Duncan's Big Day

Sunday, December 27th.

Duncan's baptism day had finally arrived!

Here is Duncan in his new suit, shirt and tie, along with the other kids, Sunday morning before church. Jennan is wearing a necklace she made from beads given to her from grandma Foutz. Liam is wearing the blazer and tie Duncan used to wear. And Tegan is wearing her favorite dress- It has Mickey Mouse on it.


There he is... our eight year old.

Daddy and Duncan before we headed out to the building for the baptism.

Duncan and Dad with their white clothes on. Duncan is also wearing the white robe that Grandma McAlister gave him.

Duncan was so excited to be getting baptised. He said many times that he felt "happy tears" coming during our getting ready and the program, before and after his actual baptism. We are so proud of him.

After the baptism, we had family come over for some food. Here are a bunch of our kids' cousins eating around the coffee table in our front room. A great picture.

Here's Duncan opening some of the gifts he received that day.

Here's Duncan looking at a book Anna made for him with a bunch of candy in it.

Brand new scriptures with his name embossed on them from mom and dad.

It was such a special day. Anna and I had decided early on, that we weren't going to stress about all the details and such from the day. We made our plans and we let them happen as they did. That really helped us to enjoy the experience as well.

As for the program:

Opening prayer- great-grandpa Letterman

Baptism talk- grandma Foutz

Musical selection- "I Am a Child of God", sung and signed by Tegan, Jennan, Liam, and Duncan

video presentation- The Touch of the Master's Hand

Confirmation talk- grandma McAlister

Closing prayer- Richard Bocanegra (family friend)

Auntie Sara conducted the music

I had the privilege of baptising and confirming Duncan that evening. In the confirmation circle was myself, great grandpa Letterman, grandpa McAlister, grandpa Foutz, uncle Kevin, uncle Ken, uncle Josh, uncle Danny, and Bishop Denkers.


Thank you to all that came to share the experience with Duncan and our family.

Christmas at McAlisters

We went to Anna's parents' house on Dec. 26th for some family Christmas. It was a great time of visiting and food eating.

The white elephant gift exchange was a bit less "crazy" this year. Quite tame actually.

But there were still some highlights!...


One highlight was watching Allen open the sibling group gift.





It's a mounted JACKALOPE!!

Another highlight was watching Josh open his present from Allen... it was a year's worth of toenail clippings inside a clear glass Christmas tree ornament.

Also, Anna had some presents for Josh as well... here he is opening one of the best ones...

...It's a gummy and candy severed foot!! Complete with protruding bones, and lacerations. Josh is a big fan of feet, so he was super happy to get all the foot themed gifts he got this year.

So yeah, we had a fun time.

Christmas

Christmas Eve evening, after returning from an awkward extended Foutz family gathering, we got the kids all in bed.

Here is a picture of the sleeping arrangement. We needed to have the girls sleep in the boys' room, so we put out the air mattress, and called it a "sleep over". The kids got new pillows and Pjs for Christmas Eve.


CHRISTMAS MORNING! The kids were up pretty early (though they're up pretty early every morning). We had them wait until 7am for mom and dad to get up so we could start opening presents.

Here is the reason we needed to the girls to sleep in the boys' room. The girls were getting bunk-beds for Christmas! Luckily Anna had the foresight to have all the gifts wrapped before Christmas Eve, because we would be putting a bunk bed together. With the bunk bed, and last minute wrapping, I think we got to bed around 2am? (or was it 3am?- I don't remember.)

Here's mommy with a snow hat daddy made for her.

Here are the kids enjoying the new beds.

The glorious aftermath of Christmas morning. (And I think we had already even moved some of the wrapping paper out of the room.)

Tegan and Jennan had their stuff on the couch.

Duncan had his stuff next to the piano.

Liam had his stuff by the bookcase.

I had stuff all over.

It was a fun morning of opening presents. We tried to reinforce the idea that because they had been good all year, they got presents they wanted. And that they needed to be good all of the next year coming up too.

Presents of note this year:

The girls got bunk beds- with bed sets and comforters

Duncan and Liam got DSs- with games and accessories

Anna got some items made of corduroy that I made for her.

I got 5 bottles of "Dads" orange-cream flavored soda! (I did get those, but the really cool gifts I got were throwing knives and a throwing axe.

There were tons of other gifts too. Too many to mention.

We also want to remember how blessed we've been this year. We've had some troubling times, but through it all, we still have so much to be thankful for.

Jennan's eye today

It's almost been a week since Jennan gave herself a black eye (with the help of a wall and window sill). It's been just about every shade of blue, black, violet, maroon, then greens and yellows as it continues to get better.


Yesterday the kids had some friends from church over, and in the course of their visit, we noticed that the scab was gone. Jennan said it was better so it came off. She had been messing with it earlier, so we figure she just popped it off. It's got that "fresh skin" pink color to it.

So yeah, Liam will have his cut, and Jennan the eye for their Christmas day pictures. Oh the memories.

Duncan had a party

Duncan's birthday party was last Saturday, and if you missed it, you missed out.


Here's Duncan with his birthday cake. It's a Mario cake, so he really liked it. Anna did a great job.


There was a pinata at the party. Anna made some small modifications, and it became a Mario style star. They beat the star till is bled candy.

I had to put this one in because the kids were wearing the star's cones as party hats. You can kind of see some of the face painting that Duncan had at hid party too. A big thank you goes to our good friend Melissa for bringing her face paint and doing that for the kids.

This was probably Duncan's favorite birthday present... a Mario Kart Wii tshirt. It says, " This is how I roll." It was the first thing he asked for the next morning.

It was a fun little gathering at the park for the party. Thank you, to all who came out. The kids had a great time.

eight years ago today

Eight years ago today, we fulfilled our commandment to multiply... Duncan was born!

It was an exciting day. We were parents. Our work to raise a child in the gospel had begun.

Here we are. The beginnings of a new family.

Shortly after Duncan was born, he was blessed. In that blessing, a whole life's worth of blessings are/were mentioned. Soon, one of the first blessings, to be baptised, will happen. Duncan has chosen to be baptised. The anticipation for such an important event for our eight year old is almost overwhelming. We pray that it will be a day he remembers for eternity, and something he can recall in times of struggle that will strengthen him.

Happy Birthday Duncan!

monday music 12.21.09

One of the Christmas songs you won't hear on KOST 103.5 FM...

... But I like it. (can't remember if there are any bad words)




Good song.