"Christmas Nembers"

A couple of months ago when it snowed, Caleb asked if he could go
outside and make a snow angel. 

Thinking that he couldn't have remembered about that from last year, I asked him how he knows about snow angels.  He confidently replied, it's in my "snow nembers" (memories).  Hopefully next year these things will be in our "Christmas nembers"...

The Seal party, where Caleb picked his nose on Santa's (skinny teenage) lap.

 The Hill party (my mom's side).  I took the star that hangs from Caleb's bedroom ceiling and had him be the "star" in the nativity.  It was adorable and actually he's

mostly all I could see from where I was sitting.

Rainbow gardens in Ogden. My mom takes all of the girls in the family there every year the week before Christmas.  We eat at the restaurant, then shop in the beautiful boutiques. So fun! 

Jungle Jims playground.  This is what Caleb's preschool did for their Christmas-time fieldtrip. Caleb's non-fun mom didn't want to go on the rides (most of the mom's didn't!), so Caleb asked Teacher Joy to go on a lot of the rides with him. 
 I need to work on my fun factor.

We had to tell Caleb not to put his mouth on the poles and gates at the playground. Literally. Yuck!

Maybe that's why Caleb got really sick, and on Christmas Eve night, I ended up at my parents party without him and Justin (whimper). 

I think my family would've died  if I ditched the party too.

To ease the pain of missing his mommy, and several hours of fun at Grandma and Grandpa's house, I suggested that Justin take Caleb to his sister Paulette's house for a few minutes, where some of his family were having dinner.  So they stayed in town and in the end, although we were apart, everyone had an alright time.

 (My baby looks so sick!)

Our little guy had been counting down the days to Christmas, but when the day came, he felt so sick he didn't even remember it was Christmas! I couldn't believe it.  We didn't remind him, because he was crying and his throat hurt so bad.  I was bracing myself for a terrible day. We gave him some medicine, then Justin said when he was feeling better, he could open presents.  All of the sudden, it was as though Caleb's tears froze in place on his cheeks.  His crying stopped, and he ran into the front room and noticed Santa had come! And that was that.  The rest of the morning was filled with the typical joys of stockings, unwrapping presents, and taking pictures. Caleb felt completely fine the rest of the day. 
 I really felt like it was a Christmas miracle!

We even got to visit my parents, since my boys had missed them the night before.  We had a nice and relaxing afternoon there.

Caleb's night ended with some new Christmas pajamas. 
Surprise, surprise, they're Thomas.

DEAR SANTA...

Dear Santa,

I was a nice boy this year.  I played good with my friends and I filled up my sticker charts all the weeks.  I even got all my "politeness sitckers".  For Christmas I want a Henry and a Gordon train to go with my other Thomas trains.  I like playing with them the mostest of all.  I will leave cookies for you if me and my daddy don't eat them all gone.

Love,

Caleb

This is a small portion of the line to see Santa at our ward party.  During the party, Caleb followed his new, 7 year-old friend Emily (standing behind him) around like a puppy dog the entire time. Justin and I were laughing.

Have you heard the song "Where's the Line to see Jesus?"  I just saw it on YouTube the other day and I really like it.  If you want to, you can watch it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OExXItDyWEY

Happy Birthday JUSTIN!

Happy Birthday today Babe! 

These are just a few of the things that I love about you...

(These old pictures make me laugh!)

You are good lookin', and don't seem to have aged since I met you!

(8 years ago!)

And you've always been cute.
(30 years ago!)

You know how to have a good time!

You took to parenting SO well, and have helped lighten my burden a lot!

 You have such a good head on your shoulders.

You are always making your family smile or laugh.

 

You're easygoing and people are able to relax around you.

You're good at showing me that you love me.
(He painted this behind our bathroom mirror 7 years ago...he, he!)

You're simply an incredible person, and Caleb and I look up to you a lot!

Being with you makes me so happy and I am so blessed to have you as my husband.  I hope we are able to make this day special for you so you know how loved you are! 

Densley Christmas Party

These are just a few pics we took at the Densley Christmas party. (Justin's mom's side).  Most of the party I couldn't track Caleb down, so we didn't get many pictures of him.  But he had a great time running around with a bunch of little kids he doesn't really know!   

 My favorite part of the party was singing Christmas carols with everyone while Grandma played the piano, even though she can hardly see.  I don't usually get as involved in this tradition, but this year I really got into it and enjoyed singing!  Everyone else did too, and I got emotional a couple of times because I felt so happy and so blessed. It was fun having Justin sit

next to me and sing too. 

Later, we went to Alison's Christmas

"Pops" concert and it was AMAZING!

It was a full, but wonderful day.

 

Best Friend of Twenty Years

This is a little post for one of my favorite people of all time.

Tonee and I have been best friends ever since she invited me to her eleventh birthday party, 20 years ago! These are a few of our memories together, which pretty much sum up my adolescence....

Remember our childhood? 

We basically lived at the  pool (age 12).

(And we took tons of underwater pictures with your water camera!)

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Some of my best memories with you are:

Sleepovers at your house

Making up a dance to the song "Never Gonna Get It"

Rollerblading on the boulevard while you pulled me with your bike!

Babysitting and cleaning houses together, for $4 an hour!

Our detail planned mall trips where we would blow all our money at Gap and Nordstrom (wish we could afford to shop there more now!)

Making home-video, fake commercials.

(Do you still have those? We were hilarious!)

Karaoke in your basement. To this day the songs "Under the Bridge" and "Brown Eyed Girl" remind me of our karaoke days.

Learning to shave my legs from you, but having to hide it from my mom.

Let's face it, you basically raised me. 

(College)

Of course things are different now than our care-free days together, but as Tonee put it, we are tied together at the heart forever. 

This Weeks Happenings

I recently found this vintage trunk on KSL for cheap and went and picked it up with Justin.  Then he decided he can't trust that it's clean enough to take in the house, so it has been sitting outside while I decide what to do with it instead.  So far, a photo prop is all I've come up with. 

I also went to a play at the Hale Centre Theater with my dad.  He is taking all of his daughters "out" this winter and we get to choose what we do:). He is great company, and we had a wonderful time!

Caleb lost Rusty one morning and wouldn't stop crying and whining about it.  We had been looking for him all morning, and I finally told him we should say a prayer to ask Heavenly Father to help him find Rusty.  Just one minute after his prayer, he decided to look in the couch and there he was!  The way he was hugging and kissing that little dog of his, you would've thought he was real! 

Caleb had a friend over and they saw me cleaning the house and wanted to help. After they'd done the few things I asked them to help with, I saw Caleb doing this! All I could say was "whaaaaaaat?" (Something Justin always says).

This last post is for Justin, because he can't get over how funny it was when we went to drop off our big, old TV at the D.I . and Caleb looked out the window and saw a much smaller, but similar T.V. on a rack and asked "Why did they shrink our T.V.?" 

 Too funny.

Caleb's Favorites

These are some of Caleb's favorite things, and a few more old pic's I like.

Spending time with mommy or daddy.

Getting "Slippery's" with daddy from 7-11.

His animals: Bear, Lamby, Brownie, Rusty, & Snoopy's

Playing with his friends. He could do this all day.

 
Hanging out with cousins (where daddy used to hang with his!)

Wearing his Thomas sweats. He's wearing these in almost every other picture, and in the summer I had to hide them!

Playing in the snow.

His "girl" friends.  He has a lot of them.

Trains!

And hiding from us, several times a day.

Daddy's Favorites

The U of U.

Flying kites with Caleb (and this picture he took!)

Being funny. (Can you see what I mean?) 

Rough housing with Caleb several times a day.

Taking the family to Chick-Fil-A on Saturday mornings so Caleb can play.


His family, of course.


And being a father.  He is such a natural.