A nice Christmas Morning

We didn't wake up at the crack of dawn this year. BUT Mom did find big teenage boys sneaking around the house at 1am!!! OK the gig is up. Mom even set up some items that would have to be moved in order to get to particular areas in the house and voila! Caught. Busted. Dust. So Mom just went to bed knowing that she'd get more sleep than the sneaky boys. :)

Merry Christmas to all!

Hoursie!!!!

I was on the phone with Mark just after I finished our Christmas entry on our blog, here. We were chatting about work stuff while Kathryn buzzed around the room playing with her dolls. In the back of my mind, while I was listening to Mark, I heard paper and "Hoursie!!!" and more paper. It took me about 30 seconds to register and I swung around to see Kathryn ripping open her previously completely ignored present by the Christmas three. It was indeed her horse and it is a big box so there was a good amount of paper to get through. I asked Mark to hold on, I grabbed the camera and recorded this part of the moment:

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!

We want all of our family, friends, coworkers, and neighbors to know that we are very grateful for all of the kindness and support during a very busy and challenging 2008 year!

During this year we've seen major changes in every aspect of our lives.

Our Lauren is off at her first year of college and working through the many challenges of balancing collegiate sports, college courses, a social life, her spiritual growth and just plain the newness of adulthood. She's a tremendous woman and we are very happy for all of her good friends, leaders and coaches who support her day in and day out. We are REALLY excited to see her for Christmas.

Christian is a new Senior at his Dad's alma mater-go Creek! He is having a great time and has great friends. He's in the Stake Youth leadership and working. Christian is still swimming and ran cross country this fall. He has put out his college applications and we're going to know this next spring where life will take him in the fall. He'll be 18 in January! Another adult in the family! We're very proud of his positive outlook and support with a move and adjustments during this last year of high school. What a great guy.

Jonathan is a Jr and really likes TCHS as well. He has been busy with football and is now around more. I think he's relieved to be able to have more study time. Jonathan is driving now! He got his license the day before the family drove out of Las Vegas, Whew! Good thing he passed. :) He is a wiz with the computer stuff in our house. You want to talk electronics, he's a buzz. As for this coming year, he gets to look forward to ACT's, SAT's and pre college stuff. Fun Fun!

Michael is a freshman at TCHS in the IB program there. He swims and also ran cross country this fall. He still loves his scouting (even after the Eagle was earned). Needless to say, Michael is a busy guy. Still social, and how do we know? He out-texted his brothers 3 to 1! Michael is still our science and math guy. He was just doing his egg drop project with a friend today. I think they liked watching the egg drop and break off the balcony!

Kathryn is 2 and really into that age! We love having her around. She is learning her colors and some letters. She loves to jump in the pool with her siblings. She seems to trust them all in the water-I wonder why? Kathryn loves Lauren's silly videos, Jonathan's babysitting, Michael's tickles, and Christian's attempts to not have her scream at him. She has started to warm up to others beyond Mom, but that seems to be a slow process.

Mark and Sherrill are working really hard to take care of the family. Mark travels quite a bit. He has seen a lot of challenges in the financial world play out for well over a year so we'd like to see some improvements soon. We are daily impressed with the growth of our kids. Not only are the boys huge now they seem to face so much in life and work through everything willing to learn as they go. Lauren isn't huge, she's the shrimpo of the first 4 and likes to joke about that now. Mark and I love watching our family grow in so many ways. It's a full life, to be sure.

As a family we have felt the hand of the Lord guide us to new places and face many challenges. We are so grateful for the love and support that you have shown us this year. All of your kind words and efforts have helped us transition into a new life pattern. Because of you, we do not feel alone. Because of you, our burdens are lighter. May the Lord bless you and yours throughout the upcoming year and always, is our hope and prayer.

Love the Moody Family,

Mark and Sherrill

Lauren, Christian, Jonathan, Michael and Kathryn

and Wildcat, too.

*In order in the picture: Michael, Christian, Lauren, Jonathan, Sherrill with Kathryn, Mark

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!

We want all of our family, friends, coworkers, and neighbors to know that we are very grateful

Some Family Time-We needed it!

This break was much needed for all of us.

We got a couple days of family time and loved it all.

On Sunday, after church, a good meal and naps, we took the time to visit Temple Square and see the Christmas lights, music performances, and nativity Scenes. It was a beautiful night for walking around together.

Can Cousins Get Enough Fun Time?

These Cousins played and played and played! They: had Uncle baseball, nerf gun wars, rock band until all hours, outside random games, train building, cooking for the little girls, more outside play and on and on and on! Just couldn't get enough :)

Some Rock Band with a Cool Aunt

Swings and trains. . . always good to have around.

The Fraziers and Christensens were fabulous hosts/hostesses!!!

Thanks for the Giving

My hat is off to anyone who by the nature of the beast has to travel the day of a holiday to be with family and friends. It's stressful! We got up at 4am and barely made out first plane. Whew! Once we got to SLC and had Mark and Lauren and our loved ones around us, we knew we were ok for the duration. In fact Thanksgiving was a wonderful day!





Sisters and Sister-in-laws had been working all week to make it special and it was exactly that-





lots of great food,





lots of great visiting,





the cutest little babies to squeeze,





and Mark and I had all of our family in one place. Heaven.

I missed my 2 sisters and their families who couldn't make it. It's always a stretch to get the whole Tom/Chris Ellsworth group in one spot. We'll just keep trying. ;)

Good Morning

This Sunday morning brought us some snow!

Hate Crimes at the LA Temple

http://www.myfoxshots.com/gallery/v/news/proposition-8-protests/

http://www.ldsmag.com/familyleadernetwork/081107protest.html

New Foods

Well, I wasn't sure how I would learn this but thanks to some wonderful new friends, I learned to make Sushi last night!!! The Kono's, our neighbors and fellow swim parents, had our family and another fun family over last night. And between the two families, we enjoyed a wonderful Japanese meal! We were full and soooooooo happy.
For those who don't know, we can't have wheat or dairy in our family (except Mom). So Mom, that's me, is always looking for good eats for our crew. This is a real blessing to our house because we LOVE sushi and can usually avoid diary and even wheat when eating it.
I'm looking forward to shopping with the ladies in the next couple weeks and getting to know the ins and outs of such wonderful food!

One Last Beautiful Fall Walk

Today I watched our little friend Carli. Kathryn, Carli and I took a beautiful walk to the Park and took some colorful pictures. We threw lots of leaves (I threw them on the girls). We had lots and lots of fun playing, singing silly songs and enjoying 70 degree fall weather. It looks like it's over tomorrow. What a wonderful season!