Turning a new leaf

So today at lunch, I was kindly reprimended by my dear friend...you know who you are... that I was neglecting my blog. Really?! Someone reads it? Cool!

Truthfully my intent in keeping up with a blog was to count my family history in a fun way, and try to let my kids know how awesome they are by posting fun times with them. HOWEVER, I love to share our lives with people I love, so YEAY, someone is reading the blog!! The next few entries are an attempt to capture our fun adventures in the past month and 1/2, and catch up.

Parties and Programs

I volunteered to host both the Jensen and Baxter Christmas parties this year. They ended up back to back (23rd and 24th) but I figure if my house is already clean...why not?

This is the Jensen Christmas Brunch!

We had delicious quiche, fruit, and cinnamon rolls! MMmm!

We swapped white elephant gifts. Check out Karl's face in the background as his mom opens up a gift from me...it wasn't that bad...just an old metal sign I'll never use. Reilly said he'd make it into a weather vane???

Alyssa and Grandpa :)

I was on the ward party committee, and helped put together a Christmas breakfast with Santa. It was really fun. Here are the kids waiting in line to see Santa.

Taylor was an inn keeper in his preschool version of the Nativity. He was a good sport (you can't tell though by the look on his face...:)

The kids all participated in a school Christmas sing. Ashlyn was set on wearing her pinkest outfit instead of the traditional red or green...such an Ashlyn thing to do. I suppose wearing tan and navy every day with their uniforms gets old...when given the chance

WEAR PINK!

Parker's class sang "The Grinch" song. He took the liberty to add actions, and facial expressions, (he was the only one), and was the funniest one there, I had tears in my eyes from laughing.
Connor was sweet to look for us and immediately pulled Taylor in to sit by him with his class. Taylor felt really cool as all the 5th grade girls ooed and awed at how cute he is...

not a bad ploy Connor...

The Baxter Christmas Eve Party kicked off with some sledding up AF Canyon. However, we had just had a storm, and the snow wasn't packed down. Really hard to sled in, plus it was REALLY cold, so we ended a little early.

At my house we let the kids put together some gingerbread houses, which had a hard time staying up. Stephanie was VERY patient repairing everyones house 5 times!

The adults joined in some board games and just ate snacks and vegged.

Of course what's a Baxter party without the Nativity? The kids were great this year (you never know who is going to boycott...) and all participated.

We then opened our cousin presents and gifts from Grandma and Grandpa. Everything was a hit, no tears thankgoodness! I've pretty much threatened my kids if they are ungrateful in the least, they are doomed.. with Christmas morning only hours away, they took me seriously. :)

Now...you may wonder how dinner went? Well, would you believe my luck: I put 2 pre-cooked hams in the oven to warm for 2 hours, then about an hour 1/2 into it, I thought, "I'm not smelling anything..." My top oven had broken!! It wasn't heating at all! AAAGH! The rolls were ready to be cooked and so we just cooked them up in the bottom oven, cut the ham off the bone, put it in a turkey bag and stuck it in the oven for an hour to heat. We also hand heated slices in a skillet. Switched the Nativity and presents with dinner, then ate around 7:00pm. We were starving by then needless to say! Whew! It all worked out, but was stressful and frustrating. I had to pay $200.00 to have the oven fixed!

Overall, our Christmas Parties were really fun, and I'm glad we've created such fun family traditions!

Happy Birthday Avery!

Our "not so little" niece Avery, turns 7 today! We don't get to see her very often because she lives in Washington, but when she does come to visit, we love it!

We hope you have the best day ever Avery!!

I Love Primary!

Big news...for me anyway! :) I was called to serve as the Primary President of our ward the week before Thanksgiving. I can't say I was surprised, I started getting Primary ideas about 3 months earlier that didn't have to do with my music calling. I'm somewhat of an idea person anyway (need to work on the organization part...) so I put them out of my mind, but started to wonder if I was being prepared. I've been blessed with the most amazing presidency, hand picked for me for sure!

Yesterday was our first day in Primary together as a presidency. It went really well! I kind of wore 2 hats since my new music leader was in charge of sharing time with her little class, but it all worked out, and I was on cloud 9! I'm going to LOVE this calling! Music stressed me out. (I actually felt relief when I was called as the President..;-) I loved being with the kids, and playing song review games, but truthfully, I wasn't very good at teaching them songs. I learned some valuable lessons through that experience however, and am grateful that I had the opportunity to serve as the music leader.

I don't know a whole lot about Primary, since the majority of my service in the church has been with the YW, but I'm learning, and I couldn't love those kids more! Went to bed with a big smile on my face, and didn't even know it. Karl just started smiling at me, and I looked at him like.."what?" he said, "you're smiling!"

I guess I'm just happy!!

FALL FUN!

I love Fall, and wish it could last 2 more months! We had about 3 weeks of gorgeous, cute jacket wearing weather, then it dropped to the teens! What was that all about? We did have some fun adventures however, here is a recap...

I took the kids on a photo shoot...man they're a good lookin' bunch!!

Alyssa celebrated her 15th, (did I just say 15th??) birthday on Oct. 14th. We went out to dinner, and to a movie. She's awesome. Oh yeah, and I picked up the Drivers Test Manual....aaah!

Little man turned 5!! Having a birthday the day after Halloween is a bit tricky. He didn't go for the veggie tray suggestion instead of chocolate cake and ice cream...

The week before Halloween we always go to Pumpkinland at the Vinyard Nursery. They have a fun corn maze, and blow up stuff for the kids to play on. We all like to dress up, even though sometimes we're the only ones...who cares right?
The fam-
Following Vinyard, we go to my parents house and Allyson and Adrienne put on a Halloween treasure hunt. We ate some yummy chili and hotdogs.

Parker and Ashlyn, dressed up for Halloween....the wig was itchy, in case you were wondering...Parker is his own person, and wore that awesome getup to school doin' the strut thing and everything. Hilarious!

On Thanksgiving day we went hiking up Provo Canyon. There was a little snow, but the trail was packed down, and we had a great time!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Karl's brother got married the day before, so he was in San Diego, and joined us for pie later that night. Funny side note, Taylor was a little wet from the snow after hiking, so he changed into his PJ's (we slept at my parents house the night before), and wore them the rest of the day...it truly was relaxing!

Yoya!

We recently had the opportunity to host a Japanese exchange student by the name of Yoya. We really enjoyed his stay, and learned a lot! He was with us for 1 week, and it was our job to keep him fed and show him some sites around the area. During the day he attended various activities with his group, with BYU being the host site. He was not LDS, and didn't share our Christian beliefs, but boy was he a good, kind soul. After he left, I asked the fam what they learned from Yoya's visit with us. Here were some of their replys:

1. We are very blessed! To live where we do, and especially to have the gospel.

2. Japan isn't so far away when you have Google Earth at your fingertips.

3. There are many good people all around the world, and they're not all LDS...:)

4. It's hard to communicate when you speak different languages.

5. We pray a lot!

6. Japanese teens are a lot like American Teens. We had fun seeing what music and movies we all knew.

On Sunday we took him to Temple Square. There was a sister missionary who was from Japan, and spoke his native language..I could have kissed her!

We took Yoya to Cabela's, and the one thing he wanted to do was hold a gun. Later I remembered the one and only rule...the boys are not to touch weapons of any kind...OOOOPS!

Yoya loved sports and wanted to see an "American" football game. BYU played TCU that weekend so we took him to a game...rotten game, but we had fun!

For family night, we made smores in our fire pit, then jumped in a huge pile of leaves that Parker had raked earlier that day. Way fun!

You Had A Bad Day...

Ever had "one of those days" when you just wanted to run away from it all? Well, apparently 5yr. olds feel that way too sometimes. Today Taylor got in trouble and was sent to his room to "think about it", well his thinkin' led him to packin' and he was going to be on his way...away from here. He packed up his things in his duffle bag, grabbed his pillow ('cause he might be needin' that) and set out. Instead of taking the garage door way out, (which is closer to his room) he slowly walked by my bedroom door, where I was laying on my bed. He gave a slow, sad look my direction then proceeded out the front door. I quickly realized my boy was runnin' away, so I followed him out. Vaguely recalling a cute Mormon commercial from the '80's I tried to remember what the mom did when the boy wanted to run away. So I followed her lead.


"Hey Taylor, whatya doin'?"

"I'm leavin' this place."

"Oh I see, well, do you mind if I come with you?"

He didn't protest, even when I gave him a little hug. I took that as a yes. We start to walk down the driveway.

"So, looks like you're running away, huh?"

"yes" (tear is half way down his cute little cheek)

"Hmmm, well how about we go get the mail together?"

He liked that idea, and nodded. I quickly ran into get the key, and my camera. (too good to pass up...)

We started to walk to the corner, and I quickly snapped a shot of him. As we walked, I gave a little glance his way, and he glanced back. Soon a half smile apeared, he was trying to hold back, but within seconds we both broke out laughing. The humor of the situation was too funny to keep in. I then carried his pillow, and we got the mail.


When we returned to his room, we unpacked his stuff together, and I gave him a huge hug, and told him how sad I would've been if he ran away.. that he is one of my most favorite people in the whole wide world. He hugged me back, and we told each other we loved one another, and that was that!!

He actually did a great job packing...his blanket, Scamper his stuffed penguin, 2 pair underwear (yeah) clothes and his slippers!
The duffle bag came in handy after all! :)

What Have I Done For Someone Today?

President Thomas S. Monson

Conference Talk October 2009

Tonight for Family Home Evening, we reviewed a talk from our Prophet, President Monson, entitled "What Have I Done For Someone Today?" A story is told of a prominant physician who came from humble beginnings to accomplish great things in the world of medicine. However he attributed much of his great character to his father who taught him to serve. Each day at dinner his father asked his children "what have you done for someone today?" Thus instilling in them a desire to reach out to others on a daily basis.

We have taken this to heart as a family and have decided to adopt this dinner time question.

It's really about the little things isn't it?? Conference Talk Link