Christmas, Christmas Time is Here

Ah Christmas. I love it! I love helping my kids prepare the plate of cookies for Santa and watching their excitement and anticipation when they attempt to go to sleep. I love that Joe gets so excited for Christmas morning that he can barely sleep too. Christmas morning came in all its glory and as we prepared the kids to walk out and see what Santa had brought them, I couldn't help but feel giddy. When it was Lexi's turn, I worried that she wouldn't know what present was for her or how to use it, but as she rounded the corner, she walked right up to her racing zebra, got on, and started riding it. It was amazing. Emma wanted one thing this year, and that was Baby Cho Cho, My First Tooth. And we did not disappoint. She was thrilled and made Baby Cho Cho grow her tooth all day long over and over. Taylor was most excited about the football he received. He has received and lost about 4 footballs and has promised to take care of this one. Time will tell. As a family, we were most excited about the Wii. Breakfast turned out to be quite the adventure. It took us 2 hours to get to Grandmas house that is 8 miles away. It had snowed so much that week and with all the drifts and additional snow fall that night, it had closed off all roads to Grandma's. Luckily, Mike came with the company snow plow and plowed the stuck ones out (Chris) and we were on our way and ready to eat!!! That evening proved just as much of a problem. Dinner was hosted at my house and we had our best friends the Brewertons over as well. We ate, celebrated Brett's birthday, and played the Wii into the night. By the time everyone was ready to go, the roads were totally closed off and Grandma, Papa, and Adam were snowed in at our house. No matter, grandma and papa played the wii with the kids til 1:00am. Grandma did awesome at the minigolf. We couldn't have picked a better group to be snowed in with. The best present of the day was the remembrance of the birth of Christ. The love that He had for us personally and the sacrifice He made for us all. It was beautiful to spend Christmas together with family and friends. Thanks to all for a great day.

Tender Moment of 2008 Tag

My tender moment picture is of my hubby Joe and daughter Emma on 6/21/2008. Now, for those who don't know Joe, he is my big, strong, tough man. But he also has a weak spot for our girls. One Sunday, like every Sunday, he was helping me get the kids ready for church and Emma wanted her nails painted. I was running behind schedule, like always, so Emma asked her dad to help her. Although Joe has no idea how to paint fingernails, he was happy to help and he did a really good job. Thanks Joe for being such a great dad and for letting the girls wrap you around their little fingers. I love you so much and appreciate the way you take care of our family! I tag the following to choose their favorite tender moment of 2008: Stephanie, Adrienne, Chris, Jamie, Kami, Laura, Misti, and whoever else wants to be tagged.

Sunrise Elementary Christmas Concert

With the holiday season upon us, I am still trying to get caught up on all my blogging. So, this blog is from December 4th at Taylor's School Christmas Concert. Its the only picture I got during the production because I was videotaping it and we haven't been able to upload the video yet. Apparently something is wrong with the software, so stay tuned for when we fix it because I will update a few postings. The concert was really good, the kids looked so cute. Taylor sang "Santa Claus is Coming to Town. They made little santa hats and wore them during their song. The best part of the concert was when they were singing the Alvin and the Chipmunks song "Christmas Time is Here" and when he got to the part about the hula-hoops Taylor, along with the other kids, gyrated their hips in the hula-hoop fashion, it was hilarious and he was laughing each time which was also funny. He seemed pretty impressed with himself. TOO CUTE!

Taylor and cousin Carson after the concert. I can't believe how big they both are now.

Emma had to get some face time too.

Photo Tag

Photo tag (courtesy of Jamie)

1) Go to your pictures.

2) Upload the 4th picture from the 4th folder.

3) Explain.

This picture is Emma and Lexi at Lexi's first photo shoot. My friend Laura took the picture and has been taking their pictures ever since. I love this picture because it seems to really show Emmas mischievous smile and how comfortable Lexi was and still is with Emma bugging her.

I tag: Stephanie, Adrienne, Laura, Chris, Kami, Casi and anyone else who wants to

Wrestle Mania

This video took me FOREVER to download to my computer. We are still having problems with our video recorder software and I have spent over 2 days trying to figure out how to do it, when finally my wonderful brother-in-law Chris came over and fixed it in about 20 minutes. THANKS CHRIS! I asked myself after about 8 hours "Is it really worth the effort", and yep it is. I was a mad women determined to get my blog moment. Can you say obsessive compulsive? I hope you enjoy! P.S. I wasn't able to download the sound with it but at least that saves me some embarrassment over how I was screaming directly into the recorder. Just so you know, all wrestling moms are like this, so I am just trying to keep up. Oh Well, This is Tator-bugs in his championship round.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Salt Lake Slam

December 6, 2008: We went to Utah for a Wrestling Tournament with Taylor. He did really good, I was so proud of him. He took 5th place in the 50 lb bantam bracket. We were not sure if he was going to wrestle the final championship round because he had lost the previous round. He realized he would not be able to wrestle for 3rd or 4th so he didn't want to even try. He tends to be like every Balmforth and Blanchard in my family in that if he can't win, he is mad. A bit of a poor sport. Luckily, Uncle Coach Mike was able to talk him into it and he was able to get his 5th place medal. Taylor, we are proud of you - WIN OR LOSE! Braxton, his cousin also wrestled this weekend and took 5th place too in his weight and age bracket. Great job Braxtie! Grandma and Papa Blanchard came for a few hours and were gracious enough to take my girls home with them so I could enjoy the slam. Uncle Grant and Aunt Kami were there and took most of the pictures, while I videotaped. Thanks again Kam! And Aunt JoDea and cousin Talon came to watch the championship round. In a moment of support, JoDea coined a hilarious phrase for the occasion - "Whatever Uncle Mike says, you do!" Priceless. I am so grateful to have a supportive family that loves my kids. Thanks again everybody!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

New Family Pictures

I have to blog about my new pictures of my family that I posted. I know I am speaking for every mom in the world when I say how ridiculous it is to take family pictures. And I am extremely cheap, so this year I talked my beautiful, glorious friend Laura into taking our pictures with the bribe that I will take hers. Neither one of us know much about photography, but she has a really high end camera so how hard could it be right? WRONG! There's a lot more to it than I realized. But, for the most part we both did pretty darn good. (P.S. Laura took the individual pictures of my kids at the cabin this summer and they are posted on my blog , nice eh?) This season we decided to take the pictures at the family farm which has some really fun barn backgrounds. Now, if I could get my kids and hubby to put on a great smile for all of them I would be set. If we were allowed to pick our blessings from Heavenly Father, I would certainly pick to have a really perfect family picture. Alas, we do not get to pick our blessings so I will settle for near perfect. Thank you so much Laura for your time and effort. I appreciate you so much!!

Taz, the dog

I am going through dog withdrawls this week so I have to post these pictures of my sis-in-law Steph's dog, Taz. We doggysat him last week while they were out of town and we had such fun with him. Taz followed me around the house the entire week. He would not sit down unless I sat down (which was hardly ever) he kept looking at me like "Will you please sit down so I can take a nap!" Steph thought we did her the favor, but really she did us the favor. He is a really good dog and we really enjoyed the sweet little spirit he brought to our home. I keep looking around my house for him and wondering if I should put him out to go potty. Silly, I know; but, I love this dog! I MISS YOU TAZZY!