December 2008

We have had a wonderful Christmas. It is a rule at our house..you have to have some happy pictures with your gifts! Here is Emily with her new coat! It was evident that Luke did all the shopping and wrapping of Nick's gift himself. Let's see it was wrapped in pink, non Christmas paper and he got a Hannah Montana Christmas Card. See how happy it made him:) Nick did however love the Leatherman! It was much better than the snugglie his was telling us he was sending! Such a comedian!

The gang posing following the traditional re-enactment of the Nativity. I don't know what happened to our costume box, we would have had some better outfits if I could have found our box, but weren't the wisemen creative with their costumes! When I was looking at these pictures I crack up..I should really have had more imput on the costumes I see! Nick made the big effort to get a lampshade and his robe from graduation. Tim's 'crown' reminds me of a hard hat! He made it himself..can you tell! Ashley has been worrying about her costume for days. The Shepherds did quite well, notice the candy cane shepherds crooks. This tradition combines our love of the nativity story with family quirkiness! I hope it doesn't get sacriligious. This year we added music, which actually was very touching.

Here are the wisemen singing "We three Kings" . It was interesting. Nick wasn't into it much but we got a note or two our of him. It still was fun.

This little angel sang "Glo-o-o-o-o-o-o-ria. In excelsi deo" It was great!+

More December photos

Here are our singing Shepherds! Aren't they beautiful!

Mary and Joseph singing "Mary Lullaby" It was really very great. You can count on Lindsey, she had Drew practice with her earlier in the day so of course it was good.

Here is some of the action on the hill thanks to a snowy year! I believe this is what Tim calls a "skeeter" it was Emily's scooter that he modified and made a ski for it to use on the snow.

This is the one picture we have of Nick as he opened his mission call. Emily was in charge of photography and she must have gotten caught up in the excitment! Arizona Tucson, spanish speaking mission. He is leaving March 11th. We are all very excited about it. He was especially excited that he got to go Spanish speaking.

This is a photo from Emily's B. day. Didn't want to neglect her! She mainly spent the day running back and forth from Yakima with her friends but dropped in for some cake and ice cream. Happy 17th.

Coincidence

It was really interesting to take note of how small the world becomes because of our connections in the church. Here are a few of the things I was thinking about this week.

1. Once upon a time Natalie was the roommate to Marci Sabin. (For anyone who doesn't know, Marci is from Mattawa)

2. One day when Mom and Dad were at the temple in Billings Mt. the word was going around that there was a member who needed a ride to Powell and they said that they would take him. It was nighttime. They went to the corner where they were supposed to meet him, it was dark, and they picked him up and according to Mom "Had a wonderfully pleasant visit during the
1 1/2 hour trip home. When he got out of the car Dad had him stand in front of the headlights so he could actually see him since he hadn't been able to see him in the back seat of the car. Later, they were to discover that he was married to Natalie's cousin Amy. His name is Mark, I am not sure of the spelling of his last name I will guess that it is Andresen.

3. Of course there is the connection that Whitney was born in Powell WY. 20 miles from Byron where I grew up.

4. And last weekend we discovered that Lainey had already met Whitney's birth mother because they were in the same group at EFY several years ago.

More fun in Utah

I always put the pictures in the wrong order, but here is Whitney crawling on Luke. She's getting herself around these days. She isn't exactly crawling, but whatever you call it she's movin'. She's the cutest thing around I think!

Before Church on Sunday Luke and Natalie had a luncheon for all the family. Here are Drew, Emily and Lance (Kurt's youngest). This is Lance's favorite expression, so Em. and Drew are making it with him. I don't know if Emily was doing it on purpose or just that involuntary thing you do when you are watching others.

Here's little sleepy Whitney. She was really tired when this pic. was taken but after a short nap she did great during her blessing. Luke gave her a beautiful blessing. Notice the shaved face of Luke. Enough to make a mother smile:) Actually I don't really mind his beard. He's a handsome dog anyway:) (That is an old expression that I can trace to my Mom and Dad!)

Here are my beloved sisters. Beth and Heidi. I guess I have to admit Heidi is a sister-in-law, but that doesn't matter I love them both. Heidi welcomes us into her home at a moments notice and manages the mess like a champion.

Here's a pictures of the Luke Jenne Family. Luke, Natalie and Whitney. Signed, SEALED and delivered. What a beautiful sight!

Thanksgiving

Following Thanksgiving this year we went down to Utah and our sweet Whitney was sealed to Luke and Natalie and of course, therefore to us. What a fabulous thing. This is a picture of most of the family that was there. As I look at it I see that some of Natalie's family must have already left, but this is most of us. We feel so blessed to have Whitney in our family. I enjoyed visiting with the Moline family too. We also got to meet Whitney birthmother and her parents. It was quite emotional to contemplate their gift to us.

This was some of the fun times during our Thanksgiving merry making. The girls were enjoying each other. Notice the collision going on between Lindsey and Emily :)

Here are a few photos of the great "Thanksgiving Bowl". Nick, who is usually a lineman, but was a receiver in this game, is catching a pass! Whoopee for him!

Here he is battling it out with Jefferson!

Two beautiful babes on a bike ride through the vineyard. Such a beautiful fall!

This was our modesty fashion show. The Y.W. put it on for the achievement day girls. It was very fun! Our theme "M is for Modesty". Seriously I don't really know what exactly that means but I was trying to think of something to say and I don't like modest is the hotest, that was the only other thing I could think of so I just made this one up. Whatever :)

Emily was soooo funny. She was all about being a serious model, so she was determined NOT to smile. She is a real ham. So I am putting up all her pictures. I made up the descriptions for all the girls. This is one activity I feel proud of, partly cause it was so hard to get cooperation at first but in the end it turned out just great. I kept telling the girls to bring me descriptions of their outfit. No one was doing it. So I tied a string on all their fingers on Sunday that I told them not to take off till they had called me. How many called? One. (well it seemed like it might work at one time duh) So I had to be on the phone a long time. But I did that. Then I had to make up a 'fun' fashion showy description of their outfits.

One of the girls left her outfit at the school and another got hurt and was at the Dr. but it still turned out very well. I ended up doing the decorating. I went to the church because I was going to help one of the girls do it, but she never showed (had car trouble I found out later) so I did it myself. I just found these big cardboard pieces up on the stage and put them up. I was going to put the words along the front of the stage but then when I found these things I did it this way.

For young women party decoration you can't beat balloons and crepe paper. The price is right and they cover a good bit of space.

I can't wait till the girls come home for a tutorial on blog stuff. I can't really get the pictures and the words to move around like I would like to but...this blog reflects me I guess, kinda of helter skelter.

For all of you wondering when I am ever going to put something new on this blog...Here it is!
I tried to get some volleyball pictures of Emily early on in the season but our camera was too lame.
Finally with a new camera I went to Em.'s last home game of the season and what do you know, my battery was low so I only got a couple of not-so-great pics.
But I thought this one is cute of her anyway, tnat's the important thing, right? Even though it's not showing too much 'action' at the moment.
The camera has such slow reaction time it is hard to get an action shot.

Tim and Ashley are hard at work making a pumpkin head for our Halloween Man.

I would like to suggest for all pumpkin carvers Tim's technique which includes the use of an electric drill and an electric saw.

Here is Ashley posin' it up with the Halloween Man!

I really like this silly face she had going. In case you can't tell, she was a cheerleader from H.S. Musical. We actually saw HS Musical 3 last weekend. Cheesy plot of course but the dancing and the singing is great! I am impressed! It always looks so fun.

Back on topic...Ashley had a fun day. There was a carnival and trick or treating at the church. Out here that seems to be the only way to trick or treat. We did stop at Behling's and she went to Grandma's.

This is what Nick has been doing with his time lately. He leaves for school about 6:45 and gets back around 3 and then goes to work till 10 or 11. He has worked till 2:00 a.m. a few days. This is quite a fancy piece of equipment. Tim took some video of the whole process. Pretty High tech.




Here's the inside view. You can't see the 'joystick' that he holds onto on his right that has all the control. All the years of playing video games may actually have paid off :) Great thumb action! Kip told Tim he was glad to have Nick there. We are so glad Nick has the work.

Nashville 2

This is the parthenon in Nashville. Who knew there was a parthenon in Nashville?? Not me, but it was interesting to see. It is a to-scale replica of the original Parthenon. Amazing craftsmanship.This is the inside of the parthenon. This is a huge statue of Athena (greek goddess. Remember your mythology?) She is holding Nike, another greek goddess.
We went to see the temple which is in Franklin, which is outside Nashville. It is beautiful. It is one of the smaller temples. As usual, plenty of posers available for photos :)
A vacation that includes a 7 year old is different than it would be otherwise. We went to the Children's science museum here in Nashville. I guess I was searching for dinosaurs here.

Here the girls are enjoying a little wheelchair basketball.
Love this shot! Some serious listening going on.

Here's Emily inside the guitar.
Posers at the planet display.
Emily and Ashley caught a ride on the magic school bus!

Trip to Nashville

This picture was taken in front of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. Nick and Drew and Lindsey have been here working for the summer, so we couldn't resist the temptation to come and check it out.This is a picture of my favorite group that was performing when we were there, "Diamond Rio." Each group only performed 3 or 4 songs..not enough for me. I loved to see all the backup singers, the people on the different instruments and I like to see places that I have heard about all my life. I really enjoyed it all. The pool at the apartment complex has been a highlight of our visit. Ashley likes to swim all the time. We drag her around to different things but to keep her happy we have been swimming in the morning and then at night when we come back. Nick is growing this mop of hair for some odd reason this summer. I am looking forward to seeing his handsome face when he finally gets it cut at the end of the summer.This sweet photo was taken in the Dallas airport, our layover. It's been an adventure.