A New Year brings changes...........

Yes, I'm finally back! After Isaac's birthday we headed down to Utah for the holidays, where we stayed for 2 weeks. During that time we found ourselves taking care of Jack the dog, skiing at The Canyons, Libby trying to help stranded travelers, and having fun with family. I can't believe I didn't take any pictures of my house this year with the christmas decor. Where did the time go? I did find a fun new decorating item though. The theme this year was touille. I got bright red touille and put it everywhere. On my banisters, on my tree, even above my windows. It took me a while to get into decorating, but when I discovered the touille, it made me very happy, especially when all I have are boys bakugans, pokemon, legos, and other boy paraphanalia. I did have to work on Christmas this year, in 15 years of working for Delta I have never had to work a Christmas. It wasn't too bad, it wasn't until the afternoon, so I just went while everyone took their naps. I've been putting off blogging for the last few weeks because Jackson and I have been trying to make a big decision. In October I had a bad day at work. The kids had a half day at school so the two youngest were on their own for five hours. I was really stressed about them being on their own. That night while driving home I found myself thinking about how I was feeling that day, when the thought came to me that it was time to quit my job. I always told myself if my job affected my family I would quit. I never questioned my working I always knew it was something I was supposed to do. I love what I do, especially the benefits, so I found myself trying to rationalize why I could continue to work. Basically I cried all the way home that night and put it to the side. A couple of weeks ago Delta came out with an early out package which would allow me to keep my flight benefits for 15 years at a small price. It was a great blessing, because if I had quit before I would walk away with nothing, but this will allow me to at least walk away with something. This weekend we went to the temple to make sure we were making the right decision. How grateful I am for the Holy Ghost, it gave me the peace I needed in making such a difficult decision. I've worked really hard to get to this point, the kids are finally at an age where we could travel with more ease. When the kids were little I would look forward to this time as my "reward" time. So I've put off blogging because it's really difficult for me to say, " I'm quitting my job." After 15 years of being a working mom, I'm going to stay home. I know it's the right decision and I'm excited to be able to give my children more of my time. I know I won't regret it. In fact I know it will open more doors for me, like being able to work on my photography and I really would like to use my travel benefits to do humanatarian work. So as of April 1st I will have a great new adventure ahead of me. It's nice to finally have the decision made. So hopefully I won't be so hard to get a hold of in the future, but if I am know I'm with my kids.

Happy, Happy Birthday Isaac Dear!

I knew this day would come, but not this fast. Isaac turned 12 today. He will receive the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday. I am so excited for him. Here is my top 10 of why I love him!

10. He has a great smile

9. He is compassionate

8. He uses words like, conflict and incident to describe a situation with a teacher and a rubberband. (someone flipped a rubber band and it hit a teacher Isaac and another boy were the suspects although Isaac swears it wasn't him needless to say apologies were made)

7. He is a very giving person

6. He is self confident

5. He prays when he is nervous or upset about something

4. He holds doors open for me and asks if he can carry things

3. He likes to make people happy

2. He is a peacemaker

1. He is always concerned for others

How lucky I am to have such a great son!

Fun new pics and a turkey too!

We came down to SLC to have Thanksgiving with Jackson's family this year, there was tons of yummy food and fun conversation. We went to Auntie's and Uncle Jake's and had pie and introduced the kids to our favorite Christmas movie "A Christmas Story." Last year Bennett asked for a BB gun and we kept teasing him by saying "You'll shoot your eye out!" So he finally understood why we kept saying it. On Saturday we went to Wheeler Farm for Ferguson Family Fotos, (Jackson's brother leaves for his mission to Edmonton in the next couple of weeks) The pictures turned out great! Go to http://photographybydmc.blogspot.com click on november in the sidebar, the email account is kendyann@yahoo.com to see more. (and yes that's me with the new do)

You know you live in a small town news market when........
One of the things I miss most about SLC is the news. You never appreciate something until you don't have it. I actually revel at the news when I'm in SLC. Here are the top 10 reasons why.

10. One night they were talking about a new addition to the zoo while showing footage, later in the broadcast they had to apologize because apparently the footage was of another zoo.

9. The news anchor pronounced the word emeritus totally wrong.

8. They were reporting on the record snow we had and how it was good for the ski industry, the footage they used was of deer munching on hay. (A story they had reported on the week before, talking about having to provide extra food for the deer)

7. The grainy picture

6. The up close shot. One reporter always has the camera really close up on her anytime she makes a report.

5. One channel actually reports for fox news and abc news

4. Personal commentaries. One news anchor whipped out the National Geographic and said she noticed it in the check out lane and there were some great articles in it.

3. Using the same mug shot of a guy for two different stories and not recognizing it.

2. Great hairdos and make up

1. One of last nights top stories was that a woman had her purse snatched out of her grocery basket while loading groceries in Twin Falls (2 hours away!) and to think the same thing happened to me in a Sam's Club parking lot in Midvale. I can't believe I didn't call the news about it!!!Silly me!

My Garage and other thoughts

Our garage has been quite the eyesore the last couple of months. All the stuff we used for trek along with many camping trips somehow ended up on our garage floor. We've been shoving it aside for the last couple of months and every so often, I would mention to Jackson we really need to get some shelving up. Last Saturday I came home from doing primary stuff and found my sweet husband putting up shelves. Can I tell you how happy it made me! I sat outside in the garage for a minute, just reveling in how nice it was to have a clean garage. Next will be my storage room, but I'll give him a little breather first
The other thing that has been on my mind lately is all the picketing going on around the temples and churches. I know it's a volatile subject,(prop. 8) but I was reading the conference talks and came across Elder Hales talk "Christian courage: The price of Discipleship." It really helped to give me perspective and made me realize how lucky we are to have apostles and prophets to help us remember what is most important. It's a great talk that helped me to not want to "put up my dukes" and get caught up in what is happening on the news and close to home.

Halloween and other important stuff

Sorry I haven't posted for awhile so please excuse this lengthy post as I catch you up...

First- Everyone should have an Auntie and Uncle Jake!

Auntie sent me home with a goodie bag for my kids for Halloween, (below) how lucky they are to have such a great Auntie and Uncle who throws them pirate parties, takes them to any resturant for their b-days and showers them with love everytime they seem them. Lucky Ducks!

Second- Being Jared's room mother means I am in charge of the Halloween party for his class. Basically I did the same thing as I did last year, (why mess with something that really works)

So I put the haunted house up, where the kids go in to retrieve a bag of candy, guess how many gumballs are in the container, and get a couple of prizes. The games consisted of Fear Factor, where kids had to choose from, larva, skin, boogers, or lizard eyes. They also made a fun ghost and drank homemade rootbeer (5 lbs. of sugar!) and rice krispie treats.

Third- Halloween wouldn't be Halloween without my spook alley on the porch. The weather threatened for a moment and I didn't know if we would be able to do it, but it calmed down quick enough for us to be able to do it.

Here are the pics.....

Potions table in the spook alley

Fear Factor
Gifts from Auntie
Pumpkins we carved
Skeleton Collection

The Spooks are out......

On Monday we carved our pumpkins, (you'll have to wait until Halloween to see what we did) and tonight was the annual Halloween Party put on by the youth in our ward. We had a fishing pond, face painting, creepy feely, cake walk, and bean bag toss. We go to the old YW's Presidents house. They have a big shed that is decorated and build a big bonfire out front. It's a really fun night. Jackson is in Las Vegas so wasn't able to make it (he had to pick lighting out for the buildings).

So the spooks are coming out in other places too. A couple of weeks ago I walked into work and my manager said, "Wow, people from Rexburg are really interesting." I asked him why and he told me they had a guy from Rexburg pull up to the curb, start running for the terminal, someone yelled at him he couldn't leave is Cadillac Escalade parked there. He threw them the keys and said take it, I'm leaving the country, they're after me! He then ran to the ticket counter and asked to be booked on the next flight out, he kept repeating "They're after me." My co workers decided it would be prudent to call the police in. He ended up missing the flight, but after the officers said he was o.k. to travel, they booked him on the next flight and he headed out of the country. Last week I was talking to Jackson about some of the things that have gone wrong while building this auditorium ( a guy was killed when a car hit him, another was arrested in a drug bust) Jackson procedes to tell me it doesn't end there. Last week one of the guys on the project was arrested by the police because he had a gun out in front of his house and yelling "Their going to get me!" I couldn't help but start laughing. Then asked Jackson "Does he happen to drive an Escalade?" He found out the next day he did drive an Escalade and had just called from out of the country to turn his business over to a co-worker. Like I said, the spooks are coming out!