Sunbeams Bumper Bowling Bash

Overall our bowling party was smooth sailing.

Honestly, you get eight 4-year-olds together and you expect them to sit patient and quiet? I don't think so. So in a way, having them in an environment where they CAN be loud and run around is easier than at church where the goal is to get them to sit reverently. So they ran around, got sugared up on donuts and milk, and all asked at least a dozen times "is it my turn?" They all gave huge hugs and thanked us profusely when they left. It was so fun.

The sad part was that an hour before the party started pmc realized he was getting a migraine. So he stayed home and missed it. I felt so bad for him. It was fine as far as help, all the moms had asked if they needed to stay and help, so we just grabbed one of them. But all the kids were so sad to not have him there. Also, even though we had called and made sure we found a day that all of our kids were available to come before we scheduled the event, we still had one kid missing. So alas, we never did get a picture with all eight of our year-end sunbeams! But let's just remember that over the course of the year we had 12 of them.

Anyway, here's our last picture and post for the year. I think we'll be redesigning for the new year, so check back soon!

Out with the Old, In with the New

Just in case you were all wondering, we're really excited about this new year! But before I tell you about what we have upcoming, let me tell you about what we have outgoing.

We taught our Sunbeams (Primary Class)for the last time today. We have had so much fun with them, we are even going to take them bumper bowling....that will be tomorrow morning, and I will post those pictures tomorrow for all to see. We love them and will miss them!

This was our first and last year "just the two of us." We had so much fun learning and growing on our own this year. I'm sure we will sometimes look back and miss it during the next 30ish years!

We had a great and humbling year in our tiny one-bedroom apartment! 'Nuff said.

In 2008 we look forward to...

Our new church calling is: counselors in the Married Student Association at the Institute of Religion at the UofU. Our main responsibilities include early morning meetings on some Sundays, and encouraging married students at the U to enroll in Institute. We think this will be grand, as we love attending our Institute classes. It's just nice to get a chance to have a good spiritual lesson during the week to refocus.

We so look forward to our baby due in June! Here are the answers to the questions many of us get asked. We're hoping we can find out what the gender is at our doctor apt. Jan 7, but if not, it will be the beginning of February. If it's a girl we will likely name her Anastasia Ruth Cundick. If it's a girl we have two possibilities now, Clark Thomas Cundick, or Cannon........Cundick (not so sure on a middle name there). No these are not firm decisions, just likely. Atec is feeling great these days, other than a rotten head-cold, so morning sickness has passed.

We are thrilled to have found ourselves a two-bedroom apartment which we will move into February 1st. It's perfect for us we think. We are excited to have space for our storage, bikes, and a baby!

Since we slacked so much during the Christmas season....here are our Christmas-time pictures! We have the Christmas lights at Temple Square, our Christmas morning tree, atec skiing for the first time since her broken leg (in 4th grade, a skiing accident), the beautiful snow, atec's siblings all together with spouses, atec's canadian nieces and nephews, and atec's best friend's wedding. For your enjoyment, we also have a little Christmas music from the Cundick family!

MERRY CHRISTMAS CARD!

Truly Enchanted

Dear readers....we want you all to know that we believe this Christmas season is Truly Enchanted.

We had so much fun doing our first Christmas tree this week. We spent Monday night looking for just the right tree. However, it took us two hours to decide on one! It's funny how we both had different ideas of what a Christmas tree looks like. For example...pmc's family apparently got different kinds of trees each year, sometimes more full, sometimes less full, sometimes a grand fir, sometimes a noble fir. Not my family. We had a full noble fir every year (as I remember). For me the $20 price difference doesn't matter, it's not a real Christmas tree unless those pine needles grow UP! Maybe it's because they are most like the pine trees I'm used to seeing in my environment, growing up in Park City, and on the ski slopes, or maybe it's just because that's all we ever had. I don't know, but I just think they look prettier. Anyway, I don't think I have pmc entirely convinced that it's worth the money, but he does love our tree! I'm just glad we didn't even have to have the discussion about real or fake trees.....it's a real tree for us....that's what makes it so enchanting. It's fun to work hard to keep it alive for a few weeks, and to vacuum up those endless needles, and to always remember that it grows up towards the heavens where the world saw that beautiful star on the night our Savior was born! How grateful we are that, although we may be politically incorrect, we still have the freedom to go around telling everyone "MERRY CHRISTMAS!" For further news, although we should have gone grocery shopping last night, we opted for a movie night. We saw the new Disney movie "Enchanted." To say the least pmc was entirely enchanted! He's been listening to the music all day! This is not to say I didn't enjoy the film, I fully enjoyed it....maybe I'm a little too enchanted with Christmas to be distracted for now. Anyway, that's our movie recommend and review!

I would like to share something else I've been enchanted with this week though. When I was a missionary I often hoped that when the time came for marriage, I would find someone who I really connected with spiritually. I hoped that we could talk easily about spiritual matters, and understand each other, teach one another, and grow together. This week has been filled with some of those special occasions. We spent a good hour one night creating and discussing a gospel parable about music. Another period of time was spent discussing repentance. I feel so blessed to know that the gospel binds our marriage together, and brings us closer to our Father in Heaven.

I couldn't help putting two new songs on our playlist this week, one for the "Enchanted"bit from the movie. But also on the movie one of my older favorite songs was played, and I just want to share one more thing for posterity's sake. When we were married our sealer talked about three types of love: philia, eros, and agape. Whenever I hear the song "That's Amore" it makes me think about these and our temple ceremony, and how blessed I am to have agape in our marriage!

One last thing I'm entirely excited for, is that this week I am going to attempt making candy canes. Call me crazy. It's just this idea I had, and I couldn't help trying the impossible. So wish me luck.....

pmc here... I just read atec's post and can't believe she forgot the most exciting part of our week! Last Monday, we heard our baby's (babies'?) heartbeat(s?)! OK, we realize that it's probably not twins, since we only heard one heartbeat and she's not big enough to have two in there according to the doctor. The heart rate was about 160, which I've heard is slow, which I've heard is a boy. Two more months and we'll know! I'm grateful that we've reached the 2nd trimester... less sickness, more happy atec...

Well, it's been a long day...

I've kind of had a rough day. First off, it was Fast Sunday. Usually I am excited for this chance to have an added measure of the Spirit. But not today. I don't know if it was because atec isn't fasting now (pregnancy will do that), or if I was just a little more run down than usual (heading into finals week next week), or what. But that was a little frustrating... having something you usually like become an annoyance or problem is never good.

ALSO, I've been trying to plan another career change (can you have a career change without having a career? I would submit that you can.) I have decided that I don't want to be a child life specialist anymore. Well, that may not be entirely true... I'd still like it I'm sure, but I don't think it's right for me. I just wouldn't be able to support a family. At first I felt like I was being dumb for making a decision based on the money, but on some levels that has to happen. It's not like I'm giving up comfort to pursue luxury... more like I'm foregoing poverty to achieve sustenance. So for the past few weeks, I've been contemplating law school. Call me crazy. The funniest thing of all (or perhaps it isn't funny at all) is that the day after I told atec that I had changed my mind, I found out that the U added a class within my major beginning next semester called "Family Law". So, I've added that to my spring schedule and I'm hoping that the confirmation of the spirit that I'm on the right track is the next major feeling that I have in this regard.
PLUS, atec is still pregnant. Don't get me wrong, I am super-excited about that! But it has presented me with a few obstacles that were both unforeseen and unplanned for (is that redundant? I think close, but not the same.) Any of you who remember expecting your first, whether you were the mother or the father, will probably know what I mean far more realistically than if I tried to explain it. (And those of you who haven't experienced that, it would be unjust for me to spoil it for you!)

But LIFE ISN'T ALL BAD! We've had great fun this week as snow has finally arrived and Christmas is on the horizon. This means not only buying presents for one another (and baby?), but also acquiring our first round of holiday decorations, especially lights. It's been fun decorating a little bit, and we are both glad to be listening to our holiday favorites (though we're both REALLY SICK of the same versions of the same songs day after day on FM100 and KOSY106.5.)
Things to look forward to this week:
1) my last week of classes this semester
2) another visit to the doctor for atec and baby tomorrow!
3) we're getting a Christmas Tree for FHE too!
4) well, nothing comes immediately to mind, so you'll have to check back... we'll keep you "posted"

P.S. New this week is a poll question... look below the music player on the left to vote! (It is everyone's duty to vote... you're already registered!)

ATEC HERE: I just wanted to let you know two things. First, this picture really doesn't do justice to pmc's great job with our lights....it looks so good. But he sure did take a great picture of that wreath huh? We made that!!!! Pretty red bow, silver bells, lights and pine cones! It was so fun! We'll get some better pictures once we get all our extension cords and the tree up!