My Christmas Miracle

I just got a phone call from my mom, it was one of those heart stopping calls. My Dad is a banker, and I have always feared that someone would try to rob his bank and he would tell them over his dead body and really mean it. So today the call came. It wasn't at his bank, but he was involved none the less.

He had just left my house, he stopped by to bring me gingerbread boys for Maddie's birthday party tomorrow. After he made the delivery and cuddled with baby Grace and gave the other little ones their hugs and kisses, he set out to Beehive credit union on 104th and Redwood. He was walking in when a scruffy older hispanic man comes out and pushes past him. Someone from inside the bank yells they have been robbed. So of course, my Dad, my brave hero of a Dad runs after this man. He grabs him and holds him against a car while the man tries to punch him and bite him. He tells my Dad that he has a bomb and true to my fears my Dad says, "Ok well then blow us up." My Dad held him there until the police came and he was asked to come down to the police department for questioning along with another guy who had aided my Dad in holding this guy down and returning the money to the bank.

So today my Dad is a hero. He has always been one of my heroes. Today I am grateful for our Christmas miracle! How differently this could have ended. How quickly our lives can change from one moment to the next, and the people we love are taken from us. Let us all hug a little tighter our family and friends and treasure the time we have together.

Can you tell that we love our baby Grace?!

So precious! My big baby and my little baby! On Jan. 3rd these two will share a special day together! Madison will be getting baptized!!! That is sooo crazy! And little miss- Grace will be getting blessed. I will report later and post pics. of that special day, but I need to post things in advance so I make myself believe this is really happening...and 8 yr old! Is that possible, I am still 21, Michelle said so!

For FHE we thought it would be fun to decorate one of those store bought gingerbread houses. It was fun, but the kids wanted to eat it right after they finished it, so the fun was short lived...oh well, why do we let them sit for weeks and become so hard they are no longer edible anyway? So it served as our activity and our treat!!

He is back! Mr. Peeps has returned!! This is Santa's little helper. He moves around the house and watches the girls to see if they are naughty or nice and he reports all he sees to Santa.
































The tree is up, and has been for a while now, but here is a pic. to help you feel the holiday cheer we got going on in our house. Does it help you feel the cold, with the cute penguin posing for ya??

Ya know how after you have a baby it's time for a change? And usually that change involves our hair?! Well, I did it, I chopped my hair, it's a drastic A-line, and from the front the bangs are probably the only thing that look that different, but it's pretty short in the back! It is a fun change, I have been wanting bangs for a while and I finally got brave enough to do it.

Two months old











One month old











Two days old

Can I just rewind a few months? These past two have flown by...so bare with me, and enjoy the pictures! Lets see....Halloween and Michelle's 5th b-day all in one, it makes for a very busy, sugar high, overstimulating day. But we like the challenge of it so much we decided to throw Grace into the mix and almost gave her a Halloween birthday as well!

Michelle was a leopard, Rachel was a polar bear and Maddie was a witch. In some of the pictures you see her scowling, that is part of her character, at least that is what I tell myself. It had nothing to do with the mommy tax I just made her pay! (that is where the kids have to dump out their candy and I get to pick one thing.)

Ok, I have been tagged. It's an easy one so I am doing it. You go to your 3rd picture file and click on the third picture in it, and tell about it. Due to my computer crashing a couple of months ago the pictures we actually have downloaded are more recent. I may have to do this again once we recover all our pics. from the Dell, for a further trip down memory lane.



Here are the girls as we are getting ready to leave the Lehi Legacy indoor pool. We had a great time. Michelle asked me if it was the funnest day of my whole life.

I am tagging: Janica, Amber & Kim

This is Grandma Ina, she is Dave's Grandma. She is one of the sweetest, most angelic ladies I have had the priveledge of knowing. Unfortunately the last couple of times we have visited her, she has been in a nursing home. She has had a knee replacement that just isn't healing correctly and gives her a lot of trouble.

We wanted to visit her one more time before the baby comes. The girls were a little wild and crazy but she seemed to like watching their little busy bodies explode with energy. She seemed to be doing really well this visit, maybe that is because she was told that she can go back home next Tues! She really misses her own home, as anyone would.

We love you Grandma and hope your knee gets better!!

On Oct.18th we celebrated our baby's 3rd birthday!! I can't believe how three years has flown by! Every time we would ask her what she wanted for her birthday she would just say, "pink!" So that is what she got, a very pink birthday party! Not to mention a white tiger and her baby, a big-wheel and a little people farm. We had Grandmas and Grandpas over to help us celebrate as well. It was a fun night and Rach seemed to be really happy with her pink party!

Every year Gardner Village does a little Halloween witch hunt. This was our first year going. It happened to be over the UEA weekend that I took the girls, and it was a mad house!! I almost turned around and went back home when we had to park clear out in the boonies! The parking was a good indicator of how crazy it would be there, everyone had that same great idea that I did. Once there I hooked up with a good friend of mine that recently moved here from Vegas. We didn't get to mingle for very long before my kids pulled me in one direction and her kids in another. Sorry Jessica, it was fun to see you, and we will have to get together again under less crazy circumstances!! After splitting up from her I connected with my sister in law, Cami and her cute kids. But by that time, my kids were tired and hungry and I began asking myself why in the heck I even bothered taking them. Next year I will plan to go at a different time! I am sure it would be far more enjoyable!

So, for my birthday, I got a wheat grinder. These are my first loaves of whole wheat bread. I was pretty proud of myself! Especially since my mom prepared me by saying, "now it will usually take a couple of times to get your bread to look pretty." A couple of times, come on, these are beauties! They weren't eye candy for long, they were all gone within a couple of days! Nothing like homemade bread!!

Michelle recently started pre-school. They went on a fun field trip to the Herriman City Fire Department. Rachel got to go as well and they both loved it.

What is this about?? I let the girl sleep over at her Aunt Kristen's house and this is how she comes back to me, a "homey G" I think we need to have a chat with Auntie!

It is soo fun to get together with old friends. Sandra, the tall brunette beauty on the left is expecting their second child, she is 8 months along in this picture! J/k, although I can't imagine her looking anything like me, the chunky monkey on the far right who really is about 8 months along in this pic.

The special occasion that brought us together was to see Crissy's beautiful bouncing baby boy! He is adorable, although I have to admit I didn't get to spend much time with him, he was the man of the hour and had to be passed around for everyone to enjoy, that is why he isn't in the picture, we couldn't snatch him away from all those eager arms that held him.

Congrats Crissy and Jason!