Good Riddance Student Loan!!!

Hallelujah! I feel like yelling it to the world! Due to a great tax return, we paid off our student loan today! Now we can move on!

We're still here!

It's been very busy around here with the regular every day stuff. Lucy is into everything! She's very hard to put down at night because she WILL NOT stay in bed. Half the time, if you ask her if she wants a spanking, she says, "Yeah." If you give her one after a reply like this, she often laughs and runs away or acts like nothing happened. Needless to say, spankings aren't often effective with this kid. She is so hard to discipline and we are trying to figure out what works. She doesn't really understand timeouts either. Part of the problem is she is so stinking cute that we are trying not to laugh our heads off when we are getting after her. If anybody has any advice, feel free to share it.
Dale has been trying to get Lucy to say her first and last name together and she answers the same way her cousin, Bodie, used to answer, "Lucy Grandma Rogers." It sounds more like, "Wuzy Gamma Wogers."
I put sponge curlers in her hair for the first time last Saturday and she was so cute for church! I'll post pictures soon.
I'm 29 weeks (6 1/2 months) prego now and starting to get big. I wonder how big this kiddo is going to be. Dale got me a gift certificate for a pregnancy massage that I fully plan on using, probably soon. I'm excited!
Home prices are finally starting to drop here, making it more affordable for us to either buy or build a home. We've noticed the economy delays its effect on our small town and when gas went up and down, we went up and down a few weeks to months after the big cities did. So far, Dale's job is pretty secure, and hopefully we'll be in a home a year from now.

Christmas 2008 and snow!

This year, Christmas was spent at Grandma and Grandpa Bjarnson's house. Joy and Lucy had so much fun there and want to go back to Grandma's house. It was great being able to spend time with family and to go to the temple with my baby brother, Stuart. I still can't believe he's old enough to go on a mission.

Thatcher didn't have a white Christmas, but we did get a couple of inches on the Saturday afterward. Unfortunately, we missed the snowfall because we were still in Phoenix, but there was just enough snow in the shade at our house that Joy was able to play in the next day. The snow angel pics were taken at Shannon Campground up on Mount Graham the week before Christmas when we went sledding. It was cold, but worth the trip and we had fun. Lucy was a little nervous about the whole sledding thing at first, but by the last run she was jumping onto the sled, ready to go. Joy and Dale went down the hill spinning as fast as they could and laughing their heads off on a little round saucer sled. The two of them barely fit onto it and they were fun to watch. I was a little sore for the next couple of days from hiking up the hill and hauling up Lucy and the sled. Dale told me that sledding was off limits for me until "Buck" is born. He knows that I'll be on a sled the next chance I get! Especially with the new ones we got for Christmas! (Thanks Flint and Jan). No, I wasn't being crazy on the sled, I was just reminded of how lazy I've been and that I need to work out more.

I hope you all had a fun holiday. It was so fun seeing you, Tommy and DeAnn and Mike and Teresa!

Merry Christmas! 2008

December 10, 2008
Dear Friends and Family-
This year has flown by so quickly. Our big news of last year’s letter was that we were going to buy some land and build a house on it. We had a reality check on how long it would take to pay it off and on what we could afford for a house (we thought we’d be in a house by now). We are still paying for the land and hopefully will have it all paid off by next year. Our big news for this year is that Baby Rogers #3 is due on April 24th and it’s going to be a boy. Dale, as all of you can imagine, is as excited as a dad can get to have a boy! He can’t wait for fathers and sons campouts and scouts. I’m excited for less drama and one head of hair I don’t have to fix every day – especially Sundays.
The girls and I had the opportunity to go up to Salt Lake City with my family for a Bjarnson Family Reunion in July. We had lots of fun and it was great to see the cousins and my grandparents again. Almost everyone was at the reunion! In September, we went on a family camping trip to Alpine with Dale’s parents. The forest was so beautiful and green! It rained on us every day or night we were there and we loved every bit of it.
Dale is still an assistant manager at Home Depot and enjoying his job. It has its ups and downs, especially the long hours and having to work on an occasional Sunday. However, he has pretty good job security and with people all around us losing their jobs, we are thankful for it.
Joy played soccer this last fall and enjoyed it. Little girl soccer is the biggest organized bunch of chaos you’ll ever see. It’s hilarious when they’re out there trying to make friends with the other team, picking flowers, or tattling on so and so from the other team because “she took the ball away from me.” Good entertainment! She’s taking dance at the academy owned by her Aunt Jenny, and in “Mommy and Me” preschool with a few other girls in our ward. She is very smart, hates going to bed, and loves to dance, sing, draw, read, and play with her sister. She’s very excited to have a baby brother and just knew it was going to be a boy. She is very sweet and a big helper.
Lucy is a very independent little two year old who is always saying, “Let me do it.” She enjoys storybooks, dancing, singing, and is taking mom and tot dance with Aunt Jenny. She loves playing with her big sister and they are so cute together. They pretend to be kitties, play dress up, and take turns pushing one another on the swings. She gets a kick out of Joy squealing and running away whenever she tries to pinch her bum or says, “ding dong” and pokes at her bellybutton. She’s our little sweetheart and is very much the baby of the family (for now).
I am staying busy just trying to keep up with all of the mommy and housewife things that a girl has to do. My house is never perfectly clean, I always have one project or another in the back of my mind that I’d like to get to, and I always want to play outside with the kids or snuggle on the couch and read or watch a movie. My new hobby for the year is blogging and I’ve had so much fun with that. I’ve been able to find out what old friends are up to by finding their blogs, and I’ll have a better journal now because of doing one.
I hope this letter finds everyone well and happy. We have been so blessed and have so much to be thankful for. The Lord’s hand is truly seen in our lives. I am so thankful for Him and all that He has done for us.
Love, Dale, Amanda, Joy, and Lucy Rogers

Dishes

The other day we were doing dishes the girls thought they needed to help. So here is some pictures of them working together. I am so glad these two girls enjoy being together. They have a lot of fun together.

Locks of Love

I decided to get my hair cut short and donate it to Locks of Love. Joy cut her hair a few weeks ago and I have not sent it off so here is a picture of our hair.

So, the ultrasound tech said...

"Merry Christmas, Dad, it's a boy!" I was too glued to the computer screen to see Dale's reaction, but I wish I would have looked at him now. I bet he had a big goofy grin on his face. Dale is finally getting his Buck!
Joy called it! She said that we have too many girls in this family and we need a boy. She also didn't like the idea of Grandma Emma keeping the baby (Emma threatened to keep it if it was another girl since we'd have "too many girls"), so it just had to be a boy. He was being a stinker and not cooperating with the tech when she was trying to get a look at the vessels around his heart. He was awake and very wiggly. He is healthy and we're excited.
I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. If any of you have changed your email addresses or if I don't have them, send them to my email at abearnbaby@hotmail.com
I'll be doing my annual Christmas letter pretty soon.