Merry Christmas!

 Merry Christmas! This year was very busy with lots of family, games, and fun!  We started off our holiday celebration with driving to the bank and paying off my Honda!  We were so excited it only took us 2 1/2 years and it's officially ours!  Sat. night we had our Lamoreaux Christmas party, followed by 4th Sunday dinner with Will's family.  Monday I worked a long day, while Will spent time with his family.  Then we headed to the Tryon Christmas Eve party!  I had a blast helping out with the nativity my sister Camilla directed. After leaving that we went to the Merrill Sock Hop and partied some more.

Here is our Sleepy Christmas morning picture (I know, it's pretty bad).  Sat-Mon night I hadn't been sleeping well, and was up late each night with parties.  I was excited to be able to sleep in till 7ish Christmas morning!  Did it work?  Nope?  Wide awake at 4am... so when Will's alarm accidentally went off at 6:30 I gladly started waking him up so we could read Luke 2 and open up gifts. 

Around 8 we left go to eat breakfast at my sister-in-laws house with my parents and siblings.  Will had a blast playing magic with the boys, and I enjoyed visiting with sisters, holding little Shane, putting about 5 puzzles together and playing games with the nieces.  I was even able to talk to my out-of-town between Christmas and Christmas Eve. 

After playing hard all morning, we went home for a quick break, I took a  nap, then headed over to the Merrills Christmas party.  We brought over our new games to play.  His family had their annual tournament... this time including putting together airplanes and flying them.  Will one for distance, while I was lucky to keep mine going straight and not to constantly turn Left (I could never fix that).  We played games far into the night before heading home and crashing.  I finally had a good nights rest Christmas evening! 

I am grateful for all our family and the fun we can have with them as we support each other.  Although we had 4 nights straight of parties, it was great to be reminded of Christs birth each time and remember the reason we celebrate Christ.  I am so blessed to have the gospel in my life and be reminded of all of my blessings. 

29 Weeks

Just keep growing, just keep growing.  So I decided I love being prego!  It hasn't been to bad with morning sickness.  I was able to run/walk 2 miles about twice a week during the 2nd trimester, and had lots of energy.  Starting this 3rd trimester I have been really tired.  Not sure whether it's the baby thing or work starting to get SUPER busy, but I haven't been running in the past 2 weeks.  I decided I should probably hold off running from now on until after the baby... It's just so hard to believe that I am now huffing and puffing just pushing the extra large wheelchairs down the hall.  I am not used to being this out of shape... oh well...

I am so excited for Christmas!  Take it, I only get Christmas day off, but this season has been really nice!  I haven't been too stressed.  All of my Christmas shopping has been done and mostly wrapped since the beginning of December, and last weekend I made chocolates/candies with my sisters and delivered some of those.  It's been great listening to Christmas music.  We still need to go to the temple lights.  Will is taking his final for his LAST class to finish is Associates degree.  My mom and dad come in next week and then we have parties every night from the 22nd on and I am sure I am going to be exhausted, but I am so excited!  Yay for Christmas and family!  I am so grateful to have family close by to spend time with on the holidays, and for a day off work, Wahoo! 

28 Weeks and still kicking

Entering the 3rd Trimester...  I am kinda excited, but it still hasn't quite hit me yet that I am going to be a mom in 3 months even though my belly is getting bigger by the day, and the scale is about to break.  Co-workers are getting excited and calling me "Mommy", "Little Mom" or "How are you guys...".  It's been busy with the holidays, so I am guessing after Christmas it will seem more real how soon we are to being parents.

Thanksgiving was pretty good, I worked for more then I thought I would so Will and I had dinner with his Dad.  We "Goosock" -ed a roast.  Goosock is something Wills Dad grew up on, so his Grandpa made up the recipe and would cook it with the cowboys  and is AMAZNIG!  We usually have it with turkey, but since we decided the day before Thanksgiving we would spend it with his Dad, we used a Roast and it was almost better then the turkey!  I realized how grateful I am to have a husband to support me.  Even though I wasn't able to get off in time to spend Thanksgiving with my family, I am glad I have great in-laws who are always welcoming and willing to play games.  There are multiple other things I am grateful for, but I won't list them all..."

We set up for Christmas today!  I am really excited for Christmas this year.  I don't know whether it's because we have all our shopping finished all ready, because I have the day or, or because after Christmas it's that much closer to a new baby;  I am pretty sure though it's because my parents will be in town for Christmas!  I only have Christmas day off but it will be so nice!

So, each year, I have tried to make an ornament for our Christmas tree to represent something we did that year.  I have a total of 4 and I am excited to see the collection grow as the years go by.  I have always been someone who liked the "natural" ornaments versus having the tree look perfect and match.  These are the ones I have done so far and the stories behind them...

 2009 The day after Thanksgiving, Will took me out shooting with his family.  This was before we were an "official" couple.  (He was probably testing to see how good of a shot I had to see if I could even be on his list of prospects).  He hung up ornaments because they are fun to shoot and see break, except, he accidentally bought the plastic ones.  I ended up taking this one home with me because I was so shocked that I was actually able to hit a target!  Needless to say, it was a nice keepsake to add to the tree after we got married.

2010  We got married for time and all eternity!  Just under the bow, if you can see it, is a ring.  We went to take my ring in to be sized and it was killing me to not have something on, so we ended up buying a cheap fake one.  I was glad we did because they forgot to take the ring out to be sized and we ended up having to wait for 2 weeks!

 2011  This represents the year we became home owners!  This "house" is actually a card Will made and gave me for Christmas the year we were dating... I never know what to do with cards, and this one had more sentimental to it because he spent the time to "craft" something, I LOVE it!  So even though I got it in 2009, I thought it fit perfect for our 2011 home owners year.



2012  Will came up with the idea this year, to make a wood block and put pictures on of all that we have done... which wasn't really much, so I put where we traveled.  You can't see all the sides but there is 1.  Horton Springs-our first backpacking trip together. 2. Albuquerque, NM- where we went for him to have a 4 day vacation while I took a continuing ed course.  3.  San Diego- we visited his dad.  4. Jerome- we went with Camilla and Dan.  5.  2nd year anniversary picture  6.  Favorite picture of me for the year with "Merrills" 2012