spheroid temperate climate

We have had snow in variable amounts every two to three days this year. We had about eight inches of snow on Monday and then on Tuesday the wind came and created bare spots in some areas and four foot drifts in others. Of course the four foot drift was in my driveway, but I got a good workout removing it so Theresa could park. Liz, Xenia, and Ken went skiing with Dennis in Winter Park, CO. It snowed all day and it was great for skiing. (Correction: The girls went Knuckle Dragging) They both did very well snowboarding for only their second time. While Ken was off playing, (What's new?) Theresa went to Colorado Springs with Debby and spent the day trying to buy a new vehicle. (Is this not supposed to be the man's job?!?!) A huge thanks to Deb for taking Theresa down and staying with her throughout the ordeal. If you want a great deal on a car, send two women and tell them not to leave until everything is right. We picked a good time to get the vehicle because it was white out blizzard on the way home from Colorado on Sunday.

On Friday night Mikaela needed to go to the hospital for a feared appendicitis. She was dehydrated and had a viral infection. She is doing much better today and is resting.

Today is the first Saturday that Theresa has to work and we are trying to pick up the duties she usually takes care of like grocery shopping, cleaning, and washing clothes. It is a minor adjustment and a whole lot better than her being gone for weeks on end.

Not much going on.....

What the Anthony's are not busy, busy, busy as usual.

I would not say it that way but I can say life has mellowed slightly in the past few weeks. Everyone is back into the normal routine and back in school after a long holiday. Last semester all 3 girls brought home A and B report cards. Liz has started CYO again and is busy with youth group and preparing for missions trips this summer. Mikaela has quit gymnastics all together now but is still doing piano and tae kwon do. With mom back to work we had to give a few thing up(go figure). All of us are still involved in church groups and Xenia is still cross country skiing. Xenia is also finding a life outside of entertaining Mikaela:)

With mom back to work we have all adjusted well and Mikaela has only had one melt down (she does do change well). Mom loves her new position and has recieved her temporary license. Now it is onto the big exam.

Ken has been enjoying his job a little better with the stress that he does have to work as hard any more to support all of us.

The two older girls are off to the ski mountain tomorrow to learn how to snow board...I will send the funny pictures later.

Prayers to all of you
Love the Anthony's

HAPPY NEW YEAR

The Anthony family went into the new year with a bang....

-Xenia's family arrived on the 30th, this was great Xenia had no idea of their arrival. We did some sledding and bowling and they went to Thermopolis for some site seeing. The evenings consisted of great conversation and meals. This was an experience. They brought with them dad, mom, brother Kevin, and two sisters Elaina and Kiara (I dont think I spelled right but atleast I remembered).

- Kens family (Dennis, Debby, Rachel, Neal, and Melissa) arrived on Jan. 1st. Again this was a relaxing time of taking Xenia's family out for shopping and gun shooting. More good conversation and meals. I love having a house full of family there is nothing better then to bring in the new year with so many loved ones. With that being said I did have a hard time being away from the ones that could not be with us.

-With the new year we bring....a new job for Theresa!!! YAH this starts on Jan 5th and yes it is my field of study.

I think this is all to update, I will post some pictures so that you can see all the fun!

Ok so I finally joined facebook.com I will add many more fun pictures there so please log on and check it out.

Have a great new year!

Love to all.

Anthony/Reigger Families

Anthony/Anthony families

Merry Christmas

As Christmas has come and gone we are enjoying a wonderful weekend together with many new toys and gadgets that Santa was so generous to bring.

We celebrated with Bree on the 23rd so that she could be with her fiance and family on Christmas day. We then celebrated Christmas day with Opa, Xenia, Liz, Mikaela, mom and dad. It was a quiet one this year and for the first time in a few years we chose to stay in Casper for the holiday. The girls had many gifts to open as well as the adults. However, we decided to change the routine slightly (besides staying home and not traveling). The girls usually get up in the morning and open gifts immediatly, this year we signed up to serve breakfast at our local recue mission for the homeless. This was to show the girls they should give before they receive (small reminder of what the season truly is about). So off to the CWRM we went at 8am home by 11am to open gifts and off to everyones personal corner to play with their new toys.

As we stayed home Theresa's mom, dad and sisters family played in the sun in the Dominic Republic and Dennis and Debby (plus family) stayed in Colorado to enjoy this time together as well as Brett and his family. Even though we were all apart we know we are together in the heart! I love all of you and missed you this season.......Remember the season is not about what we got it is about what we were given!!! Merry Christmas.

Oh yah.....gifts: Ipods, Pj's, games (from Germany), lots of candy, Wii games and much much more.

Rescue Mission (Ken and Spencer):

Liz, Mikaela, and Dad prepping food (or playing?:)
Christmas Eve service (Xenia, Ted(opa/dad), Mikaela, Liz, Ken, and Theresa)
Gift time:

Fellowship with Lempka family

On Sat. afternoon we got together with a few other families from church for fellowship and making gingerbread houses. We had pizza, good conversation, and some of us got a good sugar high. Okay no one told me the candy is to go on the gingerbread house and not in your mouth!

Xenia's gingerbread house

Xenia's cooking class for school made gingerbread houses. She did a fabulous job....after a few days however the house started to lean. We explained to her that it is now a true"wyoming" gingerbread house because it leans from the wind:)

Holiday Parties

Ken and I spent the weekend attending Christmas parties....On Friday night we attended our church community group party. This consisted of food and Kareokee (sp). On Saturday we went to Kens work dinner at the Goose Eggs Inn. This is a traditional event and was a very enjoyable evening. With it blizzarding outdoors it was not a long night.


Ken's idea of a good picture

Theresa's idea of the right picture
Kareokee (sp) Good times!

Holiday Baking

We did our annual holiday baking. This was 4 hours in the kitchen with lots of laughter and humor! Thanks to all three girls I did not have to it by myself this year.

Hope all of you are enjoying the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. Keep in mind what the season is about!

Christmas Wreaths

Ken makes Santa Clause with a sugar cookie

Mikaela and Xenia decorating sugar cookies

Liz put to work doing the fudge

In Loving Memory

It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to MeMe (the sugarglider). As we came home last Thursday and she was not doing well I knew she would not make it through the night. This is not the easiest thing to explain to your daughter who has nurture this creature since birth. As expected the critter only survived another hour into the evening.

Fun Memories:
Sleepless nights so that child can hand feed the runt of the litter.
Sleepless nights because critter is nocternal and wants to play when parents want to sleep.
Holes made in the wall because critter escapes and finds a way into the wall.
House guests that want to see it "fly" and instead it pees on them.

Let me remind everyone to remind me of these fun memories when my children want another "critter" type animal!

Again, with great sadness we say goodbye but we say hello to a full nights rest!

(Liz is sad so please keep her in mind but is doing well!)

Done Done Done

I have successfully completed all of my fieldwork (work study). It is now time to join the real world! I have turned in two resumes this past week and hope to hear from them this week. Keep me in your prayers! I will keep you posted.

Love to all!

Holiday Church Play

On the set....

After the production and greeting the audience

Liz was Emma in this years Church Christmas Production. It was a little different this year then the years in the past but she enjoyed it and is already planning her next depute.

Decorating for the Holidays

Getting the tree out

Getting out all the house decorations

xenia gets a personalized ornament to go on the tree.

All the girls helped put the "special" angel on top.
The outside lights are still underconstruction and I dont think you cared to see pictures of the decorated kitchen and bathroom:)

What a weekend...here we are getting the house ready for the holidays. What a major undertaking. Xenia was helping too!

Holiday Parade

Drumming circle Director

Ken...getting everything set up

Mikaela and Best Friend Londynn

My girls:)

The back of the float

Setting up!

Every year the weekend after Thanksgiving our town hosts a holiday parade to kick off the season. This year our PTO did Cat in the Hat and it turned out great. It was very cold! I let Ken walk in the parade with the girls and Xenia went and watched so that we could admire the other floats.

Thanksgiving

Today we give Thanks for all that we have....I am Thankful for my family (all of them) and for the gift of life. I am thankful for everyone who has supported me through the years and seen me through it all.

Thanks to everyone!

This is our dinner....it was fun, we also celebrated a few weeks earlier while in Denver with Deb and Dennis, Melissa, and Neal.

Thanksgiving Day:

I look at my table this year and compare it to five years ago...WOW I really can cook a good meal (thanks Deb! I owe most of it to you:)

Family Updates

Well here it is heading into the major holiday season. I am one week away from being completely done with school, then it will be time to focus on board exams.

Liz - keeping up with her schedule will kill anyone. On Saturday she had her winter Casper Youth Orchestra Concert (no pictures were aloud to be taken) then this week we are focusing on the final production of her church Christmas play. This takes place on Dec. 6-9 so these will be some long nights. She brought home a straight A report card and got moved to advance social studies last week. Now if we could work on organizational skills we would be doing great. I guess I should just be lucky that I have such great kids.

Mikaela - also pulling all A's in school. Her schedule has slowed down for the holiday season as well. She is ready for mom to be done with school.

Ken - is deciding PTO is not all that it is cracked up to be, he enjoys it but it would be better if other people pulled their own weight.

This weekend will be our town holiday parade that yes of course my children are in. The PTO (the drumming circle) is doing a Cat in the Hat theme with all the drummers and other school members. We will be celebrating Thanksgiving with just the 5 of us but with all of you in our thoughts and prayers. We celebrated an early Thanksgiving with Dennis and Debbie and family on the 15 of Nov.

Love to all!

Football Ball

Natrona County High School does a winter dance called the "Football Ball". Xenia got invited to the dance by another exchange student. I have to say she does not get into dressing up and doing the "girly" thing. We encouraged her to find a dress and go. She went to the Harshman's house to try on some of the girls dresses they had and found nothing that she liked. When her dad arrived he loaded Xenia and I into the car to go on a dress hunt. It took all but 5 minutes. The one she chose was the first one we picked out. What a blast! As for the dance she was not very impressed:( But looked good anyway!

Visitor from Germany

With great delight we opened our doors to Xenia's dad. It was a very short visit but a nice one at that. During his time here we had an American Steak Dinner and Poor Boys, then he went shopping with the Anthony's for evening gown for his daughter to go to "football Ball" with a gentleman here also as an exchange student. Lorenze was a pleasure to have and we hope to have him return soon:)

Sleeping Beauty and her Guard Dog

Just a cute picture to share of Mikaela and her Guard dog. What a team they make. This is a nightly routine for the two of them.

Going Gold

Mikaela tested out of her white belt last week. She is now a Gold and black stripe belt in Tae Kwan Do.

HAPPY 25TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!

Deb and Dennis celebrate 25 years together this past weekend. We were able to join the suprise celebration. The biggest suprise for them was their daughter Rachel showing up from Oregon.

Congratulations!!!!