Merry Christmas!

I am finally posting our Christmas slide show. These slide shows take along time to make and I thought our internet was fairly fast, here it is.
Christmas Eve we started out hitting our families. Ky's first then mine. We enjoyed some visiting and good food. I should also mention that we were up until two the night before finishing the boxes. Anyway, we had a good busy day. We have chosen to make Christmas Eve more focused on Christ and not so much the commercial aspect of things. We like to come home and watch The Forgotten Carols and read The Christmas Orange. We also sing carols, drink hot cocoa, and talk about the true meaning of Christmas. We really like this traditon, we think it keeps the girls focused on the true meaning of Christmas. We also let them open just ONE present and that is new pj's. They like getting their new duds for pictures. We did do one new thing this year, we watched Mickey's Christmas Carol and had popcorn. I think this was Kami's favorite part of the night. I think the night was a success. After setting out milk and cookies the girls were off to bed. They were so tired they slept until 7:30! When they woke up the craziness began. The girls had so much fun opening presents, I can't remember half what they got and they open them so fast. Katie actually opened her last present early, the remote control car, oh well. They were very happy and have been playing non-stop. Ash loves her scooter and rides it all over the house. We have already changed the batteries once in Katie's car, and boy is that thing durable... very impressive. Kami just loves having new toys and her very own coloring book. Ky got an orchard book and is just soaring through it, Ash too with her Flat Stanley books. I will say that we were disapointed with the Transformer. Personally I was very excited, but it is so hard to put together and we keep popping Bubblebee's head off! It is definitely not for a five year old. I had a good Christmas. I got a new hoodie, some much needed running shoes, and tons of new books and jammies. We had a great Christmas and even got to play some games with my fam when they came to visit. I won Trivial Pursuit! Thanks to everyone for helping us with that Christmas spirit!
I am still working on Christmas cards and Ky is still finishing a few presents in the basement, oh well.

Christmas Photos

Here are some of the photos we shot Sunday after church. Kami was such a ham and we had a hard time getting a decent photo of all three.

This one was good but where is Katie?

I can't believe how big Ash is getting. Ky about freaked out when he saw her in heels! She is growing up too fast.

Monday we made our Christmas ornaments for the year. The girls had so much fun with this. Thanks to Chris & Chantelle for supplying Katie with the fun glitter glue.

Kami did so good. I helped her squeeze the glue on hers and everything went well until... she waited until my head was turned and then stuck her fingers in the glue and smeared it all over her hand!

Ashley's, Kami's, and Katie's

The finished products turned out really good. The girls went crazy with the glue when I was cleaning Kami up. We had a fun FHE and enjoyed a little slower pace for a change.
We are still working on presents and I haven't come any closer to finishing cards and our letter, I guess they will go out after Christmas, oh well. Yesterday Marianne came up and helped make goodies, this is a fun tradition we have. We made the best caramels thanks to Julie's link. Marianne wrapped 113 of them and I did 1. Apparently, I don't wrap as well, it was truly sad! I did tell her she could work in a candy factory! The fudge did not turn out as well. I haven't been able to make good fudge since we moved up here, maybe its the elevation? We are closing out all the business and ready to settle down and enjoy the holiday with a couple of days to go, haha. Merry Christmas everyone!
And check out this cute video it is the real meaning of Christmas told by a child. It is really cute!

Flowers in December

I am going to try my very dark brown thumb at growing flowers in December. Pam gave us a Narcissus Paperwhite which we are attempting to force out. She has some that are already quite tall. We will be crossing our fingers and hoping this works, they are very pretty.

We finally have some decent snow. I have been working on our Christmas letter and cards. I hope they go out soon! We are also trying to finish making presents in the basement. I think Christmas really snuck up on us this year.

The girls have enjoyed playing with the train and opening Grandma's 12 days of Christmas. Katie was so thrilled her and Kami could be twinners for the day. Look close they are both wearing heels! What a fun busy time of the year!

All I Want For Christmas

We have had a fun week preparing for Christmas and all the things that come with it. We got our tree put up. The girls had so much fun with this. Thankfully, we have a bunch of Kami proof ornaments so the lower half of the tree was Kami's, it looks great! However, she has figured out that is she wants a snack all she has to do is find a candy cane and break it in half, the candy canes are almost gone.

Friday was an eventful day. First Katie lost her first tooth! We were hoping to not have to pull it but the other one is coming in behind it. The bad thing is that the dentist said if one does it then they probably all will, ugh. She was so brave and didn't even cry. She said "ouch" and that was it. She was so excited to have the tooth fairy come. I think she looks so cute.
Friday night we had the ward Christmas party. Ash was an Angel and Katie a bell. The girls were so cute!
Then we met Santa. Kami was so excited until we actually got up there and then she cried. Awesome picture right!
Then we came home and had our traditional sleep under the tree night. We waited until a non-school night this year. Everybody went to sleep pretty well, but Ash woke up before seven and had everyone up before seven. This did not go over well after our rough nights sleep. Still it is a fun tradition.
Now we are finishing presents and baking goodies. And we finally got some decent snow yesterday. It looks like it will be a white Christmas after all!

Happy Birthday Kaitlyn!

My baby turned five today!I can't believe it has been five years! She has been counting down the days for weeks. We had the family party last night and she had tons of fun seeing all her Aunts, Uncles, Grandmas, and Grandpas. I think she loved opening all her presents the most. And we had to get the chicken out of course, he is a party favorite. Kami loved him, then was scared to death of him. I let the girls decorate the cake and they had some fun with the sprinkles! Kami was so good until she saw one toy in particular and then she launched off my lap to get it, after that she kept saying "mine". Kaitlyn was so happy. She loves being the center of attention. She was upset with me when she found out she couldn't open her presents until the next day.The girls had so much fun you think they would have been worn out. Nope, Ashley woke Katie up at 430 this morning, ugh. I promptly said "go back to bed". We did get up earlier than normal just so Ash could participate before heading to school. Katie had so much fun opening her "four small presents". Little did she know we had one big present hidden in the basement. We were hoping for this to be a big surprise, but we later found out Ash blew it. She still loved it anyway and is riding her new bike around the house, until it warms up outside. I should mention that my camera battery was dying and so I didn't get very many picts of her opening presents this morning. We also enjoyed birthday pancakes with the traditional candle in them. Kaitlyn wanted us to sing to her at every meal, it was cute. Then all I heard was "when are my friends coming", she drove me crazy! She was so excited and had so much fun. I feel like we did a whirlwind party. We were squeezing it in between school and dance and stuff. I was just glad everyone could come. I will say that it is at times like these that I am very glad I have three GIRLS! I forget how boys can be. Everyone had fun and some didn't want to go home! Tonight we had pizza and a movie, Katie's choice. I am exhausted and glad it's over. I always feel so bad that her birthday is so close to Christmas. We try to make it her special day and we don't do any Christmas decor until after her day. I forgot to mention that she chose a pink bunny cake. She actually picked this one months ago, I can't remember why. I was hoping to go with something a little more challenging and fun, but that is what she wanted. He turned out cute, except that I ran out of parchment paper and couldn't make my bags. We improvised and he didn't come out as clean as I wanted, but Katie liked him. Now we have enough cake left to feed an army!
What would a birthday be without some nastalgic moments. Katie was the best baby. She was my smallest baby at 7.9 pounds and 21 inches. She was also my fastest labor and almost a week LATE! I was scheduled to be induced the next morning when she decided to come on her own. My labor was only five hours and would have been shorter if they would have broke my water earlier. I was at an eight when we go to the hospital only an hour and half after my contractions started. I wanted to wait for the epidural before they broke my water, what a joke. I ended up with a spinal headache and seven different holes in my back. I never did get the epidural and enjoyed a natural labor with a killer migraine. This made for a fun recovery. Although, after I got the blood patch life was much better. Katie was born just before midnight on Pearl Harbor Day. We have some infamous birthdays around here. Ash Sept 12 one year and a day from 9/11. Katie Pearl Harbor Day. Kami was born on April 14th the day the Titanic hit the iceburg. I blame Kyle for this, June 9th three days after the Teton Dam broke. Kaitlyn has always been a sleeper since the day she was born. Well even when I was pregnant with her. She use to scare us. She could go hours without moving and nothing could wake her. I had so many tests done with her. Anyway, she would sleep about 22 hours of the day and she loved her baby swing. She didn't cry much and was so content with everyone, which was a welcome relief after Ashley and her colic. Kaitlyn is such a fun loving girl with an awesome personality. Lately I have enjoyed some of her unusual ideas. Last week she thought she was going to die from eating warm ketchup, okay! Then it was from swallowing gum. Sunday she was so upset that she couldn't read out of the hymn book. She has also been going around lately and turning off all the lights in the house, all of them, I have yet to figure out why. She also will turn off the bathtub water when there is only a few inches "so it doesn't make a flood". She can crack us up sometimes! Kaitlyn is an awesome big sister, Kami just loves her. She is also very smart and is starting to get the hang of being left handed. She is reading very well and picked it up so fast. Katie is still into Cars and now loves trains and anything else she can move and crash. She seems more boyish than the other two to me, but she still loves to be pampered and have her nails done. We love having Kaitlyn around! I am really enjoying the connection we have made since the appendectomy. We are so much closer and I really enjoy spending time with her. She seems to have really come out of her shell lately. Happy 5th Birthday Katie! We love you!

A New Heart

We are amongst all our birthday celebrations. Kaitlyn turns five tomorrow and we just finished with the family party. I did want to take some time a post on something very important to me. My Uncle Glenn just received a new heart yesterday. He has really needed one and after being on the LVAD for awhile a new heart was the only answer. He has been at the top of the list for a few weeks and has had many come his way only to have a complication thrown in. Yesterday he received a 27 year old heart. Who could ask for better?? I always said a better one would come along. Uncle Glenn is one of the most humblest smartest people I have ever met. I don't know of anyone who deserves it more. We are so excited for him. We are still praying that everything goes well and his body doesn't reject it. He still has a long road of recovery ahead, but how exciting!
This brings me to a subject I am very passionate about...organ donation. I personally believe everyone who can should be a donor. I have helped with many donations and I can not even tell you how great it is. One person can help so many people. I always thought it was neat to hear who the organs were going to (when we could). There are so many people out there in need and people you would never expect. I fully believe that if every capable person would donate I don't think we would have a shortage. It is always sad to see a healthy person with good organs not donate. I can't help but think of all the lives they could save. Today, we are grateful to this 27 year old and his family for making the choice they made.

Holiday Fun

Here are some pictures from the past couple of crazy days.

This was Thanksgiving at my fam's house. Kami enjoyed getting a green marshmallow stuck to her eye.

I made an apple pecan cheesecake this year, yummy. I still think I like the original cheesecake with strawberries better, but this was delicious. We had lots of good food and all my siblings made it for the feast. We hung out and planned strategies for black Friday. I am happy to say I slept through. Poor Kyle he took my sister and hit like six stores. We got some good deals though. We are not normally black Friday shoppers, but we found some good deals on things we were planning on buying anyways. We ended up saving over half what we spent. Christmas shopping is pretty much done.

Instead of going to the cabin Friday and Saturday we did this.

This is about 90% of the crap left in the basement. We hauled out 225 intact cinder blocks (this round) and five garbage cans of loose stuff, don't forget all the sheet rock and paneling in there. We swept it up and now besides the one pile left to haul out it looks half way decent down there. I am so excited to start framing up walls this week! We will hit a stopping point fairly soon when we need to redo the duct work. We are going to wait until spring and do that, then we will be spraying everything with kilz just to make sure. After that the girls will be in shortly and my pantry will be ready to use!

We also had some visitors this weekend. Devin, Julie and Anna came for a visit. Kami loved playing with Anna. She has been walking around the house calling for her since they left, it is so cute. She really wanted to wear Anna's shoes.

And Katie got to open an early Birthday present.

She has been playing with it non-stop and I keep finding pieces all over the house! We had a good visit and all the girls loved playing with their cousin. It would be so nice if we lived closer to them.
Now we have Birthday party stuff to do. The invitations are out and all the decorations are bought we just need to pick a cake. This is harder than it sounds if you are four. I am hoping she decides soon. I do need to get started. I tried to get her to go with a pirate theme, what a fun cake I could do, but nope the wait is still on. She is counting down the days and is so excited. We wrapped all her presents yesterday, the wrappable ones that is! We still have a big surprise in the basement she doesn't know about.
I got back into my running after all the festivities and crappy food we ate. Thankfully, I didn't have any problems and after discovering that my inhaler was out I remedied that and made life easier for myself. However, I can't get rid of that taste in my mouth you get after priming an inhaler and using it for the first couple of days, yuk.
Life around here has been super crazy, but we are all enjoying the holidays, except the cold weather -5 when we got up today. I didn't think they could go to school when it was that cold outside.

Pre-Holiday Fun

We have had more busy days lately. Saturday I went to super Saturday and made this clock.
I am pretty proud of it. I think it turned out very well considering I am not a crafty person. When I got home we got all of our wood cut, stacked, and covered. Everything except the pile that needs to be split, which is about as big as our stacked pile now...ugh. I am very sick of wood. And we figure that we have already burned about 2 cord already.
Sunday we got out of church to see snow. It snowed all day and hampered our plans with Chris and Chantelle. Although, we did end up grilling in the snow!
What a man!! We used Jon's marinade recipe and had the best steaks ever!! They were so good, better than anything you could ever get in a restaurant or anywhere else.
Yesterday against my better judgment this happened!




I got persuaded- cohersed into letting Ash cut her hair SHORT! Ash has always had this beautiful long blond hair. It is the hair that every girl envies. Her hair would curl just right and look gorgeous! But she has been wanting to cut it "to her ears" for a long time. I have said yes to shoulder length until now. I blame Kyle. He talked me into it with Erin's help (who we love and does an awesome job). Kyle said "it is her hair let her do what she wants with it". It does look very cute but I miss those gorgeous locks! She was so tired and crabby for this picture. Now I have the longest hair in the family, how sad.
Kaitlyn's hair turned out so cute. We left the length up front but did an A-line and stacked it in the back. This cut fits her so well, she looks darling!
This morning we had open gym for Kaitlyn. This is the first time I have drove on the ice in my Tahoe. I was pleased, it handles very well on icy roads and doesn't roam around like my Camry did. Kyle says the weight makes a huge difference. I can't even tell you how much I love the auto 4WD button. The 4WD will kick in when needed, it is awesome. We had a nice little trip to town and even stopped by a few stores. I can't believe how much stuff is stocked up for Friday- crazy! Tomorrow we are making pies and getting ready for the feast. We then have plans every day through next wed. followed by Kaitlyn's cake and party. I have been throwing Christmas shopping in when I can and am proud to say I am almost done!
Happy Holidays Everyone!

KP Update

Kami's KP is back just as the doc predicted. This time I have been trying a few home remedies. We scrub her face in the tub with one of those baby brushes, this seems to be helping. We have also been lubricating her skin like crazy, my faves are Aveeno oatmeal lotion (smells lovely) and good old vaseline. James' girlfriend puts vaseline on her face every night and that girl has perfect skin, who would have thought. But lately Kami's skin has gotten worse, so I broke down and filled the last prescription the doc gave us. This is cream number 4, I think. Anyway, it is another steroid which has all sorts of crappy side effects so we try to use it sparingly, but it does seem to help some. The last few days have been really bad though. We have also been combining this with some sort of stomach flu that has been off and on for almost a week now. Kami got sick again last night at 3 am. This cleanup was especially fun since the mattress protector is still in the dryer from the previous nights cleanup. So, now I am left wondering if it is a stomach flu or something else. Her face is worse and then we have other symptoms. I am starting to wonder if maybe she was misdiagnosed, everything we try for her KP works temporarily. I should clarify that her skin never gets clear, just better. I am left wondering if she will have scaring from this, I have been told no but still. I have been going through her diet and can't help but wonder if there is something else she is allergic to. I keep coming back to bananas. I think we will try a trial run with banans and see, but even if that is it she doesn't have them all the time. This is so frustrating. Kaitlyn had a similar skin condition and as soon as we got her off milk it went away, even now if she has too much milk she will pink up. Kyle mentioned that maybe we should take her down to Utah and see if they can help. I am thinking of getting a second opinion at the very least. I have also wondered if this could have anything to do with teething. Kami is popping in her second set of molars which might explain the drooling and lack of appetite. I can't wait until she can really comunicate and tell me when something is bothering her, until then I am left puzzled about all this.
On a side note I recently found out that there is soy cheese out there. I am going to try and round some up, this might make her pizza more appealing! Also, Ky managed to see the meteor the other night, I was asleep. I thought he was crazy though until I saw it on the news!

Green Eggs And Ham

I think Green Eggs and Ham is our reading book. I have been doing a letter a day with Kaitlyn for the past couple of weeks. Today I thought we would just give reading a little taste. She did awesome. I was hoping to get a few words down, but after about ten minutes she was reading the pages. I was so impressed. She has had such a hard time with the left-handedness. We have worked really hard to get her to start on the left side of the page and move right. When she writes she likes to start on the right and move left, this leaves everything mirror flipped. When she starts on the left her words are perfect. So today I was surprised at how quickly she picked it up. We started Ash on Green Eggs and Ham for her first reading book. I think it works well because there are good words to sound out and the repetition helps a ton. Way to go Kaitlyn, we are so proud!

Happy Birthday George!

Happy Birthday George! George turned 21 yesterday. He came home from Utah State to celebrate. We spent the weekend at the barn having fun. Of course, I didn't get a pic of him though. Marianne thought it would be fun to teach the girls some cheers. This is a pic of one of the cute ones she was teaching Ash.

I still can't believe my baby bro is 21. How crazy is that? I feel so old!

MOMMEEEEEE

I love being a mother and I love hearing them call for me. I have that gift, the gift of knowing what that call means. I can tell if they are hurt, need something, or tattling. Lately, Kami has developed a distinct way of calling me. When she says "MOMMEEE" a certain way I know it means something and that something is STINK! At that moment I wonder why I was so insistent that they say "mommy" first, why was I so eager to hear that word, and what happened to DADDEEE at that point?! So, when she says my name a certain way and comes running I just try to hug her and hold my nose! I should mention that the soy makes diapers so much worse. I just love being a mom!

Elephant in the room with a Milestone

Every time I walk in our room I try not to look at Ky's side for numerous reasons! The biggest being our elephant. While working at the hospital one of our new nurses from Alaska said she had a treadmill she was giving away, apparently it is warmer here so she can run outside all the time -crazy! So, I took the treadmill. I figured this was a great way to boost my lungs for the cold weather that hits every year, Ky protested over lack of space. So, the treadmill went in the garage where, if it wasn't too cold I would run. I hated it. I discovered that I don't like to run, it isn't fun and it hurts my knee. When we moved the darn thing came with, much to Ky's distaste. It has harbored in a few different places over the years and came to rest in our room. Ky likes to use it as a place to put old laundry. Lately the elephant has seem to have grown. I have been doing my usual exercise routine and with frustrating results, not to mention the 22 pound bug that needs that exact moment to crawl all over me! So, I have been trying to ignore the elephant, but I keep coming back to it. I know running works, sigh... I hate it. Well yesterday I tried with a different attitude, goals, and an awesome knee brace. I was pleased to hit my goal so easily yesterday. Today I shaved 2 minutes off my time and ran my first mile. There were times that my lungs pleeded with me to stop, but I made it through. I actually felt invigorated. Tonight I am sore. I think the elephant is shrinking, until I get my elliptical then it will be back.

Halloween

Friday Night before the carnival.

Halloween is over, and we survived! Friday night we started with the school carnival. We had fun and the girls enjoyed all the games. I helped in Ash's room for the second half, and I still can't believe how many people there were! When we got home the girls were so wound up. Thankfully, they slept in the next morning.

Katie picked her own costume this year and much to my surprise wanted to be "the prettiest pink fairy princess ever". I think she succeeded.Saturday we got up and had orange pumpkin pancakes for breakfast, and then our day began...

We had a ton to do around here before we left and we started out realizing Ash had left her snow pants at school. I can't even begin to say what a catastrophe this was. At this point I was ready for Halloween to be over. Our day did pick up though. We put on costumes and headed for Chris and Chantelle's. We visited over there and Kami was scared to death of Chris' wig! She eventually said hi to him. We then headed to my fam's to go to the trunk-or-treat. I like having everything contained in the parking lot during the light, but I grew up going house to house. Still, they got tons of candy. I should mention this was Kami's first trunk-or-treat.
After awhile Kami figured out what was going on and just wanted to sit on the ground and go through her bucket. At one point she sucked the wrapper off a sucker and when I took her bucket away...the end of the world!

The end of the world!

She finally got some!

My sis did take them around the block to get the true experience. We had pizza and the girls loved answering the door. I think the night was a success. I am now ready for a break until next year! Funny enough, Halloween use to be one of my favorite holidays, and now with kids I am so glad it is over!

Vaccination

After much debate yesterday I was able to do it. I got vaccinated for H1N1. This was a hard choice for me and I have been back and forth for months now. The lack of vaccine has made my choice until yesterday. My mom called me and said the clinic at MHS still had 1000 shots left and they were opening it up to everyone 25-65 with an underlying medical condition. I raced down there and thankfully there was no line. I got vaccinated along with my sis. Sometime before I got there they decided they would vaccinate everyone under 65, or at least the guy in the gym did the front desk woman was more picky. Unfortunately, I didn't bring the girls. Although, I am still debating them. For me the benefit out ways the risk, but our new doc said that it has been so mild and he isn't vaccinating his kids. I still don't know yet. I am thinking I will get them vaccinated when it becomes more available if we haven't had it yet. Until then I am hoping we just get a mild version of it. I know we have been exposed, I guess we will see.
I should make it clear that I am completely for vaccinations. We always and will always vaccinate our kids. I get the flu shot vaccination every year, which I am still waiting for. I know vaccinations work. The reason I hesitate with the H1N1 is because they mass produced it so quickly I don't think they had time to make sure it is completely safe and that there aren't any long term side effects. This is strictly my opinion. Again, I got vaccinated because I believe the benefits out way the risks for me.

Pumpkins

This past Sunday was our annual pumpkin carving with Ky's family. We had tons of fun and the weather even cooperated enough for some to carve outside. I will admit that me and the girls cheated this year and found ideas on the internet. Ash did a snake, Katie an owl, I did a mummy, and Kami did Mickey stickers. Ky came up with his own idea and did a transformers pumpkin. I think his was the coolest.
Chris, Chantelle, and Esau came all dressed up. Chantelle even made the costumes. They were so cute. Cindy and Mahon are having their annual pumpkin contest. They had some cute pumpkins. You can go here to vote.
I made a fun cake for the occasion. This was my first pumpkin and the first time I have frozen and then carved a cake into shape. I was pretty proud. I thought it turned out great and even tasted good. I also now know what I will do differently next time.
We had a fun night. The girls were so tired when we got home. Except Ash came down with a fever and cough. She has stayed home from school the past two days, but she looks great. I caught her standing on her head today. I think she is ready to go back tomorrow.
I thought this was a funny picture of Kami. Kami has a serious shoe fetish. She wears at least three pairs a day. Lately she has been branching out to the girl's shoes and now mine. She walks great in Katie's high heels, but she can barely walk in mine. She is all girl!