Santa Claus Has Come To Town!

What a wonderful Christmas Day we had! It was just so nice to have a day together as a family and see the happiness of our children. The girls were sufficiently spoiled between Santa Claus, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Santa Claus even brought a couple of things for Mom and Dad, too.

As a parent, the most wonderful thing about Christmas morning for me is seeing the looks on my sweet girls' faces when they come out of their bedrooms and see all of the magical surprises that were brought for them during the night. It's the best gift that I can receive.

Oh, the Weather Outside is Frightful.....

Winter is my favorite season of the year. I know that most people enjoy the sunshine and the sun, but I prefer a gray, gloomy, snowy day. I'm so grateful to live in the mountains where the snow is plentiful and the surroundings are beautiful. We've had lots of snow in the past couple of weeks and we wouldn't have it any other way! Winter lasts about six months out of the year here and that's just fine with me! It gives me a good excuse to make a fire and cozy up with a nice blanket and a mug of hot cocoa.

As you all know by now, Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin passed away this past week. I always loved Elder Wirthlin. He had a very quiet manner about him. He wasn't always the most eloquent of speakers, but his messages were nonetheless inspiring. He had a wonderful sense of humor. His last talk he gave in the October General Conference was so memorable and I got a big kick out of watching him chuckle while telling his stories. He will definitely be missed.......

Happy Birthday Emma!

Last Wednesday we celebrated Emma's 6th Birthday! What a special day she had. We can't believe our little girl is six years old. It seems like yesterday when she was born and had to spend all that time in the ICU because she was so sick. Emma is a joy to be around and her mommy and daddy love her soooo much! We are very proud of the good little girl that she is.

The girls always look forward to going out to the pizza place for their birthday dinner. It's become a tradition with us. The pizza is yummy and there are games for the kids to play on.

We came back to the house to have birthday cake. I got on the internet and found a cute cow cake that I made for Emma. She really loves animals so I thought that this would be a fun birthday cake to have. It wasn't perfect, but Emma told me how much she loved the cake. She said, "I don't even care that there are mistakes on it."

Family Time

There never seems to be enough hours in our days or enough days in our weeks. Most often we are looking for more time to have that extra Church meeting or finish one more homework assignment. Recently we've tried to get into the habit of having a regular Family Game Night with the girls aside from our weekly FHE. It has been so much fun!! Each week we choose a new game to play and even though Emma and Samantha may not pick up on it right away, we have the greatest time just spending the evening together. We've learned that it's so easy to get caught up in our busy schedules and we definitely suffer from time constraints in our family, but if we can set aside an hour or two each week that is devoted to family and nothing else, life has a way of working the rest out. We are better parents and the girls know that their dad and mom love them and love spending spending time with them. These are a couple of pictures from our last game night - mom popped popcorn and we had an exciting game of UNO! Needless to say, the girls got a wee bit silly during our evening.....

Last Friday was "Girls Night Out" to see the new movie. It was so much fun. There were about ten of us from Church who bought tickets a week earlier. I'm not someone who really analyzes the movies they see, I watch them for pure entertainment value. I had a wonderful time and I can't wait for the next movies to come out!!! TWO THUMBS UP!!!

New Calling

Yesterday was a big day for the family and especially for Mark. He was called to serve as the 1st Counselor in our ward Bishopric which came as quite a surprise to all of us. It was a fun day for us as my parents, Stephanie and her family, and Jonathan and his family came up from Hermiston to participate in the event. Unfortunately for Mark, the work has already begun and while the rest of us were enjoying one another's company at the house, he was at the Church taking care of ward business for the next several hours..... In any event, he is anxious to serve and will, as always, do his very best and we are proud of him!

Graduation Day!

This past weekend Mark graduated from the Probation and Parole Academy and I was lucky enough to drive down to see his graduation in Salem. My mom and sisters watched the girls for us and we were able to have a night away together - our first one in seven years. It was a wonderful weekend and I was so proud of Mark and his accomplishment. He works very hard at what he does - how grateful I am to have him in my life!

Missing Daddy

Mark spent four weeks attending training at the Oregon Law Enforcement Academy in Salem. It was a very long time to be without Daddy. While the girls and I missed him immensely, Mark was having a down day and missing his girls back home. So we decided to send him a little pick-me-up to let him know that we were thinking of him. Hopefully it did the trick and we were able to cheer him up a bit. We are definitely glad to have him home with us now!

Baby Blessing

My brother and his wife (Jon and Natalie) blessed their third baby (Jordan) the first weekend in November. We were fortunate to have most of our family come back to Oregon to attend the blessing. My sister, Shellie, was the only one who couldn't be there but we definitely missed her. My other brother and his wife (Todd and Suzann) stayed for a couple days at our house with their two kiddos. These are some pictures of the kids with Uncle Todd and then with Aunt Wendie.

We then spent some time in Hermiston with the rest of the family. Sunday was blessing day and our whole family went to church together. We took up two entire rows at the chapel. Here are the girls with their adorable Perez cousins.

Sam and Emma with their new cousin Jordan. Their favorite thing to do is hold the baby and they do a great job!

Here is Samantha and her sweet cousin Karlie playing dress-up at Grandma's house.What a special gifit it is to be a part of such a wonderful family. Our girls are richly blessed to have two families (the Edwards and the Perrys) who love and care for them very much.

Happy Halloween!

It was a fun Halloween this year. Emma and Samantha were looking forward to costumes and candy for weeks! Although their costume decisions changed daily, we finally settled on Sam being Snow White and Emma dressing as Little Red Riding Hood. Sam had a preschool party at our local pumpkin patch and wore her costume. Emma dressed up for Kindergarten and participated in the school parade. We had dinner with our good friends, the Rasheeds, and then went to the Trunk or Treat at the Church. The girls went to bed exhausted but extremely satisfied. We'll be serving Halloween candy for months!

Moving Day

In early October my sister Stephanie and her family moved to a new house in Hermiston. We drove down to help them out with their move. After a long day of hard work, you have to lighten things up and have some fun at the same time.

I love spending time with my sisters and my mom. We always have so much fun and we really enjoy being with each other. My four sisters and six sisters-in-law are my best friends!
Stephanie and Silila have a riding lawnmower with a trailer. We hooked it up and put all the cousins in to have some rides. Everyone took turns driving the "tractor" and pulling the kids along. They had the greatest time. Who knew that riding lawnmowers could provide hours of entertainment??? The best part about it was all the memories it brought back to when my siblings and I were kids and our dad used to do the same thing with us on our grandpa's lawnmower.

This is a picture of Great-Grandma Peggy holding the newest cousin in the family, Jordan Richard. He's only a few weeks old.

Celebrate the Harvest

For the first time this year I decided to learn how to do some home canning. It was tricky at first but I caught on quickly and am grateful for the talent that I learned. With all the instability going on in the world today, I feel fortunate to have our food storage and know that it was worth the hard work of growing the garden, doing the canning, making the jam, etc. I did peaches, pears, syrups, pickles, relishes, apple butter, pear butter, applesauce and countless batches of several varieties of jam. We feel blessed to have such kind friends and neighbors who shared their bounty with us.

Here is Mark harvesting our potatoes. The growing season wasn't quite long enough here in the mountains for the potatoes but we did get a small box ful and we'll definitely put it all to use.

Sweet 'n Juicy

These are a couple of pictures of our steer. He had several nicknames: Sweet 'n Juicy, Toby, Sweetie. We had fun raising him through the spring and summer. Unfortunately for him, he is now in our freezer but he is providing enough meat for us to last the winter and we are most grateful to him! He was a good pet for us!

Preschool Fun

I can't believe it, but Samantha was able to start preschool this fall. We are part of a neighborhood Joy School with some other moms in our ward so she gets to change houses each week. She is learning about the different joys of Obedience, Decisions, Spontaneous Delight, and the Earth. She is also enjoying learning how to write her name. Samantha is a very big word sometimes but she keeps working at it! Sam can't get enough of school and wishes that she could go each day instead of just twice a week. It is a pleasure for me to be able to take my turn each month and teach these sweet children.

Samantha has school in the morning and Emma has school in the afternoon so I am blessed to have priceless alone time with both of my girls during the week.

First Day of School

So it was a special moment in our family to have Emma start Kindergarten! We had been looking forward to it all summer but when it came we were pretty nervous (Mom was nervous, not Emma). She had her backpack all ready to go and Daddy gave her a father's blessing before school started and she had a wonderful time!

We are very fortunate to live within a couple of blocks of the elementary school so we can walk to and from school together. Emma is doing so wonderful in school and we have been able to participate in lots of school activities like the book fair and Bingo night. I am happy to be volunteering in her classroom once a week and she is thriving with all of her friends. She reads at a third grade level and is working hard at math and sorting and patterns. Hopefully her enthusiasm for school and learning will last for years to come!

End of Summer Trip

Over Labor Day we decided to take a quick trip down to Utah for the weekend to visit Tracie, Todd, Sue, Luke and Kate for a couple of days. We didn't have a lot of time to spend together but we hadn't been to Utah for over two years and we felt like we needed to get back to our old stomping grounds. The kids started with some water fun in the backyard - (Katie isn't quite sure how wet she'd like to get) We went to church with Todd and Sue in Draper. They have a very nice ward and the kids just look so cute dressed in their Sunday best.After Church we hit Temple Square. It was so beautiful. I had forgotten what a special place it is. We could have spent all day there basking in the peacefulness of the atmosphere.
We needed to head home the next day but we can't wait to go back again. We surely do miss our family.

Huckleberry Picking

Today, the girls and I went with some friends to do some huckleberry picking. It was a beautiful day up at Mount Emily and the kids had lots of fun exploring the mountain while the moms were busy picking the berries. We picked for a couple of hours and then had a picnic lunch. Hmmm....I think the berries will turn into a fine jam!