MORP and PROM

Prom 2009

They have had so much fun together...it is going to be hard for Ash next year with Shaley gone off to college!
This is what we woke up to at 5:30 one morning...Joesph asking Ashlin to Prom..it says "Since I'm so stuck on you...would you go to prom with me?" I thought it was a cute idea.
This was Shaleys invite....I never know what I will wake up to at our house. I got up at 6:30 on a Sunday morning and Rustin was in the living room doing this.

MORP
They asked the boys by giving them the personalized M&M.'S WE have had a busy few months of dances

Elder Merrell update

I wasn't too surprised to get this picture since Chase loves to try anything....he said that he has been fed all kinds of interesting things because his companion has told people how he likes "different" stuff.

this is his district..he is still in the first area he was sent. He has a new companion now who he loves but does not have a sense of humor...that is hard for Chase being that he comes by his sarcasm rightfully. He said there is a family they are teaching and the little boy hopped on Chases lap and said "I like you but why do you always bring him with you?"
This is one of the 18 baptisms they have had. It is such a great feeling to know he is out there changing people lives!

Catching up

Winter formal

It has been a long time since I posted anything. I haven't been in the blogging mood. I also went private for a little while because we had some friends over and they were googling their names to see what came up. We laughed because some really strange things came up with their names. My oldest child decided she wanted to try it so she googled her name and all of her pictures from the blog came up. It made me realize how careful we need to be with our kids names online.

Chase is doing great. He is feeling pretty comfortable with Portuguese. He loves his companion and says he has been such a big help. The two of them opened the area they are in so that was exciting for them. They have been very successful so far. We have only gotten one picture from him because some little Brazilian kids were playing with his camera and deleted all his pictures! I just received this one and it was taken at Christmas. I guess mail going to Brazil is faster than it coming this direction..two months for my last letter to get here.

The basketball pictures show what we ahve been doing the past few months. All 5 kids were on b-ball teams so we have lived at the gym. It has been a lot of fun. We will be heaed to Prescott for state. The girls have reallly improved this season and made it to state.

This year was a really great Christmas...I feel guilty saying it was the best Christmas ever. I feel like i shouldn't say that because Chase isn't here with us but I truly believe that is why it was the best Christmas ever...we have our son out in the mission field serving the Lord. WE got some nice gifts but Christmas this year was much more simple than usual. the best thing about it was that not one of our kids complained that there wasn't as much as usual! Chase is doing great and is so excited to leave the MTC on the 30th and like he said..."be a real missionary". He had said he might get to call on the 30th so we are excited about that. We didn't get a phone call on Christmas because they are not allowed to call from the MTC.

Well, we hope you all had a Merry Christmas and look forward to a great New Year!

Christmas eve was great again this year as usual! We all get together at my moms house and we had our dinner of ham, chips, dip and tons of goodies. We then had the nativity and then went caroling..which didn't work out too well this year. We were in two trucks instead of a trailer and it sounded most of the time like we were trying to sing a round...but not too good of one. That's ok though, we had a lot of fun anyways. We headed back to Duncan that night so our kids opened their new p.j.'s and off we went. It was such a nice Christmas Eve. We have the best family ever. We enjoy getting to visit and watch all of the kids play and be so excited for Christmas. The tradition of being an angel in the nativity until you are married still continues...Chad...you have anther year to take care of that;) (Ithink he makes a good angel)

We have so many kids now that it was hard to fit them into one picture. This is the first half...more down the pictures a ways. Every year Grandpa reads from the Bible while the kids reenact the story of Christs birth. This tradition is a very special one for our family. Ron then talked to us about the reason we are all together on Christmas. He talked about Aunt Debbie who has passed away. It was a real tear jerker for all of us. What a special family we have!

Me, Bryce, Ashlin, Kendra, Braelyn and Shaley. Bryce was so jealous of Braelyn...he was trying so hard to get to his mom.

The other half of the Nativity.

Brett's Christmas pajamas. They get better every year!

Where all of this started! Uncle Tom, My mom Judy, Grandpa and Grandma Goodman, and Uncle Ron.

Brooke, Koy, Nicole, Ashlin, Shaley, Kendra and Makenna...They are all so pretty!

Billy, Chad, Cale, Eldon and Trey waiting for the food to be ready.

On our way to Pomerene. We went on the 23rd to visit. It was nice to be all ready for Christmas two days before. It was a nice trip.

Photo shoot

Over Thanksgiving weekend our friends were in town and she takes wonderful pictures. We took our kids around Duncan and had so much fun. We had a good Thanksgiving but I think it might take a while to get things back in shape around the house. Thanks Celia for all your help! She is a great sister in law and always helps TRY to keep things cleaned up after everyone. We were just out numbered this time!

Shaley, Ashlin and Jalin out on Grandpa Merrells farm.

The "Supermodels"

Shaley, Trey, Makenna, Cale and Ashlin

Trey, Cale and Trevin. They weren't suppose to be in the "photo shoot" but they kept finding their way in the pictures. Especially Cale. I will have to post some of him later....he is quite the "model" without Chase here to beat him up when he acts goofy!

Where Chase is.

Sao Paulo Brazil Temple

The MTC in Sao Paulo. I had no idea it was this huge.

We have been able to get emails from Chase so that has been very exciting for us. He is doing so good. He loves it in Brazil and is so excited to be there. He has always had a very strong testimony but to hear how it has grown in a short 3 weeks is amazing to me. We haven't gotten any pictures from him yet but I did find some pictures of the MTC and of the Temple there. They get to go to the Temple every Wednesday. They will be going out tomorrow proselyting. It will be the first attempt to teach in Portuguese. It will be frun to hear from him next week and see how that went. He said they know all of the discussions in Portuguese but I know it will different once they get out among the Brazilians. That is what makes the MTC experience there so cool.