Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know ME!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? When giving them, wrapping paper whenever possible –I LOVE pretty packages, and bags are only for odd-shaped gifts! However, receiving them... doesn’t matter!
2. Real tree or Artificial? ARTIFICIAL! Who needs sap to deal with on top of all the rest of the Christmas chaos?
3. When do you put up the tree? Usually the end of November, but this year I’m late!
4. When do you take the tree down? The day after Christmas, if possible. My house looks like Christmas threw-up in it, and I’m OVER it right after the holiday!
5. Do you like eggnog? Nummy!
6. Favorite gift received as a child? My “Real Baby” –it was so awesome!
7. Hardest person to buy for? My mom.
8. Easiest person to buy for? My baby! She won’t remember anything I get her!
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, a pretty Willow Tree one. I love it.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Always mail. Ooo, need to order my pictures!
11. Favorite Christmas Movie? A CHRISTMAS STORY!!! (“Dad-gummit, BLOW OUT”)
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Oh, man, as soon as I can accept that it’s coming. If I have money, sometimes in October.
14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Danish Butter Cookies –divine.
15. Lights on the tree? White!
16. Favorite Christmas song? I love most of them, so narrowing it down is a tuffie: “O Come All Ye Faithful”, “I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day”, “O Come O Come Emmanuel” and “The First Noel”.
17. Travel at Christmas or stay home? All of the above. Home for the first gift extravaganza, then off to the in-laws for more, then off to my parent’s home for even more. It’s a busy day!
18. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, Rudolph! -Now gimme a hard question?!
19. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel this year. I’d want to get a star that I really like…
20. Open presents on Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas Morning, with the traditional Christmas Eve jammy-fest.
21. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Only the horrible SNOW and COLD that get in the way of all the shopping and fun times!
22.Favorite Ornament theme or color? My tree is Victorian with reds, pinks, golds, and lots of sparkle.
23. Favorite for Christmas dinner? My family’s Christmas Eve tradition: Campbell’s soup –from the Campbell family, who had us over for Christmas Eve dinner the year our garage caught on fire on Christmas Eve morning. That soup represents so much of the generosity and beauty of the season –I look forward to it every year!
24. What do you want for Christmas this year? I have everything I could ever ask for.

A quiet evening with the fam...

The other night we decided to hang out together and play some Yahtzee! Mia was pretty thrilled watching the dice go all over the table every time it was Ella's turn.

Here's me with my new HUGE hoop earrings! I love them!

Ella after her roll -she'll say "I WON" with ever roll, so cute! It's her favorite game to play.

Here's Lance concentrating on whether or not to take 12 on his fours, or take that chance...

Baby giggles! I think she's pretty impressed with herself that she managed to get a white shirt so nasty without me even realizing what she's gotten on it!

Mia turns 1!

It's my little Birthday Girl! This is my sweet Mia, having just turned 1 year old on November 30th. Mia with Aunty Sarah -I love this cute picture.
Here's me, coordinating birthday plans -sorry Mia, we didn't do much... It was a crazy weekend, but we still love you!

Baby gets the cake!

Such a doll.

There is little I can say about this weekend. So much has happened, it's impossible to begin or end it. So, with that, here are my girls and a sneak peek at the Christmas pictures we had taken. Tell me they're not the sweetest kids you ever did see?

The Weekend

Over the weekend I took the girls to SLC to get some pictures taken for our Christmas cards this year! Thanks for the picture, Mary! Here are the dresses. I'll post some of the pictures when I get them.

Oh Nuts!

So I don't get along with nuts so well. Over the last year or so, I'd had a random attack here or there, maybe after eating some trail mix -once after eating some red dyed pistachios… This incident takes the cake. Ella and her friend Mikana were zooming around the house two days ago, and at one point were carrying chestnuts. Now, having heard the song “Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire” the nut seemed pretty inviting, as Ella left it untouched sitting on my kitchen counter. I decided to giver her a try. NO BUENO!!! AAK, chestnuts are AWFUL!! I spit out what I had in my mouth immediately, but could tell within a minute that it was an even bigger mistake all around. I noticed that my throat began to swell up, and I had difficulty swallowing. I called my mom and asked her to come over and help me –as I was having a pretty severe allergic reaction. Bless her heart, she stopped by for some Benadryl and was at my house within minutes. I had lost my voice by that point –because my throat was so swollen. My hands felt huge and became VERY itchy along with my arms, my belly, my neck, and head. My chest felt heavy, and that’s when I knew that I couldn’t mess around with it –we headed for the ER, They wheeled me in quickly and gave me a shot of epinephrine (I think) and started an IV. The lowest my blood pressure dropped was about 64 over 34. Lots of great drugs later, and slipping in and out of consciousness, we’d killed 3 or 4 hours and then I was discharged. Mom had taken the girls to Donny and Debbie’s who kept them for the night. (Thanks guys!) I went home and slept well –but too bad I was too out of it to enjoy the night without the girls! :) Just kidding! ...But am I??

Dinner at Connor & Logan's!

Monday night, Betsy (above, holding baby Teagan) invited us to dinner! Her little family lives two doors down from my mom, and they're some of the neatest people I know. Ella is GREAT friends with her boys: Connor and Logan. Next to Betsy in this picture is her friend Marilyn. She's a really nice gal.

Here's me and mom at the dinner.

Here's Ella with Logan!

Here's Ella with Connor! She's going to LOVE seeing this post! I love you Ella!

Last Weekend (better late than never)

Well last weekend we headed to SLC. We stopped by Tai Pan and got some fun new things for the house -we're SO excited! Mia started the day posing in her CUTE new outfit that Nanny made for her. Fun, huh?
OH, there she is again!Not so quite decked out anymore: when we hit SLC, we hit a major baby "blow-out" and Mia wound up posing in one of Lily's ensembles. Note the two bottom toofums. Too cute!Lily had a great time playing with Ella and the other kids as we all met at Rachael's for a potluck! Though this picture doesn't quite capture the enthusiasm, believe me, excitement was in the air! Ella kept busy playing with toys and babies. She had too much fun to pay attention to mommy taking your picture!

Baby Noah is now a little runner! He's such a little sweetie!

Here's Lance with Mia-babes.

We did get to spend a bit more time with baby Tessa -she's smiling now!

Finally here's baby Benny! He's such a little love, I can't believe how stinkin' cute he is. Mary, "HIS EYES ARE SOOO BLUE"!!! -quote from Stu, Logan High.

Not-As-Ugly-Ugly-Frog

Yes folks, it’s the long-awaited and much anticipated return of Ugly Frog. This one isn’t as bad as the first two, so I call him “not-as-ugly-ugly-frog”. Lance is out to get me. He told me yesterday that he was being bullied into going to the dollar store by our little schemer Ella. I guess together the diabolical plot was executed perfectly as the truth of the motives took shape upon receiving THIS PICTURE in a text…

Right now I feel as though my heart could burst. There is such a peace in knowing that my family is back together, and we are equally fighting to keep it that way.

Two precious little girls have so much riding on this. We take that seriously. The greatest gift you can give your children is being in love with your spouse. Lance, I love you so much.