Goodbye 2010.. you won't be missed.

I know, I know I shouldn't be so harsh with 2010. There have been some ups this year. Some downs, and some plummets. (But more on that later.) I give you the BobCat's year in review..

• 2010 started out with us ringing in the New Year a little late, and pulling an all-nighter.

• I started an exercise regimen, and watched what I ate. Total for the year I lost about 30 pounds. (Not too shabby, but let's not talk about what I have probably gained back these last few weeks with the holidays!)

• Said goodbye to my Granddaddy.

• Said hello to 27 (Even got a surprise party.)

• Got a lot of use out of my new camera.

• Photographed them, her and her 1st birthday, him, her, her,them, him and his family, and her.

• Traveled here, here, here and here (for Bob's new hobby), here for our 4th anniversary, here, here (twice), here,

• Struggled with a stomach issue and a painful neck injury.

• Said goodbye to a favorite.

• Enjoyed Summer

• Wished a good friend good luck in his new adventures.

• Partied it up. For an end of Summer soiree, a spooky dinner party, a Guamese Birthday, and a very tipsy Christmas mocktail party.

• Hiked a whole lot. The Saturday hikes were some of my favorite memories from the year.

• Finally took family pictures. It's been ten years, so it was long overdue.

• And I might add that I got in my first ever car accident that was my fault this year. Not to mention last week a girl ran a stop sign and plowed into me. Yes, that means I have had a total of three car accidents this year. Three. What's so strange is I can't remember the last time I got in a car accident before this year, and of course I haven't even had a speeding ticket in my lifetime, but I get into a car accident that was my fault for the first time in the same year.

Not my lucky year folks. But that's okay, I am gearing up for 2011. It's bound to be better.. at least it can't get any worse. Knock on wood. Happy New Year everybody!

December 2010

December was filled with family, friends, and food. We had our annual Christmas party. Celebrated a few birthdays, I photographed quite a bit, and we celebrated the holidays with family and friends. I also think I gained about ten pounds, but hey, that's what the holidays are for right? Don't answer that.

Goodbye December, and goodbye 2010. Can't wait to start fresh next year.

Christmas 2010

We ate.

We exchanged.

We laughed.

We celebrated.

We got very little sleep.

It was lovely as always. So it's almost 2011.. where does time go? It has zipped right past my eyes. Which I am not complaining about, since this year has had it out for me from the beginning. Can't wait to ring in the new year. Can't wait for my three day weekend to get started tomorrow night.

S'mores Hot Chocolate

After seeing this fun recipe, I decided I had to try it for Christmas Eve with the family. I didn't have any large marshmallows, so I just used the baby one's. It turned out great, and seemed very festive.

Everyone seemed to like the graham cracker around the edges the most. Very tasty. There's something about homemade hot chocolate that is really fun. I used both milk and dark chocolate, but the consensus seemed to be that everyone liked the dark chocolate the best. This is a very rich recipe so one mug per person was plenty.

See you back here tomorrow with the pictures from our Christmas.

The snow arrived fashionably late..

I am still going through the pictures I took of our Christmas. So in the mean time I thought I would share with you our snow day from yesterday.

We took a relaxing drive up north. Bob loves the snow, so we headed where there was a tad more of it. We went up to Bountiful. We looked at all of the enormous houses on the hill, and then went up the canyon by the big "B". It was nice to just hang out the two of us and enjoy the views.

I love this in between time. I am enjoying not having a lot to do. Happy Monday. Hope your holiday was delightful.

Santa & Rudolph wish you a..

{So would this make us Santolph? Maybe we should just stick with Merry Christmas! xo, BobCat}

Merry Christmas Eve 2010

Hope tomorrow is magical, memorable, and filled with loved ones. Happy Christmas Eve!

I Spy?

My mom collects nativity scenes. She has a variety of gorgeous nativities. Old, new, small, large. She even has a plastic one that the grandkids can play with.

Well if you ever peek in on my moms living room in December, you might see something like this..

My sneaky brother (okay and sometimes me) like to move the baby Jesus or substitute it, to see if my mom notices. My brother will also hide the babies around my mom's house.

We don't mean any disrespect. We just think it's funny to see my mom's reaction. Does that make us bad people? Don't answer that. Merry Christmas in just 3 days!

Dinner and a very intense movie..

Saturday night we went to Thai food with Ami and Jon. And then to see 127 Hours. (Unfortunately Bob went home after the food. He came down with a nasty sore throat, that has now turned into bronchitis. No fun.)

That movie was insane. No, like really insane. It was intense, it was incredibly interesting, and one of those movies that haunts you when it's over. I would seriously recommend it. (Warning, not for the faint of heart. They really show him cutting his arm off.)

What I'm editing lately..

Meet Kate..

..she's pretty cute, and is pretty busy too. She had me running all over to get shots of her on Saturday. Who knew photography could be so physical? That's okay, I love it when I open up the photo's and see it was all worth it.

Next up? Little McKay tomorrow. Can't wait for the weekend. I fully intend to pamper myself, and feel rejuvenated for next week. Happy Weekend!

Christmas is a comin'

I had every intention of putting up some very glee-ish, merry-ified pictures of what we have been up to so far this holiday. But of course my week is still busy. I know I said this last week, but if I can just make it to this weekend, I think next week will be a breeze, and I can enjoy the holidays, and get into the spirit a tad more. Anyway, enough complaining. This picture will have to suffice for now. Isn't he cute? He's always hiding out under my tree guarding our presents.

Happy Birthday Eric and Bob!

Eric and Bob had birthdays last week. This year we decided to throw Eric a surprise birthday dinner. A surprise Guamese birthday dinner. (long story)

We made only traditional dishes from Guam. Which turned out to be kind of a melting pot of food. What was surprising, was that everything was good. Yes, even the spam fried rice.

We also brought an island girl from Guam for Eric to have as his date. (Also a long story.)

We ended his birthday celebration with some plantain birthday cake and the "Happy Birthday" song in Guamese. (Okay, our rendition of it.)

A fun night was had by all. Then later in the week my family celebrated Bob's birthday. And since I think we all know how Bob feels about pictures, I'll keep it short. There was yummy food (I think the third picture proves that.) And my mom made one of her famous themed cakes. A "salmon" cake for Bob the outdoors man.

The first couple weeks of this month have been quite hectic as you can see. Not to mention a bunch of photo shoots thrown into the mix. So this week I am trying to catch up and also trying to get into the Christmas spirit. I started that Sunday by watching "It's a Wonderful Life". No matter how many times I watch that show it makes me cry. I should be back here tomorrow with some Christmasy pictures. Happy (snowy) day!

Christmas Partay 2010

(Thanks SO much to Eric for being the camera man for the evening while Bob and I were bustling around.)

I have been throwing an annual Christmas party for about 7 years now. Sometimes there's a theme, sometimes not. This year we went with a Christmas Mocktail Party. We all dressed up, had a bar, a lot of drinks, and a lot of fun.

Though there was no real alcohol in attendance, there was still some crazy drinking games, favors, and I'm pretty sure some hangovers.

The party was a hit, and I was told by many that it was their favorite we have thrown so far. So that in my mind is a success. The party went a little something like this..

We started the party out by toasting with our drinks. Then we all mingled, ordered drinks, and caught up. Then we played a "drinking game" that involved a whole lot of gross shots and a whole lot of eggnog shots later on. We had a white elephant game, and even some of us went to Denny's around 2 in the morning. Thanks to everyone who came and made it so fun. And for those of you who couldn't make it, next year we hope to see you. (I forgot to give everyone their favors as they left because it was so hectic, but I put some candy aspirin in little glass bottles for everyone with the tag above on it.)

Birthday Boy

I keep this Polaroid in my purse at all times. This was taken when I was leaving. (see here if you don't know the story) It seems so long ago, and yet I remember it like it was yesterday.

This here guy is my favorite person.

He's smart..

funny..

kind..

patient..

level headed..

I love him, he is my other half, my better half.. my better all. Happy Birthday Bob. Love, Cait

Whipped..

Sometimes at parties my friends give their kids messy food..

And we laugh. Does this make us bad people? I don't think so. The kids love it. You should see Ella's face when she eats limes. Seriously cracks me up.

Well, have a good weekend. I have a photo shoot tomorrow. (I'm hoping the weather holds and doesn't get us drenched.) And Sunday we are celebrating Bob's birthday with my family. I'm hoping somewhere in there I can sleep in and do my last minute Christmas shopping.

And next week I should have the pictures from the Christmas party, Eric's surprise birthday, and maybe I will even snap a few of the birthday boy this weekend... if he lets me. Happy Weekend!

Yo, Vinny!

Among everything else I'm doing. I am also photographing and editing like crazy. Did I mention I'm busy? I am currently editing pictures for a family I shot last weekend. One of the members is Vinny here. (He looks like a Vinny doesn't he?) I was cracking up as soon as I saw him parading out of the car like he was going to scope everything out and make sure it was on the up and up. I'm hoping after this weekend my life settles down and I can finally enjoy Christmas and get in the spirit of things. I fear lately I have been coming off as a bit of a Grinch. The good news is it's almost the weekend. And we get to celebrate my favorite person's birthday.

Eric's Surprise Dinner

As you can see, we are doing one thing to the next. I still haven't had time to go through the pictures from any of it. So in the mean time, here's a picture from Eric's surprise b-day dinner last night. More to come on this as well. Busy, busy. I haven't had a chance to see any other blogs either, so forgive me for neglecting, December is a tad crazy for me. I think I need a nap!

A Couple Party Pics..

I still haven't had time to go through the Christmas party pictures. Give me a day or two and I will get back on my game. But I did find a couple from my phone from the night. This should give you a pretty good idea of the night..

We had a Christmas mocktail party this year. We all dressed up and enjoyed cocktails of the virgin variety. All of the sugar and eggnog must have gone to our heads though, because we stayed up way too late. This is the picture I took as I groggily fell into bed. And still didn't get to sleep until 4 a.m. My mind just wouldn't fall asleep.

We had a blast though. Thanks to everyone who came and made it so fun. Especially the Boobah. That is one creepy guest.

Weekend Party

We had a blast at our annual Christmas party this year. This is the only picture Bob and I got together, and as you can see it's pretty awefsome. Oh well, we had fun, and are in the Christmas spirit. More picture to come soon. I have to get back to doing a million things. Hopefully things settle down after Bob's birthday next week, and we can do some sleeping in and relaxing.

Happy Monday, hope your weekend was great.

Pizza, Cleaning, and Conan (but not in that order)

Last night Bob and I cleaned, organized, and decorated. We stayed up late and we're still not quite finished. But to reward our hard work we might have ordered pizza and watched Conan. As hectic as December always tends to be, I love nights like these.

On a side note, let's play I SPY. Can you find the broken mistletoe that didn't make it from last years craziness? How about the plentiful shreds of paper? We finally went through and shredded, do you know how long that takes when you haven't done it for 4 years?? Can you spot the gnome hiding? And for those of us that came to last year's party, you might spot a certain little yellow creature.. it's making a comeback this year.

Happy December 3rd! I'm listening to Elvis sing me Silver Bells.

Happy Birthday Shae!

While up in Idaho Falls, we celebrated Bob's cousin's daughter's fifth birthday. We went to one of those playland places. It was fun to be there with her to celebrate, and I was cracking up in the glow in the dark rooms. My teeth have never looked so white! Maybe I should have a room like this in my house. (Reminds me of a certain Friends episode.) Happy December 2nd!

Thanksgiving this year..

Tom and Celeste were kind enough to host Thanksgiving this year. Not to mention let us stay with them. We had such a great time relaxing, shopping, chatting, and well eating everything in sight. (Okay, that might have just been me.)

Wednesday night after work there was talk of some bad roads, so we almost didn't go. But in the end decided we would probably be okay if we took it slow. The roads were actually really clear until a stretch of road near Pocatello that was pretty icy. In the end we only tacked on an extra half hour to our trip with the weather.

Thursday morning we got up and started prepping all the yummy food. Tom and Bob made two of the best turkeys I think I've ever eaten, and Nita made mashed potatoes I loved so much I could have bathed in them. And Celeste pretty much did everything else. Sometimes I wonder if she's Wonder Woman in disguise.

Dinner was fabulous and filling, just as a Thanksgiving should be.

After dinner we cleaned up, did a little relaxing, and a little chatting while the food digested.

We felt so lucky this holiday to be surrounded with family and loved ones. Bob's grandparents even took the drive out to come to dinner. It's always fun to see them. We also got to visit with Bob's sister Donna, her husband Lance and their darling little Madelaine.

We were sad not everyone could come because of weather, especially Bob's parents and brother, but we felt incredibly blessed and thankful for all we have. Even though the holiday seems to be all about the food, I tried to keep thanks in my heart for all I have. For an amazing husband, family on both sides, for friends, for shelter, for the big things, for the little things, and for all the things in between. I think these pictures sum up just what we should all be grateful for. Our blessings.

Well happy December 1st! Glad it's here, and am a little skerrred about all I have to do, hoping I can do it all in time. But I suppose it wouldn't be the holidays without being busy.