A Merry Christmas

This is the first year we didn't spend Christmas with Grandparents. But, we still had a wonderful Christmas. We missed our family, too. We got up on Christmas and said prayers and opened presents one at a time.

Lots of Joy in opening presents.

Awww. Love the timer on the camera.

The boys got skateboards. Everyone needed a turn.

Carter is pretty good going over the curb. Although there might have been a crash once or twice.

Court's a natural.

After the kids played outside and I had a nap we went over to the Taylors for taco bar. The kids love playing at the Taylors. The weather was perfect for them to play outside. The adults and some of the older kids played the looooooonges game of phase 10 EVER!! Annikka won. I hate losing. We had a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas day thanks to our wonderful friends.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve day wasn't your typical Christmas Eve day. But, it was a blast. Our friends invited us to ride quads. Of course, no pictures. I might have to steal some from Jenirae. The kids loved the quads. Court did happen to run into a huge tire. He was done after that:). Hailey was a natural and started going over small jumps towards the end. Carter was a little freaked out. Ellie wanted everyone to gives her rides. She's usually picky about who she warms up to, but she was just fine getting rides from Jenirae and Erik.
After lunch Erik got out his sandrail. Crazy. He took Jared and McKessa, Sam and Hailey on a ride. Apparently Hailey cried most of the time and said "Bro. Morrow, SLOW DOWN!" :) He did go about 130mph and pop a wheely. Pretty Cool. When they got back they all said that I needed to go. I was totally freaked. We took the boys. Court, Carter and Jacob. The boys thought it was totally awesome. I thought I was going to die the entire time, but I'm so glad I did it! Not sure I'd do it again;) He popped a wheely with us too and the boys kept telling him to do it again. The skin on my face got stretched by the wind. Great experience.

Christmas Eve night we were invited to the VanCott's home along with the Eaves. We had a wonderful dinner with 11 crazy kids running around. The VanCotts had warmed their hot tub, so all the kids got in, most of them were even crazy enough to jump and swim in the freezing pool. After the pool we read the Christmas story out of the bible and sang some Christmas hymns. It was beautiful. A great way to end the evening.

quote from Ellie

Today I took the day off from going to the school to help in my kids classes because I wanted to do some serious house cleaning.

I asked Jared to bring the trash can around to the back door because I was "going to tip the house upside down and dump everything in the trash."

Ellie said in a serious voice, "How you gonna do that mom?"

eleven...11....

...beautiful years........and he still makes my heart skip a beat.Happy Anniversary babe.

the power of your words

I've been noticing lately that one of my son's words have been real strong and a little on the unkind side. I knew that I needed to talk to my son about his words, but today something finally came out of his mouth (and my other son's mouth) that made me cringe. This afternoon got a little crazy and all the kids were loud and not listening. After a few scuffles it went too far......
One son yelled to the other son, "I HATE YOU!"
and the other son yelled back, "I hate you MORE!!"

I did my best to stay calm.

I FORCED all my kids to come and sit in my bedroom and be quiet. I then explained to them that because of the way they had acted that the spirit had left our home. I also explained that our home should be a place that we want to be and a place where we feel safe and loved and that I didn't feel like that right now. So I decided we'd read scriptures so that the holy ghost could come back and be with us.

After scriptures I excused all the kids except the one I needed to have a chat with.
I started our little talk by telling him how powerful his words were. That his words could make someone feel loved and special and happy or they could make someone feel sad and embarrassed and really hurt their feelings.

Then I told him this story...

Growing up there was one particular girl that always treated me badly. She hurt my feelings with her words. She made fun of me.
When we were in junior high there was a girl in our PE class that was Russian. She was quiet. None of her clothes were cute. You could tell that her family was not well off.
One day while we were changing out of our PE clothes the 'not so nice girl' noticed that this poor Russian girl had holes in her underwear. She made fun of her. She said "Oh my gosh, she is so poor that she has holes in her underwear!!" Of course some of the girls laughed at her. I remember being so angry. So angry. But I kept my mouth shut. There are so many things I could have said to make her stop.

As I was telling my son this story I started to cry. That poor girl. I'm so sorry I didn't say something. I don't know why I didn't say something. Maybe I was afraid that she'd start to make fun of me too.

I told him that I hoped he would realize what his words meant to others and that he would always try to make others feel good and that he would never let someone make fun of someone else without saying something because I still feel badly that I never said anything. I haven't thought of that in years, but it made me cry.

Of course we've all had experiences where we have been hurt by words or we've hurt someone else. I am self conscious about my nose because of a comment that was made to me in high school. Silly, I know but words are powerful. I just pray that unkind words will never come from me or one of my kids.

Utah Summer Games June 18-20, 2009

We went to Cedar City, Utah for the Utah Summer games. Jared played basketball with my brothers Ike and Dan and Behka's husband Rob and two other guys and my Dad kinda coached, and the kids ran around. We got into Cedar City right as the game was starting and then had a bit of a problem finding the way to the gym. I think we missed the first half or first quarter. That night there was a hoop shoot for the adults. None of the guys wanted to do it, but there was no chance Behka and I were going to miss a chance to shoot:). We did freethrows, 3 pointers and hot shot.
o find out if we won or not because it was already late and we needed to feed a million kids and get in bed. As we are leaving the gym,I think it was Ike, asked my dad, "dad, how old is Jess?" My dad wouldn't look him in the eyes...and he replied "29.". Then he confessed that he knew I was 30, but he couldn't have his only two daughters compete against each other. I can't remember what all the age groups were, but Behka and I both should have been in the 30-35 age group. I didn't even notice because my dad is the one that signed us up!! Very sneaky. We got a good laugh about that. Then an even bigger laugh the next day when we went back to the gym and found out that we had both taken gold in all 3 contests. Then it wasn't quite as exciting when they told us that there was only 2 women in each of our age groups. 2. So, we both beat 1 lady. Hilarious. AND the poor women in my age group should have gotten all GOLD instead of silver.e guys game on Friday morning got cancelled because the other team ended up not coming. So there was an empty court. We took full advantage. We had races and dribbling games and attempted to teach Hailey how to do a lay-up. We've got some fast kidders.Behka, Jackie and I played volleyball with Jackies neice and two of Behka's friends from her ward, Savannah and Maxine. We had so much fun. We ended up barely getting into the gold medal tournament and then won a few and lost a few and didn't place. It was still so much fun.This is Jackie my SIL, #24.Behka serving.The Utah Summer Games were so fun! Pretty soon it will be our kids playing instead of us!

It will never be the same.

Great Stafford's house. I remember setting up a tent in Grandma's back yard and having a sleep over with my cousins. I remember jumping on her little trampoline as a child and then my children jumping on it the past several times we've been to visit. Last summer Grandma even jumped on it herself. I remember going to Grandma's after one of my basketball games in junior high and getting ready for a dance. I remember picking apples out of her apple tree and looking at her hydrangea and other flowers she had in her garden. When I was younger Grandma and Grandpa used to always have diet root beer in there refrigerator. What a treat! I remember playing in her back yard and walking on her stepping stones.

My Grandfather died about 1 1/2 years ago and Grandma was living there by herself ever since. A few months ago she got really sick and then really confused and spent some time in the hospital. I've always felt like I've had a special relationship with Grandma so it has been upsetting to me. I'm sure all of her grandchildren feel this way.

After Grandma's hospital stay she was sent to an Alzheimer's unit at a nursing home. When we were visiting we went to see her almost everyday. It was so upsetting. She wasn't herself. Before she got sick and we'd talk on the phone we would always find something to laugh about together, trying to find something to cheer her up was difficult. The worst part was when we had to leave. I could see the loneliness in her eyes and on her face. She would walk us over to the door and it has a window that you can see through. She would watch us go out and then once the door was shut and she was locked in, she waved to us. Everyday she would tell us that she was planning on going home the next day, back to her house. All of my kids wanted to go to her house so bad. They would ask when they could go to her house. That was upsetting too.

After one of these visits I called Jared and told him I wanted her to come live with us. I told my Dad and he didn't think it was a good idea. She just seems so miserable there. I'm not sure that her living with us would make her happy either, but the idea of her being in an Alzheimer's unit and being miserable hurts my heart. I know that she has family visiting often and she still remembers everyone. I know when family visits it does lift her spirits.

While we were visiting her one day we went out in the garden area. It has a huge cement wall as a fence, so that none of the patients can escape. Grandma and I grabbed two chairs and sat on the sidewalk and I held her hand while Opa, Hailey, Ellie and Tahlia played red light, green light. I loved sitting there with her talking and listening to the children laugh and play. We had a few airplanes go overhead and Grandma explained to me that she waves to all the planes just in case someone up there might be able to see her. This is by far my favorite memory of our visits there with her.

She will never be able to go back to her home. And her home will never be the same without her in it. I didn't go see her home the way she left. I regret that.

I love that my kids had the opportunity to know their Great Grandma and Grandpa. I love that my kids got to run through their yard and jump on their trampoline and do the things that I did as a child. I hope those are the memories that my kids keep.

Big Ride

School FINALLY got out on Tuesday and we took our first field trip yesterday. One of my best friend's husband combines for a living and he was working close to home so he said we could bring the kids for a ride. Court wasn't excited to go. He wanted to stay home, but I forced him to go anyway. I told him he could stay in the car and watch a movie. As soon as we got there and he saw the combine there was no way he was going to stay in the car!I was nervous that Ellie would be scared, but she was the first one up the latter. Chris was so good to the kids. They loved every second of it! I'm sure they could tell you more about what is going on than I could.

He took them up and down the field but then they had to stop because the semis were running behind and he got too full and the tractor was already full too.

The semi finally arrived and the driver honked his horn for kids...it was loud!!

After they filled the semi up they were right back to the field. It was fun to see Chris empty the wheat into the tractor's trailer.

I had to convince Chris and Kim to let me take their picture in the wheel.
I think this was the best field trip the kids went on all year!! None of the kids wanted to leave and were asking when they could come back. Court told me he wasn't leaving!!!

the SEASON FINALE we've ALL been waiting for

Amazing stuff. Kids are amazing. All of them. I can't believe how much my kids and their teammates have grown and improved this season. All three of our soccer players have gained skills and confidence. It has been so fun to watch and see.


They all had terrific coaches!!


Saturday was their last games. Amazingly I got to see all three of them. They all played fabulously. A wonderful sight to see!


8 am. Hailey's team played the team that they played the very first game of the season. The first game they lost 6-0...ouch. This time they lost 1-0. Such an improvement!!! The other team has an amazing coach (not as amazing as ours) and he has coached some of the girls since they were 4.



Carter's game was next at 9:30. They SMOKED the other team. I felt just a little bad for them. Carter scored a goal!! He is so darn cute out there. He's our most confident athlete so far!!


Court's game was last and it was super HOT by 10:30. He was amazing. All over the place. He played full back for the first quarter and forward the rest of the game. Their final score was 0-0. Lots of great defense by both teams.THE GANG!! ...and who could forget the cutest fan ever! Ellie was such a good sport being dragged from practice to practice, field to field, game to game, week after week after week.We are all excited about the next SEASON PREMIER....as long as it doesn't happen for awhile. Mom's warn out.