Leavitt Christmas

When we arrived in Cedar we went to my Grandma Leavitt's house. A lot of my cousin's were there that I haven't seen for awhile so it was fun to catch up. Plus the nativity and singing the songs. I love singing Christmas hymns at my grandma's house, it's always magical and you can feel the spirit so strongly. I can remember doing it as a little girl and I feel the same way every year. We then went to my parents house. All my siblings and their families were there this year. It was so much fun. Christmas eve we have a tradition of the Christmas Mouse. It's a mouse that comes and hides a box of books and then we have to all search for it. (a box with some kind of toy mouse on top). It's always a competition to see who finds it..even among the adults...a bit juvenile I know. Bracken was the victor the past two years but Heather found it this year! Christmas morning was entertaining.

A few highlights:

My mom getting the David Archelta CD from Heather for Christmas (we all know she has a mom crush on him!)

Parker getting a calculator watch from Bracken & me. Just to remind him of his junior high days. (Plus don't all budding accountants own one?)

Dixon receiving carpet skates from Brooke then proceeding to go- fall- down the stairs with them on (see bottom right picture)

Dad singing "Them Poems" and tearing up to the framed feed sack my grandma used to make dresses out of when she was going to college.

Xander's excited face when he got the spiderman toy from Rachel. Seriously it was like the kids on commericals excited. I wish the picture was bigger on the collage.

Kamri got a little doll and she started waving to it after she opened it.

Heather got me a windsor pilates for Christmas. So now I have no excuse to not workout! So anyone that lives close, if you want to come do some pilates with me and make fun of the people on the video as we do soo...i'd love someone to laugh with while I be an old lady doing a workout video.

Later that day we went to Brooke & Mac's house to play guitar hero and eat dinner. I pretty much rock at that game. ok i probably was the worst one. Friday my little sister, Heather, Hayes and I played in the snow all morning (I'll have another post for that) while Bracken worked. That night Bracken and I went on a double date with Heather and her friend Kyler. We went and saw the 7 pounds. Bracken hated it, I didn't think it was that bad but wouldn't watch it a second time. Then we went to applebees and ate. That was the first movie we've gone to since Kamri was born so it was fun to go out. It felt like our time in Cedar flew by. Saturday we drove home and luckily only hit bad weather the last half hour of the drive. Hayes & Kamri were troopers and we didn't have to stop the whole 4 1/2 hour drive!

Holmgren Christmas

Christmas eve day we went to Bracken's grandma's house for a party with his mom's side of the family. The picture in the middle is all of her great-grandkids. To the right of that picture is the picture of all the girls in line trying to entertain them while the picture was taken. Good times. We draw names for presents and get a dollar store present. Some of them end up being pretty entertaining. They also have this fun tradition that we answer 20 questions about the next year and at the party next December we see how many people got them right. (like how many people will be pregnant at the party next year, how many people will move, etc.) It's fun to see what your expectation was and what really turned out to be. There was lots of food and it's always fun to see family we don't see as often. Kamri got to see her...i guess 2nd cousin..McKinley, they are a week apart. It was fun to watch them grabbing at each other! After the Holmgren party we left for our long drive down to Cedar. Luckily the weather was perfect (just snow storms the day before and the day after!)

So Studious

I dumped out my last textbook out of my backpack so I could take my backpack to the library and Kamri grabbed the highlighter and started turning the pages of the book, it looked so funny to me I had to take some pictures. I guess since I'm done now it's her turn ;)

Longhurst Christmas

We had the Longhurst christmas party on the 23rd. So many little kids, I had to sit back and laugh at the pure chaos with all of them opening their presents. Everyone in Bracken's family was there which made it even more fun. Hayes got a tent & tube set from Grandma Neece and Grandpa Paul and he got a play phone from Carver. (He played with that phone for two hours during the car ride to Cedar...great present!) Kamri got a doll and a book about dolls. Perfect! Now she doesn't have to play with trucks all the time! The older kids got kid digital cameras. It was funny to watch them running around taking pictures of everything and then showing them off. All the guys went skiing during the day, Bracken said it was one of the top three best ski days he had ever had! I guess the crazy snowstorm we had Christmas eve and the day before were worth it!

Bathtime

Kamri can finally sit up well enough I put her in the bathtub with Hayes. Sweet..no more having to do two seperate baths....we're all about efficiency in this household.

Sledding

When we were in Cedar we found a little mound of snow from the snowplows by my parents house. Hayes loved it but I think my sister Heather and I had just as much fun laughing at ourselves!

We built a little jump for Hayes and he LOVED it until the last time he flew clear into the air and landed on his bum. We should have added more snow to the sidewalk so it was a softer landing! Heather and I were trying now to laugh because it looked so funny when it happened but he was crying. Later that night when I was giving him a bath I noticed a big bruise on his bum. Poor kid, gets hurt at his mom just laughs.

Graduation

This post is a little late but I graduated on Dec 13. I wasn't going to walk but Bracken convinced me to do it. Thanks to my family that came to the ceremony! My parents: Dane & Ruth, two of my siblings: Heather and EJ, and Bracken's parents: Paul & Denise

We left the kids at Telly & Kristin's house (thank you so much for watching them) I don't think they'd enjoy sitting that long (heck the adults probably didn't either!)

I graduated in Economics. Going to the commencement ceremony really made me think a lot about why i finished. First, let's be honest, without my mom pushing me and without Bracken's support I never would have finished. Plus the huge help Mother-in-law & Sister-in-laws were in always babysitting when I had class or needed to study while Bracken was working. I feel like not only did I learn a lot about economics but I also learned a lot about myself while I finished school. I hate asking for/receiving help from others but with two kids and trying to go to school it's impossible to not get help from others. I had to swallow my pride and just realize how blessed I am that I have family and friends that offered so willingly to babysit. I learned that although I am really bad at focusing on one thing until it's finished, it is possible. I also learned how to better manage my time, although I still don't do as well as I should.

The other thing that was funny about graduation was people asking what I was going to do with my degree. Since I'm not working I'm not really going to be "using" it on a day to day basis. And although talking about the law of demand or marginal diminishing returns MIGHT put Hayes & Kamri to sleep for their naps, I kinda doubt it. Hopefully I'll remember enough from my classes I'll be able to help them with their math homework (at least in first grade..right?) and my online classes taught me that I don't need to be in class t0 learn but I can just read or research what I'm interested in. All the writing I had to do in college has really helped me write better but I still need some work on conveying my feelings in my writing. Economic papers are just not emotional! Anyway, the point of this post I guess is Yahoo! I'm done!