Snow Day

This morning as we prepared to leave for Grandma's house, we found ourselves snowed in! Will wonders never cease?? Just kidding. Daniel worked on making a snowman and my sisters and I stayed warm inside and enjoyed the snow from a distance. It really is beautiful here. Merry Christmas!!!
-Becca

Our family has had an active year, as would be expected with four active children. We have a child in high school, middle school, elementary school and preschool....and we are tired. We have traveled more than previous years with trips to Carlsbad, NM, Arizona, Utah and Hawaii...the last one was just mom and dad...very nice. With band, football, basketball, track, choir, achievement days, scouts, young women’s, piano, student council and anything else the children find to sign up for, life is ensured never to be boring. We hope to find you and yours likewise happily busy and tired. Rest well, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Love, D Ray, Melanie, Rebecca, Daniel, Alyssa and Lindsey Gifford.

HALLOWEEN BY REBECCA

bwahahahahah!!! Happy Halloween! Here are the pics.

First, I went to a Halloween dance and got decked out in my witchy best:

Our sister's dressed up for the Fall Festival too. Alyssa was an elegant and regal medieval princess.

Finally, Lindsey was an Ethereal Fairy.

Labor Day at Carlsbad

Labor Day we traveled 3 hours to go see the famous Carlsbad Caverns. Very fun!! It is truly enormous. Not the best location for a photo shoot --but we did get a few decent shots. And just like you might imagine the shot of Lindsey crying is just after she backed up too far and hit her head on the rock.

School did actually start....

School started the end of August...yep it did, promise! This year all four kids are in school since the youngest started a preschool twice a week.

Lindsey says. . . .

On the way home from the gym the other day Lindsey and I were talking about what we would do the rest of the day. I told her I needed to clean up first then we could do other things. She said "Ya, cause your sweat stinks but mine doesn't." Two days before that we were walking out of the gym and the wind was blowing. Lindsey says "what is that smell?....Oh, it's you....you don't smell good mom." So there you have it I don't smell good after a session at the gym. I'm sure you are shocked by this revelation.

What-Matters-Most

What-Matters-Most

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August Trip to Arizona, how much fun can we cram into 5 days?

A stranger's dog but he was a great dog.


Camp Verde----FUN---with Friends!!!
This kind of fun lasts and lasts, sunburn for most and ear pain for me.

August --More and more fun

Cousins Above, Temple below


We took a last minute trip to Arizona. The pictures really tell the story best...

July 09

This was a crazy month of FUN!!
We packed up and headed to UTAH. (D Ray had to stay home so I was the lone driver.) We visited the Giffords in Provo, Jami took Daniel- Rebecca and Alyssa to Stadium of Fire with the Jonas Brothers, Daniel attended a BYU sports camp, and we went to the Cottle Family reunion. Daniel discovered at the reunion that ATV's are really fun-- he and his second cousins rode and rode. Then they would show up to eat with super dusty faces. We also got to visit Grandma Jensen(my grandma-mother's side).

Then we left Rebecca in UTAH and the rest of us came home. D Ray was happy to see us after 12 day of being alone!

Rebecca spent two more weeks in UTAH babysitting, playing and then meeting up with a friend for EFY. She flew by herself for the first time to come home without the 15 hour drive.

More Summer

Let's see in June Rebecca and I went to girl's camp. We had tons of fun.


4 days of no sleep, good food, sunshine, hiking, spiritual food, silly singing, connecting with all the YW in the Stake. Oh and lots of driving:)

Daniel also went to scout camp this month--do I have a picture of that??? He took pictures but something happened electronically and the images and like little puzzels---plus they won't upload. So we will just use our imagination and visualize dirty boys getting rained on and doing lots of scouting stuff:)

Summer

What a great summer!! We extended summer a little and started in May. I had my sister, Kim, and her baby Brooke come and run life at my house while D Ray and I headed off to Hawaii. We had purpose not just fun... really....well, ok D Ray and his Dad attended the dental conference after I left but still.

Hawaii was really great!! Beautiful water, wonderful weather, good company. We snorkeled and hiked and looked at steam at the volcano, rode horses, did a little boogie boarding, watched rays feeding at night, saw turtles, visited several beaches--black sand, white sand, rocks. I have a few pictures but they don't really do the experience justice:)

We also were able to go to the Kona temple we were privileged to attend the sealing of Nick and Natalie--friends from Lubbock. We were also able to attend a session.

Dinner Tonight

This is a recipe my mom shared with me many years ago: ENJOY!!

SOUTH OF THE BORDER SANDWICHES

Lion House Entertaining p.42

40 minutes

6 sandwich rolls
1/2 cup olives, chopped
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
1/3 cup green onions, chopped (I am lazy sometimes and use dehydrated onion)
1 pound turkey chopped
2 medium tomatoes, thinkly sliced
2 ripe avodacos, sliced
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded (or use co-jack slices in place of both shredded)
1 cup Monterey Jack cheese, shredded

In a bowl, combine olives, chili powder, cumin, and salt. Reserve 2 TBLS for the end garnish. Add the mayonnaise, sour cream, and green onions to the remaining olive mixture.

Place bread on an ungreased baking sheet and spread 1 tablespoon of the mayonnaise mixture on each roll. Top with slices of turkey and tomatoes. Spread with another tablespoon of the mayonnaise mixture. Top with sliced avocados and cheese. Garnish with reserved olive and spice mixture.

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until heated through.

It's a good thing we have leather seats....

These images will make more sense after reading the post below......(no animals were harmed in the making of these posts...)

SLOW DOWN....BRAKE... DON'T HIT THAT TREE...CONTROL, CONTROL, CONTROL....






You are too funny...it's in PARK!!!!

Driving Lessons....

Ok...So we stepped carefully into stupid tonight....

We let our budding teenager drive my NEW car...

All in all everything turned out well..no new dents or scratches...The only scratch is from the 8 year old simultaneously scratching both vehicles with her bike handles....TRUE TALENT THERE...

Back to our story...

So first I had to be sure she knew she was in a REAL LIVE car...

You laugh...but an actual quote:

"Oh, it's just like a video game...Except I always wreck in Video games...."

I'm feeling SO GOOD about this decision.....

SO...that is the speedometer....SPEED KILLS!!!




"Ten and Two Daddy?"




What??? OH yeah, sure...Hand over hand sweetheart.....




Seriously?....yeah, she's going to drive my car...




So this is where I let her know that the safety and survival of the FREE WORLD is COMPLETELY in her hands when she drives....If you look carefully you can see those words blowing her hair as they exit the right ear.....


(she just informed me that that line is "so totally rude and completely stereotypical..." (said with appropriate attitude, rolling of eyes and a flick of the head...) It's good to know I'm a normal dad with a normal teen....


The most important pedal down there is THE BRAKE


You use that to STOP.

You can't get in a wreck stopped.....

Unless you have someone back into you at a light....

OK, well no serious injuries while stopped....maybe...

A George Strait song comes to mind....

"We really shouldn't be doing this...."


Look at me...I'm scared as can be....



Lesson one: Drive and turn in IDLE....and learn how to brake without giving mom WHIPLASH...in a completely deserted parking lot.


Only 469 lessons to go before we let her hit the slightly open, non populated, remote, dusty, straight and deserted country road.

Driving in hail not recommended

OK, this would be hail, not snow. And no I didn't take this photo because I was in my car driving while this stuff was coming down. No, I wouldn't do it again, and Yes, my car did survive without damage that I know of. The sound of hail crashing into your car while you are driving in flash flood conditions---can you think of a more soothing activity?