It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

So I guess my sweet little home town has started a grand (yes I do mean grand, not brand) new tradition, one which we were fortunate enough to witness. They are beginning an annual light parade and lighting ceremony which sends the entire town ablaze with tiny twinkling lights in a variety of hues. It was stupendous. This fine ritual actually took place the Saturday after Thanksgiving, however I am just now getting around to posting about it.
The little ones thought that they were just about as close to the North Pole as they could get in the middle of the mid west, and they were tickled pink. Well actually they were a little closer to blueish-purple, but they were tickled none-the-less.
I myself enjoyed the festivities quite a bit and I can't wait to continue the tradition for years to come. Maybe next year I will kick the guy in the big red suit off the fire engine so that I can have a place there waving to the little children in grand holiday merriment! We'll see.

This is our humble abode with our brand new Christmas Tree! This year is the first year that we have had a tree that actually stands taller than me without being on milk crates! Hooray for Sam's Club.

I just can't believe it!

I woke up this morning with a little knot in my stomach. My baby is ELEVEN months old today! Do you know what that means? In a short month she will be a YEAR old. I am not ready for her to be a year old. I am not ready for her to be eleven months old! It's bad enough that she has been walking for a little over a month now, but on top of that she is actually getting older too. I just can't take it. I am excited to see the little person she is becoming and all of her little personality traits she is developing, but does it have to go by so fast?

She climbed in the shower with the boys while she was still dressed

Needless to say, I love everything about her. I love how she wrinkles her nose when she smiles and how she walks down the hall "fake burping" because it makes us laugh (yes I know she should be a little princess, but it is really quite comical). I love to see her strutting her stuff and looking like she feels so cool when she follows her older brothers around. I may have said this before, but she really does make life a little softer around the edges, and if it continues to be so much fun watching her grow. . . grow on baby, grow on!

This is our sweet baby the day we brought her home from the hospital.

Here she is at one month

2 months in her blessing dress


3 months

4 months in Primm Nevada on the way to her first Disneyland trip!




5 months


6 months

7 months

8 months (first pony-tail)

9 months


10 months. I know this picture isn't the best and her hat doesn't match her clothes, but I just love her concerned look and her cutest little dimple.

I kinda really dislike this!

First off, thanks for all of your input on the privacy issue. I have decided today that for now I will stay public and just kind of be smart about the info I post and go with my gut feelings. If you haven't weighed in and would like to about the privacy issue, please feel free to post your opinion.

Now, let me explain the title of this post. I really enjoy playing with my photoshop and last year I was a little obsessed with making Christmas cards. I made some for a few of you, and a couple people have asked me if I was going to do it again. Okay, on to the title of the post. . . I don't really dislike making the Christmas cards, I actually like it, but I really dislike coming across as somebody that is trying to sale something to my friends. So, I am only posting this because a few people have asked about it, not because I am trying to get any body's "business." I really don't consider myself "good" at this, and I am by no means a professional. So please forgive this post and if you feel the need, continue to browse through my more thought provoking and informational entries. I don't know if this made a bit of sense to a soul out there!

Last years designs can still be seen at

http://kaydeem.tripod.com/christmas_cards

Here are a couple I have designed this year

Playing it safe, or living in fear???

Okay, so my mom has been going on and on about all of these horror stories about blogs and psycho creeps that use the blogs for evil. Since then I have been having an inner-self battle about whether or not to go private. Here is how my battle plays out.

Pros:

It is private therefore I have control over who is learning many details about my children and their day-to-day activities.

I don't have to worry about all of those psycho creeps out there who spend their lives fighting for the wrong team (the adversary's team) and may do something to wrong my innocent children.

Cons:

I really don't want to live my life in fear.

I don't mind people, even if I don't know them, reading about our day-to-day activities, (as long as they are not the aforementioned psycho creeps).

I want to continue to believe that the world is more good than evil.

Conclusion:

I really don't ever want to do anything that puts my children's lives or well being in danger, especially if doing so can be avoided. But for some strange reason I am still torn. Please, leave your input!!!

PS Any of you who are going private or have already done so, I would love to be added, my email address is kaydeem@yahoo.com

Here are some cute pictures of my kiddos. They have nothing with this post, but they are quite pleasant none-the-less :).

Tanner and his Luke-Made Pirate outfit, apparently Mommy's Headband + Super Tanner Cape= Pretty Awesome Pirate

Luke's Pirate costume always consists of his favorite red hat and dracula cape!

I love Her!

Cutest little fan at the Juab Football Game!

McCain and Obama

This was Halloween . . . and various other activities

Okay, so most of you know that we are total Disneyland fanatics, but we usually say that we go so often because the kids love it so much. Well that's not the case this time. Launey and I went to a timeshare presentation in Midway a few months ago and scored two free plane tickets to LA and a free hotel room for two nights in Anaheim. So, we packed up our things, dropped the kids off at their grandparents' house and flew to sunny California. And yes, it was sunny. In fact one day it was 98 degrees, at the end of October! We had a great time and we really appreciated our parents for watching our adorable kids while we took some time to reconnect. . . . with mickey of course!

Launey loving the Disney Sweets!

The two of us on the infamous Splash Mountain


I found a load of treasure!



Launey got locked up for it :(




I am not sure where this picture is but it is somewhere in the happiest place on earth.





We scored some free mickey ears, yes I know we look like geeks.

Launey apparently very frightened as we waited in line for Indiana Jones

How cute is this Jack-o-Lantern!

Okay, on to the children. These pictures are actually from our annual Ivers Family Halloween Bash which took place about a week or so before Halloween. I have actual Halloween pictures but the are on my memory card, in my camera, in the car. So, these will have to due.




Brielle was the cutest little ballerina ever!

Tanner was SUPER TANNER. He didn't want to be anything for Halloween except "just Tanner" but we got him to amp it up a little bit.

Luke was totally in his element dressed as a zombie, check out the zombie pose!

One more picture of my tiny dancer. Please ignore the messy shirt, it got that way from a variety of Halloween activities.

Yee Haw, we went to Hee Haws!

Okay, so every year since Luke was a baby, Halloween time has marked a few special occasions, one being our family outing to Hee Haws. We absolutely Love Love Love Halloween and everything that accompanies it. We try to budget a little extra money every fall so that we can take advantage of all of the wonderful Halloween activities life has to offer. This year we got to go with my cute brother and his adorable wife, Karson and Linzy. We did the corn maze, poked the giant pig, shot cobs of corn out of air guns, jumped on hay, and slid down many exciting slides. We had a great time and I highly reccomend the outing to everybody.

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FOOD FABULOUS FOOD (storage)

Hi all! Ok, we hear over and over that we need to get our year supply of food storage right? Well, I know that it is important and I completely agree with the necessity of it, but in the past I think I have done it all wrong. For example, just recently I ran out of flour on a nice Sunday afternoon. I then remembered that I had a #10 can full of flour that I had canned when I lived in Logan oh about three plus years ago (it was with you Paula and Emily D.). So I went downstairs to retrieve my stored food and to my dismay nearly every single item I canned that day had expired. Now luckily I have come to find out that if it doesn't taste, smell, or look bad it is still okay to eat, so I have been using the flour anyway. Well, that little experience got me thinking of how easy it is just to waste money on food storage. So I decided that I wanted to learn how to put it to use. In my experience, if I use my food storage supply to actualy cook with, then replace the item I use with a new can, it helps me rotate my food storage, and gives me a better idea of what items my family actually use.
To make a long and painful introduction short, I have been blogging about food storage recipes, and I would love for you guys to link to my site, if it's not too much to ask. You see, I am not a master chef in any sense of the word so I would love to get ideas and input from all of you. So if you would like to link to it the address is http://cookmyfoodstorage.blogspot.com. I would love to get your tips and pointers about anything to do with food storage and I will publish them on my site. For instance, Lynsey I just read your post about the frozen corn and strawberry jam so if you would like to give instructions on the process along with some of your cute pictures, email me and I will put it up.
Thank you soo much for your help and support! Happy Blogging!