Merry Christmas!

I love my imperfectly decorated Christmas tree. Sometimes I walk into a home with a large, beautifully decorated tree with perfectly color-coordinated ornaments and I think, "wow, that would be nice!" But really, this picture says it all. I love when sweet little arms that are too short to reach the top of the tree put all the gold beads in a cluster. I love when large areas of the tree have no ornaments and other branches loaded with ten ornaments sag down low. I love that each ornament carries a memory or was made with love by one of my girls. I'm glad that my perfectionist mind allows for an awesomely imperfect Christmas tree.

Keeks has a new new nick name to add to her list. 'Kee-Bee'. I think that takes her up to approximately 38 nicknames now. The miraculous thing is that she answers to all of them. We love our little Kee-Bee.

Christmas Pictures.

I had fun experimenting with my photo editing tools.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

10th Birthday Bash

In our home, we do "late-overs" instead of sleep-overs. Amazingly, our children are growing up plenty happy in spite of it. So, for Kay-Kay's party this year, she had a craft, movie, dance late-over. Fun was had by all and when I crawled into my warm, soft bed at 11:00 and listened to the, well nothing actually. Just silence, AHHHHH. I thought to myself what smart parents we are!

Watch the above video clip to get a glimpse into an ALL GIRL world....my world.

Gorgeous Girls

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Kay Kay and Keeks

Keeks turns FOUR!

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O.k., so I'm a little late posting these pictures. But better late than never, right?!? My Baby is FOUR!

Birthday Girl!.

Birthday breakfast!

Birthday charriot rides by Dadddy!

Birthday love from Crewie!

Birthday Tea Party!

Why I Love Him...

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I'm a lucky girl. My husband works in an office in our backyard. If I'm having a rough day, in about 25 steps I can be in the arms of the man who can make all my troubles melt away. At night, when I'm in the kitchen making dinner, I can look out and see him in his office. At 5:30, I start watching to see his office lights click off and know that I will soon be getting a big hug and (much to Ash's chagrin) a yummy KISS!

Monday night when Jeff came in, he could tell I'd had a long day. With no dinner in sight, he popped some chicken nuggets in the toaster oven, whipped up a fruit smoothie and declared he was taking me out to dinner. "We can't go out to dinner, it's not in the budget AND it's family night!" I declared. (I'm one of those black and white thinkers) "We'll have family night when we get back and we'll use a coupon," he said. So, we got the kids settled with their dinner and then hopped in the car with our coupon to 'Baja Fresh'.

Upon arrival, I was past the point of no return. For those of you who don't know me or my siblings very well, that's the point when you realize you should have eaten an hour ago and you are no longer able to function, act rationally or think clearly. Something to do with our hypoglycemic mother, low blood sugar, blah, blah, blah. We can recognize it in each other and our brilliant spouses have learned to recognize and remedy it promptly (...which is very much in their best interest). My sweet husband asked me what I wanted to eat and discussed the three different coupon options. All I heard was, "wah-wah, wah-wah, wah-wah". I just stood, staring. Then he said those 8 little words that made me remember all over again why I love this man so much. He said, "do you want me to decide for you?" I mumbled a grateful "yes" and collapsed into a nearby chair.

Of course he ordered me the perfect thing. The thing that I wanted but didn't know that I wanted. The burrito that had lots of chicken and rice, but no beans and of course utilized the coupon that maximized our savings. It even had a few tortilla chips with melted cheese on the side. Yum! How did he know? And does it get any better than this??

Happy Halloween!

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Ahhh. My least favorite holiday is over and now we can move on to the GOOD ONES! Jeff was some sort of Scottish dude (inspired by his birthday trip to London and Scotland). Not too many men can pull off wearing a skirt. I have to say, even in a skirt and hiking boots, he's so darn sexy! Ashey (and her cute friend "O") were puppets, Kay Kay was a rock star, Dani was a singing Diva and Keeks was a washed up Mermaid. She chose the most tattered costume in the box with only a few remaining sequins. But Keeks wants what Keeks wants so she was a Mermaid with a dirty green cast and a few random sequins hanging on for dear life. I was a tired Mom with a pumpkin shirt. Thank goodness we needed someone to take the picture so I didn't have to be in it!

More Conversations with God...

The minute Keeks started praying this afternoon, I could tell it was going to be one of her classic "lecture prayers". I was around the corner in the office so I opened my eyes, grabbed a pen, and jotted down her words. I know, I know, that probably wasn't very reverent on my part but I couldn't resist.

Here's what she said:

"Dear Heavenly Father, Please bless the food, please bless Dani not to be mean. Please bless that Kay Kay will be nice to me, please bless Dani won't be so picky anymore. And please bless ASHEY won't be so picky anymore! Please bless that Kay Kay will love me. Please bless Kay Kay to be safe. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

I think we need to work with her on more thanks, less lecture...

Yesterday, in the space of 90 minutes, while standing at an intersection holding "Yes on Prop 8" signs with friends and other supporters, I was called:

• A bigot
• A christian wacko
• A hate monger
• Stupid
• Hateful
• Uneducated
• Ignorant

Oh, and I was also given the "one finger salute" a few too many times.

It's interesting to me that these people who were calling me hateful as I stood there smiling and waving, were the ones acting so incredibly hateful, mean, and just plain rude. But I'm brushing off the bad dreams I had last night about my home being vandalized and people yelling at me and trying to hold onto the images of the MANY (probably 80%) honks of support, waves, thumbs up and personal thanks we got for having the courage to do what we were doing.

Sadly, although we live in a free country, there are many who don't think we are entitled to an opinion if it is different from their own. Perhaps if all our signs weren't stolen or vandalized within hours of being displayed, we wouldn't have to be standing on street corners to have our voices heard. I don't understand all the hate that comes from a difference of opinion. Wouldn't it be nice if we could RESPECTFULLY 'agree to disagree'? Just askin'...

This morning I read a quote from President Gordon B. Hinckley that seems to apply.

"Draw comfort from the words of the Master....when we are spoken of by those whose lives are torn with hate. They lash out at one thing and another. They manufacture and spread vile falsehoods behind which there is not a shred of truth. There is nothing new about this. But we shall go forward, returning good for evil, being helpful and kind and generous."

Very simply put...

Tales of Deceit

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Today while cleaning my office and doing laundry, I decided to take a little break and enjoy a little reward for all my hard work. So I went and scooped myself of an ever so tiny bowl of chocolate ice cream and sat down at the computer to browse the internet while eating my ice cream. Well, having your husband work in an office in the back yard sometimes has its disadvantages. Through my open window, I heard his office door close which meant he was headed my way. Not wanting to be caught sitting and eating ice cream while he was hard at work, I quickly stashed my bowl in the cupboard and resumed doing the laundry. He walked in, said and hello and then looked around almost as if he could sense that something was awry.

In my zeal to look busy, I forgot where I stashed the bowl and opened the cupboard right in front of him to grab some stain remover. Luckily, he's not very observant and didn't notice the bowl of ice cream with a spoon sticking out of it in the laundry detergent cupboard. I guess I must have been acting a little shifty because he stuck around for a few minutes whilst my ice cream was in the cupboard melting.

Eventually he headed back out to his office and I finished my ice cream. Maybe I need to check myself in somewhere....isn't closet ice cream eating a bad sign of something??

Suddenly I had a flashback from my teenage years of when I would be happily sitting on the couch eating a bowl of ice cream when the rumble of the garage door opening would be heard signaling the arrival of PARENTS!! One particular time in my haste to stash the evidence and still make it to the piano and quickly begin playing, I stashed the bowl in a cupboard under the t.v. and later forgot about going to do away with the evidence. I don't remember how many days went by until it was discovered but I think Brandon might have gotten the blame for it. Sorry little bro., I owe you a bowl of ice cream!!