100 Days

Obviously I haven't been in school for awhile because I did not know how much celebrating goes on with the 100th day of school. I learned quickly that it is a big event after Emma and I taped 100 Q-tips in her 100th-day jar (Q-tips I figured were cheap and disposable). I guess it is for the children to learn counting and the parents to learn project creativity. I'm sure there will be more to come. We did have fun making her jar, though.

Brielle's Birthday

My little girl is 3!! I can't believe it! Of course last year went by too fast, but what about the 2 years before that? Brielle is such a sweetheart. On her birthday, we were gone to my friends' wedding in the morning so she spent the day with Grandma Becky and Emma. They went to see Alvin and the Chipmunks and then a few days later we took her to see Planet 51. When we got home we straightened up the house for her party and Nick went out to buy her cake. (I felt so guilty about not making one this year....I always make my kids' cakes. But something just had to slide this time.) The party was a hit--plenty of toys and clothes--and only one meltdown. We also moved her into a "big girl bed" the following week! Boy, she has had a lot of changes over the last month! The binky is gone.....the crib is gone.....next up: potty training! Yikes! I'm hoping that all of these changes are the reason that she has had a lot of tantrums since her birthday. I'm hoping this is not an indication of what a 3 yr-old acts like. But Brielle has her own cute personality. Her sweet little voice still makes us laugh. She barely eats during dinner because she is too busy telling stories. She entertains us with her dancing and singing. She also can play by herself or look at books for a long time. She is happy playing whatever Emma wants her to play and can't wait to go to preschool next year. I'm so grateful for her in our family! She brings so much fun to our family! We love you, Brielle!

Congrats to Noni & Chris

the happy couple

isn't she gorgeous

One of my closest friends got married a couple weeks ago in the Salt Lake Temple. We were excited to be invited to their delicious wedding breakfast and then (after shopping at IKEA for a bit) joined them for their sealing. It was a beautiful, fun day with my friends. We are so happy for you, Noni! Congrats to you both!

Christmas 2009

Emma with cousin Ruby

Emma showing us her cute cowgirl figurine

Brielle with her horse, Flicka

Emma with her horse, Spirit!

Brielle looking at her Whoopsie Doo baby

Emma admiring her white horse, Rosie!

The girls posing with their gifts from Santa

Waiting to run downstairs on Christmas morning

Christmas was a mixed bag for me this year. Not only was I doing some last-minute shopping a couple days before Christmas (which I hate), I also hadn't wrapped a single present until 11:00pm on Christmas Eve. I hate being unprepared! To top things off, Nick wasn't feeling well on Christmas Eve or Christmas due a shot he needed to boost his white count. So, I thought the week after Christmas was better because we had time to relax, sleep in, go to movies, and play with our new toys. However, the girls had a great Christmas day. The big excitement came from receiving their very own horses to ride on from Grandma Judy! They could have "rode" them all day! Two of my favorite moments on Christmas were comments from the girls about their presents.

Brielle: This year we started talking to her about giving her binky to Santa so he could give it to a newborn baby and in trade he could bring her a Whoopsie Doo doll (which is what she had been asking for). Brielle was just using her binky in the car and to sleep, but I knew it was going to be a challenge so I thought this might work. We talked about it a lot in December. So, on Christmas Day it was gone and Whoopsie Doo had arrived in its place. The day went by with a little bit of whining but the funniest thing happened when we finally got home. Brielle asked me if Santa was going to come back. I assured her that he would be back next year. Her next question..."Will he take my blanket?" Awww... Now she thinks Santa takes things from children!! I felt really bad after that comment, but hopefully she won't remember it later.

Emma: The one thing she kept asking for from Santa was "the white horse with a pink saddle from Target." So, after Santa brought that to her she spent the day gushing about how she got what she had asked for, how beautiful it was, etc. Then, during one of these moments she exclaimed, "I'm so glad Santa brought me the horse that I wanted, since you and Dad couldn't afford it!" hee hee. I'm so glad Santa could "afford" it! :) You gotta love the magic of Santa!

December

The girls' in their beautiful Christmas dresses

Eight kids on one couch? What cute cousins!

my girls' as angels in the Nativity

The one and only time they sat on Santa's lap

You can tell by their faces that they are goof balls!

They were so excited to decorate the tree

Nick's birthday

The dancing, jingling horse we saw at Christmas village

Bundled up for a night at Christmas village

Yes, December was a blur. I wish it were 2 weeks longer so I could cram more in! There are always things we miss out on, but here are the things that kept us busy this month!

November

what a beautiful little face she has!

Brielle was so excited to stomp snow with her new boots

My family (minus Nick) at my grandma's funeral

In the first week of November we had Nick's PET scan and bone marrow biopsy appointments, our Primary program, and the funeral of my grandmother who had passed away over the weekend. What a way to start off the month!

First, Nick's appointments went great. On Monday he did the bone marrow biopsy and PET scan. On Thursday we went down for the results. Drum roll.......all of his tests came back CANCER-FREE!! (he even had a liver biopsy the week before that showed no signs of lymphoma.) I have never seen his oncologist so happy. I think his doctor was unsure of how Nick was going to respond to the treatment because of his suppressed immune system. I know she did extra tests and minimized the time between appointments just so she could keep close track of him. We are grateful that she did because besides the blood clot in his lung (oh, yeah, he was in the hospital for 3 days at the end of October) he was able to tolerate the chemotherapy treatment so well. So, now he has once a month appointments with his transplant doctor and every 6 weeks he sees his oncologist. Yippee!

In the midst of Nick's appointments I had my grandmother's funeral to attend and participate in. It wasn't a huge surprise when she passed. She had been going downhill for the last 5 years and even more so over the past few months. She lived across the street from us for most of my life and she was such an amazing example to me. My grandpa is also a wonderful person because he was able to take care of her at home until the last month or two when he had Hospice come into to give her added attention. Emma was especially fond of "old grandma" and would go over to her house and stroke her hair. This was Emma's first funeral and I was unsure how she would react. She asked a lot of questions but seemed to know more than I gave her credit for. My grandma's funeral also became a great way to spend some time with two of my brothers who I won't see again until Christmas.

The Primary program topped off our week and it went really well even though the practice the day before was a little hairy. I could hardly sing the first few songs because of the tears they brought to my eyes with their amazing voices! Kids always seem to shine when their parents are watching! It's also fun to look out at the congregation and see the obvious pride of their parents.

The rest of November was somewhat of a blur. Nick started back to work part-time. I started a few Christmas projects. I took Emma to see Disney On Ice--Princess Classics. It was so incredible! I've never been before and we had such a fun time together on our mother-daughter date! I also became an Ebay addict for a couple days when I found some good deals on Christmas presents. I watched my kids play in the snow. I enjoyed the peacefulness of Thanksgiving. I thought about my blog and wondered when I was going to catch up!

Bad Blogger

Halloween was done the old fashioned way this year. Door-to-door trick-or-treating! We went around one block and got a whole bucket full of candy and spent the rest of the night eating homemade chili and donuts with Nick's family.

One Saturday in October we rounded up all the kids and went to Lagoon for the last time. The weather was perfect--low 70's. The kids trick-or-treated and rode all their favorite rides. Here is the best picture I could get among them making "scary faces"!

Oh! What a bad blogger I have been! Life has just been whisking away and as the last month of the year sstarts off, I wonder if anything from this year has actually been real. So, to catch up here is the rest of our October in a few quick pics.