Accepting Reality

After a few years time I have finally faced the reality that my wedding ring no longer fits me. I kept hoping somehow it would fit again without turning my whole finger numb. But, I faced the truth and finally had it resized. I went from a 4 1/2 to a 5 1/2. A whole size! It was hard to accept the fact that I am not the same size I was when I was married. Thank goodness we don't have to try and fit in our wedding dresses again. Now that would be a very sad day.

Now that it has been resized, I love having it fit. It feels brand new again and I keep staring at it like I did when I first was given it. I look forward to putting it on instead of resenting it because it didn't fit any more. I still love it and love wearing it again.

That which we call a Rose...

What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Cassidy Rose!

We call Cassidy, Dee Dee, all the time. I figured she would pick up on that as her name. But when I asked her one day Dee Dee what? and she said Rose, it took me by surprise. That is her middle name. I do call her that a lot, but it was so cute to hear her say it. I hadn't taught her that or rehearsed it with her. She just picked it up from me saying it. Isn't it adorable?

Brian Regan

Over the holidays my sister brought three DVDs of the comedian Brian Regan for us to watch. He was so funny and Ryan and I took to his humor quickly. As we watched videos on YouTube we decided to see if he was on tour. We were so excited when we saw his tour was coming to our town. We saw him last night. When we bought the tickets we had tried to look at the theater map to see where our seats were but we couldn't find where CC was. When we were actually there and were led to our seats we were a little shocked. They had put three rows of folding chairs in front of the row where the regular theaters seats began. We were in the third row of those folding chairs, in the center. He was so close to us it wasn't almost uncomfortable but I was laughing too hard to care. Ryan and I had such a great time. We love laughing and especially laughing together. We have continued to quote his bits and still find ourselves laughing. He takes everyday simple things and makes them so funny. One of our favorites is when he talks about passengers sitting in first class and how you feel like such a peon walking past them to get to the coach seats. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9em-ZCddWk&feature=related ) He has such funny facial expressions and is so animated which makes it all the funnier. All the bits we had seen on DVD and on the internet were clean so we were hoping he was still clean in person. He is! That is the best thing about him is that he is entirely clean. No swear words, no inappropriate humor. Just clean. So go check him out.

http://www.brianregan.com/experience-av.html

I decided that if I was a queen I would definitely have a court jester. Wouldn't it be great to just have someone around that all they were in charge of doing was making you laugh?

From the Office of the First Presidency!

My mom called me today and immediately just started reading me a letter she and my dad had received in the mail. I thought she was reading me a letter my dad had received and already talked to me about but I got confused when I heard my son's name mentioned. Then it clicked. Remember the story where Aidan called the neighbor boy Uchtdorf ? My dad enjoyed the story so much he felt the need to write the story to Pres. Uchtdorf himself. My dad had told me awhile ago that he had done that. I was a little embarrassed but didn't think much of it. Well, the letter my parents received was from the office of the First Presidency, from President Uchtdorf.

I was laughing so hard when my mom was done reading it to me. I was in shock and a little embarrassed. I hope he took the story well. But honestly to hear him write about MY OWN son and reference MY FAMILY was amazing. For one tiny moment, President Uchtdorf was thinking about MY FAMILY. We really love him and look forward to every time he speaks. We have a special place in our hearts for him because of who he is and also because he is a pilot. We felt honored he had replied to our silly story. Aidan was beaming when he read the actual letter. It will be something he will treasure for a lifetime.

Is this a problem?

What mom? I was thirsty.

HO HO, La La, and Money

Cassidy has begun to make up nicknames for people. She has a little friend that she calls LoLo. It is cute to hear talk about her, which is a lot. Well, while in Utah everytime my dad came over to Blake's house he would walk in saying "Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas!" Cassidy got very excited everytime she heard him and started saying Ho Ho Ho herself. Then we realized that when she talked about Grandpa she called him Ho Ho. If my mom came over without my dad she would say "Where's ho ho?" It was so cute. Even still she calls him Ho Ho. I love it!

I was trying to teach Cassidy, her cousin Madison's name. She goes by Maddie a lot so that's what we worked on. The first couple of times she called her Money. I thought it was so funny so I didn't correct her. After spending some time with "Money", Cassidy started to say it a little better so sometimes it would actually sound like Maddie. Otherwise, it is still Money.

Then, My sister Melinda came to Utah for a bit too and somehow she was given the nickname La La. Yes all these names are starting to sound like the Teletubbies which she has never ever seen. It is fun though to have her recognize family and call them by their names, or at least the names she has given them.

New Year's Crazy Hat Party

It has become our tradition to have a crazy hat party for New Year's Eve. Blake and I had planned to have a big party at his house and to incorporate this tradition. I must say Estee and Blake were my biggest supporters. We had a whole ton of people, lots of food, and lots of crazy hats. Cassidy felt the need to try on every one's hat. She looked cute in every single one.


Aidan and Lacey changed it up a couple of times too.
There were plenty of other cute people in their hats too. Here are a few.




We played games with the kids and then had a random countdown to zero when we were good and ready. Blake and Estee had bought some confetti bombs that surprised everyone. Here we were trying to be all conservative and not mess up Blake's house. After the countdown we did sparklers. The adults stayed up till the real countdown and toasted to some nasty tasting sparkling fruit juice. It was fun to spend the new years with everyone.

And "hats off" to Blake and Estee the winners of the best hats! Thanks for being great hosts!
We will have to up our game next year and out do our hats from this year. Happy 2010!