Merry Christmas!!
Well here we are in Missouri spending our first Christmas away from family (other then our missions). After the nasty roads we had to drive during our Thanksgiving trip, we didn’t want to risk doing that again and so decided to stay home. We really miss family, but I guess that’s just how things go sometimes. Maybe we’ll plan a trip for during the summer.
We decided just to stay home and try to start some of our own traditions. But then laziness got the best of us and we just sat around watching TV and stuff. Guess we’ll start those traditions next time.
We didn’t go big on presents for eachother this year, instead trying to save money to build up our savings (and all those other well intentioned goals). We did get to sit by our fireplace to open presents, which was pretty cool. Kaylene got me some gloves, a coat and some long-john bottoms (old pair got ripped up in too many football games). I got her a Flip-it (which she has already used and smiled while doing so) and a “Coupon for some fries“.
We gave the dogs some goodies that they don’t normally get. Naturally they inhaled them and just wanted more. This is only the second time we have opened presents at home, and so they were both quite intrigued by all the crinkling and ripping of paper and new things with new smells that we were opening.
We did get some nice gifts from family which made it a bit nicer.
Brett and Shambry sent us some Shocking Tanks, which I had seen online recently and will go well with my other shocking games. Kaylene won’t play em so I’ll have to find some other glutton for punishment to play with.
Mom and Bruce sent a nice package-o-goodies:
Magnetic Dart Board, (similar to the linked) always thought these were cool. I draped the board over the couch and threw the darts at it. The dogs thought it was a game and kept looking around on the other side of the couch for them to come out the other side. Was quite funny.
LED Flashlights. Woo hoo… how geeky!
Home Depot Gift certificate **insert Tim Allen grunt here**
Victoria Secret Gift Certificate (yeah… this was Kaylene’s)
Massage Book/kit (near bottom of page)
Pampering Pedicure (same site as above, but don’t have this one listed)
Utah Belly Button Warmers (wearing one now… how could they not be online to link to??)
Thinklers: A Collection of Brain Ticklers, which will keep me entertained for hours.
Disney Recipies, which will keep me fat for years.
Some friends from the ward invited us over for games later on tonight, and Kaylene is up stairs working on an official “Christmas Dinner.” For which she just proudly proclaimed that she is making a pie out of a self-created recipie. *gulp* One of these nights we hope to make it up to the Independence Visitors Center to check out the lights and take some pictures before they take everything down.
We miss all the family and close friends who we are away from (or went away from us) this holiday season, but hope all are having (or had) a great Christmas. We are thankful for all the many blessing which we have and for all those who are a part of our lives.
December 25th, 2004
After much back and forth, we decided to head off to Colorado for Thanksgiving to visit the Whiteheads (Kaylene’s older sister’s family). After weeks of lovely fall weather during November (2 weekends ago it was like 70 degrees), it finally decided to snow on us the morning of our heading out (25 meg movie of snows). This wasn’t any ole snow storm, this one dumped 6-8 inches in Lees Summit and similar amounts around the rest of the metro. We were really worried about the roads, but luckily the roads were just a bit wet, and not iced up. Although there was a car off the road at just about every offramp as we left the city.
The snow only stuck around for 40 miles or so out of the metro and the rest was smooth sailing. Just the joyous trek across the baren wasteland that is Kansas ahead of us.
We arrived, and are enjoying the company of family. I brought my computer with me so that I could LAN with the boys. Trying not to whoop on em too much, but when you have such mad 1337 skillz, how can you not? 
Turkey day itself was fun. We started off with a turkey bowl.. for which I continue to pay the price. Playing football once a year causes a fair amount of pain on the muscles and joints. My team won both games, and Ben’s lost both (hmmmm). Got a touchdown, a few sacks, a few hurries, and an interception or two. Nice of them to let me play and abuse myself at their expense. I did jam my thumb pretty good on Ben’s elbow trying to block a pass he was getting, but it’s not really a Turkey Bowl if I don’t come home with some kind of injury.
Back home for some good eats. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy… all the goods made by our beloved wives who slaved and toiled over a hot oven while we went out and caused ourselves great pain. Maybe we’ll trade next year 
More fraggin with the guys, a nap, and then a game of Cranium where it was fun watching everyone get up and have to do charade type things.
Today (day after Thanksgiving) we had a good breakfast and the women folk when shopping. Men stayed home and… well…. fragged. Went and did some ice skating (man they keep that place cold) and some laser tag.
Back home where I made some Zuka Juices (fruit smoothie place I used to work and still remember the recipies for) and now we are waiting for pie.
It’s been a lot of fun hanging out here with the family as we get to do so so rarely. Slight chance these guys will move out our way if the company they are in talks with will just up their offer (lamers). If so it will be great to have some family so close by, if not… then it means they got a better offer elsewhere, and I guess we’ll have to support them in that too.
Anyway… enough typing this novel, but I have to make up for all the lack of postings. Then again, we just have no life and so this is what you get. Now… where’s that pie???
November 26th, 2004
I am actually posting this a week later, but am setting the time back to her actual day so it’s easier to find. Kaylene hit the big 3-1 today, and in honor of the occasion I decided to stick 31 candles onto a little cake. I naturally tried to keep this from her, and so I had it in the garage and put it all together on my workbench. I’d bang the hammer every now and then, and run my drill… just to throw her off the trail.
After I got it all together I lit it up… man did that thing put off some heat. The flames started pulsing together and it looked really cool. The junk you see in the background is stuff on my workbench, so no our kitchen counter isn’t THAT bad. I took it into her and sang happy birthday (really quickly as the flames were increasing and the candles were decreasing) and she got em all out in one blow.
And here is the final result… so much for “non-dripping” candles. Get em to melt fast enough and they’ll melt no problem.
Here is a link to the whole thing on video including the cool pulsing effect. It’s like 61 meg, so be warned if you are on a slower connection.
I keep trying to get her to post on here, but she refuses… or forgets or something. So maybe some day you can hear from someone besides me.
October 24th, 2004
Finally got out to “Uncle Ted’s” for a camout/paintball trip after it was delayed last month due to weather (and vehicle issues). I checked the weather a mere hours before going up and it said nothing about rain… so I wasn’t prepared for it when it did rain. From 10pm to 10am straight… lightning, thunder, and lotsa wata. The tent with the YM in it had a few inches of standing water… it was pretty sad.
Got to play 4 rounds of paintball. I obliterated the competition. First game I was paired off with Jordan Whitney, and he did pretty good for a 10 yr old on his first outing. Got himself a kill
Got 2 kills, then 2 kills, then 3 kills then, 3 kills… now that I look at that, I was kinda hogging all the kills. Gotta keep those YM humble Jeff got the only shot on me while we were playing Gettysburg (load one ball at a time). But we were playing that you had to get hit twice to go out, and so I got him back for that. Still have the bruise 3 days later.
I stupidly forgot my camera, but stole the above from Jeff… thanks Jeff!
September 21st, 2004
So the last version of this site went absolutely no where, so we’ll see how this one goes. It should be a bit easier to use, so Kaylene has said she will try and post things. There are several posts from my other site that I would rather have put on a family based site, so I will probably copy those over here. to get us a little content. That being said, this post may seem like it came after those as I will put their actual dates on them.
Here’s hoping this actually works this time!
August 22nd, 2004
Next Posts
Previous Posts
