Fun in the Sun and Snow

We had so much fun sledding today! It was a perfect sunny nice day. The slopes weren't too crowded and Eli just LOVED it. Last year we had to force him to go down and this year he was gung-ho about it. We went with my good friend Heidi and her darling girls. Winter isn't so bad when you have dry roads and blue skies and plenty of white snow on the ground.

Christmas Fun!

We had such a fun Christmas this year! Eli got spoiled as usual. We had fun visiting our families. We played a bunch of Rock Band and ate delicious food. We drove through a few snow storms...wait that was the crappy part! So here are the pics!



Here are our Christmas morning pictures!

Update:

We are back in Utah! Yeah.  I'm so happy and that sometimes makes me not want to blog. Being especially sad makes me not want to blog either.  I just have to be in the middle or "normal" as some may say. If I have to be normal to blog it's amazing that I have so many blog posts. 

Anyway after a 3 day road trip in scary weather and boring scenery we finally made it back to Utah.  I was so happy to see our families and Eli was thrilled to see everyone.  He still hasn't seen the Haights and that has been the only downside to his trip.  The positives are 1) a christmas tree. 2) presents under the tree with his name on them. 3)presents.  I know, I already said that but seriously he's going nuts about presents.  While visiting the Christmas lights on temple square, Eli was annoyed that we were going in to see the Christus statue AFTER making him sit for 5 minutes and listen to a little of the scripture story of Jesus' birth. He said: "we aren't here for Jesus! We are here to see the lights!" Ummm O-kaaaay.

This morning I wrapped presents for an hour and a half!  I decided it's better to wrap them as you get them.  I have to say that I'm getting SO excited for Christmas.  We have a big party with my family Christmas Eve and then spend Christmas with the Broughs.  It works out well and we get to spend a lot of time with everyone.  

Well that's our update.  We are heading back to KY at the beginning of January and Eli and I will be back to Utah at the end of January for good.  I hope everyone has a great Christmas. 

Countdown to Christmas

Last Saturday Eli told me that on Sunday I could tickle him, Monday I could spank him (soft spanks), Tuesday I could bite his toes (tickle bites of course), Wednesday I could hug him.  Then he told me that I can do those things over and over again and on Christmas I can do all four things!  So I guess these will be my countdown to Christmas.  I can't wait until the day I get to do all four things.  What do you do to countdown to Christmas?

Ramblings:

Tonight I watched Home Alone with Eli.  First of all I LOVE Home Alone. I think it's so funny although I like Home Alone 2 better. (Tim Curry rocks.)  Anyway it was SO fun to watch this show with Eli. He was laughing SO hard. He said "I laughed my breath away" and "I laughed so much I couldn't talk." It was also funny that he kept calling the boy in the movie "home alone." He would say "my favorite part was when home alone put the spider on the bad guys face." We had so much fun eating popcorn, and cookies and snuggling. The only part that he got scared of was at the end he knew that someone would yell "KEVIN" and he left the room before "home alone" got in trouble.

I love Christmas time but it's not as much fun when you don't have a beautiful tree to look at!  I LOVE a Christmas tree they are so beautiful and I think that mine is the most beautiful of all. :) All of the ornaments on my tree are meaningful and special. I LOVE it and I miss my tree.

This Christmas season has been awesome because I have not heard that damn Christmas Shoes song once!  It's freaking amazing.  I hate the Christmas songs that try to pull sentiment tooth and nail. "Where are you Christmas? Why can't I find you?" BLAH  

On the other hand I LOVE some Christmas music. 'Oh Holy Night', 'Oh Come all ye Faithful', "Silent Night'. YEA! I love beautiful songs that are about the true meaning of Christmas.

And my last thought for the night.  I am so excited to come back home.  My plan is to spend every second that I can with Eli and Stewart over this Christmas break. We have about 2 weeks during Christmas before Stewart leaves for a few months of training, and after this week and 1/2 of being without him I am going to OD on him.  

So there are my ramblings. Enjoy!

Christmas Letter 2008

Here is is in all it's glory! The Brough Family Christmas Letter!!!

Dear friends, family, and anyone we may have mistakenly sent this to,

Once again it is that time of year when I invade your homes with my propaganda, spreading holiday cheer and putting a positive spin on all the stupid things I’ve done over the last 12 months!

This year, I am writing the infamous (as in “more than famous”) Brough Family Christmas Newsletter from Fort Knox, Kentucky.  In case any of you didn’t know, Kentucky is the land that time forgot - if you listen very closely at any given time, you can faintly hear “dueling banjos” playing somewhere off in the distance.  Also, it is impossible to drive more than a few miles in any direction from the base without seeing at least 5 strip clubs, adult book stores, or less than classy looking pawn shops.

We’ve had a pretty busy year - let me give you the run down:

After enduring a few years of Becca putting me down because she was a big shot college grad and I was pond scum, I finally decided to finish my degree.  This entailed several semesters of online classes while I worked full time, and culminated in taking an entire online physics course in 8 days. 

I commissioned into the Army as a 2nd Lieutenant on May 2, 2008 and graduated  from Utah State with a bachelors degree in business and Spanish the following day.  The Army pretty much put me to work immediately, since July 2nd, I have been in training.

My first training was at Fort Benning, GA, where I attended BOLC II.  Currently I am with Becca and Eli at Fort Knox, KY, where I am attending the Armor Officers Basic Course.  This course has been fairly strenuous, both academically and in terms of field conditions.  I’ve spent many late nights completing homework.  Likewise, I’ve spent more than a few sub freezing nights attempting to sleep while sitting upright with all my gear on in a humvee.  By the time Becca sends out this letter, I’ll be in the middle of our “full spectrum FTX”, also known as “the gauntlet”.  Perhaps the most difficult aspect of my training has been trying to explain how it is that I am a Cavalry Officer, and the fact that I “don’t ride around on horses”.

Living in Kentucky hasn’t stifled the growth of our boy prodigy and developing super villain.  Eli has taken advantage of the wealth of knowledge and equipment here to develop his technical and tactical genius.  Most of this development has taken place at the local preschool, where he has organized his classmates into what will become the future political cadre of his regime.  Fundamental to his role in world domination, Eli has learned how to color inside the lines, how to read, not to run with scissors, how to share, and the importance of not butting in line. 

Becca Jo, mother of the future ruler of the world, has been happy to be living in Kentucky - mostly she’s just happy that she was able to quit being the apartment manager at the complex where we lived in Sugar House, Utah.  Shortly after we vacated the premises and she left that position, one of the more “interesting” residents attempted to burn the place down.  In any case, we’re glad we moved.  Becca has been working as always - keeping up her reputation as a great mother and wife.  Eli has been lucky to have a full time mother who takes him to museums and the zoo, reads to him, and takes him hiking.

We’ve loved the experience and the fact that our entire family has been able to participate a little bit in my training.  Becca and Eli were able to watch my class as we assaulted a small city.  They threw grenade simulators (baffling, since this is something that I’ve NEVER been allowed to do) onto the engagement area and after the operation, they were both able to fire a .50 cal machine gun from the gunner’s hatch of a Stryker (a wheeled armored fighting vehicle).  Becca took a turn firing every machine gun we carry.

It’s amazing to see how much things have changed for us in the last 12 short months.  As always, we look forward to hearing from all of you and we are anxious to see everyone one in Utah very soon!

Merry Christmas

Christmas is Coming?

Here was my Eli Says: moment today

"Mom I have something to tell you and I'm afraid you are going to be really mad."

"What is it?"

"Ok, but will you cover your ears because I don't want to hear you scream."

"I promise I won't scream."  I don't scream anyway! I promise I'm not a terrible mother.

"I actually ate more of those little chocolates. Sorry mom, it was an accident. Am I going to get coal now?"

Apparently Eli didn't learn his lesson last year.

Both years he didn't make it past the 3rd before giving in to temptation. This year he got his calender on the 3rd though so it shows he has his mothers impatience.

I personally think that Eli thinks that if he can open all those doors early it will be Christmas sooner.  He has asked about when it will be Christmas non-stop since Thanksgiving. 

Black Friday

I love Black Friday.  When I look in the ads and I don't see anything that I need/want I start to panic a little bit.  This year I did pick up a few little things. Like a Wii and an LCD TV.  The TV was an impulse buy!  I shouldn't be left alone with a debit card on Black Friday.  I'm not usually an impulse buyer but this is one day of the year that I can't help myself!

I went with my Uncle Larry and cousin Rebecca. It was a little hectic because the Walmart wasn't setup very well and nobody knew where things were setup at.  They didn't even have everything out that was in the ad!  But I got everything that I wanted and did some price matching.  I even got the last of 2 different things right as someone else was reaching for them! YES! That's why I love black friday. 

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We headed to Ohio where Stewart's aunt lives.  We were welcomed with open arms and were treated like royalty!  Eli now thinks that he should get special treatment because "he's the guest." I had to tell him that he still has to share and doesn't get everything he ever wanted because at one point in his life he was the guest somewhere. I don't know if he totally understands the word "guest" but he knows he likes it!

The little kid table.

Stewart was in charge of mashing the potatoes. He is proud of the piling technique that he used.

The spread! It was all SO good.

We went to the zoo. it was so much fun. Here is Noah and Eli with the gingerbread people. Is that PC?
We had SO much fun on our little trip. There is nothing like being with family.  I can't wait to get back to Utah where we will be surrounded by family!