Just in time

We'd made it through the whole fall/winter without snow. We did have a few flurries one day in October, but that was it. I guess old man winter decided it was time. Whitney and I enjoyed the snow (from the inside), while Matt drove my sister and family to the Omaha airport. . .

Whitney snacking on some snow from my new boots!!

Snowed in, family is home now, and no church. . .sounds like cookie time to me!!

Lost and Found

So, every once in a blue moon, I lose it. Nothing in particular, I just LOSE IT! I know I'm not the only one to do this. . .my sister calls me everytime she loses it, just so I can confirm that she is not crazy and that everything is fine.

Last night was the night. I think the stress of having company and some a little "absent-minded" around toddlers finally did me in. It was a number of things but the main one involved the following:

1. Me upstairs trying to put away mountains of laundry
2. An open gate to the kitchen
3. A 22 month old crazy kid
4. Cat food and water

I don't need to expand, I'm sure you'll get it. It was a disaster and I came downstairs after finishing the laundry and completely LOST IT!! I will admit when all was said (yelled) and done, I felt better.

Oh, and it helped that I bypassed the "family dinner" and went out shopping, by MYSELF, to find these, and these (and I ate way too many and felt just fine about it!)

12

Dear Matt,

Do you recognize these people?

They look vaguely familiar. . . .

Love, your wife of TWELVE years!!!

Wendy

While visions of Sugarplums danced in their heads

My parents always snuck in our rooms and took a photo of us on Christmas Eve, so I've continued that tradition with my kids. . .

Madison and Molly have their quilts that Matt's mom made for each of the grandkids. . .they are those fabulous rag quilts and so cute. I think Whitney's was still in her crib, when she, of course, ended up in our bed. . . . . . . In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there. . . . .

And this is the best part of Christmas morning for me. . .

You'll shoot your eye out!! (aka Merry Christmas)

Merry Christmas everyone. We did actually get some cute pictures after this day. My sister and family are here from San Jose, so we're up to our eyeballs in video games--my bro-in-law let us borrow his new Nintendo Wii. (The boxing and tennis are total exercise workouts!!), and dress up clothes and socks and shoes everywhere. And we haven't even opened presents yet! Will post more soon!
p.s. I hope at least one of you gets a big pink bunny suit just like Ralphie!!

and that's ALL I need. . .

Whitney loves to collect things wherever she is. She always has an assortment of things she's hanging onto. (This picture shows her cute little haircut I gave her too. . .her hair was about 3 different lengths in the back) All I need is this pink fluffy magic scarf, and this binkie, and Daddy's old work shoes. . .and that's ALL I need. . .

and I need this phone. This scarf, this binkie, these shoes, and this phone, and that's ALL I need . . .
Oh, and this play camera. That's ALL I need. . .

Say cheese Mommy. . .she thought this was awfully funny, mirroring me taking pictures of her. Cutie pie.

CATS

So, my friend surprised me with a ticket to see CATS last Friday. Her parents ended up out of town so we had a girls night out. I've seen CATS once before, but I was in Jr. High I think?

CATS is an odd show. No real plot line, just several different story lines of characteristics and thoughts of cats. All very true, by the way. I actually got a little sad after seeing Grizabella. Grizabella cat is an old cat, past her time. They still call her Grizabella the glamour cat though. She used to be one of the big-time dancing cats I guess. Throughout the show the cats are excited about when it will be midnight and the moon is high and it's time for another cat to recieve their "new life", and there's quite a hubbub about who it will be. Of course it ends up being Grizabella after she sings her well-known "Memory".
I've had my cat, Smokey, for almost 16 years. Although I complain about her plenty, she really is a great cat. She definitely has slowed down the last couple of years, and just last year the vet said she was starting to show her age. We took her in last week and the vet said that she is loosing too much weight, so they did a blood test and found that her kidneys are borderline functioning. So, as I sat watching Grizabella, I wondered if that is how Smokey is feeling. . . .a little past her prime, slowing down, and waiting for her ride to the sky. . .

Stuffed animals roasting by an open fire. . .

Matt decided to start our first fire of the year. . .I came home and found that my little animal lover, Molly, wanted to make sure that EVERYONE could enjoy a little snuggle by the fire. . .See, even unicorns, horses, ducks (dressed like bunnies), little white poodles, big pink poodles and puppy golden retrievers like a little warm fire.

Perhaps, as mothers, we can understand a bit. . .

The following is a true conversation that took place during Sacrament Meeting between two young mothers. . .

It was, of course, all written on a note because they didn't want to be "irreverent".

Mother #1: "Can you imagine being 9 mo. pregnant, heavy with child, and riding 70 miles just to pay your taxes?"

Mother #2: (Without a second thought) "Yep. That's why Mary "rode" Joseph's "A_ _" all the way to Jerusalem."

p.s. I wasn't one of the mothers, but secretly wish I was.

The Quest (to take pictures with a 20 month old)

This was a great idea, but who knew that on such a cloudy day, the sun would seem SO BRIGHT!!! We could hardly keep our eyes open. Whitney would have nothing to do with laying down so we just let her try to look up at the camera. . .not working.


Now Whitney is actually smiling, but at someone over there. Look at how hard I'm trying to keep my eyes open. . .look at that muscle flex on the side of my face!!!

Good thing we always have Jordan there with Tiff to help return Whitney to us during takes.
We did one like this that was practically perfect when Molly was this age. . .Whitney is done.


OK, let me back up here. . . .


Every year I have a plan. Colors/outfits-check, haircuts-check, no major scratches/blemishes-check, teeth whitened-check. Ok, the Christmas card picture quest may now begin, and pray for good weather.

Thank heaven for Tiff. Matt's sis is a photographer and we take full advantage of this whenever she's in town. She does an amazing job of catching everyone at their best moment, or at least being brilliant enough at Photoshop to fix all the problems! Last year, she even moved Molly's face from a different photo to make things just right. She whitens teeth, removes bags under eyes, takes moles off, slims your waist. . .I mean seriously, she has everyone looking a lot better than they really do. This year our pictures were a little late getting taken, so she just sent off the photos without doing her hours and hours of adjustments (so NO looking too close!!)

I have dreams of fabulous photos since every once in a while it happens, but seriously, just look what it takes to get maybe one good shot. We did get a few good ones, that you'll see on our christmas card. . .but that was from about 300 shots! (Thanks, Tiff!)

It all looks so sweet and innocent at the beginning. .

No, honey, your sisters aren't pinning you there. . .The smile is fading and she's figuring things out fast. Look at how well Madison and Molly are keeping up good smiles and faces for the camera as Whitney realizes the torment that is occuring. . ."They're totally squishing me!!! Make them stop!!""Must. . . . . . . .get . . . . . . . out. . . . . . ."I have no idea why I need to be making that face. . .I'm sure I was in mid sentance saying something to Whitney to make her happy. . .

This is when an airplane was going by. . .see Whitney's airplane arm? And look at that face from me now! I look like I've had a few too many, and that I have a big upper denture!!!

Happy Holiday Picture Taking!!

Thanks for Chocolate

I had no idea that See's made these, but boy am I glad they do. They arrived in a Happy Thanksgiving box from my Dad with a couple other boxes of chocolate. Matt happened to be home the day they came and we quickly got into all of it ("Hurry, before the kids get home!!")It didn't take long for the kids to whittle it down. . .

It was really hard to get it away from them to snap a last picture!!