2007 in Review!

I saw this over on Sophia's blog and decided to play along. I thought this was a good review of the year even though some of the answers are redundant.

What did you do in 2007 that you'd never done before? Went on a trip with just my husband, bought a brand new house, got baby hungry

Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year? Most of them I kept. I did not scrapbook 100 layouts but I attribute a lot of that to being pregnant/sick and moving. I ALWAYS make resolutions.

Did anyone close to you give birth? My SIL Ami had her first baby, my SIL Biz had a long hoped for 3rd baby, and I had several friends have babies this year.

Did anyone close to you die? No

What countries did you visit? Canada

What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007? My 21 year old body, more time with our extended families, my house completely decorated, more opportunities to attend the temple.

What date from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? A day in June when I found out some sad information about someone I am close to.

What was your biggest achievement of the year? Learning to get up before my kiddos to get really good quality scripture/prayer/study time every morning. It makes a BIG difference in my day. Helping Carter learn to read. Potty training Miss M.

What was your biggest failure? I’m bummed I didn’t scrapbook more. I always want to be a better mom and wife.

Did you suffer illness or injury?! Morning sickness is pretty much it, except for my little stomach flu stint a couple months ago.

What was the best thing you bought? My house!!

Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? I plead the 5th but there are a couple people whose behavior has made me really shocked/sad this year.

Where did most of your money go? Our extra money went for stuff for our house.

What did you get really, really, really excited about? Hawaii trip, Allen’s AZ job offer, buying our house, finding out how awesome our new ward is, our trips with our families this summer, Carter learning to read, finding out we are expecting baby girl.

What song will always remind you of 2007? The Super Why theme song

Compared to this time last year, are you: much happier, richer, nicer? I hope all three. I’m generally a happy person but it makes me really happy to know we are finally settled where we are going to be in life for a long time. We’re always saving and investing and have no debt so I guess it means we’re richer and I just hope I am nicer.

What do you wish you'd done more of? Exercise, scrapbook, served other people, attended the temple.

What do you wish you'd done less of? Worry about things I have no control over.

How did you spend Christmas? With friends and our little family. We missed our extended families a lot this year though.

Did you fall in love in 2007? I’m always falling more and more in love with Allen with each passing day.

What was your favorite TV program? LOST

Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year. Um, no.

What was the best book you read this year? The North and South trilogy by John Jakes (SO GREAT) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

What was your greatest musical discovery?

What did you want and get? Pregnant, a house, a new job for Allen

What were your favorite films of this year? Oceans 13, We are Marshall, Miss Potter, HP 5, North and South mini series (based on the book by Elizabeth Gaskell) (we thought it was a disappointing year overall for movies)

What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? 32 and I honestly had a rotten day – I was super hormonal/emotional. Next year is sure to be better.

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Spending more time with my extended family

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007. Glamorous maternity wear – LOL.

What kept you sane? Talking to my sister every day.

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? I can’t think of anyone. I’m not really into the whole celebrity thing.

What political issue stirred you the most? Now that I live in AZ, I’m pretty interested in illegal immigration. Also, homeland security.

Who did you miss? My sister after we left Seattle. I always miss my mom. A few friends.

Who was the best new person (people) you met? I totally can’t narrow it down because of our move but I have met some awesome people in my new ward and I’m so grateful for their friendships.

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007. All that glitters is not gold. It’s a lesson I relearn often – things are often not as they appear. I am always so grateful that the Lord knows what I need better than I do. I would not trade my life and the blessings and trials of it with anyone else.

What are you most excited for in 2008? Having my baby, of course. A fun family vacation we are planning for the spring. Getting more settled in AZ.

What are you least excited for in 2008? Having Carter start Kindergarten- I am in serious denial. Also not particularly looking forward to recovering from childbirth and those first few weeks of sleepless nights.

Ok friends, your turn :)

Best Christmas EVER!!

I am still reveling on how this year has been our best Christmas ever. We have had so much fun preparing for the big day. Yesterday our kids were SO much fun - they really understood what was happening and were just so happy and excited about everything. It was honestly thrilling to watch their reactions to pretty much everything. This has been such a magical Christmas (and I figure we only have about 5 more years of TRUE magic, so I'm living it up).

Christmas Eve: The morning was a little unexpected. Makenna got hurt on the trampoline the night before so I ended up in Urgent Care with her for a couple hours to have her arm xrayed. She turned out to be fine, with just a sprain in her wrist. We were so relieved, especially since she seemed to be in a lot more pain than she was when she broke her arm earlier this year. I spent the afternoon finishing up a cute gift I made for our close friends in the ward, who we had dinner with on Christmas Eve. We have a FHE lesson based on Teach the Children and after seeing this idea on another blog, I decided to use the story to decorate a mini tree. I got trees and all the ornaments from the story and gave them to our friends. I thought it turned out really cute.

We spent the afternoon/evening with several families from our ward and had a fabulous time. We had a yummy dinner and after hours of visiting and playing, our kids opened their Christmas pjs. We got home late but still had to set out milk and cookies for Santa and leave a "house key" outside so Santa could get in (Carter insisted on this one). We also wanted to let them open another gift. I love to buy holiday books and had a couple new ones (ahem4thisyear) under the tree. We let them open one each and read them before sending them off to bed. In matching pjs:


Christmas Day: I am such a dork and kept waking up just hoping the kids would finally wake up so we could get going. I woke up at 5:00, 6:30 and 7:30. The kids finally got up at about 7:45. We opened our stockings first and probably could have stopped there with how excited they were about their stockings. I stuffed their stockings with a ton of things they are ALWAYS begging me for but I never buy - Spiderman/Princess fruit snacks, chapstick, character electric toothbrushes, etc.




After they gorged on treats from their stockings, we moved upstairs to open the rest of our gifts. I must say, we did GREAT with the gifts for our kids this year. They loved everything they got and watching their reactions was priceless. We love how magical Christmas is now that we have children. Here they are with their loot:



We played all afternoon with the new toys and I'm the only one who even bothered changing out of my pjs all day. For dinner we had our traditional Mexican feast with enchiladas, tamales, guacamole, etc. Yummo!! We did want to finish the day on a spiritual note. We read the Christmas story from Luke 2 and watched Joy to the World with the kids. They loved the movie and I think it was good for them to see the Christmas story reenacted and visual since we have been talking about it all month.


Today: Had a fabulous marathon shopping day with a group of girlfriends. EIGHT hours of after Christmas saleing and lunch. I got quite a few things that I love and am proud that I spent the least out of all of us (the grand total for the 4 of us was right around $1,000 and my total was just over $100 - mostly all spent at Crate and Barrel - where else?). I had to share this picture. This is after our Target run and the trunk was already completely full from C&B - everything else was packed on top of our laps. Hilarious.

We didn't even have time to set up and play with all the new toys yesterday so Allen and Carter set up the marble rail track he got and played with it for hours on end this afternoon. I'm pretty sure Al likes it even more than the kids - in all honesty it is a really fun/cool toy.
Likewise, Makenna and I have had so much fun with her dollhouse- and I'm probably having as much fun with it as she is. Here it is all set up with her Strawberry Shortcake dolls watching a movie (and she put them to bed before she was off to bed tonight).
We are really enjoying having Allen home this week and are ready to tackle a few home improvement projects with the rest of his time off. Hope you had a fabulous Christmas!!

(And I know this entry has WAY more details than necessary but I'm trying to record it for me too!)

Santa Visit

I finally got my scanner working again today. I love how this picture turned out - this is from the Polar Express. I adore that the kids are holding Santa's hands.

CHECK!!!!

Whew. Insanely busy week. I decided to make a final push to get everything done this week and as of this afternoon we are READY for Christmas!!! Hooray. We're especially excited that we can sit back and enjoy the next few days as a family

Completed this week:

1. Neighbor Gifts (not all completely delivered but we will finish on Sunday, will share pics later)

2. Teacher Gifts (jars with huge gumballs plus a giftcard - a huge hit- and an idea I totally stole from a friend)

3. Wrap Gifts for Al's Employees (50 scented candles tied with cute ribbon - should have taken a picture)

4. Mail all holiday packages (for a total of 4 post office trips this week - 2 of those were for package pick up)

5. Christmas Cards - yippee - finally in the mail


6. Class gifts for Carter's preschool class

7. Chaperoned Carter's holiday party. His teacher outdid herself again - tons of crafts, games and gingerbread house decorating. It was so cute.



8. Finish purchasing all stocking stuffers and gifts for Allen

9. All grocery menus planned and grocery shopping completed for next week

We've managed to have some fun too: 2 playdates with friends, getting free Jamba Juices twice during the grand opening of the store near our house, Girls Night Out for me to dinner and the Forgotten Carols, Al's work party, and of course our DOC.

Al and I have a stack of movies to get us through the wrapping party this weekend and we're having friends over to watch the bowl game tomorrow night. It feels so nice to be done!!

Holiday Dance Recital

Here's a video clip of Makenna's first ever dance recital. It is pretty hilarious and cute. All these little girls are two and under (she is the oldest in the class). Enjoy!!

A few post recital pictures. With the flower Daddy gave her:

The holiday recital is really informal without costumes, etc. but it was adorable. I even got teary (dang hormones again) thinking how this will be first of many dance performances we will go to supporting our girls. Al could not have been a more proud Daddy - it was really sweet.

DOC: Days 8-14

Whoa. I have really slacked on documenting this. We also skipped a day (hanging my head in shame) due to a VERY busy work/calling week and sick kiddos.

Day 8: Help with Homemade Gifts - sorry, no pictures of this one as several of the recipients of said gifts read this blog. I will definitely post after Christmas (but they did turn out great, if I do say so myself).

Day 9: Make homemade wrapping paper and wrap gifts. For this one I just rolled out some butcher paper, busted out some of my holiday stamps and let the kids go to town.

Day 10: Make a Christmas Craft (Handprint wreaths). Flew by the seat of my pants with this one since Al unexpectedly had to work late this night. M didn't really "get" the whole handprint thing. It turned out cute anyway!


Day 11: Hang the stockings - Al and I did this one ourselves after we finished our sign. Oops. Sick kids

Day 12: Make Reindeer cookies - Hilary had these cute cookies on her blog. So SUPER easy but I love them. I used a red M&M for the nose but she showed a cute red lollipop (minus the stick) for the nose. I wanted to take these to playgroup so I opted for the M&M since there are a lot of really little kids in our playgroup. Also, if I had to do them again, I would use my cookie recipe and not add the chocolate chips. You could also do PB cookies but I know there are lots of kids with allergies so I opted for chocolate chip instead. My little helpers loved breaking the pretzels for the antlers and separating out the red M&Ms.





Day 13: Make a homemade ornament - I kind of cheated here since this was the craft I did for the playgroup. Aren't these cute? I got the idea from Andrea's blog (good thing I have such creative friends, huh!)

Day 14: Make Grandma's eggnog recipe (and drink, of course) - So I know a lot of people hate eggnog, but I promise this is because they have never had my mom's eggnog. My own husband was a huge skeptic until he tried it the first time. We made it tonight after dinner and it is soooo YUM!
So here is the recipe, just in case you want to try it (trust me, you should try it).



2 eggs, beaten (0r 1/2 cup Eggbeaters, which is what I always use because they are pasteurized)
15 0z. can condensed milk
1 qt. (4 c.) milk
1 t. vanilla
1/2 pt. whipping cream, whipped
fresh grated nutmeg


Combine egg, condensed milk, vanilla and beat well. Add milk. Gently beat in whipped cream. Sprinkle top with nutmeg. Serve Immediately.

Decked!!

The halls are, that is. Just thought I'd post a few of my new holiday decorations. It's been a lot of fun having a new house to decorate and adapt all my holiday decor to the space we have now. My friend Hilary had these ADORABLE trees on her blog and I fell in love with them. Hilary was nice enough to pick up a pair for me and send them all the way from Idaho. I LOOOOVE them. She calls them her Charlie Brown trees. Aren't they cute?Allen and I made this sign for our stockings. Notice there are 6 hooks (LOL). Al insisted that we put all 6 hooks on, just in case we have another child (LOL LOL LOL). I had to take this at a weird angle to not get a reflection off the sign. It turned out so much cuter than I even anticipated. And yes, I have already ordered a new stocking for Baby Girl.
So the nativity is not new but look at my new rusty tin Bethlehem backdrop. Love and adore. Again, cute Hilary had this on her blog and sent me one. I love it even better than the Willow Tree manger that goes with the set (and it was way cheaper!). Thanks again Hilary!!

This is a new nativity that my mom sent me this year. I love it. It's from Peru and so unique. The picture totally doesn't do it justice but it was hard to get all the things hanging the right way. My dad built the manger that they are in. My mom also sent my kids a cute nativity but I honestly did not have any room to display it. We still need a lot of furniture in our house so hopefully next year we'll have more places to display all of our nativities (about 5 are still in boxes).
My "fancy" tree. This picture totally, totally does not do it justice. I have no idea how to get a good tree picture. It really did turn out cute. My tree this year is about double the size of my previous tree so I've been trying to fill it up. My sister (aka other personal shopper) found me tons of cute white sparkly word ornaments to add to my tree but I haven't gotten them yet. I also have my eye on a new tree skirt but I'm trying to wait until after Christmas to purchase it.

This, my friends, is why I shop early. Plus, low maintenance hubby.

I always catch a certain amount of flack from people when I tell them I've completed my Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving. Well, wouldn't you know, Carter found something that he just HAS to have this year. He found this:

in the Hasbro catalog and has been carrying the picture around with him for about 2 weeks. I decided to cave and get it for him either for Christmas or his birthday (which is less than 3 weeks after Christmas). It's sold out, everywhere (though Amazon did allow me to place it on backorder). I am just crossing my fingers that I receive it before his bday!

Then there's the dollhouse I purchased for Makenna, along with all the furniture sets, way back in September. The checkout people looked at me like I was crazy when I mentioned it was for my daughter for Christmas. Guess what? Sold out long before Thanksgiving.

Finally, I have to mention how much I adore having a LOW maintenance hubby. Al doesn't care about fancy clothes, expensive electronics, video gaming systems or nice cars. Thank goodness. It's not very often when his heart gets set on anything, so when it does, I try my best to accommodate him. So this little beauty found it's way home with us this weekend:

And I must admit, I'm pretty much as smitten with it as he is!! It's been so great to be able to crank our Christmas music throughout our house with just this tiny little device.

Unfortunately, I am completely out of luck for the only other thing on his Christmas list this year. He loves The Far Side page a day desk calendars and they didn't even make one for 2008. Huge bummer. I guess I'll have to find him something else, even though I know he won't enjoy it as much.

Without further ado... kids rooms!!

Sheesh. Has it taken us long enough? After all my whining and complaining, I thought I should post the finished products. I really do love how both rooms turned out. Here you go:


Makenna and Baby's room:


Close up of the vinyl lettering above the dresser:
I obviously still have a lot of accessorizing to do here. Not the time of year to be finding a lot of pink and green in the stores. I will do a matching name sign and picture frames above Baby's bed when we finalize our name decision. I have also ordered this in hot pink from PBK for the corner of the room by the bookcase. The part of the room that took the longest was the bead board and the huge moulding above it (two pieces of moulding). I adore how it turned out though. Allen did say that if I ever want bead board again to get a job, save my money and hire someone to do it for me (only half kidding, I think).

Carter's room:

The small wall walking into his room:What I LOVE about the paint job is that it is just one big accessory. I really feel like I don't need anything more on the walls. I have one other thing to put up but need to figure out how to incorporate it into his room. He is also getting a PBK chair for his room, but in red that will go in the corner by the window.

The Polar Express (DOC Day 5)

On Wednesday afternoon we drove up to Flagstaff to take a ride on The Polar Express. Suffice it to say that this was THE holiday event of the season for us. We bought the tickets months ago and the kids have been SO excited for it. We went with some friends from our ward and had the BEST time. When we got there, we all went to dinner at a fun little 50s cafe in the city. After dinner, the kids had a quick visit with Santa (will scan pics later).

The kids changed into their pajamas and we then boarded the train:

On the train:

On the train we enjoyed hot chocolate and cookies:
We read The Polar Express:
The train then went to the "North Pole" where we were able to see the lighted village and Santa with his elves:

Then Santa boarded the train and brought each child a bell (the first gift of Christmas):

We finished the ride by singing lots of Christmas songs. We had the BEST time and can't wait to do it again next year!!