One last visit with Santa before the big day

Before leaving to go join the Belt Family for Christmas, my parents, my nieces, my girls, and I went to the Lake of the Pines Ward Christmas party. Lake of the Pines (LOP) is the ward that I grew up in. It was a great chance for me to see old friends and mentors that I love. I was grateful for all of the hugs and warm smiles from everyone I saw. Of course Santa Clause made an appearance and Adelynne had once last chance to make her debut. Amy of course would have nothing to do with him, and showed her independence with pathetic sobs. My nieces Heather and Katy enjoyed the visit too.

A much needed continuing update.

While I was in California, pre-Christmas, I had a great visit with my Aunt Donna and my cousin Tammy. I don't have too many pictures with them, so I took the time to snap some photos.

I'm so excited for Tammy, she's due to have a baby boy in May-her first child. I feel so blessed to have a friend in my cousin Tammy. She is only a few months younger than me, and she has always been someone I love to be around. We used to have Thanksgiving at my Aunt Donna's house for years when I was growing up. My Aunt Donna always cooked a wonderful meal, and Tammy, her sister Emily, my sister Amy, and I would always take such care to set the table as beautifully as we could. The four of us would play with barbie dolls for hours. Actually, we would spend hours setting up house by making up bedrooms and living rooms with random books and toys in my cousin's room. Then after all the set up was done, we were too tired and bored to play with the dolls. I remember on one Thanksgiving year we sat around talking about how wonderful it was to be so close to our cousins and enjoy being together. We were all hoping that as we grew older and had families of our own, that we could still be close and get together often. Life was definitely more simple then, and I wish that our hopes of that Thanksgiving were more possible. But when we are together it reminds me of the wonderful family that I have.



I was able to attend my niece, Heather's kindergarten Christmas program at her school. Being there made me feel like I am actually a part of her life on a more regular basis-I really wish I was. I was at the hospital the night she was born, and I was the proudest aunt alive. Heather was so fun to watch as she sang. She even fulfilled the part of "the kid picking her nose." Oh, it was a proud moment! Heather is just a sweet little girl, with no pretensions or prejudices, she'll make a friend out of anyone.  Heather is the one in the green shirt.

Pure torture

My mom made all four of these dresses:  two for my girls, and two for my nieces.  Heather Lynne is the beautiful brunette, and Katy is the cute red head.  We tortured these girls for endless amounts of pictures so that we could get the perfect one-yea right!  But I love looking at all of them and imagining what they must have been saying in their heads.  




Heather:  "Aaah!  I'm losing my mind!"
Heather and Adelynne:  (In whining tone) "Are we done yet?"
Katy:  "you're kidding, right?"
Heather and Adelynne: "Okay, I'll smile for that."



Heather:  (through clenched teeth) "I'm still smiling..."



Amy:  "I've got a wedgie..."
Heather and Katy:  "Are we really related to them?"


And last but not least, an almost perfect picture...

In California

The girls and I left for California on Tuesday, December 9th to go and spend some time with my parents. On Monday the 8th, Amy had been sick all day and I just avoided taking her to the doctor. I'm not sure why I did, even though I knew in my head that she needed to see her doctor. It wasn't until about 11pm that night that I was certain Amy had an ear infection so I sent her with Dustin to the emergency room. She was in a lot of pain and I knew that she needed relief as soon as possible. But I was also concerned that she wouldn't be able to get on the airplane if she was suffering. The doctor at the ER confirmed the ear infection, and also provided some medicine to relieve the pain. Gratefully Amy was still able to fly on the plane, and she didn't cry once. I'm so blessed to have children that behave well on airplanes.

Amy continued on antibiotics throughout the next two weeks, as did her other cold symptoms. Otherwise she was in good spirits, and really enjoyed playing in a spacious house and being adored by her grandparents. She even seemed to sleep well at nights-which was wonderful for me. Adelynne, on the other hand, got some kind of virus and was sick with high fevers for three days. She spent a lot of time sleeping and watching movies. Poor thing. By the end of our first week the girls and I had not even left the house once. But they were finally feeling better, so we went to visit my cousin. Her kids had been sick a few days before, but were feeling better. We stayed for a while and let the kids play together while we talked. Then we went back to my parents house. Within 12 hours of being at my cousins house, Adelynne was throwing up. Luckily she threw up twice and then lethargically watched more movies for the rest of the day. And within another 12 hours Adelynne was back to herself. It was not the ideal first week on "vacation," but we still enjoyed our time with Grandpa and Grandma Biggs.

Amy reading books at Grandma's house. My mom made these matching and reversible jumpers for the girls.






Adelynne not feeling so well and sleeping it off on the couch.


On Monday, December 15th, I got to be apart of my Biggs family Christmas Party. These are pictures of some of the family that was there at my parents house. We had a big cookie exchange, and then we walked down my parents street to admire the Christmas lights. My parents live on a street that really decorates BIG for Christmas, and people come and drive down the road for hours every night. Most of the houses do a Disney theme, which my girls love. Anyway, its really fun. 

This is my cousin Tamra playing the piano-its not a Biggs family function unless Tamra plays the piano.  And when she does, Charlie (my cousin Lanea's husband), is usually there to sing along.  

This is Sadie Smurthwaite and Becca Braatz-they are first cousins, their mom's are sisters, and my first cousins.  Anyway they were both showing off that they have a missing tooth-I think their first ones. 

This is my Aunt D'Anna and my brother Mark.

My cousin's husband Roy, with their new baby Lilly

My cousin Travis and his wife Steysi and two of their kids Mia and Jack.  

I have a great extended family that are just fun to be around.  I am so grateful to have a great network of family that I can call friends and I know that we can depend on one another.  I LOVE MY FAMILY!

Here's walking around the block looking at the lights.  I've provided a variety of the houses decorated along the street, its fun to see all the decorations and lights.

ward Christmas party (the first one)

The first one, as in, we went to more than one ward Christmas party.  Actually we only went to two, but it seems like there were more.  Anyway, these are pictures from the Christmas party for the Lafayette 1st Ward.  I was very excited that the girls were going to get to see Santa.  Dustin and I had been telling Adelynne all about Santa and that she would get to tell him what she wanted for Christmas.  I couldn't wait to see it first hand.  Santa arrived at the party and their was a long line to sit on his lap.  So the girls and I stood near Santa and watched the other children sit on his lap and talk to him, while Dustin stood in line for us.  We stood their for at least 15 minutes, and Dustin seemed to stand in the same place-others were jumping in line in front of him, I guess he just wasn't being aggressive enough with those children!  Anyway, the girls watched Santa for a while, and Adelynne became very anxious-mostly because she saw the bags of goodies that Santa was giving away.  Well, Amy got restless and ran off, so I chased after her.  When I finally got back, Dustin had managed to move up in the line, about 2 inches, but Adelynne had not waited her turn.  She decided to cut in line and get her turn in with the fat guy.  Dustin and I missed the whole thing!  I was really bummed out that I didn't get to see Adelynne make her plea.  Amy wouldn't even consider sitting on his lap, but she did take the bag of goodies from him.  

Amy trying to figure out who this guy is:


Yes, Adelynne is picking her nose. What three-year-old doesn't? Both girls are inspecting the bearded guy in red.


I imagine Amy saying, "You think I'm going to sit on that guy's lap?!?"


"You're funny.  Just get me the candy and no one gets hurt."