A Very Merry Christmas!

Wishing Everyone a Merry Christmas!

Have a holly, jolly Christmas; It's the best time of the year

I don't know if there'll be snow, but have a cup of cheer.

Have a holly, jolly Christmas; And when you walk down the street

Say hello to friends you know and everyone you meet.

Oh, ho, the mistletoe hung where you can see;

Somebody waits for you; Kiss her once for me.

Have a holly jolly Christmas,and in case you didn't hear,

Oh by golly, have a holly,jolly Christmas this year.

Winter Band Concert!

Dillon has been playing in the advanced band this year at Hale Elementary. Last year, as you may remember, he played the drums. This year, he has been playing the trumpet...today was his first concert this year and the bass drum guy didn't show up, so Dillon played the bass drum and the bells for the concert! He has decided to play both instruments this year!

What a talented kid! We're so proud of Dillon!

Our very own Haunted House!

Well, we had a very popular house again this year for Halloween! Dillon FINALLY convinced Chris on Wednesday to start working on the "haunted hallway" in our house! It turned out really good and scary with strobe lights, fog machines, "kids" jumping out at you and up at you from inside the coffin, and even some dog poo for sniffing effects! Well, the dog poo wasn't our choice obviously -- someone probably brought it in on their shoes, but for a while I really thought that Chris had scared the "poo" out of someone! We got that cleaned up really fast!!! The kids had fun on Halloween with their friends...we hardly saw them. Luckily, I was able to get a couple of pictures before they headed out. Dillon and his friend Bennett did stay around for a little while, so that they could scare some of the kids coming to trick-or-treat in our hallway.

Here's Courtney the Spider-Girl with Caitlin a Spicy Pumpkin, and Dillon the "shall we say...overweight" Ninja with his friend Bennett the police man.

This is some of Courtney's friends, Brooke, Sadie, Courtney, Lexi, Caitlin and Page.

Amy, my sister brought her kids over for some scaring and we got a picture with Kyla, but Max and Rhett ran off somewhere into that dark hallway to be scared by Uncle Chris!

I just couldn't leave off the very best part of Halloween!

4 States...1 Day!

Well, we haven't been up to Montana for a really long time...so, we decided to take Courtney and DIllon for fall break and head up to see Sandie and Dick. Okay, so we love the flight benefits from Chris working at US Airways, but sometimes those benefits are not quite as wonderful and they appear to be!!

On Wednesday, we flew to Salt Lake to see Jessica and get a couple of quick hair-cuts! Jessica came up and met us and we had a great visit with her. On Thursday morning, we went back to the airport and hopped on a plane headed to Spokane, Washington. At the time, I didn't realize just how far of a drive it was to Missoula but firgured it out while we were in mid-flight! We got there and jumped into a car and started our unbelievably beatiful 3 hour drive...from Washington, through part of Idaho and into Montana! We got there Thursday evening and visited with Sandie and Dick a little bit and had dinner. Spent all day Friday with Chris' mom and saw some of his good friends. We all went to the favorite pizza place for dinner and then Saturday morning started heading back!

"Montana" in Grandma Sandie's backyard

Driving back from Montana through Idaho and into Washington!

Back in Salt Lake City, UT (and, yes, it's snowing!)

"BUMPED!"

So, we drove the three hours back to Spokane, WA. Got on a flight that was supposed to make a "quick" stop in SLC and then on to PHX. When we landed in SLC we were just in the middle of upgrading our seats to move closer to the front of the plane and we hear an announcement asking the "Baker party of 4" to meet them in the jetway! It felt like we had been called to the principal's office! Well, the flight was full and we were bumped off. This was like 1:00 in the afternoon on Saturday...we tried every flight out of there all day until there were no more and finally gave up. Called Jessica to come up and get us and got a room and stayed until Sunday morning, when we went back to the airport to wait again! The flights were actually all overbooked for Sunday and we thought maybe we would have to fly to Las Vegas and then try to get home from there - but lucked out because there was trouble with one of the morning flights and by the time they got it out 4 hours late they had moved some passengers to other airlines for the connections so it opened up enough seats that we finally got on and got home! It was long and tiring, as you can tell from Courtney's next picture!

Ahhh...finally on a flight on our way home!

Journey to West Africa

Dillon volunteered to be in a West African band at school a couple of weeks ago. He had to go early to school for about a month (7:30 am) for practices - he loved it and had a blast. They did a performance for the student body on the last day of school before fall break. They played the hand drums so long during one song, Dillon said his shoulder's were getting sore! The pictures are really blurry, sorry.

Dillon and one of his best friends "little Joe"

Homecoming 2008

Tyler went to his first dance this last weekend...Homecoming!

What a good-looking kid!

This was their "Day Activity" at Bounce U. They went the weekend before - you know they have to make the dances last at least a week now!

"Tyler and Morgan"

All the guys went to Priesthood then they picked up their dates and headed over to the Hardy's house for "group Pictures" There were 20 couples in their group - so it quite the undertaking!

This is a small sample of the guys in the group

(Quentin, Matt, Joe, Van, Ty, and Dave)

That's a handsome bunch!!

After the pictures, they headed over to Perk's house for a "Costa Vida" type dinner. Then they all went over to the dance - why do they call it a dance when no one ever dances anymore? They had pictures there and left! Went over to Gulbrandsen's for Ice Cream Sundaes...which they ended up wearing, and that was actually the plan! They swam, got the whipping cream all cleaned off (in the pool - poor pool guy) and most of them headed to Joes to watch a movie.

All in all, Tyler said he had a really good time.

If I can find pictures of the ice cream part, I'll add them later.

Woopsie!

Well, it appears I spoke to soon about our good fortune of NOT getting puppies...Bella had 3 puppies last Thursday night! Aren't they the cutest white rats you've ever seen? haha

So...if anyone knows of someone who's looking for the PERFECT Christmas Puppy...have them call me! It's hard to guess still - and I'll probably be wrong, but they all look like girls!

I just saw this on Courtney's blog and just had to copy and paste it here - too funny! Here is some tips for while your dog is having puppies...DONT WATCH!! It is nasty, I promise it smells very bad and its a bad sight, but hopefully soon they will be cute and clean!!! Haha! Dillon and Chris were here for the first two and then Courtney and I got to see the last puppy being born. Bad idea like she said!