January 2008

Mike and Rachel Guymon Family

Minnesota Guymon’s December Top 10:

 10. Mason and Braden have been really cute.  Mason, about a week before Christmas, decided that he wanted Santa to bring some toys just like his little friend had.   We heard “I can’t stop thinking about Jonathan’s toys” for 2 days!  Rachel looked into the matter, finding out they were McDonald’s toys from months ago, and then informed Mason that Santa can’t make McD’s toys and he probably wouldn’t be getting them for Christmas.  Crying, Sobbing, and sadness!!!!  Luckily, Santa is one smart cookie!!!  Ebay is an amazing place and Mason did indeed get those American Justice League guys from Santa.  Who knew $15, a computer, (and Santa of course), could make a 6 year old’s Christmas dream come true?!?  Gotta love the impromptu “got to have it” gift requests!!!  We also heard that special phrase “I can’t stop thinking about THAT game!!!!!” over and over after Mason played his friend’s playstation.  We got a few laughs!!  Braden’s favorite line lately is “I Can’t Stop Crying!!!”  I think all the energy of the holiday was too much some days for him.  When he would get upset over little things he would say “I Can’t Stop Crying”, while bawling his eyes out.  We thought it was cute, until we heard it several times in one day (basically he cried all day.)     

9. Sledding!!!  We have had snow on the ground since early December and the kids have had a blast!!!  We visited a few different snow hills and have enjoyed being together having fun.  While on one of these adventures, Braden realized he has an undiscovered talent.  “Look Mom, I’m turning the snow yellow and I’m making the snow melt!”  Of course we were as discreet as you can possibly be in an open area, wearing all your snow gear including overall type snow pants!!!!  I just kicked snow over Braden’s yellow hole in the snow and we went about sledding!!  We are making memories!!! J  

8. We LOVED getting pictures, letters, and emails about our family and friends.  Being alone during the holidays makes you really appreciate all your family.  Rachel found a new way to make Christmas a little less lonely.  She read a book most of the day!!  The kids played with new toys and watched new movies and she read her book.  I’m not sure what Mike did. J I think he played with his new toys and read some.  We missed you all!!! 

7.  Holiday foods/treats made our list because we have a tradition of making some of our favorites every year and the kids are getting old enough to help and remember what they are!  Grandma Guymon’s fudge is popular as are mints, gingerbread cookies, cranberry squares, and fondue!!!  Rachel added Grandma Jeppson’s spiced nuts to the tradition this year.  The smell of them took her back 25 years!!!  We had our Christmas Eve “fancy” dinner by candlelight, which was great fun!!!  Braden got a kick out of it.  We did not have clam chowder but BBQ spareribs instead.

 6. Rachel working overnights, Mike teaching Saturday classes.  Not our favorite items of December but definitely added a new “stress” to our lives.  Rachel worked at Target by our house 2-3 nights a week from 10 pm to 7 am for the “Holiday Season”,  (which started Nov. 7^th and went until Jan. 12^th). She informed Mike that she will never do that again and if she suggests it, to reminder her what a crazy and sick mom and wife she is when she gets no sleep!!!  It was a good experience in some ways but she has never been so sick, tired, forgetful, emotional, and crazy as during those months.  Target did want her to stay on and work just one night a week, because she is so amazing J, but she politely declined.  Mike teaches a class for a local college on Saturdays through February.  He is amazing!!!

5. Our December is always fun with Rachel and Amberly celebrating their Birthdays and Mike and Rachel celebrating their Anniversary.  Rachel turned 34 and Amber the big 8!!!  She had a birthday party with some friends and they had a great time.  Mike and Rachel have been married for 14 years!!!  Can you believe it!!!  I am so glad Mike FINALLY decided to talk to me in English Class 14 ½ years ago and was able to ask me out after stalling for about 1 ½ hours! J  I’m even more grateful for the awesome husband, friend, dad, provider, and over-all-good-guy he is!!!  Just one example:  he always takes my birthday off of work.  He usually gets a babysitter, takes me shopping, and to lunch.  This year I was met at the door when I came home from work at 7:30 am by all the kids singing and pushing me to my bed where I was served breakfast in bed, and given many cute cards.  One of my favorites was a picture of me, drawn by Mason, with an oval on the left side of my chest.  On the oval was a circle, with another circle inside that.  I asked him what the oval was supposed to be and he said, “That’s your Target name tag Mom!”  So cute!  I had no idea what it was just looking at it.   Anyway, Mike let me sleep until 11 am and then we went shopping and to lunch.  It has been a great 14 years!!!

4. Having it all done!!!  Enough said!

3. Christmas Eve and Morning!!! Christmas Eve Mason didn’t want to go to sleep because he was nervous.  Reason:  he didn’t know if he had been good enough to receive presents from Santa!  We assured him that he had definitely been good enough and we were SURE Santa would bring him some toys.  He went to sleep.  About 3 am  (Mom and Dad not having been asleep too long) hear “Help! pause Help!  pause Help!” coming from the boys room.  Reason: Mason had to go to the bathroom REALLY bad and didn’t want to get out of bed because he might see what Santa brought!!  We had a good chuckle.  6:45 Christmas morning Mike and Rachel (and Mason) are awakened by the sound of Talia’s trumpet being played from downstairs, strategically placed up to the heating vent which leads into their rooms.  Good Memories!!!

2. Two weeks of relaxing, reading, watching movies, eating, watching “The Santa Clause” trilogy, sledding, and just being together.

1. Amber’s Baptism/Confirmation.  We are so proud of Amberly and she was soooo excited to have her daddy baptize her!  11 families from our ward/work came for the baptism.  We weren’t able to have any family but our ward family is awesome and we had a great day.  She got a baptism dress and she looked beautiful.  We couldn’t find a white one around here that had sleeves so she chose a burgundy one.  Talia and Sarah gave a talk at the baptism about the Holy Ghost.  They wrote it themselves and worked hard on it.  They did awesome!!!  Amberly asked the only other members of her primary class, two boys, to say the prayers.  And she had her primary teacher give the baptism talk.  Amberly loves her new scriptures and reads them every night.  It was fun to see her excitement and taking it all in.  I feel so blessed to have such neat kids and a worthy husband who can baptize and confirm our children. 

Have a great New Year!!!  We love and miss you all!!!

Love,  The “Chilly” Guymons

 

 

Ruth and Adam Olson Family

 

 Special thanks to family's Christmas cards and gifts!  We are
 excited to do creme brulee with our friends in a couple weeks! We
 challenge anyone to beat us to the first trial!!

 Well, this month is vacation month for the Olson homeschooling
 Clan--after Thanksgiving and until New Years, total Chaos begins.
 So we took a break from school to make crafts, goodies, visit, go
 caroling, take family pictures, and wrap presents.
 We spent Christmas Eve together at home, starting with a talent
 show, having dinner, playing games, and reading a Scriptural
 Christmas story.  It was fun but crazy as tired boys argued so we
 finally put everyone in their beds!  Christmas morning went about
 the same, trying to hold the kiddos off long enough to take
 "natural" pictures of them coming down the stairs first thing in
 the morning.  Then in the afternoon we drove to Jim and Rachel's,
 where we stayed until Thursday evening,  We had a blast with them,
 playing Taboo and Cranium, sampling Rachel's famous rolls, and
 taking turns babysitting to attend the temple.  At the end of
 Thursday, we all enjoyed the Temple lights together.

 Now the fun is over, and Adam is in full force to FINISH THAT
 THESIS during our Christmas break.  Wahoo!!!

 Love to all,
 Olson 5

 

 

 

Rebecca and Rich Jarvis Family

 

Dear Family,   It has been a crazy December!!  We took a family trip to Salt Lake to see the lights at Temple Square.  While there in Utah, we took the kids to the very spot that Rich and I met over at good old Liberty Square Apartments, went bowling at the Y, visited the underground library, dinosaur museum, byu cougar, went to the new Church History Museum, and were able to visit Grandpa Walter.  We also decided to stay an extra day and go the the Hill Air Force Museum.    We were home for 2 days when a dear friend of our had a tragedy happen.  Their one year old daughter drowned in the bathtub.  We were in the ER with them that night as Rich was called to give a priesthood blessing. So we were very involved with that and in the funeral prep and preceedings which happened on Christmas Eve.  OH, and the night after that tragedy, we left for two nights to the Annivesary Inn for our 10th anniversary.  Very busy!!!    We did our usual Christmas carroling and Cutler Chrismas Music night with all the cousins, aunts, and uncles and we so happy to have Mom and Dad there for their first time ever!!  We sang lots of songs, there were a bunch of musical numbers, the traditional nativity song and performance by all the grandkids, and food and visiting at the end.  Christmas was great and Rich and I are determined once again to NOT leave so much to do on Christmas Eve.    The day after Christmas in our annual Jarvis Ice Skating day.  The rink is bought out for just our family for 1 1/2  hours.  All of the extended Jarvis fam that is in town participate and we get to have Mary and her kids there too, along with Mom and Dad to help with the little guys.   Then it was off to the cabin for New Year's for some serious snow fun and R&R.  We celebrated New Year's at 8pm with the kids, counted down and ran around banging pots and pans yelling happy new year.  Then we all enjoyed our first batch of Creme Brulee, compliments of Mel and Shannon's Gift.  Rich had so much fun with the torch that I have to hide it from him now.   Then, the highlight of our whole Christmas break was Richy's Baptism.  We were able to have our own little family baptism and it was so special.  The whole program was done by his aunts, uncle's, and grandparents.  The Spirit was soooo strong!  We had different families staying with us almost the whole break, which we loved, but are now trying to get our house back in order.    We love you all and are hoping that you are all well and healthy!  Thanks to Liz for the work on her website!!  we have missed reading about everyone and seeing the pictures!!    Becca

 

 

Liz and Corky Clark Family

 

Hi Family. A lot has happened since our last newsletter. Haley turned 8 and had a fun day with Mom. She got to skip school and take the train down to Chicago to see the Broadway play Wicked. We took a ride in a taxi and arrived early to enter a drawing to be able to buy cheap tickets for the front 2 rows. Corky and a friend from work and another friend from church came down and all entered their names to help out. We all were drawn! We sat front row center and had a blast. Haley was excited to be so close and the 2 leads kept waving and blowing her kisses during the final bow. She has been singing the songs ever since.

Corky's parents came for Christmas and the baptism. We had a lot of fun playing and seeing some of the sights. We received a soft serve ice cream maker from the Clarks and had to experiment each night with new recipes. Haley was baptized by her Grandfather and confirmed by Corky. It was a very special experience.
We have been enjoying snow off and on and the beauty that it brings. We could do without the subzero temperatures. (:

Donelly became an official Daisy girl scout by participating in a little ceremony.

Reese is in a Buzz Lightyear and Peter Pan phase and loves to go around jumping off things and saying, “To infinity…and beyond.” He really misses his friend and Buzz companion from down the street. They have been our great friends since we moved here. They have moved on to Texas and will not be far from Karen and Ben. (Karen’s husband just got a job there and they will be moving in February) Karen is expecting number 2!

Corky has been enjoying his new Christmas present…surround sound speakers for the projector in the basement.

Liz has been enjoying her new “filthy filter” the tv guardian. We watched the Christmas Story on Christmas day and actually let the kids watch too. Corky is excited to watch Walker Texas Ranger with them now. The kids love his round house kicks and like to sing the theme song. Now if we could only filter violence. (:

The girls each received a webkinz for Christmas, 2 unicorns, and have discovered the world of virtual reality. They now have to earn time to play webkinz. They would play all day everyday if they could. So, if anyone else has webkinz let us know so we can add you to our friends to invite and send mail.

We have been enjoying yummy Crème Brulee! Thanks Mel and Shannon! Our refrigerator smells like it still. We may have to make some more soon. We are trying to stretch it out for at least a week but it is sure tough. (:

We hope you are all well. We miss you all and look forward to a family reunion this summer!
Love, Liz, Corky, Haley, Donelly and Reese
 

 

 

Mom and Dad Guymon

 

Dear Family, 

We have been prodded, poked, drained of blood by the “vampire”, mashed(all girls will understand this), x-rayed, given after-return-shots, given samples of this and that, and have finally been pronounced HEALTHY.  Hurray!!!  For the past two weeks we have been searching for the right living room furniture and have finally found it at a consignment shop. You should all shop those places….they are great.  Next letter we will put in some inside pictures of the house.  Dad is back to his regular regime and we are getting busy.  We have enjoyed all your phone calls and hearing the voices of the grandkids…..true voices….not just e-mails!!!  We think we might just stay home for a while and wait a year or two before we go on another mission.  Dad is serving as the Membership Clerk and being trained by the MASTER membership clerk with all kinds of special programs he created for things.  Mom is the new Ward Music Chairman and having fun training organists and directors.  We will head to Seattle the first week of Feb. to see Melvin and Shannon.  Any time you want to you are all invited to visit.  We are anxiously awaiting Jim’s news about the next dental school.  For all your information, we are considering the reunion for June.  We will get more info to you later.  We love you all and will try to attach some pictures of the house in the snow.  Cheerio, Mom and Dad.