She's Six!

Look at that girl, she's so old!

Claire and I had such a fun day on Saturday. We went to "Her" store and got her ears pierced. She was SO brave. She didn't cry or anything! Then we shopped a bit. She already seems so grown up! After we got home, she went with Dad, Jake, Grandpa, and Parker up to Rexburg to go Snowmobiling and sledding. On Sunday, she got sung to in Primary and we had a party for her at home. We made fetticini, on of her favorites and had a Princess Tiana cake and icecream. She got some new dress-up shoes, books, and pollys from us, more squinkies and a squinkie castle from Grandma and Grandpa. She got a sterling silver hello kitty jewelery set from Nana and Papa Ray. She got a Hello Kitty doll from Parker and a card and 5 dollars from Great Grandma Knighton. I think she had a pretty good day, and she has been so responsible with cleaning her ears.
I am so proud of the person she is, she shares and is caring and thoughtful. She is so girly and I love that about her. Things would be so different without her and we are so glad she is in our family!

Happy Birthday Claire!

Chinese New Year

Everyone with their fortune cookies.



Me and Claire on my birthday.



I had a few random posts to do. My birthday was on Sunday, we went to Snedaker's for steak and chocolate cheesecake-yum!! We were celebrating Ashley's birthday also that day. For FHE on Monday we did a Chinese New Year theme. I made egg rolls and fried rice and homemade fortune cookies. The cookies were actually really easy and fun to do. The kids made dragons and we talked about other cultures and loving everyone, even if they are different. It was fun.



Jake has been doing at-home preschool since September and it's been going really well. I have noticed the kids attention spans are growing. Today was my day to teach the letter P so we had a prince/princess day. The kids dressed up, we made crowns, and ate tea (water) and cakes and made prince and princess puppets. I just had to take a little picture of the gang. They really play well together and are very good listeners.

We had some toole left over, and Claire has been asking for some new dress-up clothes, so we made her a little dress. She did a great job picking out the colors for the ribbons. Next she wants to make slippers. Hmm.





Here is Jake on his first day of Primary. He did pretty well, I was nervous. He said a few things to the entire primary I wish he had left to himself, but at least he is interested and participating. I even caught him trying to learn the words to the song. He's so old!

Both of the kids are so excited for baby brother to come and I love that they are excited, it makes my heart happy. I know they will just love and dote on him and I can't wait.

I love my kiddos :)

Christmas 2011

Me and the handsome hubby


All of my siblings


Our little family in front of the Salt Lake Temple



The grandkids at temple square


Jake and daddy

An interesting Christmas to say the least. It was nice that it was on a Sunday, we were able to go to church. Friday was the Snedaker Christmas party, with lots of yummy food, we did chimes, and the 12 pains of Christmas, plus a fun round of white elephant. Christmas eve we went out to breakfast, and to the Muppet movie, then went to Snedaker's for a bit and had a little Christmas devotional and read the Nativity and open presents. We came home and read the night before Christmas and the kids opened up their Christmas pjs. We did Christmas morning at our house and travelled to Utah to see my family after church. The kids have been playing contentedly with their presents since we got back. From Santa, Jake got a bumblebee transformer, a giant dinosaur and robot and Claire got a Jessie doll, a crib life doll, and a playmobile set. Santa also brought our family a WII. Since we don't have cable, it will be nice to stream stuff onto our tv. I got a new camera, and Chris got a new Beatles album and guitar book. Claire also got a new dress, and a piggybank. Jake got playmobile stuff from us and the grandparents.


testing out my new camera Christmas morning on my willing assistant :)



Claire's new piggy bank


Jake playing with his bumblebee transformer.


Henna belly, can you tell what it is??


Swimming buddies


While in Utah we went to Temple square to see the lights, we went up to Heber city to see my great Aunt Ruby, did lots of shopping and the kids fought and played--a lot. I was able to sneak in a makeover and a movie with Hilary and got my belly painted by my talented Aunt Amy plus some fun tinsel extensions. We also took the kids swimming at the aquatic center in Bountiful with their cousins. When I say we, I mean, Chris got in with them while I took pictures :)Both the kids went down the huge slide!

52 things to do in 2012

I have a hunch that 2012 is going to be a really good year. I haven't felt that way about the last few years, but I think it's going to be exceptional!

I wanted to look over last years "to do" list and see what got done and think of some new things for this year.


1. Do another Kathy Freston Cleanse done
2. Plant a rediculously awesome garden well we did a pretty good garden, I still have more ambitious things to do this year
3. Market my photography business more hmm did a few giveaways, that was it
4. Help Claire learn to read she is reading! I still want to spend more time on this for 2012
5. Appreciate my family more :) this is a work in never-ending progress
6. Do more service-service projects I made a couple quilts for the relief society quilt goal, I could have done much more.
7. Talk to my family more yes
8. Pay off student loan progress, but not finished
9. Pay cash for a new car nope, maybe by February??
10. Play lots of games with my kids I did really well at the beginning of the year,I'm sick of all our games. I think we need some new games!
11. Research what I need to know about school for Claire yes
12. Get pregnant Yes!
13. Start working on finishing my studio in the basement we did start, but not even close to done
14. Live with more confidence I don't know if I have more confidence, or I just care less now. Is that the same??
15. Learn to slim down my budget even more Did it, HARD!
16. Play lots of volleyball Got a bunch in at the first of the year. SO fun!
17. Understand the world of camera RAW not there yet
18. Eat like healthy people do Still trying to figure this out
19. Make a composting bin nope, next year maybe? Trying to figure this one out too, it's more complicated than it looks. I need a physics lesson from padre
20. Recycle more paper yep
21. Figure out how to get shiny hair nope
22. Put more into my calling never-ending :)
23. Write down things I'm grateful for everyday in my journal I forgot about this one, a good one, I think I will put it on the list again
24. Write more lists :) yep
25. Read lots more books on healthy eating, gardening, politics, emergency prep yep:) making a list already for 2012
26. Floss every night getting pretty good at this, still room for improvement, but I noticed my 6 month cleaning was WAY shorter.
27. Set up Jake's twin bed and REALLY decorate his room oh the agony! I am in the process, still need bedding, but on my way, everything is painted, the crib is nearly up.
28. Tame the paper mess wouldn't my husband just love me if I could actually do this
29. Perfect my pizza dough recipe I think we got pretty close once
30. Buy some real snow boots yep and they are toasty warm
31. Make a rain barrel nope
32. Get wheat for food storage yes!
33. Make home ground wheat bread yes!
34. Find some great healthy dessert recipes and actually make them found some, haven't made them
35. Continue with the Daily Docket I've revamped the daily docket. Next year I hope to put it into practice
36. Speak more kindly to my kids still room here for improvement too
37. Rediscover my creativity/crafty side a little bit
38. Find some awesome photog props about 2
39. Make curtains for kitchen yes! Decided to make 2 for the dining room too.
40. Stop what I'm doing and look at my children when they are talking to me :)
41. Put together all of Claire's drawings into a collection I did that at the beginning of the year, now she has started kindergarten and the paper mess is worse than ever, anybody have any good ideas here?
42. Take more baths yes
43. Be nicer to people I don't know yes
44. Make homemade pasta nope still on the list
45. Learn to like Yoga nope, I don't know if I ever will
46. Spend less time on the computer I think I've gotten worse, it's on the list again
47. Get rid of the VOLES I think they are gone! We will see after the winter is over, but we haven't had any since last winter
48. Flirt with my husband more :)
49. Prepare myself for the end of Oprah yes, I cried but I'm okay
50. Work on genealogy Forgot about this one. SO need to do this!
51. Go to the department store and get a makeover done
52. Have fun spending time with family yeah, we did a lot of great stuff.

So about half I can say I actually accomplished, it's been so good to have this to look back on!

So here is my list for 2012 I'm going to put mostly things that I can check off

1. Organize the daily docket into an actual book that I can carry with me
2. Finish decorating the boys room
3. Read at least 1 book a month
4. Make some cool HDR prints
5. Make homemade pasta
6. Give myself/get a pedicure once a month
7. Finish my wedding book
8. Get a deep freezer
9. Save for our family trip to Disneyland in December
10. Make curtains for the dining room
11. Do indexing once per month
12. Make Jacob a big boy blanket
13. Lose 5-8 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight
14. Get new family pictures taken in the fall
15. Get/make a new apron
16. Read the Bible all the way through
17. Set up blocks on the computer to limit internet use
18. Set up a reward/chore chart for the kids
19. Try 6 new vegan recipes
20. Do a newborn photo shoot with the baby
21. Take hand prints of the kids
22. Hang a decoration on the wall above our bed
23. Set up a hanging system for my backdrops
24. Make a composting bin!
25. Grow my own flowers from seed
26. De-clutter the basement
27. Make five crafts I've pinned from pinterest
28. Do 3 service projects
29. Get out my camera and take a picture and video of my kids at least weekly
30. Back up all my files
31. Make a blurb book for 2011
32. Make a list of family activities for 2012 and do them all
33. Find some cute decorations to put by my front door
34. Deep clean once a month
35. Help the kids set and accomplish goals for the New Year
36. Increase food storage
37. Plant grape vines in the garden
38. Make a Christmas calendar of all the things that need to be done before Christmas that I can use every year
39. Use the cash envelope system
40. Try 3 recipes from my Babycakes cookbook
41. Do a Jillian Michael's 30 day shred after the baby
42. Teach Jake all the letter sounds
43. Freeze leftover foods/veggies and turn them into soup
44. Go to Yellowstone Park
45. Make my husband feel special
46. Get a swing set for the backyard
47. Fix the paint in Claire's room
48. Stretch the carpet in the living room
49. Make freezer meals
50. Get a new plate/cup set
51. Think of something awesome to celebrate our 10 year anniversary
52. Do something I've never done before


Wow that took me like a week to think of 52 things to do for 2012. They are all goals I can check off. Hopefully by the end of the year they will be. I am so excited for this year!!!

Happy New Year's Everyone

A post!

I've been a terrible blogger the last few months, hopefully it's because I'm pregnant and have no energy. I thought I would post a few random pictures of what we've been up to lately.

The kids decorated the christmas tree mostly by themselves. They did a great job! I wrapped a few presents and Jake opened one up the next morning. Hopefully that's all of the peeking we will have! I took a picture of them in their snow stuff, they both looked so cute. We haven't really had much snow but we got a little bit a few weeks back and I let them go out and play. I think they were out there maybe 5 minutes. But I had to document.

I am thankful for...

-healthy kids, all three!
-this time of year I get to spend with family
-a beautiful Christmas tree decorated by the kids, it's crazy but it turned out great.
-the bestest husband who supports me, adores me, and puts up with these pregnancy hormones.
-the BEAUTIFUL weather we've had
-friends
-time and means to develop my talents and hobbies
-modern conveniences that I take for granted everyday, washer and dryer, car, internet!
- all of my blessings both great and small.

Merry Christmas!