I think we all have them. You know, those days that you are "in a funk". You aren't sure what's wrong, but obviously SOMEthing is, because you're just a bit ornery. They can be caused by stress, anxiety, not enough sleep, life...

Last week I was having one of those days. Who am I kidding? I was having a couple of those days in a row! Out of the blue, my Mom called. She had no idea that I was in a funk, but she chatted with me, and somehow said just the right things to break me out of it.

Just want to give a shout out to my mom, who always seems to know when her kids could use a phone call. Love you Mom!!!! So glad I have you. Thanks! (for everything)

First Step of Many

We are blessed to have two priesthood holders in our home now. Jacob was ordained a deacon by Phil during Priesthood meeting today at church. Such a simple thing for such an important ordinance. Jake was given a beautiful blessing. We are proud of him for his desire to hold the priesthood, and his worthiness to be able to do so. He is nervously excited to pass the sacrament with the other deacons next Sunday.

With three boys just starting to come of age to hold the priesthood, today was the first of many ordinations to come. We love you Jacob!

I have to add a funny note...Jake was called up by the bishop to the stand to be sustained during sacrament meeting. Our usually very confident Jake got a little nervous. He couldn't even smile up there! (Didn't help that the bishop talked for a few minutes with him up there). This ward is probably 1/2 the size of our ward in Eagle Mountain. Jake came back down from the stand and whispered, "it's scary up there!" Poor boy, he's already been assigned a talk in February. Gonna have to conquer that fear quickly!

Prime Rib....It's What's For Dinner

Two years ago after friends told us of their prime rib Christmas dinner tradition, Phil decided to make it our tradition also. This year he bought a boneless roast. It turned out awesome! He also made roasted garlic smashers. We rounded out the meal with my homemade rolls and Marci's orange "creamsicle" jello salad.

We had enough left over prime rib for dinner Saturday and Sunday also. It was delicious! Judge for yourself:

Christmas Morning

This is what the kids woke up to Christmas morning! (The blanket was spread on the wood floor so it would be warmer for them to sit on Christmas morning.)

We had a very quiet, but nice Christmas. The kids stayed in bed til about 7:00. Dad started a fire and turned some Christmas music on, then the kids came out. All Jackson could talk about this year, was how Santa was going to bring him the batcave and a batmobile. He was half right! And very happy with his batcave. He has already spent hours playing with it.

All four kids were happy with their presents, even though Christmas seemed a little scaled back this year. Nobody complained about any of their presents or things they didn't receive. There was no jealousy over what someone else got. All in all, it was a happy Christmas. I am thankful for grateful children!

Jake presented himself a little dramatically. (That has become his style!)

Christmas Eve

Usually we celebrate Grandpa's birthday on Christmas Eve (Happy Birthday Grandpa!), so it was a little strange for us to not be there. Fortunately, our new ward has taken us in, and we were invited for a Christmas Eve dinner at the Stratford's. After spending the morning and early afternoon baking (taking a break to run to the store), we headed over to their home. Of their 6 kids, only 3 were at home, and none of the grandchildren, so they were excited to have kids around.

We had a delicious pork roast dinner with apple pie and pumpkin roll for dessert. We all played Cranium Hoopla together. It was a rather funny game. Bruce and Nancy, along with Ben, Rachel, and Sam, made us feel right at home. They were so warm and welcoming and we really enjoyed our evening with them. Thank heavens for new friends!

After dessert, they allowed us to participate in a family tradition. They have some old puppets to go along with the Nativity story, and allowed our kids to put on a puppet show as Bruce read the Christmas story. Ben jumped in with the star. It was a fun way to read through the story again.

Jackson was the wise man (he must have been gazing at the star!):

Note the spotlight on the angel with the shadow on the cabinet door:

We hope we didn't overstay our welcome!

When we got home, we opened the traditional Christmas Eve presents: pjs and an ornament. Because of our crazy schedule this holiday season, I didn't make the matching pjs I usually do. Instead, the kids were stuck with store bought. They all seemed to be happy with them though, at least there were no tears this year. Didn't get matching ornaments either.

(Pictures will be added later. I have gotten tired of waiting for them to load. Will retry when I have more patience for it!) (Yeah! Pictures finally added!)

The kids were excited for Santa. Jake even set his alarm for 1:45 a.m. Luckily he didn't get up then! He did get up about 11:45 to "go to the bathroom". Funny boy!

Anyhow, more about Christmas later. Merry Christmas to all our family and friends!

Christmas Cookies

On Sunday I promised Jackson we could make cookies, especially since church was cancelled due to the snow. I made my pumpkin chocolate chip "pilgrim pies" (two cookies stuck together with homemade cream cheese frosting). Apparently, those weren't the cookies he wanted. He wanted to make sugar cookies "shapes with frosting". I received a new sugar cookie recipe from a friend (thanks Heidi!) but I didn't have enough sour cream.

We took some of the pumpkin cookies to our new neighbors, Doug and Marlene Fleisch. Doug showed up this morning with his tractor to plow our driveway and saved all four of my boys from HOURS of work. He was so kind and friendly, and promised Jake some yard work this spring and summer. We were just excited to meet some of our actual neighbors, and to know that they are friendly. We stopped by with the cookies Sunday evening and met Marlene. I am thankful again for good people as neighbors.

Anyhow, I wasn't off the hook with Jackson, so on Monday we bought some sour cream and I made sugar cookie dough. Phil bought some Christmas cookie cutters, because the only Christmas ones I could find were in the playdough. For family night last night, we made Christmas cookies and decorated them. Here are some photos from the evening.

The kids had a great time, and Phil and I loved eating the cookies. They taste like the grandma's pink frosted cookies you can buy in Utah. THANK YOU HEIDI!

The finished products: (some of them)

Jackson has already decided we need to make more cookies for Santa to have on Christmas Eve. (Usually we just leave out berry rolls, but this year we will be leaving cookies and rolls I have been told!)

Pictures

I know I promised pictures of the house, but I haven't taken any outdoor ones yet, and the indoor ones are from before we moved in. Trust me, you don't want to see them!

But I did snap a few photos of our yard this morning after the massive snowstorm! Of course, I did it from the safety of the doorway, so they aren't complete pictures of the yard, but hopefully you will get an idea of what our area looks like!

This is our driveway (off to the right). It was taken from the front door. The fence is the front of our yard, separating us from the street.

These two are the backyard. This is taken from the kitchen door out to the deck. The deck is the full side of the house, and extends at least double the railing you see here. This is the top of the hill the boys have already gone sledding on.

This is out the garage door. It is the bottom of the hill. The trees are lining the creek. It goes all the way across the back yard and curves up the side, following close to the property line to the street.

Looking out this morning brought two things to mind: "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" and a poem I memorized in high school, Walking Through Woods on a Snowy Evening.

Just a random thought I would throw out there!

Christmas Village

When we stayed with Sharon and Rob in PA, they took us to a place that is a Christmas tradition for them. It is called Christmas Village. Although it was cold outside, we all had a great time admiring the lights and the displays. And the boys had a blast running around together. As we walked in, we were greeted by Frosty and Rudolph. Throughout the displays there were cutouts for funny pictures. There were hundreds of santas, nutcrackers, and thousands of lights.

Jake and Mady, are you confused?



I thought this was a cute picture of Mady in one of the shops.

The whole tour ended with a huge train display. It was amazing. There were so many different tracks with different trains running in different directions.

Here are some pictures of all the kids with the oversized Santa.

Thanks, Rob and Sharon! We may have to have a new East Coast Christmas tradition!

If you are bad then Santa brings you a ......

Well this is Phil posting and I have to share a little moment with Jackson. So he was acting up, which I kind of understand since Dad has decided to move the family across the country. Anyhow, I asked him "If you keep acting this way Jackson what will Santa bring you?" He looks at me, with all the seriousness and matter of fact he had and said, "He brings you a COLD dad!" So how does he do this, sneeze in your stocking? And does he at least give you Kleenex to help with the drippy nose?
Anyways, thought it was a funny moment to share.

Rambling on...

I haven't had internet, so I haven't been able to post. Let's be honest, I probably wouldn't have posted anything anyways! There really isn't much new to report. I am still trying to clean the mess left to us. Other people's messes are so much more disgusting, don't you think? It has been crazy cold around here, so we have had the fireplace going a lot. The boys love it. Haven't got t.v. yet (tomorrow, yay!) but they will sit at the hearth and watch the fire for long stretches of time. Tomorrow we get cable and internet. We had a contract with Directv, and they didn't want to let us out of it, but there is no line of site to our house/property here. Seriously. That's how many and how tall the trees are! It will be even worse in the spring when there are leaves on the trees. Somehow I was able to connect to someone's internet tonight to post this.

Church on Sunday was good. We got a great welcome from the ward, and it sure helped us in making that transition. Mady and Jake were surrounded by youth and taken to class. Jake didn't even sit by Phil during his first Priesthood Opening Exercises. The deacons sandwiched him into their row! Gabe and Jackson did great in Primary. Of all the kids, Gabe is still having the hardest time. He just doesn't think he will make any friends. We keep telling him to give it time. Mady and Jake were picked up for a fireside Sunday night. They have youth activities on Wednesday, and we have the ward party Friday night.

Tonight we were invited over to dinner by a family in the ward. They have a 16 year old daughter and a 10 year old son still at home. Peter (the dad) grew up in Philly, and Rhonda(the mom) grew up in Tucson, so they had a good time talking to Phil about people they all knew. The Mormon community is such a small world. Also in our ward is a gal Emma and Alison may remember, she remembers them anyway. Chelsea Powers ring a bell?

After dinner, Phil had to go back to Jersey. He will be there till Friday night, and hopefully next week will be his last time. It was almost as hard saying goodbye to him tonight as it was in Utah when he was leaving for weeks at a time.

So I know I just rambled on for way too long, and you probably aren't interested in all these minute details, but I have no one to talk to (the kids are in bed), no tv to watch, and no books I want to read (I know, shocker!), so deal with it! Or at least humor me! :)

What Can I Say?

It has been an eventful day. We left Sharon and Rob's at 6:00 this morning, and after hitting NYC rush hour traffic, we arrived at our new home shortly after 10:00.
It was one thing after another today. Apparently Monroe got five or six inches of snow yesterday (that wasn't in the forecast). So we had to buy shovels to get the front walk, back patio, deck, and area in front of the garage shoveled. The boys pitched in and did a great job. Then the moving van couldn't unload on our little dirt road, so they determined they would have to get a U-Haul and shuttle our stuff. The first load made it to the house sometime between 1 and 1:30. It is now 10:30 pm, and my sweet hubby is still there with the movers as they finish putting the furniture back together. The rest of us are spending our last night in a hotel, as nothing was ready for today's move-in.
The worst part of the day was discovering how disgusting the previous renters must have lived. How did we discover that, you may wonder. Cuz they left their mess for us to clean up. And the cat's mess as well. Dirty doesn't begin to cover it. Disgusting is a little closer. Nothing was clean. They didn't even take all their junk with them. We are living in a house with baseboard heaters, and they had all sorts of junk stuffed inside and under them. I would have to say the kitchen was the worst. The fridge was gross. The lazy susan had a bag each of flour, sugar, and brown sugar dumped behind the shelves in the corner of the cupboard. I won't say any more. Suffice it to say that it is still not completely clean, although it is definitely better than a few hours ago.
On a more positive note, the house itself is bigger than Phil originally thought. It has a ton of potential, and will do just fine for our family. Good job, sweetie! The yard is great. Despite the snow and the bitter cold, the boys did a little exploring of the yard and the creek running through the back. And the deck off the kitchen is Awesome! It is literally bigger than our family room in our Eagle Mountain house! We are so excited for summer barbecues out there. (While we watch the fireflies among the trees!)
The landlord sounds like he will be good to work with. He has already said he will pay for the paint if we would like to repaint any of the rooms (which we most definitely will...probably ALL of the rooms...) And we will be able to take money off of next month's rent for the cleaning.
I promised pictures, but those will have to wait a few days until the priorities of cleaning and setting up Christmas are taken care of.

Big Day

So tomorrow is the big day. We are leaving Pennsylvania and heading to our new home in Connecticut. Phil is nervous about how we will feel about the house. He had to pick a house without me seeing anything but a picture of the front of the house. I am nervous about getting all the utilities set. We have had a beast of a time trying to get everything in our name.

Anyhow, look for updates and pictures of the new house coming soon. And wish us luck!

Happy Birthday Jaker-Baker!

So I am a little late posting, because we made it to Sharon and Rob's (my sister and brother-in-law who live in Douglassville PA). After another long day of driving, we stayed up til 3:30 a.m. talking. Needless to say, we are still exhausted!

But yesterday was Jake's 12th birthday, which is a big deal. I still remember laying on the hospital bed at UVRMC waiting for him to come. He has grown up so much! Especially in the last year. For a couple years when he was little, he went by "Jaker-Baker", and even though he won't let us call him that now, I feel like as Mom I have the privilege to go back to those sweet days every now and again.

Jake is amazingly smart. He has such a tender heart. He is go-go-go all the time. All boy. Intrigued by guns, hunting, fishing, camping. Dying to get involved in scouts and go on campouts. Thinks his Dad is amazing, but would never admit that.

Jake is so sweet with his little cousins. He is just a great kid, and I am so thankful to have him as part of our family.

So happy birthday, Jake. Hope this year is all you want it to be.

Gateway to the West

Since we were in St Louis, we decided to go see the famous arch, the "Jefferson National Expansion Monument" (dun dun dunnnnn). (Long story-funny tour guide). Phil took this fantastic picture of the monstrous structure. Seriously, the thing is 630 feet tall!
They have a neat museum inside, the Museum of Westward Expansion. But of course, that wasn't enough for us. We had to go to the top of the arch! It is, after all, a once in a lifetime opportunity!

So after you pay a ridiculous amount of money, they squish five (or in our case 6) people into these little enclosed tram cars. You ride up about 4 minutes, climb out and walk up a few stairs, and there you are, at the very top. Here's the view: (That's Cardinal Stadium right there)

That's us, at the top of the arch.

It really was a cool experience. One we hope the kids will always remember. It is amazing that the thing stands, and that people can actually go up to the top. All in all, a cool side trip.

Day 3

Today we drove from Topeka, Kansas to St. Louis, Missouri. Since we had a shorter drive and were going right through Kansas City, we decided to make a few pitstops along the way. One of the places we stopped was the LDS Visitor's Center at Independence, Missouri. As we drove up the street, we saw two very large buildings from afar. Here are pictures of the two buildings:

The first building was on the far corner, the "Tall and spacious" building was right across the street from the visitor's center. The LDS visitor's center is pictured below. What a contrast!
The first two buildings, and 40 acres, are owned by the Community of Christ Church, also known as the RLDS. The LDS Church owns 20 acres in this area, including the visitors center which is surrounded by these other buildings. The tall building is the RLDS Temple. We equated this area to be similar to our Temple Square. What a completely different feeling you get there though!

The other site we went to was Liberty Jail. On the outside, you cannot tell you are at an old jail site at all. It is a beautiful gray marble building, that looks more like a visitors center on Temple Square. As you go in, there is a room which explains some of the significance of this site, and a sister missionary gave us some history. Then we were taken into the jail area. The old jail crumbled years ago, but the original floor still exists. The Church used reliable information and some of the original stones to recreate the jail.

The sister giving the tour talked about the many blessings the Saints (and us) received while Joseph was imprisoned here. I didn't realize that the winter he spent in Liberty Jail was one of the coldest on record! There have only been two recorded times that both the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers completely iced over, and that was one of them. (Even now, the temperature is cooler down by the jail cell than anywhere else in the building.) The cold temperatures actually were a blessing to the Saints who were able to walk across the river as they were driven out of their homes instead of crossing through it. There is a large painting in one of the rooms there. It is one of my favorites. It is a picture of Emma walking across the frozen river, babe in arms, with her other children hanging on to her skirts. We know that she was carrying the precious record underneath her skirts as well.

The missionaries talk about Liberty Jail being a lesson in faith. I found it interesting that Joseph was in the jail for 4 months and 6 days. He felt abandoned by the Lord at one point, and prayed for answers. According to our guide, those answers came on his 110th day in prison. He was released 10 days later. Truly it was a lesson in faith for Joseph and those with him. But as usual, my thoughts turn to Emma. It must have been a lesson in faith for her as well. And as she always did, she met the task with grace and fortitude, never wavering in her love for Joseph or the Lord, never wavering in her testimony of his calling and work. I don't think I could praise her enough for all she went through. When times are tough for me, she is a great example of a woman of faith, a woman who did what she had to do without complaint, a woman who stood beside her husband through more than most of us will ever be called upon to endure, a woman of grace and charity. I am truly thankful for Joseph and Emma Smith.

A Few Fun Facts

So I thought I would include a few fun facts about today's journey. We drove from Grand Junction, Colorado to Topeka, Kansas. What a long, boring drive!

By the numbers:

4: Bathroom breaks (not including lunch and dinner)

4: Number of times Jackson sang "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" (down from yesterday)

5: Number of tunnels we went through

9: The lowest temperature we encountered today

42: The high temp of the day

7: Frozen waterfalls (not counting the springs coming out of the rock)

12: Number of signs warning about deer

5: Total number of deer we saw

0: Total number of deer we saw within range of the signs

5: Number of ski resorts we saw from the road

1: Number of half pipes we saw (Copper Mountain ski resort- very cool to watch)

5: Number of ice fisherman

792: Number of miles we drove

13: Number of hours driving (including stops)

Coolest thing we saw:

Bronco Stadium

Strangest Named thing we passed:

Republican River (in Colorado)

Funny questions Jackson asked:

Are we almost to Lehi?

Are we in South America?

Are we in the United Steaks?

Things we learned from Jackson:

Penguins live on the frozen Colorado River (that's why it IS frozen!)

Funniest Conversation:

Gabe: Why didn't you say Hollywood? That's where all the babes are!

Jackson: What are babes?

You better watch out!

You better not cry, you better not pout, I'm telling you why....

Jackson sang to us for the last hour or two in the car, reminding us Santa is coming to town...

What a funny guy!

Anyhow, we made it to Grand Junction from St George today. It was our intention to have the kids stand by the "You are now leaving Utah" sign, waving, and post a picture. Unfortunately, there was no sign. It was pitch black outside, so we wouldn't have seen it in time to stop, and it was 13 degrees outside! So you will just have to imagine them waving by the sign!

The day was relatively uneventful. Tomorrow will be an extra long one, though, because we are trying to get to Topeka or Kansas City. We'll see how that goes. Kids were well behaved on day one...hopefully that is a sign of things to come.

We left Eagle Mountain without getting to say goodbye to everyone. If you are one we missed, we are truly sorry. If you are one we caught, we're glad we got that chance. Either way, know that we love you and will miss you. We are thankful for the influence you all had on our family!

We said we weren't going to say goodbye this time, just see you later. So again,

we will see you later!