Fun night with friends

I have known Christine since high school. I've known Karen since shortly after birth. My best friends are the ones I've had for a long, long time. Love you guys, and so glad we got to play!

And how lucky that our kids love each other, too! They spent the whole night rocking out to Rock Band. 

After dinner...

A Sunday night with Grammy and Grandpa- Tyler playing Christmas songs for us, Grammy helping Makenna make a foam gingerbread house, and Grandpa playing games and puzzles. I wish we had more nights like this.

Former Christmases

This is how Tyler spent his Christmas when he was Camden's age. Russ and I lived in Utah for 8 years. I wish I could have this snow for the week of Christmas, and then it could go away. :)

Arizona winter

This is how my kids have spent every Saturday since Thanksgiving-- The ice cream man comes while the neighborhood kids are all playing at the park. Tyler runs in to get his money. He buys himself and Makenna a watermelon pop (it even has chocolate chips in it to look like seeds.) I love the weather, but it definitely doesn't feel like Christmas.Finally, this week, it felt like winter! I'm so happy the neighbors were playing in the backyard with sweatshirts because the park was too wet. It almost really feels like Christmas!!

Santa

These pics are from our ward party. I can't help but laugh at how typical these pictures are of my kids. Makenna has her "I'm happy, but nervous" smile on. Tyler thinks he's too cool to actually sit on Santa's lap. And Camden is, of course, scared of Santa.

Makenna's b-day

Before Christmas is really here, I have to do a little more backtracking. Makenna turned 5 a few days after school started- yeah, like 4 months ago. That was a hard week for me, so the birthday party Makenna and I talked about never happened. And the party that did happen never got posted. So 4 months later, here it is.

I told Makenna she could take one friend to Build-A-Bear since we didn't plan a party. She had so much fun and it was the easiest planning I've ever done! And, of course, she had to have a bear cake, right? I actually made this cake all by myself! It wasn't perfect, but pretty good for me. Thanks Rachel for teaching me how to do cakes!

I love this picture of Makenna. She was sooo happy to get this "Tink" necklace that I paid like $2.50 for.

Makenna and Brielle both picked a pink tye-dye-ish bear-- they had to have the same one. My picky personality really wanted them to get a cute tan bear or a white bear. When they were sold on pink, I tried to tell them they had to pick pink clothes so it would match. But Makenna was totally thrilled with her pink Tinkerbell bear. Yes, I'm a little too anal about these things. The girls were perfectly happy.

Thankful #4

I have felt overwhelmed by my disorganized and dirty house recently, so I've been complaining to my mom a lot. Well my mom started complaining back a little, asking me how I got to be so "anal-retentive." She said I didn't use to be like that. Then she reminded me of some of my past experiences.

The morning of my BYU graduation, I slept through my alarm. I woke up to my roommates alarm, and her graduation was 2 and 1/2 hours after mine!  My graduation started in 15 minutes. I had borrowed Russ's car (he was my fiancee of like 1 week,) but there was no way I had time to park on campus. So I called Russ who was waiting for my family to pick him up and told him to pick me up, too.  But I told him to I was going to be so late that I said let's just forget it and go to breakfast instead. 

When my parents picked me up, I had slick hair, no make-up, and I was wearing the clothes that were on my floor from the day before. The whole time in the car, I told my parents and Russ I wasn't going, I was too late, let's just go to breakfast. My parents dropped me off anyway, Russ shoved me out of the car, and dragged me into the Marriott Center. I was still saying let's just go to breakfast. Because of Russ's job (a news reporter,) he knew how to get around all the back halls and elevators in the Marriott Center that most of us aren't suppose to be using. So he got me where I needed to be, and I entered the main floor of the building following behind the "Z"s. I ended up sitting in a row completely by myself, and then had to try to alphabetize myself in front of the crowd as people's names were called. Shortly after that, it was my turn, my name was called, and I got my diploma. And then my parents could breathe again.

After graduation, I told my parents that this was the perfect ending to my college career. This was how I made it through college. Every day, every paper, every test happened by the skin of my teeth.

So today, I am grateful for time to improve. Somewhere between graduation and now, I decided I didn't like stressing at the last minute, I didn't like living in a dirty apartment, and I didn't like looking like a slovenly dressed, sleep-deprived college student (another story that mortified my mother.) I am grateful that I have been able to change those things over time. You may call it "anal-retentive", but I like it.

I am thankful for something else, too. I am thankful that Russ still wanted to marry me after that little episode of craziness, and that he knew I would have been sad if I'd missed my graduation. And I'm always thankful for the little perks Russ gets. He seems to always be able to get me into the back door, the front parking spot, or one of the best seats in the house. Love you Russ!