2009 Family Pictures

It seems like the best way to end my 2009 blog posts is with some shots from our annual photoshoot. This year we had my friend Teri take our pictures and I think she did a FANTASTIC job! Addie was super uncooperative so we worried we wouldn't end up with any good shots but we are pleasantly surprised by what she got!!


Since I had a hard time narrowing down which 25 (!!!!) to put on the blog I have no idea how I will ever choose what to frame/hang in the house! This is literally just a fraction of the awesome shots she got! THANKS Teri!!



Handsome/crazy guys:

She took a series of shots of this funny thing happening with me and my girls. Here's a few of them. These crack me up:

Such a twinkle in this one's eye:

One of my favorites, despite Allen nearly getting his eye gouged out.

The EVER elusive all three child shot:

HELLO Handsome!

2009 in Review

I cannot believe it is the end of another year. This year has FLOWN by and has ended so differently for us than I could have ever imagined. This is my third year doing this review and I still find it to be pretty comprehensive. You can see 2008 Here and 2007 here.

What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before? Unexpectedly move, get back to my pre-child weight (WOOHOO), taken piano lessons as an adult, supported both of my parents through cancer treament.

Did you keep your new years' resolutions?
After having pre-child weight as a resolution for the past 7 years, I finally did it! Sadly, I got really far behind in my Project 365 but I am determined to finish it in the new year. So yes on some and no on others.

What are some of your resolutions for 2010?
Exercise more regularly, Finish project 365 for 2009 and keep up in 2010, learn how to sew a few new things, a couple of books I want to read, take a photography class and get better at photography, decide if there is a baby #4 in my future (still resolutely in the no camp here)

Did anyone close to you give birth? Two of SILs had babies this year. A few friends. I feel like the pool of people I am close to giving birth is quickly dwindling and most of my friends and family are done or close to done with those childbirthing years. It's kind of weird.

Did anyone close to you die? No

What countries did you visit? None

What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009? More stability in our life. It's likely not going to happen but I have accepted it.

What date from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? The day we moved. The day we decided to take the job in ABQ. But mostly the day my mom told me of her cancer diagnosis. Horrible, horrible day for me and my entire family.

What was your biggest achievement of the year? Weight loss. Surviving my 3rd move in 3 years.

What was your biggest failure? Not keeping up very well in my blogging/journaling/picture taking. I realized today that I blogged only HALF this year of what I have done in previous years. Expect a lot more blogging from me in 2010.

Did you suffer illness or injury? Nothing Major

What was the best thing you bought? My camera! Designer jeans - after swearing them off for years I finally took the plunge and can't believe what a huge difference they make!

Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Anyone political. The Gosselins. Yuck.

Where did most of your money go? Traveling, an entire new wardrobe for me (lost 3 jean sizes), classes/experiences for our kids, our savings account

What did you get really, really, really excited about? Traveling, Disneyland, moving closer to my parents, spending so much time with my sister and her family this year, when my mom finished her cancer treatment

What song will always remind you of 2009? Say by John Mayer

Compared to this time last year, are you: much happier, richer, nicer? Happier - probably not. Moving this time has sucked. Really bad. Richer - yes. Nicer - hopefully?

What do you wish you'd done more of? Exercise, scrapbook, served other people, attended the temple. (Same as last the last two years)

What do you wish you'd done less of? Wasted time

How did you spend Christmas? The morning was here at our home and the afternoon was spent in Arizona with some of Allen's family. It was great!

Did you fall in love in 2009? Of course, every day!

What was your favorite TV program? LOST, Glee, Fringe

What was the best book you read this year? The Help, The Guernsey Potato Peel Pie Literary Society, The People of the Book,

What did you want and get? Good health, A new camera, a trip to Disneyland, an iphone, closer to having my old body back!

What were your favorite films of this year? UP, Harry Potter 6, Ironman, Julie & Julia, Sherlock Holmes

What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? 34, traveled home from Thanksgiving in CO. Not the most exciting but we had a great CO trip so that made up for it.

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 2008. Cute jeans, saucy shoes and fun jewelry

What kept you sane? Talking to my sister, my mom and Mindy every day. Reading the scriptures. Nap time.

What political issue stirred you the most? Healthcare reform. I'm pretty over politics though.

Who did you miss? My sisters, mom, Mindy, my AZ friends

Who was the best new person (people) you met? A few new friends in my ward here and a couple of moms from Makenna's preschool

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009. I can do hard things that I don't want to do.

What are you most excited for in 2010? More trips in the works (this always seems to be my answer)

What are you least excited for in 2010? Sending my baby girl off to Kindergarten. Boo hoo! We have been partners in crime forever and I'm going to miss her so much. Moving again. Ugh. The house we are renting is being foreclosed on so we will be forced to move at some point in the next 6ish months. DREADING. I've never packed myself so it's going to be awful.

Have a wonderful and safe New Year's Eve. "See" you in 2010!

Christmas Day!

I have a few posts to get done before the new year. I am determined to be caught up before 2010 hits! Christmas this year was super fun and BUSY. On Christmas Eve we got together with two families in our ward for dinner and to act out the nativity. It was so much fun. So fun that we all forgot to take any pictures. Ah well. We did it, it was great.

We were really prepared for Christmas this year so on Christmas eve all we had to do was stuff stockings and put everything beneath the tree. We watched a movie together and were in bed by 10 p.m. An early record in our marriage for sure! We took bets on when we thought the kids would wake up and guessed it would be around 5:30 since Carter commonly wakes up that early anyway. To our surprise they didn't' get up until about 7:00! It was crazy fun opening stockings and presents after that. The kids were thrilled with their loot this year, even though we felt like we were cutting back a bit because of our Disney trip.

Before stockings:

Before the unwrapping frenzy:

Carter + loot:

It was the year of Wii games for Carter. He bought several sets of Legos as his souvenir on our trip so we cut back on the Lego sets this year. He also received a giftcard to pick out another set of Legos. His favorite present was probably the entire set of Harry Potter Books he got from my parents!

Makenna + loot:


She loved everything she got. Favorites are her American Girl doll, Hello Kitty Slippers, princess scooter and her Sugar Plum Fairy Nutcracker.

Addie + loot:

She for sure LOVES her new bike a ton. If she is awake she is sitting/playing on it. I also found some bristle blocks (had them myself as a kid) and she has loved those too.

After unwrapping, breakfast and a little bit of playtime we jumped in the car and headed to Show Low for a few days. We literally piled all the boxes and wrapping paper in the middle of the room and left it there. So unlike us and so not fun to come home to. However, it was SO fun to be in SL for a couple of days. Allen's mom, his youngest brother Jake, younger brother Joel plus wife Ami and son Dane and his sister LJ and husband Adam were all there. It was great. We did what we do best at the ranch - eat and hang out! On the 26th we played in the snow and rode the 4 wheelers. The adults went to dinner and out to see Sherlock Holmes (ALL of us loved the movie)that night. Sunday we went to church, had lunch together and then headed back to ABQ. It was a super short visit but very fun! I was able to read Hunger Games and The Help over the weekend and LOVED both books.

Roasting marshmallows in the snow!On the way out of town we stopped to get gas and got this late Christmas "present." Ugh. A lady backed right into us as we were pumping gas. It was no biggie and we already have the claim all worked out and an appt. to get the car fixed next week.

Since we've been home we've been getting things back to normal and played lots with our new toys! We've also been to the rec center to swim, out to lunch, to the Children's museum and still have a couple things to squeeze in before school starts next week.

It was a very merry Christmas here and we hope yours was too!

Legoland Recap

On Thursday during our week in California we headed BACK to Legoland for the day. I mentioned before that we had promised Carter a trip to LL for his 7th birthday way back when we lived in AZ. Since it's quite a bit more effort to get there now, we decided to tack a day onto this trip instead of making another trip for his birthday.

We honestly had no idea what to expect but after having spent a few days at Disneyland we were kind of let down. First, a lot of the rides are water based and all of those were closed for the winter. Several of their other bigger rides were closed for annual maintenance. It was a bit of a bummer. Second, there were only a couple of really big rides and the rest were pretty tame. Unfortunately LL has really strict height regulations and Addie was only allowed on ONE ride the entire day. It was lame. Especially considering that a lot of the rides she was allowed on at DL were way less tame than the LL rides. So it was kind of a bummer all around since someone had to stay with Addison the entire day.

What we did like about Legoland were all the Lego creations they had around the park. It was pretty awesome to see what they built out of Legos. We also really liked that they had a lot of outdoor play structures and spaces (hence something to do with Addison during the day). We loved the mini factory tour and the delicious apple fries. The park was absolutely DEAD the day we were there so we got to ride everything a lot. On one roller coaster the operator just let us keep going around and around since there was no one in line!

Here are a few pictures of our day:

We Loved Lego Miniland. They replicated many cities all built out of Legos. Here are the kids in front of part of NYC. We found out that Al's current boss was the project manager over the creation of Miniland many years ago. Pretty cool!

For we need a little Christmas

Just wanted to do a quick recap of what we've been up to gearing up for the big day!

Snowman Pancakes: Homemade Ornaments:

Made Sparkly Peppermint Play-doh for our Primary class {and some for our kids of course}:

Big, big hit. Find the recipe here {thanks to my friend Hilary for this great idea!}

Colored a Nativity Set:

Dressed up in our Christmas clothes for church:

Sparkly red shoes courtesy of Grandma Frost and loved by my girls!

Decorated our gingerbread house supplemented with our leftover Halloween candy:


Finished product {please notice the rubber bands holding the house together since Addie stepped on the house box and broke up the pieces.}

LOTS of baking:

{Reindeer cupcakes made in lieu of sugar cookies. My kids asked to make cookies but let's be honest, no one ever EATS the cookies and they lose interest in the decorating part after about 2 cookies each}

13 dozen of my FAVORITE Andes Mint cookies to deliver to neighbors/friends:

Recipe from my friend Becky here {3rd recipe down}

I also made these Peanut Butter Cookie Candy Bars that won some cookie contest but we think they're overrated:

Recipe Here

We also went to the river walk of lights at the Botanical Gardens here, had a night out looking at Christmas lights, watched lots of Christmas specials/movies, read Christmas stories every night, etc.

I tried to upload the videos of our kids singing at the ward Christmas party (Carter sang a SOLO!) but after 5 hours gave up. I will post to Youtube and try to get a link up here soon!

Merriest of Christmases to our friends and family near and far!