Preparing for Christmas

There's a lot to do to get ready for Christmas...

You definitely need to wish everyone a Merry Christmas....

...and take pictures of the young ones,

Spend time with friends/family...

Decorate gingerbread cookies....

We had so much fun at Natalie 's. We decorated gingerbread cookies. (we are pros:)) Abi couldn't wait to get her hands on one.

and you have to stop for a minute and just play....


and play....




and play.
You need to take pictures with the family... (this pic was at Nat's)

and goofy pictures....
You have to decorate and take pictures in front of the tree....

and make cute sock snowmen for decorations. (Candice, Ceryn, my mom and I make these beauties on Thanksgiving.)

Preparing for Christmas was so much fun. I had the opportunity to learn and play the part of Mary for a church program. I told the nativity story in her point of view. It was a wonderful experience.

The spirit of giving blessed our lives.

I love the spirit of Christmas and celebrating the birth of our Savior. I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas! We love you!

Our Back Yard (basically)

We are truly blessed to have acres and acres of field basically in our back yard. The other day it was warm enough to take Abi and Tank on a walk.

We have these hawks that fly around our house and I have been wanting to photograph them but every time I go out with my camera they fly away. Matt got this photo.


We love this house but are excited to get into our real home in May. I will miss being able to ride our dirt bikes right out into the fields, hearing the owls at night, andfeeding the horses apples from the apple trees. Not to mention the quiet. I won't however miss the neighbors donkey and the pack of Coyotes that get just a little to close for comfort.

Candice's Birthday Party

For Candice's birthday we went to this restaurant in Prove where they cook your food in front of you. I think I am hooked. It was some of the best food I have ever eaten!

I didn't capture Abi's face the first time. I was told her eyes were huge!

The birthday girl.
The noodles were to die for! My mouth is watering just writing about it.

Happy Birthday Candice. I'm so glad your my sister in law!

Itty Bitty Abi

Abi just went in for her 9 month check up on Friday. The doctor asked how everything was going and I told her "Great! This is the funnest stage so far. She is happy, sitting up and sleeping through the night." But then she looked at Abi's charts and turned them around for me to see with a bad look on her face. Abi only gained 1/4 lb in 3 months making her a whopping 13 lbs 2 oz. and only grew 1/4" of an inch. Not good. She told me I need to start feeding Abi butter with her rice cereal, get her drinking more liquids and eating more fatty foods as well as me. I also have to build up my milk supply and take an herb called Fenugreek. Then she proceeded to tell me that she mat have a thyroid problem and that I needed to go to the lab to get tests done. So I did. It was horrible. Abi didn't have and good veins to draw blood so three us had to hold her down while they poked her food and squoze blood out. This lasted about 15 to 20 minutes. By the time I got her home she was exhausted and shaking. Poor baby. All this to find out that her tests came out normal. She's just a small baby and I do need to try to get her to eat more food but she is happy and to me she looks healthy. So it will be a game. Her target weight game for a month is 18 lbs eeek! We will see how she does. :)