The goose is getting fat...

Christmas is coming up so fast! I love this time of year, mostly because I get to share it with my family. 
I was very anxous to get our tree up- we did it a few days before Thanksgiving. (I would have done it after Halloween but Brett said no) The kids had fun putting the balls on it.

Brett put up the christmas lights a few days later. I am so happy that we finally have a house to put lights on. We have been in a townhouse for our whole marriage. And the most I could ever do was lights around the door and maybe a window... boring.

My girls met santa today at our ward Christmas breakfast. They all went and told Santa what they want for Christmas
Anavy- a choo choo train set
Khloe- a soccer ball
Savannah- an Elmo doll

If they are good girls, they will get them :)
They are very excited for him to come to our house. And to Nana's house.

Our plans for the holiday are that we will do as we usually do, and go to the Smith extended family party. Eat dinner with them, and then head to my Papa's house around 7 and do our traditional christmas carolling. I have done this since... Well, forever. There are several houses that we visit every year and they always expect us.

After that, we head over to my moms house. We open our stockings, and wait for Santa to come. When we hear the bells, we run and hide in the other room. We listen to all the things he says and when he goes, we come out. The kids loved this last year. Anavy was peeking under the door to try to get a look at him.

Last year- Christmas eve

 The kids go first and then we put them to bed.  We open all of our presents after that. I have always loved it because it's different. My mother always did this as a child as did my Nana. It is a Latin tradition and my mom carried it over to us.

This year we will start our own tradition. After we open gifts at my moms house, we will get the kids in the car and drive home late. We will do our own Christmas at our house in the morning. We thought it was really important to have our own tradition and that we can be together as an immediate family. We are very lucky that my mom does her Christmas at night because this way, we can have our own Christmas.


After our own Christmas, we will drive back to Orem and go to Brett's parents house. For them, it is ok to do Christmas there in the afternoon. Which we are very lucky for as well because it also allows us our own tradition in the morning. It is a little of a hassle to drive from Orem to Layton just to drive back to Orem about 12 hours later. But it is important enough that we are happy to do it.

Yay! Christmas is almost here... but not before an equally important day- Our sealing day. 2 weeks from yesterday.


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Old Man

 Brett is 29!
We are growing old so fast. I just can't believe how old we are. I feel so much younger. We had some cake and presents- I got Brett a pair of black Dr Martins and the kids got him a football :)

Not to brag, but I made the best cake ever. Seriously- so good. I took 2 recipes from pintrest and added a bit from each recipe and a few things of my own. amazing!


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Sealing Announcements

It is coming up so quickly. In 1 month my family will be sealed in the Salt Lake Temple. It will be a beautiful day and one of the greatest moments our family will ever have. Excited to have my girls forever.

There will be a party (open house) that evening in Orem... all of you are invited (since this is a private blog, I can say that ) We can't wait- that day will be amazing!

If any of you have not received one of these and want one of these announcements in the mail- I will gladly do that- just let me know

*Click on pictures to make them bigger

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Winter

 The snow is here... and it snowed a ridiculous amount in a day. It happened to start snowing just a few hours after we finished bagging up all the leaves.  The girls love it, the dog loves it, I love it too. (now that the roads are dry)

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FALL

 Fall came really fast this year. We have about 30 trees at our house and that means TONS of leaves. The kids had so much fun! Us on the other hand, spent 6 hours blowing, rakeing, and bagging leaves... no fun.

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wheeler farm

I went to wheeler farm for a photo shoot for my cousin's son and I had to bring my younger 2 girls with me. They played around while I was working and after we were done, we walked through and saw the animals.

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Macy's game

Macy came to play Weber State for the very last time last week. She is a senior and will be graduating It was good to see her and the girls just love her. They were saying for hour after- I miss my Macy.

Happy Halloween!

 Halloween was  very excited around here. Pumpkin carving was fun thi s year- last year we painted and did stickers but we did carving. Savannah hated touching the guts but eventually came around to it. They were so proud of those pumpkins.

The girls were bugs- Bee, Butterfly and Lady Bug.
I dressed them all up in their costumes and painted their faces, we headed out to the halloween party at Brett's work. They had lots of kid games, a pinata, food, and lots of candy for the girls. They had such a great time. Then we went over to Trevor & Elise's house (Brett's brother and sister in law) We had yummy soup and got all ready to go out. It was so fun for my girls to be able to trick or treat with their cousins. They got plenty of candy- way to much candy that it will probably be around all year or when I throw it away. :)

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