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I read Chad's e-mail to his sister and thought it was lots of good info, so I copied it for you..... We are surviving. It was hard for the kids to adjust to getting up for school again. We had some tired kids. But we are back into the swing of things. We had the pinewood derby on Thursday night. Reid got second place overall, he was really excited. Mom , Dad, and Melissa came. Tanner had winter ball last night. There were 5 couples in his group. They did all kinds of activities during the day. They ended it by coming to our house to watch a movie and have ice cream pie. They watched Kung Fu Panda. They only spent about 30 minutes at the dance. But it was too loud, so they went over to the Stake dance. He said he had a good time. He spoke in sacrament meeting today. By the time he took his date home it was 1:00. Then he worked on his talk until 2:00 (even though his Dad told him to work on it Saturday morning). So he went to bed at 2:00 and woke up at 5:00 to do his paper route. We thought he was going to fall asleep on the stand today. It was an adjustment today to go from 3:00 to 8:00 church today. We still made it there by 7:40. Jacob started basketball this week. He has 5 of his friends on the team, so he is really excited. Usually in soccer he ends up on another team than his friends. The other night was my turn to pick up him and 3 of his friends after practice. I went to pick them up and they were not there. His coach said another dad had picked them up. So I called Tarilynn and told her that someone else had picked them up, I was kind of mad. Then I went to lock up the store. Tarilynn called me about a ½ hour later and said Jacob was not home yet. While she was talking to me Jacob called her on another phone and said they were at the school and needed picked up. They had gone to another side of the school and had gotten locked out. They had been outside for over 30 minutes. Finally they had gotten in the building and found someone with a phone. I felt bad that I had left them.

Tired!

So, it's after 11:00. I'm tired. BUT, I can't go to sleep yet because there are 10 teenagers in my basement watching a movie. I guess that means I'm chaperoning. I paid all the bills, I guess this is the next on my list. It's Winter Ball tonight for Tanner. I'm sure he's having a great time. I can't ask yet. He claims he got pictures so I can't wait to post them. Blake went to work at the restaurant tonight with Chad. We put the restaurant on Craig's List a couple weeks ago, and are going to list it with a realtor on Monday. We'll see what happens there. Jacob wanted to stay up really bad to torment Tanner and his friends, but we wouldn't let him. Reid thought it would be fun too. Jacob and Reid spent hours cleaning their room today, THEY FOUND CARPET! Shocking! The boys have all been saving their money for months and saved enough for a Wii. We got one last week and the younger ones have been spending all their free time on it. I was able to beat Blake in Boxing, but then he beat me. Jacob has been bugging me all day to play him, so I did, and he knocked me out in about a minute. Sad, really. Rylee really likes it too. We start our 8:00 am church tomorrow. What a switch....we went from 3pm to 8 am. Yuck...I think I will like it better, though. Well, I don't know what to say but, good night.

Christmas!

Christmas came and went. Wow, that was fast. Rylee was in a play with her kindergarten class...The penguin that saved Christmas. It was cute. She was a reindeer. Jacob had a sock exchange and came home with the cutest socks with pink, green and yellow hearts. He loves them and wears them. He scares me. They go great with the piggy pajamas Tasha made him for Christmas. Just cute pics of the kids:...... One of our Christmas Eve traditions.. Graham cracker houses. Reid and Chad changed theirs up. They used pretzel logs (Reid's idea, for Lincoln's cabin of course.) Jacob did join in with us, but somehow was missed in the picture taking. Tanner had to do his alone because he had to go to work. Oh the joys of growing up. Rylee and her new fridge. We found it at a garage sale this summer. She has been dying to know what it was. It was worth the wait. We went to Chad's parents for Christmas Eve and had a nice night. Missed my other family, though. The kids woke us up this year. It used to be us that did the waking until about 3 years ago. We thought our kids were weird. Chad and I would be showered and dressed, wondering if they were ever going to wake up. They did wait till 7. We had a nice day, lots of movie watching, relaxing and napping. I had to teach Relief Society today for a friend. I was teaching the talk that Pres. Monson gave in Conference. Finding Joy in the Journey. Ironic? I thought so. So, that was in my head for the last few days. Now, I am looking forward to a week of few responsibilities, no worries of getting things ready. Maybe the boys and I will clean out the house. Probably not. We took the tree out the day after Christmas. We found out why we usually chop our own down. It was pretty sad looking, and probably should have gone out a week earlier. I was afraid of it catching fire every night. We didn't dare turn the lights on. Oh well, we still had a wonderful Christmas, hope you all did too. Happy Newey Year! Oh, I almost forgot. Reid got a huge dinosaur lego thing for Christmas, he and Jacob spent most of the day putting it together, so I told him I'd put a pic of it on here.

Blake concert

Blake had a Jazz Band concert at the Festival of Trees last week. It was pretty good. Here's a sample. I was a bad mom and forgot the video camera and my camera, so this is off my phone. Bad recording, but you get the point. He's the blur on the top second from the right. He plays the trumpet. Love Christmas. MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

A day in the life of Rylee

Rylee took my phone a couple days ago at work and thought she'd document her life. This is a very fuzzy picture of where she spends way too much time. Her little chair, bucket, lunch bag, and bucket that holds coloring books, toys, and lots of movies.

My sweet baby .

Yep, sometimes she even helps me work. child labor laws? do they apply to your own child?

Is that a sincere smile? Happy to be there! Do you think I scare the customers away?

I guess that's the angle she always sees me. ICK

Beautiful self portrait

Her angel. Lots of pictures with angel around the restaurant.

One of my employees gave her candy. I now have about 10 pictures of her candy hand.

Me cleaning! The restaurant was really clean that day. My house? another story altogether.

Precious!

We have about 200 pictures now on my camera. Thanks Rylee! Every inch of the restaurant documented forever!

Conversation with Rylee

Reid threw up last night, so Chad and I were trying to decide if he should go to church today. Rylee says, "if he stays home, can I too?" We laughed, "no, you're not sick" "But I had a sore throat" (yesterday) "No, you have to go to church" Chad then said, "Do you want me to spin you around really fast so you will be sick?" Rylee: "YES! PLEASE spin me around really fast, PLEASE!" So, Chad didn't actually do it, but I don't know why we've never had an issue with my 4 boys about going to church. But my little girl has been fighting us on this since she was 2! Go figure. Can't wait till she's 14!

Halloween

Just thought I'd post my cute kids and their costumes. Tanner and Blake dress up as good as their parents do. Jacob is a...well, Jacob. Reid is George Washington. We took him in to his 1st grade teacher who started this fascination so she could see that he's not outgrown it yet. Rylee is a cute bumblebee, she loved that everyone told her how cute she was. Reid got tired of telling people he was not Jack Sparrow. I thought we did a pretty good job of turning him into George Washington. I just realized I put the picture in without his wig. Here's with the wig. Happy November!