Christmas 2008

And we finally mastered it ~ It was great !

Happy kids all day, good food, and just the right amount of presents. In the past we've given too many (nothing expensive, just too much) and even had wrapped presents left weeks after Christmas 2 years ago. This year they were exited to open everything we gave and were ready to play with what they had by the time we were done...and didn't ask for more when we were done. Oh and I don't think we bought a single thing due to my extreme over buying last year. Perfect.





Our camera crew



Our Christmas Angels

And our day after Christmas surprise

(although I guess it shouldn't be a surprise in Utah, but this is A LOT of snow!)

I love how Talm is in mid-air right now

Love It

And look at this other cute pic I found of my sister and Mckayla

Howlett Kid Updates

M~c~k~a~y~l~a My sweet Mckayla. This was her 5 year old picture we took yesterday. She's such a doll! Lately Miss Mckayla has been into QVC, you know, home shopping network stuff? Yeah she turns the channel there herself, admires the beautiful jewelry, the amazing home gadgets, and then runs in to tell me "Mom, you need to call ###-#### to get this awesome......" and then procedes to describe it just as they did, advertising phrases and all. I accidently burned her with the curling iron yesterday and as she was crying she said "see Mom, I told you curling your hair can be a nightmare!" - something she'd heard on an infomercial. Oh the humor.

T-a-l-m-a-g-e

Mr Talmage. How cute is he? Currently as I type this he is being Captain Huggyface from Word Girl, a PBS show they watch. He is such a playmate to Mckayla. They pretend all day long. He loves to play with kids her age, actually any boy of any age older than him. He's kind of rough though, generally pile driving those he wants to play with. He's doing so great potty training too.

K a i t l y n

Little Kate. She's so cute sitting up now. She tries to pull herself on her knees from sitting. It's so funny to watch her creep forward toward something while sitting and using those little fingers to pick everything up (time to baby proof again). She just cut her first tooth this week. Sweet girl.

Family Pics

So we had family pictures taken last week thanks to my lovely friend Heidi who so generously gave me a session with Amy for my birthday. Thanks Ladies! I'm so happy with them, and Amy was so great to work with and is very affordable.
So here are our family shots, tell me which you like best in the poll. Thanks!

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Happy Birthday Sis!

It's not shameful to mention my own birthday if it's shared with my sister, right? Right. It's our birthday today. It's been a good day. She and her husband Ryan are here from Michigan this week. I got to sleep in a bit, go for a nice run, eat a yummy breakfast I didn't have to make, then my sister, mom, Mckayla and I went to get pedicures. Very fun. I'm so glad we got to spend this birthday together, I miss her while she's away.

Happy Birthday Sis, we're now legal to rent a car!

Winter is upon us...really?

On a day like this? I think not




On second thought....YES IT IS!

This lovely picture is of my feet frostbitten after a 35 mile ride today. It doesn't look near as dark as it was. I had the "luxery" of riding into a headwind on the way out and have it turn to face me again on the way home. I was soooo cold and mad that the wind had turned, but I've learned that anger doesn't help, it's just a matter of getting home quickly. I was cold when I got home, but not shivering or anything. I sat down to feed Kaitlyn for a few minutes, got up and my feet just stung so badly when I put them on the ground, not like fallen asleep sting, much worse. I climbed in the shower to try to warm up (I did not put my feet right under the warm water, just let the water run down my legs), and was met with just horrible pain. I was writhering on the floor of the shower while my feet were stinging and had the most intense itching feeling whether I was in the water or not. It was really bad and from what my parents have told me (my mom is a nurse practitioner), I'm lucky to be feeling fine as I am now.
Who would have thought that a gorgeous sunny day with no wind and no clouds in the sky that was a comfortable temperature when I left would be so cold. I even had long sleeves, tights, an ear warmer, and gloves on, but I guess it's time to pull out the big gun layers.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Jer's the big 28 today. Happy Birthday, we love you!

Just a little somethin' to brighten your day

This one's for you Sis! My sister is an awesome ER nurse in Michigan. Seriously, if you're ever going to get hurt, try to do it in Lansing ;-) I'm sure she'll see this tonight while at work. She loves this little guy. Can't wait to see you in 10 days!

What an awesome little man! He's even potty training really well right now (knock on wood...all of you...right now!).

Happy Birthday Mckayla!

My sweet baby Mckayla turned 5 today! We love her so much and are so grateful she's a part of our family!

We started out our day with breakfast of her choice: "sugar cereal" Cinnamon Toast Crunch and chocolate milk. She's not too hard to please, huh? Then we headed to the swimming pool. This girl is a true fish, she LOVES the water! She got to jump off the diving board 3 times! I say got to because that pool wasn't technically open for open swim - ah the advantages of being an employee :-) She only jumped on my head once, otherwise, all by herself.

Then we went to Artic Circle for lunch. Once again, easy to please; mini corn dogs, lemonade, a tiny ice cream cone, a small playground and she's good.

Talmage also found lunch apetizing (yes that's fry sauce and ketchup he's downing by the cupful before I got to him)

They just finished watching a Barbie movie and then we will be creating her cupcake castle for dessert over at Grandma and Grandpa Allan's.

Halloween!

It's late coming and picture heavy, but fun. Enjoy!

The kids and I went to a carnival at the fitness center thursday. I was nervous to have them myself with all those people but they were really good. Mckayla is such a good little caretaker and Talm is getting so big. Miss Kaitlyn wasn't so happy while we were there as it was bedtime (yes I have a 7:00pm bedtime baby - yay!). She is getting big as well. She thinks it's fun to sit up in the stroller and hold onto the tray, and is sitting up on her own on the floor now too.

Much to the dismay of the workers, Talm was fly fishing at the fishing wall, pulling the line back and forth before they were done. That's my boy! You like his ring toss attempt? So much for the toss ;-) And check out the sucker in his mouth. He never let go of it. I found him today with 3 in his mouth. Nice.....

Check out the cool Tinkerbell clippie in Mckayla's hair. Kaitlyn has a cool ladybug one too. Thanks to Grandma Marla for getting Mckayla her "lovely" (in Mckayla's words) costume.

And sweet Kate. It's usually her thumb in her mouth (she chews, doesn't suck) and I think it's super cute.

On to the big day, Halloween! The weather was great, close to 70 I think and only a few sprinkles here and there. Talmage was a bit nervous to approach the few scary decorated houses, and prefered to watch at a distance. The kids had a great time trick-or-treating and made off with a TON of candy! Mckayla had me carry her bucket by the end, but Talm wouldn't let us, he wanted to drag his 10lb bag of candy all the way home. They have eated less so far than I would've guessed. I on the other hand, well, we won't talk about that :-)

Miss Mckayla was so exited to trick or treat. I wish we'd gotten it on video, but it was the cutest thing in the world to see her just book it from house to house, those little legs shuffling so fast under her poofy skirt. She was a really good sister for Talm too, always helping him get up to the doors as he was a bit timid sometimes.

A better pic of Talmage's costume. I'm really happy with how it turned out. His face reflects his holding his 10lb bag of candy himself.


My Katie-Ladybug!

I made her pants and top from an Old Navy fleece, and her wings from a hanger and a pair of knee high nylons.