Many things to be thankful for...

I have many, many people to be thankful for that fill my heart with love and tenderness. I have this wonderful husband who is so good to me and works sooo hard to take care of us all. I have two of the most delightful and wonderful children that ever lived. I have wonderful friends and family that continue to give me love and strength. I love you all and give great thanks for you.

Tonight however, one dear friend brings me closer to heaven with her strength, her wisdom and her love. My sweet friend April and her beautiful family are an incredible example of faith, hope, and charity. Every time I read her blog or her sweet son's blog (wink from heaven) I cry and I pray that I will be more like her today, tomorrow and everyday.

So, while I am always so thankful for everyone that truly blesses my life, tonight, April, I'm thankful for you.

My Favorite Christmas Tradition

Every year I look forward with great anticipation to our caroling night with my family. We've been caroling for as long as I can remember and I've always loved it (that shouldn't surprise anyone!).

Oddly enough I think I have only two pictures to document this event from all of those years. But luckily, I have this fantastic sister-in-law who is really good at documenting life with videos. She recorded us this year and just posted it to her blog. If you want to listen in, go ahead and just pretend we're standing on your porch on a very cold night!

This picture is from 2001 and I had to scan it in, so it's a horrid copy, again, thank goodness for Kristen!

Last night I drove our new babysitter home and laughed as she reported this conversation she had with Isabelle:
Izzy: Here's our phone number (writing it down), put it right by your bed so you remember to call my mom first thing in the morning to tell her you want to babysit us every day.

Okay, so it was a one-sided conversation, but we both had a good chuckle about it!

9 to 5 clogging!

Last night was my clogging studio's big performance. My group did our new "9 to 5" dance. For the first time ever I'm going to post a video of my group dancing - enjoy!
(I'm wearing a black dress with a colored scarf - I start in the back.)

Izzy's first clogging show

Last Monday night Izzy's team "The Mini's" performed (along with other teams) at the Seville Retirement Center. It was crowded and difficult to get a good view, but she was beautiful and I was so proud of her! I was also pleased that she was excited about her costume - although that didn't stop her from wanting it off the second she was done.

If the Savior stood beside me...

I don't know why, but my little Isabelle has been carrying around the baby Jesus from our nativity today. She also snuck it to her bed and I saw her tuck it under her pillow before she went to sleep. She is too cute.

This picture was taken shortly after Halloween when she was playing kitty and then added her own whiskers to my the ones I had drawn. Oddly enough, tonight she has whiskers too. It's all about letting my children show their individuality, right? (Ryan has lightning bolts drawn on his cheeks and forehead)

New Cleaning Strategy

Apparently the best way to get me to clean my house is to give me another more important job that needs to be done soon that I would rather not do.

My bathrooms are clean, my leather couches are clean and "protected" my dishes are done (after fixing and cleaning up after two meals), my kitchen floor is clean, two batches of laundry are on their way, cancelled the Disneyland trip that we aren't going on next week (sigh), I'm dressed, clean, with makeup on, (I'm looking around to see if I've done more than this), I cleaned my room, helped both children clean their rooms (twice)....

but my rolls for tomorrows dinner haven't been started yet! :)

The really sad thing about this is that I could still clean off my counters, vacuum, take care of a myriad of piles and I have about a thousand things to put away and organize in my "preschool" room.

Another plus: I'm nearly done with my Christmas shopping!

(Can you tell that I'm really trying to convince myself that I'm capable of taking care of what has yet to be done?)

Last note: I just checked Ryan's room - looks like we'll, no wait, he'll be cleaning it for the third time today (sigh again).