I finally had a chance to post our Disneyland pictures. We went with my parents and grandma and we had so much fun! We spent 3 days in the park and partied hard! The boys got to do a Jedi training, they even got to fight Darth Vader and Darth Mal. Mckenzie got to meet Tinker Bell and some of the Disney princesses. Here are some of our pics:


We

Hope

Today is Sunday. I woke up with a headache which is a result of stress, major stress and grief. Three weeks ago we suffered a major loss in our family.

When I was growing up, we lived in Jackson Hole on a small ranch. My grandparents lived in the big house on the property. My family lived in a small house just a few yards away. My cousins, Josh, Scott and Nick lived across the creek. My aunt and cousin Jennifer lived in Utah, but Jennifer spent her summers in Jackson with us. We were more or less raised as siblings. Jennifer is 6 years older than me. Josh is a year old, Scott a year younger, James (my brother) is two years younger and Nick and Shay are 5 years younger. We were each other's best friends and playmates.

Jennifer is my idol. She is beautiful and strong and intelligent. She has suffered through a lot in her life and one day, she met her prince charming. They were kinda like a PG-13 version of the Brady Bunch. He had 2 boys, she had 2 girls. They lived happily ever after for 8 years.

Five days after Christmas, Matt died suddenly of a pulmonary embolism. He collapsed in his living room as he was getting ready to leave for work. Jennifer found him there. He was 40.

The last few weeks have been a blur of grief and anger. None of which I care to get into. So today, I woke up with a headache after dreaming of Matt. I don't really want to go to church. But as my wonderful husband was telling me that we could stay home I realized I want to go. But not for the reasons you'd think. I'm very angry right now, so I have yet to find comfort in the gospel. The comfort I'm seeking is in a small, autistic nine year old boy whom I teach in primary.

Over the last few weeks I have completely fallen in love with this kid. He will sit beside me, his legs crossed Indian style on his chair, with his little hand in mine. Or he will sit on my lap, usually with a hand in my hair. Every once in a while he'll briefly look at me, I don't know if he is seeing me but I see him and I can't help but kiss his little cheeks. I can't even explain how much this has helped in the way of healing. It's like somehow he has offered me hope. And I realized that I need it today.

New Year

Well, it's 2009! Christmas break is over and the kids are back in school and we're back at the grind. Doug and I have both been busy with end of year "stuff" at work. (I have another name for the "stuff" but I'll try to keep this PG)

We're all extremely excited about going to Disney Land in a little less than 2 weeks! Our trip is our Christmas gift from my parents. I'd say they gave us the best present ever!

Until vacation, Doug and I will be working ourselves silly. But it'll so be worth it!

Happy New Year to everyone!

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas! Like I've said a million times, this is the best time of year. We've been able to do fun things like drive through the lights at Willard Bay and then visited Santa and his reindeer. Well, I should say that Mckenzie and Carter visited Santa. The other boys announced that they're "too old."




We also took a wagon ride through the lights at Thanksgiving Point with our friends, the Fronk's. It was way cold but I had Andraia on my lap and she kept me warm.

A couple nights before Christmas, we went caroling with our neighbors. That was so fun. My kids did NOT want to go but once they got out there and started singing, they really enjoyed it. Hopefully that will be a fun tradition every year.

Christmas Eve was at our house. My parents, brother and his family and my sister and her daughter all came to our house. Doug, of course, cooked all day and made the best meal ever! The kids opened their presents from Nanna and Papa that night. All the grandkids got new jammies and really neat books. We also did a little nativity and sang Christmas carols. I have to say, my kids are so cute!



Christmas morning, the kids were so excited to open presents and then commenced to spend the rest of the day protecting their toys from their dad, grandpa and uncle. We had many a nerf gun war and robot wars... I'm still finding nerf bullets everywhere. Christmas evening we went swimming at my parents' hotel. My little nephew is a little fish. He's 13 months old and was determined to spend as much time in the water as he could, giggling the whole time! My kids had races across the pool. Chase is a mighty good swimmer!

Today is Doug's birthday. We just had a quiet family party and then Doug and I will have a hot date sometime this week. He's always a good sport. I love him to peices.

All in all, the Montrose's had an awesome Christmas! I'm bummed that it's come to an end!

Cutest kids!

My mom had pictures done of all her grandkids over Thanksgiving break. These are two of my favorites of my kids. The second one will probably be my all time favorite for years to come. It is a visual of every day life with my kids. However, I must say that Chase's expressions in both pictures crack me up. He was soooooo NOT into posing. It was like pulling teeth.

Garrett is Student of the Week this week! We are very proud of him. We're also extremely thrilled that he could reign in his energy long enough to get his school work done. He hasn't decided how he wants to celebrate, I'm just hoping it's not something too crazy!

Actually, Garrett is a very good student. He's good at everything he tries which is fabulous. The downside to that is that he gets very frustrated when things don't go his way.

Life would be boring without Garrett!

CHRISTMAS!!

I love this time of year! It's so exciting. I love all the family events and food and presents! I love bundling up in coats, mittens and hats to go to Temple Square to see the lights. It's my favorite family Christmas activity.

Last night we set up our trees and decorated our house for Christmas! We have a family tree upstairs decorated in red and gold and the kids have their very own tree in the family room decorated in EVERYTHING they can get their little hands on. It was so cute to watch them find their own little special treasures in the ornament boxes. The triplets found a couple ornaments that were given to them when they were born. One of them is three little bears sitting on a swing with their names written on a little banner across the swing. Ethan found M&M garland and ornaments that he bought a few years ago when he was tiny, and Carter found ornaments he made last year in preschool. Their little tree is chuck full of ornaments and garland but it's so cute. I'll have to take a picture.

My mom started a new tradition this year based on the book called The Christmas Jar. I haven't read the book yet, but my mom says it's about a family that saves their change all year to buy Christmas presents but on their way to the bank they meet a woman who is crying and their daughter ends up giving her their Christmas Jar. After that, every year the family gives away a jar of change they save all year. So my mom saved 3 jars of change (all silver) and gave one to my brother, my sister and me. She's hoping that next year we can save our change and give it to a family who needs it. I think it's such an awesome idea! Last night we took our jar to a coinstar machine and the kids made bets on how much would be in the jar. We were all pleasantly surprised that there was a lot more money in it than we thought! It was so fun. So, I'm excited about this new tradition. I think it will be a good way to get my kids involved in something that they can give to someone else next Christmas.