FAREWELL, 2009!

New Year's Eve was spent at home with fun, food, games, movies, popcorn, and treats. But, sadly, no fireworks. We all pooped out before midnight. LAME!!!!

Resolutions:

Do better at everything, work harder, play more, laugh more!!! That pretty much sums it up. No really.....

BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT.....LIKE.... EVER!!!

This picture is of the two missionaries, Elder Lee and Elder Smith, who helped to change our lives. They were amazing. So mature, so wise.

Rob got baptized on Saturday, December 26th. I was in such shock and disbelief that I didn't take any pictures that day. Ugh....I am just sick about that. One of the missionaries did, and I am hoping to get copies. Rob finally realized that he has always had a testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel and allowed these missionaries to teach to an open heart and open mind. He asked Ben Thibaudeau, an amazing friend and mentor, to sit in on the discussions. Ben contributed so much to the lessons and can relate to Rob on so many levels. I remember Rob saying after playing basketball with Ben at the church quite a bit recently that he wanted to be more like Ben: calm, peaceful, a good husband, a good father, priorities right, selfless, and kind. I am so grateful to Ben for his example then and for his continuing example and friendship.

Rob was baptized by my Dad. My Mom and brother, Cameron gave talks. (Again, such a blur that I don't remember who talked on what.) All of the LaDukes, including grandchildren and my dear friend, Spring Thibaudeau, sang "I Am A Child of God."

The next day at church, he was confirmed by Bishop Rick Davis, who means a lot to Rob.

We celebrated with family back at home with delicious homemade tamales (not made by me, of course - but I did make the salsa.)

I am excited for the future.....................

CHRISTMAS EVE!!

Traditionally, the kids got to open up one present at home on Christmas Eve. And....SURPRISE!! It's pajamas!!

I hope these two kiddos always love each other as much as they do in this moment.

Then we headed over to Mike and Lora's house for a feast and downpour of presents. I love watching the kids with their Grandpa Powers. He gets such a joy out of them.

I think Gage looks like Grandpa Powers.

These kids get so spoiled by their Powers aunts, uncles and cousins. I love how much they love our children. They get so excited to give them gifts and watch them open with anticipation.

Oh, how Bella loves Tinkerbell. She sleeps with this one.

This accurately captures how excited Gage is the whole time we are there.

We love the Powers family and are blessed to be a part. Uncle Mike and Aunt Lora are, as always, the perfect hosts. Thank you!

MEMORIES

Life has been especially busy these last few months and I haven't posted here in a while. But, I did manage to jot some things down on paper so I could record them here later. Here we go:

I can't remember where she learned it or why, but Paisley walks around reaching her hand up to pinch everyone's nose, and she wants the person to say, "P...U!" Then she wants you to do it to her. She gets the biggest kick out of it.

Paisley's nickname is "The Tank", for obvious reasons. That girl is so tough. She falls probably 1000 times a day, one way or another, and sometimes they are really bad falls where I'm expecting a scream and cry. But she just pops right back up and keeps on her path.

Everytime I laugh, Paisley mimics me and lets out a big laugh. Even if I'm in another room and laugh, she'll come running in there so she can laugh with me.

Bella is our little princess. She's as girly as they come. She loves lip gloss and fingernail polish (so much that she sleeps with them clutched in her hands). She loves playing dress-up and putting on my shoes. She is so full of joy and lights up a room. Each night we have a little bedtime ritual that includes scriptures, books, storytime, asking them the five questions (that I'll write more about later) and then tucking them in and giving hugs and kisses. Then they'll each tell me how much they love me. "I love you all the way up to the stars and back, etc." The cutest one that Bella says and came up with on her own is, "I love you all the way up to the mountain temples and back."

Bella's hair gets very tangled. We have to use de-tangling spray and be very gentle. Everytime we unknowingly hit one as we're brushing, she lets out a little yelp. We were driving through a parking lot and went over a speed bump. Bella said, "Oh! There was a tangle in the road!"

I was talking to the kids about Christmas and emphasizing what it was really about. I told them that it was to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Bella got so excited and asked, "Can I have some of His birthday cake??"

On Christmas Eve, while we were at Uncle Mike and Aunt Lora's house, Bella was talking to Papa Powers. She was having this conversation with him and I realized that she was just speaking the words to "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." So, it went like this, "Hey, Papa. You know....you better watch out.........Papa, you better not cry." It was hilarious. Papa was very confused.

Bella loves to sing. She walks around just singing all kinds of songs, real ones, made-up ones. Even when she is just talking, she does it in a sing-songy voice.

Some of Gage's quotes:

"Mom, I had a troublesome night last night." (who says troublesome?)

He used the word "although" the other night and used it correctly. So funny.

Gage: Mom, Gabriel in my class talks funny. He says, "tamily" instead of "family". Mom: Well, sometimes kids say words differently. Just be nice to him.

Gage: Yeah. He must be from Oregon or something.
(??? I guess Gage things if you're from Oregon you talk funny.)

Little white lies seem to always find a way of creeping back up and biting you in the bum. All the Christmas presents were stashed in my closet awaiting being wrapped. Gage and Bella went in there to play a game and Gage spotted something and immediately asked about it. I started to come up with some story to cover, but Rob beat me to the punch. He told the kids that they couldn't go in there because it was infested with flies and until we sprayed, they weren't allowed to play in there because they might get sick. They seemed to buy it and didn't ask any questions. Phew! A few hours later, Gage told me (in his daily-dramatic-incident-style) that his tummy hurt and he thinks it's because he spent too much time in the fly-infested closet. Ha!

The missionaries came over on Christmas Day to share a Christmas message with us. After they finished, Gage ran upstairs and grabbed his pirates book that is small. He said they were his scriptures and he wanted to give us a message. He stood up in front of all of us and pretended to read things from his "scriptures". It was a full-on Christmas devotional and went on for about 3 minutes. It was so cute.

TEMPLE LIGHTS

We took our traditional trip to the see the Temple lights, which are always amazing. This year was special because we got to share it with the Thibaudeaus, the Pecks, and Scott Shook.

We are completely bundled up - total wimps!!

Bella found her holiday cheer!!

ALMOST A CHRISTMAS CARD

Here are a couple of options of what our Christmas cards would have looked like, had I done Christmas cards. Too bad, because I really liked these outfits. I'm not sure why Bella seems to be missing out on all the Christmas cheer.

There's always next year!!!!