Christmas & a New Year

I love being able to celebrate the birth and life of our savior Jesus Christ. During Christmas season it is hard to keep him in our hearts when everywhere you go it is all about spending money and buying presents. It’s all about the ME’s. Granted it is nice to get a gift from someone showing how much they care about you, but for me that is not Christmas. I could live without the presents, the big dinners, the trees, and lights. I love this season for the special spirit it brings, for the wonderful time spent with family, and the peace you feel from Heavenly Father.

This year, I had the fun opportunity to help my parents wrap gifts. We went to walmart to pick up a few gifts for my dad - some things totally random! Then we created the most evil style of wrapping them we could think of. Mom secretly asked Cam and I to "wrap" one for Paige. We told her it was another one for dad and she even helped us do the most evil wrapping techniques yet used.

Later that day we spent Christmas Eve with Brent's Family. It was so much fun, and we got to see our new nephew John for the first time. He is such a cutie. We had such fun playing games and eating really good food and talking to family we don't see often. I enjoyed spending time playing with our cute nephews and niece. They are such funny kids! We didn't want to leave, but we couldn't stay too late because with my dads new schedule at work he needed to be there very early the next morning, and we wanted to do my family's 'Eve' traditions too. 


This year my family traditions were really special to me. Every year my dad reads to us 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' and the nativity story from the Bible. I love listening to my dad read, he has such an amazing voice! And this year, after my dad read, he told us all how much he loves us and how proud of all of us and who we were turning into. How much we mean to him and that we make him want to be better. And yes, to everyone who is wondering, I did cry like a baby. It really meant so much to me to hear my dad say the things he did. It was the best gift!


We all decided to wake up extremely early in the morning before dad left for work to open our gifts. It was hysterical watching Paige realize that the gift we horribly wrapped was for her and not dad. It took her a 1/2 hour to unwrap it and we were all laughing so hard! It really was a wonderful Christmas morning! Later, dad decided to get even with mom and took us all to walmart to find gifts for her. We again wrapped them as horribly as possible and loved watching her try to open them.

Paige and Cam were going to come down for the week, but Paige's ball coach changed that plan. It was so DUMB! But I decided that since I already took the week off that I would stay and spend the time with family again. It has been so great spending so much time with them, but I did miss being with Brent!!! 



Then my family and one of Cams' friends came down to celebrate New Years. We had a lot of fun playing games all night and watching movies. It was a great way to bring in the New Year!


We just want to let you all know how thankful we are for you. Thank you to all our family and friends for the gifts. They were so amazing and are very appreciated! We are so grateful to have such wonderful people in our lives.We hope you all had a very wonderful Christmas and that this year is great one.

Happy 2010!!!

At the beginning of this year we have so much to be grateful for. Heavenly Father has truly blessed us so much! We have our health, our home, the love we have for each other, our jobs, our little Gemma, family and friends, and most of all the gospel! A few of our New Year Resolutions for this year are to get out of debt, be a better husband and wife, gain a testimony & grow stronger in the gospel and closer to our Heavenly Father, and to get healthier and in shape.

The Sunday after Christmas we left to come back home. We brought along Paige, Cam, and their friend Rachel. They stayed with us for a week. While here Cam and Rach had fun making hats, they even made one for Gemma! We were even able to celebrate the New Year with them. We went down to St. George and ate at a place called Pirate Island Pizza. The food was really good I thought, especially the breadsticks. The inside of the restaurant was really neat! They had a cave entrance with skeletons everywhere, a swamp, a tiki hut, a skull rock, and a huge pirate ship with cannons that went off with lights and smoke, and they even had a thunder and lightning show with sounds and effects. It was so much fun to see everything! After we went & played blacklight miniature golf. It was so fun! Cameron was being kind and helpful by hitting everyone's ball into the hole except for his. They had a lot of fun posing with the hole themes. I laughed so hard the hole time! Next we went to First Night which is a huge outdoor party thrown by St. George City. They had Rock Band contests, rockwall climbing, a skating rink, rides, food, and a lot of other things. We all signed our names on a big wall, took lots of pictures, and walked around and looked at everything. Rachel bought Cam a lightsaber that he absolutely loved. She also climbed the rock wall. When we were heading back to the car they started off the fireworks. We couldn't see much cause the parking garage was in the way - but what we could see they were awesome! We then came home and played games until 2a.m. It was a really great New Years!

The next day mom came down. It was so fun having her here. She even played Mario Kart with us on the Wii. It was sooo funny watching here drive. She didn't do well but she gets an A for effort! I was laughing so hard while watching her. We all went shopping the next day. Mom helped me buy the most perfect thing! It is a little mermaid carousel sea horse! For those of you who know me I have always been in love with the little mermaid and I have collected carousels for what seems like forever.... so it totally fit me to a "T". Thanks mom!

I hope you all had an enjoyable New Year and we hope this year is a good one for you. We love you all!

Happy New Years!!!

Welcome 2009! A new year and a new beginning! Our New Year Resolutions are to be more patient towards each other and everyone, to more fully appreciate all that we are so truly blessed with, to pay off our debt and to become more healthy.

This year to celebrate the New Year we had my two siblings, Cameron and Paige, come. They came down with us after Christmas to spend the week. It was wonderful to have them here and to be able to spend more time with them. We rang in the new year by renting some video games and some movies and by eating alot of food. It was a blast staying up all night laughing and hanging out.

Wishing you all a wonderful and exciting new year!