Wadsworth Christmas Party...

Every year my Wadsworth side of the family has a Christmas Party. We didn't get to go last year, but I got to go this year. Justin had to work so I just rode up with my sister and neiced the morning of the party. When we got there, we got ready, got some lunch, went shopping to the Rock Springs mall, then went to the party. We ate dinner, played games, Santa came, then played the game, then played guitars and sang songs.
Same as always
But it never gets old!!

Natalie is quite the photographer. Notice the finger in the left side of the picture

That is a laugh- not a cry. She loved this horse!

Natalie kept looking at Santa (aka- my dad) like she knew him. I think she recognized his voice and got confused, but she didn't cry!

Hailey wasn't super sure about Santa Clause, but she smiled for 1 picture- then she was outta there!Hailey got a purse and these new pink sunglasses from Santa!My Cousin Amanda and her son Arden. Arden was a pro at this whole 'Santa thing'

Words can not describe

How much I love these three! Tiffany and Jason had a Christmas party to go to for Jason's job, so the girls came over to my house to play! We had a pizza picnic, and played with the birds. Then Natalie decided she was tired and wanted to read a story so Hailey and I made Christmas cookies while Justin read Natalie a book and she fell asleep.
I love it that Natalie likes Justin enough to interact with him. He is so sweet with the girls and it just makes me excited for when he can read our own little girls/boys to sleep.

Rewind to Thanksgiving.

I never did post pictures from Thanksgiving, so while I'm going through these pictures, I figured I would share :D

Justin at my parents house

Natalie eating at her Princess table

Eating with my family

Hailey

Natalie again. She's so fun! Love this girl.
After we ate at my parents house, we went over to Justin's parents house and ate again. It was super yummy though and we had enough down time between meals that we didn't explode.
As soon as we got home the girls went and laid on their rug and fell right to sleep. They played so hard on the farms while were with the family- they wore themselves out.

Start new...well at least fresh and clean...

With the New Year approaching I feel a huge need to Deep Clean. Not just my home, but my habits, thoughts, and relationships. I must say I can not express what a wonderful year this has been for us. As the first year Justin and I have had to actually spend with just each other in our own home- it has been wonderful. We have cooked together, played together, dreamt up crazy things together and mostly worked together.
We have accomplished so many things!!!
We got the front and back yards fenced and 90% landscaped
We built the back deck
We installed our back sprinkling system

We got a Shed in the back yard
Justin installed a countertop and shelf for me in the laundry room

We refinished the kitchen cabinets and painted a backsplashBEFOREAFTERWITH PULLS

I redecorated the Guest Bedroom!
We painted my green accent wall in the living room

BEFORE AFTER

We got a fireplace (YAY!)
I started back at College to work towards my bachelors degree
And as of Tuesday- we’ve 95% framed in all the walls in the basement!
As well as so many other things…

It has definitely been a busy and expensive year, but it has been well worth it!
For the coming year I would like to:

• Finish the basement (YAY!- We’ll have a big entertaining room, a nice little office nook, an enclosed food storage area, more closets, a third bathroom and two more bedrooms- to be used as a gun room and guest/craft room to make extra space for the babies when they come :D)
• Clear up our finances. {This is always a goal for me- I’m a bit fanatic about where our money is going and why- but I consider it a good thing}
• Continue going to college to keep working towards my bachelors degree
• Get rid of my soda drinking habit and try to eat healthier and exercise regularly.
• We want to try to get a litter of puppies out of Liddy this year {which is terrifying to me considering how her last set of puppies went! Including a C-Section, 10-puppies, Liddy didn’t want anything to do with them for the first 3 days so Justin and I had to bottle feed all 10 puppies every 3 hours for those 3 days. Not to mention how scared and skinny Liddy got. It hurts my heart to remember! I felt so bad for her!} Anyways….
• Do better at my temple attendance. Justin and I averaged about once a month this year, which is better than nothing but pathetic considering we live 3 minutes from a temple. We are so spoiled!
  
  So…In the mean time- aka- my day off of work tomorrow. I will be cleaning out. De-cluttering, giving away/throwing away my extra junk of every kind :D
  Emotional, Spiritual, Habitual and Physical!
  
  Plus we’re having a Fondue Party with both our families tomorrow night and it’s going to be so yummy!
  
  Have a Safe and Happy New Year!

Budweiser and Lady

So.. We traded in Panic for 2 more people friendly birds. We lucked out and got two sweethearts! Budweiser is the male. He is the Gray one and he loves to talk! He's very very vocal. It's hilarious. They'll stand on your hand and shoulder. Budweiser has a favorite sock- as seen above. He will fly to anyone who is wearing it on their arm. Hailey and Natalie have a ball with them- As do we!!
Lovin the new birds!

The Dog House...

For Christmas we decided to make the girls a new dog house. We decided to make it pretty nice in case they ever had puppies in there or something. It's 8' long x 4'wide with a divider in the middle so each girl has their own 4'x4' quarters. We painted it green and are putting white trim on it now. We gave them a linoleum floor so it's easy to clean up. They each have their own door, and we put a "human" door on it too- if we ever have to get in there, we don't want to crawl through a 24"x18" hole :D
So there it is.
They are spoiled
We're not completely finished with it yet- but it's coming along.

Ahhhh...one of the days you wish you could have over and over and over...

Yesterday was one of those good days. Nothing in particular made it a good day -- it just happened. I guess it happened after work. Work wasn't bad or good- just work. Regular ole day. After work I got to take a nap until Justin got home. Then we decided that since Pizza had been sounding good ALL DAY that we would just get some for dinner. Score! No cooking= no dishes :D haha {Since my sink is still half full of dishes from this last weekend}

After we went and picked up our pizza and cheesey bread {Yummy} we watched (sniff, sniff) the last two episodes of Gillmore Girls. Ever. It's over. I'm so sad, but happy at the same time. I'm a little pessamisitc about finding any other series that I would like as much as Gillmore Girls. Not to mention the fact that trying to spend my precious homework time watching a new TV series would be completely insane.

After Gillmore girls (sniff, sniff) I went to work in the office on homework and got so much done! I was so proud of myself. I took my Psychology 1400 final and got 100%! I was so excited. I don't think I've ever gotten 100% on a final before! It was awesome! Then I cranked out an 8 page report for the same class. It was one of those papers that I had started multiple times, but couldn't quite say what I wanted to say the way I wanted to say it. Frustrating.

So it was super rewarding to be able to accomplish both of those things last night!!

Plus Justin made me some rockin hot chocolate to keep me going. Have I ever mentioned that he's amazing? lol

Also! We got to do our first Rainbow Vacuum Demonstrations. LeAnna (the rep) had some extra openings when she was out here Monday so she called us to fill them and we did! We got 1 sold (which is just a bonus- not a requirement) so that was awesome! Now we only have 8 more demonstrations to go and we'll be finished! Super cool.

I also can't believe it's the first day of December. Can I just say-- I love this weather! It's super cold outside, but there's NO SNOW!!! I can wear sweaters and boots and scarves and not have to drive in the snow and ice or walk through slush! It's the perfect combo!

Only 24 days til Christmas! Are you ready?

I'm pretty much there. I only have 4 things left to get and I'll be finished. Then again- I've only had 4 things left to get for a while now, lol. Darn those hard to shop for Christmas-present-people.

Happy December Everyone!

Thanksgiving!!!

This last little while has been really busy for us so I have only done a few little posts. I feel behind, lol.

I'm so excited for Thanksgiving tomorrow. My favorite part is the mashed potatoes and turkey gravy!! Yummy!!! I'm not a big pie person, but I love my mom's Cherry pie with sugar on top. It's the best, so I'm super excited for that. Justin's dad and brother got to come home for Thankgiving, so I'm excited to visit with them and play some games- just spend time together.

I've been really busy and I've got 90% of my Christmas shopping done! Yahoo!! I'm down to the 4 hardest people, but we've got ideas for all of them, we just have to carry them out, so I'll be excited to be done.

I'm sure I've officially gone crazy, but I can't help it. I'm having a garage sale this Saturday...The "Black Saturday Garage Sale"-- I actually think it's a good idea- everyone will be in a shoppy-get out of the house mood, so hopefully we can get rid of the stuff that has been cluttering up the basement {Yep- the de-cluttering movement is still going}

Don't worry there WILL be a lot of space heaters :D So COME ON OVER! 8-12 noon

I'm so excited to have some time off this weekend. I've been out of town for the last 3 weekends strait, and I'm ready to be home, clean up, and settle down for the winter and Holidays.

I'm so excited for the sweaters (which I'm already wearing), and hot chocolate. I'm also stoked for my classes to be over and for Christmas.

My little Liddy girl turned 3 on Sunday. I looked at her yesterday and went--ahh ya poor girl, you're getting old. But she's far from old. She's the most amazing, sweet hearted, calm, funny dog in the world. I love her SO SO much. She's literally like my child. I don't know what I would do without our dogs somedays. Especially when Justin is out of town, they are my protectors and best friends. Love my girls!!!

So... Scary story from last weekend! We are on the interstate between Provo and Lehi, going to see my Grandma in the hospital. An 18 wheeler/gravel truck comes flying past us {we're already going 70} and he hits a bump- a ton of gravel falls out of his trailer, a rock gets stuck between the dually tires and flings it at us. It sounded just like a gun shot. It completely shatters the passenger side window of our truck. I'm ticked, so we speed up to get his license plate number, but the glass starts flying everywhere, so we "emergency exit" the interstate and finish breaking the glass out of the window. Suck. We go buy some plastic and tape and make a make-shift window. So of course..it starts to snow. We had to "re-build" the window countless times because the tape would freeze and just fall off the truck, but never while we were driving, luckily. Insane cold! So of course, the next morning, we get up and ready @ 4am to head home in time for Hailey {my neice's} first ever primary program. She's getting so big... anyway. We drive home in a BLIZZARD with a plastic window. My mom had to hold the plastic all the way home to keep it from flapping and tearing and letting the snow in.

What a long drive!!!

I do know though, that every minute I was driving through that storm, eyes peeled, super tired, drinking Dr. Pepper to keep me awake, all I could do was pray that Heavenly Father would please hold that window together and keep the snow off my mom. I know we had more than a few helping hands on that drive home!

I have felt his spirit in my life and mind so often lately. I am learning to quiet my mind enough to "hear" him and I have to say-- there is no better feeling. It brings me to tears almost instantly. He helps me through the trials, big and small. He 'talks' me through so many things and I know that my faith in him and the love of my wonderful family is the only thing that gets me through the hard times and helps me enjoy the good times! It's that time of the year and I feel him so close!

Have a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving everyone! Please be loving and extra sensitive to the spirit and those around you. You never know what struggles they're going through and sometimes all it takes to brighten their day is a smile or a kind word. {Lesson learned}

Want a Wreath?

So... for Santa's workshop this year, I made a bunch of wreaths. Some for christmas, some not. But then...{Long story short} The lady in charge never mailed me my sign up sheet, and even though I told her I WANTED a booth-- I didn't get one. So if you want one of these wreaths (which I had already made) Let me know!! There's more to come too!
They're $10 each and I'll ship them to you if you want me to. {I know Justin will be SO HAPPY to have all my wreath building junk out of the dining room :D hehe}

White and Silver Christmas Ornament Wreath with Glittered Poinsettia
Polka Dotted with Pink Book Page Wreath- Perfect for a little girls room

I know Halloween is over, but this is one of my favorite wreaths!!

All season- Any season. White "carnation" wreath.

Feathers and Tinsel with another glittered Poinsettia

Gold Christmas Ball Wreath

Thanks :D