I know I have just written more than you ever wanted to read but this video was too funny to pass up. I was supposed to be doing the dishes while Tom kept the kids busy after dinner... I couldn't resist secretly taking this video. It gets kind of long but I just kept going until he noticed.

Christmas here was as warm and beautiful and I could have imagined. Sorry we haven't written sooner (see previous post). We had another fantastic Christmas again this year! My younger brother Matt is going to medical school in Wisconsin where it is freezing cold. So we decided to have everyone come here for a nice warm Christmas! We had a full house with my parents, my sister Rachel and Matt, his wife Chelsea and their daughter Isabel who is 10 months old. It seems like I spent weeks getting everything ready for all the birthdays, Christmas and having company but once they arrived I was able to just relax and enjoy their company. The weather was fabulous and we went to the beach twice and explored the tide pools, hit the boardwalk shops and launched Hayden’s stomp rocket on the shore. I got the lucky treat of getting the last of my holiday shopping done with out the kids in the tow!

Hayden’s birthday was a lot of fun. He got to open a present before we left for church and he was sooooo excited to get spy night vision goggles! I don’t know what he thinks he is going to be doing in the dark but he has really wanted these! We spent the rest of the day enjoying a visit from my Grandma and my aunt and her family. On Christmas Eve we went to the clubhouse and the little kids played at the park while some people played racquetball and Hayden and my dad went swimming- yes, I just said they went swimming on Christmas Eve!!!! Crazy! San Diego is simply amazing! (Although I must admit that weather was particularly good while they were here and we are now back to wearing our long sleeves. Which isn’t a complaint, trust me, I have not forgotten what the last 4 winters were like, if all I have to do is wear long sleeves I am still in heaven!!)

After dinner on Christmas Eve we did a pinata, opened some gifts and acted out the nativity story. We started a new tradition of getting a new ornament for the tree to remind us of the past year. For this year we got Disney ornaments. Hayden also started a new tradition of collecting Nutcrackers, he’ll get a new one each Christmas because he really loves nutcrackers. Then the kids set out some cookies for Santa and were off to bed. The next morning came all too quickly and we discovered that Santa had indeed come. We had a great morning of gifts, a nice breakfast and fun day just hanging out playing games and watching movies.

Sadly, the next day everyone had to leave so we said good bye and began to settle back in the routine of normal life. We were so lucky they all came to visit us and we didn’t have to travel. I felt even more lucky when I heard about their nightmare trip home being stuck in traffic for hours!!! A six hour drive to St. George took nearly 10 and then the snow was so bad in Cedar City they had to stay there over night before driving home to Salt Lake in horrible snow the next morning.

The routine of our normal life had one huge bonus: Tom took the week off work!!! So we spent the week just hanging out, shopping and watching movies. One day we went to Wild Animal park and Hayden got to go down a little sledding hill. It sounded fun but ended up being a bit hard for him to stay on the little plastic piece he was using as sled... oh well, at least he got to see the snow even it if was “fake.” Tom’s been gone so much since we moved here this has felt like a real vacation!!

Well now that the holidays are over I am looking forward to much less fun but much more rest. I am making a vow to start my shopping and preparations in October next year to avoid all this crazy stress so I can really enjoy the point of Christmas! Dragging the kids around the mall does not add to the spirit of Christmas! Although my Christmas miracle was getting a picture of all three kids with two of them smiling!! I took them to Sears portrait studio and it was a disaster with me leaving exhausted and empty handed. So I got together with a friend and tried to do them in my kitchen with her nice camera but it just resulted in tears again. So finally we tried again that night with Tom’s help and the miracle occurred, both Hayden and Danica smiled! It would have been easy to get Alyssa to smile but every time I focused attention on her it made Danica look at her so I had to cut my losses and settle for two smiling kids!

Anyway, this is getting way too long and boring. I hope you all have a happy New Year and set some resolutions you can actually obtain!! Again I am being lazy, I was going to insert pictures all along this entry to make it fun to read but I couldn't decide what pictures to add so here is the link to our web gallery so you can check them all out!

I'll do better next time!

I know we have been negligent in our writing...I can only say sorry and be grateful the holiday stress is past... now I will leave you with more to read than you would care for...I didn't get a chance to write a Christmas letter so I just put a link to our blog in with the Christmas cards we sent. This what I wrote on our blog:

We didn’t get a Christmas letter sent out this year but if we had this is what it would have said:

This past year has been a great one for our family, full of new exciting changes. We left our fun and happy life in Cleveland Ohio in May when Tom graduated from dental school. Cleveland was a lot of fun and we really miss our friends there and the fun things we were able to do. However, San Diego has been really good for us and we are really enjoying our nice warm Christmas! Tom is doing a one year residency program at Balboa Naval Hospital and although the hours are long he enjoys all of the things he is learning. We’ve been able to make new friends and have enjoyed lots of visits from relatives! The most exciting thing that happened here in San Diego was the birth of our third child. On August 17th, we welcomed Alyssa Kennedy to our family. She is so cute and sweet, she gets a lot of love! (Sometimes too much love from her brother and sister!) Caring for the three kids is a bit challenging but it’s also very rewarding and once in a while I actually get the house cleaned. We also found out that we will be moving to Okinawa Japan this coming June. We’re excited for the move and the new opportunities it will bring us!

Tom: Finally a dentist!! His residency program at the hospital allows him to go and work in several different dental and oral surgery areas and he is really enjoying all the stuff he is learning. He’s even had a rotation through the ER where he had a lot of new experiences. He tried to embrace the Padres but remained loyal Indians fans and really enjoyed watching the season (until the end that is!)

Tracey: I’m happy I’m not pregnant anymore and busy trying to keep up with the kids! Having three small kids is as challenging as I thought it would be but it gets easier by the day. I still enjoy running, scrapbooking and reading but I rarely have time for any of it! Luckily, I’m blessed to live here in San Diego and get to spend most of my time with the kids at the park, pool, the zoo or many other fun things! We’ve even been to Disneyland three times!

Hayden: He turned 5 yesterday and is full of energy and gets so excited about things. Right now he is really into Star Wars, Scooby-doo and playing games. I am constantly amazed by the complex ideas he has and figure he will be smarter than me in just a few more years! He is a great swimmer and has just learned to read. He loves preschool and playing with his friends!

Danica: She just turned 2 and is still so small and quiet! She’s finally deciding to talk sometimes and it’s a lot of fun. She is into everything and so handy- she can open the fridge and the ziplock bags, she loves to climb on the counter to play in the sink. Her favorite toy is her baby doll and she spends most of her day copying whatever I am doing!

Alyssa: At four months old she is all smiles and drool. Tons of fun and loves to smile at her siblings who are always in her face!

Well that is our family for now. We’ve had a lot of fun lately with ice skating, seeing the Christmas lights, and birthday celebrations. Check out our photo gallery for more information! If you’re new to our blog leave me a comment so I’ll know who’s visited us!

Merry Christmas!

Treven got two $25 dollar gift cards to NFLshop.com and he looked on the website and he isn't interested in anything. He got it from Pepsi because they had them left over from a promotion they did with the soda. Anyway, he wanted me to say FIRST COME FIRST SERVE. If you want them let us know and we will just send them with the holiday card.
Thanks
Kim

We had a whirlwind trip to Boise on Friday morning. Arrived about 8:45am and were sped over to the Boise State University basketball center for Annie's graduation. She was emotional about finishing up and moving on. Combo of being 8 months pregnant and leaving a familiar place got to her big time. There were 10XX graduates, but I have to admit, BSU has the right idea when knowing how to speed them all through the line. Two lines at a time, not on stage and zip, they were done in no time at all. Very much appreciated by all the guests. We spent the day with them shopping and then went to dinner at the Melting Pot. Enjoyed some Bean game Friday night, stayed up way too late and got back into it the next morning. Out for some more shopping then to lunch at my favorite, Fuddruckers. Wa Wa loved that place. We were actually introduced to it by Wa Wa.

Had to get back on a plane of Saturday night. Home 1 hour late. Then to Morgan's B-Day party at our house at about 9pm. Again, stayed up after midnight, hit the rack and here we are, Sunday afternoon waiting to go out and do 5 home teaching visits.

Fun. Have a great Merry Christmas. Dan and Mom (and Marnie is here with us also, today)

So this year, we decide to do Christmas cards. I really tried. If the situation is EVER figured out, then you will get Christmas cards... it might just be a little late.

I ordered the holiday cards on Wal mart's website and then I would just pick them up. I did it on the 4th of this month... still have not recieved them. I am currently on hold with Walmart and have been for the last 30 minutes to get this figured out. I was charged for them on the 10th of December. I have gone to the Walmart that is supposed to recieve the order and they can't even find the order on their systems. It still says the order is processing so I e-mailed the customer service and of course... I got an automatic e-mail saying things that I should do, which in the e-mail I sent, I already stated that I had done those things. Very frustrating... I am never going to do it through Wal mart again because they are basically saying oh well!

We will see what happens once I am off this hold... But just to let you all know why our christmas cards have not been sent yet. I was so happy that I was going to get them out early and actually do them this year... yeah, not happening.

Well, I am relaxing since I don't work until next Thursday because of the holidays... I need to start getting everything together for moving.
AND so we started the other day and lifted up our memory foam mattress that we bought in April this year... Well the water heater in the apartment above us had over flowed into the ceiling and walls. The management just replaced the water heater and have not done anything about the water damage. Well we lift up our mattress and there is mold everywhere!!!! We don't have a bed frame at the moment and it was going to be my birthday present. We are hoping our renter's insurance will cover it... we don't have USAA yet. Treven said it feels like the floor is bowing and it feels like the water damage underneath the carpet. Who knows??

It is icy and snowing here... Definitely glad that we are not traveling. We do wish we were there, but traveling is not good during the Winter.
Well Treven is busy as ever at work this weekend because of a huge sale that is going on for Christmas so I won't be seeing him much this weekend. Good money though!
Melia trys to say duck, up, and says dada and finally says mom. But instead of saying Up she says Ut. She doesn't know the P sound yet. We are working on it. We love her and her hair just keeps getting longer, but still is spiking and won't sit down. We get comments on it all the time when we are out.

Well sorry about the complaining. I needed to vent somewhere! This is what is going on with us. School starts on the 9th and then I have 2 semesters left of classes. I am so excited to be done.
We found out that the due date is July 24th exactly... we will keep you updated!
Love you all! Have a great christmas! I will just be reading the Twilight series... I started on Wednesday and I finished the first one already. I am going to start the second one today if I have time.

10 minutes left of wait time with Walmart...
Kimberly

Marnie,

I need to coordinate with you the picking up of your mom and dad. I can pick them up if I drop my kids off early with you (6:30) or you can pick them up. I just need to know. Can't wait to see you.

love, Brooke

Geeze Marnie, why do you have to nag so much? Thanks for kicking us in the butt to get writing. I have unfortunately fallen into the mode of 'only blog if you have something big to say'. Shame on me.

Christmas has come very quickly this year. But I don't understand that. Thanksgiving was the earliest it has ever been, so there should have been more time, right? Well, here is Christmas peeking at us from around the corner. Maybe it just goes faster each year? Mom? Dad? You guys should be able to answer that one for me. Anyway, Adina has again amazed me with her organization of Christmas gift-getting and shipping, and Christmas card-writing and sending. I would fail miserably if it weren't for her. And I can't give the credit for those accomplishments to the Mac (inside thingy). Hehe. Dad, you don't want to add the GT-R to your list?
Things have really been going well here. I have been so busy with work and scout stuff that my running has slacked. I just got some new running shoes (thank Big-B) so maybe that'll kick me in the butt to get going. I used to get up and run in the mornings, but with the cold, wet, dark lately, it has been very hard to get my lazy butt out of bed. I just need to commit myself to it and quite procrastinating. This again plays into my idea that if I am signed up for a race, I tend to exercise regularly. If I am not signed up for a race in the near future (3-4 mos.), I don't do it. I need to pick one. Anyone have anything planned? I'll jump aboard.

It's been fun seeing Brooke and the brood. What a trooper she is, I couldn't do it. We wish you were here Mike, stay safe out there. We think of you constantly and you are in our daily prayers. We wish everyone were here this season, but we realize how tough it is. And it'll only get more difficult year after year.

By the way, Tom and Tracey, are you guys going to get this summer thing planned? Or at least push someone into planning it so I can schedule the time off? It needs to be done now or else we are going to have slim pickin's for places and people aren't going to be able to come. Let's get some discussion going about that.

I haven't seen my family all day, so I better go. Glad to contribute.....
Dave

I know you are all busy but no one has anything to post? There are like a hundred of us....there is no excuse - not even Christmas.

If you need something to read - you can head over to my Mac website and check out my new blog on my top 10 Christmas movies.

Just thought I'd get on to say hi to "Sparkle" and the rest of the family. Doing well over here at the Bennett homestead. Talked to Mike yesterday. He will be without internet for awhile. He's doing well but they have been definitely downgraded in their accommodations. His contact will be pretty sporadic for awhile- I have no idea how long.

We love hanging out with the Stinchfields that are here and miss the ones that aren't. Can't wait for Saturday night.

Love, Brooke

At least on my computer, our picture at the top is narrow and cut off. What happened?

Love,

Mom

I did it. I finished the GMAT and got a score that will work. SDSU requires at least a 600 and my unofficial score is 630 - and it can only go up from there! So I don't have to take it again and that is all that I really care about at this point. I really hate standardized tests and this one was pretty bad. Everything at the testing center is so official and security is CRAZY! I had to have my picture taken and my fingerprint scanned like 15 times just to get in the room for testing and they video and audio-recorded me taking the test. All I could take in the testing room was my driver's license, not even a watch or car keys! I guess people find lots of ways to cheat and they are really trying to prevent that. I am really glad that I passed the test with a high enough score because I REALLY didn't think I was going to based on how I did on the math section. I totally freaked during the math part and felt like I got every single question wrong. Seriously, every math thing I had studied just disappeared from my brain. It was pretty scary. But apparently I did really well on the verbal section (finished with 20 min to spare!) and that made up the difference. So that is done and I am happy.

I celebrated tonight by just vegging. And it feels really nice to just sit and watch a movie, or the Netflix DVDs that have been sitting around for two weeks, and not worry about having to study. I know I took the GMAT so I could go back to school and there will be a lot of studying in the future but at least that will be stuff that I actually feel like I will use. And that isn't till the fall so for now I am enjoying the time not having to worry about it.

I bought that Twilight book that everyone has been raving about. I wanted to read a new book and figured I'd try it out. I'll let you all know if I like it.

As for recommendations - here a short one: See and/or read Atonement. It is SOOO good. I am kinda obsessed with it right now. The movie is rated R so some of you may have to wait for the ClearPlay version but it really is an excellent film and book adaptation. Probably the truest film adaptation to the book I have ever seen (except maybe the A&E version of Pride & Prejudice). The Golden Globes nominations for this year came out on Thursday and Atonement is nominated for just about every award it can be nominated for. Sweeney Todd (which is coming out next Friday) is also nominated for a lot of awards. I can't wait to see that one! Another nom I am excited about is Pushing Daisies for Best Comedy Series. The Office isn't even nominated!

Anyway, I am tired (long day) so I will go but I'd just thought I would let everyone know that I really appreciate your encouragement and prayers for my GMAT. I'm so glad it's over! :)

It seems impossible that you are already 2 years old!! I'm sure you will just swim in your princess dress but eventually you may grow into it!!

We had a fun dinner with Brooke and family last night...along with all the locals, Brent and Buffy and Dave and Adina et al. The kids had a ball...running around...and Bailey also came and was VERY well behaved. One funny story that happened last weekend when D & A and B & B came over for games. After they left we found a mess of almonds on the floor and Kenn remembered that he had seen Parker playing there. We thought...how strange of him! We didn't think about it much except that it needed to be vacuumed up. However, when I was vacuuming up, it suddenly occurred to me why he had made the mess. It is right by a big nutcracker by the front door. They were already shelled almonds that were out but I don't think Parker has ever had shelled nuts around much. So he was "cracking" the almonds with the nutcracker. Pretty cute!!!

Well, I have seminary to do, work to do, ironing to do, christmas on-line shopping to do...and a disastrous mess on my desk so I'd better go!!!

Love,
Mom

So my roommate Lauren decided to get a cat. She adopted him from the shelter today. He is 11 years old and about 28 lbs. BIG CAT. You can't really tell from this picture but he is the fattest cat I have ever seen in my entire life. I didn't know they could get that big...seriously. You have to see it to believe it. I guess the people at the shelter said he is the equivalent of about a 700lb person. That is how obese he is.