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The grand canyon rangers sent this in honor of angel one.

How fun are the pictures of Tanna breaking open the ice. Congratulations on your date and fun answers. And.... thank you Becky for the update on your kids. It is fun to hear about their lives. We're in CA now - forgot the camera darn it, so......if there is anything to take pictures of - like ourselves for a electronic photo book - we just missed another photo opportunity. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. We will miss you guys alot.

Random Thoughts

Josh pushed the submit button on his mission papers which sends them on to the Bishop for review.

Kendall has been a good friend and missionary to a boy and it has really been a blessing to our family in so many ways!

Tayler got a big compliment from the boys varsity basketball coach when he walked into class and said he wanted to recruit Tayler Rapier to be the point guard on the boys team. Then the girls coach refused him saying that he needed her. This made her feel pretty good!

Then Russell went to the dentist yesterday, at his last check up he had about 1,000 cavities and I was dreading the cost. Fortunately he lost at least 3 of the teeth that had cavities. YEAH. Then the dentist looked and decided that he would not fill ANY baby teeth that he had left figuring they would fall out soon anyway. Hip Hip Hurray! THEN the dentist experimented on Russell's front teeth to see if he could polish some stain off, and it worked!!! I had an agreement with Derek that if we lived in Duncan I wanted bottled water for my kids, to prevent the staining. Well I guess they still drink enough at school, or in my cooking that causes some of my kids stain. Russell's front teeth looked like he sucked on nails, there was a rusty looking stain. Well they are white now!!! There is still a bit of modeling (sp?) different shades of white, but it looks so much better!!! He couldn't quit smiling. He had to dress up for a basketball game today...and HE DID HIS HAIR!!! MAN! Talk about instant turn around. He looked quite handsome, and smelled good to boot. LOL

Nate came home tummy sick yesterday. I am afraid that someone will end up sick on Thanksgiving (keep us in your prayers!). Derek's car that we were going to take to Texas for a wedding has a check engine light on, and now our van has a leak, it can't retain water (radiator fluid)!!! UG.

I went to Tucson last week and stayed the night with my parents. That was nice. Later that week I went to Mesa with my thyroid children Kendall and Tayler, and they are both off their medicine hoping for a remission. Only 1/3 of the people stay in remission, so our chances aren't great, but here's for hoping to be one of the third :) I am so looking forward to the Thanksgiving gathering with the Rapiers....and then after Christmas we have a 50th anniversary party for my parents and ALL the family except for 2 Leonard missionaries (Pete and Melanie's boys).
Looking forward to a wonderful Thanks Giving with you!
Becky

pics of his answer

The rock
that was
inside the ice.














Breaking
open the
ice.













When we
answered
the door . . .

He finally answered!!

well, at 8:30 on Saturday night he doorbell ditched our house and left a poster on our doorstep.
It said . . .
"Sorry I've been a blockhead & taken so long to reply . . .
Just Break the Ice & my answer is inside!"
Next to the poster he left a block of ice. and i was sitting there for about 5 minutes trying to break the block of ice open. inside there was a tiny rock that said "Yes!!" on it.

(i have pictures, but i couldn't get them to download) :)

Dance Festival

Last night (11-15) was the Kimball Stake dance festival. Tanna and Drew participated and the rest of us enjoyed watching the various dances and cheering for our youth! They did a great job. Tanna and Drew were both in the teacher/mia maid dance (a cha-cha) .

Tanna is in the picture here - she has a pink/red skirt on - is in the first row - 3 couples from the left. (my pictures aren't the best because we were a bit far from her)





Drew and Tanna after the performance was over! Great job! (You might notice that Drew got his braces on this week!)

Drew and his partner are on the 2nd row - right behind the couple in the front of the picture and in the middle of the 3 couples you can see. She was shorter than him (a good thing!)

Tanna is front and center for the final song of the evening - white shirt and pink/red skirt. (the picture is from the dress rehearsal - which is why the bleachers look empty!) She did smile during the performance and I think they enjoyed themselves - it was a lot of practice and I know they are glad it is over - but it was lots of fun last night!

Point well made and well taken

It is a good point that you make about referring to him as the first African American President elected and the reality of his lineage and erroring in electing him just because of his african heritage. The next four years will be interesting to say the least.

Tana

Tana, thanks for sharing with us your invitaion to the dance. That was real clever and do keep us posted. Grand Dad

Thoughts on the Election

Best of all it is over and we can get back to normal.  But as a thought, if we continue to refer to the new President as a Afican American or black, then we join  those who elected  him and make it a race thing.  As for me that is why he was elected, not for what he stood for, not for his proposed programs or for his platform, but he was elected because he was supposely black.  The black people of this nation have a right to be happy and proud, they deserve the joy, but they voted for him because he was supposedly black.  The majority of the others who voted for him probably also voted for  him because he was supposedly black and wanted to say that they are not prejudice.  Had he not been elected you would have heard the loudest cry from the losing side "Racist!!!" nation.  Note that I said supposedly black, he is more white that black/Afican American.  The Irish are saying we elected an Irishmen, the English are saying we elected a Brit.  Scotland says we elected a Scot. What we elected was a man with a little bit of Afican hertiage but with strong Afican features. I looked up his ancestors and found this.   Mom's side names, Armor - English, Clark - Ango/Scots, Dunham - English, Holloway -Irish, McClury - Scottish.  Fathers side names, Obama - Kenyan, Overall - English, Payne - English, Stroup - Belgian, Wolfley - English, Wright - Anglo/Scots.  I think in reality a white man was elected, but thats about race.  I did not vote for him, nor do I think his platform is what America needs now, but he is now my President and I will pray for him daily that he will pray for inspiration and guidance, then listen to it.  I will pray that he will lead this country in the way that our Father in Heaven wants it led and what our founding fathers fought for and created a constitution that was inspired by our God.  I too feel we will survive another Democratic President, Democratic Congress and Senate, as we survived a Republican President and at one point congress.  We I hope the Republicans will be better losers than the Democrats were 8 years ago and much more cooperative than the Democrats have been during these last 8 years.  I will pray for the Senate and Congress to do what is right. I pray that we will get a working grovenment.  I could go on and on about Democrats and Republicans, they both have a lot of cleaning up to do.  Thats my say for the day. Dad

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When i checked the weather before we headed down to the valley there was a 2O% chance of snow over 8 thousand feet. Im guessing there is around 4 to 5 inches out there.
Shauna =)

How fun and exciting

You'll have to keep us updated on what happens Tanna. Let's see, do you have your learner's permit now and will be getting a license before winter formal? Are you planning on driving or is this going to be a group thing with someone else driving?

FIRST DATE!!

well, that scary time of my life is finally here. I just asked a guy to winter formal and i don't know how he'll respond.
here's how i asked him . . .
i typed a note that said
i'm not looking for kisses,
i'm not asking for hugs,
just a sparkling night
with one of my buds!
will you go to winter formal with me?

then i put another piece of paper at the bottom with my name on it. i filled a christmas bag with chocolate kisses and put a rose "bud" in the bag too. then i hung the bag on the neck of a bottle of "sparkling" cider, left it on his front porch, and doorbell diched his house.

he is also leaving for utah tomorrow and won't be back till next wednesday. so now i have to wait almost a week or more to get a responce!

History in the making

We are all experiencing a great day in history. Obama fan or not, this nation just elected it's first African American President which shows a great deal of progress across this great nation.

Glad to watch History in the making

I know he is not popular among the republican crowd, but I am proud that our country has grown up and put enough prejudice aside that we could elect a black president. I don't think we are going to heck in a hand basket, we have had presidents in the past that were Democrat, and survived ;) LOL I wasn't completely pleased with our choices either way, but I am good with the results. I am overwhelmingly happy that our state passed its marriage proposition as did California, and Florida!!! YAHOO!

We all finished!

Saturday the 1st of November was the triathlon in Casa Grande and Scott, Kim, Tanna, and Drew all did the entire thing! We were all happy with our times and it was the first time that Tanna and Drew did the entire thing - 400 meter swim - 10.2 mile bike - 3.2 mile run. Who is joining us next year!! (Tanna had already showered and changed in the picture - which is why she looks so clean!!)

On another topic - Scott had his first Stake Confrence talk last night in the Sat evening adult session and he did a great job talking about prop 102 and messages of hope from General Confrence. I got called up from the audience to share my testimony (didn't know about that one until they announced it from the pulpit) and I managed to not trip on my way up or pass out as I spoke. Love you all. Kim