Christmas! A Little late....

I hope that Everyone had a pleasant and Merry Christmas! It definitely was a white one.. which I was very grateful for! We had a blast with Maddy this year.. she was a lot more "into" it then last year. Santa brought her her Elephant & Giraffe: Dumbo & Madigigascar [as maddy calls it] and the Little People's Noah's Ark. She was very excited... However she didn't really get up for anything except to see if Santa ate all her chocolate "pencils" (pretzels) she left for him. It was pretty cute to see her face when she ran down the stairs to where we left the plate and they were gone! "Look! He ate all my pencils!" It was cute. I got my Shiloette machine!!! It cuts anything from Vinyl to paper, sticker paper... really anything!






I am still figuring it out.. but I LOVE IT!! I will have to post pictures of some things I have already cut out of vinyl. If anyone wants Vinyl I can do it for you! :] I have been downloading all the cute fonts so I will be ready to go!


Sam got his Epiphone Dot Electric Guitar... it was sure a surprise for him! I have to tell the story because I am proud of how sneaky I was!! If any of you know me.. it is hard for me to keep surprises like that a secret!! I just want to give it right when I get it. Well It started with getting Ella, our puppy. I told him that I would buy him a muzzleloader if he would buy me a puppy. Which he FINALLY gave into. Well then he started in on wanting an Electric Guitar instead. I kept on saying no, because I am mean like that. :] (Hey it took me 5 years for him to give into a dog!!!) Well I was at work one day and I thought, you know... that would be really sweet if I got that for him for Christmas. So the sneaky me that I am, called and said "So one of the security guards at work were talking about Christmas and what our spouses wanted. I mentioned that you wanted an Electric Guitar.. but I cannot remember what kind it was!?" [This conversation with the security guard never really took place! Just a plot to get the info] So he told me:

Epiphone Dot Electric Guitar ( See below) Color and everything...

So I proceeded to find it online... print out the pic and take it to Guitar Center. [This was a Wednesday Night] I told little white lie that I had to stay late at work, and wouldnt be home until about 6. So I went over showed the guy the pic and said.. It is a surprise for Christmas.. please help! I didnt know what amp you needed, etc.. so I called my little brother and had him come over to help me pick everything out. Meanwhile, Jeff wanted a distorition pedel for his Electric Guitar.. So I told Sam the next night we should go and get it for Jeff's Christmas Present. (This is a week before Christmas) We walk in the store, him being all excited to show me this guitar he has been talking about relentlessly AND playing EVERY Monday on his day off. We go up, and what do you know.. the guy who I bought it from just the night before was helping us! He knew and played along, telling Sam he sold the last one, and wouldn't be getting another one in until the first of the year. Sam was bummed, REALLY bummed! I was laughing inside, and just wanted to jump out and say "I GOT IT FOR YOU!!"... but I resisted! So the whole rest of the week, Sam kept pushing the fact that he could order it online and it would be here by Christmas.. I just wanted to scream... what was I going to say to keep it away from him now! But I made up excuses like: "It might get ruined while it was being shipped to us. I would feel better if we had it shipped to the store." and then finally I said "I already bought you a Christmas present, just be excited and happy for it and then we will get you the guitar when it comes in, in January." That seem to suppress his urge to buy it online. Come Christmas Day.. I put the strap & picks in his stocking saying "This is for when we get you your guitar" Alas, when we finally got to my parents house, we were unwrapping presents when my mom brought out this HUGE box [the amp] for sam to open. He was like.. what!? and still kind of not getting what was going on when she brought out the guitar in the case. Then he started to flip out saying "Nu uh!! No way! You were the one that bought the guitar, weren't you!?!" It was priceless! You can see the pics in the slideshow. It was awesome!

SO I apologize for the long story, but it was awesome! Needless to say, we had a good time.. and Maddy of course, thinks Santa should be coming again everynight! We have been trying to explain that he only comes once a year. It was great! Enjoy the pics! [ There are quite a bit!]

Christmas Day Pictures:

Year in Review

My friend put out a Family Newsletter telling about what everyone has been doing for the year. I thought it was a fabulous idea.. so here I go!

Sam: Is still working at the Utah County Health Department as a Health Inspector. Whenever I think Health Inspector I think of Larry the Cable Guy, Health Inspector. That movie is hilarious! Sam inspects anything from restraunts, tanning salons, daycares, wastewater and pools. (Just to name a few). He really enjoys working there, minus the commute! It takes him about 45 minutes sometimes an hour on a bad day. (Especially lately with all the snow!)
He is the ward mission leader in our ward, it is kind of a crazy calling our ward is so huge, but so small! We hardly have any memebers, so he has been busy!

Madilyn: She turned turned 2 going on 18. She is talking SO much! I think this has to be one of my favorite stages with her talking, saying the funniest things! She is quite girly girl. She loves putting on makeup with Mommy, loves playing with her princess things, dressing up and putting on jewelry. She absolutely loves to watch movies (like her mother) She really like Enchanted watching it ALL the time. She told us that Edward was cute! Her new favorite movies are the "Space Ship Movies" (No, not Star Trek for any of you who know what a fan Sam is) They are the Star Wars movies! I think next year we will have to dress up as Star Wars actors for Halloween. She is ever so excited for Christmas, and can't wait for Santa to come!

Me: I still work with Intermountain Healthcare in HR- Employment. We do all the hiring for the Urban Central Region (Basically all of the SL Valley minus Primary Children's). I am on the Nursing Team, so we hire RN's, CNA's, HUC's, Paramedics, Physician Assistants, and Nurse Practioners. It has been quite the experience, but I love it! It is good to do my own thing, but I really miss being home with Maddy. I am hoping one day I will be able to! Right now doesn't seem like it will happen.. but oh well. One day :] I am in YW's as the Laurel/MiaMaid Advisor.. and I LOVE IT! They are such a good group of girls.. and are so fun to be around.

In General our family is doing well! We are still living in West Valley, but do have our house up for Sale. It has been up since March (I believe-it seems like forever!) We are hoping to move closer for Sam. Either Lehi, or the southern part of the SL Valley (Riverton, South Jordan, Herriman, West Jordan). We got a little puppy named Ella! She has been so good for our family. It has really helped Maddy adjust to having someone other than just her in the fam. She loves to mother her A LOT. It is cute. We are just living life, one day at a time, excited for what each day brings! That is us! (I am sure I will remember more things once I am finished! ha!)

Christmas Time Again..

I haven't updated this in a while! A few weeks ago, I asked Madilyn what she wanted for Christmas. She continued to give me a look of concentration... when she finally said: "AN ELEPHANT!" wow, is all I could think! Then just the other night we asked her again, she proceeded to tell us, "An Elephant, a little giraffe and maybe a rinosous." A What!? I thought... I couldn't understand the last part she was saying to me. We asked her several times, until I realized, she was saying rhinoceros! Well, good luck with that one, is all I could think! haha. I called all of the Targets in SL & Utah County.. no one has them in stock! I proceeded to call all the Walmarts and yet again, nothing! So finally thinking I am just going to give up. I called Toys R Us. They had 4 left and of course, they do not hold anything for you. So I was at work, decided to just leave and go. when I got there, mind you this is like maybe 15 minutes there was only 2 left. I couldn't believe how quick it went! It is crazy! Anyways.. that was my last gift to get. I did most of my shopping on the day after Thanksgiving! That was a blast. My cousins, Haeli, Marcee, Taryn and my Aunt Shelly, all piled into my jeep and went shopping! We made a pit stop to unload in her garage, then went out for more... It was a blast! I love shopping! haha

Cents of Style Party!

Just in time for Christmas!!! I am hosting a Cents of Style Party! For all of you who have never been to one... you are missing out!! They sell purses, headbands, shoes, and jewelry. All of which you would find at boutiques, but for A LOT less expensive! Everything is $20 and under. VERY CUTE STUFF... This will be my 4th party I have held, I am hooked!
Anyways, all the details:
Thursday December 11th from 6:30-8:30 (9:00)
[Call me for address]
Bring Friends, it will be an open house
www.mycentsofstyle.com
Call me if you have any questions!
Hope to see you there!

Here is a picture with some examples of their CUTE stuff!

Our Elfed Family!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Okay I haven't posted anything for about a week, so I thought I better do it now. We just got Madilyn's pictures back from Amber. AMAZING!!!! I absolutely love them! She is so awesome! Nothing new going on.. just getting ready for Thanksgiving! Yay 3 day work week..I am very excited... and for shopping! :)

Falling Leaves

Today was such a beautiful day!! We finally had time to rake up leaves from our gigantic tree out front. I love it for the shade during the summmer, but it is a pain! Not only is it a mess to clean up the leaves, but it has been lifting our sidewalk (extremely bad) and roots growing in our sewer line! I think we will be removing it if we are here much longer! The house is still on the market,and we FINALLY had someone come and look at it on Thursday! The first in about 2-2 1/2 months. There must be a reason that we are still here, and whatever the reason I am okay with. I just would have loved to be in a new house by Christmas.. even Thanksgiving so we could fit everyone at our house! Oh well, one day I will have a big kitchen! For now, I am grateful that we even have a roof over our head. That is a blessing in and of itself.
I just have to say I am grateful for eternal families!! My friend Nina that I work with was sealed to her hubby Jonathan and there two kids, McKenna & Jacob. It was the most amazing thing in the world! They have been married for 12 years (Nov 13th) hence the day they wanted to be sealed. Jonathan joined the church a little over a year ago, all on his own. To see them in the temple was incredible, you couldn't help but ball your eyes out. Okay, so maybe it was just me.. I am ball baby anyways. I think it will be a neat experience for all of them to remember even McKenna and Jacob. I was able to be there when Jeff was sealed to our family. I still remember the room and how I felt. It was incredible. Now they will be together forever! I am so excited for them!
Update on Ella.. she is so cute! She is such a silly puppy. So cuddly and tolerant of Madilyn. Madilyn is mothering her like crazy, I feel bad sometimes, I think Ella just wants to run and hide! We are so excited to have her in our Family. She has been such a good thing for all of us. (Thanks Sam for letting us get a puppy!) I told him that is all I wanted for our Anniversary and Christmas. I think I will close for now.. till next post! :]

Family Pictures

We got our family pictures done this last Wednesday. Her name is Amber Bates, with AbbygailLouise Photography. She did an awesome job!

Our New Puppy!!

I know it is amazing! We are getting a new little puppy named Ella. She is 1/4 Poodle and the rest Shitzu (sp?) We went and saw her last night she is so cuddly and calm. Sam will be going to get her tonight and bring her home. We are so excited!! Maddy can hardly stand it! All the way down to springville she kept on saying "We going to get Ella Mommy?" "Where is she?" It was cute. Then this morning she woke up and asked where Ella was. Anyways, I will post more when we get her.

Halloween

Today was Halloween! Madilyn was a Butterfly.. and a cute one at that! I was Ugly Betty, which is surprisingly hard to find an outfit to match hers! You would think it would have been easier.. oh well. I did make her pancho, that say Guadalajara... that took some time! Sam decided to be a party pooper and not dress up. When we went to Grandpa and Gradma Marsden's house though, his mom gave him the "scary mask." At first Madilyn didn't know how to react to it. The first thing she said was "I don't want to be scared!" So we taught her that it was daddy being silly and to pinch his nose! She got a big kick out of that. I decided to change into a BYU fan (a little more comfortable and not so hot!) Sam had her flying like a butterfly in the air on his feet. She was giggling so hard! I am already thinking of next years costumes!

Gardner Village..Once again!

This time we went with Grandpa and Grandma Sellers, Jeffy and Daddy! Madilyn dressed up as a witch and Grandpa had her make a witches hat (mommy helped) It was so much fun! Crowded, but fun. Madilyn insisted again to ride on the pony's ( which she rode twice) Towards the end I think she got tuckered out.

Steve & Kristi

Our Friends Steve & Kristi got married on Saturday! Here are some photos from their wedding. I had the opportunity of taking their pictures... it was beautiful!

Wee Witches Night!

Last night we took Maddy to Gardner Village for "Wee Witches Night!" She had a blast! At first, she was a little unsure of the witches saying "I don't want to be scared!" Our first witch we ran in to, was absoultely wonderful! She was so cute with maddy showing us her spider ring, and singing "Be Our Guest" from Beauty & The Beast. Madiyln was so cute with her. She said "You have pretty nails!" It was cute! Then another witch with a green face came up and maddy said "She's the scary witch!" it was so fun. We went with Grandma, Cami & Tyler (Both neighbors of ours) We are going to go again on Monday, but this time Maddy will be dressed up as a little witch herself!

Pronghorn

This is the pronghorn, antelope, whatever you would like to call it. My dad was lucky enough to draw out. Sam is hunting this weekend so hopefully he will get something and I will post it!! :) Enjoy

First taste of Fall in the Mountains!

Saturday we decided to go and have family pictures done on the Alpine Loop Drive. Despite some drawbacks, we finally were able to take them. I now know Madilyn definitely takes after her mother. She got extremely carsick on the ride up there. Luckily I didn't put her in her outfit until we got up there, and her curls barely made the nap too! Nona Michelle came up with us to enjoy the fall air and mountains. She had been evacuated from Houston last weekend, so it was a blast being able to spend some time with her! We love the Mountains!!

Mom's 50th Birthday Party.... SURPRISE!

It was my Mom's 50th Birthday Yesterday.. what a blast! It started out with our water heater breaking breaking in the middle of the night. Maddy woke us up at about 2:00 in the morning and wanted her diaper be changed (it was to the point of explosion) and insisted that we put powder on her. So Sam went down to the basement to get the poweder, and he found that our basement had flooded..... a lot. It went clear into our 4th bedroom downstairs, all in the family room, hallway and bathroom. We juggled with the idea of calling a plumber then, but realized that it would just cost us even more. So we decided to shut all the water off and TRY to go back to bed. It was hard because we kept thinking about what needed to be done.
You may ask why we went back to bed.. well it was my Mom's Birthday on Saturday and we had planned a surprise Birthday Party for her. I had made arrangements to take her to get an hour long massage in the morning. We needed to get all the sleep we could so we could battle the morning to come. Everything went pretty smooth, Sam's Dad, Ron came, my Dad, my brother Jeff and his friend Colton, all helped to get things moved out onto the patio and wet vac all the water out of the basement. After determining it was JUST the water heater, and not sewer backage, we called my uncle Orlan, who knows EVERYTHING about fixing things. He helped us install the new water heater and we got most everything (besides the carpet is still drying) cleaned up and ready for the party... even with time to spare!
My Mom had NO idea what was going on. Even though it was her birthday she stayed to help most of the day sucking all the water out. When my Dad finally got her to leave, they went out to celebrate her birthday! Thinking we were watching Jeff just for that reason, we got everything prepared for the BIG surprise! When the time came, we had everyone over in the backyard waiting for her... she thought she was coming to get Jeff and we'd go out for ice cream. I told her that Sam, Jeff, Maddy and I were outside having a picnic for dinner, and that Maddy had a surprise for her. She was really surprised, almost to the point of tears.. it was awesome! I am grateful for everyone coming and helping out yesterday, with out them, we wouldn't have been able to pull it off!



Mom's first reaction to everything



Getting sprayed with silly spray





Maddy trying to get the silly spray to work


Kayli and Kiara

Elk Hunt/Labor Day Weekend 2008

I have made a promise to myself that i would AT LEAST update the blog once a month.. I am no good at these things, and I am still learning all the in's and outs of running a blog. Bear with me while I figure things out.. I am going to be posting some of the "Summer Activites" we have done with Maddy this summer.. and just a little update from this year.

To start things off: Every year we go up to Flaming Gorge for the Labor Day weekend. We decided to try something different this year and go up to a different spot. We definitely had a lot of fun! It was COLD and RAINY.. but Madilyn still managed to get herself dirty. I am surprised at how "okay" I was with that. My mom can recall a time when I said "I will NEVER let my kids get dirty... EVER!!" ha ha... how it changes once you actually have kids. I figure they wash, and so do their clothes. Besides I dont think Maddy even noticed how cold it was up there, she was having so much fun! Sam did get a shot at a cow elk, however I think all the addrenalin got to him.. and he missed. That is okay though... my dad did too! Yes, you heard right.. haha the great huntersman! I just told him.. there is always next year... and of course, the muzzleloader Deer in the next few months.


Madilyn in Grandpa Sellers Truck!


Goofy Grin of hers..


Wait.. is that Sam? Can't tell because
of the Camo..


Sam again.

Dad in his Truck

Maddy and Grandma!

Here we go again!

Okay, So I don't know what the deal was with the other blog, but now I have this going... I am going to give it another try! :)