january

lots of sleepy, quiet lazy baby, crock pot dinner, freezing cold sunny days. Love them.

SANTA IS REAL!

Tis the season to be giving and this year is breath taking!  This Christmas season I have seen and heard some things I find disturbing and amazing.  This year it has really been bugging me that people are trashing Santa and what he stands for.  Like the best buy commercials where they try to replace and mock Santa.  Also some people that also focus on the negative aspects of Santa like the commercial aspect with all the presents and people wanting the next big toy for their kids just to name a couple.

Like I said this year Santa being trashed has really been bugging me.  Not sure why.  To me Santa is amazing! Santa stands for giving, kindness, selflessness, and love.  Santa is a symbol of goodness and giving.  Now I know that Christmas is all about Christ and his birth.  It’s also about what Christ’s birth means to the world. Christ’s birth is about all the things that Santa stand for, peace, love, selflessness, giving.  But it also means forgiveness, salvation, charity just to name a few.  With that said Santa to me is a reminder of God and how he gave his Son to the world.  In a single night God changed the world for billions and gave us our ultimate Gift, his Son! 

Santa is a constant reminder to me that even a generous man named St. Nicholas who lived over one thousand years ago is still remembered  for his giving and selfless spirit after all these years.  I know his story has been embellished over the years but the message is the same.  Its amazing and inspiring to me that a simple man can be remembered for his giving.  If he can be remembered a thousand years later, what can we be remembered for, like St. Nicholas it makes me think with God and our desire what are we capable of being remembered for?

I started writing this because I was reminded this season just how real Santa is.  This season has been hard with us moving, having a beautiful baby and losing my job all in the same week and spending the last almost 3 months looking for a job to no avail.  This season has being inspiring and a beautiful reminder of all that is good and praise worthy in this life.  This season so many people both known and unknown have reached out to us and help in more ways than they may ever know. For this we are humbled and grateful.

To all that tell me there is no such thing as Santa, I say stop and look around don’t give in to the Grinch  and embrace the true spirit that is Christmas  both our Savior and his followers that are remembered even a thousand years later!

Happy Christmas to all

Our New York City Tradition

Im not sure it will be a tradition for many years to come, but as long as we live in Utah, it its amongst our most favorite seasonal activity. Rosey, being just shy of 3 months proved to have my adventerous spirit and was a good sport the whole day. I almost cant believe we took all three to the city, but we had Aunt Kim with us this year, so my fears didnt linger long.  After the red eye, we went to breakfast at big daddies in Gramercy Park. yum.  This year we added the 9/11 memorial to our itinerary. It was amazing. Beyond amazing actually. I didnt anticipate being so emotional, but being there, in that beautiful plaza and talking with the volunteers who stood in the rubble that day, hearing first hand their stories, I was just in awe. It is a beautiful sight to see this tribute to the fallen with 2 huge new towers being built around it. And the survivor tree, I think I may have dropped a tear or two when I saw it.  We hope we did an adequate job explaining to the kids what it all meant. In time, they will come to appreciate the time there (I hope). Moses kept asking us "can we PUH LEEESE go to new york now?" Thats when we realized "new york" to them, is Times square, FAO Schwartz and Macy's on 34th. So we went to "new york" and we had ourselves a super fun 15 hours in the city we've come to love at christmas time!  Having said that, our beds NEVER felt so good. Thank you for another Fabulous trip jetblue!

Im so tired....photos will have to wait for another day.

Thanksgiving

We have so much to be thankful for. We've had a lot of big events this year, a baptism, new kindergartner, a move, a baby, a job loss a new ward..and many more.All of which come with an adjustment period. Its really the happiest year of our lives so far and we have the Lord to thank for that. No matter what circumstances we find ourselves in, I know that as long as we remember our blessings, we will always be happy. We started our day with home made cinnamon rolls, then the kids played outside. When it got too cold, Bella, the ultimate mini mom helped peel the apples for our pie and set the table with Grandma's China. The worlds most picky eater was even excited about his drumstick, couldn't believe it. It would be just like me to either burn the bird, or undercook it, so luckily, technology was on my side and I kept in texting reach.  When Buddy got off work at 330, we ate hors D'ouveurs, toasted with apple cider and ate our meal. It was gone in 10 min of course. I love thanksgiving, and this year, it was peaceful and beautiful. I hope every year can be a repeat.

Blessed.

Rosey was blessed. It was a beautiful blessing and she is sweet as ever. This is my last girl to wear this precious dress. I have to admit, I was a little bit sad getting her dressed this morning when I realized it, but yet so thankful to have her as mine.

The talker

Isabella, I love you so much! Today started off awesome with some beautiful notes to your teacher. Its just too bad I cant keep them for myself, they would go in a special book for sure. Keepers kid. I was a helper on a field trip today to the theater to watch a dance performance. 100 3rd graders on one bus. Lets just say if I was ever wondering if every 3rd grader was as excitable as you...that question is now put to rest. Seriously though, I love spending time with you. You just make me smile. If I was 8, I would SO want to be your bff.

Although you werent really feeling the BFF vibe when I asked you to look at me on our way in to school this morning. Ha, I love your expression.

A long with the notes you wrote, you also stayed up way too late no doubt to do some math facts.

Im so lucky to get to be your mom.

bits and pieces

Is there anything better in life than just living it, good bad and ugly? We havnt had any ugly, thank goodness, mostly good. We are still trying to find a full time job, meanwhile, he is able to pick up some shifts at the hospital. We are thankful for the shifts, but its hard not knowing where your next paycheck will come from or what shifts will be offered. Having said that... I LOVE not working right now :)  I love all of the little daily happenings that make me a mom.  I love being at home. I love trying to be resourcefull with a very small budget, I love being a taxi driver, doctor, secretary, room mom, plumber, organizer, foodbag (thanks rose) counselor and referee.  At a time in our life that would seem really difficult, no job, no insurance, new place, big rent payment, yada yada yada, its acutally the best time. I have come to realize, in the last few weeks especially, that there is nothing that can stand in my way of happiness except myself, no matter the circumstances. 

These are my random photos of what has been making me happy as of late.

Moses photographing GREAT grandma with Rose. Thats my boy. (I love that lady) 

Bella getting Rosey dressed every day.  Shes pretty adorable about it, and Rosey rocks everything.

Bellas first Late-over with some  friends in the neighborhood. They watched Ramona and Beezus and were totally embarrased by me taking this picture.

you should have seen this dresser a few weeks ago. Ghastly. I saw the potential, primed and painted it and put it at the top of the stairs.  Storage is a problem here and this little sucker gives us 9 more drawers in which to put our crap.  Never mind the missing pull in the middle, I need to fix that.

working on this wall, It looks much different now. I have been collecting old frames, glass or not from thift stores, I knew they would come in handy someday. We've filled them with quotes and photographs. I love walking upstairs.

a trip to portland to visit and introduce Rose to more family and friends. We had a great time. I dont think however, that I will be attempting another trip on my own without buddy and with 3 kids. Little did I know how much extra stuff a baby would impact our normal routine through the airport. It was a little nutso,