Bronson Christmas Party

Last friday we had a Christmas Party with Jake's Mom's side of the family, the Bronson's. They always just have pizza, pop, and dessert because it is pretty easy to do for such a large group. We had a white elephant gift exchange, Jake and I ended up with a Mint flavored chocolate orange and some men's musk body spray (both of us agreed to him never wearing). I was assigned to bring a dessert. Since Crystal Moeller and I had our annual "Crystal Squared Christmas Cooking" that Monday, it was perfect. I brought our Reese's PB mini cup cookies that we usually make and we made something new this year. Homemade Peppermint Oreos with holiday sprinkles. You guessed it, found on Pinterest. :) I think they turned out really yummy! Here are some pics of the evening:

 Peppermint Oreo Cookies

 Enjoying a candy cane and Aunt Linsey

 Ash, Jess, Ty, and Skye

Thom and Jake's Aunt Lisa.

 Getting ready to play the White Elephant game.

 Trying to get Ev interested in his new toy.

 A little blurry but figured out how to make it go. 

 Mainly just wanted to play with other kid's toys.

 The "Nativity"

  The whole big family!

Well next post will be about decorations and probably Christmas too, since its in 3 days!!! (Don't worry I have absolutely NONE of my shopping done...yikes!!) Also, Bean and Josh will be here on the 26th til the 2nd so yay!! Until next time...

Giving Thanks '11

We trade off every year which side we have Thanksgiving dinner with and since  we did Jake's family last year it was the Campbell side's turn. With no Bean & Josh it was a pretty small gathering. I was put in charge of bringing mashed potatoes and rolls. BUT since I always see so many ideas online and never do any of them. I decided I'd try one of the things I've pinned on Pinterest. I was originally going to make these cute turkeys, but since Jake hates candy corn... I went with these little pilgrim hats. They were a lot easier to make, so I guess that is a plus. haha My frosting skills need a little work but I think you can still tell the intention.

Jake's family was starting their Thanksgiving at noon, while my parents weren't eating until 1:30. So I made enough so that I brought some to Jake's family thing too. It was the Bronson side of the family which means there was a MILLION people there. Okay maybe not that many but they rent out a church for goodness sakes! I honestly don't even try to learn most of Jake's cousins names. There is way too many. I only know the ones that are closer to our ages like Skye and Bronson. Thank goodness he only has 4 cousins on the Allen side.  Here are some pics from the day:

 

 Evan, Me, and Jake 

 

Mom and Dad

 Season, Mike, and Aurelia

 Then my mom had this little cat house/tent and Evan and Aurelia were just having a good ol' time playing with it.

Anyway even though this was all last week I just want to say how thankful I am for my family, especially Jake and Evan. They both are my life! Everyday I think, how did I get so lucky? That I get to have this adorable baby that brings me SOOOO much happiness and a husband who makes me laugh every day (well MOST days... haha).
I'm also very thankful for our home! Its almost been one year that we've lived here and I love that we aren't renting or living with our parents. Also in the "roof over my head" category, I'll add food in our pantry/fridge and clothes on our backs, the bare nessecities of life. (Totally singing Jungle Book song)
I'm thankful for our jobs! This year my employment was actually the worst I've had ever, with getting laid off, being on unemployment, then settling and working at Walmart. Hopefully now though we'll be better off that I'm back at Sorenson. And I know Jake works so hard too. I know he hates working graves and there has been a lot of office drama in his work lately so it makes me that much more appreciative that he puts up with it because of his family and because of his hard work I'm able to only work part time so I can take care of Evan and avoid daycare.
I'm grateful for Jake going to school, again I know he is doing it so that in the long run he is better able to provide for his family!
A few other things that I think are great in my life: Having two cars that work, being able to afford the conveniences of internet and cell phones, not having to wake up to an alarm clock, and my handful of close friends, even though I don't see them much its good to know they're there if I need them.

Anyway been drinking some hot cocoa and thinking of putting the Christmas tree up this weekend. I'll keep you posted on that. Until next time :)

What's this?!

Oh blog, there you are! You seem to have gotten buried under a bunch of other activities in life but I'm here to brush off the dust now. Well let's play my most favorite blog game! Catch-up!

Vikings was a bust for Halloween :S The funding and timing was just not there unfortunately, so we settled on some last minute costumes. There's always next year though. :) We did have a fun pre-Halloween weekend. We watched Season's (long winded) dance performance then went to the annual party at Clint's. I was an 80's dancer and Jake was a ... ghost? Reaper? I dunno, just something scary looking! Silly me forgot my camera though, so we had to steal this photo from Devin who took it with the Hipstamatic app on his phone.  

 

And as I do every year, I carved a pumpkin. This year we did it over at Jake's parents house, though he didn't come. As usual, Evan just had a fun time hanging out with his aunts/grandparents.  Here's my finished product: 

Baby Evan ended up being a pumpkin (I know, typical) but he didn't seem to mind. :)  I was going to get a candy corn costume, but Jake said no because he thinks candy corn is disgusting. I did have my camera on hand to snap up some shots of our cutest lil punkin who is now 8 months old! :) He has 6 teeth and already weighs 20 lbs!!  Haven't figured out sleeping through the night still, but I think its not far off. Had our first baby illness, Croup, right before Halloween. We got through it just fine. He's walking around furniture like a pro. We're thinking first steps around Christmas. I can't believe how fast it goes!

Jake is almost done with his first semester of classes. He has been doing very well in all his subjects and I'm so proud of him! He doesn't seem to get too stressed over projects or homework. At least not this semester, we'll see once he's in math if it lasts!

I have been enjoying working in the Pharmacy at Walmart, but it is too far (in Sandy) and the pay is too little. So I am going back to work at Sorensen. It is an easy job (at least it was when I worked there last. Hope it hasn't changed much) and it will pay $2.20 more per hour and is a lot closer to home. I'll still only be part time,  I'll only work 4 hour shifts 5 days which is a lot easier with baby then working 8 hour shifts every Sunday and every other Friday. 

Some sad news, Grandma Millie Harrison passed away on 11/3/11 at 87 years old. She had 4 children, 12 grandchildren, and 25 great-grandchildren. (Evan was #24) Its weird to think about, I now only have one living grandparent. Its only been about a year and a half since Gpa Harrison died. But next month it will have been 7 years since Grandpa Bear has been gone. I'm sure that Evan got to spend time with both his great-grandpas before he came down to us. I'm glad that Grandma got to hold Evan before she passed. In fact we had just went to visit her in the hospital maybe a month and a half ago. She was always saying how big he was every time she saw him, and though she kept forgetting what we named him I know she loved him, as she loved us all and we'll miss her. 


Some happy news, Season and Mike are engaged and she and Aurelia moved out of the parents house (Mom is thrilled.) Speaking of houses, Mom and Dad are having fun planning their dream house, though the swimming pool and theater room may have to wait... ;) As long as they put the apartment in the basement so my Bean will move home will make me a happy camper! Bean and Josh are coming for the holidays from Dec 24th thru Jan 2nd!! I'm already excited. Well dunno what else to update hopefully I'll get back into the blogging swing of things! Until next time...

Bath/Crawling

Here is just a few (poorly filmed) videos of Evan. Don't worry I don't intend to ever be a professional. 

This first one is of some bathtub fun. He was splashing and screaming more before but then of course when I got the camera out he was more mellow... oh well its still cute!

And this one is him CRAWLING! :) Well kinda. The early stages of crawling. Please ignore the absolute mess that his room is currently... 

In other news, I started work this week. I am a cashier in the Pharmacy at the Sandy Walmart. Its been kinda crazy and you'd think for a multi BILLION dollar company they'd be a little more organized but seems like the right hand doesn't know what the left is doing most the time. At least that has been my experience so far. Other than that I think I will really like it. All the Pharmacists and techs are really nice and helpful since I have a lot of questions all the time. 
Anyway that's all for now, until next time. 

Evan is 6 months!

Evan is 6 months old today. Some days its seems like it was only a month since he was born, going by so fast. Other days, I want to speed ahead and see all the amazing things he'll be doing soon. Here is some Evan 6 month facts:


Likes: Cookie Monster, drink containers, playing on his tummy, Peek-a-boo, Patty cake, going for walks in the stroller, spitting/blowing raspberries.
Dislikes: When Daddy picks on him, Sweet Potato baby food, sleeping without his blanket, falling over when he is sitting, sleeping through the night (unfortunately for me)
Other feats: 28 inches long, no scale but I'm sure he's pushin' 20 lbs. Has 2 bottom teeth, 1 top tooth and another on the way! Army crawls. Can stay sitting up but can't push up from laying to sitting.

We got his pictures taken at Sears this week. Sadly, they don't come in until Sept 9th, but just in case you didn't know how freaking cute this kid is, here are some sneak peaks:



Yeah, that is my adorable baby. I cant wait to get the bigger/better ones!

I am so happy that Evan is part of our family and feel so glad I was able to be a stay at home mommy for 6 months. He is such a good baby and I love spending my days and nights with him. Sadly I have to return to work soon but hopefully he won't have to be in daycare too much since I'll only be part time.

In other news, Jake started school this week. We had a slight hiccup getting financial aid approved due to some old grades from when he was in concurrent enrollment in high school. But thankfully we appealed it and got approved! He is taking 3 classes this semester on top of working full time. I know this will be hard for him to fit work, school, and homework but am so proud that he's made the decision so he can get a good career to support his family. :)
Until next time... :)

Stroll in the Park

Life has been pretty relaxing as of late. Nothing really going on. No big projects or major life events. Therefore this is probably going to be a boring post. So the other day it was a pleasant evening and we decided to go for a family walk over to the park nearby. They have some nice walkways that are cool and shady for the most part. I snapped a few photos of baby in his stroller as we were about to depart.



This is a bit blurry, but still cute!




Yes, I let him leave the house wearing that.



Looks like Jake just sneezed or something. Evan's just kickin' back haha




Well told you that it would be boring! Anyway Baby E turns 6 months on Friday, so I'll be posting about that later this week!!! Til next time!

Bean's Visit

Bean, Josh, and Lily came down from July 27th til August 2nd. I always love being able to hang out with my sister, and after convincing her to stay at my house instead of my parents I got to see a lot of her!
On Wednesday night we decided to make this recipe I found online for Cheesecake Cookie Dough Bars. So after shopping for the ingredients we got to baking! Well Bean forgot to add any brown sugar to the cookie part and I think the crust needed a little more butter than called for (can't go wrong with more butter, right?) I think they turned out really good! The recipe does say to let them cool overnight, but we didn't want to wait! (They actually were better the next day)

On Thursday we went to the Wood Connection so I could use my gift certificate I got for my birthday.... only I forgot to bring it, so we just browsed around getting some ideas. Then we went swimsuit shopping since I needed a new top to hide all my stretch marks. Anyone who knows me knows I hate shopping, but sometimes you just gotta. Thankfully we only had to go to two stores to find one. Then later on we met up with Josh and a couple of his friends to eat at Bean's favorite Chinese place, Chin Wah.
On Friday we went to Iggy's with everybody. (Our whole family and Josh's mom and Russ) Bean thought it would be funny to give Evan a pickle so she could see him make a funny face. Well, thing is, he loved it! He was sucking on that pickle for a while before I took it away.

Then after dinner we had a party over at Clint's house with all our friends. We played Rock Band and everyone loves Evan cause he is always such a good baby. Here is some of him just Chillaxin' at the party. :)


On Saturday, I had planned to go back to Wood Connection, remembering my gift certificate this time. I looked online before hand to make sure they were open, only to find they closed at 4, and it was already 3:10. So I told Bean we have to go now. So we got in the car and I was like, Ooo we should stop and get Jamba's. Since we had talked about getting some previously and it was sooooo hot in the car that it sounded just fantastic, so we did, completely forgetting that we needed to hurry before the store closed, well once we had Jamba in hand and got back in the car it was 3:56, so... we did not end up going to Wood Connection. haha But I think it was worth it.
Well I had been planning to go swimming with Bean while she was down (hence why I needed to get a new swimsuit) and we thought Monday would be a good day since we didn't really having anything planned and we figured it would be less busy than if we went on Saturday. Only if we had looked at the weather report... Monday came and so did the rain. We had thought of going to Cowabunga Bay but with non-cooperative weather I thought we ought to stick to an indoor pool. Since Kearns is about one minute from my house I figured we should go there, but we had already enlisted my mom to watch Evan for us so it seemed silly to drive CLEAR to my mom's then right back to go swimming so we ended up going to the South Jordan indoor pool. Here is some pics of our day:

Bean would probably kill me if she knew I posted this one, but its just so funny.


Bean making a splash




No, my skin hasn't seen the sun.

Going down the fun slide... Bean was going too fast I only got her splash face. haha


Evan wasn't real sure what to think about Lily but they ended up being alright with each other.





Well this has been a pretty long post for me so I'll say farewell. Until next time.

At the park

Bean and Josh are headed back home to Cali. We had a good time together but I'll upload those pics for a post later. I just had some that I wanted to put up from earlier that I forgot. We met up with the Allen side of the fam to celebrate mine, Thom's, and Linsey's birthdays. These are just a few of the girls playing with Ev at Riverton Park.



Goin down the slide



Havin fun swingin



And this didn't turn out quite how I wanted, but Jake thought it was lame so was not helping and E wasn't cooperating very much either... so this is the best one.