Christmas Letter

Chad - The company Chad worked for went bankrupt in Jan. Feb he did odd jobs here and their for friends of his. By March he had some steady work with a few of his friends and decided to start his own business
doing drafting work so Silver Leaf Designs was
started. One of His clients wanted him on a more permanent

basis and hired him as a full time contractor. By about July we decided we were coming up short by just a bit and Chad got a job at Costco working a few hours a day for a few days a week. Costco is in the wee hours of the morning so he is early to bed. Around Nov. we decide he should pick up some extra hours at Costco so that he could qualify for health insurance which we should have by March. So as it stands now Chad works Mon. - Thurs. for Henley Homes, Wed - Fri and on Sat for Costco, Silver leaf whenever he is home in the evenings before going to bed and on Fri. after Costco. He has picked up a couple more clients with

silver leaf and is meeting with another potential one tomorrow. As you can see he is very busy and we appreciate and look forward to any time we get to spend together as a family. Sundays have become precious down time for us.

Nicki - I try to stay busy and between HOA, PTO, RS and volunteering in the boys classes I think I achieve that. Chad would tell you I also find time to stay social. In the evenings I walk with friends to try to get some exercise. I have really gotten into food storage and canning and have lots of fun doing that with friends. and on top it all, single momming it with Chads busy Schedule.

Casey - Has been having a great time in 3rd Grade.

His teacher is the same one Tyler had last year for kindergarten. He is in Resource for reading and writing and has been improving so much lately. We are so grateful for the teachers he had last year and this year who helped get this need identified. He was and continues to be pretty tricky and resourceful in his efforts to get around or past his trouble areas. We are so proud of all his hard work. Casey got baptised this year and that was a great experience for all of us. He is such a big help at home with the kids and with his new love of helping in the kitchen.

Tyler - Is loving 1st grade and has shown what bright
child he is. In his class they use a color system to
address behavior green being good then yellow then

red. After bringing home yellows a few times and even a few calls home from his teacher we made a deal that he would earn a Webkin of his choice if he got green for 5 weeks in a row. I didn't think he could pull it off, but he proved me wrong and earned a Webkin. He said he would continue to get greens from here on out. Tyler also enjoys going to after school reading program

twice a week. (between Chad and I both struggling with reading in school our kids didn't stand much of a chance)

Courtney - Is in Heaven attending preschool. She has made quick friends and loves to do after school play
dates. It's hard to say no since they get along so well.

I'm so sad though that these kids are all going to be a year behind her in school and will not be starting Kindergarten with her next year. She is quite the princess of the house and we are constantly having to remind her that she does indeed have to listen to us and contrary to what she thinks does not get to do whatever she wants.

Aiden - Is the joy of our family. He always has a huge smile on his face and is constantly amusing us with his antics. Chad is constantly asking me "did you get a picture?" He is growing so fast and we wish he would slow down.

This year we also spent time in California for the Borgia reunion and then later in the year went to Disneyland. I'm glad to finally have this blog going so that family can keep in touch. We look forward to the year to come and all that is ahead of us.

Pictures from the top down are ...Aiden enjoying some eggnog, A pic of Court and Aiden with the pencils we collected for children in Vietnam for my dads Christmas gift this year, The kids in the back of Chad's truck with our Christmas tree, Tyler and Casey ready for soccer, Casey was chosen for a demo at Disneyland and here with his aunt and Uncle who were also chosen out of the audience, Tyler comforting Aiden through hi first hair cut, Casey receiving his bobcat award in scouts, Our yearly observance and balloon releasing in remembrance of our little boy Cameron, Aiden eating a bagel and cream cheese.

Court and Mrs. Candace

Tyler and Mrs. Rockey





Casey and Mrs. Maloney




Casey and daddy at his baptism.

Me with friends at the midnight release of Breaking Dawn.

The kids at the beach

Raviolis

Many traditions in my family are centered around food and our Italian heritage. One of those is our Raviolis. My dad still likes to tell the story of how at his first Christmas with mom's family he sat down to Christmas dinner and was served these huge home made Raviolis (as he holds up his hands to demonstrates the size) and after consuming three of them laid down on the couch stuffed to the brim. He would then go on to tell you that he was absolutely shocked to learn that those were only the first course! Chad is happy that I have continued the tradition of the Raviolis although mine are not a big and one can eat 4-7. He even helps me make them. This year we got the kids to help a bit. Courtney had fun and told Chad that they made a good team.

Aiden even got a curious about what was going on up on the counter

This year for filling we had Italian sausage in some and 3 cheese for the rest. I really liked the sausage ones best.

Since we were headed over to the kitchen's for Christmas evening we had our Raviolis for lunch this year. We had some friends over to join us so we made about 60 raviolis. I forgot to get a picture of the finished product at lunch, but I will admit they were pretty good!

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning came. I was awake about a hour before the kids and couldn't go back to sleep, so i got up and played on the computer till they woke. Chad managed to sleep and had to be coaxed out of bed by the children. I think Aiden was about to give in and go back to sleep with daddy!

After we finally got daddy out of bed we waited on the stairs for him to come out of his room. Here are the kids anxiously waiting to go down the stairs and see what Santa brought them. The kids get to come down one at a time from youngest to oldest.We had such a great Christmas morning. The kids got what

they asked for and so did I, a carpet cleaner! Woohoo now maybe i can have clean carpets. I've been wanting one for years and it always seems to get push off for more important things. I plan on trying it out this week, but the kids are home...maybe I'll wait till they go back to school. Maybe this week I'll read some books. I can't remember the last time I sat down and read a book. Aiden got a big bouncy ball that goes up to his chest, it's so cool, but I've already had ask the bigger boys not to kick it around the house. Court got a doll, Casey got a paper recycling kit and Tyler got a game boy. Chad got a i pod to keep him company on the job sights waiting for inspections and in the car driving all over town and commuting.

Christmas Eve

So as our year of our own traditions continues we come upon Christmas. When I was growing up my parents would always have an open house on Christmas Eve. They would invite the whole ward and all our neighbors. It was so much fun as a kid, running around with our friends and as I'm sure my parents planned, getting good and tired for an easy to bed and good nights sleep! So this year we had our first Christmas open house. I didn't get to many pictures since I was visiting with friends and not thinking much about picture taking, but I did get a couple. One friend said she would send me some that she got. When I get them, I'll add them. This was a pot luck and one friend brought a Chocolate fountain. I've always been intimidated by the clean up, but this is the third time I've had a chocolate fountain at a function I've attended and I'm starting to get that the cleanup is not such a big deal. I mean really, if it's easy enough for a pot luck it must not be to hard! It was an absolute hit with the kids as court and Aiden are demonstrating here. Notice the Chocolate running down court's chin.

Here are the kids posing with some great friends of ours, Taven and Michelle. We have known Michelle for years and she is by far one of the kids favorite people.

So I'd say the party was a great success. What did I say about getting good and tired? Thank you all who came and to those that missed it, maybe next year. We are thinking of a better night to have it since we want to do this annually and we spend every other Christmas eve with Chad's family. Since it would be confusing to have it on Christmas eve every other year and a different night every other year than that we will figure something out that is somewhat consistent, I've got a year to figure it out.

Family pictures

A dear friend of mine is an AMAZING photographer. She did a phot shoot with us for our Christmas card (i'm working on getting it out!) here are some of the picturs she got. I never realized how great she was till i witnessed her in action. She still got some great shots between wierd smiles, not sitting or standing still and general crazyness. Thanks Erica/yellow pear.

Court got into it and wanted a picture her and mommy.

Aiden was constantly running off

Aiden 1 1/2

Casey 8

Court 4

Family

Tyler 6

Sorry

I don't know how many people actually read this, but I wanted to apologise to any and all, friends and family who I have offended in the last month and any time previous. I have never intended to hurt anyone and I sincerely apologize.
I don't think I am perfect by any stretch of the word. I know and always have known that I have many faults. Most recently I am most aware of my sins of being selfish, thoughtless, closed hearted and a multitude of others. I know I have a strong personality and while I don't want to lose myself in my efforts to please all, I will try to keep myself in check and really consider my choices before I act or speak. While some may read this and think it is directed at one person or one event, I assure it is not and in fact a culmination of many. Again I am sorry to all. Here is to a new year and striving for a better me.

Christmas set up

Christmas is almost here. We got our Christmas tree last week and it is up. Notice the ornaments only on the top half. Aiden will not leave them alone if they are in his reach, so we had to put them up high. Unfortunately Court is not any better! I constantly have to tell her to leave the tree alone. Thanks to Tami for the absolutely wonderful birthday present of my new ornaments. In the 9 years we have been married we have never tried to have a them to our tree. It has just been a collection of random ornaments and home made crafts from the kids. Last year I wanted to start getting hand crafted looking or wooden ornaments to go for a more country/little house on the

prairie look. Tammi shopped after Christmas and collected a bag full of ornaments to save for my birthday. I was so excited to open it and I couldn't wait for my tree to put them up. Now I need to add to it, but I'm so glad to be going in a direction. The kids had fun stringing pop corn ....I'm glad that we only had to do half the tree. Popcorn stringing takes FOREVER! I have the stockings hung..did you notice Aiden is without a stocking? I thought I did his last year, guess I didn't. I'd better get on that. Well 12 days left and our shopping is done, yet there is still so much to do and so much going on. I know these weeks will fly by and the year will be over before we know it! Merry Christmas to all. My next project is to get Christmas letters out!

That thing makes cupcakes!

One day we were watching T.V. and Tyler says "Some things are for girls but I don't care, I want them anyway.....That thing makes cupcakes!" Chad is very proud of his son :).

Storage Storage and More Storage

This weekend Chad redesigned our downstairs closet. It was so awkward shaped and had so much wasted space. Now it is much more space efficient and I can keep it better organized! You can't see, but there are three shelves behind the coats. I'm trying to decide what food storage will go behind there... the chips...the canned chicken...definitely something the kids will leave alone I guess the chips are out. I'm SO excited! I also wanted to show you all my pantry. I LOVE my pantry. When I was in California this summer Chad Doubled the size of my pantry. Now it is a walk in instead of a step in. Their is even a little nook at the end that picture doesn't show. I am obsessed with food storage and grocery shopping so I was so exited to have some place to put it all. I'm running out of space now, hence the closet :) Thank you Thank you Chady Baby!! Thanks for just shaking your head, smiling, and building me more shelves. At least I'm easy to please and my obsession benefits the whole family.

Play dates are the BEST!

While I'm catching up on by blog Court is having a play date. When I went to get court from preschool I came home with 3 of her friends. These four play so well together and Court is in heaven when she has friends over. They wanted to jump on the bed but decide it would be better to jump on the trampoline so I made them all put on socks and jackets since its cold outside, yes.. here in Arizona 6o degrees is cold and worthy of jackets. They had a great time jumping,

playing duck duck duck goose and then house. After lunch they decide to come in and play upstairs and are currently watching Barbie "The Princess and the Pauper" (guess who picked that one) and playing train tracks and eating popcorn one of the boys even has it in his hair! I should get a pic. of the floor covered in tracks and popcorn, but that seems like to much effort. Aiden is down for a nap and the boys are at school. I'm so glad Court has made such great friends and there is hardly ever a fight with this group. Thanks to the mom's for letting them come over.

Thanksgiving 2008

This year for the holidays we are making our own traditions and this was our first. We invited some friends over whose plans fell through, it was so fun share our new tradition with them. We decided that instead of turkey it would be so much fun to have Cornish game hens. Everyone got their own little "turkey" on their plate and you just got to dig in. The kids were a little wary at first, not really understanding how to attack it, but they soon caught on and really had fun with it. They had fun looking for their wish bones even though they were not to gentle getting them out and ended up breaking them before they were free. It was so nice to stay home and have a relaxing day to be together as a family. Since it was Thanksgiving I feel like I should mention all that we are thankful for this year. We are so thankful for our family and our health. We are most thankful for the gospel and all that the lord has blessed us with this year. We have seen his hand in our lives this year especially. From the time Chad lost his job in Jan to where we are now, and all the work that has found it's way to Chad. I consider myself especially blessed to have a husband who is willing to work extra hard to support his family. I'm thankful to Chad for all the hours he works his three jobs to keep our roof over our heads and food on our table. We are thankful to all our friends, family and our ward who helped us get through those first few months.I'm thankful to all my kids teachers and the great job they do. I'm thankful for the extra help Casey is getting at school and that Tyler is having such a fun time is first grade. I'm thankful for Court's amazing pre-school teacher and all the extra effort and love she gives the kids. I'm thankful for the joy Aiden brings to our family. This year started with a huge bump, but we have have been blessed beyond our dreams and I look forward to the next year and whatever is in store for us.

Twilight

On Thursday night November 20th I went with a bunch of friends to see the midnight premier of one of our favorite books. We had our own private theater thanks to one of the girls near by. First off I have to say I love going to midnight release stuff...book releases (yes, we went to that one too :) ) and now movie releases. It is just fun! I really liked the movie. Obviously the book is better and it is a lot to live up to, books always are. I have a few scenes I loved and one I didn't care for, but aside the one, I loved it. I loved it more when Chad took me back a second time on our date night. He knew the story line since I read it to him on our 12 hour dive to my parents house. I had to keep him awake and he had nowhere to go wahahaha :). He admitted the movie was not bad and that it was to bad they didn't have a better budget because it could have been better with better special effects. And then I went back a third time with a friend who was unable to make it to the midnight release with us. I still enjoyed it the third time around. I would go again if someone needed a friend to go with, but I should probably wait till it comes out on video, then i can but it! Then again I do have some movie ticket vouchers I could use. I look forward to the next movie and can't wait to see what they do with a bigger budget and a new director.

Forget cookie monster..he's a candy monster!

We took the kids to the dollar theater on Wed. after school last week. Our way of kicking off the Thanksgiving weekend right! We took them to see Wall-E. On our way there we stopped at the dollar store and let each of them pick out a candy. Unfortunately we didn't get one for Aiden and he spent the whole time stealing candy from the others. Notice the chipmunk cheeks in the pic above.

We had so much fun, but a realized I've been spoiled going to the regular theater. It was so gross and grimy! Chad and I used to go to the $ theater all the time when we lived by it. Back in the day when it really was $1.00, even the concessions. Now it is $3.00 and the concessions are $4.00. There is no stadium seating and I felt dirty just being there! I guess it has been seven years since we frequented the Silver Cinema...how time flies. Oh well, we had so much fun and when Tyler looked over at me right before the movie started and with a huge smile on his face said "I'm so glad we are here!" it made it all worth it.

Soccer stars

We recently finished a season of soccer. I am super late posting this, but since I plan on using this a journal I didn't was to miss out on it, so here are some pictures of Tyler and Casey playing soccer. Chad works on Saturday so he missed most of the games which absolutely killed him since it has always been his dream to coach his boys at soccer. He has a great boss though who was willing to adjust his schedule for the season so that he was able to make it to a few of the later games.

Since Chad was working I was being soccer mom on my own which was fine, but some times I missed a lot of what was going on the field. luckily I didn't miss it all and wanted to jot down some of my observations. Chad would be proud to know that they were both great players.

I was so impressed with their abilities. Tyler was a great asset to his team. He was lucky enough to get the play with a bunch of kids from our ward and that was an extra bonus to the fun. Tyler was always right on top of his job/position. Once I saw him almost run over a kid on the opposing team, he was not stopping for anyone. On more than one occasion he said he had accidentally hit a kid with the ball and a couple times the kid had to sit out for a bit, but he always said sorry :). If you asked him he would tell you that he was enjoying playing, but his coach wouldn't let him be goalie he was supposed to make goals. Tom would tell him "OK Tyler I want you to make 5 goals today" and Tyler would.

I was also very impressed with Casey's abilities. He was always right where he was supposed to be and I could see him improve as the season went on. He was definitely learning at practice and applying his new knowledge to his game. Chad was able to assistant coach at the practices and would always tell me how good Casey was and what skill he could see in him. Casey also was a great asset to his team and scored many goals.

He had a great time playing and I was so proud to watch him as he did. I could tell he was really giving his all when he was on the field. He would always volunteer to stay on the field when they were short players. Great job to both my boys. Sorry to daddy that he had to missed so much, but we really appreciate the sacrifice he made to be at work.

The boys are ready for the next sport and keep asking if they get to start basketball next. I've told them I need a brake from sports. It's a lot between practices, games, Chad's schedule and Court and Aiden running around.