Monday, December 31, 2012

WSWS

I haven't done a WSWS (what she wore Sunday) post in a long time! Joslyn got this dress for Christmas and she calls it her "beautiful dress." She put it on after she opened it and twirled and danced around and said, "see my beautiful dress?" Such a girly girl. Every time we opened her closet door she would say, "there's my beautiful dress!" So yesterday morning when I told her she could wear her "beautiful dress" today she was SO excited.

So here it is, the beautiful dress...

 
She is getting so big I can't stand it!
 
 
 
 
 
So I think I set a record for the most posts in one month, make sure you scroll down and see all of them.  I just had to get everything posted that happened in Dec 2012 while it was still Dec 2012! Happy New Year everyone!!! ♥♥♥

Scott's Birthday

 
Really quick,  I thought I would just show you an example of just how DUMB our dog is.  We bought her a dog bed to lay on in the winter (NEVER waisting my money again!) To her it is not a bed, it is a toy.  She has managed to rip a hole in it and her favorite pastime is to get more of the stuffing out...
 
 
So after she is done ripping the stuffing out of it, dragging and flipping it around, she finally lays on it...

 
Like a normal dog.  This is only after at least an hour and she is completely bored. UGH!
 
 
Scott's birthday (Dec 27th)
 


 I was SO excited to give him this cute owl I could hardly stand it! He loves owls!


Scott is such a goof ball, in this picture he opened a Doug Andrus semi truck (replica) or "Doug-ie Trucks" as we call them. Scott has always had a thing for semi trucks, but when Casey married Kristy that all changed.  Doug Andrus Distributing is Kristy's dad's trucking company and are Scott's #1 favorite trucks. Scott always has his eyes pealed for a "Doug-ie Truck" and if you ever venture out on the roads away from home he will always ask you if you saw any "Doug-ie Trucks"

 One happy camper...

What about you? Have you seen a "Doug-ie truck"?

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Sledding



A little bit of the white stuff + cousins in town + Christmas break = an excuse to have fun!
 

LOVE the hat Regan...






Joslyn loved the sled, whenever you stopped she would say "Keep Pullin'! Keep Pullin!"


Braiden and Hudson


Braiden and Ethan


Regan and Joslyn


Brody, holding on for dear life.


 This was a rare sweet moment that I caught on camera, Hudson put his arm around Joslyn and said,  "did you have fun on the sled Joslyn?" Melt my heart...and thaw my fingers. :)


Christmas Day

 
Our children were very kind to us and didn't get out of bed until almost 8:00! Here are a few pictures...
 

Hudson loves Lego Ninjago

Brody had Joslyn's name and he got her a Rapunzel Barbie, I think he was more excited for her to open it than she was to get it (not that she didn't absolutely love it) He was just SO excited for her to see what he had picked for her. That's what Christmas is all about and I love that!


Joslyn got Braiden a bow and arrow set...



Brody is SO sweet and could hardly wait to give me this little gift he made for me (and Nate)...


I took a picture of his little card so I can pull it out and show him say 7,8,9 years from now, then again a little later on say, after his mission. :)

"Dear Mom and Dad I love you so much I hope I can live with (you) when I grow up."

If that is not awesome I don't know what is.



We had Christmas dinner at my mom's then went up to Albion and had a little party (Cara always has the best games!) and the cousins exchanged gifts there.  I was a looser and didn't take any pictures. oops!

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Eve

 
 
Christmas Eve at Grandma & Grandpa Mickelsen's
The tradition: a spread of hor d'oeuvres, opening the Christmas Jammies from Grandma (and Grandpa) stories from grandma, reading of Luke 2 from Grandpa, a few games, lighting a fire with the yule log...(forgot to do that this year!!! Bummer!) Then it's off to bed, or for us, to home then to bed!
 
 
Ready, Set, GO!

I almost couldn't wait for this, Joslyn needed warm jammies BAD!


Here they are (Casey's family is in I.F.)


1.2.3 Silly...



It was fun, I get warm fuzzies just writing this post...ahhhh!


Meanwhile back at the ranch...

Hudson is ready for Santa...

Joslyn is ready for Santa...


Brody is ready for Santa...


Braiden is ready for Santa...


Christmas cuties...



Now there's only like 2 presents under the tree so get to bed because Santa's got a lot of work to do! HA!

Catmull Christmas Party

We look forward to the Catmull Christmas Party every year around Christmastime. There's always great food and an enormous amount of goodies and sweets. Nate's cousin went to culinary school and she is uber talented, it's always fun to see what she comes up with! The white elephant gift exchange is always unforgettable and the kids get a nice visit from Santa...
 
 
Joslyn is still afraid  :(


But she loved the ice cream set he brought her.

Here's Brody...


Santa brought him an alarm clock, just what he wanted! (no, really) :)
 

Braiden's turn:


 A Nerf fire vision football!


Hudson was very last, I think he was getting worried.


You can't believe how excited he was to get this Spiderman that shoots webs! He was tearing into that present like there was no tomorrow!


My Morning Monster

 
This is my little morning monster, who actually is not at all like a monster in the morning. (If that makes any sense.)
Every. Single. Morning. This girl gets out of bed and comes walking out with her blanket on her head, just like this:
 
 

"Boo!" she says when she finds me, It's like she has a mommy radar because no matter where I am she always finds me! Sweet thing!

 
Maybe she puts the blanket over her head to hide her bed head? Just maybe, because it's pretty crazy!  Not really, she's just being cute and I love that bed head!


Brody's Baptism

Brody was baptized and confirmed on Saturday, December 15. It was special a special day because he was able to share it with his cousin Kylie.








It was a very beautiful day for these two sweet kids.


After the baptism we went and had pizza at Doc's, yum!

Brody is such a sweet and thoughtful boy, I love how he always shares stories with me and draws pictures for me.  I am so proud of his decision!! I have noticed a big change in Brody since his baptism, he has a very special spirit about him, I hope others notice it too and follow his great example.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

My Christmas Baby

My Christmas Baby
 
Turned 8!
 
 
 


I Love Love Love this picture of Brody. With his tiny head of fuzzy hair and a teddy bear that is bigger than him. Oooooooo!
He was a very obedient baby, Nate was in his first year of dental school and I was due right in the middle of finals week.  Yikes!
After an early morning Dr's appt. I spent the day cleaning the house and doing laundry and working working working.  Nate was taking his last test for the semester (fewsh! we made it!) The house was sparkling clean and we just finished up a nice meal, I was picking up a few things off the floor when my water broke. Perfect timing Brody! We called up Nate's sister who lived in town and she headed over.  Since this was my 2nd baby I knew that I didn't have to rush to the hospital so we started doing the dinner dishes and taking out garbage and packing hospital bags, nothing like waiting until the last minute right?
Brody was born at 1:51 a.m. thanks to a crappy epidural I felt every pound of his 8 lb body :(  and...here we are 8 years later:



We decided to have a birthday party this year and unintentionally went with a snowman theme, see there are some advantages to a winter birthday.

After the boys got off to school I started getting ready for the party; cleaning, baking cupcakes, 3 trips to the school (no kidding) and a trip to the store.  I could see that there was no way on the planet that I was going to get everything done on time, so I called in the reinforcements (AKA my mom and dad) I armed my dad with the air compressor, a package of balloons and some curly ribbon.  Mom did dishes as I baked and baked, and kept the house clean.  I couldn't have pulled it off without their help!
So yes, the party guests would have arrived but the house would have been a mess, dishes would have been piled up to the ceiling, the presents wouldn't have been wrapped and there wouldn't have been any decorations.  In other words it would have been a disaster.
Thanks for saving me mom and dad.

I even had about 10 minutes to spare, to snap a couple pictures before the guests arrived.




Cute cupcakes (100% made from scratch might I add)


Party favors



Funny boys



More party guests :)



Make a snowman relay: which eventually just turned into a TP fight.


A few "minute" games:



I made these little marshmallow poppers which you can see above...they were a failure. The kids would have fun with them for a minute but then the balloon would come off, so all I did the whole time they were playing with them was stretch the balloons back over the cups as fast as I could.




blowing out his #8 candle!


Yeah that's exactly how I feel!




Birthday party round 2:

After the party guests went home we had Cob and Natalie's family over for cake.




Brody wanted a bundt cake this year.  When he would help me unload the dishwasher he would pull out the bundt pan and say, "mom I want this to be my birthday cake." So I made my favorite... Rich Vanilla Chip Cake. (I'll share the recipe sometime)


He's officially a cub scout!







He had a fun fun day!
Mission Accomplished!