Home Run Derby

Every year we sneak into the Wells Family Christmas Home Run Derby but this year Joel had to work so we held our own today. We had Brian, Kai and Luke, Jared and Alex. Shayne invited Kyle Buck and Kyson Sullivan too. Then we had our family minus Sophie.





It was a perfect day. 65 and Sunny. Joel won for hitting the most light poles, Kyson won for hitting the fence the most and Jared, Joel and Brian ripped a ton of home runs. I wish we didn't do this just once a year. We should make this a Halloween Day, Turkey Day, Boxing Day, Kwanza, Hanukkah and any other day Day.

Merry Christmas!

Here is my Pine View Christmas tree (tribute to Shayne) with my Jack Skelington ornament that I got for myself at Disneyland. Joel's new suit is hanging next to it.

This has been the funnest Christmas since last Christmas! I loved that it was on a Sunday. Christmas Eve we went to Brian & Holly's house for dinner and to do the 2 traditions that the Beckstrands have.
#1 Re-intact the nativity with the little kids. I was in charge this year so we had the 2 youngest (Bailee & Luke) be Mary & Joseph. They were darling. Josh and Alex were Shepherds, Ben David and Kai were the Wisemen and Joel read the story out of the Bible. It was awesome but I didn't get any picture's of it. Hopefully I'll get some from someone who did.
#2 Elaine reads "Cajun Christmas". It's "The Night Before Christmas" with a Cajun twist. She even does the accent which everyone loves!

Then we left and drove around to see the lights and then came home to open new pj's from my folks and read more Christmas stories until the kids fell asleep. On the way home we asked the kids how we should do Christmas because we had church at 9am. Santa gave us our incredible trip to Disneyland so all he was coming to our house for was to fill our stockings. So we didn't need to worry about opening Santa gifts. David came up with the great idea of just doing stockings before church and then coming back to unwrap everything else. Everyone agreed and when we woke up the next morning at 7:15 Ben & David were already dressed in their church clothes and ready to go. It was a Christmas miracle!

After church we got back into our pj's and opened all the Disneyland gifts.

The girls got Eeyore Pillow Pets.

Josh and Joel got Chewbaca and Yoda backpacks and the boys got to build their own light saber in Disneyland then wrap them up when they got home and gave them to each other.


We had so much fun remembering everything we did in Disneyland.

Later that afternoon we went over to Mike & Elaine's for brunch and to watch home movies. Then we went to JoEllen's to see what they got and came home. It was a full day and was great fun. I love that it started with church. It got my boys started off right. No fighting or yelling and just being calm. I wish we could do that every year!

Locks of Love!

Sophie donated her hair to the Locks of Love.

She had been growing it out for quite some time now and decided that Christmas time is the perfect time to give to someone else. Please check out this wonderful web site that make cute wigs for little girls that don't have any hair due to chemotherapy because of cancer. We are so blessed to be healthy. The least we can do is donate some of our hair to those who have none.

Aunt Jan's Annual Christmas Cookie Party

This is the best tradition we have. Everyone LOVES it. Especially JoEllen because she can showcase her one and only talent. Decorating Cookies.




Every year Jan buys trays or plates for people to take the cookies home on and it usually costs a lot of money so this year they came up with the idea to use medium sized pizza boxes from Dominoes that cost about .40 cents a piece and can hold exactly 10 cookies perfectly. Then they printed up this paper and put it on the top of each box so everyone could have their own.

It was amazing! We have 7 people so we ended up with 70 cookies! They are Paula's sugar cookie recipe and Jan's buttercream frosting recipe. That's amazing x2. Also calories x2. We always have the best time. Andy plays a little Bing Crosby and then puts on Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas (another family tradition). Thanks so much Jan and Andy for bringing the Christmas spirit every year. We Love you!

Channel 5 and Washington Elemetary

Washington Elementary received 200 books from Channel 5 news. They were delivered by non other than Nadine Wimmer and Santa! The kids loved it. Burke had them all out on the field standing together to form the 5 news logo when the helicopter flew overhead. Then they landed and the kids all screamed when Santa got out. It was really fun to watch. Nadine talked about the importance of reading and how special they all were and then Santa gave them all high 5;s as they walked over to check out Chopper 5. It was really fun.

Ugly Sweater Party!

We had a Christmas Party. My first ever!

We have never lived in a place where we were able to actually have friends that we got to hang out with. For 20 years I've been waiting until Joel and I had friends outside of the family that we could invite over to play games and have fun with. Well, it's a Christmas miracle! We have 3 other couples in our ward who have been able to tolerate us long enough to get to know us and love us for who we are.

So, I took on the Christmas party. NEVER been done before and I think it went pretty well. Everyone wore an ugly sweater and we had a potluck dinner with all of the kids (14). Then we played Take Two. It's a speed scrabble kind of game and had a excellent visit from Santa!! He's the best! He had a present for each kid and they got to unwrap them and play with them while the adults played Candy Bar Bingo. It was so much fun. I really needed that night. After everyone went home and we went to bed I wanted to cry I was so happy. 20 years! It took 20 years but it was truly worth it. Thanks so much guys!

Spectrum Article on the Swim Season

WASHINGTON CITY - Coach Missy Bahr's Mountain View swim team, having disposed of Dixie and Snow Canyon on Friday, repeated the process Saturday at the Washington City Community Center pool, where they out-pointed Desert Hills, Pine View and Hurricane.

Scored as 10 separate dual meets, the Bruins beat everybody in both the boys and girls divisions, including their traveling companions, the first-year team from Timpanogos.

The point scoring, which accrued primarily from Mountain View's team depth, was overshadowed by the individual efforts of the Pine View pair of Shayne Beckstrand and Mitch Hutchings, along with Courtney Freed and Tim Senholtz, both of Desert Hills. Mountain View won only three individual events and one relay on the 22-race card.

Sophomore Hutchings, who swam a strong butterfly leg on the winning Panther medley relay team, was back in the water a few minutes later cruising to victory in the 200-yard freestyle, winning in 1:54.38 over Trent Talbott of Timpanogos and Josh McPhie of Desert Hills. He also won the 100 back in 59.03 and also swam a quick 50 free on the third-place Pine View 200-relay quartet.

Beckstrand uncorked an impressive sprint double, winning the 50 free in 26.45 over Bruin Devri Atoa, with Hurricane's Kaylee LeBaron third ahead of the Desert Hills duo of Madison Wawryzniak and Emily Jesgarz. She then overpowered Tessa Trimble of Desert Hills, and 20 other swimmers, in the 100 free in 58.35.

"The 50 went great," Beckstrand said, "but in the 100 I got water in my left goggle on the dive and I couldn't see a thing out of that eye. I always breathe bilaterally, but I couldn't because of the water in my eye. I had to breathe just on my right side and it felt weird"

Shayne, who already ranked fifth in the 3A state standings in the 50 freestyle, shaved a tenth of a second off her previous best. Her 58.35 clocking in the 100 propelled her into the top 10 in the state rankings.

"Ater being sick and not swimming all summer my body doesn't want to do things like it used to, so I guess I'm a sprinter and backstroker now," she said.

Freed and Senholtz also scored double victories, and in the same races. Freed won the girls' fly and breast stroke and Senholtz mirrored those wins with a power-packed pair of performances on the boys' side of the ledger.

Freed won her fly on cruise control in 1:07.17, 15 seconds faster than her closest pursuer and then came back to capture the 100 breast in 1:14 over teammates Anna Karatti and Amelia Draney. Senholtz' scintillating 55.42 fly shot him into the top spot in the 3A state standings ahead of Park City's Dusty Ragland, and his surprising 1:05.65 breast stroke time ranks him third in the state standings. He also chipped in a 51.30 100 anchor leg on the Thunder's triumphant 4x100 free relay team, as well as an opening 23.47 leg on the winning 4x50 free relay.

Tim's clocking in the breast stroke was five seconds faster than his listed seed time, but he explained he had actually done a 1:07 in a USA swim meet in Harriman last week.

"The time was surprising," he said, "but both the fly and the breast felt good."

Other local winners included Amelia Draney of Desert Hills in one of her specialties, the 200 IM; Desert Hills' Clark Corry in the 50 free; Kyle Buck of Pine View in the 100 free; the Thunder's John McPhie in the 500 free; and Desert Hills' Lindsey Child in the girls' 100 back.

Individual heat winners among Southern Utah swimmers included Payton Carter in the 200 free; Jefferson Beatty, Desert Hills, 200 IM; Mallory Roberts of Pine View, 50 free; Spencer Whitehead, Desert Hills, 50 free and 500 free; Koby Sullivan, Pine View, 50 free; Desert Hills' Ben Powell, 100 fly; Jesi Nelson, Pine View, 100 free; Zach Rowe, Desert Hills, 100 free; Desert Hill's Tyson Child, 100 back; Zoe Smith and Makai Smith, Desert Hills, in the 100 breast.

"I was really proud of my kids today," said coach Dani Caldwell, who mentors the Desert Hills, Pine View and Hurricane squads. They really came together as a team. Of course they'll probably hate me now. I've told the varsity swimmers they have to practice for an hour after the meet's over."

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! 2011