Sweet Sixteen...

Little Lauren turned sweet 16! It's hard to believe how much she has grown in just the short time I have know her. She's in high school, she's getting a learner's permit, she's starting dating, and she's looking for a job! WoW... so much for a young girl to take on, but she's going to achieve it all! She's such a great example to Holly and Nate, and the little time we spend with her, we have a great time together.

A few things about Lauren:

• She very social
• She loves black & purple
• She loves to write & draw
• She loves music & her ipod
• She loves forensic science
• She loves simple foods.. hotdogs, hamburgers

Here's a little tribute to the girl that changed Charley's life when she made him a father! She sure was a cute baby and has turned into such a beautiful young woman.

Baptism...

Happy Birthday Lauren..

We Love You!

2009 in Review...

We actually had a fairly busy year.. looking back! Here's just a brief rundown of some of the highlights.



January
In January we had a New Year's party at the Boyds. It was Fondue & Fun! the kids played on the WII, they guys watched videos, and the girls scrapbooked. Everyone was happy! We also had a superbowl party here at the house. Everyone had those goofy 3D glasses on for the commercials. I have the cutest picture of ALL the kids on the love sac, but of course, I can't find it!! So bugged!!



February
Charley turned 40! I had to rub it in a little by having a huge surprise party for him. Well, it turns out it wasn't a huge surprise, but it was still a lot of fun! We rented out a room at the fitness center, and we probably had 50 or more there! We had pizza, cake, and then everyone enjoyed the facility swimming, racquetball, the fun zone, etc.

March
Charley's sister Heather, her husband Craig & their three kids moved in! Their house sold so quickly they needed a place to stay FAST! We had so much fun with them living here. I was really able to get to know the them and kids. Turns out they would be here three months, and the time flew by! They are now happily living around the corner, close enough we still see them often! this is a picture of all the kids on Easter. So fun to see all the easter baskets lined up on the piano!!

April
Nate had his first piano recital! He had only been taking piano for a few weeks, and he did awesome! He played two songs, and he sure looks sharp in a suit!!

May
We had so many birthday parties and celebrations to go to. But, unfortunately we also received the news that Charley's work would be filing for bankruptcy and he would be losing his job. This was so stressful, and it's hard to keep in mind that there's a reason for it. It would be some leaps of faith and some long months as Charley looks for a new job.

June
On the upside, in June we celebrated our first anniversary... IN HAWAII!! Charley had some airline vouchers and we have a time share, so the trip was pretty much paid for. (Otherwise, we would never have been able to get there). 4 short days, but so much fun. This is by far my most favorite vacation.

July
Nate starts 4th grade! Can't believe how fast he's growing up!! Holly also started 6th grade.. her last year of elementary school! Since they are on year round, their summer is cut a little short. Lucky for Nate though, it's only three short weeks until he goes on his first off track!

August
This was kind of another "down" month. Charley gets in a car accident in the Honda. Just something to add more stress, but it turns out ok. We are able to get it fixed quick enough to take our two fun road trips planned for September! On a brighter note, Lauren started HIGH school!! Can't believe how grown up she is! She loves to be social, so she's going to love it.

September
There were a couple weeks with LOTS of miles packed in. We traveled to Montana with Charley's family for Labor day weekend. I got to meet Charley's brother James & his family for the first time, and they are so much fun! After that long road trip, we rested one day and turned around and drove to Disney! This was another SHORT but sweet trip that we kind of lucked into. We were able to spend time with Charley's parents which is always fun.

October
Nate really wanted to play baseball, so we signed him up over in Taylorsville. It was half way between us and his friend Christian that wanted to be on the same team. It was so much fun to team coach and our boys (plus one girl) did awesome! Way to go cardinals!!




November
November is kind of a blur! LOL. I did 3 boutiques in November which is crazy busy! I am just getting back into them, and forgotten how much WORK they are! I loved every minute of it though. It also helped bring in extra income for the kids' christmas. Who knows how we would have managed otherwise??




December
Last but not least, December! Charley had his first overnight Christmas with the girls since the divorce. We had all three kids here christmas morning, and it was so fun! Definately different with more than one child opening gifts... but so much more enjoyable! Who would have thought that all three kids would be "calling us from their cell phones" at 6:30 AM to get us out of bed to see what Santa brought!!

Well, that's the year in a nutshell! Looking forward to a busy & brighter 2010~

More Christmas

So, we told the kids they couldn't go downstairs until we all went down together. You'll never guess who the first one up was... YUP, 6:30 our phone rings.. it's Lauren!! When we walked out the door all three kids were sittin in the hall outside the door. I love that the kids still get excited.

Lauren got some jewelry & books from Santa. Holly got a dance bag and some jewelry from Santa. Both girls also got a camera, & all the accessories to go with them, beaded watches and itunes cards from us.

Nate got legos, bionicles, and a nerf gun from Santa. From us, rather than getting him a camera, he was so hard to shop for. He ended up with a gift card so he could go shopping.

I can't believe how FAST three kids can open presents!! So, since we were done in a sum total of 20 minutes, Charley and I went back to bed!!

After that it was headed out to grandma J's. Here's just a few fun pictures.

This is everyone that was there... Minus me (taking the picture) and my mom and dad who were washing the dishes! Everyone that know my parents know that dishes do NOT sit in the sink.. EVER! Even on Christmas.

And I don't even remember when the last time my sisters and I had our picture taken just the three of us. But I like this one.. even if I do look like a "midget" as Michelle would say...

Christmas Eve...

We were able to have all the kids overnight for Christmas eve. Actually, it was Charley's first overnight Christmas with the girls in several years. We picked them up around 2 on christmas eve and headed straight to my parent's family party. Every year (started on christmas eve, but since, the date has varied a little because of family schedules). The Jamison family party is the one time that my dad takes the entire family to a nice restaurant and pays for everything. He loves to do it and we all love to get together.

This year's party was at Mimi's. We missed Craig's family because his wife had surgery, but it was fun to get everyone together. Here's a picture of 10 of the 12 grandkids.


It took them so long to get in one place for the picture, that we told them to make a silly face too. This picture is so funny!

And a couple quick pictures of our family.

Aren't my parents the cutest?

Michelle's Family:

And Erin's Family:

Afterwards, everyone went to my parents for the traditional pajamas. We actually didn't go this year. Instead, we took the girls back to our place and made gingerbread houses. My parents gave us this kit for Thanksgiving. (They always give a christmas decor gift to the families at thanksgiving). Nate has been dying to put it together, but we told him he had to wait until the girls were here.

This kids got bored of the gingerbread house pretty early and started eating the candy. We also went and visited Heather's family and also went over to our friend Denise & Carlos's to visit and exchange gifts. It was fun for the girls to see their cousins and to visit with friends.

Our 2009 Christmas Card

Here it is! This year's Christmas card. Believe it or not, this year's cards were actually quite a point of contention! (I'll explain). But anyway, I think they turned out great for last minute...


If you didn't get yours in the mail, I'm so-0 sorry! I found a stack the sunday after Christmas that never made it to the mail. It's because I mailed all the out of state ones and several of the in state ones... then had to buy more stamps. (As you can tell, I never bought more stamps). But, I did get the majority of them out.

Not bad for last minute cards eh? Ok, now for the contention explanation...

I had scheduled family pictures 3 different times... but we have 3 busy children and never made it to any of the photo shoots. My goal now is to get family pictures sometime before next year's cards!! We shall see (LOL).

I actually debated not sending cards this year. It was a week before Christmas and I didn't even have a game plan. But you know, me, I am a procrastinator... thus I work VERY well under pressure. And for those that know me, knows that I LOVE cards, both making and sending, so how could I pass it up this year??

So Thursday before Christmas eve (I think it was the 17th) I bought these dollar hats from Michaels. We picked up the girls and took these pictures over at the district by their house. I uploaded them to Costco Thursday night, and Friday afternoon... viola! Christmas cards. They were in the mail Friday night (well the ones that made it to the mail). Did I mention that I love Costco photo??


What do you think of the pictures? Not bad for an ametuer, eh? I actually love the way they turned out, and the kids were surprisingly cooperative!. The whole photo shoot was a sum total of 20 minutes, but they were freezing... Sorry kids!

Can you tell which of the kids likes to get their picture taken, and which ones would prefer to go without? Holly was dying to get pictures taken by this light post also. Afterwards, I actually liked those best, so they're the ones that ended up on the card.

And this is my favorite one. I love the way this picture turned out! Charley did NOT want his picture taken at ALL. (This is why we aren't on the card.. haha). But he ended up liking this picture a lot, and wished I was in it too. Maybe next year we can get pictures with all of us.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas, and thank you for ALL the wonderful cards we received.

Neighbor Gifts...

I always try to come up with neighbor gifts that don't require any baking. One, because I feel like everyone gets enough "baked" goods over the holidays, and two because I'm not a great cook. The past couple of years we have done wrapping paper, gift tags, etc.

This year I found these cute little ornament photo holders at Michaels. They were on clearance so I had to go to 3 different Michael's to get enough for work and neighbors. I knew exactly what I was trying to say... something along the lines of "favorite memory, display here" but I couldn't find a poem or quote to fit. I found the first verse online, but then actually ended up writing my own second verse... I think they turned out pretty cute... SIMPLE, but cute...

(One small disclaimer: As with my christmas cards, I still have about 8 of these neighbor gifts on my kitchen counter that never made it out. If anyone wants one... let me know :) ).

Nate's Bowling Party

Nate gets a birthday party every other year. Well, this year is the "every other." So, since we are very low budged right now, and it's Christmas time, we told him he could have a small, inexpensive party.

After calling around to get party prices, Nate chose the bowling party. Nate's actually a pretty good bowler, and Delton Lanes is a pretty nice bowling alley. Their party included 90 minutes of bowling, pizza, drinks, balloons, decorations, and tokens to the arcade.

I made the invitations... and I tell you what. After doing mass quantities of invites, it was a cinch to make 5 bowling invites!! And... it was the first time that I was able to use my "early" christmas present... my gypsy!

Nate chose 5 of his closes friends which included, Eddie, Tyler, Daniel, Christian, and Stockton. They all had a blast, and they are cra-zy boys when they all get together! I actually was really sick (had missed 2 days of work)... I had a huge headache & earache, and I was in the a very loud bowling alley with 6 screaming boys! (After the party I went to instacare, and it turned out I had an ear and sinus infection... no wonder!).

This is Nate anxiously awaiting cake & presents... after the bowling time was up.

Lauren & Holly were able to come to the party, and so were other friends & family members. We were able to reserve 4 extra lanes and any extra guests could bowl for $2.50 a game. Denise & her family came, Michelle & here family came, and Jen and her family came. Grandma & Grandpa J, and Nate's dad also came...

It was a fun time, and Nate had a great time also. Since I was a busy mom running the party and handling crowd control, his dad was able to quite a few more pictures. You can link to them on his facebook page here

Whew...

Ok, I had a bit of a blog crisis.... I was trying to update my background (was tired of the bright pink). But, one wrong click, and *poof* everything was gone! And I mean everything!! (Background, widges, blog lists) All I had was my posts. (Soooo o glad I didn't lose those!) I was so bummed... but I was so busy with boutiques and Christmas that I didn't even have time to go in and revamp everything.

So... Sorry for the delay! I do have lots to post for December, but seeing how it has taken me all night to just get the background and layout back, I'll have to post tomorrow! (Church in 6 hours.. Yikes!).

Anyway, if you are reading this, and your blog isn't linked over on the side, please, please leave me your blog address so I can add it. I'm so sad that not all of my blog links saved.

Missed you all, and I'll be back shortly!