December 2009

Just a few things to remember that went on during this last month of the year.

We had our usual ward Christmas party and our ward Christmas Music Fireside. The fireside was a "journey" to find out about all the symbols of Christmas mixed with narration and music. John and I were in the room where we learned about the shepherds. We sang "The Lord is my Shepherd" as part of a quartet.

I tried to burn down our kitchen a couple of times. I put some chicken tenders that had been dipped in butter on a flat stone in the oven. The butter started spilling onto the bottom of the oven so I switched the pans out. We had smoke coming out of the oven at this point. No fire though. So then I got the dinner out and we ate. Then I decided to clean my oven using the self cleaning cycle. Bad idea. More smoke. No fire though. So I hurried and turned the oven off. What was I thinking. Kind of reminded me when I did this

That experience happened the same week I was working at the University of Utah. They have other sites where the students can go to return books and I was working inside of a trailer right at the foot of the football stadium. I was by myself this particular day because my helper was sick. I have a propane heater that keeps me nice and warm. I was starting to get too warm and decided to turn the heater off for awhile. The propane valve wouldn't turn off so I just unplugged the heater. A few seconds later I heard a sound and looked down at the heater and their was a fire billowing inside. The only thing I could think about was fire and propane are not a good combination. So I got out of the trailer and called 911. I waited for what seemed like forever for the fire truck to arrive. Well not one, not two, but three fire trucks arrived and an ambulance. They were prepared for the worst which was a good thing. The fire never spread outside of the heater itself so no other damage was done which was good and I was safe. It was very scary for those few short minutes!

The next week was Christmas and my parents were able to come and be here for Christmas. I love having my parents here. It was so nice to just relax and play games and not have places to be....and sleep in too! :) John's parents came up on Christmas day from Provo and had Christmas dinner with us.

The kids seemed to have a fun Christmas. We got a Wii and that has been a big hit. It wasn't on any of the kids Christmas lists so they were quite surprised!

Today is the day before New Years Eve and all the decorations are down and in boxes. We will be at our friends house for New Years and I didn't want to worry about it when we got home. I can't believe another year has come and gone.

A new smile

No more braces for Cameron! He even has a permanent retainer so no worries about losing it. Yahoo!

New haircut

Alyssa decided that she wanted her hair cut. I was all for it. She does not like her hair brushed or "done" at all so of course a shorter hair cut would be easier. It is easier but she still doesn't like me to brush it. I can't win.

Thanks Julie for the cute haircut!

A day of firsts...

It's a new school year and I have all four kids in school. Cameron is a freshman in middle school, Jaydon is a 7th grader in middle school, Mikayla is in 4th grade and Alyssa started Preschool this year! They are all enjoying it and so far, the teachers have been light on the homework but I know that won't last too much longer.

Alyssa was excited to go to preschool but on the first day, I had to stay with her the whole time...she didn't want me to leave. Her second class I got to leave after the first hour. Her third class I walked in with her to hang up her back pack and I was able to sneak out. Finally, the fourth class I was able to just drop her off. Now she goes without a problem. :)

So here are their first day of school pics.

Cameron age 14


Jaydon age 12


Mikayla age 9


Alyssa age 4

A pioneer...sort of

My sister is on the pioneer trek. I guess my sub-conscious mind was feeling sorry for her and thought I needed to learn a few things. ha ha. One of our main drain pipes that drains out everything from the kitchen sink to the bathtub to the toilet decided it wanted to start leaking. Nice! And it's a holiday weekend for crying out loud! The bottom of our bedroom closet got soaked. We pulled off a bunch of drywall and decided that the pipe was probably clogged and that as we used more and more water from the various places as said above, the pipe would fill up with water and start leaking from every single joint it had in it! So in order to keep the pipe from filling up and leaking more, we are down to one toilet and one sink...a bathroom sink! I'm just very glad we still have a toilet to use and some running water...otherwise we would've been heading to a hotel!

I had some dishes in the sink that I needed to get washed so I filled up our cooler with water and soap to wash the dishes. Mikayla and Alyssa came in and wondered what I was doing. I told them I was washing the dishes because I can't use the sink.
Then Mikayla said "that's what old people do, well, in olden times." :)

As I sit and wash my dishes in the cooler inside the house , I will remember the pioneers who didn't even have running water or one flushing toilet and no air conditioning to cool off from the heat!! How grateful I am that they came before me because I don't know if I could've done it!

Happy 4th Birthday Alyssa!

Can't believe it has been four years since I had Alyssa!

It had been five years since I had a baby and was a little nervous for this one. Maybe thinking about my past deliveries and how they have gone quite fast. I also was wondering what we were going to have, boy or girl.

I think my Dr. was a little nervous about me delivering fast also. He was more than willing to induce me a week early! Perfect! I had never been induced before. I kind of liked it. It was nice driving to the hospital and not having to worry about counting contractions.

My two sisters Kalene and Lori, both flew in from out of town. It's hard for them to miss stuff! So in the room I had John, my two sisters, my aunt and my grandma and grandpa. We had my parents on the phone too so they wouldn't miss anything.

By the time they got me hooked up and on the Pitocin, I think it was around 8:30am and then Alyssa Passey was born at around 11:45am weighing in at 6 lbs 8 oz

She has been so fun to have in our family. She was a very good baby and would hardly ever cry. Even when she would get a little cold or something, she was still so good. I remember telling my mom on the phone more than once that I couldn't believe how good she is. It's always nice to have your "caboose" end on a good note. :)




She has a fun personality and is very smart. She goes through "phases" that sometimes we hope don't last very long depending on what it is...like when she turned 3 and decided she didn't like any of her clothes...shorts, pants, dresses, you name it she didn't want it on her body. Well, that one lasted for about 9 days. It seemed like forever! To this day, she still is very picky about her clothes and one day will wear something and the next week, won't have anything to do with it.

She starts pre-school in August and she is excited for that. She loves to watch Dora, Little Einsteins, The Backyardigans and Super Why and is found almost every single night asleep on the couch with the remote in her hand watching one of these shows.

Have a great birthday Alyssa! We love you!

Washington D.C. continued

The next couple of days we continued riding the METRO and walking the streets of D.C. My niece almost didn't bring her tennis shoes and she was so glad she did!

We went to the Holocaust Museum and all I can say is Wow! Very sad!! We walked through this one exhibit that took over an hour to go through. There was a feeling of reverence as everyone was walking through. It was very quiet at times. I recommend this to anyone who gets out to D.C.


We also went to the International Spy Museum which was pretty cool. You got to see all the different things Spy's used and where they hid things and what they would do to let the "other" person know they had information like putting a piece of tape on a Blue Mailbox! Who would've known?

We saw the Washington monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the World War II Memorial, The Vietnam Memorial, and the Capitol. These are all a must see!







The Vietnam wall was amazing. There are 58,260 names of men and women that were killed or are still missing listed on this wall.


We went and saw the tomb of the unknown soldier and watched the changing of the guards. That was cool! We had to watch it twice to get a different view! Highly recommended!



Another great memorial is the Iwo Jima memorial! It was a lot bigger than I expected! Highly recommended also!




The only museum we went to at the Smithsonian was the Air and Space museum. A lot of neat things to look at and I would recommend it.



Because of my brothers work, we were able to go to the FBI Academy in Quantico, VA. That was fun! I spent most of my money there at the gift shop! :) We rode in a skid car that the agents in training use that teaches you about skid avoidance and teaches them to think proactively. It has wheels that extend out from the original wheels of the car and actually "lift" the original wheels off the ground. It was awesome! Of course we had a very experienced driver who has been teaching there for a long time! Sorry I don't have a picture of the car! Investigative stuff always intrigues me so I had fun!

This is what they call their make believe town where they can practice going into different buildings




We took a drive to see the Washington D.C. temple! It is beautiful! You drive along the freeway and wonder where it's at because there are so many trees. Then there is an opening in the forest of trees and Wow! There it is! Very pretty!






I had a blast on this trip and want to go again sometime. According to my niece, there wasn't a lot of "normal" food there. We saw several McDonalds and Subways, but even they were hit and miss. Lots of Cafe's and of course your hot dog stands on the corner. :) I think finding breakfast was the hardest! We finally found a grocery store our second to last night there and just ended up buying cereal and milk!

For your next trip to D.C.: wear comfortable shoes, no rental car needed. The subway takes you everywhere. Get to know the subway system! I was glad I had my brother there with me at the beginning because he knew what he was doing.

Many sights require tickets to get in that you need to wait in line for the morning of, or you might be able to get advance tickets throught he internet.