Our Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year despite me having to work 24/7. We still managed to do somethings and enjoy the holidays. First Scott got us tickets to go see the Nutcracker! Mom and Dad came with us as part of her birthday present and we went out to dinner at sizzler and then went to the ballett! It was wonderful! I don't think it was Scott's favorite thing in the world by any means but we had fun. And was reminded that he'll have to come again when our first daughter is about 4 :) he agreed. What a good husband!

We had early Christmas with Scott's family because Danielle and Brandon were going to Moab this year. I thought this picture was super cute. Scott with all of Ray and Katies kids: Jen, James, Ellie and Nathan.

Erin loved this Box! It was probably her favorite Christmas present. She just kept climbing in and out of it over and over. It was pretty funny.

We did the Christmas pageant with just our family for the first time this year. Jared, Jeni and Sophie were Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus.

Everyone together at the end.

Me and Juliana. She would not stop blowing that horn all night she loved it!

She also loved my chocolate pie! Yum!

Timothy was so cute he found my camera and came up and asked if he could take a picture of me and scott together for us. Isn't he so cute! Super Squeezer over the internet Timothy! I love you!

Christmas morning!

Mom with her new pots and pans

Dad and his new razor

Scott got his Lectures on Faith book.

And me and my Sweat suit and mockisans.

Jakes girls all got guitars for christmas, except Juliana. Christena wasn't in the picture because Scott was tuning her strings for her. They were so excited to have Uncle Scott help them tune their strings and show them a few cords!

And then I had to throw this picture in because this is how we all felt at the end of the day!

So I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you all a wonderful New Year!! P.S. party at our house mom and dad will be gone for the weekend!!!!

J/K- mom and dad I love you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well we had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year with mom and dad home. We started our day out with a little turkey bowl. I went over and watched. It was pretty fun to watch actually.

Here's dad. Yes Dad even played and better than that he caught the ball when it was thrown to him! Go Dad!
Here's Scott running accross the field. He made a touchdown! I really liked watching him play football. I've never really seen him play sports before and so I really enjoyed it. And he's good at it too! He even did a little victory dance for me after his touchdown! :)

Olyvia and Christena and Savannah sang us a little Thanksgiving song before we ate our dinner. It was very cute!

Joshy holding Sophie. All the little girls were in line to hold her.

I made another Apple pie! And don't you just love my Turkey for Thanksgiving on it!

Me and Issy. I couldn't get her to come out and play with the other kids. So finally I convinced her to come pick out a game to play with me. So we played Memory. She loved it! She's pretty good at it too!

Sophie helping daddy read his Birthday card.

Monkey faces!

The tradtional planning out of the next mornings shopping spree!

We borrowed Scott's parents Wii and played the Wii with everyone. That was pretty fun. Juliana loved it. She probably could have played it all night if we let her. Her and Grandpa played baseball and she kept striking Grandpa out!

Scott was such a good uncle and he played games all night with all the kids while all the women were planning out Black Friday.

Overall it was a very good Thanksgiving. We kind of had a bumb shopping spree the next day....we didn't get anything we wanted...but it's ok I guess. We'll find something else. Actually Scott already found and bought us another computer through his work with a printer. It was a liitle bit more but not much. I had to work all weekend so that was crappy but oh well I guess ya do what you gotta do.

Where did November go???

Wow this month has gone by so fast I feel like I'm running in circles trying to catch up. We have been so busy lately it is insane. I recently got a new job at the Shane Company which is added on top of the one I already had. So I am now working 50 + hours a week and trying to come out with a good grade in my math class this semester so I can finally graduate! Although I have been doing very very well in math....which if you know me is crazy to think about. But I have gotten an A on all my tests!!
I really like my new job. The Shane Company is a great place to work and everyone I work with is so nice! I get my discount probably the end of March also for anyone that wants to know. :) 40% off!!! I really like it working with beautiful Jewlery all day long. I also got to actually meet Tom Shane too, kind of cool. And yes he talks just like his comercial sounds. The first time I heard him start talking I had to hold back not laughing. So the second job is nice...but holy cow I am so tired all the time!!!! And I never have a break, or get to see Scott :( which makes me sad. But it will be nice to have next summer when school is out.
Other than all that life with us is pretty much the same. We can't wait for the holidays! I love Thanksgiving, and shopping with the sisters the day after and I love Christmas! We watched our first christmas movie the other day and I am so excited now! I love being with family!
Anyways, I'll probably post some pictures after thanksgiving so I guess this is it for now. :)

Halloween!!

Well we had a fun and happy halloween. We actually celebrated our Halloween on the 30th with my whole family. It was a lot of fun. I just thought I miss seeing all of the kids costumes and things on Halloween and so I was going to have a family party where everyone could dress up. So me and my sister planned a couple of fun little games and we had a costume competition, pizza and pumpkin carving. It turned out to be a blast. I think everyone had a good time just being crazy together for a night.

Me and Scott we Elmer Fudd and Buggs Bunny

I made my dress for it. It turned out pretty cute...I think I'll probably have to put a little something on the bottom of it though to make it a little longer so I can actually wear it places though.

Mom and Dad were the Lolly Pop Guild kids from Wizard of OZ. It was pretty funny! Everytime someone new came in the door they did the little song..It was funny!

I think that was actually the funnest part for everyone was that not only the kids but all the adults dressed up and had a good time too!

Jakes Family. Jake was Mr. Clean, Debra the Cleaning lady, Juliana-clown, Stena-Dead Pirate, Savannah-dead gypsey, Livvy-tiger. Super cute!

Tonja-pirate, Sean-Indian....Joshy came later and as Michael Jackson

Michele-Michael Jackson, Britney-Chicken Little, Steve-Hunter, Trenton-Grim Reaper

Elmer Fudd and Clown. Juliana loves uncle Scott!

Wendy-French Maid, Mackey-Vampire, Allyssa-Goth, Timothy-Darth Vador, Issybelle-"kitty cat" So cute!

Our Spider Relay. It was pretty fun! Everyone was going crazy, it was just nuts!

So what you had to do was we took tights and stuffed them with dish towels and stuff, then tied them to bungy cords...so you would wrap the bungy cord with the extra legs making you a spider and you had to crab walk through the obstacle and back to touch the next team mate.

Tonja and Wendy! I can not describe the pain in my stomach from laughing so hard! It was so funny!!!

I just thought this was a funny picture! "Ahhh what's between my legs!!!!"

We did a pinata in the garage. This is Ju-bear hittin' it.

There's the whole Van-Damn Family!!!

We so are making this our new tradition! We had so much fun just dancing around and playing games and carving pumpkins. I don't think I have ever had so much fun at a family party! I'm so gald everyone could make it! Of coarse we did Miss Jared, Jeni and Sophie and Randy and the Fam. and Ben and his fam. But we had a lot of fun being silly and stupid together.

I love my family! You guys are the best! Thanks for making this Halloween so memorable!

Zoo, Leaves, and Scott's B-day!

Well we finally had our first field trip this year to the zoo! Just a few little high lights from that:

Here is the new baby elephant Zuri! Sooo stinkin' cute! We got there at breakfast time so all the animals were pretty active!

I have never enjoyed the penguins so much! This one little penguin(if you look close you can see it) Followed this zoo keeper around everywhere! It was so funny. He was jumping off rocks, at one point he walked right up to her and cocked his head to the side and so she bent down and petted it on the head. It was so cute! Come to find out later she actually raised that perticular penguin.

The momma and baby giraffe. They were a little timid to come outside so we went inside to see them. The dad however came right up to me outside and let me pet it!! I love giraffe's this is the 3rd time I got to pet one! One time it actually licked my hand!

For Scott's birthday he wanted to go see "Where the Wild Things Are" But that wasn't until 4:40pm. So he decided to kill time he wanted to go up the canyon and take some pretty fall pictures, since we tried on my B-day but got up there to late at night. It was so beautiful! There is nothing at the top of the canyon anymore because of the snow storms but it sure is beautiful down near the bottom!

This is my all time favorite picture that we took!

This spot was funny seeing scott stumble over the rocks in ten seconds and get ready for a picture!!

Awe pretty!

Scott wanted to take one of just me in front of a little water fall.

After the movie (which was kind of an interesting one) we went and got a pizza at pier 49 and then came home and us and my parents played us a game of Settelers of Catan!! We love this game.....(except that I have been winning a lot lately and it doesn't make Scott very happy...)

But Scott also wanted me to make him an apple pie instead of a cake for his birthday so with Scott mom's fancey apple peeler and my mom's already made and then frozen pie crust..he he he...ok so I cheated a little, I made a yum, yum, yummy pie for my hubby! Notice the design in it!!

Happy birthday Scott! I hope you had a wonderful day! I love you!

Count Your Blessings!

Well last night we were saying our prayers and I just got this amazing overwhelming feeling of all the many and wonderful blessings in my life and wanted to share some of my little blessings with others in thinking that we all need to look for the little blessings in our lives more than the negative things that always seem to clutter our thoughts. I will just share 10.

1. First, of coarse I am blessed to have such a wonderful husband that loves and cares for me continually. Even when he comes home from work or school and is just exhaughsted he askes me how my day was and gives me a hug and kiss and tells me he loves me. He is such an amazing example to me and is always pushing me to be a better person in my life. I love you Scott. And thank you. I could go on for hours about him but I'll leave it at that for now for there are so many other things..

2. I have been blessed with an amazing family who is always there to love and support each other. And not just the one I was born into but the one I married into as well. I feel so blessed to know that I always have someone around who will be there to help, or lift me up, or care and support. I love my families and am so greatful to be apart of them.

3. I am so blessed to have such an amazing and wonderful job where I get to help children who desperatly need my help each day to do everything. What a blessing and privilage to know these amazing children. I couldn't ask for a better of more amazing job anywhere!

4. I am so blessed to have the opportunity to be able to go to school and learn more about the world I live in. I am so greatful for programs that help any student that needs help to get to college and to further their knowledge and education.

5. I am so greatful for technology that I can do things like this and keep in daily contact with all the wonderful people in my life.

6. I am greatful for such a wonderful place to live. Thank you mom and dad for everything. I know the itch is on us for us to move out but I will ever be greatful to your kindness of letting us live with you and the love and support you give us daily.

7. I am greatful for doctors who have studied and trained well to be in their profession and who can help us fix whatever crazy thing is going on with our bodies. I'm greatful for the oral surgeon who did such an amazing and wonderful job on getting my infection out, giving me a bone graft, and putting in my implant yesterday. Although it is costng us a fortune, I am still so greatful for it.

8. I am so greatful for the knowledge in which I have of knowing that I have a Father in Heaven who is constantly mindful of me and the things that are going on in my life and the decisions I am trying to make. I am soo greatful for the opportunity to pray with my husband each night to that very same Father in Heaven and thank Him for His hand in our lives.

9. I am also greatful for my knowledge of Jesus Christ my Savior and Redeemer. I will ever be greatful for His sacrifice for me that I can repent and come unto to Him and be forgiven for the things I have done wrong in my life. And for the opportunity to change continually to become more like Him each and every day as I strive to do those things that are in accordance with His will. I love my Savior Jesus Christ and am trying as Elder Eyring so eloquently spoke about in conference, to be like Him. I know I have many more things to learn and go through to get there, but I am trying.

10. And lastly I am so greatful for Our Father's wonderful plan! For the opportunity in which I had to kneel at the alter with my husband and to be sealed to him for time and ALL eternity! I feel so blessed to know that I have my family forever sealed to me. And I am so greatful for the temple and the opportunity in which we have to go their often as we are so close to several of them; and to renew our covenants with our Heavenly Father as man and woman, but more immportantly as husband and wife!

These are just some thoughts that I wanted to share with you in hopes that we can all be a little more mindful of our blessings in our lives. I love you all and am so blessed to know you. I am so very blessed!

We're alive and doing well.

Well I just wanted to give you all a little update on us. I am always on here posted pictures and things from different events but I don't think I ever say how we are actually doing.

Things could never be better.....or more horrifying. Scott is still going through his surgical tech coarse and is doing awesome at it! He is on his last prerequisite class right now and then will start his actual Surgical tech coarses. He is acing all his tests! I am so proud of him! He is also doing very well at work and still loving it. He is such a hard worker and just puts his best into everything. He never does a half hearted job. Something I just love and cherish about him.

I am on my last class to get my associates degree. And of coarse it is math. But I am doing remarkably well so far. Something I never expect when it comes to math. On my two tests I have taken so far I have gotten a 96 and an 89. So I'm doing good! I can't wait to graduate!! I am still working at Willow Canyon Elementary School with the orthopedic impaired kids. I love it! Best job ever! I am going to start looking for another part time job for mondays and wednesdays to though to try and help us out because....

I have to get and implant tooth. I have a baby tooth that never had a permanent under it and is causing me so much pain that they say it's time to go. The implant proceedure costs $2,700 and then the crown to go on top will cost another $700. The did give us this set up with a outside care plan that works with dental issues like this and sets up payment programs. So we are looking into that right now. If you get it paid off in a year it's intrest free. The scarey part is that I am starting to get an infection around my tooth and in I don't get it done soon it will start eating at my bone and then they will have to do a bone graft which is another $700, an extra visit, and the insurence wont cover any of it. So we are hoping to get in ASAP to get it taken care of.

We also are looking to move out sometime in december. So if you know any deals out there for a basement apartment or anything like that let us know! We are looking for at least a two bedroom. So many things all at once but are so excited to move forward with all of this. Scott will be done in the spring with his school and should be able to get a good job as a tech and will get about a 4-5 dollar raise which will help us a ton!! We just can't wait! It's time to move on with life and branch out and experience new things.

I do have a couple pics for you though:

So my mom has taught me how to cut hair! 3rd times the charm! Here is the last hair cut I gave scott yesterday! I'm just so proud I have to share!

Didn't I do a good job! I just feel so accomplished! Thanks mom for teaching me such a great skill that will be so useful throughout our life!