Waiting for the Call!

Our most exciting event of the day was knowing that Dayton would get to call us tonight. Missionaries only get to call home twice a year. We did not want to miss it so Mariah spent a chunk of her time manning the phone post. Unfortunately, the landlines were all busy and we only got to talk to him on the cell phone one by one. We were still happy to hear his voice, but hanging up was a little tough.

Christmas Morning

The Whiting's Christmas Eve Party...at the Laws

Bo Got Asked....

Bo had a very nicely made igloo waiting for him when he got home from snowboarding today. Notice there is even a smaller igloo for Riley our dog. Obviously this girl has faced that furious beast. We're pretty sure he is going to say yes, because Blakely is one cute girl. However, he does think that he is going to put the answer around Riley's collar and make her come and get it. If she is willing to do that...we know she really wants to take him to the Winter Ball.





He looks more excited about this than he did about his splendid electric razor!

Look At Our Christmas Tree!

Happy Holidays from Some Country Folks

Happy Holidays

Another Week of Work

The Roof is On

It's Bo's Birthday!

Bo turned 17 today. How time flies. He awoke to biscuits and gravy cooked by Dave and he got a spanking new electric razor. Oh what could be more exciting than that! He had a friends "nacho" party tonight and then the Whiting's crashed to party to bring him their gift. I think he was more excited about the poster than the razor, although, it's usually pretty hard to tell if Bo is excited at all! HA

Just Call Him Rockstar!

Union High School had their talent show today and Bo told us that he was trying out with a group of friends. We thought, "Oh playing your guitars will be cool." Then I asked him if anyone was going to sing while they played. He said yes. You'll never imagine who that singer was! Dave and I are still in shock! We were so amazed because we can't even get him to mouth the songs in church. We have since realized that all these years we have been asking him to sing the wrong kinds of songs. Rock on Bo!

Twenty Five Ideas for Raising a Righteous Family

We had Stake Conference today and Elder Jones from the Quorom of the Seventies came and did a wonderful job last night and today. His main talk for today was on ways to strengthen our families. He gave 25 ideas that would bring our families more happiness. We were trying to write them down very quickly because I wanted to make sure I could remember them. Here is a quick summary of the list he gave:

1. Help make sure that your children earn their Eagle Scout, Duty to God and Young Women Awards.
2. Eat at least one meal a day together.
3. Pray together night and morning.
4. Teach your children the importance of graduating from seminary and institute.
5. Help your children save for college and a mission.
6. Study the Family Proclamation together.
7. Teach your children thrift.
8. Attend church as a family.
9. Have weekly meaningful family home evenings every Monday.
10. Teach the plan of salvation to your children.
11. Husbands and wives spend 1 hours a day together learning and drawing close to one another.
12. Take time to spend one on one time with your children each week.
13. Don't give your kids allowance. Give them work to earn money.
14. Read your scriptures.
15. Hang a picture of the temple prominantly in your home.
16. Fill your home with good literature and good music.
17. Watch t.v. and internet use for you and your children.
18. Arrive at church 10 minutes early so that you can have time to reflect.
19. Read your patriarchal blessings often.
20. Teach your children that their worth comes from within them not from what the world says.
21. Correct children in a firm and timely manner with love.
22. Make home a place of peace, security and love.
23. Lead out in giving heed to all the words of the Prophet.
24. Be prepared for temporal emergencies.
25. Teach your children to enjoy hard work. (Oh we really love that one!)

Gotta Love Christmas!

Cado is a Cooking Fool

We have decided that Cado is going to be our chef. He loves food and he loves "good" food. So he is learning that he better learn how to cook it if he wants it. Today he said he was going to cook us a really good dinner. What parent would say no to that? He cooked sweet and sour chicken and cookies. YUM.

It's a good thing Dayton taught him how to cook those famous cookies.

It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas

Well I didn't have much luck getting Dave to hang up Christmas lights outside, so I told Mariah to ask. How smart is that! Needless to say the lights are up. They are creative, but up.

They started out having Mariah carefull wrap them around the branches of the apples trees. That lasted for about 3 minutes and Dave decided to just through the lights in the tree.

I had suggested that they put some lights on the basketball hoop. I hadn't quite envisioned that they would look like this, but they got lights from the tree to the hoop.

At night it doesn't look as bad as it does in the daylight. In fact, it looks pretty cute, in it's own back country way! HA

The Apartment Clean Up Crew

Well here is the official apartment clean up crew. Yep, these guys can now plan on spending their Saturdays doing some great family togetherness activities. We learned today that parents need to teach their children to work HARD. So, we can say we are just trying to follow church doctrine.

Those workers just leave all sorts of messes. You would think that their parents would have taught them better! HA. I guess when you know that someone is cleaning up after you, it's easy to leave a mess. Oh well, Cado enjoys doing it. He's just thankful he's not standing in a foot of snow!

Bo's expressions are always priceless!

7th Grade Basketball

Cado had his first away game for basketball in Huntington last Friday. It was one of the few times that these guys actually get to ride a bus there. Most of the time the parents get to drive. We still went of course and even Grandpa and Grandma Law came because Huntington is 10 minutes away from Orangeville.

Cado is the point guard and a mighty fine one at that. We're not sure how many points he made because it is so hard to count that high! His team won!

Mariah and Emily enjoyed being together and Karen W. was so impressed that there was no fighting in the back seat of the car! Wow, it must be so much easier to sit peacefully by a friend, than a brother!

An Orangeville Thanksgiving

We spent the weekend in Orangeville with a houseful of happy folks. Everyone enjoyed the lovely weather and the great food.

The girls worked on hair flowers and came up with some really cute designs.

We had our annual Family Game Night sponsored by Grandpa and Grandma. We rotated around tables and played 6 different games. The only game that Grandpa had a little trouble with was Pick Up Stix and Grandma was not giving him any slack!

This is the happy cleaning crew after our great Thanksgiving dinner. With that many people in the kitchen..how hard can clean up be!

Here's our Thanksgiving Feast.

Mariah and Maddie took some time to write letters to their brothers who are on missions. What great sisters. The Law family has 4 missionaries out right now. That is a record!

Oh yeah, Dave and I made Carrie's Cafe Rio for our Friday night meal. I think that is a meal we will be expected to make from here on out. It was so good. I'll have to post the recipes someday.

Captain, Oh Captain!

Cado got his Christmas a little early this year and it's soft and fluffy and so darn cute. Cado's been keeping a close eye on Golden Retrievers and we finally found one in Vernal. Yesterday, I went there to look at them and ended up bringing one home. Imagine that! This dog is just too darn cute. Cado named him Captain and is spending his nights in the wash room as Captain 'adjusts' to his new home. These two guys were so tired, that neither of them woke up when I took this pic.

Mariah was a little jealous we think and insisted that Riley got to sleep with her. (All dogs at our house usually sleep outside). Oh, well these were special circumstances and Riley was one happy dog too.