Post for some friends

I have a couple of friends who are in need some help. My friends,Steven and Jocelyn Jones, are looking to adopt. Please check out their website http://www.stevenandjocelyn.blogspot.com/. If anyone out there knows someone who is considering putting their baby up for adoption, please let them know about Steven and Jocelyn. They are a wonderful couple! Thank you!

Christmas pics

Well, another Christmas has come and gone. And we had a very enjoyable one. We had Brian's mom here until Christmas day around 2pm. We were very happy to have her. We had fun and were sad to send her away. Hopefully it won't be another year before we see her again!


We had Christmas Eve dinner at a friends house. She was married to an Italian guy and learned to do the 7 fishes for Christmas dinners. Yummy. I'm not normally a fish/seafood kind of person but it was quite yummy. Not what I'm traditionally use to, but I'll take it. Brian was in heaven! He LOVES seafood. There was crab, scallops (is that right?), lobster, flounder, shrimp, salmon, and I forget which other one. Anyway...she went all out.

Here are some shots from our Christmas celebrations!

With our friends Davis and Liana on Christmas Eve.

New pajamas on Christmas Eve are a tradition at our house! Don't they look nice? :)

Christmas morning....prolonging the torture for the kids...we have to take some pictures!

More torture....

Jessica loves the Jonas Brothers! She was very excited about this gift!

Ally loves to play with the Fisher Price Little People (And so does Mommy, that's why Ally gets them!) This is one of 3 sets that she got!

The long-awaited XBOX 360 finds it's way to Brian's hands!

Grandma Shumway worked hard on making little outfits for the girls' American Girl dolls! They look beautiful..Thanks, Grandma! (Courtney got blue, Jessica got pink)

The biggest surprise (from Grandma Page)!!!! They had NO idea they were getting this! It's already been tons of fun for everyone!

Christmas morning, after presents, we made breakfast burritos. Something that we have decided is a fun tradition for us. We've done it a few years in a row now. For dinner we went to another friends house with some other families from our ward. Ham, sweet potatoes, rolls, veggies, cranberry salad...the more traditional meal....but oh, so yummy. They make this to-die-for ham sauce. It's just a sweet mustard sauce, but that's why I say yes when they invite us for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners. :)

We read Luke 2 before opening presents in the morning. It is another wonderful tradition that we started to make sure we keep the true meaning of the holiday in mind. I know I speak for all of my family members when I say we are truly grateful for this time of year to celebrate the birth and life of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.

We look forward to celebrating the passing of this year and the dawning of a New Year. Wish you all the best in this coming year! 2009!!! wow!

Christmastime is here...happiness and cheer...

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

City sidewalks, busy sidewalks...

Oh, there's no place like home for the holidays...

We wish you a Merry Christmas....

We love this time of year. And it comes early for our kids this year. Grandma Page came to visit! She flew in on Thursday but leaves on Christmas day, in the afternoon. We have been shopping, and baking, and eating, and watching movies and wrapping, and listening to never-ending Christmas music on the radio (2 stations to choose from this year!) and...well, you get the idea.

There are lots of presents under the tree and Ally decided to help herself to one a little bit early. She loved the book and games and bag that was all part of the same present, but she seemed most excited about the candy that was included. (Thanks, Tony and Becky!) :)


We took the kids on a surprise drive this evening. We would NOT tell them where we were going. This is one of Courtney's Christmas presents from Grandma Page....

When Courtney was 5, we went to the mall with some friends. Her friend, Sally, ended up getting her ears pierced. Courtney was so distraught because "Now Sally was the prettiest!" Those were her 5 year old words! Anyway, to calm her down, I promised her that she could get her ears pierced when she was 10. Well, when I said that, I thought that she might forget by this time. Boy was I wrong. So as she is getting closer to turning 10, she talks about it more and more. When Grandma Page was asking about Christmas ideas for the girls, we had a hard time coming up with something super great for Courtney. At some point, I briefly thought about the ear-piercing thing...but didn't want to go back on my word about her having to be 10. But it would be a fantastic surprise. So after some serious thought, Brian and I decided that it would be fine. We also thought it would be fun for Cherie too. So that's what we did....

She tried to be brave...she did really well. But when it was over, she hugged me really tight while she cried for 30 seconds. :( Poor thing. But she said it was definitely worth it. Anyway, it was really a sweet and exciting night for everyone.

Jessica got to come home and unwrap a present too....not to be left out of the early present opening experience. She opened hers from Tony and Becky. (new family members) And was thrilled with writing tools, and journal. And a bag with her initial on it.

We look forward to being able to spend time with Grandma Page, but we are sad we can't be with all of our other Grandparents and family members this time! We did discover the wonder that is the webcam and we look forward to being able to visit that way!

Have a great week, everyone!

Connecticut trip

About a month ago, Brian started thinking it was time to start sending feelers out for jobs. He's not done until September but he thought he'd see what was available. He got a hold of a The Hospital of Central Connecticut and after a few emails and phone calls back and forth, they offered to bring us to the area for an interview. We don't know much about Connecticut, but figured it usually is pretty during fall and spring months. Cold during the winter...etc. That's about it. But since we haven't really ruled out going anywhere if the job is right, we jumped at this chance. They wanted to bring me up as well. And when I mentioned that we had kids they offered to have us bring them too, they would even spring for an adjoining hotel room. (They were paying for all travel expenses. One of the perks to interview most places). Anyway, so we drove up on Monday this past week.

It didn't go as smoothly as we had hoped. We borrowed a GPS from some friends, thinking "this will be a breeze, how hard could it be?" Well.....a trip that should have taken 4 1/2 hours or so ended up taking 7 1/2!!!! I won't go into too many details...but GPS, turns out, not so easy to use the first time! We shouldn't have put all our faith in that thing! On the way home, we used Google Maps, printed out on paper. GPS helped more once we reached our destination, and driving around town. Long trips....don't recommend using just GPS.

Anyway, we stayed at The Farmington Inn, in none other than Farmington, CT. :) The kids did get their own room, that was adjoining to ours. They loved it! They each had a 4 post, queen size bed. Well, except Ally who was in a port-a-crib. But she thought that was just as fantastic! I was glad she felt that way, it made it so she slept all night! YEAH! Anyway, the kids loved the sheets and the beds, and that they had a tv in their room. (Which went off fairly early, before they fell asleep.)

The hospital also told us to go to the restaurant next to the hotel for dinner. So we did. It was called Piccolo Arancia, or something like that. It was probably the nicest restaurant the kids have gone to in years....at least since we moved here! It was just a nice Italian place...Brian and I have been to fancier. But it was pretty nice. The kids stuck to their tradition of chicken fingers and pizza...good pizza, mind you...and they were complimented on their polite behavior by the waitress. We had a nice time...

Brian had 2 interviews scheduled for Tuesday morning. And long story short...he liked both of them, for different reasons. One hospital told him he was #3 on their list, out of the top 5 of their favorites. They are only hiring 2 though. The doctor told us that they hoped to make a decision before Christmas. So we'll see if he even gets an offer....stay tuned.

We originally planned to stay two nights, and have him interview at two other hospitals the next day. But we couldn't guarantee that one of those hospitals would pay for the second night in the hotel. At a corporate rate of $150/night/room, we weren't in a position to pay for the second night ourselves. After some real serious deliberation and discussion with a recruiter that helped organize all this, I decided to cancel the second night. We drove home on tuesday after Brian's second interview... (and after backtracking 30 miles to the hotel to pick up an ipod and headphones that I had forgotten to pack when we checked out)

So we'll see what happens....but we are beginning to look for jobs which is exciting..!!! yeah!