a story about a snake

within the bustle of returning items after christmas jill spotted a toy snake.

there were plenty of other toys in sight, we were in-fact, in the

toy aisle at walmart, but she honed in on a snake.

she carried that snake throughout the rest of our shopping trip.

she would cuddle it, make it slither, kiss it, make it lick camille.

she quickly loved that snake.

any other day i may have just bought that snake for her.

after all, it was just one dollar in price.

however, christmas was just a week ago and she had plenty of new toys.

there was no room for a snake among all the new

princesses, horses, and books.

so i thought.

at check-out the tears began to come and the negotiation began.

she held the tears back like a big girl and promised to clean her room

without mom's help (and keep it clean). this would earn her one

dollar bill and thus the snake (if she even remembered about it the next day).

the next day came.

i was awakened by jills sweet voice,

"mom, i'm gonna clean my room and get a snake today. you fremember?' (jill-bonicks)

sure enough, she earned that snake and even paid for it herself in the self-checkout.

i think i'd better lower the allowance price to 10 cents a day.

the shoe tree

have you ever seen this:



i have.

it's called the shoe tree.

my first recollection of this tree is as a junior high student.

driving along route 50, "the Loneliest Highway",

to and from different sporting or church events.

it was always a fun sighting during a long drive.

the tree is a large cottonwood, the only sizable tree for miles around, and there are shoes all the way to the top.

a few shoes have even begun to stray into a nearby smaller tree.
Local legend says that a young couple had an argument on their wedding night and the bride, in a rage threw one of her shoes into the tree.

somehow, this started it all.

now, it's over.

someone cut it down.

i feel sad.

i may just throw a pair of shoes on the next tree i see

in memory of the shoe tree.

2010 wrap-up

christmas each year is more and more fun.

as the girls are growing and learning i can't

help but share their joy of the season.

we focused a great deal on the birth of the savior.

camille has since named all her babies and dogs "baby jesus".

jill has contined to drawn the nativity scene, complete with the star.

i love this little family jeff and i have created.

their favorite new song though is "jinger bearrs"

christmas eve pjs from Alisha on Vimeo.

the year ended with a bang, literally.

jeff contracted with a couple large firework companies

and had three tents selling fireworks for the new year.

big shout-out to jeff's family.

each of them helped tremendously and he couldn't

have succeeded without you.

this is the first year in over 55 years (perhaps longer) that arizona

has allowed any type of fireworks.

the girls had a blast with the sparklers and jill even managed to

burn a hole in her new sweater.