The best and worst of 2009.......

January Lance and I got to go on a cruise to the Western Caribbean for our anniversary

Cayden turned 3 in May and got to ride on Thomas the Train (he is still obsessed with trains)!!

In June the Oquirrh Mountain Temple was completed and we got to go to our first temple open house

Lance rode in his first bike race in July, the Tour de Donut (he placed 5th place in his division)!

In July, after training for several months to run my very first 1/2 marathon I found out (three weeks before the race) that I had a hernia. While in surgery they found out I actually had 5 hernias, not just 1!! I ended up in the hospital for 3 days! VERY, VERY painful and then once I came home I was on bed rest for a week! Didn't get to run the 1/2 marathon so this next year I am going to make up for it and hope to run my very first MARATHON!!!

Carlie started 1st grade in August. A week after she started we found out we had made it into a charter school. We decided to move schools and it was the best decision we ever made! Carlie loves her teacher and her friends:) She has learned so much including writing in cursive (which is now the only way they can write) and she is learning to read!

Cayden played his first season of soccer, his team was the Black Autobots!

Lance's Aunt Marjie lived with us for a couple months while his Uncle Ralph was in a rehab in Provo after having complications from heart bypass surgery. Uncle Ralph unfortunately did not recover and ended up passing away on October 13th, after a 5 month battle (while we were away in California). He is now in heaven happily watching over us with his daughter waiting for the reunion he will have one day with Marjie and the rest of his family.

Went to the "Happiest Place on Earth" in October and got to visit my Uncle and cousins while we were there.

I had my tonsils removed the week of Halloween. I was scheduled to have this done during the summer before I knew I had 5 hernias! Everyone that says it is horrible as an adult to have your tonsils out is right!! It was so painful I cannot even tell you how painful and I was so swollen that I did not eat anything but soup broth for 3 weeks (it is a quick way to lose 15 pounds but definitely not worth it)!! It didn't help that I had to have emergency surgery 2 days after the original surgery to stop bleeding!

My Uncle Mike and two cousins, Ben and Luke came and stayed with us a week for Thanksgiving. The kids had so much fun having constant friends to play with! We missed being able to see my Aunt Carrie, she is serving our country in Iraq right now. We hope she will be able to come home soon:)

Carlie turned 7 years old!

Christmas 2009

Christmas Memories.......

Carlie dressed up ready to read the Nativity story, Cayden was very upset about dressing up and did not want to have anything to do with that this year:)

Carlie and her cousin Haylee had matching pajamas:)

Waiting to see if Santa came! Carlie is always the first to wake up, Cayden would rather sleep!

Santa brought Cordoroy the Bear:)

Santa brought "Thomas the train that goes through the hole"!!:)

We celebrated Christmas Eve with Lance's family. The kids get to wear there new Christmas pajamas! Carlie and her cousin had matching pajamas this year:) We got up Christmas morning and opened presents and then went over to my family's for breakfast. It has been a nice quiet Christmas day and we haven't seen much of Cayden because he is too busy playing with his new "Thomas the train that goes through the hole" that Santa brought him (he luckily made it on Santa's nice list this year)!!:) We are so thankful for everything we have and for how blessed we are to know the true meaning of Christmas!

Christmas Lights

We went to Temple Square tonight and got to see all of the pretty lights!

Happy Birthday Carlie!!

7 years ago today Carlie came into our family! I was so excited to be having a girl!! I was induced because my Dr. was going out of town for Christmas and with a due date of the 27th I didn't want to chance having her born on Christmas (since I had the choice):) It is hard to believe that 7 years have gone by so quickly. Carlie likes being in 1st grade and is excited she is learning to read! She likes to play with her friends and make crafts. She loves to dance and is always showing us some new dance she made up:) She has a giggle that is contagious! She is a great big sister and we are so happy she is part of our family!

Italian Party & Santa

Tonight we had the yearly Italian dinner and visit from Santa with Lance's family. We eat real Italian food (Lance's mom is Italian) and then Santa comes and each grandkid gets to sit on Santa's lap.

Birthday Celebration

Tonight we celebrated Carlie's birthday with both of our families. I think every year I am going to make the cake until I get overwhelmed with the millions of things we have going on and I end up going to Sams Club! They do make great cakes:)

Rockin Around the Christmas Tree

We always try to fit as much into one weekend as we can in December:) After having breakfast with Santa and a Birthday party, Carlie was tired and not so excited to have one more thing besides the fact that she has a major ear infection! Tonight was her first dance recital with Elite Dance Academy. She really does love dancing and once she got out on stage she had her smile and personality that comes out when she performs! She did a great job and remembered the entire dance:) I am just sad that I didn't get any better pictures (it had been a long day at this point and it wasn't worth fighting)!!:) Afterwards we got to go to Carlie's favorite place for dinner, Red Robin.

The parties are just starting!!

Carlie had a few friends over to celebrate her upcoming Birthday! They played games, ate pizza and decorated sugar cookies. I think we will be finding sprinkles for a while but they all had a great time (the best part was getting to eat them)!!:)

Breakfast with Santa

We got to have breakfast with Santa this morning at our local gym we go to. The kids were really excited to see Santa and tell him what they want for Christmas! They even got to see Santa's special key that Mrs. Clause gave him so that he can avoid going down the chimney since he eats too many cookies:)

Cayden is asking for a Thomas the Train that goes through a hole (a tunnel)!!:)

Santa's dog even came (he looked much bigger when he was standing up)

Carlie is asking for Cordoroy the Bear!

Not exactly what the box looked like!

When I do any kind of project I am always disappointed if it does not look exactly like the picture on the package! I thought how could you go wrong buying a gingerbread train kit! Everything is there for you, there is no way it shouldn't turn out like the box. Well, it is kind of hard to make it look like the picture when none of the pieces match up and the frosting won't stick!! The kids had a fun time decorating the train with all of the candy but I think next year I will just stick with old fashioned graham crackers and frosting then I won't be disappointed when it doesn't look perfect:)

Our Christmas visitor.......

We have a visitor at our house this Christmas! His name is Buddy (that is the name our kids picked for him), he is an elf (also known as The Elf on the Shelf). It has been so much fun and he has only been here a couple of days! My kids think he is absolutely the best:) Every night he reports to Santa whether the kids were naughty or nice! He then "magically" moves to a new place in the house. Carlie and Cayden cannot wait to get up in the morning and see where he is!!:) It is fun to see how much the kids "believe" in Buddy the elf and how he magically moves from place to place:) So far he has been in the Christmas Tree, on the fireplace mantle, on a shelf in Carlie's bedroom and flying in the airplane in Cayden's room! If you ask either of the kids he magically flies through our house to get from place to place:) He has even brought up the question of what he eats?? In case you didn't know, Elves don't need to eat, they are "magic":) It is sad to think this might be Carlie's last year of believing in Santa Clause and Buddy our Elf! Someone at school has already told her that there is NO SANTA CLAUSE (she reassured them that there is though) and I don't even want to think about what they are going to say to her when she tells them we have a "magic elf" living at our house!!:) It is fun to see the Christmas magic in there eyes and the excitement when they tell everyone about the elf and seeing just how excited they are about Santa coming:) Don't think that this stops the fighting!!:) My hopes and dreams were shattered (I was thinking that Buddy could become a permanent member of our family if that happened)!!:) So for now he will just be our Christmas visitor:)

Happy Birthday Lance!!

A Special Moment.......

She got a pin to wear on her sweater that says Above and Beyond and a Certificate

Today Carlie received the Builder Award at her school! Once a month a student from each class is nominated for the award by there teacher. Her teacher let us know the other day that she was getting the award but it was a secret to Carlie until this morning at the weekly Wednesday assembly when they called her name! Carlie has worked so hard this year and has learned so much and all of her teachers can never say enough about what an improvement she has made!! The following is what the principal read to all of the students which was written by her wonderful and sweet 1st grade teacher Miss Lilly:

Carlie is constantly showing GRATITUDE by her actions. It is a pleasure to teach Carlie because of the way she listens, follows directions, works diligently, tries her best and sits in learning position. Carlie shows her GRATITUDE in a quiet yet powerful way. She is an amazing new student to American Prep. Thank you for showing your GRATITUDE every day Carlie.

We are so proud of all your hard work Carlie!!