Happy Holidays 2009

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, full of family and good food. Thanksgiving is always a great time to be with family and to be grateful for all we have. I love this time of year, eating amazingly good food and being around family... both of which are my favorite things. The next day is full of crazy shopping for those who wake up early. I went at 9 am and got some great deals. I am glad I did because I met this very nice lady. We were at Kohl's and the line was to the back of the store. We talked the whole time and it went by so quickly, I did not want to say good bye.

The day after Thanksgiving is my favorite day because I get to put the Christmas tree up! This year I put the tree up and put lights on, then I waited to put on the ornaments so I could decide what to do. I did not want to have a tree that only had ornaments on the top. A few days later, I decided to let Hailee help me. I gave her the unbreakable ornaments and she got all excited to put them on the tree. I put about three ornaments that are breakable at the top. She grabs an ornament about every other day, but she is pretty good at taking them off. I re-used some ribbon from Christmas presents and the tree looks great! It is small but prefect for us at this stage in life. We did not know how big it was until we took it out of the box three years ago, hey that's what you get for less than $20. We will have a big tree one day.

I am excited to see Hailee this year and it is Zach's first Christmas. I hope there will be snow. I love snow! I love December especially when there is snow. I get so excited when it is snowing. I could sit and watch it snow all day. It all goes back to when I was a little girl sitting outside by myself playing in the snow. Everything is white and the snow just falls, the most amazing thing about it is the silence! When we were engaged, we waited until it snowed to take our engagement pictures in the freezing Logan canyon. It was beautiful and perfect!

I can't forget about the Christmas lights! I love driving around and seeing lights. SO much to do in a month. It can be stressful but it is such a fun time of year. I love feeling the Christmas spirit, but mostly knowing the reason for the season. The Lord Jesus Christ! I never want to forget the Christ part of Christmas! Merry Christmas! I hope you can know Christ in your life! May you have a wonderful season full of love and happiness.

Its Official...

We have a two year old! It seems like this has come so quickly but two years can fly by. We had a party with family and celebrated. She got lots of wonderful gifts and we ate some cake. She got a stroller with a nice smelling doll, a couple cute outfits, princess cell phone with changeable faces, lots of cute Pj's, a cash register, and sesame street doctor kit. Thank you everyone for the gifts and helping us celebrate our sweet little girl.

I wanted to have a special cake this year so after much thought I decided to make a cake. Not just any old cake, I decided to make a Mickey Mouse cake. This did not seem like it would be that hard, his head is three circles. I was right that was easy, but the frosting choice was not so easy. I had a vision of doing starlets with Black or brown frosting. I had no idea how much time it takes to do that. After I had already started doing the starlets, I found a website that had examples of mickey cakes other people made. I realized at that moment that I did not want to use frosting anymore. I don't even like frosting that much. My ideal cake would have cool whip and pudding on it. If I would have researched before purchasing the frosting then maybe I could have used cool whip and crushed oreos. Did I learn nothing from college? That is all you do in college research and more research. I should know this by now. I think this is what they call mommy brain. Here is my master piece.
Waiting for everyone to arrive.
I put in a an awful lot of work for something that disappears so quickly. It was worth it, for my sweet girl! The best moment was when she started to eat it right after daddy helped blow out the candles. We would have more pictures but my memory card was full. A girl that loves her chocolate, just like mommy!


I wanted to do a now and then, so here it is. This is Now.
That was November 2007.

The Blessing

Zach was blessed a few weeks ago. Justin did a great job and I am so grateful to have a husband who is a worthy priesthood holder. I am also grateful to have such wonderful support from family and friends. Thanks to everyone who made and brought food.

Ever since we brought Zach home from the hospital, I have felt more like a complete family. I remember the first time I asked Justin if he was going to watch the kids, it felt weird to say kids. It did not feel real at first and seemed strange to know that I have given birth to these little ones. I feel so blessed to have two beautiful children that Heavenly Father has entrusted us to raise. The cutest little boy in his first tux!

After the house was empty we took some pictures of our family. We finally got a cute picture with her smiling. The sad thing about that day was that I didn't take pictures when everyone was here. Something that I will remember is that Hailee was playing in the toilet. She came in the front room with wet sleeves, wet face and hair. So I found a cute outfit for her to wear, until she came out with wet sleeves again. The door kept getting left open. The adventures of a toddler, fun for her and a mess for us. It is crazy but I would not trade it for anything.

Halloween...A little Late

I have been meaning to get something posted on here for about a month now. If I don't sit and do it when I am thinking about it, it won't get done. I just had to update everyone on what we did for Halloween, we found a street close by to trick or treat on. I was nervous the whole time that someone would ask where we live. We were doing fine until the last house. It was so cute the lady sat on her porch to pick out candy for our toddler, and Hailee just went right up and sat next to her. I wish I could have taken a picture. So right after that the lady said, "Where do guys live?" I wanted to run away but Justin started pointing towards the east saying, "We live over there (long pause) in some Condos." It was very awkward and I was happy to walk straight to the car and drive home.


This was his costume and sweat pants that we put on him later because he didn't fit into his pea pod costume that we bought for him. Here is our lady bug who could barely sit still, she was a little excited. All she knew was that we were going outside to go on a walk. She loved seeing kids as we passed them. It was fun to watch her go on her first trick or treating adventure!

Picking Pumpkins

These are the pumpkins from Grandpa's Garden. All of the kids, big and little, get to pick which one they want. We ended up with three pumpkins and we carved two last night. Justin's pumpkin has dread locks, but no nose. My pumpkin is a skeleton, I think. Justin cleaned his and carved it all within a half an hour. My pumpkin took longer, like two hours. First because I am a perfectionist. Second because I had to stop and feed the baby twice. It was fun!