out with the old

2009 brought with it many good things and one big bad thing that affected everything else. Here are a few highlights (and lowlights) from our year. I say "out with old and in with the NEW"...


1. Basketball games, soccer games and more basketball games.

2. Kyle finishing up at the "U".

3. Our fabulous beach vacation.

4. Followed by the awful news of loosing a job.

5. Followed by tears and more tears at this.

6. Followed by JUST as many tears from all the good things

that have come from this loss.

7. New baby coming in 2010. (gotcha! just checking to see

if you are REALLY reading!)

8. World record amount of texts sent to and from Grace in a

6 day time period. Hold on to your hats: 4023!

9. Seeing the world through Primary Childrens eyes as I take

on that new challenge. So grateful for wonderful ladies

who stand with me every single day on that.

10. Watching son build and blow up and spear and catapult

and harpoon any given number of things. I have to give

the boy a 10 (on a scale of 1 to 10) for creativity!

11. Having a 16 year old. Which includes things like

driving and dating and kissing, OH MY!

12. Gratitude at God's hand in my family's life, day after

day. Week after week.

13. Seeing it IS possible to survive on practically no

sleep. and endure lots of stress. and LIVE to tell

about both.

14. Wondering if Tylenol PM can become addicting?

15. Grateful for good friends.

16. New Moon.

17. Duct Tape Shoes.

18. New Recipes.

19. Didn't kill any house plants (didn't try to grow any

either though...)

20. Looking forward to what 2010 has to offer.


"In with the new!" Bring it on...

christmas collage

Christmas in collage's....

The holiday season brought lots of cooking for me. If you don't know this about me, I LOVE to cook and bake, and try a new recipe-some hit and some miss! This year I tried "jalapeno poppers" (loved them), Grandpa Greats famous Cheeseball recipe (super hit), a new potato/leek/bacon pizza ("not enough taste", said the family), my "world famous" orange rolls, and Christmas morning quiche (the regular ham and cheese with a new FABULOUS addition of "veggie quiche" (spinach, broccoli, red pepper, and a bit of Parmesan cheese too). I also tried a new recipe for Mizithra pasta from the Speghetti Factory (flop--i failed w/"browned butter" and made "burnt butter" instead...will retry this one.) Apparently there is a fine line between "browning" and "burning". I crossed the line, sadly!

Needless to say we ate well over the holidays.

Christmas morning was a hit for the kids.

Bompie got her "Alexander doll" (a "fake" and MUCH *much much*cheaper version of the American Girl doll via Costco and Santa) She was in love at first sight. Grandma Regular also got an email from Santa (isn't HE the hip jolly old soul?) and made some clothes for the doll to wear! Can't have naked dollies now can we?

Eliza Jane got a camera from Santa and has had fun taking pictures. She also was begging for the old Polaroid camera to "prove Santa was real". Well, these puppies were discontinued a few years back and one cannot buy them anymore. Somehow Santa found one with 5 pictures left in it and wrapped it up and delivered it to her with a note that said: "Never Never Never stop believing in the magic of Christmas Eliza!"

Grace Catherine got her cell phone. She subsequently spent the rest of the day breaking the world record for MOST TEXTS sent and received in one day (we believe somewhere near 1000 when all was said and done!) Thank goodness for unlimited texting.

Josh got a Guitar Hero Wii Game and a ZIPPO lighter (the big hit out of everything for him). Nothing has been burned down to date...although I give him a week before he and his friends light something on fire!

We had a simpler, yet great, Christmas this year.

what it's ALL about...

What it's ALL about at Christmas time...

My family

Oops...how did THAT get in here? (LOL!)

Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ

"kissing the face of God"

Painting by Morgan Weistling

The BEST thing about being jobless, for us, this year has been that the focus of our time and energy has NOT been on shopping and buying and more shopping and more buying. (and not that there is anything wrong with that--it has been how we have spent most every other holiday season in years past!) Since funds are as tight as they have ever been there has been very little shopping and buying. We have had to trim anything extra this year, and Christmas has become a more simple affair that is not focused on the hustle and bustle of buying and shopping.

Kyle and I both said that that ONE THING has been such a gift to us in so many ways this year. It has helped us focus on family and kids and Christ, the things that REALLY matter when all is said and done... as believers in, and followers of, Christ.

Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas!

...and hoping everyone can find a quiet moment of time to remember.

To remember the Christ child that was born,

the child who became a man called Jesus, during this holiday time.

facebook repeat...

to those people, both known and mostly UNKNOWN, who have blessed my family's life this holiday season:


THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts for your goodness to us.



and in the immortal words of those dudes from Waynes World:

WE ARE NOT WORTHY! of such kindness...


(it sure feels like it anyway!)


Thank you for making a month that seemed like it would be so very hard to "get through" something instead that has been filled with wonderful surprises that fill our hearts with gratitude.


We feel so unbelievably blessed by those people around us!


so thank you! thank you! thank you!



and AGAIN...thank you!

schhh-moore-guess-board!

Gingerbread House Making... Grace's new BOYFRIEND!




Deciding what to add to the house...


A Work In Process




THE WINTER FORMAL
josh & whitney

AWWWWWWWWW! how cute!

SMACK DOWN!!!! Oly Titans Take Down

#1 Ranked Team in the State:

Bingham High!

All 3 Oly Teams had their "game on!"

Sophomores, JV & Varsity Teams!

Congratulations Olympus Basketball!

for the record, i know that Schhhh-moore-guess-board is really not spelled that way!

(smorgasbord--i did have to spell check that by the way)

but here we have a mixed bag of all things!

*Kyles mother does gingerbread houses every year for anyone that wants to participate!

the kids love this tradition. i have learned to slyly tell them which candies to add so that i can pick the good ones off when we get home. Sadly this year, no one invested in chocolate candy for the houses...so here they sit! Loaded up with candy that no one is eating!

*followed by WINTER FORMAL (which is apparently NOT "formal" who knew?!)

Josh and gal pal Whitney. They ate at the Spaghetti Factory, went to the dance for 5 minutes and then spent two hours at the Gymnastic Training Center (which the girls had rented out

for the remainder of the night) Josh said he had a "great night"--no limbs were lost and no arms were broken, so all in all things went well.

*Next up Titan Basketball! What a game yesterday! We (meaning me probably) thought that Olympus would be killed. They were playing #1 state ranked Bingham Boys Basketball. Olympus came out strong, then dropped to 13 points down in the 2nd quarter. We wondered if it would only get worse from there. After a quick time out and a regrouping of the team they came back strong!! They quickly pulled within 2 points of Bingham and stayed that close until the 4th quarter when we pulled ahead by 5 or 6. ALL THREE Oly teams defeated Bingham last night. Kyle stayed for all the games and said they were ALL great.
CONGRATS Oly Basketball! One of the funnest games I have watched! Josh played for a full quarter and had a superb game! (all the boys did!) Onto Skyline High this Friday!

GO TITANS!

unemployment top ten

#10. cleaning porta potties is fun to do,

fun to do, fun to do. (ahem not so much, but singing primary songs helps--ok that's not true either but he survived it!)

#9. my family sure goes through A LOT of toilet paper. Seriously, who knew?

(in keeping with the potty theme)

#8. we are LEARNING to love left-overs. and eggs. Eggs are good.

#7. it DOES get hot enough on a flat roof

in August to fry an egg.

#6. less REALLY IS more!

#5. you learn how humbling (and hard!) it is to accept goodness from others. (we are ready to be in "giving back" mode any time now!)

#4. attitude really is everything.

(o.k. maybe not EVERYTHING,

but you know what I mean!)

#3. coupons are a mom's best friend.

#2. it's OKAY to have a mini nervous breakdown now and again...this too shall pass!

(and your kids now know to bring you

some kleenex so you can sop

up your snot and move on.)

#1. we are so very blessed!

really and truly.

I have said it before and I'll say it again-

I would love for this unemployment stuff to be over, like.... YESTERDAY!

BUT, looking back over the past 5 months we are amazed at the outpouring of love from those people, who have LITERALLY been God's hands, here on earth.

To each of you this holiday season,

WE THANK YOU

for your love and thoughts and prayers and goodness and acts of kindness to our family.

thank you

thank you

thank you

hunger strike

Tonight josh threatened a "hunger strike."


I noted the time.


It was 7:41 P.M.


At exactly 8:00 P.M.
I heard the microwave turn on.



Said "hunger strike" lasted exactly 19
minutes.



I'm not quite sure how he survived THAT
long without food.

JOY!

Josh had his first basketball game yesterday. The boys have to wear "shirts and ties" to school on game days. Josh took great care in dressing himself...I personally am not sure I want to claim I had anything to do with his outfit. (which I did not)

He is self-assured to say the least.

There is great JOY! in watching your children perform at something they love. They are going to be a fun to watch for the next 3 months.

The Sophomore's won hands down, they managed to avert one minor pushing incident that was headed to a fight, and played some great ball. What a FABULOUS team this is...if they play all the way through Senior Year...watch out! They are a force to be reckoned with.

On a side note: I had 4 of the boys from the team in my kitchen a few weeks back (they had stopped by for some Mac-n-Cheese). I am not exactly a midget (I stand right around 5'8" on a good day) But standing in my kitchen next to 4 boys (the "shortest" right at about 6'2" and the others hoovering at 6'4" and 6'5") I cannot tell you how SMALL I felt.

This group of boys is SUCH a fabulous group! (And NOT just in talent, I mean as boys growing into men as well! Just super great kids!)

It will be fun to watch them for the next few years!

GO OLYMPUS!

POST EDIT: it is at times like this (taking "sport" pictures i would give my eye teeth for

a camera WITHOUT shutter delay...but alas they are out of my price range --which happens

to be $0 dollars anyway--so excuse my "blurry action shots!) By the time the shutter

snaps, everyone has already moved! I had Cynthia Williams to thank last year

for great pictures since our boys played on the same team--this year we will PRETEND

I have great pictures! LOL~ anyone have a great camera I can borrow for a game?