Holidays!

Well, I guess since it's a new year, I should change the background on my blog. But, I couldn't just change it without posting, so here I am. I have been trying to get this post to work for almost two hours and I am now giving up. I have some video clips of our holidays that I wanted to share, but you will just have to imagine them!

We had a wonderful holiday. We were able to spend time with both families and just relax! This year was full of surprises! First off, my four siblings and I collaborated with Dad to make sure we were all too 'busy' to have a small Christmas party. This kind of upset my mother, but she didn't think much of it. On December 23rd, she was surprised to find a pretty good group of carolers at her door. Not only did these carolers bring a tear to her eye, they also brought her dinner, convinced Santa to come, and all slept over! It was a small Christmas miracle!!!

Christmas Eve was spent with my extended family at my cousins' church. We had lots of yummy food, Santa came and brought everyone a gift, chimes, singing, accordion playing, and the nativity story acted out by the small children. This year, Chloe was Mary and Jackson was Joseph. They were so cute!

Jeff, Chloe and I had a small, quiet Christmas morning to ourselves. Chloe doesn't understand Santa yet, but she sure loves to open presents. As soon as she opened one gift, she wanted it out of the box so she could play with it. It took her 40 minutes to open the 4 gifts we had for her. Even though it took a while, she loved each gift we got her. Jeff and I exchanged our gifts, which were all wonderful, and then we headed over to my parents' house.

Here, Jeff totally thought he was going to get a wheat grinder from my parents. Which, I knew I was getting the wheat grinder, but I kind of led him astray. He was caught off guard when the first gift he opened were shotgun shells (Jeff doesn't own a shotgun)! My dad then let him open his Remington 870 28" barrel 12 gauge shotgun!!! My dad and I went in on the gift together and it was so fun to see the surprise on Jeff's face! While he was opening his gun, Markus (my brother-in-law) got a .40 caliber Glock. The Savage women rock!!!

Last, but not least, my father was able to open his 'big' gift from my mother. He got tears in his eyes too as he learned that he had Alta passes to take all of his kids skiing with him. He has wanted to go so bad, but it gets harder and harder each year! Overall, everyone had a great Christmas and New Year!!! It's going to be hard to top it this year!

Christmas is coming!

I am so excited for Christmas this year! Chloe LOVES the Christmas tree and music that is always on at our house. She also loves to look at the presents under the tree. She is really good at singing Christmas songs too. This year is going to be so fun! Here are some fun pictures of our festivities! The first one is the super cute Advent calendar Jeff's grandma made for Chloe. Next is how much fun Chloe had when we got the Christmas tree out (she was more interested in the box)! Then, our awesome Christmas tree (also provided by Jeff's sweet grandma)! And last is our cute tree skirt that Chloe picked out (She loved the Penguin)!

Thanksgiving Time!

I wanted to make sure I posted about Thanksgiving during November...unlike Halloween. Oops! Anyway, we went down to Orem and spent time with Jeff's family on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Jeff's aunt and uncle were visiting from Las Vegas, so that was great to see them. We played a lot of Dr. Mario on the 64 and went and saw Harry Potter. After a big and tastely Thanksgiving lunch, we were able to go up to my family's Thanksgiving party. Our family is so big that we always celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas at a church. While we are there, we square dance, play basketball, sing, and eat all the time. It's crazy, but that's my family. Below is a picture of the thankful tree Chloe and I had been working on each day of November and a picture of the cute turkey that was made by my little sister (keep in mind that the turkey is a couple of days old and Jeff had already started eating him before I took the picture)! Holidays are the best!

A Thankful Heart!

I have realized in the last few days how truly blessed I am. I won't go in to details, but I encourage you all to think about your lives and really count your many blessings. There are so many people in the world that don't have nearly as much as I do and yet I take simple things for granted. I was complaining this morning because my house was down to 64 and my heat wasn't working, but at least I have a place to live that does protect me and my family from the cold. Every night, Chloe asks for medicine...how thankful I am that we have medicine! I didn't want the hassle of putting up our Christmas tree and trying to convince Chloe not to touch the ornaments, but my cute friend doesn't even have one but isn't complaining. I need to be more thankful, and not just during this time of year.

Stay tuned for a post on my cool Advent calendar that my friends and I have been working on this past week. It's cute and we made it all by ourselves! I love this time of year!!!

Happy Halloween!

We had an awesome Halloween! We spent the day with Jeff's family and had a good time there. After, we headed to my sister's house and had a yummy dinner. It's been a while since my whole family has been all together, so that was really fun!


Jeff was static cling (if you couldn't tell, those are clothes stuck to him), I was a princess, and Chloe was the cutest little candy corn witch you have ever seen. Yes, all 10 adults took these 3 kids Trick or Treating!


My parents rocked the Ketchup and Mustard costumes! My dad was worried about it, but I did see a young guy in my complex that was dressed as Mustard, so it must be cool! Brittany was Snow White (and some of the kids in her ward thought she was the real thing), Jack was a terrifying shark, Lucy was a pretty peacock (now Chloe calles the peacock in her book Lucy) and the big green Gumby is Markus!!! Awesome!

Kristin and Chad were on a wild safari when the spotted a cute little lion! Then we have Ali the Gangsta and Todd the Savage (yes, he is wearing tights)!

The kids did great even when the weather wasn't ideal. Chloe would sit down in the middle of the sidewalk and want to eat the candy right then. Jack, on the other hand, knew exactly how to work the system. He tromped along ahead of everyone else. He didn't want any help! It was very cute!

I know for a fact that I have eaten more of Chloe's Halloween candy than she has. Her pumpkin is sitting on the dryer and she doesn't even know it. I don't think she even remembers how much candy she got. She still goes around saying "Trick or treat!" Halloween is so much more fun with little kids!

Temple Trip and Trains

Last Monday night, Chloe and I picked up Jeff from work and went to Temple Square. Chloe has always loved temples so when she got to walk right up to one and touch it, she could hardly contain her excitement. She had to sit on every bench we found and go up each staircase. It took a while to walk around the temple, but it was wonderful to watch her eyes light up at each new corner. She also really liked riding on the "Choo-choo," aka Trax. It's a good thing we went last week because we would have been trudging through the snow if we waiting until today. YUCK!!! No, I love the cold because I get to wear warm clothes. But I also hate the cold. If I had to define my relationship with the cold, in Facebook terms, it would definitely be complicated! So, for this week's FHE, we went with some friends to see Toy Story 3. This was the first time we have taken Chloe to a movie theater and I must say I was really impressed with how well she did. Chloe is the best! Here are some fun pictures from our FHE and I can't wait to post cute Halloween pictures in a week!

She loved the water fountain!

A nice trip on Trax

A small glimpse of Eternity

The first, but not last, bench!

Witch-A-Palooza

Since Jeff hasn't come home much before Midnight this week, I've decided I am just going to have to live my life without him. So today, Chloe and I went with Lucy, Jackson, B, Grammy and Pampa to Witch-A-Palooz at Gardner Village. They have all of these crazy awesome displays of witches. If you find all of the witches, you can get a cookie. The kids loved it and we all had a good time. Chloe fit right in! She loves being a witch and carrying around her wand and wearing her hat. She is so adorable. Cousin Lucy is a peacock (I know, random, but that's what she decided on) and Jackson is a shark. I don't have any pictures of him in his costume because he was just way too hot in it! If you get the chance, go see the witches at Gardner Village! I'm excited for Halloween to come!

Lucy is waving HI, but the other two are in their own little worlds!

I love Chloe's wand!

It's a good thing there were cookies at the end or else we wouldn't have been able to keep the kids there as long as we did!