Christmas 2009 Santa brought Sarah an "indoor only" kitten for Christmas! She was THRILLED! He could have brought her nothing else, and she still would have been happy!

Duchess loved her new sweater.

The kids each got a bing bag chair, made with love during a few late night pre-Christmas hours.

Isaac got his first real lego set. All the legos at this house up until now have been garage sale legos--this new Star Wars set was much more expensive and I've kind of turned into Nazzi mom about them...

Emma got a keyboard she'd been dying for. I didn't really think she'd use it, but with the light up keys, she's entertaining us with all sorts of impressive tunes.

Sarah's pretty happy about her bing bag. Those late nights were worth it.

Emma's eaten almost that entire box of Chicken in a Biscuits sitting to the left of her.

Luke in his new cowboy sleeping bag and Beatrix, the kitten.

Luke cleaned out his stocking in record time.

Jake's pretty happy about his new race track. It's great. Totally fun and easy for a 5 year old to handle. We slam dunked that one!

Isaac's sharing his legos with Daddy.

Isaac and Jake got remote control helo's--tons of fun!

And our biggest Christmas present came 2 days later.................HOT WATER!!!! Our boiler went out 3 days before Christmas. We got bids to get a new one put in from $4800 - $6200. Adam got that look in his eye, and decided to take it on himself. We showered at the Truscott's house, ate on paper plates, and the laundry piled up. I hung sheets to close off rooms, and kept the kerosine heater burning. It was a cozy Christmas! Really, I don't think the kids even noticed! Adam finished Sunday night. He spent about 2 days working on it, Sat/Sun, and spent only $1400. Sometimes those little things, like hot water, we take for granted!!

Thank you Adam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's the last day of the year, and I'm taking it easy with my leg elevated, so figured I might as well catch up on the abandoned blog. First I'll start with HAWAII.

Adam had to teach a course in Hawaii, and he insisted that I come along. You'd think it wouldn't take too much insisting, but being 2 weeks before Christmas, and not knowing who I'd get to watch all 5 kids, I was a little hesitant. I talked Gigi into watching the kids, and used some miles we had saved up for my ticket. I was not at all ready for Christmas, but went anyway!

We visited the Polynesian Cultural Center:

We ran/hiked around the top of the Haumana Bay Crater a few times. After we'd get done all hot and sweaty, we'd dive in and snorkel. It was a good time!

We also ran up to the top of Diamond Head 4 times. The view of Waikiki in the background was amazing.

View of Haumana Bay from top.

The private beach on K Bay, the Marine Base. Who wouldn't want to live there??????

Waves on the North Shore.

The LDS Temple, which we were hoping to attend, but was closed for rennovations.

A RADFORD Dr. SIGN!!! How cool is that?

The USS Arizona Memorial.

Walking along Waikiki beach.

The sunrise from the top of Haumana Bay Crater.

The USS Utah.

My baby...
Ok, so one last pic I forgot to post from Sunday. Luke is always ready and willing to have his picture taken. He needs a hair cut, but every time I cut it he loses a little more curl. So I'm not cutting it anymore. Jake told me a few days ago that he wanted to grow his hair like Jesus. I'm a little more prone to let Luke grow his hair like Jesus's.

And she finished with 1 shoe.... Em's state XC meet was today. She ran in the first heat composed of the fastest 7 girls from each 37 middle schools in RI.

They ran through trails Goddard State park, the fall foliage was amazing.

Em's wearing the light blue shorts...

The meet was supposed to be yesterday, but it rained all day and was postponed till today. The trails hadn't dried out yet, and Em lost a shoe about 2/3 the way through in a huge mud puddle that she couldn't quite go around. She said she coudn't really feel the pine cones, rocks, and roots that she was pounding on too much---adrenaline is awesome!

These next few pics are as she's finishing through the chute. Red splotchy faced and one shoe.

She finished 21st out of over 500 girls. Yeah Emma!! You go girl!

I hadn't noticed the shoeless foot until she held it up after finishing. We searched and searched, and almost left with out it. Finally a nice man found it and came walking back with it though.

I felt bad about breaking the sabbath and all, but I have to say, the weather was perfect, trees amazing, and it was a ton of fun cheering Em and the rest of her team along!!!

10 kids & tree removal, all in the same day! Our official "swing tree" had to come down last weekend. So sad. It was huge. When we got the new septic system last fall, they dug trenches right by it, and apparently damaged the roots, then with 40 days straight of rain this past spring, it drowned, or so the tree specialist tells me. It was going to be $900 to have it removed, so of course Adam took it down. It was seriously a huge tree. I wasn't sure how he'd do it. But just like he'd said, "just one limb at a time", he and our friend, Tadd Truscott took it down. Isaac and Luke, looking for snakes or anything else cool in the manure pile...

Luke seriously didn't know that Tinker was right behind him. Tinker kept nudging Luke's head, and it took Luke a few to figure out what was going on. It was pretty funny.

Emma gave pony rides to all the kids. Thanks Emma and Tinker!

Luke's always picking me flowers. Best part of motherhood.

My old roomate, Kashann, from Ricks (not BYU Idaho) came with her 5 kids and husband, Brent, to visit. They are in Buffalo for dental school right now. Even though we're 8 hours apart, be we've been wanting to get together forever since we're both so far from home. The kids hit it right off, her oldest 2 are girls the same ages as my girls.

Below: Savannah and Sarah grooming Tinker after pony rides.

Kashann and I all ready for church! Their stay was actually very short, and they left right before church because they wanted to check out some other areas in New England since Brent will be graduating this next spring and is trying to decided where to set up practice.

8/10 kids, a few had already gone to bed.

Such a fun weekend, thanks Kashann for coming!!!