Update Part 5: Christmas 2008

This post is REALLY late. I had forgotten that I never did get around to blogging about Christmas 2008, so here I am doing it in October 2009, but backdating it to be after my other update posts. Better late than never, I guess!

Christmas Eve. All of the family in town traditionally gathers at my mom's for dinner, and then a re-enactment of the Nativity scene. These pictures show just how crowded it can get...and this isn't even close to the whole family!

David is lovin' all the merriment!

Christmas morning, waiting to see what Santa brought for us.

My family has a tradition of the kids lining up, youngest to oldest and marching into the living room singing Jingle Bells. We usually get through the first couple of lines before the kids make a mad dash for their presents. Jacki isn't pictured (she was the youngest), but then we have Josh (being helped to stay in line by Kayla), Trevin, Rachel, Trey, Taryn, Taden, Tori, and Tyler Ann.

Josh checking out his stocking...

...Sweet! There's candy in here! Santa brought Josh those Mega Blocks you see in the background. David made him that rocking chair, and I made him a Quiet Book for church. We were quite the crafty parents this year!


Santa brought me a coffee grinder. I had read in a couple of different places that you could use a coffee grinder to grind wheat, so I was going to go the cheap route and get that instead of a wheat grinder. After seeing that it didn't really grind it very fine I decided to take it back and save up for the real deal. I'm glad I did!

Josh playing with the sling-shot he gave to David. Santa gave David his present--money for steel to build rock sliders for his truck--early, since hauling the steel up to Snowflake would've been a little difficult.

On 12/27/08 we went up to Show Low to go sledding across from the old Wal-Mart. It was pretty crowded, but a nice location, since it didn't involve driving for a long distance! Here are David and Josh zoomin' down hill.

Being desert folk, we didn't have much in the way of snow gear, but Summer and Justin were nice enough to let us borrow some of Jake's old stuff.

12/29/09 - Yee-haw! Those are two handsome cowboys!

I think Josh liked the swing better than the horse.

Rachel was definitely dressed for the cold!

Update Part 4: Leading up to Christmas

This post is REALLY late. I started it in January, but forgot about it, so here I am finishing it in October 2009, but backdating it to be after my other update posts.

Our family had a wonderful December getting into the Christmas spirit and enjoying all of the festivities that come along with that wonderful time of year.

Decorating our Christmas tree on Dec. 1st. Since Josh had already gone to bed, we took a picture of him putting on some of the final touches the next morning:

Kayla came by to visit with Rachel & Jacki...she was brave and stayed in AZ from after Thanksgiving to about a week before Christmas with both girls without Jeff (then they all came back down for Christmas. I don't think I'm that brave!

Josh got to sit on Santa's lap twice this year. Here he is at the Evergreen Ward Christmas party. He's not quite sure about Santa...

...but giving him candy will sure help!

And here he is with the Bass Pro Shop Santa...he still wasn't convinced.

Update Part 3: Heritage Award Dinner

On Dec. 5th, most of my family and I attended the 2008 Heritage Award Dinner where they honored my dad. The program was great, the food was awesome, and it was really nice to hear others tell stories about my dad, many of which I hadn't heard before. Jennifer (Brandon's wife) was the only one smart enough to bring a camera, so I stole all of these pictures off of her blog.

The program, as well as a list of past recipients:

Our table consisted of my mom, my siblings and their spouses (minus 6 who couldn't make it), as well as my cousin Jeff and his wife Cheryl. Yes, it was a really big table:

They had a life-size cutout of my dad on a horse, and they also gave everyone a little "F-Bar" branding iron as a momento, which they also "branded" the steak with:

Ken Bennet and Rusty Bowers, the former "singing senators" sang a little song about my dad that was pretty dang funny. Jennifer, was able to tape most of it and posted it on youtube for the rest of us (it's a little long and not the best recording):

Jeff was the Master of Ceremonies. Here he is showing off the cool branding irons:

And here is my wonderful mother accepting the award:

I feel so blessed to have not only a wonderful father, but also a wonderful mother who often stood "in the shadows" and let my dad have the spotlight, but who also deserves all the recognition anyone could ever bestow upon her. I was blessed beyond measure to have been born to such wonderful parents and into such a wonderful family!

Update Part 2: New Church Clothes

These pictures were taken on Nov. 30th. Josh was looking so cute in his new church clothes that I just had to take some pictures. Don't you love his new "smile"?

It had also been a while since I took any pictures of my pregnant belly, so here is one from that same day...it's much bigger now:

Update Part 1: Thanksgiving

I know that I've been a major blog slacker lately (and a few of you have even let me hear about it). So, now it's time to do some catch-up posts...that sounds like a familiar refrain, doesn't it? Most of this is just for my journaling purposes, don't feel compelled to read all this old news.

For Thanksgiving we went up to Snowflake. The funny thing, though, is that we had Thanksgiving with the Orrs/Wiltbanks up there, not the Flakes. For the past several "On Years" for my family (meaning it's my siblings' year to celebrate with the Flakes and not their in-laws), we've had dinner down here in Mesa, so I hadn't been to Snowflake for Thanksgiving in 4 or 5 years. I thought it was kind of funny that to get back up to Snowflake to celebrate it was with David's side of the family, not mine (David's mom grew up in Snowflake and her mom and a couple of her siblings live there).

David's brother Joseph had been wanting to see and ride a horse, so while we were up there I took him over to my mom's house so he could ride Chester, my dad's old horse (and the favorite of all my nieces and nephews). Since I couldn't ride with him, my niece Leah was kind enough to give him a ride:

Here are Joseph and Josh riding together:

Josh didn't sleep the greatest while we were up there, but luckily my in-laws are wonderful and Ralph spoiled me by watching Josh for us when he would wake up at about 5:00 am. Between that and eating tons of good food, we had a great trip!

A Plug For My Brother

My brother Brandon, a CPA, is looking for a few more tax clients this year. He currently works as an accounting supervisor up at the papermill in Snowflake (and doing taxes on the side), but previous to that he worked for a CPA firm doing taxes. He is super smart and if you or someone you know is looking for help with individual or small business taxes, consider emailing him.

Here is more info:



Okay, I think I'm done with plugs for a while, but with my big family, you never know!

A Plug For My Sister

My sister Celeste and her husband Jeff have recently opened up a weight-loss clinic called Vital Solutions MD that uses a technique called HCG shots. This weight loss plan helped their family lose over 140 lbs (Jeff's down 80, Celeste 30 and Shelby 30). They also also offer a program of Bio-identical hormone replacement and body composition scans.

I don't know a whole lot about the technicalities of the weight loss plan, but if you or someone you know is interested, please take a look at their website, which can also be reached by clicking on the link I've added to my sidebar.