Catch Up 2014, er... 2013

Egads. I'm the worst. Smart phones and Instagram have killed my blog. I mean, I've had a freaking baby that my blog doesn't even know about. Sorry, Hugo, SO! Let me try four blog posts to sum up the year. If I make it reasonable like that, it just might happen. Right? RIGHT? Here are a few shots from 2013 to finish up THAT freaking year. Oh brother. I may have posted a few of these before, but I'm not going to let that stop me. Blogger for life!

My mom took me to see So You Think You Can Dance Live in November! We are mega-fans of the show, because it's awesome. I think we both pine for long lost dancing careers... snort. I've always loved to dance, but enjoy watching truly talented dancers even more.

Eleanor started Pre-School in the fall of 2013 and freaking LOVED it. Miss Julie with Alphabet Adventures was a perfect fit for our social girl.

Eleanor holding her cousin once removed (or something), Eva Thueson. Pretty little dolls.

Halloween happened and Eleanor was our Ariel.

And Winston was our Sebastian!

Right before Christmas we sold our trusty car, Geoff, the Focus. I had him for 10 years! We bought a bright blue Ford Fusion and have yet to take a picture of it. Or give it a name! I guess it's hard to get over old relationships.

I took the kids to go see Santa and ride the carousel and Eleanor was as photogenic as ever.

Winston didn't fall off!

Christmas Eve they opened their pajamas and I got really good pictures of them together by the tree. Oh wait, that's right, I totally didn't. Tried and failed. Eh. They were happy.

The kids were suitably dewy-eyed and adorable on Christmas morning.

Eleanor was delighted to find an orange amongst all the chocolate and candy canes in her stocking. Ever our health nut, I don't know where she learns it.

Here is my project I made for my mom. Each branch is a month and each leaf or apple is a name with the birth date engraved on it. I still haven't finished it a year later, ha. Typical me, sorry, mom.

 

Clayton and E at Grandma and Grandpa Firth's house for Christmas.

Winston fell in love with his cousin Caleb King. He talked about "Cabin" for ages afterwards. During their stay he just followed him around and quietly stalked him like this. 

Caleb was super-sweet about it.

Winston did NOT enjoy the fire show at Tepanyaki for Clayton's birthday. Eh, kids.

Oh, the horror!

Adam and Marie. They had just been dating a month or two here. Now... well, I don't want to take all the fun news away from future blog.

Shagan!

Mom and Dad.

Clayton's cake! I think he made some good wishes, as we've had a really good year.

Testing...

Trying out blogging from my phone. Here goes!

Santa Visit 2013

Merry Christmas! Yeah, that's topical in March. But here are a few of the Santa pictures. They turned out so well. I went during a school time on a week day and we breezed in and out without any fits or breaking anything. Banner day in Firth life.

Fall and Winter 2013

 One of the challenges of blogging for me, is that I use my laptop for my pictures, and I take a lot of pictures. So my memory fills up and I have to blog before I send all the pictures to the external hard drive. I could blog using the external hard drive, but it's a pain in the tuchus already, and I know me. It's not going to happen. So in order to get pictures off my camera or phone, I have to catch up on the blog so I can dump them here again. Whatever, it's as boring to read about as it is to do. I guess the point is, is that it is March. I have a new child, and yet I am about 4 months behind on blogging. I can't even blog about Hugo yet! SO! Catching up. Here are some miscellaneous from the Fall/Winter season to clean up the computer! There may be a few posts out of order coming ahead. Sorry. Not like anyone reads this anymore anyways, but it is my only form of journaling, so I truck on!

Eleanor decided to try and dress up like Jessie one day. She kind of nailed it, the only help I gave her was braiding her hair.

 Cute.

 At Allie's house. They played dress up, and up and up and up... for about 2 hours. I only got shots of a few of their costumes. 

Here is ballerina girls.

 

 And flying girls.

 And my favorite, it's very subtle, but here they are "shopping girls". They had shopping bags and purses and pretended to run credit cards. Awww, so cute, ha ha! They come by it honestly.

 A lunch date with my men at JCW's.

 

WINSTON! He is so dang cute sometimes.

 

 Snacks for Eleanor's preschool. This is back when I cared more, ha. I saw this idea on Pinterest and had to try it. Note to others- it was a pain in the neck! So hard, so much work! Never. Doing. Again! At least I got a picture. (I sent a "healthy" snack too, this was just for fun.)

Clayton's (and mine!) good friend, Larissa met the one and tied the knot. Here are Mr. and Mrs. Rob Ferre! Their reception was amazing. First of all, they had smart cookies, so I was instantly on board. She changed out of her big dress for her party dress (seen below), their first dance had a baton throwing solo in the middle, they had a fun photo booth, incredible music (that's his business) and after we left there was even a 12 foot T-Rex that made an appearance. I don't quite understand how, but people who were there were suitably impressed.

 Woo hoo! Guess who didn't dance at their wedding? Yep, the squares on the right. Hey, I was pretty pregnant. Nothing more awkward than a pregnant lady getting down.

 Mom and Dad took us and the kids out to eat, and in the parking lot is this truck with a parrot on it. No owner in sight. Randomly, my dad knows the guy who owns it and asked him later how he gets the parrot to not take off. He replied that he honestly didn't know it was getting out. He would leave it in the truck with the window cracked (It was Autumn, and very reasonable temperatures, in case you were wondering.) and it was always back in the truck when he returned to it. Ha! Well, it brightened my kid's day anyways.

Great Niece Eva

 My niece Caitlin had a sweet baby daughter way back in August. Still catching up here on the blog! I thought I'd share a few sweet shots of Eva the Diva for the Howell family. 

 Mom and Dad with another great grandchild, Eva is number 6 of 7, soon to be 8 of the greats!

 And great uncle Adam, getting a whole slew of emotions from the darling dear.

 

 And me. I joked that I was glad I was having a boy so I wouldn't be jealous of her beauty, and her hair! It/s downright glorious!

Eleanor Goes to PreSchool!

 In September, Eleanor started preschool! I debated about where to send her, looked up everyone in Provo but could not make a decision. Then I saw on Facebook that my friend's sister (and my friend too) Julie was accepting kids to her school, I didn't even know she ran one! We signed her up and it's been just a perfect fit. She is accepting students for next year if anyone needs an amazing preschool for their 3-5 year old. It's We signed her up and it's been just a perfect fit. She is accepting students for next year if anyone needs an amazing preschool for their 3-5 year old. It's Alphabet Adventures. That should link to her blog of this year's classes.  Here is the link if you are interested in signing up!

 Eleanor was jazzed and ready to go.

 Yeah, we should have no problems with her being ready for new experiences.

 When talking about being scared of going to school, she told me: " I wasn't nervous my first day of school, I was excited. Excited means you want to feel the fun." Yes it does, sweetheart.

Cristy's Baby Shower

 Cristy Diana Maria Theresa Lowe-Rose! Ok, so that's not her name, but I used to tease her as I was tickled by the idea of having so many cute names. Cristy, who often goes by Diana, was the one I went to Italy with for the first time. My old roommate from a lifetime ago was in town visiting her family and they threw her a baby shower. So fun! She has been living all over the country, lately in San Diego and Boston, so to have her in Utah was a real treat. She and her husband John are expecting a boy any day now! Julie and I drove up with Eleanor to attend her shower on September 7th. 

Eleanor (Who is wearing her puffiest slip under a dress that does not work with a slip. Pick your battles, right?) had a great time playing with other little girls at the shower, but joined us for one of the games, the Toilet-Paper Guessing Game- it's where you pass around the toilet paper roll and tear off how much you imagine will fit around Cristy's waist. Eleanor piped up that she wanted 9 squares. I don't think she knew what we were doing, she wasn't exactly paying attention, but when the roll came around, she kept demanding 9 squares. Ok. Well, guess who was the only on to be exactly on? Little E. I told them she doesn't count, but they wanted her to win, so she got the bag of chocolate almonds. Ha ha. 

Here she is hugging her prize.

 With cute Cristy!

 Old roommates all together! Diana, me, Cristy and Julie! The last time we all saw each other was at my baby shower for Eleanor, nearly 5 years ago!

 Eleanor mugging it up with Diana.

 Me and my goose.

 Another awesome surprise was getting to see Annie! She has lived in NYC, London and recently Nashville and was just super-randomly in town at the same time. I went to Italy with her too on that trip with Cristy. She is just coolest person and I haven't seen her in nearly 10 years! P.S. She is just as hot as ever, if anything, she just got better looking. Eh, what can you do?