2010...Here we come!

My New Year's Eve started off pretty rough when I woke up this morning at 3 with the worst pain I have EVER felt in my life. Labor & a c-section were nothing compared to the ear ache I had this morning. I could hardly open my eyes and I had a massive migraine to add to it. A quick trip to the doctors' office and I'm now loaded up on antibiotics. Yay! 2010 here I come... I'm ready to welcome you in even though I'm sick. I have lots of hopes, ambitions, fears, and surprises that I'm ready to fill the new year with. I've never really been one for making goals, especially at the beginning of the year. I always felt it was too cliche, well, I've changed my mind. I have too many things that I want to improve upon this year for myself and as a family. I'm excited for this "new beginning" and the chance to start over and maybe do some growing (not physically, haha.) I hope you all have a wonderful evening and an even better New Year. Maybe I'll post some of my goals a little later, I'm still trying to get Christmas up though, so don't hold your breath. haha *Check out the moon tonight, supposed to be pretty cool!

I'm Gross

So...on top of having the flu I have pink eye. I'm thinking that I must have touched the nastiest person alive or the nastiest thing ever and then proceeded to touch my eye. I'm always so careful to, I put hand sanitizer everywhere and on all the time. Maybe thats why I got it, who knows... either way I look like a monster right now. Since I don't know when I contracted these lovely viruses, I'm not sure if my mascara in contaminated or not. The pic of above is what I'm currently using and I HATE it. My eyelashes deflate 5 seconds later. I'm looking for a new mascara and need some help, what do yall use? My only requirement is that it's black. So, please leave all the suggestions you can!

Slackness

I just want to apologize for my slackness on this blog. I'm so behind right now on my posting. I guess when I'm ready to come back I will start with Christmas and work my way backwards to Nana & Poppas trip. I managed to get the flu Christmas night and haven't been feeling too well. I know what you're thinking..."haven't you already had the flu this season?" Why yes, I have. But this strain isn't nearly as bad, meaning I don't want to roll over and die. I just hurt everywhere. Anyway, hopefully by tomorrow I will be back in business. I hope the holidays are treating everyone well!

We've been waiting over 8 weeks for the results to for Eric's National Counselors Exam. They finally came in the mail today & he... passed! Congratulations Eric!

The Graduate

December 17th Eric graduated with his masters from Clemson University. I'm telling you, it was pretty tough having to walk around the campus of your rivalry, but we managed. The graduation ceremony was extremely long, thankfully Stephanie went along, she missed almost the entire thing, but there was no way Sarah Grace could have sat that long. Nana & Poppa also got to walk her around a bit too! After the graduation we had a yummy barbeque dinner at my parents house and lots of lounging around that evening! Congratulations Eric, we are so proud of you!

Happy Birthday Eric!

I think Sarah Grace blew out his candles twice, so we had to keep relighting the candles. Will wrapped his present to Eric all by himself. He wanted to throw Eric off, so he packed the box full of playing cards, rubber bands, and hard candy. It was pretty funny. Doesn't my child look horribly messy? She always manages to get filthy at my parents house.

Yesterday was Eric's birthday, unfortunately he wasn't able to take the day off so we could just hang out and go out to eat. Instead he woke up to a dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts (which I had to have Jacob get for me at 1 am) and he had lunch by himself in NC. He did make it home in time for dinner, a movie with my siblings, and cake and presents. I think he had a pretty good day, I think we're mostly excited though about thursday, thats when most of the celebrating will take place I think!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERIC! We love you so much, thanks for all you do!

Eric graduates on thursday with his masters. This morning he found out he got straight A's this semester. So... not only did Eric finish this degree in two years, (which they told him wasn't possible) he also will graduate with a 4.0! Yep A's every semester. We are so proud of him and are now anxiously waiting to find out about doctorate programs.

Birthday time!

Yesterday was my Dad's birthday. We had his favorite meal for dinner...Taco Salad and ice cream instead of cake. Sarah Grace was very helpful and opened all of the presents for him. My Dad isn't really big into celebrating his birthday and I'm not quite sure why, he usually tells us not to buy him anything. We of course always do, but struggle to figure out what to get him. Happy Birthday Dad! We love you!

On my wish list for Sarah Grace

Just a few things that I'm pretty sure Sarah Grace needs...

Christmas in Nauvoo

Last saturday we had our ward Christmas party. The theme was "Christmas in Nauvoo," they had fun stations set up around the building that you could walk through and enjoy. I was in charge of taking pictures so I didn't really see any of them, but Sarah Grace was able to run around... every where... I could hear her squealing and shrieking the entire time, so I'm assuming she had fun. Getting her to hold still through dinner was almost impossible so we all took turns walking with her. It was a fun night and a good way to kick off the Christmas season.

...These are just some random pics that I took that night, unfortunately I didn't take any of the cute rooms!

Happy Birthday Michele! I wish we could be there with you celebrating your special day.

Isn't she gorgeous?! Oh how I love her hair...so beautiful!

Samuel Tells of the Baby Jesus

Said Samuel, “Within five years A night will be as day, And Baby Jesus will be born In a land far, far away.”

Hosanna! Hosanna! Oh, let us gladly sing. How blessed that our Lord was born; Let earth receive her King!

Across the sea, in Bethlehem, Lord Jesus came to earth As Samuel had prophesied, And angels sang His birth. Hosanna! Hosanna! Oh, let us gladly sing. How blessed that our Lord was born; Let earth receive her King! I wanted to post the lyrics to one of my favorite primary Christmas songs. I sing this song year round. Today while I was teaching my class I could hear the senior primary singing it and I was highly jealous that I was not in there with them. I was extremely excited when we all were able to sing it during closing exercises. I love hearing the sweet voices of the children, it's the best thing about my calling. Do any of yall have Christmas primary favorites? Oh and I would love any suggestions on what I should get my primary boys. I know we aren't supposed to give them anything and if it's going to upset someone that much I will take the gifts to there homes, but I feel like I should get them something. My class usually consist of 3 boys. I have some ideas, but I would gladly take suggestions.

"The only time to eat diet food is while you're waiting for the steak to cook."

Julia Child

~Boy do I need to start running. My goal is to stop drinking diet soda and to stay clear of sugar (most of the time anyway, you gotta have a cookie every so often right?). So maybe I won't necessarily be dieting, but I think a good run could make up for some of it. Not sure when I will start this, I may need my diet soda to get through the next few weeks, but after that definitely...haha

Anyone want to do it with me? I think it would help if I had someone to report to!

*Just wanted to add that while I was typing this post I heard the lid to the toilet close and Sarah Grace came walking into the room clapping and cheering yay! My toilet bowl was filled with paper and Sarah Grace had a very proud look on her face.

Baby it's cold outside...

I hope you're all staying bundled up this holiday season. Sarah Grace keeps warm by wearing my UGGs. Cute right?

Just a few thoughts...

I've been neglecting my blog recently and just putting the bare minimum on it to keep my family happy. (Dad gets upset when new pictures aren't posted.) We've been so consumed with Eric's school stuff that little else has been getting done. Really! You should look at my bathroom right now...not good. My goal is to be a little more active in my posting, especially with my Sarah Grace stories. Stephanie is worried that I'm not recording enough of her cute stuff. She's afraid that we will forget these little quirks that my sweet girl has and the hilarious things that she does. I know Steph is right, so I'm promising myself and my few readers that I will be more diligent in the future. On that note, Christmas is up and going at our house. I spent Sunday night with my mom & sister putting up the trees at my parents house & that was enough to inspire me to get going on my own. I'm a little nervous about my ornaments breaking this year if they are bumped. Our tile flooring is not very forgiving of my precious ornaments. I did drop one while hanging it on the tree, but luckily it bounced a few times and was safe. Unfortunately, I did lose one tonight. Eric bumped the tree while hanging lights in our windows. I was very sad, and he was very apologetic. Sarah Grace has already claimed a snowman ornament that is thankfully plush. I keep finding it around the house. She's pretty sneaky I suppose. I'm also pretty excited about her Fisher Price Nativity Set. She seems to really be enjoying it, although yesterday Mary was MIA and today baby Jesus was lost, but both have since been recovered and our in their places at the stable. I'll have to take a few pictures of our decor and post them for all to see! I'm soooo looking forward to this holiday season and spending time with family. I know Eric is very excited about seeing his parents and tells Sarah Grace everyday that her Nana & Poppa are coming to see her. We definitely have a few things we need to do around the house before we are ready for guest (the bathroom being one of them) but we are counting down the days. I've been trying to collect different ideas from magazines, blogs, and books about how to keep Christ the center of the holiday season. I really want to instill that into my children and I've seen a few that I will probably use this year. If anyone has any suggestions please share, I would love to hear/read them!

I know the pics are blurry, but I thought they were too cute to not post!

I came across these verses this evening and took them to heart. Ephesians 4:29-32

An end to the season...

The score says it all... Sarah Grace was venturing around other tailgating parties and picked up this Cocky from someone...I think we are going to have to buy one for her now! Eric got to open an early birthday present at the game! I feed my child highly nutritious breakfasts on gameday...

Well folks today was our last game of the season! Man was it a good way to end too! I'll be honest, I was pretty worried about this Clemson game. But we were able to shut CJ Spiller down and bring in a win. I tell you what, there are very few groups of fans that are worse then Clemson fans (I'm finding out that BYU fans have some issues too) and they sure were quiet during the game! Sarah Grace wasn't on her best behavior, but she only slept for 6 hours last night and the game was during her nap time. We survived though and I think she had fun, she sure loves watching the fireworks and spotting Cocky. Bowl game here we come!

*Just to add to my smack for those of you who have mentioned that Carolina was not ranked...how about the Mountain West weak sauce conference may have had some ranked teams, but they can't even begin to compete with the SEC!

Clemson & Georgia Tech who are playing for the ACC title game both got beat by SEC teams! If anyone feels like they need to tell me to shut up, please do!

**By the way, I don't even care about dumb BYU or Utah, clearly I am a big Utes fan, but my blood runs Garnet. I understand we are all passionate about our football teams and thats what makes football season so fun, but rude comments are not welcomed!

* Just to add some smack though, BYU lost to Florida State (who is one of the worst ACC teams) at home, and Florida State got cleaned up by Florida (SEC) today!

***Did I mention that I got to touch Steve Spurriers hand...wow is all I can say! Hello....legend and extremely good looking older man!