Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays. We certainly did! The week of Christmas was good. It rained most of the week and so by Christmas the kids were going crazy. I had actually told them they should go have a mud fight or something...just to get them out of the house! The kids were out of school and it is always an adjustment being home all together all day, but they did fairly well. It rained so much here that all the rivers were pushed to their limits. This is the river right by our house and the tunnel is for the walking trail that is right next to it. Needless to say, there was no trail for a few days.

We had our annual wii bowling tournament. Calvin was freaking out because his first round was against Uncle Chad and Grandpa (I think Chad won it last year). He just thought he didn't have a chance, but he gave it his all, and won that round! It ended up being Derrek and Calvin in the finals. They were both bowling over 220 each game, where most of us were glad to get to 150! Derrek ended up beating Calvin. Calvin was bummed, but still a good sport. We had breakfast too with all the Steurer's and I enjoyed that. Dallen (10), Brooke (10), and Olivia (9) made the menu and cooked it all (with help from Uncle Chad with the bacon!). They did an awesome job to feed ALL of us!

We had Christmas Eve over at Kent & Amy's house and had a little program that all of us participated in. Lots of music and singing and food. It was perfect. I am pretty sure that was the first time the boys had ever done the reinactment of the Savior's birth. Derrek played "O Holy Night" on his guitar and Chris accompanied him. It was beautiful.

Derrek and Emma were Joseph and Mary. Dan, Alec, and Calvin were Shephards. Ashton, Dallen and Ben were Wise Men. And last but not least...Brad and Gabbie were Angels. Gabbie doing her part in this picture :).

Scott loved being "Santa" for the ward. Ward members would drop, mostly money, off to Scott and then a few hours later he would sneak out the door and go deliver it to the family they wanted to help. It was amazing to see how many people wanted to help, they even ding-dong ditched us a few times. We are very grateful for their generosity. At first when Scott would go on his little adventures, we'd say "where did dad go?" and by the end of the week, we just knew. We have a wonderful ward.

Christmas day was relaxing. We woke up around 7:00, but wanted to wait for Jose and we told him we would be opening presents around 8 or 8:30. So, we waited until 8:30 and started. He wasn't here yet, but he came shortly after that. It worked out perfect because we were able to open cousin gifts and there was a family in our ward that wanted to buy the boys hoodies, and so they opened those. I don't think Ashton has take his off yet! It is nice that the boys don't expect much and so what little we were able to do, they were grateful, and that makes us happy. The dogs were happy too, with their candy cane bones (Shep was a little possessive of both his and Angel's) and their stuffed animals.We had aebleskievers and then went to my mom and dad's so the boys could open their presents. My parents replaced our trampoline mat for the boys. They were so happy. Alec kept saying "can we go home now and put this up?" They have been on it constantly, even in this freezing cold weather (two days ago the high was 30 degrees!). Christmas day, Alec wanted to use his new fishing lures he got from his cousin, Audrey, and so he and Dallen went one afternoon. A little while later, we get a phone call from Dallen (thank goodness someone else was fishing and had a phone!) saying Alec had a hook in his finger and it was pretty bad. So, Scott went and got him and this is what we found...

Scott tried seeing if instacare was open, but it wasn't and we didn't want to pay for the emergency room and so Alec had to be brave and let Scott get it out. There was screaming involved, but it wasn't long and all is well. Good memory, though. I am sure it's not his last...it definitely wasn't his first!

Yesterday we went sledding (or tried to) up Cedar Mountain. There is a park there and it has an amazing hill. We could only stay for a couple hours because we wouldn't have been able to get out (we didn't have chains or anything for the tires and it was starting to ice up again!). It was super powdery and so we had to make our own sledding trails.The boys were making ramps, too. Alec spent most of his time digging out an ice cave, preparing for next weekend's Klondike campout (brrrr!). There were some families there already, but they hadn't gone up as far as the boys wanted to go. Scott and I went down a couple of times and it was really fun. Good thing Scott and I wore layers, because before the last hour we were there, Dallen, Ashton, and Calvin were frozen. Dallen and Ashton had horrible shoes and Ashton kept loosing his in the snow because he didn't tie them tight. Their feet were frozen. Calvin had on jeans and they were soaked through and through. He was frozen. So, I gave Dallen and Ashton my two pairs of really thick socks, wrapped their feet in plastic and then gave Dallen my shoes (we almost wear the same size!). That got them back on their way. I gave Calvin my sweats and Scott gave Calvin his snow pants and boots and we sent him back on his way. So, Scott and I were down to one pair of pants, me with no socks, and both with no shoes! But, the kids were having fun and that is why we were there. After about an hour, it started getting crowded and the cars were piling up and it was looking like we were not going to get out of their if we didn't leave then, so we did. It was a fun trip.

Scott is half way through his first class. It is a month long, and cramming a three credit, online class into a month is a lot of reading and dedication. He has found what works for him best and is really enjoying the challenge. He'll start Dixie State in a couple of weeks and he's hoping it is balanced enough since he's taking 20 credit hours (the max). Then, we will be moving to Mesa, Arizona where he can finish the rest during the summer and then apply for the Fall Mortuary Science program. The boys are not excited that we are moving, but we felt that we needed to make a decision now so that they could have time to process the idea. It is never easy, and especially since we have three that are in high school. Derrek will be a senior next year and knew that he would be taking this the hardest. He has been really good about it, but there are days, as expected, that reality hits and he is really sad. Alec and Calvin keep spatting "we're not moving" and have silly plans of sabatoging the move. Calvin wants to keep in contact with his friends and is determined that the only way to do that is to have a phone so he can text them. Except for the fact that Derrek just barely has been allowed to have a phone and even then, he is really addicted to it (19,000 text last month! That's rediculous!!!). Anyway, we are working on a good senerio. We thought about facebook, but even that scares us. I think I'd rather he had a cell phone. Dallen said he didn't care because his best friend already moved and there was no one else here that he was sad to leave (as far as friends go). Ashton said he's both sad and glad. But, as soon as we thought about Mesa, things just lined up and we knew that is where we needed to go. So, in June, we'll be heading South.