Other pictures of Thanksgiving! Celina and Tyler Kate on the couch before Thanksgiving dinner. I am by the Christmas tree upstair by the dinner table. Whew! we had finally finished the dinner.

"Santa, baby, I just want a date!" (Didn't I ask for that last year?)

"Well, if Santa wouldn't get me a date, then my kids decided to (but there is a story to it!)

When we were at Tara's house, she told us a story about a lady she knew. Someone gave her a "flat Stanley" - a paper card cut-out of a guy that she went places with and took pictures of as her "date". Well, when we were at Tara's on Saturday, my "present" was a flat Stanley. He got stored away and I came home after work, the following week, to find that I had an official date with "flat Stanley" (actually a poster of Jeff Gordon). They made spaghetti and had sparkling cider, chocolate cake and a box of chocolates. They set the table with my Christmas china and candles. It was really fun (especially after a difficult day at work!). Dinner is served, my dear!

"Hey, Santa, I would
LOVE a stereo for my
car!"
(un-huh!)

"Hey, Santa I want a cell
phone! Pronto or I will go
crazy!"
(No, it will be mom who goes crazy
from being asked so many times!)

"Santa, I would like CD's, stereo,
High School Musical...."
(Holy Cow, the gifts change when they
became teens and Santa only has reindeer
not cash cows!)

"Santa, I want a Blackberry Storm
and driver's ed"
(Driver's ed - maybe. Blackberry Storm
is that a type of ice cream?)

"Beautiful!" Let's eat!" "The perfect turkey!"

The kids and I went down to Payson, Utah for Thanksgiving. Tara and I spent Wednesday and Thursday cooking. The meal was beautiful and good! We were thankful for much! Later that day, Tara and I went out to Walmart and cased out their sale items that were posted for 5:00 the following morning. Late Thanksgiving night, Tara and I went on to LDS.SINGLES.Com and she "persuaded" me to send flirts. We had fun and were laughing really hard by the end (late night silliness). I was the critic and she was the more open one, I suppose. Anyhow, we got to bed REALLY late and didn't get up for the sales until 8:00 am. By the time we got to Walmart, it was packed and of course, the majority of the items we wanted were not there. But, I did get a couple of things for the kids so I'm glad that we went.

Saturday, Bret took the kids to Boondocks which they loved and they stayed the majority of the day. Tara and I went to the peppermint factory where we were able to buy stocking stuffers for the kids at a really cheap price. Then Tara and I went to Gardiner Village which is sort of like a mall. There are little shops that look like houses and they are set apart from each other. We went to a really fun candy shop like the one we went to in Boise. It had every type of candy you could think of. Then we went to the Christmas Shoppe which had ornaments and nativities of all sorts. I bought a little moose ornament with my name on it. We went to the bakery and had supper. Then, Tara and I drove to SLC Temple Square to see the lights. It was cold! Tara only had a t-shirt and I had a breezy sweater. We shared a light jacket and baby blanket to keep warm. We got some strange looks! We enjoyed jumping from building to building (to keep warm) all while enjoying the lights. We watched the tv commercials in the visitor's center that made both of us cry. We went up to the Christus statue and I looked out at the lights. It was a great day!

Saturday, Tara and Bret had rented out a clubhouse. It had a pool table, huge front room with a fireplace, kitchen and (my favorite!) a theatre room. We watched "Polar Express" on the projector and upstairs they could literally feel it when the train thundered through.

We had much to be thankful. My job even with the reductions and uncertainties and most of all, for family.

Celeste went as a person going to a masquerade ball. Celina was a dancer from "Dancing with the Stars". I was a great big M & M. We went to the trunk or treat event put on by our ward. They had a chili dinner under an army tent and then we gave treats to the little kids as they came around. Sterling put our carved pumpkins next to the car and lit them so others could see. I handed out M&M's while Sterling and Celeste handed out other candy. We ran out of candy and had to borrow from Celina. Then we ran out again and the ward member in the car next to us filled up half our bowl. By the time we were done, we had about 14 pieces of candy left. Sterling and I raced to Winco to buy 3 more pounds of candy so we could give it out to trick or treaters in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, we only got about 12 trick or treaters. After the trick or treating, I took pictures and we listened to Halloween music. Alec and Sterling had fun goofing off! Then we watched an older fun, scary movie called "Wait Until Dark" with Aubrey Hepburn. I ate so much candy I felt sick during the night. I don't think I am as young anymore.

Sterling and Alec in costume! At the last moment, Sterling decided to be a Ninja. Alec was "Dr. Creepy" (sort of like Dr. G, if you know who that is on tv - a coroner). Alec's trick or treat bag was a head.

These are pictures that we carved onto our pumpkins the night before Halloween. It took quite some time before we were done. It was very difficult to get pictures but we finally got these and they look pretty good! Celeste did the skull and crossbones. I did the wolves. Sterling did McCain and the Republican symbol. Celina did one that isn't posted but it was computer symbols. Alec was at his play that night so the next night he did a pumpkin with ghosts.

These are pictures that I took of Celeste and Celina on the day I took Sterling's. Alec was doing home teaching at the time and was not able to come.

Well, we finally got it! The REAL pose that we are going to use for his pictures!

Bashful!
La-la-la!

"The professor"

"yeah, RIGHT!

Taking senior pictures with Sterling about drove me crazy! These were some of the more common pictures. I took Sterling back up to Cherry springs last week so that we could take some more pictures since he only got one the time before that was half-way decent. The weather was nice and when we were done, we went back up to Scout Mountain for a meal of stew, bread and apple crisp.

Happy Birthday!

Joe and Jessica came to mom and dad's to help with their house. It was close to Joe's birthday so we decided to throw him a birthday party. You know you're getting to that age when the candles are hot enough to melt the frosting and almost set off the smoke alarm. Happy birthday Joe!

Busy as usual! I just spent time emailing a doctor in BYU-Idaho. Celeste is making chocolate chip cookies (yeah!), Alec is doing homework, Sterling is working and Celina is asking me frequently when I will be done so that she can do her homework.
Last night, Celeste and I went to her induction into the National Honor Society. I am very proud of her! She got her name called and stood up on stage where they presented her with a nice certificate. There are several things she must do in the following two years to continue in NHS.
Alec started wrestling and appeared to have a real interest in it but I am afraid the spandex uniforms are setting him back and I am not sure that he will continue. He and Sterling had some "fun" matches in the house several times, though.
Celeste had her second cavity today. Her first was so tiny they drilled it without a shot. Today, when they gave her the shot, I was feeling queasy but afterwards, she said she hardly even felt a thing. In fact, she said she didn't even realize she was getting a shot until halfway though it. She has an amazing pain tolerance!
Well, that's all for now. I am too tired and there are things to be done! Laurie

This week has been very busy! I took the kids to get caught up on all their shots. I didn't realize how many they needed! They have come up with a lot more shots since I was little. Sterling and Celina had four shots and Celeste and Alec had 2-3. Needless to say, they were not very happy. I took the kids to get glasses afterwards. Then I let them stay home because I was late for work and their arms hurt. It was funny because we were going home from those appointments and got stuck between a HUGE piece of farm equipment. It had wheels that would have stretched across the entire road except that the wheels folded up on each side. As we followed, it started taking out tree limbs and missed a power line by about 8 inches. Just as we got to a stop sign, a semi going the opposite direction, turned into the lane beside us. As he did so, he took out huge chunks of a business's fence. It was quite the adventure getting home!
Work has been all right. It is not so busy in the morning which is hard for me because I don't like being bored. I like a medium and in this business it doesn't appear to work that way. It is either too slow or too busy. But, anyhow, I do okay.
Well, it is time to go to work so I will leave for now.

Celeste just had her first concert of the year in the women's choir at school. They sang beautifully! Sterling had his first concert last night and they sounded good as well. It is still hard to believe that they are growing up as fast as they are. One of the choirs sang a song about children leaving and hoping that they come back home. I know that in a couple of years that I will be in the same position. As crazy as it gets, I hope that I can enjoy it more thoroughly for the next couple of years.

The morning that it snowed, I felt that we should put up the Christmas tree. I knew that it was too early to do that, so I compromised. We put up a Halloween tree complete with orange lights. We did it as part of family home evening. By the time we did it, the snow was gone but the idea sounded fun so we went ahead. The boys had a little bit TOO much fun. They took apart the skeletons and rearranged them in different manners so it looked a little morbid. We had fun though and then had rice crispie treats with candy corns in them.

Today was the day that Alec was ordained a teacher. His quoruum leader ordained him and Sterling was able to stand in the circle. Alec also earned his Duty to God award for the Deacon's. He barely made the requirements in time (within half an hour before his interview) but he made it nonetheless.

We had snow today! It is the 12th of October! This has been such a strange year. First, a long rainy spring, two months of summer and two weeks of Indian Summer. What happened to fall? We hardly got to see the leaves fall! When I woke up with snow, I put in a Christmas CD and we danced around the kitchen! Happy holidays - (only which one? Christmas or Halloween?

Sami's baptism in July, 08

This is Sterling and Alec going "out into the wild, blue yonder".

This is a picture of a storm when I was at Tara and Bret's. I spent time there on the weekend that Sami was being baptized.

today was a good day

Today, I went to work and all went well. It was a long day - over nine hours but it went pretty quickly. Celeste and I watched a beautiful purple-pink sunset after dinner. The family got "booed". Someone in the neighborhood left a treat for halloween and now we have to leave two treats on people's doorsteps tomorrow. They gave us a paper with a ghost to put in our window so that others know that we already got a treat. I took Alec to have his interview to become a teacher. After, he and I went to the store and bought candy corns to put into orange rice crispie treats. They are really good! Sterling and I then went on to youtube (that can be addicting!) and watched arcing electricity and explosions. It was interesting! Well, that's it tonight!

My first entry into the world of blogging

I went to work today and was very tired. The new furnace system that is in place has enough dust to make my sinuses feel pretty bad and make me tired. I enjoyed working with the kids today though. Sterling, Celeste and Alec went to mutual and collected pennies by the inch. Afterwards, my kids and I made an impromptu and quick drive to the dollar store across town tonight. Afterwards, we bought cookie dough from Papa Murphy's and made it to the door just before closing. We ate raw cookie dough on the way home and it was GOOD! Now I am working late at night trying to figure out this blog. I hope that it works. Well, that's it for now. Hopefully, I can buy a connection for my camera and get some pictures up!