The Reason for the Season!

With Christmas only a week a way I thought what a perfect time to reflect it's true meaning. I love what President Thomas S. Monson said in the December 2008 Ensign, "To catch the real meaning of the "spirit of Christmas," we need simply drop the last syllable, and it becomes the "Spirit of Christ". How perfectly said! Admist the shopping, and wrapping, and baking, and whatever else we have going on in our life right now we can easily forget the "reason for the season". We can forget that this was the time that the prophecy was fulfilled for the Lord spake, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears." Throughtout the Bible and Book of Mormon we read about prophecies of how our Savior would come to earth of his own free will, suffer for us and atone for our sins, that we may return to our Father again. When that baby was born and "wrapped in swadling clothes, and laid him in a manger" those prophecies were fulfilled. As I ponder this I can now see why the angels were gathered together in singing, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men." I believe we were those angels and we sang praise to our Lord for we all knew that the day had come that we could be saved! How amazing and wonderful that we have this time of the year to be constantly reminded of our Saviors love towards us. May we all (myself included) take the time to allow his love into our life and thank our Father in Heaven for all the little miracles we have each day!

A little math...

It's been over 5 months since Matt and I have gone on any kind of vacation, it's been a little under 11 months since we've been to California, it's been over a year and a half since we seen all of Matt's family together, and it's been 3 years since we've spent Christmas with the DeGriselles family...simply put I am just a wee bit excited to spend Christmas with my AMAZING family in California!

It's a Christmas Miracle!

Since Matt and I have been married we've been able to spend Christmas with his family only once. The first year we were married we had the opportunity to fly out there but since Matt's work schedule has been way to hectic and we haven't been able to go. Sadly this year was no exception. Matt does have Christmas Day off but we found out last week that he works until 6pm Christmas Eve and getting anytime off after Christmas Day is highly unlikely. We got use to the idea that flying out to California for Christmas this year was not a possibility.

Well as you can probably guess from the title a Christmas Miracle has occurred! Matt just found out today that he has the 26th and 27th off...I was completely shocked! We worked out some flights and we're going to California for Christmas! It's gonna be a short trip but I can't begin to express how EXCITED we are! I know it's an answer to many, many prayers and I am so thankful for the opportunity Matt and I have to visit family this holiday season. Joy to the World!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Can you say burrr!

I can't believe how stinkin cold it's been that last couple of days. Sure it's been cold for awhile now but it seems like just since this last big snowfall on Monday it's been CRAZY cold! Today as I was driving to work I passed by one of those clock/temperature signs and it was a miserable 3 degrees!! I don't know if I've ever seen one of those signs read such a cold temperature before. As I was walking from my car (which was super close to the front door since I am one of the first ones here) into work which was like maybe 30 seconds I could not believe how cold it was! It just hits you like a ton of bricks. I am even sitting here now still thawing out from the cold. You know it's bad when you are outside for maybe 30 seconds and as soon as you get inside your face starts tingling from being so cold! All I can say is how many days until spring?!

My Favorite Scriptures!

I have decided to start posting some of my favorite scriptures periodically as I feel prompted. I love the scriptures! I love how one verse can have such a huge impact on me, my mood, how I feel about my life, and what I can do to become closer to my Heavenly Father and Savior.

Today I am finding that this verse keeps popping into my mind...

"I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you...Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." ~ John 14:18,27

How AMAZING, POWERFUL, WONDERFUL a verse could be! I simply love it!! I am feeling so at peace today and I can tell you that it is such a huge blessing to me right now. For the first time in a while I feel like my heart is not being troubled or afraid. I feel the peace the Lord has promised me and I can't thank him enough!

Tis' the Season!

It's hard to believe that it's already that time of the year again. I know it's kind of a cliche to say but Christmas comes around quicker each and every year! Just when I though I was getting use to autumn here comes Christmas and I couldn't be more excited!

Because we didn't really have plans this year on Thanksgiving Day Matt and I decided to do our Christmas decorating. We put up our tree, got our lights outside set up, and all our other little nic-nacks and decorative items up. I've even wrapped all the Christmas presents I've bought this year! I can't wait!

Our cute Christmas Tree, I love it!

The colors gradually change from colored...

...to white, very calming and peaceful we think.

Our "little" village, each year we like to add a piece and this year we added the sledders to the upper right.

Our nativity scene Matt's folks bought us, we love it!

Our front room

Our little "Welcome" sign...

...and close up.

And finally our dinning room table

Wouldn't want to be anywhere else!

So this year for "Black Friday" my bud Kathy and I decided that instead of dealing with all the craziness and insanity that a typical "Black Friday" entails we decided to spend our morning doing something quite opposite...we did a session at the Mt. Timpanogos Temple and it was wonderful!

We met at 6am and did the earliest session I've ever done and it was such a wonderful experience. As you might expect it was quiet sparse in the temple and one of the cute little temple ladies thanked us for coming since it was a little lonely. We entered the temple with it still pretty dark outside but as soon we entered the celestial room the sun had rose and it was breathtaking how beautiful, bright, and white it was. Such an amazing experience I am so grateful Kathy was willing to share with me!

After our session at the temple we went back to my place and made a very tasty breakfast. I made us some yummy pecan pancakes while Kathy cooked up some delicious scrambled eggs. We enjoyed our breakfast and just chatted for awhile and it was so perfect! Thanks Kathy, you made my day!

Thanksgiving with Mom!

On Monday, November 23rd we celebrated Thanksgiving at my mom's house and it was SO GOOD! We had amazing food, great company, and I couldn't have asked for a greater Thanksgiving! It's hard to believe that this is Matt and my 5th Thanksgiving together. The time has just flown by and I've been grateful for every minute of it! I am so grateful for my amazing and wonderful family, my friends that are always here for me, and the gospel that sustains me during every moment of my life whether high or low. I wouldn't be anywhere without the love from my Savior and words can't begin to describe how thankful I am for his companionship in my life!

Ryan cheesing it up!

Matt and I carving the turkey, what a team!

Wes and Chelsie making some tasty gravy

Mom and Austin ready to eat!

Matt enjoying the grub!

Our YUMMY Thanksgiving dinner!

Me and my hubby, what a cute guy!

Austin and Mom, very classy sweater Oz!

Wes and Chelsie getting ready to eat

Me and my bros, gotta love this guys!

I made apple, pumpkin, and pecan pie! YUM!!

I think Austin ate too much, lol!

Matt just kicking back and relaxing

Wes trying to hide, silly guy!

Not a bad weekend at all!

So this weekend found Matt and myself in anxious anticipation of the grand opening of the Orem In-N-Out. We even planned on meeting up with our buds Kathy and Greg on Friday to check it out. Well little did we know (though it makes perfect sense now) that it was going to be completely packed there! When we drove by on our way to meet up with Kathy and Greg we realized that none of us wanted to wait in line for hours and decided we better go some where else. We headed over to "Five Guys" in Orem near the new Cinemark and it was pretty dang good!













After the chow and some ice-cream (courtesy of Cold Stone) we went to Kathy and Greg's place and just talked for about an hour. We love spending time with them (you guys rock!) and can't wait for our next outing!! What an awesome way to spend our weekend!

Guess it's about that time...

Last night we took family photos for my mom's annual Christmas card and I just can't believe how fast this year has gone by! I'm getting pretty excited for Christmas (and the fact that I've gotten all of Matt's presents already!) and I can't wait to get our Christmas decorations up!

Here are some of the photos we took, I think they turned out pretty cute!

Me and my cute hubby!

Matt trying to steal a kiss, lol!

Austin being a goof!

Chelsie and mom

The family!

The kids (plus the hubbies)

The kids (plus mom!)

I'm still alive!

It's been almost two weeks since my last post and in blogger world that's like a lifetime (well for me anyways). I was waiting to get some pics from Halloween posted but I think now it may be a little too late, lol. Oh well what can you do?

So besides Halloween there really hasn't been a whole lot that has been going on. Matt and I are still doing the whole school thing. We are a little more then half way done with our semester and I think it's starting to get to that point where we just wish it would finish already! True we're only taking one class each right now (which by the way is wonderful!) and our class load isn't too bad at all, it would just be nice to be able to move onto a new subject and get all these classes done with.

In the work department things are about as boring as ever (which can actually be quite a good when having a job right now isn't always a sure thing). The one thing that I am really annoyed with is that Matt's job wont let him take any time off for Thanksgiving or Christmas so we could go out to California to visit the family. We have yet to spend a Christmas with the DeGriselles family and it's a complete bummer. We love you guys and wish we could come visit!

Speaking of Christmas I am very happy to report that I have almost all of Matt's Christmas presents! There are a couple of things I still want to get him as well as a couple of stocking stuffers but the bulk of his Christmas presents are bought, and it feels good! Last night I had a dream it was Christmas morning and I forgot to wrap Matt's presents. Ryan and I were frantically wrapping all of his presents (thanks Ryan!!) Christmas morning while the family was having hot cocoa or something...it was weird. Anyways this morning the first thing I thought was "Awh crap I need to get Matt's presents wrapped!" waking up Christmas morning without a thing wrapped would really suck!

In other news this past Saturday (the 7th) I took my brother Ryan to the ER. He had been having flu-like symptoms for a couple of days and when he told my mom (who is a nurse) that he was having shortness of breath she told him he needed to get to the ER. We met my mom at Utah Valley's ER and spent the next couple of hours making sure Ryan was feeling better, poor guy. He got an x-ray, some fluids in him, and some rest. He's home now resting up some more and hopefully he'll be getting well soon! Love ya Ryry!!

Well I think that about wraps it up...things are pretty much same old same old for us. Now if only my next post could be about a vacation, that would be nice!

Park City Weekend!

(I have to first apologize to my sister for copying her EXACT post about the Sister-Sleepover but she did it so well I figured why not!)



Every year all of the girls on my Mom's side of the family get together for a "Sister Party". This year we decided to spend the weekend in Park City. We had so much fun making watches, going shopping at the outlet mall, playing cards until midnight, sight seeing some of the neat Olympic venues, and just plain hanging out together. I am so lucky to have such fun girls in my family!! I can't wait for next year...

Hanging out in the hotel meeting room with all the girls... Karen and Stacie made us a wonderful dinner. After dinner we had fun listening to some cool presentations from Mary, Emily and myself. Thanks girls!!

Having fun spending all of our money at the outlet mall...I love shopping and I love to share my love of shopping with others. We found some really great deals and everyone bought a cute new outfit for dinner. We also enjoyed a little break from the cold wind at Mrs. Fields. Those cookies are so yummy!!

Wearing our cute new outfits out to dinner at Ruby Tuesday...Every year it is a tradition to buy a new outfit during the day that we can wear to dinner later that night. Look at how cute we are in our new clothes. What beautiful girls!!