Yes, we are still here and pluggin' along. Our computer decided to roll over and play dead right before the holidays. So buying the necessary parts needed to wait for just a bit. We are now happy to say we are the proud parents of a beautiful new motherboard. She is so beautiful and perfect. It suprises me just how much we are dependent on our computers. Not just for keeping in touch with loved ones and friends, but also for our daily tasks. I store my recipes in my computer and went without for almost 2 months. I think my family was really getting sick of spagetti. Even I was getting sick of it. I use the computer when helping Emma with school projects, when trying to create documents for church assignments, when trying to do mailing labels, for keeping our finances straight, and so on.... Man what a pain-in-the-you-know-what it has been to be without the sweet and quiet purr of our little black box under the desk.
As for our updates:
-We had a fantastic Christmas season. We went down to Phoenix for almost 10 days. We drove down on Dec. 23rd and drove back on Jan. 1st. Well, the kids, the dogs and I drove back then and Ryan flew home one Dec. 28th. It was our first Christmas Day away from our home since Emma was born. It was fun but quite a chore to back up all their gifts just to haul them all back. But it was well worth it. We had a great time. We spent Christmas Eve at my sister, Jacque's, home with all my siblings and my parents. Then Christmas day was spent opening gifts and our traditional movie, we saw The Princess and the Frog. While in Phx we also saw Shirlock Holms and would recommend it to anyone. Some people really didn't care for it, but Ryan and I loved it. We also got to visit family and friends. Thanks Beth for hanging out with me so much while I was there.
-We have had a fairly quite time the past few months. Emma has been plugging away at school, Jax with playing with his new train table from Pampa and Nana, Ryan with work, and myself with keeping us all in working order.
-The kids at first have been so bummed about the lack of snow, but when they discovered that now our turtle sandbox has been rediscovered they are in heaven again (it has a lid so the sand has stayed dry). However, I am in no way shape or form complaining about the lack of snow and the somewhat warmer weather.
All in all it has been a great 2 months.
A few weekends ago I was one of 4 incharge of our church Stake Mother/Daughter activity for girls 8-11 years of age. We decided on a circus theme (thank you Jac for the inspiration) and ran with it. We also decided we wanted to do a service inspired theme too. So our theme was then born, the 3 Ring Service Circus. We decorated the inside of the church gym to resemble the inside of a circus tent. We broke the entire group into 3 smaller groups and they rotated stations. Each station represented one of our circus rings. We tied blankets and pillows for Primary Children's Med Center, we made hair accessories for the church humanitarian center to distribute, and in ring 3 we let the mom's and daughters do getting to know you games. Then we ate lunch (circus themed of course) which was hot dogs, chili, chips, and ice cream sandwiches. I think it was a pretty successful party, but I'm also pretty bias. The only bad part of the entire operation was ripping down the decor. What took us a about 6 hours to set up completely (4 on Fri night and 2 the next morning) only took a little over an hour to demolish. Now I know how sad it must be to be a wedding planner and have to watch it all disassembled at the close of the party. Anyway, I was pretty proud of our success and wanted to share with the rest of you who weren't there to see it first hand and be a part of it.
Do you think Jax loved it?
Last year in preschool:
Emma sitting on Santa's lap. 
This year's children's nativity also included myself and my neice Sheena. Our little lambs wouldn't be part of the scene without their original sheep herders. As you can see from the right side of this picture. Our husbands thought it was funny and took plenty of pictures. 
We had the laziest little suckling lambs. 
Ryan and I were impressed that Jax went right up and sat on Santa's lap and never once got upset or looked scared. I thought I'd have to enjoy another child experience for the night. ;-) 
So our 10th anniversary was on Dec. 18th. I still can't believe it's been that long. It doesn't seem like it at all. I'm so grateful to have married my best friend. Ryan is so amazing. He always makes me feel special, loved, and best of all is knowing that I'm his best friend too. We have our disagreements just like everyone else, but we've only ever gone to bed really mad once. And the result was that neither of us ever even fell asleep. Then in the morning we couldn't even remember why we began the fight in the first place. I love him more than words can express and am so happy everyday knowing he's there when I wake and when I go to sleep. Happy 10th Anniversary!
