Recalling December

So much happened in December that I gave up on trying to blog it at the time. I barely made it though the holiday, it seems like it all happened so fast. So to recall the month of December...

12/05/08 - Drove in an awful winter storm to Colorado. Got there just in time to watch the Denver Holiday Parade. Lots of lights, giant balloons, and festive floats.

12/06/08 - The reason for going to Colorado! Brent's niece Natalie was in the State of Colorado Cheerleading Competition, and WON!!! Her team was so amazing and fun to watch. We were so glad we could be there to see them compete in such a huge competition, and then to win made it even better.

12/07/08 - While we were in Denver we took the girls to High School Musical On Ice. That was really fun. They were all very talented.
12/13/08 - TaVaCi Program. This year's program was full of holiday cheer. Gracy (6) was asked to sing a solo and she did so wonderful. She practiced for weeks before and loved all the special attention. Lexy got to be in the "boom wackers" specialty number where they play a christmas song by wacking sticks that sound like each note. They all did a great job and played it perfectly.

... This is where we took some time to play in the snow, Lexy finished up her baskeball season, and we tried to prepare for the holidays.

12/18/08 - We left late at night to get a head start on our drive to California for the Holidays. This trip came about because we bought tickets to the BSU/TCU Bowl game in San Diego which was on the 23rd of December. We decided that we could take our vacation time, christmas vacation, and the bowl game and wrap them all into one nice package. Thus, Christmas in California.

12/19/08 - A very long, long, long, drive all day...

12/20/08 - Legoland was our first adventure. That was such a fun day. Warm weather, fun rides, good friends. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the best part of all. Our friends, the Smith's, planned their trip with us. We are all extemely CRAZY Bronco fans, so when we said we were going, we all decided to go. What a blast. The kids had the best time looking at all the stuff made out of Legos. Everything in the pics are made of them. Really cool!

12/21/08 - Went to church, played games and had lunch in our room, drove to the San Diego Temple and listened to a ward sing songs for Christmas. It was low key. Just perfect for a Sunday.

12/22/08 - The weather played a bad joke on us and rained ALL day, no joke. But that didn't stop us from going to Sea World. We were soaked from morning to night, but, I don't think anyone noticed. Sea World is so fun. There are so many great shows. Gracy tried to pet the dolphins, but with no luck. They just kept swimming past, teasing her.

12/23/08 - Wild Animal Park and the Poinsettia Bowl. We took a tour ride around acres of land seeing giraffes, zebras, and many other animals. The kids all got their faces painted to get ready for the game. The game was at Chargers Stadium which is so huge. Unfortunately we couldn't keep our lead and we lost 17-16. It was a good effort. We all went home pretty bummed.



12/24/08 - Decorated our "blue" Chrismas tree. Made cookies for Santa. Swam. Played in the rec center at the resort. The girls opened a present from me, p.j.'s, and went to bed early to be ready for Santa.

12/25/08 - Christmas morning the girls slept in til 8:00. Yeah! Then saw all the wonderful things Santa brought. They were so excited to get a Nintendo DS, games, movies, journals, purses, etc... Brent got a portable BOSE ipod player and headphones, I got stuff for my cricut, a sewing machine for scrapbooking, a BSU soccer ball. It was pretty awesome. Then we got ready and ate a huge buffet lunch, went to Forever Plaid Holiday theatre show, and spent the rest of the day hanging out together. It was great.
12/26/08 - Brent's Birthday. We took him (wink, wink) to Disneyland. We had so much fun we decided to go back two more days. There is a lot to do there. The girls had a blast on all the roller coasters. Between California Adventure and Disneyland we were exhausted after 3 days of walking, running, and riding. Gracy's fav. ride was Space Mountain, of course we had to force her on it the first time through tears and wailing. Lexy's fav. ride was California Screaming, a wildly fast roller coaster. By now, we've been gone so long that none of us want to come home. The weather is great, the beach is full of sea shells, and every day is full of adventure.

We had such a fun time and are grateful for the fun holiday we had. We hope you had a very Merry Christmas and a great New Year. Happy 2009.

Family Photos

Bonnie decided she wanted some updated pics of the girls (hint, hint) so she asked if we could bring them to Sears one afternoon. We did. But look who ended up in the pics. Brent and I were not planning on being in them. Thankfully we don't all clash. The pics of the girls turned out so sweet. So I want to thank her for giving us the little nudge we needed to get updated on our photos. I liked them in sepia so when I get them hung I'll post a pic of our Pics.

First encounter with the Tooth Fairy

11/12/08 Tonight Gracy decided she wanted to loose her first tooth. It was a little bit wiggly, but definately not hanging there by a thread. She didn't care. She asked me if I would put some dental floss around her tooth so she could tie the other end on the door knob. After much effort I convinced her that this probably wasn't the best idea. Her "big girl tooth" was already half-way in, right behind her loose tooth so we knew it could come out anytime. So after a few hours of tugging and yanking and wiggling and bending...

(Attempt #1 - Floss)

(Attempt #2 - Dad yanking and pulling with a napkin)

(Attempt #3 - The Ole' Biting into the Apple Trick)

(And finally... after all that... )

She pulled it out - all by HERSELF!!!

I was amazed that there were no tears, crying, yelling, fighting (let me just say that Alexys was the complete polar opposite in the teeth pulling department).

Gracy left the tooth fairy a note asking her to please leave the tooth so she could take it to show and tell at school (I really hope her teacher didn't mind). She left the tooth and a whopping $5 dollar bill. Which put a big smile on her face, and mine, because when she smiles there is the cutest gap there.

Gracy turned 7

It is really unbelievable to think of Gracy turning 7. She is a lot of things: hilarious, cute, smart, energetic, sweet, strong-minded, outgoing, talented... but one of the things I love the most is that she has always been my BABY girl. Every year on her birthday I think back to when she loved to cuddle up in my arms and sleep or sing to me. Now she thinks she is soooo big (she tries so hard to be just like her big sister). She is growing up so fast. I am so thankful to be her mom. She has a very unique spirit that I love so much.

This year we celebrated her birthday with an amazing Carnival in our backyard. There was a bounce house, a cotton candy machine, popcorn, tons and tons of goodies, prize boothes, and six different carnival game boothes! Oh, and we also had a special performance by an amazing juggler (her dad). She invited all her friends from her primary class, our neighbor friends, and her entire class from school. I'm telling you, it was so much fun!!! I couldn not have done it without the incredible help of Grandma Bonnie, Kendra, Chelsey, Preston, Dan, Brent, and Lexy & Nicole. Thanks so much for all your help.

One comment I heard from a little boy as he ran past me was "Now THiS is a PARtY!!!" It made my day. It truly was. Happy Birthday Gracy.

This is Gracy trying her luck at the fish pond. Lexy & Nicole were in charge of this boothe & they had a blast hooking prizes onto the end of the fishing pole.

Friends: Julia, Gracie, Gracy, Lucy, Savannah, Carson, & Whitney throwing darts to pop the balloons so they could win a stuffed animal.

Super Amazing, and really delicious cupcake cake. Aunt Kendra made them special for Gracy to have a carnival theme. Don't they look just like popcorn. (they are marshmallows!)

The juggling show. The kids really thought this was cool. He's juggling real eggs over Gracy. She really hoped he wouldn't drop them on her.

Metal Mouth, Brace Face...

...Just a few of the "nicknames" Lexy has thought of today. This morning she spent about two hours at the orthodontist. She has an underbite that the dentist thought would be best to start fixing now, so her we go. She was so nervous, and on the way she quietly shed a couple tears. But before she went in she said a prayer, wiped them away, and was so brave. I was so proud of her. And she did such a great job! They only put in two bands on her two back molars, and four brackets on her front top teeth for now. She looks so cute.

BEFORE
DURING

AFTER

Birthday Girl!!!

Lexy had a great birthday. We woke her up by singing her a birthday song and gave her a new outfit for school. At lunch her dad took her to Jalisco's for a special birthday lunch.

For school snack she picked brownies, her favorite, and Capri Suns. Then Grandma Bonnie threw her a "Rainy Day" themed party, thanks to our wonderful Idaho weather, Aunt Kendra made her a dessert shish-ka-bob cake, and she received exactly what she wanted.

A new soccer ball, clothes, Pet Shops, lip gloss, Barbie piano, a book about Dares to do in the summer, and her own ipod with docking station/alarm clock, a cute scarf, and a cute turquoise protector thing for her ipod. I think it was a perfect day. And I still can't believe my little girl is 10!!!

Birthday Girl

My little Lexy is turning 10 today. Ten. I can't believe it! How do they grow up so fast? Ten years ago I was 19, living in Boise with Brent, attending college at BSU, and ready to have a baby. On this exact day 10 years ago Brent took me out to dinner at a little diner in Meridian, where I spent most of the evening in the bathroom having contractions. No, I did not enjoy my dinner, and Yes, Brent did enjoy his. It felt like we were there forever. I just wanted to go home and lay down. So we did. For about 10 minutes. Until I couldn't lay there anymore. By this time my mom is calling every minute timing my contractions, freaking out, and speeding down the highway from Twin Falls hoping to make it there before the baby is born. She convinces me to go to the hospital, NOW!!!, so we do. I still can't figure out why we didn't come to that conclusion ourselves. So we get to the hospital, and just in time. Just kidding! I was there not quite two hours before she was born. She was so perfect. She was born at 11:50 pm, ten minutes before my birthday. I thought she would like it that way. Having her own special day, not having to share with her mom. But I was wrong. To this day she wonders why I couldn't have waited just ten more minutes. Ugh!!! Brent spent a couple hours with us, then had to go do our paper route, we hadn't thought about getting a sub set up to do it for us. You might think what in the world was he doing a paper route for? Well, we did a route together for money. NOT! You don't get paid that much. Actually, I don't know why we were doing a paper route. We were just crazy, young college kids. Did we need a reason? Anyways, back to the baby.... We had thought of a few names we liked but couldn't come to a conclusion. If you know Brent and I very well you know that we are extremely indecisive. Therefore, we wrote down the names we liked, put them in a hat, and drew one. What we drew was Alexys Bay Keim. Such a sweet name for a sweet girl, huh. That's what we thought. But, NO! Lexy recently found out about the whole name thing and wanted to know the other name. We told her. We were wrong again. She likes the other name. Ugh!!! again. Anyways, this is her special day and ten things I love about her are...

1. Her big, sensitive, generous heart.

2. Her crooked little smile. (looks just like the nike swish)

3. She is so smart, just like her Dad.

4. She loves her sister and would do anything for her.

5. Her favorite room to clean is the bathroom, which means I don't have to do it.

6. We love to play soccer together, and she is so fun to watch.

7. Her love of the Savior.

8. She is such a good, honest friend.

9. She and I are garage sale buddies.

10. She is still so innocent for her age. (believes in Santa, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy... All of it)

Happy Birthday, Sweetie!!! I love you so much.