Thursday, December 24

Update Finally

Sorry I haven't blogged in like a million years.
School's over for this semester, I'm all finished with work for the week, & I'm all done with my Christmas shopping and wrapping! So, now I have some blogging time :)
(P.S. I'm never going shopping on Christmas Eve Eve again. EVER!)
Here's a little update on what we've been doing the past couple weeks.
On the 12th, we had a little Christmas party with some friends & family. I only got a couple pictures of that.

 
 

My little brother, Matthew, is the drummer in the Jazz band at his school & last week we got to go the their Christmas concert.
He was in the back & I couldn't get very good pictures of him.
One of these days I am going to get a video of him playing his drums.
He is AMAZING!!
For real....he's going to be famous pretty soon :)




My aunt, Julie is in the Salt Lake City Choral Artists, and this last Saturday, Jeff & I were able to go up to Salt Lake to their Christmas concert with my parents.  It was called Laud to the Nativity.
I love Christmas music! A lot of the songs they sang were in different languages, so there was only one that I actually knew. But they are really great!

Jeff has been super busy with work & with his animals lately.
And taking care of these new friends...

Who knew so many people wanted hedgehogs as pets?!
We've had these at our house for less than a week & he's already sold 4!
They are such weird little things.
But I really liked this guy....his name is Friar Tuck :)
He had such a huge personality and was so entertaining.
All the rest of them were sleeping, but he was all over the place & even figured out how to climb out of the tub they were in.

 
 

And this is King Henry.
Jeff is going to breed him with our two girl bunnies.
Check out how cool his face is!

He's such a nice bunny!

On Tuesday night, my family came over to our house for dinner.
We had Chicken Enchiladas. Yum!
Then we all went up to Riverton to my Uncle John & Aunt Paula's house to make gingerbread houses!


Maggie & Tye's house kept collapsing :(



Traci



Matthew


Sara & I

 
My house :)

 
 This is the boys watching the bowl game while we made our gingerbread houses.

I can't believe it is Christmas Eve already!
We hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

Tuesday, December 15

HOTSLING Giveaway

Caitlin has the awesome opportunity to be giving away a HOTSLINGS baby carrier over on her blog.
If you are going to have a baby soon or know someone who is, go enter the contest! They usually sell for around $50 in the stores!

Saturday, December 12

Christmas lights

make me feel so happy inside!
Last night Mckay & Megan invited us to go up to Temple Square to see the lights.
One of my very favorite things to do at Christmas time!





 
 
What a fun night!
Thanks guys for the invite :)

1st Christmas Tree :)

Last night Jeff & I went & picked out our first Christmas tree. So fun!
We actually went looking a few times at different tree lots.....expensive!
Jeff is not a fan of real trees.
  Megan is not a fan of fake trees.
After much deliberation, I convinced him & we got ourselves a real one :)
 (At Home Depot for $25!)
It's so perfect. Just look.

Now it smells like Christmas around here!

CoNtEsT....

going on over at Love Stitched....
There will be 5 winners! Go check it out!

Thursday, December 10

seven

Love is just a word until someone comes along & gives it meaning.

Happy 7 months to us :)
(yesterday)

Saturday, December 5

Cabinets

Thursday, December 3

Trees.

The Festival of Trees is my favorite favorite favorite Christmas time activity!
The trees are decorated, donated and purchased at an auction, by individuals, families, organizations, businesses, and church groups.  All of the money raised is given to Primary Children's Medical Center to help children in need.  In 2008, the Festival raised $1,495,840.74.
My absolute dream job is to work in the NICU at Primary Children's!
Each tree has a theme & comes with all the "gifts" under the tree.
This was a Utah Jazz tree & came with this quilt with the team's pictures on it & Jazz tickets.


A lot of the trees also have a picture of someone the tree is dedicated to, or in memory of.


This was one of Jeff's favorites because it came with a ski, life jackets, gloves & a rope.



I thought this penguin tree was so cute!


 An upside down tree :)



 

Another of Jeff's favorites. The John Deere tree :)


Sports tree.


Glttery tree :)


This one was my very favorite!



My second favorite :)


Just one more I promise!
This one made me feel so sad.



Gingerbread Village!
This whole thing is made out of candy & cake!


This is a gingerbread train. It was longer than this, but I didn't get pictures of the whole thing.











The "Up" house!


AMAZING!


Sorry so many pictures! I just love this place so much.
Over 800 trees are donated, so if you think about it...I really didn't take that many pictures...:)
Someday, I'm going to have enough money to buy one of these trees :)

Saturday, November 28

Thanksgiving Week

What a fun week this has been!
Monday, Caitlin, Joy & I planned to go see New Moon!

Mike's birthday was on Tuesday, so we decided to invite all the boys too & turn it into a little party for
Mike :)

After the movie, we went to Nate & Caitlin's for cake & ice cream! Caitlin thought about making Mike a "team Bella" shirt, but ran out of time. So she put Bella on the cake instead!

Saxon figured since he is 3, that he should get to blow out the "3" candle.
Mike blew out the "0".

(Click here to see more pictures from the party on Cait's blog)

Tuesday was Mike's real birthday!
We went to Buca di Beppo for dinner to celebrate!

We ordered a couple different entrees to share with everyone.
It was so much food!
The waiter thought we were nuts when we ate it all & ordered more!


  
They brought out a huge triple layer, coconut cake for Mike & a candelabra to blow out.
It was pretty inside :)


We love you Mike & hope your birthday was AMAZING!
(More pictures from dinner here)

We started out Thanksgiving day over at Nate & Caitlin's, then went to my parents & ate again. I was absolutely stuffed!
It was also Caitlin's birthday on Thursday, so that night, we went to the Jazz vs. Bulls game in Salt Lake with Jeff's family to celebrate.

Our seats were awesome! 3rd row from the top :)



Jeff's family.
(Jeff, Me, Gregor, Joy, Saxon, Nate, Bridger, Caitlin, Mandy & Mike)
 
My brothers & sisters were also at the game.
At halftime they came over & sat with us.

(Melinda, Marsh, Matthew, Jeff & Me)
The Jazz won :) Woohoo! 

We hope you had a GREAT birthday Caitlin! We love you!

 
I love him :)

The game started at 8:30, so by the time we got back it was 12:30.
I stayed at my parents house because I was planning on going Black Friday shopping with them!
The first store we wanted to go to opened at 3:00 am.
I was so tired & wanted to go to sleep for a couple hours, but Melinda didn't want me to. So I told her she better find something for me to do or I would fall asleep.
We played snowboarding on the Wii for 2 hours :)
We went to Old Navy at 3 and it was NUTS! 
This was the first time Marsh or Melinda had ever done Black Friday :)
Marsh thought it was the funniest thing in the world.
We were all so tired that pretty much everything was funny though.
We laughed a lot! :)
We got what we wanted in Old Navy pretty quick, but waited in line to pay for more than an hour.
My mom & Teri wanted to get to Kohl's because they opened at 4, so Marsh, Melinda & I waited in line at Old Navy so they could go.

The line wrapped all the way through the store.
We got tired of standing, so sat down in the men's underwear.
We finished up at Old Navy around 4:30 & headed over to Wal Mart, where it was even more crazy. But at least we got to wait inside.
There was one thing I wanted the most (that I can't say because it's for Jeff for Christmas).
We looked all over for it, asked employees, & were told like 10 different places before we actually found it.
They had electric sanders on sale for $15 & I really wanted one because I have had Marshall's for months :) We looked all over for that also & couldn't find it anywhere.
I asked more than 20 employees, I think, and none of them could tell me where it was either. HELLO! Why do they have so many employees working, if they are going to be ZERO help to anyone. Seriously, how long do they plan for this day? They know what it is going to be like. Make a list of where everything is & give it to all your employees!!
It was frustrating!
We didn't have to wait in line as long here & were out by 5:45.
Then we headed to IHOP to meet my mom, Teri & Heather for breakfast.
We finished there & I was home & asleep by 8:00 :)
Crazy day, but so fun!
I found this the other day on another blog & really loved it & wanted to share.

The Best Day of My Life


Today, when I awoke, I suddenly realized that this is the best day of my life, ever! There were times when I wondered if I would make it to today; but I did! And because I did I'm going to celebrate!


Today, I'm going to celebrate what an unbelievable life I have had so far: the accomplishments, the many blessings, and, yes, even the hardships because they have served to make me stronger. I will go through this day with my head held high, and a happy heart. I will marvel at God's seemingly simple gifts: the morning dew, the sun, the clouds, the trees, the flowers, the birds. Today, none of these miraculous creations will escape my notice.


Today, I will share my excitement for life with other people. I'll make someone smile. I'll go out of my way to perform an unexpected act of kindness for someone I don't even know.


Today, I'll give a sincere compliment to someone who seems down. I'll tell a child how special he is, and I'll tell someone I love just how deeply I care for them and how much they mean to me.


Today is the day I quit worrying about what I don't have and start being grateful for all the wonderful things God has already given me. I'll remember that to worry is just a waste of time because my faith in God and his Divine Plan ensures everything will be just fine.


Tonight, before I go to bed, I'll go outside and raise my eyes to the heavens. I will stand in awe at the beauty of the stars and the moon, and I will praise God for these magnificent treasures.


As the day ends and I lay my head down on my pillow, I will thank Him for the best day of my life.


And I will sleep the sleep of a contented child, excited with expectation because I know tomorrow is going to be.....the best day of my life!


We are so grateful for this time of year to reflect on all the things we have been blessed with!
We love you all & hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!