Merry Christmas!

We want to wish all of you a MERRY CHRISTMAS! We hope you are enjoying time with family and friends and eating lots of good food and just loving this time of year. We love you all!

Our Christmas Tree

Here are some pictures of our HUGE Christmas tree, taken on our new video camera using the still image setting. Apparently most video cameras don't take great stills (no megapixels), so here's what it looks like. We were hoping to save money by getting a video camera/digital camera all in one, because we want to start video recording things of us and the kids, but it looks like we might have to get a new digital camera, too! At least you can all see our beautiful tree, somewhat! Once I have time to figure out how to upload video, I will do that, too. I plan to post my audition for "Don't Forget the Lyrics" so you can see how I did.

Along with Christmas, Joel does these Christmas riddles with his students that I think are fun. Maybe you can figure them out. They are all popular Christmas songs (secular and religious):

1. Boulder of the Tinkling Metal Spheres

2. Castaneous-colored Seed Vesicated in a Conflagration

3. Singular Yearning for the Twin Anterior Incisors

4. Righteous Darkness

5. Arrival Time: 2400 hrs - Weather: Cloudless

6. Loyal Followers Advance

7. Far Off in a Feeder

8. Array the Corridor

9. Bantam Male Percussionist

10. Monarchial Triad

11. Nocturnal Noiselessness

12. Jehovah Deactivate Blithe Chevaliers

13. Red Man En Route to Borough

14. Frozen Precipitation Commence

15. Proceed and Enlighten on the Pinnacle

16. The Quadruped with the Vermilion Proboscis

17. Query Regarding Identity of Descendant

18. Delight for this Planet

19. Give Attention to the Melodious Celestial Beings

20. The Dozen Festive 24 Hour Intervals

I will post the answers sometime next week! Have fun! You can give your answers in the comments. If I don't post something sooner, Merry Christmas, everyone!

Elder Ballard talks about power of media

Joel told me about this article found on the homepage of www.lds.org. It's a message he gave to the graduates at BYU-Hawaii this month. I read it, and wanted to share it with you. It's a great speech about how the media can be a tool to share the gospel. Here's the link if you'd like to read it:

http://www.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/using-new-media-to-support-the-work-of-the-church

And here are some of my favorite quotes from the speech:

"This is your world, the world of the future, with inventions undreamed of that will come in your lifetime as they have in mine. How will you use these marvelous inventions? More to the point, how will you use them to further the work of the Lord? "

"While some conversations have audiences in the thousands or even millions, most are much, much smaller. But all conversations have an impact on those who participate in them. Perceptions of the Church are established one conversation at a time. "

"Perhaps now, more than ever, we have a major responsibility as Latter-day Saints to define ourselves, instead of letting others define us. "

So, just some things to think about as we are all blogging and facebooking and myspacing. We really can be a positive voice for the church, and can use our blogs in a small way to share the gospel.

Julianna turned 4!

Julianna opening her present from us, the Island Princess Barbie!

Admiring her Dora present.

Enjoying her cake!

About to blow out the candles on her SpongeBob cake!

Her friend on the right, Isaac, kept blowing the candles out. I think we lit them 3 times.

Playing a game with her friends.

Julianna is now 4 years old! Wow! We had her birthday party at our house on Dec. 5th. There were nine kids, including her, that came, so it made for a crowded place! But of course the kids didn't mind, they just played and ate food and cake and had fun. This was her first big birthday party. She had a small one in Provo for her first birthday. I really can't believe she is four years old now! She had a lot of fun and got some great gifts from her friends, and of course, she loved her SpongeBob cake (thanks, Grandma!) And thanks for everyone who came and made it so special for her.

Something I've Never Done Before...

Well, tonight I am doing something bold, daring, adventurous, exciting. And I still can't believe I am doing it! AHHH! I am going to Hollywood to audition for the TV Show, "Don't Forget the Lyrics." I love the show--it's a karaoke style show on Fox, hosted by Wayne Brady, where you can win a million dollars by knowing the words to popular songs from many decades, and the best part is, I get to sing! I decided, it's time for me to do something fun, you know? I really like to sing, those that know me well know this, and especially to sing along to the radio, and my favorite video game is Karaoke Revolution. I don't have it, but whenever Karina and Adam bring it to Mom's I love to play. I have no idea what is going to happen, but I do know it's going to be fun, even if I don't make it. I'm going with a friend so I don't have to drive alone, and she can be there to support me. Wish me luck, everyone! And by the way, we just got a video camera that takes pictures...as soon as I figure it out, I will post some pictures and maybe video.

6 Things You Didn't Know about Me

Well, I'm finally doing this post. This is a hard one for me, because I wanted to make it interesting, and I just couldn't think of anything! But, I was tagged by Alexis and Karina, so I'll give it a try.

1. I absolutely HATE having my hair messed up. I make sure when I pull it up, that there are NO bumps or stray hairs. If I finish, and find one, I have to fix it, or it will drive me crazy! And if one of the kids messes up my hair, I have to fix it right then--I can't ignore it! Is that weird?

2. I still bite my nails. I really wish I had listened to my childhood friend Angie Casetta's mom 17 years ago when she said to me, I'll buy you ice cream if you stop biting your nails. I never did. I don't do it all the time, but I wish I could stop!

3. I am perfectly content with doing absolutely nothing. If I ever get free time, I would be so happy to just sit on the couch and stare at the wall. Just to be able to think and ponder about something would be great! Or maybe it's because I'm kind of a lazy person...I don't have motivation for a lot of things. I need to work on that. Wow, this post is becoming therapeutic for me...

4. I have an idea for a children's book series that, when I have time to write it, will become a best-seller and I will be as rich as JK Rowling (well, maybe). I've had the idea for a long time now, and when the kids are in school, I will hopefully not be lazy and actually take advantage of the free time I have to write my masterpiece.

5. I wish I could be more crafty like my cousin Rhonda or my mom or Grannie. I want to learn every craft out there, and I want to take art classes and learn how to paint and sew and draw and sculpt and do pottery. I think there is an artistic side to me that I haven't explored.

6. Lastly, I have a trial that has plagued me for life and will continue to plague me! I am a horrible scripture reader! I have really good periods of reading, and then something happens, like I go out of town, and I have to start all over. I want so badly to be a good scripture reader but I have accepted the fact that I will never be perfect at it.

I hope you learned some interesting facts about me! I'm going to tag my friends in my ward if they want to do it: Bethany, JoAnna, Melanie, and Kristen.

Preschool art

Julianna comes home everyday from preschool with the funniest things! Today she brought home some sort of hat with foil antennas, maybe? I'm not sure, but I asked her if she was an alien, and she said yes. So they're learning about aliens, huh? But most of her works of art are very seasonal, like the top picture--a pumpkin pie, which was basically brown construction paper with sand sprinkled on it. She seems to be loving preschool. I have a file drawer where I keep all her "masterpieces."

On another note, Blake took his first steps today! He took about 4 steps 5 times in a row, walking to Joel when he got home from work. He wouldn't do it for me all day, so I asked Joel to try, and he did it right away! Knowing Blake, he'll waste no time getting up and walking all the time. When I get a good picture, I'll post it.