Merry Christmas!!!

Something very magical is happening.....I am calm, relaxed, and not worrying about 800 million things that I should be doing!!  Is it because Christmas has finally arrived?  Is it because my husband is home for a full 24 hours before he has to go to work again?  Is it because I have a white Christmas with snow covering the ground?  Is it because this morning, Mike read Luke 2 and I realized I have neglected the most important aspect of Christmas, Christ's humble birth?  I am sure the answer to my feelings are all of the above.  For right now, I am totally enjoying this feeling.  Pretty soon we will have to clean up breakfast, get dressed, put toys away, and throw away all of the wrapping paper so that we can go and enjoy Christmas with cousins. But for now, I love this feeling.  I just got off the phone with my family, talking to my brother who is serving a mission in Tennessee.  Addie and Jayne are laughing in the other room, playing.  Spencer and Mike are watching Wall-E.  All together as a family!  I LOVE IT!!!!! 

 I can't help but think of family members who are on the other side of the veil.  I am sure they are looking down on us, enjoying the scenes of laughter and togetherness as much as we are.  We truly miss every one of those members but know through the great Plan of Salvation, we will see them once again.  And that is why our Savior came to earth for us.  That is why he was born in a manger, so humble of circumstances.  That is why men traveled so many miles just to see him.  That is why shepherds followed the star.  That is why I love Christmas!

Here are a couple pictures of our festivities that we enjoyed!   I hope you enjoy them too.

Christmas Programs

Both of my girls had their Christmas programs this week.  They were great!  To be honest, I was kind of nervous about how Jayne would behave.  But what can I say, she was an absolute HAM!!!!! She knew every facial expression out there and used them all within one song, Santa Claus is Coming to Town.  Where does she get that personality trait from?!  (not her parents, ha ha ha)  

Addie did a wonderful job as well.  I loved the gingerbread man theme.  It was so cute how all month long, her class has been talking about the Gingerbread Man.  They even made a gingerbread man who ran away after they baked him.  All month long they have been tracking his whereabouts through postcards sent from family members around the country.  This is a great FHE idea if you are away from family and want to do something a little different.  I might use this idea next year.  (If I am that organized and I remember)

I am so happy that Grandma and Grandpa were there for both of their programs.  It definitely made my day, and I know it made Addie's and Jayne's day as well.  Not to mention that Spencer loved the attention from them.  Thanks Gpa and Gma!

Let it snow!!!!!!

I love this time of year!!!!!!  I have been dreaming of a white Christmas and now I actually have one again!  (Hopefully the snow will stay.)  Don't get me wrong, in February I will be ready to pull out those capris and put away all of the snow boots.  That most likely won't happen in Utah, I swear it was still snowing in April!  But what can I say....you can take the girl out of Arizona but you can't take Arizona out of the girl!  I still love my spring!

I can't remember when the last time I had made a snow angel, or a snowman for that matter.  So I followed Jayne and made a pretty good snow angel.  It was so fun to be a kid again!

This specific storm happened Saturday night and since we didn't have to be at church until the afternoon, I thought this was a great family activity.  Especially since Mike didn't have to work and all of his church meetings were over.  WE HAD A BLAST!!!!!!!

You can just see the excitement of the kid's faces.  Addie was so excited she even helped dad use the snow blower.

Things I am Thankful for!

I know that this a little overdue but oh well.  Better late than never.  So here are a couple of things that I am grateful for.  (in no specific order)

1. My kids, even though they got muddy head to toe and walked in my house BEFORE I mopped the floor and not after.

2. My house, I finally feel like I can grow into it!  I can't believe all of my furniture actually fit in my old house.

3.  My babysitters, the mental break away from mom to wife/woman is very much needed and enjoyed!  Even if I pay you $6/hr and you don't clean up!

4. Mike, because he is my EVERYTHING.  How does he know that I am in such a pissy mood and he can make me laugh even when I don't want to.  He makes me laugh daily.  Sorry for spending so much time looking at People's Sexiest Men Alive issue.  Love ya babes!

5. The Gospel, because even though I may have days that I want to send the kids back to where they came from, I know that they are mine FOREVER!

6. My friends, from Chicago to Arizona to Utah!  I love you all!  Thanks for putting up with my complaining and my crazies, even when they are naked outside in the front yard!  And the BYU bandit's graffiti!  I know payback is a .......!  And coming to our Christmas parties throughout the years!

7. Church callings because the good Lord above knows that I am too immature for Relief Society so He only puts me in Primary and Young Womens!

8.  Mike, (again) for being my social butterfly and always having some kind of party going on or being planned.

9. My extended family, my mom's best advice was that marriage is getting two disfunctional families together and trying to create your own disfunctionality.  I miss you all!

10. Mike's extended family, for putting up with my 'disfunctionalities' (is that even a word?) and loving me anyway!

11. Stephenie Meyer, you are a genius!!!! And thanks for showing young ladies out there that it is okay to have a healthy relationship with a boy without having sex!  

12.  This is the Place Park, I know I am weird but I love it!  I love showing my kids how pioneers lived and the chores that they had to do! And I love that I have a Grandparent Gold membership so that I can get 4 adults and 6 kids in for free everytime!

13. My IUD, yes, even though I might have gained weight with you (of course, it isn't chocolates fault), I haven't had a period in 2 1/2 years!  And my mood swings are gone, so Mike thanks you as well!

Don't read this if you haven't seen THE movie yet!

OK!  I saw this movie with 4 of my friends and LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT!!!!!!!!  The actor of Edward grew on me after watching different trailors on twilightthemovie.com.  Bella was perfect!  Edward was GREAT!   I would see it in an Edward heartbeat again.  If I could nitpick and say something that I didn't like....it would be the actress of Rosalee/Rosalyn whatever her name is.  Not supermodel beautiful like I pictured her.  But I guess that is who Stephenie Meyer pictured in her head.  Talking about Stephenie, did you notice her cameo appearance in the diner?  I do need to make a public apology to my friend, Katie, I hope you don't have too many bruises on  your arm from me getting a little too excited during the movie.  

There are a couple of things that I am sad about.  First, having to wait until New Moon comes out to see what happens. And second, dreaming of doing laundry at Wal-Mart and not dreaming of Edward last night.  I do want to read the books again just to have the characters in my mind.  So don't expect the house to get clean anytime soon, honey, once I can get my hands on Twilight, the book.

Good times! Good times!!!

This past weekend, our greatest friends in the world came up to celebrate Travis' last treatment of radiation!  It was truly a wonderful time!  To be honest, it was really hard to keep back my emotions at times.  Mostly during the House Bunny movie when I wanted to cry because I felt I was getting dumber each minute.  

We are just hanging out, playing Settlers of Catan before us chicks bailed out of the game.

Kath was happy that Andrea and I saw the light and ditched the Settlers game.  It was more fun to talk anyway!
A great victory for BYU!!!  The weather was perfect.  Sunny and cool!  Literally, perfect!I think the basis of this bromance is that they are all BYU fans!  And their wives are hot mommas!!!  Especially in Dance Jams at the gym!  (Don't ask me why it is typing like this?!)

The only thing that stunk about this weekend (other than my feet...don't worry I am going to throw those slippers away..sorry) was that we didn't have MORE TIME!!!!!!!!  I wish it would have lasted longer, a lot longer.  This pic is one where my emotions started to get to me, I will just pretend my face is red from the cold.  

I can't help but thank my niece Madison for babysitting the crazies (kids) for the weekend.  She is an angel!!!!  

I love you guys!  And miss you a ton!  It was soo good to see you all!  Let's do that again.  Soon, very soon!!! And never forget that 'the eyes are the nipples of the face'!

I guess Halloween is over!

Today we woke up to a lot of snow!!!  And it was a lot!  I guess I should take down all of my Halloween decorations and throw away the jack-o-lanterns.  It is just crazy that the radio stations are already playing Christmas music.  But today with all of the snow, I couldn't help but singing some.  The week of Halloween, the weather was beautiful!  We went to a neighbor's halloween work party and they had professional face-painters.  Who would have thought there were professionals out there?!  And they did a good job!We are getting ready to score on a ton of candy!  At the last minute Jayne decided she didn't want to be Sharpay.  So she got her constume from last year and wore it.  Whatever.
For those that know Jayne know that she can be quite 'spirited' some times.  But what a lot of people don't know is how sweet she can be at other times.  This picture shows one of those many cute times that she has.  Addie wanted to take a picture of us after our Halloween party/trick-or-treating (after I changed out of my costume into more comfy clothes).  Jayne was sitting down next to me and then all of the sudden she gave me this huge bear hug.  I love that girl!!!!

Playing Catch-up!

I can't believe I haven't posted in a couple of weeks, so here are some pix to show you what I have been up to.

Addie's birthday party.  We went to see HSM3!!!  I loved it!  And so did the girls.  Thanks Tiff for all of your help!  I definitely couldn't  have done it without your help!

And then there was the family party for Addie and her cousin Max.  Max and Easton enjoyed the girly dress ups!

Cousins London and Blake getting a little cozy.  They are so dang cute!

London keeping herself entertained while her mom unpacks the house!

Our crazies!

Life is so much fun when you stop and smell the roses. I think this blog will allow me to do just that.  Here are some of my 'roses'.  Or my little "crazies" as I like to call them sometimes.  The funny thing is that Spencer is camera crazy right now.  He will take my camera and take all of these pictures.  In fact, he actually made Jayne pose on the stairs.  After he was done with Jayne, he made me pose for him....he showed me exactly how he wanted me to sit and where I needed to put my hands and feet.  Hence the following pictures.  And then it was Spencer's turn in front of the camera.  Where do these crazy personalities come from?!?!?!?

Ode to Adelaide Joy

Yesterday was Addie's 7th birthday!  She pulled out her front tooth yesterday so she will be singing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth."  She is such a good girl!  Addie is my songbird and my helper.  She will do anything and everything she is asked to do.  ( I definitely take that for granted.)  If I  could describe Addie it would be: obedient, funny sense of humor, loving, hard working, full of energy, musically talented, FORGIVING, enjoyable, delightful, people pleaser, all around GREAT daughter.  She is my go-to girl...if I want anything done...ask Addie.  Sometimes I forget that she is only a little girl.  If she does something wrong, all I have to do is look at her and she knows she has done wrong and she is truly sorry.  Sometimes I wonder why I was allowed such a sweet and tender hearted girl.  I am excited for her future and all that she accomplishes in her life but for now, I just want her to be 7.  We will be taking her friends to see HSM3 for her party.  I don't know who is more excited about the movie....me or Addie?  Happy Birthday Lady!  WE LOVE YOU!

Christmas Vacation a little early

As an early Christmas gift, Mike's parents took us to Walt Disney World for 3 days  and then on a 4-day Disney Cruise.  Thanks Pat and Chloe Ann!!!!  It was wonderful!  The funny thing is that you will get two totally different responses from Mike and I about how the vacation went.  Mike would say that we will NEVER do that again, it was horrible.  And I would say it was GREAT!!!!  I think the reasons for the difference are the fact that Mike had to be Mr. Mom for 9 days.  Spencer wanted only Daddy!  And yes, the kids did have melt-downs and threw fits but that is on a daily basis at home.  I just think Mike was not used to it since he is at work and misses out on all of those fits.  But the thing that I will NEVER do again was the 8 hour plane ride back to SLC.  We went from Orlando to Chicago to Denver to SLC without getting off of the plane!  That was awful!

We definitely came back needing a vacation from our vacation.  My highlight of Walt Disney World was the new Toy Story Mania ride.  Spencer said, "Do it again!" Right when it was over.  And my favorite highlight of the cruise was Castaway Cay.  It is the private island that Disney owns.  The water was beautiful and the bike rides were fun.  The saddest part was on the flight there when I realized I forgot my camera!  UGH!!!!  (Thanks for the pics, Molly).  

Am I doing this right?

Since I am a blog-stalker (I love looking at everybody's!), I figured I should make my own.  I am doing this all by myself so we will see how successful I am.  It is a quiet Sunday afternoon.  Done with church, lunch, making cookies, and now I have to wait for them to cool so that I can frost them.  I love the fall and pumpkin cookies!  My goals for this blog are to stay in touch with all of our dear friends from around the country, keep this as a journal of sorts, and to remember to enjoy my children and all of the fun that we have.  Wish me good luck.