Christmas pictures

Thanks Brooke!

I guess I won't be posting the Birthdays! Brooke just put them up on the Blog on the side bar! Thanks Brooke!
Since I'm not going to do the Birthdays, I thought it would be fun to do some trivia questions!
1. Which month does our family have the most Birthdays in?
2. Which month were all of the Prete boys born in? (Except Uncle Roy!)
3. Which family has Birthdays in every month except November?
4. Which Pearson boy wasn't born in March?
5. How many family members have Birthdays on a Holiday? (counting the ones that fall on Holidays every few years)
Have fun!

Birthdays

For the new year I thought it would be fun to post a monthly Birthday list! On the 1st of each month I will post a list of everyone in the family who has a Birthday that month. That way everyone can wish them a Happy Birthday! The only problem is that I don't have my cousins' kids Birthdays or the Birthdays of their spouses! If each of my cousins would please email me a list of those Birthdays, I would really appreciate it! That way no one is left out! When I post the Birthdays, if I do miss someone, please let me know! I'll start this tomorrow!
Thanks for your help! My email is rochellenelson@q.com.

Becky and Liz and families together for Christmas in Price, Utah

This year, we (i.e. Becky (Prete) Doig, my husband Rob and our 4 kids) drove down to Price to spend Christmas with Liz. Joe and Haylee and their family also came for a few days before Christmas. When our 3 families were together, we numbered 20 people including 14 kids. Together we celebrated Olivia Prete's 1st birthday, played lots of board games, ate good food and prepared for Christmas. On Christmas Eve, the kids performed the nativity, did a talent show and later broke open a pinata that we had made in the week before Christmas. Inside the pinata, in addition to candy, were matching pjs for all the Doig and Bryner family members. Christmas morning was exciting, especially for the kids, some of whom were up since 3 waiting till the appointed hour in which they could open presents. Despite poor road conditions on the trip, we had a great time and made it home safely. For more pictures check out www.themagrathdoig.blogspot.com

Today at the Pearson's

Congratulations Cassy

Today Cassy received her Young Woman Recognition Award! She made the dress she is wearing! Congratulations Cassy!

Christmas Photos

Now that Christmas is over, there should be lots and lots of pictures out there to share.  How was everyone's Christmas? We had a wonderful holiday.  Santa came and brought "the goods".  Although I must admit, I'm kind of new to this whole thing, and I forgot to put out milk and cookies.  I'm surprised he didn't just leave!!  He must have known I'm a rookie.  Next year Santa, there will be double the treats!

Here are a few pic's of our holiday season.

Emily wasn't so sure about this man in the big red suit!  

What was all that stuff on his face anyway?  

Ryan on the other hand was thinking, 

" Hey, cool!  He's dressed in red, just like me."

"Wow Mom, look, a tree grew in our family room last night!  I think I need

to re-arrange all these pretty little things hanging on it.  

This one would look much better......

in my mouth."

Grandma made all the grandkids matching pajama's.  Little frogs wearing santa hats.  

They look very cute on them.

 

Happy New Year everyone!!!  Now show us all your pic's!

-Kim

A busy night at UPS

All of my posts seem to be about work lately, but I guess that is all I have been doing. Last night has been the busiest of them all. We did all that we could to make sure that the packages could be delivered the last day before Christmas. I did my usual two shifts and helped with a third after that. On the sort aisle I sorted three of the hardest loads to sort. First was the load of the spring number beds. They weren't too heavy, just big and awkward, especially when they are coming at you as fast as other packages do. Right after this I went to the "Levy" load. This was a trailer full of boxes of books. Some of these can get pretty heavy and make your arms sore. I had about a half hour on an easier load after this before I went to the famous Mona Vie load that I talked about with my video.
My second shift was the usual sorting into the boxline, just really busy the whole time. My supervisor asked me if I would be willing to help the sunrise shift so I did this when mine was done. During this shift I took care of the "Hold" packages the entire time. These are packages where the business they are going to are closed for the holidays and ask us to hold their packages until they open back up. There were more of these holds than I have ever seen before. I helped stack them on pallets, about five to six feet high, and wrap them in sirran wrap. Then I moved the pallet to a place out of the way and started over again. I think I made about twenty pallets of these "holds." I worked fourteen house and was ready for sleep when I got home.

Sorry, Rochelle!

Rochelle,
I am sorry about last night's game. Very close match up. Hopefully next year you will play an opponent that's not from the Mountain West. Then we don't have to cheer against each other (and it will be easier for BSU).

Posted by Anna and Alyssa

Graduation & More

These are a few of Chris's MSHR buddies.

Chris graduated in some fantastic weather on Friday, December 12. Saturday, December 13, Brooke graduated in 6-8 inches of snow. How typical! So, I'm wearing my coat on under my gown - I promise I haven't put on THAT much. :)

We're sharing a diploma - but we really each got our own. Then we had a party! We had lasagna - so you missed out. :)

After de-icing in both SLC and Denver, we finally made it to Florida. We had a hotel on beach front property, and it was very nice and warm. Good thing Chris has a long arm.

This is the Monarch of the Seas , of the fleet of Royal Caribbean. We spent a fantastic week relaxing. We went to a private island with beaches on all sides the first day - CocoCay.... I will admit I thought of you in the snowy weather for about a half a minute... (Sorry! :) The next port was Nassau, Bahamas. That is a very dirty place. The section that we were in was very touristy and the "bargains" weren't that big, so we walked around for a minute and then went back to the ship to lay in the sun on deck. The final day, we were at sea - so we spent some more quality time laying on deck in the sun, trying to soak as much Vitamin D as possible, since we've been recluses to the sun for quite some time.

We flew home on Friday, the 19th, and almost didn't make it because of the snow. We circled SLC several times and they almost rerouted us to Reno? But luckily we landed ok. We also got a chance to go see Body Worlds. That was absolutely fascinating! I learned a lot more things about the human body that I haven't thought about for a while. I highly recommend it - even if you have a weak stomach - the bodies have been plastinized so they only mildly resembled real skin, etc.

We had our annual Appetizer Night with Chris's family yesterday, and are nearly ready for Christmas. Chandler asks us everyday if it's Christmas yet because he's dying to open the Spiderman present under the tree that my dad brought down for graduation. We have bid plans to make a snowman today - because it's THAT kind of snow. Woo-hoo!

This is our fantastically ginormous Christmas tree. We opted for live - so we could put icicles on it. We're very excited! Chandler wants Santa to bring him a "traver" that "traves" the grass. After much prodding and months of trying to figure out what this was, we concluded it's a weed-eater. Good thing Santa knows what it is too.

We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

PS We don't have a job for Chris yet, but are open if you hear of anything. We will let you know when we hear something from that one "big" one that we're waiting on.

Elder Pearson Zone 4

If you write to Elder Pearson, ask him what's up with the funky brown suit.

Baby, It's COLD Outside!!!!!!!!

Okay, so I wanted a white Christmas, but this is getting crazy! We are having a lovely little BLIZZARD! It's not too bad yet (I can see 3 houses down from us) but I have a feeling it's going to get worse before it gets better! I picked the boys up from school today. The school is only about 3 miles from our house. It took us 25 minutes to get home! I know this isn't the worse storm that they've ever had here, but this is the first BIG storm for us in Utah! We didn't get snow like this in Boise! It turns out that driving on snow is like riding a bike- you don't forget how to! Good thing too! The boys were a bit nervous, but I was actually very calm! Matt came home early, so we're all safe and sound! This kind of weather makes you stop and count your blessings! We have a warm house and plenty of food. We're together and that's the most important thing!
To those in the family that are going to be traveling in this- don't forget to pray before you leave, take it slow and be careful!

One more congrats!

HI
I also need to congratulate my daughter in law, Rachel Call Pearson, for finishing her English Degree at BYU. It's been a LONG semester, being pregnant and adjusting to married life, but she's done it. I think she has a couple of finals left, but for the most part, she's done!

CONGRATULATIONS RACHEL!

Congratulations

I have several people I would like to congratulate. First, congratulations to Brooke and Chris on their graduations. Second, congratulations to Rochelle and Anna for graciously wearing the other's team T-shirts and being photographed wearing them. I'm glad you are both such good sports. I also congratulate my son-in-law, Rob Doig, for completing the 11th of 15 courses for his MBA. There are just 4 more to go. He's doing this while working full-time.

All is going well for us. Roy and I returned from Paris on December 1 and are at least partially dug out from the backlog of mail, email, phone messages, laundry, and other work that has piled up in our absence.

We had a really exciting trip. Among other things, I stood in King's Cross Station in London, at Platform 9 3/4, and I went to Greenwich, England, to the Royal Observatory and stood astride the Prime Meridian. I visited Stratford-upon-Avon and saw the burial place of William Shakespeare, and I went to Canterbury Cathedral where Archbishop Thomas Becket was martyred in 1170. I rode the Eurostar train under the English Channel from London to Paris, and I saw the Christmas lights on the Champs Elysees.

Merry Christmas to all.

Love, Aunt Carma

Morning walk

I just got back from my usual morning walk with my two dogs and we had a good time. The dogs don't care if it is snowing, in fact my dog Asia loved it even more. She loves running in the snow so we did about a mile of that. The dogs shook off before I got my camera phone out so I didn't take their picture, but you can see the one I took of me. For some reason the snow likes to stick to the hair on my legs and on my face. It all melted now and I think my hot chocolate is ready. Well, have a nice day and enjoy the Christmas season.

I Second that!

I second what Rochelle said! I was just going to comment on her congratulations, but BROOKE AND CHRIS, you deserve a huge-------------

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

VERY PROUD OF YOU!

Love
Aunt Betty and Uncle Delrey!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!

A BIG CONGRATULATIONS TO BROOKE AND CHRIS FOR GRADUATING FROM UTAH STATE!
Brooke is graduating with her Bachelor of Science in Accounting Degree.
Chris is graduating with his Master of Science in Human Resources.
WAY TO GO YOU TWO! WE'RE PROUD OF YOU!

Congratulations BSu

I meant to post this torture picture earlier, but our family including me has been sick and I forgot a little bit. Here it is. Of course I'm not smiling and what you see in the background is only part of my awesome BYU bedroom. Anyways, congratulations bsu.

I'll Start Things Off

I took the picture of Anna in my BSU shirt and emailed it to her, but as you've noticed, she hasn't posted it yet. Maybe this will help motivate her!

Congratulations to BYU for beating BSU tonight in Men's Basketball!

Okay, Anna, your turn!

What's going on?

Things are going well for Stephanie and I here at home. She spends all of her time at school and work and I spend all of my time at work. We have started our "peak season" of the year so things are going crazy. Before now a busy time would be considered 140,000 packages on the unload dock and sort aisle for my first shift and 7,000 packages to sort into the boxline for my second shift. This week we have been averaging 175,000 for the first shift and 11,000 for the second. This is the one time of the year that they don't look down on overtime as long as we get things done. I average about ten hours of overtime each week. I guess people are ordering and sending things!
My dogs enjoy their long walks each day. Our short walks are only five miles, but today we did a walk of ten miles so that the dogs will be tired and let me take my nap. While I am typing this they are still full of energy and trying to eat each other's ears. The weather can sure be weird. We started our walk as the sun was coming up, there was blue sky and sunshine for a while, it started to rain while the sun was still out, clouds moved across the sky and it started to snow and the sky was halfway blue again when we were entering the house. We were only out for just over two hours.

YES! YES! YES!!!!!!!!

With an impressive 61-10 win over Fresno State, Boise State just finished their 3rd PERFECT season in the past 5 years!!!!!!!!!!
Our buddy, Ian Johnson, made his 57th career touchdown to tie for the career touchdown record!!!!! And he still has a Bowl Game to play!!!!!!!!
WAY TO GO BOISE STATE!!!!!!!!!!!
GO ORANGE!
GO BIG BLUE!
FIGHT! FIGHT!
BSU!!!!!!!

Awwwwww.... That's too bad!

First of all, I want to offer my condolences to all the BYU fans out there. It looks like they couldn't de-rail the Utes from a BSC bowl game. Better luck next time. (BSU didn't do too bad either Rochelle)

Congratulations Utes

I just want to congratulate the Utes on their victory. I hope that all of the BYU fans will survive. You never know the result of this game. I still remain neutral in my best interests.
Good luck with BSU next week.

More information

On the Carpenter Blog

Email me for an invite if you can't get on and want to. Lots of stories and a few pictures, of our Carpenter/Daw ancestor's.

Why Some Kids Don't Have Friends

I'm not trying to pick a fight here, I'm really not partial to a specific team.  But this picture was too funny not to pass along, especially with the friendly banter that's been going on about the football teams.  It was in an email titled "Why some kids don't have friends."

It's a deal!

Just a quick update to let everyone know that Anna has officially accepted my deal! Watch for the results and pictures sometime after Thanksgiving!
And, in case anyone is wondering, yes, I do realize that I'm outnumbered by quite a bit when it comes to BYU fans vs. BSU fans in the family! I'm sure you're all hoping that Anna wins! That's okay! I still love you anyway! :)

Anna???

Anna,
BSU is 10-0 now! You still haven't said if you're going to take my deal or not! I'm a little nervous about our game next week against Nevada! We may lose! (Ha! Ha!) Come on Anna! Come out and play!!!! Please?! If the roads are good after our last game (Nov. 28) I'll even drive to Price and take your picture or let you take my picture! If we tie, we can have our picture taken together! What do you say?
Everyone,
After all of our teasing back and forth, wouldn't all of you like to see either Anna or I or both of us have to swallow our pride? I'm sure Anna would look cute in blue and orange and I know I look cute in blue and white! :)
Just to show how nice I am, I will be cheering for BYU in the upcoming game against the Utes!

Something for all us Tater People

http://www.frontiernet.net/~jimdandy/specials/sweettators/

Oh, Anna....

This is mostly for Anna, but I thought everyone else would get a kick out of my idea too!

Anna, I'd like to make a deal with you! If BYU has a better season than BSU, I'll put on a BYU shirt, have someone take a picture of me in it and will post it on the blog with a "Congratulations to BYU!" If BSU does better, you have to wear a BSU shirt, (I'll lone you one of mine!) get your picture taken and post it on the blog with a "Congratulations to BSU!" If we tie, we both have to do it! (I'm going by the win-loss score, not the BCS standing.) What do you say? Is it a deal? It will make the last few games a little more exciting!
Anyone else what to join in?

Bronco gear!

Anthony, sound asleep under his new comforter! His sheets are Boise State too!My new, soft, warm slippers

"Winning, It's what we do" T-shirts

"Orange Out"

We stocked up on Bronco gear while we were in Boise! There were a lot of other things that we wanted to get, but it's amazing how much money they think they can charge just for putting a logo on something! We're happy with what we got though! It was a very fun trip!

Oh, in case you're wondering why I didn't take a picture of Anthony with Ian Johnson, it's because we visited him at his house. I felt like it would be taking advantage of our friendship with him to treat him like a celebrity in his own house! We just took him cookies and had a nice visit with him and his sweet wife. He graduates next month and then he'll hopefully be getting drafted into the NFL! He's an awesome guy and has done a lot for Anthony's confidence level!

Bronco Game

Here's Anthony with the famous "Smurf Turf" behind him! I think that the number one question I've been asked since we moved to Utah is, "What's with BSU's blue turf?" My answer, "It's just COOL!"

We got to the stadium about an hour early so that we could find our seats and get some lunch! By the time the game started there were over 32,000 people in the stadium! The game was an "Orange Out" so most everyone had orange on! It was awesome! Our seats were way up on the top, (only one row behind us) but it was a great view and we really enjoyed the game!

Hello, everyone,

Here we are in Paris! We left Canada October 6, spent the rest of October in England(mostly in London), and traveled to France (on the Eurostar train under the English Channel) November 1. We'll be here until December 1. Roy is doing historical research, but I am mostly being a tourist, plus doing the shopping, laundry, cooking, etc.

Liz, Christian and Ali spent 8 days with us in England. While Roy was researching in the archives in London, I traveled with Liz and Christian to visit Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwick Castle, Dover, and Canterbury. I also traveled with Roy to Oxford and Cambridge where he did research in their archives.

Now that we're in Paris, we are settled into a nice little furnished apartment. The bathroom is only slightly larger than a lavatory in an airplane, but otherwise it's quite comfortable. My French isn't that great, but I get by, and Roy can rescue me if I need him. His French is excellent.

We're looking forward to the visit of Ray and Eliz. They will arrive this coming Saturday and will stay until Friday the 21st. Just think of us gazing at the Eiffel Tower, strolling down the Champs Elysees, seeing the Mona Lisa, visiting the Notre Dame Cathedral, wandering along the Seine, eating crepes and pastries, . . . Sound fun?

We just got connected to the internet a couple of days ago, and it's great to be able to be in touch with people. (We have no phone in our apartment.) We just opened up a Yahoo email account so we can send and receive emails while we're in Paris. Our email address for the next 3 weeks is royprete@yahoo.com and we would love to hear from any of you.

Cassy young women project

This is a project I made for personal progress... Its about Christ and how he has helped us all through our lives. I've been working on it for while... but I want feedback before i make a bunch of copies for people and show it in seminary and young womens (and I know that the lips don't match up with the video... but I can't change it. has to do with our camera or something like that)


Part 1



Part 2

Veteran's Day

Did you remember to put your flag up today? It's Veteran's Day!

We're back!!!!

Just a quick note to let everyone know that Anthony and I got home safe tonight from our big trip to Boise! We had a blast! I'll post pictures as soon as I get them on CD! The game was AWESOME!!! (We're 9-0 now Anna!) We got to see a lot of our friends and it was a good bonding experience for Anthony and I! We also got to see Anthony's friends Joe Hughes (the Sports Director that introduced Anthony to Ian Johnson) and, the man himself, IAN JOHNSON!!!!! (If you don't know who that is, I'd be happy to have you come over and watch our DVD of the 2007 Fiesta Bowl!) It was a GREAT trip!

Project Rudolph

Every year, Delrey and I look for something we can do for someone, for Christmas. One year I made homemade candy and mailed it to a friend's husband, in Korea, who was serving in the military there, and made hand made cards for each of the soldiers in his platoon. Some years, it is more than other years, but I always try to do at least one project for Christmas. I just found this project, and it looks very worth while. It can be as little as taking the time to write a letter to one of our service men or women, or helping out by donating candy or other needed items.

Go to
http://www.projectrudolph.homestead.com/

and see more information on it. It looks really awesome to me and you feel wonderful when you do something. If all 90+ descendents of Gail Taylor wrote one letter, it would be awesome!!! Spread the word, too!!

What's UP at UPS

Last night at work I had an interesting thing happen. I was sorting packages like usual and I saw a couple of supervisors talking to each other not far from me. Of course when this happens I watch my package handling very closely, because they might be doing the same. After they were done with their little discussion I saw the head guy standing there watching me since I was the closest sorter to him. He watched me for about five minutes and then came over to me and said "Keep up the good work." In relation to my position he is the boss of my bosses boss, if that makes sense. I just thought I would share the experience with you.

THANKS!

Thanks to everyone for sharing your Halloween pictures. Love them all. Keep them coming!

Murdock Halloween

Isabear
Lily pony

Madison, yes that is a puppy costume. (I tried to find something else, but this was the cutest one at the store.) She actually liked it, she just wasn't ready to get ready for the party we were heading out to. She wanted to wear the bear costume but it was too small.

Lily (horse) and Isabelle (bear)

Raylene's grandson and daughter in law, Becky

Raylene sent me these of darling Ethan and Becky. Brett and Becky adopted Ethan in August and he is adorable and extremely loved. They are forever grateful to Kiersten for placing her baby in their eternal home! They need to be the poster family for LDS Adoptions!

Becky (Prete) Doig's kids on Halloween

Preston (3) was Darth Vader
Austin (9) was Anakin Skywalker
Alyssa (11) was little red riding hood.

My boys on Halloween

Here are my boys! Anthony was a Dementor, (from Harry Potter) Ryan was Harry Potter, and Michael was a "cereal killer." (if you look close you can see the "bullet holes" and "knife holes" in the cereal boxes with "blood" around them!) They did a trunk-or-treat on Monday and then trick-or-treating on Friday! They've got enough candy to last until Valentine's Day! Michael also got to go to his first Halloween party! They grow up too fast!

Witches and Tigers and Fish, Oh My!

     

This year for Halloween, I was a witch, Ryan was a Tiger, and Emily was a Fish.  Emily had a great time trick or treating at her dad's office.  

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