Our Ward Christmas program 2008!!

Ryan was such a good sport to have his picture taken with Santa. I wanted a picture with all five of the boys by Santa.

Parker and Caeson the shepherds

(Sorry this picture is turned. I have to figure out how to flip it next time)

In December, just before school lets out our ward has a Christmas program every year. It is fun. all of the Primary kids dress up and present the Nativity story. The ward provides all the costumes. It is great. Caeson graduated to a shepherd. He was happy. The 3 and 4 years old boys are sheep. And yes they have sheep costumes. It is great. Parker was a shepherd too. Tevin was one of the 3 wisemen. Ryan and Maddux just got to watch.

Ryan's Elk!

Ryan got drawn for elk this year. His Dad was quite excited. Ryan doesn't get excited about too much. They went hunting the weekend of Thanksgiving. Rich and Ryan went with Ben Allred (our neighbor) and some guys that Ben knows. They horseback in to this area up by Alpine. They left Thanksgiving day. That night Ryan was sick and threw up all over their tent and sleeping bags. That was not very good, because they were out in the middle of nowhere. So they weren't going to be able get new sleeping bags and a tent that they had left in the truck. The next morning they got up very early to start the hunt. Ryan shot his elk that morning before noon at 624 yards. He was quite excited then. The area that they were in was so rugged it took them 2 days to pack the elk out.

The 5K!!!

My biggest accomplishment this year is to run in a 5K. Yes, that is 3.1 miles. The 5 K run (Turkey Trot)was held on Thanksgiving day in Pima, Arizona. I can't believe it did it. Sorry there are no pictures of me crossing the finish line. That is because there was nobody there to cheer for me. I guess they had great confidence that I would make it or they were hunting. One or they other.
Here is my story of how I got started running. One on my friends asked me last year if I wanted to run with her. I told her I do not run. I am not a runner. She said "OK, how about if we walked and maybe just run a little." I said "OK, I can do that." So we set off walking one morning. After walking a short while she said " Now lets run from here to there". Again that was something I figured I could do. However, I told her that if I was going to run I could not talk to her, because I was so out of breath. She was probably thinking "Great this will be lots of fun".
After a few short weeks I was running most of the way and talking to my running partner at the same time. What a great accomplishment. I have been running now consistently for a year and a half now. I really enjoy it and am grateful that my friend keeps me going.
Rich and I are training for a 10K now. I will let you know how that goes.

Carving the Pumpkin

Caeson picked this pumpkin before Halloween, during a field trip at school. (I am a little behind on my blogging, I got a new camera and just figured how to get the pictures off). Caeson couldn't wait to make a Jack-o-lantern with his pumpkin. We didn't carve it until after Halloween though. I let Caeson and Parker carve it all by themselves. It was so fun to watch them. Caeson had his tongue out the whole time. He was really concentrating. Parker carved his face on one side of the pumpkin. And Caeson made his face on the other side.