Happy new year everyone! We are celebrating with the kids tonight. We're eating appetizers for dinner and drinking virgin margaritas. We'll probably play some Wii and maybe some board games. I'll be ringing in the new year in my sleep, since we have 9 o'clock church in the morning. This years resolution is not to make any, I never keep them anyway!

Out with the old and in with the new

You thought this was going to be a new year's post didn't you? Well it's not ;) We're getting ready for our first boy here! So it's out with the pink and in with the blue, well not out with the pink completely. We do still have 3 girls living here. Anyway, our new little guy is going to be all decked out in cute clothes thanks to a shopping spree and lots of gifts from friends and family. Here is just a sampling of what we got!

Highlights of December

piano recital

our gingerbread house

Maren's new bed

first night in her new bed

first night without a binkie

last night in her crib

• We kicked off the month with the annual Carter Christmas party. I love seeing my family and catching up. The kids got to see Santa and we played an old favorite game, Do you love your neighbor.
• We had our annual neighborhood party (adults only) It was a riot as usual!
  
• Addy had her Christmas choir concert and did a great job!
  
• We had a dinner party at Rodizio with Ben's co-workers and the head boss. I was given a quilt by Ben's boss and he was given a nice fat bonus for all of his work with the relocation.
• Sydnee and Maren shared the stomach flu (not really a highlight)
• The kids had their Christmas sing at the school, I barely made it because Maren was sick.
• I took Addy and Sydnee along with my parents and sister to the Nutcracker. This is one of my favorite new traditions we have. Afterward, Ben and Maren met us at the Brick Oven for dinner. They now have gluten free pizza. I was in heaven!
  
• Addy and Sydnee had their piano recital, they both did excellent!
• Maren graduated to a big girl bed, she did really good with the transition.
• Maren also gave up her binkie, not by her choice. It only took two nights of crying to adjust.
• We got to have Daddy home for two weeks!
• We went to the open house at Ben's new office and got the grand tour.
• We went to see the lights at Thanksgiving Point and the reindeer. The kids even got to be on the news while we were there.
• Ben and the kids built a gingerbread house and we all helped decorate it.
• I got to have lunch with 3 of my roommates from Snow College, I love those gals!
• We bought several new appliances and did many home repairs (see two posts down)
• We spent our $300 gift card on a new car seat and a few other little things.
  
• We went to Salt Lake to see the lights at Temple Square.
• We got to eat out 3 times in one week! The kids thought that was the best.
  
• We've spent lots of time together as a family playing and making memories.

I think that's it for the highlights, it's been a busy but fun month! On to the new year and new adventures.

Christmas 2011

The reindeer outfit,
a timeless tradition of hideousness

Christmas Eve jammies

Sydnee's new Rapunzel dress and Barbie

Check out our tree, it only has ornaments
on the top thanks to Maren

Mmmm animal crackers for breakfast!

Christmas dresses
(I should have taken pictures before church)

Miss Addy

We spent Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa Williams. We had a great time eating and visiting. We played Christmas Pictionary, do you love your neighbor? and the kids acted out the nativity. The kids also received their new ornaments from Gma and Gpa and each family received a photobook from mom and dad with pictures of their yard and the grandkids. It was a great evening. The girls got to open their new jammies and put out cookies for Santa and oats for the reindeer. They had a hard time getting to sleep. Ben and I didn't get much sleep either. Ben was sick during the night and I just couldn't sleep. Christmas morning we opened presents, ate breakfast and got ready for church at noon. Ben had to speak in church and we were both praying he would feel good enough to make it. He made it and did a great job, he even showed off his spork he got in his stocking. After church we visited G & G Williams and opened presents, then it was off to Yancey's for the evening. It was kind of a rushed day, but it was very fun and peaceful.

Blessings?

The last few weeks hit the Yancey household pretty hard. Within a week time frame my car broke down, it required $600 in repairs, our deep freeze broke, one of the burners in our stove top broke, our dishwasher was teetering on its last leg and our garage door opener broke. I wasn't too thrilled about all of this, but Ben reminded me that we were very blessed this year and that he received a nice Christmas bonus so we didn't have to go into debt to pay for everything. I am grateful for the bonus Ben got and that he has a good job. Sometimes its hard to see the silver linings when the bad stuff happens. Happily, my car is fixed and so is the stove. We have a new dishwasher, freezer and a garage door opener.