HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I mostly wanted to use this picture. I think it's cool. It's from our cruise, but it looks like a new years party. So party on.

8 years...

Can you believe it? Happy Anniversary Sean and Keli!

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas everyone! We talked to some of you, but missed others. Hope y'all had a great day. Our Santa was very generous this year, and is now on Mom's naughty list. It was supposed to be a "video game free" Christmas, but when presents were opened there were quite a few of them hiding under that tree.

Jared and Kristen... the kids love their books, and we love the picture. That is one of my favorite pictures, and we needed a picture of Christ. Thank you!

We have a few pictures posted on my blog from Christmas morning, and check out Betsy's blog for our Christmas Eve festivities. We had a great time at their house and visiting with Jake and Amy's family while we were up there.

Church? What's that, again?

I know, I know. I need to get back to my own ward. It's been, count them, 4 weeks since I've been to my home ward. Yikes! Between a homecoming (or mission report, whatever,) a baby blessing (are we still calling them that?), work (I was able to attend the hospital branch meeting), and surgery (no excuse there), It seems like forever since I've been to church. Even if I have attended other meetings, it just doesn't feel like real church. And this week we will be attending my parents ward for their Christmas Choir program. Our ward has an insane choir director, we only sing dumb songs, so I won't be going to that. So that makes it a total of 5 weeks away from our ward! That's got to be a record for me. Even after having the babies, I only took off a couple of weeks.

So what's my point? Nothing really. Just making myself feel better by explaining the situations that have kept me from attending my home ward. I do feel better now. Thanks.

Here's the score...

Girls 7
Boys 3
TBA 1

I think it's a little lopsided!

Jeepers, creepers, where'd you get that chicken?

Oh, Mom. She's the best. Not that I need to tell any of you this. Okay, so the night of my surgery, Mom being the perpetual Relief Society President that she is, brought dinner over for Sean and the girls. Sean was all nuts about how good the chicken strips were. He went on and on about how we need to go get "Tyson" chicken strips at the store. So when Mom asked him what he wanted for his birthday dinner, his 30th mind you, he of course said the chicken strips. So we're all eating dinner on Sunday, and he's going on and on about how good they are, as am I, because the were in fact pretty darn good, and I'm like "Where do you get these chicken strips?" Well, somehow the conversation turned to something else right at that moment, so I didn't get an answer, and figured I'd just find out later. So later arrives. We're getting ready to leave, and Sean is still going on and on about the chicken, when Mom bursts into the room with "I have a confession to make!". What? So, apparently the night they brought over dinner, Mom had cooked chicken strips. You'd think the story would end there, but no. I guess Dad forgot to take them out of the oven, or something to that effect, and they got a little burned. So on the way to our house, they stopped at KFC and bought the chicken strips. They took the burned ones out of the container, and added the impostors. So when Sean asked for the same chicken strips for his birthday dinner, they had to continue to cover their deception, and bought 2 dozen chicken strips from KFC on Saturday, and reheated them on Sunday. Now, it would usually not be a big deal, but thanks to my lack of cooking skills, Sean knows his fast food. He said they tasted a lot like KFC. And if you know Mom and Dad, you know they don't do this. Mom is an excellent cook, and they have no need to eat fast food. I guess that's what makes this story so darn funny. That and the fact that Mom cannot tell a fib. She could not let us leave believing she had cooked those chicken strips. I promised her it would be blogged, and I too, do not tell fibs.



So Mom, this is for you. You've been found out. We love you. I haven't had a good laugh like that in a long time. Thanks for the chicken. Oh yeah, and EVERYTHING else.

Thanksgiving 2005

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. It's a little different now that we are spread around the US a little more! Ours was great. Nate and Betsy and fam came down from Austin... it's nice to have some family fairly close by! The kids had a great time, they all get along well and love to get together. They were here for a few days. Now onto Christmas!

CONGRATULATIONS Chelle and Ken! We are so excited for you!

It's a...

Girl! It looks like the Clayton girl grandchildren just keep on outnumbering the boys. We figure Kristen and Jared will have a boy for sure because not only are the babies due in the opposite order (Min, Kirsten, Kristen), but I think the gender will be the opposite of last time as well (girl, girl, boy). What do you think? We are excited to have a girl and have no clue about names. Any ideas???

The 15th has come and gone...

Kirsten, how did your ultrasound go? Is everything looking all right? We're waiting for some news!

Recipe blog

I dont' know if any of you ever check out Betsy's blog, but she has decided to start a recipe blog so we can all share recipes. If you are interested check it out.

http://foodsnobbery.blogspot.com

The Egg and Muffin Toaster

It's a small world after all!



I was reading the posts over at the DVD forum and someone mentioned the new BTB product...

The Egg and Muffin Toaster.

... they posted the link to the site.

I love the "Build Your Own" part.

Can't wait to get mine. ;)

Trick or Treat

Here are the kids before we went to trick or treating. We only went down the street and back and their pumpkins were full. Alex was trying to keep up with Aaron and Aimee... he thought he was so big. Now we get to sort through the goods and see what we like. My favorite part!

WV and Halloween

Hello everybody. Here are some pictures of our recent adventures. We met up with Ken and Michelle in a tiny town somewhere in West Virginia last weekend and we had a lot of fun exploring. There are also some pictures of the aftermath of the ward Halloween party we had last night. The little monkey sure loves candy. It's too bad I'll have to confiscate it and eat it myself!

Gramma and Emma. Little buddies. They are definitely kindred spirits.

Don't they look so cute? Even Joan looks purdy. Ahh, special. We had a great visit with Joan, as always. We just love her. She's so fun to tease. It's good to have an aunt who can take it and dish it out too.

Fall Festival

Aaron and Aimee had their fall festival. They were excited... we took them. We had hot dogs and chips. Aaron and Aimee had a pony ride, and played some other little games. They had fun, but we were glad when it started to sprinkle. It gave us an excuse to go home! Here's some pictures.

It's here...

My brother's mission call came today. Greg will be serving in the Belgium Brussels mission and speak Dutch. He enters the MTC on Feb. 1st. His mission includes The Netherlands, Belgium and a little of Northern France.

He is very excited and a little nervous. He has heard that Dutch is a harder language to learn.

Anyway, thought you might like to know.

Christmas assignments

Kristen and I were talking today and trying to figure out who had who for Christmas... this is what we came up with.

Mike and Mindy have Bryan and Kirsten
Sean and Keli have Michelle and Ken
Jared and Kristen have Mike and Mindy
Bryan and Kirsten have Sean and Keli
Michelle and Ken have Jared and Kristen

Hopefully this will work for everyone. Next year we will add Spencer back into the mix.

The results are in...

and It's a GIRL!!!

Mike was right, I was wrong... but it's all good. Now we're even... 2 boys and 2 girls. Aaron will be excited, and I'm sure Aimee will be soon... but she wanted a brother (she didn't want to share her room.)

So, Andrea (Andee) is on her way, and will make her appearance near the beginning of
March. Can't wait!

TO THE "DUMPITY" PATCH WE GO...

Here are Emma and Maggie at the dumpity patch. Yes, I said dumpity. That's what Maggie calls pumpkins. I don't know why, I guess because she's so silly. Anyway, we had fun, and they each got a pumpkin. I guess we'll paint faces on them for family night on Monday. It's easier and cleaner than carving. And safer. And now I get to do a cute scrapbook page for their books. I know, I know, I've crossed over. Shame on me. I resisted as long as I could, but the peer pressure was just too much. Thanks, Min. Looking forward to Tuesday.

an update...

Hey everyone!

Just so that you know... we are having our ultrasound next Tues the 25th. We'll let you know what we find out soon after that.

I was talking to Michelle last night, and she mentioned something about Kristin having an ultrasound soon... what's up?

Things are going well here. We had a little drama here yesterday... Aaron got home from school and told me that Aimee was still on the bus. She was busy talking to a friend and didn't get off. Aaron. Alex and I walked back down to the bus stop and met up with another mom from down the street that knew Aimee didn't get off. The other mom was got in her car to go look for Aimee while I waited at the bus stop. As she was leaving the bus came back with Aimee. The bus driver was very nice, and Aimee was in tears. Aaron now has strict instructions to make sure that Aimee is off the bus and walking with him before heading home. Their instructions before were to walk home together, so I didn't think they needed more instruction than that... I guess they did. Anyway, they all got home, and I got to know one of my neighbors a little better.

Our New Furniture

See what you think. Notice the paint as well. It's been hard being without furniture for so long, but it was worth the wait. I love it!

Any fans of "Earl" out there?

This is my new favorite show. Just wondering who else loves it as much as I do? Go Earl!!

Home again, home again, jiggity jig....

Well, here I am. I had a great time in San Francisco. It's a very "cool" city. People there are very nice. For some reason, wherever we went, we were noticed. People just couldn't believe that we were family and we all got along well enough to go on vacation together. It was weird. But mostly we were just lost and needed help finding our way. We did get to see all the S.F. has to offer, including the "alternative lifestyle" that is quite prevalent there. My poor mother, she was in shock. But even though we had a good time, it's always nice to come home.

Aaron's school play

Aaron was in a school play tonight. It involved kids from 2-5th grade, so he was just in one of the groups of dancers. In kinder and first they had a play all to themselves and he had speaking parts. For some reason the school's AC was turned off at 4 pm today and wasn't turned back on until after 6 (when the PTA mtg started... the play was after the mtg. that's how they get people to come to the meetings.) Needless to say it was more than a little warm in there and noisy. Here are a few pictures that Mike took tonight.

What to plant?

What to plant? I need to take a poll. Tulips, Daffodils, Hyacinth, or Crocus? I don't want too many of each because I don't have much room. Pick 2.

Keli's new blog!

Keli's new blog!

This is so true.

I figured it out!

Now I know how to post a pic! Wow, the things you can find out by accident! I think I'll post another just for fun! This is Emma and Mags playing at Lava Hot Springs. And the other is the red slide Emma couldn't stop going down. Up the stairs, down the slide, up the stairs, down the slide.... You get it. I tried the green one....Too scary for me. It's dark the whole way down! I'll stick to the kiddie ones, thank you very much!

Picture Day!

Well, today is school picture day. Emma is quite excited, she's been practicing her smile, and she brushed her teeth especially long today. Maggie will also be participating even though she is not in school yet. She'll be wearing a cute new outfit she got for her birthday party from Nunn last night. Yep, that's right, birthday party. She's almost 2! We had to celebrate early because I, being the great mother that I am, will be gone vacationing in San Francisco over her actual birthday. I'll be gone with the girls, no kids. Mom, Meg, Jill, Kelli, and I will be gone from the 6th to the 10th. Yeah!!! Although one thing I am not looking forward to is I have to work all night Wednesday from 7PM to 7Am on Thursday, and catch the plane at 8:30 AM on Thursday. Should be fun! Hopefully I can get out of work a little early so I won't miss the flight. But, as life goes, we'll see what happens.

My little genius...

I guess she must get it from the Clayton side, cause I'm sure she doesn't get it from me. Emma is so smart. I mean, we always knew this because she is of course our kid, but I had no idea! She started Kindergarten on the 7th of September and started 1st grade on the 18th of September! She was the smartest in her class! Her assessment came back with an IQ of 122. I think that outdoes me by about 100 or so. Now what do I do? I can't use clever lines that parents use like "Oh, you think you're so smart..." or "Don't be a smart alec..." or "You think you know everything..." I guess it will be my job to keep her humble. Like me. Ha ha ha. Anyway, I'm so proud of her. Just had to brag.

What's this C-Section talk?

I didn't know you were having a C-Section? Why? I thought the other A's came out just fine the "normal" way? What's up?

Emma's first day of school!

Well, Emma started school on Wednesday! One down, one to go! She was very excited to ride the bus, and if I had any idea how to post pics here, I would show you how big she looks getting on that bus. She had a great day and loves her teacher. She has a friend from preschool in her class, as well as a primary friend. She will have a great time this year. I just hope I can get through it as well. It will be interesting having to get her off to school after working a 12 hour shift overnight. Plus I won't be able to sleep while she's gone because Maggie is still here. I guess I can sleep when I'm dead....

We're Baaaaack!

We are officially back from our week-long vacation to Yellowstone. We had some good times. We left last Sunday and drove to Lava Hot Springs where we spent 2 nights. Sunday night we went to the hot pools with the kids. They thought it was pretty neat. Monday we spent at the pool. Emma wanted to go down the waterslide, but got nervous at the top. Mom had to give her a little nudge (Okay, so I practically picked her up and threw her down), but luckily she loved it once she reached the bottom. She spent the rest of the day going up the stairs, down the slide, up the stairs, down the slide, up the stairs....Well, you get it.

Tuesday morning we left for Jackson Hole. We stopped just long enough to get fuel (3.00 a gallon, ouch), and continued on to Yellowstone and Fishing Bridge RV park. We stayed there for Tuesday night, Wednesday night, and Thursday night. We were able to see all sorts of wildlife including a Black Bear! The only thing we didn't get to see was a Moose. Too bad. Lots of buffalo, which Maggie calls "Moos". Everything with fur is a Moo to her.

So Friday morning we headed out of the park to Logan. We drove through Preston, which was a treat. Never been there, don't think I'll be going back any time soon. We stayed at the Ramada Inn's RV park in Logan for Friday night and Saturday night. Sean rode his bike 60 miles on Saturday with my sister Meg, and her boy/friend. Notice the slash. We mostly hung out on Saturday evening, and I finished 2 books. Mindy, I know you're proud.

So Sunday morning we headed out to get home. Unfortunately, I woke up with a horrible cold, and slept most of the way home. But we made it home, and it was a relief. Needless to say, I'm still doing laundry, and will be all week. So that was our last hurrah for the summer. Back to work.

The Clayton Family Nuthouse

The Clayton Family Nuthouse

Tiger arrived today...

... expect it next week.

Grabbing "Tiger" by the tail...

This is for Mom, Sean and Bryan:

I just ordered Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) Family 5-pack from Amazon a few minutes ago. It should be here before the week is out.

As soon as I get it, I will install it and make a back-up of the software for myself and then ship the originals to Mom and you can guys can help her install it and then get on your own machines. It's very simple and should be quick and painless.

Due to a discount I had from Burger King (that Fantastic Four promo-card) I could save a $1 on it... WAHOO! So it only came to $178.99... so that's $44.75 for each of us.

If you could send me a check ASAP, I'll get that charge off my card.

I have a colleague here in S.A. that might want the 5th license and in the event that she wants it, I will send y'all $9.00 (she split the last one - Panther - with us).

Anyways, sorry we didn't get it done while in SLC... but better late than never.

Things are cool once more...

... and my pocket book is a little lighter because of it.

We had a tech come out and take a look at the AC Condenser unit outside and he ran some tests and found out that the compressor was grounded and therefore was not working. He said we could replace the compressor for a $1000 and a 1-year warranty or change out the unit for $3000 and get a 5-year warranty.

While looking around the unit upstairs, I found the name of the company that originally installed the outside unit in March 2000 (which meant that we were 5 months outside of that units warranty).

So we called the original installers and they said that they would come lout in the morning and give us a second opinion for free.

Well, they came out this morning and said the same thing, but could install the new unit (a Goodman 13 SEER unit, which is more cost effective than the Trane 10 SEER unit we had) for $2700 (that had a 10-year warranty) and could do it today. So we agreed (actually Mindy really wanted it being preggo and sick and all) and by 1 PM today we had cool air blowing into the house.

The weird part is that the unit outside was 5 years old, but the blower inside is the original from 1984 (when the house was built)... therefore 21 years old.

I mentioned to the guy that I was a web designer and was wondering if he'd barter a site and a maintenance agreement for a $2500 blower unit upstairs. He said to call him in October and talk about it then since work tends to slow down in the Fall. It would be great if he could that, then I wouldn't have to worry about coming up with the $$$ to fix that.

A great thing is, in the research I was doing, I found out that our local utility company (CPS) has a rebate program for people in the county who upgrade their A/C units. For 13 SEER units, its $80 a ton and since we have a 4-ton unit, we will hopefully get $320 in credit on our power bill, which would be nice. But the site said that funds were low and they would process them in the order received until funds run out. No harm, no foul. We'll try it.

So like I said before, things are cool... but we are poor once more.

We're home...

Well, we are finally home. We had a great time with everyone in UT, but it is nice to be home. Luckily for us it was cooler yesterday and is still overcast, so the house is not too hot. Mike has to be on campus all day today, but he is supposed to be calling AC repairmen in between meetings. Hopefully, we can get one out here SOON!!!

Aaron and Aimee get to meet their teachers tonight. They got a postcard from the school, so Aaron knows who his teacher is and is very excited, but Aimee's was from "the kinder team" so we're still not sure who she has. As we drove by the school on our way home yesterday, Aaron said, "hey Aimee, there's our school." That sounded a little strange to our ears, but very nice too!

Well, off to cleaning up the house while it is still cool.

(Edit to add: Aimee's teacher is Miss White and she seems to be really nice.)

Happy Birthday Michelle

Just wanted to wish Michelle a happy 23rd birthday!!

Post Grandkid-Mania

As you can see, playing with all those cousins really wore Isaac out. Hey Michelle, how about posting some pictures?

Grandkid-Mania

Hello everyone,

Mike and Mindy rolled in last night along with Aaron, Aimee and Alex, so now the grandkid picture is complete. Speaking of pictures, here are some from last night's BBQ. It looks like they have a lot of fun together, even when Grandpa tries to keep them in line.

Belated B-Day Wishes to Jared & Bryan

Sorry I didn't call, we've been on the road, running to and fro.

Hope y'all had great b-days and we'll see you on Monday.

Aaron's 7th Birthday

Well it is Aaron's 7th birthday today, and he woke me up with a "guess what today is mom?" I mumbled "Happy Birthday" and rolled over and went back to sleep. I did get up a little bit later and make him breakfast. He was so excited for his birthday, he had to keep reminding us.

He got to have navajo tacos for dinner... his favorite, and he wanted applesauce cupcakes for his cake.




He was excited about his presents. He got Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (when he gets done reading it, he can see the movie,) Star Wars legos, a Pokemon game, more Pokemon cards (like he needs any more), and a Gamecube Game (Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door).

MS 150 Cycling Event

Hello everybody, we just got back from the MS 150 up in Logan. Sean and Cody (a buddy from work) rode the entire 103 miles and Kirsten and I rode 75 miles of the course. It was a blast. We'll tell you more about it later, but in the meantime here are some pictures.

Okay Bryan, I'll post it over here too...

Bryan, this is what Spencer was referring to "My Jesse Venture Look".



It is originally posted over in Mindy's Blog.

Spurs Won!!!!

We were nervous after the last few games, but the home team pulled it off. WAHOO!!!!!

Does this picture work?

Here is Isaac trying to walk around in my shoes and pull dinner off of the table at the same time.

(we are experimenting to see how to post pictures)

I'm getting a new Mac

In September, my old G4 Tower will be 6 years old (I bought it in 1999)... so it's time to retire it as the main machine. It'll still be used, but Mindy and the kids will be the primary users.

So what am I getting?

One of the 20" iMac G5 with a 2Ghz processor is one its way here.



It has a 128MB video card, DVD Burner, and built in Wireless Internet and Bluetooth. Since its got Bluetooth, I took the option for the wireless keyboard and mouse. That's going to be such a blessing. No wires on the desktop!

Plus I'm getting a new printer (The Epson R1800) that can print images up to 13" wide (and as long as 44" long). Mindy's looking forward to be able to print her 12" x 12" scrapbook stuff.

In addition I also got an iSight. So now Bryan and I can have better video conversations (if he's ever online). Now if we can get Mom, Jared and Sean to get one...

Anyways, since this machine is small and semi-portable, I'll be bringing it to Utah with me so that I can get some work done while I'm there.

Hopefully this machine will last me another 6 years.