Kayty Does Yard Work?

I know it is a shock for her brothers and sister, but Kayty CAN do yard work. She didn't know she was helping prepare the yard for her surprise party. I got the flu and was sooooo sick...in bed for two days and too weak for three...so I could not help out. She was a trooper!

Pizza Night and Photo Session

Grammy felt better, finally, for a day...and we had awesome pizza and then Doran and Ethan took some one month photos of Kaylee. I saw where a photographer had taken pictures each month for a year of the baby by the same prop. Ethan saw Cameo's rocking horse...perfect! (Though, when Jade saw the pictures, she said that rocking horse gave her nightmares!) It will be interesting to see Kaylee grown from by the horse to on the horse as the year progresses.

Aunt Allison...This one will make you smile. Ethan gave his own daughter her first Dumdum! (When Adam was tiny, and Allison was so careful with what he ate, Ethan would feed him Dumdums...) She LOVED it!!!

During a diaper change, she saw herself in our mirror!

It was a rainy day, so no reason to do anything with my hair...straight and stringy! But look at the sweet little girl...too cute!

Kayty Goes to (Geek Convention) Comic-Con

Kayty and her friends went to Comic Con here in Phoenix...Boy, in my day, I wouldn't have been caught DEAD at one of these, but now they are the coolest...and I am the geek!

Kayty, Grace Sirrine, Jessica, Sarah Sirrine, Kyle Best

Martin Luther King Jr. Day Showed Us How OLD We Are

Kelsie needed a couple of playmates on a day off school. Papa thought, if he took the day off work, we could pull it off. We did it...but barely lived to tell. Kelsie is an awesome five year old. We are not so awesome 52 and 55 year old playmates for 10 hours. We. Were. Dead! Parenting is truly for the young!

Kelsie with Doran's Ironwood Log

Papa and I planned to take Kelsie to the park where we took Adam, Grace, and Joshy to fish once, so she learned some casting skills in the back yard. 

This is what a five year old looks like when her grandparents are too tired to play another round of hide and seek!

Picking a carrot from Papa's Garden

She caught no fish, but did do a really good job. We then swang...Grammy coughed...a lot...and then we went to look at animals at Cabela's till Mommy and Doran met us. Papa and I went home to rest.

Goal Setting

Some call them resolutions, and grow to resent them. For me, they used to be that way. We would sit, as a family, and set family goals for the year: what we would work on in the house, where we would go on vacation, and renew spiritual goals to read scriptures, say family prayer every day, etc. Then we would write down individual goals. I used to go crazy when I would watch my husband writing like a crazy man. I had a routine, and six kids to get here and there, bills to pay, laundry to do, house to clean, and I resented that he had so much to write! Go figure! Anyway, years ago, at a ladies' Relief Society Homemaking Meeting (yep, I said the word...now an ancient relic) about Flylady. I began to follow her routines and weekly, daily challenges. I loved it. For me, it was the answer. List. Routine. For me, it felt good to mark off that completed task. (Now, I realize that this method is NOT for everyone...it worked for me). So, when goal time would come, I would think ahead of time of what I would want to learn in the upcoming year, what books I would read, what skills I wanted to improve at...and goal setting went from dread to something I looked forward to. From my goal setting, I now read the Book of Mormon at least twice a year, read ALL the talks from LDS General Conference, I have kept the weight off that I lost years ago, I exercise, I now bake all of our bread, I have completed projects and learned many things. Big goals for 2013 are still begin written down, but I am already reading "Preach My Gospel", the book used by LDS missionaries to train and teach...an amazingly spiritual experience for me since I have a full time missionary son. I am going to improve my bread making skills and perhaps work on natural fermentation rather than using yeast. I have a Christmas stocking under construction for Kaylee that MUST be completed (funny, I worked on it during Daddy's gall bladder surgery AND when I was stuck in the waiting room while Papa, Aunt Kayty and Aunt Jessica were visiting her). I plan to find 5 family names for genealogical, and then temple work. I plan to make matching dresses for my three granddaughters. I plan on organizing my pantry. (ugh) For me, the writing and marking off gets me going.

And that is what I started this diatribe about. I write down long term goals, but I had totally slacked on the daily ones. Until this week. I just wrote down a few goals that I wanted to get done this week: make the bank deposit, pay Elder Rice's charge card bill (he only charges in Korea and I have access to pay from his account), pick up my reprints of Elder Rice's pictures and the Power Ranger picture of Kayty at Walgreens, organize the bill paying drawer, and take down and put away the Winter Village. And, I did it...ALL...plus, I put those photos in Elder Rice's scrapbook...ready for his transfer to a new area. I also ordered all Kayty's meds (now, to have them remove part of my liver to pay for them! lol) AND I found a routine on a blog that really works for my life. All started with that list. And I did it when I was not feeling the best (I just can't stop getting 'stuff'...got a coughy thing now...I swear it's a curse to keep me from Kaylee) and it was doggone cold here.

You are never too old to find a new way to live...never.

Something Magical....

There is something magical...seeing your baby, with their baby...

Allison and Joshy

Ethan and Kaylee

I have these in my work room...and I can't stop looking at them...

Grammy Snitched These from Ethan January 7, 2012

Ethan got Cameo a new camera for Christmas. Ethan was such a great Daddy and could take the time from work and be with Cameo and Kaylee the whole time in the hospital. He took these, and I snitched them, so 'my people' can see Miss Kaylee...