Merry Christmas to all . . .

Our family Christmas was exciting. We eagerly awaited our last gift from our Secret Santa (we got a bucket meal from KFC) Thanks to the generosity of so many we have a full refridgerator.

Santa actually got everything wrapped and Mom got everything made before Christmas Eve so Dad and I retired early. Saree had other plans for us, however. She has a little cold and at night will often cough a little. This night she coughed for what seemed like ever and then had to get in bed between Dad and I. The only one that got any sleep was Jaycie.

We woke up to quite a bit of new snow and it continued to snow off and on throughout the day. We then had a great Christmas dinner. I had asked for, and received, an air popcorn popper and we popped some corn and watched a movie, sort of. Jaycie loved her gifts so much that she just wanted to continue changing in and out of her new princess dresses, shoes, necklaces, and tiaras. They both like to color, paint, and stamp and I find myself constantly putting it all away.

We plan on going swimming today. I'm not sure I really want to but the girls seem to be really enthusiastic about it, and Jim just wants to get out of the house. I just want to curl up with a book for a while.

I hope everyone's Christmas was as wonderful as ours was. Love to all.

The Hillsteads

Popcorn Popping . . .

Today was the Christmas program, the one I had to play the flute in. Everything went well, I did make a couple of small mistakes, but I don't think anyone noticed. Saree looked so cute in her fancy little dress, I'm bummed that I didn't get pictures of Jaycie in hers before it got destroyed. I'm just going to let you all know now - NEVER buy a dress with tulle on it for a 4 year old. It won't survive the first wearing. We did find something else for her to wear that was "Christmassy" though.

We're still getting presents from our Secret Santa. Last night they brought 1 qt of chocolate milk and 1 qt of egg nog - ock milk - as Jaycie calls it. We're eagerly awaiting the next drop off which should happen any time now. As we are waiting Jaycie and Saree are playing with play-do and Jaycie is singing Popcorn Popping on the Ackipot Tree. I had to laugh.

We got three invitations for Christmas this year. We will be spending Christmas Eve with the Pardington family and Christmas day with the Lenier family. Some may know their daughter (she knows Dad and Shane) anyway.

We feel really blessed to have so many people that are taking an interest in us and in our welfare. And I'm glad that we have been making so many friends.

Merry Christmas to you all. We love you and miss you.

Jim, Regan, Jaycie, and Saree

Christmas cookies

We started making Christmas cookies the other day. I started with the peanut butter cup cookies, we made those too soon though cuz we ate them all. Now we have the pretzel treats (so easy) they taste like chocolate covered pretzels without the mess. The girls like to help :). Jaycie's idea of help with the peanut butter cup cookies was to lick all the chocolate off of about 12 of the cookies. I let them unwrap all of the kisses for the cookies and the pretzels. They did pretty good. I still had to really watch them though. Saree seemed to think she should be able to eat one or two for every one that got put in the bowl.

This Christmas season has seen us at the receiving end of a lot of kindness. We have a Secret Santa, that has been fun. The girls race to the door to check if Santa has come several times a day. (If the cat is ever out of the bag we're going to have a little chat about the 4 WHISTLES though). We also had someone give us a tree - I had mentioned we had decided against one this year for various reasons. Sure enough one was dropped off. Jim then went into work and checked in his in box to find a card with $100 dollars in it. It's been very humbling, the Lord does answer prayers, it's just hard when you know that there are people in town that have a whole lot less than we do. We feel kind of bad thinking that someone else might not get anything at all when we are being given so much.

Jim and I both have 2 weeks off now. I'm not sure what our plans are for activities, but I know we aren't going to just stay home (unless we get more snow). It snowed here the last couple of days. The first day saw about 8 inches - snow day at the school. I found it somewhat humorous considering that school hardly ever got called for that paltry amount in Montana. It does look like a white Christmas this year though.

Next week brings my first Mammogram (can't tell you how not excited I am about that one). I also will be having a complete blood work up. So I'm sure I'm going to hear that I have high cholesterol (thanks Mom & Dad).

Jim's Contribution

I thought I'd better get on this blog and add a few things for the guys. The pictures of the kids are good and everything, but some guy stuff is good once in awhile. We went for a drive today (Sunday 12-7-08) and saw this nice buck laying down about 20 feet from the fence line. Of course Regan is the only one that can shoot it. And of course it's with her camera.

Regan and I went to a Christmas dinner on Saturday night. We got one of my students to babysit for us. When we got home at about 9:45 both girls were zonked out on the couch and this is how we found them.

Birthdays

The girls had their birthdays this last week. Saree was so cute about opening her presents. She would take a little strip off at a time and then throw it in the garbage, come back and rip some more off. Jaycie just tore into hers. They both loved their gifts. On the 29th we went to the Anasazi Heritage Center, free in the off season, can't beat that!! Anyway, it was really interesting and had a neat museum with it. It then had a hike up to a look out and some ruins. I think we all enjoyed it, even if it was a little cold. The little snowman was funny. Someone built it on the bench and had put a great deal of work into it.

I thought Grandpa & Grandma-Grandma would like to see the girls in the pretty birthday dresses. They both loved them. Jaycie told everyone that it was her birthday dress and made sure that they noticed the matching shoes. (I'm still wondering if I didn't get one of Shannon's kids on accident).

We spent Thanksgiving with Bro. & Sis. Clark, and Morgan & Trina. We all enjoyed it and of course indulged too much. Saree finally warmed up to Bro. Clark and let him hold her toward the end of the night. We then had all of them over for cake and ice cream on Saturday. With all of that cake around the house we needed help eating it so we wouldn't eat it all ourselves. (Jim's watching is girlish figure you know).

The girls both blew out their candles, Jaycie twice. Jim had no sooner lit the darn things and she blew them out before we could sing to her. Saree got to blow candles out twice too. With the missionaries over for dinner on the 28th I was a little flummoxed and forgot to get a picture of her with her cake so I just took one of her with Jaycie's. (Bad Mom award).

The Holidays Are Upon Us.

Things here are the same, sort of. I'm watching 2 little boys during the week now. Koa, and Shawn. Koa is 9 months old and Shawn is 3 months old. They are both good babies and so cute!! I definitely want another one. Anyway, Jim and I had toyed with the idea of going down to San Antonio at Christmas break but decided that we just can't afford it yet, so we are going to stay here.

The girls are doing great. They are excited for their birthdays this week. Saree is almost potty trained, she just hasn't quite figured out that she needs to tell me she has to pee and then go to the bathroom. Right now it's as it is happening.

Thanksgiving was great. We ate at the Clark residence. The food tasted wonderful and as usual I ate too much. The girls had a lot of fun too. The tryptophan is kicking in and I'm goin to go to bed now. I have a lot to do tomarrow. It's Saree's birthday and the missionaries are coming over for dinner.

Halloween

Well, our Halloween definitely wasn't as eventful as Shane & Danielle's, well, Danielle's more so. Shane was along for the ride (kinda). Anyway, I dressed the girls up and put makeup on them. They loved that. It is so hard to get makeup on two squirming giggly girls, but they loved it.

Our ward had a four ward trunk or treat and then a chili and cinnamon roll dinner following the trunk or treat. The girls made out like bandits, Jaycie in particular, she made the round 3 times.

The next night we went to Mancos to a retirement center for a trick or treat. By the time we were finnished there the girls had enough candy to fill one of my sugar cannisters (it holds 10 lbs). Needless to say we won't need candy for a long, long time.

Now what?

Well, Community Connections didn't pan out. I got the job, even passed the background check (hard to believe ha-ha). But, I discovered that the 40 hours of training that they wanted me to do had at least 30 of it that wasn't on line and some of it was in Durango. Not too bad except that all of it was during the day, all day. Day care here runs about 25 per child and 8.50/hr doesn't pay 50/day daycare and other expenses. So now I guess I'll apply at the grocery store. Can't tell you how excited I am about that one.

I got two callings in the ward now. I am the Ward web-site administrator & I teach the 10-11 year-olds in primary. Jim is the secretary in the young mens group & is in absolute heaven. Why can't I get a calling like family, home, and personal enrichment person? I could actually do things that I'm comfortable teaching people, the gospel not being one of them. That is probably why they keep putting me in those positions. Anyway, I also somehow got talked into playing the flute as part of the Christmas program. The only stipulation there was that Mom and Dad had to find it first in the storage unit. Then I was thinking there was no way I could because I would probably need my fingering chart, it has been so long, and I have no idea where that is. Of course looking for something else I found it, so there went my backup excuse.

Jaycie has a boyfriend, I know he isn't really a boyfriend, but they hold hands all the time and go from sacrament meeting to primary that way. His name is Thayer and he is the bishops son. He just barely turned 4, he is so cute. Jim is already worrying though. At least Nathan and Shannon are much closer to that reality than we are. Tums anyone?

Saree is a real fighter. Trust me when I say I end up pulling her off of Jaycie more than I pull Jaycie off of her. Jaycie will tell her she can't do something and Saree will run full out to get to her and start whaling away. I pity the fool who gets on her bad side.

We really like it here and hope everyone can come for a visit, preferably not all at once, though. Our apartment is about the size of Mom and Dad's kitchen.

Scrap happy!

As some of you know I've turned into a total digital scrapbooking addict. It becomes quite difficult for me to get off the computer to do dishes, etc. I thought I might add one of my favorites so far.

Jaycie has started breaking out in hives again. This is the first time she has broken out because of fabric softener. The last time she broke out was because of laundry detergent. Oh well, more laundry to do.

. . . . Okay. . .are we living on the bad side of town?

Well, we were on our way back from the park on Sunday evening, we had just fed the ducks. (That is fun, by the way. These ducks were practically in our laps. Saree had a couple of pieces of bread clutched in her hot little hand and the only goose there was brave enough to come and get it, against her will. She screamed!) Anyway, as I was saying, on the way home we passed the apartments on the end of the block just before ours and there was a cop car parked out front and crime scene tape all the way around the building. In the paper the next day we found out that there was a murder there. They arrested the guy, he lived there and so did his female victim. I don't know why or how or what, but it was pretty grusome.

Jim asked the school cop if we should be concerned and he said that murder is pretty uncommon here, but since we live close to three trailer parks there is a lot of foot traffic and this side of town sees more home invasions than the rest of town. Great!! I'm now locking the doors all the time.

I also got hired on at Community Connections, it's a community outreach program for adults that are developmentally delayed. I'll mostly be helping people in their homes with cooking and cleaning. I'm hoping not to have to bathe or wipe bums, I get enough of that at home (Jim wants me to stipulate that it's not him that I'm bathing or wiping. He does, however, want to be bathed).

Mesa Verde - The Return

This trip to the park was, shall we say eventful? We discovered that we really had done things backwards. We should have seen Castle house on Saturday & Spruce Tree house on Wednesday. Who knew. Anyway because we were unable to get to the Castle house on Wednesday we decided to go see the petroglyphs at Spruce Tree house as we didn't get to see them on Saturday. I thought that it was a quick little jaunt around the bend from the ruins. Boy was I wrong.

We got there about 40 minutes before closing and started out on the hike. By the time 6:30 rolled around and we still hadn't reached the petroglyphs we turned around to go back. The whole time I was worried that they would lock us in, so I introduced Saree to echos. It was really cute. She can't quite say hello, she says he-ho. Anyway when we got back and started up the path to entrance we were met by 2 park rangers who spent the next 10 minutes chastizing us because we were supposed to 1) check with a ranger before we left on the hike 2) signed the log & 3) taken water with us. Who knew.

Anyway the hike was a little hairy in places, there were tiny narrow little stairs we had to go down, picture 2, and a narrow crevice we had to go through, picture 1. Jim and I would like to go back but without the girls because it would have been better not having to worry about falling and hurting them, not to mention that the squeeze was tight enought without another person on your back.

Mesa Verde

We went to Mesa Verde this last Saturday, we all had fun. We drove to, I want to say the name was Long Pine House, and then put the girls in the backpacks and hiked to the site. There were a lot of German tourists there and the girls got quite a bit of attention from them. We plan on going back one night this week to take advantage of the 6 day pass we purchased.

Pictures to follow - - sometime.

We finally made it!!! It was a long trip, and the truck and trailer were packed to capacity. We ended up getting a small 2 bedroom duplex because the guy we were going to be renting from finally decided to get back to Jim and tell him that the house wouldn't be ready. This left us scrambling Saturday night to find a place to move into on Sunday. We got everything unloaded and then discovered the couch wouldn't fit in the door, so pull up a spot of carpet and sit yourself down! Anyway, we won't have internet service for a little while and therefore no pictures, but it's pretty here and pretty hot. We don't a/c and I'm roasting.

Cortez, Colorado or bust.

Cortez, here we come!! Jim has secured employment with the Cortez, Colorado school district and we will be moving there. The only problem so far has been that they want him there monday the 18. We still don't know for sure how we are going to do it, but I think right now the plan is that Jim will go before the girls and I and find a place to live and then I'll drive the U-haul down with the girls in a week or so.

We'll keep everyone posted.

The Hillstead Reunion

The reunion this year was held at the end of fair week. There were a lot of people there and they had some fun activities for the kids. Jaycie tried to catch a pig, that wasn't too successful. She barely wanted to touch it so even when the pig got close she wasn't too interested in grabbing it. A few had brought some Rangers, those things that have 4 wheels and drive kind of like a car. Jaycie, Saree, and their cousin Amelia were having fun on that.

The fair went well for me this year, I guess it was my turn. Due to the definitions given for professional and ameture divisions, basically if you have ever been paid for photographic work, even if it is just as a lab technician, you have to participate as a professional. This isn't something I'm particularly comfortable with because I don't see myself as an "artist", but my photo of the flowers took best in show, and the photo of the trees took runner up. I'm really happy.

We also introduced Jaycie and Saree to cotton candy, what a mess! I've never seen anyone tank down on anything so fast in my life. Over all the fair was a disappointment though. The people that they had contracted to do the carnival backed out on them last minute so there was very little there in the way of entertainment.

Ely - BIG difference compared to what we're used to.

As you all probably know Ely didn't work out. I wasn't too disappointed though, I didn't like it very much. You've noticed the pictures and everything has a casino and there are at least 3 houses of ill repute there (ick). Anyway, onward and upward.

No mutton bustin for Jaycie

Today was another adventure in the world of junior rodeo. Jim left at about 7:30 this morning so that we could be sure to get Jaycie signed up to mutton bust today, she talked about it all the way to town, but when it came to getting on one of those woolly beasts she wouldn't do it. I tried bribing her with bubble gum and a root beer but she still wouldn't do it. They were giving out $2 bills as prizes and she still got one of those. I wouldn't get her the other things we offered as a bribe and were rewarded for it by a mini melt down, then she realized she was going to get to chase a chicken and all was forgotten.

We then went to the in-laws and ran through sprinklers and slid down water slides. Saree had a run-in with a wasp and has a couple of swollen fingers. She's a tough little nut though because she just wimpered and said owee, not the full blown screams of torture that her sister has given for the same wound.

Off on another road trip!

Our trip to Montana wasn't fruitful. It was rather heart breaking considering that the superintendent at Drummond, Ms. Logan, told Jim that he was her choice. Apparently the school board over-ruled her, we don't know why. She then talked to one of her good friends, a superintendent in Whitehall, and set up an interview for Jim there. This super also told Jim that the interview went well, but it was not to be. I'm not quite sure why she is trying so hard to find Jim a job, but we are very grateful to Ms. Logan, she has a sister that is a principal/vice principal at a school in Ely, Nevada - said eely. He has an interview there on Tuesday, and if that doesn't pan out he has an interview at a school on the high-line in Montana. I can't remember the name but it is about 40 miles to the east of Harlem. Right back where we were before (kinda).

This time I'll be sure to take pictures. The ones on the internet make the area look pretty, and according to their chamber of commerce website it doesn't get super hot or super cold there. It can get below zero but it isnt a guarentee every year.

On the Bandwagon!

I figured since everyone else was blogging, why not start. I also figured that this would make the approved activities list for Sundays (ha-ha). Anyway, I hope You enjoy our blog. I must be an idiot because it took me forever to find what I wanted, and now I'm not sure I like it still. I'll be making more changes I'm sure.

I decided to enter two prints into the fair this year, and I've included those here too. Tell me what you think.