On December 27, 2008, Mat, our youngest, was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was really a great night. He was baptized by his dad and confirmed by his brother, Jordan. Jordan gave a really good blessing, I hope Mat remembers part of it at least. DJ and Adam were the witnesses, I gave the baptism talk, Grandma S. gave the Holy Ghost talk and the girls sang a special number for him. It was a really nice service. I forgot my talk at home, so had to wing it for Mat. He didn’t want a long talk anyway. We had cake and ice cream afterwards and me being the ditz that I am sometimes forgot to tell everyone about the baptism. I thought I told them, but I guess I didn’t. My sister and brother didn’t know about it. Also, the Bishop got busy and forgot. I felt really bad for him because it really didn’t bother us because I know he is a busy man. But, he really felt bad and on Sunday told me that he should have been there. I told him it was okay, that my husband had been a bishop before and I knew what it was like for the bishop. He didn’t think that was too much comfort because he said that he didn’t think Doug had forgotten any of his 8 year olds! Poor Bishop! I hope he isn’t too hard on himself. On Sunday, the bishop gave Mat his Book of Mormon and invited him say something! I was kind of worried about what he would say, we all know Mat and is little tidbits of wisdom! However, Mat wisely chose to just shake the bishop’s hand and sit down. J All in all, it was a wonderful time. I can’t believe that my youngest is now baptized. I guess I have begun a series of ‘lasts’ as the Bishop said. And just so no one thinks we have a shabby Bishop, I know that he is a great man. I have had the opportunity to work with him as the Young Women president and see how he works with the Youth. I am more and more impressed and know that the Lord put him them because he has such a love for the youth and teaches them at every opportunity. I just love our Bishop, he is the greatest!

The traditional Baptism quilt made by Debbie, Grandma, Grandpa and Leeann

Checking out the water

The Savage Men

Check out Nikki’s awesome cake!

On Christmas Eve, we opened the traditional PJs. However, we changed the tradition just a little this year. Only the new members of the family and those still residing under my roof on a permanent basis received pajamas. I had fun making them and hope everyone likes them. The rest of the kids (and Doug) got rice bags to keep them warm and a soft fuzzy blanket (for the college kids). It is a fun tradition and it was fun having everyone here to open them and enjoy the fun. It was especially fun having Jill to add to our family this year. She has acclimated well into our family, even laughing at DJ when he doesn’t like how she plays rook. J We had a great time playing rook at Grandmas and eating her great chex mix and any other snacks we could find at our house. Mat thought we took to long and was anxious to get back home, so that he could go to sleep and wait for Santa… (not sure if he know Santa personally or not, but I think it depends on the time of year).

Everyone had a great time opening the presents on Christmas day. I loved watching everyone and seeing if I got the right present or not. (If I didn’t, no one let on!). Doug was excited about his new shoulder holster from Jordan and Jill so that he could ‘conceal’ his new gun. He even wore it to Billings the other day (hopefully, he took it off to go in the temple). Christmas breakfast was wonderful, as usual. The feast was huge and there was plenty for everyone. If you went away hungry it was your on fault. We opened more presents at Grandmas and while we were doing that, Sean called (we thought he was going to call later in the evening, but apparently plans changed). It was great talking to him even though I only got to talk for about 10 minutes because I had to share him. J

Now my house is empty (or almost) since all the kids left and went home. So now I’m looking forward to seeing them again…

A great present…

Jordan, showing Doug his present… they might have to wrestle to see who gets to keep it!

A.J. and Savanna

Isn’t this fun!

I’m not sure I like this new tradition…

A.J.: “Mom, does Jaxen need some help?”

Mat: “Hurry up! You’re taking waaayy to long! I have presents to open!”

Mat: “Still opening… come on!”

“I’ll pose for this picture, but make it snappy”

“How come he got a bigger present than me?”

The annual Savage Christmas party was really fun this year. All the kids from all the families were here (except for our missionaries). We had soup and rolls. Everyone brought some soup and we made rolls so it was really yummy. We had a little program where some people dressed up as the nativity and others read the Christmas story from the Scriptures and we sang Christmas Carols. It was really nice. After that, we played bingo (while some watched football). It was great fun. The basket that the prizes were in eventually emptied and apparently we had too much punch because we had a contest to see who could fit the basket on their head

Debbie… the one who started it all (that’s Michelle’s baby, Sammy)

Nikki…Isn’t she beautiful? (Eva thinks we’re crazy)

Keesha… “Look! I got it on…I think I’ll wear this to Church, the boys will love it!”

Leeann… “I’m entering the Mustang days beauty pageant”

Jill… Now we know she really is part of the family!

Michelle… “Wait, let me adjust it… maybe if we add some flowers…”

Tammy… “I’m only doing this to fit in”

Grandma… “Ok, girls, if you really think this looks good, I’ll wear it”

Savanna… “I’m the only one that can fit it without it touching my chin”

“I’ve got a big head and little arms”

Well, its about time I wrote something on the darn blog. I see everyone else is doing great, having babies, doing thanksgiving, etc., etc. My big news is that now that Doug has been released from his Stake Presidencey calling, they pounced on me. I was really enjoying being the one to support my husband. Now, I am going to enjoy being with my daughter on Wednesday nights and on Sunday mornings! Yup, I’m the new Young Women President in our ward! My counselors are: 1st-Kim Mickleson (she was one of my Mia Maids back in the day!); 2nd-Tammy Middleton; and Sec-Colleen W. Tippetts. I think they’ll be great! I haven’t really had a leadership calling for about 14-20 years. I may have had a brief stint in the YW and Primary during that time, but definately not in the last 12 years or so! So I think that you all should give me some great suggestions for my new calling. Oh, and by the way, Doug is the High Priest Instructor (he has to teach 2 Sundays a month).

Leeann took some pictures of our family (at least those who still reside within the walls of my home). I thought they turned out really good….

Leeann just had to snap this one… I’m chewing out Mat because he was being… well… Mat and it was really cold!

I think I look ‘boxy’ (or was it ‘chunky’) in this sweatshirt… maybe because it’s a Wyoming one?

Well, I finally got around to finishing my painting in my room. If you remember a while back, we did our bathroom. Well, the bedroom was supposed to be done around the same time and I finally just bit the bullet and did it. On Monday (of last week) I moved all of my furniture out of the bedroom (except the bed frame) and painted the ceiling. Then I dyed the carpet brown (yes, really, I dyed the carpet) using an old Electrolux Carpet Cleaner that I inherited from my Mom. It is the kind with 3 brushes that doesn’t suck the water out of the carpet. Then I painted the walls blue (the same blue as the stripes in the bathroom). On Tuesday, I taped all the walls and painted the trim cream. It took a lot of coats because the old trim was brown. Now I’m sorry I didn’t take before pictures (I never think!) but imagine a room with white walls and brown trim with green carpet and you have it. After I painted the trim, I taped a 6 inch boarder between the ceiling and the wall and painted that cream also. I think it looks great, I love my new room. Now all I have to do is make the quilt (my sister is going to help me). I also included a picture of the picture that inspired me.

This is the inspiration picture… you can see it has been carried around in my purse for a while!

Well, school has started and Savanna is now a big 5^th Grader! The annual 5^th Grade Campout was held on the 11 and 12 of September. We left Lovell at 9:00 AM on Friday morning and headed up to Sunlight Northwest Field Camp. It was really nice. We had cabins and real working bathrooms (now that’s how I like to camp!). They had several activities planned for the kids. When we got there Friday around noon, we ate our lunches and then did the “low ropes course” provided by NWC students and staff. I thought they would be something to do with ropes… my bad! Some of the activities did include the use of ropes, but not in like I thought. What they did was give each group (of about 15 students) some items and told them they had to solve different problems. It was really cool to watch the kids (we adult were not allowed to help, just observe) work out how to solve the problems given them with the material they had. It was fun to watch them develop their skills for working together. The first activity was a bomb because no one could agree on anything and they just did whatever. Once they figured out that they had to work together, they did really well. Friday evening, John Hyde (or Bishop to some) came and gave a lesson on the stars and constellations. It was really, really interesting. I would like to learn more! Then we had a campfire program and a nice young man (I can’t remember his name) brought his guitar and sang songs around the campfire and we toasted marshmallows and made smores. Great fun. We got to do some learning activities on Saturday. North Big Horn Search and Rescue gave a class on surviving in the wilderness, we had a class on using GPS’s, and the Forest Service showed us how to ‘age’ trees.

Balancing a log (tied to a tree on each end) while every one gets on and keeping it balance for 3 seconds. (it took about 20 tries)

Waiting for another activity

Building a raft to cross a piranaha infested river that would ‘eat’ the wooden parts of the raft, so they couldn’t touch the ‘water’. The group had to get everyone across or the people on the otherside would die. (They were doctors and scientists).

Swinging across another dangerous river

Just a cool picture I took and wanted to share!

Well, I know it’s been forever since I updated the blog…. Okay, that’s an understatement. But here it is anyway and everyone has probably stopped checking for updates here, but here goes. After we got home from the wedding, we relaxed for a few minutes and then took Sean to the MTC. After that, we decided to use our trusty camper and take the kids for a camping trip. We went up on the Dayton Gulch Road and found a great little spot to camp. The first night was beautiful and as the Moon started to rise, I tooka picture, but since I didn’t have a tripod, it was a little blurry because I couldn’t hold still enough for a night shot. J The next morning we woke up to snow on the ground! That’s wyoming for you! Doug teased the kids and said that he was going home and they were all for it (wimps!) but, of course Doug was just teasing. As you can see from the pictures, the weather turned really nice and we had a great time. I wish we could have spent more time on the mountain!

This is the moon rising and it doesn’t do the real thing justice! It was just beautiful so I posted the picture anyway to remind me of how beautiful it was!

On the last morning, the kids wanted to hike up to the rocks above our camp. It didn’t look so far… This picture is taken from the top of the rocks, In the upper part of the picture near the middle is a red dot, it shows where our camper was. As the crow flies it was about 1 ½ miles from camp, not a bad hike… But the picture doesn’t do justice to how steep it was, and I should have taken a picture before leaving camp, but alas, I was not thinking about blogging… In the dip, is where it starts to get steep. I wasn’t sure I was going to make it but I perservered and it was well worth it.

Mat, enjoying being Kind of the Hill

Doug, pointing out some landmarks to Mat (who is obviously not looking!)

Queen of the Hill (Savanna)

Doug, coming up over the last rock!

Keesha helping Doug up over!

Another Queen

In this picture, we are just above camp after hiking all around the ridge (if you look in the first picture, and up to the left at the top of the hill, that is where we are in this picture. I thought this was cool picture because you can see ‘forever’!

Well, we did the deed. Sean is now officially a missionary. He was set apart as a missionary by President Morrison right before Church on Sunday, July 20. Sean gave an excellent talk and then the whole family converged at the Savage’s after church for dinner and visiting. It was a nice time. We left Lovell on Monday afternoon and headed to Highland where we stayed with the Beddes Family. On Tuesday, we went on the traditional trip to Lagoon, thanks to Cherronne, we only had to buy 5 tickets! We had a great time. They even talked me into going on Wicked, which was great fun. And… don’t have a heart attack… Savanna went on Wicked, too! Mat thought it was great fun and went twice. It was really hot, but a good time was had by all… Since I forgot my camera in the car and didn’t want to walk the mile and a half to get it, the pics are from my phone…

On Wednesday, we took the dreaded/joyful trip to the MTC. It seems to be a little easier the 3^rd time around… (I saved my tears for after) plus, Sean was being a pill and wouldn’t smile because he really wanted to just get in there and get things done… a little anxious, but mostly impatient! J So the few pictures I coaxed out of him are here, hopefully he will send me some more, soon. (preferably with a smile).

Two of my favorite men….:)

Hey… Keesha’ taller than me, when did that happen???

Okay, Mom, this is the best I can do…

So this is what I am going to live out of for the next two years…

Here we go…

Only 12 more years…. I can hardly wait!

Okay… don’t lose this card, it has the food….

Okay Mom…. I think that’s enough pictures

As always happens when taking a missionary to the MTC, our car had a ‘little’ problem. The bearing decided to start going out…. We called Lloyd and asked him what the horrible noise we were hearing coming from the right side of the car. He said he wasn’t sure, but that if we would say a prayer, we would get home… Guess what, he was right! We made it home with no major (except for the fighting in the back seat) problems and Lloyd fixed our car for a mere $300. (I think he could have charged a lot more!). So it was expected since when we took DJ and Jordan down, something happened to each of the vehicles then! Maybe we’ll borrow a car for Mat… We got a wonderful letter from Sean on Saturday. He is doing great and loves the MTC. If you would like to be included in the mailing list to hear from Sean let me know. Missionaries are great!

The wedding went off without a hitch… At least after Jill felt better! J The wedding was beautiful, the sealer gave some awesome advice and the temple, of course was beautiful! It was awesome to see it as it rose above the freeway! Very cool! The picture taking portion was very hot, but the pictures turned out really nice. Enjoy…

The view from the freeway…

Coming out of the temple…

Jill and her bridesmaids…

Just getting started…

The beautiful Temple…

Mat’s opinion of the day…

Sean and DJ’s opinion…

All my kids (minus 1, Adam)…

For time and all eternity…

Are we done yet?

The bridal party…

The traditional Daddy Daughter Dance…

“That’s my toe! I think you need some lessons…”