11!!!

It's crazy to think we have an 11 year old in the house now.  Our little Cami is growing up so fast!  I can't believe that 11 years ago, we had our first little one.  Now look at us! I think Heavenly Father knew what he was doing when he sent Cami to us first.  

For her birthday I took Cami boot shopping.  When we tried these wild ones on Cami said, "How do ladies wear these things?!" I couldn't help but laugh!  She is such a hoot.

I think Cami's favorite gift this year was her Kindle Paperwhite.  This little lady is such a a reader, and I'm not exaggerating. She plows through books! So this was the perfect gift.  Thank you Grandma Elli for helping us with this!

For her birthday dinner she asked for Split Pea Soup.  Even though it doesn't quite look like it, it's actually pretty darn yummy!

Every once in awhile, I still can see the little girl in her.  The imaginative, spunky thing that beams when she smiles.  So full of life! And I love it.  We just love her.

Happy Birthday Cami-lamb!!!

3 months

Audrey is officially 3 months old now.  She is so alert these days, smiling, talking, we are all loving every bit of it.  She's starting to grab for things and is chewing on her hands like crazy.  (not looking forward to the teething days).  Her little bassinet has probably met it's capacity now too :).  Time to break out the crib!

A Good Christmas

It was a simple Christmas.  Didn't go anywhere, stayed in our pj's all day, played with our new toys, made Shepherds pie for dinner, and finished off with a Christmas movie. Aside from Craig not feelin' too hot, it was a good Christmas.  i had not thought to bring my camera out until after the movie!

Merry Christmas 2014!!!

Everything In Between

This December was full of hustle and bustle.  Making lists, checking them twice (and many times more!), and all trying to fit all the to do's and bball/wrestling practices/games in too.  But in between it all we had a little of this:

Star Lights with my little helpers :)

Christmas Concerts.  This year Cami and Alex joined a Community Choir that one of my friend's started, and I'm going to have to say... I LOVE children's choirs.  You can just feel their powerful, sweet spirits.

And of course, one last sha-bang for activity days.  'Christmas Crack' was demonstrated for us, and by Golly that stuff is addicting!

I also did some Christmas Crafts this year... a little unusual for me, cuz I'm not much of a crafter.

(This one is a tradition, but usually 4 times bigger.  As a family we work together on a Christmas scene picture, that usually involves our dog sleeping peacefully by a fire ;)

And then there were the little things that made me smile:

A dish scrubbers' smiley mark on the corner of the kitchen sink while I was doing dishes :)

Eggo Waffle smile :)

Baby Audrey's sweet little hands.  I don't want to forget this.

And one night as I was brushing me teeth and looked in the mirror, I saw this in it's reflection.  I love Jeremy.  He is such a good daddy.

(don't mind the messy room ;)

Then towards the end, Grandpa Steve paid a visit.  I LOVE this pic of Audrey and Steve.

Opening Grandpa Steve's presents early.  Carson begged for it!! Haha.

And celebrating my dad's birthday on Christmas Eve.  Yep, he was a Christmas Eve baby.  Sure love these grandpas!

To say the least, by the time Christmas eve pulled around... we were pooped.  But it was all worth it ;)

Getting the Christmas started

This Christmas season we started with a full day of smelling yummy gingerbread baking! I had the activity day girls over to make houses and spent all day getting ready for it.  So worth it!  It's one of my favorite Christmas celebrations.

During all the baking, Carson and Craig kept themselves busy with making leaning tower of cups!

9 girls decorating away!  (LOVE this calling)

Cami's finished product

I had one extra and so Carson got to do one... he was begging all day to do one, so I'm glad it turned out for him :)

Thanksgiving 2014

What a Thanksgiving this year!  One of my favorite things to do is back rolls. I don't know why, but it's soothing to my soul.  So I volunteered to make a mess worth making.

What made this Thanksgiving special was that my brother Jake and his family came down to spend thanksgiving with all of us.  So the day before Christmas, Shelly and my mom came to our house to see Audrey and swap cousins for some good cousin time.

Shelly and Audrey

This little trio cracks me up.  They will play and play and play.  All only being months apart, its awesome :)

They hit Get Air a couple times while here.

Good older cousin time playing Risk

We celebrated Thanksgiving a day early to meet everyone's schedules.  To tell you the truth, I kind of liked it! The stores were open all day, and then on the actual Thanksgiving day we relaxed and shopped away! Kind of nice :)

Mom making the gravy

Dad and Tyler cutting the turkey

The feasting tables... and yes totally used paper plates!  With 20 plus people there, I don't think anyone wanted to do dishes ;)

The cousin platform! Feast away!

This year we did an ugly sweater contest... or well more like just for kicks and giggles.  Jeremy got me one from our local second hand store.  He did a good job, because it's hideous!

Mom and dad all dolled up in festiveness

Zack and Kori... love the bling!

Tyler, Crystal and little Lydia.  Even gift wrapped!

Jake and Shelly with their awkward senior posing, haha!

Ezra and Hayley gazing into each other's eyes ;)

Jessica and Dan... working the ugly sweaters ;) Actually, I kind of like Dan's. Shhh!

And then for the classic Father son pose.  And no, my brother Jake isn't mentally retarded, just looks like one here lol! That's Jacob for you, gotta love it :)

And then the turkey bowl! I wish I had a picture of Alex and Mason because those boys were glued non stop.  Football, football, and more football.  Alex was in heaven ;)

And Audrey got held by many.  Including oldest cousin Logan.  It was a memorable Thanksgiving.  

Happy Thanksgiving!