December Newsletter

Mom and Dad Say:

Hello everyone-- We had a very quiet holiday at our house. We had a fun day with Angie's family christmas morning with the fun surprise of a WII for their family. Mark was surprised! Angie was glad because he is seldom surprised. Sandy came the 25th and stayed until Jan 3. She was able to sleep until 1:00 if she wanted to and got to see some other friends.

We were saddened by the loss of our baby-to-be--hope Jayna and Ryan could feel love and support from everyone. Look forward to getting to know this little mystery personality someday. Want to congratulate Jon and Heidi on their success with weight watchers!! Congratulations to Jayna and Ryan---A,A,A,A,A!! When the weather warms up, the Smith family will be looking for a road trip to try out their new car. Maybe we will get to see a picture on an e-mail. I am grateful to each of you for what you add to my life--Know that you are loved. Love Mom and Dad

Just for a laugh:

Adam looking at Eve in the garden " Eve, you put my favorite pants in the salad!"

Angie and Mark,

December at the Jackson home. Dec. 1st was our ward Christmas party, with the primary singing Christmas Carols. Mark's office party was the next weekend. Then the craziness began . . . Come Unto Christmas was very enjoyable. We invited non-member friends, the Nelson's, Sophie's best friend Kaylie, and the Anderson's, Alexa and Sophie's friends, Hannah and Quinten. It was fun that their entire families came to look at the Nativities and listen to the choirs.

Alexa had a choir concert two Mondays that month. I went up with Alexa's choir on Tuesday to Mt. Bachelor to sing at MB employee Christmas party. I saw Ernie Poole and Denise.

Mark and I had a coaches meeting for basketball. I am coaching Sophie's team and Mark is coaching Alexa's team starting in January.

Thursday we went Caroling as a family with the other families in the primary presidency and went to children's home. We all sang the beginning of Dashing Through the Snow and then 3 year old Henry sang a solo of Jingle Bells, it was darn cute.

Friday was my office party which we go to as a family. The kids go downstairs and play and have pizza, while the adults stay upstairs and enjoy a yummy catered meal.

Christmas week was very enjoyable in that Mark and I did not work and we did not have an adgenda. I was able to keep a secret and surprise the girls AND Mark with a wii. We opened all of the gifts, had breakfast and then opened our last gift (the wii). Mark said the girls screamed so loud that his eyeballs rattled in his head. We then proceeded to set up the wii and played that the rest of the day. It was nice to stay home, we played wii and board games, we went to National Treasure, and spent time with Nonnie, Grandpa and Sandy.

We are so grateful to be a part of this family, we love you all so very much. Take care, Mark, Angie, Alexa and Sophie








Laura and Nathan Say:

Hello everyone,

We had a jam-packed, but very fun month!!! I will only share the highlights!!
Sarah was presented with the Principal's Award for the Month of December. The Principal wrote a very kind letter to her and read it in front of all the school and parents. I will only share a part of it. "Every time Mr. Conant's class passes by I know that I can count on you to be smiling and on your best behavior. I want you to know that your teacher and I are both very proud of you. We are very excited about your academic potential. More than that, we are proud of the respectful and sincerely pleasant person you are each and every day." We were very proud of her! She also happened to wake our entire house up at 1am on Christmas morning. We will never forget this Christmas.

Andrew had a very fun 6th Birthday. He wanted just a few to come to our house and we had a Webkinz party. We played Webkinz Walk and they each "won" a webkinz that was wrapped in a paper bag so they wouldn't know which one they were getting. The rest of the party was playing games with their new webkinz on an obstacle course and webkinz bingo. Thank you to everyone for remembering Andrew on his birthday! He felt very celebrated!!!

Spencer got Little Pet Shops for Christmas and has turned our whole family into a LPS family. We all love them and play with him and the LPS often. He had several fun questions for us about Santa around the holidays and had a hard time imagining Santa coming down our chimney so we bought a Santa key that would allow Santa to come in our front door - just in case he couldn't fit. He also wondered why Santa always says "Ho Ho Ho" and always SO loud. It was a magical Christmas for us all this year! He continues to love Preschool and has had many playdates lately.

Benjamin is at such a fun stage - learning things all the time. He absolutely LOVES the Wii that we got for Christmas. He plays with the controllers any chance he can. When the Wii is on - he makes really loud noises because he is SO excited. He loves for me to hold him and play. He loves to stand in front of the TV with a controller acting like he is playing while actually someone else (mostly Andrew) is playing. He also loves any phone. The other night Nathan had a whole armful of toys he was bringing in from the car and bent down to see which one Benj wanted to play with. He looked at all of them and then grabbed Nathan's cell phone and walked away very content. We also have found him to LOVE anything that has to do with cleaning. He loves the vacuum, all the cleaning supplies under the sink, the broom, the mop and the duster. Let's hope this interest continues throughout his life!!

Nathan took several days off around the holidays and this was fun for all of us. We went sledding at the Balls and had lots of fun in the snow. Sarah and I were able to go to see Enchanted and we both LOVED it. Our whole family knows the song "That's how you know".

Nathan did some shopping after Christmas and got all of Christmas down before Andrew's birthday.

We love you so much and hope you are all doing well! We found out today that Sarah will be getting baptized on July 5. If you can come, we would love to have you!!

Jon and Heidi Say:

Wow the New Year is here! 2007 was a blur! Christmas was wonderful even though we didn't end up getting to go to Boise. Poor Heidi and Caleb were sick and the roads were terrible as well. We did get a chance to see Heidi's brother Ryan for a few brief minutes when he had a layover at the Salt Lake airport. We met his girlfriend Shilo and she seemed really nice. It's hard to get to know anyone in less than an hour. Hopefully we'll have a chance to see them again.

We went sledding on New Years Day and it was a blast. Palmer was raring to go, but it took Caleb a little while to warm up to it. By the end of the day, he was going solo down the biggest hill and having a great time. Another great benefit was that Heidi and I got some great exercise trekking up the hill. Afterwards we defeated the the purpose of the whole thing by going to Chuck-a-Rama and stuffing our faces. Heidi and I stuffed ourselves with mostly salads, fruits and veggies. We both lost a little weight over the holidays which was an amazing feat. I love our friends, but they are too generous with all the treats! We gave throw blankets to our friends cause they're low in calories. The blankets, not our friends

We were glad that Jayna and Ryan came up for a Super Saturday and Heidi tackled (and conquered) a slip cover for their chair. Heidi is SOOOO Mega Talented!

Palmer started basketball. He met his coach Thursday, will have one practice Wednesday, and his first game is Saturday morning. I guess the best thing is to just throw them out there and let them have fun right? Palmer has also been reading like crazy. He loves the Magic Treehouse series and has read 15-20 of them.

Caleb is ready for his birthday to be yesterday. He is going to have a Cat in the Hat B-day. The kid is crazy for Dr. Seuss . . . and The Wiggles . . . and Barney . . . and The Polar Express . . . and Bob the Builder . . . and Willy Wonka (New and Old) . . . and just about every other character he sees on the boobtube.

I could probably go on and on but I won't.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

JHPC SEARS

A parting thought:

"Some people are like Slinkys.

They aren't really good for anything,

but they bring a smile to your face

when they're pushed down the stairs."

Jayna and Ryan Say:


December was an interesting month for us. It was full of good things and not so good things. We appreciate your support and kind words as we went through a rough time with Jayna's miscarriage. It was a sad time but we are doing well and looking forward to new opportunities. We both received a conformation that we really want to start our family and are hopeful that things will go well for us. Jayna has been very strong and has handled the whole situation very well being active and outgoing even though she may have been sad inside. Jayna says that I have been supportive and very loving. (Sometimes a little pushy too.)

We had a fun Christmas with Ryan's family. Everyone was there except for Jason, who stayed up in Alaska. We played holiday bingo on Christmas Eve and we slept out in a tent in the back yard. We got to see a deer run by when we were setting up the tent that night. We think it was one of Santa's reindeer scoping things out. It snowed quite a bit that night but it was fun. (even though I forced Jayna to do it).

We both finally finished school (at least one more semester) and we both got A's in our classes. Ryan was very relieved to be done with Anatomy and Physiology and is still recovering.

We hope everyone is recovering from the holiday season and look forward to hearing what's been going on with everyone.

Love Jayna and Ryan