Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving with Jill's family. We had great food, great company, and great fun! Thanksgiving Day Jill and I got up at 6:00 to go track down a paper for Black Friday ads. The gas station that we went to wasn't open yet. It was suppose to be and the papers were sitting in front of the door. We waited until 6:20 and they still weren't there so we helped ourselves. But don't worry we left the money, hopefully they got it! Then we went home to get the stuffing ready. As we were putting the bird in the roasting sack, the sack broke. This was one huge turkey! It was the only one that Jill had so she had to run to the nearest open store, which was 20 minutes away! After all of that the turkey got done earlier than we thought it would take. We ate dinner with some of Jill's friends and then played games into the evening. It was a lot of fun. Black Friday Jill and I got up at 3:15am to drive to Sears. It took forever there so we decided to just go to Walmart before they opened. It was a mad house! I had forgotten since in Salt Lake there are so many of each store that it is never really that bad. But we got almost everything that we wanted plus more! Then Jill had a tennis match and while she was gone all of us grown ups (if that is what you call us)took a nap. We took the kids to see Astroboy that night. The next morning Ryan took me to the Rexburg temple. It was really pretty inside and Ryan took me to an early lunch afterwards. And we didn't have to pay a sitter. Thanks Jill! That evening we went to a play called BLAST OFF. It had balls pits and fun things for the kids to play in. The kids played while the adults watched the BYU/UTAH game. BYU got lucky and won in overtime, but we will get them next year!! GO UTES!! Thanks Jill and Dan for putting up with us and our dog! We had a great time.
The zip line.




Lindee's turn
This ball pit was really deep. It looked like a lot of fun. I wanted to get in it.

This ball pit was just for the little tikes. Lindee loved it!

Baptism!

What a day Halloween was! Jenna was baptised. She was so excited and smiled the whole day. Ryan baptized her and confirmed her and gave her a special blessing. Grandma Ussing, Uncle Bill, and Aunt Joni Rai were able to come for the weekend and spend some time with us. Grandma Susie and Grandpa Howie also came for the special occasion. Jill and her kids, Shay and his family, and Jeff and his family were also able to come to support Jenna. Then we went trick or treating to end the day. The kids had a lot of fun! The kids did a really good job on their pumpkins this year. Luke carved his all by himself and the others got help from Dad.
This Lindee eating a cupcake (or rather just the frosting) after our ward part on Friday.
It was so nice Halloween night that the kids didn't even need their coats.

2009 Pictures

I can't wait any longer. Jeff took our pictures this weekend and I wasn't going to show them until later but, I can't stand it. I have to show off my kids!!!
The happy and very lucky couple!
The Boys
The Girls
Lindee would not corporate and I had to take her pictures the next day.

My sweet Jenna
Luke is getting to be so grown up.
Silly JT.
I had to bribe Lindee with my phone to smile. I did get a couple other good pictures of her though. I'm not going to show our family picture because most of you will be getting a Christmas card with that picture on it so I don't want to ruin the suspense!

18 months

Lindee is finally 18 months. We (but especially Ryan) has been waiting for this day. She can finally go to nursery!!!! Since I am in Primary, Ryan has her most of the time and I constantly hear her on the stairs or getting a drink by the the Primary room. She went on Sunday and just loved it. Now Ryan can enjoy church without chasing a little girl. Here are some fun pictures of what she has been up to.
JT is showing you his car in the corner!

Lindee loves to draw. If she finds a pen, or pencil, or marker she is off trying to find something to color on. If she can't find anything she has been know to color on her hand, leg, face, belly you name it. She usually goes to the art cupboard and gets a coloring book. But if she finds a pen upstairs she grabs any book in site!! I hope we make it through this stage with a few books with pages not colored in them :)

Hilarious

We have lived here now for 3 years! We haven't lived in one place longer than 14 months before we moved here so this is quite an accomplishment for us. The first year that we lived here we saw a scarecrow like we have never seen before and I have always meant to take a picture of it. Apparently they put him up every year. He sits along the road in front of some peoples driveway and "moons" everyone as they leave Post. I think it is so hilarious.

In the same room!

Last Saturday I had the privilege to go the the Women's Conference. When the prophet came into the room 21,000 people were instantly quiet and stood up. We waited until he was seated and then we sat. It was amazing! How would that be to have that many people staring at you when you entered a room! My sister-in-law, who was with me, leaned over and whispered, "I am in the same room as the prophet!" I have lived in the Salt Lake area for 7 years and this is the first time I have been to anything at the Conference Center. I had to ask myself why? I think I was worried about all the crowds. But it really wasn't that bad. Security went smoothly and orderly and so did the parking and traffic. As the prophet left the room we all stood and he waved to each section and each section waved back. It was so cute! It showed us that he cared for us just by that simple act.

Sleepless nights

Well, it all began last Wednesday when we were out at the garden. While we were gone Penny (our miniature schnauzer) got into the garbage. We had had BBQed chicken wings and corn on the cob. She ate all the bones and packed some of the cobs off. Well, we come home and she gets in huge trouble. The next morning Lindee wakes up with 3 welts on her arm and her eye is a little puffy so I spray benadryl on her arm and we continue throughout our day. I put her down for her nap and when she wakes up her eye is swelled shut. Luckily the kids had just gotten home from school so we head into Tooele to see the doctor. They don't really know what it is so they start her on antibiotics and away we go. Her eye looks really bad and the only thing we can think is that she got bit by something out at the garden. She has a few rough nights and ends up playing for part of the nights because she is uncomfortable. I have to admit I fell asleep some of time she was playing and so did Ryan (we tried to do shifts) and sometimes when we woke up she would be upstairs doing who knows what. On Saturday morning the toilet overflows and Ryan tried to snake it but no luck so we decide to just call the housing maintenance on Monday. Meanwhile, by Sunday, with the help of benadryl, Lindee's eye finally goes back down so she looks like we haven't been beating her. I didn't get around to calling housing on Monday so finally today I do. He comes and tried to snake it and no luck. So he takes the toilet off and reaches down into the pipes and comes up with 2 cobs of corn! Kind of embarrassing, but now we know some of the things that Lindee was up to on her sleepless night! :)
Here she is with her puffy eye. It got a little bit bigger on Saturday before it started going down. But she is such a happy girl even with a sorry looking eye!