I love December!

December has to be my favorite time of the year for sure! I love the holiday spirit everyone has. Doesn't it seem that everyone is a little bit nicer around the holiday's. I had all my shopping and wrapping done in November, so I was able to play and enjoy the holidays. We had many family and ward parties that I forgot to take pictures at, but it is always so nice to see everyone. Our first event of the season was going up to the Festival of Trees. This was my first year going and we had a special reason to go. We wanted to see Gracie's tree. Gracie is my cousin's daughter who was born with a heart defect and past away last year. Instead of flowers or gifts at the funeral they asked that people donate to their tree. After looking at many trees at the festival we came across Gracie's tree. It was beautiful to say the least. Their were so many people reading her story and I was so glad I was able to go up and see it. And the best part was that my cousins friends all pitched in and bought the tree for her! How sweet!


Aspen was not exactly scared of Santa but she didn't really love him. At least we got a cute picture.
We also went up to the zoo lights! There were over a million lights and Aspen was in heaven. She kept saying, WOW to everything. It was fun for her to see some of the animals that were there to. Her favorite was the monkeys.Than we went up to the carol singing at energy solutions arena. I guess they have never had over 1000 people there and were not planning on the 30,000 they got, but no one over the 5000 people got the free stuff they promised. We only stayed for about 20 minutes and Aspen enjoyed the singing. There were not enough seats for most people and there were so many kids crying becuase they didn't get their free hot dogs. I felt so bad for parents because they were planning on feeding their kids there that night. Oh yeah and there was this lady behind us singing Opera as LOUD as she can. I am all for holiday cheer and singing, but this was WAY to much. That is another reason we only lasted 20 minutes. We decided to make a fun night out of the unexpected adventure and we went down to Temple Square. Once again Aspen was saying, Wow to everything. She has enjoyed the lights so much this year. I have been so proud of her becuase she has not broken or taken down any ornaments off our tree, but every night the lights turn on she gets so excited like its the first night it has happened (they are on a timer)!
Here is Aspen and all her cousins in there Christmas outfits. I especially love seeing little girls in their new Christmas dresses! Aspen doesn't really understand the whole Santa thing, but she does know who he is. Any time we see a Santa she screams, Santa, ho ho! Its so cute.
Anyway, as you can tell we have had a great December. I am so blessed to have the best family. And we have had lots of opportunities to think of the true meaning of Christmas. I am so thankful for the birth of our Savior. Tyler was able to give a special lesson on Sunday about the true meaning of Christmas and all the gifts the Savior has given us. I truly am the happiest I have been in my life and I owe it all to Christ. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

Its a...

BOY!!!! We had our ultrasound today and our little Danny is healthy and growing strong. I have waited a long time to name someone after my little brother who passed away over 10 years ago and I must admit I got a little teary eyed at the doctors office knowing it was finally time to honor my little brother. It was also such a blessing for them to check out everything and know that his heart and everything is healthy. We are so excited for this little guy to come and that I can finally call my baby Danny, instead of IT :)

So much to be thankful for

I have so much to be thankful for and although this post is a little late I wanted to write a few things down. I wanted to think a little harder this year and go beyond just my usual, I thankful for the Savior and my family. While those are definitely what I am most thankful for I wanted to go into a little more detail.

1. One of our goals in 2009 was to be completely out of debt, excluding car and house, and have so much in savings. When we set this goal I did NOT think we would come even close to making it. Well I am so thankful that be the end of this month we will have paid off Tylers school and all our medical bills and have the exact amount saved that we wanted! This is such a blessing in our lives and I am so glad we set such a high goal.

2. I am so thankful for the chance to expand our family and have a baby next year. I am especially grateful at how quick I got pregnant this time and that I didn't have to go through the trials I did to get Aspen here.

3. I am so thankful that in such a hard times where unemployment rate is high that Tyler has a great job. I am even more thankful that he works from home and we get to see him all the time!

4. I am thankful for a daughter who reminds me everyday that life is worth living and we were meant to be happy on this earth. She truly makes me so happy. Things in life are so simple with her and I love being reminded of those things all the time.

5. I am thankful for this blog. It may sound funny to some, but it helps me to write a daily journal of things we do. I print this as my journal and I love going back and reading things I had already forgotten. I also love catching up on friends and families lives that I am not able to talk to on a daily basis.

Thanksgiving

This thanksgiving was one of my favorites. Thursday morning while Tyler was playing in a turkey bowl with my brothers I made 5 dozen homemade rolls, banana cream pie, and a veggie tray to snack on before the meal. I love cooking, especially when I get to share it with others. Than we went over to Janei'a's and ate our little hearts out. It was such a peaceful day. While the kids played and the boys watched football the girls looked at all the ads and planned our shopping trip. We decided to be crazy and head out to the outlet mall for midnight madness. Yeah what was I thinking being pregnant and shopping all night. We got up there around 12:40 and almost turned around when we saw the line of cars. But since we had driven so far we decided to stay. I am so glad we did because once we found a parking spot the place really wasn't as busy as we thought and the sales were great. Many stores had between 50-75 percent off the ENTIRE store. Wow. We were there for almost 6 hours. The best part was being able to spend time with my sister in laws and mom without any kids!! We got so much done.

After shopping all morning I came home and took a very long nap. Tyler was so sweet and wanted it to be quiet for me so he took Aspen shopping and actually finished his Christmas shopping for the year. He came home and was so exciting about all the money he saved. Now he understands why we are so crazy on black Friday. Well after my nap I woke up and had a few more places I wanted to go. After talking with the girls we met up at the mall and completed our shopping. What a perfect day. I am not a big shopper at all, but it was great to get everything done. So I am happy to say that I am ALL done shopping!!!! Now I can enjoy the holiday season.