Our Christmas Letter--

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A White Christmas... in Southern California

We got snow once again in Yucca Valley :) On Monday, we had a bit stick on the ground. A friend and I were out driving and the roads were getting really slick, just west of our home. All after school events were cancelled, Scott was home shortly after 2pm (I loved it!!).

Tuesday was beautiful. It didn't snow. Here is a picture of the mountains (or hills for those of you who have been to Utah).

We woke up on Wednesday to a ton of snow. Okay, it was about 6 inches...but still. School was cancelled. When you live somewhere like here, no one has snow shovels, or snow plows.

School was also cancelled on Thursday. We ended up getting 1 1/2 - 2 feet of snow. I could only find one of Jacen's mittens (from last year when we went to Utah) so he had so wear some of my cotton gloves. He didn't mind one bit. Here is a picture of our back yard (with the house on the hill in the background) and a shot of me and Jacen.

Jacen playing in the snow :) He was loving it!

The walkway to our front door. Just past that second window is our front door. The snow came off the roof and landed directly on our walkway. (we got a package delivered today and the Mail Lady somehow found our front door.)

A shot from the street, of our house :)





The 3-4 foot pile of snow right out our front door, and all along our walkway. (Honestly how did the Mail Lady find us?)

Jacen eating some snow.

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Scott shoveling our driveway on

Thursday with a regular round headed shovel, and a short sleeve shirt. It was warming up fast. He actually came in and got shorts on (only in sunny California can you shovel snow and not freeze while wearing a short sleeve shirt and shorts.) We were able to get to my doctor's appointment and pick up our babysitter without our street being plowed.

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Today (Friday) the district tried to have school. Yucca Valley's roads were not plowed enough for the buses to pick up the kids. Only the main roads got plowed and a bus stop is at the end of our non-plowed road. Scott got to school to find that the parking lots were not plowed. Once the first bell rang, school was cancelled. Scott had a whole 7 people in his class (and that was a lot compared to some of the other classes).

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Jacen just loved having his Daddy home....now if only he didn't have to make up the days!!

Our Halloween (a little late)

We were finally able to carve our pumpkin on Halloween afternoon. Jacen loved helping me get out all the guts.






Jacen with the finished product...Playing with us...he was probably wondering why I kept taking more and more pictures!!

No one really goes door to door here. There are no sidewalks or

streetlights. So we have a Trunk or Treat at the church on Halloween night.

Jacen was Scooby Doo. He wanted nothing to do with the "dog hat". I was able to get this picture in the one second he wore it for me.





Jacen was the happiest kid after he got his first handful of candy. There was a sucker in the mix and he was so happy. All he wanted was that sucker opened. He ate his sucker while walking around to all the cars. He would have been content playing with everyones dogs, instead of trick or treating.




I think our friend Becky is actually telling me to wait to take the picture...oh well we never got a better one. This is Jacen with Becky Truncale, Suzy Dick and their dogs.

Here is Jacen with his friend Kacie. (there are pictures of the two of them here from last year.) Next year we will have to get all his friends together for a picture.

Our Little Driver

The other day all Jacen wanted to do was sit in the car and "drive it". He asked for the keys, and knew where to put them.





He would have played out there all day if I would have let him :) What a cutie!

My Belly

Well, I had Scott take a few pictures of me on Friday :) Too bad they are not cute. It was late! Hello, cheesy smile. And it doesn't even look like that..oh well!!


When I was pregnant with Jacen I took a picture the day I had each doctors appointment. I decided I will follow that same pattern, starting now. So, here I am the day of this months appointment, I was 21 weeks, 5 days. I am in that weird stage when regular clothes don't fit but neither do maternity clothes. Pants now have to be maternity, no choice there :) I am enjoying pregnancy so far.



Oh and if you are wanting to run after a child while pregnant...ummm don't if you can avoid it!! Jacen got hurt and I ran from one side of our house to the other. Once I saved him I couldn't move...it took 3 days for me to feel normal (well pregnant normal) again.

What we have been up to...

Lets start with Jacen:


Jacen is now 20 months and growing up really fast. He has been going to Nursery at church and loves every minute of it. Actually, about a month before he was old enough he would cry to go in there. Let's just say, Jacen didn't need us to stick around his first time to Nursery.

Jacen is also in a toddler bed. When we returned from Hawaii, he was wanting to sleep in our bed at night. Thankfully a toddler bed was handed down to us from my sisters and was already in our garage. It was so wonderful to have it already. Then every night it was his choice, his crib or his bed. He is now a full time toddler bed sleeper :) And we are so excited our bed is not an option :)




He also loves to put on any and all of his dad's shoes. If you ever come to our house and there are shoes everywhere it isn't because we don't put them away.






Jacen also loves Blues Clues! We bought ourselves a new bed and put our old bed in the office. Jacen loves watching Blues Clues on the bed and just lounging around.

Scott:



Where to start with Scott....ummm lets start with our new car. Yep, that is a Mustang Convertible in our garage. It is silver and very nice. I always wanted a Mustang and Scott said it was a gas guzzler....so I never thought that I would get a Mustang. (My mom is all about Mustangs, so I guess I was raised loving them.) Red would have been my choice but hey I guess I will take what I can get :)

Okay so the truth is....it was only ours.....well it was only in our possession for 24 hours. Scott picked it up from the dealer with only 25 miles on the odometer Friday, October 3rd. Then he got to drive it around the track at the Homecoming Football Game...and we returned it after General Conference Saturday. We should have gotten a picture of me in the car...duhhh!!! Oh well maybe next time!

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Scott is still over the Drama Club at the high school. Right now they are rehearsing for their up coming play, A Few Good Men. The show dates are November 3&4, and 7&8 :)

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Scott also took on the Yearbook this year. He is loving it. And, coming up in November...Soccer. Scott is going to be the Varsity Soccer Coach. He is so excited for the season to start.

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and for Me:

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Well, I have made it past my half way mark!! Sunday, I was officially 20 weeks along in my pregnancy. Our baby BOY is due March 1st. We are so excited to bring another boy into our family. Jacen turns two February 8th, so they will be just over 2 years apart. Pictures of my prego belly to come...I have to take one first :)

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Oh and at our ultrasound the doctor pointed out that the Baby had his ankles crossed. As you can tell from the picture above of Jacen on the bed...he is always sitting with his ankles crossed. Too cute!!

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The mattress was also for me...it will make nights so much better especially once I hit the third trimester. I love that we now have a guest bed. Now we just need guests!! So come on over!!

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I have been feeling really good since week 13. I had so much energy that all I have been wanting to do is clean and organize. I really want to start Jacen's scrapbook. Hopefully that gets started soon...he is already 20 months for crying out loud. I have been getting photos from Arts Cow. It is so great (thanks Laura for passing it on). Free photos and shipping is only $10. Check it out.

And one post of Maui

We were in love with Maui. We have no idea why we left the beauty of Maui for Yucca Valley. Anyway, here are some last pictures of our trip.

We went on The Road to Hana. It was so extremely beautiful. Here are some of the pictures we took as we spent the day on this long road of beauty.

The road to Hana is 52 miles of undeveloped road, 56 one-lane bridges and 617 curves. Not to mention all the beautiful waterfalls...how come I can't find a count of the waterfalls online??

Scott and I were able to leave Jacen with his Grandma and Grandpa while we took a hike down to a black sand beach. The water was warm.

We also went on a glass bottom boat. The one we booked was with the Four Winds II. Scott had his eye on it from the first day we started thinking about going to Hawaii. This adventure was so fun, another high on the list. Jacen loved it, too.

Scott and I were most excited about the opportunity to snorkel from the boat. Jacen would have more time with Grandma and Grandpa Phillips. Right when they anchored the boat Jacen fell asleep. This was the best thing ever. We didn't have to worry about him tiring out Grandma and Grandpa and getting into mischief.

I had never snorkeled before so I had the time of my life. I was so tired and hungry when we returned to the ship. Good thing we had lunch waiting for us :)

We took pictures underwater as we snorkeled. I don't think they really captured it well enough. Just believe me, it was pretty. If you really want to see some fish, I will post them later. From the ship we saw some Sea Turtles. They were so cool. The ship stopped so everyone could get pictures :)

Our Condo was really nice. Scott had his mind set on this condo from the beginning. At one point we thought it was all booked and you would have thought our trip was completely canceled :) Good thing when we called them directly they hooked us up with a room, and not just any room, but one close to the ocean. Here are some pictures of The Maui Sunset, the condo we stayed at.

Here we are having family time at the pool. Grandma snuck some pictures from our Lanai, or balcony as we call it on the mainland.

We really enjoyed being so close to the beach. We were often entertained by the people riding the ocean. Here are some pictures that try to capture how cool Kite Surfing is (we learned what it was called while watching the show Wanna Bet of all places). They would get such air that it was hard to catch them on the camera.

It was truly beautiful in Hawaii!! Well, there you have it!! You are probably grateful I am done sharing our trip to Hawaii :) It was the time of our lives. And, the best part was that Jacen was under 2 so we didn't have to buy him a plane ticket. Would you believe we got 3 seats on 2 of our 3 flights? (The plane from Oahu to Maui was a small plane anyway so we would have had to sit seperate to get 3 seats.) They fed us too :) I love Hawaiian Air :)

One Last Post of Oahu

I know I am probably boring you to death but I just wanted to share a few last pictures from Oahu.

We all went over to the Arizona Memorial. I think Jacen's favorite part was the ride over to it...oh well! We were grateful that there were fish in the water to entertain him while we were there.



Then our little family headed over to the Missouri. We enjoyed touring it. Scott loved the large guns on the front of the ship. While on the ship I noticed two large stacks of hard green hats. I thought for sure they were going to be bolted down...but they weren't. Jacen enjoyed wearing one. I think the picture is super cute.

The church building in Waikiki has an open courtyard. It was really pretty with all sorts of Hawaiian plants. The building was beautiful. I have not seen one quite like it. It had a mural of Jesus on the front. The building said "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints -- Honolulu Tabernacle"

The Saturday after we left they had an open house for people to tour the building and learn more about it, and our religion.

The Polynesian Cultural Center & The Laie Temple

The Polynesian Cultural Center was one of my favorite things of the whole trip. We were entertained, and loved all the activities we got to take part in. Do you see the guys climbing the trees??

Did you know...The PCC functions as an extension of BYU-Hawaii classrooms?? Over 750 BYU-Hawaii students currently work at the Center each semester. Awesome huh!!

We actually spent two days at all the events of the Polynesian Cultural Center. Scott pushed his dad in a wheel chair these two days since there was so much walking. We went to a Luau which had such good food. The family we were seated with had already been to Maui and gave us lots of tips on the sites there.

We also went to the night show, now that was neat. Jacen was trying so hard to stay awake during the whole thing. He fell asleep right before the fire dancing. Scott really wanted to wake him up for it. I was okay with it. Can you imagine a 18mo old thinking he can play

with fire? Actually, the next morning he was reenacting some of the dances and songs we had heard. He had kitchen utensils in hand, banging on the couch as though it was a set of drums, making sure to hit all the cushions as part of his performance. It was fun to see how much he loved the shows.

BYU-Hawaii is right next to the Polynesian Cultural Center and the temple. We drove around campus. Here is a picture of the Laie Temple. It is so pretty.

We spent some time in the Visitors Center of the temple watching videos and such. Jacen loved the Christus Statue. He couldn't stop running over to it saying, "Jesus" while pointing to the Christus.