One!

My baby turned one! I can't believe it. This was one of those super fast years, and I'm almost sad she's getting big already.

She was the sweetest baby ever!

Happy
Content
Snugly
Sweet
Happy
Curious
Happy
Calm
Happy

Did I mention happy? She's almost always happy. People I see regularly, like friends and the other parents dropping their kids off at Kindergarten always comment on how they've never seen her cry. That's because she doesn't unless she has a very good reason, like her sister just kicked her in the face...again.

Happy


And she has way more hair than my other two did at her age, so that's fun too.

She LOVED all her first birthday presents. We got her this cash register, my parents got her this awesome dog you can gook up to the computer and program to say her name and favorite things, and Nathan's parents gave her a camera that plays music and lights up. All three were a huge hit!



Happy First Birthday Baby Girl!

Ignore the Paint

So you have to imagine this against a background of fresh, clean and crisp paint, perhaps grayish in color, but not a dark cave-like gray, a light and airy gray, a gray that I hope to have on my wall this time next year so the full cuteness of my banner shows through.

I bought a gallon of a brownish-tan paint, but I think I've changed my mind.

It's a girls prerogative.

I heard that on t.v. when I was little and it's always stuck in my head.

And the "this" I was talking about...

Abby's birthday banner. She turned one, you know.

It's super cute if you ignore all the awful paint samples slathered on my wall, and the other paint that is actually suppose to be there but was a dirty looking off white to begin with that then became dirty in real life and poked through by many, many nails and screws that nobody bothered to patch when they pulled out. Poor wall...I'll take care of you...when I can actually decide on a paint color.

The white back circle is made of coffee filters.

The pink paper is, well, pink paper, cut in a circle and lined with a sparkly glitter.

The letters are brown paper cut with a Cricut, Fancy Pants font, then painted with glue that I then dumped loads of Martha Stewart glitter on. I LOVE Martha Stewart glitter. It's the best glitter in the universe!



Now I just need to make a banner that says Madie, and I can reuse the Happy Birthday for her birthday.

Jared, on the other hand, might get mad at me if I pull it out for his birthday and try and call it a "bubble gum" birthday or a "cotton candy" birthday. No, I should be brainstorming something in blue or green, or maybe camo...

You've got to have the right tools.

Jared got a kids tool set for Christmas and Madie has taken a liking to this...

Photo A Day

So I joined this group with some of my friends where you take a photo a day and post it online.

Guess how long I lasted?

Hint: I just might be the worst photo-a-dayer ever.

1. Nathan on our 10th anniversary.


2.


3.


4. Jared lost his first tooth!


5.


That's right, five days. On the sixth day, it didn't even cross my mind to take a picture. I wasn't even putting it off and being lazy, I plain old forgot.

Christmas Morning

Only just over a month late...Christmas morning!


Nathan and Abby ready to document the event.

Christmas Eve with Three

We spent Christmas Eve at my parents and had a rousing game of...of...of...

...I don't know what you call it. But I do know you get play dough and mold words or phrases you draw from a hat and the first team to guess gets the point. FUN! Good pick, Thomas.

Here's a hodge-podge of pics from the night.

Sarah


Kristian and Peter. Lane was around there somewhere but I don't think I got his pic.


The only picture of Thomas.




A rare picture of me and Nathan together, if you can call being separated by the couch, together.


Then we took the kids home to open pj's.



Then we sent those kiddos off to bed to not sleep.

Graduation

Madie graduated from nursery! She had her first Sunbeam class yesterday and loved it. Yay! But before she moved up nursery had a graduation for the big kids moving up.


She's the only one who refused to wear their daddy's white shirt.


Grad Caps


Getting her certificate from the bishop.




Grandma came to watch.


And Abby got to visit and get a little taste of her future.

Pre Christmas

My mother in law sent the kids Christmas presents in 2 big cardboard boxes. It was almost like Christmas morning pulling all the packages wrapped in pretty wrapping paper out. And then we noticed some of the tags said open now. Yippee!!! So the kids tore into them and they pulled out the cutest Christmas outfits. The big kids stripped down then and there in the middle of the living room and put on parts of their outfits. Then I made them take them off and put them away to keep them pretty for the coming Sunday. Ya, I'm a mean mama like that.


That adorable flower headband came with Abby's green dress that, no, she's not wearing. And the blue of Madie's dress is gorgeous!


Jared was in a horrible mood! He only put on the vest and left the matching blue dress shirt on the floor (check out the left side of the pic).


But the girls were happy to be in the spot light.

Thanks for the awesome outfits Grandma Susie!

Christmas Must-Haves

My mom took Madie on some errands with her in preparation for Christmas. They stopped by See's Candy and brought home these candy canes to share with Jared. It was an exciting day!

Building Houses

This year I bought a ginger bread house kit. The super cool part was the house was already assembled for us. All we had to do was decorate! And the smart put-together-ers of this kit must have known my kids would eat half the candy during the decorating process, so they included enough to fill tummies and decorate the house.


The roof was my favorite part to decorate.


After we were done we decided to take a picture with it. It was hard to do. Getting their heads close to each other and the house and looking at the camera at the same time takes coordination.

My kids are lacking in that department.

In a funny way.



And yes, Madie is wearing her swim suite, in December. It's her chill out at home outfit.