Christmas Eve and Christmas 2011

Oh my, I am still catching up on all the December fun we had!

My children love to look at our pictures with music.
So for those cute kids that I adore...

(you can click on the "HD" and then the blue text to watch it larger and in HD)

A pirate's life for me...

A pirate birthday party.
That was this little scoundrel's request for his 5th birthday.

He could hardly wait...
He counted down for days...
He practiced his mean pirate face...

We delivered the invitations...
And at last, the Buccaneer Bash began...



These are some of his mateys that joined in the fun.

(wish I got a picture of all of them)

We played "Walk the Plank"...
And "Swab the Deck"... (please excuse the blur)
They used their treasure maps to find the hidden treasure and then took turns trying to get to all that loot and pirate booty.

There were lots of super cool gifts that Captain Luke was so thrilled about!




Happy 5th Birthday, my sweet baby boy! I love you.

Spring Break
Woohoo! I love Spring Break! So nice to have my kids home and enjoy a break from the crazy, busy schedule that we run around here. This year, we decided to take a trip to Cali' to take the kids to Disneyland for a few days and spend some time with Mike (Dave's brother) and Pepper and their cute family. We were most excited to meet our newest little niece, Tess!

Oh my goodness, isn't she darling?
You could go swimming in those gorgeous baby blues :)

We all fell crazy in love with her and could hardly put her down. She is the happiest, sweetest little thing. We wanted to bring her home with us, you know, to help even out the boy-to-girl ratio around here, but too bad for us, because Pepper said no.
This little girl was especially enamored with her. She carried her around like a baby doll and loved on her every minute. :)
And I don't think Tess minded one single bit.


Ash had a little competition at times to get her hands on Tess :)
Check out the cute birthday banner that Pepper and the kids made for Dave's birthday! He loved it!

So here is a little slide show to sum up our fun time at Disney.
Click on the "HD" if you want to see it larger and have the best picture.

Polar Express 2011

Every year in December we look forward to one of our fun little traditions... visiting the Polar Express! It is especially fun to watch Luke's face light up in excitement and wonder. Watching him makes Christmas even more magical.










Here is a little slideshow of our trip this year. You can click on the "HD" and then watch it full screen for the best quality :)


Polar Express 2011 from Wendy Buhrley on Vimeo.

Ashley's Surgery

So thankful for...
A good doctor who corrected her reflux on BOTH sides.
The wonderful staff who took good care of us both during her hospital stay.
The many prayers and kind thoughts from friends and family.
My mom and dad for holding down the fort and coming to the hospital with presents :)
My sweet sisters who brought and sent the most perfect, thoughtful gifts.
My darling friends who brought our family dinners and made me feel so loved.
Dave for being my rock and best friend.
Priesthood blessings.

Oh I love this sweet girl!
Before surgery they let her pick a new beanie baby from this big bucket... Ash was tickled pink over this little blue jay. He even got to go with her into surgery.

This is in recovery - right after coming out of a 3 hour surgery. She even managed to give some little smiles :) And as you can she, she is still thrilled about her blue jay.

After about a 4 hour wait they finally had a room ready for her. The hospital was particularly busy and we were happy to settle into a room.

Ashley slept and watched movies. Sometime in the wee-hours of the morning she became very unhappy about having a catheter and it was a very loooooong night waiting for the doctor to come in and give the o.k. to get that thing out.

She was such a trooper through it all, I was amazed at how well she handled everything.


Once the catheter came out the next morning, there was a list of requirements that Ashley had to complete before she would be permitted to go home such as: drinking anything and holding it down (which proved to be the hardest task until they put anti-nasea medication into her IV), walking to the bathroom, etc.

Ash really, really wanted to go home and spent much of the next day working on her task list even though it was very hard.


By that night she had made tremendous progress and they decided that she could go home!



So thankful...
Ashley's surgery is behind us and she is happy and healthy and well!
I love her so much!