Christmas Time...l love EVERYTHING about it :)

I know it has been awhile....so I finally decided that I will come up with something to post about. (This is for you Whitney.)

Well not a whole lot is going on in our lives. Bracken is FINALLY done with this semester of school and I am so glad that it is over. He worked so hard and I am very proud of him. I am so glad to have 3 weeks to actually see him!! It will be a nice break but school starts back on January 5th :(

I have been busy getting Christmas ready. I love the holidays! I have my house decorated, our Christmas lights up, and a few presents under the tree. I have been helping my mom wrap presents too. She is so busy I am willing to help out, plus I like wrapping gifts :) I am almost done Christmas shopping and should finish up this week. I love shopping for others and have a hard time staying within the "budget" because I could always find more to give people. I'm getting really excited to have lots of family time, especially with the neices and nephews!





I have been trying to keep us in the "spirit of the season" with fun Christmas activites. At home Christmas music is always playing, the tree lights are all all day long, and the gift wrapping continues. Last weekend we headed with our good friends, Nikki and Hal to the Festival of Trees. I have gone there every year since I was young. The trees are always beautiful and the fact that all the money goes to Primay Children's makes it even better. They have yummy food, music, and lots to look at. It is the perfect way to start off December and the season. Here is a picture of us with "Santa" :)



This weekend we are going to see the lights at Thanksgiving Point and going to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert. It will be a Christmas filled weekend :) Hopefully that will give me more to post about.

Next week my brother Billy, his wife Jacee and their 2 cute kids are going to be here next week! I can't wait. They will be here for 3 whole weeks. I cannot wait to meet their newest addition Cade! I'm going to eat my neice Kenslee alive when I see her though.

Like I said...I love Christmas time. I hope everyone is loving it as much as I am!

Tagged!

Finally something to blog about :) My friend Jodie tagged me (forever ago, sorry) and it is at a perfect time because I have nothing to blog about these days.

7 TV Shows I Love To Watch:

1. The Hills
2. Desperate Housewives
3. Gossip Girl
4. The Office
5. Grey's Anatomy
6. Jon and Kate plus 8
7. Any crime shows like NCIS, Criminal Minds, CSI, anything :)


7 Things That Happened Yesterday:

1. Went to church.
2. Brack got called into work so I watched a movie.
3. Took a nap.
4. Went to the in-laws to watch football and eat.
5. Watched another movie I recorded (love DVR) while Brack did homework.
6. Visited our good friends Brie and Brandon.
7. Went to bed...exciting day :)

7 Favorite Places To Eat:

1. Costa Vida/Cafe Rio - you pick.
2. Chili's
3. Papa Murphy's delite pizza.
4. Tepanyaki
5. Red Robin- love the endless french fries and oreo shake-YUM!
6. Texas Roadhouse - mainly for the rolls and cinnamon butter.
7. Olive Garden.

7 Things I'm Looking Forward To:

1. The end of this semester for Bracken!
2. Thanksgiving.
3. Christmas, the whole Christmas season!!
4. Spending a lot of time with family.
5. The Twilight movie...I'll admit it, I love Twilight!
6. A family--no this is not an announcement :)
7. Spending time with Bracken during the semester breaks.

7 Things On My Wish List:

1. To get completely out of debt. I hope it is soon! (I liked this one so I stole it, sorry Jodie!)
2. A decluttered home!
3. A finished basement.
4. New decorations for my home.
5. New pictures of Brack and I (we haven't had any done since engagements 4 years ago!!)
6. Fun new clothes.
7. Bracken's schooling to be done so that we have more time :)

7 People I Tag:
1. Roz
2. Natalie
3. Kristina
4. Jacee
5. Nikki
6. Tori
7. Amy Nelson

Yeah for Babies!

Wow we had a very exciting weekend! My sister Natalie and her husband Jeff had theif first child on Sunday October 5, 2008 at 11:36 a.m. He is known as Baby Boy Erickson right now. He was 7 pounds 12 ounces and 20.5 inches long. Nat had a rough delivery and we are so happy that it is over with and she has her bundle of joy! We were at the hospital when he was born and were able to hold him about 30 minutes after he was born. I loved being there. He is such a cutie and is doing great! Mom is recovering and letting the pain medications do their work. I can't wait for them to come home!


Baby Boy Erickson about 30 minutes after he was born.


Baby Boy Erickson a few hours after birth. Everytime I have seen him he has been wide awake!



Me and Baby Boy Erickson

Second, my brother Billy and his wife Jacee had their little boy on Sunday October 5, 2008 also!! Yes the cousins have the same birthday! Sadly, they are in Dallas so I was not able to be there. He was born at 7:00 p.m., was 8 pounds, 11 ounces, and his name is Cade William McGuire. He was a big boy, especially for being a week early. Jacee actually had a fairly quick delivery once she started in labor. She and baby are doing great! In fact, they went home this morning! I can't believe I don't get to meet this cute little guy until Christmas :( I'll have to live off of pictures.



Baby Cade



Cade, lots and lots of hair!



Happy McGuire family.

We are so happy to have 2 new nephews! They are such a great blessing in our lives and the lives of their parents. They are both healthy boys and SO CUTE!! (I may be biased.) We love them both very much. It is crazy how instantly that love comes.

Another thing I have failed to mention is that I got a job! I totally forgot to post this. Lately I have talked to people (including family) who didn't know I had a job simply because I hadn't posted it. I actually got my job within 1 month of graduation and have been working since September 15th. I love working from home, working part time, and working when I want to. Right now the money isn't the greatest but it gets better. I absolutely love learning new things every day. It is so interesting to me. So being a medical transcriptionist has been worth it and I am so happy I went through the course!

Other than that, not a whole lot is going on. Brack is still busy with school and work. We are just enjoying this fall weather and getting excited for the holidays! I will most likely post more pictures of these cute boys as soon as I get more!

Tagged!

Thanks Lacey for the tag...I haven't been tagged in a long time. I actually have some pictures to post but Brack is out of town and has my laptop so I'll have to do that post later. But here is my tag!

3 joys, 3 fears, 3 current obsessions/collections:

JOYS

1. Bracken
2. Family & friends
3. A clean kitchen (I love a clean house, but love a clean kitchen the most!)

FEARS

1. Not being able to have children
2. Rollercoasters (I'm being honest, they scare the crap out of me!)
3. Losing Bracken

OBSESSIONS/COLLECTIONS:

1. A clean kitchen :)
2. Watching "my" shows with Bracken
3. Making lists

I tag...Moses, Nikki, Kris, and Nat

School, tests, boring....

Well I know I haven't posted in a while but it's because not a whole lot is going on in our lives. School has started for Brack so I basically never see him. He's at work all day and school all night. When he gets home from class, he eats, then does homework. He is working very very hard! So literally that is our lives right now.




I am still currently trying to find a job. What a tedious task! I have to take employment tests just to get hired. I swear I just took a huge final to finish the course but whatever. So I spend most of the days sending off resumes, taking tests, looking for companies that are hiring. It is time consuming, and frankly quite boring. Other than that I have started to clean out our closets while Brack is at school. I told you, life isn't to exciting but we are happy :)

I forgot...a few weeks ago Bracken went on a weekend get away to Seattle with his brothers and Dad. The Ricketts boys are HUGE Chicago Bears fans and so they went up there to stay with Brack's half brother, Chad, to go to a Chicago Bears vs. Seattle Seahawks game. It was a quick trip but tons of fun. They had time to see a little bit of Seattle and enjoy a Bears game. He loved it!








This is Bracken's favorite football player - Brian Urlacher

Dallas Vacation

We are now home from our vacation. I need to update a little before I go into the information on the vacation.

First off...I FINALLY finished my medical transcription course! YEAH! I took my final before I left but it is a 2 week wait to see if I passed, it was a long 2 weeks. But I PASSED! It feels so good to be done, it was a really hard and well worth it. Now I start the job search, lucky me!

Now for the vacation...we headed to Dallas, well Flower Mound to be exact (just north of Dallas), for an 8 day get away. It was so good to see family! Our niece Kenslee is the cutest little thing ever. She is 2 1/2 and geting so big! We don't get to see them nearly as much as we would like so it was good to be able to spend a full week with her. Almost every morning she would come and wake Bracken and me up, she would ask us to put her down for a nap and to bed every single time, she would want to play 24 hours a day, and she would giggle, giggle, giggle. What a cutie! There are so many pictures that I am going to do a slide show with most of them, but here is a little description of what we did.

Saturday we went to the Ringling Brother's circus and to lunch at a true BBQ place. Bracken was in heaven!!

Sunday was a lazy day, we slept, read books, went to the lake to throw rocks, and then went to church at 1:30. I would die if I had that church time, especially with kids.

Monday was our shopping day. We went to some nice stores. My favorite was Sam Moon, it was a store of purses, jewelry, and hair stuff. That is my kind of store.

Tuesday we went down to the Fort Worth Stockyards. That is real country! Brack of course loved it. We did a little shopping in the shops, then at 11:30 every day they have longhorn cows walk down the street like a little parade. After that, we went to see Billy Bob's (a big Texas thing I guess), and went to lunch. By that time the heat was too much to take so we headed home. That afternoon we of course had to go swimming.

Wednesday Bracken and I went to Dallas to the JFK museum. It was really neat to go to. We really enjoyed it. We were able to see exactly where the gun man stood, where JFK was, and the grassy knoll. Then we did more shopping that day and babysat our niece that night while her parents went out. She was such a cutie and is such a good girl.

Thursday we headed to the Fort Worth Zoo, it was huge! It was such a cool zoo. It ended up being extremely hot but still it was fun. After all the heat we had to go swimming that afternoon.

Friday we took my niece to Chuckee Cheese and did some shopping. That night we went to another BBQ place called Red, Hot, and Blue. It was very yummy! Then Saturday we came home. It was a good getaway and we loved being with our family. Thanks Billy and Jacee for letting us stay and for all that you did for us there! We miss you guys already!

Ok, enough talking, enjoy the pictures!

DALLAS!

I know that it is time for an update but right now we are vacationing in DALLAS! I know, who is crazy enough to go to Texas in August, but when you have to work your vacations around school you do what you can. My brother Billy and his family are living down here for a few years so we decided to come and see Texas while we have a place to stay. So far we are having a ton of fun! It is the best being able to play with our niece Kenslee all day long! I will do an update and post lots of pictures when I get back....for now it's back to vacationing! We love it!

UPDATE!

Wow I can't believe it has been a month since I have posted. I am such a slacker. For awhile there we just weren't doing anything exciting. Bracken has been working and enjoying the summer off of school. I have been working on "my course", I am doing this online course to become a medical transcriptionist so I can work from home. (For those of you who don't know what that is, when a doctor sees a patient, they will sometimes record their notes about the visit and the company sends them to the transcriptionist to type.) I will be done in 1 month!! Then off to find a job. I work on it everyday, and it is a lot harder than I thought it would be. Ever since the weather has been nice we have spent a lot of time swimming at the Ricketts and enjoying SUMMER! I absolutely love the nice weather.

Bracken relaxing in the pool!


Brack and his dad swimming

Lately we have had a my family in town. One evening my cousin and her 2 girls came up and spent the night at my parents. We hadn't seen them in forever and hardly even know her 2 girls. They are the cutest things!! By the end of the evening, they were calling me "Aunt JuJu" and my dad "Grandpa". It was nice because that night my sister and her kids and my brother and his family also came up.

My nephew Jacob playing at Grandma's house.

Harley playing with the kids, they love to tease her with toys.

This past week, my brother Billy, his wife Jacee, and little girl Kenslee have been in town. I LOVE when they come. It is so bittersweet when they come because I LOVE seeing them but I HATE to have them go. My sister Kristina and her three kids came up this past week for 2 days to play with the cousins and it was fun because the ENTIRE family was all together. It is so nice when that happens because it doesn't happen too often with 5 kids in our family. We went to my parent's ward's BBQ and swim party, did a little shopping, went swimming at the Ricketts (they have been so good to let us go swimming so much! Thank you!) Basically we have been eating, swimming, and lots and lots of playing. It makes it for a busy week but it is SO FUN!

Brother Bobby and his cute little guy Brody.

Finally, it was the 4th of July! I absolutely love this holiday! It is quite a tie between this and Christmas being my favorite holidays ever. I do have to say that Kaysville does quite a good job with the 4th! The day started with us going to the breakfast at the DATC (a Ricketts tradition). It was actually quite nice to have it be a little cloudy because it didn't get as hot. We ended up sitting around talking and doing some "people watching" (you know you do it!) until the parade. We met up with my brother Billy and his family and in laws to watch the parade. It was fun to help Kenslee get all the candy. She is sucha cutie! Afterwards, we went to the Ricketts went swimming, had a BBQ, and took a little nap. Later we went and met up with both of my brothers and their families and in laws for the Kaysville fireworks. We went early enough to go to the little carnival and let the kids play around until it got dark. All in all it was a wonderful holiday. I have told Bracken that it will always be a big deal in our house! I just love it! I hope everyone had a great holiday!

Me and Kenslee at the parade

Billy and Brack at the parade.

Kenslee at the parade, she didn't want to look up at me :)

Brack and I at the fireworks. (Brack was had his eyes closed in every picture that night.)

Brack and Kenslee watching the fireworks. Brack loves when she sits with him!

I'll try to be better with posting, I basically just spend most of my time on the computer studying but that will be over soon! I hope everyone is enjoying the summer and wonderful weather!!

Sheryl is FINALLY done :)

Sheryl making a cheesy face for me :)

Last Friday was my mother-in-law Sheryl's last day teaching 7th and 8th grade at Kaysville Jr. High. She is finally retired and the family is so excited for her! I didn't have Sheryl as a teacher because I was a Farmington Husky so I didn't get to enjoy her in class but from what I have heard is she was a funny, silly, hard teacher. We joke in the family that if I had her for a teacher I wouldn't have been able to marry into the family. I was a bit loud and I'm just guessing I would've been in trouble a lot.


Me and Brack at Maddox

Any way, to celebrate the retirement Bracken's aunt JoanE and her family came in town from Denver to surprise Sheryl for the weekend. On Saturday his family treated us and his aunts and uncles to a wonderful lunch up at Maddox. It was delicious and lots of fun. The best part was when Sheryl opened her gift from my father-in-law John. I know I have said this on here before but Sheryl is the biggest Jazz fan I have ever met. She is so funny. She just loves them when they are winning or losing she loves them. So for her gift my father-in-law gave her an authetic signed basketball by the whole Jazz team and coach. It was awesome. She was seriously freaking out. Any way, all in all it was a really fun day. Thanks John and Sheryl for the yummy lunch.

The brother's Ben and Blake (they are single ladies!)


Brack's aunt and uncles, Bruce, JoanE and Ron

The rest of the weekend was spent with Bracken's family but the batteries in my camera died so there are no pictures. Saturday night we went and Brack played basketball with his cousins and we went swimming and just hung out. Then Sunday was another one of his cousins baby blessings so we went to that and then hung out at his parents the rest of the day playing basketball, talking, eating, and playing a little guitar hero. It was a fun weekend with family!

Birthday Boy :)

The Big 25!! Isn't he cute?


Yes, I made a football cake :)


Today is Bracken's 25th birthday! He was supposed to start the day using his birthday present at the golf course (he got new clubs!!) but because of the "wonderful" Utah weather he wasn't able to go out. So instead his day consisted of a nice lunch with my parents and just hanging out. For the evening we had a BBQ with our friends Nikki and Hal and then went bowling. As weird as it is, in the 4 years that Brack and I have been together we have never been bowling. Mainly because I totally suck at bowling. Seriously, I think I normally get around about a 30. I know we have tried going before but it seems like everytime we try there are leagues or something. So it was really fun to go. Bracken tried to show me how to bowl better but I still lost and Bracken won. I did get what I think is my highest score which was a big...58! Yes that is right, I am awesome. Brack almost doubled my score with a good 115. It was fun though. We have tons of fun with Nikki and Hal and we are glad they hung out with us. Afterwards, we had a little cake and ice cream. All in all, I think he had a good day.






Nikki and Hal



I'm proud of my 58!

I just wanted to tell Bracken how grateful I am for him. Everybody that knows Bracken knows what an amazing person he truly is. He is one of the most open and inviting people you will ever meet. He is always smiling and makes everyone laugh, especially me! I love how happy he always is. He loves his family, friends and everyone he meets. He has been the biggest blessing in my life and I couldn't thank the Lord enough for him. He is the hardest worker I know and will do anything he can to provide for us. He has a strong testimony, he is kind, he is giving and he is sincere. I just love him to death!! He is the love of my life and I love having him in it. Life wouldn't be what it is without him. I love you Brack, Happy Birthday!

Summer Buzz Cut!

Ok this post is about one week late but I have to get it posted. Last weekend we had a BBQ at our house with our good friends Nikki and Hal Holbrook. I actually met Nikki because I trained her to sort of take my place at work and since then we have been really good friends and lucky for us, our husbands really like each other. They recently bought a house about 1.5 miles away from us so we try to get together as much as we can.

Every spring/summer Bracken shaves his head. Most of the time I hesitate to have him do it, don't get me wrong, I think he looks good, I just enjoy the hair sometimes too (he won't have hair for much longer so I like it while its still there). Well ever since Bracken shaved his head this year Hal has been wanting what he calls the "summer buzz cut". He talked about it everytime we saw him for like 3 weeks and finally Nikki just told him to do it. Nikki, Hal and I were a little nervous at first because we didn't know what Hal would look like with no hair but Brack was pushing him to join. So after dinner, Hal decided to cave into Bracken's peer pressure and get his "summer buzz cut". He was freaking out but went along with it. Here are some pictures of the event.

Brack and Hal before the buzz

This is after the first cut...he had tons of hair!

Brack finishing up the job.

Nikki does hair so we had her do the touch ups.


The outcome.....he loves it! I guess he has been very happy with the decision. Now Brack has a friend with the same summer buzz cut. They claim it makes the cooler when they are outside but I don't know if that is true or if they are just happy not to have to do their hair in the morning.


Nikki is terrified of dogs and this was the first time she has ever held Harley, she even picked her up on her own. Good job Nik!


The rest of last weekend I don't really remember. I think we just ran errands and went to dinner on Saturday and then had dinner with my parents on Sunday. Kind of a slow weekend. This past week we didn't do a whole lot. I did start a new "job". My mom had hired a college girl to clean her house for her (because she is insanely busy all the time) once a week for a couple of hours. She hired her a few months ago but then offered to pay me to do it instead. So I took it. It's good money for a short amount of time. Plus, I take my dog, hang out for awhile after I finish and it's really not bad at all. I don't mind cleaning so it works out. Who doesn't need a little extra money? Brack is happy I'm doing it because now I'm not stressing out and freaking out about money as much. Other than that, nothing new going on here. I will be posting about htis weekend after tomorrow's holiday. I hope everyone has a wonder Memorial Day.

Mother's Day Weekend!

We had such a great Mother's Day weekend! It was full of family, food and FUN! The weekend started with me heading down to my sister's in Mapleton to go to my niece Emma's dance recital. Shs is 5 years old and such a character. She is beautiful, smart and very talented. She danced about 4 or 5 dances and she did such a good job. Seriously, she was the only one that knew the steps and actually was on beat. She is cute. Here are some pictures of her all "dolled" up for her dances. She LOVES to dress up, wear make-up and more importantly get all the attention from everyone. I should've taken more pictures of my family that was there but between 2 little one year olds and keeping my 7 year old nephew entertained through a dance recital, I was busy :)

Little Miss Emma!

Isn't she cute?!


Brack chose not to come because the Jazz were playing!!! I couldn't argue with him there, so he stayed home and spent the night at his parents. GO JAZZ! We are having fun watching all of the playoff games. Luckily Bracken loves his sports and watching them but doesn't have a bad temper when his team doesn't do too good. So it usually ends up being fun watching the games. Congrats to the Jazz for pulling off 2 wins! Lets keep it up.

GO JAZZ!


Saturday was our usual Saturday. Brack got up and went golfing with my dad and brothers, I cleaned up the house and then we ran errands. When we got home from errands there was a package on our door from 1-800-Flowers. Brack ordered me flowers! He is so sweet. He has NEVER done something like this and it totally surprised me. He is SO sweet! I couldn't ask for anyone better! That night we went to dinner and then watched I am Legend with my parents and sister and her husband. I don't know why I agreed to watch this movie for a second time, I hate it. I am a baby and it scares me, plus there is a part that makes me sad. Luckily my sister hates it too so we walked out a couple of times on the parts we didn't want to see.

Brack and Emma on Mother's Day playing outside

Then came Mother's Day. Don't you just love Mother's Day? There is just a good feeling about this day. I know that I am not a mother but hopefully I will be someday so the kind people in my life shared the day with me anyway. At church we got a nice church music CD and then after church we went to my in-laws. I made some dinner for the family and we enjoyed the Jazz game. My mother-in-law is truly one of the BIGGEST Jazz fans I have ever met. Normally she is a fairly calm, reserved woman, who knows how to have fun when its time to have fun but when the Jazz are on, all emotions come out. She is not allowed (by the entire in-law family) to watch the game with everyone else, she has to watch it in her room and all you hear is screaming, clapping, and sometimes other choice words :) It is hilarious. I forgot to take pictures there, I always forget.

Later in the afternoon, we went to my parents house. Everyone was there except for Billy, Jacee, and Kenslee who we missed, but it is always so nice to have the family together. We had a nice bbq and were able to play with all of the nieces and nephews. I think Bracken spent the entire day outside playing football, squeezing into tight places (you will see by the picture) and making the kids laugh. He is such a good uncle to all of them. It ended up being such a fun day, playing, talking, laughing and exchanging gifts.

My nephew Jake showed up as "Luigi" and of course Brack had to jump in on the fun!

Brack, Emma and Jeff (brother-in-law) "stuck" in the play set.

Brack who is about 6'4'' and Jeff who is about 6'3'' and Emma all fit :)

At about this time Brack was going to kill me if I didn't hurry and take the picture so he could get out.

Even though I believe it was supposed to be a big day for my mom, she was nice and gave all of the girls in our family a gift. She is always giving and putting her family first. She is the hardest worker that I know, she is such a good example to me and is exactly what I want to be when I am a mother. I hope she knows how much I love her! To all of you mothers, I hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day!

These are both a couple pictures or our dog Harley, she loves to play with the kids and chases after balls that are bigger than her :)