Happy New Year!

New Year's was pretty calm this year, just like last. We pretty much did the same thing and it was great. Alan and I hung out and watched TV in our room while the kids played. We took naps, made pizza and snacked on veggies, chips and dip all night. We watched "The Croods" as a family and when it was time to ring in the New Year, we handed over some pots and pans to the kids so they could make their noise. Zach almost didn't make it, I thought we had lost him for a minute there, but he got up and carried on with us for the 10 minute count down. The kids ran out and back in and we all headed to bed.

We ended a great year, with hopes for another great one. I am personally thankful for my family and the time we get to spend together. I know I am not perfect and spend much time wasting moments, so I plan to work on that this next year. In the past, I think I would have set too high of expectations and when I failed, I would stop. This year I plan to just incorporate more small things like movie nights, date nights, dinners etc. There will be trials and hard times, but this coming year will be a good one!

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Oops

The new Blendtec is truly awesome, but oops, make sure the lid is on tight! HA HA!

I heard a very loud noise in the kitchen, to come out and see this mess. Alan and I just laughed, it reminded me of the movies where the blender gets ALL over, but the actors don't really have to clean it up. We did. It was all over the place.

Tubing at Soldier Hollow

Today was a FUN day! For part of our Christmas gifts to the kids we told them that we were going to take them tubing and that next year we plan to take a trip over Christmas break rather than celebrate Christmas in the traditional way we've always done it. When we first mentioned this, they both looked sad, almost like they wanted to cry. Questions like "will we still get presents" were shouted out and we asked them "what did you get for Christmas last year?" to which they couldn't tell us. We then asked how our first trip as a family to Lake Powell was and they "got it." We shared our savings jar with them and told them they will have no thoughts of gifts when we are having fun spending time with each other on a trip. We really want to encourage making memories together and not just getting gifts and stressing about how go who what. We figure since we aren't celebrating the day for religious reasons, there is no need to continue on a tradition that we grew up with and it's nice to know we can start our OWN traditions for our little family.

So onto the fun, we took the kids up to Soldier Hollow to go tubing. It was a blast, we all enjoyed ourselves. Alissa had fun trying to stand up and dance while being pulled up the mountain, while Zach and Alan were off going down the bigger bumpy hills. We stopped at a little diner in Heber on the way home and really just enjoyed the day. That's not to say it didn't come with hic-ups like Zach throwing a fit about Alissa sitting on the seat wrong and almost losing dinner or me getting my usual anxiety on the ride up, but I'm learning to enjoy the over all picture rather than focusing on the few things that don't go just right.
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Christmas Day

Christmas was pretty "normal" for us. The kids woke up earlier, as usual and waited until the time we told them to wake us up. I had two unexpected panic attacks the night before, so I was pretty tired and not feeling it. Alan, like usual, was great and offered to go out and make the kids breakfast so I could get some more rest. An hour or so later, I wondered out into the living room to see the kids had gotten into their stockings and were ready for the rest. We went light on the gifts so we could tell them about our plans to "change" our Christmas traditions (see tomorrow's post) and then they spent time nicely playing and it was a pretty chill day. We headed over to Mindy and John's and exchanged gifts with them. My mom is awesome and gave me the "Love is a daily discussion" wall art that she's had for many many years. I love it, it reminds me of childhood and it's a good reminder that no love just comes with out work, it's a daily choice we make. Mindy and John gave us a BLENDTEC! Ya, probably my favorite thing...no more "chunkies." The kids got some fun stuff from everyone and the kids went off playing. We did a puzzle, hung out and headed home about bed time. Christmas (day and season) is about family and I'm glad we got to spend time with everyone.
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Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve, we went over to Mindy and John's house for a nice dinner, but before hand we were busy making mashed potatoes, candied yams and cookies for Santa.

The kids spent the evening running around and being wild like usual and the adults hung out and chatted. Alissa and Amber put on a wonderful Christmas Eve Yoga show for us, we opened jammies, sang Christmas songs and made it home in time to put the treats out and get the kids off to bed.
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I am now 33!

Well I'd love to say something like "wow, I can't believe I'm 33 years old" but really, an age is just an age. Admittedly, I spent my birthday feeling very anxious, but not because of my age. As you see, the night before we had Jordan, Madi, Lexi, Holly, Tim and Tyler at our house. That night as I was getting ready for bed, I saw an update from Holly saying that Chantelle had the flu on her birthday (the 21st) and how she now had it. Now I know that the kids go to school and interact with all sorts of sickness that they bring home, but something about that put me in to anxious mode. I spent most of my birthday in my room feeling anxiety and trying to relax. Alan had made plans for some people to come over to play games and kept asking me if I wanted to cancel. I didn't, I wanted to enjoy that time, but anxiety makes it hard some times. I am grateful for Alan for always being there for me and trying to make my day a good one. I came out to balloons and fun cards from the kids. Alan had gotten me a tea pot and I love it, I love him for knowing what I'd love. As the day ended, I got myself up and got ready for family to come over and I'm glad they did. We had fun playing a game. I am truly grateful for those who take the time to join me on my birthday, as it's such a busy time of year.

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Cousin time

Holly had told me she wanted to stop by and drop off a gift for me, so I asked if Jordan, Madi and Lexi could come over and play for a bit. The kids had so much fun. The girls played in the basement, while Zach and Jordan when on an adventure outside. They came back freezing cold, so I made them some hot chocolate and they all started making the fun iron beads. They spend about 2 hours just making different things. The girls made "Best Cousins Forever" necklaces, while Zach and Jordan made Minecraft goodies. When Tim came to pick them up, they kept going for 45+ minutes more because they were enjoying themselves so much.

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Family Christmas Party

Scott and Kim hosted the family Christmas party this year and while I am always snapping away, I tend to keep my camera home some times. Amy snapped this picture of Grandpa Stan, his three younger kiddos and our spouses.

We had a good time this year with family, good food and a fun "piratical" white elephant game. I got a $20 gift certificate to a movie theater and I'm excited to take the kids to go see Frozen over Christmas break.

Wow, they just keep on growing!

Six months ago, I decided to start the kids heights on the door in the laundry room. I really should have been doing it for years now, but now was a good time to start too. I waited patiently as six months passed and measured their heights. My goodness, they just keep on growing and FAST! Zach grew nearly 2 inches and Alissa over an inch. Can we just stop time and keep them "as is?" Some days it's hard to imagine that one day they will be out growing me and for a mom's heart, I just want to stop time!!

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Otto loves "kittyjuana"

Some times at night we this is how we entertain ourselves. Otto goes NUTS over his drugs.

Comphy Cats

These are both pretty rare moments. Tiss seems to only want to be close when she's been outside and then she'll come up and be super sweet with us. Most of the time, it's just to crawl under the warm covers and SOMETIMES she's pop her head out and snuggle for a bit. Sometimes.

Otto, while a very sweet cat, has stopped really hanging out in our bed, which is kind of sad so when he spent some time snuggling up against my leg, I felt the need to get a picture of his sweetness.

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Bad hair cut

Since Zach has had long hair, which has been years now, it seems like we can't find a place or someone who can give him a cut that takes his long hair to shorter with out messing it up. They either go to short, don't live him with the sweeping bangs or just get it all wrong. So when Zach asked me for a hair cut for the 100th time (more like "I need a hair cut" minus the asking) I decided to take him up to Great Clips because it was close and I haven't found "the one" yet. When he was done it looked great in the front and I was surprisingly optimistic that we had found "the one." Since it was late, I told Zach to shower and get to bed, only to notice after his shower that the back of his hair was totally messed up.

Darn, she wasn't the one.....
but I did try and fix it, which made the whole thing look a lot better!

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First big snow

Whenever we get that first "big" snow storm of the season, you can count on Alissa going out to play in it. It started with the kids helping Alan shovel the walk ways and she just stayed out and played. She caught me taking pictures of her and ran up to the window to throw snowballs at me and actually scared the crap out of Tiss!

The kids blog

The kids really wanted to start their own blogs, so I figured what the heck?!

Alissa Sleeping

I always love finding the kids sleeping in weird positions and Alissa is generally the one to do that as she is usually going going until that moment she falls asleep.

Cats

The cats like to be where we are. They followed me into the office the other day and just relaxed.

My pretty kitty

Alissa had a doctors appointment during school and she had made kitty ears that just looked so cute on top of her pretty little head. I sure love this bright eyed girl.

She also has been toting around a very old and not so good digital camera and taking pictures with it. She wanted a picture of me taking a picture of her. I wonder how hers turned out?!

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Zach and Otto

I walked in to ask Zach a question and Otto was sprawled out on his back with his big belly just hanging out. We learned from "The Cat Whisperer" ie: the guy from "My Cat from Hell,"  that when cats open up their belly, it is a sign that they are comfortable with their surroundings. We have no doubts that Otto is comfortable with us, but he just looked so darn cute looking up with his big belling up!

This is why we love this girl...

For Alissa's field trip, they were heading to a symphony and were supposed to dress in "best dress."  Alissa was so excited to wear the dress Auntie Amber made her for the wedding, but we don't own any fancy shoes so she threw on some leggins and sneaker and was ready to go. This is why I love this little girl! I never ever want her to lose that sense of "self" she posses, that uniqueness that makes her so great!!! She doesn't care what others think and she stomps out into this world doing what she wants and how she wants. We love her so much!
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