A Year in Recap 2009

Trent had a great year! He graduated with his MBA with President Monson as the commemorative speaker, ran the Bryce Canyon Half Marathon in 1 hr 37 minutes!, shot his biggest deer yet during the muzzleloader - a 5x4!, ran the St. George Marathon!, and lost 30 lbs! He also changed callings! From executive secretary to ward clerk!

Bonnie was a good supporter of Trent's accomplishments! She ran her first race - the Bryce Canyon 5k, no half or full marathon but did lose 25 lbs! Got in a trip to Hawaii after Thanksgiving! Bonnie went through a few callings, from Cubmaster to Activity Days Leader but still kept the Valiant 12 teaching until being released from both of those to be put in the Relief Society presidency as the 2nd counselor.

Lainee's highlight of the year was turning 8 & getting baptized by her dad! She's in 2nd grade with Mrs. Pollock & is playing on the Comet's basketball team. She is quite the player!

Olivia started kindergarten this year! She started with Ms. Tobler but now she's Mrs. Fackler & she loves her teacher! She learned to ride her bike on Halloween.

Rigby got potty trained this year! He is coming into his personality & its so darn cute! I wish I could record him everyday! He says the funniest things! His days of Nursery are over & he will be officially in Primary!

Here's to a fabulous NEW YEAR with great new memories!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2010!

So I managed to get the pictures out of order & can't get them to change but OH WELL! So here it goes!

We are starting with the day after Christmas! We had our annual Moss Family Christmas Party. We started out with a sort of talent show put on by each family. Lainee forgot her piano music so she wouldn't play so Rigby stepped up & played & sang his own version of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" it went something like this: I wish you a merry Christmas, mumble mumble, good tidings, mumble mumble! It was very sweet!

We then had our homemade gift exchange. Trent & I made beaded serving utensils for Jana & Mom, Lainee & Olivia made gumball machines for Brayden & Elia, & Rigby made a dating kit for Davey, which was hilarious! Trent got a framed part of Grandma Cox's journal that was about him from Shawn, I got a family picture holder/frame from Chanieca, Lainee is getting (Teri was very sick so her family couldn't make it) a pink snuggie from Mikelle, Olivia got flower barrettes from Davey, & Rigby got a car game from Kenzie. Fabulous gifts! Another great year of ideas!

Christmas day - apparently we took more video than pictures! Rigby got his bike! Olivia got her unicorn & Barbie doll. And Lainee got her DS. All the things that they asked for! They all also got DVD players. Mom got a KitchenAid & a picture of the temple. Dad got some shoes & a guitar. We had snowman cinnamon rolls for breakfast - note to self, kids do NOT like cinnamon rolls!

Christmas Eve aka Grandpa Moss's birthday! We had a lovely dinner & then presents with the little ones doing heavy heavy hangover on Grandpa! Followed up with the nativity scene reenactment. We were then visited by an elf with their Christmas jammies!

December 23rd was the Wilson Family party at the Howard's house. Yummy soups & cute little penguins were on the menu, followed by some music by Tia & Kaysha, & Sherm & Kaysha, and of course the Nativity in their stable! Accompanied by a real live sheep! Then it was present time! Rigby was home sick with Trent so he opened his gift when we got home which was a scooter from Jake, Olivia got headbands from Traton, Lainee got Pet Shop toys from Kaysha, & Trent & I got Apples To Apples game from Julie & Seth.

Rick was even in town for Christmas break from the Army & read his own little version of The Night Before Christmas. It was cute & we loved seeing him again.

Another fun, fun, Christmas! Of course the best part is spending it with family!

Merry Christmas!

So I totally missed out on doing Christmas cards in time so here you go! I had all the outfits ready weeks in advance too! We just never took the time to take pictures. So yesterday after church we finally took pictures & I made this card.

Merry Christmas!!

My Birthday & Lainee's Christmas program 12/12 & 12/16/09

My birthday this year was on a Saturday & we woke up to snow!! It wasn't much but we enjoyed it while we could! It drizzled the whole rest of the day.

Rigby got his own little snowman! And its still in the freezer!

That morning was a fundraiser 1k/5k for Ethan Mendenhall. We went down to the park to watch & support. Ethan got to do the run in style!

KCSG, our local station, was there interviewing Ethan & his family.

My kids were sitting under the sign drinking hot chocolate. Made for a great picture!

Then that afternoon, Lainee had a basketball game & it was picture day!

Coach Thom Urie, Lauren, Hannah, Sydney, Shayana, & Coach Kyle Brown

Kimberly, Lainee, & Kylee

Go Comets!

I got a kick out of this picture! Look at the kids mouths! They are ready to help blow out the candles! After the days events we went out to dinner at Outback with the Stahelis. The kids gave me some slippers (so did Ticee) & Trent got me my purple dress that I wanted! It was a fun day.

On Wednesday the 16th, Lainee's class put on a program for 2 different nursing homes. Lainee was a present!

The whole class with Mrs. Pollock. Reindeer, bears, elves, dolls, & presents.

Lainee giving one of her parts.

Olivia got to come to it too. The first nursing home was a little bit scary for the kids but the second one was better. They did a great job & the senior citizens enjoyed it! One of the ladies had a beeper on her chair that she kept ringing, that was to mean that she was clapping! The old man next to us kept singing & dancing! That kind of reaction makes it worth it!

Hawaii 11/28 - 12/3/09

We waited so long for this vacation & now its already over! On November 28th, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we went to The Big Island, Hawaii. We went with Janet & Robbie, and Dave & Ashley. We stayed at Dave & Ashley's condo in Waikoloa at Paniolo Greens. It was right on a golf course that had wild turkeys that would wake us every morning with their greetings.

The first day there we went snorkeling at Honaunau (Place of Refuge). We saw a lot of fish! And even a sea turtle! (The middle picture & the one with Bonnie are of the sea turtle, kind of hard to see!)The fish were beautiful & so colorful! The coral was really neat too with all of its sea life.

We also went to see the volcano but stopped first to see the Thurston Lava Tube. We then hiked out to see the volcano craters & boy were they HUGE! After that we went to the visitors center & were told that we couldn't get all the way to the volcano so we settled for the steam in the distance & ate at the Volcano House overlooking the craters.

The line that goes through the bottom right picture is a hiking trail that goes through the crater. The people on the trail looked like ants from where we were.

On the way back from the volcanoes, we stopped at all the waterfalls we could find. First stop was Rainbow Falls. It was raining on us so each stop was a short but pretty one!

At Rainbow Falls they had these trees that were amazing! Each picture has somebody in them & when you find them then you will realize how massive these trees are! (Clicking on the collage will make it bigger!)

We found a waterfall on 22 acres of private land of a luxury bed & breakfast that was a beautiful drive to get to. Its the Inn at Kulaniapia Falls (http://www.waterfall.net/ if you ever want to stay at an awesome out of the way place in Hilo). The owner was very nice & let us see the waterfall, if you are staying there then you can swim too. Absolutely gorgeous, relaxing location.

And isn't the towncar sweet?! So grandma-ish but it fit all 6 of us!

We also hiked down to a black sand beach in Pololu Valley. It was a gorgeous hike down a steep hill side but worth it! It wasn't so much of a swimming beach though, it had some sand but mostly rocks. There were waterfalls down the coastline, off the cliffs, that were also beautiful.

We, of course, went to some beautiful white sand beaches with the turquoise water. Each beach we went to, the boys would dig themselves "beach chairs" to sit in. They were quite comfortable considering! I loved these beaches! I think my favorite was Hapuna Beach.




We couldn't go to Kona without a temple stop! The had beautiful landscaping of course! Pretty orchids! They also had their manger scene set out.

It seems like we did a lot of eating & sitting! We ate at some fun places like Bamboo (the top two pictures) & on the last night we went to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. Good food! We also hit some other little places that were fun & tasty.




Doesn't that look fun?! What beautiful beaches! I am ready to go back!!

Ward Harvest Fair 11/13/09

This year our ward decided not to do our annual Trunk-or-Treat & instead waited until November 13th & held a Harvest Fair. We started out with a soup dinner, then moved onto games for the kids, some line dancing & Daddy Daughter dancing. They also had a picture "booth" for the families to get their "western" pictures taken. It was fun. In December we are going to have a Norman Rockwell 50's Christmas party which should also be fun!



My cowgirl Olivia.



Lainee & Kia working together.

Daddy daughter dance with his 2 girls.

The dancing duo Lainee & Trent. Lainee looked so cute!

And of course the "western" family picture! Rigby loved getting to have a gun!

Halloween 09

We start off with Olivia's class Halloween parade. (I am a bad mom & missed Lainee's parade.) That is her teacher Ms. Tobler, who now is Mrs. Fackler - she got married 2 weeks ago.




Olivia was Cinderella again this year. She wanted to be Ariel but changed her mind at the last minute. She led the parade off very cute!



Rigby was more interested in playing on the playground!



Cute!



Halloween was a very nice day & we decided to go for a family bike ride. (The picture is to show the nice day!)

After the ride Trent decided to get Olivia riding her own bike.

And she did good!

She even rode all by herself! She is a bike rider now!

A few hours later my kids transformed into a bat, Cinderella, & a vampiress!

ScArY! And "boo"tiful!

Fun October Week 10/13 - 10/18/09

Lainee had her first school report. They had to do them on dinosaurs & she picked T-rex. They had to write their reports & then present them orally along with a picture - the picture on the board is Lainee's that she drew. She did her report all by herself & she did a GREAT job!

The girls then had their Raptor Romp performances but before the dances got going we had a breakdown by Lainee - they seem to happen often these days! These will be fun pictures for her to enjoy! (I am so MEAN!)

The slideshow is of both Lainee & Olivia's dances.

Rigby was a good supporter, cheering & dancing with his sisters.



Friday we headed out to Lake Powell with Kyle & Heidi Hafen on their houseboat. Natalie & Tyler Christensen were there too with their friends Guy & Crystal.

We took all the kids on the tube & Olivia bawled the whole time! We were good parents & made her stay on until we got back to the marina!

So after the tube ride, Kyle had a little heart to heart with Olivia about being afraid!

Lainee was SO brave! She jumped at the chance to waterski & did AWESOME! She got right up & rode around until we finally said stop!

Kyle is once again teaching another generation to ski! He taught me how back in high school!

Some random pictures from the trip.

Lainee also tried wakeboarding & again did AWESOME! She popped right up on her first try! She loved it & kept wanting to go more so she could get better!

Then it was mine & Trent's turn to try something new. We tested out our surfing skills. That's pretty fun. A little hard to stay in that sweet spot but fun nonetheless!

No rope! Good job Trent!

Check it out! My hair is even still dry! But that didn't last long!

On the way home we stopped at the dam & walked the bridge. It was a fun weekend. Hopefully we will be invited back again!