i thought you guys could appreciate this!

This was in k-town

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas wherever you are. I want to see how everyone's Christmas turned out for them so take pictures and post it on the blog.

I know a few secrets!

Dad

Sadie Hawkins

( woops! how did
this picture get
in here of this
cute little
puppy!?)

Here is Evan and friends headed for the Sadie Hawkins dance at Kamiakin. He went with

Kimber Hayden and a group of other friends.

mom

My free time

I finished my semester last monday. I won't get grades until after the new year, but I believe it all went well. It was stressful, but it wasn't as traumatic as others have described the first semester so I'm not sure if I did it right. Since then, I've watched a handful of documentaries, watched a lot of movies, and played a lot of guitar. I also do a lot with the missionaries now that I'm available during the day. However, when Melanie goes to work in the morning, I remain in bed.

We are going to Montana on Thursday and we'll be there for Christmas and a few days after. This last sunday we brought three kids to church with us. They are a family from sudan and newly baptized. The husband went back to sudan to reunite with his mother who he thought was killed during a civil war there but is actually still alive. He's gone till February. Unfortunately, the mom's boss changed her work schedule which requires her to work on Sunday and she can't come to church, but she lets Mel and I bring her kids to church. They are very humble people, and as such completely different from American people.

Hope everyone has a great Christmas; we'll miss everyone.

Ryan

Nativity

thanksgiving pictures

WHERE'S WALDO??

Thanksgiving was absolutely wonderful. The feast was magnificent. There are so many wonderful things about our family and extended families.

gift assignments

These are the names we randomly pulled out of a hat:

Jen gives to Janelle
Ron gives to Jon
Janelle gives to Riley
Michael H. gives to Evan
Mike B. gives to Amy
Ryan gives to Ron
Melanie gives to Mike B.
Amy gives to Michael H.
Riley gives to Jen
Jon gives to Melanie
Evan gives to Ryan

I want a new electric guitar, Evan.

Ryan

Christmas Plans

How is everyone? What is everyone doing for Christmas? We are going to be in Montana. Do people want to do secret santa this year? If so, I've drawn names and I can either post them or let people know individually so as to "Keep it secret. Keep it safe." (anyone? what movie?)

Ryan

An Old Jazz Hero

Yes, I watched Jeff Hornacek play for the Utah Jazz. Yes, I watched him win the three-point contest at the all-star game. And Yes, I got his autograph Monday, November 12th at the Energy Solutions Arena, home of the Utah Jazz. He is a current Utah resident and comes to the Jazz games. He is currently coaching one of the Jazz star players, Andrei Kirilenko, on his outside shot, which we all know Jeff was a pro at.

There was a small gathering of people and I saw him standing there signing autographs. Riley gave me the courage to go join in. I felt bad because he was probably sick of signing autographs. It was finally my turn I said, "sorry, can you do one more?" he replied, "sure." I had a small pizza box in my hand and while he was signing my ticket said with a smile on his face, " you better eat that before the game starts." I didn't know what to say, I just chuckled. Anyway, that is my experience with a professional athlete.

Twin separated at birth?

I have a problem with this look

I want the rugged mountain picture depicting the Bitterroot mountain range.

Ryan

Judge for Yourselves

This is Ivy:
This is Hui:

After reading your comments to Jen's post below, I was tempted to make the politically correct observation that most Americans think that all people of asian descent look alike -- whether they do or not. After futher examination, however, I came to the conclusion that these two women may actually look alike. What do you think?

Movie Review from Ryan

We went to see "Dan in Real Life" yesterday and it was excellent. It was very funny, but it is not a typical Steve Carrell comedy. Instead it was a tasteful film done by the same company that did the recent pride and predjudice movie. Aside from having a good message, it is also very clean. Everything about the movie was very natural and realistic. The dialogue and the characters were all down to earth; nothing stank of hollywood. We both thought it was great and we recommend it to all.

We also took a tour of the Olympic Training Complex in Colorado Springs, CO. They have training fascilities for a bunch of the events there. Mel loves the Olympics and desperately wants to work there.

from j...i posted the marshmellow man, was someone worried about it?

Mom was Indiana Jones....

Evan was a Blue's Brother. Doesn't Evan look good! We glued fake hair onto his face to make sideburns.

to see me and my kids costumes go to www.huffblodgett.blogspot.com

Halloween and the Sunday before

Dad's New Favorite Drink

This was a very comical story that I think you all will get a kick out of. I'm sorry dad, but it must be explained. Dad and Mom came up to my meet in Montana this weekend. On the way up they stopped at a gas station to refuel and get some treats. Dad buys a drink and some m&ms. He goes back to the car, opens the drink and takes a sip. He looks at the label and asks mom, "Deb, what does 'hard' mean?" Mom replies, "Bob, that means it has alcohol in it." Whoops! Dad accidentially takes a swig of an alcoholic beverage. Prior to telling me this story, I asked who drove most of the way, mom said she drove about half. Was it the half after dad had drunk the lemonade? Was he passed out in the front seat sleeping off his hangover? I just had to say that to tease dad. This isn't the end of the story. Later, after Riley, mom, dad, and I had went out to dinner and were laughing about the story, Dad had mentioned he still had the drink in the car. Riley says, " uhh, you can get a pretty severe traffic violation for having an open bottle of alcohol in your car, that's illegal" Dad's reply, "Well, the lid is on." No, the bottle was already opened and drunk out of, the cops could get you for that. Sorry, if this embarressed you dad but it was pretty funny.

janelle

So, I think Tom Cruise gets a bad rap. Am I the only one who thinks he is a good actor? He is in so many good movies. Michael and I love to watch him run...he puts all his effort into it.

I am bringing this up b/c I did a face recognition at http://www.myheritage.com/ for Michael and Tom was one of the ones that came up for him. Funny?! I think they have similar eyes, but that is about it. Speaking of face recognition...Lance Bass came up in mine along w/another male actor that I don't know. That makes me feel good about my femininity. But the face recognition was fun to do...thanks Ryan and Mel! Here are just a few of my favorite Tom Cruise movies...

Did you know that he has never won an academy award?

Mitt's a nice guy

Mitt Romney came to my school last Wednesday and Mel and I were sure to be there for it. After his speech and the question and answer session, I was satisfied that he is the best republican candidate. I went to shake his hand and I told him loudly, "You won us over today!" and he let out a hearty politician's laugh. Too bad the party is too bigoted to nominate him. It seems like the republican party leaders in Colorado are backing Romney, or at least the colorado chapter of the republican party leader has voiced his support for Romney. The best thing Romney has going for himself is his financial savvy. Romney's message is the message of fiscal conservatism. No other candidate can compete with him in a financial discussion. He also advocated a clean energy research and technology, which I thought was interesting. Healthcare is an important issue to me, but I haven't been satisfied by anyone's proposal yet or I don't understand a lot of the politicians' solutions. I think its definitely a problem in our country, but I don't have anytime to figure out which solution I would support. School keeps me very busy. Mel and I were just called as ward missionaries and within that assignment we are going to be tutoring a recently baptized Sudanese family how to read and write English so they can pass the immigration test. Apparently, the wife has learned quite a bit but the husband struggles as his native language is sudanese arabic. That's kind of what's going on with us.

janelle

I have become obsessed with talk radio, specifically Laura Ingram. I never used to listen or like it. I am becoming more and more conservative as I get older. But anger comes with listening and I feel so sad for the state of the world. I am reminded of Johnny's conversation with Michael Medved regarding homosexual rights. Yikes! Jon, that was a very interesting point you were trying to make....yet, Michael M. steamed rolled you and your argument became just as shaky as your quivering voice. But it was funny to hear you talk about gay rights to adopt and get married.

As Laura would say....

Evan got his braces off!

A little surprise...

Our new school is .7 miles away but we are still "walkers" not "busers." Even though its a little far, I like to walk to pick them up rather than drive. The weather's been beautiful here too! Anyways today, shortly after we left school, it started to literally pour down rain. Usually you can feel if its going to rain--the air gets really heavy. But today I just didn't think it was going to rain. We walked the whole way home in a torrential downpour! We laughed and had fun but I'll definitely be taking my umbrella with me the next time it looks like rain.

Goal

Hopefully this image will inspire you to do what I'm asking you to do by next Saturday. I want every single person this week to do some form of exercise.

I promise you, if you exercise more frequently you will have more energy, you won't be as depressed, and you'll lose weight in the process. I don't understand, what is so scary about exercise. Yes, sometimes it might burn your lungs but it's worth it.

Here's a goal i'm setting for you all this week:

Do some form of exercise whether it's jogging/walking, playing a sport (probably basketball in our family's case), aerobics, etc. whatever you like to do.

The KEY is to do something that gets your heart rate up. That means your burning calories and its benefical for your heart.

By the way, I'm not even asking you to do this everyday (although I know some of you do Ryan, Melanie, and Evan bravo). Just to start out, I'm asking you to exercise two days out of this next week by Saturday October 13 for at least 30 minutes. I believe this is a realistic goal for you to accomplish. Just take an hour out of your week to get your heart rate up by doing some type of physical activity.

I'm suggesting this because I worry about the general health of our family. I really, really, believe it's important to exercise and I hope all of you will take my challenge.

Amy
Report back to me on how you felt.

I am officially a domestic diva

This is me:

I thought it would be helpful to post a picture to compare my face with that of Parker Posey. Unfortunately for me, there are many dissimilarities between the two of us. I have a prominent nose inherited from the Blodgett side, a very freckled complexion, and small uneven eyes. I do like my new haircut though.

We have an apple tree in our new yard. It has really good green apples on it. So we decided we'd try to be self-reliant and use the fruit. So Ron picked apples for 3 hours on Monday and Tuesday night.

I talked to Grandma Boyer on the phone for 3 hours (Mom, you were at work today) and she instructed me on the art of canning. She included her own tried and true recipe for apple pie filling. So my friend Jen and I canned 9 quarts of apple pie filling today. It was fun to learn something new and feel a sense of solidarity with my pioneer forebears (or something like that). I recommend canning for anyone who's 1-year-old is napping and who's 4-year-old is watching Veggie Tales. Tomorrow we're going to can applesauce.

The finished product and all my supplies.

My water bath canner purchased off craigslist.com for $10.

Gracie enjoyed a power nap while we canned. And Joseph watched Veggie Tales with his buddy Brigham. We had a good day. We'll see how tomorrow goes. Don't be surprised if you receive canned apples for Christmas! Keep up all the great posts on our blog. It means a lot to me to keep in touch.

Love,

Jen