Merry Christmas!!

Christmas for us is usually a whirl wind of events and this year was no different. I love Christmas, but the stress case that is me is glad that it's over. We have had some great get togethers with family and friends! Christmas eve we all crammed into Jim's aunt Jeanies house for the gift exchange between the kids, and added a new tradition of white elephant gifts for the adults. Jim and I got these absolutely enormous panties!


Halee, Vance and Max were lucky enough to have Grandma spend the night with them, and Grandma was lucky enough to have Halee wake her up at 2:30 am to see if Santa had come. Grandma checked it out and found that Santa had in fact NOT come yet and was able to get her back in bed. She was again woken up at 4:45. This time there was no getting out of it. The whole house was soon awake. Some not quite as happy about it than others.



As you can see Vance eventually perked up. We had a wonderful breakfast at Laurie's and were lucky enough to have Uncle Grem and Aunt Linda with us. After that we got to visit with the extended family on my Jensen side. Finally we ended the day spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa Baker. I couldn't have asked for a better Christmas.

Halee's Birthday

Well its official? My baby girl is 7, yes 7 years old. How time flies when you're having fun! Halee had an eventful birthday this year, and one that was not only one day, but a whole week of festivities. The week started with three consecutive nights of shopping. First was Grandma Tarina, next with Aunt Laura (Lou) and a third with Grandma Pat. They all took her out to spent some time alone with her and let her pick out what she wanted. (Thanks mom for the "Bling Bling" sequened hat that she loves. It is like a disco ball. It reflects light off of it on the car celing. Vance is quite entertained by this. Friday we got have luch at Hal's favorite place, Soup or Salad. Friday night had her Luau themed birthday party, perfect for a balmy Utah November!
We made our own Hawaiian leas ate pizza and had lots of girly fun! Thank goodness I had Melissa, and Jim here to help. Thanks for all the great presents and the nights out, she is a very lucky girl and we love her so much.
Happy Birthday Baby!

Long Lost, Neglected Blog!

Whew! October has come and gone, but I thought I should at least try to sum up our month of craziness! first pic is my adorable kids and my cute little niece enjoying the sandbox for the last time this year, boo! there will always be next year!
I love Halloween, and this year was awesome! I got to dress up for two fantastic parties We had a rather quick trip to the pumpkin patch this year. Vance loved pushing the wagon around. Hal chose her costume this year and decided to be a devil! She was gorgeous, and as fate would have it so did her betrothed husband Max hahaha they are meant for each other! Ashlee did the annual Traynor party early this year so that our cute friends Sam and JM could be there for it. There were such cute costumes, I can't believe how creative they get. I will have to do a slid show for it, some you just gotta see. Thanks Ashlee for letting me sport my plig outfit, and to Heather for letting me make up for the not so attractive Plig and come as Betty Boop. That costume was harder to pull off than I thought it would be...I don't have an apple shaped head!

Vance is one year old!

My Vancey Pants is going to be one year old next week. I am no longer alowing myself to call him that because I don't want it to stick for his whole life, I think I may cry for a solid week! Since the day I found out I was pregnant with Vance our home has been a little bit happier! He has been an absolute joy to all of us. I could not have asked for a sweeter baby boy! I can't believe how much he has grown. Here is a look back on one of the best years of our lives!

My own Charlotte

We have a new pet in the family, her name is Charlotte (I know origional)she is a Cat faced spider that has decided to make the space between the roof and the deck rail her home. Spiders normaly give me the heebees and I never thought I would be excited about a spider on my deck, but this one is so cool. she builds her web every 4 days or so and we have been able to watch her capture her treasures twice now. Its like our own private animal planet documentary! she is about 2 inches long and I believe talks to Max...ha ha ha just kidding he's not smart enough!

PHILL LYMOND

I'm not a huge fan, but growing up Melissa'a mom always listened to Neil Diamond, and I have a place in my heart for Sweet Caroline, and Forever in Blue jeans!!On Saturday TAYLORSVILLE DAYZ got us out of the house and over to the park to watch the most AMAZING Neil Diamond impersonator that ever lived! Neil or as we lovingly referred to him as Phill Lymond was awesome, it felt like we were at a real concert! I just kept remembering scenes from the movie Saving Silverman throughout the whole show. The best was when he sang Coming to America they had fireworks going off. After the show they did an amazing fireworks display set to music. GREAT NIGHT!!!!

Nothing special, just super cute!!

Jim's Birthday

Saturday we had Jim's annual B-day bash. the party was alittle against my will, so I was not exactly on the ball with the planning. We are supposed to be tranfering our efforts to Vance's birthdays in the summers and let Jim's go, but hey, we have had the tradition of the June BASH for a few years now and it was a blast. It rained like crazy ALL day and therefore kept us cooped up for most of the evening with the kids. We were not able to pull out the slip and slide and pool as planned, so we substituted with play dough and kept cozy in the house or Garage. Happy Birthday Jim, I love you, sorry I was so grumpy about it!
P.S. This is the LAST year!
P.S.S. Really you all know this is not the last one!

MOAB!

My good friend Marsha invited Melissa and I on a girls only trip last weekend. We had a FANTASTIC time. One of the Attorney's at her work was married to one of the local Moab river runners that sadly passed away last year. she allowed all of us to tag a long while on her first river trip since his passing. We stayed at the Red Cliffs Lodge and had our own private cabins, a reserved dock and our own personal boat captain Zane! The boat we ran was lovingly named "Grandma" This was a nick name for Julie's husband Brian and was one of the only motorized boats on the river so you could go up stream against the rapids..then hit them hard on the way back. I have never gone down a river with white water before so this was a real treat for me. I loved every minuet of it and am still recovering from my perma-grin! It was a quick trip, but just what I needed to recharge the batteries!









One of the runs got a little shaky when 1.) Boat hits major rapid where layers (Leslie) fly right into Melissa's head shattering her glasses (notice in picture above) and 2.) rescues were made when 2 "men over board" needed to be brought into the safety of the motor boat by Sheila (notice pic of lady with gash on her leg) Man she is a trooper! Ahhh memories!