Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas! This has definitely been a Christmas to really remember. Addison is at that age that she is really getting into it and understanding what is going on. Here is a picture of the tree.













Here is a picture of her helping Brett put the star on the tree. She really liked looking at the ornaments and talking about why they are each special and who gave them to us and why.

For Christmas Eve, it was always a tradition in my family to go to a movie. We decided as our family to continue that tradition. We went to Bolt. Addison really liked it and Brett and I thought it was pretty funny. After the movie we drove around and looked at Christmas lights. When we got home, we all got in our PJs and read the story of the birth of Jesus Christ from the Bible. After that, we decided to each open one present. It was really nice to be able to spend this special time together as a family.

We thought Addison would be up fairly early on Christmas day. Luckily she didn't get up until 8:30!! She was a very good girl and came into our room and informed us that it was time to go down to see what Santa brought. When she saw what Santa brought her, she fell down by the couch and made some sort of squealing noise. I am guessing that was her squeal of approval. :)












Here are some pictures of her opening up her presents. Brett and I gave her clothes and shoes because she is growing like a weed. She opened up her new school shirts and said, "More clothes?" I had to laugh. I told her that she is really blessed to have so many clothes and she said, "yes, I am." We had a nice quiet Christmas at home with just the three of us. It was really windy outside and cold, so we didn't try to venture outside. We stayed inside and played with our new presents and watched Kung-Fu Panda and Anastasia.






Here is the picture we take each Christmas with all the presents. Addison had a great day and we had a good time as a family. We were planning on leaving right after we opened presents and drive to Casper to surprise both sets of grandparents, but because the weather was so bad, we decided not to. We ended up getting almost a foot of snow between Christmas night and the day after. At least we were able to be together as a family to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Addison LOVES to sing!

So, I thought I would share a little of what Addison has been up to at school. She is loving it! She is attending a charter school that emphasizes Spanish. She has also been able to be apart of Choir at her school. They performed at Barnes and Nobel at a school event there, then at the tree lighting ceremony for Layton City, for her school in a school assembly and then an actual concert. She really enjoyed it. Here are some pictures. She is quite the little entertainer.









Here is Addison with the three girls she carpools with.
(From left to right, Addison, Riley Bybee, Emily Gordon and Kira Thompson).

Happy Thanksgiving!!

A lot has happened since last I wrote. It has been busy around the house getting things back to normal and getting ready for Christmas. The week after I got back from Miami, we played hosts to my entire family.

For those who know nothing of my family, it is pretty big. There are 7 kids, along with my mom and dad. All of us are married and many of us have kids. So, if you take all of us and add us together, there is a total of 27 people. Now...close your eyes and imagine 27 people crammed into a 5-bedroom, 2100 square foot home....not a recipe for comfort...but definitely a recipe for FUN!

It was great to see the entire family. We all get along fairly well together. It was great to have the entire family here. I stayed up late every night and although I was exhausted, I had a lot of fun. Needless to say, I ended up getting sick on Sunday. :( Still don't feel 100%, but it's all good.

So, how did I fit all these people in my house? Well, my parents graciously (and for their sanity) stayed in a near-by hotel along with one brother and his family. Addison had to be kicked out of her room and put in our walk-in closet....she kept asking us "do I have to sleep in the closet again?" The novelty wore off with her after the 2nd night. We also took our 5 ft-high storage area and finished some of it to make it into a make-shift kid play area with a TV and toys during the day and a sleep area for my youngest brother and his wife at night.

Family started to arrive on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and started leaving Friday. My last two brothers and their families left on Sunday.

To the left are some pictures of our front room that we turned into the dinning room. We cleared out all the furniture to make room for the tables and chairs our neighbor let us borrow. Immediately to the left is a picture of the kitchen. It was hard to fit all those people and all that food in our house, but we managed. We had a lot of good food and we ended up making 8 pumpkin pies....and they were all gone by Saturday!

I had a moment of clarity during Thanksgiving. During Thanksgiving dinner, our family has a tradition of going around the table saying what we are thankful for. During this, I found myself looking at all my brothers and sister and their spouses and my parents, and thinking of how grateful I am for the blessings of the temple, of the sealing power and eternal families. Yes, we fight sometimes and don't get a long 100% of the time, but we are family and we love each other. We will be together forever and for that I am grateful.

It was great to have all of us together and I can't wait for us to all be together again. I just wish it would have lasted a little longer. As you see to the left....my brother, Evan, is a little crazy. I think this is why we have so much fun together....we are all crazy. :)

Danone World Cup in Miami!

So, the Danone World Cup has come and gone. Suffice it to say that it was 2 days of soccer-filled exhaustion. On average we should have played about 6 or 7 games....we ended up playing 10 games with 7 of those games being in one day! As soon as I took off my cleats on the last day, my calves cramped up and yelled, "I'm done."

We played 3 games on Saturday. It was hot and very humid and wonder of wonders, I got sun burnt. We didn't start out very well. We lost to Hungry right off the bat, followed by a tie with France (the defending world cup champions). We rounded out the morning with a loss to the United Kingdom. None of these games were out of our reach to win....but somehow we managed to loose or only tie. Despite the dismal performance, we qualified to continue to play the next day.

This picture is of all 4 teams in our group: UK, Hungary, France, USA.

Sunday came much too fast. We started out playing the top seed from another bracket, Spain....and of course, we lost. In a way we were relieved because that meant we could enjoy the rest of the day and support the US men's team and get some sun on our shin-guard clad legs....but alas, we found out that if you loose in the first game, you go to the secondary bracket, of which you can still win. So, we had a brief break before we had to start yet more pool play with Canada, Italy and Turkey. Our coach switched up the positions...put me back at defense, which I prefer, and we were all pretty relaxed...who cares if we win or loose, let's just have fun.

In our first game, I was lucky enough to score off a free kick from mid-field....no one was more surprised than I was....well, that got us off to a good start. We ended up winning all 3 of those games which qualified us to advance into the quarterfinals. We played Malaysia and won that game and then went onto the semi-finals with Bulgaria. We won that game as well...which meant we were in the finals against the other French team. We ended the final game in a 0-0 tie. Now, baring in mind that in the 2 previous world cups, the US women's team lost in shootouts.....and alas, this was no exception. We lost in a shoot out, but still got a pretty awesome trophy! Here I am giving it a nice big KISS!Here is my soccer team. Back (from left to right): Jenny Hainsworth, June Endersen, Martha Johnson, Holly Fordham and Karen Sama; Front (from left to right): Sari Stagg, Heather Hamblin and TC Mulhenstein; Sitting: Maggie Kruse

All in all it was a really fun time. They keep you very busy from the beginning of the tournament to the end. You start at 7am and don't get back to go to sleep until midnight. On Sunday, the party continued until 4am!

So, here is a breakdown of what we did. We arrived on Thursday night. The tournament festivities started Friday night with a dinner at each of the 7 hotels the teams were staying in. There were a total of 43 countries that participated...almost 1,000 participants! On Saturday, we started at 7am. After we played, the buses....SCHOOL BUSES....took us back to the hotels to shower and change and jump right back on them for a 45 minute ride to South Beach for dinner. The restaurant was on the beach and we were able to walk to the Atlantic Ocean. There was a full moon-I tried to capture it here. We got back to the hotel at about midnight.

Sunday started at 7am. We didn't get back to the hotel until 7:30pm and back on the buses for dinner by 9. We went to a swanky night club for dinner that night. The first shuttle to take people back to the hotel from the night club left at 12am and the last one was to leave at 4am. I was tired and ready for bed, so me and a few teammates went back to the hotel at 12. On Monday, we went to a huge 90,000 mall before leaving to the airport. We didn't get back to Salt Lake until 12am and I didn't get home and into bed until 2am. I had to work the next day.....so I have been pretty exhausted all week.

It was amazing to talk and associate with other countries. Learning more about other cultures is fascinating...and I was able to use some of my french. :)

It is such a neat experience representing your country. I love this country and as the song says, "I'm proud to be an American." :)

Not only did this provide me with some great experiences, but sad ones as well.

It was rather sad to see all the alcohol that was consumed and the "worldly" way of living. I also missed Brett and Addison horribly. It's experiences like this that really test you to see if you really will hold to your values under any circumstances. I am so thankful for the gospel and the clarity it gives me. You don't need the things the world says you do to have a good time and enjoy yourself.

I am very glad to be back. It is always good to come home after being away. You start out the journey excited to for all the possibilities that lie ahead of you, but as you get into it, you realize how much you miss the mundane and ordinary parts of your life. It was great to play a game I love with friends and get to know other people from other parts of the world....but it's even better to be back with my family.

Welcome to Miami.....

So, I am getting ready to go to Miami on Thursday. I leave the 13th and come home late on the 17th. I will be going to play soccer for the company I work for, The Dannon Company. Dannon is owned by Dannone, a World-wide company based in France. Every 2 years they hold what they call the "Dannone World Cup". They bring a men and a womens team from each country Dannone operates in for a big soccer tournament. I think they said there are 53 countries represented this year. Two years ago it was in Portugal and this year it is in Miami. There was a huge US tournament back in May to decide which teams would go to represent the US. The team from UT made it for the women....the team I'm on. :) I think they said almost 1,000 people will be participating in the tournament this year.

It is a really neat experience. You get to rub shoulders with people from all over the world! We also exchange jerseys after the tournament. In Portugal, I got a jersey from Italy for Brett (since that is where he served his mission), from New Zealand for Dad (since that is where he served his mission) and one from Mexico (because one of my team mates took my jersey and did it...still a little miffed about that one).

Anyway, the US Women's team got 5th in Portugal and we hope to do well in Miami. Dannone emphasizes the "friendly competition" of the tournament, and for the most part, it is.

So, wish us well and I will be sure to post pictures after the tournament. Also, pray for Brett and Addison; being that Brett will be a single parent for a few days. :) Go USA!

Happy Halloween!

I thought I would share some Halloween pictures. Addison went as a fairy...a princess fairy to be exact. Her Nana Howard (My mom) made the costume for her. We went trick-or-treating with our Neighbors, the Gaertes. To the left is Addison in front of her pumpkin.

THANKS, NANA HOWARD!!!

Below is a picture of Addison and the Gaertes. (From left to right: Cobi (Batman), Shayla (A Little Lamb), Lukas (Johnny Flame) and Addison (A Princess Fairy))

I was able to go out with Addison this year and Brett got to stay home. I rarely dress up, but thought I would this year.

When we were trick-or-treating, several people in my ward would talk to Ronnie Jo (Cobi's mom) but ignore me until I said "hi"....they couldn't believe it was me.

When I asked Addison what she thought of my costume, she looked a little concerned and said, "Mommy why are you making bad choices." I had to explain to her that it was pretend. After that she was fine....well, we will have to see if I produced any long-lasting affects that come out later in her life. :)

Also, no Halloween would be complete without Brett's annual Pumpkin carved art. Brett decided to do Jack Skelington from "The Nightmare Before Christmas". Addison, of course, wanted Tinkerbell. Here they are below for your viewing pleasure.

Welcome!!

Welcome to the Stagg Family Blog! We have seen everyone else do this...and because we are followers, we thought it would be a good idea to do a blog and keep everyone posted on what is going on with the Stagg Family. Since I am new at this, it may take a while getting everything up and going. Please be patient. :)