Catching up before the end of 2009!

Grandpa Lee

My grandpa passed away on December 21st.

He was 91.

We really loved Grandpa Lee.

Burke was named after him.

His funeral was December 28th with full military honors.

It was amazing!

We are going to miss you.

Carly and Daddy

Christmas Eve and Day

We did Christmas Eve at our house this year with my parents and my brother and his family. The kids did a puppet nativity, we sang songs, ate dinner and had dessert. It was a great way to spend Christmas Eve.

Cayson and Carly loved their presents. Carly loved her car and wouldn't stay out of it. Their favorite thing of all is probably the trampoline. Carly wakes up in the morning and goes to the back door and whines to get outside so she can go jump. She is crazy! Burke didn't think much of Christmas but he was nice and quiet so we enjoyed ourselves. We spent a few hours with Grandmom and Granddad at their house before going to spend the rest of the day with my family. Christmas 2009 was great!

Christmas Party

Meet Brody

This is Brody.

He's our foster dog.

(I think we are going to keep him though.)

He's pretty great!

4 months and a funeral

Today Burke is 4 months old.

Today we also had Grandpa Lee's funeral.

This is the last picture I have of Grandpa and Burke, 9 days before he passed away.

I'll post details and pictures of the funeral when I have them uploaded.

Today was a good day and a sad day.

It's late.....

We love our new MacBook! Looks like we found a new activity!

Christmas Party

I LOVE this time of year because of all the family get togethers. We have had more than normal this year and season because of weddings, mission homecomings and baby blessings and it has been wonderful. There is nothing that I love more than getting to spend time with my family!

The annual christmas party was on sunday and Cayson and Carly had a really great time. Burke didn't care too much but looked cute...that's all that matters, right? I got to see my new nephew for the first time. He and Burke are 2 weeks apart but Benson was about 8 weeks early. See the size difference? I think these boys will be good friends!

Carly loves Mariah. The funny thing is that when Mariah was Carly's age, I was the one holding Mariah and playing with her. I love that my daughter loves Mariah (and Mariah loves her) the way that Mariah loved me (and I loved her) when we were the same ages.

Once again we had a great christmas party and I am already looking foreward to next year when Carly understands a bit more and Burke is more alert.

Thanksgiving

Cayson had a Thanksgiving program at school and got to sing and say what he was thankful for. "I'm thankful for my mom and my dad and all the pretty things." I was so proud of him to say that out loud in front of the parents of 3 kindergarten classes.
Unfortunately we didn't have Cayson for Thanksgiving this year but we did have a great holiday. We had a great family lunch at my sister's house with all our traditional food. The turkey was so yummy and all the food was great! 2 hours after we ate, we headed over to Maury and Brian's house for Thanksgiving dinner over there. Maury made a great dinner and we had a fun time hanging out with everyone. We were so greatful that Grandmom and Granddad were able to make it for a little while and that we got to spend a little time with them.

Carly had fun playing with Elenore and wasn't scared by her one bit! I think I know what our next dog is!!! She was so cute to lay her head on her and give her hugs and kisses.

After all the get-togethers I braved the black friday crowds with my sister Fawn and my neice Dawn. We hit Toys R Us at midnight, PV mall, Justice, Carters, Walmart, PetsMart, Kohls and Home Depot. Around 3:30am Fawn got too tired so Dawn and I finished. Shopping after being up for 24 hours, hopped up on caffein and delirious can make for some funny memories. Dawn and I must have been a sight to see trying to put two trampolines in the back of a truck! Needless to say, I was exhausted and my feet were dead when I came crawling in at 9am but I saved almost $600 so it was worth it!

I never would have expected Cayson and Carly to be such good friends and play so well together. Walking down the hall tonight I saw Cayson and Carly playing in the play room together and it made me so greatful to have them both!

My chubby little Burkie took a bath with Carly tonight and they both played in the water for about 15 minutes. After I took Burke out and got him wrapped up in the towel I looked up to find that Carly climbed into his bath. She's such a funny girl!

I am so greatful for my 3 kids. Even though they drive me crazy from time to time, they make me smile and bring so much happiness to my life!