Wordpress

Well it is official, we have switched over to wordpress. I have been wanting to for a while, but I thought that I would lose all of my other posts. I am excited to say that I was able to import all of my posts and comments. I have not lost anything by doing this. I am excited to give wordpress a try.

Here is my new address. It is the same, but switch wordpress for blogger:

http://willkristin.wordpress.com

Gift Exchange

Now this is a mix between my thoughts and Wills thoughts, but I thought I would share it with everyone who cares to read this. After this I am finished worrying about this topic.

To everybody-
We really enjoyed seeing so many of you at Thanksgiving.
We're writing about the Cousin-Gift exchange. We've enjoyed it the last few years. It's always fun to see who we get to give gifts to. It's even better than the receiving.
Unfortunately, this is the last year that we can participate. Will and I have extended families that are growing faster than our finances can handle. There are so many families that we hope to get gifts for that our resources and time are getting spread too thin. We hope you all understand and we want to say "THANK YOU" to Cary for working so hard and always putting this together.
We wish you all the best. Have a Merry Christmas,
Will and Kristin

We meant no harm in the email that we sent to everybody saying that we want to opt out. Will and I simply wished to discontinue our part in the exchange. We still love all of the cousins. I feel that more of my time and energy should be spent on my and Will's "extended family" (brothers (HD, Colton), sisters (Suzanne, Mickie, Tracie), parents, nieces (Baylee, Sierra), and nephews (Jason)).

We did not intend for the exchange to be completely stopped, we alone did not wish to continue the exchange. I would hope that it would continue for all of those who wish to continue doing it. I would hope that in future years those who want to opt out can do so with ease.

One of the most frustrating things I feel is that we are connected as a family relatively. We have more connection with the cousins on the Coombs side then with the Bragg or the Wu/Au side. It hurts to hear that "we are cutting the Coombs side out of our lives", when we do not feel like we are. I have loved getting to know my relatives that blog. I have never felt closer to them. I would like to feel the same way with my other cousins, but do not feel that a gift once a year has increased that love. I am at a loss of what I can do to feel closer towards them.

It has been difficult to give a gift to a cousin that I do not know. I have felt it is a waist of my time and money. If i do not know them then how will I know what to get them that they will like. I don't know interest/dislikes, activities they participate in, or even major events that are happening in their lives. I would love to get to know everyone more, but have not found a means to communicate with them. I am open to suggestions.

I have made it a point to participate in activities with the Coombs family to show them how much I care for them. I have gone to countless events even when it was not the most convenient thing to do. I still wish that I could go to more events to prove that I love all of the cousins. I would have loved to have gone out to California for Teresa and Rachel's graduations, seen Connor or Tyler play a game of soccer, or helped out when Indy got her tonsils out, but reality is that with the distance it is difficult.

There’s not a bone in my body that feels anything negative toward those who disapprove of our decision, so I hope they don’t feel that we’re trying to push them away. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and feelings. I would welcome any extended family into our home without hesitation.

Hopefully we will be able to let the whole thing blow over and enjoy the moments we do share when our paths cross.

Hey that's mine

What the heck? He just started eating off of my plate. Fine if it will get him to eat then what ever. He actually ate the veggies in the fried rice this time. I was pretty excited.

Humm. He was trying to give me a piggy back ride. I think that I am a little to big.

The Joy of Christmas

It was a pretty fun weekend. I love being with family it makes time pass so much faster. Friday we finally used Will's Tuconos coupons. I absolutely love that place!! That is the one place that I can out eat a ton of people. I love it. We received 2 for Will some how and we received one for Jason. Who ever signed him up thanks. (Well Suzanne and Nate thank you.) The Spences and Suzanne and Nate joined us. (Thanks Steph for watching the kids on such short notice.)

Saturday was full of the Joy of Christmas. Suzanne and I made ginger bread for the first time. That was a real experience. After it is all baked you have to cut out your pattern while the ginger bread is still hot. Suzanne and I burned our fingers all for the "Joy of Christmas."

I did not do to well with my house this year. I was tired and just did not have the patience to put together a cool looking house. I asked Will if he liked my house and his response was, "It has a lot of candy." Yeah, Yeah I know it wasn't my best effort. Next year, next year.

Here is Art and Steph. My camera ran out of batteries before I could take any more pictures.

Sunday was the first monthly soup and scones event at my grandparents house (Coombs). All of the food was delicious! What a great idea to bring the family together.

Will thought this picture was funny. That is what our bush looks like in the front yard.

Will's Entry: Survey

Pretty funny, but Kristin and I had completely opposite reactions to the survey. She hates them and I say YAAAAAAY. Thus I will represent us, though these are purely MY answers.

Welcome to the 2007 Holiday Edition of Getting to Know Your Friends and Family!
1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot chocolate, though the 1st sip of egg nog is Really good.
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Wrapped
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? I'd have to say colored
4. Do you hang mistletoe? Never have
5. When do you put up your decorations? I have no idea
6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Holiday dishes have never been a tradition
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: Peeking into my parents bedroom and watching them wrap gifts
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I doubt I ever believed in Santa
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? I think we usually do, we're a pretty impatient bunch
10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Well, the plan is to do a different tree every year for a couple years, then we'll let the kids pick the color scheme. I hope they pick weird combinations.
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Can I disc golf in it? Well then I dread it.
12. Can you ice skate?? I can ice skate though stopping is an issue.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? The TV a few years back was pretty cool
14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Being with family
15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? I don't think I have a favorite
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Getting presents from my pets
17. What tops your tree? We'll have to see
18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? GIVING.....no competition
19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? O Holy Night, though I like the electric guitar Ukrainian Bells
20. Candy Canes? I don't think I get this question
21. Do you feel Christmas is too commercialized? Yes, but people who rant about its over-commercialization bug me more. No, no one has "ranted" about it.

Bed

Just a quick update. I put Jason down for a nap in the bunk beds and he never left his bed once. He actually fell right asleep. Wahoo!! One nap time and one bed time later I think has done it. We will see how tonight goes, but I was so excited that it was a super easy nap time!

Busy Day

Ok it really wasn't a busy day yesterday, but a lot happened. First off Will watched how to be the cub scout master. He is pretty intimidated by the calling, but I think that we will be able to come up with stuff to entertain the cub scouts.

Jason really likes to share his toys with Sierra. She doesn't like it some times. I just over heard him telling her that what he put on her lap was a ball. Goofball.



Will made a race track for Jason to play with. It was a huge hit. He has been playing with it for a good hour this morning.

Will was doing push-ups and Jason decided that he needed to do them too. Don't worry Will has better form then Jason does.


Last but not least we are putting Jason in his bunk beds now. It took me holding him down for 45 min at nap time to get him to finally sleep in it. It got really tiring and I almost cried a few times, but that set the ground work.

We then put him in the bed at night time and he stayed laying down. As soon as we put the gate up he started to cry and got out of bed, but with in 20 min he crawled back in the bed and put the covers on. He fell asleep finally. I am hoping that tonight will go a little smoother.

Taylor Swift

Ok I just had to add another post. Jason kills me. We have been listening to the Taylor Swift CD. Jason likes to sing with me. Don't worry you don't have to suffer through my singing, he does it by himself.

Doctors

A quick update on how Sierra is doing. We went to the doctor yesterday and after 2 weeks the child is suppose to have just gained back their birth weight. Ok well not only has she gained it back she is now 6 lbs 6 oz! She has almost gained a pound since being born. (I guess my mom was right and that I was starving her.)

She also has grown length wise. She was 17 inches when she was born, and now she is 19 1/4". Man she is growing fast!!

This is when we hung out with the Wu's during thanksgiving. Yes it is weird to be holding 2 kids.

Will likes to call Sierra "Little bundle" he has interesting nick names for our kids. When Jason was younger he called him "Boy boy." You have to love the quirkiness of Will.

Blessing

Here are some pictures from the Sierra's baby blessing. My mom took these pictures, I didn't have my camera out all weekend. What a bummer.

I do have to say that I am a fan of Sierra in pink surrounded by the BYU blue.

Proud dad.

What a great big brother. I bet he was thinking "What camera do I look into?" There were a ton of cameras out taking pictures.

Will's SPECTACULAR Entry: Yaaaayyyyyyy!!!!!

Lifted from their site:
The Utah Department of Health has lifted their ban. All individuals are now allowed in the pool regardless of whether they wear diapers.
http://www.lehicity.com/legacycenter/aquaticscenter.php#rules
I tried to post a picture, but couldn't. Not that it matters . . . I'm so excited, when are we going???

Will's Unexpected Entry: OOOOooohhhhhh!!!!

Did anyone else get a kick out of Kristin's "Jason vs Sierra" title? The only thing I thought of that Sierra could win is a poopin' Contest. Little lady is no lady in that regard.

I had a fun Thanksgiving too. Good family and good food, though I find it odd that I actually miss the random Chinese items that used to show up in the Thanksgivings of my younger years. I also find it interesting that I've officially moved on from the video-gaming phase. (For my own benefit, I remember spending lots of time playing Techmo Super Bowl, Gauntlet, Soccer, Pinball, Super Off-Road, Mario Kart (SNES version), Streetfighter II, GoldenEye (Man I miss that game - I was SOOO good)) Nowadays I look at the Start Menus and glance down at my controller/remote to figure out what I need to press to get to the next screen. Sigh . . . .

The reason I've jumped on for this entry is because we forgot to mention one of the funniest things that happened during Thanksgiving. Let's just say that Jason LOVED watching us play on the Wii!!! He would stand in the middle of the action whether we were bowling, boxing or playing tennis. Who knows how long we'll allow that - he's just short enough that we can swing and stuff without knocking his block off. We had the funnest time watching him participate in bowling. He'd yell in anticipation before the ball hit the pins everytime. I guess another funny thing was that he was the only kid remotely interested in what we were up to. He even put down his CARS to watch. Well, there's my entry.

Jason vs Sierra

Ok before I show the pictures I am going to say that Will and I rented Spiderman 3 and about die of boredom. Sorry to those who liked it, but oh man it was hard to sit through.

I have been asked by a few people to show a picture of Sierra and Jason when they were the same age. Well here it is.

I want to say that they look pretty similar. Sierra has a wider nose and lips. I think her tongue is way huge, because she never keeps it in her mouth. Yeah her tongue is sticking out.