Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.....

Since I highly doubt that I will get another post up here before Christmas, we just wanted to wish everyone a really great holiday season and I wanted to highlight a few of our favorite things from the past year:

*trips to visit Gwammas

*going to Oregon & loving everything that we did there

*having LOST parties with our awesome Jensen friends & wearing our LOST shirts ;)

*watching Cambria grow so much! Talking like crazy & having such a personality

*going to Lake Powell with good friends

*ANTM nights with my sister

*remembering dear friends and grandparents who have passed away

*a new neice & nephew

*being able to live closer to family & all the laughing that goes along with it

*seeing the Lord guide our lives & lead us. We have ended this year far from where it began, but have been so blessed.

Merry Christmas!

2 Little Princesses

The other day Kristin and I were having cabin fever so we decided to take the girlies to Carls Jr. so they could play in the play place (is there a better name?). It was awesome! They were running around like crazy, giving other kids "hugs", and having a blast. There was this awesome lady there who was doing face painting for free so we had her do both of them. They sat so well and neither one of them wanted to take it off at the end of the night....so they both went to bed as princesses.

Anything but boring.....

I remember the days, pre-pregnancy, when I thought that life with kids would be boring and monotonous. Somedays are monotonous but very few are boring, especially these days. cambria gets herself into all sorts of silly places and despite my frustrations & challenges with her, her adventerous, silly, loveable, imaginative self is irresistable. See what I'm talking about...


This is literally what we can call white trash :) While "helping" rake the leaves she had to take a ride in them and we honestly played in the garbage can for about an hour.

If ever we take her shirt off, it is absolutely necessary for her to wear it on her head like so and show dad. This one was just tight enough to make her look like she was a scuzzin' everyone.

Hanging out at HAFB with buddies Trey and Michael. That was one of the best places to take them...no people, lots of room to run and cool things to see.

They held hands the WHOLE time in the car. These boys are SO cute. I love them so much!

Dress ups are so fun right now! Usually she is just cotent to play "Super Babia" with her blanket/cape, but how cute is this?!

She loves Baby Leila and was super excited to help dad watch her while we celebrated Kristins birthday. I am so grateful for this little girl, for all her wonder & questions, and yes, even her exasperating independance.

Happy Halloween!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Punkin Patch

While my mom was in town helping Kristin with her new beautiful baby, we thought it'd be fun to take the girlies to the Pumpkin Patch. It was. A lot of fun. They loved it. Well, Maci didn't love the pumpkin carts....suffice it to say she thought it was a very sketchy mode of transportation. They love playing in the maze, lifting the pumpkins in and out of the cart, weighing themselves and pretty much just being outside. Thanks for the pumpkins Gwamma!

After a trip to the patch, and a delicious spaghetti dinner, these two were wasted. Which is perfect for two moms who could put their baby girls to sleep so they could indulge in their guilty pleasure...America's Next Top Model. Seriously, you know you watch it to.

Baby "A-la"

Honestly, could I be a worse aunt?! Sweet beautiful Leila has been here for more than 2 weeks and I'm just getting around to putting pictures of her up. But, she's so cute, she'll probably forgive me because I'm her favoritist aunt. Anyways, she was born on the 8th at about 9:20 pm. Kristin had been super sick with piggy flu and so when she went into delivery she hadn't eaten in like 4 days, and was pretty much feeling crappy. (Sister, correct me if I'm wrong) She did amazing in labor....the whole 3 minutes she had to push ;) But, because she'd been sick and the hospital is in Nazi mode they took Leila away to a special nursery without even letting Kristin hold her. And that's just the beginning of a very long, emotional week for them. Point of the story....Leila is here and well and everyone seems to be adjusting.

This is Tan in the special nursery she had to be in. We had to scrub in & check ID's and put a whole bunch of stuff on just to see her. BTW, Kristin wasn't able to hold her until they checked out of the hospital on Saturday afternoon.

Cousin Scambs loving on baby A-la. After I got back from the hospital and told Cambs that Kristin had her baby and her name was baby Leila, she found an eraser & wrapped it up in a little dish towel and toted it around the house calling it "baby A-la." Oh my goodness it was cute!

Big Sister Maci. Oh man does she love this little girl a lot. She loves to kiss her, and look at her and help feed her. And pick her up :)

We are so glad that you are here Leila, I am so in love with you!

She likes to move it, move it

She gets her dance moves from Adam :)

"Eww...don't put your fingers in your mouth!"

I don't think I can even count the number of times I said that phrase to Cambria on Wed, finally I just gave up! We had such an awesome time at the State Fair (thanks Sar!) this week. Cambria LOVED it....all the animals, all the running around, all the people, her stamped hand, everything! I was slightly surprised at how brave she was around the animals, although had Easton not been there I'm not sure she would have had the idea to actually give the animals kisses! Here are just a few pics of the day...

The afore mentioned stamped hand that Cambria loved....as in showed it to EVERY single person that day, whether she knew them or not :)

E and Cambs feeding the goats. This was mostly where I was saying "Ewww....don't put your fingers in your mouth!" which of course she interprets as "Yum, better put my fingers in my mouth"

Mace wasn't really all that iterested in seeing the animals, and certainly not in feeding them. I think it's safe to say she had a pretty good kung-fu grip on Kristin for a majority of the day :)

One might think from this picture that Cambria in fact did not enjoy it, but she really did! She's pretty anti-conformist so when Sara said "Smile for the camera" this is what we get :)

Okay, seriously how cute is this picture! They just started holding hands all by themselves, no encouragement from moms at all. They are so cute, I'm so glad that they have each other. Note to self: Not a good idea for Cambria and Maci to hold hands & try to push a stroller. Major hitting ensues.

Everyone at the front gate...see there is her No-way, I'm-not-gonna-smile-just-because-you want-me-to-smile

Seriously....she is so funny. Keep reading, I'll tell the details of my stupid cast :)

I think this picture is hilarious...I love it! Cambs thought it was so funny to look at me & Maci seems super annoyed. It's just too funny.

Me and my beautiful seester, we are a "bushel" of fun :)

At the Shark Exhibit they had this cage the kiddies could get in....I'm in love with Eastons face. He is so dang cute, we had so much fun hanging out with those guys!

Sar, Easton and Jackson....aren't they too cute. Next time I have a baby, I hope he is the clone of Jackson. For 4 hours that sweet boy was totally content to sit in his stroller, check out the surrounding & drink. He is awesome!

So as un-flattering as this picture is of me it's the only one that I have with my cast on. This is the end result of a staph infection in my elbow that started on the 26 of August. My elbow was red and sore that night, and the next morning when I got up to go running it was swollen. I waited until the 28th to go to the dr. and by then my arm was swollen half way up the top part of my arm down to my wrist. He gave me 2 anti-biotics and said that if it kept swelling I would need to go into the ER. The next day just happened to be the day that we were moving and instead of resting, I lifted and worked and did way too much. I ran a fever of 102 and had major hot & cold chills. Kristin was working that night at LDS hospital so she took me to the ER with her. They gave me IV anti-biotics Friday, Sat, and twice on Sunday.

On Monday I felt a little better, but I hadn't eaten or been able to keep anything down since Friday and I was super weak. By Thursdays dr. appt the swelling had gone down, but there was a lot of fluid in my elbow, I had a 2 day fever of 103 and I wanted to die. Thank heavens my mom was still in town because she told the Dr. I wasn't taking anymore anti-biotics, and that something more drastic needed to be done. He called an orthopedic dr and sent me over there to get my elbow drained. Oh my, that was one of the most painful expieriances ever. Childbirth doesn't even come close to that. Anyways, after the cutting and prodding and cleaning and crying was over I was feeling way better by the end of that day. When I went back in over the long Labor Day weekend, he told me that my cut looked really good. I was excited! Now this long (expensive) ordeal was over! Nope, then he said we're gonna put you in a cast for 2 weeks. Honestly....I almost started to cry again. So now, 2 weeks later I'm finally gonna get my cast off, be able to do my hair, take a shower with both arms, and sleep comfortably.

I need to thank the people who took Cambs for the days I was on my death bed-Thank you. I love you all. Thank you to my mom who waited on me hand and foot during such an e motional busy time in her life. I love and appreciate you so much. Thank you to my nurses Mom and Kristin, even if I was semi-annoyed at times. A huge thanks to Adam for all that he did too-brush my teeth, help me dress, put on my deodarant, and have faith that things will be fine. I love you baby...you are such a strength and I know that it was a difficult time for you too. You never cease to amaze me.

Other than that, not much has been going on :)

Girls Trip

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Since Hannah graduated from Highschool, my mom took her to Carmel & San Fransisco for a graduation trip. They left on a Saturday and drove down to this super cute house that my mom's aunt's husband has in Carmel. My mom told Han all about how her Uncle Herb was into importing things and that she needed to pick something up for him at the airport. So they drove out to the San Jose airport where they picked up this really cool package.....Kristin & I! We'd flew out there to surprise Han & join them on their trip. She was so surprised and we were so excited. Carmel is awesome! Expensive but beautiful. There are great little shops & cafes & the beach...it was perfect. We went up to San Fransisco on Thursday (we flew in on Tuesday) and oh how I love love love the city. I love the feeling of being lost in a crowd of people, of so much happening, of so many interesting and unique people & cultures all in one place...to me it's really relaxing. We saw Chinatown, the Golden Gate bridge, Fishermans Wharf, Haight/Ashbury & walked around Sausilito. I've been there twice before and I love it. The architecture is inspiring & refreshing, the ocean is fabulous and the whole city is just amazing. Minus the one way streets. Hate those. Anyways, we had tons of fun and I have to tell my sweet husband again how grateful I am for letting me get away, for running back and forth to get & take Cambria to my in-laws, and for being such a good sport about it. I know it wasn't much fun for him, but it meant alot to me. He's so good to let me go & play with my fam when I need to....love you babe :) Also, I should let my in-laws know again as well how grateful I am for them being willing to take Cambria for so long. I had a plan for friends in St. George to help out, but then we moved and we don't live as close to friends, so they were good enough to take her and watch her while Adam worked. Thanks!

Happy Birthday Bug!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Summer Fun

This summer has been going by so fast for us! I had to put these pics up of Cambria having so much fun with Hannah. They painted all over themselves and she loved it! Thanks Aunt Hannah!

We've done alot of swimming this summer, mostly because we invite ourselves to other people's houses :) Cambria LOVES to swim, and she is so fearless about it. She'll stay under the water, jump off the side, jump off the diving board...it's too funny. We put some googles on her so her eyes didn't hurt so much from constantly having her face under the water.

This is Trey....and we love him! Well, to be fair we love ALL the Rhoades kids. He is so good to take care of "baby Cambria" and make sure she is safe. I love it :)

Here's my awesome friend Haylee with Michael, who by the way does NOT like the water. Although, that may be because his crazy friend Cambria was splashing and jumping and laughing all around him.

Oh see how cute she looks with the googles! and her Cambria cleaveage :)

Trey and Michael enjoying Haylee's AMAZING homeade raspberry ice cream. I haven't had thirds of ice cream in a long time!

So, my amazing mom graduated from the University of Phoenix last week with a Bachelors in Psychology. She has worked SO hard, and long and overcome alot of difficult things to finish this and I couldn't be prouder of her. Although, I've said that for a long time now and she just keeps making me more proud. She is a strong, vibrant, faithful, loving, intelligent, funny and compassionate mother, woman and friend. She wouldn't let us make a big deal about it, so we went up to Mueller Park and had some sandwiches & s'mores. (Real celebretory huh?!) The girls had fun though, and I love being up there...it's so beautiful.

How cute are those two?! They didn't really know what to do with the incredible gooey-goodness of those s'mores.

Hope that everyone is having a good summer too!