Favorite pictures of 2008

For Christmas my mom wanted new scrapbook pages of all her grandkids. It is fun to do these pages for each boy. I really don't scrapbook as much I used to. I didn't even go shopping to do these pages, I still have a good amount of supplies. The pictures are what it is all about though! I narrowed a year's worth done to three or four for each boy. What a challenge! Having a good camera this year made it harder to pick.























The bottom left picture of Luke is one of my favorite pictures of the year. The kids and I went with my brother Christopher and his family to the Boise temple grounds so Sara and his kids could see it before they left for home. We took pictures. My battery was dieing, so I was lucky to get this one of Luke. I think he was standing on a bench that was right under this tree.

The fishing picture is funny too. It was his first time fishing (we had no success, of course--noisy kids!). He was so excited, he started reeling his line in and he was yelling "I caught a big fish! I caught a big fish! oh, it's just a weed! A big weed." He was the only one to catch anything, besides Dallin. Dallin jumped in the pond to fish his 1 year old cousin, Noah, out of the water! That was scary. Noah fell in head first. It took Dallin a second to realize he just had to jump in, but once he did realized it he didn't even hesitate.








Lance didn't know that Bruce's had a pull out tag. Under his Bashful? picture is this picture:





UNbashful!
He's our child that says "hi" to all of his friends anywhere we go. He makes those crazy faces during Primary when adults are teaching (he got in trouble by me too!). He is actually really goofy and his friends think he is super fun! What a nut! He's not quite like that at home, yet!










I love the paper for this one! It fits Dallin so well. He has been so fun this year, letting us see his quick sense of humor that is very cleaver. He's quite a tease too--he fake cries and pouts or acts injured. There are times I can't tell if he's serious or not. He is an awesome helper and fun to have around--although he did HOG the computer yesterday doing his homework! I guess I need to get used to that! Really I'm just SO HAPPY he's doing his homework now!

Do you like his birthday cake? He picked a watermelon so he could tell people that I made him a "fruitcake" for his birthday!





Thayne was the lest photogenic this year.
He is always wanting to be behind the camera or helping get everyone else into place. He's a fun boy. He wanted to be a scary hunchback for Halloween, but he was just too cute for that. He talked me into cutting his hair super short this year, so he doesn't spike it as much as he used to. I resisted for months before I finally did it for him. I knew his spiky hair was how people could tell he was Thayne, but everyone's survived. He's always been good with people being unsure if he is Thayne or Bruce. He and Bruce have tried to trick me a few times, but it doesn't work too well. I've always been able to tell their voices apart since they were a few weeks old! Their differences are becoming more evident as they get older too.







Hunter loves the camera from both sides. I think some of it is the age. He did that "face" for Thayne and Bruce's friends on their birthday and it got the most laughs from all the boys!
He has a pull out tag too for Horrible?

Our Nights in Bethlehem

Our ward had "A Night in Bethlehem" for our ward Christmas Party this year. The boys were so excited to go to Bethlehem for the night because it had been talked about so much in Primary on Sundays. We made costumes from left over material that had been hanging out in my scrap box for years. I used a few old sheets too. We'll probably end up using them over and over through the years for our Christmas Eve story. I like being the only girl because I always get to play Mary!

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Christmas Pictures

Christmas pictures are so much fun. Here are some of ours!

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Nauvoo-finale

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This is the slideshow I have been working on for months. I wanted to get it just right. The feelings of our experience in Nauvoo and on our vacation were so peaceful and fun at the same time that I wanted to capture that in the slideshow.

We spent Sunday, August 10th, going to church really early in the morning and then we went over to the temple to take pictures of our family. Unfortunately the camera battery didn't last long, so I didn't take as many as I would have. However, we did get some good pictures. We went to several homes that day, relaxed some, enjoyed a nice Sunday dinner and then that evening Lance and I went to a sociable about the Pratt Brothers.

Monday, I took Dallin to the Nauvoo Temple so he could do baptisms. It was his first time and he enjoyed his experience being in the temple. Afterwards,we found the others walking around downtown. Then we drove over to Carthage to visit the Carthage Jail. This is one of my favorite experiences of the whole trip because of Bruce. The day before he stated that he didn't want to go to Carthage. Grandpa asked him why, it's a very special place. Bruce with his head down said it would make him cry so he didn't want to go. Grandpa assured Bruce that it is okay to cry. We got to Carthage and ended up in a nice sized tour with other families with children. It is a nice tour focusing on Joseph's mission here on earth and the Savior. Afterwards we went outside and gathered the boys around the statue of Joseph and Hyrum for a picture. After two shots Bruce ducked his head behind the statue and he wouldn't come out for a good picture. That was when I realized he was feeling very sad. I gathered him close to me and bent down as he barried his forehead into my shoulder. As I asked him what was wrong I could see his tears that feel on the ground leaving wet marks. I know I had help from the Holy Ghost to say what I did. "Oh Bruce, it's okay. It really is okay. Joseph and Hyrum had to die that way. They had to seal their testimonies with their sacrifice. And it's okay because they are with Heavenly Father and Jesus now and because they did that He is going to give them everything. They will have their families back and everything they lost and much more." Bruce can feel this and he's learning to understand this. He is a sober child and is learning to recognize what he needs to know. Hunter felt all the joy while we were there. He looks for the beauty all around him and his smile radiates that happiness.

Afterwards we finished up with visits to the few sites we hadn't seen. We enjoyed the Family Living Center, but had to pull the boys out for a few minutes to calm them down. They were about toured out by this point. I can't believe how incredibly good they had been the whole time. We took them to all the houses but Sarah Granger Smith's and we did almost everything else together too. I went to Sarah Granger Smith's house last and enjoyed it. The spirit of the Relief Society is there--I thought I might feel it in the Red Brick Store where Relief Society was organized, but I really felt it at Sarah's house--where her idea to sew shirts for the brethren working on the temple lead to the founding of Relief Society. How I love Relief Society and enjoy the organization just for the women of the church. We need each other for friends, learning and service.

Later that evening we went to the Young Performing Missionaries talent show. Such amazing talent and fun. It was a beautiful night and the weather had been so fabulous the entire time we were there. It helped so much to keep our children happy while we visited everything.

Tuesday we packed up and headed over to Missouri. We went backwards from the Saints travels. First we stopped at Adam-ondi-Aman, then Far West, then Liberty Jail and last was Independence, Missouri. The boys were so happy to play in the children's area of the Visitors' Center. We loaded up and headed for some fast food supper in the van as we drove to Topeka that night to stay at a hotel. We watched some swimming on the Olympics and the boys all went swimming at the pool while I babysat our sleeping bags that needed to get dried in the dryers. We went through a huge down pour as we first drove through Missouri. The sleeping bags ride on top of the van! Lance bought some garbage bags for them before we left.

Wednesday we drove through Kansas and stayed in Colorado for the night. If you ever drive through Burlington, Colorado on I-70, stop and find the carousel. It is incredible! Rides are only like 25 cents. I remembered trying to stop and see it when I was with my parents driving to my brother's wedding in Chicago. But it wasn't open when we stopped. I was so excited that it was this time. Then we drove through Colorado Springs, which we had never been to before and we drove through the Garden of the Gods. I wish I would have known more about that before our trip because we would have stayed around there and hiked some. It is incredible. The boys knew all kinds of stuff about it from the PBS show Fetch with Ruff Ruffman. We ended up looking for a hotel in one town, but the big hotel was closed for construction so no thing was available. We ended up getting the last room at a Super 8 in Buena Vista--we had already stopped at the full Holiday Inn.

Thursday we enjoyed our beautiful drive across the Continental Divide and the pretty mountains of Colorado. Lance was floored that Aspen was so huge with condos after condos. As we passed Glenwood Springs, I wished I had remembered it from our other trips across I-70, so we could have stopped an gone in the really neat looking hot springs. Some other trip! I think we could vacation in Colorado sometime. We didn't do too much vacationing there when we lived there for 19 months. I think it is one of my favorite states. We finished the day off at Payson, Utah to visit DeAnn and Darren and cousins. The boys had a great time with Brayden and William. Lillian wasn't too sure about us, but she's warmed up with our later visits.

Friday we went up and visited my Grandma and Grandpa. It is so fun to see them. Grandma can never believe how much the boys change. We just don't get to see them enough. That night we hung out with Gregg and Kim and more cousins. The boys tried to sleep out on the deck--only a few really did it. So much fun. We have a lot of boys in the Warnick family.

Saturday we hit the Hoggle Zoo to check out all the monkeys and elephants and giraffes. We don't have most of those at the Boise Zoo. Our zoo pass is good for several zoos so it is fun to take advantage of it somewhere else. Two trips and it pays for itself!

Sunday we got to see more of the Warnick family in Kaysville when we went to Tyler who had just returned from his mission. He's such a great guy. I wish we could see our other nephews right when they got home too. It was just a lucky thing that we were already in Utah that weekend just before we headed home that afternoon.

What a road trip! I was nervous that it would be so long that it would be hard, but we really had a great time. I grew up taking trips like that and I enjoyed them then. Flying is great sometimes, but with taking the road you get the views of the country and a feel for America. I hope we can do it again someday.

The Office--at home

Today I finally finished cleaning out my craft room so that Lance could move his office in with my scrapbooking, painting, sewing stuff and the toy library (more about that on a different day). Since Lance became self-employed on December 19th, he has been working off a card table in our bedroom. The plus side to him working in the bedroom was that the bed was made 100% of the time during the day. That way it was easier for him to spread his folders and files out all over it while he was working. Since that just doesn't sound like something a professional engineer should be doing daily, I really felt motivated to get things arranged in my craftroom so we can share it. We had kind of thought about just setting things up in the bonus room, but that would leave Lance out and exposed to all of our daytime life. So I knew he needed the room with the door that LOCKS! That is my room's best feature!!! So now we're sharing, just like friends should. :)

Lance officially filed and registered his company name January 2nd--Aspen Engineers, Chartered. He really couldn't do much engineering until the new year, so the past two weeks have been organizational. Since it has been Christmas break it hasn't been too strange having him home. Truly there are somethings that have been really nice, i.e. when a child sassed me back and was quite belligerent, Lance popped right out of the bedroom and corrected the naughty behavior. So using the threat of "do I need to call Dad about this?" might not get heard as much as it was before. I really only called a few times about behavior problems in the past 12 years, but just the question can straighten up the most ornery boy.


It has also been nice to just leave home in the middle of the day and not have to take everyone with me. We are also now a one vehicle family (had a company truck before) and it is not too bad because he doesn't take the one vehicle "to work" and leave me stuck at home. It wouldn't be too good to be stuck at home out where we live since we are not in walking distance to anything. Well, we could walk somewhere, but it would take all day (church is five miles away and town is six and the schools are about seven). Lance is great at planning ahead so we just have to communicate and be flexible about the van. Over the past two years with gas being ridiculous, I have gotten really good at not running around and having planned trips when I do. So it is like I've been groomed for this one car adventure. I'm curious to see how long we can do it. But, I hope Lance has plenty of work coming in so that we don't "have" to do it for too long. We're both looking forward to buying a cheap ride in cash--it will be the first time we do it that way!


Once I download pictures off my camera, I'll post a few of his office/her craftroom. It is the only room in the house with so much girlie stuff--on my side, of course. As I was emptying a few boxes yesterday (yes, ones I packed almost three years ago to put in storage to sell our old house which have only been cracked open once or twice since) I unpacked my first records--vinyl records. I thought, "Why do I move these around with me? I've never had a record player and I doubt I'd ever get one. I have even downloaded most of my favorite songs from those albums to my MP3 player anyway." Then I decided to hang them on wall as a decoration instead. It is kind of fun looking. Lance laughed when he saw them and then he went around most of the day singing Debbie Gibson songs under his breath, which isn't even one of the albums I have up! I'm still laughing at it--love 80's music!!!


Pictures:
Top--the room half way clean--it was much worse. I have been collecting toys that were not picked up and sorting them in the room and keeping them there (grounded). This lead to a huge D.I. and pile and a garbage bag. Plus the scrapping and sewing stuff was out of sorts.

2nd--sharing
3rd-Lance's side
4th-Melissa's side

Santa is Real

Happy Holidays to everyone! It's been a while since we posted anything. Mostly it is because I was trying to figure out how to do it and it took me a while to learn the name of the password and stuff like that! Once I learned how to do everything it because the Halloween season, then the get ready for Thanksgiving season and on to Christmas.

Christmas at our house has been fun. I finally mailed off all of our Christmas cards today. I don't think they are late, it is still in the "12 days of Christmas" time frame. I know most Americans think the 12 days of Christmas is before Christmas, but it really starts on Christmas and goes until January 6th. I saw some stuff about it on PBS Create today while I was folding my mounds of laundry.

It's too late at night to upload pictures, but I thought I'd write about the cute things my kids said. Bruce was absolutely out to prove there it a Santa because none of the older kids on the bus believe in Santa. He didn't do much to figure out how to prove it, but Thayne wrote all kinds of notes to leave Santa. A note on the nine carrots he left out, "For the reindeer. They don't have to eat all of them." We left Santa a piece of pumpkin pie, two candy cane cookies, and a few pieces of caramel. Thayne left a note about that. Then he left a note about the milk in the fridge and that Santa could use Thayne's very own silly straw, if he wanted too. Santa wrote, "Thanks, Santa" on that note! And Thayne could tell Santa used the straw because there was a little milk still left in it! So that was all the proof Thayne and Bruce needed!

On Christmas Eve, I asked Luke if he believed in Santa and he told me "no, I believe in the church." Then I asked if he believed in Jesus Christ and he told me "YES!" He's a smart boy.

Hunter came out to the family room on Christmas morning and about had a melt down when he looked at the fireplace, "Santa stole my new stocking!" and he started crying. Drama! Then he looked at the couch where Santa had placed his stocking with his new presents, a dinosaur stamp set with stamp pads and colored pencils and all was well again.

The big mystery of the morning was the "random" balls that were in the four of the boys stockings. Dallin couldn't figure out what they were. They are about the size of a bouncy balls, but they're hard. I wouldn't allow him to bounce them around. It was just strange and mysterious. After we play with our Santa presents for a while, it is our family tradition to all get dressed and have breakfast before opening our other gifts. While we were getting breakfast ready and Dallin was unloading the dishwasher he was still trying to figure that ball out. "I know, maybe it was one of those balls that has a string stuck to it and you bounce it off a paddle, and the ball came off the string so it wasn't attached to the paddle anymore." Interesting idea, but I didn't think so because those balls are usually soft. These are hard and solid! I sent Dallin upstairs to check out how good it looked after I had vacuumed it the night before. Then he started whooping and hollering, "We got a fussball table! Guys, guys, come up here!" He ran halfway down the stairs still a yelling and the others all ran up the stairs, jumping and joyously yelling. They did figure out what the balls were for and have had a great time playing together. Santa knew what Dallin really wanted, even though I had never even heard that he wanted a fussball or air hockey table. I asked if he had secretly been wanting one and he told me "No, I've openly been wanting one." He'd been showing them to Lance in the ads for a few weeks and when they were out shopping on the 24th. I guess that is just more proof that Santa is real!

Nauvoo part two

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