The Christmas Spirit

Ready or not Christmas is around that corner. I'm not sure why, but this year it has taken me a little while to get into the spirit of things. Sort of bugs me because it is my one of my favorite times of the year. Perhaps it is just because life tends to be so full these days and I haven't stopped to really ponder what is missing.

I have to say that I am so thankful for this past weekend though, because it really helped put me in the right mood. Saturday we went to the ward Christmas party at church. The program was great, and the food was good too! Santa even stopped by to say hello to the kids. Emery and Kelci are funny, they knew it was Brother Peterson dressed up like Santa. But they went along with everything anyway. I thought it was funny that Santa suggested that Emery get a bb gun for Christmas, and than used the old famous line no you better not, "you'll shoot your eye out." Of course she had no idea what he was talking about (yes we are that old now). Brody believes that Santa lives at the church now, he has been a lot of fun to watch this year with everything going on.

Sunday we had a great lesson in our Young Women's class, about the Saviors Love. Of course I have heard a lot of lessons on this topic, but what made this one so special was when some of the girls in our group stood up and shared with us a moment when they knew that had felt the Saviors love for them. They had wonderful experiences that strengthened my testimony. The kind of experiences I hope my children will have when they get older and are conquering highschool. The teacher shared a story about highschool and how she struggled for a time with self-esteem. She recalls feeling like some many of her friends were better in sports, prettier, smarter, etc. So she decided that she wasn't any of those things and that was ok, she was a daughter of God though. She decided she would strive to be the nicest person, and that is what she became good at. She became the person that would say hello to anyone, fellowship the lonely, and even try her best to not judge others, but just love them. It was an uplifting lesson and just filled my heart with the spirit of Christmas.

Confession

So I have to confess that the only Nutcracker I have ever seen, or at least that I can remember watching, is the Barbie version! I know crazy, but I have actually always wanted to take the girls to see the real Ballet when they were old enough to remember it and enjoy it. I decided to just take Emery and Kelci this time. Cambree was not at all interested in it, mostly because of the mouse king. She really struggles with "villains" in the real world, on T.V. she is fine, but if they are in the same room as her, she is terrified. We went with my good friend Lorie and two of her girls, Cali and Brooklyn.

The girls had a lot of fun, they loved the music and kept telling me which songs were there favorite all night. They also got a good laugh when Mother Ginger did the Macarena. Everything was beautiful and I was really glad we decided to go. The only thing I was upset about was leaving my memory card at home for my camera. At least Lorie had one.

ESPN

Bryan has been pretty busy lately. He is in charge of two restaurants, which keeps him hoppin all the time. He never complains about it, infact he takes pride in it and has been working hard to get these restaurants profitable in a tough economy.

So the other night he came home about 7:30pm looking a little beat up and just had a lot on his mind. So I decided to share this little poster with him, hoping it would just get a good laugh. I think he really does deserve to be on a magazine sometimes, he is such a great Daddy and Husband to our family.

Oh, and yes the poster did make him laugh! I even put one on the frig, which Brody thinks is the coolest. He is always looking for Daddy and telling me he is strong like Daddy. I love you Bry!

Tempted to lie....

I am so tempted to lie sometimes whenever people ask me how old Landry is now. He is almost NINE months old now!! And because he weighs around 18lbs, I'm pretty sure people would not believe me if I said he was 6 or 7 months old right??


This little guy really has the most contagious smile...it always makes me smile back at him. Lately he has been crawling around furniture, trying to wave (this he does almost everytime I go to get him out of the carseat), he even says dada, baba, and is really trying hard to say mama. I caught him the other day pushing a box across the floor while standing up...of course I can't have this little guy trying to walk, so I sat him down (sorry bud). It is so hard to watch your baby grow so fast.

The Big Ten!!

Well I can't believe it, has it really been 10 years since I gave birth to my first child? Apparently it has and it feels like it happened over night sometimes. When Bryan and I decided we wanted to start our family it didn't exactly happen the way we thought it would. It took us about a year and a half to get pregnant, and than we had our first miscarriage. I felt a lot of sadness, frustration, disappoint during those days. But of course it didn't last long, because one month after the miscarriage we were officially pregnant. It was a challenging pregnancy in the beginning, and I believe our prayers were answered because she was born right on time, right before Christmas, it was perfect.

Happy Birthday Emery! I don't know if I can put into words how I feel about this girl. She is a joy to have in our family. Sometimes I feel like she is my sidekick, because I can always count on her. She has the most contagious laugh and the best sense of humor. She can see when help is needed and will offer to help most of the time.

I'm a little sad that she is growing up so fast, like most of us are about our kids. But I look forward to the future with this kid to see everything she can accomplish.

Here are some snaps of what Emery wanted for her birthday, a party with family.

Olivia made this beautiful Hawaiian cake for Emery...so cute..Mahalo!!


I wonder what is in this box? Keianna doesn't look excited or anything. Also I loved how Keianna was festive and wore her Hawaiian beads to the party, so cute.


Look it's one of Santa's goofy reindeers!


Cousin love! So sweet.


It's a tradition that Mema makes a picture board filled with fun memories of the last ten years...she did a great job (spelling errors included).