Happy Birthday, Dan! (yesterday)

Dan celebrated turning another year older yesterday! It was a fun day for all of us and a little busy for me. I had purchased a 10 lb turkey back in October for Canadian Thanksgiving but it wasn't big enough for Dan so he purchased a larger one. So, we had this extra turkey just hanging out in the freezer. I decided we'd do a feast for Dan's birthday so I could free up some space! In addition to the turkey we had a pork roast, potatoes and gravy, stuffing, 2 kinds of veggies, my mom brought yummy homemade rolls and we also had chocolate cake and french vanilla ice cream! All of the family that could come were here and it was a fun night. Thanks everybody that came!

Due to being busy taking care of dinner, I neglected to take any photos so I took a photo today of what my dad made for Dan.

It's a box to hold camp cooking supplies in! Very exciting! They also got us the camp dish set that is on top of it for Christmas! Can't wait to use it all this next summer!
And, here is a photo of Anne from yesterday. Looks like she is working on the budget today. She was typing on the computer and then she would write on her magna doodle and then I caught her doing this...putting the "pen" in her mouth...just like me! Oh boy!

Merry Christmas!!!

We hope that you had a very Merry Christmas! Christmas is really about children and the magic that the season holds for them. After a long month of me working so hard, I was able to take a little break to focus all of my energy on Anne...what a treat!

The first part was to spend Christmas Eve and day at Nana and Papa's. Anne loves spending time with cousins!

Here she is getting in on the truck action.

However, she is a girl and Uncle Vinnie bought her a princess dress up set. As you can see, heels and linolium do not go together when you are one year old! (That is her raisins on the floor and that is not what caused the fall)

Here she is again in all of her girly glory! This is the pretty purple dress she got from Nana. This is us Sunday morning before church.

Because Dan had to work over Christmas, we decided to celebrate it as a family on the 28th. I'm so glad we saved it for today so we could really enjoy the day together!

This is Jamie and Madeline (Dan's parents) on a webcam with us! They watched Anne open her presents. I'm sure it was a little boring for them since Anne wanted to just play with the first present she opened and we had to coax her to open more but it was fun sharing that time with them!

This is Anne's first present opened this morning...her own little laptop! She has already put it to great use! She has been carrying it around all day and working her little fingers.

This is what Santa brought her..her own baby doll along with the pack and play, a diaper bag and some little diapers. She was a little hesitant at first since my old baby doll is what she has been playing with but soon she attached herself to this one and was really mothering her. She put her down here and then gave her a kiss on the forehead.

Our family photo in front of the tree after we had a chance to take showers and look nice for the camera. It took a little coaxing to get Anne to smile at this point because she was a little worn out from the morning.

And just as promised, here is the photo of Anne's ornament for this year. I fell in love with it when I saw it at the Christmas store for this is the reason of the season!

Here is a little video of Anne with her laptop! She just loves it...and hopefully it will make mommy and daddy's life a little easier when it comes to us being on "our" computer.

Jingle Bells!

Yesterday was the last of the busy days for the Cartier household. I promised Anne that I'll be better at delegating (as much as I can) next year! So, to celebrate, we watched a Christmas movie and ate all of the yummy treats that our nice neighbors and friends from the ward brought us. I am sure you have all guessed what this did to Anne...she was a little hyper! It was almost time for Daddy to come home so we went into the front room to watch for him from the window. While waiting, we were singing "Jingle Bells" over and over. When Daddy got home, we made this little movie of her. And of course, once we started recording, she wouldn't sing the whole thing anymore...but you get the idea.

Cartier Family Newsletter 2009

Merry Christmas from the Cartier Family!

We hope this finds you in good health and enjoying the holidays! Christmas time is always a favorite in the Cartier home.

Antonia is growing so quickly! She loves to "talk" on the phone...and a phone is anything she can put up to her ear. She also loves to hold her "baby" and help mom around the house. Her new favorite phrase is "where are you?" while she is staring right at you. And she loves for everyone to be involved in what she is doing. If she is dancing, she wants you to join in. If she is sitting, she'll say "sit down" and pat the floor. She is a sweetheart and we love that she is a part of our family. We still count our blessings each day that we've been given the opportunity to be parents.

Alisha is staying as busy as can be between being a wife, mom and Relief Society President. This year has brought new challenges but luckily all of those organizing skills are coming in handy to keep everyone sane!

Dan is busy with work at Kennecott and is also the second councilor in the Elders Quorum Presidency. He's been able to make some good friends at work and has gone on a few motorcycle rides with them.

We are looking forward to the New Year and the exciting events it holds!

Happy Birthday Chris!

Chris, this is one of the few photos I have of you but I also think it is one of the funniest! We've had so much fun being able to see you as often as we have this year. We think you are a great guy and are so happy you are a part of our family! We hope you have a wonderful birthday. And just so you know, Dan is so wanting to go do that training with you...you got him hooked! =)
Lots of Love ~ Dan, Alisha and Anne

Snow Day!

With all of the fun snow we've received and it finally "warming" up a little outside, we decided to go play in it on Anne's new sled. Technically we should have waited until Christmas to give it to her but since she's already covered for Christmas and has been playing on it inside, we figured we'd just let her have it now...I know, I know Dad! =) With the snow packed roads in front of our house, it made it nice to just walk along with Anne in the sled right from the start! (While I am typing this, they are currently removing all of the snow from the roads...boo!)

She thinks this is the best thing ever!

This is the water drainage area right by our house (that is our house behind us in the picture). It is a little steep but so much fun to ride down on the sled. However, as you look closely at the picture, you'll see my big feet picking up snow...

And then it gets even more snow going. Poor Anne is trying to cover her face.

This was the result! Our little snow angel!

So, we took her up halfway and let her go alone. Much better!!! She thought that was fun however, too much work pulling her up and then letting her go.

So, then it was Daddy's turn to pull her around to give Mommy a break. This is Anne doing her first donuts. "As far as you know" was Daddy's reply to that comment.

Here's our nice home with the wreaths and bows on the lights. We've decided we'll do a little each year. Next year we are wanting to put lights on the trees outside. Hopefully there will be a little more to them then! We also want to see if we can decorate the light post. We'll see what the HOA thinks of that!

Then we decided to go for a walk around the block and this is Daddy and Anne heading back home. I thought it was so cute with her little body on that sled.

Anne is having so much fun with the holidays. She is most excited when she sees Christmas lights, especially on the tree. Christmas is a magical time of year!

Happy Birthday Jo-Ellen!

This is the most recent photo I have I you Jo but I'm sure baby Emma isn't that small anymore! We hope that you have a wonderful birthday! Hopefully we'll be able to see you and your family sometime next year! It seems like forever since we last saw you!
Lots of Love ~ Dan, Alisha and Anne

'Tis the Season!

Since coming home from our fun trip to Arizona, it feels like we haven't had a moment to catch our breath! It feels like all I've been doing lately is just trying to get caught up!

I decided after many months of people trying to give me clothes for our ward to go ahead a put together a clothing exchange. After a month of collecting, we finally were able to get all of the clothes out of Kassandra's house! It was a fun thing to do and I even came away with a really cute (and warm) sweater! However, we'll be doing it a few months earlier next year and not on the same day as a ward party!

Later that night was our ward Christmas party.

After a wonderful dinner and program, the kids all got to meet Santa. However, Anne wanted nothing to do with him...until she got the candy cane but even then she wouldn't smile for him. Oh well! We'll try again next year! She didn't cry, she just wouldn't look at him. It was also WAY past her bedtime so that might have had a little to do with it...very little.

One of my most favorite things to do is watch the 1st Presidency Christmas devotional. I look forward to it every year! Since we don't have satelite, cable or a digital converter box, we have to watch everything online (which I love, love, love in case you were wondering) and so Anne and I made a fun night of it.

We (meaning I) moved the love seat over by the computer so we could be cumfy while we watched. We popped pop corn and brought up the yummy cookies from Aunt Jessica and sat back to enjoy. Anne didn't sit the the whole time but for the most part (mainly during the singing) she did watch it. It really helps get me into the true meaning of Christmas! Especially after all of the holiday shopping I've done.

A new family tradition for us is to go and get a Christmas ornament for Anne as a family. We decided to go to Gardner Village since they have a fun Christmas shop there with so many ornaments to choose from! We ended up picking a darling one of a Santa kneeling next to a manger with baby Jesus. I'll post a picture of it once it is on the tree!

After our busy and long day of getting all of the "last minute" shopping done (I like to be all done by December 1st but with going out of town, that didn't happen this year) we FINALLY put up our Christmas tree.

This is Anne trying to get Daddy to help. She didn't really get into helping me until about this point as well. But, she got really good at handing me the branches I needed.Anne really is the best present anyone could ask for! We just love her and her cute little personality. The tantrums however, we could do without but we'll take them for now since it means she is still little enough to have them! (How's that for looking at the cup half full?)

This is the "final" product from the night. We don't have any ornaments on the tree yet because a dear friend of mine is going to let me borrow her tree fence that she is no longer needing to use since her kids are past the undecorating stage. Anne took so many ornaments off of Jessica's tree that I had decided we'd just do without them this year on our own tree rather than having it not decorated on the bottom 2 feet! So, we'll post a photo with us once it is all done and more exciting!

Phew! It was a busy weekend but lots of fun!

Thanksgiving in Arizona!

After looking at his schedule, Dan decided he wanted to take a few extra days off and go somewhere for Thanksgiving. The obvious choice was to go down and spend almost a full week with my sister, Jessica, and her family in Arizona! We were hoping for some warmer weather, but that isn't what we were down there for!

We went down so Anne could play with her cousins. Here she is "playing" on the Wii with them. She is actually holding a PS3 controller but she didn't mind one bit!

She also had oh so much fun playing with just Kristen!

We also got to see the "PUPPIES" they got last summer. They don't really look like puppies anymore but they sure do act like it. Too much fun!

The first few days we were there it was warm enough to play outside so we tried to take advantage of it. Anne was having so much fun swinging like a big girl!

But, on the days when it was too cold to be outside, the girls had no problem playing inside. Anne became quite the expert for checking everyone's heart beats.

We also took a little road trip to Tombstone. It was fun walking around and seeing some of the old buildings.

We spent a lot of time in the car since we drove down and back. We drove through the night in hopes that Anne would sleep most of the time. (This is her on our way back from Tombstone with Miss Kitty.) She did pretty well...but was wide awake around 2am in the car (both ways) for a few hours! She was very content chatting with us, singing and dancing and eating snacks. Now we'll just have to see how well she does on a plane next year when we go visit Grandma and Grandpa Rea!

Thank you to Jess and her family for such a fun time! We sure did appreciate all that you did for us while we were there!