Christmas picture 2010

Christmas was amazing. It was so great to be a family of 4. Not only were there 4 of us here for Christmas, but there were actually 10 of us Christmas day at our house. My brother Matt was here, my nephew Jamie was here from Maryland. He is coming out to UT for college after graduation so he was coming to tour the campus of his new school, and we got to play host to him while he was here. I hadn't seen him since he was a baby and Jacob, Tammy and of course Emily, had never met him. But it was so great to have him here. But, that's not all for guests. We also had my dad, stepmom, Kristina (Em's birthmom and my little sister), and David (my little brother) here to celebrate Em's first Christmas. I will post more about it later because Em is tired and needs her bottle so she can go to sleep for the night. But for now I wanted to share our Christmas photo from this last Christmas. So here you go! I am also including this years Christmas card since I never got it sent out. oops!

The Harlem Globetrotters!

A couple of weeks ago I was watching one of my favorite shows, Good Things Utah (I DVR it and watch it, so I was watching it in the evening). One of the guests that they had that day was a player from the Harlem Globetrotters. Turns out, the Globetrotters were coming to the Energy Solutions Arena (formerly known as the Delta Center) in Salt Lake City. So I called Tammy who was at a friends house, and asked her what she thought about going to see the Globetrotters. She was all for it. I called Jacob, who was at work, he thought it was a great idea too. He also told me to call this guy that works for the ticket office, who was in charge of corporate rates for tickets. He could get us a discount through Jacob's work. So I called him, and got our tickets.

We were on row 7, section 3. So that meant we were in the corner, but only 7 rows up. Loved it! Tammy and I had never been to a Globetrotters game before, but Jacob had been when he was younger. Such a fun evening! We went to Leatherby's for an early dinner, drove to the trax station and took the train to the Arena. The game was great! I had heard it was really fun to go to their show, but of course never been. It was seriously, so fun. They played with and interacted with the crowd. They even had people come out onto the court to help with part of the show. We even did the YMCA right in the middle of the 4th quarter! It was fun to see the entire Arena on their feet. Big Buddha from channel 13 was there. He did a little portion of the show. I got pictures of that, but they are way too blurry.

Sorry for the bad pictures. We didn't think we could bring a camera in, since there were signs everywhere that said no camera's (to include on our tickets). So we left it at home. There were people everywhere with camera's, and the security people didn't care. Should have brought the camera! Thanks goodness for Camera Phones or I wouldn't have gotten these!

(Jacob and Tammy, enjoying the pregame show)

(Pre-game show. It was a lot of fun! lots of dancing and tricks from the mascot - Globie and his side kicks.)

(It was time for the Globetrotters to come out! They showed off their fantastic skills in a round robin circle. Flight Time and Big Easy were there!! They were our favorite team on the Amazing Race last season!)

(Tammy and I enjoying the game)

(We weren't too far from the floor. It was great!)

(Jacob and Tammy chatting on the Train after the game)

(Jacob got an official Globetrotters ball as a souvenir. Tammy and I got T-shirts.)

I guess the pictures aren't too bad, ecspecially not for a camera phone. We decided this is something we'd like to make a tradition. Going to the game every year when they come. Next time we may get floor seats.

Christmas 2009

Since we share custody of Tammy with her dad "N" we do an every other holiday arrangement. Last year "N" had Tammy for Thanksgiving and we had her for Christmas. So this year we had her on Thanksgiving and it was "N"'s year for Christmas. So we celebrated our Christmas on Christmas Eve instead.

Our family traditions include playing games on Christmas Eve (which this year was the 23rd for us). Jacob was working so it was just Tammy and I. It's hard to play board games when there is only 2 people (normally we do board games). So instead we opted to play some games on the Wii. Our favorite game to play when it is just Tammy and I is Guitar Hero World Tour (which was Tammy's Christmas present last year).

Tammy rockin' out to Bon Jovi.

We opened gifts after Jacob woke up the next morning.

We started with our stockings.Tammy's is a cross-stitched one that I made for her last year (she is a cat lover, so her's is cats). I am going to start on the ones for Jacob and I (with the move and all I didn't get to it this year, but now that we are settled I will be starting on Jacob's next week). Eventually we will all have one that is cross-stitched. Each takes a really long time so I work on it when I can. I hope that someday soon I get to do one for a new addition. Even the dog has a stocking. Sirius was very excited about his stocking. He got all sorts of new treats.

I was very excited about one of my stocking stuffers. A UTAH UTES T-shirt!!!! YAY!!! I also got a tri-pod which I was very excited about. I had one but it wouldn't hold the weight of my camera when I had the larger lens on it. I also got some cake decorating tools that I can't wait to use. :D (Ignore my hair, I had just gotten out of the shower)

Jacob was very excited about his present. A BYU Cougars T-Shirt! We both sported our team spirit the next day by wearing our new shirts (wish we had gotten a picture!). He also got a George Foreman grill, he has been wanting one of those, and he got a new laptop for school. (His old one kept dying, he needed a new one, and since he is starting school next week, now was a good time to get it)
Tammy was very excited about her new camera! We got a killer deal on it. She has been using my old one which was not a good one at all (read, 3.6 megapixel, which when we got it 6+ years ago was a good camera, this new ones is 12.2). So she was very excited about this new one. She also got an artist drawing set (she loves to draw) and got a new pair of boots.

We ended the day with another family tradition. Every year (at least the years we were in Utah visiting, but now that we are living here again, it will be every year) we go to "C"'s house on Christmas Eve (this is before we do games at our house). "C" is Tammy's aunt on her dad's side and a good friend on mine. They do several Christmas stories and a present exchange. Such fun times. It was then time to take Tammy back to her dad's. Sorry, no pictures from "C"'s house, I didn't take my camera.

The next day Jacob and I went to his mom's house for Christmas dinner with most of his family. We stopped by my brother's afterwards and visited with them for awhile. Sorry no pictures from there either. I've been slacking on my camera duties I guess.

It was a great Christmas!

Our family, Christmas Eve 2009. This was actually my favorite picture. I thought it was funny that the dog wanted to be in on it too. Do you see him sitting there on the couch?

We have been invited to a couple of friends houses for New Years. We were going to have my family over but had to postpone that. If the weather cooperates we may just got over to my friend Jill's house for some games. Or to Rebecca's for festivities there, or maybe both! We'll see. It's been snowing like crazy here!

Merry Christmas!

I will blog in the next day or two about our Christmas festivities, but for now, we just wanted to say, Merry Christmas from our house to yours!

Gingerbread!

This year we decided to make Gingerbread houses. I had done this several years ago and it was a complete flop, but we decided to try it again. It worked better this time. In the end the roof on my house fell in, but it was fun anyway!

Jacob's one request was ribbon candy. So we got that and the kits that they sell in the store.

Here are the finished products:

Jacob's (if you look closely, you can see on the side of his blue roof he did a white Y for BYU):

Tammy's (she thought it was funny that her windows were "bleeding" red from the gel she used. Said it looked like the windows were crying. Silly girl!) :

Mine (notice my roof is red, GO UTES!):

Next year I think we will try it with making our own gingerbread and frosting (didn't really like the royal frosting the kits came with. It was hard to use and didn't want to dry, at all, which is why the roof on mine fell in!). I'll tell you one thing, it was fun, but not easy at all! I definately have new respect for those who build those amazing gingerbread houses for the Gingerbread village at the festival of trees every year!

PCMC's Festival of Trees

So the day after my birthday we decorated our tree. The day after that, we went to the Festival of Trees at the Southtowne Expo Center. Gorgeous beautiful displays as always. All of the displays and trees are donated to the festival and the proceeds go to Primary Children's Medical Center.

There were soooo many trees. The expo center is 243,000 sq feet, and it was full of displays, trees, and goodies! Warms my heart to know that all the many people there were supporting such a worthy cause. Every year it is amazing, and this year was no exception.

Such a wide variety of displays, goodies, wreaths, quilts, gingerbread houses, and of course trees. There were:

I loved the Warm Fuzzy tree!

Very unique trees, everything from Robots, to hand carved wood trees, to soda can trees.

Harry Potter trees, complete with Sorting hats, Gryffindor colors, broom sticks and of course, Harry. ;o)

Tons of University of Utah UTES trees! (YAY!!! I'm a UTES fan, hubby is a BYU fan)

There was even a tree decorated BYU style.

I love what the sign says, in case you can't read it, it says, 14 years old, 34 surgeries in his lifetime, 8 procedures from 2008-2009, 10 discs removed, 2 rods inserted in his spine, Total 100% BYU fan. (Even though I'm a Utes fan, I just loved this tree. So sweet!)

There were a lot of displays. All of them were touching, unique, and stunning!

I love the Quilt displays. So much work and love goes into every stitch. Gorgeous!

The Gingerbread Village is always a crowd pleaser. Can you tell why?

PCMC is very near and dear to our family. Because of PCMC we have our Valerie. Valerie is our neice (Jacob's sisters daughter). She was born with a condition called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. Prognosis for children born with this condition is not good. Survival rate from the many surgeries that the babies need is not high. But Heavenly Father knew Valerie had some work to do here. And she is a fighter. Firey red head for sure! We have been so blessed to have her these past 7 years. And even though we know our time with her is drawing closed and she will soon be called home, we have cherished every moment with her.

It is for this reason that I decorated a tree the year after she was born. I hand cross stitched little tiny teddy bear ornaments (each took about 30 hours to do and it was worth it) and did bears of all kinds all over the tree. It was donated to the Festival. That Christmas was the last Christmas we spent in Utah. Jacob was in basic training for the Army at the time. So I was not able to continue doing trees. But now that we are back, I can do trees again. I didn't have the opportunity to do one this year since we didn't get here until September (this year there was a waiting list for people to donate trees). But I have already started next years. And while we were visiting the festival this year we talked to the Executive Director and gave her our information for when she does next years list. I can't wait! Valerie will be 8 next year, so the tree will be all white. I just pray, that she will be there to see it, and if the Lord sees fit to bless us with another year with her, she will be. We love you Valerie!

Decorating the tree

So the day after my birthday is always the day we put up the tree (although I'll admit that last year I was too excited about Christmas that we put it up the day after Thanksgiving, and that was only because we spent all of Thanksgiving at our friends house -since we lived in New Mexico at the time we weren't near family, but we got to spend it with our awesome friends the O'Hara's, we've known them since right around the time we moved to Kansas many moons ago, 6 years to be exact, they happened to be the same unit as us, so when the unit got moved from KS to NM, both our family and their family ended up going. They are now in Germany and we miss them!)

Anyhow, sorry, off topic there. ;o) Since I was a little girl all I can remember is Christmas going up the day after Thanksgiving, so when it came time for my birthday (which is only a week after Thanksgiving) my birthday was always filled with Christmas decorations everywhere and everyone walked around talking about Christmas. In fact I have an old home video of my 4th? birthday where out of the 30 minute video, 20 minutes are of my dad video taping the Christmas decorations.

(O.k., I'm sure my birthday was about me when I was little and not all about Christmas, but to a 4 year old... just sayin')

So Jacob vowed when we got married that my birthday would always be seperate from Christmas. Even though we haven't stuck to that, and sometimes put the decorations up way before my birthday (like last year). This year we just didn't get around to it until the day after. It was such a fun night.

While I was out getting Tammy from school Jacob got out the tree. I spent the next hour "fluffing" the tree. You know, so there were few open spots. ;o) Later that evening, after dinner, we started decorating. I took some of the pictures, Tammy took some (Jacob's afraid of my camera, hehehe)

First, we start with our empty tree:

Next we plug it in to make sure the lights work:

Next comes the decorations:

Anyone notice on the right hand side there, Harry Potter with his invisibility cloak? ;o)

Jacob, jammin' out to Christmas music:

Our tree from the outside (we have added a little more to the outside, I need to go out and take another picture, plus, it snowed, a lot, so it looks so pretty!)

And the finished product:

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, but Christmas, is a really really close second!!

The Annual Grandma's Day

To most people, the day after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday. This is the day where stores have HUGE sales, encouraging people to go out and shop. This is the day that the companies who are in the red, expect to make such a profit that they now find themselves in the Black.

Neice Rachael describing the mayhem and foolishness that is Black Friday shopping. Her mom Dawn -our sister in law, and the one who introduced Jacob and I, loves going shopping at 4a.m. on Black Friday, Rachael went with for the first time this year. "How was it Rachael?" "IT WAS CRAZY!!"

In our family, the day after Thanksgiving is known as Grandma's day. On this day, every year, Grandma (Jacob's mom), hosts a Grandkids party. All the parents come and drop their kids off and go shopping or whatever they want to do, while Grandma and Grandpa have a fun filled day with them. Normally some of the adults stay to help, after all, we have 12 grandkids on this side of the family, and that is a lot for one person, even Super Grandma, to handle. This year, Uncle Joe (the brother who is just younger than Jacob) stayed to help.

They make crafts, have fun, play, and watch movies.

Here we have Grandma (Jacob's mom), neice Valerie, Uncle Joe, Nephew Ben, Neice Nicole, and Neice Mary watching a movie.

Then the mommy's and daddy's come back from shopping and hug their kids and see what fun they all had. (Janele, Jacob's older sister, and her adorable son, our nephew Mathew)

Then we all chat for a bit, and eat dinner while we wait for the evenings very special guest. (Our sister-in-law Teresa, she is married to Jacob's brother Joe). You can see Nephew Jessie playing with the train table Grandma has in the background.

Then we all start to sing and dance to "Here comes Santa Claus". Hmmm.... Wonder who our special guest could be! (Jacob's mom singing and dancing, such a fun Grandma!)

There he is! It's Santa Claus, and Mrs. Claus!

Some, got to meet him for the first time! (Mathew didn't know what to think of Santa)

We all sat on Santa's lap and told him what we wanted to Christmas. Nephew David got to be the first to go!

Even Tammy sat on his lap, doesn't she look thrilled! hehehehe ;o)

Grandma's day! Such a fun family tradition!