Tam and Ken News

This is me, Mom. We are tending Mindy's and Brandon's kids for four days this week while they are on a trip. They have been really good, and we've had lots of fun. Yesterday we went to Seagull Book to buy Aubrey a CD for her birthday, and then went to the Dollar Tree. Today we all went to the D.I., where Felicia also met up with us. We got some fun stuff. The kids have been good to do their homework each day, help alittle around the house, and practice violin and piano. For each good thing they do they earn a penny. Hey, that doesn't sound like much; but if they have .50 cents by Saturday they get $5.00 from Grandpa. However, they lose pennies for fighting or screaming.
We enjoy visits from Geoff and Felicia now and then. I had fun looking at a house with them. Sooner or later they want to buy a house. Allston is so cute and fun.
We had Brenda and Troy and their kids come Sunday for supper. Their kids are really cute, too. Ethan walks all over now, and is quite friendly now that he isn't sick. After supper Geoff and Felicia came over, and we played some games.
Not too long ago Jason took me out to lunch, and we had a nice visit for a few hours. I want to see Ashley and Olivia soon. I miss them. How about coming to dinner next Sunday?
Well, that's about all that's going on around here right now.
We will miss our beloved Prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckley. The first couple of days after he passed away, I watched all the specials and news broadcasts about him, and I cried until my eyes were sore. I loved him so much. He was truly a prophet, and always had such wonderful things to say. Love, Mom, Grandma, Tam

Ok so newsy stuff huh well I will try I'm better with the silly stuff. Allston is crawling so well now and will pull to standing on anything and everything. He has stopped sleeping through the night now because he can stand up in his crib and that is so much more fun than sleeping so I am exhausted and about ready to tape him to the floor. I am so gratefull that Geoff has such a nice job and can be home so much to help me during the week. Geoff is enjoying his new job as a water treatment plant operator and we are both loving the three day work week and the four day weekends. I don't get alot done anymore my floor is cover in laundry and the dishes need to be done and the floor needs to be vacumed I think I pull 10 things a day from Allstons mouth that he picks up off of the floor. Most of it is his food that he throws around and it would probably just easier to let him eat it but I am paranoid about him swallowing something bad after that whole swallowing a piece of metal incident. Geoff bought me two fish one is about to have babies and I am so excited! I love baby animals, I make geoff take me to the pet store to see the puppies at least once a week. And last but not least for this months news is Geoff and I are teaching Primary, I was not so excited at first but now that I have been doing it for a few weeks I love it. It amazes me every week to listen and to teach these 7 year old children and to hear their testimonies. It is such an amazing experience to belong to this gospel, I love how simple and beautiful the teachings are, even the seven year old kids know the gospel is true I love to hear there testimonies every week.
-Deffy and Belicia and Allston

I guess I should write some news even though there isn't a whole lot to write about. I just started a new semester in school and homework is starting to get crazy again, but I don't feel like doing it. There is a lot of interesting things that I'm learning about, but it is difficult sometimes to undertand everything. In one of my classes we are designing a robot that is supposed to pull a chariot around a figure 8 track. It will use sensors and stuff to know where it is and be able to steer around the coarse. We still have a ways to go to get it finished though, so that will be a fun project.


Other than school, I keep busy with all the callings that I have. I am the Stake YSA Representative so I go to a lot of meetings to plan for activites and other things like that. I enjoy it because I like to be involved with what is going on. I also teach Mission Prep on Sunday mornings. We have about 15 students that come weekly so it is a lot of fun. I've been doing that ever since I got home so some of the students that I had from the beginning have already come back from their mission. One of them helps me teach the class. My last calling is a Sunday School teacher. I love to teach from the scriptures and make class exciting.

I've been going on a bunch of dates and have been having a lot of fun. Everyone can just be patient though and I'll tell you all if anything happens. I promise.

I'm having fun learning different instruments. I started learning to play the guitar over Christmas break and it is a lot of fun. I've learned a couple of songs and I'm excited to learn more when I have the time. A couple of friends and I are going to start a band and we'll have a few instruments in there. We just started yesterday so we'll see when we can get our first CD out and become famous.

One thing that we like to do is go and play some music at Primary Children's Hospital. They have a piano in a foyer area and we play that, the violin, guitar, and sing. It is fun when there are kids going by because we can help cheer them up with songs about chickens and trains and stuff.

I think that is all of the news that I have for now. I'm sure monthly updates will be most of the same kind of stuff, but you can just read the same things again then.

Adam

We'll Be Good, We Promise!

In case members of the Howell family get upset because I deleted a bunch of posts...it has been requested that we keep this newsworthy, and not silly. :) Mom and Dad wanted me to, and I had to agree with them, so I guess you can blame us all.

If you are checking in here to get news of various members of the Howell family, we promise it will be actual news, and not jokes. Well, sometimes our lives are a joke, but we promise they will be real jokes, not pretend ones. :)

So, keep checking in. Mindy will be posting a monthly update here, and hopefully everyone else will do the same!

So, to keep this newsy,

TAM and KEN are doing a good job being parents of a bunch of grown kids, and grandparents to a bunch of wild hoodlums. I mean, grandchildren. They stay busy with their jobs, and church stuff, and going to D.I. Well, at least mom stays busy with that...

MINDY and Brandon are doing well, and adjusting to the bitter bitter cold in Vernal. Who knew it rarely got over 0 degrees here? The kids are making friends, and doing well in school.

JASON and Dallas are happy and doing well, as far as I know. ;) Ashley and Olivia are growing like weeds, and getting more beautiful every day. Jason worked hard on an awesome game for our family Christmas party. We got to know things about each other that we never would've known otherwise!

BRENDA and Troy's kids are also growing up way too fast, and continuing to be cute as buttons. Kaitlyn is a good beauty parlor participant, and Kevin and Ethan still take a little time to warm up to everyone, but we enjoy watching them from a distance.

GEOFF and Felicia are as entertaining as ever, and Allston couldn't be cuter. They keep the parties going, and also keep our hair in line. Felicia is the resident hair dresser.

ADAM and his gang are doing great. He's working on schoolwork like crazy, and doing well. He is dating, but nobody in particular... yet. He's a good kid, and we're glad he's our little brother.

If anyone mentioned above didn't like what I said about them, then they can type their own news. :)

December and part of January for the Smith Family

December was pretty crazy for us, with moving and all. We tried to have a normal Christmas, but it did seem rushed. We had nice visits with both Brandon's family and my family, and we were given so many nice gifts. We appreciate everything everyone does for us! When we visited the Howells we had our family pictures taken, and that last post was a joke about it, if you couldn't tell. ;)

Aubrey is turning 12 tomorrow! We are very excited for her, but feeling a little old. She is so excited to be in Young Womens! She's been wanting to go to Young Womens for, oh, about 6 years now. She had a birthday party last night. We let our kids have a party with friends when they turn 8 and when they turn 12. That's enough!! She had some really nice girls over, and they ate pizza and had cupcakes and popcorn and watched a movie and did their nails... all that girly stuff. We had them all home before midnight... we do "late nights" instead of sleepovers. The picture is of Aubrey and her friend Savannah at her birthday party.

Tyler and Cooper built a fun little igloo in our back yard. We had to force them to go play outside, but once they were there, they had fun. It's so cold here!!

We enjoyed reading the newsletter. It's nice to know what is going on with everyone's lives.

Love, Brandon, Mindy, Aubrey, Tyler, and Cooper