CHRISTMAS

We sure had such a fun christmas this year. Ethan has met Santa a few times and they have become friends. Ethan was so excited to leave cookies and milk for Santa to eat.

I could not sleep very well. I was so excited for Ethan to see his presents Santa brought. We finally woke him up at quarter to NINE.

Santa Brought him:

A Bike

and

A Tool Chest.

Brett always likes to make Ethan something out of wood for Christmas. This year he made a barn.

It turned out so cute and Ethan loves to play with the animals. Every night he puts all his farm animals in the barn and say's goodnight to them.

I can't believe how much Ethan has grown. I found these pictures of him in his Christmas pj's

Christmas 2008

Christmas 2009

Christmas 2010

He sure has grown these past few years. He is such a handsome boy!

We have been planning to remodel our master bathroom during Christmas break. Brett and I decided a few months ago that we would buy bathroom stuff for each other for Christmas and just get simple things to put in our stockings. So I planned on getting him a toilet and put my order in at Standard Plumbing. I put a movie and a few of his favorite treats in his stocking. So, Christmas Eve came and I'm stuffing Brett's stocking in the corner and he's trying to stuff my stocking with food from the Fridge. He was stuffing my MY stocking with oranges. Typical! LOL! I said to Brett "You better share your candy with me tomorrow." Christmas morning came and I was having so much fun watching Ethan open his presents. Brett mentioned a few times that I should open my stocking. I thought "Why? It's full of oranges." So I grabbed my stocking and pulled out orange after orange after orange. and then came to a ball of newspaper with tape all around it. I thought What could this be? Another orange? I finally got the tape off and unwrapped the newspaper. I found a little box. I thought maybe he got me a pair of earrings or a new necklace. I opened it up and found this:

Here's the story. My wedding ring has broken twice since we were married in 2002. Once when we were on a boat ride in Alaska and another time when I had smashed it into a D shape. Since the last time it broke I have not worn it since. I have missed my wedding ring SOO much. It was just too thin. It bent all the time. It use to have one baguette on each side and a thin band. We had talked about how to improve it by adding another baguette on each side and make the band thicker and after going to a jeweler to discuss price we decided to wait and fix it a little bit later. I was totally shocked when I opened the box. Tears ran down my cheeks. It is SO BEAUTIFUL. I felt like a new Bride all over again. I love it so much. It's exactly what I hoped it would look like. And no Brett did NOT need to share his treats with me.

Today I am thankful for such a Wonderful Husband.

SNOW DAY

It's official... Our School District called their first SNOW DAY in 20 some odd years. As a little girl we hoped for a snow day all the time. Wishing we could have a day off from school to play in the snow. Never happened for me until 12/21/2010. We had a total of 23 inches. Since Brett is a school teacher we spent the morning watching the news. Every other school district that was open that day decided to close their doors. So, Brett decided he better head off to work.

He was literally pushing the snow with his bumper. I made him call me as soon as he got to work. He was there 20 minutes and they decided to cancel school for the day. HURRAY!!! It gave us one more day vacation to our Christmas Break. As soon as he got home he started plowing our driveway and helping the neighbors out. It took about four hours. We bundled Ethan up in his gear and let him play in the snow with dad.

This is him STANDING in the snow.

Check this Out...

This always reminds me of the Winkies from the Wizard of Oz.

It was such a fun day playing in the snow.

Today I am thankful for family.

New Favorite Song

Ethan and I are defiantly Toy Story's BIGGEST FANS! Ethan usually wakes up each morning saying "I want french toast" or "I want cereal". But this morning he walked out of his room announcing: "I wanna watch Buzz". I couldn't resist and so we snuggled up and watched Toy Story 3 while we ate our breakfast. When the credits started and the music played I couldn't help but start dancing. Dancing with a two year old is the best kind of dancing in the world. There is no one standing there looking at you like - what are you doing? We listened to this and that song over and over and over. Ethan say's "Dance like Buzz" and swayes his hips from side to side. So STINKIN CUTE!

So... My new favorite song is Randy Newman's We Belong Together .

Love it, Love it, Love it!!!!!

The words say it ALL!

It was defiantly a great way to start the day.

Today I am thankful for TOY STORY!

PS. Our Christmas story will come as soon as I can find my power cord to our video camera. ;)

Temple Square

We had the opportunity to go to the Salt Lake Temple and attend the sealing of a dear family in our ward. It was a great experience and we even got to see the lights at Temple Square.

The lights were beautiful (as always) and it wasn't too cold.

While walking from the parking terrace to the temple I noticed a young couple with a little baby girl (about six months) dressed in white. Putting two and two together I asked the wife "Are you guys going to be sealed to your little baby girl?" she said "YES, we're so excited!" I said "Oh, we adopted our Son and are hoping to adopted another one soon." (No ladies... this is not me announcing anything). We talked a little bit about our adoption history and exchanged Congratulations and good luck with each other. It was the highlight of my night.

Today I am thankful for the day we were sealed to Ethan.

December Catch Up

Where do I start??? I haven't posted in a long time and have SO much to catch up on what we've done in December. I guess I'll start here:

My family has a tradition of attending the debut of turning the Christmas lights on in my hometown. It's always a sight to see and a great way to kick off the Holiday. First we count down the seconds to see the lights turn on around the pond:

Then we take a short drive to watch the Light Parade:

We always have had a great time watching the Light Parade. It's been fun seeing how the Parade has evolved over the years. It's always a little bit more fun seeing my Brother and Nephew in the parade the last few years. Uncle Blake has made of the floats. My favorite is the TRAIN. They handed out glow in the dark bracelets and some candy. Ethan had glow sticks in each hand saying Choo, Choo, and Hi Santa. Life is so much more fun through the eyes of Ethan.

On another note, Brett and I went to the Light Parade on our FIRST DATE. Nine Years ago! It's always fun to reminisce the memories we have of that day.

Today I am thankful for such a Handy Husband. He's a GENIUS!!!! We've been working on another project. Pictures will come soon.