Top 12 of 2012

Well, here you have it. Christmas cards 2012.

If you don't get one in the mail, it's because I either don't know where you live or has something to due with the fact that I suddenly realized Christmas was coming two days ago and hadn't budgeted or planned for Christmas anything, let a lone cards, yet. But it doesn't mean I love you any less :)

I wanted to order a card that had the top 12 moments of 2012 but they were pricey! 
So instead you get a blog list of our

Top 12's in 2012!

  

 1. We got a dog. Her name is Blu and she is a BIG chocolate lab puppy. We're betting she hits 100 lbs. by the time she's a year old. Blu is my best friend according to Cole, although Cole and Blu come in close seconds as BFFs. Probably because I feed her, bathe her, walk her, and love her and she follows me around everywhere. Like to the bathroom!  

2. Aggies, Aggies, Aggies. Football games, basketball games, and tailgate parties. 2012 WAC Champions with a 10 win season. Trip to the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl coming up and a midnight run to the airport to greet the football team. We really should own a second home in Logan. 

3. Lots of trips to Bear Lake. And a trip to the Lazy P Ranch. The kids pray daily that we can go to Bear Lake again soon. 

4.   Pearl went to the USU Cheer Clinic and did her cheer/dance routine at a USU basketball game. Even after having the stomach flu. Pretty much made her entire year! 

5. Cole turned 2 and has begun to assert his terrible two-ness. 

6. Pearl turned 5 and is one smart cookie. She's already reading chapter books at school. Oh, and how could I forget. This was the first year she had a "friend" birthday party. 

7. Jeff built a "man shed" to hold "man stuff" in the backyard. 

8. Jenny got called to serve in the Young Women in our church. And had the chance to share her own story of how YW leaders/programs influenced her life. Oh, and most importantly, she survived her first girls camp! 

9. Four wheeler rides. Lots and lots of four wheeler rides. Cole asks almost daily when we can go on a four wheeler ride and screams at you if you forget to pray for the four wheeler rides during dinner prayers.  

10. We made it 10 years! Too bad our 10-year anniversary trip four wheeling was rained/hailed/snowed out... in July. Boo.

11. We all dressed up for Halloween. Seriously. This is a big deal! We never dress up. Peacock and USU cheerleader, USU football star, Coach Andersen, and zombie and referee. 

12. Jeff coached Pearl's Tball team. With Cole as his Assistant Coach, they went undefeated! Alright, so they don't keep score in Tball but still.

There you go. 2012 in a nutshell. Here's wishing all of our family and friends a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Sparkling Snowflakes Christmas

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Aggie crazed

Here's the deal.

I live with a man obsessed with anything Aggies.

I mean, there's a reason why I call my blog "True Aggies" and mention in my tagline that I'm raising two pipsqueaks and an Aggie-crazed husband.

The man is quite possibly be the biggest Aggie fan out there.

Don't believe me?

For the past nine years, we have had season basketball tickets. For the past four years (I think) we've had season football tickets. That's an average of 20 basketball games and six football games every year. For a total of 180 basketball games and 24 football games, give or take post-season play and bowl games. Or 32,640 miles of driving back and forth to Logan and 456 hours sitting in either blue chairbacks or yellow and orange Spectrum glory. Roughly.

It's ridiculous. But it makes the man oh. so. happy.

Well, with a defeat over La Tech, the USU football team had secured a spot as WAC Champions. Everyone was really excited... as evident by the Twitter feeds Jeff kept showing me.

It just so happened on the same day we were in Logan for the USU Cheer Clinic and basketball game. Jeff would lean over and whisper, the team is flying in tonight at 1:30 a.m. Then it was 1:00 a.m. and then 12:00 midnight. With a heavy sigh that we should probably just go home after updating me on the latest flight info even though he would really like to go to the airport to welcome the team home.

I may be crazy myself, but I told Jeff he was taking me to the airport at midnight. He tried to put up a fight but I refused to go home with him unless he went out there, along with hundreds of other crazy Aggie fans, to greet the team in the cold and rain as they got off the plane.

As crazy as it sounds, it was actually a lot of fun going out to the airport. We waited and waited and waited! Big Blue came. Hundreds of fans came. And then the plane came! So fun to be at a small town airport where we could get right out on the runway with the team.

I was busy trying to get a decent shot of the flag and plane to notice Jeff was shaking all the player's hands and getting a "man brace" as he called it from Coach Andersen. It made his entire year! I mean, look at the smile on his face and the twinkle in his eyes when I made him go up to Coach A again for a quick photo.

I wish he looked at me that way....

The "A" all lite up in True Blue glory!!!

Pearl waited "100" days for this!

If you ask Pearl how long a long time is, she will tell you it's "100" days long.

Which is how long she had to wait for the USU Cheer Clinic. At least if you ask her.

But after waiting "100" days for the single, most glorious day in her five years of life, something awful happened.

She got sick. And not just a cold. The nasty stomach bug that has sickened half of the state. Poor Pearl. She got sick in the middle of the night but must have slept right through it because when I woke her up, I kept thinking, why does Pearl have dried boogers all over her pajamas. And her hair is all matted together.... oh wait!

Yep. Gross.

My heart hurt for her, knowing how much she'd looked forward to this day.

But a little upset tummy was no way going to stop her from going. She got up, had a bath, got dressed, ate two bites of toast to appease me, and said she was going. I didn't have the heart to tell her she couldn't at least try to go. Jeff later told me on the way to the cheer clinic, he encouraged Pearl to say a prayer that she would get feeling better so she could still dance at the basketball game that night.

The faith of a child because she didn't throw up once the whole day. She did look a little green at times but she toughed it out and learned the routine.

I decided to relieve Jeff of cheerleading duties and came up to campus with Cole. I so wish I'd have thought to bring in my nice camera to get pictures. Instead you get crappy pictures off of my phone. Cole had about as much fun as Pearl and Ruby did. So did Jeff and Uncle Jesse.... keeping a close eye on the USU cheerleaders and Aggiettes.

When I sent Jeff a text of this picture, he came right on back in to the gym!

Later that night, Pearl was able to perform her dance/cheer routine at the men's basketball game. You can't tell from her face, but she was really excited. And extremely impatient waiting for Ruby to get to the game so they could sit by each other... "Ruby is taking 100 days, Mom!"

Super irritated that they had all the kids facing the student section instead of the section of parents and grandparents who actually PAID for them to go to the cheer clinic! Lame!!! Ruby and Pearl and somewhere in the mass of white shirts.

Random pictures from the game. The kids suckered me out of popcorn and a sno cone.

Cole loved every minute of "The Scotsman" and the game. Pearl? After waiting 100 days and then getting sick, I think she was ready to call the day done.

The Many Faces of Fern

I love this goofy boy. With all his goofy, funny, squinty-eyed faces. His bright, blue eyes. I love his little teeth. His little high-pitched voice that says, "huh?" and "yeeep" and "no" way too much. I am smitten with his cheeks and dimples. His funny, sometimes Hellion-like but oh so sweet personality. And the hair, who hasn't fallen in love with this kid's hair?

I even love him when he's doing that gross "see" food routine during dinner. (I wonder who would encourage such shenanigans in this house?!)

He's just so dang cute.

And he knows it.