Our Halloween

Hey girls, sorry it's taken me so long to post these pictures but I'm just now getting around to downloading these pictures onto my computer. So here ya go...

Jared's no fun when it comes to Halloween. He won't dress up so just the kids got dressed up and I had fun making their costumes. I'm already thinking about what to do for next year.

What do you think of...

When you see this picture?

Our Halloween Costumes 2010

I'm so glad you posted pics of your fun family Britt! I really want to see pics of your little cuties too Shan, and did they wear the stuff you made for the "Witches Day" for Halloween or different costumes? I'm pretty sure I already told you what we were doing this year but if not the picture should give it away. I posted on my blog all about it. Check it out...(click the pic)

Let's see your costumes!

Hi girls! Let's see your costumes from Halloween. Les, I know your family always has a cute theme!!

Josh and I were "Mouseketeers".



And since that's not very exciting, I'll show you what my family dressed up as. As usual, everyone's costumes were SO GREAT!

Cameron and his date dressed up as Ken & Barbie from Toy Story 3!



They won for "funnest costumes". In case you can't exactly remember what Ken looked like in Toy Story 3, check it out. Cameron was SPOT ON!! HAHAH



Marci was Wheezy, Eden was Jessie, Ella was Rex, and Christian was Andy and they were all his toys.



Mom & Dad were Wayne & Garth. HAHAHA!!



Chad dressed up as Christian. He went "into character" and texted and messed around on his phone and ignored you. If you know Christian, you knew exactly who he was supposed to be!!



And the winners for "funniest" costumes were Scotty & Audra. Can you tell who they are supposed to be??



They are my mom & dad!!!!!! HA! We all died laughing when they walked in and we realized who they were. Notice how Audra has on two pair of reading glasses. That's so my mom!! HAHA

So - those were our Halloween costumes. Let's see yours!!!

Sad News :(

So my little brother came home from him mission yesterday :(  It's kind of a combination of things, being homesick, the mission was getting hard and the biggest reason was that he didn't take care of things before he left. No one knows why or what his issues are (which is ok. That's between him and the lord) but it totally sucks! My mom is so upset with him right now and I'm just worried sick about him. If he can get things straightened out in 6 months then he can go right back to his mission. If it takes him a year then he'll have to go back to the MTC. He is not in a good place right now. He is very confused and as my mom says "wishy-washy." So any thoughts and prayers would greatly be appreciated. I know that Jamason could really use them. I'm sure that the next 6 months are going to be really hard and even harder when and if he chooses to go back out (which I'm hoping and praying that he does). I know it will be hard for him to say good-bye to everyone again. But I'm worried that if he doesn't go back out then he could easily fall away from the church. LOTS of people will ask him why he's home and why he didn't go back. I'm afraid he'll get offended and just stop going to church. I'm sort of at a loss and not sure what to do or how to help him. I know that I need to love him and support him but is there anything else?

Our busy weekend

So last weekend we went to Gardner Village with Jared's family and then blessed Madelyn on Sunday. I made Ethan's cape & Madelyn's skirt for our fun dress up party. Gardner Village was SUPER crowded and ended up not being very fun. Jared's family just went through everything so fast that we didn't even get to enjoy any of it. Next year I'll make sure that we do not go on a weekend.

I bought Madelyn's dress and booties at Little Things Mean A-lot and I made her flower and head band. She was wearing a pretty white bracelet that my neighbor made for her but it was too big and kept falling off. But I think she looks beautiful and I was very happy that I bought her her own dress. It's so pretty that I'm tempted to have her wear it again LOL!



 




I'll be posting lots more pictures on my blog...hopefully this weekend. Les when are you blessing Pasynne?

Boy or Girl

Hey Britt,
When do you find out what you're having? I'm gonna mark my calender for your super exciting day!!!

THANK YOU Britt!!

Yes Britt, your fun-filled package DID come & I love love loved it! You are always so great to remember birthdays & especially to go the extra mile by sending a gift! Pasynne looks absolutely adorable in her new bows and dress/jumper. I can't believe she will already be 6 weeks old tomorrow, but she does look so "grown up" in her new digs ;)This is the actual outfit that she was sporting on Sunday & we got countless "oooh's and "aawe's"






And last, but definitely NOT least...my super cute Monster Candle. The kids cannot seem to leave him alone for two seconds & I know he will be a favorite decoration in our Halloween collection.

old or new?

So we are blessing Madelyn in a few weeks and I'm trying to decide what to do about her blessing dress. I had the idea to bless her in the dress that I was blessed in. But now I'm not sure if I want to do that. I'm wondering if I should get her own dress, one that only she was blessed in and one that she will have for a keepsake. OR would it be just as good or more meaningful to have her blessed in my dress? Jared doesn't really care or have an opinion either way other then it would save us some money to bless her in my dress. And if I bless her in my dress then what do I when and if I have more girls? So what do you ladies think?

There's No Place Like Home...

You guys may have already heard, but if not I wanted to tell you before anything else keeps me from sitting down to do it! :) We found out that our next military move will take us to Wichita, Kansas! Matt posted something about it on FB & I wasn't sure if you had seen it or not.

When Matt told me my first thought was, "Whoa, Kansas is really far away!" then Matt enlightened me by reminding me that it is Colorado's neighbor state. HA! I had no idea & don't claim to know where all 50 states are either. :)

Our official report date (when we are supposed to be there) is Jan 10th. We have the option of requesting to come sooner, so we are toying with the idea of heading out the first week in November. That way we can move & settle in before the holidays instead of having to rush and move after they are over. We aren't sure if that is actually going to happen (moving early) but we'll see.

I am really excited about the move & feel really relieved not to be "waiting" to find out our next location. I am so SO very sad to think of all the friends I have made here that I will be leaving, but most of them will be moving eventually also. Wichita is about an 8 hour drive from Denver, so that puts us double the distance from UT visits :( However, I feel lucky that we haven't been moved further & can totally handle moving one state further away at a time ;)

We would really like to come to UT for Christmas this year, but aren't exactly sure if that will happen. A 16 hour drive with 4 kids, one being under a year old, and driving in the winter are not the most exciting factors that we have to face. It is always a lot harder not knowing when our next visit will be, but when we chose a Military life that was part of the deal.

I hope both of you ladies are doing well & would love to hear some of "what's new girlfriend?"

Leslie?

Just wondering how you are doing. I haven't heard from you in a long time and I was thinking about you. Just wanted to make sure that all is going well.

Love and miss you,
Shan

Blast!

Britt,

Look what I found buried in all of my scrapbooking stuff. It's the program to Blast. Sadly I don't remember a lot from this other then an awesome yellow flag number. Did we see this with you mom or am I dreaming?

Silly boy

Lately Jared has been up & out of the house before Ethan & I are even awake but yesterday he slept in. Ethan came into our room with his hands on his hips and said to Jared "What are you doing here?" Ha ha ha!

Pump It

Here are mine :)

Rules:

1. Put your music library on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. You must write that song title as the title of your post and then the answer to the question, no matter how silly it sounds! Most of the time they seem to work though, strangely enough.
4. Ok, go!

1) IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OK?", YOU SAY?
Boom Boom Pow (Black Eyed Peas)

2) WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
YMCA (Village People)

3) WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY?
Tell Me Something I Don't Know (Selena Gomez)

4) HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Damn Regret-Oh Sad :( hehe (The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus)

5) WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Love Me (Justin Bieber)

6) WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
One Time (Justin Bieber)

7) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR PARENTS?
Poker Face (Lady Gaga)

8) WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Toxic (Brittney Spears)

9) WHAT IS 2+2?
Lets Get Retarded (Black Eyed Peas)

10) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND(S)?
Squirrels-haha-funny (Dr. Demento)

11) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Beat It-What?! (Michael Jackson)

12) WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
GuitarZan (Ray Stevens-Dr. Demento)

13) WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
We Like to Party (Venga Boys)

14) WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Pen and Paper (The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus)

15) WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Shaving Cream (Dr. Demento)

16) WHAT DID YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Hoedown Throw Down-LOL! I wish! (Miley Cyrus)

17) WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Gypsy (Shakira)

18) WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Move It (Crazy Frog)

19) WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
My Life Would Suck Without You (Kelly Clarkson)

20) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
7 Things (Miley Cyrus)

21) WHAT WILL YOU TITLE THIS POST THIS AS?
Pump It (Black Eyed Peas)

That was fun! Thanks Britt

Electric City

Hi girls. I thought this was fun!!! and it only took me a few minutes. Can't wait to read yours!

Rules:
1. Put your music library on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. You must write that song title as the title of your post and then the answer to the question, no matter how silly it sounds! Most of the time they seem to work though, strangely enough.
4. Ok, go!


1) IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OK?", YOU SAY?
Full of Grace
(Sarah McLachlan)

2) WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Rock Steady
(No Doubt)

3) WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY?
At Last
(Doris Day)

4) HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
World Is Black <--whoa! gloomy!! haha
(Good Charlotte)

5) WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Wild Honey
(U2)

6) WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Miniature Distatures
(KT Tunstall)

7) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR PARENTS?
Good Enough <--hahaha!
(Sarah McLachlan)

8) WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Posters
(Jack Johnson)

9) WHAT IS 2+2?
I'll Cover You
(Rent Soundtrack)

10) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Celebration

(Kool & The Gang)

11) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Love and Peace or Else
(U2)

12) WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Only Heart
(John Mayer)

13) WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Splat Out of Luck <--hahah!
(Jimmy Eat World)

14) WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Losing All Control <-- ok this is getting freaky!
(Rooney)

15) WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Rock That Body <-- what?! hahah
(Black Eyed Peas)

16) WHAT DID YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Viva La Vida <-- haha!! can you imagine?!
(Coldplay)

17) WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
The Only Living Boy in New York
(Simon & Garfunkle)

18) WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Twilight Zone
(Unlimited -- work out music)

19) WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Better Get to Livin'
(Dolly Parton)

20) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Fortunate Fool <-- hahahah!
(Jack Johnson)

21) WHAT WILL YOU TITLE THIS POST THIS AS?
Electric City
(Black Eyed Peas)

Fonts...

So did you do any fun NSD shopping? I almost bought a font...well it's a deal where they take my handwriting and make it into a font but I didn't. Why? Well $8 for a font seemed like a lot and what if I hate my handwriting as a font. Then that would be a big waste of money. What are you thoughts a feelings about having your own handwriting as a font? Britt you have BEAUTIFUL handwriting so I would totally buy your font :)

random babbling

I haven't posted on here in forever either Les, so I figured I'd give it a go today. At the moment I can't really think of anything exciting to tell you but we'll just see where my rambling takes us . . .


(this is my dad with Christian's daughter, Ella)

My dad got called as a Bishop of a BYU ward!! He got sustained and set apart last night. He doesn't technically start until Fall (just how the BYU wards work) but he's very excited and we're all excited for him. It's a huge job, but I think he's going to be REALLY good at it. We went to his setting apart last night and guess who was there - Adam Rassmussen. His dad, Carl Rassmussen (remember him? He was and STILL IS a Band Dad) is going to be the ward clerk in my dad's bishopric. Adam didn't even acknowledge I was there. Maybe he doesn't remember me. I don't know. I was going to say hi, but he really acted like I wasn't there. So I didn't. There was a cute girl holding a cute baby that looked EXACTLY like him, so I assume it was his wife and baby, but I don't know for sure. Anyway - random huh??

Let's see . . . what else . . .



We're going to Disneyland AGAIN in about 2 and a half weeks. Morgan (my cousin) and her hubby are going on a cruise for their anniversary and they get back on a Saturday and they want to meet us in Disneyland for a day of adult Disneyland fun. They went in December with their little girls but didn't get to ride ANY of the adult thrill rides, so we're going to do all of them in one day! HAHA It should be wild! I am VERY EXCITED! While we are out there we are going to see Josh's grandparents (they live in So. Cal.) Josh is going to go golfing with his grandpa who is like 92 and still golfs a couple times a week! Can you believe that?! He's been wanting to that for a long time, so that'll be good. Should be a fun little weekend getaway.



The weekend of May 1st, is National Scrapbooking Day. I'm REALLY busy getting ready for it. Each of the administrators at ScrapMatters is sort of in charge of one of the big events/sales that we have and NSD is mine. I'm planning lots of fun stuff. Should be fun. Lots of work, but oh well! It'll be great. We have an awesome team there and they are helping me with LOTS of the planning.

Ok . . . let me think of one more tid-bit to tell you and then I'll sign off . . . hmm.



I'm reading an AWESOME book for book club right now. Les I know you are into books, so I'm sure you've heard of it. It's called "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. I'm about 2/3 through it and I'm DYING!!! It's soooo good. I NEVER want to put it down. I want to bag work and go back to reading it right now. If you need a good book to read, check it out. Shan - I bought it so you can borrow mine if you want. I went to see if I could get it at the library before I bought it and there were like 150 holds on it!!!! haha So I decided to just suck it up and buy it. I can't WAIT to see how it ends!!! When I'm done I'll probably do a full review on my Britt-ish Designs blog.

Ok - that's enough ramblings from me!!! Shanny - I think this means its your turn to post!!

Love you girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Generation Gap

Hi ladies...I haven't posted anything on here FOREVER because I don't ever feel like I have anything too exciting to say. Then I realized that I can tell you whatever I want! hehehe

So we got a new computer with some of our tax return-it was time! Our old one was going on five years & could barely handle it when I tried doing any digi scrapping. As soon as the money hit the bank it was good bye old & hello new! The best part is that the "old" computer still runs great for the girls to play all the free online kids games!! I feel a little spoiled though because both computers are set up right next to each other & it looks like we are just greedy people who think they need two computers. Anyway...I was super excited to put my PS4 software on the new computer and start cranking out pages. I popped the disk in, started the download & right at the end got a little message that said something about the install having errors that might affect the performance of the program. I tried to uninstall & reinstall it but had the same problem. I figured I'd try to open it up and see what happened.

SUCCESS! It worked fine and I was able to do 2 pages. There were a couple of things that it wouldn't let me do & I figured that was the errors it had warned of. Then, one day I was doing a speed scrap & decided to do an extraction on a couple of pictures. It took me a while & I finally had everything done & ready to save when the program froze, shutdown, and erased all my work!! I. was. so. pissed. I restarted everything and tried one more time, but my poor old photo shop and my new computer were just having too much of a generation gap to see eye to eye on things.

A few days later I hopped on Adobe's website and signed up for my free trial version of PS8. WOW-it is amazing at how similar it seems, but how different it works. I am having such a hard time learning to work my way around & I have attempted 3 speed scraps & been so frustrated with all of them that I just give up! I was able to re-do the page I had attempted with my old version (the one with photo exctractions), and was really happy with my result. However, it took me twice as long to scrap it than it normally would have. Not knowing how to navigate around makes it so hard to want to scrap & even harder to keep the creative juices flowing! And, to top things off my free trial ended today and I still feel like the new version is so confusing. I started looking around and pricing it out figuring it will just take time and practice to get more comfortable with it and the cheapest I could find is at Costco and it still costs $80.00!!! I am so bummed! I guess I'll have to start saving my pennies. What do you guys scrap with?

LOL!

While I was cleaning up Ethan's toys today the button on my pants popped off! I guess it's time to move into the maternity pants. Or better yet I could try out these Bellyups.

So frustrated!

Being a mom can be so frustrating! Ethan will not eat for me and it's driving me crazy! For about a week now the only meal I can get him to eat is breakfast and he only wants eggs. Most of the time it's hard boiled eggs. When he does get hungry he digs in the pantry and finds some fruit snack or chips or some other kind of non-healthy treat. I soon realized what he was doing so now I'm the big bad mom and will not let him have any kind of treat with out eating his lunch or dinner first. Sad to say this isn't really working. He just doesn't eat. What should I do? He does have a cold and the doctor said that loss of appetite is normal but his loss of appetite is for good food. He'll eat any kind of treat he can get his hands on.

Time Change

Is anyone else totally thrown off by the time change? On Sunday Jared and I were rushing to get ready and Jared left about 5min. before I did. Right as I'm about to go out the door my phone rings. I thought who on earth is calling me at 9:00 am on a Sunday. I look at my phone and it's Jared. I answer and he tells me that it's 10:00 am and I told him no it's not it's only 9:00am. He then say NO it's 10:00am and sacrament is just about over. It must be daylights savings and we slept in. I had no idea the time was changing this week. I always thought it was during conference. So now I'm all messed up and Ethan's sleeping schedule is messed up too. Hopefully soon we'll figure this out soon.

Flashback Friday

I don't have any pictures for this flashback BUT do you remember cruising down State Street in Danica's red car with a Mayberries cup tapped to the top? Do you remember how many people would try to tell us that we had a cup on top of the car? Do you remember one dude getting out of his car at a red light, walking over to Danica's car and then tried to pick up the cup? Only to realize that its was tapped down. And if I remember correctly I think at one point we tapped a pizza box down.

Man did we know how to have a good time or what!

FHE

So this year Jared and I have made a goal to have FHE each week. I'm really struggling coming up with lessons for a 2 year old. I know that most of the time Ethan won't listen but I'm trying to find lessons that might keep his attention...even if it's for 2 minutes. So what do you do to teach your little ones?

Flashback Friday

Shan's Update

10. We got new phones for Christmas and I’m not really sure I like it. Its way more fancy then my plain old flip phone and somewhat more complicated. The up side to our new fancy phones is that I now get my email on my phone AND I can watch TV. So when Ethan is having a melt down I can bribe him with watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or Handy Manny.

9. I need a new job! Desperately! I’ve been working for Kristy’s mom, Martha for about a year and half. Usually I work 3 days a week for about 4 hours. But a few weeks before Thanksgiving she reduced my hours to only 3 a day and then it was hit and miss if I even got to work. Since I’ve been back from Disneyland I’ve only worked 3 days. So if you know of any jobs please send them my way.

8. Ethan still has his binki. We really need to take it way from him but it’s going to be so painful! He is really attached to his binki but only has it during naps and bedtime. I’m not sure how to go about doing it. Part of me just wants to have him throw them away and tell him no more binkies but that sound a little bit cruel. The other part of me wants to try the binki fairy thing but I’m not sure he’ll understand that. Any suggestions?

7. I got kicked of SMG. It’s some what funny to me but a little disappointing. I honestly just couldn’t keep up with comments. I’ve been so busy since Thanksgiving with going to Disneyland then coming home and getting ready for Christmas and then trying to find a new job that SMG was that last thing on my list. I understand that they needed to let me go but it would have been nice if someone cared enough to ask why I haven’t been around. Instead Denise just sent me an email saying that I wasn’t holding up to my commitment and they had to let me go. I don’t know how a lot of these ladies do it. With being a mom, working, and everything else that goes in our lives how do they have time to fit everything in? I guess I just couldn’t make it work. Oh well.

6. One of the many things I did before going to Disneyland was make all of my nieces and nephews an autograph book. I think the turned out so cute and the kids seemed to really like them. I know that Ethan did. By the end of our trip he really enjoyed seeing the Characters and handing them his autograph book. On one side of the page is the character's signature and the other side will be a picture of them with that character, kind of like a little scrapbook.

5. My mom turns 50 next month and me and my siblings are going to give her this quilt. Her grandma made this quilt for her but was never able to finish it. So my mom has had the top and bottom for over 30 years and now we are going to have it machine quilted and then finish it all up for her. I think she is really going to love it. Plus it’s going to be a surprise.

4. Jared is going to be running in a marathon this year. He loves to watch the biggest looser and last season when they ran the full marathon he was inspired to run one too. He says it’s going to help him keep in shape. Last year he lost about 50 lbs. and this year I think he’s hoping to loose another 25 or more. He’ll be running in the Ogden marathon on May 15th. It’s supposed to be all down hill and somewhat easy. I’m hoping to make signs and get some people to come with me and help cheer him on. He’s invited his friends Chad Luke and Cory Pulsipher to run with him but I don’t think they will. They haven’t signed up yet and the spots are filling up quickly.

3. I still haven’t mailed our Christmas cards. People I saw before or on Christmas got theirs but everyone else is still waiting. They are in the envelope, addressed and stamped. I just need to seal them and mail them. I know they are way late but I’m going to mail them anyway.
2. My big surprise Christmas present this year was an external hard drive. I’ve been talking about getting one but they are pretty expensive and I figured we’d have to wait to get one. But my sneaky husband got one on Christmas Eve and surprised me. Now I need to get it all set up so that I can back up all of my pictures and scrapbooking stuff. Do you guys back up your stuff? I’m so afraid that one day our computer will die and I’ll loose everything.

1. You’ll have to wait until later this week for number one. I need to get a picture of it before I post about it.

Britt's Update

OK - here's goes. Counting down 10 things Britt's been up to lately.

10) Fairy Cakes. Ok - really they're just cupcakes, but I think I've told you guys this before, in the UK they call 'em Fairy Cakes, and I think that is just too cute. So that's what I call 'em too.


(no I didn't make these - just a pic I found online)

I've been really into making Fairy Cakes lately. I even got a sweet Fairy Cake stand for my birthday and a 101 Gourmet Cupcakes in 10 Minutes cookbook for Christmas!



Tomorrow I'm making "Cookies & Cream Dream" Fairy Cakes from the cookbook for my family for Sunday dinner. I can't wait. Its my first try at one of the fun new recipes. I'll be sure to take pictures.

I especially like Bakerella. I started with the basic cake balls, and then moved up to trying the cupcake bites. They are SOOOO dang good. And so easy. A bit time consuming, but not difficult. They are a MAJOR crowd pleaser. Here are some pics of my cupcake bites. I took 'em to my parent's for a family Christmas party. And they tasted as good as they looked!!

9) Trip to Phoenix. The first week of December my cousin, Morgan, flew me out to Phoenix to take her family pictures. It was cheaper to fly me out there than to hire a photographer!! haha We got a KILLER deal on a flight. $100 round trip! I had a great time. I LOVE those girls and I miss them like crazy. So it was a lot of fun. I was there for about 4 days. And the photos turned out quite good, thank you very much. I was so relieved. I was totally scared they'd turn out not-so-hot and she'd regret flying me out. Here's a few of my favorites. You can see all of 'em HERE if you want (along with a bunch of other photos of mine).















8) Scotty came home! Yep, Dec. 11 Scotty came home from his mission in Chile.







It's been SOOOO great having him home. He's SO normal. He didn't have any of that return missionary weirdness at all. Surprising! He is totally fun and awesome and we love him so much. So happy he's come. He's got a girlfriend already too. She wrote to him his whole mission. They've been friends forever, they were on swim team together. They went to a dance together in High School, but I think that's the extent of their pre-mission dating. Just friends before the mission. Now they are totally in love and serious. I don't think it will be long before they're engaged. We love her, so while that would be WAYYYY too quick for me personally, I'm just happy for him.

7) Book Club. You probably know I've been in a book club with the women on my mom's side of the family (aunts, cousins, grandma) forever. We went on a summer hiatus, but this fall we started up again and its been awesome. I got to host in November, which means I got to pick the book and have the get-together at my house. We read "Austenland" by Shannon Hale. If you want a good read, go to the store/library and get this book TODAY. It's my favorite book I've read in years. I REALLY LOVED IT!!!!!



As you can see, the turn out for November, wasn't the best (one aunt is actually missing from the picture. She left early before we could take the photo). But it was still tons of fun. We shared Christmas children's stories for the December book club, and the January book is called "A Great and Terrible Beauty" by Libba Bray. Marci is hosting, so it was her pick. Its in a couple weeks, and I'm still waiting for my book to arrive. I ordered it online a couple weeks ago, and its still not here. I hope it comes soon so I have time to read it!! It looks really good. I can't wait to start it. I might have to email the place I ordered it from and find out what the heck is going on.

6) Our house. We love our house. We want to buy it. Our landlord is interested in selling it to us. But that's about as far as our talks have progressed. We are dumb and haven't saved any money for a down payment though. :( I REALLY REALLY hope we get to buy it and can stay here. We really like our ward and our calling and this neighborhood and location.



And c'mon - our house is so cute!! And thanks to our awesome landlord, its in great shape. Sure, it needs some updating. But mostly, its a fabulous little place. I really would love to buy it. Say your prayers we get the chance!

5) Dante. Josh's dog, Dante passed away last month. He got the dog when he was in high school, and that dog really saved his life. Turned him around and really helped him through some tough times. We were never able to have Dante live with us, he always lived with Josh's parents. But I learned to really love Dante too. His passing was quite sudden. Although he was old, and we knew the time was short at hand, it all just happened so quickly. Poor Josh was so heartbroken. I really hated seeing him have to go through such pain. But we know Dante is so much happier now. Running through the icy snow in heaven, singing and howling with all the other Malemutes! And we know we'll all be together again someday.







He was an amazing dog and we miss him. It's still a very tender, sensitive subject. It's sad for us, but happy for Dante.

4) Work. Work, work, work. It's all I do sometimes. The digi-scrap business is booming. I've been very blessed to have such a fun, successful job, despite the bad economy. My business continues to thrive! :) It's been a lot of fun. December has been and off month for me. Tons of personal stuff, holiday stuff, etc etc going on so I haven't made many new products at all. But I have tons of plans for the next few weeks and plan to jump back in and get going. My poor creative team is just sitting around twiddling their thumbs waiting for me to get crackin!

But the good part of my work is I get to scrapbook my own pages as part of the job! I'm so lucky. I can't believe its been almost 3 years now and I'm still obsessed with digi-scrap. My style is continually changing and I feel like I just keep improving all the time. So that's fun. I've been hosting a series of challenges over at ScrapMatters called "My Story Matters". Basically its just a personal history album and every other week I give a prompt on what to scrap for your album. They used to be more popular, but they are really dying out. I think I'll only do a couple more months and then wrap it up. But I have had a lot of fun doing the challenge and I can't WAIT to put together my "My Story" book when its all over with. Here's a page I did for my most recent challenge:



Kind of a simple page, but I like it!!

3) Christmas. Our Christmas is always a little hectic. Since both Josh's family and my family are nearby, we go back and forth the whole day. But this year we worked it out so that we were at my parents house in the morning 'til about 2, and Josh's parent's house after than until about 8! We had a wonderful day!! I haven't had a moment of downtime to edit my photos from Christmas! I'll go in a edit a few just for this post!!

Traditional Rodee Family Christmas Jammies. My mom made all our pants. Cute huh??



I gave my mom a vintage Mickey Phone like we used to have when we were little. I think you can tell she loved it!



This is my beautiful niece Ava. I stole her away for a photo shoot in front of the tree over at Josh's parent's house. It was fun!!



And this is our gorgeous Christmas dinner table at Josh's mom's house. Tami and I set the table and prepared most of the dinner ourselves. Doesn't it look purrty!?



We had a VERY merry Christmas!! Josh spoiled me with WAY too many presents. I felt very special!! :) It was a great day. I just love Christmas.

2) Spool Dolls. Ok this is my newest craft and I'm obsessed!!! I made my mom a set for Christmas of our whole family in Mickey ears - 11 dolls in all.



Can you tell who's who?? From left to right it goes: Cameron, Scotty, Chad, Dad, Mom, Britt, Josh, Christian, Marci, Eden & Ella.

I also made my niece, Ali, who is in love with Tinker Bell, a Tink spool doll for Christmas too. I seriously wanted to keep her!!!



I made my ScrapMatters Secret Santa a Christmas themed doll, and I made a set for our friends Jordan and Sydney that were made to look like them. So yes, in the past 4 weeks I've made 15 spools dolls!! And I'm lovin' it! I can't wait to make more! :)

Ok . . . we're finally to #1!!

1) Disneyland!! We just got back from Disneyland this past Thursday. Josh's parent's gave us all a trip for our Christmas gift this year so the whole Leavitt clan went together. They paid for the hotel, plus gave us a heafty gift card to use in the park! It was a lot of fun. The bigger the group, the more hectic it gets, but all in all it was such a fun trip.



We caught the tail end of the holiday celebration. Seeing the park all gussied up for Christmas was so awesome!!







Got to meet Tink for the first time ever. She was SO SASSY!!!



I think seeing these character moments with my nieces and nephews was the cutest and most magical part of the trip. Their little faces just lit up. It was so awesome. I loved being there with the kids!!

I'm still as obsessed with Disneyland as ever. Maybe more so!! HAHA I can't get enough. We're going back at the end of February for our yearly DPOTD trip! I can't wait!!!!

And that's my 10 things. Now you officially know everything that's been going on with me! Ok - maybe not EVERYTHING but you know a lot!! EEEEEK! I just realized this post took me exactly 2 hours to draft. Holy smokes that's a long time!!!!!

Ok Shan - you're turn!!