Christmas Eve 2013

Hands down the star attraction is my sister's new baby girl.  She decided to come in with a bit of drama into the world and spent 2 weeks in the NICU.  She is now a month old and not even quite 7 pounds.  She is so tiny.  We all fight for the opportunity to hold her.  She is absolutely beautiful!

As you can see here with grandpa:

She loves to be held!

 Of course when I turned around I found her older sister like this:

Apparently there was something in the cupboard she wanted.  Look at that guilty look!

Shay, my brother, mom and I went to hang out in the front room and chat.

When we came back we found my dad and baby sound asleep.  Apparently we were partying too hard!

Keeping with my sister's husband's side tradition.....all presents were arranged under the tree to perfection.  Each present was adorned with a bow.  The kids were overly excited for Christmas to come.  We often found them sitting in front of the tree looking for their names on the presents!

The tree looked absolutely.  My mother decorated it while my sister was in the hospital. 

After a wonderful dinner of ham, funeral potatoes, bacon wrapped beans, pear salad, and homemade rolls (Yummy!  My family members are amazing cooks and it makes holidays wonderful!), we sat down and read the Christmas story from the scriptures.  It was the first time that we have read about the birth of Christ with electronics.  It was a new tradition.
Below you can see my sister's husband and two boys!  We all had a good chuckle when my sister's son on the far right asked, "What about the wise guy?"  Up to that point we hadn't read about the wise men and he was concerned we skipped over "him!"  We all thought that was so cute ("The wise guy!")!  It still makes me laugh out loud now!

I love that all of my siblings read and discuss the true meaning of Christmas each year with their kids.  Shay and I keep this tradition alive in our home and look forward to sharing this tradition with our future children!

As a child, I loved that every Christmas Eve my parents had us kids bring out our scriptures and read about our Savior's birth.  It always brought such a wonderful feeling into our home.

When we would finish reading the scriptures, our mother would always hand out PJs to us kids.  This tradition hasn't changed....well, except that my mother now gives PJs to the grand kids instead of the adults.  The grand kids love them!

My youngest brother was down for Christmas as well so as a Christmas surprise Shay and I got him Christmas PJs.  

As you can see below he was super excited! 

Mainly because of the pictures found all over his PJs.  My family LOVES "A Christmas Story" movie!  Below you can see the PJs up close: 

Shay and I got on our "Christmas PJs" and took a picture with him.
We love fun PJs at Christmastime!

The kids LOVED the PJs my mother brought them:

Another tradition I had when I was a kid, which my sister still does, was being able to open one gift on Christmas Eve.  I was one of 5 kids so my mother and father had us choose names secretly.  The name you got was the person you were to buy a Christmas gift for.  

My sister's children picked names this morning and we all went to the store.  My sister's oldest girl asked if she could go shopping with Shay and me so that she could find the perfect gift without her brother seeing.  We had a blast shopping together!

Here is a picture of her with her new stuffed bear she got from one of her brother:

She looked up at me and said, "THIS IS THE BEST CHRISTMAS EVER!"

We love spending time with family and making wonderful memories together!  

Can't wait to get to bed and see what Santa brings tomorrow!

Merry Christmas all!

Summer's Christmas Gift 2013

Due to the fact that Shay is one of eight children, Shay's siblings only draw one name in which to purchase a Christmas gift (Winnie's family rotates siblings every year).  

We both enjoy this tradition because we are able to spend a bit more time and money on the siblings we have each year. 

This year we picked Shay's sister Summer for Christmas.  Winnie immediately felt a desire to make a modern quilt for Summer (She remembered that Keely, another one of Shay's sisters, had said that Summer lacked blankets in her home).  

So Winnie went shopping that week and bought the fabric that she thought Summer would enjoy 

(They were also fabrics she loved as well!).  She even bought fabric for some throw pillows too! 

She solicited the help of her mother 

(Winnie's mother is an excellent seamstress and makes beautiful quilts). 

Below is the end result of the sewing projects.  

It turned out beautifully!

Not only did they make the quilt, but also Winnie's mother made the two throw pillows on her own! (Winnie's mother also did all the top stitching while Winnie was at work.  Winnie felt so bless to have her do that for her!)

Summer seemed to really love the quilt and pillows!

Winnie and Shay also got John and his family for Christmas this year (John is Winnie's brother).  We sent John a BYU Snuggy, BYU mini tree for his office, and PJ bottoms with Grouch on them.  We also sent them BYU duck ornaments for the 4 kids, movies, and other odds and ends.  Winnie forgot to sent the Christmas napkins and ebelskiver pan for Nicole (she felt terrible!) so Mark, Winnie's youngest brother is going to take them back to him when he flies home after Christmas.  

To top it all off we sent John and Nicole a gift card so that they can go out to eat a few times!

They liked their gifts, which made us both happy!

Merry Christmas to all!

Christmas Village 2013

I love to decorate for Christmas!  I get it from my mother and grandmother.  This year was a bit more hectic than most so not all of the Christmas decorations were put up this year, which made me sad, but Shay still thought it looked good and that is all that matters to me! :-)

Take a peek at our home this year:

I decided to do two trees in the front room this year.  I have always loved Santa Clauses and have them throughout these trees...they are hard to see.  When I was younger I had the misconception that Santa was a symbol of God the Father.....maybe it was the white beard or the fact that He gave us the ultimate gift, His son, but I have always loved how the Santas remind me of Him and to be more like Him each day.  

With lights off:

I also LOVE the painting above the manger scene that you can see in the picture.  Shay knew I loved that picture and had wanted it for years and bought it for me for Christmas 2 years ago (LOVE how he spoils me!).  I love how it pulls the Santas and manger scenes together in this room (Can you tell I like to decorate?  Do you?).

I have really tried to occupy my time with finishing up decorating my house for Christmas, for instance.

This is the entry trees I did this year:

What it looks like when you walk into our home:

 I decided to only do the entry way staircase this year...which you can see below.

I just didn't have time to put the garland up on the catwalk this year. ....but I did finish the village.  Shay always requests to have it up.  We get a piece to add to it each year.  My mother bought me the houses one year and I painted them.  Every year I enjoy putting it up differently:

Luckily my brother Paul's children came to the rescue!

My two nieces help me put together the village this year.  I think it turned out beautifully:

This is our family room Christmas tree:

We both really love the bright colors of this tree!

This is our fireplace.  The stars are a new addition that my mother gave us for Christmas this year!  My mother is always spoiling us rotten with fun new Christmas gifts!

The white balls have scenes of the nativity on them.  They are so pretty up close!

Well, that is about all there is this year....but we love it!

Merry Christmas to one and all!

Sports

 Shay and I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Idaho to see my sister and her family!  

While there we were able to watch her oldest son play his first basketball game.  

 My sister's husband helps coach the team.  

He did an excellent job!

There team was really good!  It was fun to cheer them on!

THEY EVEN WON!  

He was VERY excited. 

(Can you tell we got in really late the night before and barely made it out of bed before getting to the game---UGH, not the best picture of us but a beautiful picture of our amazing nephew!)

Sports have been a big part of both of our lives!  My favorite sport of all time is soccer!  I was able to play for 11 years.  All of my siblings, and mother, played soccer at one point in their lives.  My dad refereed soccer.  To say the least, we are all glued to the T.V. when the World Cup is on!

Shay loves all sports.....but his favorite is baseball!  Shay is a major Dodger fan!  When we were in the Alps this last summer I turned around and found Shay checking on the Dodger's score instead of looking at his surroundings!  Shay was always aware of when he would be able to check the scores next.  Shay also loves the Stealers and all BYU teams!  We both really enjoy watching basketball and football together as well!

We would love to have our future children play on sports teams if they so desired.....especially soccer and baseball!  Shay has talked about even possibly coaching a team.  I think he would do a tremendous job because he is so patient and a great teacher!      

Baby Blanket

My sister is pregnant and due the fall!  

We are SO excited for her!  

She is having a girl!

I have a tradition of making blankets for the new arrivals in my family.  

I usually make a hand made afghan....and this time is no exception!

Below are the two colors I am going to use.  

It is going to be a two sided afghan.  

My sister LOVES the colors so now I am

working my little fingers off to try and get it done!  

I sure hope she will like it! 

Both of our families LOVE babies!!!

Leaving On a Jet Plane....

Day One of our European adventure:

On July 22nd, Shay and I left for Europe!

Our trip started with my dad taking Shay and me to the airport where we were able to catch a flight to Denver to make our international flight to Frankfort, Germany.  

Shay had never been to Europe before so he was super excited.  

 

Some highlights from our flight:

1. When the flight attendant invited us to find the movie and T.V. options in the back of the flight magazine.  Wow:

2. When I realized the castle on the front cover was one of the stops we were going to go see!

3. When the flight attendants offered free alcohol for the fourth time during our flight:

4. When the lady across the aisle from me started to struggle with her little boy.  The little boy didn't speak any English but definitely was getting upset.  The passengers in the plane were all trying to sleep and were not happy about the child's behavior.  I quickly pulled out my I-mini and put on a game.  He looked across at it and quickly went quiet.  I handed my mini to the lady and she quickly thanked me profusely.  Later, after the lady had returned my mini, the little boy started to act up again.  I pulled out a few distractions from my purse to help him silent down, since the other travelers were getting upset (someone actually shushed the little boy...like that is going to help).  He was so cute.  As I was trying to play with him across the aisle he quickly slipped from his mother's arms and crawled up into my lap.  The mother apologies in her broken English and I told her that he was fine.  We had a good time playing a few games before his attention changed to the breakfast being served.  Unfortunately, the lady said she had another 8 hour flight ahead of her.  Wow!  It was a wonderful opportunity to give some service to this mother who looked so tired as well as play with this cute little boy!

When we finally landed we walked around the Frankfort Airport looking for our traveling companions.  We were a party of 8 for one week and downsized to 7 the second week.

  When we finally were able to rent the cars, cram what luggage came across the sea with us (yes, 2 girls had their luggages lost on the flight over), we were off. 

I was speechless when we drove through Germany.  I couldn't have imagined the beauty that one encounters in Germany:

This was a park we stopped at when trying to find our way to Mike's cousin's home:

It was a beautiful park, but when we saw it for the fourth time we were ready not so see it again! ;-)

I thought this gate was so cool that I took a picture of it to remember it:

The cute ladies that worked in this bakery allowed Mike to call his cousins to get directions:

When Mike was finally able to get a hold of his cousins, we stopped at a grocery store and ran in to check out the chocolate (European chocolate it SO GOOD!).

Here is Sonya.  We met Sonya last October when we went down to Cancun with Mike.

This is Bradley.  We hadn't met Bradley prior to our trip.  It was great to meet new friends on our trip!

 

This was the first time we had seen Lindt's new packaging:

It made us smile to realize they had a whole aisle dedicated to chocolate:

Then his cousin showed up to have us follow them back to their elusive home.  On the way I took some pictures.  It was SO pretty!



Mike's cousins were so nice!  We really enjoyed the opportunity to go with them for dinner:

One of his cousins, Arna, is a chef and I asked him to order my dinner for me.  This is a picture of what he ordered for me.  

IT WAS TO DIE FOR!!!

We then returned home, chatted in the back with Mike's cousins, and then hit the hay.  It was a wonderful first day in Europe!  We feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to go and see all we were able to see!

Placing a child for adoption....

So Shay and I just got home from our trip to Europe yesterday.  I have a pile of laundry that reaches Saturn, memories that will last beyond a lifetime, and a classroom that is screaming, "You are not going to be able to get everything ready with the amount of time you have and school starts next week!"  

Crazy how stressful ending a trip can become.....pictures etc. of our trip will be coming soon: We just need time to get life back in order and our pictures in order (I hope that makes since!).  I wouldn't be on here yet but I just had to document an experience I just had:

Yesterday, after my parents picked Shay and me up from the airport and fed us dinners so we didn't have to worry about preparing something, we headed down to Shay's folks to pick up our dog.  By the time we returned home I was DEAD!  I don't really remember getting in bed.  Then of course I woke up at 12:24 am thinking it was morning (Europe is an 8 hours difference from where we were at).  Of course I forced myself back to bed to try and get my body on the right time zone.

Now, after Shay left for work, I have been opening mail and starting the process of returning home from a vacation.  It will be a lot of laundry that is for sure.  In this process I checked my Facebook.  Wow, in 2 weeks a lot happens!  While scrolling through news feeds I came across the following link.  A really good friend of mine who has 2 biological children of her own shared it.  Since I know she has never started the adoption process...at least to my knowledge.... I was curious to see why she felt a need to share.  I am so glad I did!  My heart has been really full this last week with regards to adoption.  Being a potential adopted parent is a double edged sword.  Shay and I desperately want to have a family but are unable to do so the "traditional" way.  It is an extremely painful situation for us!  We have always wanted to be parents and raise children.  Yet, to want to adopt is also bitter in the fact that it breaks our hearts knowing that the birthparents are hurting.  Why would we want that?  We are fully aware that birthparents do "want" their child, can parent their child, and deep down struggle with the idea of placing, thus making it a very painful experience for us as well!  We have no desire to cause pain on anyone for any reason.  This situation makes me hurt deep in my heart!  Then I watched this video.  It answered some of my concerns towards the end....as an adoptive parent.  

Although, Shay and I are not sure when or if we will ever be parents in this lifetime.  I do know that if we are chosen that we will LOVE our birthparents and that there will be a reason why the child was placed with us.  Thanks so much for sharing this link with me Jamie!  It really touched my heart in a way that I needed it!

Please note that this is being shared as an answer to some of MY questions, not with anyone in mind or in anyway trying to persuade anyone either way in the adoption process.

Placing a child for adoption
In this exclusive interview, Tamra, a birth mother and adoption advocate, shares the beautiful story of her decision to place her son for adoption.

Foundry Grill, Sundance

Spending time with the fam at the Foundry Grill up at Sundance Resorts.  

We are a very serious family! ;-)

As we waited for my older brother and his wife we took a few pictures to document this joyous occasion.  Shay and I love the Foundry Grill!

Here we are:

  That is where Shay proposed to me!

Below is my younger sister and youngest brother:

My cute parents:

My younger brother and his wife:

Then finally the whole gang: 

(minus my sister's husband who couldn't come to the reunion due to work)

We were spoiled rotten by our parents and enjoyed a DELICIOUS meal!  

Thanks mom and dad for taking us all out to eat!  You're the BEST!