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!