The FREEZE OUT!

Lincoln and the boys, traditionally (since we have lived here), go on a hike with some of the other fathers and sons in our ward. This year, Justin had to work and Chancy had a Dr.'s appointment that would have been very hard to reschedule. Just Lincoln and McKay were able to go this year. It sounds like they had lots of fun. The hike was to a place called The Big Schloss. The hike is mostly on a mountain ridge that borders Virginia and West Virginia and ends on a mountain peak. The upper picture is of McKay in a cave looking out a hole at the camera.

Oh My Gosh!!!

These are the kind of pictures you are glad you see when the guys are safely at home. Can you believe these ledges that they are laying and standing on. HOW CRAZY!! (You see the tongue like ledge? the one with the boys laying on it? McKay is the 3rd one from the edge!)

Christmas Day

I didn't take many pictures of Christmas day . . . . . Christmas was much smaller than normal this year. As the kids get bigger, the price tags get bigger and the presents smaller . . . . They all got what they wanted. Justin, a memory foam mattress and an FM transmitter for his MP3 player. Chancy a Zune MP3 player, and McKay got Rock Band for the XBox 360. That was it, except for stocking stuffers. Fa la la la la, la, la, la, laaaaaaaa.

Hope you all had a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas Eve Jammies

Every Christmas Eve we open Pajamas. This is our first year that Halley isn't in the picture:(. Hopefully she will be next year!! That is the plan!

Christmas Eve Dinner

We have a tradition of having Christmas Eve Dinner instead of Christmas Dinner. Hopefully there are enough leftovers that no cooking need be done on Christmas. (We just schlepped off of Trudy for our Christmas Dinner, It was good Trude!!) Anyway, it was pretty funny when we got talking about what we had cooked for dinner. Trudy, Mom, and I, (thanks to Lora) have been kind of hooked on the website Thepioneerwomancooks.com and I fixed these bacon appetizers and this olive bread from her web site. Trudy fixed the mashed potatoes from the site and I made 22 tins of The Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls to hand out to family and friends this year. She (the pioneer woman) has inspired us all!!! I fixed brisket for the first time, and if it hadn't been pre-marinated I think I would have used the Pioneer Woman's recipe for that also. Pretty funny!

Halley's new BABY!!

This is Halley and Ryan's new baby. For more pictures go to their blog and see!! I saw the new arrival when visiting Halley in early December. Mother and baby are doing fine. Both are happy and healthy!! The new arrival has a very good disposition and is very playful and soft. Did you know these babies get "blue eye" instead of "red eye" when taking their picture????? Oh and I can't forget . . . . the new addition's name is Molly and she weighs in at under 10 lbs. Cute little thing, and that is saying something for a person who doesn't have ANY pets!!

Anxiously Awaiting

Cross your fingers for us!! Lincoln and I (mostly I) have been looking for a home to "invest" in to give me more to do with my life. . . . anyway we found this home and dismissed it a while ago because it was just to expensive for us. Well . . . . to make a long story short . . . a series of unfortunate events for the owner, and the new owner (the bank) they (the bank) decided to put this one up for auction. I attended the auction and got the high bid, which, by the way is a good $200K under what they were asking for it just a month ago. So why cross your fingers for us? Because the bank still has seven days to decide whether or not they are going to let us have it at the price we bid for it. We are waiting on pins and needles!! We should know by the end of this week either the good news or bad news. If it is good news, we are going to try to move into this house. It has more square footage . . . a garage . . . and an in-ground pool. Fun Fun.

Fender Bender

The 1st week of December, I flew out to Salt Lake to visit Halley and Ryan. Lincoln was on a business trip and as luck would have it had a leg into Salt Lake at the same time. So I got to spend a week and Lincoln a couple of days with Halley and Ryan. While there we got to go to a Christmas concert that Halley was in. I had a great time visiting with my Grandma Blake, my mother-in-law Claudette and actually the entire Stevens' Family since they decided to have their annual Christmas party while we were in town!!! I also spent an afternoon and evening with Ryan's parents playing games and having a blast. Anyway . . . . . getting to the fender bender . . . . on the day I flew back home to MD, Lincoln picked me up from the airport and on the way home a guy behind us decided to bend over and pick something up off the floor of his vehicle just as the traffic started to slow and bang!!!! ran right into the back of our car!! He had an SUV and our car lost the battle. It is in the shop right now getting $3500 worth of damage repaired while we drive around a brand spankin' new rental car. TAKE YOUR TIME fixing it. We are enjoying the ride, thank you very much GEICO!!! Everyone is fine except our little Veedub (VW)

Merry Christmas!!

This year instead of sending out our letter I'm hoping our family web-site will suffice. Here's hoping you all have a great Christmas and a great 2008! Love you all!

6 Habits

Okay, Lora, I think I've been putting this off long enough. Lora tagged me to explain 6 of my habits . . . and since I think this is a hard one I've been putting it off. Here goes . . . .

1. Getting up for seminary in the morning . . . . 5:30 a.m. to get Chancy there by 6:00.

2. Every Monday I do the deep cleaning of my house . . . it is Monday right now, and so I'm taking a break from that habit at present.

3. I usually exercise 5 days a week . . . . 3 days of aerobic and 2 days of weight training.

4. Every Sunday Halley and I talk on the phone. This is a highlight of my week though it may be a lowlight of her week since I've been doing a lot of whining lately. I'll try to change that Halley!!

5. I usually go to bed with a good book (and a good man!!) and fill every crack of my day with books.

6. Okay, this one is a habit want-to-be . . . . . During general conference, one of the speakers talked about looking for the "hand of the Lord" in your daily life. This is something I need to do and want to add it to my 6 habits in life.

I think I'm supposed to tag someone else . . . .but everyone who I know that blogs has already been tagged so there you go!

The town we live in, Waldorf, MD has a sister city in Walldorf, Germany. Every other year they (Walldorf, Germany) send German students here to see our way of life and promote goodwill between the two cities. Chancy is taking German in high school. His high school is the only school in our county that offers German as a language and so naturally the German students got to stay with the high school students studying German. Lisa stayed with us for a week. We wish it could have been longer because we were just getting used to each other and getting comfortable and then she had to leave. I learned that we eat much more here in America than they do in Germany, stores are bigger here, food sweeter and it is much warmer here than in Germany. Teenagers seem to be much the same, she enjoyed video games and playing other games but I think missed having pets, because we have none. It was a good experience.

TRUNK OR TREAT?

McKay's costume
Our Trunk . . . . . .

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Mom and Dad invited us out for dinner and pumpkin Carving.

As you can tell down below, mom and dad went to a lot of effort to make it fun for everyone.

The pumpkins turned out GREAT too!!

The Pumpkin Carvers

Very intense pumpkin Carvers!!

I stole one of your pictures dad . . . . I don't ever seem to be in our pictures.

I wonder why? Heeeee Heeeee Heeeee

Tina's Pumpkin

Lincoln's Pumpkin

McKay's Pumpkin

Can you see it says trick or treat and is a skull?

Mom and Dad's Halloween Dinner Creations

Bloody ladies fingers

A rack of ribs complete with a heart with a knife plunged into it!

MMMMMMMmmmmm Goooooooood!!!!!

Pumpkin Puke and dinasaur scales!

Ghouly Pudding!

Bloody smoked oysters! Reminded me of Christmas before I left home.

We always had smoked oysters and ritz crackers.

I found this picture and thought I'd add it. Have any of you ever had deep fried pickles before? We saw this at Busch Gardens and had to give it a try. Actually it isn't bad . . . . if you like pickles, and I do . . . . . .

Mckays first big roller coaster ride at Busch Gardens, VA. Every year Anheiser Busch (yes the beer company) gives military families free tickets to their theme parks. We decided we needed to use the tickets and did last Saturday. Lincoln and Chancy talked McKay into riding this ride and then we couldn't keep him off of the roller coasters from then on out. I think he is a fan from now on.

The Loch Ness Monster (which McKay DID go on!!)
Look at that 1st drop. Wow!! They hang that car off the edge for a few seconds so that everyone can see what is ahead of them. How crazy is that? You'd never catch me on that one (or any one for that matter).
McKay's skiing accident!!

This is McKays cross over in to scouting/arrow of light/Faith in God ceremony. In cub scouting, when you turn 11 you get to move on to the scouting troop and be with the bigger boys. He earned his arrow of light which is like the "Eagle" of cub scouting and his Faith in God knot. He looks pretty sharp in his new scouting uniform I think. He should have gotten these awards back in May, but with trips and Halley's wedding we had to put it off to August. Congrats!!! McKay. The upper picture is McKay, Myself and Lincoln, the second one is part of his arrow of light ceremony, and the 3rd is McKay holding up the patches that will be sewn on his uniform.

My Wedding Ring

The Wedding Ring with a story. A long, long, time ago, 21 years ago to be exact . . . . I lost my wedding ring for good. My oldest son, Justin was just a few month old when I was driving in a snow storm, rolled down the window and proceeded to brush some snow off of my side view mirror. My ring went with the snow and I saw it glint in an slow motion arch out into a layer of snow probably 6 to 8 inches deep in the middle of rush hour traffic in downtown Salt Lake City. Needless to say, we didn't find the ring. We went back at midnight after all the snow plows had been through and traffic had died down and still didn't find the ring. Lincoln was so disgusted with me, I went by myself to buy a gold band that I have been wearing for the last 21 years. Well . . . . . here is the rest of the story. This last summer, Lincoln's grandmother passed away :( :( and left him a small inheritance. He thought and thought about what he would want to buy with it. Should he save it? Should he put a down payment on a motorcycle? a car? He debated and debated. Then one day he came to me and said that he had finally decided what to get. You guessed it!! A wedding ring for me. I was shocked!! So shocked we didn't go looking for a few days. I was giving him a chance to change his mind I guess. Well, we went looking and went to several stores. It felt kind of odd going in to a jewelry store and telling them that we were looking at bridal sets. They thought we were just getting married and were amazed by our story. Thought it sounded like a good diamond commercial. When we finally decided upon the ring that I liked and Lincoln handed it across the counter and said "we'll take it" I started crying. I didn't realize how much it meant to me. I didn't stop crying until we left the store. It's amazing how fast I got used to it. It's so much more of ring than I'm used to, but after 21 years, I guess I've earned it!!!

H

There are certain moments in time that define how you think or measure time. For instance I remember that I was three months pregnant with McKay the first time Lincoln and I went to Hawaii. Well, I am starting to think of things that happened as BHW (Before Halley's Wedding) or AHW (After Halley's Wedding). Kind of like BC (before Christ) and AD (after death). Ha! Anyway, there is life after Halley's Wedding!! I think I went through withdrawal after that huge occasion. So here is an AHW!! Our Beach trip. Actually my mother has documented our beach trip really well, so if you want the real scoop go to her blog. We took mom and dad and our Foreign Student from France Matthieu. Some of our pictures from the beach are below.

Matthieu and Chancy Boogie Boarding

Chancy exhausted after getting beat up by a wave.

Matthieu, Lincoln and Chancy

Lincoln, Mom and Dad

Mom and Dad

One of the coolest things we did this summer was to be a host family for a student from France. It gave us a reason to get out of our house and try to find fun and interesting things to do. Matthieu was with us for three weeks. He learned a lot of English (since we know virtually zero French) and a lot about the American way of life. We learned a lot about France and Matthieu's way of life also. We also learned a lot about ourselves in the process. The pictures are: McKay, Chancy, Justin and Matthieu playing poker (he taught us), us at the Air and Space museum in D.C. and Matthieu's last day with Chancy and McKay.