We have snow again!!!! Around Thanksgiving time we got our first snow fall, it stayed for about 3 weeks and then melted. We all thought that we would have no snow for Christmas then Saturday morning we woke up to 3 inches and then last night we got another 4 inches. What fun for the kids. They went outside and played and made snowmen with Garrett.

Madalyn is getting really good at snowboarding down our hill on the sleds.

Merry Christmas!!! Madalyn 7, Morgan 5, Natalie 3, Brooklyn 6 months

Morgan's Eyes

Back in October we discovered that Morgan has a few things wrong with her eye's, she has a amblyopic left eye. Which this means that her left eye is lazy and doesn't want to work very well so the right eye strains to help the left eye out. We have been doing a computer program that makes that left eye work and gain more muscles in it. We are hoping that this will help her out. She works 5 nights a week for about 30 mins. on the computer.

Ward Party

Last night was our Ward's Christmas party, they had a program that was centered around Christmas Past, Present and Future. They had the older generation do something for the past then the youth do something for the present and the the primary kids did the future. We then got a visit from the North Pole. The girls had been looking forward to seeing Santa all week. Madalyn asked for a REAL horse with a corral, oats for the horse and a big water bucket, saddle. Morgan was so cute, as soon as she got on his lap she went blank and could not remember what she had told me so many times.

Natalie told him she wanted some earrings, books, candy, and toys.

Garrett and Natalie enjoying the program.

Morgan and Brooklyn

Madalyn with Whitney and Marissa Lloyd.

The Dentist

The past few months our dentist's have made a killing on our families mouths. I think I'm the only normal mouth in our family that is not cursed. First lets start off with Garrett, we have been going to the same dentist all our married life (he is in Othello) I never really liked the guy but Garrett did and I didn't know who else to go to. So I endured until finally last year I convinced Garrett to go and find someone else. We missed a year of cleanings and check ups. So last month we finally found someone that we had heard was good. We both go for cleaning and I'm fine, but Garrett has a Mouth full of cavities. After the appointment they told him he needed 9 cavities and a crown. WHAT!!!! So he goes in to have 2 cavities done and the crown and we then found out on those to cavities he needs a root canal done on one and both teeth need crowns (and we have already maxed out all of our dental benefits for 2010) they also have us going to be maxed out within the first month in January filling all the rest of the cavities and he needs those two crowns and the root canal done still. They told us that we will owe them around $3,000 by the time we are done.

If you see Garrett or I on some street corner with a sign saying "WE WILL WORK TO PAY OFF DENTAL BILLS" you will know it's us. Have pity on us.

Then there's the kids: (Our kids go to a different dentist then us a pediatric Dentist) Madalyn has Garrett's teeth. She has had lots of dental work done over her lifetime. This past September they all had their cleanings and Madie had no cavities I was so happy. But about a month later she comes and shows me that her two bottom teeth are coming in behind the baby teeth and the baby teeth are not even loose. At that point she has not lost any teeth yet. So we call the dentist he says try and wiggle them out so we can avoid them being pulled. But last week Madalyn comes to me and shows me a big puss pocket growing over a back tooth, we take her in and that tooth is infected and they have to pull that tooth. She was not excited about, but she was excited about the tooth fairy coming to our house. I don't know where the tooth fairy found any money cause she just spent all her money fixing her husband's teeth. Morgan had her first cavities this year, she has 4. I know you are probably thinking we never brush our teeth. But that is not the case, I'm a tooth brush fool.

We just can't wait until Garrett's best friend gets done with dental school. Then we will have someone we trust. You just never know if all this work really needs done or not. Garrett was not in any pain 2 months ago and now his mouth hurts. Plus we would much rather give our money to him.

What a bad time of year for all this to happen. Hope your month goes better then ours has.

Montana Deer

Here are a few pictures of Garrett's hunting trip to Montana. I will have him write about it later.

Thanksgiving Break

Over the Thanksgiving Break we had lots to be grateful for, our biggest blessing is our family and the knowledge of our Saviors plan so we can return together as a family in the next life.
We have enjoyed all the snow we got this past week, it has been very cold around here but the kids still continue to go outside and play. We brought out the board games. It always seems like this time of year we play a lot more games. We found a new one we love The farming Game for Kids.

We spent Thanksgiving this year at Vard's house. It was very nice of them to invite us to their home. Morgan found a new best friend. Her name is Jocelyn (Tony and Ali's) It was love at first sight for the both of them. They both have glasses and are in Kindergarten. Morgan had such a good time with her, she even got to have a sleepover with her. Morgan came home and said "Mom how far is Utah?" I told her it is far away and it takes all day to drive there. She then asked "Could we meet Jocelyn's mom half way one day so she could come and play again at my house?" It was very sweet, we will miss them when they leave.

The girls had slumber parties our in our living room, since there was no School.

I did my annual Black Friday shopping. This year was not as fun as past years. I went to Walmart by myself at 10:30 pm on Thursday night cause everything on my list was on sale at midnight. I did score on some great Christmas gifts for the kids. I can now say that I'm almost all done. My mom and sisters headed in at 5:00am Friday to get the things they needed.
We have all had colds at our house. We hope we will be getting better soon.

Morgan had her Thanksgiving feast in Kindergarten on Wednesday. Natalie and I were able to help cook some of the food and eat with them. They had turkey, vegetables, corn bread, and apple juice.

We can't wait for Christmas to come. We set up our tree this weekend also. The kids were so excited to have our friend Christopher Pop-In-Kins back in our home. He is a magical elf that watches over the kids to see if they are good or bad for Santa.

Splish Splash I was taken a bath.........

Way to go Garrett....It's official

We just received this letter from the Fire Department:

Memorandum

To: Staff
From: Chief Gear
Re: Lieutenant Appointment
Date: November 16, 2010

With the promotion of Lt. Donais to Captain a Lieutenant position has opened on "B" Shift. As of this date I have not received any requests from current Lieutenants to move to that shift. If any Lieutenant might have an interest in moving to "B" shift please contact me as soon as possible.

This opening creates the opportunity to promote a new Lieutenant from our current list. After considerable consideration along with provided information and discussions with staff, I have decided to follow the order of the list.

Therefore, effective November 29, 2010 I am pleased to announce the appointment of Garrett Jenks to the position of Lieutenant in the Pasco Fire Department. I am sure Lt. Jenks will do an outstanding job for the Pasco Fire Department, and personnel working for him. I congratulate him on his appointment!

No School

Today school was cancelled because of the snow we got the past 2 days. The kids have enjoyed playing in the snow, it is very cold. Tonight it is suppose to get into the negative numbers.

Madalyn is growing up in so many ways. Today I couldn't find her and then I see her outside sliding down our hill. She had got herself dressed and decided to go play outside. It's so nice to have her get dressed all on her own.

Sarah got home from school last night, the kids were excited to see her drive the 4 wheeler down to our house and play in the snow.

Morgan trying to throw a big snowball at me.

getting bigger

Brooklyn is growing up in so many ways. She has become a delight in our home, she was not always a happy baby. In the last month she has become happy and more enjoyable. I guess she finally realized that she is stuck with us and she better make the best of it. She loves her sisters and gets so excited to see them come home from school.

Madalyn is truly my lifesaver, she is so good with Brooklyn and Brooklyn just loves her. I has been nice having someone a little older to help out with the baby.

Today was her first taste of rice cereal. (4 1/2 months old) She didn't know what to think, I put it in her mouth and she didn't really eat it. After a few tries Madalyn wanted to try and Brooklyn ate it really good for her. I hate this stage for feeding, they are so messy when they eat. And I always get spit on, I will just let Madie do it since she is so excited. She will love it until she spits it all over her face. Growing up so fast, when is she going to sleep through the night????? Let's hope soon.

The Wizard of Oz

Madalyn and Morgan had the chance last week to be in the Wizard of Oz Play, they were the Evil Magic Flowers. The Montana Missoula Children's Theatre came to their school last week for a week of fun.

The SCARY Evil magic flowers. The girls were very lucky to get parts in the play. On Monday the first day of practice they had to try out and 15 Kindergartners and 1st graders that were in their classes got cut. It was so sad to see the kids that didn't get parts, it made my heart break. I worried about if one of them got a part and the other didn't. But they did great and they were both able to do it.

They spent a lot of time after school practicing, I would pick them up at 4:30, after 2 hours. And a lot of kids with bigger parts stayed until 7:00. They performed for the whole school on Friday and then for the public on Saturday. What a fun 2 days for them.

We (ok I) was really glad when it was all over, it took a lot of time after school of practicing. What a busy week we had that week. They loved it, they are singing the songs non stop at home. Natalie has even learned them, in fact I caught myself singing them the other day.

BOO

Happy Halloween from our Hunted House to yours!!!!

Madalyn was a Vet this year. It was a little hard for me to have her be something other than some kind of princess or fairy just cause she is growing up so fast and dressing up as a princess is just not as fun as it use to be. She loved being able to take her pet dog to school as part of her costume.

Natalie was a Barbie Musketeer, she got this costume from Santa last Christmas. It was all she could talk about last year.

Morgan was Snow White. Both girls loved going to school all dressed up. Morgan thought it was so fun to have a Halloween Party at school. This was her first school Party.

Little Brooklyn Just had a cute little orange Halloween costume on with a black cat on the front. We went to our wards Trunk or Treat and then around to a few family member houses, we got more than enough candy. Happy Halloween and Happy Birthday to Aunt Emily

Pumpkins

This past weekend we had a big surprise, Sarah surprised us and came home from BYU for the weekend. The girls were so excited to see her especially Natalie. So while she was here we all got together for dinner and to carve pumpkins.

Morgan and grandma cleaning out her pumpkin. Morgan picked out the hardest picture to carve out, it was a hunted house. Garrett did it for her.

Sarah and Natalie working together. She just did a smiley face.

Dad busy helping all the kids with theirs. It was a really fun weekend with Sarah home.

Our little pumpkin Brooklyn!!!

Aunt Emily with Brooklyn

We are sending our neighbors a thank you card cause they are the ones that grew all the pumpkins. We had some really BIG pumpkins.

Already for trick or treating on Saturday.