Hangin with the cousin's

Taylor, Hunter and Lily came over for two days to visit and hang out with us.  We had a great time.  They are great kids, so fun to be with.  They decided they wanted to all sleep by the tree and watch Elf.  Hey, it's a holiday so we can ablige!  Cousins sleepovers are the best!!!

Knestled all snug in their beds.

DO NOT STAY HERE!!!! FREE Room gone awry on 12th wedding aniversary.

Best Western Landmark Inn in Park City

This still makes me so mad that I'll be as breif as possible to explain how we got kicked out of this second rate establishment.

We had a voucher for a FREE room. Between my rewards points and Jeff's points we even had enough for the free room in this Best Western in Park City. I set it all up with their reservations people on the phone, gave them my certificate number and such and thought I was ready to go.

Happily we drove for a one night getaway for our 12th wedding aniversary. When we got there, the front desk copied my rewards card and sent us on our way. About three hours later after we came back from dinner the guy at the front desk flagged me down before I went to our room while Jeff was parking the car.  The man at the desk told me I did not have enough points to stay at the hotel. After going back and forth with him assuring him I did, he told me he could give me a discounted rate for the night at $140.00 to which we told him we'd rather leave than have to pay for something that we as rewards members were entitled to recieve (Jeff had made his way into the hotel by then).

He then told us that he was going to charge us for half a nights stay for the three hours our stuff sat in the room. At that point Jeff told him that if he did so, we would reverse the charges. We asked to talk to the manager and he went to go get her. Five minutes later he came back with no manager and told us to leave.

I called the BW rewards card people and told them what was happening as we were gathering our things and leaving. They told me I most certainly did have enough points and did not know why they were giving us such crap about it. So they called the front desk and told them their error. By this time Jeff was so mad he could not stay in the hotel. So as we were leaving Jeff told them not to worry about fixing it and the guy at the front desk told him he was glad we were leaving because he was sick of dealing with us and the problem.

The BW rewards people were able to get us a really nice mini suite at the BW on 5th south in SL and so we went there for the night. Much nicer than the room we had in Park City and for less points. Happy Aniversary to us, eh!

The Annual Clark Christmas Party

The Clark family always has their Christmas party a few days before or a few days after Christmas.  This year it was the day after.  There is always good food, lots of kids, and lots of laughs.  We had a super time this year.  Here are the some fun picts of the festivites:

Yummy, Yummy Food!

Cutie pie cousins!

The area might be small but somehow Mom manages to always fit us in.

Sweetie Lil

Taylor and Carrington in their new robes.

Lily showing Uncle Jeff her new present.

Lil showing Gram and Pa her new toy!

Ahhhh........foot massage!

Christmas Day 2009!

Christmas Day at the Isom household was very low key.  Nice and relaxing, the way the holiday should be spent.  We spend the whole day at home, cozy in our house.  Jeff's Brother Adam came over for breakfast and spent the day with us.

Adam made a deal with us for Christmas. He sold as his Wii for a fraction of the cost that we would have paid for it otherwise.  There would have been no way we could have afforded to pay  for a brand new Wii play station that Jacob desperately wanted while saving money for the adoption.  Adam was good enough to work with our limited budget and give us a great deal.  Thanks Adam, you're awesome!  FYI, the USED Wii was just as effective as a brand new Wii.  Jacob went crazy and had a super Christmas!  Here are some pictures of the festivities!

Jake opening his stocking.

I probably should have done myself up........eck.

Here's GOOFY again  (He really is a normal guy).

Jake and his favorite uncle, Adam

A UTE GNOME!

Grandma and Grandpa Clark came to see what Jake got for Christmas!

And open presents.

We also talked to Elder and Sister Isom (aka Grandma and Grandpa) who are seving a mission in Vancover, Canada, via Skype!  Modern technology is fabulous!!!

A fun Christmas Eve in Downtown Salt Lake

Our tradition and our little family, is to spend Christmas Eve together.  We usually choose a different activity every Christmas Eve.  This year we decided to to go to downtown Salt Lake,  to see the lights the Temple Square, the Gateway Plaza, and have dinner.

We had a delicious dinner in California Pizza Kitchen at the Gateway.  Jacob loved hopping on the Trax line to move from place to place.

We had a great time and Temple Square is wonderful, as always.  The depiction of the Nativity was particularly poignant this year for Jeff and I.  With everything that surrounded the fundraiser for our adoption and the love we felt from so many, we felt closer to our Savior, Jesus Christ and for the love he has for us.  A great reminder to remember that HE is the reason for the Season.

Jake and Jeff at the Trax Station

Our cute boy on Trax

The beautiful Nativity at Temple Square

The magnificent Salt Lake Temple where we were married.

What a great way to ring in Christmas!!

When we returned home that night, I could not help but reflect on a saying I have hanging on our Christmas Tree:

We were priveledged this year by many people who let the Savior in their hearts and shared a little bit of themselves with us.

Our new (I got for a "song" last year) Tree!

Gathering together with great neighbors!

This year our neighbors the Petersen's who live next door, decided to host a little Christmas dinner for us, and our neighbors, the Sylvester's (who live on the other side of their house).

We had a great time eating, talking, laughing and enjoying each other's company.  What a great idea Barbara had!  Thanks Barb and Greg, for a great time!

Jeff, Greg, John

Max, Jake, Hunter

We live in a great neighborhood with great people!

The Annual Gingerbread Extravaganza

Every year we decorate and construct a gingerbread house.  This year we decided to test our skills on our at building a gingerbread tree. Artistic gingerbread builders BEWARE.  Yes we decorate the houses on a 3rd grade level.

This last picture is my first attempt at taking a picture with my new timer!!  Not too bad, don't ya think?

The Candlelight Christmas & Teeth

Last year was the first year we attended This is the Place Heritage Park's, Candlelight Christmas.  We liked it so much, we decided to make it a yearly tradition!  We invited our dear friends Matt, Heather & Trin. And my sister Kathy brother-in-law, Derrick to join us this year.

This is a state run park has houses built to depict the homes that were first built here in the 1800s.  Each home, the church, and hotel has different activities to do inside that are pioneer period themed.  There is also a wonderful stable where a LIVE Nativity is depicted with all the animals and their natural aroma filling the stable.  On the other end of the part in the Brigham Young home, Father Christmas is there along with real LIVE Reindeer!

Uncle D got really into the crafts!

Silly "D"

Jeff and Derrick

Do ya think perhaps that we married our soul mates??? They are sillier than we are!

Jake looking at the LIVE Nativity.  He was very touched by this.

Jake and Father Christmas.

The gang with Father Christmas.  FYI. When it says: look don't touch, they really mean it!  Just ask Kath!

Jake and the Reindeer!

Jake, Kath and D.  He's so lucky to have so many love him.

We had a great time!  There is a train that takes you over to the other side of the park to see father Christmas.  The train comes about every 8 minutes.  Apparently we, meaning myself, Kathy, Derrick, Jeff and Jake, did not properly get on the train as one person felt like we should.  So all this angry woman and her daughter chewed us out until they got off the train.  What was interesting, is there was no right way to get on and off the train, this woman just felt there was.  We ended up laughing about it because it seems so very silly.  Life is too short to always have to be right!!!

But the big news for the night was Jake's tooth. Before going to the park, we had dinner at Sizzler.  Jake has had a loose front tooth, for a while.  Something he ate at that meal further loosened his tooth. Kathy has been a Dental Assistant for 10 years.  Once she saw the thing dangling tooth in Jacob's mouth, she could hardly take it!  All night she she kept asking Jacob if she could just pull it out.   For a while he refused.  Near the end of the night as the tooth slowly tried to exit from his mouth, he decided he would let his Aunt Kathy, whom he adores, to pull it out.

Look at that tooth, just waiting to come out!

Look a that thing flapping  in the breeze!

So on the way home in the our "super hip," minivan, Kathy tilted his chair back as if he was in the dentist's chair Uncle Derrick held his hands, and Kathy very gently and kindly pulled out his tooth! A few "ouch, ouch's,"a little bit of blood, and out it came.  The boy did not shed a tear! I hope the girl is paid enough, she was fantastic!

After the minor surgery, one happy kid, one great auntie!

Exhasted, Jake conked out on the way home.  Jeff picked him up and laid him on the front room floor.  The picture below is of Jake sound asleep with his eye lids half open.  Rather fitting because his Aunt Kathy sleeps the same way!!!

Kind of a freaky picture, don't you think?