Good Bye 2008!

I know most people are saying how great 2008 was and how blessed they were this year but to be honest I say Hasta La Vista Baby! I can't wait for 2009 and to put this last year behind me. Now don't get me wrong I have been greatly blessed with a awesome family and great friends.

2008 was just a rough year, it started off with the loss of my good friend and sister in-law Lyndell. My family hit a lot of land marks this year the 1 year mark of Shawnta passing and the 5 year mark of Jared and Kevin passing. We then discovered that having children in the traditional sense was no longer an option for us. It was a little bit of a harder year then we had anticipated. In the words of my Mom "If this was a book I would tear it up and say no way, I hate this story..." I truly do feel this way at times but I also say our story is far from over. With every great story there has to be great heart ache to appreciate the happy ending.

2009 is already showing prospects as a great year! We are looking forward to Skylar (Zach's brother and one of my very best friends) coming home from his mission. Larin and Jessica's wedding, and at least two babies : ). Zach and I are truly praying and hoping to be placed with a baby in 2009 and yes I said two because someone else is already expecting??? It's killing me keeping it a secret because I'm so dang excited about this but you will all just have to wait until after the New Years Eve anoucement!

Good bye 2008 and welcome in 2009!!!

-Merry Christmas-

Jessi, Zach, Vance and JoAnn

(Eating our yummy Christmas dinner)

Jessi and Zach boxing

Zach teaching Mom and Dad how to play

JoAnn, Zach and Vance

Zach and I had a great Christmas this year! We got to go spend Christmas with my parents for the first time since we've been married. I had forgotten how much I love Christmas at my parents house. We headed out Christmas Eve and spent the night hanging out with my parents. Larin was in Rexburg this year and Shawn stayed down at his house for the night, so it was just the four of us. We had an awesome dinner of steak, lobster and BBQ ribs (Zach is an amazing cook on the grill). Zach and I then persuaded my parents to try out their wii that they bought each other for Christmas. I think we got them hooked now! It was a blast! Then we enjoyed my parents new flat screen and watched movies the rest of the night.

Dad cooking breakfast

I think Ebony misses her kids!
Isn't that the saddest puppy you've ever seen?

Shawn watching everyone play the wii

Shay and Jessi boxing
We both got into it!

We are a very competitive family can you tell?

Shay was the boxing Champ of the day!

Zach and Eric

Dad and Ethan

Christmas morning everyone usually meets up at my parents house for a big Christmas breakfast that my Dad cooks every year but this year it was just Zach and I, but it still tasted great. Later in the afternoon Shawn and his kids were able to fight the snow and make it up to Dad and Moms, then of coarse we had to get them hooked on the wii too!! For those who know Arbon this comes as no surprise but we all got snowed in Christmas night. So we made the best of it by playing games and watching movies.

Libby and Chase

J.T. and Hanna

The first of the week I hung out with Heathers kids and so we decided to do some crafts and make some goodies. It was a lot of fun and J.T. was such a good sport and helped Hanna with her crafts. You can see how much he loves his little sister.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and got to enjoy their families!

Let It Snow, Let it Snow!!

Well winter is officially here! So I woke this morning really early and got a ton of things done and I even decided I would get over to Heathers a little bit early today, well when i looked out side I saw it had snowed but when I went out to start the car I realized it snowed A LOT! I shoveled for half an hour to shovel my sidewalk and drive way out. So I ended up being late to Heathers, good thing my boss loves me huh : ). Anyways I bring the kids back to my house about an hour later and this is what I came home too.By the time Zach got home at 5:00 it didn't even look like I shoveled. Oh well I guess it's good for me right? Actually I love the snow and it kind of makes me excited to have a white Christmas. I guess I'm spoiled because this hunk of a man usually shovels for me.

Cookie Party

Jessi & Zach

Back: JoAnn, Shay & Libby
Front: Heather, Hanna & Sally

Our favorite house

Vance, Caleb, Zach & Larin
(Getting a head start on all the cookies)

Jessica, Heather, Jessi, JoAnn & Sally

The kids decided they wanted to end the night
with the movie "The Cat in The Hat"

Every year we have over Zach and I's families for a cookie party. We have everyone meet up at our house eat dinner (this year it was Taco soup, one of my favorites) and then caravan around the neighborhood checking out all the Christmas lights. We then come back to the house and have cookies and milk. We've done this every year we have been married and I love it! I love making tons of cookies and having everyone over. Plus it's so fun to hear the kids singing Christmas songs in the car and to hear them get all excited over the lights. Thanks everyone that was able to make it this year and can't wait to do it again next year!!

Christmas Lights

Zach and Jessi

Zach and Hanna

Jessi, Mom and Heather

Kelli and Morgan

J.T., Libby, Heather holding Hanna & Chase

Zach with all the kids

Morgan, Libby and Chase jumping in
Heather, Hanna and Jessi sitting on the steps

Zach and I went to Salt Lake this weekend to see the lights on temple square. Heather, Mom, Heather's kids, Kelli (my cousin) and her daughter Morgan all met us there. It was a lot of fun and so pretty. It always makes me in the Christmas spirit to go see the temple grounds and all the lights. Zach put Hanna on his shoulders and she would try to steer him by his ears, it was so funny. It was cute because Hanna told Heather on the way back to the hotel "Mommy those lights make me happy," isn't that the sweetest thing? Of coarse when we got back to the hotel we had to go swimming, I mean that's the best part about hotels. The kids had a blast and they would jump off the side and made a big train with Zach. By the time we finished swimming and hanging out we didn't even start getting to bed until midnight.

One funny thing was that we decided to take a picture in the parking garage and we just set Heathers cameras timer to take it. Well we teased that knowing our luck a car would come right before the timer went off and what do you know it did. But they were nice and waited for us to get our picture and then we hurried and got out of the way.

Jessica's Shower

They make such a cute family

It was a crazy day today. Whitney and I went shopping for Whitney some new jeans. Then we met up with Heather to get Jessica's bridal shower present then the three of us went out to eat. Whitney and I then went back to my house to start setting up for the shower. Larin and Jessica came a few hours early to get some pictures of them and their kids taken, which Morgan was not happy about so hopefully Jessica got at least one that she can use. Then of coarse Wendy, Heather and I threw Jessica a bridal shower today. It was a very busy day but a fun one, I love spending time with my family!

Morgan, Libby and Shay

Jessica thinking about the answer
(What's Larin's favorite inside toy?)

Moms reaction to the answer
(Jessica)

Jessica Showing us all her gum after the game

The yummy cheesecake

We had a great turn out so that always makes you feel good! We about didn't fit but we made it work. We made Jessica do the bubble gum game and she was such a good sport about it, she actually did really good and I think she only had 3 pieces in the end. But I however didn't think about the fact that she has braces, and gum and braces aren't a good combo. She did great though. Then we had yummy cheese cake and of coarse opened presents. We had all the little girls come too, which I didn't think about how Jessica was supposed to explain certain "pj's" to the girls when they asked "what's that". But I think they had fun and enjoyed feeling like the big girls. They did get a little bored so they went in my room and played games. After the shower was done Shawn and Larin came back to the house with all of their boys and had some cheese cake too. It was a ton of fun and it made me even more excited to have Jessica in our family, she is so cute and a lot of fun.

The after math of the shower...
tierd kids, but a movie made them happy.

Daisy's Bath

Daisy just chilling only moments before

(Yes she really does sit like this all the time)

"Maybe I can do this???"

Daisy's attempt to escape the tub

Daisy was so upset she

wrapped her paw around my arm

"Please let me out!!"

After we finished decorating I noticed Daisy had grease on her face, who knows how that got there so we decided, well Zach decided to bath her. For those of you who don't already know this little bit of information, Daisy HATES Zach and she HATES water so it made for a real fun combination. Zach thinks it's funny (if she still had claws he might not think it was so funny) because she meows the whole time and tries to jump out of the tub. It makes me feel bad, then when he got her out he handed her to me and she wrapped her little paws around my shoulder, it was so sad. But at least now it's done and she will smell good and be all nice and fluffy for Jessica's shower on Saturday : ).

I know it's different but I love my tree : )

Today we put up our Christmas decorations, well some of them. I guess I'm just lazy this year but I'm not going to put up all my decorations. I decided to keep it simple this year, so no Christmas village. Zach helped me and it took like 30 minutes tops and that includes taking pictures down and getting decorations out (like I said simple this year).

Happy Thanksgiving!

Jessi and JoAnn (Mom)

Getting an early start on dinner

Look at all that yummy food!

I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving and got to eat lots of yummy food like we did. Zach and I spent Thanksgiving at my parents this year. My Grandpa Elmer, my cousin Scott and his wife Jamie and my brother Shawn and his kids were all there too. Troy, Larin and Heather headed to the in-laws this year. It was a pretty small crowd compared to most years but it was still a lot of fun.

Heather baking away

Hanna
(our little helper for the day)

Jessi adding the whipping cream
to the pumpkin and banana pies

These are a few of the pies we made
Heather had already taken home 3 of hers

Heather made the pies for Matt's family and I made the pies for us and in my family nothing but homemade start from scratch, grind your own flour, collect the eggs from the chicken, better step foot in my Mom's house (okay so I exaggerate a tad bit but seriously we are all about baking from scratch). We started Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. and finished at 5:30 p.m. but it was well worth it and a lot of fun doing it together. Thank goodness Heather is patient because for all of those who know me I expect perfection and when it doesn't look perfect I get frustrated, I want my pies to look like a picture out of a cook book, silly I know.

I have to brag for just a second here so bare with me for a moment. Last year in October I decided that my Mom's family is awesome cooks and we needed a cook book made so I decided to take on the task. Granted it was about a 3 times bigger task then anticipated and the cook book turned out huge but I LOVE IT and it was well worth the time. My Grandma is an amazing cook and she raised three girls who are all amazing cooks, and now they are passing the tradition down to their daughters. Which by the way includes my sister in-laws.