2015!! Hurray!

Hurray for a new year. I don't make new years resolutions cause I can't stand to not keep them. I beat my self up for not staying on top of them. And I know there are too many other things in life to put my efforts and energy towards. I'm a pretty disciplined person, so for now, I just say, "Bring on the NEW YEAR, and let's be better than the last!" 

Heidi turned 8 this year on December 13th. So she needed to prepare for her baptism. 1st step, Great to be 8. But that was way back in January and she really wasn't interested. Let's be honest, she was still basically 7 years old. Next step, Bishop interview. We left Naomi and Audrey home so Ryan, Heidi and I could go meet with Bishop Ogilvie. She was quite silly and had a hard time sitting still, hands in her mouth and feet on the chair a lot, but she made it through with a very understanding bishop who has 4 daughters of his own. Watch for her baptism in the next post. 

 I waited almost 2 weeks for a really cute baptism invitation I had created on Costco.com to come in the mail. I finally logged back in to check the status only to see that the order had not been processed. What?! There was not enough time to order them by that point, so I had to make my own. They still turned out cute, and they were sent out. DONE! Hallelujah. I sat for about 2 hours putting them tougher after printing the invite, cutting to size, adding a photo, taping a ribbon on, writing addresses, and stamping a return address. Ryan asked why I was putting so much time into it, but I really did enjoy it. I want this month and Heidi's baptism to be special for her. It's a big deal. Especially for a middle child.

We were so so so so excited that the Smith's planned to come down to hang out with us for New Years and to be here for Heidi's baptism. We had so many fun adventures, 1st being the parade of floats tour. All these years of going to the parade and we have never known we can go see the floats before the parade. It was quite fun , even though some were not completely finished. It made it more interesting to see them the day of the parade completely finished and moving.

Girls New Years Day Outing!

The Grove, Los Angeles

 After a long excruciating drive home from the grove, Audrey finally gave up the ghost and fell asleep. Hallelujah! Thank you Jesus! She made the drive hair raising with her whining and screaming. I knew she was just tired and restless... But heaven give me patience when I am buckled in a car with a tired 4 year old.

Wendy and Lance went to hang out with the "Smith Clan" for new years dinner. We were ALL worked from a long day out. So by the time 9 rolled around, I put all my kids to bed, planned to stay up just adults, but fell asleep. I woke up 15 min before midnight California time, for some reason, and was able to watch the ball drop in New York, rebroadcasted for MST. I took this pick to document how exciting we were at midnight on new years. Ha!

                              Happy New Years Day. Rose Parade 2015!

We met The Stidham, Brady, and Thompson families for dinner at a dumpling house. It was an adventure with 10 children, but a fun time to get together with extended family. When we finally left, weeny and lance texted everyone to meet them at thrifty for ice cream. However, we were already on the freeway and I knew my girls were down for the count. This was the scene in our car not long after we left. Um, we did not make it to Thriftys, obviously.

The next best thing I did for myself the day after new years? Take my car for a thourough cleaning. I hadn't taken it to the car wash since before our trip to Utah for Thanksgiving.