good bye

Now the end has come.  And I have to admit I’m not sorry to see it go.  I can’t say that 2005 has been my favorite year.  There is good in every situation, I was reminded of that while reading the hiding place.  I have grown a lot this year and have handled things I never thought possible.  Now nothing major has happened.  I haven’t had to deal with a death of a child or even a major injury or illness.  Mostly it has been internal stuff.  You all know what I am talking about.  At one point we all come to some rude awakenings.  Like yes I really do have to be a grown up and yes I do have to raise these children and try to lead them back to our Heavenly Father.  It took me long enough, huh.  Something else I learned a long time ago when I first moved to this little town and with geoffy by my side…Attitude is Everything!!  I think as I go into this next year I will try to remember that lesson that Heavenly Father so kindly taught me so many years ago.  I must remember the bigger picture.  Reading elly, brinders and joel’s letters is amazing.  They really put things into the proper perspective.  We are here to live and share the gospel.  That will be my focus for this year.  I hope that 2006 will be better for us all.  I hope every year gets better.  

Well hazel is screaming with an ear infection so I must go give her the love she needs.

                                                               Love….me

How missionaries grow!

Im sending this to everyone cause its a pretty sweet miracle that you all can enjoy.
so yesterday we had an amazing day finding 4 investigators, the most I have ever found in one day. well 2 of them are pretty shadey, one is golden and one was a miracle.
so we are rushing home on our bikes in the snow to make curfew. and because we didnt have anytime we were only contacting young people, not to waste time with old business guys that never show any interest. well im riding in front of my companion and I come up on some business man and I hear, what I think is myself, say in my head `talk to that man` but i didnt and 15 feet behind him was another business man, and the same thing happened `talk to that man` but I passed him. Then I slamed
on my breaks looked back just in time to see him turn down some small street. I turned around real quick and rushed to him, I saw him start going to what I thought was his car oh and he was holding a bottle of alcohal in a bag, so I went faster to make sure he couldnt get in before I got to talk to him. well I stop him and give him some regular approach, I ask if he has any interest in anything Im saying and he says `everything except for families.` because he hates his family, and they hate him. so I start to talk to him a little more and find out that he thinks he is going to hell and there is no pssible way of going to heaven. (which is extremely rare, nobody in japan believes or really knows much about heaven and hell) so my companion and I start to tell him that god loves us, and teach him a little about repentance, but he wont have it. he said that he just makes the same mistakes over and over so it is hopeless. so I start to struggle for what I can tell him to convince him of the power of repentance, so I say a little prayer asking for the spirit to guide me and not let this man leave without making a return appointment because the gospel could help his life soo much. well early while I was telling him about repentance the idea `teach him baptism` came to me but I didnt think it really fit the situation. well then he said `well thank you, you guys go save a lot of people out there` and starts to walk away. then the idea came to me again `teach
him baptism` But this time I thought if he it came to me twice its gotta be the spirit, so I stopped him again and told him about baptism and becoming completely clean, but I didnt know where to go from there. then the spirit told me tell him about the spirit, so I did. but once again after that I was at a loss of words, but he says to us `hey its cold, lets go inside, this is my house.` we were standing in his driveway. so we went in, and as I was taking off my boots I was telling
my companion, `man im not sure what else to tell this man.` but he just said `follow the spirit`. well we went in and sat down on some couches and turns out this guy is just like a big kid. he opened right up and started showin us all these different toys that he has, for example toy car models, fake guns... well we were already like 30 min late for curfew so after a bit of playing I thought man how am I going to set a return appointment, then the simple idea came to me to give him a book of mormon, so I did and set up a return appointment for friday. phwwwduring the mission there are only a few experiences where I remember the spirit telling mesimple things that I followed and have a huge effect. well to sum it up, I just want to say that the Holy Ghost is really there, and that we can feel and recieve its guidance if we are looking for it. my zl told me the other day to follow the little ideas that come to us, so I have and in the past week I have seen miracles, this is the biggest one, but even if you think it is your own thoughts just follow them. for me most of them have been extremely simple but have effects that you can see, even if they are tiny.well I love you all, peace
love joel

Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to say MERRY CHRISTMAS! to everyone! and hope you are all having a great day, and also hope you all had a good year and are excited for 2006!
I love you all, love Lindsey

povo in Cali.

 
 

ColoradoBennett

Hi Monica! Glad you have returned to the blog. You are doing great if you get your Christmas cards out before Christmas, I plan on sending mine out in January. I blame the new baby for the tardiness. Ellynn and Brind's address' are:
Elder Brind Bennett
Cebu Pilippines Mission
47 Salinas Dr. Lahug
Cebu City 6000
Philippines

Sister Ellynn Bennett
Helsinki, Finland Mission
Neitsytpolku 3A4
00140 Helsinki
Finland

a b-day wish for darling darla

Another year closer to something.  27 was a great year for me, I gained 65 lbs, found a few gray hairs and totally lost touch with everything hip.  I hope it goes a bit better for you.  Happy birthday, any way.  We love you and I am so glad you are part of the family.  I loved you even before I loved cory.  

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!! I can’t even express how much this time of year means to me.  My thoughts are continually with all of you and of course my Savior Jesus Christ.  My love and gratitude for Him is beyond comprehension.  Merry Christmas to you all.  

                                                        Love,  me

A holly jolly quick hello

Hey familia,
Long time no blog. I wish I had a computer in my home, the lack of one is really keeping me out of touch. I have missed out on much(was that a rhyme?), I think it would take me a good 24 hours of reading to catch up. Anyhow, congratulations, Adam and Mindi I am so excited for you that is wonderful news. By the way thank you for sending Harley a birthday card we received it yesterday, on here birthday, she thought it was so cool. She loved the photo and slept with it next to her pillow last night. Well as I said this will be a jolly quick hello I am doing the typical Monica, and will be sending out my Christmas cards tomorrow. Yes, that's right the day before Christmas eve, I am so organized it is amazing. I am in need of Ellynn and Brinds addresses if anyone has that info, and would be willing to blog it that would be wonderful. Well I love all of you and, I hope you have a wonderful holiday. I hope to be blogging back soon.
Love, Moni

ColoradoBennett

Yep, Jess, the "little bun in the oven" is what you think it means. Adam wanted to be very sneeky. If I can ever get over the "cold/flu of death" that I have (apparently poor Meagan and Jackson have the same symptoms) then I can just get on enjoying the first trimester, ha ha.
Happy Birthday, Darla. Hope you guys have a great trip to Cali. But always remember, that John Denver was inspired while he was in L.A. to write: "the closest thing to heaven on this planet anywhere, is a quite Christmas morning in the Colorado snow".

Happy Birthday and Double Congrats

I just wanted to say Happy Birthday to Darla and Congratulations to Geoffie. I hope you have a fun night tonight celebrating. Geof., what relief you must feel. I have never experienced anything quite like the feeling of guiltlessness. I didn't have to feel bad anymore about not doing my homework. I am so so so proud of you. What an accomplishment!!!

Congratulations also to Adam and Mindi, I think. Was that little "suprise bun in the oven" comment that I read and re-read 20 times real. If so, yippee. That is wonderful.

The "Sisters" christmas party was on Monday, it was great to see everyone. We have the best family...I know that because on Tuesday I went to the Smith family christmas party and it just wasn't the same.

Tony is done with school for the semester and I bet he is wishing he wasn't. I have put him right to work. Mr. Mom made yams for the sisters party and a dip for the Smith party, has wrapped all of our christmas presents and kept the house spic and span. It has been great...for me at least.

Work has been rather slow which makes the days go by way slow. I have Monday off and I get off early tomorrow, YEAH. I am so excited for Christmas this year. I am excited to give everyone what I got them. only 3 days left.

Love you all. Merry Blogmas. Jess

it all started with a chocolate truck

Wow all this good news I just don’t know where to start.  Well life comes first in my book so adam and mindi congratulations.  I am so excited I could cry.  (partly because I’m thankful it’s you and not me.)  next, geof.  A graduate wow the first Bennett child.  I personally think a degree is highly over rated, but whatever.  Do you like how on word every time I right geof.’s name they capitalize the next word, funny.  Well I have some good news of my own.  You all heard about our shopping trip yesterday, well a miracle happened right there at the rack.  I found two that’s right two pairs of fab jeans. they look and they feel great, are way long and for only 20 bones a piece.  I know my news is right up there with geof.’s and mindi’s.  

Now for the title…it’s true 10 blissful years ago this week I was at a party and I made I chocolate truck, even using sprouts for hay, with this crazy guy sporting a chin strap.  Well from that night on the rest is history.  Yes that handsome and creative boy was none other than my cory.  Oh how time flies!!  I don’t think I could have even imagined then how much I would love him now.  

The kids are screaming to get out of the tub, so I’m off.

                                                           Love,  me

Ps darla goonies is a great movie for 3 year olds, they don’t understand all the bad language yet.      

U2 baby...almost

So I go to church on Sunday and my VT partner comes up to me and says "did you get my message last night?" I proceed to tell her that I was on my way out the door so I didn't get to hear all of the message she was leaving. All I heard was something about an extra ticket she had (I assumed it was for the Nutcracker that she had mentioned before)..Anyway, so she tells me no, that her cousins had come down from Idaho to see U2 and they had an extra ticket. I almost chocked her right there in the hallway between classes. Unlike you Brooke, I am a loser and would go by myself to a U2 concert. I don't really care since all you're doing is screaming and crying and pulling your hair out right? So I was pretty bummed. Hey, maybe next time right? Well, things are starting to slow down. We leave for CA on Friday and I'm pretty excited about that. It's always fun to see the tons of people we know out there. My parents called last night and they're desperately trying to make it 'magical' for us...putting lights up all over the house, squeezing a pretty tree into there $450,000 tiny three bedroom CA priced home. It's really sad. Right now Cole and I are watching 'Goonies'. Please don't judge me if you wouldn't ever allow your 3 yr. old to watch that show. I thought he'd like it, and so far he's totally into it. I love the classic lines in that movie. What I DON'T love is the nasty mouth on the fat kid...darn it! So we're pretty happy around here about Geof. graduating. He says he'll probably sign up for one more class that'll 'help him in the future'. The truth is he doesn't want to pay his loans back. Right Geofy? Who can blame him? Mindi, I LOVED your quote and will definately try to read that book sometime soon. Merry Christmas to all. Keep us posted on how things go! Love to all. Darla

Wow, Congrats Geof.

Geof., I am so proud of that killer math grade. Truly a Bennett. Leash and Lyd, I've had a hard time even thinking about writing on the blog, how can I put into words my extreme jealousy? I have only wanted to go to a U2 concert since 1992 but the timing or the money has never worked out. Mike looked into getting me a ticket for this concert but it was so expensive for two and I didn't want to be a loser and go by myself. So... I guess I'll be seeing them when they are 65 or so on some reunion tour.

Leash, I would have felt sorry for you about the toilets until I read about U2.

Adam and Mindi, I'm glad you are having such a great month. Your family has been truly blessed.

Cameron, Leash, Jess, anyone else that I don't have an address for. Will you please post your addresses on the blog and sometime during the holidays (possibly including Valentine's Day) you will get a Christmas card.

Life here is great. Very busy. I took the girls on a train ride/visit to Santa on Saturday. We had so much fun. We went w/ Mike's mom and brother's family. The highlight of the whole trip was watching the Santa talk to the kids with his beard and mustache hanging off his face. Someday I will post the picture. As Jane said "it was classic."

Mom and Meagan and I spent the whole day yesterday at Nordstrom Rack, yes, with all the kids. Please kill me. Here we are down at the end of the dressing rooms, taking up four stalls, Ellyn gets a poopy diaper that stinks up the entire area. Jackson accidentally slams Jane's finger in the dressing room door- total drama, Sadie and Wil keep trying to crawl under the doors of other people's stalls and fight incessantly over a stuffed panda I have been letting Sadie carry around the store. I followed all that up with a trip to Costco where the woman kept my Costco card at the Photo counter so that when I went to check out with my other things I couldn't find it anywhere and the woman at my register told Sadie in a very firm voice to sit down in the back of the cart and made her burst into tears (long day, no nap). Finally after waiting over an hour and fifteen for my pictures I ask if they are done and they tell me that they have actually been done for quite awhile but they had my Costco card so they were keeping them up at the register. Please kill me. But I am almost completely done with my shopping so I am very happy. I have two returns to make and then all will be well. We are starting on chocolates today and what could be better than that? Jane and I already went to the gym so much of my guilt will be dissapated as I consume 1000 calories an hour.

I love you all. Sounds like everyone is incredibly busy. Tis the season. Blog BABY, blog. love, Brooke

povo "can I graduate"

I graduated. yea yea yea. ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhaaaaaaaaaa. just got the math grade back and yes i got a C. I hope was hoping for a D+ because that's not a grade they like to give out I can tell you that right now. Big relief this is great. alright I'll probably not apply for graduation yet because there's a class I would like to take to help me in my future. I'm just so relieved. Peace out team. blog ya later.

Seattle Bennett and Colorado Bennett "Santa Baby, hurry down the chimney"

What happens on this blog stays on this blog, no telling anyone! Oh man, this month has just been a whirlwind! Somehow I found my self in the middle of planning the food and "The Prophet's Last Christmas" skit for the ward party (Adam played Porter Rockwell and our down syndrome friend in the ward, Ben, played Joseph Smith), having the Young Women do the 12 days of Christmas for a couple ladies in the ward, organizing a gift collection and delivering gifts and turkeys to 6 needy families, helping with a party for the Sunday School/YM/YW, plus family gift exchanges, parties and Santa's suprise bun in the oven. Let's just say I'm really bad at delegation. Or, rather, as Adam calls it, our ward as the STP problem (Same Ten People doing everything). It has been really fun and I love our little ward family. Cory, the only way you can make it up to me for not passing on the phone message to Meagan, is to post the letters you wrote to Ellynn and Brind. Otherwise, I'll find a way to make your Land Rover disappear in a puff of smoke. Now I quote from the first lines of Charles Dickens' "The Life of Our Lord" which I highly recommend you read this season. "My Dear Children, I am very anxious that you should know something about the History of Jesus Christ. For everybody ought to know about Him. No one ever lived who was so good, so kind, so gentle, and so sorry for all people who did wrong, or were in any way ill or miserable, as He was. And as He is now in Heaven, where we hope to go, and all to meet each other after we are dead, and there be happy always together, you never can think what a good place Heaven is, without knowing who He was and what He did."

Merry (flush) Christmas

Well to quote Lydia, last night was in fact, life changing. Not really, but it was very cool. Bono and the boys shone like stars in the cold winter night sky. I wish all of you could've been there with us. Especially you Adam. I know you secretly love Bono. Apparently all I have to do next concert is wear a Santa-like halter top and get breast augmentation surgery and I'm sure to get on stage. He brought up two girls out of the audience last night and let's just say as I stand right now, I wouldn't have had much of a chance. Anyway, it was way fun being with Lydi and pretending like I'm still hip.

To explain my title, that is just what I'll be doing on Christmas morning. No ipods. No compressors (for Kev). No pink saphire ring. Instead we get two new toilets. The one was already cracked and the other one just started leaking. So dreams of a materially merry christmas basically went down the toilet.

Anyway, Meags I hope your talk went well. Talk to you later. Leash

where are you santa

Adam you are wrong I have not been fighting the crowds at the mall or any place for that matter.  I have an even easier way to avoid the unpleasantries of the holiday rush.  Don’t buy anyone anything.  It is working out very well for me.  I mean I don’t like anyone as much as myself, so why would I spend money on them that I could be spending on me.  And my kids well, I’m going to let santa handle that, I just hope he doesn’t forget us again this year.  He must not have gotten our change of address when we moved out of mom and dad’s.  

Ok I really should get back to writing my talk.  Why do they make those in the bishopbrick so likable.  It would be a lot easier if they were jerks, then I could just tell them to fly off.  Instead I sang last week and will be speaking this week.  Good thing mom went shopping today so I would have something totally hot to wear tomorrow.  Cory wrote the funniest letter to elly and brind.  I’m going to try to get him to put it on the blog, but you know how shy he is.  

Well I must go finish my talk before hazey baby wakes up.  Oh and I can’t run until it’s done so I am really mean.  The perfect spirit for writing a talk, ay.  

                                                    Bloggy Christmas…me

povo

Well things have been pretty busy around here. So much so that it's been hard finding time to write the better than you family news letter. Hopefully we'll squeeze that in. A sigh of relief has been expelled from the Bennett's in Provo as finals good or more likely bad are behind us once again. That alone makes me want to stay up late singing Christmas music and loving my fellow man. Things are good. I have been able to go on some beautiful flights as of late. Coming in first is the trip I took to Washington. I loved seeing all the family. Thanks for playing with me it was great times. Today I got to fly up to Ogden then land at Salt Lake International were all the big planes made fun of my little plane. I told them to be nice. Then I flew over to Manti and circled around the temple for awhile. It's been a lot of fun. Darla and the kids are the greatest. Well the one 7 month old isn't the greatest as of late. She's training for the Guiness to see if she can cry for the longest continuous ammount of time. Her training began at 3:30 this morning and practice didn't end until 6 a.m. or so when we had to take Cole to the Dr. so he could get some more tubes put in his ears. So hopefully the tubes will work and Dayne will do well in the time trials. Merry Christmas to all. Also when is the Beecher family Christmas party? don't feel bad if it's come and gone just know that I won't ever talk with anyone in the northern half of utah again.
blog better and sooner. blog out dawg

bah humbug

Geof. and I just want to say "we hate you" to whomever is going to U2. Have fun money bags.

i'll blog something, something called "it's a beautiful day" because ladies and gentlemen, it will be a beautiful day in less than 24 hours when sweet sweet bono and the gang will sing me to nirvana.

Seattle Bennett living in Colorado

So Christmas shopping this year has been a success I went to the mall but once and its only a 1/2 mile from work and I'm not even counting it as going to the mall because I went into the store I needed, went to the cash register bought the gift card for the amount I needed not something they do online and left. So I didn't actually even enter the horrible Christmas crazed mall. I instead should have all my packages delivered today. I love shopping online for one you don't even have to get dressed. The only problem I face now is shipping a few items to their prospective recipients. I am guessing that all of you are fighting mall lines since no one has blogged. So blog hum bug to you too.

Addresses

Elder Joel Robbins
Kita 2 jo Nishi 24 Chome 1-25, Chuo-ku
Sapporo-Shi, Hokkaido 064-0822
Japan

Bill & Paula
5372 Shoshone Circle
Ogden, UT 84403

address'

Joans 705 S. Eagle Way Fruit Heights Ut. 84037
Jackis 34 S. Kays Dr. Kaysville Ut. 84037

sorry i don't have the other ones! Lindsey

Joel's address

I need Joel's mailing address for a christmas card i want to send..i'm sure someone has it. anyway, about temple square lights..although nobody's mentioned that they'd like to go...we can't anyway. Not until next week at least. Geof. told me last night he has a work party on Sat. night and he wants to go because we might get free stuff (sounds like Geof. no?). Anyway, oh...and I also need A. jack, paula and Joan's addresses as well. sorry! I guess i could use a phone but that'd be too difficult. Love to all. Darla

Oh Martha, Oh Christmas

marva-less

how true that is, how true that is. i was thinking the same thing about good old "one ladle" but i didn't know whether to post or not.

Ah yes

How could I forget when we were all together for Christmas? It was only the best time of my life. Only, we weren't running because it was cold, we were running because we thought Les was the Grinch. Oh wait. He is. Leash

Seattle Bennett living in Colorado

Darla I would love to come and look at the Temple lights with your family yesterday we took the family down to the capital and city building and around a few neighborhoods and when we were all done I was thinking to myself I wish we could go to temple square, nothing really comes close not even the Griswold. Do any of you cousins remember that trip to temple square a few years ago we went with papa Les and it was so cold we practically ran through.
So I've been trying to teach Sierra a few lessons this year, as she is now old enough to catch on to Christmas. We have tithing settlement coming up so we went through Sierra's piggy bank and counted up all her money and showed her how much we give back to Heavenly Father, it went over suprisingly well. I'm also teaching her about self discipline so when she acts up to the point where she needs a spanking I tell her "spank your bottom" she usually cries a little and tries to get out of her spanking but I insist until she spanks her bottom I then tell her "this hurts you more than it hurts you"
Adam

...solo in Povo

So Geof. left this morning at 6 am to fly to Portland with one of his students. Let me just say...it's pretty lame spending the weekend without your other half. oh well. all this flying will eventually pay off right?!! That's what i keep telling myself. Anyway, our little Cole is not so little anymore. He turned 3 on the 2nd (thanks for the card Mindi!) and it's just amazing how better behaved he's been...not! (i know, the 'not' thing is a little outdated). No, I've learned quite a bit from the pre-preschool class he was attending for developmentally delayed kids (don't laugh). He just needs time and attention and lots of wrestling...much like his father. So things have been crazy around our house. We're both finishing up our classes and Geof. called me ecstatic last week with the news "You can actually graduate with a D- in Math 1050!"...he's pretty happy about that..as am I. I'm sure most of you know the stressed out Geof. as well as the laid back, funny guy he can be. We'd like to see a little more of the latter mentioned if possible. Dayne is getting big but not really loving the on my own thing. If I try to do anything out of her sight she just can't hack it. She's doing pretty well sitting up but manages quite often to fall forward onto her face (or the toy train she just fell on less than 5 minutes ago). My kids are wonderful...wonderfully hard but "I asked for it" as Geof. likes to point out. I'm singing in the christmas program tomorrow and still don't know what i'm going to do with my kids throughout Sac. Mtg. Hopefully I can find some nice old lady who loves little 3 yr. olds and can handle the noise a little better than me. we'll see. Well...love to all. ~darla p.s. if anyone wants to go see the Temple Square lights next week with us please call (or blog!).

One more thing

I forgot to write about the only thing I wanted to tell you guys about. On Thanksgiving Lydi came with me up to Hatch's to eat. We were talking with my Aunt Kathy who some of you will remember was really good friends with Joanie in high school. They cheered and did Dettes together I believe. Anyway she was telling us about how she'd go home with Paula and Joan after school sometimes. She said their after school snack was to grab out this huge bucket of peanut butter and everyone got like a tablespoon full. No wonder Joanie loves it. It's like her (only) comfort food. I still remember when she would come and sleep over when I was little. We'd have a spoon full of peanut butter every night before we went to sleep. I thought that was the greatest. Maybe that's why it's one of my (many) comfort foods as well.
Well ok, Clo is dying for some attention. She's got her Belle dress on and is quoting Cinderella lines as hard as she can. Later, Alicia

While visions of Kurt Bestor danced in my head

Not really him, but his music. My wonderful sisters literally saved my life by taking my children so Kev and I could go to his Christmas Concert. We split them up as to not discourage either one of them from becoming parents. Anyway, it was magical. Actually anytime I get to dress up and go out is magical.

Brooke, Kev tells me the same thing. He says that's all he wants to get me for Christmas because that's all I ever complain about. I have a fifty dollar certificate to Kohls that mom gave me last Christmas that I still haven't spent. I go and everything is full price or it's a size 2. Also, it needs to be a skirt because I can't fully pull off the signature Meagan nursing with a dress trick. Anyway, there's so many of us in the nursing room at church that it really wouldn't work for me to just pull the dress up and cover myself with the baby blanket when I get up to conduct. Just kidding, but we should maybe think about starting our own Sunday school course.

Meagan, I almost started crying reading about the dentist. I would've been so furious with Kevin by the time I got home, that his life would be in immediate danger. I went directly in and flossed Clo's teeth.

Anyway, later - Leash

Sunday, Sunday

Oh Alicia, how I related to your tale of getting ready for church. In fact, so much so that Mike called up laughing and asked if I had read your blog yet and then said, "Sounds like us." Too true. This Christmas my girls have absolutely darling dresses (Jane could do with more) and I am wearing the same three skirts every Sunday that I have worn every winter for the past million years. It's funny because I think of my gray wool one as being new and I've had it for three years. My black one is seven years old this January- however it still looks great. You might be wondering what the third skirt is- a jean skirt which now has a broken snap. I know that if my husband is reading this he's thinking "Woman, than go get yourself some clothes and stop complaining." But I hate trying to find skirts or dresses that are long enough, that are machine washable, easy to wear for subbing in nursery. You know all the variables. So every Sunday we go out the door with the girls reasonably cute and I have wet hair still and put my make up on in the car. Yes, we have three o'clock church right now and I have still gone with wet hair. Next month it changes to 8 am. I am going to be changing out of my bathrobe and putting on my nylons as we drive down the road. The more I do in the car the better because the girls are strapped into place and if they do take off their shoes, which Sadie always does, they are right below them and not buried in the dress ups along with the dress they just took off in favor of wearing Sleeping Beauty dress to church. Yes, I am speaking more of Sadie than Jane right now. Jane just tries to talk me in to letting her wear her pioneer skirt to church.

Well Meagan's kids are asleep now and we are going to try to get some caramels made for Ellynn and Brind before they wake up. Wish us luck.

Cameron, Jane will be about the same age, I'm sure. How's Monie feeling?

Seattle Bennett living in Colorado

So I'm currently trying to get Sierra and Kaia in the friend the description will goes as follow
"Sierra and Kaia currently living in Colorado enjoy thier ninja training and scripture study they look forward to the day when their dad gets the spaceship fixxed so they can go back to thier home with the other ten tribes"

look for it I know I have to be close

So its been to cold out here in Denver and well Don is out of town so I've been working on my jeep I added some springs and put in new shocks the springs were supposedly and 2-3 hour project and that is a dirty lie I started the front 2 today after spending the weekend doing the back and well from 10am to 8pm straight no breaks nothing I final bolted back on the tires. What a pain I'm very sore and looking forward to bed.
Adam

one word

one word megs, one word. Nitrous aka laughing-gas! Nitrous Oxide -N2O! Only 20 dollars extra with insurance and i guarantee your kids will purposely eat candy. I know i did and still do!

what a day

So mindi why didn’t you tell us your brother was famous?  He is in this months friend, I think you should all check it out.  Jesse I am so excited you finished the bom.  Isn’t it awesome!!  We are almost done, too.  I love how towards the end moroni inserts his own words here and their.  You can tell he is speaking right to us.

On Sunday wil would not go to nursery, so after church I asked him why he didn’t go.  He said, “cause I don’t love it mom, I don’t”.  

I had a day that anyone without children should not read about because you will never want them after you do.  So we started with hazel’s 5 month check-up with 4 shots.  She did very well, but who likes watching their little baby get poked?  We had no liquid Tylenol at home so I had to crush a chewable and feed that to her.  After school I took jack, ben and wil to the dentist.  Of course they all had cavities, because my kids teeth suck.  I asked them if we could take care of ben and jacks right then so I didn’t have to bring them back.  So ben’s in one room screaming her head off.  Jackson’s in the other, trying to be brave but wishing mom was with him and wil is wandering between the two.  It’s good that he watched all of this before it was his turn, because it made him really excited to crawl up into the chair.  Bennett’s turned out to be way more that a filling, they did a flipping root canal without telling me.  So two ladies are holding her down, and I a squished between them holding her hands all the while stretching my one leg out to rock hazel in her car seat.  I was so frazzled after three hours in the dentist ½ an hour at the doctors and a total of 8 shots (they gave benny another one half way through because she was screaming so hard.  They asked if I thought she was in pain, I was like DUH!!), that I crawled into the car and started to cry.  I’m so excited to go back on Monday for ben’s crown and wil’s three fillings.  I told cory he was coming with me, if you can believe it he didn’t even argue.  So if you try to offer my children candy of any kind you get to take them to dentist next.  And I promise you when you see benny little eyes fill up with tears you will swear never to buy another piece of that crap again.  

Ok sorry for the totally long and probably boring story, but it has changed me forever.  Especially when the dentist looks at me after everything and says you are obviously doing something wrong with all of them.  

                                              Brush, floss and loose the candy……..me        

ColoradoBennett-camera back on track

A compilation of pictures I wanted to post a while ago, but couldn't due to technical difficulties.

bg me

I have only seconds, because hazel is trying to take her morning nap and wil and ben are distracted with the previews before beauty and the beast.  Too bad they loose all interest before the movie even starts.  I can’t have everything I guess.  

Thanksgiving was a blast!!  I love being out doors so much and although it was 12 hours of cooking 12 minutes of eating and 12 hours of clean up, those 24 hours of work were much more enjoyable than normal.  

Thank you all for your messages about pop and my birthday greetings, both were greatly appreciated.  There has to be something good about growing older, huh.  Oh I’ll tell you another thing.  Cory buying me presents.  Yeah that rocks.  He got me this little gps that tells me how fast how far and how long I run.  Then at the end I get a readout of my averages and a map of where I went.  All this on a little thing I wear on my wrist.  Now just that on my arm would not look too bad because it is quite small however when you combine it with my ipod I wear on my other arm and my flashing armband I think I might look like a dork.  But I will never go back I don’t care how crazy I look.  

Rigby family I am sorry about your loss.  Tukie was one crazy animal, but he never hurt me so as far as dogs go he was alright.  

I am so jealous geof. And gang, were able to hang with cam and gang and jess and sidekick.  How I wish our gang could have joined in the fun.  Although it would be more relaxing if it was just me and my sidekick.  Kids make a lot of noise.  After we came home last night cory kept commenting on how quite the house had been while we were gone.  

I have laundry that is so overwhelming that I’m scared to go start it, but I had better.  It’s not as bad as it could be because most of it is still in the bag on the roof rack.  But I’ll leave that for cor to unload.  Um you should have seen dad standing on my roof loading it.  The guys at the office would have been pretty impressed to see dad shimmying up the back of my rig and on to the rack (all the while calling himself a manly man), I know I was.  

                                                                   Blog……..me

Ps now that the braces are gone I expect to see millions of pics, chels    

greatest day ever-chels

The braces are off.

Crabb's

Our Thanksgiving was pretty laid back. Monica made swiss bread for my family and we had dinner at my parents house. There were about 25 of us there and it was a lot of fun. I think Monica missed having Thanksgiving with her family since it sounds like they had a blast in Cali.

I thought I'd post part of Joel's last email. You tell me if this sounds like the Joel you all know so well:

last saturday they took us to eat dinner, and we went to this sushi place but it wasnt just a regular sushi place. usual sushi costs about 1 dollar for one, but this place was about 5 dollars for 1. but thats now all. you sit up to this
counter and they have a bunch of different like fish and shells in a glass case sitting on ice right in front of you and you tell the guy what you cant and he pulls it out cuts it up right in front of you and then you eat it. it was amazing. and our neighbor guy-Yamazaki, would just say this is good, then have the guy cut it up for us. he didnt even think about how much it costs. I ate so many weird things but it was way cool, like for example he pulled out this like octopus are and cuts it up and then I eat it. and I ate like fresh shrimp and crabb and clam, but the wierdest was sea urchin. and that one wasnt to delicious but I could probably eat it again. believe it or not all of it was pretty good.

Well, now that Thanksgiving is over it's time to get ready for Christmas. Monica and I spent the whole weekend decorating the house for Christmas. We had a lot of fun. Geoff, Darla, Tony and Jess. It was good to see you all. We just want everyone to know that our house is always open for anyone that wants to come visit and stay.

Brooke, don't feel too bad about Jane. We had my little brother convinced it was real until he was almost 12. He may have had doubts but he wasn't about to say it wasn't real for fear that Santa might not come.

Better get back to work. Later.

For Adult Eyes Only

Okay, I have been trying to be good all morning, unpacking suitcases, making important phone calls, making lists of things I need to do, but the blog has been calling me and I can resist no longer. I loved reading all of your blogs. Rigby girls, I'm sorry to hear about Tuco- for your parents' sake. Give them a big hug for me. Jess, I'm totally jealous that you have finished the BOM. I am a bit behind and mom and Jane figured out that I have to read 8 pages a day from now to the end of the month to finish. I think Mindi's prediction is going to come true for me. Everyone will be celebrating the new year as I read the last chapter of Moroni. I am going to do it though. You can count on that. So Cory and my girls and I just got back from Bend Oregon last night. Cory had to work and I didn't want Jane missing too much school. So mom has volunteered to be in charge of coordinating the food for Pop's funeral and they are stuck in a snow storm up the mountain. Dad has already warned me that this could be my new assignment for the next two days and by dang I'm ready for it (that is for Cory's benefit in case he's reading the blog at work and stressing out). Cory- I did Enrichment dinners for over a year, no worries.

We had a great Thanksgiving. We did it at the park, in a pavillion, with dutch ovens and camp stoves. It was freezing, like in the 30s but we had a huge roaring fire and the kids were bundled and it was so much fun. I could have handled the 50 degree weather we were supposed to have.

So now to the title of my blog. Mike and I decided that it was probably time to tell Jane that there really isn't a Santa Claus. She is defending him to the death at school and I have come up with so many fabulous explainations for little issues of potential doubt that she still believes. I did think however that she might have some doubts. Oh, I was so wrong. I decide to tell her and then ease the pain with telling her she is going to get to help fill her sisters' stockings. So the other night we have some down time and I call her over and tell her I have a secret I think she should know. She says okay. I tell her it isn't a really great secret and that she might be upset that I've told her. She says it's okay and now she is begging me to tell her. So I look her in the eye and say "Jane, there is no Santa." The child bursts out laughing, positively hysterical, leans over hits my leg, totally cracking up. In between giggles she's saying "I can't believe you did that. You are so funny. Oh, so you and dad eat cookies at midnight, yeah right." I tell her again that there really isn't a Santa, she continues to laugh until I say it the third time. At which time she gets the most devasted look on her face that I have ever seen and I have no choice but to reply "Got ya." She laughs again, clearly relieved that her mom just has a demented sense of humor hugs me, tells me she can't believe I teased her like that, and goes off to finish putting away her laundry. It was so cute I could have just died. So the magic will continue yet another year at our house and maybe she'll just have to figure it out on her own because I can't tell her again.

Well Sadie is covering me screen with the book she wants me to read to her so I had better go. I love you all so much. I am so grateful to have you all as my family.
Blog, Brooke