Christmas Party with Gary's Family

This is Gary's grandma Tripp

This is us opening our presents

Gary's brother Alex, he is super excited about his new microwave for his new apartment.

Carl and Crystal tearing open their presents.

Gary's mom showing off her new book.

We had our Christmas with Gary's family the weekend before Christmas. Everyone came to our house, where we had a yummy breakfast made by Gary's mom. We played games and opened presents. Gary's mom spoiled us with lots of food storage which we need very badly.

Merry Christmas to Us!!

She is already a hunter!!! Gary is thrilled!! She loves her duck and loves fetching it.

She loves Gary

We got her very early on Saurday morning!! Notice the bags under the eyes and the tired face. She is so sweet and cuddley.

So we got an unplanned surprise for Christmas!! This is Mya, she is a golden retriever/poodle mix they call them goldendoodle. We got an email last Tuesday from a breeder that we had talked to last summer saying that they had a surprise litter. They gave us an excellent price in hopes to find good homes for the puppies for Christmas. Gary really wanted a big dog, but I wanted a dog that would not shed so a poodle mix was our only option. She is a very mellow dog and loves Toby, she really likes to follow him around the house. Toby is handling her really well and tries to avoid her at all costs. She is already doing really well with potty training and is showing such progresses, she is so smart. Puppy training here we come!!

Deck the Halls!!

Gary did an excellent job hanging up our lights outside our house.

We are a little behind. We really decorated our house at the first of December. Christmas is definitely our favorite time of the year. We really like our house best when it is decorated for Christmas, it makes our home feel so much more warm and cozy. Here are a few of our decorations.

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary Honey!! I can't believe it has already been 4 yrs. I just want you to know that I love you and I am so grateful for you. I couldn't have asked for a better person and a better match for me. You are such a wonderful person and are a constant example to me. I appreciate you working so hard to provide for our family. I LOVE YOU and I look forward to many many more anniversaries!!

Our Yearly Gingerbread House

This is our gingerbread house for this year. Gary and I have made a gingerbread house each year since we have been married. This is by far our best yet. We both decided that they definitely work out better if you decorate the sides and the roof before you put them together. We are both perfectionists so this decorating was a long process. This is definitely one of my favorite traditions!!

Pictures at Wheeler Farm

Every year we get pictures taken around Christmas time. We are too cheap to get them professionally done every year, besides I think this is much more fun!! Last year we decided to include our complete little family with Toby and really liked the way they turned out, so we invited him again this year! Despite being a cute little ball of fur, it was very hard to get him to look at the camera because of all the ducks, geese, and pigeons around. I don't think he was interested in chasing them at all, I think he was more worried they where going to turn on him. Toby is very much a chicken when he is outside his territory!

Here are a few of our fav's that turned out this year. Great thanks to Michael who manned the camera and Michelle for entertaining Toby and getting him to look where he was supposed to (this was not an easy task I am sure).

Our Pumpkin Masterpiece!!

These are our pumpkin masterpieces! Can you guess whose is whose? Gary always takes his pumpkin carving so seriously and takes way too long and puts way too much detail into them. Unfortunately is does not show up too good in the pictures. We love Halloween and love carving pumpkins!!

Our Poor Sad Hot Dog!!

So we are a little behind. These are our pictures from Halloween. Poor Poor Toby, has to always be dressed up for Halloween. He is so ready for us to have kids so that I can have someone else to pick on, but until then he gets to be tortured. So this year he was a hot dog!! He was so funny when we put it on, he would just sit in one place and pout. He thinks this is sheer torture!

"ED"

I am addicted to "Ed" this television show was on back in 2000 and ran only till like 2004. I loved it back then. I have been looking everywhere for the series on DVD and have been unable to find them until now. We got the series a week ago and now Gary is hooked too. This show is so dang funny. I love it!! I definitely recomend it!

The #1 Way to Tell that Your Dog Has An Identity Crisis

I definitely think that Toby thinks he is human. I thought these pictures were super funny!! Sometimes I wonder if Toby realizes he is a dog. He is definitely spoiled rotten. (These were definitely staged and he did not stay like this for long, but they made me laugh.)

Our Yearly Frightmares Trip

Saturday we went to Frightmares at Lagoon with our family. We had so much fun. These are some pictures from our excursion. We went on Wicked for the first time. This ride was so fun, it is definitely one of our favorites.

This is my cute nephew Jake. He was such a trooper and tried some of the rides even though he did not want to. This is him on the Wild Mouse, it was so entertaining to sit next to him on rides. He pulled some pretty funny faces and made interesting noises.

This was the last ride of the night. We love Frightmares and definitely want to make it a tradition of going there. I am an amusement park junkie and am trying to convince Gary that he is too.

Monthly Meals

Once a month Michelle and I get together to make meals that we can freeze and eat during the month. We make one for each of us and make one for my dad also. It is fun to get together and cook, and then it is nice to be able to pull a meal out of the freezer for a quick meal. This month we made Lasagne, Beef and Broccoli, and Calzones. Mmmm Mmmm good!!!

Us Trying to be Homemakers

Gary and I decided that we would try to be little homemakers and try to bottle fruit. We drove down to Spanish Fork and bought a huge box of apples (40lbs.). We decided to try to use half of them for apple pie filling and the other half just bottled apples. We got 13 bottles of apple pie filling and 12 bottles of apples. They all sealed and they look great!! Now the real test begins are they edible?