second mesa

In case you haven’t visited Cribsakes yet in the new year, Becky’s site is almost 100% up. You can now see close ups of each announcement, and we’re finally set up to take orders online. Go check things out if you get a chance. And please refer any friends or family who might be interested.

Finally, she’s completed a couple of new designs for 2006. I soon as I can get to work on incorporating them into the website, then they’ll be up. Hopefully in the next few days.

Happy New Year to all our friends and family! Have a great 2006.

So, I’ve got a couple of hours left to kill while in the air heading West. I’m between episodes of Battlestar Galactica and I figure I’m up for a review of our Christmas.

We started on Christmas Eve by going to see The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. It was pretty good, and Ashlee didn’t even fall asleep. Although she did get bored almost near the end and she started walking up and down our row. To her credit though she was very quiet and she didn’t disturb anyone as we had the whole row to ourselves. There were only about 20 or 30 other people in the theater. After the movie, we had a little bedtime snack, got ready for bed, read stories, put out our stockings and some egg nog and cookies for Santa. Becky informed me that she was going to sleep until at least 8 before we went to bed. Which meant that we could all sleep in as she’s usually the first one up on Christmas and she has to drag the rest of us out of bed.

I got up around 8:30, and went down and checked on Nick, who was also just waking up. The girls got up shortly after. Nick and Ashlee were pleased that Santa had left a note thanking them for the snack. Ashlee had been showing some of her mother’s former habits during the week by pretending to rearrange presents when she was really trying to sneak her fingers in between the seems of the wrapping paper to get a sneak peak. Anyway, we let her and Nick run the show. They’d each pull out a present for themselves, open it, then find another one. We had to keep them moving along a couple of times because they’d often want to stop the whole thing and play with what they had already received. After presents, Becky cooked up a wonderful breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage, and hash browns. Then Nick practiced his song and we got ready for church.

Surprisingly, Sacrament Meeting was pretty full. The family in front of us got a laugh courtesy of Nick and Ash, during the Sacrament hymn. They were singing Jingle Bells pretty loudly. I didn’t notice until we were actually done with the hymn but they still had “Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh!” to go. Becky and I were trying to get them to be quiet but everyone around us thought it was very cute. Nick sang Away in a Manger with a few other children as part of the Christmas program and he did really well. We were proud that he got up and sang in front of everyone.

After church, everyone not named Becky settled in for play time or relaxing. Becky proceeded to start work on her masterpiece Christmas dinner. Which turned out to be one of the best meals we’ve ever had. Seriously, it was soooo good. We had roast chicken (turned out perfect), ham, mashed potatoes (the real kind, nobody makes mashed potatoes like Beck), sausage stuffing, corn (the only thing we knew for sure Ashlee would eat), and dinner rolls. Shortly after dinner we had apple pie. Everything turned out perfectly.

Following dinner, the kids watched The Polar Express (they have to watch it while they look at the book) while Becky and I talked to family on the phone. Even though we were flying solo this year, and were far away from all our family and friends, we had an excellent Christmas! Mostly through the efforts of Becky (I love that woman!). Merry Christmas to you all, we love and miss you. Enjoy the rest of the holidays and I’ll try and get some pictures posted soon.

We had another follow-up visit with Plastics yesterday for Ashlee’s finger. It’s actually looking really good. There’s a scab on the tip of it, but other than that it pretty much looks normal. The shape and length both look normal. She still has no nail and it’s still up in the air what if any part of her nail will grow back. We don’t need to see the doctor again though. We just wait for the nail to come in, give it some time to grow, and if we need to address it down the road we will. Other than that, she’s free from her protective tip and we don’t need to wrap it up anymore.

She’s having to get used to actually using that finger again. She’s spent the past month holding it straight and away from the rest of her fingers protecting it. Yesterday she didn’t want to move it much. But watching her today, she’s at least subconsciously bending it and using it to grab things again. Hopefully we’ll get lucky and her nail will grow back normally and look great.

Becky and I had to speak in church this past Sunday. We somehow survived. I was lucky because I was last and by the time I got up to speak, there were only about 5 minutes left in Sacrament Meeting. We were sitting in the second row (instead of the second from the back) so that one of us could sit with the kids while the other was speaking. Becky gave an excellent talk, and while she was coming back to the pew to sit with the kids, Ashlee excitedly said, “Good job Mommy!” She said it loud enough that I’m sure the first couple rows of pews heard her. It was the cutest thing.

This Sunday, Nick is part of the Christmas program. He was asked to sing Away in the Manger with 4 other children. It took us a little over a week to talk him in to it, but we think he’s all for it now. We’ll see when Sunday comes around. This is also our last week of the 1-4 block. It’s 9-12 for a year, Yippee!

Here is the subject matter for the talks we gave:

The Prophet Joseph Smith – Teacher by Example

Just in time for Christmas, Ben, Kim, and Abby welcomed little Jack Benjamin to their family very early this morning. He tipped the scales at 7lbs. 13oz. and was 21 inches long. Abby’s finally getting to use those well honed baby caring skills she’s been fine tuning with her two littlest cousins. Welcome home Jack!