Merry Christmas 2010!

Merry Christmas!

Flood Divorce Disaster Memories

I was thrilled to wake up to an actual accumulation of snow today! After our less than impressive "blizzard" a few weeks ago, and several days of rain, it has been feeling more like spring and less like December. But today we have sparkly white covering our brown lawn, and Christmas is almost here!

The storm caused havoc down in Southern Utah were the Santa Clara and Virgin Rivers are expected to flood again, bringing back a host of memories for our family.

Nearly six years ago, during the second week in January, we watched four days of non-stop news coverage while we were in the hospital having Cam. We were horrified to see the banks erode away and home after home plunge into the river. I was especially worried because we had just bought the lot for our first home which sat at the top of a ridge overlooking the runoff from AF Canyon. What if that ever flooded? Would our neighborhood fall? Not likely. We're not even considered in a flood plain. Oh, and Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt announced their divorce that week. Yep. That's what I remember.

When Kay was born, we watched four days of the Crandall Canyon mine disaster, hoping and praying that the miners would somehow be freed. The nurses would come in to my room and ask for updates on the miners. Sadly, all of the men remain entombed.

I don't remember what was happening in the world when Tyson was born. It was Thanksgiving, we were in the hospital for seven days because I contracted a uterine infection after my emergency c-section. I basically slept through most of it. I do remember my family bringing us Thanksgiving dinner, because they are awesome like that!

Christmas Picture Attempt

We attempted Christmas pictures a few weeks ago at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Trent and Jen with their big, nice cameras, and me with my point and shoot, with Grandma trying to entice three wiggle worms to smile nice and hold still.
Still haven't had time to look at the pics on the good cameras to see if any of them turned out, but here are the ones off mine for posterity.

Proof they can only go about ten seconds before they start hamming it up!

"How much longer?"

I could put that on a nice Christmas card, right?

Future Blackmail

Someday, I'll use this picture for proof that they actually do love each other (insert wicked laugh here)!

Ballet Bug

Kaylee started dance/tumbling in September. Miss B lets you do a trial day, just to make sure they like it. Kaylee spent the entire class with a huge smile and a look of pure rapture on her face. She loves it, with one catch. She loves the ballet, the tumbling, the structured dance, but this is a 3 year old class, so Miss B tosses in a few songs where the girls get to dress up or use props and free dance to the music. Fun, right? Wrong. Our little ballerina usually spends these songs clinging to either Miss B or me and in tears. She is embarrassed to dance around without reason.
Tippy toe turn! A few weeks ago, I took some video of her dancing in class on my phone. Suddenly, free dancing is acceptable, not to mention fun, as long as mom tapes her and she gets to see it afterward!

They have a big performance in the spring, but they got pictures taken today (by my amazingly talented old neighbor, click on her website to the right. Kari Hennefer Photography. I think she is still taking appointments for Christmas pictures), so they got to dress up in their ladybug costumes.

Don't wake the ladybug...she needs her beauty sleep!

Kids Say:

Cameron:

My name rhymes with when. You know, when! C-A-M-E-R-O-N, like when. Like when you go somewhere. When!
Utah accents coming back to haunt us.

We do pronounce his name CamerEn, not CamerOn.

Tyson:

Why do we call them TV sets if there is only one?

Verification

I am often amazed at the word verification codes you type in when you comment on someone's blog. Amazed because often, not always, but often they seem to have some subliminal connection to the blog post I just read. For instance, my friend blogged about the passing of her family dog. The word verification when I commented: sqezmi. Like squeeze me? She really did need a hug. I wonder what would happen if everyone included those crazy letter/number combos in their comments? "Hey Bob! Loved your post. bLgMo0r."