[..and the stockings were hung..]

I could hardly wait to put up Christmas this year! Right when we got back from Cali it was the FIRST thing I did. It is so exciting to be in a new home and celebrate our first Christmas together here. I just have to say that I love having a fireplace. It just adds so much to the warmth and feel of Christmas!

The other night Grandma Mary had all of the grand kids over to make graham cracker trains. Tatum's turned out so cute...I love it!


This year we started a new tradition, the Elf on the shelf! The Elf is Santa's little helper and was sent to keep an eye on the kids and then every night after the kids go to bed he travels back to the North Pole and reports to Santa. He comes back every morning before the kids wake up and hides in a different spot everyday until Christmas Eve. Tatum loves waking up and searching for the elf! It serves its purpose well, Tatum is so scared to step out of line while the Elf is watching.

Will the real MJ please stand up??

On Monday night we went with a bunch of friends to the Utah Flash Basketball game. We all got tickets for free and thought it would be a fun FHE. Well there was a rumor that Bryon Russell would be playing Michael Jordan at half time and his incentive was $100,000 donated to charity. Eric and I thought there is no way he would show up to D league basketball game in Provo, Utah. Well we got there and all of Utah County was there, I think there was about 7,500 people. At half time the lights go out and they start to play videos of M.J. and a spot light comes on. Bryon Russell walks out on the floor and starts asking for Michael Jordan. Everyone had hope that he was going to show up. A few moments later a group of body guards walk out "Michael Jordan". It was very clear that this guy wasn't really Michael. Russell calls the guy out as an impostor and pretty much says forget this I'm going home. The lights go on and he walks out. That was it! They played it up like Jordan was going to be there the whole time and then scammed all of Utah County! It was pretty funny, everyone stood there in shock not knowing what just happened.

(Here we are with Jessica and Mike, Mike's brother and wife, and Brooke and Josh.)
Every seat was filled including the bleachers behind us.

Bryon Russell searching for Michael who he knew the whole time wouldn't show!

Notice the fake paparazzi surrounding the fake Michael Jordan...so LAME!

[..Thanksgiving..]

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving break this year. We spent 8 days in California with my family. Here is a run down of what we did there, I seriously have a bad habit of posting WAY to many pictures...

..Jay Leno..


Eric searched and searched for tickets to talk shows and didn't think he would get any. He emailed the Jay Leno show and they emailed back with 2 tickets to see Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lady Gaga! Usually you have to reserve them 4-6 weeks in advance! Talk about lucky! Well we got there and waited in line for about an hour and finally got inside. We handed the lady our tickets and she escorted us down a hallway and onto the set where all of the floor seats are. The floor seats are all reserved with tape and they sat us in the second row! We felt so lucky because the people in front of us in line sat in the very top row! Right as the show begins Jay comes out and everyone in the front rows run up to slap him a high five, Eric totally was on TV slapping Jay a five! Jay is such a nice guy and pretty funny too! It was so fun, I think we will attempt this every time.

..Disneyland..

We got some cheap tickets to Disneyland the day before Thanksgiving. We figured it was worth it because its the last time we can go before we have to pay for Tatum. Disneyland was decked out for Christmas. They had a huge Christmas Tree in the front, the castle was so beautiful with lights and icicles, they played Christmas music throughout the park and they changed the Haunted Mansion to be the Nightmare Before Christmas. We had such a blast and seeing Tatum react to his favorite Characters made it worth every penny.


Tatum saw all of his favorite Characters. Mickey...

Pluto...


Woody...

And one not so favorite Stitch...


..Griffith Park..

There is a small train park close to my parents house that we took Tatum to. He is so into trains right now! He loved riding the train and seeing all of the big trains.


..Americana..


We went with my family down to the Americana shopping center. Its a lot like the Gateway but way more fancy! They had it all ready for Christmas with Lights, Santa's house and they even make it snow! We walked around enjoying the views and then Eric took Tatum home so that I could go with my family to see New Moon...better than the first but over all not impressed!

They have chandeliers hanging between the buildings.

We were able to do a lot but still spent a lot of time with family. I love the Holidays!

[..gYm cLaSs..]

I recently signed Tatum up for a little gymnastics class. I figured throughout the winter this will be a nice chance to get out and play with other kids. So far Tatum has gone to 3 classes and totally LOVES it! After his 1st class we got in the car and he said "that was fun Mom!" That alone made it worth every penny!


His favorite part are the rings. At first he needed Miss Heather to help him, but now he can conquer them on his own! They are working hard every week to get ready for a Christmas program in December. Its so cute to see a bunch of 2 year olds walking on beams and trying to do cartwheels. I feel like such a soccer mom already :)

[..better late than never..]

I just LOVE Halloween! It is such a fun holiday for me. I love the pumpkins, the treats, and the costumes! This year we went with a Toy Story theme. This is Tatum's favorite movie right now and everything must be BUZZ LIGHTYEAR...including his costume! Here is Tatum in his signature pouty face...


Tatum told Eric to be Woody and for me to be Jesse. I thought Bo-Peep was a little better suited. So here we are in all our glory. The one family shot I had didn't turn out and Eric refused to put his costume back on so this is the best we have...


This year we debated whether or not to do a Halloween party. We got a few inquiries from our old neighbors and decided to give it a go. We had a great turn out with close to 40 people including children, which was WAY more than we expected! We had everything homemade...taco soup, root beer, cookies, cupcakes and doughnuts! It was a blast. Thanks everyone for coming, we really enjoyed seeing everyone again!

Everyday I seriously love my neighborhood more and more. Halloween is so much fun here. Everyone is out trick-or-treating and my friend a few houses down does a haunted house in her garage, Tatum went through and didn't even flinch! Another neighbor gives out hot chocolate and homemade doughnuts...it was so good, we kept going back for seconds and thirds:) Tatum was able to go through our whole ward and totally scored on the candy! We came home to check out his loot and he was dancing just looking at it. Ever since he has been asking to go knock doors and get doughnuts and candy!

The [Main] Floor

I am finally getting around to posting some pictures of our house. We have been working so hard to get the main floor up to par. We had to hire some help to patch up all of the walls (and I mean ALL of the walls!), we painted almost ALL of the walls (by ourselves!!), we got the carpets cleaned, and we had to buy a few pieces of furniture to fill this house.

First are the before pics...
{View from the entry: Stairs to the right, living room to the left, office in the glass doors, down the hallway opens up to family room, dinning and kitchen.}

{There were a number of holes just like this one. This was a fist hole... you could see the knuckle marks and all!}

{The fireplace. They ripped the plasma TV right out of the wall.}

{The kitchen. It was in pretty good shape...}



{...except for this minor hole...}

{And my favorite part of the house...the pantry!}


Here are the after pics:
{The Living Room}

{We got remnant pieces of carpet and made runners in the hallways}

{The Office}

{The Family Room. Everything in this room is new...TV, couch and rug.}

{My Sister helped me make these pillows. I showed her a picture out of Potterybarn and she made them. She also made my kitchen curtain!}

{The Mudroom/Roxy's room}

{The Kitchen}

We haven't hardly touched the upstairs yet, but when I get that up to par I will be sure to post some pics!

[..The Yard..]

When we first bought our house there was an $1800 lien on the property because the back yard had never been landscaped. The house is 3 years old and the previous tenants never finished the yard. So we made a deal with the HOA and said we will have it done by the end of August if you drop the fees. They accepted! Well August came and went a lot faster than we expected so they said we could extend our deadline until the end of September. Well we finally finished the yard...for the most part! We planted 11 trees and seeded the whole yard with grass. It probably wont be until Spring when we can use our grass, but at least its done!

Here is what the yard looked like before. Such a mess! The original owners put all of these pavers in the yard but did a terrible job. We pulled all of them out and found a small cement patio underneath!


My Father-in-law owns an excavating company so we had all sorts of tractors and dump trucks to use. Tatum loved having tractors at his house everyday. He was in Heaven.


I can't believe how much bigger our yard feels now. We don't have a very big lot, our house sits on about .16th of an acre. We are glad to have a yard, coming from a townhome, but are also glad to have a small one after realizing how much work it takes.

This tree is my favorite. It is a Bird Cherry tree which will have beautiful blossoms in the Spring. Every time I walk by my front door I look out the window and see this tree. I love it!