What We've Been Up To!

It's been a while since I posted last and we have done a lot since then, but at the same time we haven't done much! I'll let the pictures do the explaining!

Usually I am NOT a coupon person! I hate cutting them out, I always forget to take them, and I hate the clutter that they make in my purse when I actually do take them! But last weekend, I used some coupons at Bath and Body Works. All of the products pictured have a retail value of $55! I got them all for $1.25 total!!!!! I was so excited that it ALMOST made me want to start collecting coupons!

Also, last weekend we went to Shaun's work Christmas Party! It was semi-formal dress and I was stressing for like a month on what to wear because maternity clothes make me look HUGE and just fat, but I DON'T fit in my other clothes anymore. I ended up wearing a cute wintery dress from Banana Republic with a black sweater and heels. I thought it was semi-formal enough, but I was WRONG! Everyone was dressed up in the shortest, tightest most revealing dress and they were all pretty glamorous! Shaun said next time I will have to buy an evening gown!

Plus it was an open bar -- so things got interesting! Shaun thought it was a party where you go and make sure the bosses see you there! There were like 500 + people there and we hardly saw anyone we knew. We were assigned to a table for dinner and we didn't know any of the people. Let's just say it was awkward, boring, and we stopped at Burgerville on the way home for burgers and milkshakes! YUM Chocolate Hazelnut Milkshakes!!! That may be our first and last work Christmas party! I would be ok with that!

Last Sunday, we attempted to take Maisey's Christmas pictures for our Christmas cards. I had been waiting to send them out until we took her pictures. She was all dressed up in a special Christmas outfit with pretty shoes on and I did her hair in her first pony tail ever and put one of the curly bows in her hair from Gymboree! I've been waiting to do that for 16 months! (Her whole life!) She looked soooooo cute, but she was soooooo uncooperative!

Finally I just gave up and started sealing the Christmas card envelopes while Shaun still tried to take her pictures with her sassy little attitude!

This is what he got...

... Until she dropped our snowglobe on the tile by the fireplace and it shattered everywhere! :(

This is what our family will look like soon!!!

Last Thursday night my mom and I hosted a dinner for my aunt, uncle and cousins! My sisters flew in that day! Everyone from the Salem area was there! It was sooo much fun and the food turned out delicious! I made Chicken Parmigana, Salad of Mason, Rolo Cookies, and Rocky Road. My mom did the french bread, a veggie platter, and some yummy fruit dip for dessert! It was a great night!

Maisey loves having her 2 Aunties home from BYU!!!

Last Saturday and Sunday it started snowing here! It's been snowing off and on all week, but yesterday it got really bad! It snowed 8 inches at our house! We hardly ever get snow here because we are at sea level! Everything is shut down! Shaun and I enjoyed our first Saturday relaxing in our house! This was the first day that we didn't leave the house! I showered at 2 in the afternoon and then put clean p.j.'s on! How awesome is that!

Then last night, we got freezing rain on top of our snow! This picture is on the side of our house! It looks like glass shards, but Shaun walked to our back yard to get a shovel out of the shed! Those are his footprints in the ice!

My sister is holding a piece of ice that she took off of the top! It's about a 1/2 inch!

Shaun and I were supposed to speak in church today! I had been struggling with my talk all week and wishing that church was cancelled today! On Friday, I decided that I better prepare something in case it wasn't cancelled! So I started fresh and actually came up with an AWESOME talk! I worked on it Saturday morning until it was finished and I was actually really excited to give it! Then we got 3 phone calls last night saying church was cancelled in the morning! :( I can't give the same talk when we get rescheduled to speak because our topic was on Redeeming the Dead. Shaun and I split it up where I was talking about Family History work, and Shaun was talking about Temple Work. Well I tied my whole talk in to Christmas (because who really wants to hear about Family History Work on the Sunday before Christmas?) so I guess I will have to redo it if we are asked to speak on the same topic! Oh well! It's probably good for me!

So, since everyone is snowed in we decided to pick one house to ALL be at since we couldn't be driving back and forth a ton! So everyone came to our house yesterday to watch the BYU bowl game and spend the night! It was quite a disappointing game!!! We thought they may have had a chance after remembering last years amazing bowl game win and then when we got the on-side kick with like 2 minutes left in the game, but those hopes were soon shattered! Oh well, maybe next year BYU!!!

So that has been our busy, but also, not so busy last week! We are having a yummy Christmas dinner tonight at our house with my family and a fun Christmas program that I was in charge of this year! I am really excited!

We were supposed to leave for Spokane this week, but I don't know what the weather has in store for us! So we will be watching the forecast closely so we can try to find the best day to head up! We are excited to see all of Shaun's family and friends! :)

Names

So I need a little help...

My name is Emily Elizabeth, like the girl from the Clifford books.
Maisey has tons of Maisy the Mouse Books.

When I was growing up, I loved identifying with a character from a book. I thought it was pretty cool. Now, Maisey loves to read the Maisy the Mouse books.

Any good ideas for a Boy character?

The only one's I can think of are Diego, Handy Manny, Thomas, Bob the Builder, and Curious George. I am not that thrilled with any of those names. (Hopefully I didn't just offend anyone!)

I could use lots of ideas!

Thanks!

P.S. I found Shaun's Christmas gifts! :) I immediately wrapped them and they are now snuggled under the tree!

HELP!!!!!!!!!

WARNING: This is a Frustration post!

I'm pretty much done with my Christmas shopping and have been for nearly a month. So I got all of the gifts out of the corner of my closet yesterday and started wrapping them. (Now that we have a tree to put them under!)

When we were on our trip in Colorado, I bought a few gifts for Shaun. I left them in a shopping bag so he wouldn't see them! When we got home I put them somewhere special so he wouldn't peak.

Now I can't find them ANYWHERE!!!!

I am really frustrated because I have pretty much looked in my whole house and I can't seem to find them!

A Special Monday!

We had a very special FHE today!
This afternoon, I had my ultrasound! We're Having a BOY!!!!
We are so excited! Shaun and I were both pretty sure it was a girl, but neither one of us really had a preference! But he is definitely a boy and was happy to show off his "parts"!

So, to start our FHE out, we headed to the mall and Maisey helped us pick out her baby brother's first outfit! Then, we got home and decorated our Christmas Tree! Maisey loved to dump all of the bulbs on the floor and swish them around like she does her bath toys in the water! She was being so silly! Good thing I bought shatter-proof bulbs this year!

She loves to say "Cheese" and smile silly!



Daddy is hooking the star up!


Mais decided to take a rest. She got up on our coffee table all by her self, laid down, and said "Nigh Night!"

She looks so serious! She loved to be Mommy's helper with the bulbs!

(She is wearing her special Big Sister shirt today because of the ultrasound!)


The finished product! We love our tree!

Palmer's Tree Farm

On Saturday we went to Palmer's Christmas Tree Farm to pick out our tree. We went with my aunt and her family! It was so fun, pretty chilly, and VERY Muddy! The Fam!
Maisey really liked the baby trees!

She had fallen in the mud several times so we took her skirt off for the way home. She was out after like 5 minutes in the car!

Our Tree!

Maisey loves to play with her cousins Alex and Madi!

Christmas Party Preparations

20 lbs of Pasta Salad Anyone?

Mommy's Little Helper

"Here Mom, let me help you by picking up the tree that I knocked over!"

"Actually Mom, It's real HEAVY so I could use some 'Helpy Delpy Delpy!' "

Christmas Cards

So, I have been working really hard on our Christmas Letter/Cards the last few days, and we are taking our family pictures on Saturday. I am going to try to send them out by mid week next week. So PLEASE, send me your addresses so I can send them out. Especially if you just graduated from BYU when we did and moved to a new place. My email is emily8686@hotmail.com. The sooner the better!!! Thanks!

(By the way, mid post our wireless mouse froze. This probably happens 5 times a day and I have to restart the computer to reset it. It is the BIGGEST annoyance in my life. So Shaun finally disconnected it and hooked up a wired mouse. I know it's old school, but I was so sick of that stupid, battery-draining, freezing mouse! And I bet Shaun was sick of hearing me complain about it 5 times a day, every day!)

A Happy Day!

I ventured to Wal-Mart this morning to get several Christmas items in preparation for decorating our tree that we will get on Saturday. Maisey was an absolute DELIGHT! This is quite encouraging after a long road trip where I would be lying if I made that comment. She sat in the shopping cart the WHOLE time and as we were walking out of the store I gave her some money to give to the bell ringer and she wanted to put it in the bucket all by her self. So I got her out and let her and then she gave the lady a nice smile, and waved and said "Bye-Bye!"

Now she is peacefully sleeping in her bed, so I am going to go lay down too! What a day!

Our Trip to Colorado

It's all about Maisey... OF COURSE!!!

Maisey Enjoyed . . .

. . . Sharing Daddy's Banana Cream Pie with him. . .
. . . spending time with mommy and daddy at the same time . . .

. . . opening gifts for our white elephant gift exchange . . .

. . . checking out the hat that mommy got . . .

. . . watching TONS of Elmo . . .

. . . giving Grover kisses . . .

. . . hangin with Uncle Scott . . .

. . . eating Lucky Charms and watching Aunt Christina coach High School Basketball . . .

. . . Feeding Lucky Charms to Zoe . . .

. . . and coloring with Cousin Shayla.







Maisey did NOT enjoy . . .

. . . Taking Family pictures . . .

. . . Again . . .

. . . And Again . . .

. . . Or ANY posed picture for that matter. (She just slapped her brand new cousin in the face and mom i.e. ME, had to jump in to stop her. This is the only picture we have of all 3 of the cousins!

It was a VERY long trip for a few short days but it will be the last time our whole family is together for a long time. So I guess it was all worth it!

A month of Gratitude

I have been thinking of posting all week, but didn't ever get around to it. I was thinking of different titles for this post:
- The month of moving
- The month of madness
- A primary program every Sunday?
- So exhausted
- Off on a Loooong trip to Colorado
- Will life ever slow down?

But then I got thinking, I have so much to be thankful for. So I am going to try not to focus on the craziness in my life (because it really probably could get worse!) and focus on those things that mean the most in my life.

I am thankful for:

- A husband who loves me for who I am, and who is willing to give his co-worker a ride home from work even though it was 30 min each way out of his way, who is HOME from Seattle, who reads scriptures with me every night, who I trust enough to trim my hair for me, who goes along with my crazy ideas, who helps my mom with SO much, and who is a great Daddy to my baby!

- A daughter who is so precious and cute, who is saying tons or words, who randomly tells me "Love You", who runs to me and gives me big hugs and pats my back, who folds her hands so reverently during prayer (ok for like 10 seconds), who takes great naps and sleeps so beautifully at night, who LOVES Elmo, who carries around a little figurine of Jesus and says His name all the time, and who loves to watch football, or as she says, "Foo Ball Ball"

- A mom who is the most incredible woman I have ever known. Who has had to make some HUGE life changing decisions in these last few months, who is so brave, who is faithful, who has a Dyson vacuum and lets me borrow it VERY often, and sometimes even vacuums my house for me, who is an awesome Grandma to Mais, who babysits for FREE, and who is my shopping partner.

- My new house! I love everything about it!

- Our new ward, and especially our primary. Today was our primary program for Sacrament meeting, and it totally captivated Mais. She just sat there and listened for about half the time, and then fell asleep. All on her own, just sitting on my sister's lap. Because she had a nap during church, she was SO good for the rest of the time.

- And last, but not least, I am grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For the peace and the comfort that it brings into my life. For the Plan of Salvation. For the knowledge that I have that I will see my dad again, for the scriptures whose words are so true, for President Monson, for General Conference, and for Jesus Christ and His ultimate sacrifice so that I may live with my Heavenly Father again.

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I am really sorry, but still no pictures of the house. I haven't taken a single picture on my camera since Halloween. That's right, the WHOLE month of November, not a single picture. We have been pretty busy. The weekend after we moved in, Shaun's family came to visit. Shaun and his dad put in a new garage door opener for us, put some child safety locks on all our our kitchen cabinets and did a few other things around the house. The next week, my mom sold her house! YAY! What a blessing in this CRAZY market. We moved some of my mom's things to her new house that weekend (even though she wasn't supposed to close on her old house until December 30). The next Monday, my mom's realtor called and asked if she could close at the end of November instead. Of course she said yes because she already owned her other house. So from Monday through yesterday I spent some extremely late nights at my mom's helping her pack up and start moving some smaller boxes and things to her new house. My sisters flew in this weekend to help with the move also. So many ward members showed up Saturday morning to move all of her furniture. Her house was empty in 2 hours! It was AWESOME! So between our move and then moving my mom for like 2 weeks straight, we are all pretty exhausted, sick of moving, but so THANKFUL it is done!

We leave Tuesday to head to my sister's in Colorado for Thanksgiving. My nephew will be blessed on Sunday. I am excited to meet him for the first time, but I have to admit, I am not really looking forward to the LONG drive that we will be making (2 days each way), and the extremely FULL car that we will be bringing. But I am looking forward to stopping in Provo for some delicious Cafe Rio! I have seriously been craving that every night for the past month and as I am typing this, my mouth is actually watering! YUM!

I scheduled my ultrasound for December 8th. That means in 2 weeks we will know if we are having a boy or a girl. We are so excited, and I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is going. By the way, in the last week, I have totally popped out! My aunt saw me on Sunday, and then saw me again on Friday and there was a huge difference. And after I took my coat off at my mom's house on Thursday, she said, "WHOA! When did that happen?" Kinda crazy! My sisters think its cute, I'm still getting used to it again, especially this time since it seriously came on in like 2 days!

Well, I probably will not have time to post again until we get back next Monday, so Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Halloween and House

So I have a free minute in the middle of the day (I know very RARE!) so I thought I would hurry and post some pictures from Halloween and 1 picture of our house! (I will post more of the house when I take more!)

Mais is enjoying a sucker from her trick-or-treat bucket
Baby Elmo pauses for a quick picture!

"Just one more thing, Grammy. What do I say again?"

Pre-trick-or-treating pose! Her Grandma Grimmett sent her that CUTE Elmo Halloween Balloon!

This is the front of our new house! I love it, but I will love it even more when Shaun is home (tomorrow!) to enjoy it with Maisey and I.

Like I said above, I will post pics of the inside, once I actually take them, which won't be until we actually unpack everything! We are getting there though!

Choices

My Sister sent this to me in an email! I thought it was really funny and sometimes I feel like this is my life!

Life Boils Down to 2 Choices:

Should I get a Dog...?

...Or Have Kids?

A nice surprise!

I have a lot to catch up on. Hopefully that will be later in the week.

But for now I just wanted to share that Shaun in officially done in Seattle on Friday! He called me this morning and said the project is ahead of schedule and they will be done a week and a half early!

I am SO excited!

Our Pumpkins

So my goal was to be in bed by 9 tonight because I am starting to catch a cold (I think it is from lack of sleep) and I need to be nice and healthy for our big move this weekend. Well, I got on to check my email, and saw that my friend Jenny emailed me to tell me that she started a blog. So of course I had to log in, add her to my friends list, then start checking everyone else's blogs. I saw that a lot of people posted pics of their pumpkins, then I got to thinking, I haven't put those up yet either. So there you go. That's my train of thought for this post, and I now have 7 minutes to be in bed by 10 pm! The artist hard at work!
I hate scraping out the guts!

Daddy, Mais, and Baby Elmo Pumpkin (Mais is going to be Elmo for Halloween!)

Uncle Scott, Daddy, and Mais are so proud of their pumpkins!

The finished products out for display!

My part in all of this: Watching Mais so Shaun could work, picking out what Shaun carved on our pumpkin, and cleaning up! I hate carving pumpkins, but I love to see them carved! So thanks Shaun for doing the dirty work!

I now have 4 minutes to be in bed! That was a record post time for me!