A funny thing happened on our way to the family christmas letter!

We needed a family picture that wasn't so staged looking, but also wasn't so informal that it had that nice fake background that the photographers use (which Matt really hates,) so we started snapping pictures under protest from me, since I felt as though I was dead and knew that I didn't look like I was part of a happy family, but it needed to be done and since I had been sick for weeks it just seemed as if I would never have time before Christmas to look normal! We had gotten our Christmas tree the week before but those pictures were not so flattering to me either, so we decide to start over and use our beautiful living room as the backdrop. What happened turned out to be funny and then ended up with us just hoping that something turned out to be presentable enough for other's to see.

The funniest part of the whole session was when Kyler decided that he wanted to play the piano, a very loud song (that really annoys all of us! sortof like my 7 am wake up song when I was younger,) and the other two had had enough and didn't want to have anything to do with the piano or anything close to it's proximity! While devin gave the dirty looks, Matt decided that Mckenna should be giving Kyler a dirty look too and what you see is what we got on the camera! The funny thing is, is that while I snapped the picture Kyler had actually ended his song and Devin started waving me off because he had finally realized what I was doing and so it ended up looking staged! What do you think?

this too was put in the to be published file, but didn't get published, thanks for humoring me! ~S~

Friendship!

While Mckenna has been working so hard on her dancing, she has also made friends with a great set of girls! They range in age from sixth grade to her age group of 8 or 9! These are a few of the girls that she hangs out with the most! Soem of the girls like the very blonde and tall Kylee and the small Kyleigh (next to mckenna on the left,) are part of our car pool, the other girls are friend that she has made over the last few months but are on the same dance team- "ON BEAT!"
The girls were able to march in the Dixie rotary bowl parade and they had a great time! After that they had a few hours and then they were off to dancing at the Dicken's festival. They all looked great on stage and are progressing so well towards their competition time!

This was something that I had in the to be published file, but didn't get done on time. Hope you enjoy! 

Life~ and Goals (or resolutions!)

Yes, it has been a while since I wrote, I have been sick and running all over the place trying to get my stuff done while working at the Elementary school lunch room. I can't believe that one hour can feel like eternity sometimes. I feel as though that hour was more like 8 hours sometimes, maybe it is because I would go to the gym after the kids left for school, then run home and get cleaned up and then go to the lunch room, the only problem is that by the time I got home, ate my own lunch, then it was time for Kyler to come home, then Devin and then Mckenna and then start running around with all their activities. When you are sick (which had been going on for almost 2 months,) everything seems to be even more chaotic and so now 2 antibotics and sinus medication treatments later, I am starting to feel better( I have had the flu, strep and a sinus infection- all rolled into one long sickness,) I realize that life is not all that bad, Christmas was good, New Years was relaxing and 2006 is starting off to be absolutely beautiful!

Everyone puts on paper (or maybe in their head,) a few resolutions that they will accomplish for the new year, Our family like everyone else also wrote down a few resolutions (I like to take the extra step and make them goals!,) most of mine were started in November (okay a few were written this month too,) so far I am off to a good start but being really sick didn't help with my goal of eating better and working out regularly, but it did give me a good start on the lose a pound a week! Matt says that is the best way to lose weight instead of dramatic loses and then flatening out since your burned out.

When I workout I usually like to run on the treadmill, and until my healspurs decided to come along I was doing really well, but then I had to learn to do something else instead! It is too cold to ride my bike outside with the beautiful setting of the red rocks, and so I have learned to really love riding on the stationary bike and watching ER and Judging Amy on TNT at the Gym instead! I also added Strength training which while frustrating, (since I was curling 20 pounds before I got sick and now only curl 10 pounds,) really feels exhilirating. I finally understand that our bodies are made to move and while in the past I was moving, I was more like sightseeing through my life and not enjoying this gift that God has given to me ; good health (ok, not the last few months,) an unusually brillant mind :), a loving family which consists of fabulous parents, loving brothers and sisters, a aunt that treats me like a princess, a great husband who loves me, and spoils me to no end and very beautiful, active children that are always in full blast mode!
They say that exercise is good for your sense of being and when you are depressed to get out and find something to keep you moving, well, that is true! I feel so healthy (not the nonstuffy, noncongestion type of healthy, but the living life to the best type of healthy!)

I think that some of this sense of well being is the fact that I have 2 chapters left of the Book of Mormon challenge, I realize that the challenge was for fininshing in December but since I had 5 books to read on Joseph Smith for our ward Christmas play, I figuared that President Hinckley would be okay with me being 2 weeks late! I don't think that I have read the Book of Mormon ever straight through and I love finally getting all the stories and history straight into my brain and really enjoying them. It is tragic that the Nephites who have been given so much, destroy themselves by loosing so much of what they have been taught and turning down the wrong path. Which hey, happens alot and yet they still never learn! I guess that When Joseph Smith said that this was written for our day, he was right, we like the Nephites are happy to do what is asked if life is a breeze, but heaven forbid if life gets hard- do we actually smile and just keep plugging along with out murmuring? Well, some do, but not most, they start forgetting the things they are taught and just live life the easies way they know how! Hey, sometimes I do that with parenting, it is easier to fall back into the old habits and not have it work and get all upset with the kids, instead of doing what I know is right, because I am too tired to think of the better way. So, unlike the Nephites, I get up after I stumble, and keep plugging on with hope that life will get better!

But as of Right now, I am in that happy path and I hope to keep it going!