Oh how time flies!

On Thursday, January 20, Kelly and I will be celebrating 16 years together! WOW!! I was talking to a co-worker this week who is celebrating their 5 year anniversary. I had to think hard to remember what life was like at our fifth year. We were living at our first home in Labelle. Tyler would have been 4 and Alexia would have been 2. I loved that house, even though it was a small 3 bedroom manufactured home. I was working for a law firm in Idaho Falls and Kelly was working for Marshall's Tile. A lot has changed since then! We are now living in our third home and have moved three more times. We also have our third and last child, Lacey, who is now 10. We no longer have the same jobs, the same cars, or the same challenges in life.
At church on Sunday I was watching a young mother with her toddler as she tried to keep her entertained, keep her out of other people's bags, keep her from unplugging the microphone. My daughter was sitting next to me singing the opening hymn; she is almost all grown up. AND OH HOW I MISS IT!
Life has a way of making us always wanting what comes next--we can't wait until they sleep through the night, are out of diapers, can walk on their own, can feed themselves, can go to school, can do their homework on their own, can drive themselves to their activities, are out of the house.  Somedays, I WISH I could go back and live it all over again so I could cherish the moments a little longer before they are gone.
I hope and pray that I can take the time to enjoy the little moments in life while I still have my kids at home.

Best Day Ever

So what constitutes your Best Day Ever? I was a little surprised to hear from my daughter tonight that today was her Best Day Ever! Really?? She stayed home from school--sick, she threw up once; watched "The Proposal" and learned about sting rays; went to the parents meeting about the musical she is in at school; went and waited at the doctor's office while I was in with Lacey; went to Wal-mart; then came home. So what made this day her Best Day Ever!?? She got a message from her cheer coach that the school board has decided they WILL be allowed to travel and cheer at away games.
Her other Best Days Ever were when she made the cheerleader; when she made the school musical; when she got elected School President; and, of course, whenever she breaks me down and I end up buying her more of what she wants. If only we could all have our Best Days Ever with these simple things in life.

Changing blogs

I am trying to change our blog. Right now both of them will still work until I figure out how to combine them into one that I like.
Check out camillenkelly.wordpress.com

Christmas Festivities

There are several things we enjoyed this year during the month of December. It started off with Lacey performing at several events with the Ucon Elementary School choir. They performed at Snake River Landing, a live Ucon Community Nativity at Giles & Johnson’s car lot and did a performance for family and friends. It is always cold standing out there waiting for them to perform, but they put on a pretty good show for being elementary kids. These kids voluntarily get up early twice a week to be at the school at 7:15 am to practice for a month! There was about 90 kids who performed this year.

Kelly got to play Santa this year! A neighbor called at the last minute and asked him if he would be willing to do it for a family party. I told her he would. I just didn’t tell him that it wasn’t for kids, but adults, until he was ready to go. The suit was a little snug so I had to drive him. I sat in the driveway and watched as flash after flash went off. How I wished I could have been a fly on the wall! He had a good time joking with them. I knew he would have fun.

Next, was Alexia’s orchestra concert. She was advanced enough that her teacher asked her to perform with the 8th grade kids. She was only given three days to practice the pieces. She did pretty awesome! She is looking forward to their Spring concert where they get to perform movie based songs.

We went to Utah for Jenson’s baptism (my nephew) and while we were there we went to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights. We try to go every year if we can since this is where Kelly and I got engaged and it is such an awesome sight to see! We were told not to even try to drive downtown because the Elizabeth Smart trial had just ended and there was still a lot of national press in town and there was a BYU ballgame that night. We drove anyway and were still able to park right by Temple Square. It was still early though and the lights were due to be turned on for an hour and a half. We walked around and went to see the new Deseret Book and other new buildings around Temple Square. It has changed SOOOOO much since I went to college. It doesn’t even feel like the same place. The kids really wanted to go on top of the highest building, so we asked to be taken to the top of the Conference Center. They were kind enough to let us stay on top to see the lights turn on. I guess it was the first time they have ever allowed people up there that late. It was pretty amazing being able to look down onto Temple Square. We were so lucky to be able to see the lights from this advantage point.

This year we decided to hold off and not have our usual Christmas Eve family party so that Lorinda and Brandon could stay at their own homes for Christmas. They will join us on New Year’s Eve and we will have our party then. I decided it was time to start our own little family traditions. We took the kids sledding to the Sand Dunes in St. Anthony. Kelly and I haven’t been sledding there since we were engaged. It was perfect weather…not too cold and not windy! So unusual for Idaho. We got some great pictures of the kids.

I hope you enjoy this slideshow!

24 Hour Holiday Blitz

This Thanksgiving weekend was the best ever!  It was the first time in over 20 years that I had been together with all three of my sisters for Thanksgiving.  We had dinner at mom and dad's house as soon as Lorinda and Ezra arrived from Utah.  Last week we got pounded with snow and wind and so it was not the best traveling weather.  We normally have a nice sit down meal, but due to there being 28 of us, there weren't enough chairs for everyone to sit down and eat so we had it buffet style and on paper plates--less dishes to wash!  After dinner, we all sat down and scoured the ads for Black Friday.  At about 10:30 p.m. Thursday, we started our shopping spree....I can't believe it, but we shopped for over 12 hours!  If I had been by myself, there is no way I would have stayed up all night and stood in lines for an hour.  But, it was fun being together with Serena, Lorinda and Danielle.  Plus, I got all my Christmas shopping done in ONE NIGHT.  How awesome is that?!  I got home around 11:30 a.m., did a few things, and went to sleep until 4:00 p.m.  I stayed locked in my bedroom and got most all the gifts wrapped.  Now, I don't have to worry about getting anything other than stocking stuffers.  On Saturday, we got together and had our own Sister's Super Saturday.  We made Christmas Countdown blocks.  THANKS SERENA, LORINDA AND DANIELLE!!  Love ya

Alexia's 13th Birthday

There are two things that Alexia is passionate about--changing here hair, and gymnastics.  She told us that for her birthday she wanted her hair done professionally.  So, I called my hairstylists--Mallory at Generations.  Mallory is so awesome!  She is kind of hard to get because she recently got married and moved to Pocatello so she only comes to Idaho Falls to serve her customers here twice a month.  She was able to get us in just a few days after I called her and Alexia was absolutely beaming when she was done.  I think she likes Mallory now too!  She did get to have two of her friends over to spend the night and a few other things.

HALLOWEEN 2010

Lacey--our last Trick or Treater

The clean, bare fridge

What did you do for Halloween 2010?  For me, it started by doing something truly frightening!!  Cleaning out the fridge....I should just ban leftovers!  Really, what's the sense.  Nobody eats them and they just sit in there and take up room and go moldy until somebody (me) cleans it out.  Kelly and Tyler have been gone for four days on a Steelhead Fishing trip to Salmon with Uncle Shawn and Grandpa Madsen.  I hope they had a good time and didn't freeze too badly.  I was planning on taking the girls down to Utah to spend Halloween at Lorinda's house again.  We did that last year since Emmie and Ella were being blessed.  Everyone had so much fun spending time with all their cousins and it was a safe place to just turn the kids loose trick or treating.  However, Lacey came down with the stomach flu Tuesday, night and Lorinda has a sinus infection and a double ear infection.  Therefore, no trip to Utah.  I am not sure why, but I didn't feel like making the trip anyway.  Maybe something would have happened to us.  Who knows?  I am just trying to follow what I feel is right.
This afternoon, Alexia got to go with the cheerleaders from Rocky Mountain Middle School and read to kids at Barnes & Noble for an hour.  Lacey and I wandered around the mall.  I am very proud of Alexia.  She is very good at standing up for the right!  Several of the girls (keep in mind they are only 12-14 years old) decided they wanted frapacino's from the coffee shop in Barnes and Noble.  One of the girls even offered to buy Alexia one.  She stood up to them all and told them she won't drink coffee.  I couldn't believe 12-14 year olds are already drinking it!

It was supposed to be raining and pretty cold, but it turned out to be a calm, beautiful night for our Community Trunk or Treat.  The kids walk around the parking lot in a circle filling their bags, buckets, pillowcases, whatever..and then we all have hot chocolate to warm us up.

This is the closest picture I could get of Alexia.  She is visiting with one of our very favorite neighbors, Marie Jordan

 It's a fun time to visit with neighbors, friends and family! Next, we're off to Grandparents houses for more goodies and to see what the nieces and nephews have dressed up as and to see what loot they have brought in. The kids all run around the house, obviously on a sugar high! They stripped off their costumes and played. My sister, Danielle, declared that Peyton is going as a naked cowboy next year because he complains about the layers of clothing and how hot and uncomfortable they are.  I can't wait to see that Danielle!