Happy 5th Birthday Serenity!

My baby girl is 5! I can't believe it!!! She celebrated her birthday at Pump It Up with friends and family. It was so much fun and worth every penny!! Auntie Misty, Uncle Danny, Izzy, and Chase spent the night which made her birthday extra special. She is so happy and proud that she is 5. When she meets someone she says "I'm 5!"

Playing in the leaves

Serenity and Landen have been obsessed with making leaf piles and jumping in the leaves. Friends came over one day to join in the fun. They played outside for an hour just playing in the leaves. What fun it is to be a kid!

Happy New Year!

I have tons to post but having issues with getting the pictures off my cf card onto the MAC... I usually use the PC and it has gone to the crapper, so hopefully I will figure it out soon :)
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
2009 will be full of changes for our family. The biggest change will be the smallest... our baby boy will be arriving March 10th unless he decides to come before that, which as long as he is healthy, mommy does not object :) We will be starting off the new year with our last trip to Disneyland before our Season passes expire. We are very excited and will definitely be buying season passes again once the little guy is older.

So much happened in 2008... we have been blessed in countless ways and we are all very thankful to our Heavenly Father for all our blessings. I am proud of my accomplishments! Usually when I set goals I only achieve 1 or 2, but this year I tried to set goals that were attainable, but still allowed for some reaching.
Goals I accomplished:
1. Went on a family vacation with Doug and bonus points for Doug and I going on a cruise by ourselves
2. Read the scriptures daily - now I can't say 365 days, but I would say 90%. We read the scriptures each night as a family.
3. Start Heartfelt Blessings Club
4. Don't gain weight - this goal is just a void since I became pregnant mid year gaining weight was inevitable.
5. Read 4 books, Twilight again, Breaking Dawn, Eclipse again, and New Moon again, and I am halfway through Tori Spellings book.
6. Clear Teaching Credential

Goals that are still works in progress:
1. Golfing - I didn't get to go to an actual course, but we've got plenty of practice on the Wii and Landen and I would play at Papa and Rassie's house
2. FHE - we did not hold it every Monday, but I would say we did it at least once a month
3. Scrapbook twice a month - I did scrapbook once a month
4. Simplify - an ongoing goal
5. Be a better friend - I can always be better :)
6. Start Masters program - I have been researching, but haven't officially started anything.

Merry Christmas!

We have been blessed with a wonderful Christmas with family and friends! We wish everyone a very blessed Christmas, saying a special prayer tonight for our fellow Americans who are in the armed forces along with their families and for their endless sacrifice. May we all remember the reason we celebrate this joyous holiday season!

White Elephant Gifts

So we were invited to a party where we were to bring white elephant gifts. I always have a difficult time with these because sometimes people bring really nice things, but I found two ideas that I LOVE and will use again in the future. They were both a hit and one of them will continue being a white elephant re-gift for that same party years to come. I took a picture of Doug and blew it up to an 8x10 then he signed it "The Man, Doug Brandow" and we framed it. This was the hit of the party! The second one was we bought a tin filled with candy, we took a picture of the kids eating a piece of the candy and then they took a bite of each candy in the box and we put the picture on top. We did put a $5 gift card to Target in the bottom of the box :)

Happy Birthday Papa!

My Daddy celebrated his 60th birthday on the 10th! We went out to linner (lunch/dinner) at Angelini's YUM! Then we headed over to my Grandma's for cake and presents. Hope he had a fabulous day we loved celebrating with him!!!