A snapshot of our Christmas.

I hope you all had as nice of a Christmas as we did. I will be getting Photoshop this week so I will be able to make my blog look better. HURRAY FOR ME!!! This year we had our traditional Christmas Eve day celebration at my moms. (Which I forgot to take my camera to) After we spent some time there we went on to my younger brother's home and had a fabulous dinner and the company was outstanding. Christmas morning started out late due to Kayla not waking up til 8, which was nice. Brandon and Kayla opened their gifts and then we went to Clay's parents for Christmas breakfast and more gift opening. Nicole and her family came 2 days later to celebrate their Christmas (Klint had a work scheduling issue) As you can see it was very busy and extremely enjoyable for us. I will put a few of my special pictures on my blog from Christmas this year.

A few of Kayla's highlights were the Nintendo DSi game system, Heelys, In-line roller blades, and all the Wii games and accessories.

Having my grand children open their gifts at my house was very special. Kennedy loved her kitchen and
Kolten just loved being held and fed.

Christmas at Marva and Rogers. As always Marva put out a big spread of food. And she had a pile of gifts for all of us too. Kayla enjoyed showing off her DSi to her grandpa.

This year Clay and I bought our gift together and put a cash spending limit on our gifts to each other.
The TV was our combined gift.
The bedspread was from my dear friend, April.
I can't wait to re-do my bedroom now.
Christmas was awesome for us,
we did it all without going in debt!

Christmas with Brandon was very special this year. His behavior was outstanding and he was a big help as well.

Nicole and Klint came over and opened their gifts a few days after Christmas. Jeremy had this cool jewelery box made for Nicole. Kayla and I got 1 too. Klint is a BIG Dallas Cowboy fan so it was very fitting to get him this gift.

A game of Twister

We went to my brothers home for a Christmas Eve party/get together with family. There was a lot of food and great company. I have been very blessed to have such a successful and sweet brother. Having a career as a Corporate lawyer has been very good to him and his family. Living in a home as big as he does, allows him to have people over and there isn't even an issue of having enough space.

They had a gift there for Kayla and the rest of the kids. She wanted a Twister game; so I put a bug in his ear. She was very excited to see she got it! After losing the battle of getting the grown-ups to play; she started with the kids. It didn't take much to get her cousin Lili to jump on board. Even her BIG brother joined in. It was so priceless to see them play. Only wish she could have convinced the adults to play just 1 game. Now that would have been FUNNY!

3rd day of the 12 days of Christmas

Not wanting to put a real french hen in the bag, Clay remembered a very yummy jam that his mom had bought. So he went and got some for our bag. I circled the label where it said it was a "Product from France" and made this cute label to put on the top of the jar.

Sorry no French hens...This
makes us think of French!!
This jam was made in France...

Our family Reading Hour

As most of you already know, Clay, Kayla and I started a reading hour every night together. We were having issues with her not enjoying reading like we do. So we had Kayla get her favorite book from her school library, one that she wanted 2 read. She picked "THE 39 CLUES" Hopefully she would like reading and not think of it as HOMEWORK! Being together as a family and taking turns reading (4 pages each) has been a BIG hit! ...The other night she read like 25 pages and didn't want to stop. We read 90 minutes. It's like we are killing 2 birds with 1 stone too. Since Clay and I have our own computers, it seems like that's all we do is sit in front of them and poor Kayla is left alone. This gets us away from the computers, makes Kayla feel important and she is learning to enjoy reading!

Hurray for my idea of a
Reading Hour!

Now we are on book two of the seven book series.
She is so excited about reading that
she talked her dad into buying her these
real cute polka dot glasses.
I think she looks
absolutely adorable!

Kolten Gauge Bouck

Well my grand baby boy was brought into this world December 11th, 2009 at 1:45 pm. Nicole went into the hospital to be induced at 7 am Friday morning and he was born 7 hours later with little effort (2 pushes). She was having labor pains days earlier but they stopped before anything happen. I can't believe how hard and long it took the two of them to come up with a name for their boy. After days of trying Klint and Nicole decided to name him Kolten Gauge. It wasn't the 1st name he was known by, after he was born Klint named him Korbin, but he looked more like a Kolten, so that's what he will be called. He weighed 7.6 oz and 20 inches long. I stayed home and tended their daughter Kennedy. We had lots of fun spending the day at Build a Bear and visiting Santa.

Our day with Kennedy

When Nicole went into the hospital to have her baby, she asked if we could keep Kennedy. The Swine flu has made the hospitals restrict the age and number of visitors. No one under 14 and only 2 visitors at a time. We spent the day at Build a Bear and we got our pictures taken with Santa too. The choices of bears changed while we were there so the green bear is not the one we made for the new baby. Kennedy wanted a kitty cat but did not want to have any clothes on it. She named her animal "Kitty Cat"... She was so cute and we totally loved having her.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus!

Now that Kayla is at the age that her friends in school are telling her that THERE IS NO SANTA! I thought she needed to hear this story: As long as she believes; Santa will come! After that mom and dad have to play Santa, which she says; "Mom, I know you and dad need to use your money on other things than me on Christmas, so I want to still believe. That way Santa has to buy the presents." I love my little girl, she makes me smile!


Here is the article/story we read to Kayla.

"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

I hope the Miracle of Christmas remains in our home for many more years. How can you not love the joy that Santa brings to a child. Merry Christmas...

Kayla's 1st Junior Jazz Basketball game

This is Kayla's second year playing basketball for the Junior Jazz team here in West Jordan.The final score was 22-6. Wasn't sure how she would do since she had not practiced all summer. Swimming took a higher priority over shooting hoops. Last year the whole team depended on her to put the ball in the basket. It was like none of the other girls dared try shooting the ball. They would always throw it to Kayla, which put a lot of pressure on her. I am so glad that this year there are several girls who are not afraid to take the shot and as you can see by the score, most of the them fell in the basket too. Not having to shot the ball every time the team gets down to their basket will relieve a lot of the stress off of her. Hopefully it will also help her to take her time and to learn better ball control. The only draw back this season from last year, that I can see, is ALL her games are at 8:00 a.m. Saturday mornings. Which means no sleeping in for us....

WAY TO GO KAYLA!!!

I was just thinking about Kayla's Junior Jazz basketball practice tonight. I really enjoy watching her play. She was the MVP of her team last season. She scored more than 1/2 the total points at every game. Even with her asthma she still can rock the court! I will not be able to go to her practice tonight because of my WW meeting but I am way excited to see her play her first game on Saturday. Here are some pictures of her last year:

Concerts we went to in 2009

I had the honor to go see Keith Urban with my handsome husband. Wow he can really sing. (Kieth that is). The concert was great and Kieth did a wonderful job. The audience was so excited that as he was walking thru the crowd, there were a bunch of fans that were trying to touch him. As they were leaning over the rafter railings, it gave way and a bunch of the fans ended up falling about 4 feet to the ground. Kieth never even skipped a beat and after he finished that song he asked the people who fell if they were ok. It was quite the sight.

Little Big Town was with Keith Urban.

This was a concert that my BFF, April, and I took our girls to. We are BIG fans of Taylor Swift as well as April's girls. We made these cute shirts to wear to the concert and and as we expected she ROCKED the stage! We love you TAYLOR!!!!!

James Otto was performing in Wendover, NV. We invited our dear friends the Hansen's to go with us. We stayed the night in a hotel and drove back the next day. It was good to get away for the weekend. I have never been to a concert where they had tables and such nice seats. We were really close to the stage and we could even see the sweat on his face...lol He is a new country artist but man he can sure sing!

My dad got us tickets for the Freedom Concert in Vegas. Where we saw Lee Greenwood, Billy Ray Cyrus, and Charlie Daniels along with others. It was really strange how we ended up going with my cousin from Hurricane, Ut. I was at my Aunt's funeral when I hooked up with my cousins, Brian and Debbie Jacobson. That's when I found out they also had tickets. So on our way to Vegas we stayed with them and after the concert we spent the night touring the strip. Way fun and a great concert too.

We are true Ute fans

The pictures say it all but just in case you can't figure it out we are season ticket holders for the Utah Ute football games. I am not sure how I got so into it but I am sure it has something to do with my husband....lol It has been a great time going to the games though.
We got to get the winning season's famous VIP quarterback's signature and he was nice enough to give us a hug too. Thank you Brain Johnson!

My dad and step mom were here from Alaska and they got pulled along with us...lol

Now you get to see the work that is involved in getting ready for a game. I think this was an away game against BYU.

This was the first blackout game against TCU and we won...

GIVE ME SOME SUGAR BABY!Our Sugar Bowl party pictures:

You can tell which ones of our guest were the BYU fans by the look on their faces! And yes we had BYU fans watching the game with us...Thank you all for making the party ROCK!

Our Christmas tree/stuff

Because my front room has been remodeled in the country cowboy theme, I decided last year that we would have a country style tree too. So we went and bought a thinner tree(good-bye to our BIG full one)and all new ornaments for it. I hope you enjoy seeing them up close. Most of the house decorations for Christmas are from the past years of collecting bears. That used to be the theme. So I haven't got ALL country yet. But it still looks festive I guess.

Kayla's tiny tree for her and the dog...lol

I have these huge bells on the tree which are very fun.

Kayla decorated the tree by herself, way to go!

Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving was a my mom's house this year. There was a smaller gathering than past years. My step dad has been dealing with health problems so we didn't want to overload his day with a lot of people. Those who did come were Clay and I along with Kayla, Nicole and Klint along with Kennedy, Brandon came up from Orem, my step sister Lesia (yes its spelled the same way as mine but pronounced as Lisa) and her 2 boys, Danny and Aurthur and Aurthur's wife Joy. The food was fabulous as usual. Had all the traditional dishes, unfortunately for me I was dieting so I only had fruits and vegetables with a small amount of very yummy turkey.It was good to share the day with my kids.

my dinner...boo hoo

The pictures are not the best due to them being from my cell phone. Can you believe I forgot the camera? But at least you get the idea.

My little Kennedy

Kennedy is my grand daughter from Nicole. She just turned 2 on November 28th. The love of her life is her sister/Aunt Kayla(it's complicating), . When Kayla is around no one is important to her anymore...it's ALL ABOUT "her Kayla"! She calls her Kila its so cute. She is learning to talk and she has a big vocabulary if you understand her language...lol I love the way she calls me gamma, Her favorite shows are Tom and Jerry and Bolt. She is very determined and gives her family a full day of energy. She will be having a little brother to play with very soon now (like 2weeks). That should keep mommy busy...lol Celebrating her birthday was fun to see her get excited about the gifts, can't wait till Christmas morning. What a perfect age! She loves to help do just about anything that she can do. She is a very busy girl..

It's all about me!

I have had MS since 1980 but I am doing OK with my limitations this is the first summer (2008) that I have been able to walk for the last 8 plus years. Everyday is a struggle to do the things that most people take for granted. I have my good days and bad days. But the good ones are not as many as I would like. I am not sure how long I will remain healthy but I am doing my hardest to stay that way.

I had brain surgery in June of 2009 and am now able to stop taking some of my medications (that were killing my liver). The surgery was a success with very little side effects/complications.

Utah Utes vs UNLV football game 2009

This was the first away game that we have gone to. We took our fellow Ute fan, Chris Stewart, with us. My cousins, Debbie and Brian Jacobson, who live in Hurricane, Utah; were nice enough to let us stay with them on our way there. I was so excited to see them again. After the game we stayed at a hotel in Vegas. Some of the highlights of the trip were that we got to spend the whole day before kick off in Vegas. We saw the dolphin exhibit and toured the strip. After the game we went to Freemont Street and to the Stratosphere to ride the rides. While we were at the statium someone stole our Utah Ute car flags off my van windows...That wasn't very nice of whoever did that! Oh well kids we be kids! Thank you boys for letting an old girl hang out with you...lol

Breakfast with my cousin Debbie.

The ride at the top of the Stratosphere.

Freemont Street

Dolphin exhibit

At the game

That's Chris sticking his tongue out!

Go Utes!

The final score...GO UTES!!!