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Happy New Year! Welcome in 2009!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009!


Ray's delicious homemade pizza for New Year's Celebration!


New Year's Eve morning with the Rubin's


New Year's Eve eve with Rachel, Grasso, and Adam




Everybody in the club gettin tipsy!


Our fun holiday house.....it came down this morning!


Before and After of Peyton Rose Colvin

Guitar hero on Dec 30, 2008 approx 4:00pm - Peyton is hiding behind the guitar


Peyton Rose was born on January 1, 2009 6:20am

Merry ChristmaHannuKwanzika

The Day After Christmas Ray and I went into our beloved Boston and had dinner at Dick's Last Resort....oh so classy (and we even gave out a pass along card, woot woot). We then walked around Fanuel Hall and Quincy Market. I tried on a bunch of clothes that didn't fit me and decided that our evening was best spent holding hands, walking around, rather then trying to fit my larger than life hips into small jeans. The tree that was lit was beautiful and I fall in love with Ray and Boston everytime we go. We walked down to Swan Pond, where we like to walk on the frozen pond and decided that the slightly melted ice near our feet was not making us feel so comfortable, even though there were skaters out jumping on the ice...we'll go again when the temperature is below 32....or even 55 degrees as we have had somewhat of a heat wave since our big snow storm.

LEADING UP TO CHRISTMAS

Jacob, Maggie, Joe, Calvin, Sue, Ellie,
Oliver, and Jeff acting out the nativity scene

We finally found a tree that made us all happy and the boys worked hard getting on my car with no rack on the top...we have to get one! This is the second time we have needed a rack on the top of my car...too bad the tree died about a week later. Oh well, it lasted us through Christmas.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

This was our beautiful Red living room all ready for Christmas morning :-)


Our Christmas Card for this year....actually it was our ChristmHannuKwanzika Card

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care....until they fell down because they were too heavy! Mrs. Claus stayed up til about 3am making sugar cookies with everyone's name on them and Santa stayed up painting pictures of his beautiful children. The kids are very lucky to have had such a full Christmas! We send our best to you and thank you for those of our family members reading this who donated to our Christmas celebration!

The Day AFTER Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was great this year. A lot smaller than in past years, but filled with happiness and very full tummies none the less.
The kids, Ray, and I went to my parents house for Thanksgiving. In years past we have had other family members there and had to extend the table out into the living room, etc...but it was nice and cozy this year. My mom had a trip to the hospital earlier this week due to endless hours of Vertigo, so we kept Thanksgiving simple...at least we tried to. My mom ended up making 3 pies and the Turkey, while the Sewell's contributed sweet potatoes, scalloped potatoes, rolls, fried green beans (a new family tradition and favorite), cranberry sauce, turkey stuffing, a cookie cake, blueberry pie, sparkling cider, egg nog, and cran-ras juice. Basically we brought 60% of dinner over....but we have no dining room, so Mom's house it was.
Earlier in the morning the boys went to basketball. The guys were great about helping cook and we all watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade from 9-12pm. I still get misty eye when they announce Santa. I know it's silly, but it still helps me believe there's good in the world.
So, with Maggie at our feet, we ate our Thanksgiving feast and toasted to everything we were thankful for.
With full bellies we went down to watch the first Thanksgiving Day movie...."Napoleon Dynomite." We still laugh til we cry and Ray and I think it would be funny if I were Deb and he played Pedro or Napoleon next year for Halloween. It's either that or the Spartan Cheerleaders. I can't believe that Ray had never seen the very ending of ND. If you haven't watched past the credits, YOU MUST, and if you haven't watched at all....well, you are SO missing out. GET IT, NOW!
After movie numero uno came dessert break of a plethora of pies (Pumpkin, blueberry, mince, and cookie cake). We gorged again and with full tummies went back down for movie number 2, "The Bucket List."
This was an excellent movie (minimal swears and it would have been fine without them) All four of us watched it, although had I known about the swears I may not have been so quick to have Jacob see it, but I know these are nothing new to his ears...sad, I know. So I do recommend this movie. It's definitely a heart string puller, but it is SO important for each of us to recognize our dreams and to never let life get in the way of our dreams, because you never know when it is your last day on Earth. I mean, how nice to get a life expectancy countdown if you have a terminal illness, but the bottom line is, none of us never know when our last day on Earth is.
We need to be spending so much more quality time living life and doing what we deem important. Too much time is spent at work and not at home. I'm having a hard time dealing with that lately and looking for ways to cut down on school time because I find myself not knowing my home as much as I'd like to. I really like being there when the kids get home because I don't think it's right that children should have to go home to an empty house. Ray and I are really struggling with this right now because we each have 2 jobs and we're still barely making ends meet with our mortgage and whatnot. This is a project we're working on so we can spend more time together and at home.
So, my point is, GO SKYDIVE!

Ok, so the day AFTER Thanksgiving.....we at Turkey sandwiches of course. We planned to go into Boston, but it started pouring for about 2 hours straight. By the time we decided to go to the mall instead, it stopped raining. Go figure. SCARY observation with the mall scene this year:
A) we found a parking spot right away and
B) there was only one store packed with people and it just seemed that way because the store is 90% clothes and 10% walking room.

It was eerily quiet at the mall, although I heard the horror stories of the early morning stampedes and shootings at stores. So scary. I did not have any desire to be a part of that. Go ebay! After the mall we picked up my friend Lindsey, and headed over to the GAME NIGHT HOUSE :-) We played Outburst for a few hours and laughed a whole lot. Some of those definitions were just amazing. If you haven't played, you must. I think my favorite definition still was "Humhum": A kind of plain, coarse India cloth, made of cotton.

Happy Definition making!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

I get lots of complaints that I don't update this often enough...well, guess what!? I finally have a day off to update it, so THERE :-P

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I hope you're all having a great day. We're sitting here watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, which is something I've done since I was a kid. The boys went to basketball and are now eating breakfast. I have cinnamon warming on the stove and it smells delicious.

Last night we got to celebrate my Christmas Tradition (that I basically started by myself in 2000) of going to Trans Siberian Orchestra last night. It was an amazing show and they added more pyrotechnics than ever. It was wonderful.


Take a looksy!

I have many things to be grateful for this year. I have a great home, husband, and a job that helps keep food on our table and a roof over our head. I'm learning daily about how to be a better person....just wish I could learn faster and more permanently.

We have a lot going on for December...just had two concerts in November and then we have our Ecumenical Concert, the High School Holiday concert, Church Christmas Program, and the middle school concert. We keep busy around here...not to mention trying to get ready for Christmas.

I just realized that I love Aflac commercials....Geico too.

I'll add more later. Happy Holidays.

Actual Anniversary coverage

So, our First Anniversary was just gorgeous and we got to go back to the Snow Goose Inn, same room and all. Here are just a few select shots of us in VT . My cool perspective eye came out during this trip, but all my other pictures are on Facebook. This site takes too long to upload pictures. We saw a wacky sign for Emu Meat as we traveled through the picturesque roads to West Dover, VT. The land was gorgeous and we got to spend time in Sharon, VT at the Joseph Smith memorial as well as accidentally finding Brigham Young's monument! Also where the tractor picture was taken.
And we ALSO just happened to run into a sister from my mission in the ward we visited on Sunday as well a meeting a family where the husband had served in Thailand 2 years prior to Ray. It was really cool and we had some time to just take in life and enjoy it. The Cabot cheese was great and we also picked up some maple syrup from a shack on the side of the road. I highly recommend staying where we stayed and the owner is unbelievable. She even helped cut off the frosting from our wedding cake. The cookie was still edible, despite its freezer burn.
The other nice thing was that we didn't have any bathroom emergencies this year. Last year as we were on our way home, we ate somewhere (that surprisingly got shut down recently) that really upset my stomach and we got to know a lot of the Inns and anywhere that had a bathroom along the way home. This year we took Cyndee's recommendation and at at the the Anchor. Great food and French onion soup! We also took in an art gallery, walked by the "Incurable romantic" and enjoyed all the bikers in VT for the weekend.
Cyndee even let us check out as late as we wanted, so we got to sit in the sitting room with the fireplace and bay windows, after everyone had gone for the day, and Ray worked on his novel as I caught up on emails and scrapbooks. It was really nice to just have that time together and not have to worry about work or making food or shopping, just being with each other.
One year down, an eternity to go :-)

Meanwhile, Jacob was at an RV campsite with some friends all weekend and got to go RV trick or treating! Rachel spent time with her mom and had a party of her own with about 8 people and some crazy pictures. You'll have to look at her facebook and myspace to check them out. She's getting really good at this program called "Picnic" where you can add things and text to your pictures.
And as soon as we got back, we hot the ground running.
Life is good and we're grateful for what we have.
Have a good night or day, whenever you happen to read this. Ciao!

1st Anniversary already...only the 1st?!

Hello friends and family.

So I realized that I haven't updated anything since our trip out to UT. Sorry. Between Ray and I working full time and then some, not much else gets done besides sleeping, eating, driving people around, and lots of work.

We have had some fun adventures in the past couple of months though.

A few weeks ago we spent family night in Boston "getting our culture on"..I got really sick from something I ate, but luckily is passed just as the concert of the Ate Neo Chamber Singers from the Philippines, was starting. They performed at the beautiful Old south Church across from the Boston Library and it was a breathtaking performance...a little too long (with an hour intermission), but the music was comparable to BYU singers and really brought tears to my eyes. Despite the kids' exhaustion, they were still grateful for the experience and I was grateful for my tummy feeling better.
Another exciting performance was last week at the Bethany Congregational Church, the Watoto Children's Choir from Uganda, Africa. They were so beautiful that I don't know how anyone kept from dancing, singing, or crying. I played their music for my classes and they all want to sing those songs...so I've started transcribing what I can. Check this group out at www.watoto.com

The school year is going really well. The kids in Foxborough are also being exposed to the Patriots Hall over at Gillette stadium.

I got to go to a soccer game with a few of my friends and it was really good to get out with "the girls" and just have a good time. Ray just got home from California yesterday and it was quite the week for all of us.

I've also decided that if we ever start having kids of our own, there is NO way I could work the hours I do. As it is I spend waaaaaaaaaaay too much time at school or teaching and I'm usually at the house for a couple hours on average before going to sleep. It's really crazy and I never wish to have both parents working full time, but with times the way they are...there is no other option.

In other past news....Ray's birthday was a ton of fun. Jacob, Ray, and I went to see Blue Man Group and got to sit in the poncho section. Jake had a blast and we celebrated with traditional ice cream for a birthday snack at Coldstone.

This weekend Ray and I will celebrate our 1st Wedding Anniversary. We're very excited as we are returning to our honeymoon site for sweet celebrating. We imagine it will be much more crowded this year than last, as it is Columbus Day weekend and last year we were married the weekend AFTER the holiday weekend. We're excited for the changing colors though.

My eyes are closing and I need to pack, but I appreciate you participating in our life and I'll try to keep this posted more regularly.