of the way the roads weren't plowed and I was driving my parents car. Sabra and Troy were married in a clubhouse at a golf course on top of a steep hill. A few of us (me included) had fun trying to get up that dang hill. We had to work really fast to get everything ready before people showed up at 11:30. My neice Jessica was the wedding planner, I thought she was going to have a heart attack she was so stressed!
It went off beautifully. So did the luncheon that Troy's mom put on. Wow! Everything was delicious and so fancy, very impressive! The reception capped off a long and exciting day. Thankfully the roads were cleared by then. They are now off on their honeymoon cruise to Mexico. They are such a cute couple. I hope they have a beautiful life together. I cant believe my Sabie Baby is married!!!!!

Alayna's Sweet 16

We celebrated Alayna's 16th birthday on Friday the 5th. I can't believe I have a 16 year old! She had a very long day. Seminary at 5:45 then chocolate birthday cake for breakfast and off to school. Her leaders at church took her out of school for lunch which she enjoyed. After school she rushed to get ready for her first official day as a sales associate at Younkers! I had her on computer training so it wasn't too strenuous. She did that from 4-7:45 then we came home and ate dinner and the young women at church came and kidnapped her and took her to their leader Marci Stevens house for a sleepover/Christmas party. She had a good time but was so exhausted so she left at midnight and came home to sleep because she knew she had to get up at 8 the next morning to work again. We gave her a 120 gb MP-3 player. So she will have fun loading songs on that sucker for a long time.