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!

Sunday, December 9, 2012

A Bittersweet Day

OK-I'm a week behind, but it's been a crazy week.
 
Last Sunday I was released from the primary presidency, I knew for weeks that it was going to happen and I was fine.  However...when I was sitting in sacrament meeting last week and Brother Bailey got up and started releasing us I just started sobbing!!! I LOVE primary and I LOVE the sisters I was able to serve with and I grew to LOVE the kids, each and every single one! So it was hard, a lot harder than I thought it would be! We got lots of hugs and little handmade cards from our little kiddies that will be cherished forever! So it's back to Relief Society for me It's been a LONG while since I've been. Like 5 years long...So today was my first Sunday back in Relief Society and it was good, the lesson by Sister West was awesome!! That's the wonderful thing about the church, it's great no matter where you are!!!

I was in charge of the food for the ward Christmas party last night, this has consumed me for the last month, I'm sure my mom was sick of hearing me talk about it! Love you!  Side note: My favorite "Keep Calm" poster that I've seen to date is:

  Keep Calm
 
   and
 
   Call Your MOM
 
 
Any way, All I can say is that the Lord's hand was helping me yesterday because everything went SO. GREAT! I kept thinking yesterday, man this is going so great but I'm sure once 5:00 rolls around everything is going to get crazy, well 5 came and went and everything just went so smooth! I had a
lot of help behind the scenes and I mean a lot! I don't think I can thank everyone properly.  Nate did
SO (like probably more than me) much work, he was amazing. I am so lucky to have such a supportive husband.
 
 
I decided that the old blog needed to be changed up a bit, I mean Hudson's picture says he's 3 and he
will be 5 in a few weeks! (except his is the only pic I didn't change out...didn't have one that was
"sidebar worthy" We'll work on that tomorrow!) I mean how hard it is to update your profile? Come
on! It was 2 years old!
I had a ton of suggestions on how to fix my problem (thank you!) my sweet friend sent me this message today..."as I was doing a little research I saw that you can add a second admin (second email) to the account and it will give you another GB of space for that user" So I did and It seems to be working!!! Thank You Krissy!! So that will buy me some time for now, then I think I am going to make some blog books.

 
Pinterest: I recently joined pinterest...I know I'm a little late to the game but better late than never.
Right? I am loving it, I've already tried a few things.  The sugar cookie bars were just OK unless you
make cream cheese frosting, don't even waste your time. ;) We are doing a cute little Christmas countdown that is fun for the kids too. I love looking at all the creative things people do and most of
the time I just dream about being creative.

 
A note on journaling:  A couple of weeks ago I got out my old journals from when I was first married
to about Brody as a baby, and I realized how much I enjoyed going back and reading about my thoughts and my life. I was laughing so hard I was crying, and in awe of how positive I was, boy I've
turned in to a grouchy old fart! I was AMAZED at the crap we went through with Braiden, with his
severe allergies and asthma, it's amazing that the poor kid is alive! Anyway that is the reason for this
long boring pictureless post, I want to remember these little things, about the time I was released
from primary and the time I was in charge of the ward dinner. And I will read all of these old posts
and think, man, I was so positive! I've turned into a grouchy old fart. haha! So here's my attempt to
document more of the little things.
 

I put a few of our new family pictures on the sidebar, the family one and the kids one, I love love
love that one of the kids it is adorable!!! The river was so low that they are actually standing on the
riverbed, cool!

Monday, November 19, 2012

Big Changes & A Cry For HELP

It's been almost a month since my last post eek! How did that happen?? First of all here are a few pictures from Halloween:

 
We were so lucky this year and had BEAUTIFUL weather for trick-or-treating so this was all they had to wear, no coats!!! yay!!!

 
Helloooo, little princess, camera's this way. :)

 
This is the original costume we bought for him to wear this year, however, he also dressed up as spiderman for one party and a star wars clone trooper for another.


 
Braiden had officially graduated from nice, superhero type costumes to creepy costumes, not fond of that change.


(Still in the "nice costume stage") Ninja version 2. The ninja costume we already had in the costume box just wouldn't do. (grrr)

After the trunk or treat we came back home and there were still a few straggling trick-or-treaters knocking on doors, I swear the kids had more fun passing out candy than they did gathering it!!!

Here's the big change...

Sooooo, we got home from church on Oct 21 and got a phone call, you know "THAT" phone call, the one from the Stake Executive Secretary asking Nate if he and his wife would come in to meet with the Stake Presidency... Uh, OK. I am nothing but a bundle of nerves for a good 2 and a half days, it could be anything really, Stake Athletic Director...yeah, that would be good. But when you are sitting down across from the whole Stake Presidency your hopes for Stake Athletic Director quickly go down the drain! So Nate was called to be the 2nd counselor in the bishopric. Whoa!

The next two weeks were filled with stress (on my part) and a LOT of fibbing (mostly on Nate's part) I only had one person ask me if the new 2nd counselor was going to be Nate and I did a horrible job of lying. I'm sure she had it all figured out by the time our conversation was over. : /

I feel like I have been well prepared for his calling in some ways, he has been the Elders Quorum Pres for half of our married life, YM Pres. and Ward Clerk so I am used to Sunday mornings on my own, I don't know what I would do with myself if he WAS home on a Sunday morning. What I am not used to is sitting by myself in sacrament meeting, my first Sunday the older 2 were worse than the younger 2, WHAT? His first week in he had meetings on 3 nights and Sat was a chaotic mess.  Sundays after church are sad and lonely, that is the best part of the day when we come home and I get to tell him all the things that went on in primary that day. :) It will take some getting used to I am sure! That is the whole point of this life after all, to learn and grow. He is lucky to be able to serve with great people who will help him along the way.

Our sweet niece, little Ruby Rose was blessed on the 4th, the same day Nate was put in the bishopric, it was a big day!!!

I was also asked to be in charge of the ward Christmas Dinner YIKES!!! Actually when they asked me I thought they were going to say "decorations" but when they said "the dinner" I laughed! I can think of a few more qualified people in the ward to do that job!! (uh hem...KARLA) ♥ ya! I understand you can't do every ward dinner so I'm gonna need your help!!!

Last week was book fair at the school, I was in charge. That was a toughie, once the schedule was filled, the biggest job, and the books were set up, the second biggest job, the rest went pretty smooth. Glad it's over though!

We got our family pictures taken on the 3rd we couldn't have asked for a more BEAUTIFUL day!!! in Nov too. Lucky!! Everyone looked great and everyone cooperated, I can't wait to see them!! Christmas cards are coming this year for sure!!! Make sure I have your address! ( or I need to make sure I have your address, something like that.)

Thanksgiving is going to be pretty low key this year, all of our brothers and sister are going to the "other side"...hmm, how did that happen? Any way we are going to eat with Kurt and Terril and do a trail run of the ward Christmas dinner. I'm sure we will go out and buy a paper and look at all of the black Friday deals that we won't take advantage of. :) It's still fun to look, maybe we will catch a movie this year!! Know any good one's coming out?

Brody's Birthday and BAPTISM is coming up in a few weeks WOWEE! Here we go scouts round 2! What do I do? Buy another scout shirt? Braiden only needs it for another 4 months. hmmm.

I need your help...

My blog says that I am out of space, apparently I talk too much and I have too many "picture heavy posts.  Have any of you had this problem? What should I do? I am not very tech savvy but here are a few solutions I have come up with. The blog just wants me to buy more space (surprise) $2/month not much but that is just annoying, don't want to do it. I could stop blogging, yeah not gonna do that one either. I could start a new blog. I worry about that, what if no one reads it any more...what if no one reads it now. hmmm. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated!!!!