Sleepy...

I just thought this was kinda funny! Ryan was playing Nintendo alone while us girls were making some things, and this is what I found when we realized it was awful quiet.....

....he he he! Poor guy, he was so tired, he fell asleep with the controller in his hands, and fingers all in the right place still. He's been such a good daddy lately to get up with Jaycee in the nights while I'm at work, but he's just not used to it yet. Hopefully he'll get used to it soon though, since I'll be doing this for the next 3 months, and then every so often afterward. Anyway, thank you for your help, honey!

Grandma's Birthday!

It was Diana's birthday yesterday. Happy Birthday Diana! We went over for dinner and fun. Mel and Mandy made manicotti, and had beans and garlic bread with it, it was yummy! It's always fun to be there. We played Pictionary later in the evening, and it was girls against boys, and girls kicked butt! :) It was great! I forgot how much I liked that game.

Blowing out candles on her pie....there are 5 candles, but one is a little shorter than the rest. They are supposed to represent 10 years each, but the short one supposedly means a little less than ten years.Grandma and her two girls! They both LOVE to dance, and she has an ornament on her tree that sings, so they play it and then dance with her. This picture doesn't do them justice because Brooklyn usually dances by poking her bum out way far, and Jaycee usually bounces, but her one leg looks like it does all the work. One day we'll have to video them instead!

The Forgotten Carols

Ryan took me to "The Forgotten Carols" on our first date 3 years ago. So every year since then, we have gone to see it, and I LOVE it!!!! If any of you have never seen it, you really need to at least once in your life! I get the chills every year, and it's just a great place to feel the holiday spirit! Some of my very favorite songs are: Let Him In, Homeless, He Was Here, Three Kings Found the Lord, and Arise & Shine Forth. They start off with Let Him In, and I can't help but get teary eyed! I just love the feelings it brings. Micheal McLean is so fun to watch perform, too! He loves what he does and he totally gets into it! It's great! At the end, he has everyone think of someone they love that is not there with them, and you sing a song with him. EVERY year, I cry at this part, thinking of some family members, who are either having a hard time, or who have passed on. It's just a wonderful atmosphere. They even have a CD & DVD of it, if you want to get those instead, but being there is so much fun too!

The first year, we went to Cottonwood High School with some friends and their dates. The second time, was with Steph & Ethan but we were able to make it to the showing at the Dee Event Center in Ogden. The third year, just the two of us went to the Dee Event Center, again. But this year, we didn't know if we were going to be able to go, so we missed the one close to home, and had to go to Cottonwood High, again, which wasn't a big deal, but it just takes longer to get there and back. It was just the two of us, and Jaycee stayed with Mom. One day we'll be able to take our children with us and make it a family tradition for them!

Baby Blessings

Aubree was blessed today, and her little dress is so cute! I swear she changes every day, she just seems to be bigger and more grown up looking every time I see her! She's such a doll.

Sleeping beauty!

The cute little family!

These older girls, Stacy's nieces, loved having a live doll to play with! Kayani can walk now, so they were walking around with her, and then found her a place in the hallway to sit down and play with some toys The rest of the kids played in Ethan's room with all his toys, and he loves it when people plays in his room with him, so they were all in Heaven!

Music & Lights at Temple Square

My cousin, Lyndsey, came up from St. George with her singing group to perform all over Salt Lake & Provo. They were at the Assembly Hall on Temple Square last night, so we met our other cousin, Ali, there and listened to them, and then saw the lights! It was pretty fun! Jaycee just stared at the lights while we passed by them, it was pretty cute to see how big her eyes got!

Lyndsey's group, they did really well.

Lyndsey & Ali

The three of us!Mom, Lyndsey, Perris, Ali, Me, Jaycee & RyanJaycee with the lit tree behind her! She was all bundled up, and warm, and just enjoying life!

The three of us again, in the lit up tree!

Beautiful Lyndsey! I can't believe how grown up and gorgeous she is! She used to be so little......I'm so old! :)

Fun with Friends

Our friend, Randy's birthday was on Dec. 2nd, so we went up to celebrate with him, and some other friends. We had some yummy pizza, and the girls played with each other! It was pretty fun! It'll be great when we all have kids running around playing with each other! Steph & Ethan will have one to join in soon, too! :)

Riley & Jaycee playing together! They're so cute!

Most of us who were there......Steph & Ethan (and baby!), the three of us, Randy & Michelle & Riley, Randy's mom-Jill, and Michelle's two brothers in the back.

Christmas Lights

Since Ryan and I both were lucky enough to have Friday off, we decided to get Christmas lights put up. Last year we went to put things up but then it snowed and was snowing every time we tried, so we weren't able to get them up last year, so I am so glad we were able to actually get it done in time this year! Here are some pictures of that!

Jaycee was kind enough to hold the lights for us, even though half the time she didn't even know, 'cause she was sleeping! She was all bundled up with mittens and everything since it was pretty cold out there!

Ryan in the middle of putting them up! He says for all you scaredy cats out there, he really is safe on that step, even though it doesn't look very safe from this view. :)This is Jaycee looking at Christmas lights for the first time. She seemed to like them, it was pretty cute!

And here is the final product later that night......Grandma & Grandpa Hatch gave us the Merry Christmas sign, and Santa sleigh, and reindeer last year when they moved and were getting rid of a lot of stuff. I think they turned out pretty good!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving was great this year......we got to have 3, basically! :) On Thursday, we were able to go down to Ryan's Grandparent's house in Spanish Fork. There we were able to see family that we don't get to see very often, and it was pretty fun. Jaycee liked being with everyone too, she loves to just watch people and there she could, but she also did well with being passed around. His aunts all really thought she was cute, but two of his uncles really took to her also, and it kinda surprised us, but was really cute! :)

Then on Friday, we went over to my mom's to watch "Wall-E" with the little boys, and ended up eating Thanksgiving leftovers there....so that's #2!

Today, we were able to go over to my Aunt Terry's to have a late Thanksgiving dinner with everyone. The boys, and a few girls played flag football in the morning, and had a lot of fun! Then we all ate dinner, talked and played games the rest of the day! Here are a few pictures I was able to capture...

The girls "cheering" on the sidelines!

Waiting for dinner......the little kids were able to play with play dough, and loved it!

Jaycee's cute Fall outfit! Doesn't it just scream fall?!?! :)

Kayani is only 10 months old, and can make a "fish" face! It's sooooooo cute when she does it, though. It's her "kiss" if you say kisses, and do that then she'll do it back! I love it! It's so funny! I just thought these next two pictures were funny 'cause there's so many people squished on this couch.....and then there's....................this one.....two LITTLE boys on one big chair, with plenty of room! Who, by the way, later fell asleep, pretty much in the same position, just more on top of each other! :)

We are so grateful for family, and how close everyone is to each other! It's so fun to get together and make fun memories! Thank you everyone for all you do for us!

Yay!!!!! A New Job!

So......most of you know I was laid off in May when we had Jaycee, because Barnes Bank was pretty cowardly about everything, and said that they didn't have to hold my position because I was 2 weeks short of working there for a year!!!!!! Well, we have been looking for and financially/desperately needing me to have a job since the end of June. I finally have one, and we are so very grateful for it! I started on Friday, November 21st, but I have only been training so far, and will be for 2 weeks. I am a Corrections Clerk for Davis County. It so far seems like it will be a pretty good job. There are many things to learn and remember day to day, but it won't be too hard, I think.

The benefits are going to be WONDERFUL!!!!! That was one of our main concerns when I lost my job, and we absolutely HAD to have health insurance. We had to sign up with Ryan's work, which was a complete joke, since he is only part-time, so paying the premiums made it so that we were basically paying his whole 1st check of the month toward health insurance, plus paying basically everything for our prescriptions, and doctors appointments.

I am so grateful for this wonderful blessing in our lives! The only problem I see with it, is that it is shift work. So I get to train on days until December 5th, then I'll work the graveyard shift until December 26th, and then I'll have to work, the worst shift of them all, swing......for 3 months, and from then on it'll be 3 months each. The swing will be the worst because I will never see Ryan on that shift, except on my days off. Also, I have to work Sundays, which I have never done that before, so I'm kinda sad about that. BUT I know Heavenly Father lead us to this point in our lives, and held off on a job opening up for me to try our faith, so I know He knows what He's doing, and I will do whatever He wants/needs me to do!

One of the other problems is the uniform! :) I am not one to tuck in my shirt....ever!!!! But I have to with this uniform, so yuck! And it's green and brown, but they make us wear BLACK shoes, BLACK socks, a BLACK belt, and a WHITE t-shirt underneath. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!!!!

Anyway, I am so grateful for this position. And I just want to say THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to all our family and friends who have been able to help us with everything, but especially these last 6 months! We really appreciate you all and love you all very much! We couldn't ask for better family and friends in our lives!!!!!! We KNOW our Father in Heaven has been watching over us, and we are so grateful! This has definitely been a learning/strengthening experience for us, and we're also grateful for that. We all just need to remember that He is here for us, and He will hold us up through hard times!

Happy Birthday Nathan!

Ryan's brother, Nathan, turned 14 on Sunday, the 23rd, so we celebrated twice, kinda. He wanted to play basketball with everyone, so we all went to their church Saturday night, excluding Mel and Jeff, but our friend, Zach came instead, and played. It was pretty fun! Jaycee, Brooklyn, and Mandy didn't actually play, but they watched! :) The boys played a real game, which Ryan & Bob won against Nathan & Zach. Diana and I played some fun games like lightning, poison, and 7 on the line. It was pretty fun, I haven't shot a ball in a long time.

Then we all went over for his birthday dinner on Sunday, and had cake & ice cream for his birthday too! So, happy birthday Nathan (or "Fat Dog", as Ryan would say, or "Uncle Fatty", as Jaycee will eventually say)!!!!! :-) It's weird to see him grow up so fast............only 2 years ago, when we got married, he was just below Ryan's shoulders, but now he's about 2 inches taller than Ryan! He's grown so much since I met him, and that was only 3 years ago!