Morgan's birthday

15 years. I have been a mom to this beautiful girl for 15 years! It chokes me up to think that she only has 3 more birthdays left at home. Dang her for growing up. We started the day off with presents and singing. Later Morgan and I went to lunch- with just the two of us. After we got home Matt took her driving.( Ahhhh......!!) Then we got ready for her party. There were about 15 teenagers and then my boys and 2 of their cousins. Lots of loudness and laughter. And of course some drama.

I may be a little biased....but I think Morgan is the most wonderful daughter in the world. She is mature, and smart. She is funny, witty, and a great friend. She is beautiful and so talented. I could go on and on- but it wouldn't do her justice. Happy birthday my beautiful 15 year old girl! My favorite daughter, and my favorite little tax deduction! :)

Cheescake Factory

We got to meet up with some friends from highschool at the Cheesecake Factory for our annual "Christmas party after Christmas." We do not see a lot of these friends very often. However, we always love to get together with this group and catch up, talk, laugh and reminice. We've known most of them for so long, that they all hold a special place in a hearts. We had a great night, good food, and great company!

Matt's birthday

Matt made sure to let me know that "41 is a much more low key year!" I should have had a party just to spite him, but I'm nice and didn't. :) We kept it simple. He worked, then came home and opened presents. We sang and had cake, and then he and I went out to dinner AND a movie. It was nice to get out, because we haven't been out by ourselves much lately. Happy birthday to the best husband ever. I love you more than you know and am so grateful for you every day of my life!

Christmas

I love the Christmas fell on Sunday this year.





Even though I complained that we have church at 9:00 am. In reality we were all up early enough to open all the presents and stockings, eat breakfast, get ready, and still we were 20 min. early for church. It was like Christmas magic! :) I loved listening to the beautiful music, and then only having an hour of church. :) Afterwards we went to Matt's parents for lunch and grandparent gifts. The cousins always have a great time together.

As far as gifts go, I would say Morgan's top gift was her Ipod Touch. (By far! The girl is a bit addicted to music.)

Dillon's favorite gift: and Ipod touch, too. But more for the games than the music. He listens to Matt's old 70's music most the time. :)

Logan's favorite gift: Probably his Ipod touch, too. Are you seeing a theme here? Another top contender for him would definitely be Legos.

Camden's favorite gift: His Firehouse- Police Station combo. He loves it! He calls it his mixed station- since it's a firehouse and police station. :)

We also got the kids tickets to Brian Regan- which they are over the top excited about. They all love him.

No pets or living things this year----phew! This was one of the most relaxing Christmas seasons we've had. Of course there was still the normal busyness. However, every other December we've had lots of extras like two boys basketball games, (they decided not to play this year.) Morgan has always had Christmas concerts and choir related stuff. Because of Student Government, she had to drop show choir, since it conflicts. We also had less Christmas parties than normal, etc. It was kind of nice! And I probably sound like a crazy person- since I think I'm the only one in the world who thinks this....but I was excited it didn't snow, too. Christmas was a beautiful sunny day- just like it should be! :)

Service Book

Matt's siblings and their families all decided to do a service book for his parents this year. Everyone was supposed to do different acts of service for people, based on principals that we've been taught by them. For example one said:

One of Jennie’s first memories of our family is coming to a Family Home Evening at our house while we were dating. That night you brought out a big laundry basket of socks and we all spent the night mating socks. As a parent now Jennie will tell you how it drives me crazy that almost always socks come out of the dryer without a mate. It must be something I inherited from you both.

Because of what you taught us we donated some new socks and a basket for the women’s crisis center. Hopefully they will be better about keeping them mated, than we were.

It has been such a great experience for our family, this Christmas season to try and think of many different ways that we can serve others. I love that we have all been a little more focused on how we can serve, instead of ONLY on the presents.

Christmas party

My family never does anything on Christmas day. We usually celebrate before or after Christmas, which makes it nice so that we don't have completing families to visit on Christmas. We had our Christmas celebration on Dec. 24th. It was a breakfast at the church. The kids played tons of games, and ran around, ate, and opened gifts. It seemed like everyone had a great time. The lack of girls on my side of the family always makes Morgan a little grumpy. I think she realized that some of my sister in laws are closer in age to her than her own 8 year old girl cousin- so that made it a little better I think. :) ( I have a 21 year old sister in law and if you do the math...that's only about 6 years difference....I'm old enough to be her MOM!)

Merry Christmas!

Movie theater experience

Dillon's friend's mom called to see if I was okay for them to drop off the boys with 4 other friends at a movie. We haven't really ever done that, but I figured some are 12 and he is 11- it's probably okay. Except that Logan wanted to go with some friends, and I really wasn't too crazy about now 10 kids between 9-12 years old going by themselves. And then Camden caught wind that we were talking about a movie and he wanted to go with some friends, too. Matt and I decided to chaperone, so we called his friend Julianna, and invited her and her sister Maddy to go with us. Maddy had a friend over and wanted to know if she could come, too. And Camden's other friend Chase came too. Are you counting how many kids that is? 14 KIDS! Man that is a lot of people to keep track of. I don't know how some people have that many! They all brought their own money for snacks and it was uncontrolled chaos at that point. However, once the snack situation was under control, and they were seated, it was great. The kids were awesome and had tons of fun together. Maybe that's how people with that many kids do it...they feed them lots of junk and stick them in front of a movie screen. What a fun way to begin our winter break- Matt, me and a brood 14.

Miscellaneous happenings

I have been pretty bad about writing lately. This is a short summary of a few of things that have kept us busy:

Brough party: Matt's extended family, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandma, etc. They had a Christmas party early in Dec. Santa came, cousins played, everyone ate. :)

Boondocks: I took the kids to Boondocks to play and of course they always love it. They had a great time playing laser tag, riding go carts, and playing arcade games.

Games and more games for Morgan: She has to attend every game JV or Varsity. This is a minimum of 2 times a week, and they are so long! She gets docked on her grade if she doesn't go, so she goes and cheers on her team whether it be for basketball, volleyball, wrestling, etc.

Homework: Holy cow- Morgan has a lot of homework this year. Last year was a breeze. This year. Not so much. She has taken some harder classes, and the homework level is insane.

Tithing settlement: Matt has been gone a lot this month. Tithing settlement is one of the main reasons, work is busier- his busiest month, and there are many, many callings that are getting changed. This all adds to a pretty busy December for him. Thank goodness he has so much flexibility with his work schedule. This owning a business thing can be super handy!

Baking and decorating: There's been baking, and treat making.

Decorating galore. Diaper cake making.

Present buying and wrapping.....Gingerbread house making.

It's Christmas time after all!

I have to admit- even though things have been busier, the reason I haven't written much is pure laziness!

Wind Storm

We have lived in Tornado Alley more than once. We've seen damage from tornadoes, and felt wind on a daily basis. This storm definitely rivaled the winds of Oklahoma! It came crashing through and really did a number on all of Davis county. The winds were hurricane force, and they lasted for HOURS. The hardest hit parts were in Centerville. However, Kaysville had tons of damage as well. So much that on Sunday, Dec. 4th. Almost all the churches in the region either cancelled church, or released people after sacrament meeting to get on their work clothes and get to work on clean up. Another storm was predicted to be coming through, and there were many without power still, HUGE trees littering the streets, tipped over power lines, etc. We lost 2 gates in the storm, but were happy because it could have been so much worse! We have heard many stories of so many homes severely damaged or demolished, cars destroyed, etc. The cleanup effort was amazing to witness. There were lines of cars/trucks/trailers waiting to dump things at the designated dump sites. The National Guard was called out, and policemen were directing traffic. I cannot remember a time where I've seen a community come together quite like this. It truly was amazing.

Birthday suprises

I have told Matt for the past year that under no circumstances do I want a party, surprise or otherwise for my birthday. I thought we had an agreement. Especially after he sent me to Cancun. I thought I was in the clear! This is the letter he sent out to everyone:

Jennie is turning 40 years old on November 29th. She has made it very clear that she does not want a birthday party to celebrate this momentous event. So we will not be having a birthday party for her.

However, on November 25^th at 6:00 pm we will be having a party to celebrate some of the many great things that occurred in 1971. Such as:

• Creation of the Nasdaq stock market
• Apollo 14^th moon landing
• The finale of the Ed Sullivan show
• End of the US trade embargo of China
• Opening of Walt Disney World in Orlando
• D.B. Coopers hijacking and parachute escape
• Charles Manson sentenced to death then changed to life in prison
• Plus many more….

We would love to have the two of you come celebrate with us. Dinner will be served so come hungry.

Please RSVP or send regrets to Jennieis40@wholesalechess.com so I can get a final head count. Also, I would love to compile a list of memories, words of wisdom or other thoughts to give to her that night. If you please email these by November 18^th to the same address above I would be very grateful. It doesn’t have to be lengthy and format is not important.

We look forward to seeing you there. Also, while this is not a “surprise party for Jennie” it is a party that will be a surprise to Jennie so please don’t let her know.

Location: TBD

Time: 6:00 pm (don’t be late)

No gifts please (she has me…..what else could she possibly need) 

Isn't he sneaky? I had no clue about any of this. My sister in law Christa said she had a bunch of tickets to a new movie given to her from her work. She said it was good at Gateway, and that we should meet for dinner first. So she asked me where I wanted to go and I was suggesting all these kids friendly type places since we were all bringing children. Then Katie said her and Mike had some gift certificates to Biaggis. So we agreed to meet there. So Matt, kids and I went to meet up at Biaggis and they surprised me so much that I started to cry. Someone asked if I was crying because I was happy or because I was mad, or just surprised. I said I didn't know. I really hate crying in front of people. :)

As much as I really didn't want a party- it was fun to see everyone. And I had a great time. Matt thought of everything. From balloons, to a huge sign, to posters on the wall describing events from 1971. Nobody knows how to throw a party like Matt. And I am the most spoiled, lucky girl in the world. Seriously- I don't deserve him. And now I'm 40- and really hope that is the last of the surprise parties. I'm getting to0 old for these kind of surprises. :)

Thanksgiving

I'm not sure Thanksgiving even existed this year. A few days before Thanksgiving one of the kids got the stomach flu. Then one by one we all started to drop like flies. Matt had it so bad. It was awful! I thought I was in the clear- since everyone else had it and I didn't get it then. But my flu bug decided to wait until I was all done cleaning up/taking care of everyone else and hit at midnight, after I hadn't slept much the night before, because of everyone elses sickness. So from midnight to 6 am I didn't sleep. Then only slept for an hour and a half. It was Thanksgiving day- and thank goodness I was not hosting it.

This is the fist year I haven't hosted for my family. Morgan and I were not feeling up to eating/going/getting out of pj's etc. So Matt took the boys to my mom's for dinner. To say they had a wonderful time might be an exageration- so I won't say that. Family drama is always awesome! :)

As far as I know Thanksgiving never happened. No turkey for us and no leftovers. Just think of all the calories I avoided. :)

Cancun

Matt was kind enough to send my friend Karen and I somewhere WARM for my birthday. Oh how I love going on tropical trips! :) We went to Cancun and had a great time. We spent the majority of our time at the pool, or the beach. We did venture off the property a few times, to shop or go to dinner- but that's it. In fact it was more like window shopping- neither of us even bought anything. We were not finding the deals or the goods. We went parasailing one day and had fun doing that.


We also got manicures and the best pedicure I have ever had. It was heaven! It was one of the most relaxing trips I've been on. I don't usually sit around much on trips- I usually go, go go! It was nice to even finish a book! I think I can add Cancun to the list of places I'd like to go to again.

Halloween

I think this is the first year that Morgan didn't dress up.

Dillon and Logan's costumes were pretty cool in the dark. They were stick figure people and they looked so cool in the dark. However in the light they were pretty ugly little costumes. :)

The kids had Halloween off this year- and they loved that! I on the other hand wish they had the day AFTER Halloween off instead. They kept asking when they could start trick-or-treating, etc... Then of course since they stayed up late so the next morning they were GRUMPY. They had friends over and were in and out of the house all day. Morgan went to a friends house with a big group, and they kind of roamed the neighborhood, but not trick or treating, and then ended up at a friends house for more Halloween fun. Dillon and Logan went trick or treating with friends. I didn't even see them once they left, until they came home. I didn't really like that! I think it's the first time they've been on their own. (And by on their own, I mean them, their friends and the 300 other kids in the neighborhood....) I took Camden trick-or-treating while Matt stayed home and passed out candy and hot apple cider. Our neighborhood really gets into Halloween. I have never seen anything like it. One house does full on costumes, and remodels the front of their house based on a theme. This year it was Alice in Wonderland. Elaborate costumes, etc.. truly jaw dropping! Then there was another house that transformed their garage into a 50's diner, and hands out fresh, homemade scones. Another house, homemade rootbeer, another soft serve ice cream. It is a big party out there, and that's why it always ends up being a late night. I think almost everyone in the neighborhood is out and about. It ended up being a *beautiful* night so it was well worth the late night.

Halloween preschool program

Camden had his preschool program this week. It was at a barn and they sang several adorable and spooky songs. It was the perfect backdrop for a Halloween program. There is not anything cuter than a whole group of 4 year olds singing their little hearts out, in costume.

St. George

For fall break, we decided to surprise the kids and head to St. George. We did tell Morgan, because in her "old age", I'm finding it hard to pack for her. However, we kept it quiet from the boys. We picked them up on Wed. from school about 1/2 hour early. We told them they had dentist appointments. However, it didn't take them long to know we were teasing and they were pretty excited to go! While we were there, we went to a bouncy house type place, where they ran, jumped, bounced, played basketball etc. They were BRIGHT red after all of their activity.

Morgan and I went to a movie, and the mall, while the boys swam. We also went to the dinosaur museum, to the temple grounds,

hiking,

and their very favorite thing of all...ATV riding. We had a guided tour, and the boys and Matt all rode in a razor buggy car thing,

while Morgan and I each rode 4-wheelers. We had so much fun! We saw some beautiful terrain, that we wouldn't have been able to see otherwise, and had a great time at the sand dunes, etc.

This is one of the sand dunes- and the beautiful sky. Isn't it gorgeous? It almost looks fake!

We would love to do this again! Even Camden loved it- and hasn't stopped talking about it. The weather was absolutely gorgeous the entire time, too. 80 degrees is perfect! The company was great and I loved spending time with my little family the whole long weekend. Dillon was looking at our pictures, and he saw one of all

of us together.

He said, "Isn't that just the perfect family?" The picture is FAR from perfect, and obviously none of us are perfect, but my family is perfect for ME- and apparently Dillon agrees.