Meet the Four Month Old Phenom

Most babies roll over at four months My baby waves and says "HI"
She sits up and cheers for Manning and Collie

She takes a little break to regain strength
She poses and looks adorable

She looks adorable some more...

AND THEN.......

She stands up......

AND FREAKIN' WALKS

I swear on my life, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't believe me either

Christmas Fun

Our second annual Christmas Eve Tradition is to go to Wingers and then venture to the Lund's for dessert. Here is Grandma and Spencer (aka "the dark secret") with Little Bit
Best Friends or Worst Enemies these two

Waitin' for Wings

Grandpa and Grandma brought a carload of gifts that we open on Christmas Eve. Along with the ceremonial opening of the PJs

Baby's First Christmas

Spencer and Britt

OHHHHHHH...... Santa Came

Christmas Morning

"I am in wrapping paper heaven"

All he asked for was clothes which means he's growing up

Christmas Night

Prime Rib dinner at Lindsay's

Spencer and Dax

Visiting

Another successful Christmas under our belts. And YEEEE HAWWWW the holiday shopping season is over.

For the love of Liza... I hate technology

My husband, bless his heart is so cute. He thinks I need all the newest gadgets and gizmo's. For every birthday/holiday/anniversary he inundates me with the most recent wonder that Best Buy has to offer saying... "you just need this new ______ (whatever). Your old one is as old as you and although it is in perfect working condition and is PAID FOR, I bought you this" (here is where you plug in all the fancy words, Ipod Touch, IPhone, Ihome, video camera, Netflix, Blu Ray, Home Theater Projector and the list goes on and on).

WELL... To be a good blogger, you have to be smarter than the top of the line SLR your husband bought for you for Christmas. And sadly, I am not. I have never claimed to be and to be honest with you never will be. And so until he gets home and is able to give me a two hour tutorial on how not only turn the thing on but also to get my dag gum pictures from my camera to my computer, you will just have to imagine in your minds what our Holiday Festivities looked like.

Sorry I was born in the 70s and lack the desire to read the manual. Until then, hope yours was Merry and Bright.

Sigh

Yesterday, I spent THE ENTIRE day with Allie. I mean the entire day. She woke me up at the crack of dawn on my only day off this week to ask me what she should wear to go build a snowman. Then I made the ghastly mistake of taking her shopping with me, and she NEVER once stopped talking. But she really does say hysterical things. 1. She says "mom, it would just make my day if you would help me find my ipod." 2. She has made my old scripture set... hers and so yesterday she spent around 40 minutes reading them. So, I am a little impressed by that and so I say to her "you've been reading a while, what are you learning?" She says "Um... I, I, I don't know, I just don't get it. There are a lot of ye's." ( and she shrugs her shoulders) and then she goes "but there is one part that says JEW" and then she laughs hysterically like that is a BIG typographical joke. 3. I say "Allie, go brush your teeth and when you are done, I want to check them" and she says "now, why would you want to start doing that?" I say "I want to make sure you are doing a good job. And she says "Well, in that case, I will need you to buy me a toothbrush... I haven't been able to find mine for 4 days" OH MY HELL!!! I just may be the world's worst mother.

Then (and this is the best story of all) I FINALLY bought her a Santa hat after 4 days of her asking me to (literally non stop 4 days of asking). And the next day she wore it to school along with her red sweat pants and matching sweatshirt and Brayden's black church belt around her waist accompanied by her Napoleon Dynamite snow boots and a cotton ball beard. Yep, I promise you. It's not a lie.

You really do just have to find the humor in it all... or you could absolutely lose your ever lovin' mind.

It's beginning to feel a little like Christmas

We attempted to try to take Family Pictures for the Christmas Card. The camera was on a tripod. It was 30 degrees below zero and Allie "accidentally" fell into a pond. But we might have been slightly successful. This isn't the one we chose by the way.
Oh my goodness. How cute is she?

Feelin' love on a waterlogged porch swing
Grandpa

Raleigh's mom did this to him when he was a baby and so he passed on the tradition. We all sang "must be Santa" while he dressed her up.

Who has a big red cherry nose?

Who has black boots and a suit of red?

Who has a beard that's snowy white?

Who has a red hat on his head?

Or something like that. I had never heard the song until last night. But it is a cute little tradition and she is the cutest Santa there is.

Sometimes they "JUST KNOW"

When I was a girl growing up and living with my parents... they just knew stuff. Call it the spirit, call it parental intuition, call it whatever you like... but they just knew what was going on. I would walk in the door from a date, I wouldn't even say a word and my mom would say "oh no, what happened?" She "just knew".

I drove a 1976 Volkswagen bug. It was the cutest car in the high school parking lot, but the dang thing had a broken gas gage and so I would run out of gas at least once a week. (For my 17th birthday I got 4 gas cans from 4 different friends, no lie, ask anyone) One night on my way home from my friends house (who incidentally lived in the scary Orange Groves out in the middle of nowhere) in the pouring rain at MIDNIGHT, I ran out of gas. This was before cell phones. And I promise you, I only had to sit there for 15 minutes and here comes my dad. He "just knew".

So 18 months ago, I moved up here to Northern Utah. I haven't even for one day regretted that decision, however I do from time to time miss my family. It is hard to be the only one living away. I miss the realness and goodness of my sisters and how they are focused on all the right things and aren't catty and fake and superficial like most girls are. I am grateful for the true and genuine love and support of my parents to both me and Raleigh and ALL of our children. I miss those brothers too, they make me laugh. It is hard not to get to do all the fun things we used to do when we lived there. It is hard not to have them right around the corner when I need them. And I really needed them last week.

So, just as they used to when I was young (or maybe because Raleigh called them) they "just knew" to call me and say that they were coming up. "We're just coming up for the day" they said. And while they were here my dad "just knew" to give me the greatest dad hug and tell me he loved me and my mom "just knew" to sit and watch TV with me and get caught up on our lives. It was what I needed. I didn't have to tell them how I'd been feeling... they "just knew". Sometimes you just need to hang out with people that you know FOR SURE love you. I got to do that this week and it was so nice. Thanks for just knowing and acting on it.

It's Christmas Time Again

At the high school level, you have to get all fancy for school performances. Here is James Bond Jr. all gussied up and ready to play us a few Christmas Tunes with the help of a couple of his Symphony Buddies and his Baritone Saxophone (which by the way is bigger than him)
He thinks he's pretty sexy. I'm torn between wanting him to be able to wear this to every concert and dance between now and his senior year AND wanting him to grow much, much taller. I spent an arm and a leg on it, but that height thing is a very big deal. And actually is a factor in him landing a date to those dances so...

We were there an hour early so we could get a good seat. So we snapped a few of Miss Serious in her warm winter suit.

And then we treated the kiddies to a fine dinner following the festivities. What?? We have posters of Ronald Mc Diz at all the nice restaurants up here in Northern Utah. Don't judge us... it's what the kid wanted.

P.S. Man they are a good band. The difference between high school and junior high is unbelievable. I could actually tell what song they were playing this year. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.