Christmas Day

Josh and I got up today and went to church.  It was only for 2 hours and our 2 wards combined.  No talks were scheduled except from the two bishops.  I was really excited to hear what they have to say.  We don't get to hear our bishop talk much but when he does it's always so good.  The way he talks about Christ, I can feel that fire burning within, I know it's true.  I know Christ lives.  I don't like this holiday for the commercialism of it.  I don't think we went to church on Christmas morning when Christmas fell on a Sunday when I was growing up so it was really nice to actually go and worship Christ on his birthday.  The talks were wonderful.
We came home and I made our baked french toast, oh man is it yummy!

We went up to my parents' house for the afternoon to eat and hang out.  On the way up, I told Josh I was not going to live my life mourning a life I don't have.  I'm going to start being more grateful for the life I do have.  Because I have a great life.  I have so much to be thankful for.  I have a wonderful family and they all love me.  I have a husband who loves me and I love him so much and am so thankful and excited for the journey we are on the get sealed in the temple.  I have friends who love me.  We are blessed to have jobs and jobs that we like!  We are healthy, all of our needs are met, we are safe and I'm so thankful for that.  So I need to be better at not wishing my life away and always wanting something more.  I am blessed with everything I have.
I'm so thankful for our Savior Jesus Christ and his life, gospel teachings, sacrifice and atonement for us.  I'm thankful for the atonement and for being able to repent and get forgiveness.  I'm thankful that Josh and I are finally on the way to getting sealed which is something we've wanted since before we even got married and here we are 8 1/2 years after our wedding getting ready to be sealed.  And it's all through Christ.

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Eve Party

We went to my grandparents' house in Brigham for the annual Christmas Eve party.

I love going to this party.  It's just one of those memories from my childhood.  I remember every  year on our way home from that party, after we played pool over and over again and played with the air hockey game and ate so much food and got our presents from our grandparents, our mom and dad would tell us to watch for Santa in the sky to  make sure we beat him back to our home.  We would see the red blinking lights of the radio towers and when we were young enough to believe them, our mom and dad would tell us that was Rudolph's nose glowing in the sky.  We  rushed home and got to open our traditional Christmas jammies and then went to bed.  My brother, sister and I would go up to our rooms but always ended up in one bed together reading stories and watching our parents bring presents in through my brother's bedroom window as we were older.

I love getting together with our family and catching up with everyone.  I was so glad my Uncle Garth and his kids came to this party this year as well.  It was great to see them again.

My cousin Ashley, the one in the black, was a baby when I was about 8 or so.  Whenever our families were together, I always packed her everywhere.  We went up to Seattle to see them one summer and she was attached to my hip the whole time.  And now she's pregnant and it makes me feel old!

And this little Bryn is just so dang cute!!  And I love that our cousins are back in our lives more so we can get to see these cute kids!!

Christmas Party #2

The day after we had my Grandma Lowe's Christmas party, we had my parents' Christmas party.  We had a yummy Turkey dinner and then opened presents.  My nephews were so excited to open their presents.
They were so spoiled!  Josh and I brought them home Rex and Bullseye from Disneyland and got them each a pillow, blanket and a movie.  They got race car tracks and a huge dragon castle from my mom and dad.
Kids are so much fun to have during Christmas!

The Dragon Castle they got from my parents really caused some fighting, they both loved it so much.

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Party #1

We had our annual Christmas party with my Dad's side of the family on Saturday night up in Franklin.  We all eat and then play the Left Right passing game and then open presents.

This crazy kid couldn't give me a real smile with a cookie all over his face!

Gavin kept handing my mom these cookies one at a time and then wanted her to put them all in her mouth.  He thought it was the funniest thing!

My mom helped Branson decorate one sugar cookie and he loved it.

Then he took to it by himself.

The Merry Okee microphone was the prize toy that the boys wanted to play with and fight over.

 My Uncle Garth's kids all came this year except for Amy.  We were so excited to see them, it had been years!  My cousin Jessie and I were always close growing up and I was so excited to see her and her beautiful two babies!

It was great to see them all and a great way to kick off the Christmas Holiday!

Tara's Birthday!!

For Tara's birthday this year, Welter took us all out to Kabuki.  I've only been to a Benihana-type of restaurant once before when Josh and I went to Tepanyaki forever ago.  I remember I really like it so we were excited to go to this new restaurant in town.

This man was our hilarious chef, he had us laughing pretty hard!

 Atty tried to pass me a sushi roll, with chopsticks...sushi water anyone?  Me and Atty had a good laugh!

 Then he started cooking our food!  Yummy!

That's right, cook those shrimpies for me!!  Oh, they were delicious!

Little Whitney was terrified of the fire.  Rick and Angie had to take turns with her behind our wall so she wouldn't see it.  And she loves Tara!!

Happy 31st Tara!!  I love you and am so thankful for our friendship!!

Time With "My Kids"

I went to Shannon's to spend the night with the kids while she and Arnold had a work Christmas party.  We wanted to go see a movie and go drive through Christmas lights.  I wanted to take them to Temple Square but the air quality was too bad and we have to be really careful with DJ's asthma so we couldn't go down there.  We decided to go see Arthur Christmas.  We went to Jordan Commons (my favorite movie theater), got our popcorn, cotton candy and drinks then went into the theater.  The movie was super cute, I loved it.

 I know I've said it over and over again, but these kids have my heart.  They fill spaces in my heart I didn't know were empty until they came into my life.  I cry with each one of their accomplishments.  One, because we don't live as close as I wish we did so I can see them.  And two, because I am so proud of them and the awesome little people they are.
Noah is such a tween but he still gets excited to see me.  He will still let me love on him and still wants to show me stuff he can do.  Elizabeth is such a sweetheart.  She does have a sassy side but she is the sweetest girl.  She's doing so well in dancing and started tumbling.  She is working on her back handspring and aerial.  She's so much fun and I love love love her giggle.  DJ is still my little boy for the moment.  He is growing up and I hate that.  He is such a fun kid.  He has a major shoe fetish and looks so cute in his skinny jeans.  He still wants to play with me and first thing in the morning when we wake up, he wants to play and build his car ramp and jumps.  He still wants me to hold him and I always will.
I hope that we will get to be parents one day but if that is not in our plan, at least I got to be something close to that with these kids.
After the movie, we headed down to Thanksgiving Point to drive through their Christmas light display since we can stay in the car and not be exposed to the bad air.  We stopped at the Maverick and got some hot chocolate for everyone.  We pulled into the lights and listened to Christmas music as we drove through.  I've never been there before and it was pretty cool.

 After driving through the lights, there is the story of our Savior's birth with pictures by Simon Dewey that I love.

We got back to Shannon and Arnold's and relaxed in front of the TV for a while.  DJ fell asleep on my lap as we watched monster truck movies.
I came home Sunday morning after DJ, Lu and I built car tracks and spent some more time together.  It was such a great weekend welcoming a new little life into our family and spending time with "my kids."

New Uncle & Auntie

We have a new nephew!  Austin and Alicia had Landyn Friday night, well early Saturday morning at 1:06am weighing in at 7lbs 12oz and 19 inches long.

We now have 2 nephews on my side and 3 nephews and a niece on Josh's side.

I stopped by the hospital Saturday morning on my way down to Draper to spend the weekend with Shannon, Arnold and my kids.

Alicia's grandparents were just leaving as I got there, so I got him all to myself.  He is so squishy and cuddly.  I got to love on him for quite a while and feed him a bottle.  Austin was really good to just hand him over to me and let me take over while they watched TV.  

Landyn Quinn Haslam

Even though I loved seeing our new nephew, I left the hospital feeling inadequate again for the countless time in my life.  I was late getting down to Draper but had to sit in the car for a minute while the tears flowed before I got back on the freeway.  I was going to spend the weekend with Noah, Lu and DJ and that made me happy.

Welcome to the world little Landyn!!  Auntie and Uncle love you!!