December 2006
Mike and Mary Ferguson Family
November brought snow and cold to Twin Falls! i had my 2nd
and last concert with the Magic Valley Symphony. It was a lot of fun and I may
join again at the end of the season. With both our callings and the kid"s
schedules something had to go for now.
I wanted to wish Steph, Sarah, and Talia belated birthday wishes! Hope you had
a special day.
We went to our 2nd swim meet in
Boise.
This one was a lot better because the cousins Richy and
Brooklyn
were there to cheer the kids on. Also Becca volunteered to watch my little ones
for the morning. Becca and I sure crammed a lot into that Sat; swim meet,
shopping, temple, and play time for the kids. Rich played babysitter too. The
cousins got up at 5am to work on their projects. We thought they were very
silly!
Thanksgiving for us was pretty low key this year. At the last minute we were
invited over to some friends for dinner. It was nice but I miss the Guymon
Thanksgivings. We headed to Park City the Sat after Thanksgiving for a week
vacation in the Marriot Mountainside resort. while we were there a huge snow
storm came in and dumped 18 inches of snow. We were very excited to have snow
so that we could sled and ski with the kids. In the end Katelyn and Mike tried
the skiing in about 10 degree weather. Katelyn's hands froze within the first
30 minutes and she came in crying and had frost bite i think. She was wearing
gloves but it was just too cold. Mike went back out and had some fun on the
slopes. It had been 10 years since we had skied in Flagstaff but he got up to
the intermediate slopes. We were also a little sneaky because Mike and I weigh
the same and our shoe size is pretty close so we just shared the boots, skis,
and pass for the day. it was fun to trade off and I sure was tired after only 2
hours. We also had Ed(Mike's older brother from Tuscon) and Stacy and 2 of
their kids stop by for a couple of nights on their way home from a trip to
Montana.
Stacy's parents have been called on a mission to
Singapore. It
was fun to see the Ferguson cousins interact. We took everyone to the Joseph
Smith movie on Temple square and looked at the Christmas lights. Mike proposed
to me in the SLC temple and we told the kids all about it.
The kids all liked best ice skating at an outdoor rink by our hotel and swimming
in the 7 hot tubs. i thought these people were crazy to swim outside in the
freezing weather. Once you got out of the pools you made a beeline for the
door. It was sooo cold! I stayed indoors quite a bit with the two little kids
who were sick with colds. It was a bummer not to do everything together but
nice that we could still take the vacation. The kids did a little bit of
homework each day and Katie is still at her homework now.
Jen Fletcher came up to Park City and gave us a massage at her salon. It was
fun to see her again and catch up on her family. She said to tell you Hi Ruth!
She is single and going to school and managing the massage office in SLC and
sometimes works in Park City too. The last day we took the kids to BYU and met
Jena Sonntag (a friend from college and Texas). It was great to catch up on her
family and Matt's job overseas in
Uzbekistan.
Well I know that was somewhat of a travel log but I just wanted to share a
little bit of our vacation with you. It's been fun to see the kids experience
snow for the first time. I hope that we all get used to the cold soon! Look
for our Christmas letter and picture via email or in the mail. Hope you all
have a great holiday!
Love,
Mary, Mike and the kids
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Jim and Rachel Guymon Family
Olivia is really amazing us with how much she is saying.
She can
communicate just about anything she wants (only her family knows what
she
means sometimes because of her substition of some of the hard sounds,
but
alot of words are pretty clear). Her new phrases are "Mom, gimme",
"watch
Elmo movie", "where dada go?" and our long time favorites because they
sound so cute, "oh, tain too" and "your welbum". She also likes to get
dressed all by herself these days. She wants to be a big girl just
like
her sister. She is finally not crying when we leave her for nursery,
this
is a big step away from her big time stranger anxiety. Yay!
Bailee was an Indian (she says Pocahantas) in her preschool
Thanksgiving
program. They sang some cute songs about being thankful and about why
she
wouldn't want to be a turkey on Thanksgiving day. At home she loves to
write people letters and surprises me by bringing me a whole letter she
has written by herself. It's not spelled correctly but she sounds the
words out and spells them how she thinks they sound. Yesterday she
wrote
Olivia a letter after she cried herself to sleep for naptime because we
couldn't find her pink carebear which said, "Der Olivia, Im sory cas we
cnt fnt ior cr ber."
Jim is enjoying getting experience working on patients, making dentures
and all that fun stuff. He is considering specializing in Pediatric
dentistry, but hasn't decided since he thinks general dentistry would
befun as well.
Rachel is keeping busy with the girls and enjoying being able to play
volleyball and basketball regularly with some other women. Bailee and
I
got to have two girls nights out this month. One to disney princess on
ice and one to a musical, Rogers and Hammersteins Cinderella. We had a
blast.
Thanksgiving was fun at our house. Unfortunately Ruth and Adam
couldn't
make it, but we made a turkey and all the fixin's and had Rachel's good
friend and college roommate and her family over for dinner. It was
yummy
food and fun times, but we missed having all our family around for the
holiday. Day after turkey day we went to the national aquarium! and
got
to see some scuba divers feeding the sting rays, small sharks, and sea
turtles. We also saw a dolphin show which the girls loved. That's
all
for now Vladimir.
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Adam and Ruth Olson Family
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New News:
Ruthanne finished her short-time job at the Preschool and
begins teaching piano at Mintons Music this Saturday,
December 2. She is also accompanying for college studetns'
juries this semester-and the music is not easy. Pregnancy
is going well. The due date is June 16, or around there.
Adam extended his due date to Jan for the VTC tutorials he's
in charge of making. this has taken off some stress and we
actually got to hang out with each other during the Holiday
season. Wow! he will be flying out to
Colorado for a seminar he is teaching in about 2
weeks.
Atom Riley has drawn about 50 pictures of things he wants
Santa to bring him-we're working on the giving part still.
He also started piano lessons with mommy and loves it!
Haven't figured out how to get him to practice though.
Joshua is sooooo curious-getting into/exploring
everything---that he's not supposed to touch. We're sure he
will be some kind of scientist-or just drive us crazy! He
loves snowmen, choo-choo trains, horses, and wrestling. It
seems he has too much energy for his own good. But the more
he learns to talk, the better he manages his feelings. He's
also our tender-heart.
Baby number three says hi.
We love you all! Thank you for your love, prayers, and
support! They are felt. Happy holidays and Merry CHRISTmas!
What a great season to celebrate our Savior!
Mike and Rachel Guymon Family
Hey Guys:
Hope you all had a wonderful holiday. We spent the Thanksgiving holiday with Rachel’s brother, Josh, and his family, in Omaha, Nebraska. He is a dental student at Creighton University. It was fun! His wife, Amy, is pregnant with twins. They will have four children under the age of four…yikes! Our hats off to all you mothers out there for the great work you do in raising awesome children.
The Guymons are gearing up for winter in Minnesota. Tonight is currently 9 degrees, with the forecast to be below zero. We are told this is nothing compared to the temps in Jan and Feb where at times the high will be at zero or below. Talia and Sarah turned 11 on the 25th. They had a fun party here with friends from church and school (they also invited a friend for Amberly to play with). They are all three enjoying school and are excelling like usual in their classes. We have started Talia, Sarah, and Amberly on piano and they are limping along, with situational motivation. We hope they will stick it out. Braden and Mason are little Star Wars bandits! They will act out various scenes from the movies and to deter from the script is a mortal sin. And they will know! They have been so fun to watch and we are somewhat saddened as they become older and out of the “innocent” ages. Life will be good, though.
We are looking forward to visiting with Liz and Corky and their crew prior to New Year’s. It is interesting to see how our family has spread out over a good chunk of the U.S. Mike got to travel for work to Rapid City, SD. It was –10 degrees two nights ago. It was so cold. It reminded me of Rexburg winters…harsh winds and cold temps. Minnesota is a little different…it feels quite “thick” due to the humidity. It’s freezing!
Hope life is treating you all well. Love you guys…see you on the other side. CIAO
The MN Guymons
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Liz and Corky Clark Family
November has been an exciting month for the Clarks. We had a visit from Corky's sister Charlotte right before Thanksgiving. Corky gave her the Chicago tour immediately as he picked her up from the airport...took a taxi to the train station...missed their train by 1 minute...sat in the COLD for an hour...took a not-so-short train ride home. Oh, and the airport is basically in the "ghetto". Nonetheless, we had a fun visit and Charlotte, a photography major at BYU, took lots of pictures for us.
The newest "theme" in the Clark household is SCOOBY DOO. Haley and Donelly love to run around playing scooby doo. Even Reese will point to the t.v. and say "looby looby loo". The girls have asked santa to bring scooby doo costumes for christmas. Their little friend down the street plays Shaggy when they play together.
December 1st brought our first BIG snow. Somewhere from 8-12 inches. We got dumped on. Luckily we bought a snow shovel the night before. Needless to say...after much snow shoveling and playing outside both Donelly, Liz and Reese are sick with colds. Ugh! Probably not from the cold, but it sure came at a bad time. The girls loved playing in the snow, making snow angels, building a snowman (Well, almost.), eating REAL snow cones and sledding for the first time.
We look forward to seeing Mike and Rachel's family after Christmas! We LOVE visitors.
We hope everyone is doing well! Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
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Stephanie Guymon Family
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Well, I was putting off writing in the hopes that we would have Alex’s mission call but we’ve had yet another stall. All the papers were into the Bishop a week and a half ago. Alex went to visit a friend from college in Las Vegas and thought he’d get his call before he came home. Sunday I asked the Bishop (again) where Alex’s papers were in the process and he said Alex needs to meet with him and Pres. Farley once more before they go to Salt Lake . Grrrrrrrrr! Alex wouldn’t have left for Vegas if he had know that! So, Alex will be back on Monday and he’ll have his interviews on Tuesday. In the mean time, both of the Robinson twins have put in their papers…Nathan left for the MTC last week and is going to Denver , Colorado . Neil is still waiting to hear, but it’s sure to be before Alex J We just persevere, knowing that Heavenly Father must have a plan. We spent Thanksgiving with my parents, sister’s family and her in-laws. It was nice and uneventful, November was a quiet month. It has been getting colder though…yesterday morning it was 55 when I left for work!!!! Mckaela keeps telling me she’s freezing and I’m trying to open all the doors and windows. I envy all of you and your snow this Winter. Alex did get his wisdom teeth pulled and he ended up getting dry socket! Damien is in his last “block” of High School and will be done in February. He’ll still walk through graduation in May but in the mean time he’s planning to work, save money and start GCC in the Fall. He’s interested in becoming a pharmacist. The only thing new with Jordan is that he’s gotten braces and he is getting regular allergy shots. You could say he is in a transitional stage. We all look forward to the day when he can breathe clearly again! Even during the winter when you’d think nothing would be blooming, he is constantly stuffed up. That’s Arizona for you. Mckaela’s soccer team is doing very well. They are in second place in the league right now. She also recently won her class spelling bee and will move on the school wide “bee.” That’s all for now…thanks for the birthday wishes and look for our Christmas card soon.
PS- Mckaela says ILY to everyone!!!!
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Rich and Rebecca Jarvis Family
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Dear Guymon Clan,
Well, life is quite
busy, as I am sure it is for all of you too! We are
enjoying good health and are very grateful for that!! I got
the 24hr stomach flu the Sunday B4 t-day and was all achy
and stuff. It took me 3 days to get all the way better, and
a week to get a little appetite back. Rich worked from home
and nursed me back to health. My RS president brought me
dinner and people kept volunteering to take the kids so I
could rest, which I normally would have gratefully accepted,
but I feared the flu would spread to them and their
families over the holiday weekend. Thankfully, no one in
the family ever got it. I am thick into choir performances
for the next two weeks with the women's choir I sing with.
We go around to nursing homes and church activities and sing
fun and touching Christmas songs. It is really fun and boy,
it really helps me to remember the true meaning of
Christmas...the giving of ourselves.
Rich is all the way
better, but has to go in on Friday for oral surgery. He has
to get two of his wisdom teeth out and fix an absess under
his fake tooth. So that will be fun. He can only have
liquids for a week. Poor guy! He is going to wither away
to nothing!! Work is going well for him and is busy as
always. His calling keeps him busy still, but we are
constantly blessed for his time that he so willingly gives.
He is in
Wyoming for a
few days and is working hard and having fun with his Dad and
brother.
Brooklynn is doing
great. She is trying very hard to finish her first book and
get it published. She LOVES to write stories constantly.
She reads in her spare time, or makes up games to play with
her brothers.
Richy is loving
school and is now part of the 10 mile club. Every Wednesday
the kids run laps at recess. When they reach five miles,
they get a little foot charm to put on a chain. He loves to
run and to learn and to just have fun. If you ask him what
his favorite part of school is, he says recess, because he
gets to play freeze tag.
Michael is still a
mix between Curious George, and the tazmanian devil. He
loves to take things apart and figure out how they go back
together. He is so sweet!! He loves to be tucked in at
night and tell me stories that he makes up. They can go on
for an hour or more, so I usually have to tell him to push
pause until the next night. Wow, he can sure talk.
Joseph is just so
dang cute!! It is his saving grace. He talks non-stop and
has got us pretty darn trained. He loves to help with
anything and is pretty good too. He loves to make a mess,
then clean it up singing the clean up song. He loves to
sing the theme phrase from the WonderPets....what's gonna
work? Teamwork!! over and over. He loves to give kisses
to anyone, especially when he has done something naughty
like hit Michael. He keeps us all laughing most of the
time. He is even telling knock knock jokes!! He is a
riot!!
Rich, Brooklynn,
Richy and I went to an ATV safety course on Saturday and are
now officially certified in ATV safety. We went because we
were paid $100 each to complete the coourse. It was very
informative, but quite basic. Richy could have taught the
riding part of the course, but we had fun!! We all went
4wheeling the Saturday after t-day and had a blast!!
Our dog is going to
have puppies any day now. She will have at least 6,
probably 8 or 10. We are excited and a little nervous about
keeping those puppies warm up here in the cold. The kids
are soooooo excited!! If any of you want a puppy, speak
now, or tell me later.
Well, we have had a
lot of fun reading about everyone's families!! Hope you all
have a wonderful Christmas!! Love you all bunches!! Bec
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