Have an UDDERLY Merry Christmas!

Carson made this masterpiece in preschool. Some things I will never throw away and this is one of them. Check out those udders! This might have to stay on the fridge forever! We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas! Love Harris, Mel, Carson, and Amelia!

Growing Up

This morning we have been doing a major clean out of closets and desks. I started working on Amelia's closet. Her closet used to be the office, so it still has a lot of things stashed in it from before she was born, including the file cabinet. As I went through all of the folders I found a flood of old pictures of Carson. It is sad how hard we try to remember how little they used to be, but looking through the pictures I realized how much I have forgotten. Then came Amelia's blessing box. I remember the day I opened that, 2 Christmas's ago. Harris' mom gave it to me as a gift before we even found out we were having a girl. Strangely, I already knew. Amelia had been a very spiritual experience for me from the very beginning. Anyways, I couldn't believe it has already been a year and a half from that blessing day. Corny, I keep humming the song "Slipping Through My Fingers" from Mama Mia ( I love that song!).
I got married at age 18 and have had to learn things strictly from trial and error. I have had a lot of growing up to do, but as I am soon turning 26 I hope that while my children continue to grow up at such a fast rate, hopefully I am growing up a little too and I can keep in focus what is most important to me. I have known two families this year who have lost their sons at an early age and reality has really hit me. I can't waste the time I have with my amazing children. They are the most important things in my life. It's so sad how fast time goes by!

Amelia

Carson

Look at those faces. They are two peas in a pod! But how stinkin' cute are they!

TodaysMama Giveaway!

TodaysMama (link to: http://bit.ly/tmwishlist) and GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What is your holiday wish for your family?

To all be together. That's all that matters!

2. What is your Christmas morning tradition?

Yummy cinnamon roll breakfast and opening presents in our new pjs.

3. If you could ask Santa for one, completely decadent wish for yourself, what would it be?

A trip to :

Honolulu, Hawaii

4. How do you make the holidays special without spending any money?

Fun activities with the kids. Spending time with the extended family and get togethers with friends.

5. What games did you play with your family growing up?

Skipbo

6. What holiday tradition have you carried on from your own childhood?

Getting new pajamas on Christmas Eve. Helping out a family and teaching the kids about how blessed we are as a family and how rewarding it is to give to those in need. Sleepovers in Mom and Dad's room.

7. Where would you go for a Christmas-away-from-home trip?

Disneyland Christmas!

8. Check out GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) and tell us, what are the three top items on your GameStop Wish List this year?

A Nintendo Wii "for the kids ;)"

A Nintendo DS Lite for my son. He would absolutely LOVE one!
Mario Kart with Wii Wheel!

Happy Meal-o-ween!!!!

We had a super fun Halloween this year. Traditionally, the festivities began by going to the Pumpkin Patch. We went with a bunch of our good friends and picked out the smallest pumpkin we could find :) We actually grew pretty sweet pumpkins in our garden so we weren't concerned about spending money on these babies. Here's us with the tractor guy.

Then, three days later Carson and I went to the Pumpkin Patch again for a preschool fieldtrip. That was really fun getting to know all of his preschool buddies...and the moms!

There they all are!

Then, one of the highlights was the Farm Man Challenge that Harris and I did the morning before Halloween. A good friend of a good friend is fighting Stage 4 melanoma, so there was a benefit run in her honor. We did the 10K which was no ordinary 10K! We were climbing over huge hay towers, jumping over big pvc pipes, crawling under a semi truck, and my fave...the finale of running over the huge bouncy pillow. It was a blast, and a good way to pre-runoff my Halloween candy. I hope the benefit was a success to Christina McEvoy and she is in our prayers as her and her family go through this fight! This is Harris and I. I actually look kinda buff ;) This picture makes me laugh.

And this is us all after the race. The kids had a great time playing with the cute little goats running around. They really were pretty cute. Too bad all the sweat made me so cold afterwards or else you could see the sweet little Halloween getup I wore during my run!

Now for the moment you've all been waiting for...trick-or-treating! Having Halloween on Sunday definitely puts a damper on things. We went trunk-or-treating with the ward on Saturday night. Check out this juicy little hamburger. I seriously would eat her. She is so stinking cute. What is that face? I just need a huge collage of all of her crazy little faces she makes.

And now, last but not least, our little Happy Meal family!
We could not get full body shots due to the point lids. Oh, and yes, that is a hamburger on Amelia's head.

A little laugh

This girl is just funny. She is the cutest little sassy pants I know. Baby laughs are contagious too.

Forgot this one!

We had a family reunion this summer in Cascade. We went on a hike to this lake (totally forgot what it was called) but it went to this AMAZING lake. It looked like a painting. Makes you wonder how people don't believe in God. Anyways, don't mind the dirty, sweaty family blocking the view, well besides Amelia who sat in her queen backpack the whole way. It fed into this waterfall that went down these big boulder rocks (wait....it's coming to me....it's Boulder lake..there we go) that we climbed and I just can't describe how awesome it was! Maybe the only other hike I've been on would be a)in Hawaii and b)the Trinities. Anywho I decided to post this pic of Carson after 3 days at a cabin without a bath!!!

So We Think We Can Dance

Two of my favorite shows would be So You Think You Can Dance and Dancing With the Stars. We really wish we were dancers around here, I mean wait, we are. But, I really see a lot of potential in Amelia! She dances ALL THE TIME! She loves it, and literally sits and watches the shows with me! This is Amelia's Remote Rumba. Carson takes her important props away and it sounds like she's giving him a serious talking to in baby language.

The Bat Party!

My firstborn child turned five this past September. I can't believe it! It has been the year of the milestone birthdays in this family. To celebrate for Carson he wanted to have a batman party. It was his first friend party and I was actually a little nervous to try and pull of entertaining 10 five-year-old's for two hours! I can't believe how fun this party actually turned out!

They made Batman/batgirl masks.Then they played squash the villain (huge hit) and "Freeze" to the batman theme song.
Then we over course had pizza and cupcakes and sang happy birthday. Carson told me it was his favorite birthday ever, so that makes it all worth it! I was really impressed by how nice all his friends were and really wanted him to have a wonderful birthday! I hope he continues to have friends like these throughout his life. I love this wild little boy of mine and am so happy he had such a good time!

Look who's walking...sort of!

The Big 3-0!

This summer has been super crazy. I didn't plan my annual calendar too well with three birthdays three months in a row (Amelia-July, Harris-August, Carson-September). So anyways, I am just getting to posting Harris' big 3-0 birthday bash. He is so funny and hates that I make such big deals about birthdays and always tells me not to plan anything. So I didn't. Or at least not on his actual b-day. I totally had him fooled :) The surprise party was the day after. Thanks friends and fam for making his party such a success! And happy birthday Harris, you old man you. Thanks for always being such a great dad and husband!

Twinners!

Two days after Amelia's birthday, Misty had her twin babies, born July 8th! She had a beautiful baby girl and studly baby boy, Brody and Sadie. Actually Sadie Marie to be more specific, and same middle name as me since I'm such an amazing role model to my little niece. They are so adorable and sweet.
It definitely takes a special mother to be blessed with twins, and Misty is doing amazing at it. These twins are so sweet, they love to nuzzle up to each other and snuggle. They have such a close bond! Congratulations Misty and Scott for your adorable babies!

Amelia is 1!

Little baby Amelia turned one on the 6th of July! I CANNOT believe how fast the time has flown! When you have a baby as sweet and fun as Amelia it just makes it that much faster! I love this age, but it is sad that she has grown up so fast. We had a princess party for her, which may be ridiculous to some since she won't even remember it, but hey, I have been waiting to throw a little girl birthday party for a long time! And yes, I had fun! We had princesses galore and a somewhat cute castle cake! Thanks to all for supporting this one year old birthday party!

Amelia is not walking yet, but she could if she wanted...but she doesn't. So, that's ok with me. The longer she crawls the longer I still feel like she's a baby. She talks a ton in baby language and in english she can say mom, dad, dog, what's that (sthat), uh oh, nod yes and no, touch her nose when you ask her to, play peek a boo, and her version of head shoulders knees and toes. She LOVES chocolate and raspberries (or any fruit). She does NOT like mac and cheese. Don't even try to put it near her :) She loves to speed crawl and be chased by Carson for me to save her from him. She's a mommy's girl and I love that. She sleeps like an angel...what a blessing! Carson has many nicknames for her...Millie, Mini, Wuzzy, etc. We love this little princess!

At 12 months she is:
Weight: 19 lbs (20%tile)
Height: 29 in. (56%tile)
Head: 17.5 (32%tile)...see it's not large, just round :)

Happy Birthday Amelia!!! LOVE YOU!

FloRida

A few weeks ago we decided to throw in a Florida trip in the mix of everything we had going on this month! Family vacations have always been important to us, and we realized this may be our last opportunity to go before we have too many kids to afford it :) I'm so glad we did! We also got to see Whitney. She was able to spend a few days with us! Unfortunately, I'm not very bright and didn't realize how large some cities are in comparison to Boise, so the drive for her was a bit long (sorry Whit). The kids were such amazing troopers - minus Amelia throwing up 15 minutes before we arrived back in Boise -even through the horrible flight schedules and many connections they were great. I was impressed. So here's some pics of our great time!

This guy was right outside of our cute little condo. We were always greeted by these or cute little lizards.

This was our last night. We decide to eat at "Old Salty Dog." Ya check out this place. Pretty interesting. They fried hot dogs. Wow. Healthy, eh?

This place is seriously just AMAZING!

Carson and Harris caught a Sea Urchin while snorkling on the beach.

Ahhh, look at that amazing sparkly water. (Notice oil free)

Riding the train around Busch Gardens

Carson riding the Crab Ride (or his words Crap Ride)

These Sting Rays were very friendly. Amelia couldn't decide if she wanted to pet them or not. She would chicken out every time it would get close but she kept trying!

The sunglasses Whitney brought Amelia. She looked like a really cute bug!


Bye Florida! We REALLY miss you already! You too Whitney! Glad we got to see you!