~Shark the Pig~

Michelle decided to get a show pig this year. Monday afternoon the kids and I headed out to Ponder to see her pig. Her pig's name is Shark. Todd named him. Very fitting for a pig don't you think? Once we finally got Shark into the little arena, the kids enjoyed being able to walk him around with the little whip.

Family Pictures 2009

Taking family pictures is one of those bittersweet things we as parents do for our posterity. I love the end result of seeing my beautiful family but hate the process. This year Reagan was all over the place. I could not get that girl to sit still for nothing hence the absence of her in several pictures. Todd and Reagan busted out into the park like they had never been outside before in their life. Anyways, we did get a couple of cute pictures. Thanks Donelle, for coming and snapping the pictures before heading to work. I present to you our family pictures 2009:

New Moon

I loved it! I loved it! I loved it!

Thanks GIRLS, for an awesome night!

Bathtime

While giving Layton a bath in his baby tub, Reagan decided to hop in there with him. It's just too funny and precious not to share!

Monday~The Good, The Bad, The UGLY!

The Good ~ Reagan started a fever late Saturday afternoon. She was burning up all day and all night. Sunday night was no different. I was getting worried something else was going on. Monday morning she woke up with no fever and feeling much better.

The Bad ~ Between Layton and Reagan I basically had 2 to 4 hours of sleep Sunday night. I got up Monday morning feeling like a semi had run over me.

The UGLY ~ Todd's school is collecting food donations to make baskets for families that could use the extra help this Thanksgiving. I had originally thought to pick up a box of mashed potatoes. This isn't something I typically buy. Every time I have gone to the grocery store I have forgotten to pick something up. Last Saturday, I saw turkey gravy in the side isle and picked up two jars. I placed them in his backpack so we could finally get our donation to school. I received a phone call this morning around 8:30. Half asleep (because of the above), I answered the phone. Todd's teacher was on the other line and asked, "Have they called you yet?" Uhhhh, who? She starts to relay the story. Todd opened his backpack this morning to turn in his stuff and there was gravy EVERYWHERE. There was glass and gravy everywhere. It was on his library book we so diligently returned. It was on his folder. It was on his book that he brought from home. Wailing in tears she sends him to the office for help. She tells me they are going to throw away his backpack and get him another one. I am horrified. I say, "I guess it isn't very smart to send your five year old to school with glass jars filled with gravy". Feeling like I failed at Mother of the Year again I retreat back to bed. Does this kind of stuff only happen to me, SERIOUSLY? Sometime later when Reagan gets up I slowly start to remember the gravy story. Looking at my cell phone, sure enough it wasn't a dream. I picked up Todd from school wondering how upset he would be. Miss Morreti said they were able to salvage his backpack and the library book. He was excited about relaying the story to me and told me maybe we shouldn't put glass jars in his backpack again. He was most excited that he was able to go to the treasure box today. He picked out ROCKStar sunglasses. It looks like he won't be scarred for life.

I told Todd I wanted to take a picture of him and his backpack. This is his pose with NO help from me.

Todd and His Trophy

After a few minutes of intence anticipation Todd's name was called and he received his GOLDEN Trohpy. He was so excited! He replied, "I finally have a trophy like my cousin Baylie!"

Santa Baby,

Slip this little baby under the tree for me. I've been an angel all year.

Love, Reagan

Seven of Heaven

We have enjoyed having Layton for seven weeks now. Our little Heaven here on earth.

Thanksgiving is not a time of the year but rather an attitude of the heart.

"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in number, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand, which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens." -Abraham Lincoln - October 3, 1863