FAMILY HOLIDAY LETTER

Dear Loved Ones;

I sat down to write out a letter this year
And couldn’t quite drum up the Holiday cheer
The children were playing outside in the snow.
I had no excuses. I had nowhere to go.

So I sat and reflected upon this last year
All the changes, and happenings, the joy & the cheer.
Two Thousand and Eight was a great year indeed!
And to write this fun letter is just what I need!

In January things started off with a bang!
Our sweet Tessa was born! Things have not been the same!
She is trying to walk and she’s learned to ‘amen’.
She likes graham crackers, dancing, and making new friends!

Beth & Kamron are happy and beautiful too!
It’s a race to keep up with the things that they do.
Kam does snowboarding, basketball, football and choir,
Also baseball, and scouting, and stacks wood for hire.

Beth is sewing and singing and getting straight A’s
She loves ice skating, church, and activity days.
She can sketch and can paint and loves being at home.
She is training to be quite a sweet little mom.

KC’s busy as always. He works hard as can be.
He’s a great dad and even helped coach little league.
He loves fishing and dirtbikes and snowmobiles too
AND still finds time to complete all his fun honey-dos!

Me, I’m still doing daycare, can you believe that!
6.5 years and counting…. I just might beat Pat!
I am serving in church in the Young Women Prez.
Firesides, Girls Camp, and Mutual’s as good as it gets!

This year we were graced with new family as well!
Grandpa Steve, Aunt Mariah, and new cousin Danielle!
We are blessed to have fun neighbors, family, and friends,
It’s to YOU, through this poem, that Glad Tidings we send!

Happy Holidays now to our loved ones so dear!
Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year!

Love,
The Nay Family
KC, Crystal, Kamron, Bethany, and Tessa

Cute Blog Survey From Cousin Lara

OUTSIDE MY WINDOW: Is a beautiful meadow that I feel was created just for me and my family. Luckily we share it with neighbors we have come to know and love. Pine trees, dirt roads, mountains, and happy children. It doesn't get better than this.

I AM THINKING: I can't wait for my sister to get here tonight! What time is it? I think I'll call her (again) and ask her when she's leaving.

I AM THANKFUL: That it is Friday. LOL! Yesterday was a hard daycare day. One little boy popped the swimming pool, another said a bad word.... and then, beautifully, they all took 2.5 hr. naps.

IN MY KITCHEN: Are last years huckleberries that I'm going to make muffins with for Heather's kids. We are huckleberry picking this weekend. I'm all about the picking...I just need to remember to use them.

I AM CREATING: Ideas for new family stockings. (I know it's only July!) Bethany is taking a sewing class right now and I think that would be a wonderful project for her.... this year will be Tessa's first Christmas!

I AM WORKING ON: My Personal Progress. Sheesh! I'm 32 already! I should probably get this done. I am lucky to have the second chance because I work in Young Women's. I'm hoping to get it done before summer is over.

I AM WEARING: My Super Mario T-shirt, black pants, and sandals....and of course, my silver hoop earrings.

I AM READING: the Book of Mormon. Our family is on a 100 day goal thing. On a lighter note...the last Stephenie Meyer Twilight Series book comes out TOMORROW! Mom will be shipping it to me as soon as she gets it.

I AM HEARING: The dishwasher running and Bethany getting ready to put on a 'Wizard of Oz' play for the daycare kids. Her Cabbage Patch kids are the actors. She made all of the costumes out of construction paper and she's nearly ready to go.

OUT OF THE HOUSE: The pool needs to be patched. Me and the 7 year old who popped it will go fix it after the play.

IN MY HOUSE: it is peaceful. The baby is asleep in her jumper. The house is semi-clean. We have nothing of significance to do today. All is calm and relaxing.

I AM ENJOYING: going to church in members homes this summer. For those of you who don't know....our church is being completely renovated. They had to move the septic lines and the well so we don't have an occupancy permit. The nearest building large enough to fit our ward is 2 hours away so we are meeting in 4 designated homes right now until sometime in the Fall. We are not assigned a home to go to, we can attend anyplace we want. We are only having sacrament mtg. so church is short, but it has also made it very hard on us to keep track of the YW in the ward and their comings and goings. On Wed. nights during mutual we have a 10 minute lesson/devotional covering what their lesson was supposed to be on Sunday.... It's been interesting. Our family is praying that construction will go well and we will all be together as a ward family soon. Back to the enjoying part. I really am enjoying the smallness and intimate settings of the meetings. It's been a great lesson for my children teaching them that there are congregations all over the world that meet like that every Sunday and some in way worse conditions than us. Sheesh... that turned into a novel. Sorry!

Thank you Lara for the survey! I hope to read others answers soon!

Loon Lake and LIFE FLIGHT

KC had a blog worthy event today. This is him… We started out at the Ruby Meadows trailhead heading towards Loon Lake (the site of the old World War 2 plane wreck) but we didn’t make it there…. Patrick (a guy I work with) was trying to keep up with Todd (another guy I work with) and he ran off the side of the trail. He had one foot planted on the trail and his body and his bike went down the hill and below a tree. His bike fell onto his leg dislocating his left knee.

By the time I got there he had straightened his leg back out cause he said it was grossing him out looking at it cause it was at a 45 degree angle from the knee down. He said he’d been laying on the ground about 4 or 5 minutes by the time I got there but I don’t think it was that long. Todd finally came back and he and I assessed the situation. Patrick's knee hadn’t popped back in and he didn’t want us to even touch his leg. So I gave Todd my cell phone and he rode out to Secesh in hopes of finding a landline.

In the meantime I stayed with Patrick and was able to build him a lean-to cover for shade. I also gave him about 5 motrin to calm him down and for the pain. Luckily there was a creek about 20 yards below us and I was able to use a hanky to get him cool water for his face. His foot and lower leg were swelling up (it’d been an hour or so at this point) so I took his right boot off first and then with a small pair of surgical scissors that he had in his first aid kit I cut the buckle on his other boot to remove the pressure on his hurt leg.

We waited for roughly 3 hours before Todd made it back. During those 3 hours we had some interesting hikers and their dog come and hang out with us. Kindof annoying when Patrick is in pain and we’re trying to keep the dog away from him….yet they still decided to make themselves at home and sat down to eat lunch.

Back to Todd… He finally shows back up with 3 EMT’s. One riding double with him and 2 on their own bikes. Vern Peterson (a Secesh local & customer at Hinson’s) was on his way with a 4 wheeler but it was a single track trail so he had to go really really slow. Willy (who used to work at Hinson’s & happened to be out on a day ride through Secesh) stopped when he saw Todd talking to Vern and decided to come in and help.

While the EMT’s were taking care of Patrick, Todd rode back out to where Vern was on his 4-wheeler cause he was taking a while to get the backboard there. Todd strapped it to his back and rode back in to us.

So the EMT’s had an inflatable splint they put on his left leg…. Earlier I had cut some limbs and stuff but he wouldn’t let me brace his leg at all. And then one of the EMT’s stared looking for an “LZ”. (Which in EMT talk means Landing Zone for life flight). Vern finally got there with his 4-wheeler and had a chainsaw with him so once we found a suitable LZ he got busy clearing some trees around the area. (Vern lives in Secesh and the official LZ in Secesh is on his property.)

3 of us were trying to move Patrick while they were clearing the LZ but were only able to take him about 60 yards. Patrick is 6’3” and a big boy. So once life flight was able to land everybody came back and helped us carry him the rest of the way.

Patrick is a funny guy. He was in a good mood by the time we got him to the helicopter and his mom also works for a Dr. at the McCall hospital. He was cracking jokes as we were loading him into the helicopter and when they put the headset on him he was saying things like “Hello Rubber Duckie! This is Fat Santa.”

Soooo…we’ll be re-scheduling our trip back into Loon lake cause we never got there. Anybody wanna come?

SUNRISE, SUNSET...SWIFTLY FLOW THE YEARS

So lately I've been having that song from Fiddler on the Roof going through my head. You know the one... "Is this the little girl I carried? Is this the little boy at play? I don't remember growing older......when did they?"

Yeah. I'm not liking this kids getting older stuff. I came home last night from something at church and I swear Tessa had grown like 6 inches. She just seemed so big.

And Bethany...Bethany outgrew her church shoes a month or so ago and we haven't been to the valley to buy more so what did she do this Sunday? She wore mine. They were only a size or so big for her. um what?

And Kamron...Kamron is actually keeping his room clean without me asking...AND- he's a webelos scout. Next thing you know he'll get his Eagle and then he'll be driving and then he'll be on his mission. YIKES!

Let me make this very clear. I WANT THIS ALL TO STOP. NOW! Normally when I say that it works. It's not working right now. I must resort to other measures. I'll talk to KC tonight about locking my kids in their rooms for a year or 2... LOL!

I’d like to share with you a poem I wrote today for Tessa. It combines the urgency I feel to teach my children about the things they need to know but also the reluctance I feel in letting them grow up. I hope you like it.

My Dearest Tessa Marae;

If I could keep you small I would.
I’d cradle you with tender care.
Your baby nails would never grow.
We’d never leave this rocking chair.

If I could keep you small I would.
I’d wrap you tight in blankets snug.
I’d stare into your eyes all day.
We’d be each other’s cuddle bugs.

If I could keep you small I would.
Your baby scent would never leave.
You’d be my world, and I’d be yours.
A happiness some ne’er achieve.

If I could keep you small I would.
Your little voice would stay so sweet
Your heart so pure, your love so true
Your smile, a warm and blessed treat.

But you must grow – it’s awfully true.
I cannot stop our Father’s Plan.
You must grow big. You must be strong.
I must do everything I can.

To help prepare and teach you
All the ways that you must go.
It will be hard - but I’ll be here.
Don’t cry right now. You’ve time to grow.

Right now I think we’ll stay right here.
And rock and sing and coo and smile.
I know I cannot keep you small, but
We still have a little while.

Love, Mommy

I challenge each of you moms out there to find just a moment today to stop. I listened to a speaker last night at the American Mother's Meeting who spoke on what she thought about the quote "Wherever you are.... Just be there." She spoke about her sister who, to fight her frustration of sleepless nights with her new baby would take that time in the middle of the night to pray for that child. Amazing. Feeding a baby in the middle of the night and praying for that child. She continued the habit on as her kids grew older and became teenagers and she was up at night worrying about them. She'd sit in her home waiting for them to come home and she'd pray for them.

Sooo.. stop today. Just for a minute. Stop thinking about dinner and the carpool and the field trip next week and your church lesson on Sunday and all the other things that we have to worry about. Just stop. And figure out where you are and be there. I know it's not natural, because as women and mothers we are planners and worriers and fixers. But take a one minute break today because time goes sooo fast. Speaking of which, I need to get going.

Peace and love to you all!

Mom's Day

I am writing this post at 9PM at night on Mother's Day. After having a lot of time to relax today (because my loving husband did nearly everything today- IE: the kids were up and dressed for church by 7AM and then they served me breakfast in bed - our mother's day and father's day tradition) I thought I'd take a minute and post something very dear to my heart.

I LOVE BEING A MOTHER.

I love it. It is hard. It is painful. It is exhausting. It is heartwrenching. Sometimes it is downright horrible. BUT- and it sounds cliche, I know... I TESTIFY..there is NOTHING more rewarding than being a mother. Nothing.
I specifically want to give a cyberspace high 5 to all of the stay at home mommies out there. Holy crap. This stuff is hard. I have been a stay at home mommy for just over 7 years now. If you haven't done the math, I worked until Kamron was almost 3 and Bethany was 1.5 years old. They both started in daycare when they were 6 wks. old. I was blessed with a wonderful daycare lady, Roxy, who watched my children (and also, conveniently lived across the street from my mom and dad) and I am grateful for her example. I try to be a good daycare mommy like her. For those of you who don't know... We share our home on a daily basis with other people's children, which is sometimes hard. But I am grateful. I am grateful for my job. I thank my Heavenly Father every night for the oppurtunity I have to work and help provide for my family. After having Tessa this winter, I have found a renewed energy and love for my job. These little kids don't care if their mommy's work all day, they just care that wherever they go during the day that they will feel safe and happy and loved. I try to do that for them.

I AM NOT KNOCKING WORKING MOMS, because I know that in this day and age it is hard to make a living sometimes, even with both parents working. I have been on both sides and I am not judging. There are some working moms that can do it all. I could not. There came a time in my life as a working mom that my priorities were all screwed up and after much prayer and worry I quit my job and decided to stay home. The story is way more complicated than that....and some of the details are personal, but I KNOW that had I not followed the promptings I received to quit, although scary as they were....my life and my family's life would be much different now.

Now I am blessed. Beyond description. I will not go into detail about all of the things we had to give up or all of the $$ I used to make. It doesn't matter. Although we have less now, my life is more full. Some of my best friends, Kristina Wright and Virginia Herbst were once teaching a class on parenting and chores and etc. and they ended the class with a handout. It says "Mom, I am the PURPOSE, not the interruption. This has been hanging on my refrigerator for a good 3 or 4 years now. And I swear by it. It is my mantra I repeat to myself when I get frustrated about mommyworld. My children are my purpose in life.

And with that I will end by thanking my loving mother, AKA: my "MOMSTER". We have had our differences in life, as most moms and daughters have, but I am truly grateful to you, MOM, for everything you have taught me and are still teaching me about being a mother. I know you worry about if you did a good job when we were kids and I want you to know you did. Thank you for staying home and putting your career on hold to raise me and nurture me (and making that decision BEFORE the proclamation came out-wow). You taught me how to love children and make everyone around me feel appreciated and significant in life. You taught me that it's okay to forget the pile of laundry and sit down with your kids to read or play a game. You taught me how to teach my children. How to be involved in their education and how to stand up for what I believe is right for them. You taught me the importance of 'me-time' (although you never took enough of it for yourself). You taught me the importance of Family Home Evening and togetherness. You taught me that children are way more capable than anybody thinks they are, and most of them just need to be given the chance to prove it. You taught me how to be fair, while also understanding that everybody needs to be taught and molded differently. I always felt that even though I was just a child I was still a person of great importance whose opinion always mattered. You taught me how to set boundaries and follow through even when it is hard. But most importantly you taught me how to love my little children uncondtionally and to make sure that they know that everyday. And for that I thank you and give tribute to you. I love you. Happy Mother's Day.

Snowblowers and Poopy Diapers

Just a quick "new baby" story.....
I'm laying in bed a few Sundays ago about 7 AM listening to KC outside. He had gotten up at 5AM to snowblow the driveway so he could get out to go to church by 9. (He also volunteered to do the neighbors driveway cause her hubby was out of town - I think Russ plans his 'trips' around snowstorms - j/k) I'm exhausted and sore and just not in a really good mood and KC comes in laughing. huh?

Soooooo... you all know we just had a baby. A baby we love. A cute adorable baby. But a baby who also produces lots of poopy diapers. I don't know what people did before diaper genies....we thought about maybe not buying one this time - but the thought of taking every poopy diaper (10 + a day) outside with a newborn after surgery in 5 ft. of snow was a bit too much for me. So the diaper genie jumped to the top of the baby shopping list and we purchased it a week before Tessa was born.

Back to KC - so he's laughing and I'm thinking "what the heck? KC doesn't normally laugh after snowblowing for 2 hours." And then he asks me who emptied the diaper genie yesterday. What?

Okay- back to a good 24 hours before.... I'm completely overwhelmed and my house is a disaster and I enlist (draft style, not volunteer style) my children to help me clean my out of control house. They decide that they've been watching dad long enough and they know how to empty the diaper genie. Which they did (I was surprised and happy) and we send Bethany outside with the diaper sausage links to put in the big trash can outside......do you see it coming yet?

YES!!! KC proceeds to tell me that as he's snowblowing outside that he gets close to the garbage can and the snowblower starts acting funny. And before he could realize what was going on the little mini diaper genie sausages start shooting out of the snowblower into the drift across the driveway! OHMYGOSH!!! Sooo we do a little investigation and Bethany said that when she went outside the lid on the garbage can was frozen shut so she just left the diaper sausage links in front of the trash can. Which would have been fine had it not snowed 8 inches that night...!!

Anyway- KC tried to retrieve them all out of the snowbank, but he thinks we might have a few surprises come Spring. NICE!!! LOL! Thank goodness they are little newborn diapers- otherwise I don't know if the snowblower would have survived. Something I'll have to remember when Tessa's 2 and the big kids want to 'help' by emptying the diaper genie.

So- snowblowers and poopy diapers. While not a good combination normally, it makes for a great way to start off an otherwise gloomy morning.

TESSA MARAE NAY

HERE SHE IS.....!!! Our newest angel. Tessa Marae Nay. Born Jan 15th at 11:16AM. 7 lb. 6 oz. 20 inches long and absolutely beautiful. We are so grateful to have her in our home. It's what I've been dreaming of for 8 years now. What a blessing she is.....

I'm tired. Been home a whole hour now. More pics will come later... Love you all!

New Years Weekend

Just thought I'd share what we did this weekend. The Ricks family, consisting of my sister Heather, her husband Steve, and their 3 boys, Seth, Trevor & Alex came up for 4 days. It was a ton of fun. These are some of my favorite pics captured this weekend.

This is all 5 of the cousins on the 'batman' sled that Trevor got from Santa. With all these boys Heather's house is full of superhero stuff....but not for long. Little pink things are appearing slowly but surely. They are expecting baby 'Danielle' in 3 short months.

This is my sister Heather and her husband Steve. Steve made the same mistake KC did when I was 6 months pregnant with Kamron and we went snowmobiling. They tend to forget that the extra 5 or 6 inches in your belly at that stage makes it harder to reach around them and hold on. Heather almost came off the back just like I did 10 years ago. LOL! I should have warned her. She made Steve ride behind her after that.

This is Seth. The biggest Ricks brother. He's 5 years old. He had a few issues the first day with the snow......got stuck in the slide off area between the window and the house.....then he lost a glove never to found again till Spring (if we're lucky), but when it was all said and done he didn't want to go home.

This one and the next one are my favorites..... This is Kamron in his truest form. This child was born to be in the snow. He only gets about 20 minutes outside every day at lunch (not something I am very happy about) so when he gets home from school I pretty much let him play outside till it's dark. He's one of those kids that (if I don't pay enough attention to this need right now) might eventually run off and be a ski-bum living in a tree somewhere.

And the last one. This has got to be one of my all time favorite pictures of KC & Bethany. We got the kids snowshoes for Christmas and they love them. Kamron is more of a speed demon (spending time snowboarding, snowmobiling, and on the sleds) but these snowshoes are exactly Bethany's pace. Her and Daddy are now calling each other their "snowshoeing buddies". Way cute. I'm sure they'll use them tons, too. Some of our bestest friends, Chris & Tracy, got us a family pass to the Little Ski Hill & Trails this year. Woo Hoo! We love you guys!

I also just wanted to say how thankful we are that we were led by The Spirit to McCall and are blessed enough to be able to have the time and resources to enjoy the beauty we are completely surrounded by.

THE BUNNY

Soooooo.... being in a friendly type mood considering I only have 27 hours (and counting) of daycare left before vacation....if you can call it that... I thought I'd share something weird about us. We all want to know weird things about people.....don't even act like you don't. Girl, you know it's true.

So I begin. If you are so priveleged to be reading this blog today you will be informed of a great Nay Family Secret. Let me introduce you to another family member at the Nay home. This is 'THE BUNNY'. THE BUNNY has been a part of the KC & Crystal relationship since 1995 or 6-ish. I brought it back from Chicago (the birthplace of beanie babies, by the way) and gave it to KC as a gift. He, being the dutiful boyfriend at the time, claimed to love THE BUNNY. I, being the (insert whatever you want here) girlfriend, began to pretend that I was jealous of the attention THE BUNNY was getting. I had no other option but to begin to torture it.

And here we are 12 years later......THE BUNNY gets found by me and gets tortured. IE: Hung by it's ears from the rafters, cooked in tinfoil above a candle flame...etc etc. Then I hide it again and KC begins looking. When he finds 'THE BUNNY' he 'sets it free' again (meaning he hides it somewhere else). He usually takes pictures of it waving or hopping into our house (he claims it's living free in the wild and will only come visit when I'm gone)......this is one of those pictures above. Below is another one he took with a note the Laurels had written to me. JERK! (I, BTW, just said the word 'jerk' out loud, too. This is how serious THE BUNNY situation is in our house.)

Our home is now split into TEAMS. KC & Bethany against Crystal & Kamron. Now....after reading this post, if you don't want to be our friends anymore we understand. We have had full-on-knock-down-drag-out-wrestling-matches over THE BUNNY in our home. It gets scary. I believe the longest it was hidden was about 2.5 years. Yes I said years. And yes, KC had hidden it that time in the coat pocket of a long overcoat he inherited from some great uncle. A coat he's only ever worn 2x to funerals. He's good. He's scary good. As of now, Kamron and I are in pursuit of THE BUNNY. I am in the process of cleaning out our bedroom (the only place THE BUNNY is allowed to be hidden) to make room for the baby. So I WILL find it today. I will. THE BUNNY WILL BE MINE. Maybe this is why I share this information. It's a huge celebration when one team finds THE BUNNY! Why not share the good news with our friends and loved ones??? LOL....

And- I know you've probably never been asked this question before in your life........but I'm looking for new 'torture' ideas. Any suggestions?? I'm thinking rabbit stew........