Happy Birthday, Abby!

Guess who turned 5?  Yep, Abby Girl.  She had quite the birthday, too!  There is something about little girls and how easy it is to buy them presents!

This is one of about 5 dresses she got.  And she posed with every one of them.  She's already worn one of the new ones to church, and believe me she know how cute she was!

I love having a girly girl!

Check out the new boots!

And of course, the big box of makeup.  Last year Grandma Covey have her a really cute hat box type thing full of little girl make up.  I guess this year it was Grandma Shirlee's turn.  I found out later that Abby actually picked it out and helped wrap it.  We couldn't figure out why she kept wanting to open that particular gift!  We kept making her wait.  Now we know.  Make up.  Yeah.  Of course, she has already painted Grandpa Covey's nails and put all kinds of make up on his face!  That happened on one of her "Grandpa Days" (his day to baby sit while I work).  Grandma took pictures with her phone, but I'm sure she will do it again and Grandma will use her regular camera.  I will post pictures, believe me!

Cayden's Birthday

Cayden turned 9 this month.  It is so crazy to me that he is 9!  He is so tall, too.  This is the gourmet "pudding cake" I made him for his Birthday.  Someone had brought a pudding cake to school for someone else's birthday and I couldn't figure out what that was.  So I made a regular cake and added a pudding mix and voila!  Okay, I didn't come up with that by myself, but it tasted good.

As family tradition from when Corey was growing up, when you have a birthday you will find money under your plate, fork, knife, and cup.

Again, more money...his favorite gift.  Grandpa gave him a puzzle box filled with money.  The only thing was that he had to figure out the puzzle to get the box open.  It has a little silver ball that goes through a maze.  Grandma and Grandpa wondered how long it would take him to break it open with a bat!  He did get it open the next morning!

His other favorite gift was a robe.  He had been asking for one for a while since he is so cold when he gets out of the shower.  He wore it the whole next day (Sunday)...before church and after church.  It was pretty funny.  He does wear it every time he takes a shower.  How cute is he!  He got lots of great gifts and was very thankful for them.  He got the most money he has ever had for his birthday this year, and has already bought himself a new DS game!  Now we just have to teach him to save the rest!  He wants to buy another DS game, a fish, a bird...the list goes on and on!

Where are the stinkin' Fairies?

Remember when you were young and your mom would tell you to clean the house because the fairies aren't going to do it?  Guess what?  She was right.  I have yet to see one fairy at my house!  Since I have started working more, I cannot keep up on my housework.  I try to do at least one load of laundry a day, but when you wash and DRY a RED crayon in a load of pants...it is not fun.  That is what happened to me last Saturday.  I opened the dryer to pull out the boys' pants, and lo and behold they looked like they had been to a paint ball field.  RED paint ball field.  It was melted onto everything, including the dryer drum, and including their one pair each of church pants.  Yes, they should have more than one pair...but they don't.  Cayden has a suit that I have been meaning to take to the cleaners because it is dirty.  He keeps bugging me about it, too.  It probably would have been a good idea...had I had time!  Along with their church pants were some jeans and some sweatpants.  They were impossible to save.  It was so bad.  And I was so mad!  I had to go out that night and buy new church pants!  Anyway, Corey has been good about helping keep the house picked up...a little.  He's been really busy with work and Elders Quorum and also had to go out of town for a few days for work training.  I do want to give him some credit though for his efforts.  The kids kinda help out, too...kinda.  But it's been a while since it has been really clean.  Tomorrow is Cayden's birthday and everyone is coming over for dinner.  Hopefully I will be able to clean at least the downstairs bathroom before they come.  Not that I have a baby shower in the morning, a primary activity in the afternoon, and then everyone coming to dinner.  Yeah, I'm sure I can fit in a clean bathroom somewhere in there.  Maybe one of the birthday games we could play is "Let's see how many names we can write in the dust at Emily's house."  I just really wish those stinkin' fairies would get here!

Christmas at Grandma & Grandpa Covey's

For the first time in almost 10 years...Our family picture.  We have not taken a family picture since before Cayden was born!  Not to say that we haven't attempted to plan one, but it just never could happen.  This year, we did it.  And we did it ourselves.  Corey set up the tripod and we took the picture on our own.  I think it turned out great!

The last time my sisters, brother, and me took a picture was before I was married.  We were all a little younger...and thinner...but it's great to have a new one of us.  If you want to see the old pictures, you'll have to link to Robyn's blog.  She has the old one in there, too!

Ryan is reading to Robyn out of the new book he got from Grandma.

Cayden got a magic trick kit from Grandma.  He already learned a card trick and totally blew Steve's mind away with his talent to find the card he picked!

Little Miss Abby posing under the Christmas tree!

Have you seen two more handsome boys?

Christmas at Grandma Shirlee's in Utah

For over 100 years, there has been the Christmas Eve program in Grandma Shirlee's hometown in Utah. Corey was in the program growing up, and now our kids get to be in it, too.  This year, Ryan was with the reindeer singing, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.  Abby sang, Santa Claus is Coming to Town.  Cayden's age group actually were the toy soldiers.  The leader over that group had a rule that the boys had to be to every practice.  Since we don't live there, he couldn't be to any of the practices, so Cayden and his cousin Dallin were the shephards for the nativity.  He looks like he's having such a great time!  At least he didn't have to sing and dance with the toy soldiers! 

Christmas morning was really fun.  As you can see, there wasn't any lack of presents!  We got to spend Christmas with Corey's family, including his brother's family.Everyone was thrilled with what Santa had brought them!  Abby got a dolly that looks just like her!  And the boys...yes, they got Nintendo DS's.  They kept saying over and over that they couldn't believe that they had DS's.  I asked Ryan if he asked Santa for one, and he said, "No, he just surprised me!"

The Hardy Pardy

For quite a few years now, we have had our annual "Hardy Pardy" with our cousins, the Hardy's.  It is lots of fun, because we do the Christmas Crackers, exchange white elephant gifts, eat lots of stuff, etc.  It's a tradition we all look forward to every year.  We all want to give the best white elephant gifts.  This year, the winners were the leopard print cowboy hat with Christmas boxers, the talking fish, and Abby's bright pink "Control Your Man" remote control.  

The Most Beautiful Sound...

I heard the most beautiful sound today.  The sound of my dishwasher.  Oh how lovely!  It has been over 2 months since my dishwasher stopped working.  The motor went to motor heaven, and the heating element was rusted.  I was trying to be humble and wash dishes by hand for as long as I could.  It was driving me nuts!!!  My kitchen was never clean!  I couldn't just throw the dishes in the dishwasher and have a clean kitchen in a matter of minutes!  It took forever to wash dishes.  I have Christmas plates that we use every year, but since I don't want extra dishes to wash we have been using paper plates.  My poor Christmas plates have been sitting lonely in the cupboard all month.  I finally bit the bullet and called to have it repaired.  I knew the parts were still under warranty, but I worried about the cost of the labor.  I figure now that I am working extra, that it can be a Christmas present to myself.  I am so excited!  Right now, there are DIRTY dishes in the dishwasher waiting to be washed!  I love it!  I had been using the dishwasher as a big drying rack!

Ah...I am so happy!