Christmas Eve Spectacular

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve is always a huge event in my family. Every year my mom puts together this HUGE spread of food. It is a buffet of the yummiest food ever. The first time Doug came to a Christmas Eve at my families, he ate so much shrimp cocktail he was literally sick for a couple of days. He couldn't look at shrimp cocktail for a while after that too! We all laughed and called him a rookie. There's a science to eating the buffet he hadn't learned yet. This was was especially fun because we had all of our family together and some friends too. My parents, brother and sister, grandma and grandpa, and Justin and Sarah were all there. We had just enough kids for the making of our own little Nativity play, so that's exactly what we did! It was by far the most adorable thing I have ever seen! Here is the run down of how it all went down...

Papa- Narrator

Karlee- Angel (of course!)

Monterey- Mary

Brody- Joseph

Alexandra- Wiseman

Jadyn- Wiseman

Linkin-Shepherd

Codan- Shepherd

Caviston- Shepherd

Ry Ry- Wiseman

Oh by the way, Doug and I got suckered into doing it too!!! They needed an Inn Keeper and his Wife, so Doug and I ended up with the roles. (Those pictures wont be posted) :)

My dad read the story and would pause for the characters to act out what had just happened. Than we would sing a Christmas song that went along with the story. It was the most precious thing ever to see those kids dressed up acting out the Christmas Story. It is definitely a tradition we must keep doing for years to come. I know they enjoyed it, and so did we. There isn't anything like the spirits of those little kids that make you feel the real meaning of Christmas.

My adorable little Shepherd boy! (Doug is still dressed up like the Inn Keeper in the back)

Good thing Caviston was there to "harken" unto the angel. The other two Shepherd just kept eating the manger. Good work boys.

Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus lying in his manger. I think this picture is precious!

Most of the cast... Karlee, Montorey, Brody, Jadyn, and Caviston

Family Christmas Picture

We love you grandma and grandpa!!!!!!

Christmas Day

(I got my two front teeth just in time for Christmas!)

I know I am getting a little carried away with posting all these pictures of Linkin, but it is my first child's first Christmas. That's a holiday in itself, right?! So I had this genius plan that I would put the toys together and than wrap them and that would all of a sudden make him be sixteen years old on Christmas. My plan was a semi success I would say. I think if the toys weren't put together he wouldn't have cared less, but since he had something to play with immediately, he thought it was way more fun. With that said, his favorite toys he got were a couple of balls that came with one of his toys. Could have saved myself a lot of trouble if that's all he got! :) Anyway, we woke up (correction he woke us up) and started Christmas right away. One of the toys he got was a toy house, and it was to big to wrap, so I just threw a blanket over it. I took the blanket off, and Link crawled over to it and grabbed the balls out of it and crawled away. I don't think he knows for sure yet how to play with the house, because he just steels the balls from it still. We started opening gifts and he thought it was pretty fun, but I think he was a little bit overwhelmed. He kept crawling into the other room and playing with his favorite toy he has had for months! He would leave us and go have a little bit of "me" time by himself in the hallway. I would go get him and bring him back and open up more presents. It was hilarious! We took way to many pictures and had way to much fun with our little man. Doug and I got our Christmas presents early. We did the whole Black Friday thing with all the crazies. I got some golf clubs and he got speakers for his TV he won at work. He actually won another TV from work and he gave that to me on Christmas morning. The most surprising thing to me was it was a surprise! Doug always gets to excited and tells me my gifts early. This year he did an AMAZING job at keeping it all secret. I'm very proud of my man. After presents were over, I made a yummy breakfast and we got ready to go over to Grandma and Grandpa's house for more Christmas. We had a busy Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It was a blast!

This is Linkin's favorite new toy. I like it because it's educational of course, not because he'll play with it forever so I can actually get laundry done. :)

This is the toy Link kept crawling over to and playing with while we were trying to open up his presents. It was too cute and funny!

Oops!

Christmas Eve!

It's Christmas Eve!!!! This morning my dad asked my two nieces Monterey and Alexandra who was coming to their house tonight (meaning Santa). They looked at him and said, "Hillary!" I thought that was the funniest thing I'd ever heard. I don't know how it happened, but somehow I out ranked Santa! (I actually think they didn't realize it was Christmas Eve.) Still, I out ranked Santa! :) Merry Christmas everyone!!!!!!! Enjoy your Holiday with your family and friends!

When Is Christmas?!?

Doug and I have been total procrastinators this year. We totally saved all of our Christmas shopping until today. We were out there with all of the crazies doing the last minute dash today. We almost got done too! I know what I'll be doing Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. :) (If my family is reading this I totally bought yours like three months ago.) lol. The reason that we waited for so long is because we both wanted to do it together. It was so funny to be able to buy Linkin's Christmas presents right in front of him. We would show him the gifts and say, "Hey, this is what you're getting for Christmas." We would both laugh because he had no clue what was going on. It was awesome. What will I do when he gets old enough to understand? I even let him play with one of the toys before I wrapped it. He wont remember he played with that in a week, right?
Everyone has told me that he is too young to really grasp the whole open presents thing on Christmas morning. They tell me not to get my hopes up. Well... I have a theory about that! I have decided that if I have all of the toys out of their boxes and already put together and ready to go he will get it. I know this is probably me just being ridiculous, but I think it will work. I put all of the toys together and have all of the batteries in them. As soon as that paper gets ripped off, he's ready to go. There is no way he'll just want to play with the wrapping paper, right? The only part about my genius plan is that I hate to have presents wrapped that don't look pretty. I like presents to be wrapped all perfect like they were just brought home from a gift wrapping store. My presents this year look like Linkin wrapped them himself. The toys are all crazy shapes and it was a total sloppy job. I'll suck it up though as long as Christmas morning goes well! Do you think my plan will work?

IT'S A BOY!!!!!!!

Okay, so I'm not pregnant, but I totally thought I was for a like a week and a half. This story was too funny I had to share. I went to the store to buy a test because I was convinced we were having a baby. I bought a bunch of other stuff too. I was all finished and checking out and the clerk cracked me up! She was scanning all of my items and she paused when she came to my test. She looked at it and said, "Oh, one of those". In like the most monotone yet freaked out voice ever. I responded by saying, "yep." She looked at my basked and saw Linkin and said, "Oh, and one of those too!" I smiled and said, "yep." She looked at me with the most terrifying expression and said, "uh oh, it's to soon." I looked at her and said, "yep." She finished checking me out and I laughed all the way home. As if I wasn't already thinking those thoughts, the random lady at Albertson's had to reinforce them. It was hilarious! Had to pass it on!

O' Christmas Tree O' Christmas Tree

Last week I put up my Christmas tree. I was a little bit worried about having it up because I was convinced Linkin was going to pull it over on himself. The boy could care less about my tree! I put it up while he was taking a nap, and when he woke up he totally didn't even realize it was there. I showed it to him because I wanted to see what he was going to do and if I should put a gate up. He sat on the floor next to the tree and started pulling on the ornaments until they fell off. He thought they were pretty fun to suck on and throw. It was so adorable because he tried to put them back on the tree. He would pick them up and try to get them to magically stick onto the branch. It was the cutest thing I've ever seen! He would get so mad because obviously they didn't stick. He would let out a little frustrated moan and try it again. Occasionally he would get lucky and one of the hooks would catch on something and he would scrunch up his face into his cute little smile and do his happy breathing. (This is were he breaths out his nose and sounds like a pug dog! :) It was seriously the most adorable thing I've ever seen! I wish I could have gotten video of it but as soon as he sees my camera he drops whatever he's doing and wants to come eat the camera! He's my silly boy!!! :)

This is my Christmas tree. I took pics with the lights on but they made it look weird. It looks better in person! :)

I got a little crazy with my tree topper this year. It looks way cool though!

Here Comes Santa Clause

Over Thanksgiving break Doug and I took Linkin to go and visit Santa. We went to the Santa at Kierland Commonds. We got there just in enough time for Santa to have to go on his one hour break to check on Rudolph. We decided to wait the hour and go walk around Kierland until Santa came back. Linkin was totally crazy and not in the mood. We came back a little early and we were second in line. We were so psyched because we knew it would go fast and we'd get cute pics before Link got to crazy. Right when Santa came back they made an announcement and asked all the people with numbers to come to the front of the line. Ten people got to go in front of us!!!!!! What the madness!!!!!! We had to entertain Link for like thirty minutes so these people could do practically a whole photo shoot. It was finally our turn and Linkin turned into a little angel. It was so adorable! He was grinning and laughing all over the place. The only problem was the lady would make him laugh and than try to run to the camera and take the picture. She would get the after smile shot every time. :( When she finally had someone else take the picture it was to late, Link was over it. I still think we got cute pics though. Linkin's first Christmas is already here!!!!!

For the first five shots Linkin just stared Santa down. It was too funny!

I don't really love this picture of me, but it was our first family picture with Santa. (Aren't the grass stains on my jeans classy. That was part of the entertaining Linkin portion of standing in line!)

Twilight @ Midnight

Yes I am a total nerd and this is the back of my t-shirt that I wore to the Twilight opening. My hair did cover it, so I'm not a total looser! :) The front of my shirt had a cute little design and it said, "Stupid Lamb".

A group of girls from my stake decided to all get together and go see the Twilight movie at 12:01 am. We had it totally planned out that we would go to dinner at Cheese Cake Factory at 10:00, be in line by 11:00 and get seats together. Boy were we ever wrong! I drove by the theatre on my way to Cheese Cake and saw all of the girls already camped out at 9:30. I jumped in line and called the other girls. We were pretty much one of the last groups of people in our line. I guess all of the high school kids came directly from school and camped out with their blankies and everything! That's totally cheating! I have a baby that needs to get to sleep before I can leave! :) The people at the front of the line were reading their books and getting all ready to go. It was hilarious! I wanted to take a picture for the blog, but decided that might be a little bit tacky.

(This is my seat buddy Kim.)

They let us in the theatre at 10:30 and we had an hour and a half to kill. Since we were at the end of the line, we didn't end up all sitting together. We were spread out in little clusters. The manager kept coming in and making announcements to remind people not to scream out stuff during the movie and be respectful. The girls next to me totally missed that memo because they talked the entire show. It was a little hard to pay attention with the two movie critics next to me. :) There was even a news station that came into the theatre to videotape us for the news on Friday. It was crazy. I've never seen so many screaming high schoolers in my life! We had a fun time with our adventures at midnight. I don't think I'll do the midnight thing if they make another, but this one was fun.

(This is Vanessa. She got stuck sitting by herself so I went over to chat! Love ya girlie!)

(Silly Kristin! Don't you know you can't hide from me! I'll find you!!)

MY HUSBAND THE MOST AMAZING MAN EVER.....

I truly married the most amazing man in the world. Doug knew that I was going to be tired so he got up with Linkin on Friday morning and put him down for his morning nap before he left for work so that I could sleep in. I got to sleep until 9 the morning after the movie. And than, on Saturday morning he got up and took Linkin over to his parents house and I slept in and laid in bed until noon! Isn't he awesome!!!! Earlier in the week he even cleaned the house while I was at mutual and he brought me flowers because I was having a bad day! :) You gotta love a guy like that! I love you Dougie! Your the best husband in the world and father too!

WARNING: The following contains a movie review of Twilight. If you have not seen the movie, there may be spoilers below. Read at your own risk....

The movie was probably the cheesiest movie I have ever seen! I had a little bit higher expectations for the movie. It could have been really cool, but it was quite underwhelming. I think that when it started it was a low budget small film and the hype for it got to big to fast. I hope that if they do more of the books the budget will increase and so will the acting and special affects. Edward was absolutely ridiculous for the first fourth of the movie. Once they got to the part where him and Bella decided to be together his acting got better. He did not play the "angry" Edward very well. It was actually laughable. I think I did laugh out loud a few times at how ridiculous he was. As the movie went on though, he did get better. I am probably going to be hated for saying this but Holy Crap I did not like Bella at all! She was probably the worst person they could have picked. She was way to hysterical and acted silly. I know that Bella was a little intense, but I didn't always read her that way. She was also a pleaser and tried to make everyone happy so she acted happy. She didn't always act like a pouty baby. The worst actor of the movie by far has to go to Jasper. What was up with his facial expressions. He was outright ridiculous! It was honestly pathetic how bad he was. I will say that the nomads were pretty cool and that Rosalie did an awesome job. Carlisle was totally cheesy during the fight scene when he told Edward, "Remember who you are." LAME! The movie was fun, but I don't think I will stay up til midnight for the next one. I also hope the next one is a lot better than this one because, holy cow!

#1 Suns Fan

On Thursday night the Lakers played the Suns in basketball. This was a huge game for us. Doug and I are both HUGE Suns fans. (That's right! I'm the girliest tom boy you will ever meet!) Anyways, I can't stand the Lakers. I don't really like Kobe Bryant that much. My favorite year was the year the Suns came back and beat the Lakers in the playoffs. That was the same year that Raja Bell threw Kobe to the floor with a flagrant foul. That year was CRAZY! Each year when we play the Lakers, Doug and I get excited for the game, so this year was no different. The only thing that was different was that now I have a little doll, aka- Linkin, to dress up in Suns attire. I had to get him a new outfit to wear during the game! :) I had to post these pictures of the newest Suns fan in our family!

Crazy Week

This week seemed a little bit busy. I figured I'd lump it all together into one blog. Monday night started off with a bang! Doug (my Cardinal loving husband) had the opportunity to go to the Monday night football game. He had awesome seats and got to watch the Cardinals beat the 49ers. We went to the last Monday night game too, but it was a very sad game for him to watch. In case you missed it, the Cardinals totally chocked and lost to the Bears. (He needed serious therapy after that loss.) I'm totally bummed to say that I don't have any pictures from the game because Doug was afraid he'd forget the camera at the game.

Tuesday and Wednesday night were busy too, but Thursday I had the opportunity to go listen to Ardeth Kapp speak. If you don't know who she is, she was the General Young Women's President a little while back. Listening to her speak was so powerful. The spirit was so strong. Listening to all of the stories she had to tell and all of the advise that she had to give was amazing. This women is such an example of amazing female leadership in the church. She was intellectual both spiritually and mentally. I was so grateful for the chance to have the calling I do in Young Women's so I could go hear her speak. My favorite part of her talk was her continual use of the phrase "Your better than you think you are." I think this phrase is so true. So often we don't give ourselves enough credit for the good things that we do. I love this quote and want to pass it on to my girls in my group. She also broke down the Young Women's theme into an awesome description. It was definitely a strength to my testimony to be in her presence.

Now onto a more worldly topic... Doug had the happiest day of his life on Friday night. He was been working his tail off at work the past few weeks because they were doing a sales competition and the prize was a big screen TV. Well, on Friday Doug got to go pick up his brand new 50 inch HD TV. He was worse than a little boy on Christmas! He was so giddy it was hilarious! He had money left over from his gift card that he was also able to get a PlayStation 3 and a Nintendo Wii. This boy is in his hogs delight!

Saturday was a little bit of an embarrassing day for me. I wasn't going to add this to the blog, but Doug said I had to. :) I got my hair done on Tuesday and the lady asked me to be in her hair show Saturday. I didn't think I'd really do it, but Doug talked me into it so I did it. I had to sit in a chair on the end of a runway while they showed people how to do "Victoria Secret Curls." EMBARRASSING!!!!! After that, I had to go walk around the crowd and show people my hair. When I was done with that, I had to walk the catwalk! I am not the kind of person who gets into this type of thing, but I had to hide my embarrassment and show off my hair. The first show was a little frightening, but the second show there was less people so I had a little more fun with my runway walk. :) (Sorry I didn't video tape it for you. Yeah Right!) Saturday night Doug and I took a date night after I got home from my hair show. It seems like we haven't gone out on a date in forever. It was so much fun to be able to be out and about like a couple again without having our baby with us. It was like we were newly weds again. Our week was a little bit busy with something going on every night, but it was a lot of fun. I wouldn't want life any other way!!!!

You boys like Mexico.....

Doug and I have been known for our spontaneous trips to Mexico (Terri, you know what we're talking about!), but this one was by far the craziest! We had been planning to go, but than decided that it wouldn't be a good idea because Linkin was acting funny and we were afraid he'd get sick down there. At the last minute, we decided to do it. I had to pack myself, Linkin, and Doug in a few hours not to mention four days worth of meals. It was nuts! Doug got home from work and loaded up the truck and we were out of here by 8:30 pm. It takes five hours to get from our house to my parents house down in Mexico. The last hour and a half of the trip is driven on a really narrow and scary road...

(This picture is during the day so it probably doesn't look that bad.)

Imagine this road at night! It is hardly big enough to pass people. By the time we got to this road it was already midnight and we were delusional! I had to drink a can of Monster to stay awake, and Doug drank a Monster and two Rockstars! :) There were points where I swear I saw people running across the road in the pitch black. It was crazy!!!!!!!! We finally arrived safely at 1:30 am. I don't think we will ever do the middle of the night drive again. It was an adventure I'll give you that! The next morning we woke up with Linkin and took turns taking naps all day. (I know we are old! That's what having kids does to you.) We took a small drive to the local village and loaded up on the necessities. You know what I'm talking about... Mexican Coke and homemade tortillas! It isn't a trip to Mexico without those two things! The next day was our day of fun and pictures! Linkin wasn't sure about the sand at first, but as you can see from the pictures below he warmed up to it.

Mommy and Me stopping for a Kodak moment!

One day I'll be big like my dad! The world is so small from up here!

That's one big bathtub!

I couldn't believe he actually looked at the camera and smiled so I had to post this picture!

Right after this he put that big hunk of sand in his mouth. EEEWWWW!!!!!!!!

He could not believe it was okay to be playing in the sand like this. He wouldn't move or crawl, just kept digging holes. It was hilarious!

I love this picture of my two favorite boys!

It was time for the sun to set on our family vacation. :( We decided to leave Saturday morning when Linkin woke up so we wouldn't be driving through the night again. I didn't want to hit any of those imaginary people with the truck! We knew if we drove all night we would sleep all through church the next day. Linkin was so good for us during the ride home. He watched his movies on his DVD player and played with his toys. He did wake up for a little bit when Doug and I stopped for a little picture on the side of the rode. We have had this joke about the No Rebase signs in Mexico since the first time we went down there. This time we took pictures. I thought Doug was just going to slow down so I could get one, but all of a sudden he jumps out of the car and runs over to the sign. I asked what he was doing and he said he was getting himself a picture. It was the funniest thing ever! Linkin totally woke up so we had to start moving fast!He slept for about an hour until we got to the border. Apparently you need a passport for yourself and a birth certificate for your baby to get across the border. We had neither of these things. We had our IDs and Linkin's Social Security card. The lady was cool and let us slide but threatened us for the next time. Oops! After the border Doug serenaded me with his amazing singing voice. :) He sung the songs to me in "Spanish". By this I mean he made up his own gibberish that sounded nothing at all like Spanish. It was hilarious. We were cracking up! We got home safe and sound and had an amazing trip. It was nice to get away for a couple of days with just our little family and enjoy ourselves. We love ourselves a quick trip to Mexico!


Had to post it!!!!!!!!!!

Halloween? What Halloween?

AArg! This Halloween I was so excited that I was going to have a baby to dress up and enjoy the holiday with. I thought about a costume for way to long and obsessed way to much over it. We had our Ward Trunk or Treat party first. That was a total bust. Linkin decided not to take a nap that day and we all know how that goes. We were at Trunk or Treat for all of ten minutes before Linkin decided it was time to go. (By that I mean he started screaming uncontrollably.) I got to take two pictures and that was it!!!!!!!!! The pics didn't even turn out good. :( On Halloween we got to go over to my brother's house out in Surprise. Let me tell you, the drive from Scottsdale to Surprise is not a short one. We drove for two hours to get there. Linkin watched Little Mermaid and Lady and the Tramp 2 in the time it took to get out there. We got there in just enough time for Linkin to get really sick and we had to turn around and go home. He wore his costume for all of ten minutes the whole holiday! I was a little bummed out that it turned out this way, so I decided to have a little photo shoot of my own and get some pics of him as an adorable little pirate baby. Isn't he adorable!!!!!! (I know this probably seems a little stubborn of me, but I wanted those pics!)

Linkin found a bag of "pirate booty" and he's enjoying his loot!

I thought it would be funny to get a picture of him behind bars to make it look like he was in jail, but talk about your all time backfires! I put him in his crib and he freaked out. Taking this picture anyway probably makes me a bad mom huh?

Rock of Doug

We had the best time last weekend at our Halloween party. We had couples in the ward over for a little adult only Halloween bash. It was so funny to see what everybody dressed up as. We had some awesome costumes and some even better treats! Thanks to everyone that came and brought yummy treats. Doug dressed up as Brett Michaels (lead singer of Poison.) Brett had a reality TV show that was a spin off version of The Bachelor. His show was called Rock of Love. I dressed up as a Rock of Love groupie. My outfit was even complete with a backstage VIP pass. There were many celebrities that took time away from their busy schedules to come join us. Check out who came down below. I see celebrities......

That's right! We had an appearance by Hannah Montana and Billy Ray Cyrus! When your rock stars like us (our costumes), you know big celebrities.

Charlie Brown and his crush "The Red Head Girl"

Alice, the Mad Hatter, and the White Rabbit came to life for our Halloween gathering.

Law enforcement was out in force. We not only had Border Patrol, but we also had a Marine. The Border Patrol agent wouldn't be complete without her illegal Mexican and the Marine wouldn't be complete without his cowgirl beauty. Great costumes guys!

Celebrities can't have a party without the "help".

Thanks everyone for the awesome costumes. We had such a blast at the party! We have to do this again next year!!!!

Big Old Baby

I know you already know this, but I am almost nine months old! You know what that makes me..... a big boy! I am not a baby anymore like some of those other kids out there. Oh no! I am almost off the bottle. The only time I do that is when it's time to sleep. Even then I try to fight off my parents. I start rolling around and make it hard for them to feed me. I know they're trying to put me to sleep, so I like to mess with them! :) It's great being a kid! I am also getting to be more independent. I have been able to sit up by myself for a while now, but now I can crawl. I'm pretty good at it too. I've had my fair share of spills on our tile though, so I've learned to take it a little slow on that stuff. I also like having a little me time now and then. I'll let my mom put me down so I can play with my toys all by myself. I'm good for a little bit, but than I want her to come play with me again. Oh I almost forgot! I like to play attack of the mommy. This game is so fun! Mom lays down on the floor and I crawl over when she's not looking and dive bomb her. When will she ever learn? I also have another fun game I like to call bye bye binky. I crawl over to the tile, take out my binky, and spin it around on the floor. I can shoot that thing pretty far now! Mom doesn't like that game. She says something about germs getting on my binky but I don't even know what that is! One of my favorite toys I like to play with now is the channel changer. I like to crawl all over the recliner too. I like to hang upside down on the side of it, climb over the top of it, and stand on the floor and shake it. I forgot to mention that my newest trick is I am starting to use things to pull myself up so I can stand. I work out to get my legs big and strong in my bouncer. You should see me fly. I am such a big boy huh?!

LIKE FATHER LIKE SON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just playing bye bye binky. Can you see why my mom doesn't like this game? I can't!

Cruising for a bruising! Push play and watch me go!