Camille Turns Three!

Our girl turned three last Tuesday!  The first thing she said when she woke up was, "I want to eat my cake!"  Luckily we were able to hold her off with a few fun presents.

After watching a video (that Keith and I stayed up way to late putting together) about Camille's past year, we ate up some yummy german pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream.
She spent the day riding her bike around inside.

Grant was home sick from school that day, and he and Brett were nice enough to supervise the cake making process.

Camille had requested a pink cake.

She woke up from her birthday nap just as I finished her cake.  She said, "It's so pretty!"

And then we set it in the refrigerator for later.

She was so patient waiting for Grandmas & Grandpas to come over that night to celebrate.

She was excited to open up some great gifts from grandparents.

And then it was finally cake time.

What a great three year old our girl is turning out to be!

She is energetic and spunky.  Her heart is full of compassion for others who are sick or hurt and quickly tries to help them.  She loves her brothers, even if she fights relentlessly with Brett!  She's always loved running around with the boys and yet she is thrilled to put on a fancy dress.  She loves to sing.  One of her most loved songs is Gethsemane.  She requests watching the music video of that song every night before bed.  She loves to have ice in her water.  She follows me around all day and likes to wiggle her way into the middle of everything I'm doing, whether it be putting on my makeup or cooking in the kitchen.  And she loves washing dishes in the sink.  She could spend hours doing that!

Happiest Birthday Camille!

Last Day of School!

I sent Grant to school today in his PJ's and Santa hat.  Brett's preschool is having their Christmas party today.  They must be having fun because I can hear their happy voices behind my house.  (Since his school is right behind us).  It's a half day for Grant, and I'm so excited to get both boys home from school for lunch and then we're making a batch of Chex mix and watching the Polar Express!  And it's a rainy day!  I'm so excited to snuggle these kids and enjoy time together at home!

Yesterday I got to spend time with Grant at his classroom party.  It was so fun!  There were at least 10 parents there helping and I had a fun time chatting with the other mom that was helping the kids build powdered sugar donuts.  Grant has an awesome teacher and such a great group of kids in his class.

 I also made this wonderful cranberry bread yesterday!  This bread totally tastes like Christmas to me!  My mom made it when I was growing up and I get the best memories of Christmas when I eat it.

 Here's the recipe, just incase you want to taste it too!

Cranberry Bread

Sift together: 

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Add:

1 beaten egg

1/2 cup orange juice

2 TBS melted butter

2 TBS hot water

Mix Well.

Fold in 1/2 cup chopped nuts (I use pecans), and 1 cup cranberries that are cut in half.

Pour into well greased loaf pan.  Bake 1 hour and 10 minutes at 325.

Remove from pan immediately.  Rub top with butter (optional).  Store in refrigerator.

I've made mini loaves of this too and it works beautifully.  

Keith surprised me with a trip to the movies last night.  He arranged for his parents to come watch the kids and we took off to go see the new Star Wars movie.  It was good! And it was fun to spend some time together celebrating our anniversary on our actual anniversary.  And it's always great to let somebody else tackle bed time for us!  :)

Patience with Kids and A Happy Anniversary to Us!

I took these pictures after the kids finally settled down last night.  Is it just my kids that are totally crazy this week?!  Please say it's not!  I had to hide in my room for a bit after dinner to have a quiet moment to regroup and convince myself that I could go back out there and have patience and kindness.  Most days I absolutely love my job, but sometimes it's just plain hard.  Yesterday was one of those hard days.  One of the hardest things lately is getting the kids to clean up their messes.  The boys room was out of control...again.  So I quietly walked in with a trash bag and we worked together to clean every corner of that place.  The boys really started helping and it wasn't as awful as I thought it would be.  Their room is super duper clean now!  And they were proud of it.  

Once the house was picked up we gathered together in the family room and had a successful Family Night.  Keith showed us a video about Christ's birth.  Camille was in charge of the activity.  She chose to have us all dance to Jingle Bell Rock.  Then we had peppermint ice-cream cones.  The kids were calmer and Keith and I were in a better mood.  That wouldn't have happened if I'd chosen to stay angry and stressed out and throw in the towel and send everyone to bed early.  I'm grateful for a helpful husband who knows when to step in so I can have a moment to step out.  And I'm happy for the second chance to end the day on a good note.

Today we celebrate 11 years of marriage!  This picture seems like another life ago.  It was taken on our honeymoon in San Diego.  We used it for our Christmas Card photo the following year.  Keith surprised me with staying at The Del on our honeymoon.  As we drove over the bridge to the island I saw the hotel outlined in white Christmas lights.  There were carolers in the lobby and our room had a view of the beach and this fun iceskating rink.  It was perfect!  We totally need to stay there again!  I'd love to take the kids there for Christmas one year!  

Back to our anniversary.  11 years, wow!  Even though our life together has the normal ups and downs of most marriages, the thing that is consistent is the commitment we have to each other and to God that we will do our best to love and serve each other and our family.  We both take that very seriously and it is what helps us to have joy.  We understood from the beginning that God needed to be a part of our marriage and we work together to make sure that happens.  I'm so thankful to be married to someone who shares those same goals!  Happy Anniversary Keith!

Weekend Report

We had a nice weekend together.  I think we are all anxious for school to be out and for Christmas to be here!  

Somebody (Camille) got into these cupcakes while I was in the shower.  I found her hiding behind the Christmas tree with crumbs everywhere and then I found this mess.  Luckily I was able to get the red out of the carpet!

Nothing better than a sleeping baby!  Ty is a funny napper.  The only way he'll take a morning nap is if he's being held.  Set him down and he will without fail wake up and cry until someone comes to get him.  But then he takes a great afternoon nap!  I'll take it!

 Grant had three friends over after school on Friday.  I learned from this that three friends takes it to another level.  It was border line crazy over here, but they had a good time and no one got hurt! ;)

 We practiced Camille's Christmas hair.  We have church at 9 on Christmas morning.  I think this should last an hour.  :)

 We went to our neighborhood boat parade.

Keith's parents are down there in their little foldable boat.  The kids were so excited to see them!

This boat was the best!  What a great idea!

 Brett read the scripture in primary on Sunday.

Camille helped me bag up some Dove chocolates to have on hand to give to friends, UPS guys, mail ladies, etc.  We also delivered the last of our Christmas gifts for friends and neighbors.

Ty loves these little stacking cups.

Tebow keeps showing up in fun places.

Time to go get started on my to-do list for the day.  I hope to have everything checked off by tomorrow so I can enjoy the rest of the week with my family.  Can't wait to wake up on Thursday morning and NOT have school!  

From this week

The week started out with this little guy not feeling well.  He's doing so much better now!

There was one night in particular where I didn't get much sleep and the next day was sooooo hard!  I'm getting too old for this! ;)

I got a smile out of Ty.

Looks like he grew out of these!  Ha!

We stopped by a friends house to deliver a Christmas present and we got to play her mom's harp.  I'm trying to convince Camille that she needs to play the harp when she grows up.  Wouldn't that be great?!  I would just love to hear beautiful harp music flowing through my house.  As of now she totally on board.  :)

The leaves have been changing and dropping on certain trees.  I love going down the streets in the neighborhood and seeing their bright yellow, orange, and redleaves in a pile on the bright green grass.  It's so stunning!

My visiting teachers made a delicious dinner for us one night this week!  It was so nice to not have to think about making dinner.  And we used the time we saved from preparing and cleaning up dinner to make gingerbread boys and girls.  It was the most perfect thing they could do for me!

The kids and I were out running errands for Christmas yesterday so we  stopped in at Taco Bell for lunch.  They were so excited to get to eat inside, instead of going through the drive-thru, and they had fun watching the cars drive by their window.

This boy is getting so grown up!

With our beautiful evening weather, all the kids on our street have been playing together like crazy until they are forced to go eat dinner.  The past couple evenings they've spent raking up leaves and throwing them at each other.  They had a blast!

Last night we went to check out the nativities (more about that here) at a local LDS church building.   We walked in and heard the most beautiful voice singing Christmas songs in the chapel.  I new the voice the second I heard it and was so excited to see this girl perform live.  I've heard of her online, but live is such a treat!  My parents and grandparents came also and they really enjoyed the music and seeing all of the beautiful and unique nativities.  There is still tonight and tomorrow night left, so go!  It's great!

It's a rainy day today and our house feels cozy and warm.  I put hot chili in a Thermos in Grant's lunch today.  That Thermos is one of the best things I've ever gotten!  We use it for Grant's lunches all the time.  And what's better than warm chili for lunch on a cold rainy day?

Tonight we're skipping our weekly date and staying home to make pizzas with the kids and maybe watch a Christmas movie too.  Sounds like fun to me!  

With one week until Christmas, we got our Christmas shopping (almost) done and mostly wrapped.  Although Camille found the presents and unwrapped a couple.  Argh!  That girl is so mischievous lately!

The kids will be singing with the primary in Sacrament meeting this Sunday.  And then they only have three more days left of school!  Yay!  I'm so excited to sleep in!  And I'm so excited to have Keith home too!  I love that his place of work shuts down for Christmas and everybody gets to have a  week or so off!  Hooray for everyone being home!

Happy Weekend!

Our Day Date

Last Saturday we celebrated our upcoming 11th Anniversary with an all day date.  Keith's parents graciously took the kids for the day and we set out on our adventure.  We started out with a delicious brunch at Snooze.  Amazing!  I ordered the eggs benedict and Keith got the stuffed French Toast.  They were both so good that we had to split them with each other.  I love it when we can do that!  We will definitely be going back, but will try to get there earlier as the wait was really long (but totally worth it).

 We picked up a big sandwich and headed into the Superstition's for a beautiful hike.  We took the Hieroglyphic trail.

 View from the top.

We ate our sandwiches at the top among the saguaros.

 Keith collected rocks and built this rock tower.

I liked this groovy cactus.

Heading back down.

We got home and cleaned up then went out to a nice dinner in Scottsdale.

We stopped by the McCormick Train Park to check out their Christmas festivities.

We have to take the kids back, they would LOVE it!

I even got to pose with Tigger and Piglet.  How can you top that?! ;)

We came back home to our sleeping kids, except Ty.  Poor little guy had a fever and was miserable.

Back to reality!  The next couple days/nights were rough with him so it's good that we got away when we could.  So glad to have Keith with me every day.  He's the best husband I could have ever dreamed of.  We balance each other out and make a great team.  Happy 11 years Keith!!!!