Merry Christmas!!

Are we the only family that takes a Christmas morning picture on the stairs? Well, please endure!

Riley, Kennady & Krista

Grady, Angela, Sawyer (red) and Logan (white)

Me, Jared, Alayna and Jake. (Some how our family had the worst picture!)

The Madsens..Shandra, Todd, Isaac, Olivia, Kierra and Conner (He's into posing like a model lately??)

Christmas Eve Traditions...

Three little girls who are anxiously awaiting to go to sleep so that they can wake up to see what Santa has brought. They left two cookies for Santa to enjoy!

After the kids opened their new pajamas it was the parents turn to start our "mommy & daddy traditions."

Shandra was given "peace" pants and a great "light up" kiss me shirt! (go Todd!), Angela...well her pj's took the cake this year. She matched her husband and two boys. It was hilarious!! Krista got to be red and green and I lucked out getting a new bath robe! So fun!!

The husbands were refusing to pose this year for another picture...especially in their pajama's! But do you notice Grady's great outfit! I love it. Oh, and the best part about the night was we were able to open up our sibling gifts to each other. I got the BEST thing a "Skookie" kit. It was given to me by Riley...two cast iron pans that you bake cookies in them. Ringing a bell anyone...Firehouse "Pizz-ooki" (I don't know how to spell it!) Either way I am so excited. I LOVED the gift idea.

Last but not least we were able to open up an envelope that contained what Angela and Grady's 3rd baby is going to be...drumroll....It's a BOY!! Way to go!! We are so excited to welcome yet another BOY into our family!

A Long Standing Family Tradition...

We love to do service! The family rule is every person must drop off at least one present on the door step. The tradition continues on...

We just wanted to take a picture of the original Christmas Eve drop off to a family in need. It was again another heart warming experience to give so much to a family who has so little. My parents are serving a mission in the Inner City Mission in Salt Lake City. Being there they are surrounded by such humble and loving people. For the past few years we have been able to learn more from these sweet people and to share our abundance with them. It was fantastic to hide on the side of the house and listen to their joy and excitement. The young children exclaimed, "Presents...it is Santa!" Over and over again we could hear squeals of joy and jubilation. I LOVE this feeling of listening to their joy. It instantly brings tears of joy to my eyes and heart. I love that we have been taught this blessing of serving and giving to others in need, and most importantly I loved sharing it with my children and my nieces and nephews. What a wonderful gift, to give to others. I love it!

Joy School Christmas Party

This month was Joy School's Christmas party. It was adorable. They had the children act out the Nativity. Alayna was SO excited to be able to be Mary.

So happy to be Mary.

After the skit they were able to make ginger bread houses. Oh, goodie I thought, because just that very same morning I successfully dumped her other one in the garbage can with out her knowing. But here we go again with more requests to eat treats from her gingerbread house. I assume I can handle it once a year!

Oh, this was my favorite part of the day. After they did the skit they sang Away in a Manger. The line of "Lay down his sweet head." I loved how baby Jesus' head was squished down. All the mom's were laughing. It was so great!

1st Annual Nativity Play...

My family has come up with a new tradition, thanks to Shandra. We decided that Christmas Eve has become so busy that we wanted to take an entire night to focus on the Saviors birth. We also have 9 grand kids who are growing older each year and we wanted to get them acting out the nativity story. So Aunt Krista, compiled the script and we dressed the kids up in the best costumes we could find.

Mary (Kierra), Joseph (Conner), Cow (Sawyer), Sheep (Alayna)

Our adorable little Shepard was Jake! His costume was the hit of the night!!

Oh, the pink Unicorn was pretending to be a horse was played by Logan. Olivia was the Angel. The wise men were played by Kennady and Isaac.

The skit started out really rough and somewhat rambunctious but it was recovered shortly. They really did a great job for their first time around. Following the skit we watched The Nativity movie. My sister than had this cute idea to all write down our "gift" to the Savior for the upcoming year. It was so sweet to compile the entire families and then read them.

We then concluded the night with family prayer expressing our gratitude for our loving Savior and our love for Him. Because our little Jake is so adorable we had to take a picture of him participating in family prayer. I can't tell you how seeing him know how to kneel in prayer encourages me to have family prayer every day. The grumpy face is because he's trying to close his eyes! What a darling kid.

The Annual trip down to Temple Square...

Grandma Lou & Papi with 7 of the 9 grandkids. (Twins we missed you!)

Here are our two little snow bunnies. It was freezing cold. We did our very best to stay warm.

Thanks Todd for humoring me and taking a picture of Jared and I. I really do appreciate it.

Oh, here's another of our little family. It was cute because Jake can say, "temple" so no matter where he was facing he'd look all around and repeat, "Mom or Dad...temple!" It was so adorable.

Continued...

The Madsen gang...Kierra (age 8), Conner (age 7), Olivia (age 5) and Isaac (age 18 months)

The Peck Family...Riley, Kennady (age 15 months), Krista

This is my favorite picture. Because I hope to never loose this picture or memory I am posting this one. Our little Jake is very aware and sensitive when it comes to anything spiritual. In his sweet 18 month old way he is aware of Jesus, the Temple and the Prophet. In his attempt to say all the words his face just lights up when he sees pictures of any of the three. I LOVED this memory because we all gathered inside the building at Temple Square to show the grand kids the Christus statue. Jake wanted to be as close as he could by Jesus. During the little speech from the sister missionary he was trying to crawl or jump out of our arms to be "by Jesus" he'd mutter. It was adorable. As we were leaving he ran back to Jesus and just smiled so big. Alayna was equally adorable. She just said, "I just wish it was the real Jesus." I love the sweet tender moments that their little spirits have with the Spirit.

So much sadness...

For all you computer lovers out there. I am no longer one of them. Over the past year I have had TERRIBLE luck with hard drives. So the short painful story is back in May of this year our hard drive in our computer made a sharp piercing sound and slowly fizzled and vibrated until it stopped. For days I got an annoying blue screen. I made TONS of phone calls to the company and then gave up. I called my cousin you is the "Computer Man!" He saved the day and just told me what to do. Sadly, I LOST about 6 months of pictures. Disappointing fact, I know. But I haven't even let myself think about that. So I purchased a new hard drive for the computer and then I bought an external hard drive to hopefully solve the problem of loosing pictures ever again.

Let me introduce you to our My Book external hard drive...

This lived for a a few months...fulfilling it's purpose until one sad night. I happened to be using it creating a family video and it was safely stored on the computer. Jared then needed the laptop, I said, "Please remember all the cords hooked in!" We scooted the computer over 3 INCHES and DOWN came the hard drive while running....AHHH....I said, then came the piercing high pitched sound until the hard drive came to a silent stop. I had nothing to say...I was just hoping it really hadn't just died. I waited a day to plug it back in. The inevitable was true. It has died. Since it is under warrenty they will replace the piece itself, but I have LOST all my photos, (the ones not backed up on my lap top or DVD's) and all the family videos I have created and not burned. Oh, the patience computers have required...

Now on a happier note Santa came early and Jared got me the NEW external hard drive that does not require another power source other than the USB. This SMALL little guy is about the size of a check book. I LOVE it. It also holds as much memory as my other external hard drive. So going forward we will keep the new My Book on the desk and NEVER transport it anywhere. And this little new friend of mine can go anywhere I want! It has already been wonderful. I think Jared felt so badly that when he saw the extra $20 off coupon at Costco he felt it was his one way of replacing all those hours and hours of hard work.

So if I start posting more and more pictures just know it's because I don't want to loose them on my next hard drive drama! Wish me luck!!!

The Nutcracker

Grandma Nettie and Alayna are just waiting for the exciting Nutcracker Ballet to start.

Alayna is pointing out to us that she wants to be "this Ballerina!" Ashley and I were lucky enough to join Grandma Nettie and Alayna for a girls night out.

Alayna was WONDERFUL. I had a purse full of treats and other than giving her a few at the intermission she was great. I think she was able to sit longer than the adults. I was afraid it wasn't going to keep her attention but it did. I think it's just any little girls dream to be a ballerina. Thanks for the fun night out, Danette. She has placed her Nutcracker pamphlet on her dresser to keep it away from Jakey. She LOVES to show it to everyone.

Our Christmas Letter... Hang on it's a long one!

(They do know how to smile...they just forgot how! This was the best of everyone..what a joke!)

First things first. Merry Christmas to all. Our little family his been so blessed and we acknowledge all our blessing to our loving Heavenly Father. We are thankful for our testimonies in the Savior this holiday season. We witness miracles so often in our life. For all these things we give thanks to Him. We love you all and hope you too find His love in your life.

What has the year 2008 brought us…

I can't believe it was a whole year ago when Jared started the year of 2008 in California completing his out of state internship. We were so grateful to have him stay with family. They were so generous to keep him in their home for two months. The best part about him being away in California for two months was that my family used that as enough reasoning to travel to California for a vacation. I started a week early staying with Jared and visiting with two other great friends. Then 2 weeks later my family joined us for Disneyland and a family reunion. It was the BEST time of year to miss the winter weather in Utah. I will never forget the early morning phone call I received from a neighbor in the ward saying, "Church has been canceled because of the snow!" I couldn't have been happier wearing short sleeves and nothing better than flip flops! It was a very hard transition when we had to leave the palm trees, sunshine and fun to return to grey skies, snow piles and ice covered driveways. That's what we get for living in Utah.

A few months later Alayna turned 3 years old. Celebrating as any three year old would, "Disney Princess" style. She had a princess dress-up party. She was no other than "Belle" herself. It was a fun adventure for me to create a princess castle cake. Jacob one month later to the same day celebrated his first birthday. He is famous for making dinosaur screeches so his cake fit him well…a dinosaur.

The month of May was an exciting month for all. Jared finally completed and graduated his Doctorate degree in Physical Therapy. My parents and siblings were so kind to watch the kiddo's for a week so he and I could go and celebrate his accomplishment. We went on an ALL Jared trip. From start to finish he got to plan the food, entertainment and all the adventures. He introduced me to a new found thrill, mountain biking (especially the down hill part). I couldn't have enjoyed it more. We ate at buffets that included salad bars (I didn’t enjoy), we watch sports late at night on all the cable channels he wished we had, and we did very little swimming. (Not his first choice activity!) Either way I came home with a sun tan and a new found interest that I now share with my hubby…mountain biking. By the end of the month Jared had interviewed at several physical therapy clinics. Late one night we talked it out which one out of the three seemed to be exactly the perfect fit for a new grad out of school. With that being said, he accepted the offer "Would you like to be a part of our team?" Yes, was the answer to RPT – Registered Physical Therapists, Inc. We couldn't have been happier when we realized Jared would be working less than four miles from home and he even can come home for lunch most days.

June brought the completion of a long awaited project for me. I finally reached our family's one year supply of food. With the kind hearts of my sister and my parents, Jared and I have been able to store our supply at their houses. It's been a fun and semi-slow process, but there is not a better feeling to know that we have it. It might not be all around us, but all those pasta noodles and bags of wheat are bought and paid for!

The summer months were booked weekend after weekend with "My Food Storage Deals." I was excited to help my sister out with attending booths at several different local parades, town days, etc. We even made t-shirts! It really was fun to share in my new found passion for food storage. We had great success and we can't wait to do it again next year!!! Alayna was spoiled in July to go on a Grandparents Only trip with my parents. My parents took Olivia (age 5) and Alayna (age 3) to Lego Land and Sea World for a week. They had the best time. My parents quickly learned that Alayna requires A LOT of sleep or else the scary, "sleep deprivation monster" comes out, and there is nothing you can do to reason with it. They played hard from morning until night! These grandkids are so lucky to have such wonderful grandparents. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Alayna managed to add to her wounds list…she got one single "stitch" on her bottom lip! So, she officially has had more injuries than I. A broken arm and a "stitch!" Hopefully, we won't have many more exciting accidents coming this New Year.

Jared and I rounded out 7 years of marriage! That's right; July 14th, 2008 was our 7 year wedding anniversary. It's all about patience, learning and growing and more patience. Oh, and a whole lot of laughter and fun times together. And our top favorite hobby is to love our little kids so much. We've truly been blessed.

Later in that month Jared, Riley, Krista (my sister & bro-in-law) and I were able to take a short mini trip to Zion’s National Park. We actually hiked the Narrows. This was a HUGE step forward out of my comfort box. I don't enjoy hiking very much and for a few moments on this trip I came to actually have fun.

One of the top highlights this year for me happened in August. It was the chance to attend a live comedy act by none other than, Brian Regan…literally the funniest & dorkiest comedian ever! My family & friends had the best time rolling with laughter and wishing it could go on all night long. It was worth every dollar we spent. Another top highlight was finally meeting one of my personal role models…Merrilee Boyack. I attended BYU Education week and I worked up the courage to talk to her in person. It turned out to be one of the most embarrassing moments of my life, because I was practically drooling over her…but, oh well. I did it and she will never remember me again! It was awesome.

In September we celebrated another birthday for my mom. This was a fantastic day. It was a day to celebrate her and to celebrate the great health that she has received this year. We have been on a roller coaster with her over the past year. But she is doing so well; we can only count our blessings. We are so thankful to a loving Heavenly Father who allows miracles to happen. She is a living testament of that. I love you, Mom!

Alayna has started in a Joy School group with 4 other neighboring kids. She is in heaven. She is little miss social butterfly. Everyday she asks what friends she will be able to play with. Her famous line is, "Mom, I still want to live in Herriman close to Livvy so I can still play with her, but I do want our own house and bunk beds for me and Jake." We will try to make her wish granted…all in good time.

Jacob has managed to find a huge interest in climbing, jumping, throwing balls, kicking balls and saying, "No!" This little guy couldn't have come any cuter. He really has become our little prized possession. Even Alayna wants to be there to sing him good night. He's developed an ever growing vocabulary and can run faster than any kid his age. We just love to teach him new words and see that adorable spaced teeth smile with dimples. We just adore this little guy.

November came and went just as fast as the entire year has. We celebrated Thanksgiving with all families and ate way too much. For those of you who endured reading this novel and tribute to our little family you will know that another announcement will be made.

We finally have broken the news to our family that we will be welcoming yet another baby into our family, next year in June 2009. Yes, you heard me correctly --we are going at this baby thing again. We have this silly two year, one month space between each child. Alayna was born on April 11th, 2005 and Jacob was born on May 11th, 2007 and yes baby number three (it will remain a surprise until that due date, I know!) until June 3rd, 2009. I'm hoping to go late (I generally do) so this kiddo can be born on June 11th, 2009 – to keep with the tradition of the same birthday as its siblings.

There ya have it. A breakdown of fun things and many things to be grateful for! Here's to welcoming a new year…a new baby…a new car…a new house….Okay, I won't get too excited…I'll just welcome a new baby! Bring on 2009!

A Christmas Party for...

Well, the Christmas party was intended for Brian and Ashley since they will be "ditching" us for her family in California for Christmas!!! JUST KIDDING. I understand, I'd leave the snow for sunshine, too! So we had a fabulous dinner and a great game of Ticket to Ride - Germany. Thanks for staying up so late to hang out with us.

Alayna & Jacob...thought that this party was for them of coarse. Brian and Ashley do a great job of spoiling the kids. They as usual brought gifts. I love their presents though because they are usually, the cutest kids books. So thanks!

Grandpa Suker and Jason Suker (and Matt in Canada!)....also thought the party was for them. We celebrated all the December birthdays. Cute Ashley had baked a huge cake, and then had a bad contact with the ICE in the driveway. So after a shattered plate and no longer a cake, we improvised and made some box brownies. Sorry, Ashley the cake looked delicious as usual. Happy Birthday to you all!

Ah..just a cute little picture of the kids under their Christmas tree!

One messy boy...

Here's to Jake!

This was after his experience with Jell-O! What a mess. I ran upstairs to share some Jell-O with the other cousins...a few seconds later. Here was Jake, enjoying his treat a little too much. I had to take a picture. Even Uncle Todd came downstairs and said, "That's pretty good, you should take a picture." He's probably teasing me...but I agreed and pulled out the camera.

Making Gingerbread Houses...

We are lucky to have 1:00pm church. One good thing about it is that today the kids had fun making Gingerbread houses. Luckily, Aunt Shanny had an extra milk carton for Alayna so she could join in on the fun. She was in heaven.

The kids houses were darling. Alayna's looked half licked and stuck on with slobber. Hey, she was loving this fun holiday time. Oh, and I'm sure all the frosting and candy she ate!!

Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Concert

It was fantastic. I can't decide though if my favorite part was listening to the concert or the fact that we parked in Crown Burger's parking lot and had to spend $14 to park our car. So with that being said, we hurried and ordered...3 minutes later we were RUNNING down the sidewalk while eating our hamburgers. Seriously, it was the best! Next, I loved that after the concert we went back to Crown Burger for ice cream and for the men, more hamburger. Murphy's thanks for the fun van ride. That made the drive so much fun.

Oh, I almost forgot the next best part. The Prophet, Thomas S. Monson was there on Friday night. He was the best to watch. He would clap and give a standing ovation nearly after each performance. I was glad to have several standing moments throughout the performance. The concert was phenomenal. A memorable part was when the choir was singing, "Hee haw, Hee haw, Hee haw." It ended up being a really cute song about all the animals in the stable. It was cute!

As my sister said, "They are so posey and cheesy when taking pictures!" We actually did it on purpose...to show her that we are so cheesy!
The cute ladies that joined the party. The men refused to take a picture...we should have taken a picture of them eating all their food at Crown Burger. Thanks Murphy's & Madsen's for the tickets. Tanner's it was so fun to get to know you better. Oh, and THANKS mom & dad for watching the several grand kids for hours and hours.

Sewing Christmas Stockings...

For those of you who remember reading about me learning a new hobby...sewing. I completed sewing all of the Halloween costumes and some how I hadn't had enough of sewing. Strange, I know. I really had a difficult time trying to get into sewing, but I learned a very profound lesson. Amazing that it really has taken me 26 years to learn it. It goes something like this..."If at first you don't succeed, TRY TRY AGAIN." I can't tell you how many days & nights I was cursing the idea of sewing. With TONS of help and laughter from all my helpers...mainly because I didn't know what I was doing! I was able to finish the 6 costumes. So as I said, I had began to enjoy sewing despite my definite lack of experience I wanted a new project.

With the holidays upcoming I thought of something that would be very simple and memorable. So I decided to pick what I loved most as a child. My Christmas stocking. So with that in mind I headed to 4 different fabric stores trying to make up my mind on what exactly to sew for my kids. I went out first seeking, matching decorative fabric. By the third store I was not "feeling" the love if you will for fancy stockings. I realized by the 4th store that I wanted to do something FUN that Alayna and Jake would actually be excited about if I sewed it or them. So with that being said, I picked the "cheesy Christmas fabric!" Yes, I gave in and picked a Christmas print!! So unlike me I know. But I can't tell you how pleased I am with how they turned out. They are adorable.

I learned how to cut out the pattern, put a lining, batting and then she taught me how to quilt it. I had 3 different fabric options. With my lack of experience I bought enough fabric to make 12 stockings! Anyone interested? I decided to make 6 stockings, so all my kids...If I live long enough or choose to have 6 kids will have to have the same kind!

Here is the finished project! Jake LOVES his chubby (extra-batting = very squishy like a pillow!) penguin stocking.
Alayna has a darling reindeer pattern. So CUTE! I am so very pleased with how they turned out. A HUGE thanks goes to my wonderful mom who endured two very loud and hectic afternoons at our house with wild children running around and us trying to finish a project. Somehow we did. So thank you! My kids LOVE their new stockings. Plus I learned more about sewing...what should my next project be??

A night out on the town...

Saturday night was my works Christmas Party. We were able to go eat some yummy food at the Roof on Temple Square. The food was fabulous and I must admit I ate a ton! My absolute favorite item was the Chocolate Custard served like a Creme Brulee (however you spell it?). It was heavenly!! Thanks to the great company of Mountainland Exteriors we were able to celebrate yummy food and a date out!

Riley and Krista were also present. Really it's because of Riley that I am so blessed to have this mini-job. So thanks to the Pecks who are so generous. It's Riley's dad who owns the company, so it was fun they let us join their family business. THANKS.

Jared and I smiling because we are about to eat some yummy food! Krista and Riley got there first, so they were able to have great "view" seats! It was beautiful because we were just in time to have all the Christmas lights turn on.

Just outside on Temple Square and enjoying all the Christmas lights. We really lucked out because it wasn't cold at all. So that was lovely. Thanks again for a really fun night!