Actual Birthday day

When I got to work they had decorated my cubicle which included about 100 jolly ranchers. 

 

My fun birthday card, which had pictures of the Backstreet Boys and Matt Boner..yummy!! 

 

My mom asked me the night before my bday if I had lunch plans on birthday and I didn't so they totally took pity on me. Then Blake texted me to wish me happy birthday and said he would take me to lunch so we invited dad, Nakia and KaReena too.  It was kind of late notice for KaReena, so she couldn't come, we missed her.  But, it was really fun to go to lunch with everyone else.

 

 

Dinner was at Costa Vida with Jerika, Dallyn and Allisa.  Kinlee had a piano recital and was with mom so the rest of us went out before the recital.  This picture of Jerika is a little creepy, but I couldn't resist posting it anyway. 

 

Besties!!

 

Since I am mother of the Year, I don't think I got any pictures of Kinlee's recital.  She was facing the other direction and I did get one of her back...next time I will do better. 

Early birthday lunch

I have the best friends ever!!  They are always so thoughtful.  Brooke couldn't go to lunch on my actual birthday so we went the day before my birthday.  It was so much fun.

Brooke and I

 

My newest friend Trulee and my cute Tiffnie. 

Bunco Christmas

Not the best quality pictures on this, but you get the idea. I belong to 2 bunco groups, I know I am such a party girl, if you didn't already know.  This group exchanges names every year for Christmas and then we go out to dinner and open our presents.  We have so much fun when we are together!!

 

Allisa, gift from Kathy (who totally ditched us for a bishopric party). But we forgave her. 

 

Amanda (our newest member and blurry too) gift from Mandy. 

 

Nakia and Amanda posing with the gift from Amanda.

 

DeAnn gift from Nakia

 

Mandy gift from Sheila (can you see her in there?) 

 

Sheila, gift from Janel (minus the pasties like I gave her last year and Allisa gave me the year before)

 

Oh, that's me with my gift from DeAnn.

We all enjoyed our dinner and we laughed so hard the whole time. I love these ladies and am lucky to spend at least once a month with them.  And next time I will take my real camera. 

A day in the life

Yesterday I was messing around in my blog and deleted pretty much everything, background, fonts, etc. and I hate it!!  So, I am going to work on getting something done about it.  My very busy cousin said she would help me, so I am super thankful for that and the fact I can spend some time with her too.

Last night Kinlee had a choir concert at the high school, yup you guessed it mother of the year didn’t take any pictures.  We were really far up in the bleachers and her risers were sideways to us and so it was really hard to get a good shot. Afterward the Stoddards (Greg, Tiff and Kade)  took us out for ice cream and do you think I took a picture of that either, nope.  I am going to do better, I just think if we are not sitting around our house, there should at least be pictures or blogging or something.  I know, I might be a little obsessive, but you can bet people that come in the generations to come will be so thankful I did.  At least that is what I tell myself.

Haven the California blessing

This is my good friend Amanda.

On December 10, I was given the amazing opportunity to ride to Northern California with Amanda to pick up her baby Haven that she will be adopting.  It was a very eventful trip and we had a good time, but also it was such a blessing to me to be able to witness something so lifechanging.

 

 

This was right when we first got to the hospital.  Haven was born around 3:00 am and we got to the hospital around 6:00 pm.

 

This was her outfit on day 2, the day we thought we would be able to take her home. But Child Protective Services had other plans, like check Amanda's background and other things to make sure it was all on the up and up.  For some reason they really thought we were going to hand the baby back over to her parents when we walked out of the hospital.  I am pretty sure after the long drive, among other things, that wasn't happening

 

Finally after 3 days (2 nights) in Paradise, California, Amanda signing her baby out of the hospital to take home to Idaho. 

 

 

Isn't she the cutest?  She was so good on the trip home, didn't cry at all and only ate two or three times.  We also didn't encounter any bad weather or nasty roads, which I truly believe was Heavenly Father watching out for us!!

Trip to California

Kinlee's choir concert

Annual Birthday dinner with the Best dad ever!!!

I don't know why sideways keeps happening, maybe because "crazy" is in the picture.

Sunday fun at the grandparents

We were getting quite a kick out of Gaven and Jerika.  She would pull a face for a picture and he would try to pull the same face.  I would say he did pretty good.  He really loves his Jerika and she can't seem to get enough of him either.  In the pictures below Jerika and Cody are playing with a toy mom has had for years and this is proof even the big kids still play with it. I wish I would have taken a side shot, but it is 2 little men and they click down the hill when you put them at the top. It is pretty mindless but the kids love it anyway, it is pretty funny.

Decorating the tree.....

These are once again slightly out of order.  Some were from my camera and some from my phone.

 

 

They were all in my bedroom, where I spend way too much time.  However they really came in because Ray wouldn't come out and help decorate the tree.  I got a picture below with Ray too.

 

Sorry about the sideways photo I couldn't get it turned around.  Kinlee and Chelsea were the ones that did the most decorating of the tree.  Everyone is complaining that they need new decorations for the tree, but every year I am reminded of how bearutiful it is and wonder why ruin a good thing.

 

Daddy come out and play.  Even Jake was looking at the camera for once.