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I am sad to say that our computer died this past week. It had all of our pictures from Christmas and so I won't be able to update with pictures until either our computer gets fixed or we get a new one.
We had a very nice Christmas with family. We spent this Christmas here in California this year. Daniel had to work on Christmas Eve. Cody and I spent Christmas Eve at Daniel's parents and with some of Daniel's siblings and his parents. We had a nice dinner and read the story of Christ's birth. Daniel was able to get off early on Christmas morning and the gift giving started. Santa brought Cody an I pod touch, which he hasn't put down for more than 5 minutes! It was a nice day. We went to Daniel's parents again for dinner with most of Daniel's siblings. Cody had a great time with his cousins. I wish I could post some of our pictures but maybe soon. We are very grateful for the people in our lives and for all that Jesus did for us.

My stress comes to an end...sort of

Last night was the big night. I have spent the past two days with my committee at the church decorating and setting up and then preparing food for our Relief Society Christmas party. Luckily our ward Christmas party was last Saturday so they already had some trees up. All we had to do was move stuff around to where we wanted it. We spent the first day at the church for about 7 hours decorating and setting the tables and serving table how we wanted. My sister found this picture at Hobby Lobby of Santa holding the baby Jesus from a nativity scene. Everyone loved it.

 This was the beginning of our setting things up. We set up for 80 and then in the back of the room we set up for 80 again to do the ornament exchange. 

 Day two was spent preparing food. We had soup and bread bowls as the main course. Daniel helped a ton. He made a broccoli cheddar soup that was so good. I had many people ask for the recipe. And then we had cobblers and ice cream for desert. 

 For our program part of the evening we showed a short Mormon message about a little girl who reminded her family about the real reason for the season. And then we had a special musical number that was very nice. 

 We had a very good turn out. We planned for 80 and almost had that amount of people show up. This is our number one attended event of the year so I was feeling the pressure a bit. 

 Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. I had a lot of people tell myself, and other committee members that they had a great time. It's amazing how much work goes into a couple hours of the actual event.

We had a lot of help taking everything down that night. We have a couple of wonderful men in the ward that do a lot for us. Not to mention Daniel and even Cody helped. Cody is a great helper. As soon as I came home I crashed. I was asleep in no time and had some of the best sleep I've had in a long time. Now, I am off to do some Christmas shopping for the family. There really is never a dull moment when it comes to this time of the year.

January 5th

We are so excited here at our house. Daniel received his engineers badge and new helmet plates. As of January 5th he will promoted up to engineer. He will still remain a paramedic but now his main job will be to drive the fire engine and trucks, and pump the water on fires. It sounds so simple but he has had a very rigorous testing process to get this promotion over the last 6 months. He is probably the most ambitious man, besides my Dad, that I've ever met. I am sure he will excel at this job as he has with his previous positions.

And then last night was a fun night for Cody. He received his first round of belt loops at Cub Scout den meeting. He was able to get a couple of badges as well. We are so proud of his hard work. He is loving cub scouts, especially since Daniel is in there for his calling now. Daniel loved cub scouts for a couple of reasons but one being that his Dad was very involved. I know it will have the same influence on Cody.

As for me, I am busy putting the Relief Society Christmas party together. My sister and I are working long days now to get everything ready for this Tuesday. I am so glad that my sister is on my committee because she is such a huge help. The other women have to work during the day and so they don't have as much free time to do all of the shopping. But, I love shopping so it feeds my want to shop.

We are excited for this part of the year. We love the holidays and I am trying to stress to Cody the importance of this holiday. It's fun to see his face light up when he finds Buddy the elf in the morning though. He is still a believer, and I hope we have at least one more year of him believing.

November and the tree is up!

We decided last minute to head up to Utah for Thanksgiving. Daniel was able to get off work and Cody was out of school for a few days so we decided...why not!??

The weather was beautiful the whole time we were there. The kids got to play outside and go to the skate park a lot. While Daniel and Cody and the other boys were out at the skate park I was able to do some shopping and spend some time with my mom, sister and sister-in-law. It was fun. We even did a quick impulsive shopping on Black Friday at about 11:30. We made the decision to go shopping at about 11:00 pm. The stores were packed of course but we were able to get what we needed. 

Thanksgiving day was fun as always. Crazy, but no drama. We had a great time, some of us took short naps, some of us played card games and board games. 

 My mom bought some table cloths that the kids could color on and do fun little games on. It entertained the kids while the grown ups ate since the kids ate two bites of their food and said they wanted to go play. 

 Cody at the skate park. Since Daniel broke his ribs last time we were up there for Thanksgiving he was playing it low key and was the photographer. Even my dad got on a skateboard! 

My sister's birthday was the day after Thanksgiving so we had a small family party for her. I am not sure if she blew out the candles or if all the boys did it for her. 

 Since my late Grandpa was a bombardier back in WWII we decided to take all of the kids to the airplane museum. It was fun to see all of the different planes they flew and how technology really advanced the air force. My family has great appreciation for the military. My Dad didn't serve in the military but worked up at Hill Air Force Base so he knows a lot about the stuff that they make and test there. 

 The kids were able to make their own rockets and shoot them up in the sky. They loved it!

 My Mom wanted a quick spur of the moment family picture. This is all of my side of the family.

 This is Aunt Emily teaching the kids a card game. She's a teacher and loves to be around the kids.

 We decided it was time to get the tree and do the decorating. I bought a train this year (black Friday deal) to go around the tree. We were going to do a whole train night and read a book about trains but Cody found the train in the garage the night we got home. He absolutely loves it!

 And we can't forget Buddy, the Elf on the Shelf. He came back the night of December 1st. 

We are excited to spend Christmas here at home and with Daniel's side of the family. I am sure it will be fun. 

Our October

For all of those who had brothers in cub scouts, you'll probably remember the annual rain gutter regatta. Cody is a wolf and they had their rain gutter regatta recently. He did really well, almost lasting till the end but his cousin ended up winning. 

 We carved pumpkins of course. Daniel got Cody's started and then Cody finished it. It's his first year doing the majority of it by himself.

 We spent Halloween night with the families on the block. It's a tradition of ours to spend the evening with the neighbors. We walked a lot further than last year. The kids were candy hungry. We had a good time.

 Since Grandma lives so close we ended the trick or treating at her house.

 My big event was our ward's annual craft night. Me and my sister planned the evening and the crafts. It was a busy night but it was fun to socialize with friends while teaching the crafts. We had a good turn out and the women seemed to have a lot of fun. 

We made it!

For the past few months Daniel has been testing to get a promotion at work. He passed all of his tests. The past 6 weeks Daniel has been in training for his promotion to be an Engineer (driving the engine and trucks and to use the pumps on the engine for fires). He was in training 9 hours a day driving at least 30-45 minutes away to the facility. So, needless to say, we only saw him for a few hours at night. We are use to seeing him on a 24 hour shift schedule (which we prefer) so it was a big change in our home. But Daniel passed his training with no problems and soon will be promoted. We are very proud of him and happy he's back on his normal schedule. 

As for Cody and I, we've been getting Cody back into the swing of being in school. He's not too happy to be back but he has an awesome teacher this year. I plan to go in and help when I can. I am also putting together a craft night at church for the women. I finally have all of the crafts planned out and on display. It should be a good time and the women really appreciate it. 

Cody had one last summer celebration before school started. My sister's in laws invited us over to BBQ, and let the kids slide down this huge water slide they rented. Cody had a blast.

 Cody catching some air

And then it was time...to go back to school. He is now in 3rd grade. He pretty much hates school, but who really enjoyed it all that much, right? He's a good student though. I stayed and helped his teacher yesterday with a craft she was doing with all of the kids in the class. It was fun. Those kids just love when parents come to help and I knew a lot of them from working in Cody's class last year. Cody is back playing kickball, so that makes his days better and he stays after school for an hour to play. We are looking forward to what comes next. Daniel finishes his training this week so we will be happy when he's back on his normal schedule. Instead of just being the Paramedic/Firefighter, he's now an Engineer too who will be driving the engine and/or the fire truck. He's excited, not to mention the long hours he's been at training will end. We were only seeing him a couple of hours a night before bedtime and then he would have to stay up and study. I really do not miss those days of studying for tests. So, yeah for Daniel! We are proud of him!

The day that still brings tears to my eyes

Every year September 11th rolls around and it still makes me cry. So many lost their lives. Being that my husband is a firefighter, this day hits close to home. I still have the images burned into my mind of the day I woke up, and turned the TV on. I remember freezing when I saw the first tower on fire and then the second plane hitting the second tower. I remember my heart completely sinking as I watched both towers fall with so many people still inside. It was a horrible day and I don't think I left my couch for hours because I wanted someone to say I was dreaming, that it was pretend. 

Fast forward to today. I've watched many documentaries on 9/11. It's like a titanic thing, you still can't believe it happened. I've had many discussions with Daniel about the mind set of all the firefighters who were going up the towers trying to get people down and wanted to put the fires out. Those brave men (policemen as well) were just doing their jobs. I still feel the anger at the men who flew those planes. It will probably be something I struggle with for the rest of my life how anyone could do that. 

My main point is please remember those people who were doing their jobs that day in those towers, those trying to save others, those fighting fires, and all those who lost their lives. 

Idaho trip

 This cute man is my Grandpa. He passed away a couple of weeks ago so we made the trip up to Idaho where he lived with my grandma for the funeral. He was a wonderful, funny, hard working man who lived a very full life. He worked as a volunteer firefighter and so they had a fire engine there to pay tribute at the church where the funeral was. He was also in the military so he was able to have the 21 gun salute at the burial site. It was a bitter sweet day because my grandpa was ready to go for a few months now. He had Alzheimer disease and didn't remember who anyone was or where he was most of the time. So it's nice to know now that he's out of his misery but we will miss him a lot! Many tears were shed that day!

 This is Cody comforting my his great grandma at the burial site. He kept giving her hugs the whole time we were there. But he was strong and didn't cry at all. 

 later that week we attended a cousin's birthday party and the community pool for the cousins to swim and play. They all ended up laying on the sidewalk within half an hour after getting there.

 There was a lot of Lego playing at great grandma's house. The legos are over 30 years old but still have lots of fun to be had.

 We also attended the rodeo before coming home. Cody was pretty impressed and entertained. 

Vegas baby!

After a lot of time spent at Grandma's pool we decided to take a mini vacation to Las Vegas. Instead of staying at one of the hotels on the strip we decided to opt for my parents timeshare that was about a mile before the strip. This is the first time we've used the timeshare and we are so glad that we did!! This place was much nicer than a hotel. It had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a full kitchen, washer and dryer, and living area. 

 We took our neighbor, Tyler with us so Cody would have a friend to play with. They had a blast. We first hit up the outlets and bought them these rashgards. They were so excited to hit the pools.

 We headed down to find the lazy river first. We stayed there for quite awhile. It was so nice to just lay back and relax. And Cody and Tyler played so well together and had so much fun.

 Daniel did some relaxing too. We usually go to a water park this time of the year but the one we liked was closed down this year so they could build it up and add stuff to it. 

 This was one of the Jacuzzis. The boys loved the waterfalls.

 This was another jacuzzi. We explored every pool and jacuzzi. The place had 4 pools and 2 Jacuzzis. 

 We were sad to leave. We are definitely going to go back again next year!!