SEP Conferences

So I will get back to posting about San Diego in a litte bit. But right before we left for San Diego, we went to O's parent teacher conference. The teacher said she is doing awesome and she is a great little student. She drew some great pictures. She is really loving to learn to read and she is trying really hard at sounding words out and writing them. The only problem here is that now we can't spell out things in conversations between me and J cause O knows what they spell. She has such the wonderful imagination. Over the past two weeks she has went from wanting to be a Shamu trainer to a pilot (that was on our flight home) and now to a dress designer. She even has started her own little portfolio. Cute huh!
Anyways back to the conference, the teacher has set one of her next goals for next time is that she does need to do is stay on task and finishing her assignments. So J's sister was cleaning the basement at his parents and found an old report card from his elementary school. She gave it to us the night we got home from San Diego. Guess what the only comment that was written on it.... He has a difficult time staying on task and get his work done. I busted a gut laughing so hard. I looked at him and said, "Guess we know who she gets that from. Father like daughter." He laughed pretty hard too.

San Diego - Day 1

So we all just got sick and tired of the freezing cold whether here and we decided a vacation was thing to fix that. Joe booked us a trip to San Diego. I have been wanting to take the kids to SeaWorld for a long time. So off we went last weekend. We stayed at a beautiful resort called Paradise Point Resort and Spa. Check out their website - my pictures don't do it justice. We went to SeaWorld on Saturday. We all loved it. At the Shamu show, McCall was scared she was going to get splashed on. By the end of the show she was wanting to get splashed. Oaklie decided she wanted to be a Shamu trainer when she grows up. The girls love touching the star fish too! Its was about 80 degrees. LOVED IT.

Highlights from 2008

Some of our Maxfield Family highlights from 2008!

January '08 - Oaklie turned 5 yrs old

February '08 - Joe and I went to the Harlem Globetrotters game with JC and Steph. We had a great time going out with them. Best part of February was we finally were able to purchase the lot where our home sits now from our wonderful friends/landlords.
March '08 - At the first part we went to see what our baby was but it was shy. Dang it! We dug our well in mid March. The well rig got stuck out in the mud. It was kind funny. At the end of March we finally found out we were having a BOY!!!! Yipee!!! I finally got rid of all those boxes of girl clothes that had been piling up.

April '08 - Oaklie started playing soccer for the first time. It was quite entertaining and frustrating at the same time. My dad felt my pain. The poor girl would rather have just been a cheerleader on the side lines. She actually was the only kid wanting to sit on the sidelines so she could cheer. Go figure. In mid April we went to the American West Hertitage Center Baby Animal Days with the preschool. The girls loved every minute of it. On April 29th they broke ground on our home.

May '08 - McCall celebrated her 4th birthday. They poured our basement, did all the rough work and started framing our home. The girls graduated from preschool. We went camping up Green Canyon over Memorial Day.

June '08 - Oaklie started playing T-ball. She seemed to enjoy it more than soccer. Joe continued keeping our house going. By the end of June, he had it to the point that he was able to do the finish work in it. Me and the girls went to Lagoon with my parents and Steph and the kids. Our little family joined the Maxfield's up at Wolf Creek for a week vacation of swimming, raquetball and boating. I only had one more month to go before our little boy was to arrive.

July '08 - I must say this was the best month ever. Joe celebrated his birthday. Oaklie continued playing T-Ball. Here comes the best part, our little Cash was born on July 23rd! And we were given the okay to move in our home the day we got home from the hospital... so we came home to our brand new home.

August '08 - Things kept going great. The kids continued to grow. We went for a little afternoon trip to Bear Lake. The girls showed the horses at the fair. At the end of August, Oaklie started Kindergarten. McCall sure did miss her the first week. She got over it though. Oaklie lost her first tooth.September '08 - We went to Yellowstone over Labor Day with my family and had a wonderful time. McCall started preschool again. We purchased our Ranger and went camping and four wheeling with my Dad up Logan Canyon.

October '08 - Joe went hunting up at Deseret and got his cow elk. We went hunting up on the hill with him. The girls love going up with their dad on the Ranger. We celebrated Halloween.

November '08 - We had family pictures. Cash turned four months. Right before Thanksgiving we planted 22 trees. We now have our own little lane up to our home. We also put a whole dump truck full of rocks in our yard for landscaping. We celebrated Thanksgiving at the Maxfield's house. Joe's mom is an awesome cook and is sister is an awesome cook too!

December '08 - We went to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights. We just celebrated the season. We had a wonderful Christmas and are thankful for the birth of Christ and all he does for us.

We are enjoying our home emensely and hope to enjoy it for years and years to come. We have wonderful families that help us more than they know and we are thankful to have them in our lives. It has been a wonderful year and we are extremely thankful for all the blessings that we have been given.

My Toothless Little Girl (12/2/08)

Oaklie has lost three teeth now. I am glad we got our family pictures before she lost her top front tooth. She looks pretty funny. It has been over a month now and I think I am getting use to her not having it. She is a brave little girl though. She had Joe pull the top one and one of the bottom ones out. The other bottom one was a bet my brother gave her to pull it out when we were in Yellowstone over Labor Day. Man was she proud of herself. I am proud of her too!

Christmas 2008

We had a wonderful Christmas. Christmas Eve we went to Grandma and Grandpa Call's for our annual Christmas Party. The kids have so much fun with their cousins and their grandparents spoil them rotten. Along with spoiling me and Joe too of course! It is so fun when we all get together. Mom had the kids serving us dinner it was way cute.

I had made the girls big quilts for their beds. Joe's mom helped me and the Oaklie was sure she was going to get a blanket. I had to tease her and tell her that she really wasn't and it was bear. But when they opened them they were exstatic. It was great.

My parents came out for breakfast on Christmas morning and to see what presents they got. With the snow storm we got we didn't head into Joe's parents until about 2:30 p.m. It was nice laying around watching it the kids excitment and playing with their presents. We then headed to town to his parents for lunch and to open presents. The family too spoiled everyone. Then we headed home in the snow storm. The usual 15 min drive took us about an hour to get home. It has been wonderful having Christmas in our new house.

We did keep reminding the kids that Christmas is not about the presents. That it is about Christ and his birth. I am deeply indebt to him for the sacrafice he made on my and my families behalf. I know that it is only through him we can return to our Father in Heaven. I love this time of year and I love my family so much!

Lights at Temple Square (12/6/08)

We went to Temple Square to listen to Joe's mom's singing group sing and see the lights at Temple Square. As always the lights were beautiful. It is such a magnificent place and you truely do feel the spirit there. The girls loved the Christus Statue and marveled at it. I love that they love their Father in Heaven so much and look up to Christ. At night they say such cute prayers and their morning prayers are wonderful too. I know that I have so much to improve upon but hopefully I can be more like Christ in all that I do. I hope that Joe and I can be a better example to our little family and to those around us.

Cash - 4 months old (11/23/08)

Cash turned four months old on November 23, 2008. At his four month appointment he was:
Weight: 14 lbs 4 oz
Height: 25 1/2" long

He is still a very happy pleasant boy. He is learning how to roll over from his back to his tummy. There is one slight problem though - he HATES (and I emphasize HATES) to be on his tummy. He is eating cereal off and on and loves to look at our dog Fritz. I think that once he learns how to crawl Fritz will be in big trouble cause that little boy is going to go straight for him. He loves his daddy and his mommy a lot, but I think he loves his sister far more cause they think the world of him and treat him like the world revolves around him and he eats that up!

Enhanced Homes Work Pictures

Joe had the opportunity to work on this house in Huntsville. He and his team did an awesome job on it. It was beautiful. We have been so blessed to be able to keep busy this year in the midst of everything going on in the housing market. Joe works extremely hard on his business and is a wonderful business man. He values his work and is very proud of the work he does and so are we. These are just some of the pictures he took of the things he did in the house. There was a whole lot more, but it would take way to long to post all of them:

Family Pictures (11/9/08)

Here are some of the pictures that Nicole took of our family at the Holmgren Historical Farm the second weekend of November 2008: