Christmas! 25th and 26th combined (in pictures)!

 

1- Santa Clause, and that he came to our house!

2- Pretty Christmas Trees . . .

3- and scared/excited faces! (I really can’t tell which emotion this is!)

4- This face (surprise!)

5- And this face (what’s that? . . . I think I might want it!)

6- And this face (gimme that camera!)

7- And definitely this face (what’s going on here – said super slow mo)

8- And yes, even this face (your ear is mine!!!!)

9- And that I finally uploaded those pictures to the computer! (From the Festival of Tress the first week of December)

10- I’m grateful that we get together every year for a Christmas party with my dad and his family.

11- And that their house is freaking amazingly beautiful and their Christmas decorations spectacular.

12- And that, for the first time, Kaiah was able to spend Christmas with them, too!

13- And how cute she was with the present bows in her hair . . .

14- And that of all the bows stuck to her, she chose to pull out the one that was actually suppose to be there!

15- And this face (how could you do this to me, mom?!?)

16- One of Kaiah’s new Christmas outfits . . .

17- And that we got a HUGE bag of rice for Christmas, to go along with our . . .

18- Brand new gigantic and super nice rice cooker! (Thanks to Ashley and Megan, my Canadian Freshmas roommates for introducing me to rice cookers for the first time!)

19- Thing 1 and Thing 2 outfits from Grandma and Grandpa Bright

20- My mom’s animated hand motions

21- And this face (really, another picture?)

22- That we were able to spend Christmas with Cloe and Noah (Stephen’s kids).

23- That Cloe is the BEST babysitter I have EVER met! She had Kaiah entertained crawling away from the evil “humans” and giving her “victory cheerios” for hours! Then she entertained Caleb (4 yrs old) by zapping the evil witch (my mom) and obliterating her brain. LOVE CLOE!

24- That Noah pretends that he doesn’t like Kaiah, but then he giver her kisses and calls her Kaiah Bug and plays with her when no one is watching! It melts my heart to see the look in his eyes when he plays with Kaiah!

25- That Kaiah has two more people to call aunt and uncle

26- That Cloe prepared a beautiful song to perform for us on Christmas Eve – complete with her own homemade song book!

27- That she has a KILLER voice!

28- That I don’t find them near as annoying as I used to! (no offense ). They are getting older and I grow to love them more and more every year!

29- That Kaiah was able to spend Christmas Eve with my immediate and closest family . . . Jer, Kaiah, Grandma We We, Grandpa Bright, Aunt Cloe, Uncle Noah, Aunt Kamie, Uncle Alex, Cousin Ari, Uncle Joe-face, and great grandma Jaylene!

30- That they all wanted to capture the action, except for my grandma who would have the slightest clue what to do with a camera!

31- And that my grandma is priceless . . .

32- Kaiah’s first Christmas present (from Aunt Cloe and Uncle Noah)

33- And this face! (Presents . . . please!)

34- Christmas pajamas

35 – And cousin kisses!

36- New big girl convertible car seat (thanks grandma we we!)

37- And big girl Tinkerbell bean bags!

38- Stylin hats

39 – And shoes . . .

40- And clothes!

41- Entire new wardrobes – Kaiah is set for the whole year!

42 – And new storage bins – Kaiah loves pulling things out of them!

43- Stuffed animals and books

44- New froggy rockers

45- And more toys than one girl could possible need!

46- Gloworm toys from Grandma and Grandpa Payne. I had one when I was a baby and I loved it, and Kaiah loves hers, too!

47- That we were able to host Christmas this year. Thanks to both my family and Jer’s for coming to our house!

48- And that we didn’t have to drive all over the place (we usually do Heber and Tooele all on Christmas day!)

49- That becoming a mom has brought on a whole new level of Christmas – it is so much more exciting!

50-  And that I get to do this all over again next year.

51- And that even though Jer and I only bought Kaiah really cheap essentials (hangers, bowl, and hair clips), she got PLENTY from all of her grandparents! It is nice to know that Kaiah can still get spoiled even though her parents are poor!

Christmas Eve Gratitude

1- Today I am grateful for Christmas, and for everything that it stands for. Specifically, I am grateful for:

2- A Heavenly Father who loves me. Me, personally.

3- That He loves me so much, He sent his Son to atone for me.

4- That His Son, Jesus Christ, was not only willing to die for me, but embraced that task and did it willingly.

5- That because of this sacrifice, I can be forgiven of my mistakes.

6- Because of this sacrifice, I can live with my Heavenly Father again.

7- And, that because of this sacrifice, I can pray to someone who knows and understands everything that I am feeling and going through . . . everything.

8- I am grateful that I know that prayers are personal communication with someone who loves me. I don’t have to recite memorized prayers or pray through a 3rd party saint. I can pray directly to my Heavenly Father who wants to hear from me.

9- And that those prayers are heard and answered.

10- I am grateful for the lessons that Jesus taught while He ministered to his brothers and sisters.

11- And that I have been taught to read those words.

12- I’m grateful that Jesus set up His church, delegating responsibilities to prophets and apostles.

13- And that His true church was restored to Joseph Smith, who was willing and worthy to do the things needed of him.

14- And that the power of the Priesthood was restored, too.

15- And that I have that power in my home.

16- I am grateful for everything the Priesthood can do

17- And that, through that power, we have modern day prophets

18- who love us

19- and receive continual revelation specific to problems we face today

20- from a Heavenly Father who is never changing and, therefore, loves us just as much as those in the past, so He sends us revelations, too.

21- And that I can receive personal revelation for myself and my own family.

22- And that this guides my life

23- And gives me peace.

24- And I am grateful that I know these things – without a doubt. I know.

Thursday 23

I’m starting to lose track of what I have already included on my list! I swear my brain worked better when I was younger! If I accidently repeat – forgive me!

1- Our new cinnamon roll recipe – most delicious thing I have ever made! (besides Kaiah)

2- “While You Were Sleeping.” Favorite. Movie. Ever. I watch it every Christmas and I love love love it.

3- That Jer found our DVD of the above. I thought that were threw away the VHS and didn’t have a copy anymore, but Jer found our DVD! Yay!

4- Sandra Bullock – best actress ever.

5- That every time I watch “While You Were Sleeping” I am reminded of all of the time I spent watching and rewatching it growing up and basing my life around it. Pathetic, a little. But true.

6- That Jer hasn’t ever seen “While You Were Sleeping,” so he is experiencing its majesty in its fullness now. I love it.

7- Watching the bottom of our tree fill up with presents.

8- Vacuum cleaners. I wonder what people did before them.

9- That tomorrow’s Christmas Eve!

10- The tickly feeling I get at the end of a great movie!

11- Clean bathrooms.

12- Big living rooms that can host my whole family!

13- Recipes that can be made early and put in the fridge.

14- Sugar

15- Fat free sour cream

16- That my hubby always tries to suggest things about himself that I should add to my gratitude list.

17- Big storage space. I finally have a place for all of my wrapping paper!

18- My collection of cards. I always have at least a couple different birthday, Christmas, thank you, etc cards on hand.

19- That I recycle gift bags. Never spend money on bags!

20- That my mommy knows that I love recycled gift bags, so she always buys me really cute ones for my birthday.

21- For McDonalds. Hate it if you will, but every once in awhile I just got to have my two cheeseburger combo meal.

22- That my husband has long arms. He is average height, but his arm length is huge! Works well for a shorty like me :)

23- That when my hubby goes on rants about work and goes into lots of details that takes hours – seriously, you should hear them. Kamie and Alex call him “Buzz Killington” from Family Guy because his stories are so boring. Anyway, I am grateful that when he goes on and on about these stories, I can reply with “I’m sorry honey” and then kinda tune him out and everyone ends up happy in the end :)

Wednesday 22

1- Days off of work. There is nothing better than a little extra time with my bug.

2- Extra long naps. Kaiah slept for a whopping 3 hours this afternoon! I never check on her during her naps because she wakes up really easily, but I checked on her several times because I just couldn’t believe that she was still asleep! But sure enough, she was sleeping soundly . . . which leads me to . . .

3- Kaiah’s adorable sleeping face. I never get to see her asleep because she wakes up when I step one toe into her room, but today I actually got to admire her while she slept. Priceless. Her checks look all fat and hang down ever lower than usual.

4- Our home teacher. We haven’t ever had consistent home teachers until this ward – we have a winner! His companion is never at church, but our home teacher still comes every month by himself, with his wife, or someone else. He is awesome.

5- Cleaning. Our house is always a disaster and I am definitely not a cleaner, but every once in awhile it is nice to take a break from the mentally draining work and just get my hands dirty.

6- That I am typing this without looking at the keys. Embarrassing, but I just never really learned how to type correctly. I used to be really slow and always looked at the keys, but over the past 3-ish years I have really improved! Life saver!

7- Toe nail polish. Amazing how it can make me feel so much better.

8- That someday Kaiah and I will be able to paint our toes together.

9- That you can buy gift cards at the grocery store! We got two more Christmas gifts done today while shopping.

10- That Kamie uses us as her taste testers/garbage disposals! Yes! Kamie and Alex are picky eaters, so they bring all the goodies they don’t want down to us. Tonight it was Kamie’s trail run of her Christmas dessert. Yum!

11- My bread machine. I definitely am not a huge baker, but the bread machine has been used a zillion times. I would be lost making recipes that call for yeast without it.

12- That I use the wrong fingers when typing. It drives Jer nuts and I think it’s funny. I hold my hands correctly, but I use my pointer finger for the space bar instead of my thumb!

13- That Utah is getting slaughtered. I don’t really like Boise State either, but I am happy that the Dirty Utes are losing!

14- That heads fit so well on shoulders. Bahaha. You know, like when you lay your head down on someone’s shoulder and it just fits so well? Yeah.

15-  That Kaiah’s toys have taken the place of presents under our tree. We knew that if we put presents under the tree then disaster would occur, so we just put her toys under the tree instead.

16- Rechargeable batteries. Genius.

17- Allrecipes.com. I use it ALL the time!

18- That I have a heart. I know I said that I wanted Utah to lose, and I do, but I also feel so bad for them. I wish that everyone could feel good about their performance. Poor stupid Utes!

19- Clean sheets.

20- That Jer always helps me make the bed.

21- That Jer doesn’t steal the covers.

22- That I still have another shopping day before Christmas Eve. We are NOT ready yet. Oh dear. Here’s to last minute shopping!

Tuesday 21

1- Harry Potter – of course! I love it all – the books and the movies! We finally saw The Dealthy Hallows today and we both thought it was awesome!

2- Buying presents. Best. feeling. ever. oh wait . . .

3- Buying presents with my sister! Now that is the best feeling ever!

4- Thinking of a good surprise present for my hubby – I never surprise him, but I think I actually will this year!

5- Slobbery kisses from Kaiah

6- Playing in the mirror with Kaiah. She thinks it is so funny to look at me in the mirror, and then turn her head really fast and look at me! Adorable.

7- That I know have an excuse to wait in the car while Jer runs into Walmart – Kaiah is sleeping!

8- Dessert pizza. Yum!

9- Watching trailers before the movie. We always get there before the trailers because we LOVE seeing what is coming up!

10- Men’s razors. They work really well on my legs!

11- That my OCD doesn’t bother me too often. I am pretty terrible and if something bothers my OCD-ness then I use my fingernails to push my gums up until they hurt really bad – weird I know. Anyway, I am grateful that I don’t resort to the gum pushing too often.

12- The way my hubby looks with short hair – yowza!

13- Cold water.

14- And hot water – when I am showering!

15- Surprise groceries from mommy.

16- Getting a good ab working through laughing with Kamie.

17- That when Kamie is making fun of me she uses the voice of that dad on “King of the Hill.” Apparently I sound like a middle-aged white trashy male when I am speaking?

18- good head scratches.

19- That my baby is a girl and I can put her in cute dresses whenever I want.

20- New windshield wipers.

21- That I grew up in a generation that was still taught how to savor things. I knew had to use a pay phone and that I needed to plan ahead. I didn't have a cell phone in high school. I learned to cherish the good things. Kids today get so many things thrown at them, they are always filled with instant gratification and don’t have to hold on to what they have now since something new is always around the corner.

Monday 20–Love from students!

Today my Christmas gift to my students was a pass-it-forward gratitude opportunity – I gave them “Thank You” cards to fill out for a teacher, coach, or worker at our school. Little did I know that at the end of the day I would find a whole stack of Thank You cards in my box! It wasn’t really my intention (I wanted to spread the joy around the school!) but I must admit that hearing their nice words did make my whole year! So, today I am grateful for my favorite segments from the letters:

Mrs. Payne,

1- “You are always so happy and energetic and whenever I come here I can’t help myself but to be happy. And you have made me realize that I can do hard things.”

2- “I am thankful you are a really good teacher”

3- “I am so thankful that you are my teacher. I was dreading English this year but then I got your class and we are learning real fun things.”

4- “I would like to thank you for all the support you gave me on our one on one interview. Many of the teachers expect us to get what they teach us on the first try, but you get that we need time to get things right. Many times I have had doubts about something and haven’t had the guts to ask you but after our talk I feel that I can ask anything and you would help me. You are a rare teacher . . . Thanks to you I feel that a teacher actually cares about what we think and feel.”

5- “I can honestly say that you have been my favorite English teacher that I have ever had.”

6- “I really do enjoy this class and learn something new every class period.”

7- “Your crazy side is my favorite because you say weird things and act hilarious and it’s the best to watch because you’re in a really good mood and it affects everyone else.”

8- “I like how you write comments on each of our papers. They are always so nice and informative. I always learn something new from every comment that is written.”

9- “You really have taught me how to put the stuff we learn into my life.”

10- “Thank you for helping me with my reading, like suggesting The Hunger Games (which is a great book).”

11- “Thank you for teaching me how to use MLA format. I’ve been using it in all of my classes and I’ve been getting much better score on my papers . . . these are things that I will use for years to come.”

12- “You have really helped me reach my learning potential. You individually help each students and it really makes a difference.”

13- “I learn a lot more because class is enjoyable.”

14- “You are without a doubt my favorite teacher. You explain everything so clearly and you make learning fun.”

15- “I have hated classical literature my whole life, until I have gone to this class! I was talking to my friend, and she just moved. Right before she moved she had to read Romeo and Juliet and her whole school despised it! She told me that the teachers here are “brainwashing” us into loving it! Isn’t that a good thing? That’s my point! You are such a great teacher and you are so into it, so that makes the rest of us into it!”

16- “Even though I thought you were crazy in the beginning of the year, you really show that you care about your students by really thinking about our seating choice. When I sat in the back with  --------- I didn’t do so well, but you changed my seating to the front where I actually learn. I’m also grateful of you as a teacher that you took the most boring story that almost everyone hates to a story that sounds like the most interesting thing ever.”

17- “Before this class I felt like I was really bad at writing anything . . . I feel that now I am not terrible at English. I really want to express my gratitude more, but I can’t find the words.”

18- “You make Honors English so much fun even though it’s a very hard class.”

19- “You are such a happy person and you’re one of the people that just make me want to be like you . . . I love how you connect everything to your life and make everything understandable.”

20- “Thank you for unfolding the amazingness of Romeo and Juleit. It kills me to stop watching/reading/talking about Romeo and Juliet.”

*Bonus - “I really enjoy your class because it is the only class that I feel I can really express myself and feel comfortable in the class. I’ve realized that your teaching style is much much different from the other teachers, and that is why I am so excited to come to your class everyday. You’re not afraid to express yourself . . . you are not afraid to put yourself out there and that is why so many students love you.”

*Bonus – “Even though your class is one of my hardest, it has been one of the funnest classes I have had!”