Monday, December 19, 2011

Santa

Last Thursday was a big day for Tracen and I.  I finished my internship (i no longer have an excuse to sit and watch TV all day) and Tracen got to go see Santa.

We got him all dressed up in his best clothes.. and he got to talk to Papahashi about what we were going to do. 

He seemed kind of unsure of whatever Papahashi was telling him


We went to Cross Iron mills for the free pictures with Santa, I probably wouldn't have taken him to see Santa had it not been free.


He seemed to like Santa, we sat him on his lap and he just sat there, no tears, no smiles, just content.  


And because the angle was a little off the first time, we got another free shot.

I love how Santa is looking down at him.
Turns out Tracen made it to the Nice list this year!


Oh, and if anyone was wondering what Tracen would look like had be been part of the Jackson 5, here is the answer:





Wednesday, December 14, 2011

I always feel best...

Lately, with talk of Christmas and it's true meaning I've been reflecting a lot about past Christmas' and times that I have really felt what i believe is true christmas spirit.  And I realized that I always feel best when i am doing service.  

I have also been thinking about a time where our Sunday School class took "Christmas" to a less fortunate family in Calgary (thank you sister paxman for this experience).  

We (Luke and I) decided to do something similar with the 14-16 year old Sunday School Class we teach, they were really excited about the idea too.  We got some decorations for them to paint, and then were praying to know who we could give a Christmas tree too.  Our prayers were answered when we heard a sister bear her testimony and mention that this was her first christmas without any of her family (she is a recent convert and from the phillipines).  We decorated a little tree with the ornaments the class painted and each member wrote her a card with a special christmas message.  We invited her into our class and presented the tree and cards to her.  A few members of our class explained to her that she had a ward family who loved and cared for her, the joy that we could see in her eyes filled our hearts.  She was so grateful, but I think i felt almost as happy and as her, and so grateful for the opportunity to forget myself and do something for someone else.  Luke and I have made a goal to do something like this every year.

Today my friend Stephy sent me this picture that she somehow found:


it literally brought tears to my eyes for a couple of reasons:
a) this is from my time at BYU in Provo, and i miss it
b) this is from Adaptive Aquatics that i used to go volunteer with every friday, and it was one of those times i felt my best.  Adaptive Aquatics was a program where we would play with mentally challenged children for a few hours every friday, and it was the perfect way to start every weekend.  

This picture helped remind me that there are opportunities all year round and not only at christmas.  How  wonderful would it be to take advantage of ALL these opportunities and feel my best all year round???

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

13 weeks old


Tomorrow Tracen will be 13 weeks old.  I am pretty sure that I was never effective with my time before those 13 weeks like I am now.  

Tracen is still a great baby - and just keeps getting to be more fun.  He makes me laugh when he talks, and his smiles always make me smile - even if sometimes they have to be earned. 

Sometimes he can be a little bit shy and is very good at ignoring people right in his face.  

 He was very excited that Grammie made her way home on Friday. 

We went to a dance birthday party and he loved to listen to the music and dance with her. 


He even wore his party hat without any complaints. 

He even let me dance with him for a bit. 


How cute is corban?? He thoroughly enjoyed the party as well. 


I am pretty sure that if Tracen's eyes are going to stay BLUE!! YAY!


On Saturday we ventured out in the snow and made our way to our church Christmas party.  A drive that usually takes about 30 minutes ended up taking us and hour and a half because of the dumping of snow.  But it was worth the drive. 



I particularly enjoyed the turkey feast and decorations. 

This was Luke last night playing with an antenna.  He wanted the picture on the blog - i don't even know what to say about the picture...