A tree, PJ's and stockings!!!

Pizza by the TREE!!! Christmas PJ's!!!!









Stockings from SANTA!!!

So Christmas has come and gone and whewwwwww I'm tired. On Christmas eve we read the Christmas story and The Night Before Christmas. We eat pizza by the tree and put on our matching Christmas Jammies!! (Yes even mom and dad matched) Well it was during all the festivities that we had an unexpected visitor. A young man we don't know came by with a LARGE bag of gifts. He said "Merry Christmas" and I asked "From who?" his reply was "I don't know, I was just told to bring this to you" Now Manila is TINY we know EVERYONE in town so this was interesting. But inside were some clothes for the kids, a game and DVD, and a Christmas Tree shaped box FULL of money!!!! Now I was shocked and a little guilt ridden. We are FINE, we didn't need any of what was given to us and there are certainly people who could have used this more. I called my sister and she explained that there was a book called "The Christmas Jar" Basically it's about doing exactly what was done to us. Save change all year, buy a few gifts and give it anonymously. But again we aren't in NEED!!! My sister explained that it was our of love, not need that we were chosen and that we should plan to do the same for another family next year. Well we defiantly will be doing that next year.

Christmas morning didn't start as early as we feared. The kids were stirring around 7:30. For us that's sleeping in!!! We all had a great morning. Then we packed up and headed the 3 hours to see the family. We went to the Bills' (my parents) for gifts and dinner. Stayed the night and then went to the Wolford's for gifts and snacks. This was AFTER, family pictures in the morning and a trip to Cabela's and we only spent 2 hours there!!

Then it was time for the trek back!!! It's always nice to come home. And it's also nice to spend time with family. Now I return (with the kids) to SLC tomorrow to spend time with my sister from Kansas!!!! As we all grow up I really like my brother's and sister's (don't tell them I said that)

I hope you had a safe and happy Holiday and may 2008 be filled with all the blessings you need and desire.

p.s. have you played the 20Q hand held game????? It knows.....

Bows, Bows, an Elf and SANTA!!!!!

Zach was an elf in the preschool Christmas Play!!!!

So this last week has been HECTIC!! We had our Church Christmas dinner on Wed. night. That's where the bows came from.

Then last night was the Elementary school Christmas Play!! It was also the debut of the HS Band and the 6th grade Band. It should also be noted it was my debut as a Band Director!! It was fun and I think it went well.

When it was the pre-school's turn to do their little Christmas Play they all got on stage and stood on the edge. My son took this to mean pretend to be too close, actually be too close and fall off the stage!!! YEP he fell, he was fine but the crowd got to laugh at our funny boy.

They girls did good in their play except when Jordynn left in the middle if a song to tell us she needed to go to the bathroom!! Then she left AGAIN and came to sit with us while they were singing "Here comes Santa Claus" I should mention that she's TERRIFIED of Santa. She had a bad experience when she was about 18 mo. old and she's NEVER liked Santa since.

For the first year Zach went all by himself to sit in Santa's lap. But if you look at the picture.. he never ACTUALLY looked directly at Santa.

And Michaela had a LIST to share. Such a funny girl!!!!

HAVE A GREAT DAY AND MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Snow, Parties, Candy and Pillows....

The Kids all dressed up for the snow
Pillows, pillows, and yep...more pillows!!!


So I have a lot to say this entry. First: Snow came, kids got dressed. kids played, kids got cold, kids came in. But it was fun while it lasted. Poor Zach had to wear PINK snow pants. I thought I had some for him in black but all I could find were pink!!! Oh well I'll pay for therapy later.

Last week Ben and I went to 2 Christmas Parties. My work and his.
The school district party (mine) was up the canyon at a lodge and was quite nice. The cool thing was they gave each of us a gift when we left and we got a Spiral Cut Ham and a 5 lb. loaf of cheese!!! I thought that was very cool.
Then we had Ben's work party in Vernal. Vernal is an hour away from our house so we got a sitter, left early and got some shopping done. We had to take 2 white elephant gifts to the party. I generally HATE white elephants. We took 2 boxes of cookies and we were the hit of the party. It was a late night but fun. Side note...DO NOT order a hamburger from a Mexican restaurant unless you want a touch of food poisoning.

I love Christmas candy. But I hate that it's all "limited edition" the kind you can ONLY get at Christmas. Well I've solved the problem. I LOVE MINT M&M's!!!! LOVE THEM!!! So to help me deal with the "limited edition" issue I bought 7 bags when I went to the store. I would have got more but that was all they had on hand. This should get me through New Year's

Last but NOT least.....Today is Ben's Girls Basketball Christmas Party. So I decided I would make each girl a basketball pillow!!! I was so proud of myself. They looked SOOOO good and I got them all done a whole day early!!! Then when I got back from Church Choir practice I was informed that I needed 10 Pillows. I had made 9!!!! Well that wasn't so bad except I was out of material!!!! So after some naughty words and fishing scraps out of the garbage I pieced together pillow #10. Can you find it in the picture????

Let it Snow....O.K. you can stop NOW!!!!

Ben and his SNOW BLOWER!!!!

See all the snow on my deck?

Michalea in her class Cristmas play, she's an elf!!

So we woke up to a winter wonderland. And yes it's beautiful and yes it's Christmas time and so we should appreciate it. But I'M COLD!!! I don't mind the cold I come stand by the fire but I hate the WET!!! Anyway this was a nice serene scene in Manila this morning and Ben got to use his snow blower. That's always fun!! He even plowed a path for the neighbor kids to walk up to our driveway for the bus.

By the way I'm listening to "Grandma got run over by a reindeer" and Zach is laughing hysterically!!! He just asked me "How did Grandma get run over by a reindeer?" And he likes the line "Hoof marks on her back". It's fun to see his sense of humor coming through.
He keeps asking me to find the "Zachary song". John Denver has a Christmas song called "A baby just like you". This year he finally noticed that John Denver sings "Merry Christmas little Zachary" He of course thinks it's about him!!!

One good thing about the snow....it finally feels like Christmas!!!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!

It's dark....let's hang up the LIGHTS!!!!

Ben hanging up the lights Zach "helping"

Ben started to put up the Christmas Lights today but had to go to Basketball Practice before he was done. By the time he got home at 5:00pm it was dark. But that doesn't deter the MEN!!!! All us girls (the smart ones) were in the WARM house but Zach and Ben (the men) needed to finish the job they started. They did really good and got all the lights up and they looked GREAT!!! Well...until a fuse got blown in somewhere in the 9 light strands. Well it is dark so that project will have to wait until oh I don't know......SUNSHINE!!!!

Turkey, Bingo and a Christmas Tree

Decorating the Tree!!!!

Zach is being,,,,well Zach!!!
Jordynn and her drum!!!

Happy Holidays!!

Yes, it's been a MONTH since I wrote last. But in my defense I've been SUPER busy. Thanksgiving came and went with lots of fun, we had dinner with the Wolford's at my FABULOUS sister-in-law's and it was fun. Then we went to my parents for dessert and BINGO!!! A fun Bills family tradition where mostly grown men and women play vicious games of Bingo for the chance at Happy Meal prizes brought by my Grandmother that she's been saving all year.

While playing Bingo one of my oldest friends Alice said, "Sarah you need to blog more". She does a GREAT job and is a good example to me. So this is for you Alice.

After Thanksgiving we went and got our tree!!!! I was so happy we went the weekend of Thanksgiving because this last weekend it was COLD and SNOWY! So the tree was in our house for quite a few days before lights and ornaments were on it. This was a HARD concept for Zach and Dani. Every morning they would come in our room and ask if it was Christmas. To them, if there was a tree in the house where where the gifts? It was sad to have to tell them that it wasn't Christmas...YET. But we decorated the tree and that helps them get through these agonizing days of waiting and waiting for Santa Clause!!!!

Jordynn and Michaela had a school program where they played really cool African Drums. They had a Musician come for 2 weeks and then they performed for the parents. If was great!! They did a great job!!

This month is BUSY and I look forward to the Christmas Break!!! Happy Holidays!!!!

So we survived another Halloween. For this family Halloween was a 2 day event. The picture that has Spiderman (Zach) in it was the communtiy halloween party Tues. night. That was fun. Tuesday night Zach got a high fever and wasn't feeling well. The next day all the kids (minus Dani) dressed up for school and parties in their respective classes. That day Zach was Woody (from Toy Story) he got to wear this, (it was supposed to be for Chirstmas) because he took his medicine. About 2 hours in his teacher called me to come get him. He was SICK!!! So then Halloween night the kids went out trick-or-treating and again Zach lasted about 1 hour. If you look at the picture of all the kids (including Woody) Zach doesn't look good. Dani was a pretty Witch, Jordynn was Belle (Beauty and the Beast) and Michaela was a Vampire. She announced that she didn't want to be anything cute. She wanted to be something scary. I was NOT happy about this but as you see she won. All in all they had a great time. The kids made sure to hit the house that gives out money. Every year this house gives each kid a BAG of candy and that includes a dollar. I talked to the dad at that house and last year they gave out $148. He was hoping to surpass that this year. In this small town I guess $148 isn't that bad. But I'm not about to start giving out $$$$$!!!!!
As a mom I've figured out why my parents always wanted to "check" the candy for needles and opened wrappers. At least that's what they said. I'm betting they just wanted to check out what we got so they could steal it when we went to bed. At least that's what Ben and I did!!!! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!

Dead Deer, a New Bike and SCARRRRRRY Pumpkins

So this has been a busy, busy week. Ben got his deer (the kids got to help track it) and it's been on my back porch for a week waiting to go to the butcher!! Zach got a new bike becasue he is FINALLY (well mostly, close enough) potty trained!!!! The bike came in a box Kind of assembled. Ben had taken Zach out with him so us girls could go to town and buy Zach his bike. This also meant I had to come home and try to finish putting the bike together. Which translated, means, put it together then Ben came home and tightened and fixed what I couldn't do. We carved pumpkins last night for Family Home Evening!!! I LOVE the giant Mr. Potato head pieces I found at Target for pumpkins. This year we let Michaela do her own (with a little help from dad) and Ben got creative with some of his fishing lures. Tomorrow is Halloween and I'll be glad when it's done. I don't think very many parents like Halloween. I know the kids LOVE it but me... I could do without!!!!

Zach and Dani also had a FUN week, on Wednesday Zach decided to cut Dani's hair!!!! He only cut one half though, but that half was GONE!!! She had such little hair to begin with this was a HUGE loss. So Sunday morning before church I attempted to even it all out. IT DOES NOT LOOK GOOD!!! The only good thing to come out of this is, I had her picture taken with CUTE little pony tails taken the WEEK BEFORE this happened. Thank goodness for small miracles!!!!

HUNTING SEASON!!!

We have an intersting life here in Manila. This last week was the opening of the deer hunt. So that of course meant I went down to Salt Lake to shop and visit the family. This is the busiest time of the WHOLE year for Ben. But it's funny how much he loves it. I guess it's a belssing when your husband loves his job. I don't know that I'll ever understand the appeal of getting up at around 4am (it's still dark) get dressed is UGLY camo and sit in the snow for HOURS just in case a deer has the misfortune to wander past your waiting gun. But I have living through the hunt for 10 years now and still don't get it. Maybe I never will but I guess Ben doesn't understand the appeal of a Broadway Musical. And that's o.k. I'm glad he gets this chance to spend time with his dad and brothers (they come up and stay in their trailer in our yard). And I get to shop. All in all I think it's pretty fair.

Well I'll Try This AGAIN!!!!

Michaela was Milkey White the COW!!!!













Jordynn was a BEAN in the school play

I'm sorry I don't know why there is such a gap between the pictures and the entry!!!!

I really do want to do a good job at this blog thing. I'm just REALLY BAD AT IT. Last time I wrote it was JUNE!!!! Well we had a busy summer and now we are back in school. About a month ago the elementary kids did a play in a week. The kids were VERY cute. Ben was coach of this year's boys baseball and it was fun. They didn't win very many games but I think they still had fun. Now that the school year is here I HAVE A JOB!!!! I'm so excited!! I got my dream job. I get to teach High School BAND, and DRAMA. I also teach the 4-6th grade music classes and I still direct the school play. Ben has been hired at the Head Coach of the Girl's Basketball Team and is currently looking for an assistant. We'll see how that goes. We're deep into the hunting season up here and that leaves Ben pretty busy. This weekend is the opening of the deer hunt and so I'm leaving. I figure what better way to spend the hunt than down in Salt Lake with my family and shopping. It's my sister Erin's birthday so I'm excited to get to be down there for that. So we'll se how it goes. I know I've made these promises in the past but I really do want to do a better job at this so I'll try!!!!

Happy Birthday!!!

Click on the Pictures to see a bigger verison

Saturday was Michaela and my Birthday. For Michaela it couldn't have come and sooner. But the stress of having to wait ALL day to open presents was enough to almost do her in. But she passed the day by having the neighbor kids over and they all played on the Slip and Slide. It was a good distraction for a couple of hours. Although Zach preferred the MUD!! All in all it was a good birthday for her I hope. She got some good gifts and is SOOOOO excited to be baptised next weekend. I got a WONDERFUL gift from Ben. He made a frame for a print he had bought me a few years ago. It looks great and I was excited to be able to hang up the print. I also got Croquet and l look forward to playing it in the yard with the kids. Mostly to watch Zach beat up people with the mallets. Family Fun!!!

NOT going well...

Well I thought I would be doing better than this on my blog and I'm OBVIOUSLY NOT!!! But here's an update.... WE had snow the last week of MAY!!! Ben brought home a beaver, owl, and a fox...our life is different from other peoples The kids are done with school for the summer and Jordynn graduated from Pre-school, VERY exciting. We had 2 weeks of swim lessons at the beginning of June. This meant ALL OF US (all 4 kids and mom) getting on the BUS (yes the yellow school bus) every morning at 8:45 and ride for an HOUR to go to swim lessons for 45 min. and then ride the bus home again. Well at least I didn't have to drive and with gas prices like they are we couldn't have afforded the daily trip for 2 weeks. The big girls (Jordynn and Michaela) go to summer library at the school 2 days a week for 3 hours. There they are learning about Daggett County. We have soccer 2 nights a week. And we are HOT HOT HOT!!! I know it's not as bad as down in Salt Lake but 90 in Manila is HOT!! We're getting ready to baptize Michaela next Saturday (today is her 8th birthday). So all in all we have been pretty busy. It's an adjustment having all the kids home ALL the time and it's even harder to keep them entertained. But hey only 2 more months until school starts....but who's counting!!!!

All vacuums suck

This morning I was vacuuming my living room and noticed that ONCE AGAIN my vacuum was clogged. In my almost 9 years of being a house wife I've gone through 5 vacuums. And here's what they all have in common. THEY SUCK!!! Now if they actually did their job and suck adequetly I wouldn't need this rant. But as they don't do their job...ergo they suck. And this round of Vacuum I thought was better than the last 4. I spent a little more money on this one. It had cool attachments for pet hair, a self cleaning duster and more stuff I will never use but probably should. And yet it STILL doesn't clean as well and I think it should. Now I know that out there, there IS the world's best vacuum. I've seen it, I've even had the pleasure, yes pleasure of using said vacuum. It's the Dyson Animal. It's purple and this thing can suck (in a good way) So why if I have found the world's best vacuum do I not have one in my home? Well that answer is easy...they cost $550!!!!! For a VACUUM!!!! Yeah they do. Now I have $550 but my kids like to eat, I enjoy a home to live in and the car needs gas. Therefore I settle for the less cool, bright yellow, sort of works when it feels like it vacuum I own.
I'll put the Dyson on the some day when the kids are gone list. But then will I need one that big a powerful???

So we bought a horse. We thought. "Hey we live in the country, we need a horse". Now it should be said that most of my friends here in Manila DO NOT have horses. But that did not deter us from our need for a horse. Granted Ben can use her for work and it is a good idea so he can get to areas he can't in his truck so we justified the horse.

No we've all heard about a lap dog right? Well this is a lap horse. If she could climb in your lap so you could rub her nose and scratch her ears....well she would. So last week I was "riding" her. I say "riding" becasue she's green broke and basically I sit on her while Ben leads her around. Well she wanted Ben to rub her nose. She kind of pushed him a little with her head to get his attention. The problem was, Ben was trying to keep her clam and I was trying to not fall off. After being ignored to a minute Aggie (that's the horse) clocked Ben upside the head. He had the whole birdies around his head and everything!!!

I'm happy to say that Ben and Aggie are fine, and their relationship has grown from this experience. Ben has learned it's better to just endulge the 1200 lb. horse and rub her nose. And Aggie will try to not knock Ben out.

So here's the view from my front door this morning. By the way last week it was in the high 60's and now....

It's a cruel, cruel world. I was SOOOOOO ready for spring. The kids were playing outside, the birds were singing, the grass was GREEN!!!!! Oh well the end of the eternal winter will come...EVENTUALLY!! RIGHT?????

But the good news is Ben got to use his new snow blower. He even used the snow blower on the DECK!!!

P.S. I had the pleasure of this photo making it onto KSL News at 6:00 pm during the weather forecast. I didn't get to see it but I hope those that did appreciated where they lived, and the fact that they didn't have to deal with this much snow.

The first entry..

A friend of mine from High School sent me the link to his family blog. His wife writes in it almost every day and posts pictures and does a GREAT job. I wanted to try and do something like that. I think it's important to documnet what's going on in our lives. We're having so many adventures here in Manila that I don't want to miss any of them. And I know that so many of our family and friends are far away, so I want them to beable to be kept updated as well. I hope I can do a good job and keep this up to date.