The Closing of 2011

2011 was a really great year for us! I lost some weight and started my new life style of being healthy. Trevor overcame his fear of failing and really learned what it meant to allow himself to succeed. Cameron got diagnosed with celiac disease and therefor started feeling better better and better. Owen grew smarter and learned his love for soccer. And Zach turned from a baby into a boy. We have so so so many things to be thankful for at the close of this year! Here is a super quick recap of our December.

Zach turned 2! He had so many people that love him come and celebrate with him even though it was a week before Christmas. He was SOO excited that Mommy made him a 'train cake'.

We literally celebrated Christmas for a month straight. We had a Christmas party at least once every single week, for all of December. It was so fun to spend time with family and remember how much I have grown to love Christ in the last couple of years. He has TRULY been the only one there for me in my most desperate hours.

My three musketeers made a pretty cute wise man (Cameron), Shepard (Owen), and pretending to be mad sheep (Zach).


Christmas Eve night Owen really wanted to leave something healthy for Santa (because, "Cookies aren't healthy mom.") But after much conversation from Cameron, he desided to leave the healthy things for the reindeer and give Santa the treats.

"The carrots are for the reindeer Santa"

We had an awesome awesome Christmas day. My mom and pop (Rob) and brother Billy came up super early and watch (and kindly camera'd) the whole morning with us. The kids got fun stuff, but didn't get spoiled. It was a really good balance this year. We had a big breakfast with them and all the fixings! We got ready in our new clothes and had a great Sacrament meeting at church. The kids got to go up and sing... Cameron was loving it, giving the orchestrator a thumbs up anytime she'd smile at the whole group of kids. (and Owen stayed sitting with us, refusing to even go up). We enjoyed a quiet afternoon and then got to see more family. My dad and Nanny came up and played with the kids. And then Trevor's parents and little brother joined us all for a big ham dinner. It was perfect!

By New Years Eve I was feeling like I had somehow not spent good time with the kids through all the hustle and bustle of the holidays. So we had our friends Leslie and Kimbal, and their kids, Caleb and Tate, over. It was a kid focused party. We ate finger food, played card games, and even lit fireworks. The highlight of the night for the kids was Leslie letting them help her juice oranges!

And to end it with a bang- Trev got me such a great gift. He wrote me a nice letter about how much I've grown this year and how I've become even better than I was before (these are his words, not mine of course). :) The the gift inside was a framed piece with a picture of me running the half marathon and the medallion that we got at the finish line. It has the date, my name and finishing time, as well as a quote that says,

"Only those that will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." -T.S. Eliot