Hyvaa Joulua (Good Christmas) ja Hyvaa Uutta Yvotta (and a good New Year)! This Christmas Eve we are scurrying around doing last minute surprises and laundry. We thought you might enjoy these two stories about Christmas Miracles.

• Woman found alive after three days in blizzard.
• 25 foot snowman "miraculously" appears overnight in Ankorage , Alsaska.

Merry Christmas 2008 and a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas 2008 and a Happy New Year

From Our Home to Yours!

January – Newport Beach Clayton Reunion, Jonathan’s Double Thumb Surgery (Part 1), Susie’s First Birthday! Setting goals and counting blessings! Julie is called as Visiting Teacher Supervisor.

February – Beloved Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley’s funeral. Lover’s Holiday.

March – Home Remodeling (new front doors enclosed the entryway). Easter!

April – A new teeter totter, Family overnight business trip with Dad at Stein Erikson Lodge. Hannah tests for new gifted school. Rebekah got 100 % in Math on Iowa test.

May – BYU Traditions Ball for Joe and Julie (married for 11 years now)! Trip to Park City with both grandparents invited. Hannah celebrated ten years with a Backward’s Birthday Party. She is now legal to baby-sit! Half the family has Mononucleosis. Julie new Relief Society Choir Director.

June – Fishing at Vivian Park with Grandpa Campbell. Family trip to Lake Powell: popup tent trailer, scorpions, lizard hunting, and rafting out to “Bird Poop Island.”

July – Camping at Fish Lake with the Campbells, Aunt Beth, Jackson, and Lauren. Caught a few Perch and lots of smores! Rebekah celebrates her eight birthday. Jonathan celebrates his fifth with a Robot Party.

August – Rebekah is baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! School starts with Jonathan in Kindergarten, Rebekah in Third and Hannah in Fifth Grade.

September –Hannah is enjoying Concert Choir. Rebekah is Susie’s second mother. Jonathan is planning his next birthday “Snakes!” Julie is diagnosed with Sheehan’s Syndrome. Joe and Julie read aloud Breaking Dawn and Brisinger. Susie hates “bafs” (baths) and enjoys “Peek-A-Coo (Boo)!”

October – Susannah is the first of our kids to travel out of the country. She went on a cruise to Mexico, but lucky for us, she took her parents with her. Joe called as Elder’s Quorum Secretary. Rebekah needs glasses.

November – Jonathan’s surgery (Part 2). Thanksgiving: 28 place settings, a place for all! Family trip to Murray to see Dad’s new office (still at EMIA), picnic at park, fed ducks and geese and play in the snow! Joe had a business conference in San Diego. Rebekah gets one pair of glasses and gets them replaced within eight days.

December – With Christmas coming, lots of surprises are in store! Rebekah gets third pair of broken glasses replaced. Hannah sings with the Concert Choir. Jonathan draws and writes well despite his bandaged right thumb. Susie is mostly a little angel--a delight to her family. Matt and Melissa and their kids stayed with us briefly and then moved into the Arapahoe House from Arizona.

We wish you and yours a very Christ centered Christmas and a Healthy and Happy New Year 2009!

Siblings Party

Tonight Matt and Melissa hosted the annual Siblings Party at our house because they don't have a house of their own yet. (This is a tradition started by my mother's brothers and sister in which they meet the Saturday before Christmas at a siblings home, different each year, and play games, eat dinner, talk, and get to know one another again). We met on a snowy night to eat crepes, bacon, cocktail sausages, and fruit. We were treated to Beth Perri's famous caramel corn and enjoyed playing M & M relay races (boys verses girls, of course) and the "put the bean in the cup tied onto your head with chopsticks" game. After social games we divided up into groups to play The Train Game (European Edition) and Rummikub. Our children (who are not invited to attend) were watched by Doug and Andrea Ashton who played great games with them and fed them dinner and entertained them with holiday movies. P.S. Hot pink is the new Christmas color this year...along with mint green and coral, Amy informs me. (Laundry is on the back burner this crazy week).

Christmas Fun

Joe and I have been gone a lot lately with three work parties in one week! Monday night we dined with the executives at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. I do not care for steak usually but this meat was divine! Tuesday night was the company wide party held at The Red Lion Hotel. We enjoyed going with my brother David and his wife, Hyea Won. (Dave manages the new system implementation.) The dueling Pianists entertained us and so did Joe when he was called up to be the Indian in the Village rendition of YMCA. (He was a natural I tell you!) Where is my camera when I need it!? (I'll have to try and download lousy pics from my phone.) Joe made this Gingerbread house with the children on Friday night. Susie sits gazing at the finished product. Hey, what happened to the right side of the Gingerbread house?..."Was a mouse nibbling, nibbling at my house!" (Hansel and Gretel) Saturday, we ate at the Gateway at the Happy Sumo with the Actuary Department. (We ordered one of their famous rolls, The Playboy: tuna, avocado, rice, crab meat, topped with sashami (raw tuna), special sauce, and golden fish eggs). A unique experience. The children got lucky when Doug and Andrea babysat them and they played in new snow, watched a Santa movie, made and decorated Gingerbread cookies from scratch, and had hot cocoa and Butter beer (like Harry Potter...it is a spiced apple juice with butter and cream served warm).

Rebekah's New Do

As promised, I took Rebekah out for a hair cut, one-on-one attention, and to fix her second pair of glasses which broke again (yes, she has gone through two pairs of glasses in less than 18 days! It is December and I'm hoping this third pair lasts at least until January). Rebekah enjoyed the pampering and got to pick up a treat before heading home. The treat was the trouble! A tough choice...a baby bottle sucker to dip in sour powder or gushing gum with a liquid center--choices, choices!

It's Not Fair (Hannah's Winter Festival)

Ever have those days when you run and run...it was one of those days. After babysitting my brother's boys, I got a call from Hannah at school. "Mom? Last weekend I had a REALLY important note but I forgot to bring it home because I had no homework. It was to remind you of a mandatory practice yesterday and this morning (she missed both, she was sick yesterday and slept in today) for the Winter Festival! It is tonight and I need you to get me a black skirt (?!) and white shirt to wear." That phone call began several phone calls to inform Joe to come home early and to try and find somewhere that sells black skirts! After putting children to bed, laying out dinner ingredients (thanks Melissa for putting in dinner), picking up girls from school, dropping them off at song practice and piano lessons, running to three stores and home for dinner...Then the drama began. "Rebekah, "Mom! It's not fair! Hannah gets new tights, new shoes, a new skirt and shirt for no reason!" Me "Rebekah, does Hannah have a black skirt or shoes that fit?" "No! But she shouldn't get presents for no reason!" You get the idea. I promised Rebekah a time to get her hair cut and glasses fixed (again) tomorrow. We all enjoyed the "Winter Festival" (Too bad that it isn't called a Christmas Choir Concert...must be politically correct, I guess). Susannah kept pulling on my arm to see Hannah close up and to say,"Han-nah, sing-ing, mue-gak (music), etc. That is why the film is soo bumpy).

A New Drink Sensation

I was watching my brothers boys and Susie this morning. Susie was thirsty but I kept putting her off for some reason or the other and so finally she did what anyone that was thirsty would do...She helped herself. A new drink sensation--think it will catch on?

Screaming at Santa Claus

This morning was the BYU Christmas Party on campus. The children enjoyed making crafts (Hannah a calendar, Rebekah and Jonathan designed Santa's Toy Boxes and Susie made a jingle bell bracelet with my help). We ate doughnuts and juice, played games, and saw great performances while we waited in an almost two hour line to see Santa. (Last year we missed getting in the Santa line early enough and we were not able to, Rebekah was disappointed). While waiting Jonathan discovered a hole in the wall. Rebekah posed as a reindeer. This year, Jonathan enjoyed talking to Santa. When Susie was put near Santa, she began to scream! After, she sulked in Joe's arms. Hannah enjoyed the balloon games.

Is Your Mama a Llama?

Patience...Picking up photos at the Mall on Friday night was wild. At home, our children raced to the door to find carolers with a real live llama! Susie has had a fascination with the book/scholastic production of Is Your Mama a Llama. The carolers were collecting food for the Food Bank and bringing Christmas cheer. So, is your mama a llama?

Baby Sleep Post

I wish I knew the title of this piece or how to get a link to it (without subscribing to the Wall Street Journal). It seems to hold relevant info on children sleep. If you have any thought, please comment below.

By ELENA CHERNEY Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL November 15, 2005; Page D1 It's one of civilization's most vexing problems: How to get a crying baby to fall asleep. Some of the nation's leading sleep authorities are softening their long-held positions. In a coming new edition of his landmark 1985 book, pediatrician Richard Ferber is backing off his controversial system for training babies to sleep. The approach, which involves leaving a child to cry for progressively longer intervals until he or she falls asleep, has many ardent followers. But the crying method has also drawn loud criticism as being neglectful. Dr. Ferber now says that letting children cry "was not meant to be the way to treat all sleep problems" and his updated book, coming this spring, will make it clear that he offers other solutions besides crying. THE SLEEP LANDSCAPE Take a look at some views on infants sleep.At the same time, pediatrician William Sears, the most prominent opponent of the Ferber method, is relaxing his so-called attachment parenting approach that dictates, among other things, that parents respond to their children on demand, day or night. Dr. Sears has long advised parents to sleep with their children and to view nighttime as a chance to do more parenting -- say, by sitting up with them if they protest bedtime. But in his new book published last month, "The Baby Sleep Book," Dr. Sears tells parents that they, too, need to get some rest. For example, he suggests that if the mother is sleep-deprived, it may be time to wean the baby off nighttime feedings. These shifts are among the latest in a flurry of new guidance that seems aimed at offering practical solutions for parents -- neither too harsh nor too permissive. Last month, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a series of pronouncements on sleep strategies, from a task force convened to combat sudden infant death syndrome. Among the suggestions: Parents should try using a pacifier to soothe infants to sleep -- despite concerns artificial nipples may interfere with breast feeding. The group recommended for the first time against the increasingly popular practice of babies sharing their parents' beds, after concluding that it is associated with a higher risk of SIDS. But they said the crib should be in the parents' room, so as to remain close. There is certainly no clear magic bullet yet to get children to sleep, and the efficacy of any approach will vary from family to family. But many parenting experts say this new round of advice represents a welcome break in a debate that had become increasingly caustic, with experts and their followers often hurling public criticisms at one another. Much of the argument has played out on Internet message boards, where the tone has gotten so intense that one Web site, ivillage.com, banned discussion of different approaches from its sleep-training forum. "We don't want people to feel attacked," says Tamara Amey, an ivillage forum moderator. The quest by busy, affluent parents to get a good night's sleep has spawned a huge advice industry in recent years, with experts touting books, videos and private sleep-consulting services. Products to help babies to sleep are a booming business: A Toys "R" Us Inc. spokeswoman says new offerings arrive all the time. Popular items at the store now range from fleece swaddling blankets with Velcro fasteners to remote-controlled crib mobiles. A host of book authors have found success mining a middle ground between the two poles traditionally represented by Drs. Ferber and Sears. Pediatrician Marc Weissbluth, whose "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" sold 500,000 copies and has just been reprinted in hardcover with a new introduction, emphasizes frequent naps and putting the child down drowsy but awake. And last May, Elizabeth Pantley published a sleep book focused on toddlers and preschoolers, as a follow-up to her 2000 "No Cry Sleep Solution" for infants. Dr. Sears wrote a foreword to her first sleep book, but Ms. Pantley says she advises gradual bedtime routines as a middle ground between the "nighttime neglect" of the Ferber method, and the demands on parental sleep that come with Dr. Sears's method. There are still plenty of points on which the experts disagree -- particularly when it comes to babies sharing their parents' beds. Despite the AAP's recommendation against so-called co-sleeping, many experts continue to recommend it. Co-sleeping is central to the attachment parenting approach touted by Dr. Sears and others. Even Dr. Ferber, who had been opposed to the practice, now says that sharing a bed can be effective for families. Already some sleep experts are challenging the AAP's recommendation. Judith Owens, the director of the Pediatric Sleep Clinic at Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence, R.I., says co-sleeping has been shown to be safe in other parts of the world where almost all babies sleep with their parents. In her own book published last month, "Take Charge of Your Child's Sleep," Dr. Owens says that bed-sharing is a safe alternative for families. Dr. Ferber, 61, says that he has been largely misunderstood. When he first published his book in 1985, "there weren't any others," he says. The book, which has been reprinted 45 times, contains advice on a range of sleep issues, from bed-wetting to teens who can't get up for school on time. But he is most known for his signature controlled-crying method, which involves leaving a baby alone in the crib to cry for progressively longer intervals until he or she falls asleep. Parents are instructed to go into the room at the end of each interval to console -- but not touch or pick up -- the child. Dr. Ferber, who is also director of the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders at Children's Hospital in Boston, says that now, "we've had a lot more experience. There really are a lot of different ways" for children to learn good sleep habits. Dr. Ferber says that he will be revising his book because some parts need to be updated. For instance, he says new research suggests that babies don't need as much sleep as he originally advised. And he wants to clarify that his crying technique was targeted at a specific problem: the child who can fall asleep only while being rocked or held. While he still presents this approach in his new edition, he says he tells parents they can use gradual steps to wean a child off of rocking and soothing behaviors. And he clarifies that some children such as those suffering from anxiety will not be helped by the crying method. Krista Rushing, a mother of a 2-year-old boy in West Monroe, La., has not been a fan of Dr. Ferber's classic method, and says she always goes to her son when he wakes in the night. "It's a good thing" Dr. Ferber is revising his book, she says. Dr. Sears, whose new book is one of several written with his wife Martha, had long disparaged Dr. Ferber's method -- often called "Ferberizing." The Searses tell parents that such methods are appropriate for training pets, not raising children. In softening his own approach, Dr. Sears says he now thinks his earlier books placed too much emphasis on catering to the baby's needs, and did not address the parents' needs enough. "It's also a parent-centered approach," he says of his new book. "What your baby needs is a happy, rested mother."

Playing Catch Up

For those interested, I added a bunch of back posts to "play a little catch up" today. Enjoy!

Where are you Christmas?

I have been thinking over this post for quite awhile...I am not sure how Christmas went from magical to mayhem. I have indeed "lost the spirit" over the last several years and really want to capture the magic again. (I suppose hormones and morning sickness five of the ten Christmases we have been married so far has not helped). This year I will vow to s-l-o-w down and savor my children and the magic that comes with the holidays. I want to remember why we celebrate this time of year. It is Jesus' birth and the light He brings this dark time of year that gives us hope. I will pray to have more spirit with me each day. light Snow? Where are you? (I am thankful to not drive in you). It does not yet seem like Christmas is coming without the snow. I will be put on outdoor clothes and try and find the joy in the cold, wet stuff with my little ones this year (cheerfully). What do you do in your family to feel "The magic of the holidays"?

Harry Potter Hair

I went to a Relief Society Christmas Party tonight and when I came home Joe had most of the children in bed (amazing man!) except Susie. Susie had this incredible hair...it stood straight out and was springy and would not lay down. "What happened to Susie hair, Joe?" I asked. "I don't know...is there anything wrong with Susie's hair...Oh!" Joe's attention is once again on World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion (which came out November 13, of course!).

Abounding in Blessings

Today, I was thinking of the many blessings I am thankful for. Each day I will add some to my list. What are some of your blessings?

1. A cozy house (I love the sound of the heater rushing through vents or from the gas fireplace).
2. The chance to "act crazy" and dance with abandon with my "little billies." (Billie goats=kids).
3. That there were no cars in the parking lot when Susie ran into the road while I was unlocking the car and putting groceries down...whew! My heart sure works well!
4. Having a car that works. I had the battery replaced and stereo reset (anti-theft lock) today.
5. Being able to run to my children's school (1 m. away, carrying 5 yr. old son)...I am stiff, but still have my health.
6. Warm baths. Susie deciding to join me in the bath after hiding in my closet in her "no bafs" stage currently.
7. Soft, warm beds.
8. Library (free) Feliz Navidad Celebration with crafts, treats, fishing pond, and entertainment which was most of our FHE tonight. (Forgot the camera, dangit!)
9. A wonderful husband who comes home to us!
10. A man who likes out homemade (leftovers) Thanksgiving Turkey Soup.
11. "Seal" (cereal--Cheerios) because it will be tolerated by a picky little eater (Susie) when Turkey Soup, mandarin orange slices (canned or fresh), meringue crust, chocolate pie, Jello, and toast just won't do!
12. Liquid Advil which brings down Jonathan's 103.6 fever tonight (12/2/08) when he stumbles in our room compaining of hot ears at midnight.
13. Dove Dark chocolates which are a "mouth party" on days when I do not have enough energy to be the kind of mom I want to be and turn into a "growling monster," who then has to repent and be an apologizing mother.
14. (12/5)Kiddie Kandids and the fact that I can can my pictures and CD home with me on the day of the dreaded (and never perfect, Ugh!) Family pictures.
15. The carolers who came to our house with a live lama and were collecting food donations for the Food Bank! Thanks for the great example of service for my children...They loved petting the friendly lama.
16. For Rebekah who asked "Can anyone be Santa?" after our Family Testimony Meeting on Fast Sunday. When I mentioned that Santa has helpers, she countered with "Well, I would much rather have a Christmas without Santa Claus, then a Christmas without Jesus! It wouldn't be much of a Christmas without Jesus!"
17. (12/14/08) Sweet Rebekah illustrated a card to Joe and I during church today with a plate, a teddy bear mug, a present, and garland on it. Inside (in he best handwriting...she is working on it) she wrote,"Dear Mom and Dad, thank you for everything you do. I want to thank dad, for going to work and to meetings snf to thank mom, for doing house work, taking care of children and most of all, just being my mom Love, Rebekah" (!) So sweet.
18. I am thankful for Benedryl because Hannah is still set on her dream of riding Horses and horse lessons (if she can't own one) and she and Mom are highly allergic!
19. (12/16/08) I am thankful for Linda P. and Valine for hand making felt socks which hold a mini-Christmas inside for my children and for their delicious homemade choicolates and original watercolor which now graces my vetibule.
20. I am thankful to the Primary for organizing a spiritual, CHristmas program which involved teaching my children songs about the birth of baby Jesus and the real reason of Christmas. Hannah made a glorious angel and I helped R and J be great shepards...including stuffed sheep.
21. SNOW! Thank goodness we got some today so we can (hopefully) enjoy a white Christmas!