After Christmas Update

Hi everyone. It's good to be back and have enough time to blog again. I love the holidays but it really takes it out of me.

Christmas was great. We went to a cabin with the McKinnon side from the 21st to the 24th. It was fun. A couple of interesting things happened like Abe ending up in the hospital the whole time from a sledding accident. There were a few other things but for the most part, we had a great time! Des was sick most of the time so we spent a lot of time in our room letting her sleep. She is such a light sleeper so once you're in the room, you're stuck!

We came home Christmas Eve and went to my parent's house and had dinner. AnnaBelle was so excited for Santa to visit. She was so cute on Christmas morning. She had many presents (thanks to black Friday.) Des just sat and watched and sucked on a candy cane. She played more with the boxes and wrapping than her toys. She got the cutest interactive learning table from my parents. She loves it and plays with it for hours. AnnaBelle loves her new bike. She rides it all through the house (which isn't much.) I can't wait until she can ride it outside with me. I got a new piano keyboard. I desperately need it. I am losing my piano skills since I don't have anything to practice on. I also needed it for singing lessons. It's pretty impossible to teach without a piano. Thank you to my sweet Santa! Noah got a range finder (golf gadget) but he went to Cabella's a couple of days later and exchanged it for something he would use more, which is great. I would rather he gets something he really wants.

It was a great Christmas. It was one of the first since we've been married where it has been tight so we had to get creative. The best part about this Christmas was that it wasn't about presents or things......it was about being together and remembering the true reason why we have this time of year. I asked AnnaBelle what she wanted to give Jesus for Christmas. She said "a hug." I think that's a great gift. My gift is to be my best self. My new resolution this next year is to give people a chance. Sometimes I have a tenancy to judge too quicky and then it's almost impossible to change my opinion. I need to work on that and sometimes turn my finger around at myself. I also tend to evalutate situations or actions without knowing the whole truth. That is what I am going to work on this next year (and to work out more.) I also need to tell those I love that I love them more often especially my wonderful husband. What is your resolution? I would like to know. Thanks for reading.

Ashley

Commercials

Have you ever noticed that the people who represent companies in commercials are absolutely false? For instance, every time I go to Walmart, I can never find that perfect customer service representative that's featured on their commercial. I never get someone who speaks english at McDonalds, the Homedepot and Lowe's people have no idea what's going on, and the guy that helps me at the UPS store isn't a knowledgeable older man, but a young teen that barely knows how to run the register.

The one that irritates me the most, the Clorox commercial where the mom just laughs when her son spills Kool Aid all over her kitchen because luckily, she has the wipes for it. Ummm, I would not act that calm after trying to scrub the red liquid out of my white (now pink) grout. Weird, I have the exact Clorox wipes that are supposed to make spills not a big deal, but I don't act the way the lady does in the commercial. I don't think it's funny when something spills. Irritating.

Merry Christmas!

The McKinnon Family Top Ten 2007 Countdown

Noah
10 Lots for Sale
9 Stalls Built for the Barn
8 Double Bogeys
7 Soaks in the Hot Tub a week
6 Jazz Playoff Games
5 Back Flips Landed
4 Bedroom House for Sale
3 Emotional Girls
2 Trips to Lake Powell
1 New Development

Ashley
10 Miss Lehi Committee Members
9 Months of Nursing
8 Hours of Cleaning
7 Hours of Labor
6 Days of Round-Up
5th Anniversary
4 Eyelashes left
3 Plays Directed
2 Days at Swiss Days
1 Dear Grandma Lost

AnnaBelle
10 Inches of Hair
9 Pre-school Art Projects
8 New Friends
7 Hours at Lagoon
6 Meals a Day
5 Hours a Day in the Sandbox
4 Days and She's Pottytrained!!!
3 YEARS OLD
2 Trips to Disneyland
1 Girl Anxious for Christmas

Desiree
10 Finger and Toes
9 Falls an Hour
8 Lbs 3 Oz
7 Bottles a Day
6 Hundred Pictures
5 Diapers a Day
4 Wonderful Grandparents
3 New Teeth
2 Dimples
1 Sweet Baby!

Tica
1 Dumb Dog!

It all adds up to
One Great Year!!!

We hope 2008 is a great year for you!

Merry Christmas!
Love, The McKinnon's

Where's Daddy?

AnnaBelle: "Mommy, where's Daddy?"

Ashley: "He's in the bathroom."

AnnaBelle: "Okay." (she starts toward the bathroom.)

Ashley: "Don't go in there." (Of course, I am ignored.)

Two minutes later.......

AnnaBelle: "It stinks in there. I gotta get outta here."

Jingle Bells

AnnaBelle's version of Jingle Bells:

"Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells,
Jingle all the way.
Oh McFun it is to ride in a
one duh slopin day, HEY!"

Good Ole Boy

Okay. (Natalie will appreciate this post.) There's an old man in our ward named Rulon. He's a funny old man. I want you to imagine how he talks. Act like someone just punched you in the stomach and you can hardly talk and it's really breathy. That's how he talks. It never fails that on fast Sunday, he bears his testimony (which is actually a great thing seeing that nobody in our ward wants to bear their testimony and we all sit in silence until the High Councilman Bro. Beck gets up.) Every Sunday, he usually tells one of 3 stories by either bearing his testimony or he speaks up in Sunday School or 5th Sunday meetings. Here are the 3 stories.

"When I was in the Navy, I was the only member of the church....."

"It always brings me comfort to know that the Prophet will never lead us astray. If that were ever to happen, the Lord would remove them."

"Back in 1939, it was the worst snow storm in Cedar Fort's history. I was prompted to go left instead of right, and I found my parents and another couple stranded on the side of the road. If I wouldn't have come, they would have froze to death because we didn't see another car for 3 hours."

One time, I attended a Relief Society/Elder's Quorum combined 5th Sunday lesson. It was about finances and mortgages and such. Somehow, the lesson evolved into tough-love for your kids (you need to keep in mind that 75% of my ward is 75 or older.) Basically they were saying that you need to teach your kids to work so that they can be self-reliant. It was then that Rulon told my favorite story of all time. I thought that it would be about one of the three stories listed above but this time, he told a different story that made me and everyone else go red. This was the "gist" of his story. (Keep in mind the voice.)

"When I was a young boy, I lived in Jackson Hole, WY. One time, a couple moved up from SLC because they were trying to get away from their son that was using them for money to pay for drugs. They thought that they could move away and he would get better. But the son followed them to Jackson Hole and he killed them. He murderded them by shooting them in the head." (you should have seen the Stake President's face at this point.) "Then he took their bodies and threw them in the garbage. Then someone came by and smelled them and looked in the garbage and found their ROTTEN DEAD BODIES."

Yeah........

My second favorite.....(remember the voice)

"They say that Jesus was circumscised. I never was myself.............."

WOW!!! Never a dull moment with Rulon in the ward.