Happy New Year!

Happy Thanksgiving; Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I missed all the holidays! Life has certainly been busy! But now that I am sitting down at the computer actually ready to write, I am drawing a blank!

My niece, Kristie Norton, got to come up from California and stay here for a couple of weeks. It was so fun to see her! She was here just before Thanksgiving. She’s so cute! She is a huge Twilight fan, so of course we went and saw Twilight together…Oh, the memories! And she stayed at our house for a couple of days. I’m so glad I got that time with her. We don’t get down to California very often.

We just got back from a cruise to the Western Caribbean. That was a blast! All 5 of us went for my birthday. Not really, that was just an excuse. But it worked for me! I’ll go to Jamaica and Grand Cayman anytime! In Jamaica Mark and I walked to the Farmer’s Market to find some mango's. While we were walking around, he saw two Jamaican’s playing domino's in the back. We stopped to watch them play and Mark started talking smack, telling them that he could school them and that he would send them home crying to their baby mamas. It was hilarious to hear him talk because he sounded just like them! So they pulled up a chair, found a friend and the game was on! It was fun to watch. Mark attracted a crowd, who of course, were all smoking huge joints. They were all impressed with how well he played. They asked how he learned and he explained that he used to live in Jamaica. That he was one of the guys that wore a white shirt with the name tag. They all knew the missionaries. It was fun to see him interact with them. I didn’t know he could speak Patois so well!

The next day we got to spend on Grand Cayman. We got to see our wonderful friends there, Cyndy, Casey, Ginny, Murray and Hannah! What fun to spend the day with them. They took care of Mark while he was on his mission. We spent a day in Cozumel, a few days at sea, ate way too much food and had a great time. It was a fun trip.

Jace lost his first tooth this week! Yeah! He got his first visit from the Tooth Fairy. He was so cute! He’s been trying to loose that tooth for about 2 months now. He even tried to get Grandma to pull it out with the pliers! No such luck! He ate apples and tootsie rolls and anything chewy. All to no avail. But, on Sunday last week, we were at Grandma Neilene’s house and she finally got it out for him. He is so happy!

Mark’s nephew Blake just moved in with us! He’s been here for just over a week. He’s so fun! We are glad to have him with us! He seems glad to be here and he is really adjusting well. He played several basketball games last week, hung out at the Jeffrey’s home nearly every day and he went out to see two movies. He went to church with us on Sunday and said he really liked the ward. He especially loved the Priest's Quorum because they talked about sports the whole time. He's been having alot of fun, but he is out of money. Time for him to find some income! He applied at several places last week and today we went to LDS Employment Services. He's got plans and that is a good thing. I really think this move is good for him. He’s so well-mannered and such a great kid! We are going to take pictures soon and I will post them. I'll post a picture of Jace's missing tooth, too!

Krissy Jo

My sweet niece, Kristie, was able to come and visit her "Utah" family for a few weeks. Unfortunate circumstances took her away early, but I am so glad she was able to be here with us for as long as she was! She stayed with my sister, Kim, for most of the time. But luckily, we had her stay at our house for a couple of nights. What a great time we had! We got to go and see Twilight together...Yeah! And she asked me to take her to Temple Square. What is a trip to Utah without Temple Square, right? We had such a great time and I think we wore her out, but I am so grateful that I got to spend the short time with her that I did. She and Caden really bonded. It was cute to watch them sit together playing a game or watching a show. She is so great and I want her to know how much I LOVE HER!!! I'm so glad you got to visit Kris!!

Jace's New Glasses!

A little over a month ago, I went to the boys school to help out with the vision screening testing. All the students came into the cafeteria one class at a time to have their eye sight checked. There were two volunteers in each line. One to help the kids cover each eye and have them stand in the right place (behind the red line) and the other to point at what letter was to be read. If the kids could read all the letters standing behind the red line then they were seeing at 20/20. Caden came through my line and he did great, I checked Jackson in between classes and he was fine. Then Jace got to come through my line as well. When I checked him, I had him do it like 3 times, poor kid...he couldn't see a thing! I went with with him over to the eye doctor who did more extensive testing on the kids who had trouble reading in my line. He was seeing at 20/70.

So, needless to say, we got him into the eye doctor right away. Sure enough, he needed glasses, but luckily he won't need to wear a patch or anything.

Jace was so excited to get glasses! I was a little surprised at how anxious he was to get them. He came in crying one afternoon after he'd had them for just under a month. He'd fallen off his bike and totally crunched the frames! There was no fixing those puppies! So I threw him in the Yukon and we ran down to the eye doctor to order a new pair. He's on his second frames and he's had quite a few close calls...I've had to bend them back into shape about 3 times (in less than two weeks!!!) I went ahead and ordered another set of frames, because he's six years old and he's a boy...and I have no doubt in my mind that we will need them before long!

We just had his one month follow-up visit and the doctor said he showed visible improvement. Yeah! He is so cute in his glasses!

Fall Family Pictures

We drove up Provo Canyon last week for our fall family pictures. Jenn shot our family and I shot the kids. I had so much fun and the boys did really good! (Thank heavens for bribery!! Yes I use candy to bribe my children!) The pictures of the boys are all posted in the right column. I love my job! Here are some pictures of other photo shoots (and a Christmas Card) that I've done:

The Jeffery Family

The Sase Family

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Just Call Me Corky!

So we went to a silent auction last Friday night. I bid on this really cool BYU Basket for Mark. It had a BYU T-shirt, BYU hat, the Fall 2008 True Blue magazine, all signed by #45 Harvey Unga and of course tickets to a game. Pretty cool, right?

I was in a hurry when I wrote down my bid and there were several BYU baskets (this was one of the best) some were for the next day’s game, others were for games in November. These tickets were for BYU vs. New Mexico in November. Perfect! My friend, Michele, called that evening to let me know that I won. I told her it was a surprise for Mark and asked if she would just hold on to basket and I would get it from her on Monday while he was at work.

Saturday morning we went to see the Golding boys play football. I was telling Jen about the basket I won and she said she’d watch the kids for us for the game. I wasn’t going to tell Mark about it at all, we were just going to show up at the game. Then I’d give him the rest of the basket for Christmas.

Saturday evening, we were heading to dinner with Mark’s brother Joe and his sister Marlene. (I had told Marlene about the basket earlier in the day and that it was for the New Mexico game.) Mark was checking the score on his Blackberry while we were driving. I asked Joe who they were playing and he said, “New Mexico.” I about died, Marlene felt so bad. Ryan just laughed! Mark kept asking what was wrong, so I had to tell him. I still wasn’t sure if it was actually that day’s game, so I tried to get a hold of Michele to have her check the tickets. I was finally able to reach her and we totally missed it! The game started at 4pm and it was already past 6pm. I totally looked at the tickets wrong! What a bummer! Oh, well, I had good intentions. The weather was crappy and we had plans with his family so Mark wasn’t too upset. He was pretty happy about the rest of the basket, still. I just feel bad that I ruined one of his Christmas surprises. Just call me Corky!

I'll be back!

My lack of internet these days has kept me from posting, but not to worry, I'll be back online soon!

Lake Powell

Mark and I got to go to Lake Powell for 4 days last week. We had such a great time! Grandma Neilene flew out from North Dakota to stay with the kids so we could go. This was my first trip to Powell and I can't wait to go back. There were 24 of us, adults only. We had 2 house boats, 2 ski boats, 4 jet skis and tons of food! We stayed in Moki Canyon, went on a 10 mile hike (which was more than any of us bargained for) that was such a neat experience, did lots of exploring, cliff diving and playing on the water, ate tons of food, and tried to ignore the naked people in the house boat across from us! We also got to try out the Aqua Skipper, play horseshoes and experience The Crack. It was so relaxing and we had such a great time!

When we first left the kids, I was so sad, but by the end of our trip, I didn't want to come home! I LOVE my kids, but a vacation away is much needed from time to time!! Our next destination: Hawaii!

Mark jumping from about 50 feet

Yes, that would be Mark on the far right!

Jeff on the Aqua Skipper...the guys were hilarious on that thing!

The house boat that we stayed on
The Crack