Rockin' Out!

Cade rockin' out!

Dillon burning it up!

My cute little guitar hero boys wanted mohawks for CRAZY HAIR DAY at school.  So I agreed to cut the sides short for a day and spike the middle.  I don't know if these pictures are good enough for you to see their crazy hair, but they thought it was awesome.  The next day, after school it was gone.  They were cute and excited about it.

Can You Pour Water Sideways?

Dillon won first place in his 4th grade division of the Science Fair.  Yea Dillon!  Not bad for putting it together in one hour the night before (yea, Mom!)  And yes, you can pour water sideways using a physics concept called cohesion. . .try it!  As a side note, Dillon also participated in the school's spelling bee two days later.  He was the only 4th grader that qualified and so he competed against 5th and 6th graders.  He made it to the 4th round and beat out half of the older kids!!  Way to go!!

New Year's Eve 08-09

Cade, Cale, Paige, and Carli had so much fun blowing horns to celebrate the New Year!  It was a blast having a quiet New Years Eve and celebrating with Matt & Debbie, Sharon & Spencer (and kids), Kristin,  & Forrest.  We had dinner, and SNACKS and more SNACKS, and games and lots of noise makers!

Christmas Morning 2008

Kelsie and Brooke were all about Twilight and electric blankets!

Santa brought Cade a video rocker chair and an xBox game

Dillon was a very good boy and so Santa brought him the electric guitar 

that he'd had on his Christmas list since July!  Now he needs lessons.

Paige was happy with the puppy stroller set she got from Santa, but especially liked the candy and nuts!  She wasn't too excited about Santa before Christmas, but decided Christmas morning that he was okay.

Here is the cute bunch anticipating finding out what Santa brought the good Mercer kids!

We were very blessed to have many nice gifts under our tree thanks to the generosity of many family members.  We were grateful for each one!  Thank you!

Christmas Eve 2008

We acted out the nativity story with our family at Grandma and Grandpa Mercer's house.  Jeff and I played Mary and Joseph, Kelsie was the shepherd, Paige the angel, and Brooke, Cade, and Dillon were the three wisemen.  So cute. . .except for mom.

Posing with Santa

Here we are with Santa!  You can see how happy Paige was to be within 10 feet of Santa.  What a cute bunch of kids. . .hope they're on Santa's good list!!

We Got A Job!!!

What a blessing to be employed again, especially in this economy where people we know and love are being laid off every week!  Jeff will never again take his employment for granted!  Unemployment is a trial that is very stressful, faith trying, and yet a blessing in disguise.  Every time we have been through it we are humbled to see the Lord's hand in blessing us.  We don't even try to add up the numbers to find out why we still have money in savings and how our one month's salary lasted for 5 months and through Christmas.  I will ALWAYS pay my tithing first, avoid debt, and live frugally because you never know when you will have to live on very little.  All of a sudden, our 10 year old Suburban is looking pretty fine when I know it is paid for and we don't have to worry about making a payment every month.  We are blessed that it keeps running, along with our 12 year old Honda.  I know that with the Lord's help we CAN do hard things.  With a little effort and faith on our part, he will make up the difference for our weakness.

I am sooo blessed! 

By the way, Jeff is working for a company called Language Access Network selling video interpretation services to hospitals.  It is similar to a job he had a couple years ago and so he has a jump start on his sales with the contacts he has maintained.  We are hoping his hard work pays off soon!  Right now he is traveling 3-4 days a week trying to cover his 15 state territory as the mid-west sales VP.  Go Jeff!!