Merry Christmas

The Christmas season is one of my favorites. I can't believe it is already coming to an end. It was a wonderful time, but somewhat stressful this year. Christmastime is always stressful, but this year had it's own set of challenges. We got our shopping done early and Jer and I were excited to spend the December month enjoying the festivities. We had planned to go downtown to see the lights at Temple Square, go to movies, see the lights, visit family and friends and enjoy the season together. We did do some of the things on our list, but due to the fact that our kids had a rough month with illnesses, we didn't get to do some of the things we wanted to. Emma started with tonsillitis which turned into strep and then pneumonia. She has finished the month by having surgery. On the 26th, she had a tonsillectomy and an adnoidectomy. She is still working on her recovery. Josh is usually pretty resilient, but at the first of the month he did have pink eye, an ear infection and strep. He quickly got over all of it and enjoyed all the fun at school that a third grader loves. Erin had a cold, but stayed fairly healthy. She gave Aunt Cari some stress when Care spent Jer's birthday with the kids. Cari took them to see the lights at Thanksgiving Point and Erin spent the time in the car throwing up. Fortunately, Grandma and Grandpa were there to help out.

We did have fun with all the family. Erin had a great third birthday. All she wanted was to have all her friends (cousins) come to her house. They all came and she couldn't be happier. The gifts they brought seemed to be just an added bonus to their visit.

This Christmas Eve was special in many ways. While at Grandma B's that night, Santa Claus stopped in for a visit. What a great surprise! He had gifts and candy canes for each child. They all seemed excited, but a little overwhelmed. He stayed and read a story to everyone and then was on his way. What a busy night for him! When the party at grandmas was over, Cari came to our house and spent Christmas Eve with us. I'm not sure if the kids were more excited for Santa to come or for Care to spend the night. She stayed up till after midnight reading books "at" Erin.

Christmas day was fun - it always is! We were all so tired due to Emma waking up at 2:30am ready to open gifts! But, we made it through the night and at 7:30 we finally let her wake up the other kids and get to it! We went to Grandma and Grandpa J's for our traditional Christmas Breakfast. I think Josh loves the breakfast casserole and hash browns more than the gift exchange. He looks forward to it all year. I was excited to hand out the aprons I made for all the girls. I gave one to each of the B's on Christmas Eve and then to the J's on Christmas Day. I think this was the most involved gift I have ever done, but it was worth it.

What a season! It was such a fun Christmas. The kids are at the perfect ages to fully enjoy every part of the holidays. By the time we were opening gifts at Grandmas on Christmas Day, Erin was to the point of not caring what the gift was, she just wanted to open open open!

Feeling Grateful

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving with the Johnsons. It was a good day together with all of us. We set up three big craft tables at Ben and Steph's house and enjoyed lots of food and good conversation. Grandma Johnson (Darrells mom) got to spend the day with us. It was especially fun to have her there. Emma is such a sweet heart. She spent some good one on one time with her Great Grandma and almost brought me to tears as I snapped pictures of the two of them together. The kids were all so good, other than a few potty training accidents between the 3 little ones. We are up to eight grandkids now and 4 of them are at that stage. It's been exciting. At the end of the day, we all sat on the couch for a family picture. That was the most interesting 15 minutes of the day. It turned out okay, with the exception of Josh wearing only one sock due to holes in the other one. But, nothing a little cropping can't fix. I think we were home by 7 for a special Thanksgiving Survivor (which was nothing more than a season recap :) and by 7:05 two out of the three kids were asleep for the night. It was a nice day off from the normal hustle and bustle. No school, no work, no homework, no laundry. Just food, family and fun.

Starting Over

I guess the title starting over has more meaning to it than I realized initially. It seems to be our family motto as of late. A few months back, I created a family blog named Bullfrogs Bulletin. Since creating it, I have been so busy that updating it seemed to be pushed to the back burner. So, today, I sat down to get to it and I couldn't remember our blog address. So, I started over with "Giggles Gang." And of course, as soon as I created a new blog, I found the old blog. I guess I need to be a little more on top of things.

As I mentioned, starting over has become our new family motto. In March of this year, Jer and I decided to sell our Magna home of seven wonderful years. I would like to say that we were lucky in that our home sold within two weeks of listing it. But, I am not sure "luck" is the right word. We have truly been blessed in the last year. Selling our home was a big move and brought with it lots of sacrifice not only for Jer and I, but for the kids and our families. It has been a rocky road at times, but time and time again I have been reminded that what we did was the right thing. We closed on the sell of our house at the end of March and moved in with mom and dad Conference Weekend. At that same time, Jer started a new career with Verizon Wireless. Two months later, he started school at the University of Phoenix. In September, on Josh's birthday, we moved into a home in West Valley. And, just this last Sunday, Jer and I were sustained and set apart as Primary Teachers. Wow. We have officially "started over."

Summer 2007

My how time flies! The kids are already back in school and summer is winding down. There are still many things on our list of summer "to do's" but I thought I would post some of the pictures from the things we were able to do before school started. The kids spent most of their time with their cousins. They all took swimming lessons at the Magna Pool, played at the splash pool at Daybreak, went crazy in the play land at the new Draper Ikea, ate lots of chicken nuggets and cheeseburgers from "Mickey Donalds" (as Erin calls it), turboed through Hogle Zoo on a hot summer day, and wore all the moms out. It was all lots of fun and made for many great memories (or scrapbook layouts).

Bathing Beauties

Erin and Baby Gauge at the Magna Pool

Magna Fourth of July Parade

Fireworks at the University of Utah