mystery gift

familia,

i have to assume that the mystery gift from the north pole which showed up on our doorstep a couple of weeks ago is from one of you. what fun! the book was nice and all, but the real fun has been trying to figure out who sent it. my only clues: mailed from orem and spells my addy incorrectly (its Shelley, like the poet) - since all of you stewart kin do that, that doesn't do much to narrow things down for me... 

so thank you to whomever sent it!

i'm not sending out Christmas cards this year. i've been so overwhelmed with all the things i have to do this season that it just got shoved aside for too long. still, i want to wish you all our very best wishes for a happy and safe holiday. and may it be filled with peace and joy and all that good stuff. 

Merry Christmas!

Coldest Temps Warmest Hearts

If any of you ever get the chance to travel through northern Utah you come upon the small town of Woodruff there you will be greated with a sign that reads "Coldest Temps, Warmest Hearts" Which is exactly what you get here. Yesterday morning it was - 21 degrees. For those of you who have never expericenced such extreme temps let me paint a picture for you. When you walk from your house to your car your nostrils freeze, your lungs ache and you are chilled down to your bones. The "Warmest hearts" I've never meet more down to earth people, they are the type of people who would give you the shirt off their backs if you needed it.

This is a picture of Anthonys car tire after he came home from work, the car had been outside all day in the sunshine, yet there are still icilces hanging from the tire well.

This is a picture of the icicles at our church, Before the young men and women got to them there were some that were 6 feet long.

This is our cute little mail box, notice the icicles hanging from the top. When the temps are in the positives (ie, 1, 3 or 5 degrees) the kids bundle up and enjoy the snow! Enjoy your warm weather for me!!! (anything above 10 degrees! :) )

Thanksgiving with grandma dawna

we decided, last minute, to drive out to see grandma dawna in Nauvoo for Thanksgiving. 9 hours of driving was worth it. it was a memorable trip for our family and a nice way to spend the thanksgiving holiday with missionaries so full of love. we had a thankgiving dinner with all the missionaries and then got to back to grandma dawnas for a second yummy thankgiving dinner!
the spirit in nauvoo is wonderful and it was great for our kids to learn and see so much about the city and the church! we got to watch grandma dawna in 2 performances in which all the kids even little carina thought was fun. they liked seeing grandma on stage!
the kids had been studying pioneers in school so it was fun for them to take a wagon ride, oxen ride and make rope. after 2 days of experiencing pioneer life we went to carthage jail. what a strong spirit there. when we walked up camille looked at the statue of joseph and said, mom look there's joseph smith! if you get a chance go while grandma is there, it's a time you will not forget! we will always remember our thaksgiving in Nauvoo and the spirit we felt!
-crystal, kris and kids

favorite baby must-haves

Firstly, Paysonites, Slade and I thoroughly enjoyed spending the Thanksgiving weekend with you and wish now that we would have extended our stay with you longer, rather than go up to the resort so soon. We'll plan better next time. I'm particularly sorry I didn't get to hang out with you Burtons a little more.... I don't think I even really said good-bye. Sad. All this just makes me want to come back, so I say plan a reunion for the summer, when Grandma gets home. In the meantime, thanks for the company and hospitality and also for the pies.

mmm... those pies....

So here is a question for all who may feel inclined to respond. I'm compiling a favorites list of baby item 'must-haves' for Isabella, and really anyone who has babies. (Even though I'm on my third, I'm still discovering great items).

You can either log in as me and edit this post to add your ideas or you can just respond through the comments part. Hope to get a few good ideas out of this!

Big Hugs to all!
Jennifer

Favorite Baby Stuff

bouncer seat

slings that are still comfortable after 15 min

burts bees baby wash or mustela, if you can find it

bumbo seat (despite their recent recall)

blanket "sleeping bags" with sleeves

--

I'll add to the list if I think of more things.

2007 babies (minus one)

Mexico Summer 2008

Friends and Family,

As many of you know, our family has been involved with humanitarian service trips to Mexico for the last few years. We plan to do another trip this summer during the month of June. We will be traveling to San Carlos, Mexico to work with children from a nearby orphanage called Ciudad de los Niños. We will be taking the children out of the orphanage for a summer camp experience. We will visit the beaches in San Carlos to snorkel, sea kayak, play in the sand, look for seashells, and enjoy the sunshine. It’s our goal to help the children have a memorable, positive childhood experience. We can only do this with your help.
If you have not made plans for your summer vacations this year, please consider helping us out. If you don’t think you would be able to help, please let your friends and family know about this project.
We will plan your trip through our nonprofit organization, Orphanage Support Services Organization Mexico (OSSOMEX). All lodging, meals, and activities are covered in the program fee. No Spanish is required to serve.
There will be 4 sessions available this summer for families and single volunteers. Each session will be one week long. You do not have to be there the whole month; however, there will be opportunities for Spanish speaking volunteers who would like to stay as OSSOMEX staff for the entre month.

Visit ossomex.org for detailed information about this project.

Come join us !


Jesse, Patty and kids

I am not sure what happened, but our halloween blog pictures did not post at the top. Be sure to scroll down to see what you think of "Froddo's" haircut.

Halloween Party

We had a great Halloween. Every year Curt and Jill have an amazing Halloween party. It is so much fun to get together with family and friends. The kids loved all the fun games that we did. Here is a picture of the kids after the "mummy game" and samuel and Savannah tring to eat a donut on a string.I 've never been much of a Halloween fan but a fun party like this helps me enjoy it much more. Thanks Jill! This year Samuel was a pirate, Savannah was a lion and little Kaitlen was the cutest little pumkin ever.

Halloween in Lubbock

We had a fun Halloween here in Lub bock. Darren was Eeyore and Garrison was a Power Ranger for the 2nd year in a row. Our ward had a Fall Festival that the kids loved. Of course we got way to much candy which I end up eating the majority of. Hope it see pictures of everyones kids!

Froddo Baggins

Wow! Derek had been growing his hair out for "Frodo" since June and we finally were able to get it all cut off! Hallelujah!! No more crazy, funky, bed-head hair-dos! He definitely has the Stewart-thick hair.

halloween with gauntt kids

Halloween is a holiday I can't appreciate very much. Ethan always wants me to decorate our house and I'm just not into that. Its also hard for me to come up with costumes. I think I must get that from my mom. I was a gypsy many times and Kris and Dan were often pirates. Then she got smart and just moved to France and did away with the whole ordeal altogether.

And then there is this issue of candy. Its everywhere. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the stuff. And thats precisely the problem. Its terrible that something so good should be so bad.

This year, Ethan was a karate kid who'd been bloodied up (karate was my idea, blood was his), Maren was a farmer girl and Neva was a lady bug.

What did y'all do?

Happy Birthday Dan and Kris!

Cassie posted a blog on her site to celebrate Dan's birthday (and let it be known that I'd like her to write my obituary when that time comes, please). I'm stretching her thought to this blog. What coverage!
Happy Birthday to my two wonderful brothers!

We love you. Everyone does (except, perhaps for your rugby opponents), and we wish you all our best.

jennifer

thanksgiving plans

Payson Stewarts,

Hi all - Slade and I want to know what is happening for Thanksgiving. Are you all meeting for dinner or are different families doing different things? If you will not all be in one place at one time, can we plan a game of touch football for the guys, or another shrimp fest at Curt's? We don't come out to Utah very often so we want to make sure we see everyone.

We plan to stay at Grandma's, if thats still ok with her. Right after Thanksgiving, we will go up to Snowbird to do whatever there is to do up there that time of year. We have a 3 room condo (sleeps 10) at the Cliff Club and would love to have any of you join us if you can make time for a little getaway.

Please let us know what you all have planned. We don't want to show up and not know whats going on.

Jen

PS. If Candace is baking again this year, please lie to me and tell me she is not.

PPS. Did y'all know my little brother, Morgan, is getting married this winter? Dec 28, in the Swiss Temple.

The Van Blog

I joke around with some of the guys I ride with that I'm going to start a blog about vans. There would be a place for cool van pictures and people could post about cool van features. I think this post will be as far as the van blog goes. Jen asked me to send pictures a few months ago. I just had to wait until I could get a few picture of the van in all of her glory.

Also, I'm going to be heading out to Navoo to get grandma in April. I think Curt and I are going to take Jacob and Derick. If others want to jump in and ride out with us let me know, we have plenty of room.

Road Trip

Last week mom, Jeffrey, my three kids and I all loaded up in my van for a 18 hour drive to Lubbock, Texas to visit Lisa and fam. What a hoot!...maybe Jeff wouldn't describe it that way. :) Everyone did really great on the car....,kids that is, I was the one who complained the most about being confined to one stop for such a long period of time. Our visit was great though, the kids had so much fun playing together and it was good to spend time with my sis I can hardly stand living so far away from her, thankgoodness for cell phones we still talk at least 2 -3 times aday. Here are a few pics of the kids playing at some parks. Other then that adventure we are all doing great and getting all geared up for Halloween, the kids are excited to dress up and go to a few Halloween parties. Kaitlen is trying to scoot around on her belly and is 7 months old already.... they get big so fast! Winter is quickly approaching which makes me a little "grumpy" (as Samuel would say) I try to find the beauty of cold weather but I have a hard time.......maybe I should be the sister that lives in Texas??? Great to hear from everyone. - Andrea

St. George Fun

We had a good time last weekend cheering Curt on for the marathon and playing in the pool. I quickly lost track of the number of cannonballs Derek landed. Curt did great on his run. He had a PR of 3 hours and 31 minutes.

Austin Stewarts Greetings

Hello everyone,

Greetings from Austin, Texas. I guess the pictures above are telling the story of the big news in our neck of the woods. Yes, Kerbey and Isabella are expecting. We are in the 4th month and we expect to deliver our little one in March 08. This pregancy is really a team effort, between Isabella's crankiness at having been put on bed rest for the 1st trimester (glad that's over !), gaining much more weight than expected so early on, and Kerbey's sympathy pains, we're both really going through it together. Yes, he is having nausea, fatigue, headaches and even digestive issues that are usually linked with pregnant females.

An ultrasound done at 13 weeks (we're almost 18 weeks now) showed the baby to be a boy, although it was done so early that they say it is not very sure then, we will be having another ultrasound this coming Friday and then we should know for sure. We are so happy and have even picked out names (for either boy or girl).

We will keep you posted on our progress and developments.

Bylund Family Update

Garrison has been playing soccer and loves it. I have to admit, he is a bit like his uncle Jeffrey in that he is such a little show boat. He wants to look good while he is playing. He is also very competitive and runs down the field with his arms in the air after his team scores a goal. It has been fun for us to watch him play and in a city like Lubbock I jump at the chance for something to do on Saturdays. Jared is in full swing at school and work, we are so grateful it is his last year! Darren is a happy little guy most of the time although he has figured out that he can throw a temper tantrum to get what he wants. As long as we keep his stomach is nice and full he is pretty easy going. We are enjoying our warm weather here in Lubbock and take advantage by making regular trips to the park. Hope to hear from more of you soon!

Neva's Blessing

We blessed Neva last week at home. Figured it was an appropriate place to bless her given where she was born. Just in case you are getting worried, she has been leaving the house and we have no intent to home-church or home-school her. We wanted my padres to be around for the occasion and couldn't wait for the right Sunday.

In fact, we were so happy to have them be a part of it, we didn't even think to get a picture with all of us. And lucky you, you get to see pictures of Neva's new blanket from Aunt Crystal as well as Neva's first smiles.

I hope you are all checking the personal blog links on the side and remember to send me a link to yours if you have one.

Happy Birthday Ryder-Doodle!

Just checking in

I just thought I would send a quick note out to see how all are doing. We too are back into a routine. We got our basement put back together after Jacob left the hose on for about 4 days while we were out of town. It was quite the surprise. Maya and Jacob are as silly as ever. Last night I took Jacob home teaching. It was a hoot he thought he was so official, even thought we were just visiting the parents of some of his friends. Leah is Patty's baby. I think Patty and Leah have been able to enjoy these first few months together.
Fall has arrived in Payson. In the mountains this morning there was as light frost on the pines. It looked nice with the fall colors, but Patty and I aren't ready to be done riding the single track on our bikes. We are trying to get as many rides as we can in.
Well, I guess that's all for now. We need to hear from more of you! Tell us what you are up to.

Take care all,

Jesse

go utes!

Go Utes! Colby and I are season ticket holders and are having a good time supporting our team (especially the unexpected dominating victory over the UCLA bruins).

new curtis burton family pictures

Just thought I would get around to posting some new pictures! We are getting back into the school routine and it is nice. Derek is enjoying kindergarten. He might be the largest kindergartner in history, especially with his crazy hair. Uncle Cody has talked Derek into growing out his hair so he can be Froto Bagens for Halloween. We will see were it gets by then. Alayna is busy with preschool and dance class. She is definitely our diva. Our sweet Alexa is growing to fast for me. She is rolling over and sits up (still kinda wobbly). She loves to be held and say DADADADADADADDA! Congrats to Jennifer and Slade on their beautiful daughter! Congrats to Cregg and Christy on their beautiful daughter too(can't wait to see pictures of baby Zoey!).

Summer Fun

First of all Congrats to Jen and Salde on little Neva! She is so cute. It has been a crazy fun filled summer! and while staying in Payson for a few months was a blast I am very glad to be back home and in a routine. We just got back from the Onion Days celebration which was fun as always! I forgot to charge my battery so I didn't get any pics.....sorry g-ma. Here are some great pics of the BBQ with Kris & crew. It was alot of fun to get together with everyone. As you can see it was a trick to get all the kids to cooperate for pictures. I had to include a cute one of my moms grandkids that we took up payson canyon while lisa and jared were here.