I Have an Idea

I know that I am not in charge of the Taylor family reunion until 2012. However I have an idea that will need some prior notice so we can do it. The Albion Normal School, where Mom, (Grandma Taylor) went to school, (It is south of Burley, Idaho) has been sold to some people who are restoring it to use for reunions and group gatherings. It is called Campus Grove at Albion. Right now they have a hall (Miller Hall) that is being used. At this point it is booked up through most of 2010! The campus is a historical site. The building has a large kitchen, dining area, 15 bedrooms and bathrooms. Some rooms are connecting. Showers. There are 12 queen beds, 12 twin bed sets, 5 twin/full bed sets, 2 futons, 10 foam pads There is a large game, media area with ping pong, air hockey, Foosball and large TV. there is volleyball, badminton, horseshoes, an above the ground swimming pool, hot tub, basketball area, a fire pit, picnic tables, an outdoor stage, a large grassy area and MORE! There is an area for tents and RVs. There is a museum next door. I know I haven't mentioned everything! In 2012 they hope to have more things. There are also MANY places near this area that are great outdoor recreation. Plus the Twin Falls temple isn't too far away.
This would be a wonderful way to honor Grandma Taylor and get better acquainted with her as well as each other.
I need to know if you would be interested. there would be some expense with this, but if we got started early to save up for it, it wouldn't be very much per family per month! If a person figured in the cost of a motel, compared to this, it is a savings! Plus all the extra activities available. I was thinking of doing it from a Thursday (check in is 4 pm) until Sunday (check out time is noon). You could go to the Albion ward church. How would the end of June or first part of July be? Or later in July?
PLEASE LET ME KNOW YOUR FEELINGS! I KNOW WE COULD DO THIS AND HAVE A GREAT TIME! I just need your support and commitment. Our family is worth it!
I have a brochure that I could scan and send out if you would like to know more. You can get on line and look it up albioncampusgrove.com
Randy, Dad and I went there today and took a tour. I was VERY impressed!
I am looking forward to hearing from you!

Reflecting 5 years!!!

I can't believe how fast time flies! I wouldn't have immagined five years ago that we would be living in Rexburg with our three beautiful girls. This is where it all started for us.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to

DELREY, ROCHELLE AND JASON!!!


But, how can I be married to a old man?????? Delrey is the big 50 today! AHH!!!

My Little Chef

Chan is the new Little Chef.

Answers

Here are the answers to the trivia questions I posted!
1. Our family has 13 Birthday's in March making it the month with the most Birthdays. February, June, August, October, and December all have 10! July has the fewest with 3.
2. All of the Prete boys were born in December.
3. Uncle Brian and Aunt Janet's family have Birthdays in every month except November.
4. Ben is the only Pearson boy not born in March. He was born in June.
5. Happy Birthday TODAY to Sarah Prete, our New Year's girl! Other Holiday Birthdays include, Randy Edie and Kim Coates on Groundhog's Day, Esther Taylor and Austin Doig sometimes on Easter, Cassy Pearson and Ethan Airoldi on St. Patrick's Day, Andrew Airoldi on the Mexican Holiday of Cinco de Mayo, Edward Airoldi and Grandma (Jean) Taylor sometimes on Thanksgiving, (USA) Joe Prete on Christmas Day, and Mary Murdock on Boxing Day. (British) I think there are a couple that fall on Father's Day sometimes, but I'm not 100% sure on that one. Can anyone think of any that I left out? Aunt Betty pointed out that Uncle Delrey, Jason Haroldsen, and I all have the same Birthday as Elvis! Some people would consider that a major holiday!
I hope everyone enjoyed getting to know some fun facts about our family's Birthdays!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

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.