Nine

For almost a decade this girl has been sunshine in our family!


Happy Birthday Sierra!

Ugly Cookies...

Ethan and I decided to make cookies today. It turned ugly. Thankfully these are not chocolate chip cookies so my self created Chocolate Chip Cookie Master reputation is still intact.

And darn...I LOVE Gingersnaps.

TRADITION--LIGHTS aka A Perfect Day

Another day of tradition. You see we are creatures of habit. We do something once, we usually do it again, and once you've done that well...TRADITION.

Mike and I started going to see the Christmas lights in Salt Lake City the year we met. It was actually the time I first knew I would marry him even though I didn't know his last name yet. But that's another story.

We have gone to visit the lights as a family ever since. Last year we added a train ride to the equation and now Frnt Rnner as Ethan called it is a tradition. Yesterday we had our perfect day.

Train ride, dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory, A serendipitous meeting with Santa and of course lights. Here are some of my favorite images of the evening.
CONFIDENTIAL TO BROOKE & HER MOM: I can't wait for our next night at the lights and another tradition. And to Brooke's Mom...dress warm! :)

CONFIDENTIAL TO ANYONE WONDERING WHY I WOULD PUT A PICTURE OF SAVANNA LIKE THAT IN A PERFECT DAY POST: Isn't she cute? She was mad at me for putting 2 ponytails in her hair instead of one...or was it she was mad because she couldn't drink my entire bottle of water in one sitting. Who knows...but it was a good photographic moment none the less.

Another Must Read...

If you want to learn about Faith...what it is, how to really apply it...

If you want to learn about Prayer...

If you want to learn about Forgiveness...

If you want to learn about Grief...

If you want to learn about an amazing person who didn't know she was SO strong...

You MUST read this:
Go on...you won't regret it.

Honest Scrap Award

One of my friends, Brenda, awarded me the Honest Scrap Award. I accept and will pass it along to other bloggers who will be named later.

There are rules to this deal. They are as follows:

1. Present this award to 4 others whose blogs you find brilliant in content and/or design or those who have encouraged you.

2. Tell those people that have been awarded the HONEST SCRAP AWARD and inform them of these guidelines in receiving the award.

3. Share “10 honest things” about yourself.

Here are my 10 things.

1. I am a terrible housekeeper.

2. I don't want to be a terrible housekeeper.

3. Some days I would be totally happy to sell my business and be a 'normal' mom. (OK many days but not all days...some days I love it.)

4. I really try to understand my in-laws but sometimes I just don't get them. But, I still love them. I'm sure there have been many times they don't get me either. Give and take I guess.

5. I wish I could convince Mike to go skiing with me AND go to musicals with me. I know, two things totally not related. Even though he doesn't I still love him. ;)

6. Sometimes I wish we could move out of Utah. Not forever, just as an adventure. But, on the other hand, I am EVER so grateful for living close to [most] of my family and for the closeness my kids have with their cousins.

7. I wish my kids were closer with their cousins from the 'other' side of the family and I try hard to encourage those relationships.

8. I keep my Christmas lights on through the whole month of January, not because I'm some weird Christmas wacko...but because I think it's good therapy to battle the emotional letdown after the holidays.

9. I am really proud of my kids. They make many good choices. I am trying to be better at acknowledging those rather than harping on the bad ones.

10. I am slightly obsessed with photography right now. And I don't apologize for it.

OK my 4 people to pass this on to:

Amanda
Marni
Brooke
Amy
Lisa

Oops that's 5. I guess I'm not good at following rules.

It *might* be a bad sign...

when your 11 year old SON comments on how nice it is that you cleaned the fridge.

Things that are DONE!

I run around trying to accomplish things and let's face it, many of the things Moms do are UNdone almost before we get them DONE. So, as a reminder to myself that SOMETIMES we really do get things done, here goes: (Sorry for all the ! exclamation marks...its just these are really exciting for the poor schlops that live in my house...in other words ME!)

1. Bump Beds! (Tim and Ethan are now bunk bed owners and goodbye crib...for good.) {Thanks Mike!}

2. Organized Garage! I can now park my car in the garage for the winter. :) {Thanks Mike, Emily, Tim & Sierra}

3. New Remote for our Automatic Garage Door Opener. (Those of you that don't have garages will hate me for this, but...darn we built our garage for a reason it wasn't so my car had to sit outside in the snow.) :) You see our remote broke 5+ years ago and on a whim Mike went to see if there was such a thing as a universal garage door opening remote. Ta Da! There was and it took him all of about 35 seconds to program it. We won't ask the question of WHY it took him so long to get it in the first place...at least we won't ask it often. {Thanks Mike!}

4. Christmas decorations DONE! *Whew* {Thanks Emily, Tim, Sierra, Savanna, Ethan}

5. Christmas Shopping {almost} DONE! (1 to buy...have to wait a couple weeks though and 1 to make) Good thing because tomorrow starts the 'CRAZY BUSY' time of year--shipping wise. {Thanks me!}

It's nice to COMPLETE something once in awhile rather than just start things all the time.