Uncle Travis is Home!

Emotional hugs from Mom and Dad

My younger brother Travis got home from his mission tonight. He served in Mexico and had a great experience, besides getting sick and losing a lot of weight.

We were driving to the airport to welcome him home and I told Calvin to take a little nap and he replied, " I will just rest with my eyes open, that sounds like a good idea." Then he started singing London bridges and his version says, " Take the key and knock her up!" Jon and I both looked at each other and burst out laughing. I am sure he meant lock but it was so funny. He also asked what Travis does for work. We told him we didn't know what he would do for a job yet and Calvin came up with a great solution, "He can work and build stuff with tools, like I do."

BreAnna brought a sombrero and some maracas and the kids had fun with those. Calvin made a card for Travis. Everyone went home after the airport because Travis was exhausted. It was so good to see him and we are glad that he is home safe. We will get to visit with him some more on New Years Eve.

Here are some pictures of the family waiting for his plane to come in.

Me and Dad

Bambie, Zach and Candice


BreAnna, Josh and their festive sign

Mom, Lily and Grandma

Andy and Megan

Calvin and the awesome sombrero

Halley and Nannies

This is a picture from 2006 when we took Travis to the MTC. Calvin was Lily's age (18 months) and I was 8 weeks pregnant with Lily.

Calvin's thinking

Calvin Says, "Mom, I am not little like Lily, but I am not big yet, so that means I am just a medium boy."

Gingerbread houses

Okay, so they are not really gingerbread, but graham crackers were easier. Calvin had a blast decorating and Lily had a blast eating all of the candy. It was a fun family night.

Funny Kids

The kids having been playing rather well together lately. They have a blast taking a bath together. They sit in there and laugh and splash until the water is cold. Besides the occasional, "Calvin, if you push Lily one more time, Santa is not coming this year." They have been very good.

Lily still isn't talking much. She does say: No, No. Yes, mom, dad, nana (everything is nana), and a few more words. But besides not talking, she communicates very well. She will do just about anything you ask her to do. Or tell you she doesn't want to do it in a very clear way. Her facial expressions are so cute and funny that she pretty much tells you what she is thinking just by looking at you. She loves giving Mom kisses, but she is very selective about when she will give Dad or Calvin kisses. She gets so excited whenever someone she knows walks into the room, she claps and screams, and laughs and bounces, it is so funny. She is a little joy to have around, I can't wait to see her open her Christmas presents.

Calvin is a character as always. He wants a castle for Christmas but he said to me this morning, "Mom, I already have a castle (Jon built him a lego castle), maybe Santa can take the castle to another kid who doesn't have one." He has such a big heart and he is always worried about other people. He loves to go see the "activity"(nativity) down the street, because he loves everything about the story of baby Jesus.

Calvin told me tonight that I had the cutest eyes, and the cutest smile, and the cutest hair, and then he said "Mom, you are just a cutie."

The other day, the song "Womanizer" by Brittany Spears, came on in the car. Calvin heard it, so of course he sings womaniza, womaniza. At breakfast Calvin says "Lily, your a womaniza." I respond "Calvin, girls aren't womanizer's" he responds "fine, Dad your a womaniza, womaniza." We were all laughing so hard.

I love having these cute little kids around to make me smile everyday.

The end of the year rush!

December is usually an easy going time of year for me. Real estate seems to slow down, I have fun buying a few gifts and I enjoy all of the parties.

This year has been completely different. I am pretty busy with real estate, which is a blessing, besides the never ending nightmare that seems to come with one couple. I feel so bad for them, everything has gone wrong and we have made 8-10 offers in 5 months, had 4 under contract and finally, they are suppose to close this week on a house we just put under contract last Wednesday because the house they did have under contract had a crazy lady living there. And anyways, that is just another story all together. So let us all cross our fingers that they are in their new home for Christmas!

Being the Primary President at the end of the year is not something I bargained for. We have been getting new teachers called, new manuals ready, shopping for new birthday gifts, and the list goes on and on. It is incredibly time consuming. And I am hoping everything goes well with the transition to new classes and teachers and seating the first couple of weeks of January. And I didn't expect a message I got from the bishopric yesterday of a whole new task I will be doing the next couple of weeks, which is just a stressful situation that I will have to write about once it is done.

I am not done Christmas shopping, close, but I have the select few people I am having trouble buying for. I bought stuff for neighbor gifts, wrapped them and then realized I had something else I was going to wrap with them.

And on top of this, I have had some sort of stomach sickness again! These flu like symptoms have come around about 10 times in the last few months. I went to the doctor today because I couldn't stand the nausea and other things any longer. Low and behold, No! I am no pregnant, I know you were going to ask, that is what everyone has said the culprit is. But rather I have some sort of kidney or urinary tract infection. But the Dr. doesn't know if that is the reason for the reoccurring stuff, so I am still having other tests done.

If I can get the one house closed, get a few primary things under my belt, and get these antibiotics working, there is still hope for a relaxing Christmas week.

Building a playhouse

We have a small space in the playroom that goes under the stairs. Jon had the wonderful idea of building a playhouse there. We decided that Saturday was the perfect day for this. We spent all day building this cute little playhouse for the kids. And the best part is that it only cost us $10 for a 2x4 and a couple of hinges. We used an old kids cabinet that we were storing in the garage to make the door, window, and wall. We worked together and got it done in one day, I even used the drill to screw the door on. This was such a fun project and the kids love it! It is their store, house, drive-up, restaurant, anything they can imagine.




Calvin helped out with his very own saw and of course he was wearing his Home Depot apron.

Setting up the tree

Here we are setting up the Christmas decorations. The kids were a lot of help and they loved seeing all of the fun ornaments. Jon has ornaments that he has collected from the time he was a baby. His aunt Diane gives him and now our family an ornament each year. It is a fun tradition.

Church Man

Calvin calls himself a "Church Man" when he wears this adorable suit that my mom gave him. Thanks Grandma!