Our New Addition

Most of you already now about the newest member of our family, Ginger. She's a 4 year old Shetland Sheep Dog. We adopted her on 1/11/11 from the local shelter for $10. I won't go into much of the details of what has happened (or been chewed through) since she's been with us because I have posted many of the woes on facebook. All I can say is that I'm working with her to overcome her faults...
She's a very sweet dog and has SOO much patience with the girls, especially Kaity who's constantly in her face, pulling her collar, putting sunglasses on her, etc. I didn't think having a dog would be this, umm, stressful or frustrating and if I had to do it again I don't know if I would. But she's with us now as a permanent part of the Marley fam.
Not much else exciting has happened. Cameron did get a raise, which was really nice because, one more money is always nice, but two that he actually works for a company who GIVES pay raises. They have been really impressed with Cameron's work ethic and the comments that they have got from the students he has trained. Cameron is so close to hitting that 1000 hour mark he can taste it! When that happens he'll start tossing out his resume, AGAIN, and see what hits he gets. For all our Western WA people, Horizon Airlines is first on the list to apply to. That would get us either to Portland, or Seattle. Either one would please our families, I'm sure. Of course all of this is very hypothetical. It's really just us dreaming, but Horizon's minimum time requirements are 750 hours and their strongly preferred requirements are

1,000 hours total flight time.

100 hours of multi-engine flight time (Cam has about 300)

A college degree (B.A. or B.S.)

 All of which Cameron has with the exception that he needs about 40 more total hours. Again, just dreaming.
That's about all that's worth writing about. My mom is heading out this way on the 17th so I'm sure they'll be pictures to post in the next couple of weeks. For now we just stay inside most of the time and try to stay warm (third hottest place in the US my eye!).

Christmas

 On Christmas Eve we decided to take a family hike. This may become a yearly tradition no matter where we are. If it's snowy we'll go snow shoeing or cross country skiing. But it was sunny so a regular hike it was.
I really didn't think that there would be too many people out because, hello, it's Christmas Eve. They should have better things to do like make a huge Christmas dinner and be with family. Apparently, not in Bullhead/ Laughlin area. As you can see from the picture below, there are quite a few cars in the parking area. Okay, you can only see 3. But there were more then that!

This place was right across the bridge into Laughlin.

 My handsome mountain man. He was so excited to get in the outdoors that he brought along his homemade camp stove and a pan to cook something in. Unfortunately, he didn't get the opportunity to use it. 

 Some of the rocks with petroglyphs on them. Apparently this place is sacred to the native american tribe in the area.

 My girls being themselves which is anything but quite and reverent in the sacred place.

 Kaity and her rock.

 Breanne said that this rock formation looks like a camel. So that's what we'll call it. Camel rock. Do you see it?

 

There is water in the desert! It had just got done raining for the past 4 days so there was a pretty cool little river that ran all the way down the rocks. We had to jump across it several times to keep going up.

 The night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

 and the stockings were hung by the (eh hem) counter with care in hopes that St. Nicholas would soon be there.

{Insert Video that was taking FOREVER to upload here}

Christmas morning!

Hope you all had a fun and relaxing Christmas because we sure did. It was nice to have Cameron home for a few days. We even went out a bought ourselves a BIG Christmas tree during the after Christmas sales. It's 7 1/2 feet tall and about 3 1/2 feet wide at the bottom. With our tree topper on we have taken it right up to the ceiling.

 We also got the girls some fish. This one here is "Watson".

This one is "Sherlock". 

The girls would really enjoy a pet that they can play with but this will have to do for now.

Cameron is really liking the job over here. They have him all checked out in the multi engine aircraft and is now one of 2 multi engine instructors. One of the "big wigs" with the company, Senior, has really taken a liking to Cam as well. He's went flying quite a bit with cam to get him his multi hours so he could instruct in their aircraft (which I guess he doesn't do with anyone) and he gave our family a spiral Christmas ham that was delicious. The company also gave a smaller ham and a big tin of Schwann's ice cream. YUM! On top of that, I bought a 9 lbs ham! That's a lot of ham. So we gladly gave one ham away because who needs that much. Our freezer is only so big.

Holy Night

This Holiday season has been so different for us. I know that Christmas is pretty much the same every year as far as traditions and gift giving, baking and shopping, decorating and tree getting but I've really had a chance to think about the real reason we celebrate. This is probably because usually this time of year we're making plans for 12+ hour trips and how much time we're going to spend with each family and what we're going to do to what days, stressing to get the rest of our shopping done, etc. It's all kind of stressful and, like I said, this year is different.
We just moved and will be having the very first Christmas by ourselves with our very own little family. This is the first year that Cameron and I get to decide what WE want to do with our children and how WE want Christmas Eve and Morning to go. Don't get me wrong. We loved being with our families and sharing those moments with them but at some point we have to start building our own traditions and memories. So this is the moment.
We've known since the second week of November that we would be alone this holiday so I've been thinking about it for a while, trying to find ways to make it special for all of us. I started thinking about what I wanted to teach my girls about Christmas and how I was going to get them to understand that it's more then presents and candy and Santa. Now, all those things are good and fun and the girls have definitely experienced that part of it. The big question was, "What am I going to teach them?". I can honestly say that I have learned more by trying to answer that question then I had expected.
I always have known that Christmas is about the birth of Christ, but I never thought about why. Why is that important? I feel silly writing that because it seems so simple now. We're celebrating his birth because that was the beginning of His incredible life. Because that incredible life lead to that great sacrifice that allows us to overcome death. But more then that, he chose to leave our Father in Heaven, come down and be born as a little child in humble circumstances and endure the cruelty and the unbelief to teach us by His example and to ultimately save us. I can put myself in Mary's shoes. Being told that she's going to bring into the world the Son of God (that I can't relate to) and then doing so, not in a house with a bed and blankets, but in a shelter. Not having a crib, but some hay, to lay her new baby in. I think any new mom or mom-to-be can tell you that this would not be her ideal birthing plan.
Besides all the reasons we have to celebrate this season, there's something else I think we can do. The three Wisemen brought gifts to Christ. Gold, an item back then reserved for kings, Frankincense, an incense used in the temples of those days and Myrrh, something used in embalming, signifying his death. They brought gifts that we meaningful. I've heard from a couple of different people that they are having their children give a gift to Jesus. I think that that's great. I think we all should try and find a gift to give. Something meaningful. There are so many things that we can improve in ourselves, to be more kind, slower to anger, faster to forgive, to think better of others, etc.
My hope is #1 you got through this ginormous entry and #2 that we can slow down this week before Christmas and really get into the spirit. To think about the Christmas Story, read it if you have it available to you(Luke Ch.1). Put yourselves in their shoes, Mary's, Joseph's, the Wisemen's, and Christ's. Share the true spirit of Christmas, the Spirit of Christ.
Since I have had the chance to slow down this year, got my shopping done earlier and had to really think about how I want my family to celebrate such a joyous time of year I've found what Christmas really means, to me anyway. Today, being the last Sunday before Christmas, the lessons at church were all based around the meaning of Christmas and I couldn't hold in the feelings that I felt.
I hope you all have a safe and a VERY Merry Christmas!