TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE

Thanks for checking back to see the "truths" of our Christmas card. Hopefully they were obvious. If they weren't, we need to spend more time together!

Rory: (3) is false. He loves his job with Qwest. His hours are long, but he enjoys what he's doing and even had a chance to go to Denver a couple of times this year.

Angie: (2) is false. Okay, so it's not uncommon for us to announce a pregnancy (with 5 kids in 8 years it's not a big stretch). But thankfully, we've found that washing our underwear separately prevents more pregnancy!






Miranda: (2) is false. While she still loves reptiles, she is pursuing her interests here in Hyrum.

Arianna: (1) is false. She loves all things girl, pink, princess and barbies.












Jacob: (3) is false. At this point, opera is only for mocking. He seldom sits still, and while he is growing up in so many ways, he still loves to sleep in mom and dad's room after midnight.









Sabrina: (3) is false. Okay, that one was obvious. But with her determination she could do it all.











Kalista: (1) is false. She is still searching and destroying most everything she can get her cute little hands on.




We'd love to hear from you! Have a wondeful New Year!

We Believe!

Waiting to See What Santa Brought

Could Christmas be any better with 5 Santa believers in our home? This is what Christmas is all about. The kids have been counting down Christmas for about 45 days. By Christmas Eve day they could hardly stay in their skin. Sabrina said,"When is that Christmas guy coming?" Needless to say, not a lot of sleeping went on the night of the 24th. The older 3 were anxiously listening for the jingle of Santa's bells, but Sabrina on the other hand hadn't quite caught the magic (Santa had visited her at preschool - she didn't want anything to do with him). Here is a little of our conversation as I was tucking her into bed.

Mom: "Go right to sleep tonight so Santa can come and leave you presents"

Sabrina: "Santa's coming to our house?"

Mom: "Yes!" (I'm excited that she gets it)

Sabrina: "Mom" (she says in a scared voice) "Don't let him come in my room"

Mom: "He won't let you see him, he'll stay downstairs."

Sabrina: (still scared)"Don't let him go on the stairs".

Mom: (losing hope that she's excited) "I promise, he'll just stay downstairs and leave the presents down there."

Sabrina: "Mom, you sleep by me tonight?"

In spite of the anticipation and the fear, the jolly old man left plenty to keep us busy over Christmas break. How grateful I am for the time we get to spend together over the next week. And I'm even more grateful for the believers in my life that keep me believing too.

Family Pictures

My beautiful, sweet, talented sister Brianna took our family photos. We thought it would be fun to post some of our favorite pictures she took.

Two weeks before Christmas my true love gave to me...

(feel free to sing along)
6 with pink eye
5 sore throats
4 people coughing
3 with stomach flu
2 with strep throat (and 2 ear infections)
and one sinus infection for me!

This wasn't the carol we wanted to be singing two weeks before Christmas, but it hit us hard. We are still in amazement that the illnesses just kept coming. Just when we thought the colds and strep throat were about to leave, the stomach flu hit. Each night we would dread going to sleep wondering what was going to happen that night. I felt like we needed to fumigate the house with Lysol! Thankfully we'd already bought the kid's presents, but everything else was put off until the Friday before Christmas. If we had to look at the two week trial and learn from it I would say my lessons were:

1. All the fluff of Christmas is just fluff.
2. The Priesthood is one of God's greatest gifts.
3. Christmas miracles exist.
4. When Mom is sick, the house falls apart.
5. Good health is priceless.

Here's to a HEALTHY New Year!!

Watch out Broadway, here comes Ari

On December 15th Arianna had a TaVaci Christmas performance. She loved singing and dancing. We are grateful we found an outlet for her performing passion. She and her friend Alyssa did a wonderful job!

Double Digits!

On December 13th Miranda turned a long awaited ten year's old. She was so excited to become a "pre-teen" she could hardly stand it. We celebrated on her birthday by opening presents, eating cake and ice cream, and playing with her best-friend Ariel. She and Ari had a piano recital that night, so her activity got bumped to the 15th. On Saturday we took her, Ari, and Ariel to a Voice Mail concert. She loved it and also enjoyed spreading her birthday longer than just one day.

At the age of 10 Miranda never ceases to amaze me. She loves learning and life. She is enjoying being challenged in her 4th/5th grade split class. Her favorite day is Tuesday when she's able to go to art lessons. Her favorite color is aqua, and her best friend is Ariel. She loves reading, tolerates piano lessons, and dislikes spelling. Miranda likes to build and create whether it's art or Legos or clay. She is so humble and constantly thinking of others. It is wonderful to watch her as she is growing into a beautiful young lady. We love you, Miranda!

A New Tradition

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we had a fun girl's day out. We went to the Sugar Plum Fairy tea. The girls were able to meet the Nutcracker Dancers and have a "tea" party. Then we went out for lunch at the Blue Bird Restaurant and then back for the Nutcracker Ballet. They were mesmerized from start to finish. Everything is better watching it through the eyes of your children. When the closing curtain fell, Sabrina immediately asked to see it again and Miranda decided we should make a tradition of it. I think it's a great idea!

Happy Halloween!!

I just wanted to quickly add pictures of our Halloween. Miranda was a International Super Spy, Arianna was a princess, Sabrina was a princess (I know it wasn't much different then every other day), Jacob was Darth Vader, and Kali was a princess and a cat (one warm costume, one pretty costume).

Cast-away Party!!!

I guess I should have mentioned that Jacob broke his arm before I told about getting the cast off, but what's done is done. September 6th Jacob was jumping on the trampoline with the scouts. They were taking turns doing tricks. Jacob attempted a front flip. Miranda said she heard a crack, but I took him to a neighbors house for a second opinion before taking him into the insta-care. I guess it's a good thing they suggested going. Jacob ended up breaking both the ulna and the radius. It turned out to be a bigger thing than we imagined including surgery to re-adjust the bones and a long arm cast. In the 10 weeks that he had the casts he had a glow in the dark, orange (for Halloween), and black (to match his Darth Vader) costume. When he first broke it and was told that it would be until Thanksgiving that it would be taken off, it seemed like forever. But this last Thursday we were able to get it off. We had a little cast-away party to celebrate. He is now down to a splint that he'll get off in 4 weeks. We're curious to see how this will affect his writing in the future. He writes and eats with his left hand now (he was right handed before). Now we have to make the decision whether or not to keep the trampoline. Two broken bones in two years is getting expensive!!!

It's Great to Be Eight!!!

Arianna celebrated a very special birthday on October 18th. She had a fun friend party on her birthday. They decorated trick-or-treat bags, created their own haunted houses, and broke a pinata. It was an insulin shock based party, but the kids had a lot of fun.

Ari was then baptized by her dad on November 3rd. She had been preparing, and reading all the baptism books we have. It was a special day surrounded by family. Even Grandma Mann from Washington was able to be there. We are so proud of Arianna and her decision to be baptized.

Besides just the facts, I thought I'd add a little about our Arianna. She is so smart. Things just seem to come easily to her. She loves math and reading, and school in general. She also enjoys music and performing. She recently wrote a song for the reflections contest. She performed it in front of over 100 people and did just fine. She started piano and TaVaci (a singing group) this year. Ari is quite meticulous and has the cleanest of our kids rooms. She is truly a blessing in our family and we are all grateful for her mothering ways and funny sense of humor. We love you, Ari!

One small step for Kali Mann!

The middle of October Kali decided she was ready to start venturing ahead. She's pretty proud of herself, and we're excited for her too!

You go, Girl!!!

We are SO proud of Miranda. She decided she wanted to run a race. So, when the 5K ribbon run came up we decided to start training. She set her alarm each morning for 6:40 and would run a little more each week. October 13th was the race. It was a little rainy and it started slightly uphill, but she never complained. She ran the entire thing, never stopping once, just keeping a perfect pace. She finished it in just over 33 minutes! As we were reaching the finish line she asked me if I minded that she sprint to the end. Of course, I told her no. Her words to me were, "Mom, please TRY to keep up". (I finished in 34 minutes :)) She already has her eyes set on the next race. Way to go, Miranda!

Our Family is Forever Day

On September 22nd Rory and I celebrated our 12th anniversary. We also decided to celebrate the beginning of our eternal family. We told the kids that it was our "Family is Forever Day". We dressed up and went to the temple grounds. There we talked about eternal families and marriage and took pictures. Then we went out to eat and the kids bought a little present of their own choosing at the store. The rest of the day was spent playing games and watching movies together. It turned out to be a VERY memorable day and something we'll definitely do again.

(By the way, Rory and I still got to celebrate our anniversary. Thanks to Grandma Carol we were able to get away the first weekend in October. We attended the first session of Saturday conference and spent a well needed weekend at the Homestead Resort in Midway.)

We're already crazy!!

Sometimes the kids will ask, "Where are we going?" and we'll tell them, "We're going crazy." Their answer is usually, "We're already crazy".
Here is just a little example of that...

PLAYING CATCH-UP

I'm almost 2 months behind. But figured I'd catch us up... Labor day weekend we spent with the Farr family at Bear Lake. We had a blast in the cabin. We played volleyball, swam, and even spent a couple of hours at the beach (it was really windy). But mostly we just had fun hanging out together. The kids look grouchy in these pictures because they were taken just as we were leaving and they weren't ready. My dad and brother took the other pictures that I'm still hoping to get (hint, hint ).

You've got the sweetest little baby face!

We finally had Kali's pictures taken for her first birthday. She had just been into the doctor for breathing treatments, so she was wary of strangers. She didn't exactly trust the photographer, hence the lack of smiles. But we still managed to get some really sweet pictures.