One week from today my parents leave on their mission to Guam/Micronesia. It makes me so sad to think of them leaving, that I've been trying not to think about it. But now the days are getting short, they are packing up their house, and they had their farewell yesterday- so I can't just ignore it anymore. It really is happening. I really am so proud of them. They are wonderful missionaries, and the most amazing people that I know. No one works harder than these two! I'll just have to share them with people on the other side of the world again. They've been home from their first mission a little over 2 years. They served as Humanitarian missionaries in southern Thailand doing tsunami relief. They helped so many people, and touched the lives of all they met. Rob and I were able to visit them in Thailand, and what an amazing experience that was! Who knows, maybe we'll earn enough skymiles to travel to Guam. How do they get so lucky to go to these tropical paradises?!
Mission rules are different for couples. They were allowed to boat, swim, snorkel, ride elephants etc. Naps are even encouraged. Plus, they get to choose their companion, and there are no transfers. Sounds great! The only down side is not having their grand kids around.
We got to take school bags (that my sisters made) filled with supplies to a Burmese refugee camp deep in the jungle.
We will miss them terribly! I think I will cry every day. Luckily, Guam is a US territory, so phone calls are just a regular long-distance call. My kids will be so sad. Matthew won't understand why his Grandpa is never home. The worst is, they won't get to meet my baby when it arrives in April until he/she is 15 months old. (Really worse than that, is my baby won't get to know them until then). They are a huge influence on my kids' lives, and we love, admire, and appreciate them so much.Ok, I've got to stop this. I'm crying my eyes out. We'll survive. I'm grateful for their willingness to serve the Lord. They are such good examples to us. I know we will truly be blessed for their service, as will be the people of Guam.
In November, my entire family was able to get together for the baby blessings of two of my nephews. It was great! Here we are... all 42 of my clan. My baby on the way will be grandchild #25! 
Nathan loves that he is big enough to help.
With the train up, we were ready to go pick out a tree. Good 'ol Home Depot had the perfect noble fir. We love having a fresh tree. We used to cut our own when we went to Rob's parents in Oregon for Thanksgiving, but we haven't done that in a long time. We've had bad luck with tree lots- like when we got our tree home, after picking it out in the dark, only to find they had spray painted all the dead branches green, used twine to tie branches up to make it the right shape etc. We've had good luck with our trees from Home Depot though. A few years ago we planted 100 noble firs at the Pines, hoping to eventually grow our own Christmas trees. But a severely hot summer killed all but one. Sigh! Oh the smell... I love the smell of a fresh tree! 
Matthew had to check out the tree, and help put balls on it. It was very cute! I'm surprised that he's done so well to leave it alone since.
With the tree decorated, and the electrical kinks worked out of the train- Let it snow!
The kids love teaching their friends how to run the train. Anyone that wants to come play trains is welcome! With all the work that goes into setting up the train, we usually leave it up until the end of February.
The boys are very into trains, and wanted to ride the Frontrunner. We hadn't ridden it yet, so we planned to ride it to meet Rob's sister Charity in Salt Lake to see Temple Square. The kids loved it!!!
Matthew liked seeing the other trains we passed.
They all thought it was fun to switch to the TRAX train and ride to Temple Square. The boys were really happy to have their Mom back.
Temple Square was amazing (as always!). 
I have never seen this few of people at Temple Square. It was so nice to be able to see the Nativity, and not have to wait in line for the Christus. It was great. Here Nathan and Sarah are showing off their Jazz beannies that were handed out at the Jazz game the night before. Sarah went on a Daddy-daughter date with Rob to the game, and they made it through the whole game! She wasn't into the game, but loved being with her Daddy and watching the Jazz Bear.
The kids remembered the Tabernacle from TV. It's decorated so beautifully for Christmas.
Charity had never been in the Conference Center, so we had a little tour. It made her day/trip to see the Tabernacle Choir practice. They sounded amazing!
We went to the Church History Museum. It is a great place, plus it has a Children's section where they can build temples, play in a Nursery full of babies, and dress up and reenact the Nativity. There was so much to do there, but we didn't have time. We raced off to catch our train home, but missed it by a couple of minutes!!! ARRRGGGGHHHH In the evening the Frontrunner only leaves once an hour, so we had a whole hour to wait in the cold for the 9:25 train. We didn't want to go back to town and risk missing the next train, so we stayed put. We spent some of the time in the Greyhound bus station. That.... well, you'd just have to experience for yourself. Somehow we survived the wait, and the ride home. The kids did really well, especially considering how late and cold it was. We had a few moments like this, but mostly we kept them laughing.
It was a great time until we missed our train, but still it was an adventure and we made lots of fun memories. We'll look back on that and laugh. I don't however, think I'll be able to convince Rob to ride the train again.
He is quick to smile or scream. We prefer the smile. He has a variety of laughs. My favorite is his deep belly laugh. He loves his brother and sister, and always wants to do what they are doing. It is so sweet how he hugs Sarah all the time.
Matthew entertains us all the time with his silly faces and his teasing. I think he gets it from his Dad. (What do you think?!) He is extremely strong-willed, and stubborn (from Dad too!). 
He loves his Grandpa more than anyone. We all went for a bike ride at the Nature Pond and the trail. We stopped for my dad to show Matt a donkey that was next to the trail. Matt loved to pet the donkey, and thought it was the neatest thing- until it bit him! Yep, the donkey bit his fingers really hard, but at least didn't break the skin. He didn't love the donkey so much after that. Can you blame him? Poor little guy had teeth indentations in his fingers for a few hours.
After getting his crib he went from being the world's worst sleeper, to a great sleeper (I think me letting him cry himself to sleep a few times helped too. That is so hard for me!). He just needs his bunny, his blanket, and his binky and he's good to go to sleep- usually. Sometimes I find him standing in his crib making faces at himself in the mirror instead of sleeping. Oh, and he's learned to climb out of his crib now. Isn't that great?!
We love this little guy. He has added so much to our family. Think of how bored we would be without him! Love you bud!
Tara let the kids decorate her Christmas tree- one of my kids' favorite things to do.
All the cousins except the three oldest.
We ended up staying there Thursday night as well. Rob beat us all at Ticket to Ride many times over (
Here are just some of what we canned. I tried dill relish for the 1st time. We'll see how that tastes. And yes, on the front row is pickled garlic (of which I am very excited). No one but my brother Jim would understand. We used to fight over who got the garlic from the bottom of the dill pickle jar. I had thought about just making a whole jar of garlic, but Jim beat me to it. I had to try it too. I hope they turn out like I hope. Now no one that reads this will want to get anywhere near me. Really, pickled garlic doesn't make you smell bad. ...Does it?! I'll have to ask Rob. 
My sister Terri celebrated her 40th birthday this week, so we just wanted to wish her a Happy Birthday. Instead of being bummed about the big 4-0, she embraced and had a party. We went her big birthday bash, and it was quite a party with at least 100 people! She is a special friend and aunt to us. I'm pretty sure she is Sarah's favorite person in the world.
