Jingle Bells

12/15/09

Hayden learned to sing Jingle Bells at school. We had a pop up book Jingle Bells book and Hayden would sit and read the book every day.

Christmas Books

This year I wrapped up 24 of my many many Christmas books. The plan was to open one a day for our bedtime story. It started out so well but one day I came home and almost all of the books had been open by the little girl next door (aka Brea). It was really fun the days we did it. We will try again next year and hope that it works out better.

UESP Christmas Party

12/03/09

Joe's company, UESP, had a Christmas party this year and the families were invited. They served a nice dinner and then had Santa Claus come to see the children. Each child sat on Santa's lap and got a gift. i was really impressed with the gift. It was a cute stocking that was stuffed full. It had an apple, an orange a pencil, stickers, a virtual pet and a little game.

Last Hayden was afraid of Santa Claus. This year he was so excited to sit on Santa's lap and tell him he wanted a football helmet and football clothes. I kow he was so excited but looking back at these pictures he looks terrified.

He sat on Santa's lap and stuck out his hand and said, "Hi, I'm Hayden. Nice to meet you."

Parker was a different story. He really was terrified by Santa. He did not want to sit on his lap at all. We will see how he does next year.

Oh Christmas Tree

11/27/09

The day after we decided that we were going to beginning a new family tradition. We bought a permit ($5.00) to cut down our Christmas tree. Our permit was for an area of BLM land by Cove Fort. Joe's mom and sister came with us so I could help with the tree and we would have help with the boys. We thought it would be fun to pull the boys on a sled through the snow. At first unfortunately but later thankfully there wasn't any snow.

Our permit was for a juniper tree. Do you know what they look like? I didn't, but now I do. They are so ugly. It doesn't look at all like a Christmas tree. It looks like a bush with tiny berries. When we got to our destination and saw these ugly trees we wondered what we were going to do. You could see were people had been cutting trees down and it appeared as if they cut the ugly bush into the shape of a Christmas tree.

We were preparing to do the same when we saw a cute little tree all by itself. We cut it down. (We may or may not have been where we were supposed to be and it may or may not have been a juniper tree.) We cut our cute little tree down and loaded it in the truck and enjoyed some hot chocolate.

Joe carrying our tree

Hot chocolate mustache

We drove two cars so that the tree could be in the truck. But Cris, Jill, the boys and I were in the van. As we were leaving I needed to turn the car around. I didn't notice a tree stump and I got the car stuck. It took forever to get it out. We tried everything. Basically, I couldn't go forward because of all the under carriage stuff and I couldn't go backwards because of the bumper. We were seriously stuck.

After surveying the problem and sawing off some of the stump, Chris decided that if we could get the car high enough we could get off the stump. We jacked the car up and piled rocks under the tire and tried to get out. it still wouldn't work.

Parker was on my back in the Ergo keeping warm. He fell asleep and I put him back in his car seat.

We called my trusty brother-in-law Mike. He was going to pull us out by putting a strap on our van and pulling us out with his SUV. This didn't work either. Then he decided Chris really was on to something. We jacked the car up again and put lots of rocks under the tire again.

It finally worked!

This is what we were stuck on.

I am so glad Chris and Jill were there to help and so extremely grateful Mike came to our rescue.

Unfortunately the excitement didn't end there. After putting the tree up it fell over three times and we finally had to buy a bigger tree stand. Half of the lights didn't work so we ended up buying all new lights. what was supposed to cost $5.00 ended up costing a whole lot more.

The tree was so poky we were covered with rashes and scratches. I think this tradition began and ended all on the same day.

Even though it wasn't the most enjoyable experience it was very memorable. The best part was the wonderful scent of a freshly cut evergreen tree.

Merry Christmas

Dear Family and Friends,

With the end of the year approaching, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all of the love and friendship you have shown to us. It was a busy year for our family, but we are healthy, happy, and look forward for more of the same next year!

Late last year, our family was joined by Parker Theron Young. What a blessing he has been in our home! He has an extremely cute smile and very large bright blue eyes. He has a sweet spirit that is perfect for our family. We look forward to him continuing to develop and grow this upcoming year.

Parker is lucky to have the best big brother a little kid could ask for. Hayden and Parker were obviously meant to be brothers. Their “good night hugs” before bed melt my heart. I secretly love it when I hear the two of them “talking” to each other late at night after they should be asleep.

Hayden has developed into an independent smarty-pants kid, and he is a joy to be around. He still loves sports, and is hoping for a football helmet from Santa Claus this year. If you are ever feeling a little down, strike up a conversation with this little fella and you’ll be smiling in no time.

Both Hayden and Parker have a special bond, I believe, with their brother Scott, who was stillborn two years ago. We visit Scott often at the Riverton Cemetery and do a lot of activities throughout the year to remember him. There is nothing sweeter than hearing Hayden talk about his angel brother.

My wife Jessica continues to amaze me all of the time. She is extremely smart and knows exactly what she is doing all of the time. Halfway through the year we determined that Jessica needed to go back to teaching for this school year. Even in this struggling job economy, she had two job offers with seemingly no effort at all. She is teaching third grade at South Jordan Elementary School, and has already made some changes for the better in the classroom. Even though I can tell she loves being in the classroom, it is apparent that her calling in life is to be a mother, and she does a wonderful job raising her boys. I am amazed at how well she can influence their behavior, and I have no doubt that our children will grow up to be good men some day because of her.

And then there’s me, the dad. This year I graduated with an MBA from the University of Utah (in case you were wondering, my November allegiances remain unchanged). I am still looking for a new and improved job, so if you know of any job opportunities, please keep me in mind! In the meantime, I go to work and then come home and do the best that I can at being a good dad.

More than anything else in the world, I love playing with my boys. I am thrilled that Hayden has started to learn how to play hide and seek, and that Parker has learned to walk so that we can soon play tackle football. I love being with my wife, even if the only alone time we spend together is right before bed when we can squeeze in a crossword puzzle before falling asleep. I have a lot of improvement to make as a father and husband, but I am grateful that my family loves me, and that’s all that I care about.

Mostly at this time of year, we would like to bear our testimony that God lives. I have seen His hand in my life so much, and I have felt the Spirit of God work in my heart so many times, that it is undeniable to me. Though we have trials, somehow we always get through them and afterwards we can look back and proclaim that Heavenly Father had been directing our path all along. I really believe that to be true. We are grateful for a living Christ, that we can repent and improve ourselves. Because He lives, he has the ability to play an active living role in our lives. We know that through Him we can all be return to live with Him for eternity, and be reunited with our families forever.

We hope that we can all take a few moments during the busy season to ponder His majesty, and to take a few moments in humble prayer to thank our Heavenly Father for the gift of His Son.

Love,
The Youngs