Long time, no post!

Well, I am embarrassed at how long it's been since I posted anything. Shoot, I didn't even blog about the election, which is horrible for a lifelong conservative to admit. (Needless to say, not happy about the results!) I am going to try to be better, I really do promise!

So the big news in our family is that Sarah is going on a MISSION! She's been called to serve in the Colorado Denver South Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She will serve for a period of 18 months. We are so proud of her and so excited for her and so nervous about not being able to talk to her (even if it's just texting) on a daily basis. Sarah had spent the last eight months at BYU-Provo for her freshman year of college. She did awesome, really enjoyed it, and made friends that will (hopefully) last a lifetime. Obviously she would be going back this fall except for the announcement about lowering the mission ages. Sarah felt very strongly that she should serve a mission. If you want to read more about her decision process, head on over to HER blog, http://sistersarahnoakes.blogspot.com/. I'll be maintaining that blog for her while she's away. (Sniff.)

We had some family pictures taken on Sunday. Here are a couple of my personal favorites. (Yes, we are a geeky family, wearing our matching Doctor Who tee shirts and all. It's just how we roll around here.)

L-R Sarah, Paula (me), Alan, Spencer

 

It's a GIRL! Don't touch me!

The hubs and me. Old gray-haired farts that we are, heh.

So anyway, that's a brief update. I promise to post more later!

Sarah's 16th Birthday

So very late, but still posting some birthday pictures from Sarah's 16th birthday. 

Sarah with her balloons (courtesy Grandma Noakes).

 

 

Eating Chinese takeout from Mandarin House. (Yummy!)

 

Alan and his mom (Grandma Noakes).

  

Spencer doing his best to hide.

 

But I found him anyway.

  

Sarah and Grandma Jean.

 

Me. I hate pictures of myself but this one's halfway decent. 

Sarah and her Owl City CD.

 

Sarah and her new camera.

 

She wanted the Harry Potter cake!

 

Family picture that we used for Christmas cards.

That's it! Finally posted birthday pictures, only nearly six months later. Sorry about that! More updates to come ...

Good grief, I do not even know what to post about first! We got through Christmas, only to have snow days hit us ... oh, and the flu! I got vaccinated but apparently we got the strain that wasn't in the vaccine (our run of bad luck continues!). Sarah came down with it first, with a high fever and runny nose and coughing. Then she shared it with me and Alan, then Spencer got it. Luckily Spencer only missed 2 days of school , what with the snow days. Here are pics of Sarah and Spencer in the snow. Sarah's on "Mount Noakes", whch is what we call our snow pile after DH gets done shoveling the driveway ...

Well, Christmas has come and gone and I still have the tree up in my living room. Most of the ornaments are off, we just have to repack them and put them away. I haven't been very motivated, to be honest, but I've got it on my agenda for this week! Thought I'd post some pics of what I gave my SIL Caroline for Christmas. We draw names on hubby's side of the family, and I got Caroline this year. I made her a table runner that is basically made from charm squares, and 8 matching coasters (they have 5 kids so I figured they needed at least 8 coasters!). She really liked the gift, and MIL said they spent part of the time figuring out how the coasters were made. They're quite easy, just a basic 4-patch but you don't sew the patches together. You lay them in a grid and sew around the edge, then turn from the middle. Voila!