He Man...

After Christmas, Birch and I decided to start going through some things in the house. First on the list was the collection of toys we still have from our children. Needless to say, there are too many! We found the He Man collection under the stairs and after sending them through the dishwasher, they were ready to play with. Jeff was in heaven! He played with them for about two hours on a Sunday night, explaining every move to Baylie and Bryndie.

This is Snake Mountain, it's really Jason's, along with all the bad guys.

This is Castle Greystone. It's Jeff's with all the good guys!

It was a fun night, bringing back fun childhood memories. Hang on to those toys! They may come in handy some day!!!! I wonder how they would do on

E-Bay! Just a thought!

A little update

Just thought I would give a little update. Our computer is down so I haven't been able to blog....and if it was working, I wouldn't have time to blog anyway! We are getting into the routine of leaving every morning and being gone all day. It has been an adjustment for me, but it's working! We have had some great experiences already and we love working so closely with the missionaries! They are all amazing young men. There are six of us in the office. Sister Nachetes is the main secretary, Sister Roudolf does referrals, Brother Roudolf is in charge of the mission cars, Sister Corcran is the mission nurse (she is from SLC), Elder Holt (Birch) is the finance man, and I (Sister Holt) am doing all the reporting, newsletter, pictures, and anything else they ask me to do! The mission President and his wife are amazing, it been fun to get to know them. We are keeping really busy, and I am learning alot on the computer!

Last week was transfer week. We had 18 new missionaries come to Minnesota. 11 went home. The week was full of special dinners, testimony meetings, training etc. We didn't get home most nights until 10:00. We have the Hmong missionaries living with us until they can get into their apartment, hopefully sometime this week. They are great guys and it's been fun to have them in our home. Tonight for dinner we had 6 missionaries over. We enjoyed each one of them.....(I keep telling them I have some really cute nieces).

It has been a good experience. One day as the sun was streaming in the front and back windows of the office, the tabernacle choir was singing in the background, we had just begun the day with prayer, we were surrounded by kind members and Elders I realized that this is the perfect place to work. I am grateful for this opportunity that has come our way right now. I'll try and post pictures one of these days!

New Year Changes

The new year is upon us and I am feeling alittle overwhelmed. (too say the least). We had a wonderful three weeks with our family all here for the holidays. I want to document Christmas with pictures, but that will have to come later. No time tonight!

Birch and I began our mini-mission at the mission office today. We will be at the Minneapolis mission office five days a week, for the next 6 months or until we get a full time mission call. Birch will do all the mission finances and I will do the office work that the office Elders have been doing, so they can spend more time out proselyting. It's like going to work full time for me, something I am certainly not use too. (when do I go shopping??) But I know the blessings will come and there is a great spirit there working with the missionaries. Change is good!

Oh Christmas Tree

Saturday, we went to cut down our Christmas tree with the Hunsakers. It turned out to be a beautiful, sunny, but freezing day! Vincent came with us since Jeff and Annette had a date to see Twlight...(Jeff gave in)

Bryndie was so cold! She was going to stay in the car but finally decided she wanted some say in what the tree looked like! Too skinny, too short, too fat, too tall, we finally found one for Grandma and Grandpa! Baylie was pretty cold too, but was a trooper tromping through the woods. Julie took a little longer to find the right one for her. She sent Cameron to get the car with the kids, found the tree she wanted, sawed it down and dragged it to the road! We couldn't tell what Cameron thought! But he was a good sport and tied it on top!

Here's proof that we were there although the picture didn't turn out very well. Once again we had a good time being together and missed those in our family that weren't here. We can't wait until next week when everyone starts arriving for Christmas!

The Christmas Village

Every year one of our favorite Christmas traditions is putting up the Christmas Village. It's a big job, but we love it when it's done.

I was having book club at my house this week and decided it would be fun to have the Dickens village up before everyone came since we were reading "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. We had a fun evening and enjoyed discussing the wonderful story of Scroge and Tiny Tim. Now we have to watch the movie!

It's like a fairyland and it's fun to imagine yourself right there in the village. Thanks to my mom for starting a Christmas village tradition in our family when we were "Young"!

Now the trick will be to keep 12 little hands out of it for the next month! Vincent came over today and "Car, car, car! Horse, Horse, Horse!" but he was good not to touch!

For My Dad

My dad and I have always had fun watching different wildlife when we are together. I think it's fun to see the quail and magpies at his house. This week, woody- woodpecker was in our tree. I thought Dad would like to see this!

I couldn't get a good picture before he decided to fly away! But that's him in the middle of the tree. Then the same day, we were coming home from Costco and saw all these geese in the field at Rocket Park! It reminded me of the time Mom, Dad and I went down to Rochester, MN and saw thousands of geese in a park. I was braver with Dad and got closer than I did this week!

There were a lot more than it looks! I couldn't get them all in the pictures! Anyway, it brought back a fun memory with my parents and was fun to see so many geese in one place. I love to hear the honking everyday as the geese fly over and usually run to the window to watch! Just another plus for living in Minnesota!

Thanksgiving celebration

I thought I'd better document Thanksgiving. This year we went to Julie and Cameron's home. Julie cooked the turkey and we all contributed to the meal. Yummy!! I think Jeff and Cameron ate more before dinner than during dinner!

It was fun to be at the Hunsakers home. We ate alot and enjoyed each other's company.

After dinner, Baaylie put on a dance show for us in the newly finished downstairs. I was quite proud of this shot, catching her in mid-air.

All the kids joined in the program. They had a great time running around dancing. All the girls were then invited to join the dance. Julie and I rocked out for one song before we got too tired! Annette decided to watch. After the program, we all played Pit. I was the new champion (much to Birch's dismay) He likes to win.....During the Pit game we looked over at Payton, he had found the empty bubbly bottles.....

Good to the last drop! It was a fun day. At 10:00 p.m. Julie and I left for the outlet mall. We shopped till 3:00 a.m. Got some great deals! And enjoyed the people watching as we stood in lines. The weather was pretty nice this year. At 4:00 a.m. Birch and I crawled into bed. Needless to say, we didn't hit the morning specials!