Sunday, Jan 13 2008

So, Judd already writes these nice Sunday e-mails to his family, so I figured I
would just edit them a little bit to be posted for all to see, and then let
all of you read it so you would know weekly what's going on in our lives....
If you care of course!!  :)


Subject: Poor Marshall

Dear Family & Friends,

On Monday, it was back to school for Mariah. Jayden also started up a new
sports class. The sport de jour happened to be kickball. Marshall wasn't too
happy that he did not get to participate. For FHE, we went to Home Depot and got
a tree for our front yard. 
Tuesday, the boys went to be babysat while Meridith
went and helped out in Mariah's classroom. Meridith found a new person to swap
babysitting with for this purpose which is why it is making the headlines this
week.

Marshall was forced to quit the pacifier cold turkey when he bit
through our last one. It was a bit of a rough night, but each night has gotten a
bit easier.

Friday, Marshall woke up pretty unhappy from his nap. It might have been
because he was minus a pacifier, but Meridith thought it looked like his shoulder
was hurting him. He was still favoring it, so Meridith took him in to the doctor
and it looks like when Jayden
jumped on him last week he broke his collar bone. The doctor gave him a figure 8
brace that he wears under his shirt and helps keep things positioned right. 
That's about all you can do for broken collar bones, but Meridith took him
in to have x-rays for confirmation anyway. And yep, its broken.  So perhaps now
wasn't the best time to wean him on the pacifier, but at this point it would
probably be more
traumatic to give it back so we will just move forward. Marshall is being quite
the trooper. 
Saturday, Meridith and I spent most the day replacing the gravel in our front
yard. Meridith mistakenly chose some that wasn't on the HOA's list of approved
colors. I thought it looked very nice, but I guess my opinion doesn't count for
much. I guess all those summers of moving rocks around our yard growing up for
reasons I didn't fully understand prepared me for this moment. It was hard work,
but I guess was a good way to work off some of those holiday pounds and at least
it wasn't the middle of summer. We also took down our Christmas lights.
Today Meridith enjoyed going to choir practice
for the first time in weeks. She has been disappointed the last couple weeks
when it hasn't been held.

Love,
Judd, Meridith, Mariah, Jayden, and Marshall 

Sunday Jan. 6 2008

Subject: Bring on 2008

Dear Family & Friends,

On Monday, we enjoyed a nice New Year's Eve. In the evening, we took advantage
of the last opportunity to frequent McDonald's during 2007 (courtesy of Mark and
Sara's Christmas present for which we are very grateful). After enjoying a fine
meal there we came home. We decided that as far as New Year's Eve festivities
went that it was more conducive to the children's bedtime if we pretended we
were all with Kyle in Salta, Argentina (which is conveniently 4 hours ahead). So
we toasted in the New Year at 8:00PM and then put the kids in bed. Meridith and
I stayed up and celebrated the New Year in our own local time zone as well.

Tuesday, we enjoyed the first day of 2008 (and the last day of vacation for
me). I took the kids to the park in the afternoon, (Meridith took the kids to
the park pretty much every other day of the week). In the evening, Meridith and
I enjoyed watching the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

Wednesday, it was back to work for me. I tried not to over exert myself. It
was nice knowing there were only three days till the weekend. Marshall got a
haircut.

Friday K and T came over to play. Jayden at some point decided to
jump on Marshall and poor Marshall seems to have injured his arm.
Saturday, we had a nice relaxing day. We all watched the original High School
Musical. For some reason, we had problems playing the disc we got from the
library. Even though the disc didn't have any scratches on it, it would not play
on our regular DVD player. So we busted out our el cheapo
portable DVD player and it worked flawlessly. Go figure. At any rate we all
enjoyed the movie after we got past the technical difficulties.

Today we enjoyed our church meetings. I'm not sure if the kids all resolved to
behave better or what, but it seems like some of the best behavior we've seen in
Sacrament meeting in recent times. The kids enjoyed their new primary classes.
Love,
Judd, Meridith, Mariah, Jayden, and Marshall 

Sunday Dec 30, 2007

Subject: Christmas Holidays

Dear Family & Friends, 
Monday, we enjoyed a nice Christmas Eve. Meridith's parents kindly watched the
kids while she and I did a little last minute shopping. In the evening, we
enjoyed a nice meal with Meridith's family. Afterwards for FHE we watched Luke 2
and Mr. Krueger's Christmas.

Tuesday, we had an enjoyable Christmas. The kids slept in almost till 8:00
which was nice. We all enjoyed opening presents. Mariah got a new bike, Jayden
scored a scooter and Marshall got a stuffed Diego. Actually, Marshall saw his
stuffed Diego, grabbed him and then proceeded over to the couch and kept
repeating "Diego, Diego, Diego" and pointing at the TV. He refused to open
another present (even though ironically two of them were Diego DVDs he could
have watched). So we put one on for him to keep him happy and then enjoyed
watching Jayden and Mariah open their other presents. Later in the morning, we
went over to the park so Mariah and Jayden could try out their new modes of
transportation. Several of their friends were over there similarly equipped.
Jayden made a valiant attempt at riding the scooter, but got frustrated when he
couldn't keep up with Mariah on her bike or the other kids on their scooters so
he went back home to get his big wheel. We went over to Meridith's families
house in the afternoon, we enjoyed talking to Meridith's brother Kyle on the
phone and hearing about his missionary adventures in Argentina. In the evening,
Meridith's family came over to our house for Christmas dinner. Lots of good food.
All in all it was quite an enjoyable Christmas. However, right before bedtime
both Mariah and Jayden started complaining about sore throats and runny noses.
My nose had been running for pretty much the whole day and it looks like the
three of us were coming down with the cold that Marshall and Meridith were just
getting over.

Wednesday, we had a happy Boxing Day. The kids had fun playing with their new
toys and it was very relaxing. In the afternoon, we went over to Meridith's
families and exchanged gifts. Her grandparents on her Mom's side had come down
from Pine and it was fun visiting with them. They also treated us all to takeout
pizza from a nearby restaurant. We cooked up a Digorno for the kids who don't
appreciate all the toppings the rest of the adults crave. On the way home we
picked up a new vaporizer.

Thursday and Friday we enjoyed relaxing days at home. We did a good job at not
over exerting ourselves and trying to get over our colds. Fortunately, we had
plenty of toys to play with and movies to watch to keep our minds off of our
sufferings.

Saturday, Jayden and I went over to Costco and waited in a long return line,
but the wait proved worthwhile.  Many of you may recall that at the beginning of
the month Meridith and I "scored" a shop vac at the company party. Well, when we
were doing our Christmas shopping on Monday I was forced to wander all over
Costco because they like to shuffle everything periodically to make you do just
that knowing that you'll probably stubble across something and make an impulse
buy. This time however, their evil plan backfired when I spotted the exact same
brand of shop vac on their shelves and formed a plan of my own. I had just told
Meridith when we left the store on Monday that they have such good deals on
electronics, books, and entertainment type stuff at Costco that if I had could
probably easily blow $5000 bucks there without too much effort. So knowing that
without a receipt for the vacuum the best I could hope for was store credit, yet
I was perfectly fine with that. So Jayden and I took back the vacuum cleaner and
less than a half hour later walked out of there with a fair amount of store
credit that Meridith and I can spend on something that we might find a little
more useful or entertaining. In the evening, Meridith and I watched Stardust and
we both really enjoyed it. After returning from Utah where I started reading the
book I promptly requested it from the library in both printed and CD form
(undecided on which method I was going to use). Alas, I already had many books
from the library and so I had not gotten around to either of them. After
watching the movie, I felt motivated to read the book. However, when I opened it
I discovered that this book I had got was in Spanish (I had just requested it
online and picked it up off the hold shelf without cracking the cover and I
guess they made no effort to come up with a Spanish version of the title). So it
looks like I'm going to be going the CD route with this one.

Today, we enjoyed our church meetings. Meridith decided we should try not
putting Marshall down for a nap before our block of meetings to see if he would
be more subdued in Sacrament meeting. As I am fond of the saying, "Insanity is
doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results." I'm
usually up for trying something new. Alas, today's experiment could best be
described as my own corollary to this which goes, "Frustration is doing
something different and in fact more difficult and getting the same result". But
hey, "nothing ventured nothing gained" we "live and learn".

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas Holiday.

Love,
Judd, Meridith, Mariah, Jayden, and Marshall

P.S.
Knock on some wood, but after reading some of your emails I realize so far
we've gotten off pretty easy as far as Holiday health goes. I hope everyone gets
feeling better soon.