So long, Farewell...

We didn't send out a Christmas letter, so I am writing a synopsis of our year.

2008 brought us...

• Closer together - Jeff accepted a new position as the Manager of Financial Reporting at Halliburton in March. He loves his new job and we love to have him home with us so much more now!
• Home, sweet, Home- We were sad (actually, incredibly lucky as well) to sell our very first home, the one we brought our babies home to, but we were elated to move to the new house we had been building for 8 months.
• Winds of Change- No, I'm not talking about Mary Poppins, we had a major hurricane, as most of you know, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that gave us a glimpse of what life was like before modern conveniences... we were without eletricity for 2 weeks, but it gave us oppportunities to serve and so much more.
• Love- We feel so blessed to be close (only about 7 minutes away- we still live in the same city) to all of our friends from our other neighborhood, ward and school, but also so fortunate to have met so many wonderful new friends! Our lives our enriched by wonderful friends here, we love them and consider them family!
• Service- Jeff is lucky enough to be the scout leader for the 14 and 15 year old boys, that has broadened his horizon a little bit. He has been on interesting campouts ( he has a weird scar, possibly from a jellyfish, during a shark fishing expedition) and had lots of fun. I am doing the calling that stretchs me the most, I teach Relief Society. It is not in my comfort zone at all, not even on that radar, in fact. But, I do thoroughly enjoy getting to know the women, and loving them. And I do learn a lot too, so that's alway fun.
• Learning- I'll start with Lily. She took her first dance class. She is a first class twirler! It's a jazz, ballet, gymnastics combo, so we'll see where she ends up, but it sure is fun to watch. Brooklyn did swim team and really impressed us. Swim team is competitive here, and pretty much what everyone does... By the end of the season she was on fire! Tyler had the biggest life changing event. He started Kindergarten. There were tears... not from him of course. It was hard for me to say goodbye to my sweet natured little funny guy. He gets out an hour before Brooklyn, so it's not a full day yet. He has adjusted so well! He is starting to read and we are so thrilled for him.
• to a realization- For the past 8 years we have been walking the line. In Texas you have to choose, you are either an Aggies fan or a UT fan. Well, we had remained nuetral until this past January when my Dad took a new position with the University of Texas. We are glad to have them a little bit closer... only 3 hours. Not to mention, Austin is a really cool place to visit. So, it's final. We are longhorns!!! Watch out Aggies! :)

All in all, 2008 was a year like most others. We learned, we loved, we lived. This was a good year for our family. Lily ceased to be a baby this year, she became the third sibling (a mighty bossy one at that) and this has been fun to watch. My three beautiful, precious children interact, play, love (and fight too, they're not perfect, of course) together as friends. So we welcome 2009 and hope it brings us and you as much JOY as we can imagine.

Cookie Exchange 2008

Boys love going to a mostly girl party with lots of cookies... no boys complaining here!!!

5 Beautiful girls... (+1) Caryn, sorry we took this after you left, I wish you were in it... :)

Chocolate--- peanut butter---- frosting---pumpkin---ginger snaps---M & M's---oatmeal--- It was ALL so yummy!

It really doesn't get better than a cookie exchange!!! I'm a sucker for treats, so it's heaven for me. It was a blast, the kids made truffles, while the Mamas laughed. Thanks to all who came. I love each of you so much, you made my holidays a little brighter! Ta ta until next year...

These are a few of my favorite things...

Isn't she lovely? I just love her so much, I'm excited to do her birthday post this year. It's been delightful to just have her at home while the others were at school. Lily really and truly is my best friend!

Jones Family Gingerbread House 2008- I was excited to get cookie cutters to make the house this year. Brooklyn watched me make the dough, cut it out, then exclaimed, "MOM, you have to BAKE it???? HOW rude, they didn't do it for us...." Kids these days, they have too much at their fingertips. After a laugh, I explained how it was fun to do it the old fashioned way. I hope they come to appreciate it! This was a tradition in the Mouritsen house... and competitive at that, having a Dad as an architect. The only problem now is, I have a hard time letting them do their own... I get a little too into it :) Kind of like when I'm at Chucke Cheese and I won't stop playing Skee Ball...

Yep, that's a real camel! He was pretty cool. Sisters are different flowers from the same garden!
I love quotes about little girls and flowers ~ what could be more alike?
they both color our lives, give beauty, bring smiles and inspire minds
I am so glad my girls have each other, it's awesome to see the bond they share and the love they give to each other.

"Lily-Lou-WHO"- if the Grinch ever came to our house, this is who he would encounter.

Nieve???!!!!

I did not think such miracles were possible, snow in Texas, at Christmas-time? Or as Brooklyn put it this evening, when she walked outside to see if it was true.

"OH, Dreams do come true!" I'm so glad they do. I wanted two things this year for my kids... one of them was to play in the snow, I have such fond memories of snow. Snow is actually one of my very favorite things... not in a cold, wet, way, but in a just-fallen, drifting, sparkling, quiet, clean kind of way.

We frolicked in the wet white stuff for a few minutes. Then the fun began, a tiny (and I mean TINY) snowman was born, there were snowballs galore (who even taught Tyler about those???) and just plain smiles all around. It was freezing, literally of course, but I seemed to be the only one who felt like frost bite was nipping at my fingers.

Hot chocolate beckoned inside to warm up. I thought we were well on our way to bed time when our nieghboor rang the doorbell and pelted me with a snowball. That began a whole new round of fun. There were more snowballs, laughs, and stories of their (our neighbor's) beautiful 12 foot tall real tree. IT was memorizing, I didn't want to take my eyes off it.

So, it was a special, magical, unforgettable evening when it snowed one December evening in Texas

Is there a Santa Claus?

Every year, my heart smiles and at this little editorial. How can you not love the response from the Editor? His choice words and grand ideas have me believing anything is possible. Which is the best place to be!

Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial.

"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old. "Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. "Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.' "Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?" Virginia

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real?

Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Bedazzling Butterflies!

Austin has so many fun new places to explore. The Botanical Gardens are a great place for the kids to run around and explore. I just LOVED these benches, and so did the girls!

** I originally so blandly entitled this post Beautiful Butterflies... well, after being more properly informed by Fancy Nancy (if you have a Lily, then you know who I'm talking about) that beautiful is a boring, non-descriptive word, I opted for a more interesting word choice. Sounds like I'm trying to pass 11th grade English, and I'm pretty sure bedazzling might or might not be a word, but I am sure that it's one Fancy Nancy would be proud to use, even if it is made up.

O Tannenbaum...

(no wonder he is the heart-throb of Kindergarten...)

We searched for that perfect, heart warming, memory making tree. We braved the chilly wintery weather, we fought the crowds, and finally, it found us! We crammed it in our minivan, I won't tell you how we had to configure seating arrangements... Jeff and I tried to sing "O Christmas Tree" on the way home, only to realize, neither one of us really knew the song... So, we sang Feliz Navidad instead, which can never be sung without producing a smile.

Here it is. A beautiful tree to light our home. We spent a better part of Saturday night "fluffing needles," I'd rather you heard Lily say that... "plupping needles." We love our Lily. Anyway, it was fun.

I love the twinkling lights. The chilled air. Dressy clothes and hats. Cookies. Pies. Cakes. OK, I digress, but I love it all really.

Especially as we remember why. Why we celebrate. One of my favorite Christmas books is by Richard Paul Evans. The question is posed, "What was the first gift of Christmas?"

Of course, it was God's Son. He gave His Son to the world. And that is why we celebrate Christmas. I remind the kids of this as often as possible. This message is a small quiet one that fights through the crowds of commercialism, but it is the first and best gift of all.

My boogie shoes

We laced up our skates and did it! It was the kids first time at ice-skating, and Jeff had only been a few other times. I've been ice skating since I was little, and in-line skating since junior high, (not that I'm good at it) ... so it was a treat for me!

Instead of all the pictures of big cheezy smiles, I wish I had the millions of wipe-outs! It would play like America's Funniest Home video, "Hi mom..." with a wave and smile... BAM, on the ground in .06 flat! But, to their credit, they were all HUGE troopers and got back up with a smile and a wet bottom and just kept on going! They were all brave and no one complained about falling.

Those little granny-walker-helper things were nice, I didn't have to do "fall" patrol for an hour, but they are a little bit of a crutch. I don't remember ever using on of those, I learned to ice skate at the rink by my Grandma's house in Salt Lake, and I just held onto the wall every 5 seconds until I got it.

Here they are Kristy!

This is Tyler at his friend's birthday party. It was so much more than the usual pump it up extravaganza... we got to do a hayride and have horses eat out of our hands! The kids were scared/excited about this! It was at Cowboy City Texas... check it out, it was the real deal! so fun

Chicken Run, or fun!

My kids crack me up with their innocent observations. Brooklyn was chuckling to herself last night as we were scraping the white meat off our rotisserie chicken, she says as she's laughing, "Mom, look, the chicken was trying so hard to run away that they had to tie it's legs up..."
I didn't tell her they do that to all chickens.

Then, as Tyler and her are exploring the chicken cavity, (YUCK), Tyler queries, "Mom, how do they get magical parts in their bodies?" I'm thinking, what are you TALKING about?... watching the Tinkerbell movie too much and dreaming up magic? Then he clarifies, "The wishbone? How do they get that magical bone?"

I love my kids!

Double the fun!

THE DRESS (the blessing dress for Julie I slaved over... :) , of course I enjoyed it though.)


Grandma Mouritsen with 7 of her 16 great grandkids... for 75, she looks Fabulous!

precious little Jed. 2 months old, on his blessing day, wearing the same outfit his Dadda was blessed in.

Julie on her blessing day with Aunt Janelle.

the lovely parents! aren't they all so beautiful??!!

Monster Mash at the Jones'

See if you can tell how many times my kids picked different costumes for different parties? :)

This almost gave me tendinitis, but who can resist? My Dad always loved to carve cool pumpkins, wow, carving tools have come a LONG way since the 80's!

Brooklyn is really working that orange, NAPPY wig!

Scooby dooby doo!

"ooohhhh, I'm a witch."

Knight, Transformer, at gymnastics.

the Scoob gang!

my little trick or treaters!

SpOoKy SnAkE!

Ok, I just had to share this. My friend Emily carved this, isn't it AWESOME!!! She is so creative and talented , and always has the best ideas! This snake CREEPS me out!
more on the goblins to come....

What do you want to be when you grow up?

That was the question on Tyler's worksheet from school today. I flipped through his folder right after school, curiously I studied the self portrait. The picture really gave me no clues as to what he had in mind for his future occupation.
Later tonight, I asked him what it was. His face lit up into a HUGE smile that I could see in the dark and he said, "I accidentally drew a mail box" (meaning MAIL man, I don't know if that just means he drew something that didn't work, that happened to look like a mail box, or he just plain changed his mind in the middle... who knows?) "but I want to be a police man." I was genuinely surprised, that was new. Then the classic reason why, "SO I can let everyone out of jail." NICE. So apparently the REAL job description of a policeman got distorted somewhere along the way...

It's AutumnTime...

This was FHE after the Farm extravaganza, caramel apples...YUM!

Well, I don't know if it's really autumn time if you're still wearing shorts everyday and it's about 90', but since we're well on our way into the "Holiday Season" I'm going to stick with Autumn. Sometimes the weather doesn't change too much until after Christmas, and then I feel as if I missed out on my favorite season. So, I'm going to pretend and cherish these few days we call Fall here in Texas. So, we did Old MacDonald's Farm.

If you've never been, it's a glorified petting zoo. Usually, I try to keep away from those, (allergies, among other things) but since we had yet another FUN day of school off, I decided to make the most of it. I had a fantastic time with the kids. When Tyler said, "Mom, we had a great time today." I knew it was worth it, and thank goodness for hand sanitizer is all I have to say. We probably used those hand washing stations more than anyone one else, but when you have that many animal tongues licking your hands, you'd be crazy not to. Haven't you seen what else those animals lick?

At the end of the train ride, rope swing, Indian village, fort, ball pit, horse ride, hay barn, petting zoo, there was a pumpkin patch (or make shift one) and the kids loved picking out their own pumpkins. So, a fun time was had by all, and it did feel a little bit like Autumn, a little bit.