Happy Birthday, MyLiege Elite

I guess I shouldn't say how long ago it has been, but suffice it to say a number of years ago on this day in Ogden, Utah a beautiful dark haired baby girl was born. She was tiny and red and gorgeous with lots of black hair. I couldn't believe how black her eyes were. She looked so different from her two brothers who were born big and pink and bald.

We named her MyLiege Elite because she is an elite and royal princess. She lived up to her name. She was the little princess in our family and everyone was thrilled to finally have a little girl. She melted her dad's heart. He went from being a strict disciplinary marine to a soft teddy bear when it came to his little girl. She had her grandpa wrapped around her little finger. He would do anything for her and she would do anything for him. She first crawled and walked and even rode her bike for the first time with Grandpa.

MyLiege is a remarkable young woman. She amazes me with how accomplished she is. She writes, she acts (in her younger days), she directs (also in her younger days), she is a seamstress, a great cook, a wonderful leader, a fantastic Auntie, a creative mother and of course a very loving wife. I have been in awe of her for many years. Every parent wants their child to surpass them and MyLiege has certainly done that.

Right now she is awaiting the birth of her fourth child. She is more than ready, but still has about 4 weeks to go. As I reflect on her birth and the tremendous joy she has brought to my life I wish her a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY and know she will find as much joy in her children as I have in mine.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MYLIEGE!!

Exercise

I'm not one who likes to exercise. I have too many aches and pains and they seem to only get worse when I exercise. I'm basically a lazy person.

However, I know I need to do something; because, I'm out of control. I have several friends that belong to Curves, a fitness center designed specifically for women. I've proved I can't seem to diet and exercise on my own so I finally decided I needed to get help. There is a Curves on my way home from work so I decided to give it a try. They gave me a FREE week to try it out.

I stopped in after work last Monday. They have 16 different hydraulic pieces of equipment that work various parts of your body. I expected to really hurt on Tuesday, but it didn't happen. They place the equipment in a circle (or rectangle depending on the room) around the room and have little resting pads between each equipment. You spend a total of 30 seconds on each piece of equipment and then move to the resting pad for 30 seconds and then the next piece of equipment. You go around the room twice and then spend about 5 minutes stretching to end your 30 minute workout. It is amazing how fast it goes. They play upbeat music and have a prompt that tells you when to change stations. Each station works a different muscle or body part. Because you change so often you don't get really tired or stress any muscle. You get your heart rate up for a good cardio workout and the hydraulics give you the resistance for a good strength workout too. I actually felt rejuvinated after my workouts. I went everyday last week and decided to join the program. I'm very excited.

It is also fun. There are other ladies working out with you and the conversation is fun and entertaining. You quickly become friends. By the end of the week the regulars were greeting me by name. They have a good support system that helps keep you motivated. I may just make this work this time. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Empty Nesters Family Home Evening

We attended our first Empty Nesters Family Home Evening in our new ward. It was fun to see so many friendly faces we already new. We also met a few new faces. We dearly missed our old group. When they first announced FHE they put it on the first week and I thought we would be able to still attend our old group. Two weeks ago they switched it to the second week. Since we are trying to become a part of our new ward we felt we needed to attend.

Our group is made up of three different Empty Nesters groups. It appears the other two groups only did putluck dinners each month and that seems to be the way they want to go again. I enjoyed the potluck and we had a lot of fun going around the room learning a little about everyone, but I do hope we will have some lessons too. I LOVED our gospel discussions in our last group. We don't seem to have as many gospel discussions in our home now that all the kids are gone. We used have lots of teaching moments so the gospel was talked about alot. We haven't found our secret to gospel discussion since then. I'm open to suggestions.

I thought since I'm in the nursery we could have a weekly discussion on the Sunday School lesson that I miss each week. Steve always says it's really good, but can't seem to remember enough specifics to engage in a good discussion. I suppose I really should read the lesson too, then I can ask the questions in the lesson and maybe he can remember to share some of the answers that were given. We talk ABOUT having gospel discussions all the time, but we never seem to get around to actually talking about the gospel. How sad is that.

Back to FHE. We voluntered to have it at our house next month. Where am I going to set up enough tables to feed 25 to 30 people? They said they used to do theme meals. What theme should we do? I want to have a lesson too. Are they going to rebel at that? I'm a little nervous about this. Oh well, if they don't like it then I guess they won't have it at our house again.

Arizona Woman's Message to America's Leaders

The following letter read on Glenn Beck's show, is rapidly circulating around the country. Americans everywhere identify with this 53-year-old woman. She has given us a voice.

GLENN BECK: I got a letter from a woman in Arizona. She writes an open letter to our nation's leadership:

I am a home grown American citizen, 53, registered Democrat all my life. Before the last presidential election I registered as a Republican because I no longer felt the Democratic Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. Now I no longer feel the Republican Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. The fact is I no longer feel any political party or representative in Washington represents my views or works to pursue the issues important to me. Instead, we are burdened with Congressional Dukes and Duchesses who think they know better than the citizens they are supposed to represent.

There must be someone. Please tell me who you are. Please stand up and tell me that you are there and that you're willing to fight for our Constitution as it was written. Please stand up now. You might ask yourself what my views and issues are that I would feel so horribly disenfranchised by both major political parties. What kind of nut-job am I? Well, these briefly are the views and issues for which I seek representation: One, illegal immigration. I want you to stop coddling illegal immigrants and secure our borders. Close the underground tunnels. Stop the violence and the trafficking in drugs and people. No amnesty, not again. Been there, done that, no resolution. P.S., I'm not a racist. This is not to be confused with legal immigration.Two, the STIMULUS bill. I want it repealed and I want no further funding supplied to it. We told you no, but you did it anyway. I want the remaining unfunded 95% repealed. Freeze, repeal.Three: Czars. I want the circumvention of our constitutional checks and balances stopped immediately. Fire the czars. No more czars. Government officials answer to the process, not to the president. Stop trampling on our Constitution, and honor it.Four, cap and trade. The debate on global warming is not over. There are many conflicting opinions and it is too soon for this radical legislation. Quit throwing our nation into politically-correct quicksand.Five, universal healthcare. I will not be rushed into another expensive decision that will burden me, my children and grandchildren. Don't you dare try to pass this in the middle of the night without even reading it. Slow down! Fix only what is broken -- we have the best health care system in the world -- and test any new program in one or two states first.Six, growing government control. I want states rights and sovereignty fully restored. I want less government in my life, not more. More is not better! Shrink it down. Mind your own business. You have enough to take care of with your real [Constitutional] obligations. Why don't you start there?Seven, ACORN. I do not want ACORN and its affiliates in charge of our 2010 census. I want them investigated. I also do not want mandatory escrow fees contributed to them every time on every real estate deal that closes -- how did they pull that one off? Stop the funding to ACORN and its affiliates pending impartial audits and investigations. I do not trust them with taking the census with our taxpayer money. I don't trust them with any of our taxpayer money. Face up to the allegations against them and get it resolved before taxpayers get any more involved with them. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, hello. Stop protecting your political buddies. You work for us, the people. Investigate.Eight, redistribution of wealth. No, no, no. I work for my money. It is mine. I have always worked for people with more money than I have because they gave me jobs -- and that is the only redistribution of wealth that I will support. I never got a job from a poor person! Why do you want me to hate my employers? And what do you have against shareholders making a profit?Nine, charitable contributions. Although I never got a job from a poor person, I have helped many in need. Charity belongs in our local communities, where we know our needs best and can use our local talent and our local resources. Butt out, please. We want to do it ourselves.Ten, corporate bailouts. Knock it off. Every company must sink or swim like the rest of us. If there are hard times ahead, we'll be better off just getting into it and letting the strong survive. Quick and painful. (Have you ever ripped off a Band-Aid?) We will pull together. Great things happen in America under great hardship. Give us the chance to innovate. We cannot disappoint you more than you have disappointed us.Eleven, transparency and accountability. How about it? No, really, how about it? Let's have it. Let's say we give the buzzwords a rest and have some straight honest talk. Please stop trying to manipulate and appease me with clever wording. I am not the idiot you obviously take me for. Stop sneaking around and meeting in back rooms making deals with your friends. It will only be a prelude to your criminal investigation. Stop hiding things from me.Twelve, unprecedented quick spending. Stop it now. Take a breath. Listen to the people. Slow down and get some input from non-politicians and experts on the subject. Stop making everything an emergency. Stop speed-reading our bills into law. I am not an activist. I am not a community organizer. Nor am I a terrorist, a militant or a violent person. I am a parent and a grandparent. I work. I'm busy. I am busy, and I am tired. I thought we elected competent people to take care of the business of government so that we could work, raise our families, pay our bills, have a little recreation, complain about taxes, endure our hardships, pursue our personal goals, cut our lawn, wash our cars on the weekends and be responsible contributing members of society and teach our children to be the same all while living in the home of the free and land of the brave.I entrusted you with upholding the Constitution. I believed in the checks and balances to keep from getting far off course. What happened? You are very far off course. Do you really think I find humor in the hiring of a speed reader to unintelligently ramble all through a bill that you signed into law without knowing what it contained? I do not. It is a mockery of the responsibility I have entrusted to you. It is a slap in the face. I am not laughing at your arrogance. Why is it that I feel as if you would not trust me to make a single decision about my own life and how I would live it but you should expect that I should trust you with the debt that you have laid on all of us and our children? We did not want the TARP bill. We said no. We would repeal it if we could. I am sure that we still cannot. There is needless urgency and recklessness in all of your recent spending of our tax dollars.From my perspective, it seems that all of you have gone insane. I also know that I am far from alone in these feelings. Do you honestly feel that your current pursuits have merit to patriotic Americans? We want it to stop. We want to put the brakes on everything that is being rushed by us and forced upon us. We want our voice back. You have forced us to put our lives on hold to straighten out the mess that you are making. We will have to give up our vacations, our time spent with our children, any relaxation time we may have had and money we cannot afford to spend on bringing our concerns to Washington . Our president often knows all the right buzzwords like unsustainable. Well, no kidding. How many tens of thousands of dollars did the focus group cost to come up with that word? We don't want your overpriced words. Stop treating us like we're morons.We want all of you to stop focusing on your reelection and do the job we want done, not the job you want done or the job your party wants done. You work for us and at this rate I guarantee you not for long because we are coming. We will be heard and we will be represented. You think we're so busy with our lives that we will never come for you? We are the formerly silent majority, all of us who quietly work, pay taxes, obey the law, vote, save money, keep our noses to the grindstone... and we are now looking at you.
You have awakened us, the patriotic freedom spirit so strong and so powerful that it had been sleeping too long. You have pushed us too far. Our numbers are great. They may surprise you. For every one of us who will be there, there will be hundreds more that could not come. Unlike you, we have their trust. We will represent them honestly, rest assured. They will be at the polls on voting day to usher you out of office.
We have canceled vacations. We will use our last few dollars saved. We will find the representation among us and a grassroots campaign will flourish. We didn't ask for this fight. But the gloves are coming off. We do not come in violence, but we are angry. You will represent us or you will be replaced with someone who will. There are candidates among us who will rise like a Phoenix from the ashes that you have made of our constitution.Democrat, Republican, Independent, Libertarian. Understand this. We don't care. Political parties are meaningless to us Patriotic Americans are willing to do right by us and our Constitution, and that is all that matters to us now. We are going to fire all of you who abuse power and seek more. It is not your power. It is ours and we want it back. We entrusted you with it and you abused it. You are dishonorable. You are dishonest. As Americans we are ashamed of you. You have brought shame to us. If you are not representing the wants and needs of your constituency loudly and consistently, in spite of the objections of your party, you will be fired. Did you hear? We no longer care about your political parties. You need to be loyal to us, not to them... Because we will get you fired and they will not save you.

If you do or can represent me, my issues, my views, please stand up. Make your identity known. You need to make some noise about it. Speak up. I need to know who you are.. If you do not speak up, you will be herded out with the rest of the sheep and we will replace the whole congress if need be one by one. We are coming. Are we coming for you? Who do you represent? What do you represent? Listen. Because we are coming.
We the people are coming.

In GOD We Trust

A Magical Christmas Gift!

This is an incredible video. I hope you can all see it. This was taken at a Russian Talent Show. These kids are incredible.

Merry Christmas

Dear Family and Friends,

I missed last year for my annual Christmas Newsletter and almost missed this year. Needless to say, a lot has happened in the past two years.

As of our last newsletter dated December 2007 we had some sad news. My father, who came to live with us in January of 2007, passed away on December9, 2007. It was a very spiritual experience for me as I was able to have him in our home for the last year of his life. I knew his time was coming during the final few weeks we had. He wasn’t eating very much the last few days and I knew it was close. On Sunday, Steve went to Church. I felt the need to go sit by his side and hold his hand. Every once in awhile he would squeeze my hand a little. Shortly after Steve got home my Dad took his last breath. He died peacefully in his sleep and I was so grateful I was able to be by his side. He was a loving and gentle father, grandfather and great grandfather. It was truly a wonderful blessing for our whole family to have him with us.

Douhet and Kylee

The most exciting news Douhet and Kylee had during the past two years is the birth of a SON. After four beautiful girls, Griffyn Leavitt Wilcox was born on September 21, 2009. He is adorable and a very sweet baby. Of course, having 5 children in a 2 bedroom house is likely to drive Kylee crazy. We are hoping they will be able to begin work on the “new” house portion of their house this year.

Laila is 11 years old and in middle school. She is growing up so fast and is a great asset to her mom and dad. I can’t believe she will be going into Young Women’s this year. I couldn’t be more pleased with the outstanding young woman she is becoming.

Alyson is 7, soon to be 8. She will be baptized in January (or February depending on when they hold the Stake baptisms.) She is working hard to learn her Articles of Faith before her birthday. She is growing into a beautiful young lady.

Audrey is 5 and started school this fall. She loves being in kindergarten. She likes to learn and works very hard. She is also as “Audrey” as ever. I don’t think I’ve met anyone who can talk as much as Audrey. And Audrey is a typical blond and all the blond jokes apply. She is a sweetheart and a delight to be around.

Kinzley just turned 4. She has the most beautiful wavy hair and very striking features. Douhet is going to have his hands full fighting off the boys with all these beautiful girls. Kinzley is in preschool and doing very well. She is a delightful little girl and growing up so fast.

Season and Sara

The newest addition to this household arrived on January24, 2008. Karsten Ryan Wilcox made is debut at 12:39 AM and checked in at 9 lbs 4oz and 19.5 inches long. He is ALL boy! Season has called him Hurricane Karsten or Dr. Karstvorkian. I can relate to the Hurricane name as we used to call Season “Monsoon”. Dr. Karstvorkian came about after Karsten got blamed for the demise their cat by feeding him dental floss. He is nearly 2 and look how much he has accomplished so far. I always knew Season would get at least one child like he was.

Madison is 6 ½ and a very BIG 6 ½ year old too. She is in first grade and loves to play school. Madison is a ballerina and loves to perform. We have been thrilled to see her in The Toy Shop and Hansel and Gretel over the last two years. She dances very well.

Brooklyn is 4 going on 8. She is very intelligent and seems much older than she is. She just started taking ballet this year and we haven’t seen her in a performance yet. I can hardly wait to see her. She reminds me a lot of Season too, as she always tries to keep up with Madison…which is why she is so smart.

MyLiege and Sean

They have wonderful news. MyLiege and Sean will be expecting number 4 in March of 2010. If the ultra sound is correct they will be having a daughter, much to the delight of Anna. She loves to talk about her little sister.

The other news for this family is they moved to Canby this year. They now have a much bigger house and Sean is much closer to work. Of course that just means he can stay at work longer and still get home at the same time as he used too.

Djeryd was baptized in January 2008. He is the biggest lego fan in the world and is probably going to be some kind of engineer because he loves to build incredible things with his legos. He is also an avid reader. He is a great cub scout and has advanced to the rank of Bear. Djeryd is in the 4th grade.

Erik is 6 and in the first grade. He could also be called Monsoon as he is a VERY busy boy. Sometimes he seems to have no sense of what is going on. He can be told to not do something and he turns around and does exactly what he was told not too. On the other hand, he can be the sweetest, most helpful kid around. Trying to get a balance between behaviors is a real challenge.

Anna is 3 ½ and very much her mother’s daughter. I am amazed at how much of MyLiege I see in her. Not in looks but definitely in actions. She is a delightful little girl with a mind of her own. I think MyLiege is heading into some “challenging” times ahead.

Sierra and Shonee

Sierra and Shonee sold their home and moved to a little “farm” in the country. They are renting to see if they like it. After nearly a year, they decided they are ready to buy again and it looks like they will be moving again in January. I haven’t seen the new house yet, other than pictures. They are hoping it will be the last move for a long while. I can relate to that.

Montana is 10 and in the 5th grade. He is in “virtual” school and doing very well. I believe the move is near the middle school that Sierra wants Montana to go to. He is also a big Lego fan and loves to create Lego characters. Tana is also a writer and has written several books. I honestly believe they should try and get some of them published. They are that good.

Alena was baptized in August. I can’t believe how big she is getting. She reminds me of Sierra more every day. She is older than her years and very grown up. She is also in virtual school in the third grade and doing very well. She got her ears pierced for her 8th birthday. She, too, is a beautiful girl.

Emma Dawn is as precocious as ever. Her beautiful curly hair is very becoming. Because of her birthday in September, she couldn’t start school last year with her cousins so she started kindergarten this year in the virtual school. She is really smart and was already reading chapter books before she started school. Needless to say she has already passed kindergarten and is in first grade with her cousins. She is on track to be completely caught up by the end of the year.

Savannah turned 3 in October. Her best friend is Anna and they love to play together. They don’t get to see each other as often as they would like. Savannah is already learning to read as she tries to keep up with her older siblings.

Steve and Leslee

With the economy in the shape it is many people have been hit hard. We finally succumbed last December and had to close our doors for the final time on The Water Doctor. We were struggling with sales and when the big snow storm hit the Northwest for three weeks it did us completely in.

Through it all we were still able to see the Lord’s hand blessing us everywhere we turned. I was able to get a great job I love working for HawkSoft, Inc. This is a wonderful company owned by my son-in-law, Sean and his father and brother-in-law. I didn’t even really have any down time at all. Steve was also blessed to be able to work for the dealership in Washington that took over our area. He still works with many of our old customers. The only problem is they don’t keep him quite as busy as he would like, but somehow we are managing to stay afloat.

Well, that brings us to a close of another year. We have come to appreciate even more how much family and friends mean to us. We are grateful families can be together forever. We are grateful for our Lord and Savior whose birth we celebrate this time of year. We are grateful He loves us so much. He is our Redeemer, the Prince of Peace. We love Him! May you be filled with the pure love of Christ now and forever.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year!
Our Love and Prayers,
Steve and Leslee Wilcox

Thanksgiving

I love this time of year because we have lots of opportunities to get together as a family. As my children got married I devised a plan so I could have the whole family together for both Thanksgiving and Christmas every year. It was simple. I would let the in-laws have the kids for the actual holiday and I would get them the day after Thanksgiving and on Christmas Eve. The first could of years we had a conflict with one of our daughter's in laws. They wanted them on Christmas Eve too. After a few years of trading back and forth, we decided to invite the in-laws to our house for Christmas Eve so they could see our family traditions and why we needed all the kids there. It worked. After that year they agreed we could have them every year and they moved their celebration to a different day.

Our family gatherings have grown over the years. We are now up to 25 people! Next year will bring the total to 26. We have so much fun just being together. All the grand kids love playing with their cousins and they all get along very well. This Thanksgiving there was so much laughter during dinner we could hardly carry on a conversation. They food is great and abundant. After dinner we played Apples to Apples and have a wonderful time.

I really look forward to Christmas Eve. We all gather at our son's house to enjoy the holiday. He has the perfect house to entertain. Last year it snowed so we met earlier than normal. They kids had a great time playing in the snow. Everyone decided they want to start earlier this year so the kids can play outside again.

There is usually a fun activity for the kids to do, such as making ginger bread houses or Christmas ornaments. After we've played and eaten we gather for our traditional nativity play. We have been doing this since our children were small. Now the grand kids perform. We still have one adult in the play. That is our son who always plays the Inn Keeper. Sometimes he enlists the help of a couple other grownups, but it is always very entertaining. Our Inn Keeper has been a number of characters over the years from Shrek and Donkey, to the three characters from Princess Bride, to a newscaster and weather reporter last year during the snow storm. We can hardly wait to see who he is going to be this year. Of course he always brings it back to the true Nativity and why we celebrate Christmas. But it is always a treat to be entertained with his great imagination and spontaneity.

I wonder who he will be this year?