CHRISTMAS

This year we spent Christmas in Colorado on the Dixon side. We weren't sure that it was going to happen this year, but we are so grateful that it did. Hallie was spoiled rotten and it was such a blast.

My parents bought her a "roller coaster." My little sister Kaylie had one of these when we were growing up, and even us older kids would play with it. Mostly we would take the car and ride it down the hill into the pool, but it was such a blast. When we all came up from the basement in the morning she spotted it and walked right up to it and made the "ooooooo" sound. It was almost as if she knew exactly what to do right away. She is a pro at it now, but at first it was scary to watch her do it. I have to remember that I have a big 18 month old girl now!! She has played with it everyday since, but I'm not looking forward to figuring out the car puzzle to get it home. Sitting around her watching her go down, all together was such a fun opening to Christmas morning.

My sister also spoiled her and bought her the Little People Disney Princess Castle. If you don't know what this is.. then you probably don't have a little girl aged 1-5. I guess this was the "Top Toy" of 2012 for girls this age. My sister told me she went everywhere to get her one, and all the little people accessories to go with it. Good thing Hallie is in love with it or I would feel awful for her doing so much work to get it!

Hallie also got a bunch of bath toys, mega building blocks, necklaces and bracelets, a unicorn, the blanket that I made her, clothes, shoes, and Princess slippers! I am sure there is more.. it seemed like she was opening tons of things!

I had such a blast watching her open presents. We had a warm up with the Sautter Christmas party.. but she didn't seem to really get it. But oh boy, did she prove me wrong! She was tearing things up left and right. She was also taking other people's gifts and trying to open them. It was awesome. Unfortunately, we were so caught up in the moment, we didn't take any pictures or videos, and when we did remember, it was at the end of gift opening when Hallie was starving and ready for her nap. So I have a video of her screaming... but none of the cute stuff.

Jordan and I got exactly what we wanted from my parents too: Assasin's Creed III (for Jordan) a leather jacket for me, and a bluetooth speaker system for at home. I love my parents and am so grateful to them. They always want to make your Christmas dreams come true:)

Which I have to share... Christmas 2009, my parents bought me my MacBook Pro. I remember opening it and just crying, so overwhelmed with emotion, surprise, and gratitude. I found out a couple days before Christmas that my parents bought my little sister, Kaylie, the brand new MacBook Pro. She is a Senior in HS this year, so it was also for graduation. It was so fun to watch her open it. It was probably very similar to when I opened it because everyone knew but me, and even though the size and weight of the present makes sense now... having no clue you are getting that gift throws it way off. I loved the look on her face. Of course, she cried.. It is like receiving a Christmas Miracle! I couldn't help but tear up too and remember how special it was for me.

The rest of the day was spent eating MEXICAN WEDDING BREAKFAST!!, playing games, hanging out, watching movies, Christmas dinner (HONEYBAKED HAM) and playing with all our new toys. It was such a wonderful Christmas. I love my family so much and making it possible for us to come to Colorado and spend time with them.

Sautter Christmas Party

This year Jordan's family decided to do a Christmas Party. All the siblings were going to be at the "other side" of their families this year, and Jordan's parents were going to be in Maine, so we all got together on the 22nd to celebrate Christmas together.

It was such a blast. Everyone made a breakfast dish. I made blueberry breakfast cake, it was really good... but I might be biased. We all wore our pajamas. Wearing your comfy clothes... who can turn that down? We talked and ate, and all the kids ran around screaming and playing. It was really a fun get together.

The best part was after eating we dressed up all the kids, and Grandpa Blair read a Nativity story. Hallie was an angel. It was the cutest thing ever. I just wanted to keep taking pictures of her because she was so adorable. When we put the wings on her, she could see them out of the corner of her eye, so she kept turning in circles, like a dog trying to catch his tail.  I couldn't stop laughing. All the kids looked great, and all the little girls that were angels were patting Baby Jesus while Blair read the Nativity.

After the Nativity, all the kids got to open their presents from grandma and grandpa, and the families opened their gifts from one another. Spencer and Hillary had us and gave Hallie a baby stroller (which she has pushed around all day since she got it). The best part was when she opened it up she went, "OH! Wow!" and immediately started playing with it. They got us Bohnanza. This game is fabulous. If you haven't you should play it.

We also gave Hallie her "big" presents that were from us. We couldn't carry them to Colorado and back so we gave them to her at the gift opening. We got her a kitchen, and her own chair. She loved them both. It was so exciting to get her a present and have her love it immediately. Instant gratification as a parent.

It was such a great get together. I'm sure there will be some kind of tradition that is being started now for every year.

Traditions

I love the Christmas season, because it seems like you celebrate it the whole month. This is the only holiday that I actually decorate for. I love putting up our little tree and putting all our ornaments on it. All the fun activities throughout the month really put you in the mood to be cheery and bright!

This will be Jordan and I's 5th Christmas together. We only have a few traditions so far, but they are ones that I absolutely love!!

First there is the singing house. We have actually done this six times because we were dating the first time that we went. There is this house in Iona (right by Idaho Falls) the synchronizes Christmas music to their lights, therefore it is the singing house. They play seriously the very best Christmas songs, I might be biased because they play all of my favorite songs. The house isn't huge or anything, but the lights are fantastic. Every year we take hot chocolate and watch. We took Hallie last year, but she was asleep and didn't really get to enjoy it, being she was still a wee babe! But this year she had a blast! She was only into it for about 15 minutes, but in toddler time that is like 3-4 hours. She LOVES music, and she sways and dances to it. We gave her a sucker and she was swaying and enjoying the music. She got on my lap and put her face right against the windshield so she could take a closer look, and she would keep looking at me and point at the lights with a huge smile on her face. It was so cute. I love the singing house.

Second tradition would be ornament buying. Every year Jordan and I buy an ornament that has the year on it. Our first Christmas we bought a crystal ornament with "First Christmas Together" 2008. Last year we bought Hallie's "Baby's First Christmas." Every other year are just fun ornaments, but I just love ornaments. I love this tradition, and it always reminds me of a memory from that Christmas. This year we bought a sparkly snowflake, Jordan really had no say, I just thought it was beautiful. It really adds to our tree. One day our tree will be totally filled with ornaments, so adding slowly is ok to me!! 

Third tradition would be to watch Elf. This is my ALL TIME favorite Christmas movie. It is fabulous. I don't care if you hate everything that Will Ferrel has ever been in, if you don't like this movie you are totally a Scrooge. We have watched it twice, and we will have to watch it at least one more time.

Of course we always have to go see Santa Clause. I was nervous this year because Hallie is kind of timid with people she doesn't know. I was so wrong. She did awesome. No screaming at all. I couldn't get a smile out of her, but she sat there. Too bad IF Santa set up is kind of ghetto... and they wouldn't let you take your own pictures, and their camera stopped working so I couldn't even see/buy one... But it's ok because the Santa reminded me of the one in Elf.. he smelled like beef and cheese... and wasn't necessarily jolly. But we did it and that is all that matters. 

This year we have a new tradition, or Jordan's family has decided to have a new tradition. Every year when they were growing up they would go to their Grandma Sautter's house and have food, open gifts, and put on some musical numbers or skits. Well needless to say, that side of Jordan's family is HUGE and there is just not enough room for everyone. This year, since everyone will be scattered everywhere, we are doing a Christmas party at the house so everyone can see each other, open gifts, and all the kids will be doing the Nativity scene. Hallie is going to be an angel. I'll have to post pictures later.

I am just so thankful for the season and the warm feeling that it brings. I'm so glad that Jordan, Hallie, and me get to go to Colorado and spend Christmas with my parents. I am most thankful for the Savior, because he is after all why we celebrate this wonderful time of year.

Rock On

Well I meant to post this forever ago, it happened in October, so I'm going to now. I know that all 12 of my avid readers would not want to miss out on this exciting snippet from my life.

As many of you know, Hallie is about 18 month old. When we did this she was 16 month old. She is an awesome sleeper and does really well when people baby sit her, so I have no clue why Jordan and I haven't done anything like it sooner. We went to a concert. The last time we went to a concert was John Mayer in 2010. It's only two years, but that is a long time to me when I used to be a concert buff. If it wasn't for our friends Ryan and Kayli we might not have ventured to Blackfoot for this experience.

The concert was Parachute, All-American Rejects, and Boys Like Girls. I was kind of skeptical to go at first, I thought there would be a bunch of random emo high school or even middle school kids there, and it totally turned me off. The last time I even listened to any of these bands was when I was in high school myself. I know that wasn't long ago, but when you get married and have a baby sometimes you just feel like you have to let go of being young and hip and start being an old bump on a log (If you are married and/or have babies, you know what I mean).  

I'm not going to lie, I grabbed on to my adolescence that night and I rocked. haha. There were a bunch of teenie boppers, lesbians, emos, cake-faces, and even old people. I meant like they looked like grandparents. But I thought, hey if they like this kind of music, more power to them (or they could have just been babysitting their granddaughter....). I had so much fun. I didn't remember any of the lyrics. I just had fun hanging out with Jordan feeling the music.

The concert was in Blackfoot. Where you may ask? Well it's such a small.. um venue.. I guess you could call it, that not even Google Maps could pull it up. Or maybe Google Maps has a hygienic policy to be able to be searched out. Who knows. All I know is that it was in a place called El Centenario. I think El Centenario translated is dirty old condemned grocery store, that a few Mexicans decided to cut the locks off, throw up a stage, and call a venue. I think that's about right.

Even though it was dirty and disgusting, I loved it. It was so small and intimate, we were in the back, but only about 30 feet from the stage. We could have made our way closer, but I liked snuggling like teenagers in the back.

I do have to say my only complaint would be the lead singer of AAR. He is disgusting. I mean I would not be surprised if he is a registered sex offender. Besides that it was great!

It was so fun to feel young and free again. Even though I am young and free. I guess I am speaking metaphorically.

ps. look. I wore a necklace. Total throwback. The last time I did that was in high school too. haha.

Someone kidnapped my baby.

Someone has kidnapped my baby and replaced her with a grown up little person! Hallie is two weeks shy of being 18 months (nursery age.. finally!!) and I can not believe it. I have just been staring at her the past two weeks in aw. She is becoming so independent and so grown up it baffles me. I can't help but wonder to myself where my little baby girl has gone! There have been a couple things the past months that I have wanted to share about my wee little one. So here it goes.

What sparked this post is what happened on Sunday. Hallie has been able to say "Grandpa" for a while now. Grandpa is Bishop of our ward, so whenever we go to church we come in and sit down and she points and says "papa!" We have been so proud of our little girl being able to recognize grandpa. Well this Sunday rolls around. We walk into church and Hallie doesn't do her usual "papa" ritual. Which didn't phase me. It wasn't until Grandpa stood up to do a musical number that I had forgotten. Grandpa sings in a quartet every couple of months. Well the first three speakers had spoke and now it was the quartet. Grandpa stands up to sing, and with out hesitation, Hallie starts yelling, and I mean yelling, "PAPA! PAPA! IT'S PAPA! PAPA! PAPA!" and she goes on and on. People start turning and just laughing. It is quite hilarious. The people behind us whisper to us, well at least she knows who her grandpa is! There were people coming up to me after Sacrament meeting, who were sitting near the back of the OVERFLOW, commenting on how funny it was. The mic must have picked her up. But as soon as they started singing, she quieted down and started swaying to the music. It was so funny, and my beat red face must have showed how proud I was.

Hallie is also becoming quite a talker. She babbles all the time, but she suprises me by how much she can say. For example, the other day I was up at my in-law's doing something and Hallie walks away and I hear quiet for a few minutes and then some crashing sounds. I walk into Gail's sewing room and Hallie is pulling everything out of her sewing drawers. I very sternly yell, HALLIE! Without hesitation she looks up at me and says, " I DIDN'T KNOW!!" I couldn't help but start laughing, it was hilarious.

Last week when she got up in the morning, had her breakfast, and had a bath she started walking around mumbling something. I couldn't quite make it out. I had never heard her say anything like it before. Suddenly she walks up to her crib points and says BLANKIE! I was floored. I didn't even know she knew that word, and let alone she knew where it was. It suddenly made sense all the events leading up to that that she was saying 'blankie' the whole time, but seriously where did she come from?

Every day she surprises me with something new. I am baffled by how smart she is. I love being her mommy. But can I say how excited I am to take her to nursery in T-MINUS 1 SUNDAY LEFT!

very very late... Thanksgiving

For some reason there was a part of me that forgot that I had a blog. Then I had to quickly make a portfolio website very quickly and linked my blog. AH! I have a blog! And I have not posted in forever! And oh my goodness the reading that I have to do to catch up. Maybe I should just stop having friends, and then it wouldn't matter to me what is going on in their lives. Just kidding. I love them so much and don't want to miss a thing. So I'm hoping that even though I am writing about (cough, cough) Thanksgiving, that you wanted to know about it!

The day before Thanksgiving started off with the preparation of food. I make this 8 layer jello every year, and it takes FOREVER. This year all of Jordan's siblings (that are around Idaho) were all going to be at the house this year, and we divied up all the food. I was making pies, I just love to make them. Don't ask me why. Then I was reminded to make my jello! Holy cow I couldn't believe I almost forgot. It was my very favorite thing growing up. And being Mormon and all, of course we need to have some sort of jello dish present. Crazy that all the time growing up Mormon this was the only thing that my family ever made out of jello, and it only comes out on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Anywhoo... it takes forever. But man it's delicious. I also attempted Black Bottom Pumpkin pie and the classic Apple. It all tuned out pretty good, but the black bottom I need to make my own adjustments to!

We started off Thanksgiving Day with bowling. This is another tradition passed from my adolescent years, and Jordan treats me every year. We always have a small turnout, usually Jordan and I and maybe 1-2 others. This year was awesome! We had Jordan, Me, Hallie, Mary, Sean, Hillary & Spencer! Seven people! So crazy. But it was such a blast. Hallie bowled and got two spares. She did awesome. She loved to push the ball down the roller coaster thing that helps children bowl. Plus she acted more like a child-well behaved. Which still freaks me out.

We then went back to the house were the Thanksgiving feasting began. I ate so much it was ridiculous. I felt like I had ten pounds lodged into my stomach. But then I just ate more, and more, and more! I guess that is what Thanksgiving is all about. Eating until you are as big as the turkey, so they have one for next year.

We finished the night off with games and a bootleg of Dark Night Rises. I know it's out on video now but hey the fact that we had an awesome copy before it came out and we all watched it in the theater room was very cool. Don't judge me. I didn't download it.

All in all it was a fantastic Thanksgiving. More importantly, I was reminded of the wonderful things that I have in my life.

I have a wonderful husband that works extremely hard. He caters to me all the time, and lets me win basically all our "disagreements." When we fall asleep, I am so picky, and he lets me adjust any way that I can to get comfortable. He watches Bachelor and Project Runway with me. He lets me hold the remote and control the TV. You might say that I wear the pants.. but this is not true... I know my limits.. haha. I am just so thankful for a wonderful husband.

I am thankful for Hallie. The crazy woman I like to call my baby, who is actually more like a child now than anything else. I am thankful she is gorgeous, smart, and ridiculously hilarious. I would have very hard time justifying staying at home if it wasn't for this beautiful person. She makes my dark days bright and turns my frown upside down! I am blessed to be her mommy.

I am thankful for so much more, but especially my family that surrounds me.


Happy Thanksgiving:)

Boise Temple Dedication

Two Sundays ago (the 18th) we had the privilege of watching the Boise Temple Dedication in place of church. The temple went under massive renovation and was recently completed. I think most of Idaho got to watch the broadcast. This doesn't happen very often in an area, or really in a lifetime if you don't live in an area where you are around lots of temples, or there is already one built.

I have been to two dedications, the Nauvoo Temple & the Rexburg Temple, and one open house, the Rexburg Temple. The Nauvoo was broadcast church-wide (if my feeble mind remembers correctly) and I was in my second semester of college when the Rexburg Temple was dedicated. Unless they plan to build another Idaho Falls temple, I probably won't have the chance to see one again until there is a Colorado Springs Temple. One day. One day.

It was very special because President Monson came to dedicate the temple and brought along with him Elder Bednar, one of the 12 Apostles, Elder Walker, in the Presidency of the Seventy, and someone else... who I wish I could remember his name! But I'm pretty sure his job is to work on temples.

The first couple of talks, which were mostly testimonies were so beautiful. Some shared about losing their children, and how the plan of Salvation works. The temple is real, and the sealing of forever is real. We got to hear from the Assistant to the Temple Matron (The Temple President's wife=Temple Matron, 1st Counselor's wife=Assistant to the Temple Matron, etc...I think this is how it goes...), a couple others, and President Monson's Secretary. After the Secretary was done, Elder Walker got up, almost in tears and thanked her for her service to the Prophet. He said her service to the prophet is more a service to the whole church and she will never know how much she has affected the people. It was very cool to hear that, mostly because you never even get to see the background of what happens to make the church run. I didn't even know President Monson had a secretary, but it makes sense doesn't it?

Elder Walker talked about an experience that President Monson had when Spencer W. Kimball was President of the Church. President Monson was visiting South Africa and the people there insisted that he try and get them a temple. He said he would do what he could, after all it is the Prophet's decision. He got back to Salt Lake and read the minutes of the meetings he missed. He saw that President Kimball had decided they were to build a temple in Johannesburg, South Africa. He was so excited an knew the people would be too. After the temple was announced, he said he got telegraphs from people in South Africa saying, Great job Elder Monson! You Got us a temple! He said he would have loved to taken the credit, but it was all President Kimball. The summary of the story... The prophet has final say in each and every temple. Where/When/Who/Why/How. What a responsibility! I love President Monson.

Elder Bednar, I love this man, probably because of my connection to BYU-Idaho, and all the wonderful times that I have been able to hear him speak in person. Which I think is totaling near 5. Crazy! (That doensn't include General Conference at all). He talked about the temple being a house for the Lord, a place where he can reside on the Earth. He talked about Kirtland and related how marvelous it was when we finally had a temple on the Earth again. 

President Monson then spoke, he got right up, pointed at a boy in the room and said, "Right there is a future missionary!" And gave him a goofy look and wiggled his ears. Jordan and I couldn't help but bust up laughing. He has such a personality and loving nature. I can't even remember what he talked about (I started writing this the day after... and now trying to finish it two weeks later.....) but I remember crying, and thinking, this man walks and talks with Christ, but he is meek and humble.

I loved the whole experience, and that I got to experience it with Jordan. I love that families are sealed forever. Which was the main message from the meeting. It strengthens my testimony of family and forever. I get to be with my whole family forever.. wahoo!