OK, I have to give a huge shout out to Kalet's dad, John, who saved our lives. Well, I guess it wasn't our lives, but saving our van seems just as important right now. He brought it back this morning and I am soooooooo happy! My carpool-mobile is back!

I am so grateful to have a vehicle that runs and to be able to drive again. It's been so hard depending on others to drive me around this year. My shoulder is doing great and I am very overwhelmed with gratitude for all of you who have helped us out this year. We are so grateful for wonderful family and friends!

Love ya!!! :-)

Grandma & Grandpa Clifford were up at Don and Darlene's cabin for Christmas so Rachel and I took their present over on Saturday. We had a great visit. I thought I would make this montage for those of you who wish you could spend more time with Grandma & Grandpa. Melissa, Kristen, Mandy and Nathan - this is for you.
Sorry about the audio. It's really hard to hear them so I have some music playing instead. Enjoy!

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Rachel and I went to visit my friend Tammy and meet her husband and daughter on Saturday. We had so much fun walking around her beautiful gardens. (Unfortunately they are suffering with the freezing weather at night.)

Rachel loved the gardens, the fish and the kitty cats.

Tammy standing over her Coy pond.

Sittin' in the sun

Tammy owns her own drafting business and has done some amazing work!

Thanks for letting us come hang out!

Jay got to choose our Friday night date activity - we worked in the garage on the Jeep engine together. We put the girls to bed then headed out into the cold to bond with the Jeep.

Jay was having some trouble synchronizing the timing on the engine. My job was to put my finger on one of the spark plug hole thingies and wait for a puff of air while he cranked the camshaft. It didn't work because the big wheel thing isn't set the way it should be. It is really old.

Anyway, Jay had to call John (Kalet's dad) for info. Kalet's dad just spent almost two months working on our van. He is our hero right now!!!

Do I feel bad that Jay shares his love with the engine? No, I know he loves me more. :-)
Next day's project - tearing apart the transmision and the transfer case. What a mess!
I love you honey! :-)

What have I been doing all day while my kids destroy my almost clean house? Blogging of course! I have ear infections and just want to sleep, but my kids are making that impossible so I figure laying on the couch blogging is about the most productive I am going to be today.

We had such an amazing Christmas! We started out with our Santa gifts and stockings, then we moved on to the gifts from Grandma and Papa Bowman and Aunt Laura and Uncle Mark's family. What a haul! They got so many things to do arts and crafts with. That is their love lately - especially Jayne. We didn't do Christmas for our girls or each other this year because we are going to Disneyland in February. The girls didn't get much at my mom's either because my parent's gave us our Disneyland passes for Christmas. The real fun for them was when Josh and Dyan and Duffy and Marie Anne came. They were spoiled at that point!

We went up to my parent's at 9am and ate Monkey Bread (Bowman family tradition) then we opened our gifts quickly so we would be ready to talk to Katie at 10am. She called and asked how we liked our "Confederate Christmas". We had no idea what she was talking about. We realized that my dad hadn't picked up the mail for a few days. Jay ran over to the mailbox while we all spoke to her on speaker phone. We opened the box and each unwrapped our gifts while we spoke to her. It was fun. We got so many confederate flags, aprons, license plates (for the girls little Jeep), pocketknives, socks, etc. It was hysterical! We only got to talk to her for a half hour, but it was wonderful. At the end we sang our family song and she bore her testimony to us. The Spirit was so strong. It really made Christmas wonderful!

We prepared homemade tacos (Clifford style) for our taco eating contest while we took turns playing Guitar Hero III. I decided to use it as a walking excercise video to loose some weight before the taco contest. I was rocking out and jumpin' all over the place. Jessie has video that could definitely be used as blackmail. That's ok. I am ok in my uniqueness!

Elder Craig and Elder Baird showed up just in time to join in the contest. We had all eaten so much that morning and the night before that it was really hard to down the delicious tacos. I ate 15 and came in second place to Josh who ate 18. I did eat a lot of toppings on them and I had rice and beans too. I think we were about even. It definitely wasn't my record.

After dinner we opened gifts with Duffy & Marie Anne and Josh & Dyan. The big gifts this year were shoes for Willie, an SKS for Dad, and a record turntable that records digitally to your computer for my mom. It was a great Christmas.

We went and saw "Alvin and the Chipmunks" in the afternoon. The girls LOVED it!

It was such a wonderful day to spend with those we love! We miss the rest of our family and friends and wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

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Rachel had Cam for Christmas so she got him some dora panties - in her size - and this shirt. We got the shirt at despair.com - it's a hysterical site! The panties were a "circle of life" kindof thing. When Cam was Rachel's age he gave Josh gargoyle underwear (in Cam's size), Katie the gargoyle video and I got the game. We have teased him for years so it was fun to get him back. Good times!

Christmas Eve started at 8AM for our family this year. We had a wonderful breakfast at Nielsen's Frozen Custard prepared by Marie Anne. Thanks - it was wonderful! Our family just wouldn't be complete without my great Aunt Duffy and my cousin Marie Anne. :-)
We had the missionaries over for dinner at my parent's house. It was so fun. Elder Baird has been here for a while and Elder Craig just came from the MTC a few weeks ago. They are such an awesome team! We love them!
Dyan's little brother, Parker, and sister, Christi, came for dinner too. Cyd was resting - she had a chemo treatment at the beginning of the week and was pacing herself. We love you Cyd!!!
The dinner was more of a joking affair then a peaceful rememberance of why we were celebrating. It was amazingly yummy though! The joking probably started when we popped the crackers (my dad learned about this tradition when he served his mission in South Africa). The elders were just getting a kick out of the paper crowns, the cheesy jokes and the little plastic toys.
After dinner we had our Christmas Eve program which is readings from the New Testament and Christmas Hymns. We taught the Elders some new songs too.
Jessie was part of the family of course. She even slept over on Christmas Eve. We enjoyed having her there!
The girls opened their new pj's from Grandma Szabo. This year's theme was "monkeys" which seems so appropriate!
Merry Christmas everyone!!!

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This is a song my parent's learned in Jerusalem when they were there over 20 years ago. It has been our "family song" since then. We were teaching it to the Elders on Christmas Eve.

We also sang it with Katie (I mean Sister Abbott) at the end of our Christmas phone call with her. It was such a great experience.

Jayne just started dancing away. She was so cute!

Jason reset a toilet at Duffy's last week and as they were coming up to the house a gardner snake slithered past the front door. Duffy freaked out which is really unusual. She is one tough ex-Marine. Anyway, Jay put it in the back of his truck and when he went to leave it was gone. He told her it was probably in the attic of her house or in her pipes. hahaha She wasn't happy and she and my cousine Marie Anne spent 2 1/2 hours looking for it. Jay had me search for a rubber snake that looked like the one they caught. Here's the video of Jay giving it to Duffy. So funny!

Christmas dresses for church

I sang "O Holy Night" during the choir cantata - my 1st soprano solo!

I think I will stick with contralto!

(I sing Alto and Tenor usually)

Thrilled :-)

Jay's family has a tradition of baking yummy Danish Lemon Bread each Christmas. Jay told me that his mom would bake it for all the neighbors when they lived in England and they would go out one night and deliver it and carol all night long. The first year I made 87 mini loaves and about a dozen large loaves. Jay came home and flipped. He asked why I made so much and I said that I wanted to carry on the tradition of taking it to everyone in the ward / neighborhood. He told me that they lived in the middle of nowhere and they only had three neighbors. It took all night to deliver because they had to walk so far. That was definitely a pertinent detail. After the first year everyone in the ward comments on how much they love the lemon bread.
This year I cut down a bit. Jay and I spent a whole Saturday at the beginning of December baking away.
Beth came for Christmas and requested some so I made another three loaves for her and her family. This time we let the girls help. It was so much fun!

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On Saturday the 22nd we went with my parents, Sara and Jessie to see Enchanted. We played by the water while we waited. It was freezing, but fun!

I would highly recommend Enchanted for kids and adults - it was hysterical!

Jayne had a Botox follow-up at CRS on Friday the 21st. When we arrived Santa was there giving gifts to all the children! Jayne and Ivannah had a great time and came home with a lot of great stuff.

I started day care for Ivannah (6) and Stacey Hardy (6 months) last week.

It has been so much fun!

These are from the last day of school. The girls were wired.

Jayne & Stacey

Ivannah & Jayne

Isn't Stacey beautiful? She is such a wonderful baby!

Mimi and Papa came over to see the girls. Mimi is sporting Rachel's Snow White headband.

CUTE!

Papa reading SkippyJon Jones with the girls. This is my new favorite book!

We have a family tradition that Darlene started years ago... all the great nieces and nephews come to Darlene's before Christmas and make gingerbread houses (with graham crackers). Darlene makes yummy pizza bread for lunch and we all have a blast! Thanks Darlene - we love you!!!

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Jayne got to sing three songs in the Franklin Christmas Concert this year. She loved it! She has some really great friends in her class and she loves Mr. Abrams.
Enjoy!

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Rachel's preschool went to the Grand Court Senior Home and performed their Christmas program. It was adorable. We laughed because Rachel and Dallin got to be Mary and Joseph. When Dalling was a tiny baby and I was pregnant with Rachel I promised her to him. The baby Jesus is obviously rediculous with it's red hair, but looking at Dallin and Rachel we realized that's what their kids could look like. They were adorable and had so much fun. Thanks Carole!!!

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I took these pics a few Saturdays ago at tithing settlement (7AM).

Rachel and Tiny Alldredge

Jayne and Tiny

So Cute!!!

Ahhh, putting up the Christmas tree.

We always dread it but it's so fun to get it up and start playing the Christmas music.

This was our stopping point the first night.

We finished putting ornaments up over the next few days.
The lighting of the tree...
Hooray for Christmastime!

Well, it's been a while. Busy, busy, busy. We spent all day Saturday (a week and a half ago) baking Danish Lemon Bread for our visiting teaching and home teaching families, our family, therapists, etc. Jay and I had a really fun time. It only took five days to deliver all of our Christmas goodies (with my dad's stuff) to half of the ward. We enjoyed it and I ran hard for the first time in almost a year. It felt so good! My knee feels great. :-)

I went to my 3 month follow-up for my shoulder with Dr. Weinstein and blew them away. I have better range of motion in my right shoulder than I do in my left now. I was suppose to loose a ton in my right so I guess it's a "Christmas Miracle"!!! Thanks Rhene and Kathy for pushing me in PT.

I got dropped from my insurance this month. We were appealing it and right before they set a court date a very nice woman called and told me that we really had NO chance of winning and that we would pay quite a bit afterwards. I contacted Jay's insurance company and found out that they will cover me and they will not hold any of my medical conditions against me. Everything will be covered from the start. That was the greatest miracle of all. We have been trying to get private medical insurance (not state insurance) for over five years now for me and haven't been successful. We were very excited! The only catch is that my insurance will be incredibly expensive. Jay was able to get a small raise and I was going to go back to work. We got a call this weekend and I started watching two little girls yesterday. Ivannah is 6 and is one of Jayne's friends. They go to the same school. Stacey is 6 months old. She is such a fun baby. So once again the tender mercies of the Lord are shown in our lives. We are so grateful that we have so many people who love us and are looking out for us. Thanks!!!

This week is a CRS week - two appointments on two different days. CRS is such a blessing and yet such an ordeal each time. Jayne has her 6 month check-up with the CP Neurologist today. On Friday she gets to show off her hand to the Botox doctor. It's been six weeks since the injections. We'll see what they say. We are hoping that the Botox phase of Jayne's life is almost over! :-)

We aren't doing Christmas gifts for our family this year because we are going to Disneyland in February. Our girls are really ok with it and it's been nice to not be running around all month shopping and going crazy. We have really been able to focus more on what Christmas is really about. For those of you who think we are horrible parents - Santa is still coming with some small gifts and they are getting gifts from Grandma and Papa Bowman and Josh and Dyan (they chose their names in the family gift exchange).

I guess that's all for now. I will post pics soon from all the Christmas programs, etc. So much fun!!!

Jayne brought this home from school so excited - she calls it the "cauliflower"!

(You would think the Mayflower would be easier to say.) :-)

Jennifer - this really is Jayne's :-)

She named it "Meg" because she loves me. At least I think that's why...

Jayne demonstrating her leaps!

This is Jayne's dance. She is on the front row on the left in the white leotard. She knew the dance by heart. We are so proud of her!!!

(It's a little bumpy at times - Rachel kept climbing all over me :-)

Jayne had her dance recital last week. She was so cute and danced beautifully. Her class danced to the music from "Lilo and Stitch".

Ms. Beverly (Kerr) with Jayne and Elee
Jayne and Elizabeth
Jayne, Dyan and Josh

(Thanks for coming!!!)
Sara, Rachel and Jessie being silly!
Rachel was dying to dance on the stage too. She will have her chance in the spring.

Last week Megan Peterson came to town with her newborn Macy. (Megan and her family lived here for two years while Jeremy was going to grad school at ASU. They live in Salt Lake City again now.) Ashley and Lauren stayed in Utah with Jer's parents.

We had a girls' lunch at Chipolte and had a blast!

Kalet, Emily, Rachel and I had so much fun holding little Macy

She is beautiful!

I got to have a fun, relaxing weekend with two of my favorite women! Catherine and I went to visit Beth in Vegas this weekend. It was a very quick trip but totally worth it! Kristin was suppose to come too - it was going to be a "retreat reunion" from back when we served in the Relief Society Presidency together - but she went to CA with her mother-in-law for the week instead. You were missed Kristin! :-)

"What did we do?" you ask - we thought about hitting the "Thunder from Down Under" show but decided to stay at home in our pj's and watch Phantom of the Opera, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Frequency. We went out for Mexican food and hit the local Walmart (of course!). Mostly we just laid on the couches and talked. We did eat a lot of garbage which is something I regret, but you can't really bond without junk food running through your system, right?

We bonded some more on Sunday then went to church with Beth. It was so great to spend time with her again!

We left at 4:30am on Saturday and got home at 9:30pm Sunday night. We sure did have some fun trying to keep each other awake as you will see on the next post.

Thanks for a fabulous weekend girls!

I also have to thank my mom, Jessie and Jay for helping with the girls all weekend.

Jay and the girls spent most of the day Saturday with Damien and his kids. They had a great day too. Hooray!

Catherine and I were trying to stay awake on the ride home so we started singing songs as loud as we could. We loved this song and ended up singing it over and over and over. We decided to video tape it, but it was to dark to see inside the car so I just recorded the road ahead of us. We had a fantastic time! Enjoy the singing! :-)

Here is the final version of the Lehi Stake Center Fire montage. The last pictures are pretty amazing.
Enjoy!

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