Katrina's Best and Worst of 2007

So, here it is, again. The end of another year. For some reason, I'm really excited about the start of 2008. Maybe its all my great calendars that I get to put up. ~shrugs~ Well, who knows, but I thought I'd reminisce about the past year that was pretty much the best of times, and the not-so best of times for me.
(I was gonna say "worst", but that would be laying it on way too thick.)


Let's start with the worst and just get those over with:

5. Getting sick in in-laws basement in Utah not once, but twice.
4. Baby's broken arm.
3. Three months w/o a camera just to learn that we were using the wrong batteries!
2. Car rolling down Rochelle's driveway and street with all the kids still in it!
1. Hubby's wreck and subsequent replacement of car. Yuck.

OK, enough of that...

And onto Katrina's Top 5 Best Things of 2007

5. Visiting Julie and other friend in Boise for almost an entire week!
(I have no pictures, cause we were having too much fun!)
4. Visiting my sister and helping her daughter shop for and then alter her prom dress. It was a promise I made to my niece when she was 6, and I was happy to fulfill it!

3. Butchart Gardens

I don't think I'll ever get sick of looking at that picture!

2. Decorating the girls' new rooms!



And, drumroll please...

1. Of course, my trip to England!









So, here's to 2008! Let's hope it's heavy on the joy and light on the heartache! Happy New Year, y'all!

Holiday Fun

So, I thought I would just take you through the last few weeks with a lame, quasi-slideshow. Here's what we've been up to:

San Antonio

Our totally awesome hotel! And here are some lobby shots...



The famed "Riverwalk"...

The Alamo, of course...

And onto Fiesta Texas. It was SOOOO cold!

Next day "dinosaur hunting"



Somehow, this does not make a mother feel very safe!

Christmas dresses...

Aprons I made for the girls...




I hope everyone had as much fun on Christmas as we did! And now I'm off to go clean it all up! ~sigh~

Under Pressure

Is anyone else totally stressed out? I feel like everyday, I'm working myself to the bone yet not even making a dent into what I still have left to do! Ack! The problem is that recently I became my oldest daughter's Girl Scout leader. So, every week I host about 12 girls at my house for 1 1/2 hours. What was I thinking? And to start the troop around the holidays?!? I'm going crazy! Yesterday, while shipping something for church, I saw the signage that said everything had to be mailed by Dec 15 in order to make it by Christmas! Ack! So, last night I put everybody to work filling out all the Target gift cards, printing and folding Christmas letters, signing Christmas cards, wrapping presents, buying padded envelopes, and addressing the cards. I went to bed absolutly exhausted! Tell me that there are more frazzled moms out there, cause I'm about at the end of my rope!

She's Never Satisfied, aka The Super Long Post

So, even though I'm back on the bandwagon, Laurie is still pushing me for more posts? :O More posts? What do I really have to say? Ack! OK, maybe I don't have alot to say, but I do have alot to show. Friday, I hosted our neighborhood's annual ornament exchange. It was alot of fun. There were about 11 women who came, and about twenty platters of food. Strange. But, I was good and refused to let people leave their food with me! Yea! ("Way to stay strong, Katrina!") Anyway, here's some pics of the event, and you can see my Christmas decor at the same time. OK, along with that, I went to my friend Katri's birthday party on Saturday night! Wow! Too much fun was had by all, especially me, who lost her voice due to all the Karaoke. Tee hee! I honestly can't remember a time that I laughed so hard! Here's some pics of that event, too. And maybe some video, if I can swing it! Shwew, I hope you all enjoyed the re-cap of all the pictures and vids! ("Way to go Katrina, with your super-high-tech knowledge of QuickTime Player!")[Totally still working on it!] Are you finally satisfied, Laurie?

Another One Bites the Dust

Well, a few weeks ago hubby was in a wreck. He's completely fine, but it totalled the car. He was the third car of a four car pile-up. So, we found ourselves, yet again looking for a new car. Can you believe it?

We went from this:


To THIS!


Can you tell the difference? Yeah, me neither. Actually, we had a 2002 Honda Accord Coupe and now we have a 2007. That's the difference. Our's is a dark grey, fyi.

All in all, it worked out. It kinda sucks having to shell out money that we weren't planning on spending, but it could have been so much worse, that we feel really blessed!

We ended up taking advice from Greg, Rochelle's hubby, and looking on eBay for the car. We found a GREAT deal, but the car was in Houston. My husband had no more time off this year, and they were closed the coming Thanksgiving weekend. So, my parents and I took the little one while a friend watched the other two. Boy, was that a disaster! Baby screamed the whole way there, practically the whole time we were in Houston and the whole way back. She was so loud, that I didn't even really notice the sweet ride we had just purchased! (Which didn't go over so well when hubby kept calling to ask about the car.) So, that is why hubby bought me the beautiful pink roses for a thank-you. I've taught him well.

My Camera's Fixed! Yippee!!!!

Ok, after months, and months, and months of having a broken camera, and putting off getting it fixed, and bugging friends to get copies, and hoping that people were capturing crucial moments of my children's lives, I finally have a camera that works! Yea! But here's the awful part: we were just using the wrong batteries! Can you believe it? Apparently, the cheap kind don't cut it. (Boy, do I have to invest in rechargables!) Bummer!
Happy, happy kids on the way home with the camera! They missed it as much as I did!


But, the good news is that I've been going crazy taking pictures like I've never taken pictures before! So, here's some pics from Thanksgiving. The centerpiece turned out a little more wedding-y than fall-like, but it was still fun. Hubby bought me the roses as a thank-you gift. (Hmm...maybe I should post about that, as well!)





It snowed for about ten minutes and the kids had a blast!


And this is the baby shutting the door on all us crazy people out in the snow!


And here's just a cute little charm that I picked-up. It says, "Moody Chick". Pretty perfect, huh? Tee hee. See, told ya I was picture-crazy!

This Blogger's Been Experiencing Emotional Difficulties

So, it's been a hard few weeks. I won't get into all of it (ok, maybe someday I will), but let's just say that I've been narrowing my field of activities so that I can emotionally cope. Blogging went by the wayside, as it probably always will when I'm trying to avoid my responisibilites by avoiding emails! :O (Now you all know my secret! ;) )

But, we had a great Halloween! We went Trunk or Treating with my Mom while my Dad stayed at our place to pass out candy. Here's some pics:



Here's the back of my oldest daughter's cape, which I made. I have to say that I'm pretty proud of it. (Pat, pat, pat)


And here's a couple just cause they're so darn cute!




Thanks, Julianne, for all the great pics!

I originally read this on Jenni's blog, then on Katri's. Real life has gotten in the way of blogging life recently, so I'm a little behind!

If you are reading this right now, consider yourself tagged. I'll be checking your blog. (No pressure, though!)
1. Three biggest fears? (besides anything bad happening to a family member/child)
-bridges
-heights w/kids around
-I know this doesn't count, but I had a WICKED, awful dream the other night where I watched hubby die. I woke up shaking and cried all day. Yuck.
2. When was the last time you danced? This morning with baby.
3. Do you creep on stranger's blogs? Yeppers.
4. If you could go back to be any age for a day, what age would you be and why? 18-21 when I was at BYU.
5. Are you a good liar? No, cause I don't do it.
6. Do you judge someone when you can tell they've had elective cosmetic surgery? Can I abstain from this question? Respectfully?
7. If you have children, what's one thing that you always told yourself you'd never do when you had kids? If you don't have children, what's one thing you tell yourself you'll never do. (Psst! You. Yah, you. The one without kids. Guess what? You'll probably do it.)
OK, this is totally weird, but when I was in high school, I always swore that I would buy a house close to the high school when I was a Mom. I hated it when I forgot something and it would take forever to go back and get it. I'm proud to say that I totally did it. My house is just down the street!
8. What's something that totally grosses you out? Watching non-cleanly people make-out.
9. Do you ever delete forwards without reading them? Yesh.
10. Do you ever lie to get out of obligations? No.
11. Consider your body weight and your yearly income at their present states. Would you rather be 200 pounds heavier and $200,000 richer or stay at your present states? 200 pounds?!?! Holy cow! Who would take the money? Now, if the question had been 20 pounds, that's a different story.
12. When was the last time you bought a pair of shoes and what were they? For myself? A few weeks ago. Cute green open-toed slip ons.
13. The Olympics. Take them or leave them? Leave em.
14. What's your favorite accent? Considering I went around all of England PRETENDING that I had an English accent, then that must be my choice.
15. What's your favorite scent? Something sweet.
16. Gum or breath mints? Gum
17. If you could look like any celebrity, who would it be? Rachel Bilson. I've always had a thing for dark hair and skin. That being said, I would never change myself. I like the way I am.
18. If you had the chance of looking like said celebrity in exchange for your thumbs would you do it? What a weird question. Um...no.
19. Do you religiously wear sun screen? Yes.
20. Do you generally trust people/their motives or doubt people/their motives? With a frustrated hubby in the background, I always trust. He doesn't. I'm just truly an optimist at heart and you have to prove to me that your not trust-worthy. And even then, it takes alot.
21. Would you describe yourself as a complicated person or is what you see what you get? Absolutely, what you see is what you get. Much to the detriment of my heart when I was younger. Poor me. ;)
22. Do you watch what you eat? Recently, yes. When I'm pregnant, no.
23. Do you watch what other people eat? Why would I do that? What if they chewed with their mouth open? Eww.
24. Do you judge how other people raise their kids? Only a couple of people I know. And only because they are making what I consider such colosal mistakes that it's hard not to.
25. Do you judge people who dress poorly? I know no one is going to believe this, but I don't. I watch what others wear, and sometimes even critique it in my head, but not as a judgement, just observations. I know people could critique my wardrobe, as well.
26. Do you judge people who are homely? No, but I feel sorry for them that they're not as pretty as me. Wait. Is that a judgement?
27. Do you judge people who are overweight? Probably, in the fact that I put them into a certain category that they might not actually belong in.
28. Your interest in politics: High, Medium-High, Medium, Medium-Low, Low, Obsolete? Low. I hate politics and think shows like Hannity and Colmes brings contenion into the home. Hubby, however, disagrees. <_<
29. Favorite song of all time? I could absolutely never just choose one. But fav genre of all time is Indie-Alternative.
30. Acoustic or electric? Either
31. If you were a hermit, would you shave? Nope. If I'm not shaved now, does that make me a hermit by default? :O
32. If you could shave your head without your significant other throwing a complete hissy, would you? And give up my luscious long locks? Never!
33. What was your least favorite age? 10, just an all around bad year for me.
35. Are you in a tiff with anyone right now? Why? Has someone said something?
This was a blast! Hope to see some of y'alls posts soon!

Happy Happy Birthday, Baby!

So, our little one turned two this past weekend! We had a great time going to Six Flags on Friday night and then having a party with the fam on Sunday. I always get a little nostalgic during my girls' birthdays! I'll admit, I have an addiction to babies that I'm trying to kick! But can you blame me? They come into the world so perfect. And I don't mean physically perfect (I'm 0 for 3 on that one) but so innocent and sweet. It truly is miraculous that God would entrust me with three of his children to rear.

We got her this cute little lamb rocker. Thanks, Katri, for the idea that you didn't know I stole!


Happy Birthday, Air-Dee! May you grow as cute this year as you did the last!

Fast Car, Second Verse

It didn't turn out how I thought originally, but it's better than I was expecting! We finally bought our new car...a Nissan Pathfinder. I'm so excited, I can hardly contain it! I love driving now. It actually reminds me alot of the Jeep Cherokee that I had in high school. It's high, but skinny. It feels alot smaller than my mini-van. So, I might not be posting alot, but I'll see you on the road! ;)