No I am not close to my 30's yet!!

Once again my birthday is here and so far Ben gave me one very big long fit this morning before school over what his breakfast options were. In the end he DID come out with chocolate syrup drizzled over his waffles so I'm not sure why we went through all we did. But he is safely out the door.
I decided for my birthday that I am going to ask all my friends to write a nice/funny/good memory that we have had together. Ever. Now normally I would possibly laugh if someone did this but I still think it would be fun and I would probably be reminded of funny things. Try to keep them somewhat nice..........well do whatever you want but still just do it. If no one writes anything I will remove this post and pretend I never wrote it and you will all forget it also. I recieved a nice message from my brother in China and realized this is what is fun about birthdays. Hearing from people you don't normally hear from. Even though I talk to him a couple times a week at least. Okay I'm off to workout and hopefully have a fun day out.

Because I have not loaded any pics of MY kids on my computer....

You get to see her trying to get out of the house to go play down the street.(not the first nor the last time this happened)

In the very busy month of December some of the highlights were:


Working a lot which really helped out this month and through this realized this may not be my calling in life like I had previously thought.

Going to the train park with grandparents and cousins and having the whole park to ourselves because of the threat of rain. We met Elmo and some other cartoon characters that I can't remember right now. Emma loved them from far away but as soon as they got close she would freak out a bit. Ben on the other hand had brought his pack of gum that gives you a high voltage shock when you pull out a piece and he got every character there to try and pull it. Instead of waving at him like they did to other kids they would put their fists up wanting to punch him. It was really sweet to see. I am pretty sure he punched a couple of them as well.

Somewhere during this month Emma injured her leg really bad and I thought she had broken or fractured it. We are lucky enough to know a great couple whose wife happened to stop by that evening and when she heard that Emma was hurt called her husband who is a chiropractor and he saw her that night in his home and put my mind at ease that her leg wasn't broken. He also called the next day just to see how she was and had us come into his office to get her ankle, knee , and pelvis back in place. He saw several times this month and made sure she was back to her normal self that could climb on every counter constantly and get everything out of the cupboards. (aren't they supposed to grow out of this at some point) That was the only highlight of her being hurt. I was amazed at how we were helped immediately by generous people that love Emma and just wanted to help her get better.

Another fun tradition that I am so glad my mom remembered was the kids Christmas party with the grandparents. They all got an individual invitation in the mail inviting them to a sleepover Christmas party at grandmas. I'm not even sure what they did nor does it matter. They were picked up and taken to the party and I went to get them the next morning. That is the best Christmas present I can get. We were able to go out to dinner and then to a holiday party all without thinking about kids. The holiday party was so much fun! Thanks for planning and inviting us Cindy!

Two days before Christmas we had our annual kids holiday party at my house with another friend. I'm not quite sure if this one is going to be annual yet . My kids loved it as they should but I'm not so sure my neighbors would love if I did this again.
27 kids ranging from 2-13- Pizza- flag football game in the street-basketball in the driveway- 2 bins full of little Lego's-crafts at the table with about 5lbs of glitter(this was Dusty's fav. when he came home) I tried to explain that the floor was just sparkling because it was so clean. popcorn and a santa clause movie where I'm pretty sure at least a bag of popcorn ended up in and around my couch. This three hour party ended right on time and as soon as Cindy came in to pick up her grand kids she started ordering everyone around to clean up she had the house clean in 20 minutes. That was the highlight of the party for me. I feel like I keep thanking Cindy a lot.

Christmas this year turned out to be the best Christmas we have ever had . really. I always love Christmas time and look forward to it all year. This year was different due to Dusty's job status and having just started a new job the week before Christmas. I was looking forward to it but knew it would be "less focused on presents". We learned we have some amazing friends and family looking out for us and our kids. We were sincerely shocked and amazed at their generosity and they truly made us remember what this season is about. Thank you Christmas Club!


This post is way to long and I am planning getting some pics up at some point but for now I will leave you with my goals for 2009


1. Continue to build food storage

2. Organize my house

3. work on my lay up.

4. drink lots of water

5. convince Julianne to not wait till the birth to find out her baby is a girl and {convince her to name her after me}

6. read to my kids more

7. throw a party as good as the New years Eve party that I pretty much threw.

8. find awkward moments to bring up information I learned at the party.

9. Retire from my photography business

10. practice the piano (i may have played 5 times this year)

11. exercise 5 times a week

12. get called to the Relief Society Presidency

Don't be surprised if I fulfill all of my goals because once I write them down I am COMMITTED.

Goodnight

Consider this an early Christmas Present Katie

We ventured out to the wheat fields for this one with some of the cutest kids. I LOVED their outfits, but what I didn't love was the fact that the light was leaving really quick and we only got about 15 minutes to try and get some good ones for their mom. Another nice thing was that she hasn't mentioned getting the pics to her unlike some of my other clients I take pics for........breba.

I loved this shoot and just started going through these and had to put some up. Have a great Christmas because I know I will be doing just that.


****** There really are better group shots Katie, don't worry.

Not into the Santa thing yet........

Our christmas pics from the past.

Ben has thankfully grown into his ears...................they used to flap when he would run.

I loved having my boys and pics always makes me miss
having them little again. Although I love the fact that my kids are all becoming independent of me. I really love having a baby but I am enjoying this time where I have 3 kids who are somewhat self sufficient. Yes my two and a half year old is a little too self sufficient but I still like that to some degree. Having had my first baby at 19 I feel like I have had a baby for a while now and its kind of fun to have a little time to pursue a hobby and work a bit. Someday when I have another little girl I will love that too but for now I love this stage....................and I love Christmas pics (which is what the original post is about).

I can't believe I forgot to post pics of this cute little family.
They were really fun to go out with and take pics of and even fun to deal with after when they asked me for the pics everyday for a week.
The boys were hilarious and the parents were pretty funny as well.

I loved this shot of the cute couple!

*** These may be siblings?????***

The proper way to breastfeed in public/preschool

When your baby needs to eat, and your in the middle of preschool
there really is only one option...........and I'm glad she chose to be modest about it.

*** I'm thinking may be a Hooter Hider for Emma in her stocking this year???

I'm pretty sure Tara taught Emma everything she knows about breastfeeding in public. Thanks Tara for letting her sit as close as possible to you and peak in every single time you feed Ava!