Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! It is such a wonderful time of year full of anticipation, fun and lots of love shared with family and friends! Our family enjoyed celebrating the birth of our Savior.

And now as we head into the New Year my goal is start it out right... meaning to not make any goals I can't keep! For example: I am not going to say I will spend less time on Pinterest. I am totally obsessed and I like it! But what I would like to do is to live in thanksgiving daily. Elder Wirthlin gave a talk about it (it's awesome). Here is the link in case you would like to read it "Live in Thanksgiving Daily" . And because of Pinterest I found a great way to do so! I am going to make a small pocket notebook titled "365 days of being grateful" and right before bed I will jot something down i am grateful for that day. I hope it will painless and still effective. Wish me luck!

I wish you all a very Happy New Year! We are so blessed to have great families and friends in our lives. Our family is happy and healthy and I couldn't ask for more than that! May the New Year bring a large amount of hope, better health and a great deal of happiness to all your lives!

Christmas Traditions

Christmas for me is the Holiday of all Holiday's. And one of things I love most about it are the traditions. Looking back at my childhood, Christmas traditions are what makes up my most of my Christmas memories: Christmas lights on Christmas Eve, Eggs a la golden Rod for Breakfast, and making Cheese Balls(our family secret recipe), just to name a few.

Now with a family of my own we have a few traditions of our own. Two of the boys' favorites are pictured above. The "24 stories of Christmas" book is where we light a candle and read a scripture about the Savior and his birth and then we read a Christmas story. The other tradition is an advent calender. And instead of getting a treat everyday counting down to Christmas, they take off the magnet for the day and it has an activity to do. It is fun to see their excitement of finding out what we are going to do that day. Most of the things are simple like have cocoa and watch a Christmas movie. My hope is that my kids will feel the joy and happiness of the Christmas season as we draw closer as a family and to the Savior.

So I love hearing what other families do. What's your Christmas traditions?... I might want to adopt a few.

Enjoy the Season and Merry Christmas!

Fall Fun

I can't believe Fall is almost over when it feels like it just begun. We have had a very busy season full of lots of first's. One of them being school. Carter started Kindergarten this year and Matt started Preschool. They both love going to school and are doing great! I spend most of my days answering Carters questions, "How do you spell ...". We go through so much paper with all the pictures and stories he creates. Matt enjoys making new friends at school and is always asking, "Do you have ..... mommy's number? I want them to come over and play!" Needless to say we stay busy around here.

The boys played soccer this year and had sooooooooo much fun! Above is a picture of Matt, I can't seem to find one of Carter :(. The boys definitely have two different personalities on field. Carter is very aggressive and chases after the ball. Matt on the other hand just enjoys running up an down the field like a game of tag. He did make a goal this year and was so excited.


Abigail was blessed in October. And she was perfect through the whole thing. Aunt Cindy made her dress, Grandma Wiehl made her headband and the blessing blanket was made by Great Grandma Wood. It was a very special occasion and we are so blessed to have her in our lives!

Halloween was perfect this year. The weather was great and the kids had a lot of fun. Carter was a Ninja, Matt an aiplane pilot and Abigail a bumblebee.

Carter turned 6! I still can't believe it even as I am writing this. He had a birthday party with his friends at the bowling ally and had Angry Birds cupcakes (he is obsessed with Angry Birds). Good times!

We welcomed a new addition to the Ammons Family clan. Sally and Josh had a baby boy named Alexander. We are so excited for them and looking forward to our children growing up together! He is adorable! I am sure Abigail and Alexander are going to be great friends.

Pictures!

My wonderful sister in-law Cindy just took some pictures of Abigail and since I am still at her computer I can post them!

Abigail Mae

We are so happy to welcome the newest addition to our family! Abigail was born August 18th weighing 8 lbs 2 oz. and was 21 inches long. Everything went well and she is a perfect bundle of joy. Even her brothers love her (it took Carter a week to get used to her though). So you are probably wondering where are the pictures?! Like any proud parent, I would love nothing more to post many pictures of my beautiful baby girl, however I am having computer problems right now. In fact I have been having computer problems for months now and am still working out the kinks. That's why there hasn't been a post since May, not because I am a slacker. (You know you were thinking that)

So if any of you know how to get pictures from an iPhone and post them on blogger or get them from an email to blogger let me know ( Can you tell I am not computer savvy). In the meantime if you are friends with Carson on facebook or would like an email I can send some pictures. Otherwise you will have to wait till I can get my computer to download pictures. So aggravating! Once I get that fixed I will then have an obnoxious amount of baby photos. Yeah!

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope all the women out there have been able to feel special this day. Carson and the boys have definetly made me feel loved and appreciated. From flowers, cards and to chocolate you really can't go wrong. I am sure most mothers would agree there is nothing quite like motherhood. And a day like today makes me grateful that I have someone in my life to call "Mom." So I would just like to take a moment and list some of the things I love about her and some of my favorite moments with her:

• Her smile, I think the picture is easy to see why.


• All the times she took me out of school to go shopping. Espescially when we went to the Barn Boutique with Whitney. So fun!


• Being able to call her when I am not feeling well and she is able to boost me up. In particular, after I had Carter I was physically and emotionally not feeling well and just a phone call to her made feel like everything would be okay.


• Being the best Grandma to my kids.


• Her faithfullness


• Her work ethic


• She's beautiful, can you believe she is a grandma?!


• Teaching me that Maroon isn't the same color as Burgandy.


• Making every birthday feel super special.


• For a person who is good about getting rid of clutter she still keeps a rock I gave her for Mother's Day when I was little. Yup you read right, a rock! Everytime she looks at it, it is suppose to remind her that I lover her. And I do!

Happy Mother's Day!

It's a Girl!!!!!!!!!!!!

At least that's what they are saying... I had the appointment scheduled for five weeks and it has felt like the longest five weeks of my life! Everytime I was going to talk about the baby my first instict was to say "she" but I would always stop myself, think I was silly, and say "baby." I wanted a girl but I was pretty sure I would have all boys. And now I am so excited I can't believe it! Truth be told I was just as excited to find out what I was having. So when they said it was a girl I was shocked and had them give me 99% that they were certain. Carson, Matt and Carter were there too and it was so fun to share that experience with them. Their reaction to the ultrasound was funny. Carter said it just looked like a bunch of bubbles. Before we found out what the sex was Carter kept saying "If it's a boy the boys get to name it and if it's a girl the girls get to name it." I kept telling him I appreciated his interest but I have input no matter what! So come August 17th we will have a baby girl to add to our family! :)

Our Florida Vacation

This photo album created with Smilebox

Normally for spring break I take to the boys to Arizona. But Since Carson no longer has tax season and baby #3 is on the way I thought it was time for us to go on vacation! Josh and Sally (Carson's brother and sister-in-law) came with us and we had some fun in the sun! We spent two nights in Orlando, two nights in Ft. Lauderdale and two nights on a cruise to the bahamas. The boys stayed home with Grandma and Grandpa Ammons and they did such a great job keeping them entertained they didn't seem to miss us!

Snow what fun!

We have received a lot of snow these last few weeks and more is on the way! So when we are not bundled up inside by the fire watching a movie and drinking hot chocolate and I get tired of Carter begging me to go outside and play in the snow we try to enjoy what winter has to offer. Carter and Matt have really enjoyed it and I just wish I shared their enthusiasm.

Here Carter and our friend Mason enjoyed a day of sledding at Wilson Park.

Matt enjoyed eating the snow!

Carter really had a lot of fun and was totally fearless. When Matt and Mason were all done Carter kept at it. You would have thought with all that energy he used up he would of had a nap that day!

Saturday we finally had a sunny day. So we headed to the Ammons farm to enjoy the sledding hill they carved out of a ditch. It was so much fun! Here Carter almost fell out of the sled!

Carson and Matt made it down safely! I wonder who enjoyed it more, Carson or Matt?

Matt and I retired early from sledding. But Carson and Carter enjoyed a few extra hours of sledding. They ended up trying to make a few ramps but Carter claims they weren't very good because when you land it hurts your bum!