And three were sad...

Most of you know our dog Ripley either through the phone, in person at the door or just from hearing me complain. We got Ripley as a puppy 5 years ago when we lived in Utah. J.D. raised him up to be his kind of dog and that he was. I often felt like Rip and I had an unspoken war going for J.D.'s attention (lol). Jagen loved him to death. He made it through two moves with us. He watched two children join the family. He loved our kids and watched over them. There was one little problem. Rip and I never saw eye to eye and as the saying goes when mama ain't happy nobody's happy. So after many years of my pleading to get rid of him, it has come to pass. Now for those of you that are dog lovers you appreciate what a good dog he was. I know that he had so many great qualities, but there were two really bad things that I couldn't stand... the barking (it seemed to me to be never ending) and the shedding. After many tears and much discussion we had a friend list him on a rescue website for Border Collies. We had a wonderful lady named Linda contact us about adopting Rip. Last week we drove 8 hours round trip to take Ripley to his new home. His new family lives and works at a historic ranch in southern Arizona right on the border of Mexico. FYI - It is the very ranch where Geronimo surrendered. There are 125 achers for Rip to run and be free on. They have other dogs for him to play with. They have sheep and longhorns to wrangle in so his inner herder can shine through. J.D. wouldn't let me take him to the pound and I am so glad he didn't because this is the PERFECT place for Rip. When it came time to leave him Jagen and J.D. were obviously sad but I was shocked to have Tyce bawling his head off. He cried longer and harder than Jagen. Now as for Asey, all she was concerned with was the fact that she needed a soda to drink. I have a lot of guilt about this...especially mommy guilt with Jagen, but I must say I am relieved. I did promise Jagen that we will get another dog...it just has to be a dog that I pick this time. One that is smaller, not as loud and doesn't shed. So if anyone knows what breed that would be do share. Here is my Ode to Ripley in photos.










Ripley's New Home

White Christmas

We decided to pack Christmas up one more time and head to New Mexico for the fun. The trip started out bad, when Asey woke up the morning we were leaving throwing up. But we were all packed so off we went. Three hours into the trip Reese started throwing up. My whole family was home for the holidays, except for my nephew Tyler who is in Brazil on his mission. So I started freaking out about sharing the pukes with everyone, but on we went. Well long story short...6 days later...20 of the 33(at last count) of us ended up with some sort of the pukes illness. So again... sorry to my family for sharing it. Thanks for loving us anyways. Really sorry to my two nieces who spent Christmas Day with it.

We had a lot of fun though. It was very cold (something I am not used to) and snowy while we were there. We loved it. We went sledding and the kids played in it tons. Lots of wet soggy clothing around. They guys went shooting one day and we played a lot of games. We caught a movie and played guitar hero. Santa found us and spoiled us good. The cousins had a great time together and it was nice to spend time with the family. I feel so blessed!

There are tons of pictures, sorry if it boring to some!

Christmas Eve Fun!

LARGE Christmas Eve dinner.

Tyce and Jordan being goofballs.

Grandma and Asey cuddling.

Jagen, Angelie and Ely playing charades.
Uncle Rod leading the game of 20 questions.

My four in the Christmas jammies.

Christmas Morning!

Stockings
Reese throwing her stuff around.


Asey striking a pose.
Waiting to open presents.

Grandma and Papa opening their stockings.

Parker and Asey

Reese lovin' on her puppy!

Carson and Tyce

Tyce helping Reese with her new "bike"
Ely, Angelie, Brandyn and Asey playing memory.

Jagen got an I-Pod!

Carson laughing with the girlies.

Tyce got a DS!

Sledding!

Casey and Jagen doing a train
Tyce was a little freaked out.
Asey loved it until snow got in her face.
Playing in the snow.
Dallin and Asey catching a lift.
Tyce and Casey lugging the tubes.

Family Fun!!

J.D. shared his coat with Reese
Playing game cube.
Jagen and Reese fell in love with Uncle Guy's puppy JoJo.
Littlest Pet Shop Fun!
Playing Rock Band
J.D. and Dave tried it too. (They got booed off.)
Angelie and Reese playing.
Loves!

Jagen's Piano Recital

Tis the season for recitals. We went to Jagen's very first piano recital last night. She has been so excited for it. She has practiced so hard and memorized her song. I have to say that she played Holly Jolly Christmas without one mistake!! It has been so fun to have the house filled with Christmas carols as she has learned to play quite a few.

Jagen takes lessons from my friend Julie in our ward. She is so talented and a great teacher. Jagen just loves her. She even has a couple of adult students. J.D. wishes I could go back and take some more lessons. (So do I!!) Wish I had audio of the big performance, but you will just have to settle for a couple of pictures!

Asey's Dance Recital

It has been far too long and I am so excited to post my little Asey's dance recital. My friend Misty decided to put together a dance class kind of last minute this fall. (Misty is a professionally trained dancer, after all she was a Cougarette. That's for you Misty :o) Anyways it has been so great. Asey has loved every minute of it and all of her cute little friends are in the class. So here are some pictures and a LONG video of the performance.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Young Republicans!!

I love my nieces! This is what they wore to school today!!

My thoughts...

So one day left of crazy pre-election stuff! I can't wait for this to all be over. I must say I'm scared at what the possible outcome will be, but can't wait for it to be over. This morning as I was cleaning and I always listen to my favorite country station. Every commercial break there was at least 2 political ads maybe more. Yuck!!! I stumbled on to a blog while surfing the other day, and I shared in the woman's thoughts regarding Prop 8 in CA. So I decided to take a quick moment to share this perspective.

Here is what I believe:

I believe the prophet of our church gets his direction from the Lord.
I believe the Lord cares about this moral issue for many reasons unknown to us today.
When the prophet speaks, I intend to listen and obey.
I understand people don’t comprehend my faith in these things.
My faith is not the only reason I am voting for Prop 102.
I believe you cannot change a definition of a word simply because that word doesn’t fit your needs.
I am a heterosexual. Others are called homosexual. They are different words because they describe different relationships.
I am married. Marriage is the word that describes my union.
A civil union is the name that describes a homosexual partnership. They are different words because they are DIFFERENT.
I do not discriminate.
I believe everyone is deserving of the same freedoms and rights in this country.
Prop 102 does not take away rights. If Prop 102 doesn’t pass, my religious rights will be compromised.