A very merry Christmas

Another Christmas come and gone. We had a fun filled week with movies, dinners, family parties and lots of family time. The kids were spoiled by Santa and their grandparents. It was fun to have Maddi home for longer than a weekend and it was awesome to be able to talk to ELder Sheridan even if it was only for 40 minutes. He is doing really great and sounded so happy. He told me "only one more phone call ( Mothers Day) and then I will be at home" I felt a little guilty having so much good food around the house after finding out that he had BBQ chicken hearts for Christmas dinner. A friend of mine said that she felt the same way about her daughter having to eat tamales in Texas but then she realized how grateful she was for a sweet family that was willing to feed her what little they had. I am grateful for the sweet people of Peru who take care of my boy.
On Christmas Eve I got a phone call from a darling English lady that is in Peru right now. Her husband is the doctor for the Peru mission and they had to go to Mitchell's area to check out a clinic and needed a translator because they don't speak Spanish. So Elder Sheridan was their translator and she got my info so she could call and tell me what a great kid he was and how helpful he was for them. It really touched me that she would call all the way from Peru to tell me that. I hung up the phone and cried my eyes out. She also sent me the cute picture of Mitch in his Santa hat.
So even though we had zero snow on the ground and no Mitch, it still turned out to be a pretty awesome Christmas. We are looking forward to the new year and all the adventures it will bring.

8

8 months! That's it 8 months! It is so strange to realize that he will be home so soon.I can't say that it has gone by fast for me because it really hasn't. It seems like he has been gone a long time. I really miss him, we all do, and this time of year it is even harder. I have been told by parents of 2 of his buddies that as soon as Christmas is over the time will zoom by.
Yesterday we had a special visitor stop by the house. It was his best friend Connor who just returned home the day before from his mission in Argentina. I couldn't hold back the tears because this kid is such a big part of Mitch , they have been friends since 1st grade. It was so great to see him. He walked in the house and said, like he always used to, "is Mitch home?" That started me crying all over again!
So only 8 more months and the boys will all be back together again.
I am so excited to get his phone call this Christmas and we may even get a pre call like he has done before. So either one of the next 2 Mondays I could get a surprise call from Peru. He joked in his last letter that he may call my cell phone or the home phone or maybe he would even call Thomas! It better be me!!!!
It is amazing to see the change that these young men have gone through as they have given 2 years of their life to spread the Gospel all over the world. They were awesome teenagers, amazing missionaries and are going to be incredible husbands and fathers someday! Oh how I love these kids!

Just keep swimming swimming swimming.......

Thomas had a swim meet this week and he was able to impress his grandma by winning every event he swam. He is SO dedicated to swimming it is CRAZY! He gets up on some days a t 5 am and heads to the pool, goes straight to school and then after school he goes right back to the pool and stays until 6. Region and State are coming up quick and I think all of hi hard work will pay off!

A fun visit

We just had a super fun visit with Kevin's mom. She was only here for a few days and we probably ran her ragged with all of the running around we do with the kids but it was great to have her here. Every morning she left a lego mini figure on Jacob's bed, he was so excited to come home from school each day to see what lego guy was waiting for him!
It was so fun to have her here.

This is for Maddi

Top Gun

I forgot to post my Airplane shot Ha ha. I can't believe they didn't have a cardboard cutout of Maverick next to the plane, then it would have been perfect!

Thanksgiving

Sorry but I had to post a picture of the whale. As soon as Maddi and I heard one washed ashore and they had towed it to an island you could drive too we had to go see it! I mean that isn't something you see in Utah! NEVER in my life have I smelled such a stink, we all got the dry heaves , it was horrible but what happy Thanksgiving memories we have now! :)

Time to catch up! Life has been pretty crazy the past few weeks so here is a recap to catch up!
We headed out of town for Thanksgiving and headed to see Grandpa and Grandma in San Diego (thanks for having us come!)
It was a really quick but fun trip. We saw a HUGE dead whale that had washed ashore (STINKY) and thanks to some friends of Grandma and Grandpa we were able to go tour the Midway. My favorite part was getting my picture by the Top Gun jet! (You know how I love my Top Gun!)
We went to the beach and even though it was chilly it is still awesome to be on the beach in November. We tried to fit as much in to one day as we could and I think we did a pretty good job. We tried to go up to the Point Loma Lighthouse but everyone else in California had the same idea too so we turned around because of the crowd.It was fun to visit with family and catch up with them because we don't get to see them often enough.We fell in love with the new dog named Hardy. Now the boys want a dog! It was super weird to be there without Mitch but hey, he will be home for next time!
We were were able to stop by my parents on the way home for a quick visit too! It was a fun filled weekend!