CONGRATULATIONS TO THE ALLENS

This is a picture of my friends James and Rachel. They have been trying to adopt for over a year and yesterday they brought home their first baby girl. They named her Shelbie. I can't tell you how excited I am for them. They are the most amazing people. Rachel served with me in the Primary Presidency until last September when she was called as Young Women's President. I miss working with her, but she is doing an amazing job in Young Womens and the girls love and adore her.

James and Rachel have been through so much as they have been tried to have a family. But they are such an example of faith to me. I know that even though they have struggled they have turned to the Lord and have been strengthened. I look forward to meeting Shelbie and watching these two raise this very lucky little girl. Congratulations James and Rachel. We are all celebrating with you. We love you!!!

RUNNING IN ST. GEORGE

This past weekend our family got to escape the smog and cold when we headed down to St. George. We left Friday morning because all the kids were out of school on Friday. It was a long 6 hour ride down there but we survived with the help of DVD players and audible books. Brian and I listened to A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck. Such a funny book.

We got to St. George and met Brian’s parents (Dave and Kathy) at the hotel. Thanks to Brian’s hotel points we were able to stay at Marriots Town Place Suites. The rooms have a tiny kitchen with a stove. I made a lasagna the day before and we cooked it up. It was Brian’s mom’s birthday so we celebrated it with a cake that we had picked up there in St. George. The kids spent the evening watching TV which is one of their favorite things to do when we are at a hotel. Brian, Dave, Kathy, and I had a fun night of visiting. I am so lucky to have wonderful parents and so lucky that I have wonderful in-laws.

Saturday morning Brian, Sammy, and I ran our races. Brian ran the ½ marathon and Sammy and I ran the 5k. The weather was a little cool (about 32 degrees) but perfect for running. Brian’s goal was to finish in 1 hour and 45 minutes. He finished it in 1:43:50. He did so great. His first ½ marathon he finished in 1:50 and it was mostly down hill. Sammy finished the 5k in 26 min. 7 sec. She came in third place in her age group and received an award. Way to go Sammy.

I finished the race in 27 min. and 36 sec. I was 7th in my age group. No award for me, but I was pretty shocked I did so well. My goal was 35 minutes. I was hurting at the beginning and wanted to walk, but I kept thinking, “I’m a Horsley. I can’t walk. I can do this!!” Once I warmed up it got easier. Dave and Kathy watched the other kids for us while we raced. Thanks guys!! You were a life saver.

After the race we went back to the hotel and took the kids swimming. This is what the boys had been waiting for. They love swimming. We cleaned up and had a late lunch/ early dinner at Texas Roadhouse. This restaurant is becoming a tradition when we go to St. George. Last January when we went down with a bunch of the Horsley family for this same race, Janice and Greg introduced this restaurant to us and we loved it. Last November we took the kids there after Brian’s first ½ marathon and it became a family favorite.

Their rolls are so good and they keep bringing them out. We always fill up on those and then we are full by the time our meal comes. Sammy remembered from last time and scaled down her meal to mac and cheese. Brian had the waiters sing happy birthday to his mom and she had to sit on a saddle. I missed it because I was taking Kylee to the bathroom. Kathy was a great sport though.

Grandpa wanted to see the Brigham Young house so we went on a tour. It was very interesting and the kids were amazing. I thought they wouldn’t be interested but they seemed to have fun. After that, Brian’s parents headed home to Manti. We had a lot of fun having them there and it meant a lot to Brian that they would support him on his race like that. The rest of the night we vegged in front of the TV. Sunday we got up and went to church and headed home. It was a fun weekend and we loved being in the warmer weather. It was about 60 degrees at it’s warmest and the air was clean. It felt great to be home and sleep in our own beds. The cold and smog aren’t so fun, but thankfully it won’t last forever.

Modern Conveniences

Sometimes we have to have things taken away (or broken) to know how much we really appreciate them. Sunday morning when I walked into the kitchen, Brian said to me “This is going to drive us nuts.” My mind quickly thought of all the things that could drive us nuts that day. I found out what he was talking about when I walked over to the sink and tried to turn the water on. NO WATER. Oh no! The facet wasn’t working. I could feel it getting loose for a couple of days, but I didn’t think too much about it. But it finally stopped working. On a weekend of course. Thank goodness for emergency supplies. We have some water jugs with spouts on them that we turned into our new kitchen sink faucet until we can fix the broken one.


Brian was right. Even though we had something there to wash our hands, all day the whole family would forget and try and turn on the kitchen faucet. Aaaaahhhhh! I am now getting in the habit of using the water jug, but washing dishes this morning was a little more work. I had to use a pitcher and make several trips to the bathroom for hot water to fill up my sink.

Now I don’t mean to be a whiner. Instead this post is to help all of you be grateful for your kitchen faucet. When you turn it on today and water comes pouring out, smile and think of me. Then thank Heavenly Father for the wonderful conveniences of our day. All this could be worse. We could have to go out side in the cold to use the bathroom. . I love indoor plumbing. Yes, there are many things to be grateful for.

Just a side note. Brian and I went and saw Marley and Me last Friday. We loved it. A friend of mine read the book and said it was so much better. Can't wait until I can read it. But, I am reading At Home in Mitford right now.

SNOWMEN MELT MY HEART!

I love snowmen. It is interesting that even though they are made out of cold snow, they make me feel warm and cozy when I see them. I don’t get it, but that is how I feel. I love to decorate with them, making them, and I love seeing all the snowmen around town. I love the book “Snowmen at Christmastime” by Caralyn and Mark Buehner. They have also written one titled “Snowmen at Night”. I haven’t read it yet but someday I am going to get it.

In December when we were getting constant snow, the kids made a couple snowmen. They turned out so cute. I am glad for the warmer weather, but it is so sad to see the snowmen melt away. Thank goodness for pictures so that we can remember how cute they were. This is a then and now picture of our snowmen.

We have a neighbor who built this ginormous snowman. As you can see it is bigger than their house. This is a picture of it after it has melted a lot. They used a big plastic tub for the hat and rakes for the arms. I wish that I could seen the snowman right after it was built. Every time I drive past it with the kids they get so excited. I finally decided to take a picture.

TREASURES FROM THE PAST

This may seem like a strange post, but I wanted to share a few treasures from my past. Now I have lots of treasures, but these are three that have a special meaning to me this year.

Sixteen years ago Brian and I were dating and during the holidays he told me for the first time that he loved me. For Christmas that year he gave me a sweater. I loved it for two reasons. First because my heart was all a flutter and I loved anything Brian gave me, and second I thought it was cute. I try to wear that sweater at least once in December. It is probably out of style now. You can decide for yourself. But I think I will keep it forever and even when it doesn’t fit me anymore I will bring it out and remember the wonderful beginnings Brian and I had on that Christmas.

This dress Kylee is wearing is a treasure because when Sammy was her age Grandma Cox made it for her. Sammy wore it and, like Kylee, looked adorable in it. Thanks Grandma. We have gotten a lot of use out of it.

When I was born, my oldest sister, RaeAnn, had a favorite book. It was called “The Big Tidy Up”. The girl in the book is named Jennifer. When my parents were deciding on a name, Rae wanted to name me Jennifer because of this girl. So that is why I was named Jennifer. I am named after a girl who had a messy room and finally realized the importance of keeping a clean room. I could find some symbolism there, but…naa! I got to keep the original copy of the book. Eventually the cover came off and was lost. Now it is tucked safely away in my treasure box. Later in life RaeAnn looked for another copy of this book but found that it was out of print. But, this November RaeAnn being the great kindergarten teacher that she is, was looking through the children’s books at a book store. What did she happen upon. Yes! The book, “The Big Tidy Up”. There was four copies and she bought two. One for her and one for me. I was so excited to see that she had found a copy. I have read it to my children and told them the story of how I was named. They thought it was a cool story. Thank you, thank you Rae. I love ya. Thanks for giving me my name.

HAVE A GREAT NEW YEAR!!!!

Happy New Year to you all. I hope your holidays are going well. We are having a relaxing time. It will be hard to get back into real life next week.

Last night we celebrated the new year with some friends at our house. We had three couples and their kids come. Our four families have gotten together for several years. The kids play downstairs and the adults play upstairs. This year we divided the kids into three groups to help with the amount of fighting that sometimes can occur. The older girls went next door to our neighbors house, the older boys had a wii to play and the younger boys had a wii to play (no we don't have two, one family brought theirs to share. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!). This set up worked really well. Except one scratching fight between the two year olds, all the kids got along well.

The adults were upstairs playing and laughing and enjoying ourselves as much or more than the kids.

And of course I can't forget the munchies. I ate my self sick. But, it is once a year and the food was so so so yummy.

When midnight came we watched the ball drop, did a little bit of cheering, a little bit of kissing (spouses only) and visited until our friends left. By the time we got to bed it was after 1:00 in the morning. It was a fun night, but I am a little tired today.

I hope everyone had a great celebration and I your 2009 is wonderful!

Here We Are

I did it. I am finally a blogger. Not just a reader of blogs. I am not promising much. But, hopefully we will all be happily suprised.

Christmas break is going well so far. I spent all day Christmas Eve cooking for our big meal that night. It was so delicious and worth the work.

Ruth and Jer came over for dinner and then we played games for a while. After they left the kids put on their jammies from Grandma and Grandpa Cox. We watched Luke II and another DVD that some friends put together about the Savior. The funnest part for the kids was opening one gift. They were so excited. All the kids, but Kylee, slept in the boys room all together. They pushed the three beds together and squeezed on. Sammy read to the boys for a while and by midnight when I checked on them they were all asleep.

Christmas was fun. Santa suprised the kids and brought a Wii. The kids have had a great time playing. They spent almost all of Christmas playing. They are being quick to get their jobs done so they can play. It is nice to have something to motivate them. I spent Christmas relaxing playing on the computer. It was so nice not having any where to go or anything to do. I cooked a nice breakfast, but then we just ate left overs. It was a great day.

We have gotten a lot of snow this week. So today we are planning on tubing.