Happy Birthday to Us!

Four years ago for my birthday I received my best birthday present ever. My first baby girl!! I couldn't believe it when I went into labor late at night on the 28th. Was I really going to have a baby on my birthday? I think it made it more fun because Karlie was a week early! It was like it was meant to be! ;) It makes my birthday more special every year because I can share the day with Karlie. I think as time goes on we will enjoy it even more!


This year on our birthday it was the annual Nelson (Dustin's Mom's family) New Year Eve party. They get together at the church to eat, play cards, and play volleyball. I figured since there was already a party planned, I might as well make the most of it! I found the most awesome pinata at a Mexican store in Kearns! I bought it during our Christmas trip with no thought of how to get it home! Luckily we made it work! It took quite a bit of candy and toys to fill it up. Lets just say the kids that attended, were not disappointed! The pinata was a big hit! It was so fun to watch the kids beat it down! I have never seen a tougher Pinata. Karlie loved her Pinata, so it was well worth it!!


Karlie of course had to have a princess cake! When ever we would go to the grocery store she would have to look at the cake book to show me which one she wanted! I think I bought one big enough to last us until next year!!

On our way to the party Karlie started to sing this song. Dustin and I just started laughing. It was so dang cute! She sang to herself all day!

To top off the day, we ended up not going out for our birthday dinner. We spend the evening in the doctors office with Natalie running a 104 temperature! It was a bit scary but all is well now! Overall Karlie and I had a great birthday!! I can't wait until next year! :)

Happy Birthday Natalie

Yesterday my baby turned One! I can't believe it! This last year has gone by so fast. Natalie has been such a joy to our family. She has been the best baby! I look forward to the next year with her. Watching her grow and become her own little person even more!




Natalie loved the present that we got for her! Her short little legs don't quite reach the bottom yet but I know she will enjoy her new toy!

Happy Birthday Dustin

When me and Dustin started dating we thought it was pretty crazy that our birthday's were only four days apart. But what do you get when you mix two December birthday's that are four day's apart? Two December babies in the same week!! Dustin kicks off our week of celebration. Yes, his birthday is on Christmas!! We Celebrated with my family in Utah. (20 of us to be exact) I always try hard to make his birthday special. But as hard as I try, his Birthday will always be on Christmas! He has learned to deal, and he deals well!

Luckily he prefers my Pumpkin pie instead of cake!

Happy Birthday Dustin, I love you! ;)

Snow Bunnies

Yesterday I had the best girls day out ever!! We went Snowboarding! Yippee! I went with Sarah, Sarah's sister-in-law Katherine, and Katherine's roommate.

Sarah and I were lucky enough to marry into snowboarding. Our husband use to go together in high school. Once they took us, we were hooked! We both love it! We have not been able to go together for about 4 years. Even though we love to go with the boys, It was so fun to be with just the girls!!


Yes, we stuck to the "kids fun zone" :)



Sarah and Katherine

I have always wondered what I look like snowboarding. I have the sweetest camera that takes video. So Sarah and I decided it would be fun to film each other on a run. Keep in mind, I didn't board last year (Natalie's fault) and I only went once the year before! And no, this is not filmed in slow motion, I am really just that slow!

Here is Sarah! Much better than me!

Shrek the halls

For those of you unfortunate people who were not able to see Shrek the Halls, here is a little snippet for you. I recorded it and Karlie insists on watching it everyday!!

A house for Gingy

Yesterday we made us our own little Gingy and a house for him. Karlie was a bit disappointed that the door was too small for him to fit through. Karlie was such a big help! She Loved putting all the little candies on. (and eating the frosting)

Thanks for the kit Dad! Notice her tongue? :)

While Karlie and I were hard at work, this is what Natalie discovered! Her new favorite position!

She loved playing peek-a-boo through her legs!

Lumberjack

Last weekend Dustin was able to put his mad lumberjack skills to use! We made our way up the mountain in search of a Christmas tree! We had a fun time tromping through the snow in search of the perfect one. Okay, so we had the girls with us so we opted for the first decent one we could find! It definitely isn't perfect but it's the adventure that counts, right?















Karlie helped a lot in decorating the tree this year!! She pretty much hung all the ornaments by herself! She loved it! This year she picked out the " Island Princess Barbie" for her ornament. We had a lot of fun with our Christmas tree experience this year! (Even though it is pretty ugly) I need new decorations desperately :)

Veggie Girl

While walking through the produce section of the grocery store Karlie says to me. "Mom, lets get some broccoli." Now what mother would not love to hear that? Karlie has always been awesome at eating her veggies! Sometimes when I ask her what we should have for dinner she will enthusiastically say, Broccoli!! She also enjoys her some cauliflower and she could easily down a pint of grape tomatoes in one day! I just hope the veggie loving rubs off on Natalie!

These pictures were taken of Karlie on her second birthday. They make me laugh every time! She was playing with her cousins and when I went to check on her this is how I found her. I could not believe it! She was covered in dip! Even two years ago we couldn't keep her away from her veggies! (I love the fact that she couldn't let go of her balloons.)

Thanksgiving (a bit late)

I am such a blog slacker lately! Every time I talk to Sarah she gets after me for not posting my Thanksgiving weekend yet! Even though I seems like forever ago, here I go! This one is for you Sarah! :)

Thanksgiving this year was spent at my brothers house in Tooele! The day started with a trot, and a bowl!

Dinner was SO GOOD!! It seems like so long ago, I think I am ready for more! Karlie enjoyed playing with her cousins and Aunt Jenny. Half the time I didn't even see her. She was having so much fun!

What would a weekend with Grandma be without a bath in the sink!!

Natalie loved it!!

I just love to spend the holidays with my family. We will be in Tooele again for Christmas and I can't wait!!

Champs

This season I got into watching Dancing with the Stars! Loved it! It was fun for me and Karlie to watch it together! So last night was the finale. The couple that I wanted to win won! Hurray! The "star" Helio, is a race car driver. But I just love the Pro Julianne! She is amazing! And she's from Utah. You can't get much better than that! I would love to be able to dance like her. It looks like so much fun! Here is one of their best dances from the season! :)

Little dancing elf family

My dad just sent me the funniest e-mail. Look what he made for us! Check us out here. If this doesn't get you into the holiday spirit early then I don't know what will!! :)

Send me to Chicago!

As I was reminded today on another blog that I like to stalk, today is Oprah's favorite things!! I just love to watch this show. I usually always love to watch Oprah but there is just something fun about watching the women go NUTS and almost fall to the floor! Oh how I wish I could be in the audience!! Hopefully I can post some of my favorite things from Oprah's favorite things tomorrow. :)

Retro Bowling

Last night we has us some Great American fun. We went bowling! I had never been to our small town bowling ally before. It is actually where Dustin learned how to bowl! It was so cool! It was like I stepped through a time warp! Some of the things I enjoyed were...

*we were the only ones there (only in small town Idaho)

*they had only 8 lanes

*the turquoise plastic benches

*the blow up gutter bumpers

*we had to keep score by hand

*the projectors to display the scores

I played a terrible game! Dustin wasn't to hot either! Karlie ended up winning by one point. She was very happy about it. Especially when daddy bought her a treat for being the big winner! She loved her pink ball and would yell "go pink ball, go" every time it rolled slowly down the lane.

We had a great time at the old bowling ally and will hopefully be returning shortly!

Feeding the birds

Warning: Ducks attack when the weather gets cold!

If you look closely you can see Rachel trying to kick them! She didn't like them getting so close. Poor ducks! Although, It was a bit funny! :)

Ewwwww!

Okay ladies, pull out your disinfecting wipes and wipe down your purse!! Have you ever thought about all the nastiness that your purse or even diaper bag could be harboring? Not me! You must watch this clip I saw on the Rachael Ray show today. Ewwww!

Click here to view. Enjoy! :)

K is for Karlie

Lately Karlie is obsessed with writing her K! She just recently figured it out (after much practice) and now writes it at least 20 times a day! She is also a very good "K spotter". When ever she sees a K she says, "look, there's my name, K-A-R-L-I-E." My goal is to have her know all of her letters really well, and be a pro at writing her name by the time she starts pre-school next fall. I hope we make it.

I just love this picture. I think it is one that I will keep forever and pull out when she is 20. She was coloring in her coloring book when she came across this page. Since we haven't covered the "how to draw" portion of learning (that is Daddy's job for obvious reasons) I guess she saw all the boxes and figured it was a perfect page to practice on!

I had to video her this morning when I noticed her getting out her "paper work" to get an early start on practicing! You gotta love the hair!

Giving Thanks

Happy November. I can't believe it is here already! I also can't believe we have no snow on the ground yet! Of coarse it has snowed already this year but luckily it hasn't wanted to stick around for very long. This week is suppose to be pretty nice! Warmer than usual this time of year. Hurray!! So today, I am giving thanks for no snow!! :) And along with that comes the fact that Dustin still has his full time job! That is definitely something to be thankful for! The longer the snow holds out, the longer the paving season can continue! Here's to hoping for a few more weeks!

This is Halloween!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!







Well, here they are. Our two little Halloween monsters! Princess Genevieve (Barbie and the 12 dancing princesses) and the little Iowa State cheerleader! (thanks Sarah!)

We hope you all have a wonderful Halloween! :)

Halloween's Past!

Here are a few pictures from Karlie's past Halloween's. I just love them! For some reason I didn't get her a costume for her first Halloween. She was only 10 months at the time. I think we just stayed home and went to bed! I just love the Piglet costume! I cant wait for Natalie to wear it next year! She looks a lot like my Nephew Matthew in that picture! Weird! The Mermaid was all Karlie's idea. I wanted her to be a cowgirl that year! She saw the Mermaid at the store and would not stop talking about it! If I would mention her being a cowgirl she would say, "No, a mermaid!" She loved that costume, and wore it often!

Halloween fun!

This past weekend we had us some Halloween fun! On Friday night me and the girls went with my sister-in-law Lori and the kids to a Halloween carnival at their Elementary school. Even though it was a bit CRAZY, the kids seemed to have a lot of fun! Don't you just love their shirts? We have the same taste in clothing for our children. Target Baby!! :)

On Saturday we had a Halloween party at Lori's. It was a lot of fun! (and a little crazy too) We played some games, decorated cookies, and enjoyed ourselves some pizza. I just love Halloween party's!

Cousins are the best! I am so glad that Karlie has some cousins her age. Not only did she get a cousin a few months after her, she got two! Thanks for the double whammy Lori! We love the twins! Isn't little Peter Pan the cutest thing ever! :)

Continuing on with the Halloween fun, we had Friends over for dinner and pumpkin carving later that night! Dustin and Ben carved the pumpkins while Sarah and I visited and wrangled the kiddos!

Here are the finished masterpieces!

Dustin carved his pumpkin just for me! Can you tell what it is? Let's just call him Edward!! ;) Can you see the Vampire about to bite his victim?

This will be a fun week! More Halloween fun to come! :)

Midnight Sun

Well, here I go, another post about the Twilight series. (What a dork) I just started reading Twilight again. I love it! So today while wearing my "Official I Love Edward Cullen fan club member" tee, I got on Stephenie Meyers web site (again) and read chapter one of Midnight Sun (again). The sad thing is that you can only read the first chapter. When I was done and my screen would not scroll down anymore I freaked out! I couldn't believe that was all I was able to read! I need more! Anyway, for the fans out there who have not read it yet, well, shame on you! :) Stephenie Meyer is re-writing Twilight from Edwards perspective. It is soooo good!! There is no release date yet but hopefully it will be published someday! To read all about it go here! And to read chapter one, entitled "first sight" go here. I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think!

Brilliant!

I just saw the coolest thing on Martha!! It is a company called "sticks and stones" You can create your own prints out of these awesome letters found in nature. Check out the web site here! The founder was a stay at home Mom who was just trying to teach her children their letters. She would take them on letter hunts. What a fun idea!! They have a variety of letters to choose from. I absolutely adore them!! I wish I had a big enough budget to get these for Christmas presents! I would love to get our last name done someday! If only I was cool enough to come up with a brilliant idea to make myself a millionaire! :)