Tonight We're Going to Party Like It's 1999...er, I Mean 2007!

As I mentioned in the previous blog, Ray and I went to my company's Christmas party and also his company's Christmas party in December. Mine was pretty low key but his was an all-out extravaganza! They held it at the Grand America hotel and it was black tie. It was kind of fun to have a reason to get all dressed up. They had a great band and we had steak and lobster for dinner and could have partied until the wee hours of the morning but being the responsible parents that we are and knowing that our kids would wake up as early as usual no matter how late we stayed out, we headed home around 10 p.m.

They had professional photographers there and this is one of the pictures we got. Sorry, but I couldn't figure out how to resize it. I wanted to post our engagement picture next to it so you can all see how much 7 years of marriage and 2 kids has changed us, but even though we would look different, I know that I am more in love with my husband 7 years later than I was when we got engaged.

Christmas Has Come...and Gone!

Well, I've finally gotten back onto blog...it's been more than a month. Boy, how time flies. Since the last time I blogged, we got the house ready for Christmas, went to two Christmas parties, Ray traveled to L.A. for work, I traveled to Chicago and San Jose for work, and we celebrated our 7th anniversary! Not to mention finding time to buys gifts, make goodies for neighbors and co-workers, and spend time with our boys and try to help Kaden understand the "true" meaning of Christmas. Now you all know why you didn't receive any Christmas cards this year. I'll do better next year, I promise!

Anyway, Christmas has come and gone and I wanted to post some pictures of our Christmas. We stayed at home this year for Christmas (which was WONDERFUL!) and talked my mom and dad into coming down. Kaden was so excited for "Grandma and Grandpa from Wyoming" to come, he could hardly wait for them to get here. When they finally arrived after driving through a huge snow storm, we had a big Christmas Eve dinner with my mom's famous jumbo breaded shrimp and warm apple pie and pumpkin pie. It was a great dinner. We finally got Kaden to bed and Santa came and we had our Christmas around 8:00 the next morning. I had to help Kaden open his last few presents because he was on present overload. I think he had a great Christmas, we all did. We are very blessed.

The holidays have been great for us, we have gotten to spend a lot of time together as a family and over the past couple of months, I have realized how truly blessed I am to have such a wonderful husband that loves and supports me as a wife and mother and two beautiful, smart, and healthy boys that love me despite my daily imperfections. We have a beautiful home that keeps us warm (which is crucial since it is FREEZING right now). We have great friends and family that love and support our family.

Ray's dad's cousin was killed in an avalanche on Christmas Day and left behind a wife, kids, and grandkids. It really made me think of how grateful I am to have my family with me and how quickly that can change. I pray that the Lord will keep my family healthy and safe but even more, I pray that if he can't, that I am prepared for whatever he has in store. I hope that as the new year approaches, I can be a better wife, mother, daughter, and friend and that my family will stay safe, happy, and healthy. I wish the same for all of you, our friends and family! Happy Holidays. We love you all!

This is our house all decorated for Christmas. We had to do a better job than usual since we were staying home for Christmas this year and Santa had to be able to find us!

The Balls Family Christmas Tree 2007 - I finally let Ray talk me into a fake one and boy, was it nice to not have to water it and it always looked great. But, I did miss the real pine smell.

Jackson on Christmas morning. As all toddlers, he was very excited about the paper and boxes, not what was in them!

Kaden with his gun that Grandma and Grandpa got him. He can shoot at some toy bottles on a log and somehow, when he hits the red dot, they jump off the log. He LOVES IT!

Jackson with his Christmas toys...seems that he is pretty happy with his Christmas.

Kaden with his Lego train set that works by remote control. It took mom and dad quite a while to put the train cars together. Santa should have assembled it the night before!

Kaden and Jackson in their monster truck PJs from Grandma and Grandpa Balls. Kaden also got tickets to the Monster Jam show at Energy Solutions Arena in February...he can't wait to go again this year!

Biking in November!

After having a horribly hot summer, we got some beautiful weather, in November! A couple of weeks ago, the weather was so nice, we got the Christmas lights up (without coats on) and Ray took Kaden and Jackson on a bike ride around the neighborhood so I just wanted to share the cute pics of my boys (all of them)!

Sorry, no Thanksgiving pictures to share this year...it was very uneventful. We actually stuck around home this year. We had planned to have Thanksgiving dinner with our good friends, the Madsens, and their two boys but the night before Thanksgiving, their little boy, Ben (almost 18 months old) got a bad case of croup and ended up at Primary Children's Hospital overnight. Since Kaden is EXTREMELY prone to get croup and has already had it twice this year, we decided to have our own Thanksgiving (I was not mentally or physically prepared to pack for two kids at the last minute to head out of town...I need more planning time than a few hours). So, we had our own little Thanksgiving, complete with pumpkin pie (which I have to say was pretty good for my first time making it...thanks to Marie Calendar ready-made pie crusts!) I was wondering if staying at home was such a great idea and then when Jackson threw up both his lunch and dinner and started running a 102 degree fever, I was pretty grateful we stayed at home. Ahhhhh, the holidays...I swear kids always know when you've got something planned or there's a holiday, they ALWAYS get sick...at least ours do.

Ray finally talked me into buying a fake Christmas tree, especially since we weren't heading to Wyoming this year to pick out our own tree and haul it back (which would have been a chore anyway since we don't have the Jimmy anymore and Ray's Maxima and my Sonata don't have any racks to tie anything to. I have to admit that it was great to just have the lights already on, pull it out of the box, and start decorating. But, I am going to get a candle that smells like pine so at least my nose can think it's real. I'll post pics later of our decorated house, which I have to say I'm pretty impressed with, and our tree.

My Least Favorite Holiday...HALLOWEEN

Well, Halloween has come and gone. We were a pretty sad family this year...we didn't even really decorate our house this year for Halloween. But, we did do the obligatory Halloween dress up for the boys and went to a few houses in the neighborhood. Although the weather was great, Kaden was done after about a dozen houses. We did dress Jackson up just so we could get some pictures and show him his "first Halloween". Kaden has eaten so much Halloween junk the last couple of days that he literally threw up yesterday morning around 6:00 a.m. IT WAS EVERYWHERE! His bed and sheets were soaked and it was all down his wall too. He had mentioned the night before that his stomach hurt but we thought it was one of his many ploys to procrastinate going to bed...well, we were wrong.

Jackson and Kaden are starting at a new daycare tomorrow. Our previous provider had a family emergency and had to close her daycare indefinitely so after a week or so of intereviewing various providers, we finally found one that we both feel really good about and is really close to our house so Ray will be able to drop off in the mornings and I'll pick up in the evenings. Kaden is excited and really hit it off with her 6-year-old son.

Other than Halloween and interviewing daycare providers, it was a pretty uneventful week and we are looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas. Oh, I did have a short one-day training in our Seattle office on Monday and it was great to be back in Seattle. (Sorry Balls family, I flew in the night before and flew out the next day!) When I flew in and saw the city, the water, and bridges, and the clouds, I just felt like I was flying home. I think Ray and I both have thoughts that we want to move back someday...probably when the kids are out of daycare and we can afford it. Utah is great as far as cost of living, but we really miss the mild(er) weather up there and the beauty and sad to say, but being LDS up in Washington is better than being LDS here in Utah. For any of you who have lived in Utah, you know what I mean. Ray and I have found that being the majority is not always the best, when you're LDS up in Washington, you're definitely a minority and LDS people seem to stick together and really take care of each other more when they're not all around you. Anyway, Utah will do for now but don't be surprised if we're back up there someday. Ray has connections at Microsoft (a former boss) and I have great relationships with the Seattle EY office so I hope that they can find room for me again someday.

Here are some of our pictures from Halloween 2007. Enjoy!

Snow, Snow, Go Away...Come Again....NEVER!

Well, we officially got our first snow of the season (and I'm sure there will be plenty more!). We woke up on Sunday morning and there was an inch or so of snow everywhere! For pete's sake, it's not even November yet! Anyway, Kaden was so excited of course so he had to get his new boots on and try them out so we bundled him up and he and daddy went out and what is the best thing to do with snow, build a snowman of course. Kaden named him Kyle Cone (NO idea where that came from, he's got quite the imagination). So, of course we had to get pictures of him all bundled and waddling out the door and with his new friend, Kyle. Luckily, the snow melted by the end of the day but Kyle is melting a little slower. Kaden checks on him each day but soon, he'll be gone. My two favorite seasons here are Spring and Fall and neither one of them lasts very long before the hot summer and cold winter hit. I'm trying to talk Ray into taking Kaden skiing this year but he thinks he's still too young. We'll see...if not this year, definitely next year. How can we live in Utah and not ski? People move here just for that which is crazy to me, but they do.

Side note...just as I'm sitting here writing, Kaden is yelling from the bathroom, "Mommy, I'm all done pooping." Can I just say how GREAT it is having a potty-trained child? The road getting here was EXTREMELY painful and frustrating but it's well worth it now. I can't even imagine a day when we can just walk out the door with no diaper bags and not having to empty the Diaper Genie every week while plugging our noses. All I can say is that I hope Jackson wants to be just like his big brother and catches on a lot sooner than Kaden did. It's amazing the things that mom's cherish, like pooping and peeing in the potty. :)

The best way to end the day, a cup of hot chocolate.

Say Cheese

Just wanted to share some more cute pictures of my boys. It's been a pretty uneventful week. I just got done with my last work deadline (October 15th) until the January busy season hits so I've been able to spend more time than usual with the boys. The weather is getting colder and it's more and more like fall each day and I think it will be snowing like crazy soon and there's already some snow on the mountains.

Ray is headed to L.A. next week on a recruiting trip for Omniture so it will just be me and boys most of next week also. Kade has really been into Legos lately and I've realized that I really like it too. There's just some sense of accomplishment from looking at a picture and being able to replicate it. Kaden's creations are a lot more creative than mine, my whole goal is to make it look exactly like it is in the picture, by the rules, now I understand why I'm an accountant...it's all about rules and exactness. Anyway, as soon as Ray gets home and life slows down a bit, we'll get our pumpkins carved and get ready for Halloween. Enjoy the pictures!

I guess it was too hard to try and get it from hand to mouth so he just stuck it in his mouth and started sucking on it.

Kaden now loves having his picture taken so when I take pictures of Jackson, I have to take one of Kaden.

Kaden with one of his best friends, Grady.

Jackson loves his Baby Bungee!

Kaden hates for Jackson to take a bath alone, there's just something so sweet about brothers taking a bath together.

Another tub time cheeser!

Yes, I Finally Conformed...Welcome to the Balls Family Blog

Yes, I am finally joining the rest of you and creating a blog. I'm sure that mine won't be as entertaining as some of yours, but I've convinced myself that it's the only way I'm going to get even close to keeping a journal. Plus, it's a great way to share pictures with families that are far away or somewhat computer illiterate.

Anyway, here we are in Riverton, UT...having now lived in our house for over a year and having added one more Balls to the clan so now we have two Balls (no pun intended) boys and no girls. It's all blue and green in our house. To all of our Washington and Maple Valley friends out there, we sure miss you guys and miss the rain and miss the mountains, but sure don't miss the high prices of everything. Does anyone know of an affordable, beautiful place with a temperate year-round climate? If so, let us know and that's where we're headed next. But, I am glad to be closer to my family (most of the time), especially my sister and her two boys and my two boys LOVE to get together, although we miss all the family that we left behind in Washington. Who knows, maybe we'll be back someday.

Anyway, I'll post some of my favorite latest pics and then log off for the night. Enjoy!

Kaden (3 1/2) and Jackson (9 months) with Grandpa Balls who came to visit for a day when dropping Katie off at BYU - Idaho

Jackson loves his sweet potatoes...no idea where he got his eyes.

Kaden and Jackson...brothers forever.

The last family pictures we had taken...it's already time for a new one and I can't believe Jackson was ever that small.

Kaden's 3-year-old pictures.