Merry Christmas

best christmas ever

The Grizzly Grind Has Nothing On These Elves!

Here are Riley and her Johnson cousins doing what looks very similar to the Grizzly Grind!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1530892445

Now we just need to convince the Members.

The Church answers 21 questions from Fox News about Mormon doctrines.

One interesting thing about the Church Membership (myself included, at times) is our fascination with wanting to know 'deep' doctrines. This usually means taking as true anything that has ever been uttered by any bishop/stake president/general authority/apostle/prophet, regardless of the context or the intention of the statement, or extrapolating from known truths to unknown ideas. Ironically, that is how most anti-Mormon materials operate, too.

So I have some sympathy for people that think Mormon's believe Jesus was married, or that African American's were cursed, or that everybody in heaven will practice polygamy, or any other crazy 'doctrine.' Maybe my perception is skewed from preaching in Brazil, but some of these ideas were surprisingly accepted by members. A small minority, yes, but those that did think those kinds of things were usually pretty vocal about their 'knowledge.'

Maybe coverage like this will help clear up outsiders misconceptions as well as 'insiders' zealous beliefs.


If this wasn't such a public forum, it might be kind of funny to list the different apocryphal teachings we have heard from people over time. What was Rich's "Wheat-Grass-Juice Theory"?

Riley's 4th B-Day/Santa Clause/Snow

Here are a few pictures of Riley's 4th B-Day and the happenings since...

happy girl

Dec 22nd

BYU plays on Saturday the 22nd in their bowl game. While the Pioneer Vision Las Vegas Bowl against Pac-10 foe UCLA certainly isn't a premiere bowl, I am trying to make the most of it. The game is a latter game, starting at 6pm Mountain Time.

Are there any plans for that evening? Can I plan on watching the game at the Madsen's? If not, then maybe at the Johnsons? The game is on ESPN.

CNN's Mormons 101

How would it be to make the famous Mormon List?

I think the list gets sadder as you move downward....

• Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney
• Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
• CNN's Glen Beck
• Donny and Marie Osmond
• "Jeopardy" champion Ken Jennings
• Jon Heder ("Napoleon Dynamite")

Jon Heder, really?

All I want for Christmas. . .

They look so happy! Wonder Sauna Hot (long) Pants. . . I've imagined you for so long. Now I know you are real.

BYU on TV again!

Nobody will be able to see the BYU Fball game today. But anyone with any television provider will be able to See BYU v. Portland Bball tonight at 8:00 pm on BYUTV. Ironically, that does not include me.

Alison does not think highly of customers who call her and ask why they don't show more sports. . . so I see this as a sort of Public Service Announcement, with Alison being the Public.

DVD

Todd woke up early and kit KOHLS to buy us a portable DVD player for long trips in the car. When he got in there he saw people buying 5 or 6 at a time...to say the least, he got caught up in the excitement and figured he had better buy two if everyone else was getting five! So, part of me thinks we should just keep the second for when Macie is interested, but the other part finds it kind of silly. Anyway, it was 50 bucks - 7.5 inch screen. Not a brand I recognize, but works well so far. SO, I thought maybe Brad and Ali may be interessted in purchasing it as we now know you will be making many trips from Provo to IF this summer. BUT, Morgan will probably be more intersted in skimming the encyclopedia at that point :) Just thought I would post about it - if anyone wants it, let me know.

Vinyl

Buffy,
Are you still in the vinyl business? Adri is having me make a clock for her Mom for Christmas. Could you make us the lettering again? We'll probably just pick it up when we come to IF.

I'm just saying. . .

I'm not saying "my baby is smarter than yours". . . but she probably is!

From a PBS Parents site, describing 2-3 year olds:

"May become familiar with the A-B-C song and sing it, but without knowing that the letter names recited label individual graphic designs. By the end of this year, some children (20%) recognize and label a few letters, especially the first letter in their own name, and perhaps other letters in their name. By the end of this year, many children (70%) do not know the names of any letters. Also by the end of this year, a few children (10%) know most uppercase letters."

I think that, conservatively, Morgan is naming 22 letters consistently, and can identify, if given the name, all 26. She will be 2 in February.

Maybe we are just perpetuating a stereotype about kids with glasses. . .

Brother Beck on TV today.

John Beck of the Miami Dolphins was in our ward at BYU and, for a time, was a counselor to the bishop. Incredibly nice guy.

He sent the bishop a message last Saturday, before his inagural NFL start, and asked that the ward pray for his health (Miami is horrible. . . ) and let us know that he is the Webelos leader in his Miami Ward.

Miami loses. . .er. . . plays Pittsburgh tonight on MNF. Sounds like a family home evening activity to me! Actually, I will be in the library panicking about finals.

i thought I took more pictures . . .

oh well, if someone has pictures from dinner, please post them for us - - - I think ezri's hair looks almost as red as pat's!!

Thanksgiving

I pulled this off the national weather service forecast for Idaho Falls:

Thanksgiving Day: Sunny, with a high near 31. Wind chill values between -8 and 2. North northeast wind between 9 and 11 mph.

Sounds like your going to have a fun run, sorry we can't be there...

Denver Trip

Here are a few pictures from our trip to Denver last week. The time flew by as Grandma and Grandpa J. kept us busy with a myriad of activities - Chuck E Cheese, Swimming, The Zoo, Build-A-Bear. The picture of the Truckers Chapel was taken at a Truck Stop in Laramie, Wyo.

Turkey

We will run in the morning when you all get up. We will eat appetizers at Grnadma C's around noon and have dinner here around two, unless anyone has issues with that and we will change it to suit you. In other words we are very flexible and laid back. Morgan has a home game on Tuesday night the 20th. Can anyone get Wed off and come,. It starts at 6pm. My brother Jim and sister Karma are coming. Val, Kim, Brad and Trent are coming. and Morgan. Aunt Marie is having Christmas Party at her house on Dec 22nd. Try to come, her house is worth the pain of us all being together. And Santa is coming!!!!! I just spent an hour on the phone with India getting our computer to work. I need a diet coke!
Mom

What is going on ThanksGiving?

Ali, Emma (little Morgan), and I will probably show up on Wednesday night. I think I heard Ali say we are staying with the Hulses.

But who all is going to be there? Kim? Jared? Trent? I guess everyone else lives there already.

Do we have plans for meals and activities yet? If we do, let us know.

We look forward to the party.

Baby Morgan's New Glasses

In case you hadn't seen or heard, Baby Morgan got glasses last Friday. We took her in a few weeks ago because her left eye was going cross-eyed pretty much nonstop. One second opinion later it was confirmed - she's farsighted. The bad vision isn't that much of a surprise because both Brad and I have horrible vision, but what is odd is that she's farsighted when we're both nearsighted. But, whatever. So she'll probably be wearing them until she's 8 or 9 at which point she might grow out of the bad vision or we can look at getting her contacts.

She doesn't seem to mind them too much, at least she keeps them on. Now we just need to hope that she doesn't loose or destroy them for at least a year or so.

BYU game tonight.

Reed and I are going to the BYU v. TCU game tonight. It is the first night game this year and I am pretty excited about it. Crowds at night just seem better.

The game will be on TV. It will be on Vs.

Vs. is available on DiSH, but it is not on their lower tier. It is on DiSH channel 151. You can upgrade for the game (America's top 250) and then downgrade right after and pay ~ 6 bucks (the pro-rate for the day and then charge 5$ to downgrade). You can upgrade online but have to call them to downgrade. I've done it, it is pretty simple.

Or maybe you know someone who will be watching it. Rick Hulse gets Vs. and just bought a 50" Plasma, so maybe go knock on his door :)

Gross

1st basketball injury. Kristie's elbow hit my face and put my tooth through my lip there was alot of blood but no stitches. It healed really fast almost over night no big deal just really gross looking.

Halloween Casualty

We had a cancellation at the dentist office yesterday. When they can't find a patient to put into the time slot they go through the assistants charts and see who is due for a cleaning. My number was up yesterday and I was the lucky one to get thrown in the chair. I've had 12 years of easy appointments in the office: xrays, cleaning, exam and done. No big deal. Everyone just gets to tell me how great my teeth are. No smooth sailing this time... My brother did the exam (he's not as nice to me as my dad is) and wammo! Kylie's got a cavity!! His one comment was, "Kylie, do you every floss you teeth?" Of course I floss my teeth! I work in a dentist office for heaven sakes! How can I tell people all day to floss if I don't. Getting it fixed was no big deal. I got to use the gas, which right there wants me want to stop brushing my teeth so I can use that stuff more. While the bro was fixing it Pops came over and had some spare time and decided to just "laser" off a few moles. All this meant to me was more time on the gas so I gave the go ahead. I'm came out of it A'OK and a little less spotted. Moral to the Story: Kids Brush and Floss and don't do Drugs!

Game Day

For mom, dad, and Morgan. The whether for tomorrow is for casted to be in the low to mid 50's, sunny, with no chance of precipitation. Wear blue. The weather today is similar and I would suggest something light but maybe with sleeves. It is great fall weather.

Also, I have secured a parking pass for a lot near the stadium. It is Reed's apartment complex. We did this last game and it worked great. It is about a 3 block walk to and from the stadium to parking, but I do not anticipate waiting in long lines of traffic either before or after the game.

If you guys get here in time, we can get Pizza or cook burgers or something at our apartment. Those are the extent of our plans. We have Evan Allmighty and Transformers, I guess.

Game Hype: CSU is on a 1-15 streak. BUT, they had #2 Cal on the ropes, lost to overtime to Pac 10 foe Colorado, and have been close in all of their conference games. So maybe BYU will have a game on their hands. BYU had a bye week, played at UNLV, played Eastern Washington, and then had their last game in San Diego postponed due to fire. So it feels like it has been a looong time since there was football in Provo. Let's hope they are not rusty. QB Max Hall was not at Church on Sunday. . .

Also, we have Church at 8am on Sunday. Clocks roll back that night/morning, so maybe we will go. You are welcome to come.

Low-Price HD-DVD player

Wal-Mart is selling a Toshiba HD-DVD player for under 100 dollars tomorrow.

If I owned a LCD or Plasma TV, I would be all over this. Sure, you might still be wondering about the HDDVD v. Blu-Ray battle, but for under 100 bucks you can at least have a dog in the fight and will get a DVD player with HDMI outputs and great DVD upscaling, if nothing else. The usual price on this HD DVD player is 199, I think.

Trick-o-Treat!??

Carving Pumpkins...Sort Of?!

Or go fishing with Don. . . .again. . .

some pictures

trying to be somewhat put together by throwing on a pink scarf . . . .(to go with the pink flip flops I suppose?) but it's not really working
ezri in her new car

Pumpkin Carving 2007

We carved pumpkins Monday night for FHE - as you can tell by Ty's face he mostly ate chocolate chip cookies. :) I carved the very simple moon an stars pumpkin and Rich was a little more elaborate with his carving of mickey mouse's face.