Christmas 2008

Christmas morning was delightful. The children stayed up very late but slept in until 7:00 am. That was amazing! This Christmas we had Sarah, Joel, Eva, and Nathan; Abby, James, and Andrew; Jordan, Emily, Amanda, Ryan, Seth, Cam, and Maddy; and Tammy and Jeff. Jeff is the one taking this picture.

We not only dreamed of but experienced a White Christmas. Here Sarah, Eva, and Nathan are enjoying the fresh snow. They built a wonderful snowman that leaned and eventually fell.

All Maddy wants for Christmas is her two front teeth! She sang that song so sweetly for our annual Family Talent Show on Christmas Eve. We thoroughly enjoyed eveyone's talents, especially Jordan and Ryan's antics as "Sea World" seal trainers. They had their seal (Nathan Allred) do numerous exciting tricks.

Joseph (Andrew Boone) and Mary (Maddy Mulford) took special care of baby Jesus during our annual Nativity program on Christmas Eve.

Hannah at the MTC

This was a wonderful week for us and our daughter Hannah, who entered to Missionary Training Center to learn the Czech language. She will be serving for 18 months as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We are soooooo happy for her! Though we are missing her terribly!

The day before she entered the Mission Training Center in Provo Jeff hiked with her past the "Y" to his special spot where they talked, wrote, and shared a nice prayer.

Hannah was set apart by her stake president on Tuesday, December 2, at about 9:00 pm. He gave a beautiful blessing and promised her the gift of tongues to be able to quickly learn the Czech language. We are grateful for that! On Wednesday, Jeff also gave her a blessing which brought tears to our eyes. We are going to miss her, but the overwhelming feeling is that she is doing exactly the right thing at exactly the right time.

Here are family members who came to the MTC to see Hannah off. If you can't tell, Hannah is very happy and is very stunning with her new hair cut!

Hannah posed with her sisters, who are all photogenic.

Both Hannah and Tammy were very happy for this joyous day. Hannah was blessed to have Tammy to help her with all the shopping. She got lots of beautiful outfits and will look the part of a dedicated (but stylish) sister missionary.

Here is Hannah with two of our future missionaries, Cam and Seth.

Lastly, here is Hannah with Jeff. He doesn't know what he'll do without his SPSS girl. We love Hannah so much. Please write her:

Sister Hannah Ray Hill

Czech Prague Mission

Provo Missionary Training Center

2005 N 900 E

Provo, UT 84604

Her blog is:

http://czechcougar.blogspot.com/

Thanksgiving 2008

We had a great Thanksgiving feast with my Mom and Dad, Scott and Ted and their families, as well as the Hills and Mullfords.

Andrew has decided to eat healthy this holiday season.

Hannah and Seth are making all kinds of Christmas goodies.

Perhaps the highlight of the season was when we went to do baptisms in the Provo temple.

My Mom and Dad are looking good for being in their eighties!

Jordan finally coralled Cameran. Fun!

Tammy and her sisters revealed a wonderful birthday present for her Mom ... some really classy clothes and a ticket to Wicked.

Andrew is happy!