BUSY season!

I was chatting my friend Betsy up a little while ago and we decided that we needed to get together for a fun little Christmas crafty. NO, I forgot my camera, and YES, I'm not happy about it! We had some home-made mac and cheese (I threw it together real fast, but it turned out pretty good!!!), some devil's-food mint-choco-chippy cookies, and the kiddos painted trees and snowmen! It was a blast!
Conversation with Betsy has always come SO easily, and for that I'm really grateful. She's a dear friend to me. My friends and family are what really make this season so bloomin' wonderful for me. I LOVE it!!

NFCP!

So! The Official NFCP went off with a few hitches, but it's alllll goooood. It was changed from Friday to Saturday. Here's Sabrina sporting her super-cute outfit for the occasion. ...Lance picked this little number up. Precious! :)

Here's Sabrina charming the heck out of family... Uncle Seuao was only one of the mesmerized many...

Mom's tree turned out just gorgeous this year! she invested in more unbreakable bulbs because of crazy grand-kiddos, but it turned out to be the best thing ever for her tree!

I had to grab Mia-babes to get her to hold still for one second to get a picture! There was too much excitement going on.

Here's Ella -who always has time to pull out a fabulous pose!

Ok, so we decided to get some snow-action in, since the snow was freakin' abundant and perfect for kids to play in... Here's Tessa-Roo getting ready.

Sabrina made it out in the cold. Look at that little red nose! BOW WOW!

Ella; mid-winter-wonderland!

Mia too! ...Notice the sippy-football-hold? It's common.

Mary -looking fabulous.

This is Sabrina after she made it back inside. Yeah, she was our little pink marshmallow! :)

Noah looked DARLING in his little hat. Seuao is in the back helping kids with the snowman.

A slice of the chaos that IS the NFCP. Here's the annual gingerbread (graham cracker) house battle.

This is me and Lance, gearing up for the competition.

This is my favorite photo. It's Lex's reaction to seeing how amazing my creation was! ...Also realzing how she stood no chance against me...

Just look at the showmanship?!

Simply amazing.

This was Lexie's marshmallow horror. It was good for her, though. WAY TO GO, LEX! (PS- Lex, you know I love to give you a hard time, and it's all in the Christmassy spirit of COMPETITION that I divvy out the insults! You're the best ... Love ya!)

Seuao's golf-green.

Rach's hot-cocoa stand. VERY VERY CUTE.

The night ended with trying to take some pix of the kiddos for mom and dad's Christmas cards. ROUGH. Hope someone got a good one!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The never-meant-to-be Christmas concert!

TEMPLE SQUARE 2009

So, I scored some awesome tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Concert featuring Natalie Cole...

Oh, man. This concert has been SO difficult to make happen! It’s been on and off again a number of times, as I have tried to coordinate baby-sitting, rides, tickets, etc. In the end, I had invited Erin to come along -as I was sitting on 4 tickets, 3 of which wouldn’t be used. Erin was able to make arrangements and come along -her sweet mom Betty came too!
We were supposed to meet up with Rachael and Dad (in SLC) along with Mom and Granny -who came from Logan. I arranged for Debbie (THANK YOU SO MUCH) to take her grand-kids Ella and Mia for the night. I kept Sabrina with me, and dropped her off at Dave and Lexie’s (who were unable to go to the concert) until we could swing back for her.

Poor time management on my part, man. We were a bit late… After parking about 5 blocks away -which was literally faster than trying to move in a vehicle down-town- we made it to the concert hall right at 8:00. The concert was starting (btw, the above pic of Erin was taken mid-stride trying to get to some seats!). All the stand-by friends were let in starting at 7:30. NOTE: when they say to come 1 hour early, they mean it!
We went all the way to the top and saw the incredible scene -the orchestra, the choir, the decorations, etc. There weren’t any seats left. Alas, we hung out for a few moments and heard a song or two. Next was potty-break and photo op!!!

We decided then, to go have a looksie around Temple Square. It was just beautiful. …So magical -as I have always remembered it. We took some pictures and went into the old Tabernacle to see some more of the concert. We then made it to the Navoo Café -which is in the first floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Bldg. and got some delicious food! It was perfect!

Erin's mom Betty

The beautiful Erin

Me (disheveled and unattractive photo! -Happy, Sarah?!)

We took our time, had a great meal, and got to see all the sights. So now, Sabrina is still in her car seat from the ride home -I have to get to bed… NFCP TOMORROW (today) BAYBEE!!!

*HUGE thanks for the family who took my girlz. This was a pretty indulgent and selfish thing for me to get to do -as being a mom of 3 doesn't offer many opportunities to get outta town and do these things... It meant the world that I was able to go. :)

Indulgent Pix Of Beautiful Sabrina!

I have to say- this is just the sweetest and most beautiful little baby girl in the world... And she's all mine. Sabrina is such a light in our home. Thank you, Lord, for this miracle.

Festival Of Trees 2009!

It's that season!

WARNING!!! MANY MANY MANY PICTURES! So, here we go! The day began around 11:30ish as we headed out of town. Here's the token self-shot... You can see me holding the camera in my glasses! PS- THANK YOU Lance for the awesome new sunglasses that morning. :) That was a fun surprise!

Mom was the driver (YAY!).

She chewed ice the whole way. :) Here's Mia, looking very anticipatory... Little did she know she'd be awake that day for the longest she'd ever been in her life!

Here's me and the girlz at the festival.

We met up with my friend Teri and her family -it used to be a tradition to always go to this together... We haven't been able to do it in a long time, so it was awesome to meet her this year! Left to right: Spencer, Chloe, Teri, Andraia, Earl, Brayden. ...I met Teri when Spencer (taller than her!) was less than a year old. How time flies!

YES, I had to make it a family affair too, since it was in SLC and I don't make it down there as often as I'd like... Here's Benny-babes.

I couldn't put pix in here of every tree I loved, but oh my goodness, I was just drawn to the jewel-toned trees like this one -with the incredible peacock feathers. If/when I start over with my tree, I can see myself going in this direction.

Here's another that I absolutely loved.

This was the ultimate girly tree.

Here's Lex with the signature peace-sign! Noah and Dave are turned in the center, and Sarah looks unprepared for fabulousness... :)

This was a cool ginger-bread house made like the one from Disney's "Up".

After the festival, we all met up at Rachael's for a potluck dinner! Here's Sabrina kickin' it with her bff Phoebes!

These two are 3 months apart -I hope they're close!

Here's one of my crafties!!! I made this "Jingle Bells" for Rachael's family for Christmas. I gave it to her at this time so she could enjoy it during the season.

Here are some of our little loves... Tessa-Roo!

Sarah and Ella. Precious.

Noah!

Phoebes -after having had enough excitement for one day!

Lily bug!

Mom and Pop. It was an absolutely fabulous day. I love this season!

Mia Burpday Pix!

My princess Mia!

MIA'S SWEET SHOP!

*Shout-out to Erin-babes for helping me make home-made lolli-pops for the occasion! We had a lolli-pop themed party (ish... there were a lot of people in our house, and the "pin the lolli on the pop" game was never actually played!).

Mia got some wonderful gifts! Here she is sporting her new hat from Auntie Rach (from Lily and Tessa, really!) :)
Mary took most of these shots. She did some beautiful edits, like this one. THANK YOU!!

Baby Maksim

Today I met my new nephew Maksim. He's been the subject of a million conversations with one of my dearest friends, Candace. We have discussed this little man for the last nine months, and now he's here. I'm SO excited for them! He's absolutely beautiful.
*How cute is Sabrina in the back of this picture?!*
This is Aneesa upon her first meeting of the baby. ...Precious.

And Baby Makes 5!

This morning at 12:07 AM I got the dreaded call: Aneesa and Chazzy are on their way over! Candace was in labor. Bless her heart, I love her kids -I wasn't functioning on all cylinders, however, and Scotty had to remind me to stay awake during the conversation...

They made it to my house and Scott bolted out the door after kisses and hugs. The kids were actually really good and went right to sleep on the couches without any fuss! I got a call before I really even got back to sleep that the baby had been born -before 1:00 AM!!! WOW!

I get to meet him tomorrow, so I'm excited. Babies rock!

Congratulations, Scotty and Candace. I know how much this baby has been anticipated, and how much he'll be loved. What a lucky little guy. :)

November 30th, Mia's Birthday!

My Dearest Mia-

You turned two today. You are so loving and sweet. You are feisty and determined. You have a huge vocabulary -though it doesn’t all come out yet! From the beginning you have been my little companion. You were with me during a very lonely and difficult time -when I worked in SLC away from your daddy and Ella for a whole week at a time. I had you in my tummy to keep me focused and to remember why I was where I was. You have been so intuitive ever since. You have a sense of right and wrong -and are completely attached to me, which I love love love.
Mia, you are so beautiful. You have soulful eyes. You have been “mini-me” from the beginning. I have always seen it. I hope to always be connected to you; to be your trusted mom -in every way a woman should be a mom. I hope you find happiness and contentment. I hope you have big dreams and know that no matter what the outcome -no matter what your choices, you will never lose me. Ever.

I love you so much, baby girl. Happy 2nd birthday.

My grump

Today we had the big Mia Birthday Extravaganza -and as hostess, the pix I took were minimal at best. GRRR! I'll need to wait until Mary posts the shots she took so that I can tell all! In the meantime, Ella-Boo spent last night at Debbie and Donny's. Bless her heart, between that (not much quality sleep, but lots o' fun) and running around eating lolli-pops and birthday cake today, she's had a bazillion melt-downs.
When we say prayers before she goes to bed, I always have her ask Heavenly Father for all the rest her body needs... Why is it that she's good to go at 5:00 AM???? This girl is a total morning girl (like me) but doesn't like the party to stop at night (like Lance). Where is the balance? Someday she'll become a sleeper, but I'm sure that won't happen until the effect on me is much more minimal!

Let's all hope tonight that my little grump wakes up with a fresh and happy attitude! ...MAN, I sound like a parent!

PS- I found this picture that Mary had edited on her picassa -it's gorgeous. ...Had to share!