Katie's Birthday

Our little Katie turned three on the 17th! We can't believe how big she has gotten, seems like just yesterday we had her! She is so fun to have around, and such a good little helper! Here are a few pictures from her birthday party we had with Nana and Papa.
Andee kept blowing the candles out for her, she we had to keep relighting them--after about three tries I think she finally got them!

Our big Birthday girl!

She has had an obsession with Tinkerbell lately, so we found her a few Tinkerbell costumes that she absolutely loved! She kept trying to get everyone to fly her around, finally Nana gave in and for the past few days, all we have heard is that she wants to fly! Thanks Nana! LOL

2009

Kind of old picture, but I think it's cute! Emma left with Randi and Katie was NOT happy about it at all!

Andee after Emma and Randi left, she still says that she wants to go live in Indiana with them!

On our last walk up Spring Canyon before it snowed, Katie decided that she was going to be an airplane! She has such a funny personality!

We were really hoping that 2009 would get off to a GREAT start....boy were we wrong! After finally getting all the Christmas decorations down (they have yet to be put away) Gabe and I were looking forward to relaxing this past weekend---Andee stayed at my mom's all weekend and Katie spent the night with Gabe's parents. What we weren't expecting was for us to both get sick! I ended up dead on the couch all day Sunday with who knows what, while Gabe spent the better part of the day in the bathroom! At least the house got cleaned Saturday! LOL Katie has yet another ear infection, poor thing, I'm afraid she is going to have to get tubes put in her ears sooner or later! We need to get her hearing checked as well....might as well kill two birds with one stone I guess! Mom keeps telling me that Katie is deaf since she yells instead of talks---Gabe says that she just takes after me! :) Then today I think I have a piece of popcorn stuck between my teeth so I try dental floss to get it out----out comes half my tooth! Needless to say, this year has gotten off to a rocky start! On the brighter side of things, we are really hoping to buy our house in the next few months! We are so excited to have our first house, and we have been living in this house since October and just love it! After moving 11 times in 4 and a half years, I'm ready to settle down and not move for a LONG time (if ever)!

Enough of that......here's an update!

Katie will be 3 next month....man that makes us feel so old! I can't believe that she is growing up so fast! That means we have been back in Utah for 3 years! Where does the time go?! We are so ready to go back to Tennesee---just to visit! Amazing how much we really do miss it back there, but I know once we go there we will be ready to come back home!

Andee is in Pre-school with "Aunt" Cordie and she just loves it! She throws a fit if she can't go to school! Monday's she doesn't have school and she's mad all day long because she would so much rather be there than at Day Care!

My work just bought a new building! YAY!!! It's 10 times bigger than the one that we are now and best of all..... I get my own Office!!! I'm so excited to not have to smell the dust all the time, to not have to walk through the mess of the shop to get into my computer---just everything about it is so exciting! I'm really not looking forward to helping lay the tile and what not, but if it means I get my own space I'm definitely up for it! I absolutely love my job! I couldn't ask for a better boss, or a better work environment! When I left the Coal Mine, I missed being able to talk to all the workers and tease them--it's just my nature! But I have all that here, we all give each other a hard time, and it's just such a relaxed environment! We get what we need to get done, but we have fun doing it!

Gabe just got done taking down the Christmas decorations on Main Street, he was NOT to thrilled after just taking them all down at our house as well! He really enjoys working for the City, at least on most days! We are just thankful to have them pay 100% of our benefits even though the pay isn't the best, the benefits definitely make up for it!

That's our update for today....I really don't know how often I will remember to post on this thing....still trying to get the hang of all of it! Maybe one day it will look all cute and fancy like everyone elses, but for now, I'm still trying to figure it out! Love you guys!

Katie was riding Poppy like he was a horse at Grandma Erickson's and Chico kept trying to jump on! It was so cute!!

Andee decided that she wanted a piggyback ride to! She almost fell, but it was so funny to see them attacking Poppy! They wore him out pretty good!

Katie was even ready for a nap after opening all her presents so she sat in her new chair and got comfy! They were having such a blast!



Katie was too busy opening up everyone's things to show me what she was getting, but Andee was proud to display everything! She sure does love the camera!

Here they are playing in their new playhouse!

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!! (Just a little late, but it's the thought that counts!) We hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday.....we sure did! Andee and Katie are still a little too young to get too excited about the whole Santa thing--thank goodness--but we were still work up at 7 in the morning to open presents! Katie actually started trying to unwrap ALL of them the night before, I think she was more excited for Andee's things that for her own! They have been wanting a playhouse for awhile, so Santa brought them a little Cottage thing that has a sink, changing table, baby bed, washer, stove, and chair--man did their eyes light up! It was so fun to see how excited they were over every little thing! They got a lot of clothes, which is a WONDERFUL thing since they are almost wearing the same size! Katie I think is going to be a bit bigger than little Andee! Christmas morning Gabe's parents came over for breakfast which was really nice, then we headed out to my mom and dad's for a little while. We got to talk to Emma, which the girls just love, we really wish that they were closer to us! Then we headed over to Grandma Erickson's for lunch. We are so blessed to have her in our lives! She is such a sweetheart and a joy! I really don't know what I would do without her! Christmas is a hard time for her cuz she misses Grandpa so much, but we are lucky that we have such a close knit family! Gabe still can't believe how close the Erickson's are! He has a hard time keeping up with all my "Aunts and Uncles" when half of them are really just cousins that I have ALWAYS called Aunt or Uncle!
Christmas went well---that is until 4:00 when Gabe got called out to go plow! We were supposed to have a nice prime rib dinner--obviously that didn't work out too well! He didn't get home until 3 in the morning! They then decided to try to call him to come out again at 5! I had already headed up to fill in at the Coal Mine so I wasn't home to hear the phone, and when I got to the Mine and called to tell him I made it, he wasn't hearing it himself! I think that I FINALLY got ahold of him around 10! The girls had slept in (thank goodness) since they had such a big day the day before, and he wasn't about to wake up! Poor guy, it seems like all he has been doing lately is plowing the roads in Helper!
We are so glad to have 2008 behind us! It was just one of those years! Hard to believe that it's come and gone already! We hope that everyone has a GREAT New Year!