Merry Christmas!

 Caleb and his Legos

 Michelle and her Easy Bake oven

 Gabriella and her new clothes and Unicorn pillow pet

 Megan and her Ladybug pillow pet, princess castle and fuzzy blue hat that Michelle gave her

 Trevor in his new vest and boxing gloves that go to his boxing bag

Angela and her new reading chair

Christmas Vacation Fun

Since a vast majority of people don't want to go to the dentist the few days leading up to Christmas, Trevor took this week off of work.  We spent the first few days doing some major projects around the house.  So today we played all day.  We went out to lunch then to the Nickelcade then roller skating.  I haven't been on roller skates in probably 25 years but it came back pretty fast.  I spent the majority of the time pushing Gabriella around on her scooter.  Toward the end my feet came out from under me and I found myself real fast on my hind end.  Let me tell you falls are much harder on a 38 year old body then on a 12 year old's body.  I bruised my tailbone pretty good and also the heels of my hands (which put a damper on my making our family's supply of bread).  Other than that I think the kids enjoyed their day. 

Gabriella's 4th Birthday

Our little Christmas Mouse is 4 years old! She brings such life into our family.  She's quite the picture poser and a fashion star who goes through an average of 4 outfits a day.  Once she hears a phrase she likes she'll repeat it over and over no matter who she's speaking to.  For example,  she thought it was funny to call people silly pigs ( I also need to mention that she hid under a table or behind me whenever anyone sang happy birthday to her) so today when my parents called to sing Happy Birthday she called them silly pigs and hung up on them.  A couple of other phrases she's enjoyed lately are "you're a hoot" and "oh, put a sock in your mouth". She definately keeps us on our toes but we love our Gabriella!

Perserverance

Along with the majority of Americans, this year has been financially difficult and stressful.  We've cut back on everything we could think of, we've traded in our Highlander for a tiny gas-conservative Yaris, and we've refinanced our mortgage.  The re-fi was a 3 1/2 month nightmare (we finally closed last Friday) that I won't bore you with except for the fact that during their scrutinizing of our financial records our accountant re-evaluated our '07 tax returns and got a pretty good sized refund 2 years in coming.  I just wanted to let everyone know that if you do all the Lord asks you to do and are very patient good things will come.

Happy St Nicholas Day

I'm half Dutch. My mom was born in Holland, then immigrated with her parents and two brothers when she was 18 months old.  When I was young we lived in Salt Lake.  Back then there was a huge Dutch population (they'd all fled war torn Europe) in SLC so we'd have huge celebrations for St Nicholas Day.  Trevor and I have always tried really hard to keep the celebration alive, besides it's one more good reason for candy.

This year St Nicholas brought each of us slipper socks which was a big hit with the kids.  The kids got Reese's candy while Trevor and I got See's Candy (St Nick sure knows the good stuff!) . Caleb asked me to ask St Nick if he could bring some See's to Caleb next year :)

The Ups and Downs of Running

Last night I was talking with my mom about buying my dad some running equipment for Christmas.  She was complaining about how expensive a sport it is.  I told her that once the initial items are bought then it's a pretty cheap sport but has lots of great benefits.  So this morning while I was out running I was thinking about our conversation.  I was thinking about how much our taking up running has improved our lives and health.  I was close to the end of the run and was having a great time thinking about how great I've felt over the last 3 1/2 years.  The song "Kryptonite" was playing on my ipod and I truly felt like Superman...until I tripped.
   The tip of my toe caught on a raised piece of pavement and next thing I know I'm flying just like Superman.  I landed in the push-up position before I slid on my belly like a seal for several feet.  Do you know how much force that puts on your arms, shoulders and back to fly down into that position?!  Fortunately I was wearing gloves otherwise my hands would be hamburger.  As it is the scrapes I do have didn't even break the skin and I didn't tear any holes in my clothes either.  A couple Tylenol have taken the achiness away so I'm good.

Football

This year Caleb wanted to play tackle football.  Having watched 3 of my brothers play football from grade school through high school and even a jr. college, I was worried about Caleb.  Visions of 2-a-day practices, having to play in searing heat and freezing cold, and injuries flooded my mind.  I admit that the first week of practice almost killed Caleb.  They were doing a lot of conditioning and running.  Caleb was gasping for air.  Turns out he has exercise-induced asthma and allergies to grass.  We loaded him up with meds and an inhaler and he was like a whole new kid.  Caleb played the position of Right Guard on the offensive line.  It's probably the safest position to play on the football team.  He was rarely tackled so the chances of injury were next to nothing, which, as a Mom, I was glad of.
The season was amazing.  Trevor was an assistant coach and the team went to the playoffs.  I was proud of Caleb for never giving up.  Tonight was the end-of-year party for his team.  Caleb and a few others were given an award for never missing one of their 9 games or 43 practices.  I must admit I love seeing my son wear a jersey with Smith on the back.  I hope he'll always wear it with pride.