have a holly jolly

christmas cards are one of my favorite things about christmas time.

i just love getting mail.

i still get excited seeing a hand addressed letter in my mailbox.

email is great, but there's nothing like that envelope

especially addressed

to me.

a few months back i decided to "economically" forgo our christmas card this year

(you know, with the blog and all),

and oh how i am regretting it!

thank goodness others have not made the same mistake.

i vow to send a hand addressed christmas card out next year.

until then,

merry christmas!

love,

emily, sean, and brennan

our card would have had a super cute picture of the three of us matching in christmas colors outdoors in the snow.

we would have talked about roley poley brennan who is still NOT crawling, but prefers to roll around from place to place.

we would have mentioned how glorious our life is with little B and how we can't wait for lots more!!!

we would have said sean is doing fantastic in PT school and as serving as scout master.

we might have said how amazing this year has been, but you know, we don't want to rub it in;-)

we definitely would have said how grateful we are for having wonderful people like all of you in our life!

merry merry happy christmas!

christmas tootsies

do you have a naughty baby/kid when your husband is home?

i do.

my perfect little angel who takes two long naps and never whines all day is now refusing to take naps and has been whining a lot lately.

whenever he sees dad his arms shoot up and the whining begins.

the baby who never misses his morning nap is beginning to defy this lovely morning ritual in the hopes that dad will play with him.

don't get me wrong babe, i LOVE having you home, but maybe we should lock both of you in your rooms for a timeout;-)

how does my 9 1/2 mo. old know that we are on vacation?

smart little devil.

omaha lime sublime

as previously mentioned this week there are 2 things making you an

"adult"

in my family.

receiving "pella letter" pastries

is 1 and these steaks are the 2.
omaha steaks

1/2 dad's family attended

Creighton Univ. in omaha, nebraska.

our dinner plates have never been the same.

there's just no way to do these steaks justice without letting yourself bite into the silky red meat. it melts in your mouth. there is no extra fat anywhere on the beautiful red delights. many may say you need extra fat for flavoring, but not with omaha's. they require no seasoning whatsoever. all they need is a grill (preferably a charcoal weber) and a chef to properly prepare the salivating medium rare juicy steak.

grilled asparagus to accompany, of course.

thank you grandma max for stocking our freezer full!

we will think of you all year round as we feast on these beauties from above.

although, it appears that this week brennan prefers

limes only please.

also, congrats

Mrs. brooke N.

for guessing correctly the 2 things we are counting down for.

i will post brooke's prize by saturday for all of you to see!!!!

back up!

my fingers are burning to write tonight!!!

all morning i was on the phone with the lovely sarah from india (hp tech support) trying to fix my brand new computer. apparently it has a "bad mother board," whatever that means. basically it went like this:

sarah: you have a mother board that is bad.

emily: fabulous, what does that mean?

sarah: no problem, we will just send you a FedEx box to send it back to be fixed.

emily: does that mean you will backup my files?

sarah: we will have to wipe your files completely and do not support a backup (privacy)

emily: (while starting to tear up) can't i give someone my permission to backup my pictures before you erase my hard drive? (starting to panic inside, may hyperventilate)

sarah: no mam, it's against our privacy policy (she really was very lovely and understanding while saying all of this)

emily: (very calmly) i see, but i just had this beautiful little baby and EVERY picture i have of him is on this hard drive (trying not to let sarah know i really am crying now, while sean hands me a box of tissues).

sarah: i am so sorry. i understand, but we are unable to back up anything. you might try a local company before sending it back to us.

emily: (having worked on "the phones" for a company & understanding it's not sarah's fault i say...) okay, are you sure there's nothing we can do?

sarah: no mam, how would you like to proceed?

emily: (silence: because i am still trying to not let sarah know i am crying now)

sarah: are you there mam?

emily: yes (choked out one word, but i think she caught on that i was crying)

sarah: how would you like to proceed?

emily: i guess...(pause, again, still trying to not give myself away)...we'll go with sending it back to be fixed (pause, no way she doesn't know i'm crying now).

sarah: one moment while i put you on hold to get things in order.

emily: (looking at sean with big tears and a runny nose i say...) i should have backed up my files.

now here comes the happy ending...

...i plug the four cards back into the mother board that sarah from hp told me to take out and restart my computer one last time (just for kicks)....

and...

it starts.

hallelujah!!!!

so all day, from

10am-9:30pm

we've been backing up our computer.

it feels better than spring cleaning!

oh, and with all of our extra time away from our computer we made this amazingly beautiful & ultra sugary gingerbread house.

...and cut brennan's hair, which is still laying on the carpet ...

(but i figure it's sort of blonde and so is the carpet, so we'll just rub it in until tomorrow...and maybe i'll vacuum then.)

5 & 9 divine

5 & 9

so divine!

we are counting down to 2 things in our house!
can you guess what they are!?!
come on, i dare you to post a comment!
p.s. anyone can post a comment, yes, that means you too dad;-)

we are supposed to get snow for the next 3 days!!!!

i am the happiest person alive!

holiday pants & socks

i wore my holiday pants and socks yesterday.

they are good luck for snow.

how do i know this?

b/c

when i woke up this morning there were inches and inches of snow on the ground and big huge white flakes falling from the sky.

today is a good day.

thank you lucky holiday pants and socks.

what good luck charms do you have?

or holiday clothes for that matter.

also, please don't hate me, but i think my christmas shopping is done...i think.

adults in a box

christmas time means one thing.

"pella letters"

jaarsma bakery in pella, iowa was a staple story in our home growing up. my dad would always order a box of the "letters" and have them shipped to us in california from iowa, where he grew up. the flakey apple pasted cinnamon "letter S" shaped delights are part of my breakfast routine all throughout december. you know you've become an adult in my family if you have your own box shipped to your very own home.

we've been "adults" 4 years in a row now;-)

thanks aunt sue w.

tune in later for part 2: omaha steaks

frigid cold never felt so good

if you know me well, you know

i

ADORE

rexburg, idaho.

so, i dedicate my post today to you, rexburg!

thanks for having us;-)

first of all, i understood adulthood/parenthood in an entirely new way.

brennan was a bit cranky about an hour into our drive, so we popped in "alvin & the chipmunk's" christmas cd (thank you mucho keri) and sung our little hearts out. brennan loved it. at one moment sean and i looked at each other and just laughed. it's amazing what you'll do for your kids.

welcome to idaho, eeek!!!

i'm so excited, i can't stand it!

we stayed with our "couple friend besties" lyn & erin in idaho falls the night before shawn ray's wedding (we went to idaho for shawn ray's wedding in the rexburg temple). their son is a year older than brennan...yeeeeeeaaaaaaah, brennan outweighs him by a 1/2 a pound. again, we state, we have a

pork loin.

a BIG thank you to katie and levi for watching B so we could go to the sealing

(i took this pic right before we left rexburg b/c it looks so pretty all lit up at night!)

the luncheon after the sealing:

sean, me, shawn ray, tenille ray (awww, happy couple!)

bishop, sis. wilcock, B

can we just say thank you for the wonderful people in our life,

seriously,

thank you!

i begged sean to take this picture with me. it was 9 degrees outside and the snow was

"a blowin'."

bein' the fabulous hub he is, finally gave in for a "this is rexburg" photo for all of you to see!

thanks hun, you rock.

"this is rexburg" picture #2

notice how you can't see what the signs say b/c the snow is caked on, don't you LOVE this place!!??!!

me too:-)

this is the largest church building (other than a temple) ever built. i'm pretty sure it has its own zip code. the picture just doesn't do it justice.

we bundled B up so many times visiting friends. this was after zero naps and three visits. he was fine until we "velcro-ed" the hat under his chin.

HA!

i love this about rexburg in christmas. they make main street light up. my camera was on the wrong setting so it's all blurry, but don't you think it looks so magical!?

did i mention i LOVE rexburg?

we drove home saturday night so we could sleep in our own beds and wake up at home, despite the snow storm. it took an extra 45 min. to do it, with the weather and the lunatics in the salt lake valley on I-15

(it's a long story, but basically we almost got killed twice by the homeboys who didn't know how to drive in the snow. seriously, 85mph does not work when there's 2 in. of wet snow on the freeway!!!).


the snow plows go up and down I-15 all night long when it snows. this was somewhere around Inkom, Idaho.

other than our near death experience coming into salt lake city, we have a super fab time.

we love you rexburg!

a big thank you to...

lyn & erin, katie & levi, bishop & wendy, bro. & sis. allen, sid & lynette pierce

moprah, pick me!!!

Seriously So Blessed is giving away some great prizes! Check it out. I hope I win!!!