4 days till Christmas

I can't believe only 4 more days till Christmas!

I'm ready, but not ready. 

Especially emotionally, I'm soooo happy, yet so anxious about everything going on I feel a breakdown coming on.

Amongst the stress there sure is a lot of joy.

For example:

Like seeing the Temple lights with family.

Our traditional family photo in front of the star.

Always practically impossible to get- so even a blurry one is a good one in my book :)

and I just LOVE that star!

Also my Sweet Husband.

I am so Thankful for this man.

He makes me smile and he takes care of me and I Love Him!

Here he is waiting for the car to defrost so he can leave for work.

Mack, Oh Mack.

You crack me up!

Buddy the Elf decided to ride Mack's horse, and Mack was not fond of that idea.

However I told him he couldn't touch Buddy or his magic would go away.

Sure enough Mack took his horse back.

That next night I forget to move Buddy, so it actually worked out. I told the kids that his magic was gone, but maybe if he rested another day without anyone touching him the magic would return.

Sure enough it did. 

Thank goodness ;)

Bridget, My heart it hurting and I feel helpless.

Tests tell me your body is not working right and I pray several times throughout the day that things will start working properly again. 

We are still waiting and praying all will be well.

Platelet level is continuing to rise and we don't know why. We will start taking aspirin for now as a precaution.
Echo is scheduled for the 27th and we will do another blood culture at that time.

Your smile keeps me going and it sure is a beautiful one.

2 days ago you turned 6 months old.

You are sitting up all on your own,

Rolling and somehow moving around the room, an inch at a time.

You are eating well and and still waking up 2-3 times each night, but right now I don't mind.

You remind me so much of your Daddy.

I see him in your eyes and that makes me happy.

You just LOVE that bottom lip,

Love it!

Grandpa & Grandma Banks

Brought you this doll and it's going to be fun watching you grow up playing with it.

Right now you are most liking the hair :)

Katelyn LOVES her bay window in her room.

and now i know where I am going to get some easy silhouette pics :)

We went to see the trains!

And we had fun!

Grandma Nicoll's Party

Every Year Robison Orthodontics, where Grandma Nicoll works, has an awesome Christmas party. Katelyn really looked forward to it, she remembered last year & was really excited!

We started out by visiting Santa,

Then Katelyn had her face painted.

We did some crafts,

But i think the highlight was the slide!

Katelyn went down twice.

I mean, seriously look at those excited faces!

Thanks Robison Ortho for such a fun party!

Christmas 2010

Oh Christmas was wonderful this year.

Christmas Eve we decorated Ginger bread houses, ate a yummy dinner, & watched Christmas movies. We even received a visit from my family bearing gifts of homemade cinnamon rolls & fresh oj for our Christmas morning.

The kids were bathed and received their Christmas pajamas then Mack went to bed. Katelyn & Daddy read "Twas' the Night Before Christmas", & then Scott "went to sleep" & I went to lay w/ Katelyn in her bed. After what seemed like FOREVER Katelyn & I heard a "Ho Ho Ho"

& you can see what happened by watching here.....

(disclaimer most of the tree lights we unplugged for Katelyn couldn't see too much of "santa")

Isn't Scott adorable :)

Next year we need to stuff his skinny legs.

Katelyn was so thrilled, once Scott was ready he & I switched places so Katelyn could tell him alll about her Santa encounter. I began getting everything set up, Scott left Katelyn's room and then moments later Katelyn came out of her room and into our to find us. Luckily Scott saw her right away, She had a HUGE smile on her face and she said "Daddy! Santa brought me swings!" Scott said, "He Did? How do you know?" Katelyn said, "cause i looked out the window"

apparently she was looking for santa out her window and saw the play ground swings we had just hung up in the backyard. Oh well:) Scott told Katelyn it was so important that she stayed in her room until morning and it worked (well kinda, until 4:00am when she came into our bed and I was up for the rest of the day :)

Here in the set up

& the stockings

& even Bailey got a stocking this year full of goodies.

Of course I had to kiss Santa before bed time.

(next year I need to take a pic of us kissing under the Christmas tree with him wearing his Santa suit- what a cute pic that would be:)

Christmasa morning. Like i said earlier, i had been up since 4:00am it was ridiculous, i couldn't go back to sleep, so I just watched Christmas cartoons until everyone else woke up. Katelyn woke up @ 7:00 and Scott brought her into the family room. The 1st thing she saw was her play house.

She was ecstatic!!!

Then she patiently waited on the couch until Mack woke up. Wow, I was so surprised with her patience. it was toush but she wanted to wait for her brother.

It was a LONG 30 min and Mack woke up @ 7:30.

We sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and ate out cinnamon rolls & oj

And then the fun began.

They LOVE their swings! Of course Mack isn't completely ready for them, but give him a few more months and her will LOVE them just as much as his sister.

Scott bought us tennis rackets and Scott present was the Star Wars board game.

Then we went over to Grandma Ray's @ 10:00. Brunch was scrumptious and the kids had their special Christmas table

We opened gifts, then had fun with a pinata (our new tradition), played games, cousin Taylor rode her new bike, & Katelyn gave her roller skates a spin.

@ 2:00 we went over to Grandma & Grandpa Banks.

We ate, opened our gifts, and had a blast will ALL our cousins.

Mack will climb on anything elevated on the ground. His gift- no exception.

Ha Ha Ha of course. gotta have a nose picking pic :)

Right when Katelyn opened her gift, she was THRILLED and screamed "This is just what i needed" She is just adorable!

Grandma & Grandpa will be on their mission and we will miss them next year for Christmas.

Oh I just LOVE our get togethers!

Oh & we talked to Elder Nicoll (uncle Andrew) on the phone. He has almost been out a whole year. I was thrilled because Katelyn actually talked to him on the phone & I'm sure it just made him so happy:) I love my little bro!

Our last stop was everyone at Mom & Dad's for our gift exchange.

I think the funniest gift was Conrad's tie die snuggie :)

Katelyn received a jewelry box. Ya know, the one with the twirling ballerina inside0 Oh i LOVE it! & jewelry to go inside (it's actually really cute stuff that I bought for us to share. Hee Hee!)

Mack got the best gift!

A basket ball hoop.

Mack LOVES it and it was hilarious watching him dunk it.

What a wonderful Christmas spent will all our loved ones!

Oh I I did a little photo shoot tonight:)

I think they are too cute, but i think next year I need a few more strands of lights to brighten up their faces even more.

Merry Christmas to all & to all a good night!