Dance Class!!!

As of this morning, Kylee is now a dancer! My Mom has been begging me to put her in a dance class since she was 2! Now that we found a dance class that fits in with her preschool schedule, we are super excited for her to get started. Today was her first lesson. They are starting with tap and will go onto ballet later, and then tumbling. She is so excited!

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Here she is with her brand new tap shoes and all dressed up ready to go to her first class! (and she's wearing the CUTEST sandals ever!!!!!)

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There are 6 other girls in the class with Kylee. She knows 2 of them from church so she was excited to see them there!

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She's got this toe-tapping "talent" from her Dad! He's famous for dancing with a toe tap! Hahaha

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Her teacher Miss Judd!

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She will have her first concert in May. I can't wait for that day! My little dancing girl!

Parties, Parties, Parties!!!

This Christmas season started really early for me. I started playing Christmas music and decorating back in October. I dragged this holiday spirit out for as long as I could!!! But I must say that I'm SO READY FOR IT TO BE OVER!!! I usually hate to take down decorations and hate for the Christmas season to end, but for some reason I'm more than ready this year. Don't get me wrong, I had a wonderful Christmas season! But for some reason, I'm just ready to move on into 2010 and start a fresh year with high hopes!

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FAMILY CHRISTMAS PARTY

We started out our Christmas celebrations with the Pew/Higginson/Oram party. I love it when we all get together. We always have so much fun and eat yummy food!
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Here is Hannah and Abby leading everyone in a Christmas song...

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Paige reading everyone a Christmas story...

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Kylee, Becky and Hannah acting something out while playing "Christmas charades"...

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Brian not sure what to do for his charade - haha....

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Kylee acting out her charade - the kids loved this game (I highly recommend it at your next family Christmas party)...

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David being "typcial Uncle David" and messing around with all the kids. He came straight from work so he was in the mood to take down some kids...

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Sydney and Madeline leg wresting - it was on...

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CHRISTMAS

A few days later came Christmas morning! It was so much fun celebrating Christmas this year with Kylee. She's almost 4 1/2 now so she really understood everything about Christmas. I love that she understands the true meaning of Christmas too (Jesus's birthday).

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The night before getting Santa's cookies and milk ready...

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Sleepy but VERY excited to open all her presents that Santa brought her...

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David had quite a few funny faces Christmas morning. He didn't know he was going to be getting so many presents from me. He was a little confused and didn't know what they were. Get ready for a "face" show...

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Ughs!!!! He loves them...

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Not sure what this is...

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Then realizing what it was and looking at me in total surprise...

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Showing off his new phone to the camera! He hasn't put this thing down since he opened it...

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After Kylee opened all her presents under the tree, she had a special present that Santa left for her on the patio...

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Woo hoo! A new big girl bike...

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Putting up the last ornament on the Christmas tree counter...

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Kylee was a very good girl this year!!! She still had more presents to open at Grandma and Grandpa Montez's house too! She was loaded with gifts this year...

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And yes....Santa ate all his cookies and drank all his milk...

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She was ready to go and have fun with all her new toys...

I recorded everything on our camcorder while at my parent's house so I didn't get any pictures from that portion of our day. But my Grandma and Aunt Queenie were in town and it was so much fun to spend this Christmas with them.

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MP CHRISTMAS PARTY

A couple days after Christmas, all my friends got together for our annual "MP" Christmas party. I always look forward to this party because it's the one time during the year that we all get together. We all live in various parts of the county and don't get to see each other very often anymore. So this is always a very fun party!

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Kimberly and John! Came all the way from Texas! We love the Bakers...

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Our beloved Heidi!!! She brought this dang electric-hot potato ball that shocks you. Leave it to Heidi to bring the fun and dangerous games! We love her...

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This is about right....

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I love my girls! Kimberly left before we took this picture so we are sad that she isn't in the picture. We are also missing Heather who couldn't make it this year from Idaho. But we missed her so much! Tausha made these CUTE beanies for us. Love them...

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Heidi and her friend Dane. It was fun to have the "singles" of the group bring their guy friends. It adds something special to our party! Yay....

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Jodi rapping to "I'm a Little Teapot" during a game of truth or dare - haha....

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The one and only, Christina Margarita Contreras!!!!! She's the raddest girl ever...

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Jodi and her friend David...

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The lovely couple, aka - The Pews...

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No MP party is complete without this amazingly delicious treat! It's become a tradition that Mary (Heidi's Mom) has to make this for us every year. So good...

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We ended 2009 by having a little party at the Walkers house with them and the Williams'. It was a fun party filled with games and FAR TOO MUCH SNACKING, but I'm so thankful for the great people in our lives. This 2009 year was a roller coaster ride of ups and downs but I'm thankful for every down and loved every up! I wouldn't change anything that has happened to us over these past 12 months. We have learned so much from every experience. I can't wait to see what 2010 has in store for us. Happy New Year everyone!

Death Trap

Our bug man comes once every two months and when he does, he so generously places two sticky pads right by our front door to stop any critters from sneaking in under our screen door. We have caught quite a few interesting creatures on these things which include the usual bugs such as crickets, spiders, pincher bugs, ants, etc........we've even caught a poor little baby lizard! But this morning we found this....

The poor birdy had it's leg stuck to the pad. These pads are POWERFUL! It was trying so hard to flap it's wings and get away. I was sure it was going to get away because of how hard it was flapping, but this miracle sticky pad wouldn't give in. So I had David grab his gloves and free the bird!

Awwww.......my hero!

Christmas Parties

Last week started the Christmas parties for us! Every year I have a club volleyball Christmas party that is always so much fun! David had to work that night so Jaime was my date for the evening. Here we are taking my first picture with my new camera! Good times!

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Annual Christmas shot with Deb and Charlotte! Two of my most favorite people ever!

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The next day we had our ward Christmas party. I had Jacey that night so it was fun to take her too. She went with us to our Halloween party and spent Thanksgiving Day with us too so we were lucky enough to be able to spend all our holidays with her! She's become part of our family!

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Kylee and Jacey all excited to leave for the party...

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"once there was a snowman, snowman, snowman - once there was a snowman tall, tall, TALL"

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"in the snow he melted, melted, melted - in the snow he melted small, small, small"

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The children got to frost their own cookie and eat it! Londyn and Kylee both took advantage of this fun activity, only Kylee didn't want to eat it! Crazy girl!

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At the end of the party we all got to make our own stockings (yes I sewed it and all) and stuff it with goodies and needs for the children at the hospital.

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It was a fun "holiday-filled" weekend! Today Kylee got to pick out a boy toy and a girl toy at Target for the less fortunate children up North. It's actually an eagle scout project for our stake patriarch's grandson. She was so excited to buy toys for other kids! She, of course, picked out a barbie for the girl and then she chose mini cars for the boy. I'm so glad that Kylee gets to participate and understand what giving to others means. I'm thankful that I have the opportunity to teach over 50 children each Sunday about Jesus and his birth. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to bare my testimony of him every Sunday to these sweet children in my ward. I just love this holiday season for so many different reasons!!!

Past week or so...

This past week hasn't been too eventful but I've taken some random pictures and thought I'd make a post about it for memory sake!

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This first picture is just a cute outfit of Kylee's! Whenever she gets a new cute outfit, I can't help but take pictures and post them. The only thing that would make this outfit better is black boots! Looks like Mommy needs to go shopping! This was originally going to be her family picture outfit (for Christmas pictures) but we never got around to taking them and decided to just use a recent picture of Kylee for our cards. At least she got a cute outfit out of it anyway! (you can't tell in this picture but she is wearing a cute scarf!)

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While Daddy was sleeping all day (after working a night shift), Kylee and I decided it was time to whip out the decorations. Kylee did a great job hanging up all the ornaments! Mommy only had to rearrange a few of them! She's my best helper!


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Last night, for family night, we went to see the temple lights. I babysit Lekcy and Jacey 3 days a week and we love having them be a part of our family! Kylee is in heaven with her "sisters"! Here is a shot of the all the girls....(Lekcy, Kylee, me and Jacey)

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David and the girls!

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The whole gang!

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We are getting more and more excited for Christmas coming up! David and I kind of spoiled our Christmas and already bought our "present" for each other. We finally cracked and bought a new tv! I LOVE Black Friday! There's something about making a purchase on Black Friday that makes the "guilt" of spending money seem ok! Here was our old BOX tv that was given to us by my parents, who bought it 14 years ago! (I don't think Zenith even makes tv's anymore, haha)

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And here below is the purchase made after waiting in line at 3 in the morning at a SCARY Walmart on the reservation where David works. Hey....at least I got it!

We don't quite have it all set up just yet. The DirecTV guy (or Santa Clause, as we like to call him) is coming today to install our new dish and receiver which will include high definition and the best of all.......DVR! We are finally entering the world of recordable television! Haha! I know we are WAY behind the rest of the world but when you don't live with something, you don't know what you are missing. We are now about to find out what the "hype" is all about! We can't wait! Oh what a sweet Christmas it is already! Joy!
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And don't worry.......I've already got a few "service" and "good deed" items checked off my list too. I'm not ALL about the gifts ok!!!