On the 1st Day of Sickness, my 3 Girls Gave to Me...

A temperature of 103...

On the 12th day of sickness, my 3 girls gave to me...

12 sniffling sneezes

11 loads of laundry

10 fits of crying

9 glands a swelling

8 coughs a hacking

7 sounds of gagging

6 showers running

5 body aches

4 calling "Mom!"s

3 pink eyes

2 stomach aches

and a temperature of 103!

Good thing that on the 12 days of Sickness, my True Love Sent to Me...

Twelve lotion Kleenex
Eleven “I’m so sorry”s
Ten Ibuprofen
Nine dinners ready
Eight vapor rubbings
Seven Saltine crackers
Six silent seconds
Five Tylenol
Four Thermometers
Three Freeze Pops
Two chocolate Doves
And a trip to the pharmacy

The few weeks leading up to Christmas, I felt like things were super hectic, my girls were growing up way too fast, and there just wasn't enough time to spend together. Well, that sure hasn't been the case this week! Time has pretty much come to a screeching halt, and we've had a heck of a lot of "quality" time together. So, be careful what you wish for!

Luckily, we weren't hit with everything until the day after Christmas, and the girls were happy to have new presents to help keep them occupied. I knew they were really sick when they didn't care what color cups or straws they got, and forgot about all remaining Christmas treats.

Macy was cute about making a post-it note that said, "Mom's resting" for my door to remind herself to stop coming in. She also made me a laptop out of paper, complete with places to enter my website, username and password. "It'll show up as stars." She also made an "I love you" paper attached to a rubberband, so I could put it around my finger and remember her in my heart.

Today, we enjoyed watching the falling snow and The Polar Bear Express, as Macy calls it, while eating freeze pops. I'm so grateful that Carly's fever of 105+ (with Tylenol and Ibuprofen) has come down. A good reminder of the power of prayer. I'm also grateful for thoughtful friends and family. After these few days of sickness and a niece with appendicitis on Christmas Eve, we are reminded of what really matters.

We wish you a happy and healthy New Year's to you and yours!

On the first day of Christmas Break, my 2 girls gave to me...

One Magic Moment on the striped couch you can see.

I woke to find them like this lovingly looking at a new book of Christmas carols and beautiful artwork of the Savior's birth, hearing them saying things to each other like, "Oh, isn't this one so sweet?" and "This is my favorite one. If we could have a painting as big as our front window, I'd choose this one...No, this one...Oh, I can't decide!"

Tooth Fairy Meets Mr. C

Carly on Christmas Eve: Maybe they will see each other and give each other a high five!

Carly on Christmas morning: Look, I got a whole dollar. It must be a Christmas bonus!

Holiday Baking (Sweet Memories Part 2)

When I was a kid, we used to have a marathon baking day. I don't know how many thousands of snowball cookies I rolled in powdered sugar over the years, but I still remember the time I snuck a heaping tablespoon of cocoa while sitting under the table, only to discover that it wasn't what I thought it would be.

This is one of those things that makes Christmas feel like Christmas to me, so I'm glad Myles and the girls all have fun doing it with me.

This year, we tried something new and made mini Oreos using a frosting bag to squirt out the dough and then filled them with cream cheese frosting. We decided we liked them blonde the best. We did our usual pretzel dipping and homemade caramels. We also tried melting rolos between pretzels, along with mini Reeses and Kisses.

Sweet Memories

One of my earliest memories is going as a family to the Dunkin Donuts as a special treat once in a while on a Saturday morning. A free coupon in the mail lured me into Krispy Kreme for a fun Mommy Daughter Date with Macy, and Gram sent this cute apron for Carly just in time for all our holiday baking.

Father Christmas

When I told Macy we were going to meet Father Christmas, she was so excited about it all day. She set aside 2 sticks of gum to bring for him.

Instead of asking the kids what they wanted for Christmas, he spent time talking with them about what they could do/give for other people. I think this, along with Myles' lesson to Carly's class at church, inspired her to wrap up a card and coupon book for each of us, all on her own. It was very thoughtful. (Our fav. part of Father Christmas' outfit was his boots).

Robyn's Choir Concert

This is the first year Robyn has gotten to be in a school choir. She had this fun Christmas concert the night after going skiing for the first time on a school field trip, so it was a BIG day for her.

Macy's Christmas Dances Slideshow

Macy seemed to have the most fun with The 12 Days of Christmas. She made a fun elf, as well as a beautiful angel.

Carly's Christmas Dance Slideshow

Carly took this very seriously, but also had a lot of fun with it. She performed "A Russian Dance" to part of the Nutcracker, using a hula hoop. It was very fast music, which was challenging. She was so delighted that her teacher at school told the story of the Nutcracker and played "her music."

She also performed Frosty the Snowman and The 12 Days of Christmas with her class. My favorite part was of her every time it said, "My true love gave to me."

A Good Boy

The day before our anniversary, I was singing along to Christmas songs on the radio when our four year old asked, "Mom, why would you want to dream by the fire?" I explained how maybe when she was older that would be fun to do with her boyfriend. We then got into a discussion about what makes a good boy. According to Miss Macy, "A good boy is a no smoker who does your jobs for you when you're sick." She'd obviously noticed Myles picking up a little extra slack that week when I was under the weather.

I was glad to feel well enough to visit The Mount Timpanogos Temple, the same place where we were married 11 years ago, on a Saturday before Christmas, just like this year. We were extra blessed to unexpectedly meet up with the very man who married us and who we haven't seen since.

My "good boy" helps me have patience when I am all out. He's someone who happily goes Christmas caroling with me (multiple times) and then cleans the dog poop off my boots when we get home without thinking twice. He's a man of faith who doesn't let the world get in his way. He's my best friend. I'm grateful for this year we've been blessed with and look forward to the next one ahead.

Carly's B-day Week

Crepes for breakfast, thoughtful gifts, a cousins' party, dance practice with Miss Amber...

What could be better?

We knew we were having another girl. We knew we wanted to name her Carly. I got teary eyed after she was born and the nurse brought her into me with a cute, little Christmas bow in her hair. It wasn't until then that we decided on her middle name, Noel. Look at her now, still as beautiful as ever. It's hard to believe at one time she fit into a stocking and in the middle of a wreath!

This year, she did her first dance solo on stage, and has taken off with reading. She is a very determined, talented child who knows what she wants and is aware of what other people might want, too.

We love you, Carly!

Student of the Month

"Carly is a capable, independent worker. She pays attention to directions, finishes all her work and is a natural leader. She achieves high math scores and shares her mathematical thinking."

Thanksgiving Festivities

Curly Q

(While looking in the mirror) Macy: Mom, look at how sweet I look.

It was her idea to get out the sponge curlers. It reminded me of when I was a kid and my mom would put the same pink curlers in my hair.

The Queen of England

Macy saw a picture of the Queen of England wearing a hat like this and said she wanted one. While I was at my cousin's baby shower, Myles whipped this up for her. She was pretty pleased with it.

Macy's Creations

Macy has been so busy lately making everyone lots of pictures that we decided to take pictures of some of them before recycling them. All of her portraits of us, even Carly's, had glasses. When asked about this, Macy said, "This is you grown up, and you will have glasses then!"
One of my favorites was her title for Myles' picture: DadE.

If You Give a PIg a Party...

I got to read to Macy's preschool class, and this was one of the books she chose. We had fun dressing up the pig to go along with the book. FYI, Kohl's has other book/stuffed animal combos. Thanks, Gram.

Simply Good

My kids ask for this "yummy" salad they love and can make. It's just spinach with mandarin oranges, craisins, and candied walnuts (we make a batch of these and freeze them so we can pull out a few when we need them) and poppy-seed dressing.