Here are those pictures I mentioned from Jennah's new (we'll call it the "Sneaky" camera).

Love you

Dave

Dave is sneaky!

This is the year I have finally managed to be sneaky with Jennah. A couple of weeks ago I decided to get Jennah a new dress to wear to my work Christmas party. Unfortunately, that's all the forethought I gave it, promptly finding myself at JC Penney without knowing Jennah's dress size. I called Jan and said "Help!" She asked if I knew her pant size, shirt size, etc. She even asked if I knew her bra size. Unfortunately I remembered the right size for the wrong measurement on the bra. Jan accused me of being such a guy as she cracked up. Anyway, she told me she would call Jennah because they had us for Christmas this year and she would ask some questions. As Jan was talking with Jennah, she coyly asked if I was home. Jennah said no, that I was out running errands, Christmas shopping. She said that "Dave thinks he's sneaky but he's really not" (or something along those lines). When Jan called my back, she told me what Jennah said. We had a good laugh and Jennah and I had another good laugh later that night when I surprised her with the dress and even enjoyed a little bit of gloating over how sneaky I (with Jan's help) had been.

I also pulled another sneaky success this morning. Jennah misplaced out digital camera on our last trip to Utah and so she's been making due with our camcorder as a camera. But, the pictures really aren't very good. They're very grainy with poor resolution so she's really been wanting a new one. So, I decided I would get her one using a $50.oo Best Buy gift card I won at work. The gift card helped offset the balance and made it manageable for Christmas. Coincidentally, I bought the camera the same night as the dress so I think I was on a roll.

This morning, Jennah did her stocking first, and I had wrapped the camera in rolls of tissue paper so she couldn't feel what was inside, then put that gift on the top of her stocking. She was so excited when that was the first thing she opened.

Here is a picture, on the new camera, of the Doll House we made for the girls this Christmas.

We have enjoyed a wonderful Christmas Day and hope you have all had the same. We love you very much and wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Love you

Dave

White Christmas

After wishing for a white christmas, 13 inches of snow makes you want to take it all back. Hope your holidays are warm and bright. We posted some new videos of the kids on our blog if you want to check it out.

Have any of you heard about pandora.com? If not, I recommend checking it out. It's online radios that you can customize to play only certain types of music you want to listen to. I built my own Christmas radio station because I've gotten really tired of songs like "Jingle Bell Rock"a nd "White Christmas" and others I'm sure you could all name constantly overdone on the regular radio stations. You can build any number of different "radio stations" and its free. I just thought I'd share.

Love you

Dave

Holiday cheer

Hello all.  We're enjoying the season.  I hope you all are.  Our enjoyment was dampened a little bit a couple of weeks ago when the dishwasher and the washing machine decided to go belly up on the same day.  Still, small miracles happen.  I called Whirlpool and they agreed to pay for the parts and we paid for labor.  The parts totaled somewhere around $700 when all was said and done.  That's certainly a blessing.  We now have 8 dishwashers at our home, although only 5 are really effective.

This year, we started a new tradition.  Jennah and I (mostly Jennah) decided that the kids might get more out of the experience of drawing names if they had to earn the money for and make the gift they plan to give their person.  After the initial name drawing I told Jennah we needed to draw names in January next time because of the ideas that started to percolate among the kids.  The most dramatic was a rather large (big enough for Brielle to ride) rocking horse.  Jesse wanted to make that for Bree.  I'm not even sure I could help him get that project done in a year, much less 4 weeks.  Anyway, he chose something simpler and we're okay now.  Still, it was fun to see how much the idea got them going.  Jesse had a list of things he wanted to make for everyone before the evening was over.  I even got my car washed, after a fashion, yesterday because they wanted to earn some more money.

Well, I love you all and wish you the greatest time over the next week and a half before Christmas.

Love

Dave 

Great to achieve goals

Okay, I know this is really trivial after Jana's post, but someone has to put something down, so might as well be me.

Being a third year offers a little more time to do things besides school, so I have picked up racquetball again. There are two guys that I have never been able to beat, and both of them are here on their rotations in 4th year, so I have had the chance to play them now my game's back in form. I beat one of them about a month ago, so that was killer, but tonight I beat the other guy, who is a much better player. It was so awesome! It wasn't just a win it was 15-7 and I kept him scoreless for about half of the game. So I thought I'd share my victory dance online. Give a hoot and holler for me, cause I met my goal and got both of them.

Everyday!

Like I said when I started this blog, I started this for my own Journaling purposes. So please don't ever read my blog thinking I am preaching please. I just think that if I pay enough attention, everyday, there is something I will learn. And just maybe, if I can learn from daily "stuff", then maybe, if I share the stuff I think, someone else might also like to share in the learning with me, by my sharing.

Anyway, I just need to share an experience I had today, that really touched my heart, and again, made me SO grateful to be me and have my own set of challenges.

Today was the Junior High choir concert at the Joseph Smith Memorial building. Megan and I got there quite a bit before the Choir did, (I know, please keep the amazed breath intake to a minimum). Anyway, we had time to wander before the kids got there. Not that anyone wants to know this, but I had to find a bathroom. (yes it is necessary, for this part to be in the blog)

While we were washing our hands, into the restroom came a woman and a teenage boy. I was very taken back at first, until I started listening to the questions the young man was asking his Mother. It went sort of like this, Son:"I have to come in here with you, because of my handicap?" Mother: "Yes, that's why." Son: "will I always have my handicap?" Mother: "Yes, you will." Son: "Will I have my handicap in Heaven?" Mother: "no, You won't" Son: "because in Heaven, HE will take my handicap away?!"..............

Now at this point, there was Megan, me and another woman standing if front of the mirror finishing drying our hands and such. All we could do was stare at each other with misty eyes and listen with softened hearts. I can't remember exactly word for word or even what was said after that last statement, but I do know I was so moved by his last and simple comment.

I watched this young man wander around, the rest of the time we were there. I thought about talking to his Mother, but that seemed like it might have been out of place. I was reminded again, how well the Lord knows us as individuals! He knows that challenges that he has given us are the things we should be able to face with a reasonable amount of grace, if we put our trust in, and lean on him. Some days the "why me" party takes up so much of our time that we forget that maybe, instead, we should be saying thank you for letting it be me, and please, give me grace. Anyway, that's what I learned today. I don't think I would have the grace to be that boys Mother, but I hope that I do, with some small amount of grace deal with the challenges the Lord has placed in my life.

Also, why I was there I thought of Mary Ann, and her picture of the fallen tree decoration, and I wanted to let her know, how much I really enjoy her, and her pictures! So I took one today in her honor. The decorations reminded me of you, and made me smile. Thanks for sharing!

Megan's Christmas Concert

Megan also has a Christmas Concert this December, and it would be a little unfair not to mention hers after I told everyone about Fords.

So here are the details her concert is Dec 17th at 7 pm. It is a combined concert with the orchestra, choir and band.
There you have it. I don't know in what order they will preform, or how long the concert will last, but now you know.