Wow!

2009 has started and January is almost over! Where does the time go? I am hoping that this year can be as positive as 2008 was for us. We have been so grateful to have our beautiful house in the desert. We are closer to the mountains ( I call them that for lack of a better word, not like Washington mountains), and it is so nice to look out of my windows and see the beautiful purple-gray and sometimes orange. The sunsets here are incredible and I love being able to see them every night. The girls have had such a productive, active year too. Catherine continued with her dance and started piano. Sarah was also able to start dancing at the end of last year and has loved it so much. The girls have the same teacher for each of their classes and she is fabulous! They love her to pieces! I was not blessed to have another baby, but to get to babysit a pretty cute one! She comes in the mornings for a short 45 minutes and it is perfect for our schedule. It pays for my kids book orders and my Hobby Lobby habit, which is out of control. I love that store! Her Mom teaches at the school right by our house, so we get insider information on the book fairs and she lets us do Scholastic orders through her class. It is fabulous. We are crazy this time of year. Between all of the birthdays and Christmas, then our anniversary then Brady's Sarah's, Cat's and numerous nieces and nephews birthdays, plus Valentine's Day, I feel maxed out! Then more birthdays and Easter...whew! By the end of April I am partied out and get the whole summer off! Well...almost. We are hoping this year holds in store more fun, family and time spent doing things together. We were blessed to get to spend some quality time with Brady's family at Christmas. My family is coming for a reunion of sorts in March, so we are excited for that. We are going to Sea World in February and the girls can hardly stand the wait. Cat keeps asking me how many more weeks we have. Cat will get to go to PE and music class at the elementary school as part of her homeschool and she is so thrilled to get new shoes for PE. You can tell that she is a girl through and through! Sarah will start homeschooling this year after she turns 3. She has a lot of energy to channel and keeps me busy. We are getting ready to plant our garden and landscape our back yard. Hopefully, this year will see our pool installed and enjoyed. Other than that life continues as usual. I am the ward choir director and music chairman and it has been a very peaceful calling to have with all the other discord in my life this past year. Brady is the ward mission leader and that is another calling that is bringing me peace. I am learning to find joy in serving others and sharing the gospel. Brady is a little more nervous. He has to teach lessons on Sunday along with his other duties. He is a great missionary and I am happy that he gets to grow with this calling. Catherine just started CTR5 and Sarah has one more year of nursery before she heads off to Primary to be a sunbeam; which she is already to me. Good luck in 2009 and enjoy!

Happy 6th Anniversary

Possibly the most horrible picture ever, but the only one from our anniversary. We emailed it from our cell, so it is what it is. We had a great night. Brady planned it all and did a great job. We drove up to Scottsdale had dinner at P. F. Chang's and then went to some shops to look around. My personal favorite was Sur la Table and I hope to go again soon to get some things. Then, we went to Jesterz comedy club. It was fun and it was nice to have a clean comedic arena to participate in. They are an improv group so we also got to contribute a little. We had a fun night and I am excited to start year 7 of marriage. It is interesting to note that we have known each other for 12 years, dated for almost 4, have been married for 6 now; it's a long time and definitely worth it

Some late Christmas pics

My friend Kelly and I spent 2 hours making 12 of these bows for the garlands.

Our beautiful tree

The garlands on the stairs and the upstairs tree which the kids decorated with ornaments.

I had such a good time decorating for Christmas this year! I have been waiting my whole life to have a set of stairs like this that I could hang garlands and bows on. When I saw these stairs I told Brady we had to get the house for Christmas and for our girls to walkdown for prom. I am excited to get to decorate again next year.