Getting In All of 2009

I just put up 5 new posts. Playing catch up takes a long time to do. I opened all of the posts and made them drafts on December 31st so that when I posted them, they'd still be in 2009. I have got to get my books printed, I'm running out of space on my blog. I think it said I have already used up 75% of my blog memory. I need to get the books printed so that I can delete some stuff on here.

I hope everyone had a good 2009. I'm sure hoping and praying that 2010 is a lot better than 2009 for me and for my family. It's been a rough year from the very beginning and it still hasn't stopped. Hopefully 2010 will bring many great things to help heal the wounds, broken hearts and scars from 2009. It's been a whirlwind but we survived, we may have barely survived but still, we DID survive.

Thank you to all of the family and friends who have done so much for me this year. Thank you for your support and the countless things that you have done to help me with the MANY things that I had to experience this year. It will definitely be a year that I never forget. Although at times I felt like there was no way out, over time a small light has peered through and I can see where and what I need to do to get out.
"I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it"

Amy gave me this sign for Christmas, I fell in love with it when I saw it at her house. What a great saying and something I should read everyday.

God didn't promise days without pain,
Laughter without sorrow, nor
Sun without rain...
but He did promise
Strength for the day,
Comfort for the tears, and
Light for the way.

I think that pretty much sums it up!

This Is The Place.... A Candlelight Christmas

On the 23rd of December, we went to the This Is The Place monument for their Candlelight Christmas that they do up there. Josh's Dad's side of the family was going and invited everyone to go. Hopefully it turns into a tradition. Chloee thought those reindeer were pretty cool!

Rhyder is so cute. He's got the biggest eyes. We went into one of the buildings and bought some soup and cornbread. It was pretty cold but not too cold because it was snowing. The whole place was really neat and it was decorated with lights. You got to go between the different houses and do different crafts or see things from back in the day.

In one of the houses was an area where they were doing a puppet play. Josh and his Dad actually helped build these benches when they worked at a wood shop, I can't remember the name. That was over 10 years ago though. It was neat to see.

Aunt Manda knows the key to Chloee's heart, CANDY! They went into one of the houses that was like an old store, I think it was called ZCMI, I can't remember what it stood for but I didn't even know that ZCMI was an acronym.

"Father Christmas" was there. That's what he was called, not Santa Claus. He wasn't really a happy man. In fact he seemed irritated with us for even bringing our kids in to see him. So much for being happy and jolly!

Not impressed with Father Christmas. Oh well, at least we were warm while in there.

Heather took this picture of Halle looking up at Santa. It's absolutely priceless! Thanks Heather.

The whole gang. The only one that is missing is Stacie's husband, Tim. Let's see if I can do this... Instead of doing a left to right because we aren't really in a line, I'll just name everyone. Josh's Dad, J and his wife, Heather on the left. She has 4 kids but they are spread throughout. There's Austin, Michael, Preston and Kaylee. Me, Josh, Chloee and Halle. Stacie, Josh's sister (she's the one with the white scarf on) and her 2 kids, Chandler & Rhyder. Shaun, Josh's brother (on the far right) with his wife, Lisa and their daughter Isabel. Jake, Josh's brother (the tall one in the back with the Russian hat on) and his girlfriend Becca (she's the adorable little thing in the front on the far left). Then, last but not least, Josh's other sister, Amanda (she's between me and Stacie). Wow there's all 19 of us!

The Jones Christmas Party

The Jones Christmas party is done every year. It's Josh's Mom's side of the family. They do a nice lunch, play games and Santa comes. Yea!!! Here is Santa talking to all of the kids about why he is real and how they should believe. He read them a story from a scroll too. Josh said he was great and he really thought he did a good job. I wasn't able to go due to personal matters.

Rachael, Josh's sister, did Chloee's hair. She did hers in 2 ponytails too. They looked so darn cute together. That look on her face is so cute. I wish I could have been there to see my girls on Santa's lap.

The only thing running through Halle's mind is, "I have to pull that beard!" she is so crazy. I love the way she's looking at Santa.

Josh said the girls were great about sitting on Santa's lap. They didn't cry or anything. I figured Chloee would be good but I had my doubts about Chubs!

Halle doesn't care about what's in the present, she only cares about what is wrapped around the present. If I'd let her, she'd eat wrapping paper at every meal.

Kathy, Josh's Mom, does A LOT to make this party happen. I know that she puts a lot of time and effort into making it possible for everyone to get together. It's kind of what you would call a "thankless job". Nobody really knows how much time, money, effort and stress goes into putting something like this together. Thanks Kathy for all you do!

The Willard Lights

A few weeks ago, we went to go see the lights in Willard. I've always seen them from the freeway but never knew what it was. We went with our good friends, the Thomas'. Here's Cindy, Trevor and Chloee.

Amy, these dinosaur ones are for your kids.

We went and sat in the back of Cindy's truck, while Todd drove and of course Hallsies couldn't sit outside in the freezing cold so she was in the truck too, with Josh. It was almost impossible to get a good picture because we were moving the whole time, albeit slow, but still moving.

I thought this was pretty cool!

There were so many lights, it was really neat to see. I think we'll make that a yearly tradition with the Thomas'.

Cindy has 4 boys. She's so outnumbered at that house. We love getting together with them and playing games, making fun of each other, you name it. Even though her kids ages are spread apart quite a bit, we all still have a blast when we get together, even with the older ones (who usually don't want to participate in stuff like that). Her kids are 18, 14, 9 and 4.

After we got done freezing our behinds off, we went out for ice cream. Yeah, that doesn't really make any sense... "oh, we're freezing but let's go get some ice cream!" We stayed at the restaurant talking until they basically kicked us out.

Kennet Turns 5

Amy's son, Kennet, turned 5 back on December 13th. I am so behind. That cute little bugger, I can't believe he's already 5. Where did that time go?

Of course I have to post a picture of Hallsies watching Kennet open his presents. Her shirt said, "A Little Nutty", describes her perfectly.

Out of all the presents Amy gave him, he was the most happy with his Zurg. Apparently, he lost his in California this summer at Disney Land or something like that. It was so funny to see his face when he opened it. This kid LOVES all of the villains in any movie.

My Mom and Dad gave him a play gun. He was so excited when he saw what it was. Hearing my Mom tell me about how my Dad wanted to get it for him so bad and my Mom had something else in mind was hilarious. She told me that he said, "But Renae, you don't understand, every little boy needs a gun, it's part of being a boy". We had a good laugh about that one.

We gave Kennet this full Bumblebee costume. No children love Transformers more than Amy's.

Amy did this cake for Kennet. It is one of the dinosaurs from Dinosaur Train, some cartoon he loves. Of course it looks amazing. Sheesh, I wish I could say that I've seen something of hers that is artistic looks like crap, but I can't. If I'd done this, you wouldn't even be able to tell it was a dinosaur.

Was he so excited to blow out his candles?... NO, to play with the "Fire". He just kept saying, "Mom, when are we going to do the fire". He even had the lighter in his hand and wanted to light them himself. Awh, just like his Daddy, a total pyro.

He blew them out in a big one. Happy Birthday Kennet! We love you!!!

ES3's Snowbird... Humiliation

Every year in December, Josh's work pays for their employees and their spouses to go up to Snowbird overnight. We have a nice dinner, entertainment and a room. It's the type of event where you dress nice and interact with people you don't really know, except for a few. There were about 150 people there, it seemed like a lot more to me.

This year they decided to have the entertainment be employee karaoke. You had to sign up a couple weeks before and only 15 were allowed in. I know what you're thinking, "Why would you sign up to humiliate yourself for nothing?" WRONG... You got $100 just for participating. It was one of those where you go all out on your outfits, EVERYTHING.

Here's the judges. They are Josh's bosses. Randy on the left, Paula in the middle (yes that is actually a man in a dress and a wig) and Simon on the right. It was hilarious!!! They all gave their opinion just how Randy, Paula and Simon give theirs on American Idol.

I thought you might want to see one more of "Paula".

Josh and I decided to participate. A lot of the guys at Josh's work are fans of "The Office". We decided to do that song "Male Prima Donna" by "Subtle Sexuality" aka: Kelly, Erin, Andy and Ryan. If you've never seen it, here is the link:
http://www.nbc.com/The_Office/video/clips/the_music_video/1170503
You really need to watch it. It is hilarious whether you're a fan of The Office or not.

The guy they hired for the karaoke music and such didn't have our song so we had to memorize the words and he played it off my ipod. In between dinner and when it was our turn, we went up to change in our room and Josh shaved his beard off. He's worked at ES3 for over 3 years and none of them have ever seen him without it. Heck, we've been together for 7 and I've only seen him without it once!

I was going to post the video of us doing it but I just don't have the time right now to do it. Really, I need Josh to do it for me. It will come in a later post.

Amy found those huge earrings, the gaudy necklace and the rings. She really helped me with my costume. We found the all white suite at the DI in Josh's size, AMAZING! We were both nervous, we embarrassed and humiliated ourselves. Oh well, got to live life to the fullest!


Here are just a few of the other ones that people did. I didn't get a picture of everyone.

Steve did Dolly Parton's "9 to 5".

Jared did Elvis' "Blue Christmas".

Kody did Kenny Chesney's "She Think my Tractor's Sexy".

Mike did The Village People's "Macho Man".

Gary and his wife did Sonny and Cher's "I Got You Babe". Yes, she is Sonny and he's dressed up as Cher.

Chad (who was insanely drunk) did Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride".

Well, sadly to say, we didn't win and here's a picture of me yelling at everyone that it was crap. Yeah, I'm a sore loser. Sonny and Cher took 1st, Jeremy who did Shania Twain's "I Feel Like A Woman" took 2nd, and the totally drunk guy, Chad, took 3rd. 1st got $600, 2nd got $400 and 3rd got $200. Oh well, we still came out with $100.

The wives that all know each other. We're wives of the guys who are considered "the junior engineers", just because they are all under 40. Left to right is Heather, Maren, Diane, Stephanie and me. We got up after it was over and they did open mic. We sang "Don't You Wish Your Girlfriend Was Hot Like Me" by The Pussycat Dolls and "I Will Survive". At this point I had already embarrassed myself enough from before that I just didn't care and I got really into it. Lots of fun!!!

The view from our window. People were actually in that pool the night before. Are they crazy? We had a blast and then went out to eat at IHOP with a bunch of our friends. Good times!!!

A special thanks to Amy, she kept my kids overnight so that we could go and enjoy ourselves. She's so good to me. I really appreciate her and all that she does for me and my little family. I can't thank her enough. Love you Ames!!!

Merry Christmas...

We started a new tradition this year. On Christmas Eve, everyone gets to open one present. Of course we already know that it's our Christmas pajamas. Yeah!!! Halle just liked the wrapping paper and wanted to eat it all the live long day.

The girls after they opened their matching monkey jammies. Halle's face is priceless!

Don't they just look like little angels in their pajamas? Don't be fooled! Josh got some pajama pants that were black and said "naughty" all over them in red. Of course Josh wasn't on the nice list this year, he was definitely on the naughty one. I got some fuzzy ones with stripes and all sorts of bright colors on it.

Our tree right before we went to bed on Christmas Eve. It looked gorgeous with all the lights off.

Chloee and Halle forgot to leave out the cookies for Santa Claus. When they woke up they found this note with the glass of empty eggnog and the Dr. Pepper. It read,

"Chloee & Halle,

I was really really thirsty, so I opened your fridge and drank some eggnog and Dr. Pepper. I also ate some pretzels. They were great! I hope that was OK.
Merry Christmas, Santa Claus"

The girls had so much fun opening their presents. Halle woke up at about 8 AM and we took her into Chloee's room and laid her on top of Chloee to wake her up. Halle got this cute toy from Santa Claus. She loves it. Thank heavens, something to distract this girl for a little while.

One of the presents I gave Josh was The Foo Fighters - Greatest Hits CD. He loves them and all of the songs he loves are on there, so I figured it was a good choice. I've had it since October so it was really hard for me to not just give it to him.

Halle couldn't make it through opening all of the presents without eating. You would have thought that girl had been starved for 5 days. We ended up putting her in her chair with her food in the front room while we finished up with the presents and such.

All in all it was a great Christmas. Halle was sick and on antibiotics and super ornery. Then Christmas night Chloee was sicker than a dog and I ended up taking her into the Insta-Care the next day. She had to be put on an antibiotic as well and her cough was so bad, she thought she was going to throw up every time. Both the girls were so stinking sick. I had it about a week before Christmas and it's just been lingering and I still have some of that wicked cough. It really hit Josh about 3 days after Christmas. We are just a bunch of coughing, sneezing, runny nose people. Oh well, what do you do? It's The Adams Family Tradition to be sick on Christmas. It happens every year!!!