Christmas Eve...

The Toyota jump!

Every other year we spend Christmas Eve with Brad's family. The traditional evening starts with dinner at Chili's where Grandma Mary pays the bill. "Thanks Grandma Mary!" This tradition has been going on over 20 years and the restaurant they used to go to was at the Cottonwood mall. During our first year of marriage we headed to the restaurant and to the family's surprise it was no longer there! In looking for a new restaurant that was open on Christmas Eve, we ended up at Chili's and now we have spent 6 years eating at the "new" restaurant.

Monica, Chris and Lily

After dinner we then make the trek downtown to Temple Square to see the lights. Now, I didn't realize until this year... not surprising since it takes me several months to notice a new building on the side of the road that I drive by everyday. But I digress. Apparently, the family has a particular "route" they walk EVERY year and when you don't realize there is a route, it can be difficult to try and find everyone after taking pictures. :-) We decided this year to take FUN pictures of us doing silly things to shake it up a bit. So here are some of the results! We had a great time!

Megan and Dave...trying to make it look like they are jumping over the Temple... sorry guys!

Random... not sure what Brad is doing...he hates being in pictures..

This is everyone trying to help Brad enjoy the picture!

Brad loves to play like he is going to drop me.

Lily, Emma, me and Will

Nicole and Will

Dave, Megan and Lily floating above...

Close your eyes! Paul and Karen

Nicole and Will being silly

Me and Lily

Nicole and Lily (they sure are in a lot of pictures!)

Dave and Megan

Allison "accidentally" walked into the men's restroom OOPS!

Some interesting folks we saw on Temple Square. They had 3-D glasses on and they let us try them out. The glasses actually made the lights look very cool.

Another tradition on Christmas Eve is acting out the Nativity. A couple of year ago the Brad and his sisters made costumes and purchased props as a Christmas present for their mom and dad. They turned out great!

Isn't this picture precious?

An interesting coincidence, for the wise men costumes Natalie or Monica made the clothing and Brad and I picked out the hats and gifts. When we all got all the costumes together everything matched perfectly... amazing! The crown on Grandma's head has similar jewels as the collar around her neck.


Brad and Dave as shepherds and Allison as a cow and Megan as a sheep.

This was just funny... I was the Angel (I know cheesy) and the shepherds were "sore afraid"!

Paul and Karen reading the story and taking pictures.

We had a great time and look forward to spending Christmas Eve every other year with Brad's family. More to come.....

Christmas parties and friends...

I am blessed to have wonderful friends! Every year I have two groups of friends my mission friends. And the other group should probably be called the "roommate" group, which is true -more on that later. That get together for our annual Christmas parties. Nikie posted about this too.

This year the "mission" group met at Iggy's for dinner then headed to Becky and Roy's home for dessert and games. We do a gift exchange that can at times be heated but this year it wasn't too bad. Sorry LeAnn, that you got stuck with the "Skookie"! We try to get together almost every month and I truly look forward to seeing them. Love you girls!

LeAnn, me - top row

Becky, Nikie, and Kim - bottom row

The husbands are invited to a summer BBQ and Christmas party each year. We are missing Nikie's husband Steve in the picture. Sorry Steve! He left a bit early to take the babysitter home.

Below Roy (Becky's husband), Cesar (Kim's husband), and Brad.

In the "roommate" group we get together for lunch to celebrate each of our birthdays. We also have a BBQ in the spring, Cinco de Mayo celebration, 4th of July (when Brad and I can make it without conflicting with family traditions), and the annual Halloween party. We have sooo much fun!

This year we had a delicious meal at Linda and Dan's home and our gift exchange game. We had a great time and LOVED our gifts!! Thanks guys!

It is true we all were roommates and one point but I originally met Linda in the MTC. We were in the combined Spanish class with both our districts, and she lived a floor (or 2) below me. Kim and I were companions on our mission and moved out together the first time with a 3rd roommate Allison. Then we moved to this really small but great house in the Cottonwood Heights area and Linda moved in with us. Then we when Allison moved out Katy moved in, then Melissa. Melissa was Linda's roommate a couple years prior at BYU. Was that a fun history lesson! I lived in that house for 3 yrs before getting married and we had 2 other roommates Stephanie and Annika during that time as well. (Linda feel free to correct me on my timeline or whatever!)

We had so many great adventures living together in that house. I was lucky to have such great roommates that I love dearly and still enjoy being around.

Thanks girls for all the great memories!

me, Kim, Mel and Linda

Just a side note... Kim is pregnant and due Feb 4 (i think?), Mel is also pregnant and due Mar 1st, and yes Linda is pregnant as well and due Mar 3rd (I may have switched Mel and Linda's due dates.. sorry ladies!) I missed the 4th of July party last year.. guess something was in the food!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE!!!

The Tree!

We were finally able to finish decorating our tree. Yippee! Brad put the last strand of lights on Saturday afternoon and I hung the ornaments Saturday night.



Notice the deer in the meadow on the entertainment center... this was a compromise between Brad and I. When we bought the entertainment center we had differing opinions on how we should decorate the top. Brad thought a stuffed bobcat reaching out to swat a pheasant out of the sky was better option than more traditional ideas. I thought differently and went with a more traditional approach. So I figured at Christmas time we could go with a more outdoor theme to help with Brad's desire to bring in nature!

Here is a random picture from our ward Christmas party this year. We had a LIVE Nativity with a some of our ward members and a donkey. It looks pretty good right? Nice work Emily!

We also met my family downtown to see the lights and Temple square last night. Then we headed to dinner at Trolley Square. More pictures below...

I hope you are all enjoying the holidays!

Check out some videos and clips from some of my favorite Christmas movies on the sidebar. Also, a video by Hilary Weeks from her Christmas album.

Two weeks off.....Christmas vacation

It has been a while since I posted.. I have lots ideas in my head lets just hope they come out sooner rather than later. At least it has only been a couple weeks instead of almost 2 months (Patch family! ha ha)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas Holiday and a Happy New Year.. I know we did!

Just wanted to give a run down of some of the activities we did during the 2 weeks off both Brad and I had from work. Brad's accident happened just before the holidays so he was not up for to many activities... especially anything that involved a lot of sitting or moving around. So we watched some movies both at home and in the theater. We attended the Temple, had dinner with family and hit a movie.. all in one night.. Brad's back did not like that! Did some shopping... ok a lot of shopping! Brad was a good sport, it was good for his back to walk around right?

Of course spent time together just enjoying family on Christmas and New Year's. Here are some fun photos of family during the holidays.

Weeks family! (Jamie (sister), Dad in his favorite chair! )

Travis (bro) & Carly (girlfriend) Brad with his favorite gift a Cabella's gift card! See the excitement! Mom happy with the firepit!

Our cute dog Abby (left) and her best friend Kona (Travis' dog)

Bennett family! Long awaited family portrait gift to Karen and Paul (Brad's parents) Pictures of Karen and Paul didn't turn out.. sorry guys! :(

Megan(Brad's sis) & Dave, Nicole (Brad's sis) & Neil , Monica (sis) & Chris







Grandma Mary (Karen's mom), Emma and Alison on the guitar! (Monica's girls)

William (Monica's son) Lily (Monica's daughter) and Me!

Sorry if the pictures are all over the place.. I am still learning this blogging stuff!

All in all lots of fun memories... stay tuned for New Years day pics of us shooting!!!!

May we all remember the true meaning of Christmas!

I love Christmas! This year has been a bit different than years past... I am not sure if I have been more busy or what but I have not been as excited about Christmas this year. I am usually the one that has it all together, I love searching for that perfect gift for my family and friends and can't wait to see the reaction to the gift that was given. I guess maybe it is because I don't feel like I accomplished the perfect gifts for everyone this year. I know it can't be perfect every year but I really like to try!

Here are some pictures of my cute parents and sister when we visited Temple Square last week. We had a great time and ended up at the Garden Room for dinner at the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial building. It was a really fun night!









Ok.. I don't want to be a downer on Christmas Eve so let me share with you what helped me get into the Christmas spirit! At church yesterday we had the traditional Christmas program in Sacrament meeting, which was a great way to start the day. I love Christmas music so that
always helps me get in the mood! We were also fasting for a family in our ward that had their baby 3 months early, he has a hole in his heart and is fighting for his life. Then in laurel class, each of the girls prepared a 2-3 min lesson on their favorite talk from this past General Conference. It was such a neat experience seeing each of them share their testimonies about the gospel and Christ, and each of them had a unique experience to share. I left church feeling uplifted and excited for Christmas - remembering why we really celebrate this holiday, it is because of Christ. I love spending time with family and creating new lasting memories.



Here is the last picture we took after we ate dinner at the Garden Room overlooking Temple Square. Isn't it beautiful!!

"Without Christ there would be no Christmas, and without Christ there can be no fullness of joy."

~President Ezra Taft Benson Christmas Devotional December 1985

I hope we all remember the true meaning of Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas to all of you!!