Christmas 2008

What an amazing Christmas we had. We had so many blessings this year. With the horrible economic state, we were still able to have a good Christmas with no stress. Thanks to Dave Ramsey... still the best thing I ever did!! Anyways, also Trever was able to have the whole day off. When he got hired at Chevron last year they told him to expect to work every Christmas, and well just about every Holiday for the first 10 years. So I was very excited he was able to be home with us. This was the first year Maddy was really excited for Christmas. Last year she kinda understood, but not really. This year we did the count down, with a Santa beard she made at preschool. Every day for 25 days we added a cotton ball to his beard, and every day she would count how many days were left til Christmas. She still has a hard time from 16 to 17 for some reason but the rest she can count. Christmas Eve we had dinner with the neighbors, then came home for our tradition of opening PJ's. Kennedy got her first pair of big girl PJ's, 2 piece!! Well, this takes me back to Xmas eve morning. The night before Trever and I stayed up putting together a doll house that Santa would be bringing to Maddy. I had to work the next morning, so I tell him "take the box outside, I'm going to bed" he says "OK" A simple task this was. Well he got busy on the computer and forgot to take the box outside. So Xmas eve morning I go to work, and Trever and Maddy head downstairs to hook up a TV we had gotten the day before. Maddy keeps telling Trever "Wow daddy this is so neat" and he responds with I know honey, this TV is so cool". Until he gets up and realizes shes looking at the box with the picture of the doll house on it. Dork. He quickly grabs the box and says "oh that was just an old box " she says "oh but dad didn't a toy come out of it" he says "nope, just an old box". He must have pulled it off, because Christmas morning she was so excited and mentioned nothing about the box.
I was grateful my mother joined us Christmas morning. We all got a lot of neat gifts, and as it should be Kennedy enjoyed the boxes more then any of the toys! Maddy's favorite toys were her doll house, and dress up doctor stuff.
By about 8 the snow was getting pretty bad. Everyone was canceling on breakfast at my moms, which has been a tradition for as long as I can remember. I was already feeling pretty bummed we would be missing my dad and grandpa this year. Then my brother said he wasnt coming. Luckily the the roads cleared up enough, and they ended up making it. We had a delious breakfast. Later Trevers Dad, Step mom, Ty and Sara came up to the house. Had nice visit and gift exchange with them, and then just a relaxing night with the family. It was a very nice Christmas, I am very grateful. I can only hope every Christmas is as good.

2007 was a pretty bad year, I said 2008 has to be a better year. 8am on Jan 1 I was at the emergency room, Maddy had stuck a bandaid up her nose so far I couldnt get it. The billing problems that followed made me, more then crazy. Im sure the pregnancy did not help in the craziness. I started what could have been called... stalking the doctor. Hey, I got the bill down to a reasonable amount!! Craziness does payoff, sometimes. So although it was a bit of a better year. Im really hoping for a great 2009!!!

Kennedy got her second tooth, a fang. Im not sure what is wrong with my children, but they get their fang teeth so early. Maddy looked like a vampire for 6 months until her other teeth grew in. Still not really crawling, she scoots to her destination. She can stand up on her own for couple seconds, and get to a standing position with only the help of somebodies fingers. Everybody is betting she will walk before she crawls. Im begining to think they might all be right. Maddy started crawling at about 10 months, and walked about 2 weeks later. Im guessing Kennedy will do the same.

Snow, Snow GO AWAY

Will the snow ever stop!!????!! We have had so much snow in the last couple days. Brings a whole new meaning to a "White Christmas". Christmas we got about 6 inches or so, but mostly just alot of drift snow. Our front door had 3 inches on the door, it was too heavy to open. I guess that was not enough, today we have gotten well over a foot. Im snowed in as I write this. There is no way I could make it out of our circle. And we wont see a plow for at least another week or so. We are the forgotten neighborhood. Trever barley made it out in 4 wheel drive to make it to work. The snow on my grass from shoveling is well taller then me. The dogs couldnt make it outside this morning the snow was so deep. We had to shovel them a path, and they are big boys! Im so ready for sunny WARM days!!!

Suzie Snowflake

Maddy started dance this year. She is one of the youngest in the class, but she has alot of fun. She takes it through Becky's school of dance, which has been around forever. She had her first dance recital a few days ago. They did a dance to Suzy Snowflake. We arrived at the time I was told, and was then told to leave her in the room and go sit down. I was thinking there is now way they can keep track of all those girls, but what do I know they have been doing this a long time. So I went and sat down. 19 preformaces later out came the Suzy Snowflakes. As Trever, Tyler, Sara, Grandma Mayne, Grandma and Grandpa Bill, and Granny all sat trying to figure out which one was Maddy. Then the lights come on, and no Maddy. So of course I assume the worst, she got out of the room and some weirdo took her. I go running to the room I had left her, and there she sat playing with stickers. I said Maddy why didnt you go dance, and she tells me the lady told me I couldnt. Well come to find out, there was another troup of girls in similar costumes. She was sitting near them coloring. It was not her teacher that gathered them to walk them down to the stage, so when Maddy jumped up to go with them the lady thought she was with the other troup and made her stay. Her teacher had her class preform twice so Maddy go to go up on stage with her class. She did a great job, and had alot of fun. After the preformace when I went to get her, she kept saying "did you see me up on that big stage". Our little lost snowflake princess

Last week I had one of those days where nothing seems to go my way, and it started early. Trever and the girls were out Christmas shopping, I needed by work badge so he brought it to me and I got to see the girls. They stopped and bought me some roses, one from each all different colors. How sweet, my day was much better after that.
Im glad to say my xmas shopping is done. Now I can just enjoy the last few days before the big day. Maddy is so excited, all she wants is a doll house and most importantly dress up doctor stuff. Lucky for her, she will be getting both. Kennedy just likes playing with the paper, so Maddy will have alot of extra gifts to help her sister open.
Although it didnt start snowing until later into the season this year, it is catching up in volume. The last few storms have been horrible, and the one today is suppose to bring 4-8 inches in the valley. Because where our house sits we always get more then what the valleys get. Im glad I'm staying in the house all day today.
Maddys old babysitter was having her annual Christmas party during the last storm, so we were unable to make it since the roads had couple inches of snow on them. She was so bummed, then to top if off she was suppose to have a sleepover at my moms with Jackson. That too was canceled, as Jana was unable to get Jackson to my moms. Most of all though, she just wanted to see her buddy Gavin, she was walking around the house saying " I miss Gavin so much, I may never get to see him" I was pretty funny to watch her. Luckily, Gavin got to come over so they played all night. Then she got to have her sleepover with Grandma and Jackson on Saturday night. They made a ginger bread house, and cookies and did some arts and crafts.
We headed to the Millers for a Christmas party. It turned out to be an all right week, after all.

Dress

I'm not sure why I bought Kennedy a pretty little Christmas dress, but since I had it I was going to put it on her. So for Trever's family Christmas party she was going to wear the dress. When I start putting it on her I notice its not going over her arms very well, yup her arms were to chubby for the dress. Then as we were leaving I asked Trever to put the shoes on her, I come into the room and there are rolls hanging over the shoes. Her feet were too chubby for the shoes. There was no way those shoes were getting on her foot. She wore the dress for a few short minutes, and was back to what she likes best.... being naked.
Couple weeks ago she started smiling every time I show her a camera. Its so funny, she will be crying and if I get out the camera she will instantly smile. We will see how long that lasts, I have to bribe Maddy to get a smile.

Sledding

This past weekend we got about 4-5 inches of snow. So it was time for some sledding. We took Maddy and Gavin up to the park to go sledding. They had a great time. I took Kennedy, but she was not enjoying her self being freezing cold and all bundled up so I had to take her home only a few minutes in. I hope we can get a few more sledding trips in.

I took Kennedy in for her 6 month check up exactly one month late. So at 7 months she was 19 lbs 14 oz, that would be 92 percentile. She is average for height and head size. Because she is progressing well the doctor didn't see a need to see her in 2 months for her 9 month checkup, so we are off the hook until her 12 month. They have her both 6 and 9 months shots and her flu shot all at the same time. I thought for sure I would have a grumpy girl. But nope, she was just fine. Shots have never bothered either of the girls. Later that night we went to Trevers work party. It was at the top of Rice Eccles. They brought in a bunch of gambling tables (21, poker, roulette, craps ect) and dealers and gave us all the same amount of money to start out with. I was on a roll, and ended up with quite a bit of fake money. As a result, Trever and I won 5 DVDS and a Ipod shuffle.
Well the Utes got picked for the Sugar Bowl. I am very pleased with the annoucement, other then we will not be going. Im bummed about that. However, I was given the opportunity to go to Washington DC for the inaugrul, so I am very excited about that. Should be exciting, and a once in a lifetime opportunity.
We are offically in the christmas season, with all the parties starting. There are a few busy weeks ahead of us. I have just about all my shopping done, just the few odds and ends left. Only minutes ago I ordered our very own river tubes, so we dont have to keep paying the outragous fees to rent them every time. How sad, there has only been snow on the ground for 3 days and Im already ready for summer.
The hat Kennedy is sporting was a gift from Grandma Barbara at the festival of trees. When I asked Maddy what her favorite tree was, "all of them". She has been twice, and I still have never been. That will be my goal next year.
Merry Christmas to all

Update

We haven't really been up to much lately. Trever has been working alot. I am going to start working only Tuesdays and Thursdays starting in January. That will give me the time I need with my girls, but also get me out of the house so I keep my sanity.
Maddy is still working on her reading, today we are working on a_e, trying to explain to her that the e makes the a say a not make the sound of a, but also makes the e silent.... well this one may take us a few days. her favorite car game is playing the spelling game. She spells a word and I have to tell her what it is, and then I spell a word and she tells me what the word is. But she does the same words every time, Eli, Gavin, Dog, bed, mark and now Bolt. Oh yeah, we were at Nya's (my nieces daughter) birthday party and I told her is she could spell Bolt we would go see it.. sure enough she figured out how to spell it all by herself. At first she said B A L T, but then realized she sounded it wrong and corrected herself with no help.
Thanksgiving was a nice day, other then very busy. We started out at Ty and Sara's for breakfast, I'm still not sure how Trever talked me into going. But it was tasty. Then we went home and put up the tree and Christmas decorations. Then we stopped by Granny's house to say hello, then it was off to my moms for a wonderful dinner. Dinner was very tasty, and after my mom, Jana, Trever, Kathy, and I played Tripoly. I'm proud to say I am a couple dollars richer! And congratulations Jana, you now know your straight flush was a playable hand :)
Kennedy is rolling everywhere to get to her destination. She will be 7 months old this week, time just flies by. We did make it to Madagascar 2, and then Bolt yesterday. Luckily Kennedy slept through the whole thing since it was just the girls and I. The 3D was pretty neat, made me jump a few times. I cant remember the last 3D film I saw in the theater, and well Trever dated himself by announcing Jaws was the last 3D film he had seen in the theater. Brandy and I went out with the crazies on Black Friday, but it actually wasn't all that busy and I still got some great deals. Trever will be 34 this week, and has to work on this birthday so not doing anything fun. Getting old is no fun :) Kennedy has some lung/chest congestion so I'm off to take her to the doctor.

Mountain West Champs

What a great year for the Utes, another undefeated year. We have had season tickets for several years now, and this was a very exciting year. We are very fortunate that our sister in law enjoys tailgating, but doesn't really enjoy the games. So we are able to take the girls tailgating with us all day (and night sometimes when its warm enough) and then when the game starts Trever and I go to the game and my sister in law takes the girls home. Maddy has been to a few games, they are fun to her but just not as fun as hanging out with her Aunt Malinda and cousin Ryan. We find out December 7th what bowl game the Utes will be in. I'm guessing it will be the sugar bowl, but fiesta bowl would be so much easier to make it to the game and well safer then New Orleans. We will see, may be spending our New Years in New Orleans. GO UTES!!!!