HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

i spun around for 9 mins. and a half.
rebekah

Go Mavs!

Wednesday night we all went to the Hawks vs Pacers game here in Atlanta and watched the Hawks get their first 5 game winning streak since 1999!!! Too bad that won't last when they play the Mavs in Dallas this weekend!

Chris

Christmas eve

Merry Christmas eve!!!!!!!!!
13 more hours to praesent time
Hansen(age elevan)

Take you ride in my car car

Today we were out driving for too hours droping off prwesents to peopl imn the wward. We sang christmas songs the whole way. it was like wee sing christmas. Have a Wonderfule Christmas and a Happey new yaer!!!!!! :)

Hansen (age elevan)

Christmas is Coming...

Christopher and I are about to take off to the airport. We are headed to GA until the 3rd of January. We are getting really excited to go. I am just dreading the 3 and 1/2 hour flight there. We opened up all our gifts from the David Blake family on friday night. We loved them all. Christopher is facinated with the flashlight Dad got him. And my favorite gift was the puffalump! Sad thing is the gift is not even for me. We can't wait to see y'all on the 3rd for a bit. I hope y'alls Christmas is wonderful. Eat a lot of ham for me. I will call on Christmas morning to hear what y'all got from Santa!! I love you

Hannah

Malan's Juggling

Ringling Brothers, eat your heart out!

Malan

Snowflakes

Simon and I took this close up picture of the humongous snowflakes that were falling this morning. (Make sure you click on it to see the detail!!!) This way, y'all get to experience a small piece of how freezing we are here! Have you guys ever seen actual flakes? I used to think they were just blobs.
...Annie

Christmas came early

So we had a little Christmas early here in Provo. I personally think we should make it a tradition. The 25th is just too long to wait! We took all pictures of Alice because she's the cutest and ate more wrapping paper than anyone else (Jon was a close second).















This is Alice looking like she's happy about her new book, but really she's just eager to put it in her mouth.















She's all ready for solid foods, I think. Even cardboard will do.















This was right before she got a piece of that green paper stuffed in her cute mouth.



















I think Chris and Alice are zapping someone with their red laser eyes here.

hambugers

the first i had a hambuger i finished it. it was huge.
rebekah

A New Job!!

As of today I am no longer a custodian!!! That is right, no more recycling. I couldn't be happier. I have actually gotten another job. It is going to be great. I will be able to sit down while I work and also no more getting up at 7am to get to work in the morning. I am working for the BYU career placement office. I help all the graduating seniors get set up with a job. When different companies come to BYU to find new employees, I am the one who connects them together! I will be working from 2-6pm. I am pretty excited. The official job title is PM recruiter helper! Very official!! I start on the 4th on January. Wish me luck!!

Hannah

hansen you got 8 word wrong.(maybe 9.)
rebekah

Disappointmernt

It iz tha sadeast day EVER igote on the Speelling bie. I now i mised monckies
Handson!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Christmas of My Dreams....Already

Well, I'm alive again. The amazingness of the contents of the envelopes brought me right back to life! Seriously, we are the luckiest people ever...EVER. I'm going to tell this story to my kids every year, but I'm sure they won't believe there are people in the world as generous and loving as Mama and Papa Blake. Thank you both so much.

...Annie

A Sad Day

I just wanted y'all to know that Annie died early this morning from suspense over the white envelope. Her body just couldn't handle it any more. The desire to know what's in them was just too much for her.

She was found with a rock in her hand, laying amidst a pile of letters after breaking into the post office to find our white ones from Dad.

-Simon

???????

Chris Is your webkinz in webkinz world??
what is its name?
Hansen

1020 club

Eddie Jones is part of the 1020 club
Hansen

Family Contest

Last week's order of initials was

SDHA(DSJCLBMHRA)

Both Jon and Simon got it right. It's in the order of the longest time being pregnant. Congratulations to Jon and Simon. You win a Christmas present! Way to go.

As a clue for this week's contest, consider Bing Crosby.

Family Letter and Joke of the Week

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Dear Family,

I was reminded over the weekend of the value of gratitude and the role it plays in our lives, particularly the acknowledgement of the source of all goodness. So I think my Heavenly Father for such a wonderful family. Thanks for all your love and support.

Here’s the news from North Texas:

· The weather has now officially turned cold. I know I’m not going to get any sympathy from some of you, but for us wimpy Texans, it’s been pretty miserable this week. I don’t think it’s supposed to get out of the lower 40s today. Of course, that’s after several days of 70s and 80s last week. So I guess we can’t complain too much.

· The basketball report is a good one. Malan skipped his game last week to come with the family to the Second Annual ExxonMobil Headquarters Holiday Open House. (More on that below.) And Hansen’s (and Leah’s and my) team won last Saturday by a score of 25-12. It was the second win in a row for our team, which doubles our victory total for all of last year (and matches our victory total for the past two seasons combined). Now if we could only get the Mavericks to win more consistently.

· The week has been a week of parties. First was the aforementioned ExxonMobil headquarters party. It was a lot of fun. Particularly the dessert room. I don’t think I’ve ever tasted chocolate quite that rich or decadent. Then on Friday, Stephanie and I went to the Tax Department holiday party at my boss’s boss’s boss’s house. This time the desserts weren’t quite as good, but it was still a fun time. Then tonight is the annual gingerbread house building party here at work. It’s a fun tradition. This Saturday is our ward party. I think by the end of this weekend, we’ll be partied out and ready for some relaxation!

· The other big event from this past week was Stake Conference. I think it went extremely well; at least all the other talks were good. It seemed to be well attended and everyone seemed to enjoy it. I spoke Saturday night on “Our Heritage as a Covenant People,” and then on Sunday on “Prayer.” I was a bit nervous because David Stone, recently released from the Second Quorum of the Seventy was in attendance. I tried to look up quotes from his general conference addresses to use them in my talk just to impress them, but couldn’t find any that fit!

· I think we’ve finally got all the Christmas presents mailed off to everyone who doesn’t live here in town (or isn’t going to be with us on Christmas morning). What a chore. The guy who delivers the mail here in the office had to get a bigger cart for all the stuff I’ve been sending off.

· The college kids are all doing well. Hannah’s having a girl. So we’re looking forward to having an “Avery” in our family, named after the illustrious Dallas Mavericks coach, Avery Johnson. Simon and Annie don’t know what they’re having yet, but we’re hoping for a boy so they can name him “Dirk.”

That’s about all the news. Here’s the joke of the week:

A woman walks into a newspaper office and inquires about placing an obituary in the paper in honor of her husband who had just died. “Certainly,” said the newspaper man. “What would you like the obituary to say?”
“Just say, ‘Bob died,’” replied the woman.
“Is that all?” responded the newspaperman.
“Yes, that’s it,” answered the woman.
Sensing that perhaps the cost of the obituary might be an issue for the woman, the newspaperman tactfully offered, “If you’re worried about the cost of the obituary, our rates are the same for up to five words. So you can at least add a few words without increasing your cost.”
“Okay, then,” replied the woman. “Just say, ‘Bob died; boat for sale.’”

We hope everyone’s well and getting ready for Christmas. We love you all.

Love, (HC)(SA)(DJA)(DSLBMHR)

Senior Pictures

I got my senior pictures today!! These are some of my favorites!!

Leah

Alice . . . . . . again.

We all know she's super cute. She turned all the heads in primary today. yes, she's very distracting to 11 year old girls. And for the primary presidency for that matter. I hope Tamela reads this (I'm sure she will if she can get some computer lessons from Annie). President Blake can tell sister Naylor its ok to take Alice from me.

Enjoy the latest pics. (just for hansen)

Jon, Deborah, and Alice

stake confrence

today was stake confrence for us.it was boring.

rebekah

Avery Jane

It is a girl!!! The pictures did not turn out too well, but you can see it pretty good. The outfit is one Christopher picked out. He liked it so much because we could pop the collar!! She weighs 9 oz. and is 6 inches long!! She was very cute. And we are now probably about 95% sure her name will be Avery Jane. We will see though.

Hannah

Chicken Parmigiana

Christopher made dinner last night. It was amazing. He made his own marinara sauce from scratch and it smelt so good all night long!! Thanks for the chicken recipe book mom!!

Hannah

girl names

While we really like the name Avery Jane, we are not completely sure. We would like any suggestions y'all have. Please try to be kind of serious with your suggestions.

Hannah

Mavericks

What is up with the Mavs this season?? Leah you are obviously not giving Dirk the talks he really needs and Bevan start playin the piano some more!! We need to pull out all the stops if they are going to do well this season.

Tomorrow Christopher and I go to the doctor for the second time! We will find out what we are having, a boy or a girl?!?! We are very excited. Our favorite names right now are Maverick Christopher and Avery Jane. We will see about that girl's name though, it might change. Well we will give y'all of all a call tomorrow at let you know!

Hannah

pics

here is some pics of the tree!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hansen the cute one of the family!!!!!!!!!!!

Family Contest

Last week, the order of the initials was:

JCDSHSLBDMHRAA

The initials were in the order of who ate the most for Thanksgiving. I debated whether to put both As in a tie at the end, but ended up thinking that Alice probably outdid Annie that day. So they're not tied. As I said last week, the order was a complete estimate on my part.

I'm sorry no one guessed the answer. For the second week in a row, you missed out on a fabulous prize, which in this case was a new Mercedes Benz sportscar and a year's supply of gasoline!

This week's contest is posted. Good luck.

D

Family Letter and Joke of the Week

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Dear Family,

I trust this letter finds everyone doing well, wherever they are. I also hope you’ve all recovered from Thanksgiving and are well into your preparations for Christmas (or at least that you’ve already bought my Christmas present!).

Here are the news highlights from Carrollton, Texas:

· Everything last week revolved around the nativity exhibit our stake put on at our stake center. Stephanie spent about 14 hours each day last week at the church helping to put the exhibit together. Then we spent considerable time there Friday and Saturday helping to host the exhibit. Then we were there until late, late Saturday night/Sunday morning taking down the exhibit. It was exhausting, but well worth it.

· The nativity exhibit itself was fantastic. It featured over 600 nativities from around the world, as well as about 30 pieces of artwork and several hundred ornaments. We had between 1,000 and 1,400 people go through the exhibit (the exact count is hard to know because we had amateurs like me in charge of counting people as they came in the door), a substantial number of which were non-members. All in all, it was a very positive experience, and one that I’ve really come to look forward to each year.

· This week the focus of activity is on re-creating the nativity exhibit in our home. At last count, we have about 100 nativities and about 20 pieces of nativity-related art work. I think Stephanie is determined to display every one of them.

· The basketball report is a good one. Malan’s team won their game last week, beating Polk by five points. Hansen’s team didn’t play, so at least we didn’t lose. And we enjoyed going to watch the Mavericks last Friday night cruise to a victory.

· We enjoyed Mom returning home from her sojourn up in Boston. We also enjoyed Erica coming to visit us with Sarah and Emily for a couple of days. They came over to see the nativity exhibit and to go to the American Girl Doll store down in Dallas. I don’t know which one they enjoyed more.

· The college kids seem to be doing well. Hannah and Annie are getting along in their pregnancies. Hannah’s finally starting to get over her morning sickness routine. Annie is still in the middle of hers, but should be feeling better in a couple more weeks. I think everyone is passing their classes. And Alice continues to be cuter than she has a right to be.

Here are the jokes of the week, all on the “A man walked into a bar . . .” theme. I decided to treat you to more than one since I have so many of them and I’ll never use them up if I don’t do more than one at a time.

A bear walks into a bar. He spies a cute she-bear standing by the bar. So he walks up and says, "Hey babe. What's ursine?"

A penguin walks into a bar, goes to the counter, and asks the bartender, "Have you seen my brother?" The bartender says, "I don't know. What does he look like?"

A termite walks into a bar and says, “Is the bar tender here?”

A hamburger walks into a bar and says, “Give me a drink.” The bartender says, “I’m sorry but we don’t serve food here.”

Thanks for being such a great family.

Love, SDHA(DSJCLBMHRA)

Who's Up For Round 2?!

Tonight we had another great family dinner with Jon, Deborah, Alice, and Becky. Hannah wanted to try making the famous Papa Blake rolls again after being sure to buy the correct yeast this time. We had a turkey in the freezer and thought, why not do Thanksgiving again? So we did, and boy were Hannah's rolls amazing! The only sad thing was that this time we were missing Jon's parents. Jon made another fantastic apple reindeer droppings dessert. It gets better everytime. If you're wondering why there are rolls in the spaghetti container, Hannah and I had no ziploc bags to put them in. I'm a disgrace to the Italians.

Chris

Webkinz tree

How do you make a Webkinz tree?

1, You get a Christmas tree.

2, you get some Webkinz.

3, You put them on the tree.

4, you plug in the lights.

5, then you get to enjoy the tree.


That's right we made a webkinz tree it is pretty cool.

Hansen

Can't beat pictures of Alice...

But last night I threw up so violently, some of it came out my nose!!! This baby better be reeeeeeally cute.

...Annie

Baby Alice

You can never have too many pictures of baby Alice!!

She really likes Guitar Hero!

Hannah

hanging out

hannah and I (deborah) and alice are hanging out today, because she locked herself out of her apartment. oops. we are watching what not to wear. For those who havnt heard yet, merri had her baby. they named him kevin. we went to see him last night, and he is the cutest baby boy ever. He was 5 lbs 2 oz when he was born, but has sense lost weight and so was 4 lbs 13 oz when I got to hold him. oh, we was so cute and little, you just wanted to squoosh him. Alice looked like a moster next to him. I thought that Alice was still small, but she's not. she is huge.

I'm a little mad at mom for buying herself the josh gorban CD, because that is what i was going to get her that for Christmas. Oh well, I guess now all she is getting is a pickle. sorry mom.

Well, I hope everyone is doing good. Jon and I cannot wait to visit TX for Christmas. I guess I have to call it "my parents house" now. weird.

I thought of one more thing I want for Christmas. The movie It Takes Two. "Cough it up choir-boy show me your money."

love you all,

Deborah

beat

i beat Hansen in nock out. it was at the lowest it could be ,though.

1. Rebekah

Our First Family Picture!

The doctor thought I might be farther along than 10 weeks, so I had an ultrasound today to make sure, but the baby was exactly 3cm long and therefore 10 weeks old. Look at how well-behaved our little one is already! It just sat there sideways so we could get a good view. And it showed us it's dancing, er, uh, wiggling skills too! In the second picture you can see its little arm sticking up in the middle, and in the last picture you can see its leg buds near the plus sign. And it looks like it's wearing an elf hat (that's for you, Jon...we'll name it Buddy if it's a boy)! Little Miles/Emerson/Maren's heartbeat sounded like a train at 150 beats per minute. And no, we don't really want to name it Emerson, but I keep having dreams that it's a boy named Emerson, so I feel like we should at least consider it. We're also trying to forgive the little thing for being due right in the middle of Aspen Grove, but at least everyone will probably be here to meet him/her!
...Annie

Weekly Contest

Last week, the order of the initials was:

D(SSADJAHCLBMHR)

In honor of Thanksgiving, the initials were placed in the order of those who have the most to be thankful for. Since I have everyone else to be thankful for, by definition, I have the most. (I told you this was completely subjective.)

Since no one guessed the right answer, no one won the grand prize, which this week was an all expense paid trip around the world and $10,000 spending money. Sorry.

This week's contest also revolves around a Thanksgiving theme, and is based entirely on estimates. No firm data are available, so I just had to make my best guess.

Good luck.

Dad

Weekly Letter and Joke of the Week

Monday, November 26, 2007

Dear Family,

I hope your Thanksgiving week was a good one, and that you enjoyed all the traditional trappings of a good Thanksgiving dinner. We also hope all of you stayed warm. Even though it finally turned a little bit cold here in Dallas (did you see the snow flurries falling during the first half of the Cowboys game on Thanksgiving?), it’s still warmer than where most of you are.

Here’s the news for the week:

· We enjoyed our Thanksgiving week. I took a couple of vacation days on Tuesday and Wednesday, so we enjoyed some good family bonding time. It would have been better to have been together with SADJAHC, but you can’t have everything. We’re still thankful for them.

· We took advantage of my time off to get our Christmas village set up (see pictures posted last week) and decorate the house for Christmas. The hardest part of that whole process continues to be hauling things out of the attic and loading boxes back up into the attic. Thank goodness Bevan is growing into the job of helping me with that, and that Malan and Hansen aren’t too far behind. I think we’ll be entering the golden age of attic box removal here over the next few years.

· We also managed to get all of our nativity sets down from the attic and sorted and organized for the nativity exhibit our stake is hosting this weekend. Right now, our personal count is at 118 nativity sets, which includes actual nativity sets as well as separate pieces of artwork. And while Stephanie has definitely slowed down in her pace of nativity acquisitions, they continue to roll in from all over the globe. She has her eye on a hand-carved set from Italy right now.

· We did manage to have some fun while I was off. We saw the movie “Enchanted,” which was cute. We also went over to the Gaylord Texan to see the ice-sculpture exhibition, which was amazing. It featured a life-size nativity set. We tried to talk them into moving it to Carrollton for the weekend, but they declined.

· We also managed to avoid any trips to the mall over the past few days (except for Leah, who had to go into work a few days last week). We did manage to do some Christmas shopping over the internet. Best invention since key lime pie.

That’s about all the news for the week. Here’s the joke of the week:

Joe and Dave are hunting when Dave keels over. Frantic, Joe dials 911 on his cell phone and blurts, "My friend just dropped dead! What should I do?"
A soothing voice at the other end says, "Don't worry, I can help. First, let's make sure he's really dead."
After a brief silence, the operator hears a shot. Then Joe comes back to the phone. "Okay," he says nervously to the operator. "What do I do next?"

You are the greatest family ever. Thanks for all your love and support. Here’s wishing all the best for the upcoming holiday season.

Love, JCDSHSLBDMHRAA

Our New Address!!

Mom this is just for you!! This is our new address as of Dec. 1st, 2007. I will call you also and you can write it down, but if you ever lose it just look at the blog and you can find it here!!

255 E 400 N apt. #10

Hannah

Some pictures...

First is a picture of the presents under our tree because seeing them pile up is the most exciting part of waiting for Christmas! The only sad thing is our horribly unfestive "tree skirt" that's really just a gray sheet. Then we have a picture of Alice's first indifferent foray into applesauce and Deborah's shampoo-commercial hair. The last two are of Alice enjoying her new favorite toy...wrapping paper! Congratulations to Alice on being so cute and to Chris and Hannah for getting the apartment they wanted.
...Annie

Apartment Hunting

Christopher and I sold our apt. contract a week and a half ago. We put it up on Craig's List and the contract was taken within ONE hour! It was pretty crazy. We were both confident that we could find a place to live within one month, but as time went we got a bit more nervous. Well I am here to tell you y'all that we got an apt to move into!!! We will not be homeless. We are very excited about moving too because this new place has its own washer and dryer!! No more problems concerned with washing clothes!! Soon within the next month we will post pictures of our new apt. Come and visit if you would like because now we even have a second room for you to stay in!!
Hannah

I was accepted to Brigham Young University!!!!! I start Summer term of next year!! YEAH!! I am so excited!!
Leah

BYU wins!

Thanks Grandma Blake for the season tickets!! What a great season and great last home game. Thanks Hannah for letting me run on the field!!

Chris

THIS STINKS

THIS STINKS because we were suppose to spend the night at the Gaylord Texan Hotel (here is the story.) We went to the hotel about 10 min. from check in time and they told us that the room were not clean yet and 40-45 min. until it was clean. witch was o.k. So we explored for 50 min. and it was still not clean he said another 40-45 min. so we walked around and got ticket to the Ice show. So around 4:30 we went back and they gave our rooms away. and I quote
(from dad) I am as frustrated as you are but I just not going to come here again. Unquote. But we still went to the Ice show they kept I 5 degrees. (not that cold.)
And then the Mavs and the worst refs. Ever.
Hansen

Day One of Christmastime!

We put up our tree today! Even after spending a year in our creepy and questionable storage room, the tree was surprisingly free of cobwebs and dust and other gross things. So I made my way down the hallway with it, scraping all the walls as I went into the living room, and now it's sittin' pretty. We had to move our chair to a sort of awkward, middle-of-the room spot, but it's worth it. Then we played with the lights and different shutter speeds.

...Annie and Simon

Random pictures

Here are some random pictures that I thought everyone might enjoy. The top picture is me making a video on Hansen's birthday.I'm actully geting ready to make a video on hansen's bithday. The second picture is Leah watching Hansen open his presents on his Birthday. The last picture is me in my halloween costume. I'm a Hershey's kiss.



Love, Rebekah

THANKSGIVING

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE.

REBEKAH

Christmas is coming

Christopher and I put up our first Christmas tree yesterday. We don't have many ornaments, so the event did not last very long. We also celebrated school being out for 3 whole days with Martinelli's!! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!