Happy Birthday Molly and Orrin

On Christmas night we celebrated Molly and Orrin's Birthday. Orrin was born on Christmas and Molly's Birthday is the day after. They were so excited that they got to open a couple more gifts. Orrin got some Toy Story toys and and outfit. Molly got a Weebles Tree House, an outfit and a talking purse. They were so excited about it. After gifts we put some candles into the pumpkin pie and sang to them. They didn't care that it wasn't real cake. They were just excited that they got to blow on something!

The girls with Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Farmer

Lilly and Grandpa

The girls with Grandma

Uncle J.R.

Aunt Amber

Christmas 2010

Christmas this year was spent at my parent's house. We had a great time. For some reason I don't have any pictures of Aaron or I - even though I know I took some. It's our camera! But, Good news - I got one for Christmas! I was so excited. Aaron got a GPS for the car. I took some video of the morning and I'll post them if I can figure it out. We had a great day filled with great people.

Lilly got a princess castle, a pillow pet and a few other little things from Santa. She also got a bike from Aaron's parents and another princess castle from my parents. She loved everything that she got. Her reaction was priceless. In the bottom middle picture she is freaking out a little. I got this nice head scratcher/massager thing, she said it made her arm twitch.

Molly first saw Lilly's things and was super excited. We had to redirect her to her things and her reaction was even better. She loved the car. She got right into it first thing. We couldn't get her to come out of it. She wouldn't open any presents. She tried a few times, but if the gift wouldn't fit in the car with her, then she just threw it out. She figured she didn't need it if it wouldn't fit in the car. She rode in it all day! I would say that Santa hit the nail on the head with that one. She got really good at opening presents though and she thought it was great to clap her hands and yell with each gift that she opened.

My Mom got this pretty bowl that they picked up in Hawaii on their last trip.

J.R. doesn't look like he got anything, but he made out decent with a t.v.

My Dad got a Kindle - which I had to teach him how to use. I think he likes it now.

Amber made out with a blue ray player and Despicable Me with a blow up minon. She was loving life!

Gingerbread Houses

This year we decorated gingerbread house with our friends the Feils. We had a really good time. Aaron and I had a little trouble with our house though. We had originally bought one of those pre-built houses that all you have to do is decorate. Our friends were giving us a hard time about it. So for our house we went and got one of those kits were you put the whole thing together. Meanwhile, the Feils went and got a pre-built house! It was a disaster! It fell apart so bad. First the roof went, then the sides. We were trying everything to prop it up. By the end of the night we called it our trailer that got hit by a tornado. It all worked out. Aaron was a little annoyed by the whole things, but we made the best of it. The kids just decorated the pre-built houses and they had a great time. I think they ate more than they decorated, but sometimes that is the point with the little ones! Thanks for decorating with us Feil Family. It was a blast.

Sarah and Jasen

The disaster!

Aw, we still love each other!

Decorating The Christmas Tree

It is so much fun to decorate the Christmas tree. Lilly is getting so big and she loves to help in any way that she can. Molly just stands there looking pretty, but Lilly gets into the heart of it. We found a really great Christmas tree this year after much debate. You see, our original plan was to go and get a Christmas tree while we were at my parents house for Thanksgiving. We made it to Boise without any issues, but while we were driving (just past the temple, I might add) we got into an accident. There was black ice everywhere, so many people stopped in the middle of the road and even more people sliding to avoid them. We didn't have a chance at avoiding the car in front of us. Luckily no one was hurt and the other car wasn't too badly damaged. We got our car into a body shop to be fixed and insurance set us up with an.... I don't even know what it was called, because I hated it so much! Anyway, needless to say we could no longer get a tree at my parents house.

So we found one here in town, and I loved it! It was so pretty once we got it all decorated.

She could hardly wait to get going!

Aaron doing the lights

Lookin' pretty

She loves ornaments

decorating the tree

Ah, sisters

We tried to get family self portrait out of the deal, but it just didn't work!

Happy Birthday!

This year we celebrated our Birthdays by going out!!! It was nice to be without the kids for a while. I can't believe that Aaron turned 31 this year and I turned 28! Time is flying by us. Happy Birthday Honey! I love you. Thanks for doing all that you can for our family. We sure do appreciate you.

Amber's Sexy Face

Amber spent quite a bit of time with my camera. She was trying to do a sexy face....

I'll let you be the judge!

And because of the sexy face, my girls decided they had to give it a try too!

We love Amber!

Zims

The day after Thanksgiving we all headed out to Zim's Hot Springs for an afternoon of swimming and fun. We all had a great time. Of course, Aaron had to roll around in the snow. Once he did that all the little boys thought it was pretty cool and so they did it too. It was pretty funny to watch! We swam for a while and then we headed inside for some lunch. Afterwards, my Dad gave all the kids 4 quarters that they could use however they wanted in the arcade. I put 50 cents into a moving rocket ship for Molly. She hated it, so we put Grant in instead. We were all waiting for Grants turn to be over but the rocket ship just kept going! It was still going when we left which meant it had been going for at least an hour! All the kids that wanted a ride got one. There was no better way to spend 50 cents! We had a great time with the family. Thanks Mom and Dad for taking us!

Getting ready to go swimming

Everyone in the pool

The infamous rocket ship

Here it is again!

There was a nice storm hitting while we were there. It was a winter wonderland!

Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. We were with my family in White Bird. It was cold, but we had a great time. We started our day with family pictures. They turned out great! Then we went on with our festivities. My Mom made all of us girls aprons. She also made a matching one for our little girls too. I think that her thought was that if we all have aprons then we can't get out of helping with the cooking! Just kidding! We loved them, they turned out super cute! We couldn't really seem to get a decent picture out of the deal, so what you see is what you get! After dinner we just played. I somehow ended up playing Mary Had a Little Lamb on the glasses (you know, like Sandra Bullock in Miss Congeniality?) And then we had an evening of games. It was a great Thanksgiving and I hope that all of you had a fantastic one too!

They loved wrestling with Aunt Amber

Playing the glasses, as you can see Amber is about to loose it!

Lilly was outside playing for a really long time. Here are her rosy cheeks

Little miss Ava

Our Aprons!

Growing Up

I feel like I am hitting a new phase in my life right now. It happens to be a phase that comes with a lot of introspection about who I am and my life. I have always come across as a confident strong woman, and yes, I believe that is because of certain life experiences which I have had. Those life experiences have shaped a lot about who I am today. But lately I have had to wonder about a few things. Here I am, I have 2 children, I am married and getting ready to embark upon a whole new phase in my life. If ever I am given a task (which is a lot) then I do that task and complete it with confidence and assurity. But when I am in a group type setting I back off. I don't say a lot and I think it is because I feel like I am just so young and all these people are much older than me. So who am I to tell them something they should be doing? But as of late I have realized a few things. There have been some things happening with Aaron's thesis (not surprisingly) but they are things that are totally out of our control. It is because of someone else's errors that we are out a lot of money and time. I have come to realize that I am a strong and intelligent woman. I have come to realize that I know just as much as someone that is older than me, and yes, they may have the life experience behind them, but what about me. If I don't stand up and use those tools that I have worked so hard to gain, then how am I to ever learn from my own life experiences? I feel like I am growing up again. Does that make any sense?

I know I am an adult and all, but once again I feel like my personality, my whole being, and even to some extent my belief system is maturing even more now. I am afraid that if I don't start learning and growing and stop being intimidated by someone just because they are older, then one day I will wake up and be one of those older people who will then be intimidated by some "young punk" who thinks they know it all. I am not saying that I want to become a "young punk" but I am saying that it is time for me to embrace the new me that is starting to emerge.

I am a strong woman who has a lot of knowledge. I am a woman who is trying to make better decisions and make better choices, not only for myself but for my family. I am a leader for not only my children but for other children as well. I am excited and scared about the changes happening all around me, but I hope I can embrace them and grown with my husband and my children. The kids are just getting so big now, and I want nothing more than to enjoy this time that I have with them. I don't know if this little rant means much of anything. I guess I want to know, does anyone else ever feel this way?

My New Bed

Molly has just hit a new phase. She is now in a big girl bed! She is so excited about it. She doesn't cry anymore when it's time for bed and she is willingly going into her room. She loves it! I think she is sleeping better than ever. I was nervous (as usual) for her first night, but she did great. Her nap time went great too. I am so happy for her and hope she keeps loving it.

climbing into her bed for the first time

A Flash Back

Since we were taking a few pictures of Molly and her new bed, Lilly wanted one as well. While I was taking the picture it reminded me of the first time with her new bed. She has sure grown up a lot! I love you Lilly!

Halloween Dinner

Since Halloween was on Sunday this year I decided to make the entire day special. Lilly had actually gotten sick the night before, so I was home all day on Sunday and able to prepare. We started our day with pancakes in the shapes of witches hats, ghosts and other fun shapes. The kids think it is pretty cool to have fun pancakes like this! After that we prepared for our Halloween dinner that night! I had a blast getting ready for it. I set the table and made these little coffin treat boxes as the place cards on the table. The kids had their own little bag of treats to keep them busy and a candy corn themed table, which I found out was a small mistake because they ate all the candy corn and not their dinner! What can I say - it was cute anyway! We had fun food and a really fun time with our friends and Amber. Thanks for all your help Amber! I love you and am sorry we got you sick!!!

The table

The coffin place card boxes

Eyeball drink stirer (they ended up being really cool)

I am really not sure

And she just loves the camera

This is the mummy meatloaf. I thought it came out pretty good for a first try!

Aaron with his candy corn trifle

Amber

Sarah

Jasen