Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas! Our day began with Lauren waking up around 5 or 6 am. We don't know for sure because the power was out! We told her to go back to be until 7 am and hopefully the power would be on. All the kids came and got us around 7:30 am., but our power was still out. It was crazy because I could see the lights on at our backyard neighbor's home. Along with the power being out, a snow storm hit with a vengeance. We kicked on the fireplace and watched as the kids took down their stocking and uncovered what Santa had left behind. Lauren rec'd an ICLOK, and and I-dog for her inherited nano from Garrett. Santa left a weight bench for Garrett and left an Indiana Jones whip and hat and a clone wars helmet for Ashton. The kids found all kinds of candy, Itunes cards, movies, earrings, "chunky guys" and cd's in their stockings. We then moved downstairs to open gifts from each other. My dad received some new shirts, gift cards and a bonsai plant. Travis rec'd a retractable flag pole and Ute's flag to take to the stadium for Utah football games. He also rec'd a new razor and clothes. I rec'd new slippers, a book, a jogging outfit and a silver ring. Garrett rec'd a new game for the WII and some clothes. Lauren rec'd some new jeans, and Kirby for her DS and Ashton rec'd a new game for the WII and a couple of board games too. Our family gift this year was Rockband for the WII. It has been a blast. After unwrapping gifts, the power was still out and Christmas breakfast at our home was looking more bleak. I called Tammy my sis-in-law and we made plans to move breakfast to their home. Shortly after hanging up with her, our power came back on. Yeah! Breakfast was back on. My entire family, minus my cute sister, Shari and her family in Philadelphia, enjoyed Christmas morning together. We ate nummy pumpkin waffles with buttermilk syrup, a fabulous egg/hash brown casserole, and fresh fruit. We exchanged gifts, watched movies, played "A ticket to Ride - Europe", and played Rockband. Around 4pm we loaded up the car and headed to Tracie and Anthony's home for Christmas dinner. Our driveway and streets were buried with snow. However, when we got off Bangerter on 134th and headed west to their home, we realized they must have rec'd two feet of snow. Their neighborhood was buried. Thank goodness for snowplows. We were so glad we made it safely there. Once inside, we enjoyed dinner together with Trav's parents, sister Megan and Jeremiah, Tracie's next door neighbors who don't have family close and my dad. The kids opened a few more gifts and then we played Tracie and Anthony's new WII Fit. It was so much fun. I think I liked the ski jump and heading the soccer ball. My kids liked it so much that they used their Christmas money and bought one for our WII.

After a long but wonderful day, we headed home and crawled under our covers and stayed snowed in throughout the 26th. We played all day in and out of the snow and enjoyed all the fun presents the kids had rec'd on Christmas.

Merry Christmas 2008!

Christmas Eve 2008

In keeping with tradition, we celebrated Christmas Eve at Aunt Jane's house. We had traditional ham, yummy potatoes, green been casseroles, salads and birthday cake. Trav's dad has a Christmas eve birthday and we finished off dinner with cupcakes and ice cream. Following dinner we all headed downstairs and the program began. Our family was asked to provide the music, so Garrett played his trumpet and Lauren her viola. They played a couple of songs each. Following their music, Tracie and Anthony read a story about the symbols of Christmas and how they are symbols of Christ. It is easy to get caught up in shopping, food, and parties and to forget the real meaning of Christmas. While we have been studying scriptures as a family, we began reading Luke about a week before Christmas. It has been great to be studying the New Testament and focusing on Christ as a family. Following the story of Christmas symbols, Grandma Pat read "Twas the Night before Christmas" and gave each family their own copy. Finally, it was game time and it isn't a party with Jane unless there is a game. This game began with everyone drawing a card. It was a game of elimination and one adult one and one child. Brexton won the kids game and I won the adult game. I won $ 20! Following the game, several presents were passed out and pajamas unwrapped. We packed up kids and headed home. Lauren, Garrett and Ash assembled a plate with cupcakes from the party along with an unopened Coke on a Christmas plate for Santa. My dad had gone with Dave to Ogden to visit his parents grave and then out to play games at their home. We all headed to bed and awaited the morning.

Everyone's In Town for Christmas!!! 12/23/08

The holidays are always fun and bring family closer. My brother Paul and his family, who live in Seattle, come down to Salt Lake for the holidays each year. My dad, who lives in St. George, comes up for Christmas too. My other brother, David and his family who live close all got together a couple of time before Christmas. One night we played A Ticket to Ride - Europe at Sara's parents home. We love that game because it is a lot like Settlers, but even more fun! On the Tuesday before Christmas, we all had soup at my house. We enjoyed homemade chicken noodle and chili blanco. Yummy!





My cute niece Britnee (11) arrived carrying a cute frame with poem in it. She said that her teacher at school had asked each student to write a poem beginning with..."When you thought I wasn't looking...." I began to read the poem and started to cry. It was so sweet. We have loved having Britnee spend time with us this summer, fall and winter. She fits in so great with our family. She is so much like Lauren. They have a blast together. They do preschool for Ash, make arts and crafts, make lots of messes, but surprisingly clean them up well. She makes me laugh because she dresses so stylish and layers everything! I love her for her wanting to spend time with us and for writing this poem for me.


We ended the evening with watching TCU and Boise St play in the Poinsettia Bowl. It was fun to hang with family.

Lauren's Holiday Dance Performance - Dec. 19, 2008

Tonight was Lauren's Holiday dance performance. She did a solo dance to Dido's Christmas Day. Lauren did beautifully! I've attached a video. Lauren also danced with her class (preteen/senior tap & jazz). Lauren loved her costumes for both dances. She was especially fond of the fishnets! She's really enjoyed taking tap again this year. I love that Lauren is brave enough to get up and dance by herself in front of large crowds. She says her heart races, but you'd never know. I glanced over at Travis while she was dancing and tears were in his eyes. We are so proud of her! It was great to have Jacki and Speedy there, as well as the Kay's, to see her perform. Here is the video of her performance...

Santa party @ Grandma and Grandpa Naisbitt's - Dec. 18, 2008

Tonight we met at Grandpa Stu and Grandma Pat's home in Murray for a fun Christmas party. All of our family and extended family came. We had great food and the guest of honor arrived around 7pm. The kids heard jingle bells on the front porch and one raced to answer the door. Everyone cheered as Santa arrived. Ashton and all the little kids were so excited. Santa was so jolly and cute with everyone. He had Ashton pull on his beard to make sure it was real. He was in awe! All the kids sat on Santa's lap and told him what they wanted. As they got off his knee he handed them each a gift. Santa had a great sense of humor with the old kids too. He kidded my cousin Haley (16) about boys and Garrett (14) about girls. Lauren who earlier had said she didn't want to sit on his knee, climbed aboard eagerly. Everyone loves Santa.

Surgery tomorrow! 12/8/08

I haven't had a lot to report health wise or a while. Just the same old stuff - Herceptin every three weeks and Zomata every four weeks. However, today was a busy day, I worked this morning and then had an Echo at the Heart Center, followed by a pre-op appointment at Dr. Zempolich's and a pre-admittance appointment with a nurse at St. Marks. Tomorrow is the big day. I will no longer have periods! Yeah!!!!, but I might start having hot flashes or night sweats, yuck! Either way, in my remission game plan I can no longer have ovaries or fallopian tubes. They both produce estrogen and my cancer is fed by estrogen. The surgery is called LSC BSO (I have no idea what it stands for). If all goes well, the surgery will be outpatient. I should be home sometime in the afternoon. I'll be down for about a week and then hopefully feel almost back to normal.

I don't have my post-op. appointment yet, but I do meet with my oncologist again Thursday. Thanks for the good thoughts and prayers!

Garrett's Eagle Court of Honor 12/02/08

Today Garrett was awarded his Eagle Scout Award. This is the highest award one can earn in scouting. He began his journey towards Eagle when he turned 11. While 11 he earned his tenderfoot, 2nd class and 1st class advancement. His leaders, Rex, Bruce and Jeremy took Garrett and the troop camping three times and introduced them to scouting. Upon turning twelve, he started working towards his Life advancement. He worked on many required merit badges and began camping regularly. Ryan Colton was his scout master and was a great leader. The summer before Garrett turned 13 his troop went on a week long camp out - Hope of Israel. He had a great time and earned many merit badges. Shortly after summer camp, Nate Cox became the new scout master. He was very influential in Garrett's scouting experience. He really involved the scouts in decision making and they all set a goal to camp every month, even in the winter. Their camps involved winter camp, ice fishing and they continued working on merit badges. During this time, Garrett earned his Star advancement. Our ward was split in April 2008 and Dan Davis became Garrett's last scout master. They continued to camp a lot, mostly at Horseshoe Springs. He loved going to Camp Tomahawk this summer and earned the shotgun, archery, rowing, camping and other merit badges. Travis was able to go up and be with the boys for a couple of the days. He really didn't want to leave, but work called. Near the end of May, Garrett wrote up his proposal for his Eagle project, and then I got sick. We kind of put everything on hold for a few months until Dan Davis "bugged" Garrett and me to start it up again. Garrett made the necessary phone calls and flyers and organized his Eagle Project. The details of this project are on a previous post. All of the necessary interviews and paperwork were completed and we turned everything into the Boy Scout office the day before Garrett turned 14. Yeah! He met the goal that was proposed back when he turned 12.

Preparations for the Eagle Court of Honor began with me being educated on "How to" by Leslie and Trent Asay who had recently held their own court of Honor for their son Taylor. Bro. Allred conducted Garrett's Court of Honor. Garrett asked some of his former scout leaders to offer prayers and speak. He asked a couple of fellow scouts to do the music. Nate Cox, one of Garrett's scout masters gave an incredible talk about Eagles and how rare they are to spot and how amazing they are. The spirit was so strong while he spoke. Travis and I put together a DVD movie of Garrett's life and that was great to watch. A family friend of ours who is a mountain man, Leg Shot, did a short program on the symbol of the Eagle and Scout and Indians. It was great too. He was dressed in full mountain man gear, used paint on Garrett and they sat on a Buffalo skin. All the kids in the audience were way into this part. Finally, the part Garrett was waiting for, the presentation of his Eagle. He asked Dan Davis to present him his Eagle. Garrett present Travis and me the parent's pins and then awarded Nate Cox the Mentor pin. He gave a short talk about why he chose Nate and then thanked all of his scout leaders. Lastly, Garrett, his life long friend, Zach Anderson, Marsha Zach and Ashton Vandermyde, and Jake and Ali Lowry did a small orchestra's performance of Colonel Bogey. Garrett played his trumpet and they sounded great. We had great cake that was decorated by Heidi and Sherrie - it looked super! The night was so great! We so appreciate all of Garrett's leaders, friends and family. We are so proud of Garrett and this wonderful accomplishment!