Christmas Report

Christmas morning we were pleasantly surprised that no one woke us up until 7AM! We had a great day and everyone received the gifts that they desired...

Christmas Eve was fun filled as busy! We had a family party that evening complete with a visit from Santa. After dinner/singing/Santa visit, we headed off to Temple Square (our family tradition), accompanied by Janaye and Austin (Michelle's sister and son). It was a great time, with weather in the mid-30's and very comfortable.

The kids have been playing non-stop with they gifts...singing Wii game, dad got a new guitar, mom a new sewing machine, Justine a Zune (mp3 player), Maddie with a couple princess items, Emilie with a digital camera.

Austin reflecting as he looked at the temple. He sat there for around 5 minutes
staring...he is baptized, but not active.

Cute Emilie

Temple

Temple

Rusty

I proposed to Michelle 13 years ago on Temple Square.
While we were dating, she instructed me in no
uncertain terms that I was not to propose on
Temple Square (too cliche, apparently).
I figured Temple Square would
be the place she would least expect it,
so that's what I did. Afterwards, we
announced our nuptials to the wait staff
of the JB's across the street
from the temple.

Family

Cute Maddie

Kids

Family

Night time

Sometimes, scriptures at our house look like this...



Other times, it looks like this...



Pretty normal, except for the following discussion:

Justine: "Emilie! Your feet STINK!"
Dad: "Justine, be quiet! Why do we have to discuss every night that it is rude to speak and interrupt a family member when it is their turn to read?"
Justine: Rolls her eyes.
Dad: "Did you just roll your eyes at me? Did you just roll your eyes at me?"
Justine: "Her feet STINK!"
Dad: "Em, keep your feet out of Justine's face!"
Em: "HAHAHAHAHA!"
Michelle: See photo
Maddie: Raises hand...
Dad: "Yes, Maddie?"
Maddie: "Jesus is nice, huh?"
Dad: "Yes Maddie, he is."

Kids Pictures

Justine received her dance pictures back...Emilie got her school photo, too.

Catching up...

Wow do we have some catching up to do! Here we go...

James' mother passed away last month (11 November). She had been sick for a very long time, so it wasn't unexpected. It was one of those where it was more of a relief, as she was suffering so much, but we miss her. We were able to head back to Indiana last April for a visit. There was no funeral or service. James headed down to Las Vegas for a couple days that week to spend with his sister Laurie.

We had a great Thanksgiving this year; we spent it at Michelle's mom's house with a few of her siblings. A great 4 day weekend away from the busy schedule of work!

We are getting ready for Christmas. Michelle sponsored a Toys for Tots drive for our neighborhood this past week. It turned out really great and she had a great turnout with lots of toys donated. Yesterday we took the toys up the the Marine Corps office where they will be handed out to needy kids. It was a great experience and Michelle did a great job! She is one of the most service oriented people I have ever known; she is always thinking of others.

Justine is finishing up a small fundraiser for her great Aunt & Uncle who are on a mission to Cambodia. She is collecting money to send them so that they can buy white shirts for the young men in the branch where they are serving. She is a great kid, and we are doing our best to help her continue to learn the spirit of service; she is doing a great job!

Work for James is going well; if James and Carl hit a certain sales number by the end of the year, then they get to go on the company club trip to the Dominican Republic next spring (wives included). Cross your fingers!

Emilie had a good soccer season. We moved her up 2 levels this year as she was scoring 8-10 goals a game in her age group. She was a little intimidated in the new league as she was playing against kids 2-3 years older than her. One game Michelle told her she would pay her a nickle for every time she kicked the ball (she was being timid) and she proceeded to earn a dollar and score a goal in about 5 minutes. She now wants to play Junior Jazz basketball; it looks like we got a boy after all!

Rusty the dog has been a great addition to the family...he plays with everyone, and chews on everything. I went to put on my shoes the other day and both my laces broke; he had chewed on them. Overall a great dog! We can't wait for the summer...we are going to buy a camper and a couple of four wheelers (really for the elk hunt next year...but we will use if for the family too!) this spring. We used to go ATV'ing/camping all the time when we lived in South Jordan and we really miss it.

Toys for Tots Fundraiser










First Day of Kindergarten



Em's Birthday






Em Soccer






Justine Piano



Dad B-Day



Younger Days...

Haloween

Great Halloween this year! 60 degrees for trick or treating. Justine had a party where 15 of her friends came over for pizza, trick or treating, games, and a movie. The Morrison's across the street were having the same party for boys in Justine's class...Tracy (the mom at the boy's party) called Michelle and told her that the girls should sneek over and come through the backyard and scare the boys. It turned out to be a setup, because as soon as the girls went into the back yard, all the boys jumped out and scared all the girls to death.

Pumpkins

Pizza


Getting ready to trick or treat


Dad telling ghost stories...this one is about "The Claw" (all rights reserved)

New Dog

After months of searching, we finally found a dog for Emilie. She has been begging for close to a year for a dog! Meet Rusty, our new Australian Sheperd.



Rusty should make a fine addition to our family! We looked high and low for a good dog; this one will be a great camping dog, and is GREAT with kids; very protective, and well mannered. He is already very attached to Emilie.

In Other News...

The house search is on hold for now. We put in an offer this fall but didn't get it. I think things will continue to drop over the winter, so we will hit it again next spring. We will know when its the right time, I believe.

Michelle is the new Community Council president...she really loves serving over at the school, and has many great ideas and has a great attitude.

Work is busier than ever for dad. Spent the week in Idaho going on appointments for new business. We have more than ever in our pipe. If we exceed our number for the year, we get to take our wives to the company trip in the Dominican Republic. We are working hard to get there. We really do have the best SAN on the market, and have received 10-12 major awards this year, which is giving us major exposure. We win roughly 80% of the deals we get into. My partner, Carl, is a phenomenal salesman...one of the best I have been around. I learn alot working alongside him. I have a great job!

Short Update

So much is going on that we will need to take a couple hours next Sunday to update the blog. Quick recap...

This Saturday we will be in the temple with Paul and Natalie as they prepare to get married on November 1st. Paul is one of my ward missionaries that I was able to get to know several months ago (read here). What a great experience that will be! Then next week they will be sealed in the SLC Temple.


Today is my birthday....way too old. Michelle is taking me to a movie today. The girls want to get me a cat or a dog for my birthday. I did get a new bow!

UPDATE

We went and saw Forever Strong today. Great movie! Several awesome messages in it. It's about the Highland Rugby team here in SLC. We used to live right across the street from Highland High School when we were first married.

Testimonies

"Testimony isn't something you have today, and you are going to have always. A testimony is fragile. It is as hard to hold as a moonbeam. It is something you have to recapture every day of your life."

-Harold B. Lee


You'll have to forgive me if the blog gets a bit personal sometimes. The blog is essentially my journal. I have never been a good journal keeper, so this is as good as it gets for me, I suppose. I imagine that one day I will print the whole thing off and save it.

Michelle and I attended a great Stake fireside last night. Our Stake President gave a great talk on marriage and communication. He talked about "agreeing to disagree agreeably". It was a great time and great counsel. We all went to Chili's afterwards for dinner. We drove over with the Stauffer's. On the way, Mike received a call from his boys at home saying that they smelled smoke in the house. After some quizzing, Mike decided to drop us off and run home to investigate. As he got out of the car at his house, he smelled smoke. It turns out that one of the neighbors was burning their swingset (don't ask) and that is what the boys smelled. I can't wait to see little Stauff at church and give him a hard time about that one.

Latest letter from Steve and Robin, serving in Cambodia:

Hi Michelle,

Thanks for the pictures. I especially like the one with your dad and the girls. Who is the third girl, one of Mike"s??

Anyway, about the missionary money. Thanks for wanting to help.

The $500 amount is to come from each missionary personally. After that the General Missionary fund kicks in.

If you donate money, we will make sure that the young men do some work for it. The problem they are having is

that the jobs do not pay enough here for them to save in a reasonable time (takes years to save). It is very discouraging and we have some wonderful

young men who really want to go, and need to get out on their missions while they are motivated. (you know how that is)

It is so interesting here (and a bit stupid) because the Khmer parents expect their children to take care of them

the rest of their lives financially. We have a young man who has a mother who was working and is very capable of working, yet because

she has children who are old enough to work, she quit work and is expecting them to pay for her living. She now spends

every day hanging out with the neighbors, going to the pagoda and spending money on the monks. Frustrating.

All the young men, except one, are the only members in their families. They are not only contending with the money

issue but are experiencing some verbal abuse from their families. They are proving to be particularly strong in still coming to

church because they "remember the feelings of the Holy Ghost". They amaze me.

Steve and I have been so blessed to know them. I have attached a picture of them that I took last Saturday at the church.

They spent all day at an Open House for our new church building. they sang in the Sacrament Meeting portion of the open

house which lasted from 9:00-5:00. They sang two songs each hour. They are so wonderful. I love them so much.

Okay, let me tell you about their " white" shirts.

I asked the "boys" (as I call them) to wear a white shirt for the Open House performance.Some of them had one and others did not.

I then asked them to wear their shirts to our last practice so I could see what they looked like and to give them a new tie that I had

made for them. When they came for the practice,some did not bring their shirts like I had asked.

I said, "Where are your shirts?" One young man pulled his out from behind his back and said "Sister, it's not very white."

It was the dirtiest "white" shirt I had ever seen. I said, "Well just put it on" Then for the others that didn't have

one I said, "Can you borrow a shirt?" One of the young men who was there, but not singing, said he would go home and

bring back the shirts he had. So he brought back three dingy white shirts and apologized about their color.

After looking the group over and realizing that they do their laundry by hand and with well water, I said, "Would you like

me to take your shirts home and wash and iron them for you?" Their faces lit up, "Oh yes!!" So after the practice, I had

them leave the shirts with me and I took them home. That night, when I was putting stain stick on their collars and on

their stains, I cried. I thought of each of them and how much I loved them. I hoped so much that I could get their shirts

clean. I added extra bleach in the water and said a silent prayer that by some miracle the shirts would turn white.

When I took the first batch out, I was so happy to see that the shirts were very clean (not exactly white, but closer than

they had been for a long time) and even the collars were clean. There were a couple of shirts that had to go back

in for a second wash, but after they dried and I ironed them they looked wonderful.

On Saturday, I met the boys early so they could put on their shirts and ties. They looked so handsome and felt so confident.

These "boys" are the best of the best. Words are inadequate for the love I have for each of them. I hope so much that they will all

be able to get out on a mission, they deserve it.

Their names are: Four up front (L to R) Darin, Sedeth, Dara, Rithy. Next row:

Monny, Chenna, Viriak. Top two: Kimyan, Seung

(Darin has his family in the church, the others are the only members). Dara is the branch

mission leader. Chenna is the Young Men's President, Kimyan teaches seminary. Monny

has a beautiful singing voice and would like to sing with the Tabernacle Choir. Rithy is the

newest member, being baptized two weeks ago. Viriak's family raises pigs and he struggles

the most with his parents. Seung is learning to be a tailor. Sedeth is a branch missionary.

Missing in the picture, because they were late are Rak Smey (the branch music leader) and

Sinah (the branch clerk).

Can you see why I love them?

Thanks for anything you can do.

Love,

Robyn

Justine's New PenPal

Justine received a letter from her penpal in Cambodia tonight; her great aunt/uncle are serving a mission there. This is the first letter she received; I thought it was pretty neat so here it is:

Dear Justine,



I'm sorry for replying late.I wish you forgive me.
I can give some answer. I'm 10 years old.
My favorite color is green and orange.
My favorite animal is cub.My favorite song is
'' when you say nothing at all''.I like to dance
and sing.I was born at the 25th of May1998.I
went to the temple at Hong Kong with my family.
I have me, my sis Emma who is 20, Max who
is 18.Sengthai who is 12, James who
is 5, Heng who is 3,Tong my dad who is 48,
Kim my mom who is 39.

I wish you will come to visit me at Cambodia.

                         Love Sina
                      To : my lovely penpal Justine

Justine is getting ready to do some fundraising for the missionary efforts over in Cambodia. There are several young men there that are worthy to serve missions, but lack funds. The mission president has asked each young man to contribute $500 to their mission in order for them to go, so Justine will raise as much as she can and send the money over. She is considering a bake sale to get started.

Adventures in Babysitting

Yesterday Michelle and I were over in South Jordan looking at houses, and had left Justine in charge of Em & Mads. As we were driving around, we received a call from a very frantic Emilie...she had to go to the bathroom, but the doors to all the bathrooms in the house were "locked". As I pressed Emilie (who was sounding very stressed at this point) for additional information as to why all the bathroom doors in our house would be locked, she proceeded to explain to me that several minutes earlier, Justine had been teasing Emilie, threatening to flush her blankie down the toilet. So Emilie, in the spirit of one-upmanship, decided she would thwart Justine's plan, and lock all the doors to rooms which had toilets in them. Now, in our house, blankies are, well....sacred. Whenever one goes missing, everything stops, a national emergency is declared, and everyone looks for the blankie until one is found. If it is not found, then mom heads to the Walmart, buys some material, and immediately makes a new one. We even had to stop scriptures the other night so that I could drive over to the Stauffer's and find Maddie's blankie that she had forgot. The alternative is to listen to a screaming, crying fit. Yes, we are weak. The crowning moment to this was we arrived home to a puddle of pee on the kitchen floor, compliments of Maddie. If I only had boys...I could have told them to just go out in the back yard and take care of business.

Emilie with the blankie...

Last night Michelle and I had a nice date at The Roof downtown. Great time!





This past week I went on my 1st Elk Archery hunt. It was a blast! We went up above Vernal, as well as deep into the Wasatch (above Strawberry). We were camped around 10,000 feet both times. Beautiful country! No elk though. Maybe next year.

This was the toughest terrrain that I have ever hiked in...straight
up a heavily wooded mountainside, with tons of deadfall.
Shortly after this, we called in an elk, and
he was within 100 yards. We could hear him crashing
through the deadfall until he caught our scent
(we were downwind of him) and took off. It was intense!

Ward Campout - Hobble Creek Canyon

This weekend was our annual trip to Hobble Creek Campground for the Ward campout. It was a blast!!! Dad caught a bunch of fish in the creek, mom and dad participated in an ABBA Tribute band, and the girls karaoked all night. See video's and photos below.

ABBA Cover Band
James and Michelle on right
The show almost didn't go on; Michelle barricaded herself in her trailer
due to her demands for two bowls of "red M&M's" before every show.
The roadies messed up and the M & M's for this show were blue...
Fame is getting to her!



Emilie Karaoke

Em & Allie Ott - Karaoke


Dad and Maddie by the fire

Em and Allie Ott


Em and Clara Moffat

Justine and Tiana

These are pictures of new cousin Kaislee Johnson!

The Gospel in Cambodia

This is a letter from Michelle's aunt & uncle who are serving a mission in Cambodia...

Hello to Everyone,



Well, we did it! On the 15th of July we reached our one year

anniversary since arriving in Cambodia. It's been an amazing year

filled with laughter and tears. The photo of the family attached

is just one of the reasons all of you are needed in the mission

field....yesterday!

The man right in front of Steve is Khem. He

and his family, along with his friend Raa and his family, are

investigating the gospel. We have been visiting them about twice

weekly during our temporary assignment in Kampong Cham, which is a

province city about 2 hours northeast of Phnom Penh. These two

families live side by side at a small brick factory where they earn

$2.00 per day making bricks 12 hours per day every day of the

week. We have been teaching them in Khem's house, where we all are

in this photo. Oh, and also in the house right behind Steve are 6

baby pigs that Khem is raising for food and extra income. They

have no electricity so we read by candle light, flash light and

occasionally, a small overhead light that they attach to a car

battery. But it doesn't work too often. You can see us well only

because of the camera flash. These families are so amazing!!!

They are positive, happy, friendly and grateful for what they

have. They welcome us into their home like royalty. When the

missionaries teach a lesson or when Robyn tells a Primary story,

the Spirit is so strong that it almost hurts. And to sit around

the candle light watching the children....AND the parents all

coloring a picture of Noah and the Ark, it's something we hope you

all get to experience as you will never think about the Gospel, or

your lives quite the same. When Khem and Raa came to church for

the first time, they couldn't believe how clean everything was and

how nicely they were treated. Of course they loved being in the AC

(air conditioned room) as that's a luxury only for the wealthy here

in Cambodia. They also took one of the hymnals home with them so

that they could sing together. So far they love....A Child of

God. We sing it every time we go. We also bring a big tin of

cookies for treats which is something they could never afford on

their own. These families, and others like them, have helped us

change our perspective on what's really important in life and what

we truly need to be happy. It can be found in a small, humble

bamboo and grass house that's about the size of a 12x12 bedroom

complete with pigs. It's the pure love of Christ that we read

about in the scriptures. It's charity, hope, faith and love.

It's being satisfied and thankful for what we've been given but also

willing to give it all away for someone else to enjoy. Thank you

so much for your prayers and support. We know the Gospel is true

and is alive and well in Cambodia.



Love,

Elder and Sister Wallwork aka Steve and Robyn

Steve and Robin are wonderful examples to our entire family as they have given up 18 months of their lives (and they are relatively young!) to serve the Lord. We really look forward to their reports from the mission field!

Yesterday Emilie cut her foot and James and Justine took her to the clinic to get stitched up. She was a real trooper, and really toughed it out during the Lidocaine shots; she actually fell asleep during the stitches. I wish I would have had the camera for that!