Our family's Christmas newsletter

I thought this year that I would try something different, and post our yearly family newsletter on the blog.

We have had a pretty busy year, and I am happy to report that everyone is healthy! The kids are getting bigger and finding more activities to keep themselves busy. Let me run down our year:

Kayti turned 15 this year, and was very anxious to get her permit. Her dad gave her a few stipulations that she had to meet before that could happen, so needless to say she still doesn't have her permit. She starts Driver's Ed in January, though, so we will have to get it before class starts. I am not looking forward to it! I told her she was going to have to get a job to help pay for her insurance and gas... so far that hasn't happened either. Kayti loves to read and write, still, and the majority of the time can be found hiding in her room doing one of the two. She has started looking at colleges (YIKES!) and thinking about her major. As of right now she wants to be a high school English teacher while she continues to write and work towards becoming a published author. She loves going to Seminary, and is the class president right now. She is the oldest grandchild on Barry's side of the family, and has started babysitting lots for her younger cousins.


Josh decided that this year he wanted to play football for the school. He has always loved to get out and play with the kids in the neighborhood, but never participated with an organized team. Truthfully I have always been too afraid for him to actually play... he is such a runt. He started work-outs last Spring, and loved it. He made the team and was so thrilled! I was happy for him, and had to admit that once he had all of the padding and equipment on he didn't look that small. He only got to play for a total of 2 minutes in two different games, though, so he has now decided he is ready to go back to playing soccer. He is doing well in school. He is taller than I am now, and gaining on his dad. He just turned 14, and advanced to the Teachers Quorum. They are all going on a ski trip in a couple of weeks and he is so excited!


Kyle is in the 6th grade now, and will turn 12 on the 22nd of December. He had an excellent soccer season this year. He played goalie the majority of the time, but on the first game of the season he had the opportunity to play forward and scored the first goal of the season! He is a very loving and tender-hearted kid. He is on the "Character Council" at school. One of his responsibilities of the Council is to do the daily morning show at school. They take turns running the camera, being the host, and taking care of the script of the show. So far he has done all three. He was so nervous being the host, but he did a great job. I was able to sneak in one morning to see him and was so proud of him. He will be ordained a Deacon on Dec. 23. He is really excited about that, but scared at the same time. He is so afraid that he will mess up passing the Sacrament.


Megan is 10 and a little chatter box! She talks pretty much non-stop! She loves being on the farm with her Grandpa Jean, taking care of the cows. She is a real natural at it as well. She can herd those cows like nobody's business! She and Kyle were on the same soccer team again this year. After the season was over she let us know that she is ready to try another sport. She would like to try her hand at softball next year, so we will see how that goes. Megan loves to help me in the kitchen. She does have to remind me, though, that she is older than I treat her, and she is capable of doing more than I want to let her. I can't help it, she is still my baby! Earlier this year she decided that she wanted to cut off her hair and donate it to Locks of Love. She cut off over 12 inches! She was thrilled with her new cut, and I was so proud of her for making that decision. Her hair has grown down to her shoulders now, and she wants it cut short again. I'm not sure if I can convince her to let it grow long again.


Barry is still working at the credit union in their IT department. He fulfilled a dream of his this year by starting and maintaining our family website. He had the opportunity to travel to Conneticut this year on business... and hated it! Not Conneticut per se, but the travel in general. It was very short notice... his boss called him on Friday and he had to fly out on Sunday. He is such a home-body, and hates having to get out of that comfort zone.

I am still working at one of the local middle schools, but I got a promotion of sorts; I am now the school secretary! I work fewer hours a day, and have a ton less stress on me. I love the job, and get to interact with the kids, teachers and parents. I work a few more days throughout the year, but I am still pretty much home when the kids are. I am currently teaching the Laurels at church, and having a ball doing that. I love the girls so much! I was released as 1st Coun. in the YW back in March/April, and cried for a week. I was not ready to be released, and had so much that I felt I still wanted to do with the girls. Two weeks later the 2 Madison wards were reorganized into 3 wards. We were put into the new ward, and I was called as the camp director/personal progress coordinator. I was released from that calling about a month ago, and called to teach the Laurels. I'm just so happy to still be in YW! I am still also a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, although I seem to have less time to stamp now than ever. Stamping is still my stress-reliever, though, and I don't plan on giving that up any time soon.

Our family took a few fun trips this year, and then some of us went on trips without the rest. In January I was able to fly out to Utah for my neice's wedding. She got married on a Thursday morning in Manti, and on Friday my younger sister and I drove up to Idaho to prepare for her reception there. It was so much fun to be out there again, and see family and friends. The trip was way too short, and I want to go back soon! Our annual Mayfield Family Reunion was held a little closer to home this year. We rented two houses on a lake here in Alabama. It was a lot of fun! The kids had a ball riding jet ski's, canoeing, going down the huge water-slide and jumping on the water trampolines. After the reunion we went over to Atlanta for a quick visit. We took the kids by the temple where Barry and I were married a got a few good pictures of them. Josh's scout troop went to North Carolina for scout camp this year. He really enjoyed camp, and earned a survival merit badge. I'm glad that I didn't know before hand what all was involved in that! During Fall Break this year we took the kids over to the Smoky Mountains and stayed a couple of days. I love it there, and have been several times with my sisters, mom and my girls. This was the first time that Barry and the boys have been there, and they really enjoyed it as well. Not only do I love the mountains, but I love the outlet shops! We got in some great shopping while there! We are heading up to Nashville on Kyle's birthday to go to the Opryland Hotel to look at the lights. We haven't been since the kids were little, and I'm excited to go again.


We have been experiencing a terrible drought around here. Mom and Dad have had the water at the farm dry up a couple of times (they rely on the natural springs on the farm for their water). I was afraid that we were going to have a very ugly Fall, but we got several days of rain during October, which seemed to bring everything back to life. The trees were beautiful this year, but we are still in desperate need of rain. The weather has just been weird this year, though! Last week while the rest of the country was suffering from a terrible snow/ice storm, we were in the 80's! It was 70 yesterday, and 40 today. Needless to say, we are all freezing now!


We hope that all of you are doing well, and have a happy holiday season! For those of you who are far away, we miss you, and hope to see you all soon! Please leave us a comment, and let us know how you are all doing!

Merry Christmas!!

A few of my favorite Christmas things, and a few memories, too

I guess that I am not unique in saying that I love Christmas! I don't know anyone that doesn't. I thought that I would share some of my favorite Christmas memories with everyone.

I don't know that I have just one favorite childhood memory. I can remember my sister waking me up early every year to check our stockings. We would always have to wait for my brother to wake up before we could open presents (and it seemed to take him forever!), but we could sneak a peak at our stockings without waking anyone up. There are a few presents I remember... a 7-up can radio, flannel nightgowns, a diary with a lock, a new doll and stroller. One year my dad made us girls a table... one just our size. Mom made us a cute tablecloth to go with it and got us a set of dishes. It was really warm that year and we took that table outside that afternoon and played for the longest time. I'm not sure what happened to that table, but I would love to still have it.
Every year on Christmas Eve we would act out the Christmas story. I would always be Mary, Kristi was always the angel, and Eric was always Joseph. We would dress up and Dad would read the Christmas story from Luke. Then we would get to pick one present to open. One year we thought it would be so much fun to open all of our presents and finally succeeded in talking our parents into it. It was lots of fun, until the next morning and there was nothing left to open. We never did that again!

When Barry and I got married we started a new tradition of going out and looking at all of the Christmas lights. This has become a highlight for the kids now as well. It's not uncommon to be driving down the road and hear one of them yell out, "Right!" or "Left!"... which means to turn that direction to see a lights display. When we lived in Nashville we would go to Opryland Hotel ever year to see the lights, and we decided to go again this year. I'm really excited to share this with all of the kids again.

We always put up our tree the day after Thanksgiving. We currently own a 7 1/2 ft. artificial tree, but when Barry and I first got married we decided that we would go out to my parents' farm and cut down a cedar tree. We were so proud of that tree! It was beautiful, and we had so much fun shopping for the decorations (all of which I still have! I'm such a pack-rat!). Our tree had been up for a few days when we noticed this sack-looking thing on the trunk. After talking about it for a few days, Barry decided that he would remove it. He layed down under the tree and took a swipe at it with a screwdriver. He got rid of it alright... hundreds of baby praying mantises came pouring out of it... and on him, and quickly spread all over the living room. I must say that I was the model of decorum running around screaming to the top of my lungs, "kill 'em, kill 'em, kill 'em!!" We didn't have any bug spray in the house, so we thought that we would Lysol them to death. It worked pretty well. We also attacked them with a vacuum cleaner, which also worked. We cut down our tree a couple more times after that, but always made sure that there were no critters living in it before it came home.

The kids now have the responsibility of putting the ornaments on the tree. They still have not quite mastered the art of spacing them, but they do a good job. I have to say that I love all of our ornaments, but I do have a few favorites. On our first Christmas as a married couple, my mom got us a "First Christmas Together" ornament. It is always one of the first to go on the tree.


Barry was born in Germany, and his mom gave us these beautiful ornaments that she got while they lived there. They are also included among my favorites.


My oldest sister started a tradition years ago of giving everyone ornaments for Christmas. She always tries to fit them to what the kids are interested/involved in at the time. So, as you can imagine, we have LOTS of soccer ornaments! Here is just a sampling of what we have:


One of our family's favorite Christmas movies is "A Christmas Story". This year I found an ornament that I just had to get:


Don't you just love it?

A few of my other Christmas favorites include my new Josh Groban CD, Noel; the smell of Cedar and Balsom candles from Yankee Candle; making cookies with my kids; making my Christmas cards and just spending time with friends and family.

I also love going to the Stake Christmas Festival, and appreciate all of the hard work that so many put into this. We are planning on going tonight, and it will be Barry's first time going. He has had to work weekend nights the past few years so he has not been able to go with us. I'm looking forward to sharing this with him.

Merry Christmas everyone!

WOW!!

Ok, so that was such a fun couple of days! I feel so recharged! This is actually the first time that I have been to the Galleria, or the Wynfrey, and they were both so great. Long ago a friend had wanted us to book a room in the hotel, and spend a weekend shopping, but then I got engaged. Needless to say after that the idea died.

We had some great speakers. One, Jenny Nolen, gave a couple of classes; one on dealing with negativity, and one on dealing with stress. I also went to one on different legal issues, which was actually very good. We had a luncheon yesterday and the speaker there was John Croyle. John and his wife started a boys' ranch years ago. They have raised over 1700 children! Can you imagine!! He spoke on raising and loving children.

I was also able to get some Christmas shopping done... yea! We went to the Cheesecake Factory to eat Tuesday night. YUMMY! I love that place.

I came home to find Barry sick and in the bed. Kyle has also been a bit under the weather. Hopefully no one else will get sick, although Kayti was complaining of her throat hurting this morning.

 Well, it's now time to figure out something for dinner... my least favorite time of the day. I've got to get better about doing my menues again.

A professional first

Tomorrow I am going to my very first professional conference. The CLAS Secretaries and Bookkeepers Conference in Birmingham, to be exact. Sharon, the bookkeeper at school, and I are going down together. Oh, and did I mention that the conference is being held at the Winfrey Hotel at the Galleria??!! It's almost like we are getting an all expenses paid shopping trip!! Except, of course, we aren't getting spending money to shop! We will be attending classes tomorrow afternoon and Wed. morning, which I am looking forward to. By the time that we got our registration in, the Winfrey was full, but we did manage to get a reservation at the Courtyard by Marriott just down the road.

I do want to tell Barry how thankful I am to him for rearranging his schedule to be home with the kids on Wednesday morning, and just taking care of them in general while I am gone. Honey, you're the best!!

Now, if I can just talk him into letting me take the laptop with me so I can stay "connected" to everyone!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I wanted to take a quick minute to say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I am so grateful to have each and every one of you in my life!

A little early Christmas cheer

The kids and I headed up to Fayetteville this past weekend. Every year on the second weekend in November, Fayetteville hosts its annual "Host of Christmas Past". It is just a fun weekend of shopping, music, craft fairs, free movies, snow for the little ones to play in, yummy food, Santa and more. We have been going for several years now, and we always have a really good time. Most of you know that my sister is a professional chocolatier and has her own business in Fayetteville (visit her website: http://www.kristischocolatecafe.com/). She had the shop decorated up for Christmas, and I had to snap a few pictures.


She made these amazing Christmas scenes this year that almost look too good to eat!


(And yes... they are both all made of chocolate!)

I worked at the shop on Saturday. It was fun, but I think that I am getting too old to be on my feet all day! Kayti and Josh had friends come up and they spent most of the day hanging out with them. Megan spent the night on Friday night with her cousin and spend most of Saturday playing with her. Kyle was my hero of the weekend, however, and stayed home with Grandma to help watch Kristi's kids. They came into town in the late afternoon, so when it got a little quiet at the shop I took them walking around the square. By the time we got out it was dark, and all of the food vendors had packed up and left, but it was fun looking at the Christmas lights.


The kids are now getting all excited for Christmas and to decorate. We always put up our tree the day after Thanksgiving, and they are so excited that Thanksgiving comes earlier this year. I have to admit that I am excited, too, until I walk into Wal-Mart and see how many more shopping days are left until Christmas. I guess that I had better get busy!

Fall has fallen, finally!

I guess that it is about time. It has been such a long, hot and dry summer, and it is so nice that the temps have finally fallen a bit. I guess I also needed the time change to really make it feel like it is Fall. One of my favorite things to do in the Fall is to go look at the leaves, and I was really afraid that we would not have many pretty ones this year considering the drought. I was pleasantly surprised, though, and the leaves have been just beautiful. I went out this weekend and took some pictures of them, fearing that if I waited too long they would all be gone. We are supposed to get our first freeze tonight, and that may be the end of a lot of them. I thought that I would go ahead and post some pics and that way we can all enjoy them a lot longer!

The fat lady sang today

Well, it was not a kind day to our beloved Ghosts. They lost both games today, and ended their undefeated season. The long of the short of it is that they just didn't really show up to play, and the other teams did. Truthfully I was very sad for them, but I'm a bit relieved as well. Now the kids don't have to feel so stressed, and neither do I! It was a hard day for Kyle... he was scored on several times, and even though he knows that each goal was not his fault, he still takes it very personally. Megan was really sad as well. She thinks that she wants to try her hand at another sport, possibly softball, next year.

After the last game we headed over to Dublin Park to get medals and pins. The team also got a trophy, which the coach will keep. I was able to snap a quick shot of Megan and Kyle with the trophy. I'm sure proud of both of them. They have had a great season, and have really played their hearts out. I told Kyle that considering that he didn't even want to play this year, ending 4th in the Area out of 150+ teams was not bad!

Today's games, or shoot-out central!

I am probably starting to sound like a broken record here, but soccer right now seems to be taking over our lives! We had another excruciating day on the soccer field, enduring two nail-biters. We played a team from Monrovia this morning, and we ended up tied, 3-3. We should have won that game, but it was not to be. Our second game today was against a Hazel Green team. We had to be there 30 -45 minutes early to get the team signed in and warmed up. As soon as we got there, our coach came over to tell us that in order to advance in the tournament, we had to have a shut-out. And if that happened, we then had to have a shoot-out with the team we tied earlier today. Kyle was not too happy to hear that. In fact, the more everyone talked about it, the more nervous he got. I thought I was going to cry for him. I pulled him aside, and just told him that he needed to say a silent prayer and ask Heavenly Father to help him play his best, and to be calm about it. Thankfully his team stepped up to the plate to help him out, and he didn't even touch the ball the whole game! We won 7-0! I was so relieved for him. I won't bore you with the details of the shoot-out, but we did win it, 2-0. A few of the boys from Hazel Green hung around to watch the shoot-out, and they were standing in awe... I don't think they had ever seen one before. One of the boys called it a shoot-off! This is the 3rd one we have had in the past week. We face another Madison team in the morning... the one we played last Saturday and had our first shoot-out against. We jokingly told the coach that we should just skip the game and go straight to the shoot-out!

So, here is how it stands.... we play at 10:00 tomorrow morning, and win or lose we play again at 2:00. If we win, we play for the Area Championship. If we lose, we play for 3rd/4th. I believe the top 2 teams go to the State Tournament, which will be played in Athens in 2 weeks. I'm not sure if my heart can take much more of this!

As a side note, something cool did happen at the first game today. Kyle was given a "Good Sport" pin by the refs. I have never actually seen one of these given before, and Kyle said that they didn't really explain to him why it was given. They gave it to him after the game when the team went up to shake the refs' hands. I'm proud of him for getting it, but I sure would like to know more about it! Here is a picture of it (he put it on the ribbon of his Regional Champ medal):

Game update

I know that most if not all of you will be helping with the move tomorrow, but I just wanted to let you know that Kyle and Megan have 2 games tomorrow. The first one is at 9:15 and the 2nd one is 2:45. The kids will play both games on Palmer Middle.

Happy Halloween!

We had a fun night last night. The kids all looked so cute... I mean creepy! We are off tonight to a soccer team party, and a football banquet. I just wanted to post a few quick pics of the kiddos.

Whoohoo!! All hail the Champs!!

Wow! What another hard fought game we had tonight. And what an extreme nail-biter of an ending. Just like yesterday, when regulation ended in this game, we were tied. Unlike yesterday, we scored in the first overtime. Unfortunately, we were called for tripping in the box during the second overtime, and the other team scored on us. Kyle did his best, but he couldn't save this one... and he hurt his ankle in the process. He was able to shake it off and keep playing, which I was very thankful for. We went into a shoot-out again, and ended it tied (we each scored once). So, on to sudden-death. We pretty much went through all of our players, and kept the score tied, with each of us scoring several more times. Kyle thankfully scored one, which kept us alive. I don't know that if I have ever been more nervous in my life as I was when he got up to kick! Finally, they missed their shot, and our smallest player, Meg (not our Megan) got up to kick. By this time, it was getting pretty dark, and although it was hard to see, poor Meg looked scared to death. She kicked... and SCORED!! I don't know if I have ever seen a kid so happy!

So, we go into Area Tournaments next weekend as the Regional Champs! We knew that we would be going on regardless, but at least the kids now have gold medals.

 Here is a picture of the kids with their medals. They got two... the one with the red, white and blue ribbon is for participation, and the one with the blue ribbon is for first place.

Thanks to everyone who came and braved the chilly wind tonight to support them. We sure do appreciate it!

Red Ribbon Week, soccer update, and Halloween

The kids had Red Ribbon Week this week. It's a week that they get to do fun things at school and focus on staying drug free. Friday was "Wacky-Tacky" Day for Kyle and Megan (Drugs are wacky-tacky!) and "Slipper" Day for Josh (Give drugs the slip!). I thought I would post some pictures of the kids, all dressed up for the day.

Here's Kyle and Megan:

These are Josh's slippers:

Liberty's mascot is Lions, so he thought these were great!

Kyle and Megan won their game today. It was a pretty tense game. Kyle plays goalie, and he had a great save early in the game. We were called for a hand-ball in the goalie box (it was a really LAME call, by the way), so the other team got a direct kick on us. The kid kicked it, Kyle jumped to block it, and sent it straight up into the air. It bounced off of the top of the goal, and came straight back down. Kyle then fell on ball... and thankfully the ref then blew the whistle to end the half! Whew!!

We were tied at the end of regulation, so we played 2 5-minute quarters. At the end of that, we were still tied, so we went to a shoot-out. Each team chose 5 players to go one-on-one with the goalie from the other team. I was terrified that Kyle would be in the goal, but it turned out that he wasn't. We each went through our 5 kickers, and we came out of that tied (we each scored 2 times in the shoot-out). We then each picked 5 more kickers. The other teamed kicked first, and we blocked it. Then our player went up and kicked... and made it! We were so thrilled! This sweet kid played his best game of the season today, and we were so happy for him. Kyle was very happy, because he was next up to kick! So, we play tomorrow for the Regional Championship. We know that no matter the outcome of this game we will play in the Area Tournament next weekend. We will probably have 2 games next Saturday, but we don't have times/places yet.

The kids are getting excited for Halloween. Megan is the only one who has come up with a costume. She is going to be a vampire princess. Kayti and Josh are going to a Halloween party at a Ward-member's home this year instead of going trick-or-treating. I'm a little sad about that, but I think it is a bit more age-appropriate for them. I'm sure that they will have more fun there than hanging around mom. I'm just hoping it warms up a bit before Wednesday night!!

We have a full week this week... Tuesday night is our ward party, Wednesday night is Halloween, and we have a soccer team party on Thursday night, and Josh has his football banquet on Thursday night. It may be the end of the week before I can post again, but I'll post lots of pics of both Halloween and trophies when I do.

Soccer update

It looks like the kids will play at 9:45 Saturday morning on Dublin 4. The outcome of this game determines when the next game is played.

Being a soccer momma

Every fall Saturday for the past 7 or 8 years (I've honestly lost count!) our family can be found out on the soccer field. At one point we had 3 kids playing on 3 different teams, which meant 6 practices a week and 3 games on Saturday. Last year Josh decided that he wanted to take a year off, and we decided to put Kyle and Megan on the same team. That put us down to 2 practices a week, and one game on Saturday... it was heaven! Kyle and Megan both decided before summer this year that they did not want to play soccer this year, and with Josh playing football, I thought I was finally going to have my Saturdays free. But that was not to be; we had a coach call and ask if Kyle and Megan would both come and play for his team... they were short players and he was trying to build up his team. Of course they both jumped at the chance, and I have to be honest and say that part of me was excited for them. They were blessed to be part of a really good team this year, and have stayed undefeated (they did tie one game). Kyle has excelled in the goal, and Megan has enjoyed playing defense. She has not been afraid to challenge some really big boys this year.

We started Regional Tournaments this weekend. When this time of year rolls around, I always seem to face this internal struggle... I want them to win, and keep winning, but then again, I'm ready for it to be over and done with as well. I felt really nervous for the kids this year... their star player has not been available to play this weekend. That little part of me thought that maybe with that being the case we would lose all of our games this weekend, and end the season. Well, that was not to be the case. We won both of our games yesterday, and we tied today, so we will play again next weekend. I'm excited for them. Josh was on a team that went to state tournaments one year, and I'd like that for Kyle and Megan as well. I guess we will have to get through next weekend first. We don't have a schedule yet, but I'll post it once we do.

Here are some shots of the kids playing this year.