BYU Christmas Party

We went to BYU's Annual Christmas Party on Saturday. It is something our kids look forward to every year. They get to do crafts, see Santa, play games. It's a fun time. Leah made a 2009 calendar. Alex made a "ho-ho-yo-yo". Caleb made a "Santa's Toy Chest". They all turned out really cute.

Twilight

I went to see the movie "Twilight" with my mom, sister-in-law Katie, and her mom and sisters. We had a good time. I really liked the movie. The book is always more detailed, but I think they got the story of the book through really well.

After the movie we went to eat at Joe Bandito's in Springville. It was so yummy! It was nice to have a night away from the kids too. Thanks, Jon, for watching all 4 kids so we could go to the movie. You're a life saver!

I also made a red velvet cake for us to eat after the movie, but we forgot to bring it in to the restraunt, so it didn't get eaten that day. We ate it at my mom's house on Sunday though and it was good!

Caleb's Kindergarten Christmas Program

Tonight was Caleb's kindergarten program. It was so cute. We had a lot of fun watching him. The school lunch room was packed! There are 5 kindergarten classes. They sang Christmas songs and recited Christmas poems. They did a great job.

The Cactus Christmas Tree

Poem and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer





I think the little girl doing sign language is so cute. Her mom is deaf and she did a great job at singing in sign language for her.

Alex's Loose Tooth

Alex's bottom tooth has been really loose for the past week. So, we finally talked him into pulling it out. We tied his tooth to the door knob and had him slam the door. After two failed attempts (I don't think he was 'slamming' the door very hard), he decided he'd rather tie his tooth to my 5 lb weight and drop the weight. That didn't work because Alex wouldn't drop the weight! When he finally did drop it, the dental floss broke. His tooth was extremely loose by now and we told him that if he tied it to the door it would be out with one good slam. Here is the video of his tooth coming out. Notice that he doesn't slam the door very hard. He barely pushes on the door. It was Jon's left hand that did the slamming (which is why it worked that time).

Black Friday

Yes, we are crazy women who wake up way too early to drive to way too crowded stores to get way good deals on BLACK FRIDAY!
This is a picture of Katie and I waiting in Wal-Mart for the sale to start. At least Wal-mart lets you into the store before, so we weren't out in the freezing weather. This picture was taken around 4am. Yes, I did put on make-up before we left at 3am. I knew we would be gone all day and didn't want to feel grungy. The sale started at 5am and we were out of the store by 5:30am.

The next store we hit was Target (way crazy and super crowded). We were probably #200 in line, but still managed to get in, get what we needed, and get out in EIGHT minute! Wa-hoo!

Then we went to Roberts, Bath and Body Works, Victoria Secret, Sears, and Rod Works. We ended up getting back home by 8am. What a successful shopping trip!

There was one problem that we faced early on. We left my parent's house in Springville at 3am. At 3:10am we were going 65mph on the freeway (I was driving) when I saw a MAN walking down the middle of my lane! I swerved to miss hitting him, honked my horn, and managed to not hit him, or crash. My heart was pounding inside my chest and my hands were shaking. My mom called 911 to report that there was a man on the freeway, but got disconnected shortly after talking to the highway patrol dispatch. We tried on my phone and the same thing happened. As we were driving away I saw flashing police lights in the rear-view mirror. We figured someone else had called too and the police were there.

We went about our day, trying to put it behind us. It was hard to stop thinking about it. When we were focused on shopping I didn't think about it, but as soon as I would get into the car again and drive I would keep remembering it and wondering what happened and what I would have done if I wouldn't have managed to miss hitting him!

Later in the afternoon my mom mentioned this incident to my Grandma and she said, "I just read on the local news online that a man was killed on the freeway by the Provo Town Center Mall at 3:15am." We were all shocked! It was only 5 minutes after we had missed him! He was hit by a semi-truck. I went online to read the article for myself. Then, I looked up the accident on another site and found this video that shows the semi truck that hit the man.

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

I just can't get over the fact that it could have been US that killed this man! I'm so thankful that I was able to be alert enough and paying attention enough to react quickly and avoid the accident. From the looks of the semi it makes me wonder what kind of serious damage would have been done to my mom's car and us if we would have hit him. I feel so bad for the driver of the semi. I'm sure he's dealing with a lot of emotions now.

When I learned that the police had little information available about the accident I decided to call the highway patrol and give them a statement about what I witnessed. Although I didn't witness the actual accident I told them that I saw the man walking in the middle of the lane. The police officer came over to get a written statement from me.

It's amazing how our lives can change in a SECOND! Split-second decisions can have such huge consequences. I'm glad we were safe today and that we were still able to have a fun day shopping together even with this tearing at our hearts all day.

Thanksgiving

This year we had Thanksgiving dinner at my parent's house. My brother and his family came up from Las Vegas to join in the festivities. My assignment this year was pumpkin pies. I decided to make them from our sugar pumpkins we grew in our own garden. I cooked and mashed the pumpkin...

Made my crust from scratch...

Poured in the filling and baked the pies!

YUMMY!

We always use the fancy dishes on Thanksgiving

Grandpa Holt waiting for dinner

The women in the kitchen

Finally it's time to eat!

Grandma and Grandpa Holt, mom and dad, Jay Rogers, and Kathy Rogers

The kids table

Dessert time! I also made the crust for the pecan pies that my mom and I made together.

I love Thanksgiving! It's so fun to be with family. I love all the food, but my favorite thing is staying up really late playing games and talking. I love my family. Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm a Slacker Mom

It has been a long time since I posted anything. Our computer crashed a couple of weeks ago and we lost all of our pictures! I was devistated! So, I've been saving the lower-quality pictures from our blog and made them into a photo book. They're a little fuzzy, but at least we have something to remember our past year.

So, that's what I've been doing lately. Jon is almost finished with his welding class for this semester. He's doing really well and does a great job at welding aluminum now. He is so talented. I can't wait for his classes to be done so we can be together as a family more.

My brother and his family are coming to Utah to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. It will be so fun to see them and the kids are excited to see their cousin. I also have planned to go see Twilight with my mom, Katie, and her mom and sisters. I'm looking forward too it! The movie comes out tomorrow and I have to say I'm a little glad I'm waiting a few weeks before going. Those theatres are going to be jam packed this weekend!

I have taken a break from taking pictures lately because of the whole disappointmet of losing so many of them. We've also been in the process of setting up our new-old computer. It's my mom's old computer, but our new computer. Thanks for helping us out mom! I'll get back in the swing of things soon.