A Tribute to a great man...

We were on our way home from Disneyland listening to a book on CD aptly titled "Spirit Walker" when Talon got a text message from Trevik telling him that our beloved prophet President Gordon B Hinckley had passed away. We were all very saddened by this news. I think it hit me that the world had lost such a great man. Then I immediately thought of the wonderful reunion that he must be having right at that moment with his beloved wife and family. Also the thought that he was probably meeting the Lord face to face...oh to be living a life worthy of that, how nice. President Hinckley got it. He lived a life worthy enough to be a prophet to the Lord. Oh, just to experience a minute part of what he must have experienced in his life makes me want to be a better person. The church will go on, the Lord will have a new mouthpiece, revelation will continue on the earth, BUT, we did lose a man who was a pillar unto the Lord. His presence and sense of humor will be missed.

January Blues...

January, why does it always make me feel blue?? I have such a hard time getting back into the swing of things come January. Why? I am excited for all the kids to be back in school (especially Taz and Cynjyn as they've been off track for 6 weeks). I am prepared for preschool. I just can't seem to get it together. A new year, supposedly starting new resolutions, yet, I've only excercised maybe three days this whole year. I got used to sleeping in and now it's soooo hard to get up and going by 6:30. I eat too much, and I waste a lot of time wondering what to do with my time. I just can't figure it out!! I've cleaned off my dest three times excited to start scrapbooking and have yet to do anything. I just can't get motivated. Just wondering if it's me, or is it normal for most women??

I'll start pulling out of my blues soon!! We're heading to Disneyland in two days!!

Ending with a Bang:

Of course one of the highlights is the 23 or 24th annual Waite family Christmas party (Dad, his five siblings and their families). We spent two days preparing the food for it and held the party at the church all day Saturday. We had about 65 family members there. It was a day filled with eating, playing games, playing volleyball, basketball, and visiting. It was fun and enjoyable. We left the next morning despite a small blizzard that had started the night before at the party. We had some treacherous roads for some of our trip back home, but we made it to Vegas by 10:00pm. All in all, it was a wonderful Christmas, vacation and fun time spent with family.

Snowmade ice cream:

It all started when Grandma cleaned out the refridgerator. She found an old bottle of snowcone syrup. Well, there was snow everywhere, so Cynjyn and Ella went out side and got big cups of real snow for their snowcones. The boys saw and had to have some too. Then Grandma told the story about how when she was a little girl, they would always make homemade ice cream with the first new snowfall of the year. So... a huge bowl of snow, canned whipped cream, vanilla, sugar and a lot of stirring later...Vwalaa....homemade ice cream for everyone to quickly enjoy before it turned into homemade cold soup. Always an adventure at Grandma's!!

I always wanted to marry a farmer...

Garry is AWESOME!! He's such a trouper. Dad had to feed almost everyday we were there. Garry went out everyday and helped (I don't even think he was asked, he just did it!) I went out and drove the truck while Garry pitched the bales off and Dad cut the strings. Tanner even went out one day with us and drove the truck around the field and did awesome for his first time driving a stick shift!! It was biting cold and windy out most of the time. Kres went out with us a few times too. Garry even had to catch a newborn calf and hold it amongst the cows to try to sniff it's mother out so Dad could tag it properly. Garry hates getting dirty, but he's a hard worker. I really did always have a dream as I was growing up that I'd marry a farmer, live on a farm and have 12 kids. This is as close as I'll get to that dream!!

The Big Day:

Christmas day was spent at Krissy's house. Randy and Robert and their families came over later in the day for dinner. Taz was so funny as people were opening their presents. We make each kid open their presents one at a time starting with the youngest. Every time Tanner or Cynjyn would unwrap a present, Taz would exclaim "YES!!" in his loudest voice knowing that he would benefit from what they just got. For instance, Cynjyn's Sand Moon got a big "YES!" from Taz as did Tanner's legos, video games and Heroscape.

Cynjyn's favorite gift was her lava lamp and her collectable dolls from Grandma and Grandpa.

Taz's favorite gift was his Nerf Longshot and Guitar Hero III for Wii.

Tanner's favorite gift was the Season 8 graphic Novel of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Talon's favorite gift was his new IPhone.

My favorite gift was being home with everyone for Christmas.

I made three people cry during the present opening. I gave Talon a six picture picture frame with pictures of his cats in it, including Tookie, who recently passed away. I gave Krissy and little photo book of her and Buddy (that made me, Kris, and Mom cry). I gave Mom a photo collage for her wall, (Idon't think it made her cry, but she was already in full swing from witnessing Talon and Krissy lose it!!)

All in all, it was a good Christmas. We had to bring the Wii to Oregon with us because we had gotten GHIII, so everyone enjoyed playing that.

Bogus Basin on Christmas Eve...

we were off to Ontario after spending the night at Ky's house. Garry put in a new bathroom sink and counter for Krissy. My brother Robert suggested we all go to a local ski resort by Boise to go sledding. So, on Christmas Eve, we headed to Bogus Basin and went sledding from 2-4. Everyone went sledding except Robert, Darla (had a bad back), Kresimir, Mom and Dad. We all loved it and the best part was the tram that pulled us back up the hill on our tubes after speeding down. We could hook up with other tubers, so all 14 of us went down together at one point. Garry, Clay and Talon did the hook the legs and spin all the way down approach that no one else wanted to try due to bad memories from the Tea Cups and Disneyland!! After sledding, we had our Christmas eve celebration at Randy and Darla's house in Ontario.

Christmas Adventures:

We were off to Oregon for Christmas. We left on the 22 and arrived in Boise right about dusk. We got to my sister Ky's house and the roads were clear the whole way. We got settled in for the night and it started snowing. So we all had to go out and enjoy our first snow of the season. It was quiet, and beautiful and the kids sure had fun in it.