For those of you who don’t love to look at pictures of dead ducks, I will update a lot faster than I normally do! Not that we don’t love your posts Rob. But those pictures are pretty sad!

Last week we celebrated our 2 year anniversary! It’s crazy, sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday we were getting married. But most of the time I can’t even remember my life before being married, it seems like it was so long ago! We decided at the last minute that we wanted to try to arrange a getaway for a night, so, we found babysitters. Thank goodness for family that is willing to take your kids overnight at a last minute notice! First, we played a round of black-light mini golf. Then we went to a movie, which was nice because we never get to go to movies now that we have kids! We saw Paul Blart – Mall Cop.

It wasn’t nearly as funny as I had expected but it was a cute movie. Then we went out to dinner at the Timbermine. Neither of us had ever been there but I’ve heard good things about it so we decided to go. It was nice. You get your own booth that is pretty secluded with your very own dimmer switch for your light! How cool is that?

After our yummy dinner we headed up the canyon to the Alaskan Inn. They have Alaskan themed suites and cabins. Since we didn’t plan very far in advance, we kinda just had to take the only room they had left. It was called the Eagles Nest. I don’t think it would have ever been my first choice but it ended up being pretty fun! The bed was huge! And those of you that know me know how much I love a huge bed! I also thought the painting and theme would be really cheesey but it really turned out to be pretty neat.

You can tell just how big/tall the bed is once someone is standing next to it.

They served us a huge breakfast in the morning. It was yummy!

The night we were there it snowed 6 inches. It was soooo pretty to wake up and look out the window and see the beautiful river and all the fresh snow! So amazing!

Thanks babe for the best 2 years of my life!

And of course, I have to add this slide show every year! A look back at our wedding day.

Kaycee and Tommy just sold their condo, and it was kinda short notice, so they lived with us for a few weeks while they worked out their new living arrangements.  It was kinda nice to have some company around at night, and I know Cami enjoyed the company during the day while I was working.  Alyssa and Jayci didn’t get along real great, though, but it wasn’t too terrible.

For Tom and I it worked out good, though. We found a couple great duck hunting spots right close to our house and we went out several times. For closing weekend, we ended up going out to Tom’s dad’s property and walked the river.  All in all, we got probably around 20 birds this year. We also found a great way to roast them, too, rather than just taking off the breast meat.

But then the night before the last day, Tom and I were headed back to the truck and it was just about getting too dark to shoot and a flock of geese came over just low enough to try a shot. We managed to knock down the lead goose.  It broke the wing, but then as I went to get it, it tried to run away.  I felt a bit silly sprinting through the snow in my waders carrying a gun trying to catch the thing.  Eventually I had to just shoot it one more time. It turned out to be a decent sized goose.  It weighed around 10 lbs. I’d guess.  It had a wingspan of 5′ 1″, and was 33 inches from tip to tail.

We made a big deal of roasting the goose–potatoes, stuffing, sauce, etc.  It came out really good.  Too bad Brett couldn’t join us for the feast.  We stuffed ourselves and it was really good. Here are some pictures of the final weekend.  The last bird here is a Ring Necked duck.  It is a really good looking bird!

We love Christmas time! Our month has been full of parties and fun! Everytime I start cleaning the house Jayci asks “Who is coming to party?” Or anytime we start gettting ready to go somewhere she will ask “Are we going to another party?” I’m afraid she thinks that is all we do anymore…which might be a problem in the next month. We also got to go to a couple of concerts that my brothers and sister were in. They were really good and it was fun to go to!

Our first of many parties was on the 13th. It was with the Bridges family (my step-mom’s family). It was lots of fun! We got to meet a lot of our new cousins that we haven’t gotten to meet in the few years we have been a part of the family. It was nice to finally meet them. The kids got to make gingerbread houses. They had a lot of fun doing that. I’m glad they got to make them because I didn’t have time to throw a gingerbread house party again this year. Time sure got away from me! Here are a few pictures.

This is Jayci and her boyfriend. She just loves Kurt. I hope her aunt Kaelani doesn’t mind sharing him.

Jayci intently making her gingerbread house.

The finished product.

This is what Corbin and I did the whole night. Poor kid was sick and running a fever of 104.

Corbin had a fever for about a week. Then one night we put him to bed and 2 hours later he woke up screaming. I went in and he was cold and wet so I figured his fever had just broke. He never warmed up though and we took his temperature and it had dropped to 93 degrees. It was the weirdest thing and of course I freaked out because I thought he was dying or something! We took him to the doctor and they said it was just a really bad infection that had gone behind his ear and into his head (they think). They put him on a couple of antibiotics and about a week later he was finally back up to normal body temperature. That poor kid has had problems with his ears since the day he was born–except about a week after he had tubes put in–and after all of that they are finally looking good! We are excited and hope it stays that way!

Our next party was on the 19th. We went to Rob’s brothers house for a party with his siblings. We had pizza and lots of goodies! Played a game with white elephant gifts and stayed up WAY too late playing other games. It was lots of fun and I don’t even have any pictures to prove it!

Next was my mom’s party! She slaved away in the kitchen all day and made us a delicious ham and turkey dinner. I attempted to make my Grandma’s famous rolls. They were good but nobody will ever be able to duplicate Grandma’s. We hung out, opened presents and then went to Temple Square to see the lights. We all parked at Cortney’s house at The Gateway and rode Trax down to Temple Square. Not a long ride but the kids thought it was pretty cool!

Jayci & Brundle opening presents

Jayci’s new outfit! Thanks Grandma!

Jayci & Brundle playing on the stairs.

On our way to Trax.

Me & Jayci on Trax.

Kaycee enjoying her ride.

Jayci & Brundle freezing their little booties off.

Me & Corbin freezing ours off too!

The whole group of us.

Brett & Cortney

Next was the Eggett Christmas party (Rob’s mom’s family) on the 23rd. They have to hold this party at a church because of the extremely large size of the family. We ate lots of yummy soups, had a little talent show, exchanged gifts and Santa came! This was the first time Jayci has ever sat on Santa’s lap all by herself! Hooray! She was still a bit nervous but she did it. Here are some pictures.

I was getting Corbin ready and he ran away from me. On his way back I thought he looked like Tom Cruise on Risky Business. I thought it was funny so we had to get a picture.

The camera is always drawn to his cute face. We end up with lots and lots of pictures of him!

Jayci and her best friend Mackinzie. I think she is the real reason Jayci sat on Santa’s lap. She thought if Mackinzie did it so can I! Thanks Kinzie!

Jayci and Santa

Corbin and Santa

Corbin opening his present from Santa

and Jayci opening hers.

Next was the Grange family party. On Christmas Eve. First we went to my dad’s house in the morning. He made us all a very yummy breakfast! Then we opened presents. After that we all headed over to the Petersen’s for our annual Christmas Eve party with my dad’s side of the family. This has been a tradition for as long as I can remember. We had a yummy dinner and then we all got to hit the pinata. The kids thought that was fun. Then everyone got into the viscious and usually injury causing game of dodgeball! Good thing Nikki wasn’t in town so we didn’t end up in the ER again. Haha! I didn’t get to play this year. I guess when you have kids you end up watching them instead. But it looked like a lot of fun!

Alyssa, Jayci, & Brundle

Grandpa & Jayci got a quiet book. Hopefully it will keep them quiet during sacrament meeting. Looks like it is working already.

See that excitement?! Grandma and Grandpa give great gifts! I can’t wait for it to get warmer so the kids can fully enjoy this present.

They took it for a drive but didn’t last long the wind was COLD that day! I wasn’t sure if Corbin would really like it but he loved riding along. He would just laugh and laugh!

Hitting the pinata

Corbin’s turn

Corbin loved having a big gym to just run around in. He was in heaven.

Then he found a ring pop that fell out of the pinata and that kept him busy for a while.

Another tradition of ours is when we get home from the Grange family party Santa has stopped by early and left us all one present. It is always our Christmas pajamas. This year we had lots of people over on Christmas Eve and Santa left all of their jammies.

Our husbands thought they should be able to pick ours out so we thought that would be ok. Never send a bunch of men shopping for pajamas together they think they are pretty darn funny. They made us all open them at the same time.

Oh wow! They are footie pajamas! We were not thrilled. Our kids thought it was pretty cool though that we had pajamas just like theirs!

We were good sports though and posed for a picture like our mom used to make us do when we were little. Awww we are still all so cute. Except for those horrid jammies. They don’t flatter anyone’s figure. Thank goodness they all just wanted to be funny and they all had a back up pair of pajamas for us! Phew! I did not want to sleep in those things! Look how big those feet are!

Our cute pajama picture.

The kids in their new jammies.

Christmas Day was great! The kids let us all sleep in! We didn’t get up until 9 and then me and Corbin had to go and wake Jayci up. She did not want to get up. She just kept ignoring us until I whispered “do you think Santa came?” Then she opened her eyes wide and sat right up. It was funny. Santa did come, and he spoiled the kids! We had a good morning playing with all of our new things and then it was off to Rob’s parents house for more partying and more presents!

Jayci was so excited to see all of her presents Christmas Morning.

She loved the rollerskates she got!

She also got some computer games she has wanted forever!

Corbin just wanted the apple he found in his stocking.

Cute little guy.

Opening presents at Grandma & Grandpa’s.

Jayci opening hers.

Corbin got a huge monkey from aunt Julie. 

Christmas day was awesome. The snow was beautiful! Just how Christmas should be.

Then just when we thought all the partying was over we had another Christmas party on the 27th. The Hales family (Rob’s dad’s family). We had it early in the day and had breakfast, played games, and Santa came for the last time this year! BTW Jayci didn’t sit on his lap again. Oh well atleast she did it once!

Now for the real reason I have been so slow to update my blog. I have been spending too much time playing with my new Christmas toys. Look at these sweet puppies my wonderful husband got for me!!! I am more than thrilled! My sweet husband also made me a blog book which took many, many hours of work and I appreciate it so much! Now all of these things I spend so much time blogging about are published and never to be forgotten! Yay!