I love him

Happy 4th Anniversary Michael!

The best part of my Christmas so far

Was taking pics of these 2 cutie pies last Sunday. Jan bought Kandace the cutest Christmas dress, and Stetson has a matching blazer that Rachel handed down to us so I matched them up and I'm in love!! We had a wonderful Christmas Sunday with singing in the ward choir, great speakers, then singing in the stake Christmas concert, which was such a rich experience, I loved it. Today we are truly enjoying our Christmas Eve with Michael home from work, a cozy fire, delicious smells coming from the kitchen (not mine, Jan's lol) and family all around! PS Its truly a miracle that I got any good pics of these 2 in their outfits. Michael was at work and my camera was dying so I had 2 strikes against me already, but I got lucky!! Merry Christmas!

Stetson turns 3!

Yesterday my big boy turned 3. The night before his bday as I was laying by him in bed, I was thinking about how 3 years ago at that exact same time, I was sitting in Michael's gma Asay's living room timing my contractions using Michael's notepad on his cell phone. It was so exciting! When we got home that night I called the nurse, she told me to get all the rest I could, so I took a hot tub, (still timing my contractions and writing them down) and folded laundry while listening to mormon tabernacle choir sing Christmas songs on the BYU channel. Michael was snoozing, so I woke him up and we decicded to head to the hospital. We got there about 1 am, got checked in and they had me take laps around the hospital to get things moving, and did they ever. It was then that I broke down (partly because of pain probably) because I realized my life was about to change forever and I didn't know if I was ready for it! Well 3 years later I can say for sure I don't think anyone can be totally ready for the arrival of a sweet spirit but we're certainly glad this little Stetson made his way into our arms 3 years ago. We love you Stetson.

There's no use crying over spilled milk

My little angel boy, Stetson, spilled milk on our laptop last week. He'd come in the living room to drink it and I told him to go drink it in the kitchen and thats when he spilled the milk that cost us over $900. Its been sad dealing with this, but there's a bright side. I've been doing more cleaning/organizing and spending more quality time with the kids (a HUGE plus). We did take the laptop into TCT and a guy that works there who also happens to be in our ward, has been working on it but he's pretty sure nothing can be done. He suggested take it into best buy or sell parts on ebay, but we'll probably just buy a new one in a couple months.

In the meantime, we've truly been enjoying the holidays. I'm really trying to remember to focus on what really matters and keep things simple. We went to our wonderful ward party that had a carnival theme to it and Stetson treated himself to hotdogs, fries, cotton candy and lots of other goodies. He was in heaven and it was so fun to watch him enjoy himself so much. We took holiday treats around to family and friends last night and today and enjoyed seeing everyone.
I'm singing in the ward and stake choir again and I've LOVED it (especially the stake choir). This requires a lot of planning and sacrifice on both me and Michael's behalf, but its been worth it. I am so grateful for music, Christmas time and for the gift of the Savior, who brings meaning to every thing in our lives.

In other news, our taurus has a broken headgasket and its being fixed (I hope) right now. In the meantime, Michael and I are learning what its like to be a one car family. Not my favorite thing.

Kandace turned 10 months old. She is getting stronger every day and still lights up our lives with her beautiful smile.

Stetson turns 3 tomorrow!! More to come on that later!

A labor of love...

...or something like that. Michael and all his co-workers in the lab are sending care packages to the soldiers and Michael signed up for cookies so he's been making peanut butter cookies all night...about 12 dozen. Michael is such a good cook. The other night I didn't have anything planned for dinner so he said he'd make potato soup. I was a little skeptical because he didn't have a recipe and hadn't really made it before but it turned out soooo good. He made a rue (which he's made a lot because he makes biscuits and gravy a lot) and added all the veggies and kind of made it up as he went. This is so not my style-- I am such a recipe follower. I NEVER make stuff up because I have no confidence in myself I guess. But Michael's always adding a little bit here, a little bit there but it usually ends up really good.

Her mother's daughter/fun things about Stetson

Well I definitely decided Kandace is her mother's daughter when I fed her spaghetti yesterday. She loved it and ate quite a bit. She has been little miss cranky pants deluxe these last few days (new teeth?) but when I fed her some spaghetti her mood definitley lifted. Its crazy that this little miss is almost 10 months old. Wow. She is such a good baby and we love her!!

Stetson is so funny as always. For probably the last 2-3 months he asks us this: "Mommy/daddy you happy?" He usually just asks me when he just did something he thinks will make me mad or if he can tell I'm not happy. I'll say "no I'm not happy because you just..(insert negative behavior here) and then he'll ask me again if I'm happy and if I don't tell him I'm happy, he'll keep asking me until I answer "yes."

Stetson loves going to story time (the stamps are his favorite and using the glue at the craft table). Lately we've been getting a Dora book every time we go and it is his favorite thing to read until we take it back.

This boy loves to sing!! His favorite song to sing lately is the happy birthday song. He stacks things up (my rubermaid containers for instance) and pretends its a bday cake then sings. And he likes his mom and dad to join in too.

He's been sleeping great again (thank goodness). Occasionally he'll come in our room and ask to get in with us but we just walk him back to his room and he goes to sleep. His favorites lately are the movie ratitouille and oranges..he could eat those all day if I let him.