Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I want to wish everyone that I haven't seen in a while a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I'm sad that the holiday season is over. I just love Christmas. That is probably why I haven't taken my Christmas tree down yet, although, I'm making a point to take it down today. I think starting a new year is great because it's the perfect time to look at your life and evaluate things about yourself that need improvement. This year, Nate and I have made a New Year's resolution that we are working on together as well as three that I have made personally. I feel really motivated right now to accomplish these goals set. We'll see!

Here is a run down of our family holiday experience...

On Christmas Eve, I asked McCoy what he wanted to do and he said he wanted to go swimming. What? This wasn't exactly what I had in mind. I had envisioned something along the lines of baking cookies and looking at the Christmas lights, but we decided to go swimming instead. After, we went to Grandma Peggy's house (Nate's mom) to say Hi and make cookies. It was really nice.

Christmas day started bright and early and 6:30am. Nate was just excited as the boys to get up and see what Santa had brought. I was a little reluctant to leave my bed, but I didn't have much of a choice. McCoy said next year he wants to stay up and watch Santa eat the cookies and then give him a big hug. After breakfast it is tradition to go to Grandpa Hardman's house (Nate's dad). We snacked on chips, dip, ham and rolls. My boys love going there to play with their Uncle Jordan and Taylor. Next we went to Grandma Peggy's again to hang out with the rest of the family, eat ham and play games.

My boys weren't really up for taking pictures. They were definitely more interested in their toys then smiling at me. I believe I took two dozen pictures which only included a couple of them actually looking at me. Oh well!

Grandpa and Grandma Hardman with Jordan, Grace and Emily

McCoy had his cousin, Jaxson, sleep over on Christmas night. The next morning we woke up to about a foot of new fallen snow. The boys had a lot of fun being pulled on the sled by Nate.

Nate and Landon

McCoy and Jaxson on the sled

McCoy and Landon dressed in their Christmas best

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The next weekend we went down to Orangeville to stay at Papa and Nana Jewkes' house to celebrate. It gets a little crazy now that their are nine of us siblings. McCoy and Landon had so much fun spending time with their cousins and making great memories. On Saturday, we all went sledding with my Uncle Scott and his family down a big hill out by the farm. The first couple of runs were a little scary. We realized after that we didn't need to go all the way up to the top to get a good run. I really enjoyed going down to Orangeville and spending time with all of my family.

The first run - Nate, McCoy and Landon on the sled

Oops, we hit some dirt. Luckily no one was hurt

Papa and Grace

Whoa, that's a big hill

Papa and Grace coming down

Nate and Landon

McCoy

Stacy and Kalley

Kamey and Katelynn

Fletcher and Mason

Beautiful view of the castle valley!

Happy Birthday McCoy

My big boy has turned four. McCoy has been looking forward to his birthday since Landon had his about three months ago and is so excited that it's finally here. Here are some things to know about McCoy...

Favorite

Food: -Chicken nuggets, Cheese and Ketchup on everything
Toys: -Monster Trucks
Color: -Green
Movies: -Cars, Toy Story and Monster’s Inc.
Likes to: -Go to grandpa’s house and farm, ride his bike and little four wheeler, play outside with his "friends" and cousins. He also loves to follow around his daddy and do whatever he is doing. At night McCoy likes to have mommy sing at least 5 songs to him before he can go to sleep. McCoy also likes to take the cushions off my couch everyday to build himself trucks and huts (this makes mommy so happy). He is a very loving boy who likes to look out for his little brother and is my little sweetheart.

Happy Anniversary!

I can't believe that Nate and I have been married now for 6 years. I guess time flies when you're having fun. I can look back and see the path of my life and how it lead straight to Nate. We were definitely meant to be. I can't imagine my life without him. He is a great person and a wonderful dad to our two boys. I love him very much. Happy Anniversary!

Disneyland Trip

We spent this last week hanging out at Disneyland with Nate's family. Since it's December, they had all of their Christmas decorations displayed and even some of their rides were changed to reflect a Christmas scene. Everything was so beautiful. Some of McCoy's favorite rides were the Matterhorn, Soarin Over California and Pirates of the Caribbean. When I asked Landon what his favorite ride was he said Winnie the Pooh and Nemo, although, he mostly talks about the plane ride there and back. I'm sure we'll go again some day, but I think we'll wait until our youngest child is at least 40" tall since that is the height requirement for a lot of the rides. Thanks Grandma Peggy for a GREAT time and I'm sure we won't forget it.

Some of the Grandchildren together

Grandma Peggy

The boys didn't know what to think of Mickey and made sure that he didn't touch them

Waiting for the Christmas parade to start

The castle all lit up at night

Potty Trained

Yeah! Landon is officially potty trained. With the help of a treats, stickers and a chart, Landon picked up on it really fast. It's very relieving not to have to change any dirty diapers. I hadn't planned to start until the first of the year, but Landon kept taking off his diaper and putting McCoy's underwear on so I decided now was as good a time as any. He is so excited to be a "big boy" like his brother. Both of my boys have done well with potty training and were started by the time they were 2 years and 3 months old.

November?

Is it really the middle of November? Yesterday, my boys were outside playing in their sandbox and were having a great time. I can't believe how warm it has been lately. I know we have experienced a little cold this fall, but I can't remember a time the weather was so warm this far into the season. I guess we just might be experiencing "global warming" after all.

45 Things About Me

1. I love small towns
2. Fall is my favorite season. I only wish it lasted a little bit longer and winter was a little shorter.
3. I love the smell of pine trees
4. I love to scrapbook
5. I owned my own four-wheeler before I got married
6. My worst fear in life is loosing my children and husband
7. I love the mountains
8. I hate when my house is disorganized or messy
9. I can't wait for the day when my children can clean up without me telling them to
10. My favorite Olympic sport is gymnastics
11. I have a twin sister.
12. If I had a choice between chocolate cake or raspberry ice cream, I would choose the ice cream.
13. I'm, though, a sucker for anything chocolate and peanut butter
14. I love any kind of seafood
15. I'm not a big fan of spicy food
16. I love fresh baked bread
17. I received contacts years ago, but just recently have been able to stick them in my eye
18. I've always been a little bit shy in front of people I don't know
19. I love to watch lightning storms
20. I don't really have a favorite color. It usually changes with the season
21. Privileged on the CW is my new favorite show
22. Nate and I love watching The Office together
23. I am a big worrier about everything
24. I wish I could go back in time and pay better attention to the things that my mom taught me
25. I absolutely hate getting dirt in my fingernails. It makes it so I can't breathe
26. I have a hard time sleeping when my children are in bed with me
27. I need to have at least a sheet covering me in order to go to sleep at night
28. My greatest hope in life is that my children grow up to be good and respectable people
29. One day I hope to live on a couple of acres located out in the country somewhere
30. I've never had a broken bone
31. I've had my car stolen. The police found it about a month later.
32. I love to read, but need to space out my books because when I'm reading nothing else gets accomplished
33. I love to travel
34. I've been on two cruises; one to the Bahamas and the other to Mexico
35. And would love to go on a cruise with my husband someday
36. I graduated from CEU with an Associates Degree
37. I like running. If only I could get myself motivated to do it more often
38. I was 21 years old when I went on my first plane ride
39. I love camping
40. I used to snowboard all the time before I got married and had children
41. I started my first job when I was 16 years old and have worked ever since
42. I would rather call someone on the phone than text them
43. I like country music, although, some of my favorite songs are rock and roll
44. I love my children dearly
45. Nathan is the love of my life and I can't imagine myself anywhere else

Late Night Visitor

I'm not sure how many others have had this experience, but I'm sure I'm not the only one. A couple of nights ago we heard a knock on our door at about 9:00 at night. I opened the door and there was a woman standing there. She said she was with Kirby and they were just going around the neighborhood cleaning people's carpets and proceeded to ask if I would like my carpets cleaned. This is quite coincidental because I had just told Nate the night before that I wanted to clean mine. I asked her what the catch was and she said that I only needed to tell my friends and family about it if I liked the finished product. We were just putting our boys to bed and I wasn't sure this was the best time, but she assured me it wouldn't take long and they were just doing one room. So I agreed. Nate wasn't exactly happy with me letting strangers into our house this late, but I really really wanted my dining room carpets cleaned. I knew I was in trouble about fifteen minutes into it when she was giving me a demonstration of every attachment and how they (all 100 of them) worked. Halfway through I was ready to tell her to leave, but I had wasted so much time that I didn't want her to go without doing the one thing that she was supposed to do. At 11:30 PM after I had been hounded for two and a half hours to buy a $2,300 vacuum, she finally left and I had one room with nice clean carpets. Nate had already went to bed and when I went up he asked me two questions. Did I buy anything and did I learn my lesson? Yes! Nothing is for free.

Halloween Pics

This year for Halloween it was my turn to take the boys trick-or-treating around the neighborhood while Nate stayed home to hand out candy. Luckily for me they wanted to eat their candy as fast as they were getting it and were done after about twelve houses. Having children has made celebrating the holidays so much more fun.

Scarecrow

Bob The Builder