Merry Christmas

Ryan & Karen Ford

Brent's sister Karen was married to Ryan Ford on the 19th of December in Fairview. It was so wonderful to be able to share this experience with them! They looked so happy & so in love. Karen made such a beautiful bride! Their ceremony was so nice, it reminded us of our own wedding almost 5 years ago. Welcome to the family Ryan. We wish you both every happiness in this new journey together! We love you.

Celebrating the Season with...

... work parties and going to the Messiah.

Brent had is work party on the 9th at the Garden House. We played games where we had to guess what song a funny sentence referred to & ate yummy food. I particularly liked the cream of vegetable and chicken soup - it was sooo good! I had my work party at Rusty's Steak House on the 15th. The steaks were so mouth watering good!

On the 14th we went to see the Messiah performed at the Heritage Center. It was a really great experience! The music was so beautiful and moving & gave both Brent and I chills numerous times. The spirit was so strong and it really made me think of our Savior and his humble birth and how grateful I am for him and his gospel in my life. In the lobby of the Heritage Center they had some of the coolest trees! I so wish we had our camera and were able to get some pictures of them. They had a Harry Potter tree, one for Sponge Bob, one for every Disney princess (yes including my favorite - the Little Mermaid!), one that had a mannequin torso on top with the tree designed to look like her dress skirt, one that was all pink, one that was Strawberry Shortcake, and a whole bunch more! It was such a fun and neat experience to go to!

Decorating the Tree

I love the spirit of Christmas, listening to carols, lights on the tree, and drinking wassil and hot cocoa in a cozy warm blanket.

After we got home from Thanksgiving we decided to put up our tree for Family Home Evening. It turned out so beautiful!

A Time of Thanks

This Thanksgiving we have so much to be thankful for! We are so grateful for our many wonderful friends and our family, and for our little Gemma. We are grateful for our home, for our jobs, for electricity, indoor plumbing, & our health. For the love that we have for each other & for our eternal marriage. For this great country, the freedom that we have, & for all those who have given so much to keep us safe & to secure our rights and freedom. But most of all we are grateful for the gospel in our lives. To know that we are children of god, having the priesthood & the spirit constantly in our home. For our wonderful Prophet and leaders of the Church, for the many missionaries preaching the gospel to others. For our savior Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice for us all. For his humble birth and the exemplary life he lived.

This year we were able to travel up to my parents house. The trip up seemed so long - I was so glad that Gemma did so well traveling. We brought a blanket with us and she crawled right under it and slept the whole way. For Thanksgiving the next day we went over to my Aunt & Uncles place to eat dinner. My DeLeeuw Grandparents were also there. It was so good to see everyone & the food was so delicious! Both Brent & I ate way too much!

On Friday we hung out & watched movies. We didn't want to wake up early for the madness of "Black Friday" so we waited until we knew the rush would be over before we went. We didn't get much besides movies for Christmas. That night we went to the town light parade. It was short but fun to watch, they had a lot of clever ideas. They had the Polar Express, a bunch of Who's from Whoville & of course the Grinch and Santa Clause. We took Gemma with us ... she loved being warm & snug in Brent's coat.

On Saturday we went up to see Brent's parents. It was really nice to see them & some siblings. We ended up helping Karen make her wedding announcements (which turned out really cute). When we got back to my family's, we watched Star Trek & played the longest game of cards ever with my brother Cameron and his friends. It was really fun & we all laughed so hard!

On Sunday, Mom made muffins for breakfast. After we ate them all we had a hilarious fight with the foil liners. We turned a bunch into Frisbees & even more into foil balls. We were all laughing & running all over the house. Mom & Cam were being especially silly!

It we such a great weekend! I loved seeing & hanging out with so many family members. It will definitely be hard to go back to work and to snow after such a wonderful trip!

A new addition to our family

Brent & Megan welcome home their new little one ... Gemma! She has been such a joy to have around. We haven't had her for very long but we already love her tons and spoil her like crazy. Gemma is a one of a kind Chihuahua ... she doesn't bark at all! She loves playing around, especially with Brent and my little brother Cam. She is all ready potty trained and loves to be cuddled. She is very tiny, has huge ears, and very short hair.

Get a Clue!

For our awesome Halloween party this year we decided to get a clue ... a clue theme that is. It was really fun to have us all dress up as our clue character. Jenessa was Mrs. Peacock, Shanae was Mrs. White, Kevin was Mr. Green, Brent was Colonel Mustard, and I was Miss Scarlett. We decorated my apartment all out so it looked like an abandoned hotel or something putting white old sheets on my couches, melted candles everywhere, cobwebs galore, and wilted flowers. Shanae and I made some "spooktacular" coffin treat boxes and place holders. We ate spaghetti for dinner, sparkling apple cider, and had raspberry coconut bars and chocolate cupcakes decorated to look like cute spiders for dessert. After dinner we all played the DVD version of clue. It was so much fun! Brent (a.k.a. Colonel Mustard) was the thief. All in all it was a great party and we all had so much fun!