Brace yourselves...it's a doozy

Here is our holiday re-cap. It's crammed with good times and a lot of pictures. Enjoy!

CHRISTMAS EVE

We always go over to my parents house for Christmas eve. We usually start the night out with a huge dinner. Dinner this night was SO good. I even admit that it was better then Thanksgiving. After dinner I read a few stories to the kids to get them settled down before we dive into the sea of gifts. As you can see, we were all spoiled by our parents and each other. Then once the living room is cleaned up, we play with our new toys. This year we all got rock band and Wii games, so it was especially fun for the adults to play with our toys.

CHRISTMAS MORNING!


I think this was my favorite part about Christmas this year. Waking Oliver up and cuddling with him in bed and then making out way into the living room to watch him unwrap his gifts. He had a great time!


Our lovely neighbor Sue has a wonderful tradition of having her close friends over for a Christmas breakfast. We are lucky to be a part of this group. We ate so much delicious food and then sat around opening crackers, exchanging gifts and having a great time.

LATER THAT DAY...

We headed over to Grandma Holly's and Grandpa Larry's house. Once again we were spoiled with gifts. The kids had a great time playing and opening presents. The adults sat around eating the traditional honey baked ham sandwiches and snacks and it was perfect.

NEW YEARS

Last year we headed down to St. George to bring in the new year and had such a great time, that we decided to make it a tradition. Luke and I had been looking forward to this since summer when we were last there and we are happy to report that it did not disappoint.

We didn't do a whole lot and that was the plan. A few of the things we did was play a lot of Wii. The kids loved playing Raving Rabbids, the adults played Rock Band and Luke played everything else. I also started running with my favorite work out partner, Amy. Running in SG is going to be added to my list of fun things to do while I'm there. Oliver took a bath in the huge bath tub and loved it and enjoyed all the free space to play in around the house.

We also went to Pirate Island Pizza. This was our first time going and we actually enjoyed it. The best part were the bread sticks and then getting to play in the arcade. I hadn't done that in years and it was so fun to watch all the little kids having such a great time.


As always, thank you to my wonderful in-laws for sharing their home with us. We loved being there with family and already are looking forward to next year.



AND LASTLY...
Moose is back. We thought that Moose was going to be perfect for the family that took him...sadly, they didn't feel the same way about Moose. Luke got a call from the lady saying that they didn't think it was going to work out and they were wondering if we would take him back. Apparently they had some issues with him and Moose didn't care for them either. So, for now, Moose is home. I have mixed feelings about this, but I'm hoping something good will come from it.

We hope that you all had a great Holiday break. I always love the holidays, although they can be hectic at times, It makes me realize that I am blessed with so many wonderful family members and friends and that my life is good. We wish you all a happy and blessed 2010 and look forward to what this new year will bring our family as well as yours.

much too much

Enjoyed a wonderful Christmas holiday, spent 6 fantastic days in St. George and Moose is back. So much has been happening these past few weeks and my catch up post is in the works.

Stay tuned...

A Final Farewell

Sadly, we did it. On Christmas eve we went from becoming a family of 4 to a family of 3...tear. At around 2pm, we got a phone call from a lady who was driving through on their way up to Logan. They called to say that they were looking for a dog and that they wanted to meet Moose. Earlier that day they were at Sportsman's Warehouse where they saw the flyer that we had posted of Moose, so at around 4pm, they stopped by. I really didn't think that they would take him so quickly, but sure enough, they fell in love with him and his friendly personality and welcomed him into their lives. We gathered all of his belongings and said our quick goodbyes. It took me a couple of hours to recover and I still feel very sad to think that he is gone. Moose always loved us no matter how mad we would get or how much we failed to give him attention. He would always meet us at the door to welcome us home and loved us unconditionally. Here are a few of the fun and even not so fun things that happened while Moose was around...

* We got Moose only 2 months after we bought our house. We were excited to be new home owners and now new dog owners.

* His real name was Dakota...we thought that Moose was more fitting and taught him his new name quickly

* We were awoken every morning from Moose coming into our room and wet nosing and licking our feet if they were uncovered.

*When Moose would get scared, he's run into the brown room and hide in between the Luv Sacs.

*When he got a bit bigger and he'd get scared, he'd run into the the brown room and hide in the Luv Sacs.

*He really enjoyed drinking water from the toilet. I hated when he'd do it.

* Took him camping for the first time up at Greys river where he would sneak out of his bed and flop down right in between us.

*We enjoyed spending our first Christmas in our house with our dog.

* He always had to be right in between the two of us.

* We bought him a dog backpack so that we could take him hiking with us. He loved it and paraded around with it on his back so pridefully.

*He made it into our ward directory. No, it wasn't us. It was a joke played on us by our neighbor.

* We got nervous when we found out that we had a baby on the way because were scarred that they wouldn't get along.

* Trained Moose to stay off the carpet. He really was a good and smart dog.

* Were woken up in the middle of the night several times to the foul smell of Moose poo.

*I cried when we had to get him neutered. I felt so bad for him and I knew he hated us there for a little while...until his lamp shade came off.

* Had Oliver and we were so happy that the two of them were going to be buddies.

*Took him camping, running, hiking, fishing, Mountain biking and he loved every single minute of it.

*He loved to eat Oliver's socks for some weird reason and we'd find them out on the lawn either thrown up or mixed in amongst other things.

*Sammy was his best (dog) friend with Mushu at a close second.

* He loved Luke the most and until recently, Luke admitted that he loved him the most back.

We will truly miss our dog Moose and hope that he enjoys his new family. We knew for a while that is was the right thing that needed to be done. The memories with him will always be imprinted in our hearts and we'll never forget those happy times with him.

Remember this...

No watching Marley and Me this time. I'm pretty serious about it.

April 17, 2009

Moose Anyone?

As much as we hate to do this, the time has come to give up our dog , Moose. We never thought we would be those people that would want to give their dog away once they had a baby, but we have tried for 7 months to make it work and sadly, it's not working. Because Luke is in school and I am looking after Oliver, we feel that we aren't able to give him the life we know others could. We honestly love Moose and because of it, we feel that this is necessary. If there is anyone that is looking for a dog or knows someone that is looking for a dog, please spread the word. We would really like him to go to a good home that can give him the attention we no longer can. He is a very active dog who loves to play, run and completely be loved. We don't want any money, we just want him to go to a good place and we will include everything that we have for him (food, treats, leash, bowl and bed).

Here is a little more about Moose:

Moose has lived with us for about 2 1/2 years. He was born on 03/06/07. He is a male neutered chocolate/pointer mix. Chocolate in color with a white chest. He is current on his shots. Weighs approx. 60 lbs. He loves the outdoors including backpacking, hiking, camping, mountain biking, and playing in the water. He has a lot of energy and is a good learner. He knows the commands, sit, come here, get down, no, chewy, lets go, inside and go get in your bed.

This really breaks my heart and hurts me to tears, but I know it's what we have to do. Please leave a comment if you're interested or if you know of someone who is. Thanks!

Santa & Oliver

Last year's picture...

and this year's picture...

Do I even have to tell you that he hated it???

Our Thanksgiving

Wow what a great Thanksgiving we had this year. It was our turn to spend it with the Bakers, so like we do every other year, we started the day off with a Turkey bowl. We had all the boy cousins there (even Oliver who sat at the side lines in the stroller cheering us on and eating snow), and played a fun game of football.

Since there was still quite a bit of snow on the ground, we threw a few good snowballs at the opposing teams as they were going over their plays in their huddles. At the end of the game, my brother hit me so hard in the back with a tightly packed snowball....I guess i deserved it.

In the past years, we have had a bigger turnout for the turkey bowl. Hopefully next year more people will want to join us. Even with our few numbers, we still managed to have a great game and a wonderful start to the day.

My brother and his family were nice enough to host all 18 of us. We had all the traditional thanksgiving fixing's and stuffed ourselves so full that all we could do was sit around...until we had room for dessert.

The dessert table was full of pumpkin pies, cupcakes, cheesecake, apple pies and ice cream. I ate a little bit of everything and it was wonderful.

After resting up for a while, the girls decided to brave the cold weather and hit up some stores in the wee hours of the Black Friday morning. First stop: Old Navy. After this, I had to go home to get some rest while the 4 of them kept going.

I am so grateful to my family for their love and support. I am grateful to have them all in my life. They make life fun and interesting and I'm happy that we can all be together for our Thanksgiving holiday.

A few other things I'm thankful for...

#30- My camera

#29- Testimonies

#28-Running water and electricity

#27-Love

#26-Parents

#25-Oliver's laugh

#24-My amazing friends

#23-The gym

#22-The gospel

#21-Sun light

#20-My car

#19-chap stick and moisturizer (especially on cold windy days)

A serious reason to par-tay

My sister in law, Taleesha is pretty cool. A while back she told me that she wanted to have a Twilight/New Moon party before the new movie came out. So, last night was her party. Sadly I missed most of it, but what I was there for, was awesome! Her whole living room and kitchen was decked out in red and black. Quotes from the books all over the place. The food table was very impressive. Baseballs, apples, fur, candles, glitter, and the best part, posters of Jacob and Edward.

Playing games. The winning team won glitter ornaments that said "Real Men Sparkle". So cute!


TEAM EDWARD

TEAM JACOB (my team)



Thanks Taleesha for hosting such a fun night. I can't wait until your party in the summer. I'll definitely be there for the whole thing.

Oh and today I am thankful for...

Humor.