The end of a year...

I can't hardly believe that 2011 has come and gone. What a quick, busy, happy, crazy, and semi-eventful year. I hope to edit this post in the next day or two to add a little more to it and sum up the last few weeks but it's 11pm New Year's Eve and I have my cute nieces and nephew and hubby waiting for me to watch a movie downstairs. I wanted to quick sneak this in, tho, and just express how grateful I am for this wonderful year. So grateful for my health and the health of my family. I don't think I could ask for more than that. We are good. We are happy. We are together. That's all I need. I'm a simple girl and that just makes me content. Here's to an even better year...starting tomorrow.

Christmas Clean-up

I found this when I was putting away our Christmas decor. Charlie had climbed up and adjusted the nativity. He faced most the statues facing the mirror and baby Jesus must like to sleep on his tummy. Made me laugh.

Christmas!!

After months of preparation and days of anticipation Christmas finally arrived! It was wonderful to actually see Brandt and it was a quiet, restful day for us. We decided this year that we were not going to run around all day like we have in the past and honestly I loved it. We get spread so thin when we have to hit my parents, Brandt's dad's, and Brandt's mom's. We felt it was time to start our own traditions with our own family. We were very blessed and very loved. The twins both got their Mack trucks (from Cars) and O got some books and cars. Another hit was the mailman truck that I found. Brandt wins the award for best surprise as he bought me a beautiful diamond ring. I have told him that I would LOVE it if he would buy me a piece of jewelry. He never has and has said he never would. I'm picky when it comes to that sort of thing and he's been nervous to pick something out. But he did it. And unfortunatly, it was a hair too big and I had to return it. So, maybe we'll try again with sales around Valentine's Day. He is such a good hubby. He takes such good care of our family. We're so lucky to have so many blessings. I'm sad to see the goodness of the holidays be over with. I love that everyone is a little kinder this time of year. I love the smells and sounds that go along with it. Until next year...

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, the day is almost gone. Can anything be better than Christmas through the eyes of a 3 year old? Only thing I could guess would be Christmas through the eyes of a 4 year old, or a 5 year old, or a 6 year old...

Don't forget...

Don't forget the other afternoon when you woke up the twins from their nap. They didn't stir when you went into their room so you layed down next to Dylan and put your arm around him and stared at his face. His sweet face. Watched him rub his eyes. Watched his lips smack together. Smelled his breath on my face. Magical. Don't ever forget that moment.

Stay away Grinch!

I woke up this morning motivated. I was going to get my house spik 'n span and have my world in control so that when Daddy gets home from work today we could snuggle up, watch a movie, and wait for Christmas Eve to arrive and have a wonderful Christmas. I got up, swept, mopped, cleaned up extra toys in living room, vacuumed, straightened up downstairs, vacuumed, and felt pretty good about things. I sat down and called Brandt to check in and see how he was.

Thats when the blow came. This morning the piece of crap Post Office informed him that he was going to be mandated to work tomorrow. Normally I wouldn't care, but because we were told he would have it off and made plans then to have it ripped out from under us is what makes me so incredibly mad. One of the carriers (who is a real gem to begin with) called in sick for 2 days, Friday and Saturday, so Brandt has to work because she is such a blankety-blank. I understand being sick, but this lady called in sick last Christmas, too, and calls in sick around any holiday. So because of her selfishness my kids's Daddy won't be around for our Christmas parties. So, so, so angry. I've tried to let it fizzle and not let it get to me, but here I sit fighting back the tears. It just makes my heart heavy and rushes away that Christmas Spirit.

This compiled with a few other things going on in our lives is about all I can bear. I don't want to do anything. I don't want to "Christmas-up" my house. I don't want to be nice to my kids. I don't want to move. I'm ready to shut the doors, close the shades, and welcome the hermit life.

Why oh why was the timing so great for this one? Seriously....

Zoolights

Last year we wanted to go to Zoolights and for one reason or another we never made it. This year I was determined that we would go. Sooooo, we picked the coldest day ever and made our way up to the ol' Hogle Zoo. It was FREEZING I tell you, FREEZING!!! My parents went up with us and Craig's kids came and so did Brenda. A lot of fun, but it was nice to get back in the warm car, too. Was it just me or was December exceptionally cold? Brrrrrrrrr

What a whirlWIND of a week

I've needed to sit down and write down a few things about last week, and what a week it was. Exactly two days after a visit to nursery (perfect incubation time) I was awakened in the middle of the night by Charlie who had puked all over his bed. So I got up and gave him a bath, cleaned up the "chunkies," sterilized his bedframe and put all his blankets and animals in the wash. I put him back to bed and that was the end of that. He acted just normal after that.

We had our relief society activity Wednesday night so I was busy most of that day with church related things. That day we received an email stating that the storm blowing in was going to be a doosy and to make sure everything outside was put away. I thought it'd be a little windy but had no idea.

That next morning Brandt yelled for me to come upstairs to see the storm. Our BBQ had been blown into the grass, the cover missing (later to be found against the fence), the window on the side of our garage broken, shingles all over the yard, and a million apples and leaves on the ground. I have never seen continual wind like that. I just sat down in front of our large front window and watched the wind. Our neighbors siding was flapping in the wind. Garbage from dumped garbages and recycle bins flying all over. Trees bending in half (and to be found out later being completely uprooted). Shortly after coming upstairs our power went off. So that morning we did our best to keep the refridgerator closed and stay bundled up. We played card games. We played with our blocks. We drove our little cars. We read books. I put the boys down for a nap and decided that when they woke up we would go to my mom's house to sleep over since the temperature in our house kept dropping. When we finally left the thermostat said it was 57 degrees. Not too bad but I knew that after the cold night, we'd wake up to an even colder house. So - off we went to Salt Lake. Once I made it to the freeway, no problem. All the lights were out in Bountiful.

The next morning Brandt let me know the power was back on and we could go on home. We left my mom's just after lunch and as I was pulling into Bountiful, Dylan puked all over himself, great. I had cleaned him up and put everyone down for a nap. Cleaned up the carseat and the car while they all slept and then when I got Oliver from his nap, he was covered in puke. Sweet.

As soon as I got off the freeway that afternoon you could see the damage. The Taco Time sign was gone. The debris was everywhere. In my home I could hear all the chainsaws going continually. Just strange. A few of our neighbors had big pines fall down on their homes. We live behind the Bountiful Cemetary and they lost a bunch of pines. Friday night I had run out to get some milk and drove by and was just in awe. The huge root-balls just up in the air. I had ment to go over and take some pictures but with my three little ones it was hard to get the motivation to leave the house.

I started to feel crummy Saturday night and all day yesterday. Apparently we gave it to my mom, too, as she was puking all Saturday night, too. I finally took some pictures on my drive over to take Brandt his lunch this morning. A lot of clean-up has already taken place so my pictures don't do it justice.

Our church cancelled all meetings except Sacrament so that everyone could help with cleaning up our boundaries. Brandt took I think 3 loads in his truck and trailer to the dump. His last load he waited until later in the day since the line to dump was FOREVER long. He had backed up his truck and trailer and whoever loaded up his truck had branches all over so he couldn't see terribly well. So, he hit a van with his trailer. I guess the light covering of his trailer dragged against this old van and made a 2 inch gash. Awesome. We'll have to wait and see if these people file a claim. He said the van was at least a dozen years old but honestly? Just what we needed. A few hundred dollar service project. Fantastic. So that was the icing on the cake to an eventful week. Hopefully we'll be back to normal and able to widdle away our list to be ready for the big holiday coming up.

Here's a large tree at the cemetary:
This is a home on Brandt's route. I bet it was a large one by the size of the stump. This is on Brandt's route, too. Are you kidding me? It's obvious what happened...It's hard to tell but this tree is split in half. The top half is laying on the building.Here's the other corner of the same building. When I drove by Friday night the HUGE pine was laying on the building. You can see the damage to the roof and they layed the root-ball back in the ground so it wasn't a huge, gaping hole. Brandt actually lived in this apartment complex as a child I think the bottom window was theirs.More cemetary mess.