9th Anniversary

Brett and I celebrated our 9th Anniversary the night of Debbie's and Becky's reception.  It was fun to be with so many family and friends and pretend a "little" like it was our night all over again.

So much has happened in the past night years.  It is hard to believe that it has already been that long, yet it feels like we have been together forever (although if you count our dating years it has been 14 years!).  In the past nine years we have moved 7 times, had 5 1/2 kids, had three different jobs, and enjoyed (almost) every moment of it.  I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I love Brett more today than the day we got married and I know that love will just continue to grow.

You mean the world to me Brett!  I am so happy and so lucky to be married to such an amazing husband and father.  I love you so much!!!

Weddings

My sisters Debbie and Becky got married at the end of December.  Although they got married one day apart (Debbie on the 27th and Becky on the 28th), they had a double reception on the night of the 27th.  It was so fun to see both of their personality shine through at their reception as the gym was literally divided in half, one side for each girl.  It was a long couple of days with all the celebrating, but was so fun to be a part of it all!

 Tom, Becky, Debbie and Rob

 Becky and Debbie

Reception: Side closest to you was Becky's, Debbie's on the far side.

Debbie and Rob 

Debbie and Rob 

Tom and Becky 

Tom and Becky

Brett, Rachel, 

Bailey, Spencer, Natalie, 

Hunter and Tanner  

 Left to right: Brett, Hunter, Bailey, Tanner, Spencer, Natalie and Rachel

 Higham Family: Rachel, Melanie, Sarah, Shelley, Tami

Doug, Jim, Liz, Debbie, Michael, Adam

Collen, Tom Beckstead, Becky, and Doug

Sisters: Sarah, Tami, Rachel, Debbie, Becky, Liz, Shelley, Melanie

Christmas Eve/Day

Christmas this year didn't turn out like expected, but it was fun none the less.  A couple of days before Christmas I came down with the stomach flu.  Luckily I had finished all of my shopping and what not.  It out me down for two days.  And then as soon as I was feeling better, Natalie got it.  And then it went slowly through the whole family.  That means we were contained in the house for about a week.  Not fun with family and friends in town!  But it did give us lots of family time with just Brett, the kids and myself, which is always needed.

This is a countdown calendar that Spencer made.  I wish I would have gotten a picture of it on another day other than "1 days til cristmas" (the "a" and "s" are at the top of the sign).  He was diligent about changing the number every day.  It was very fun.

The traditional reading of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas".

Our family in our new pajamas. (again, another pretty good picture coming from our camera on "timer" mode)

The first three awake.  We told the kids that they had to stay in bed until at least 6:00.  At 6:00 on the dot, Spencer was in our room waking us up.

This one wasn't so sure she wanted to get up.

But we told her that Santa had definitely come:

So she finally got out of bed:

But still wasn't too happy about it!

The kids all got new outside toys.

Brett asked for only one this for Christmas this year: A remote control helicopter.  He has only played with it a couple of times, so he hasn't really learned how to control it.  Maybe one of these days he will find some more time.

And I just thought these pictures were fun of Christmas day: Brett and Tanner playing pirates.  Tanner got Brett a pirate set for Christmas and insisted he wear everything, earring and all.

Good will always triumph over evil!

Family Picture

As part of a present for Christmas for my parents, Tami asked us to take a family picture with the letter M.  Each family was assigned a letter to spell out "Higham Family" (there are twelve siblings in our family).  I thought the picture turned our really well, especially since the camera was sitting next to the TV on a timer.  Hunter thought it was hilarious when the flash would go off.

Block Building Fun-Dec. 2011

My kids can sit and play with blocks for hours, and they do on many occasions.  Legos are the most preferred, but they also like the Fisher Price Trio sets that we have (although they build their own designs instead of  what the box says to build).  It is fun to see the different stages they are in in their building capabilities and the creative things that they can come up with.

Christmas Decorations

Brett wasn't around this year when we were decorating the tree, so I let the kids do everything by themselves while I handed out the ornaments.  The older ones were so helpful with the younger ones and it was a really fun night.  I can't believe that my kids are old enough to decorate the tree by themselves!  Looking at these pictures makes me want to get out the Christmas decorations again. . .

Dland Fun-Dec. 2011

As with the past two year, Brett's company held their End of the Year Party at Disneyland.  We love this tradition and hope that it continues for a very long time.  The last two years it has been raining on the day we went, which is awesome because it is less crowded, but it was nice to have better weather this year so that the shows weren't cancelled.  

With me being pregnant this year, I was the runner to go get "fast pass tickets" (tickets for later in the day to ride the rides without waiting in the normal line).  We were able to get on the first few rides rather quickly and then with fast passes we were able to ride everything we wanted, some more than a couple of times!  Brett's brother Brian went with us with his two boys and my sister Debbie came along to be another sent of hands to help with the kids.  It was an awesome day, full of fun memories!

 Space Mountain: Debbie in the back left, Tanner and Brett in the middle row and Natalie and Bailey in the front row.  I love all the different facial expressions!

 Space Mountain: Spencer and Grayden

Buzz Lightyear: Grayden and Spencer on the left, Talmage and Brian on the right.

 Buzz Lightyear: Tanner and Brett

 Autopia: Debbie and Bailey

 Autopia: Grayden, Talmage and Brian

 Haunted Mansion: Bailey and Rachel 

Haunted Mansion: Grayden and Spencer 

Haunted Mansion: Natalie and Debbie

 Haunted Mansion: Tanner and Brett

 Talmage, Bailey, Natalie, Tanner, Spencer, Grayden

 Jungle Cruise: Talmage, Bailey and Tanner

We got scammed into doing this canoe ride (not sure it's exact name) over by Splash Mountain.  We thought it would be fun, but really it was just work.  Just in case anyone is wondering next time they go if they should do it.

 Canoe Ride: Natalie, Spencer, Talmage, Brett, Debbie, Brian, Talmage, and Tanner

 Canoe Ride: Bailey and I were up front.

 Carousel: Natalie

 Carousel: Tanner

 Carousel: Talmage

The kids also had the opportunity to do a little Jedi Training.  Spencer, Grayden, Bailey and Tanner all got picked to be a part of it.  There was a short "training" in the beginning, and then they each got a turn to fight one of two characters.  Great experience and worth the time if you have any Star Wars fans.

 Grayden

 Tanner

 Spencer

 Bailey

 Spencer

 Tanner

 Bailey

 Grayden

All in all is was a fabulous day and we wore the kids out.  We stayed for fireworks and Fantasmic and then headed out of the park.  You know it is a great day when the kids are out when you arrive home!