CHFSC Winter Extravaganza

On Monday, December 13th, Morgan skated in the Cottonwood Heights Figure Skating Club Winter Extravaganza. She was so excited to perform with her friend, Kelli. They skated to "Sleigh Ride" and did a beautiful job. We are so proud of all the hard work she puts into skating!

A little fun from Morgan...

I came home from work at the hospital and saw this scene in Morgan's room. I said, "Morgan, why do you have clothes hanging from your shelf?". She said, "Oh, that's my work out area and those are my work out clothes. Did you see my step?"

Priceless.

Also, a few weeks ago, we were driving home from skating and she was quiet in the backseat. Pretty soon she asked, "Mom, are we Lutheran or Catherine?". Perhaps I need to stop working on Sundays?

Swire Christmas Party

It is fun to get dressed up once in awhile! Our turn was on Saturday for the Swire Coca Cola Christmas Party. The event was held downtown at the Little America. We had a wonderful meal, great conversation, and many laughs provided by comedian, Ryan Hamilton. After the show,we hit the dance floor. What a great evening!

Christmas cards

The pictures I used for our Christmas cards this year were taken at Sundance. What a beautiful fall day it was and what fun we had wandering around in the amazing scenery.

Every year I think, "should I send Christmas cards out?". I whine about the cost of postage, and wonder if we'll get a good picture where everyone is smiling and possibly looking at the camera. Then I remember one of my favorite things about the Christmas season... RECEIVING cards and pictures in the mail. Each afternoon, I can't wait for the mail truck to pull up and deliver our mail. I love reading what people have been up to and seeing how big their children have grown. It brings a smile to my face and joy to my day.
Is it 4 o'clock yet?

Off the furniture...

On Saturday morning, we had a fun time at the Swire Coca Cola kids' holiday party, which was held at Incredible Pizza. The kids had so much fun in the arcade, playing laser tag, and eating a yummy breakfast and lunch!

Our first visit from the dog trainer was that afternoon. Mary Ann Harmon came to our home and worked with us and the dogs for over 3 hours. She had an incredibly calm demeanor, was helpful in describing the "why" of each exercise we were learning, and got the kids involved in the training as much as she could. The change in the dogs after the first couple of hours and for the past 2 days has been incredible. We have a more to learn, and dog training homework each day, but it is well worth it. I would recommend Bark Busters to any dog owner.

I think Bert is wondering what happened to his little world. He was here first and was always well behaved...he has always slept with Cole. Now, all the dogs have to be crated at night, and kept off the furniture to reinforce their places in the pack. The girls are adjusting pretty well... Maggie has became more submissive and respectful, and Abby does well on her own training, but gets nervous when I train them all together. I promise to have patience with her.
We are committed to making this a happy home for everyone- humans and dogs!

Rich's 42nd Birthday!

I am so thankful for Rich. There are so many things to love about him:

• he is an incredible father
• he is hard working
• he can fix anything
• he is a comfort to me
• he is handsome
• he is witty
• he is smart
  
• he shares my love of dogs
• he keeps me warm
• he loves me even when I'm hard to love
  
• he is loyal
• he is honest
• he is my best friend
  

We celebrated Rich's birthday with his favorite dinner of chicken enchiladas, salad, and cupcakes from Coldstone Creamery! The kids made a great birthday sign for Rich and helped get the house and table ready. Marcia & David came over to help celebrate. Rich was, as usual, hoping for a new Mustang in the garage with a ribbon on top. Maybe some day...

I love you!

Thanksgiving Break

Cole and Morgan

Morgan and Emilie Mudd

The boys!

The willow is trying to hold up all that snow

Wonder if the fish are cold?

We had planned to go to Vegas for Thanksgiving break, so Rich had the whole week off! We started off the first weekend of break with a big snowfall, and me working at the U. The days were quiet at the hospital, so there was still plenty of time to hang out with Rich and the kids.

God works in mysterious ways. We were so grateful to be in town to help out our amazing neighbors, Marcia and David. David had a heart attack on Sunday and it was scary for a few hours. Now, he is home and recovering nicely.

Tuesday, I worked at the U and we were supposed to have the "blizzard of the decade" here. I hurried to leave work before 6PM. The clouds and wind made the whole valley black and eerie. It seemed like it would be a huge storm. Rich was busy at home getting candles and wood ready for the fireplace. Well, the wind did come, and a whopping 3 inches of snow. It was a disappointing blizzard for this Montana girl.

We were grateful that we hadn't left town, as we woke to frozen pipes on Thanksgiving morning. Rich spent about 5 hours thawing them out. We spent the rest of Thanksgiving at the Browns' (because Marcia is a rock star and still wanted to do Thanksgiving at her house), along with their good friends from Louisiana, the Mudd family. We all pitched in with the cooking, while sharing some great conversation, laughter, and festive drinks. It was a great dinner, followed by singing along with the karaoke machine. What a fun day and another reason to be thankful.

I am happy to skip the Black Friday shopping chaos, and went to the gym and sledding instead. The kids had a blast, and so did Rich and I. That evening, both kids had friends over for a sleepover.

It was so nice to have everyone under one roof for a whole week.
My happiest moments are when everyone is home together.

Morgan's Native American Project

4th graders study Native American history and culture as part of their curriculum.
For Morgan's project, she created a very cool tee pee scene. She had so much fun coming up with ideas... who knew that skewers could be so versatile?

4.0

Cole rocked his first term of middle school with a 4.0 grade point average!
Thank you for being the kind of kid that loves school, that makes friends quickly,
and that makes us proud daily!

Dog Lovers

"I talk to him when I'm lonesome like; and I'm sure he understands.
When he looks at me so attentively, and gently licks my hands;
then he rubs his nose on my tailored clothes,
but I never say naught thereat.
For the good Lord knows I can buy more clothes,
but never a friend like that."
~W. Dayton Wedgefarth

Dog lovers we are. It has certainly been proven this week. I have to blog about this because, for me, this blog is about all aspects of our life as a family, even the hard ones. On Wednesday evening, the kids took all 3 dogs for a walk. Upon returning, Abby and Maggie got into a fight in our backyard. I do believe that Maggie would have fought until she killed Abby. After what seemed like an eternity, and trying so many different things to break them up, I was finally able to get Maggie to loosen her grip on Abby, and Abby ran into the house. Both of them were bleeding and limping around. I have to say, it was one of the scariest things I have ever witnessed. Bert just watched and barked, like he didn't know what was happening.
The kids were so scared and crying.

I was trying to be brave, but was having some difficulty with that. I started to bandage Abby up, after bathing her to get the blood off and inspect her wounds. She was shaking uncontrollably. After getting her cuddled into some blankets, Maggie was let in so I could inspect her wounds. She, too, had some battle scars. I bandaged her up. Then came the hard part...

Our only option, it seemed, that night was to give Maggie to another home or take her to the Humane Society. We are huge advocates for getting "second hand" dogs, and strongly support the Utah Humane Society. We cried for hours, all of us, and decided that we would take her there on Thursday afternoon.

Thursday morning was filled with more tears and goodbyes from the kids to Maggie. It was so hard to watch and my gut was wondering through all of this if we had other options. While Rich was in meetings, I called our vet. They highly recommended a company called Bark Busters to help remedy this behavior. I didn't know that Rich was also trying to think of other options at that time, as he didn't feel right giving her up and making her someone else' s problem. We decided to cancel our upcoming trip to Vegas and, instead, spend the money on getting the dogs and our family the training we need to make this a happy home for all of us.

So, the kids thought they would come home to only 2 dogs. Cole made it through his day at school, thinking that our decision from the night before was final. Morgan had a rough day at school, could barely eat, and her teacher called me at 2 o'clock to come get her, as she had thrown up...on Mrs. Winzenried's lap top. She was totally distraught by the fact that Maggie was going away. Both kids were thrilled to find Maggie waiting for them, and were happy to give up our trip over Thanksgiving in order to pay for training.

The trainer was not available until December 4, but we will get by until then. Wish us luck and the ability to "learn new tricks" as we begin this training! We'll let you know how it goes.

"While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about."
~Angela Schwindt~

Disney on Ice

On Sunday, we attended Disney on Ice at the Energy Solutions Arena. Morgan was SO excited to go, and Cole said he was just going "because they have good food in the suite". He did, however, watch the show intently! It was so much fun to watch the skaters in costume perform scenes from The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, Lilo & Stitch, and Peter Pan.

Park City

The princess is packin' heat!

Happy Birthday Greg!

Cole and Morgan hanging out in the hot tub overlooking Main Street

Uncle Greg & Uncle David meet Alex for the first time

We spent Friday night in Park City to hang out and go to a birthday party for Mike Herring. We had some time to relax at the condo (thanks Greg) before the party, have some pizza, and see baby Alex! It was so fun to be there when Greg & David got to meet him! We ventured down the block to the Downstairs for the birthday party and music by an 80's cover band.
Awesome evening!

November

November is here already! We've already celebrated some birthdays: my brother, Dean, just celebrated his 46th birthday on October 27. My beautiful mom just celebrated her 69th birthday on the 2nd. My dad would have also turned 69 this date. For my 38th birthday, I 've had a week of celebrating. Rich and the kids took me to dinner before he left for Atlanta, I had dinner with Marcia & Jenny, went to lunch with Lisa, Becky, and Karen from the gym, am going to lunch with Lisa B. today, and get to see Greg & David this weekend! I feel loved!!

This November, we are looking forward to Morgan officially joining the Cottonwood Heights Figure Skating Club! She has been skating for over a year now, and it seems that this is going to be her "thing". We are taking the next step, and making a bigger time commitment to her skating. She will join the club and start training with a coach. Cole will be starting another season of Jr. Jazz basketball! In between all that, we have more birthdays to celebrate! We are excited that the kids have a whole week off for Thanksgiving! Rich is taking the week off so we can all spend some fun and relaxing time together.

Halloween

My little devil...

Cole wore this jack o' lantern costume when he was 3 (my mom made it) and again in 7th grade. Takes a lot of confidence to pull this off when you're 12!

Cole's scary costume for trick or treating

Daddy & Morgan

Too cold for my planned costume, wore Cole's uniform instead!

Halloween was celebrated for a few days at our home. I think Morgan got to wear her costume 4 times! The school party at Willow Canyon was so much fun for the kids and they all looked great in their costumes. Morgan went to an ice skating party with Kelli at Cottonwood Heights on Friday, and had fun skating and playing games.

Halloween night was celebrated on Saturday in Utah. Cole headed up to Pepperwood to trick or treat with Neema and Seana. Morgan and Savannah went around our neighborhood with Rich. This mom stayed home to hand out candy to all the little ghouls and goblins. The kids came home with an overabundance of candy filling their pillow cases. Hello Mr. Dentist! On Sunday, we had a fun evening with Marcia, David, & Jenny and their spooky appetizers! Of course, we laughed, sang tunes, and visited until the kids reminded us that it was a school night!

Patriot of the Month- October 2010

Patriot of the Month, October 2010, Eastmont Middle School

Accepting his award... no shoes on

"Pretty Fly for a White Guy" dance

Each month at Eastmont Middle School, teachers nominate students they think should be chosen as student of the month. Once the nominations are in, the teachers vote. At an all school assembly on October 27, Cole was given the Patriot of the Month award for October. He was surprised and said, "it was weird getting an award while wearing shorts and no shoes." The reason he had no shoes on, is that his dance class was going to perform later in the assembly. He was chosen because of his academic performance, but also because of his citizenship skills: respect, kindness toward others, leadership, etc. We are so proud!

Wheeler Farm & pumpkin carving!

One of our favorite times of year is Halloween. We took a trip to Wheeler Farm to get our pumpkins this year. It was a rainy day, and there were not a lot of people there. The corn maze was pretty fun, as the kids could see over the hay bales making up the maze. We went on a hay ride in our very own wagon, explored around the farm, saw some goats,
and picked out pumpkins. Here are some pictures of us carving jack o' lanterns
to get ready for the big night.