Christmas Memories

Making sugar cookies on Christmas Eve... egg free!

Reading the manger story out of the Bible and the kids wanting to act like Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus.
Christmas morning and all the presents.

We tried to barricade Megan in by putting the couch in the way, but unfortunately she still came into our bedroom not too early, 7am, but too early for us. We ended up waking up at 8am when Bryson woke up. Megan was also to excited to wait that she missed being in the pictures.

Megan opening her gifts, she was so excited about her wings that Santa brought, she wore them the rest of the day for as long as she could.
Bryson loved opening presents. He would open anything he could get his hands on. We had to make sure that he had one of his presents in his hands. He wasn't very excited about the clothes that we had gotten him.

I was surprised with a phone call from my little brother, BJ, who is serving his mission. It was really nice to talk to him.

We were also excited to have Josh's brother, Jacob & his wife, Julia, & their kids Loraya & Isaac come and spend the evening and rest of the weekend with us. We enjoyed a delicious ham dinner with all the fixins.

We had a lot of fun the rest of the week with them all here, but forgot to take pictures. But some of the highlights were... shopping at the mall for some deals, eating at BJs, going to the gym, playing games and getting a babysitter for the kids while just the adults went out to dinner and to see "7 pounds". We had a great time with all of them here and the kids seemed to have gotten along better this time. Bryson was constantly asking for Isaac and wanted to be with him which I thought was really cute.

We hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and have a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!!

We would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, and tell you how grateful we are for all of you in our lives.

Love,

Us

Unexpected "To do list" Item

Yesterday I started my day off to try and get a lot of stuff done so that I would have less stuff to do on Christmas Eve. I started the laundry and when I went downstairs to switch it this is what I found...
Carpet soaked, and the floor with puddles everywhere. We don't know what happened but it took us the rest of the morning to clean it up, and put me behind on my to do list. I'm just grateful that Josh hadn't left to work yet so that he could help me out. After inspecting everything to try and figure out why all this water was on the floor, we came to the conclusion that the ejector crock just didn't go off backing up the water to over flow the machine. We called the plumber to get his input, but he couldn't figure anything out. Everything looked fine, I ran another load of laundry (the towels that we used to clean up the mess since I wasn't about to grab my whites to wash in front of him.) and nothing happened. Which really is a good thing, but hard to try and figure out what happened. So we settled on the conclusion of a "fluke". He said that something may have got caught on the bobber thingy in the ejector crock causing it to not go off, but he couldn't see anything. I was able to finish all of my laundry and no more water leaking, so we are just going to keep our fingers crossed that this won't happen again.

Birthday Events

The events of Bryson's 2nd Birthday!

Bryson chose to have pizza for dinner, so pizza we ate! (really whenever you ask him what he wants to eat he says pizza, he just loves it!)

After dinner we did web cam with my Mom & sister, Tosha so they could watch him open the gifts... a car & a truck... that they sent to him.

Sang Happy Birthday...

and ate egg free cake, cheesecake.
Then opened more presents... blocks, comforter & bed sheets.

We then made his bed with his new bedding

and put him to bed.
He had a hard time sleeping in his bed, he kept coming to his door... since we put up a gate to keep him from coming out of his bed... but after 4-5 times of coming out of his bed he finally fell asleep between 9:30 & 10:15. He then woke up during the night at 11:30pm & 6am. But he loved sleeping in his bed. He did do better for his nap today, hopefully bedtime will go a little better tonight.

Happy 2nd Birthday Bryson!

Today is Bryson's 2nd birthday! I'm amazed at how much he has grown in the past 2 years. Bryson was born early in the morning weighing in at 7 lbs 1 oz.

He was a great baby getting plenty of love from everyone, especially Megan.

At 6 months he was adorable and LOVED to smile when he saw the camera.
At 1 year old he hadn't learned how to walk but learned quickly after receiving his walker.
Now our little boy is 2, he loves to help his Mom clean, always asks where someone is if they aren't with him. He talks very cute and is loved by everyone who meets him.

Today he has sung Happy Birthday with everyone who has sung it to him and has loved hanging out with Mommy & Daddy, even though he kept asking where Megan was. We love having Bryson in our family and are excited to watch him grow and get bigger.

It's Official...

Our house is ready for Christmas!!

Josh was finally able to finish putting up our lights that he started doing on his birthday. He has been busy with lots of school work and the weather has been cold that we have had the lights hanging in the middle of our entry way not finished; but today even though rainy Josh got out and finished it up and it looks great! He is now making his list of what he is going to buy at the after Christmas clearance sale to improve the appearance for next year. The one thing that I like is that he has all the lights running to a timer so they go on at dark and stay on for 4 hours and I don't have to plug them in or out. Great job Josh!!

Crazy Shopping Experience

A couple of days ago a friend of mine agreed to watch Bryson so that I could go shopping all by myself. Which I was VERY grateful for. This time to myself is very much needed since Josh has gone back to work and since I feel like locking the kids in their rooms at night cause I just don't want to have to deal with them anymore(which, I will admit I have done.) So I was enjoying my trip to the store without any kids fighting, screaming or having to stop and wait for Bryson to catch up, unfortunately probably too much since by the time I was checking out I realized that it was lunch time (the time I said that I was going to pick up Bryson), I still remembered to give the cashier all my coupons and even remembered to buy a $25 gift card so that I could use a coupon to save $3 (We figured that since we shop there every week and spend much more than $25 that why not buy the gift card and save $3.) I was so proud of myself to remember to do this, unfortunately when they rang it up the $3 didn't come off, so she called her manager over and we realized that the coupon was expired (which I did notice before, but 1. this store takes expired coupons & 2. I asked the cashier before using it if it was still good and she said yes.) So then I was off to the service desk to give back the gift card since I only wanted it for the $3. So when I head to the service desk the manager comes over and tells the cashier to just give me the $3 with other mumble jumble store talk. So I give the cashier my receipt and gift card and then she returns it back to me with the $3. I stick it in my purse and I was off. Well, later that night I went to get the receipt and gift card but there was no gift card. I panicked, I started looking EVERYWHERE! I checked all the bags that the groceries were in, the car including trunk, all my pockets, even the diaper bag that I didn't have with me. I am just imagining what Josh would say to me for losing $25. (well really $22 since they gave me $3) So I tried calling the store and every time they transferred me to the service desk no one would pick up. (As a side note this was one of those times that the kids were put into their rooms with the doors shut cause they were fighting over everything and I was stressed and trying to find $25.) This is the time Josh came home, with kids in their bed rooms and I didn't want to talk to him, in fear of him getting upset (why wouldn't he, I lost $22), and me breaking down in tears. After a couple of attempts of not getting through I had to leave to a cookie exchange that I was a little anti-social at since I cried the whole way there and didn't want to break out crying again (sorry friends). Once I returned I tried once more and was able to talk to someone even though I was in tears at this point telling my story to the person over the phone. But lucky for me they did have the gift card and said that they would hold it for me until the next day. I was a little worried since you never know how many "bad people" try and con people saying they left something even though they have it. So really I felt blessed, and a huge relief that we were able to get it back. Josh was pretty shocked that all this was able to happen without any kids, I guess I was just enjoying the peace too much.

New Bed

Megan has decided that her bed is too uncomfortable and has moved her bed here...

I thought that this would last 1 night and she would realize how soft and comfy her bed really is, but it has been 5 nights now, maybe I should take down her "other" not so soft bed.

Josh's Birthday Day

We started Josh birthday day off by waking him up singing happy birthday and carrying in breakfast for him to eat. The kids attacked him while he tried to eat his breakfast in bed and begged him to eat some of his breakfast. After he finished he opened his birthday presents and read all his birthday cards. Next he was off to try and put the lights on the house. Right when we got out there it started to snow, but that didn't slow him down (except when it came to climbing on the roof)

But the kids enjoyed the time outside too.

Once Josh stopped putting up the lights, had hot chocolate, got ready and ate lunch we sang Happy Birthday and ate ice cream cake.

Then Josh was off to work for 8 hours.
But we weren't done celebrating yet, so I took the kids and we went in for Josh's dinner break and brought him in Arby's and spent some time with him.

After work Josh and I relaxed while watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Thanks to everyone who called & sent cards it really made his day!

Happy 29th Birthday Josh!!

Josh has always been a blessing ever since he was born, so I thought that I would take you on a trip down memory lane and show off pictures of Josh.

Josh & his Dad when he came home from the hospital

Josh's 2nd B-day

(I put this one up since Bryson is turning 2 soon)

Just a cute picture, he was about 3 in this picture

Josh's Kindergarten picture

(So you can compare him at Megan's age)

I love this picture of him, I don't know how old he is, but he is adorable.



This picture if I remember right is after he escorted at one of Kristin's beauty contests. (am I right Mom?) I know he escorted somewhere.



And this one is for Matt since last year I didn't have these pictures scanned in and he wanted a picture of Josh's famous flat top that he had growing up.

Unfortunately, that is where my pictures end that we have and they go to when I met Josh. We went on our first date a few days after I saw him dressed like this...

We fell in Love and got married...

And then Josh became a Dad, and I was able to fall in love with him all over again as I watched him fall in love with Megan.

Then Bryson came into our lives and he became a Father of 2

And he is the best Dad, Husband & Friend. I love watching him play with the kids.

You can always make me laugh!

I hope that you have an amazing birthday Josh, we love you!!

Tis The Season

Quirky Tag

My friend Tiffany tagged me and I thought that this was a fun tag, so here it goes... My quirks or at least the ones I know I have, I had to ask Josh about it too.

1. I am a light freak, if no one is in the room the light does not need to be on, so turn it off!

2. I like order, you wouldn't always know that from the piles of paper on my kitchen bar, but everything needs to be in its place. Cubboards closed, sliding door screens shut, if they are half opened or left opened it drives me nuts.

3. This one is from Josh, since I don't realize I do it, but I say "so" all the time. I notice it when it is pointed out to me when I am doing it, but I can't help it.

4. I never flush the toilet before getting into the shower, I wait until I am out till I flush, don't know why, just do.

5. I also don't like it when the microwave clocks doesn't say the time but the time remaining from the last thing that was cooked. I like it to show the time.

6. I'm cheating and here is one of Josh's quirks, he has to have all of his shirts in the closet all lined up and going the same way, his side of the closet is very neat.

Here are the rules.
1. Link the person who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules on your blog.
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
4. Tag some fellow bloggers by linking them.
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger's blogs letting them know they've been tagged.

As far as tagging other people, I would rather everyone share a quirk or 2 in a comment, or if you have 6 quirks, then post it on your blog! It's fun to see what type of quirks people have.

Thanksgiving Week

We had a great weekend away in West Virgina visiting family for Thanksgiving. We left on Wednesday and when we got there we headed to Valley Worlds of Fun that evening and let the kids ride the teacups, play on the bouncers, bumper cars, & swings. We all went in and played Lazar tag (even Bryson) & went bowling.

Here is a video of the grown ups on the bumper cars...

Thanksgiving day was a lot of fun, we did a lot of cooking and preparing in the morning, but once it was all ready it was an AMAZING feast! The turkey was delicious, the company was great and the kids were kids! The leftovers were just as good as the first time too. We loved being able to see Grandma & Grandpa Kelly, & Nic and Kandis while we were there. It was fun seeing everyone, the kids loved playing with their cousins. We also loved shopping the black Friday deals and getting a lot of things for Christmas, even though it was super early.

We are so grateful for our wonderful families that we have, we are grateful for all the love and support that we get from everyone, especially as we go through our waiting time to get into dental school. We hope that everyone else had a fun Thanksgiving time with family and friends!

What I Want

Dear Santa,

I want to have toy wings. I miss you Santa.

Love,

Megan

Dear Santa,

I just want the treat in your bag... and a cho cho.

Love,

Bryson

Dear Santa,

I want a BB gun to shoot the squirrels in my backyard.

Love,

Josh

The kids had a lot of fun making Christmas chains, shooting guns, coloring pictures, playing in the fake snow and seeing Santa. I thought that Bryson would freak out when he sat on Santa's lap, but he ran right up and sat down and then wouldn't get off.