Christmas Happenings 2008

Well we did it, we made it to every family Christmas party planned plus a few more in celebration of having my brother Jared in town. Here are our favorite memories of Christmas 2008:

FOG singing on opening night of the Temple Lights

Decorating Mom's tree with her mom's ornaments

Roger's party with the addition of nachos for the not so sweet toothed

Celebrating Kristen's ASU Graduation

New Skinner traditions

Grandma Osborn sharing her favorite service- rolling yarn into balls

Perfect gifts from Grandma Skinner

Marshmallow gun fight cancelled due to rain

Watching the Nativity

Each child sharing a talent,

including Evan's version of Jingle Bells with the karate move at the end

Visiting around Grandma Skinner's kitchen table

Babysitting co-op on the 23rd

watching Miser Brother's Christmas

Haircuts before Taylor Christmas Eve Party

Santa's visit to Great Grandpa's House

Melissa's 2009 Book Club

watching my favorite- It's a Wonderful Life

moving the Christmas tree downstairs on Christmas Eve

leaving a note with Santa's goodies

Camille's favorite reindeer is Rudolph

waking kids up at 7am

watching the kid's faces as they open their gifts

Christmas morning at Taylors- Reflections of Christ

Zero Gravity Race Cars

Beef Jerky

Making the perfect biscuits

Rogers brunch with fresh squeezed orange juice from Grandad's trees

Yummy Tamales at Skinner's

Grandma Skinner's story of swaddling clothes

Nate recruiting Ben to give a talk on Sunday

Quiddler game

Thomas playing/eating with the dog

Staying up late to play with favorite Christmas toys

Thomas and the neverending basketball game

Camille becomes Hannah Montana

Evan's new scooter

Jarom's talking robot

BodyStep with Mom and Allison

BBQ, Kick ball game and Hot Tub with Jared

Party here with Pizza, Nertz and the longest game of Catch Phrase EVER!

Dinner with Nate and Jen

Listening to Ben and Nate's messages on marriage

A Sunday night at home

Camille's Baptism Day

Camille's aunt Kim took these pictures of her in her baptism dress! Thanks Kim!

Everything turned out so well for Camille's baptism. We weren't last on the program which made me so happy (we were last for Jarom's and I felt so bad that our family had to wait so long!). Camille's friend Hunter was also getting baptized that day so it was fun to see her that morning also. The baptism went quickly and everyone watched a church video while I helped Camille. Ben did such a great job on her confirmation and I was able to bear my testimony. After some quick gifts and pictures we headed to my mom's for some food.

It was a beautiful warm day and being outside was perfect. My aunt Eileen, my mom, Allison, Melissa and Kristen helped put together the brunch and decorations. My mom made one of our family favorites- biscuits and gravy. The kids loved playing around my parent's backyard and making a craft. Thanks to all of our friends and family that came!

Butterflies in her Ears!

Camille once again was having problems with her ears. The doctor suggested putting butterfly tubes in her ears that will last from 3-5 years. Yeah! She has had a 30 percent hearing loss even without an infection, so hopefully this will help her. We have really been blessed with healthy children and we are so grateful for the simple solution of tubes in ears to keep our kids that way!!

When Camille realized she would have to get tubes again the first thing she thought of was to decide which flavor (of chapstick) to put in her mask this time to put her to sleep! She was very brave the morning of the surgery and enjoyed the wheel chair ride to our car when everything was over.

February 2003

I was telling her about the first time she got tubes when we lived in Las Vegas. She wasn't happy about coming out of the anesthectic and didn't really want the grape otter pop the nurses made her eat before we could leave. She finished it and 10 seconds later she threw it up all over me! So we had to start over and give her another one to see if she kept that one down. She did and we were able to go home. Grandma Skinner was at home watching Jarom and Camille went right to her when we got there. Camille gave Grandma a hug and smiled at her, then threw up that grape otter pop all over Grandma's white sweater! Camille felt much better after that and Grandma was so sweet about having grape otter pop all over her for her long ride home to Parowan.

Winter Recitals

It wouldn't be December if there weren't recitals going on - they seem to be all be scheduled within a week of each other. It is good for the kids to be able to show off their hard work though. Camille and Jarom have been taking piano for 2 years now and I love hearing them play their songs. (Although I don't enjoy helping them practice!) They are both doing great!

(Jarom and Camille after their piano recital)

Jarom started the trumpet this year in his father's footsteps. He is loving playing and the band concerts have sounded great! Jarom did tell me that the teacher makes all the kids play him their part to see if they can actually play during the songs in the concert. So what would it sound like if everyone played? FYI- Jarom did get to play!

(Jarom and Deanna after the concert)

Jarom participated in the the school spelling bee a few weeks ago for the intermediate grades. He was excited to come home and tell me that he was fourth place! The word that he lost on was piecemeal- he spelled it peacemeal. Way to go Jarom!

The Soccer Chefs!

Evan insisted this year on having a soccer party, so we combined his favorite things and they also made pizzas to eat. (Thanks to Ben)

While they were making their pizzas Wade says, "It's like we are real chefs!" Then Evan said, "We are soccer chefs!" I thought that was so cute!


We let the kids kick soccer balls around at the park while our pizzas were cooking, then came back to eat and play games. Evan got some pretty cool gifts and he loved having all his friends in one place. He was in heaven! Thank goodness he is so easy to please!

Evan's Birthday

During Evan's first year of life was probably our most unsettled year- we completed law school in Las Vegas, moved back home and rented, then soon bought a home to remodel (where Ben did most of the remodeling). Ben started a new job, studied and then passed the bar exam. Pretty stressful time for us, but baby Evan was a welcome distraction from everything going on and a joy for us.

Evan was a sweet baby as long as he was close to his parents. It took him a while to not cry even if we left him with his grandparents. One of the cutest things I remember about Evan is that he never crawled the normal way- he would use his hands and left knee with his right foot to get around.

Evan loves playing sports (and is our most co-ordinated), riding bikes, playing with friends, and going camping and hiking. He loves school, but not homework and he wants to do everything that Jarom does. So far things come pretty easy for Evan- the first time he picked up Jarom's trumpet he made a great sound (this frustrated Jarom!). He is my pleaser and likes me to acknowledge when he is the only one doing something right.

I love that Evan shows his emotion on his face-it is fun to watch all the cute faces he makes!

Camille's Birthday

Camille turned eight this month! I can't believe how fast time has gone by. When she was born Ben was days away from graduating with his Bachelors from ASU, we were checking out law schools to attend in the fall, I was teaching part time, and we lived in my grandparent's apartments in Mesa. We were so excited to add a little girl to our family! Camille decided to make her appearance two weeks early- I was dropping Jarom off at my mom's to go to work and hello!- drove to the hospital instead.

Camille was a very good baby. It took her over 15 months to have any hair, but it was worth the wait- everyone quickly fell in love with her sweet smile and her curly hair. She started talking pretty early so I remember always thinking that Camille was older than she really was.

Camille loves everything girly! Camille is a good friend and getting together with friends is one of her favorite things to do. She likes to help her mom, but gets put out that the boys are also around. So she loves special time with her aunts or grandmas. Her favorite things right now are quoting Hannah Montana, having her mom help in her classroom at school, saving and spending money, and writing Aunt Bethany letters. On her birthday Allison came over early in the morning to do her hair, I took Sonic to her and ate lunch with her (without any brothers-thank you Amy), and we all went to her 2nd grade Christmas Program. Camille knew all the songs and had a blast doing the actions to the songs! We had dessert with Grandparents at our house afterwards and sang to her.

My #1 Fan

Evan has never had any problem expressing his feelings. He is my kid that will out of the blue tell us he loves us, or that I'm his best friend (and how much he doesn't like me too). For the past few years he has told me that he wanted to marry me. I never discouraged him because I knew he would grow out of it soon and I thought it was cute. That day has come...

As we were watching our wedding video he just kept saying that I was so pretty and that he loved me. Then he bursts into tears and runs over to me sobbing. I couldn't get out of him why he was crying, but he finally said, "I just love you so much!" I told Ben that I thought he had some competition.

The next day we were in the car driving and he says, "Mom I think I am going to marry Arella." I said, "I thought you were going to marry me?" He responded, "Mom, you are already married....but I don't know how I am going to buy a house...How old do you have to be to get a job?"

So I guess Evan has, as Ben puts it, moved on to a "healthier" place. But, hopefully I will be the #1 girl in his life for another 16 years! Ha!

13 Years and Counting

In November we celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary! It is fun to look back and remember such a fun and simple time in our lives. Since then, we have added some weight, four children into our family and definately some wisdom (and less bangs and puffy sleeves). It may not seem like yesterday, but I wouldn't change anything about the last 13 years.

We usually take a weekend away and go to Prescott to celebrate, but it didn't work out this year. So we planned a special dinner/FHE to celebrate with the kids. Dinner was great, then we watched our wedding video that was shown at our reception- including baby pictures, a "special" walk through Freestone park and coming out of the temple. Was that really the thing to do? It was hilarious! I couldn't blame our kids from losing interest pretty quickly!

Then we played a game where the kids answered questions about Ben and I before we got married. Jarom knew the answers to most of the questions- the multiple choice helped.

Here they are:

#1 What was our favorite date to go on?

a-going fishing at Saquaro Lake

b-playing pool and eating ice cream

c-shooting guns

#2 Where did we get engaged?

a- at the Ranch by the wash

b-In Utah looking at a waterfall

c- at Disneyland by the castle

#3 How old were we when we got married?

#4 Where did we live after we got married?

Answers-

As far as dating, we did all three things fairly often, but our favorite was fishing. Ben had a four wheel drive truck that we drove into the lake with a group of friends and would build a fire and fish at night. The most famous fishing trip was when I caught a huge, ugly catfish. Everyone joked that I could out fish Ben and that he should keep me around. I don't think I have caught a fish since- even with multiple trips to Black River since we have been married.

My parents have a pool table we played on. We ensured our next date by betting on the winner taking the loser out for ice cream. We loved going anywhere away from town- the Ranch, on the Rim, the lake, or to the desert. Our group of friends had fun shooting guns while we were out.

We were at the park in Provo Canyon looking at Bridal Veil Falls when we got engaged in July. I was 21 and Ben was 22 when we were married. After we got married we lived in Ben's grandparents apartments by the temple.

Ready or Not....

I can't believe that in 19 short months we have gone from this...

and this...

to this.

Thomas is my first child to learn to climb out of his crib and the playpen. My other children loved their beds and would patiently wait for me to hear them wake up and come get them. Two and a half is when we ususally took the side off the crib.

Thomas started climbing out one afternoon and after putting him repeatedly in his bed for an hour and a half I decided I had to accept that he isn't a baby and it was time to make his crib into a toddler bed. I was in mourning for a week or so but now it is kind of nice to have him come out of his room, come find us and give us hugs.