Your not so ugly sweater party

UGLY SWEATER parties are SO LAST YEAR, and the year before that and the year before that. It seems as though EVERYBODY now throws an ugly sweater party.

Well our friends the Littles always throw a fabulous Christmas party with a

DIFFERENT fantastic theme every year.

Two years ago was the Ugly Sweater Year.

Last year, the Ugly Christmas Pajama Party.

This year....

A VERY MERRY JERSEY CHRISTMAS

Oh my gosh.

I love my friends.

I love that they are willing to dress up, be funny and have a good time.

Our night was filled with delicious food, awesome white elephants, tattoos, spray tans, fist bumps, puckered lips and the Snookie Pouf.

**To get the full Jersey effect click on any of the picture to enlarge.

A few of my favorite quotes from the night,

Lacey: "It really is a white elephant." In reference to a white elephant given at the party.

Adam to Ryan: "You look like a butch lesbian."

Liz to me: "Laura you fit the part well. Do you have some Italian in you?"

No my friends, I'm not one bit Italian. It's kinda scary how well I do fit the New Jersey part.

And if you are wondering if that pregnant belly is real, it is. My friend Amanda is due with her first baby boy any day now. She is one hot pregnant momma.

Our hosts Lindsey and Jon Little had the best embodied the Jersey looks the best.

We came home with the best white elephant gift, A book full of AWKWARD family photos. It now sits on our coffee table.

We missed all of our friends who are out of state!

Foulgers, the party just wasn't the same without you this year.

What themed parties did you go to this year?

Ever been to a Jersey themed party?

What's the best white elephant gift you received?

Have you seen the blog with awkward family photos? Hilarious.

She's ONE

Call it cliche, but I can't believe my baby was born one year ago.

It's been a challenging, exhausting, joyful, emotional, exciting, wonderful year.

We've loved watching her spirited personality shine through.

It's been a joy watching her grow and learn new things.

We knew a year ago our lives would never be the same we just didn't know how much better and more fulfilled our lives would be.

We love you Charlotte and count ourselves lucky each day to be your parents.

Evolution of the perfect picture with Santa

Saturday morning we had a Christmas party with our church and a special visitor arrived. I've been so excited to get a picture of Charlotte with Santa, this being her first Christmas and all! Neither Mike or I could wait to see Charlotte's reaction. You see, she has this weird phobia of people with white hair. I'm not kidding. She cries and cries every time she sees my sweet Grandma Wynn who has brilliant, beautiful white hair. So we wondered if Santa Claus in all his white beard, long haired glory would bring out Charlotte's phobia or not.

Here's how things played out...

Mike takes Charlotte to Santa. Things are going smoothly. She's our happy little bug so far.

Charlotte usually goes easily to other people, so getting her on his lap was no big deal.

Charlotte fine and content to be held. Things seem as though they are going to be ok.

Uh oh. Checking out who's holding her. Wait for it.......

Realizing the person who is holding her has white hair, a beard and creepy tinted glasses!

All hell breaks loose.

Enough is enough! She is done being on this man's lap!

Call me mean if you want to but I laugh every time I see this picture. It's just so funny.

I secretly want to frame this picture in our house.

Is that bad?

Not to worry we didn't keep her on his lap for long.

She was back to her happy self once she was back in Mike's arms.

Classic.

**Thank you to the lovely Jen Garriott who so perfectly captured this experience for us with her fancy camera.

Do you get pictures with Santa every year?

Love or hate the pictures of crying kids with Santa?

Are you working on your list of things to do each day to bring the Christmas spirit? (I am!)

Are you sending out holiday cards this year? Are you done with them?

Please share!

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

Do you realize Christmas is just 16 days away? Yikes.

Although I have some fun projects up my sleeve, bought a few presents here and there it still doesn't feel like Christmas at the Walker home.

Perhaps it's because we have ZERO decorations out. Well ok the Gingerbread house I made at my grandma's house is out but that's it. Either Mike or I have had something almost every night for the past couple of weeks so we just haven't had the time to decorate the tree and set up our decorations. Hopefully this weekend it will happen. IT WILL HAPPEN, we've got to make it happen.

Plus the snow is melting and while I don't love the snow, it at least helps it feel like Christmas when everything is covered in a lovely white blanket of snow.

Every year I seem to have the discussion with someone, yesterday it was with my sister Emily, that it just doesn't feel like Christmas. I've decided it is TIME to make it feel like Christmas. Christmas is only 16 days away! Let's get going with the holiday cheer!

A couple of things have helped me bring out the warm, fuzzy feelings of Christmas that I wanted to share...

First is this wonderful video. Please watch it. You'll probably laugh or cry but either way it will make you feel good.

The best part about this is that my MOM sent me the video. What? I didn't even know she knew what youtube was. Way to go Kristyle on being hip and happenin!

Then I was blog surfing while C was asleep and found this awesome POST. It lists 25 things to do to get into the Christmas spirit. The idea is to start at the beginning of December and do one each day up until Christmas day. Sure I've missed 8 days but I don't think it's too late to start! I'm going to pick my favorites, add a few of my own and get going TODAY!

What about you?

Are you in the Christmas spirit?

What do you do to feel the holiday spirit?

Have you bought all your gifts?

What acts of service are you doing this year?

Please share! I want to hear all about it.

Oh how I love my babies.

Thanksgiving Daily

If you know me at all, you know this is my most favorite time of year.

I love Thanksgiving.

I love the feast, the turkey trot, bingo and gingerbread houses at my Grandma's, bowling with the Walkers, the brisk air, and pie night.

I'm especially excited this Thanksgiving week because Mike has the entire week off.

But honestly, I love this time of year because we have a week set aside to give thanks. I try really hard to live a life of thanksgiving daily, but know this is an area I could definitely improve upon. I do know that when I live each day with a heart full of gratitude, I'm a much happier person. I loved watching THIS VIDEO. Take a moment (one minute and 50 seconds to be exact, you can spare that time I promise) and watch it, I was reminded once again of the simple things that bring so much joy in life.

This Thanksgiving I'm especially grateful for good health, my hardworking husband, a healthy, happy baby, my sisters who I can't go a day without talking to, loving parents, my selfless in laws, extended family, close friends near and far, and the knowledge that families can be together forever. These are the things that really matter my friends.

Ok and maybe just a couple more things I'm grateful for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, the mountains, and new running shoes.

What about you?

What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?

What is something you can't live without?

What do you do to live in Thanksgiving Daily?

Please share!

Simple things

I can remember a time when I thought "happiness" or "heaven" meant traveling to some exotic city, laying on a beach with a book, and stuffing myself full of food.

And while I do enjoy and look forward to traveling to some exotic place, in the months since Charlotte has joined our life, I have found a new, much more FULFILLING HAPPINESS.

I've had a couple of these moments of happiness lately that as my sister Mandy would say,

I want to LOCK IT IN.

The first one was about a month ago when Mike and I took Charlotte to a local elementary school to play on the playground. I had no idea Charlotte would love it so much.

My bug loved it all. The slide, the swings, being with her dad, and a friendly, small dog who was also enjoying the playground .

I've never seen the girl so ecstatic.

I'm sitting here smiling thinking back to that afternoon we spent at the playground.

It was blissful.

Why did we wait so long to take her to a playground?

Another noteworthy moment of happiness was over the weekend. On a whim Mike and I took Charlotte to PETCO. We just walked around showing C all of the animals for sale. May not sound like a lot of fun but it was "heaven" listening to Charlotte squeal in delight as she looked at all of the animals. She was giddy my friends. Giddy. I wish we would have had our camera with us to capture her eyes light up as she looked at the animals.

So simple but so much fun.

Other moments of happiness:

Watching the movie "Babies" while talking to my sister in CT about our babies who are only a couple of months apart.

Watching Charlotte clap. I love when babies learn how to clap.

Going for a run on a brisk fall day with Charlotte in the BOB.

Laughing with my mom and sister Katherine while helping Katherine put things together for Pretty Little Me open house.

Watching a movie on Mikes' laptop in bed together.

Laughing, laughing and laughing some more with my little sister Emily.

Sanding my dining room table with Carol, my mother in law.

SIMPLE? Yes.

But really isn't the simple way better?

Yes I still want to travel, lay on the beach and stuff myself full of food,

but for now I'll take these moments of happiness over anything.

What's making you happy these days?

Are you a dog or cat person?

Have you taken time to play on a playground lately? (If not I highly recommend it)

Do you think simple is better?

Please share!

Of all the places to play....

If you by chance come to our house and use our bathroom you might find our toilet paper to look like this....

That would be because of this.....

BUSTED!

Why oh why does the bathroom have to be the most fun place to play?

She has a room full of toys and books to play with but as soon as she hears the bathroom door open she drops everything,

really she drops everything,

and crawls as fast as she can to get to the bathroom.

It's quite comical.

Oh my Charlotte is a pickle. She's into EVERYTHING these days.

**Funny story, but first a disclaimer: Mike is very, very, helpful with Charlotte. He is very involved, loves spending time with her and will help with her without being asked. Now to the story, yesterday I asked Mike to pay extra attention to Charlotte because I was going to go make an important phone call and couldn't be distracted.I went upstairs to make the phone call leaving Mike in charge of Charlotte, at the time he was trying to write emails and tie up a few loose ends at the hospital. Well after 10 minute phone call, I went downstairs to hang out with Mike and Charlotte again to find homemade barriers all over the room. Mike looked at me and said, "Wow. She is into everything. I don't know how you get anything done." Hahahaha. Finally! Justification! Mike has never once requested a cleaner house from me, but I'm so glad he finally got to see just how hard it is to get anything done with Charlotte constantly on the go! It gave me a good laugh.

Look at the face, so darling but oh so mischievous.

I love that baby, unrolled toilet paper and all!

MAGICAL INDEED

As many of you know a friend and I organized a race to raise money for a darling family in my neighborhood. Have you seen the video? Probably, but if not take a minute to watch it.

All through September and October we met, we planned, we stressed, we cried, we laughed, we felt butterflies all to put the SPREAD MAGIC AROUND 5k together. And because of you so many of you, it truly was a magical day.

We had perfect running weather. Partly cloudy skies with temperatures in the high 40s; sounds cold but once you get running the air felt crisp and refreshing. Liberty Park was the perfect venue. It provided runners with a nice, flat course, beautiful scenery and plenty of places to park!

We had over 150 people register for the race, which I hear is pretty impressive for a brand new race. We had over 100 people come and actually run/walk the race. I can't even begin to explain my feelings of humility, love and gratitude for all the people who came to support. I often become overwhelmed with thinking about how horrible/scary/wicked the world we live in is, but when you see so many good people come together to support a family that they may or may not know, you realize there is still so much good in this world. It was definitely an emotional day for everyone.

Runners getting geared up to race. Our winner ran the 3.1 miles in just over 16 minutes.

Do you realize that's just over a 5 minute mile? Amazing.

We invited participants to dress up with it being Halloween weekend and the participants did not let us down! Here were some of my favorites.

I love how people got so involved by dressing up and making the event such a good time.

We had donuts, bagels, bananas and Halloween candy for refreshments after the race.

People brought their whole family!

Parents pushed their darling dressed up kids in strollers and pulled their dogs on leashes.

Music was bumping, prizes were awarded, and runners received their results instantly.

Honestly things ran so smoothly and perfectly that day, I have no doubt their was a higher power watching out for all of us!

**There was this sweet older couple walking around the park who asked my little sister was what going on. After she told them they handed her four dollars to give to the Colemans as a donation. Every little bit helps.

Friends, neighbors and family came to run the event.

I even had a couple of friends whose husbands work with Mike come and support.

I love both of these ladies.

Mike's brother Brad, his wife Tracee, and their kids Brooks and Ellee came to run it. It meant so much to me to have family there. Brad and Tracee are the biggest party animals. They came dressed up and ready for a good time. I don't think they ever miss out on helping someone out. Love these guys. Mike's sister Stephanie also signed up but couldn't come due to runny noses! (We missed you Steph!)

I married into the greatest family.

Emily was there and even convinced some of her dear friends to wake up early on a chilly Saturday morning and volunteer for the race. Such lovely ladies.

Lacey was the MVP of the event. If any of you know Lacey, you won't be surprised with how much she helped me out. She was one of the first to register for the race, she picked up bagels for the race, donated donuts, and actually ran the race. Over and over she would call/text/email to know what I needed. How did I ever get to lucky to get such a true and loyal friend who steps up to the plate when a friend is in need?

Lacey is the BEST, not to mention she rocked the race my friends!

My sister Katherine came with her kids and walked the race while her husband Lance completed his first 5k! Katherine and Lance were also some of the first to register for the race. I got phone call daily from her to ask what she could do to help or she would call to celebrate another person registering! They took Charlotte for a couple of hours the day before the race just so I could get things done. My mom came bright and early the morning of to help set up and of course being a runner herself she rocked the race. My dad was there to cheer us all on and give the support we needed. So lucky to be near family.

A few more much needed shout outs of support,

because really these people deserve the recognition for all the good they did.

Kathy, Allison and Heidi don't live anywhere near Salt Lake City but each of them registered for the race just to donate and show support. Seriously? I've got some of the greatest friends. Registering for the race probably seemed like such a simple act to these ladies but it meant the world to me and it also helped us raise a significant amount of money for the Colemans.

Heidi also got her sister, a bunch of her sister friends, and her mom to register! Heidi all those people made a big difference! Thank you!

Two of my fastest running friends who both happen to have the same name (Katie) also signed up knowing they probably wouldn't be able to make it due to being sick or having to bring two kids without the help of their husband.

My friend from college, Monica, signed up for the race with a couple of friends.

Hope you are feeling better Monica!

My neighbors Tiffany, Brian, and Shelly took care of the water for the race which was a huge stress relief for me.

My extended family also helped. My aunt Patti donated money to the Colemans and my aunt Janalee offered to come and volunteer for the race. My cousin Annie and her husband Matthew also registered for the race knowing they wouldn't be there to actually run it.

My dear friend Lindsay, who lives in AZ emailed and asked how she could help and donate.

Chelsea the other race director was a dream to work with. She was organized, meticulous and uptight, just like me. We were two peas on a pod. The race would not have been such a big success without her.

My in laws signed up for the race, and watched my sweet Charlotte the morning of the race. It was so nice not to worry about my lovey because I knew she was well taken care of.

What would I do without Steve and Carol?

And of course all of the planning and organizing of the race happened during the two busiest months of Mike's schedule but through it all he helped at home, listened to me cry, put packets together, organized race shirts, and rubbed my feet. BEST. HUSBAND. EVER.

THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

THANK YOU for making a difference in a family's life!

Putting this together was challenging, stressful and very time consuming but worth every minute! Seeing the Colemans there with their kids and having everyone cheer them on at the finish line was priceless. There are so many good, thoughtful, generous people in the world and I felt blessed to know so many of them! Thank you again for your help, support, and prayers. It was a MAGICAL EVENT INDEED.