Happy New Year

Dear Family,

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's Eve. We had a fun Christmas at Mom and Dad's house, but we learned that sometimes there can be too many presents for the kids (I didn't think that was possible before). We're busy now getting ready to go to Cincinnati. It's pretty overwhelming but I think it will be okay. BethAnne is being admitted to the hospital on Sunday for bowel cleanout and the surgery will be on Tuesday. We'll keep you all posted on how everything goes. Thank you for your prayers.
Love,
Aubrey and family
P.S. I wanted to include pictures but that feature is not working for us now.

Merry Christmas everyone!!

We've had a really nice Holiday so far. The best part is that Brian's been off of work for a whole week. We had a great time in Boise last weekend. We had fun playing at the Discovery Center, eating good food, and enjoying eachother's company. Then we came back to Logan and got snowed in for Christmas Eve. The kids put on a cute Nativity scene while Brian read from the scriptures. Christmas morning was magical, of course. Our sweet boys were so excited -- I think this picture of Cameron captures it best. We started a new tradition of making crepes on Christmas morning, and then I spent the entire day putting together a lego castle for Brian (it said for ages 6 and up, but it nearly drove me insane -- especially when Cameron and Adam ripped the whole thing apart twice before I finally got it put together. Where's Uncle Carl when you need him?). It was worth the effort, though, and little Brian thought I was awesome and thanked me over and over again for my help. We've had fun playing with toys and hanging out all week. We hope all of you had a nice Christmas, too!

Christmas Travels!

Hello family! Just thought I'd write a quick post to let you all know that we made it safely to Omaha after many hours of traveling. For those of you who don't know, Jon, Steven Lauren and I drove down to Las Vegas Friday night to see the Vegas bowl on Saturday night (wasn't that a cool game!) Right after the game we drove down to LA to take one of Steven and Lauren's cars there (they just graduted and are starting a job in california). Then this morning we flew out of LAX to Omaha and we finally ended our weekend of journeying when we got in tonight at 7:30! The Hastings' home is decorated beautifully for Christmas and there are cookies, brownies and toffee galore! I'm really going to miss being home this Christmas, but this will be next best--I really am blessed in my in-laws! Merry Christmas!

Blue Eyes

Isn't this a pretty picture. Have a great week! I can't wait for the Llewellyns to come!
Love,
Aubrey

Merry Christmastime, Everybody! We've been busy and happy. We've been decorating for Christmas, and I'm hoping I can get stockings made for Eva and Aiden before Christmas Eve (otherwise we'll just have to use the random ones we used last year). The kids are having a great time making forts and boats out of the shipping boxes we've received. Aiden took his first steps a couple weeks ago, and now he can zoom on foot from one end of the room to the other whenever he wants ("whenever he wants" being the key term since he still prefers to crawl a lot of the time). He is so sweet and very cuddly lately. Eva was in a darling Christmas music program at her preschool last week. Those concerts are always such a hoot because of the way half the kids are looking the other way or making faces or whatever else.... Eva is so cute and such a good helper. Yesterday at the ward Christmas party she got two cookies (she loves cookies) and, without anyone asking her to, gave one to Aiden (I suspect she licked part of the frosting off of his first, but it was still a nice gesture : ) ) She really is good at sharing. Eva and I decorated a gingerbread house today after church. I put the pieces of gingerbread together and squirted on the frosting for Eva at the beginning, but by the end of it, she was putting on the frosting and the candy all by herself!

We are getting SOOO excited for Christmas around here. We made cupcakes with green and red sprinkles after church today (I had to bribe Tyler to go to church without complaining -- it worked surprisingly well). Adam ate 3 (yes 3!) cupcakes, and is now happily sleeping. Adam has been a challenging little boy lately. If I put him down, he squeals like his finger is being slammed in a car door. I hope it is a passing phase. The rest of the boys have been really good (by Llewellyn standards). We have fun.
Like Chrissy, I have to brag about my husband for a minute...He took his Logistics final on Saturday and got an A! He will most likely get an A in the class. We had a nice break from school and work Saturday to celebrate (went to the Temple and out to dinner -- much needed quiet time!). Hope you all have a fun week! If we were still living at home, we'd be opening a bag of candy with a number on it every morning, and going caroling tomorrow night for FHE. Fun times....

The Infamous Slide Show

Some of you have noticed the slide show at the bottom of the blog. It comes from my Family Slide Show album. It's meant to contain our family milestone and favorite moments.  Unfortunately, the slide show doesn't show the captions. But if you go to the link above you can browse through the album and see the captions. I've tried to include dates wherever I could. 

All of your Google accounts have photo albums built in. From google.com , under the "More" link you can select "Photos" and it will take you to your own web album page. I also came across the program Microsoft Live Writer . I think it make it easier to format blog posts.

Thank you all for making the blog a fun way to share our lives with each other. I love you all.

Rogers Family Update

Hi All,

It's a good idea to post more often, I love to read your updates and see your pictures. As you all probably know, we saw the doctor in Utah for a second opinion and he encouraged us to continue with Cincinnati. He said "they are one of the best, if not the best, in the country." We were really glad to meet with him, he answered some of our nagging questions and eased our minds. We are now confident in our decision to go ahead in Cincinnati. Everything else is going pretty well here. We all have a cold, which is not fun, hopefully none of you that we saw on Thursday will catch it. I'm really happy for the good things going on in your lives. If there's one thing we learned from our trip to Utah is that the Lord loves us. I felt inspired to go to Utah to speak to the doctor there, and now I feel that it was just so we could feel confident and comfortable with going to Cincinnati. The Lord knows how much I second guess myself and now I don't have to with this big decision. We are so blessed. I love you all. Have a Merry Christmas!

Love,
Aubrey

Finals Week!

So I feel really guilty that I reemed you all out at the end of October about not posting Halloween pictures, and then I haven't posted for a month and a half! I agree with Carl though that we should all try to post more often...I absolutely love it. Before I forget, this picture was taken at the BYU-Utah game after our awesome victory. As Carl said, finals are next week, and I think we're all excited to get this semester over with. Jon's finals are going to be pretty tough, but mine will be a breeze after I get this 15-page paper turned in Monday. I'd take a test over a paper any day...it definitely wasn't the writing that inspired me to teach English! With that considered, though, my favorite class this semester and probably of my whole college career was my Teaching Writing class and I now feel somewhat prepared to teach the process that is so painful for me. I was so excited to say that Thursday was my last day of classes ever (except for a seminar every other week next semester), and I'm so thrilled to get into my student teaching. Seventh graders are absolutely hilarious and I think it'll be a great experience. My mentor teacher is letting me take a lot of creative license in my planning (for good or for bad), which I think will make the experience even more valuable. The main bulk of my teaching will be on Greek Mythology, centered around a really fun new young adult novel called The Lightning Thief. I recommend it to everyone--Mom's already read it and liked it, and it's a quick read. By the way, a few other reading suggestions if anyone is "bored" over Christmas break (ha ha you guys must be thinking--I know you are all super busy): March, by Geraldine Brooks is a beautiful pulitzer-prize winner about the father in Little Women (that's actually the book I'm writing my 15-page paper about); Gilead, by Marilynn Robinson is another pulitzer-prize winner that is a must-read for any Christian. I know there's more books that I loved this semester but I can't think of them...

Things are going really well for Jon too right now, though he is busier than ever. I loves working on his NAHB competition and is working hard to wrap up the majority of his work on that before Christmas break. I don't know if I said this before, but he and his team are creating a development proposal for a real community that is in the process of being built right now in Florida (that's where the competition is being held). Jon is in charge of the marketing plan and analysis for his team, which has included creating a website that looks absolutely incredible. We've also been really fortunate recently to get some extra work from Jon's dad on revising floor plans for his company. Jon gets 100 bucks for each plan he revises and can usually do one in less than an hour. The projects don't come often, but when they do, it's really nice to alleviate some financial stress. This semester Jon took a computer-aided design class where he and a partner worked all semester to create house plans both in AutoCad (the two, dimensional, detailed plans) and Revit (three dimensional renderings--this is what he works in at work). At the beginning of the semester his professor was hired by a wealthy young couple to design a luxurious custom home, and so he assigned each partnership to create their own house plans for this couple for practice. The couple gave the students their specifications and they took a field trip to the lot and then they were let loose. Jon's love is custom homes, so this was a really fun project for him. last week all of the partnerships presented their plans to a panel of judges that included this young couple, though it wasn't a competition because it wasn't like they were about to choose a 20-something year old's idea over the professor's. However, Jon was approached by his professor earlier this week and told that the young couple was so impressed with their design ideas that they asked the professor to work with Jon and his partner in doing the "real" design for their house. isn't that awesome?! Jon also secured a TA job with this professor for next semester, so things are really looking up for him. Sorry that was such a long paragraph about Jon, but I am just so proud of him!

We are excited for Christmas in Omaha this year, and especially excited just for a chance to relax. Before we head to Omaha, we are going with Steven and Lauren to watch BYU football at the Vegas Bowl with front row tickets! We are playing UCLA again and look forward to creaming our dear cousin Ben this time. :) i start school with my seventh graders on January 3rd and Jon again the next week. Despite how busy we are, Jon and I feel so blessed during this time in our lives and can really see the hand of the Lord in helping everything run smoothly. We love you all!

Finals and the Finale

I am sad that everyone has slacked off in posting to the blog (this includes me). I love reading your posts. I love seeing your beautiful children. I realize that everyone is busy and has things that are important. a couple of posts a month would be great if everyone could do that.

Well next week is finals week. So much fun. I am taking all of them on Monday. I like to challenge my mind... Actually I am just super anxious to be done and to get on with my winter break.

We are super excited for Christmas. I don't think that Ben really realizes what is going on with the whole Santa thing... but he says he want a Balooo (as in the color) Bike.

We were at Grandma's house and Ben found this slinky and he will not put it down for anything. He won't go to bed without it... and in the mornings its "Shrek, Shrek, Shrek."

Anyway, we love you all, and hope that you all have a Merry Christmas.

LOVE the slideshow!!!

I'm not sure when it was added, but I just noticed it now. If you don't know what I'm talking about, scroll to the bottom of the page. Did mom or dad do this? I couldn't stop smiling as I watched all of those memories pass by. Crazy that we are starting families of our own already.

Online forum

If you want to see all of the online deals (there's some for Toys "R" Us, Bath and Body Works, Best Buy, etc), here's a link to the main forum (not just the Amazon thread)...

http://www.pinchingyourpennies.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=10

Word of caution: can be addictive, and if you don't need anything, don't look (because then you'll find something that you think you need, and then you'll try to find other things to meet the free shipping minimums, and then you'll have everyone's birthdays and Christmas taken care of for the next 2 years)...

Love you all,
Lisa

So thankful for my boys...

My boys are charmers this week. I can't get enough of the two youngest (though all of them have been pretty sweet). Cameron has toned down his terrible two agression this week, and Adam is overflowing with the cutest little personality. He's started getting into everything (the tupperware drawer is always empty these days...)The Book of Mormon/Tyler sleeping picture is legit. Brian has started personal scripture study at night, and Tyler thinks he's big enough to do it too. One night I heard him flipping pages for at least 10 minutes. When I went to check on him later, he was zonked out and I couldn't pass up the photo op.

On another topic, I'm 100% addicted to online Christmas shopping (hooray for Amazon and free shipping!) The only thing better than getting toys 60% off is having them delivered to my door. For anyone interested, the latest Amazon deal thread in my forum is http://www.pinchingyourpennies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=79527 - if you jump on it you should still be able to get them
in time for Christmas (some of the deals go quick, others have been around for awhile). I think I'm finished shopping, except for dad (anyone have any ideas?) I'm SO excited for the boys to open their presents in a few weeks. I'm even more excited to go to Boise the weekend before. It will be fun to see half of you!

We've had snow the last couple days. Brian went out and made a snowman with the boys yesterday to give me a few hours of quiet time -- a great time was had by all! I finished the 7th season of Gilmore Girls this past week as well. I can get back to normal and stop having dreams that I'm Rory. Well enough about us. I hope everyone else is well!

Care Package From Rick

Well, Rick just sent us our first care package. It contained among other things: his boots that turned out to not be "mission authorized", my ancient digital camera that his missionary buddies had labeled "the brick", a cookbook, 2 of his used missionary planners, a hand-written letter (very nicely punctuated and capitalized, I might add), and a memory card of pictures and movies from his "new" camera.

His movies were huge so I'm not posting them. One was a tour of his apartment, which included a nice investigator white board, scriptures, church pictures on the wall and other typical missionary stuff like 20-30 different types of junk food (featuring Chips Ahoy and Krispy Kreme donuts), a few unwashed dishes, a companion in p-day garb, etc... I think the Krispy Kremes might be one reason he didn't need the cookbook anymore.

The other two movie shorts featured Elder Baker and his companion Elder Johnson in true missionary attire swaying/not-really-dancing to the tunes of "Winter Wonderland" (Mom's favorite) and "Feliz Navidad." Joking aside, it was great to see him in pictures and read his letter. Rick is excited that an investigator that he had tracted out a few weeks ago set a baptismal date.

I enjoy the uplift I get from Rick's letters. What an effort he is making to grow spiritually, work hard, share the gospel, take a genuine interest in the welfare of others and do his family proud. I thank all of you for your prayers and words of encouragement to him. They have meant a lot to him.

Falta Duas Semanas

For all of you non-Portuguesse speakers, two more weeks until I graduate... although I haven't officially registered yet, but it is on my to do list. It has been a while since we have posted to the blog, so I decided that I could spend some time and do so. Last week was a ton of fun in Boise. We ate lots, shopped some and shot lots of clay pigeons. We are doing pretty good. Last night though Ben woke up with the flu. He has yakked five or six times. Poor little guy. Besides all of this this are pretty good. School is ever boring, hopefully though I can pull through with some decent grades. I hope everyone else is happy and healthy.

Boy, Did We Have Fun!

What a wonderful holiday it was! So good to have Carl, Steph, Ben, Chrissy, Jon, and Mark's brother Scott in Boise for a few days. And of course, we are so blessed to have Aubrey and Co. right around the corner. We visited, played pinochle, had yummy food, visited, Shopped, shot fake birds, had Christmas early, visited, kissed kissy cheeks, watched BSU lose, watched Shrek I...and II (that's a guttural "sh" says Ben), watched BYU win, had Carl's birthday early, and just gennnnerally enjoyed each other immensely! We missed you, Bousquets and Llewellyns and can't wait to see you in December! And of course, Rick - he is always in our prayers. Love to all of you! Mom

Christmas Portrait Preview

Hi Everyone! We had family portraits taken yesterday at Sears, and we got some great pictures of the kids. These pictures aren't even the cutest ones (I'm saving those for Christmas cards). It was the best picture taking experience we've had with kids, we were very happy. Things here are going pretty well. We think we have our Cincinnati trip mostly figured out. We'll be in Cincinnati from January 5th-February 26th. Grace will join us in Cincinnati on January 16th. If BethAnne is doing well after her big surgery, we're probably going to go to Maryland and Virginia during the 2nd week of February to visit Mark's family and Suzie's family. Then we'll be back in Cincinnati for a minor surgery on February 18th. If all goes well, we'll head back to Boise on the 26th of February. Mark's bosses have been very supportive so he will be able to telecommute during those two months. We're looking forward to the holidays, it will be great to see everyone who's coming for Thanksgiving. Hope you are all doing well.
Love, Aubrey

Happy Sunday!

Hi everyone. I got a fabulous nap this afternoon -- 3 hours, with only one interuption!! Brian took the oldest three boys with him to take Ina and Tom to the airport. I needed it (I was getting extremely cranky towards the end of the week, and now I feel guilty for being less than gracious at times). We had a nice week though. If anyone wants ice cream or animal cookies, just come on over. The boys had fun bowling, watching movies, hanging out, and playing football with mom and dad (the weather was beautiful on Saturday -- actually it was nice all week).
The top picture here is Sunday dinner at the Lee's. They've started a cute tradition (or maybe they've always done this?) of celebrating birthdays once a month or so. You can see Carl and Stephanie with birthday crowns in the background. We had a nice time there last week. The family pic was us today -- I was hoping to doctor it up (change the background, make the boys ties yellow, etc), but I look really tired in it, so I don't think that will work. One more thing...I found a good deal on one of my forums. If any of you need random home teacher/neighbor/friend gifts, you can get a Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Music 3-CD set for $1.99. Shipping is a flat 4.99, so I ordered 10 for $24.99 shipped. That takes care of all my visiting teachees, Brian's home teachees, a primary teacher that we love, filler gifts for in-laws (and you too mom if you don't already have it), Rick, etc. The link is http://www.graveyardmall.com/chcofemotach.html

Well that's about all for now. Love you all!

Halloween and other scary things!

Hi Everyone,
I assume you got my email about our Cincinnati trip. We're a little stressed about the upcoming surgery and the follow-up visit (which will be an additional 10 days in Cincinnati at the end of February). But, as Mom says, "this too shall pass." If you know of anyone with a bunch of extra airline miles sitting around, let us know :) We're grateful for the love and support of family and friends. We are blessed with so much. I hope you enjoy the pictures of our pretty witch and our "scary" messy Grace. We've included an after-bath picture of Grace too which is very cute. Hope you are all well.
Love,
Aubrey

Halloween Pics

All of your pictures are darling! As usual, I'm last to post, but we had a fun Halloween. As you can see, Eva was an elephant and Aiden was a monkey. Eva loves her elephant costume. She wore it today around the house and to visit through the fence with the next door neighbor's dogs (she usually visits with the dogs at least once a day; she has a little plastic chair stationed right next to the fence in the back yard). On Halloween, Eva's preschool had a costume parade and singing concert. She was so cute!! It was so fun to watch. Eva was the only girl in her class who wasn't dressed as a princess (except there was one fairy, but close enough...).

On Saturday, Jeff painted Aiden's room (Eva helped! She's actually a pretty good little painter) and the kids and I raked leaves. There were so many that it seems unbelievable that most of them are actually still on the trees! I actually enjoyed the raking, but after we got them into huge piles, it was like, Okay what do we do with them now? We decided to put off the bagging until Monday (maybe in hopes that they'd miraculously disappear by then?)

Just a Friendly Reminder to Visit the Temple

Oh I forgot!

I wanted to give you guys this amazing recipe for Cranberry Glaze for pork loin roast. I was telling Lisa about it last week. It is so easy - and really makes the meal. Just sprinkle kosher salt on the pork (Suzie and Jeff taught me that), cover with foil, and then roast it for 15-20 minutes per pound. Take it out of the oven when done, slice it, and then pour the juice that was created when you baked it over the top. Serve it with this fabulous sauce on the side, plus Zatarain's wild rice and a veggie - and you have a great meal:

1 can whole cranberry sauce
1/2 C apple jelly (Walmart has its own brand)
2 tsp balsamic or cider vinegar (I use balsamic)
1 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Combine the suace ingredients and bring to a boil to blend the flavors - takes 10 minutes!

Love you all!

A Boise Halloween!

Hi Everybodee! Boy - Chrissy's well written reprimand got results! So "tongue in cheek," Chrissy - I loved it. So - here's our Boise halloween! Bethanne looked particularly fetching in her "good witch" costume. And of course, we had to categorize and count the treats when we were done! The neighbors were so kind - and generous. Dad and I are well - got our flu shots, you know - and we are SO excited about the holiday season, and anticipate seeing all of you (or talking to in Rick's case) somehow or other in the next two months! We have our tickets to go see the Bousqet family on Dec 27th through Dec 31st - Hurray!
I've had a busy Relief Society season - Broadcast dinner, leadership meeting, and now Thanksgiving dinner for 250 (regional single adults) on the 17th. My schooling is going fine - I'm even settling down to some C's and B's on tests (hurray Mom). With Dad's $100 on the table for every "B" I get, I'm motivated! My sister Di was here last weekend - SO fun. It was temple, food, shopping, and movies.
The autumn has been beautiful and thank goodness for "fall back" daylight savings so I have time to write this and figure out the picture thing (OK, it was easy). Thanks to all of you for your wonderful support of Rick. I love his saying, "This may not be the best two years of my life, but it will be the best two years for my life" and and sounds like he is understanding more what that means! Our prayers are continually with him. Happy Sunday everybody. I love you SO much!