Thanksgiving + Missouri = AWESOME!

It was so much fun to go back to Missouri for Thanksgiving. The week consisted of the following: shopping, pie night (the night before Thankgiving, my in-laws invite tons of people to their house, and everyone brings any kind of pie like chicken pot pie, shepherds pie and dessert pie and we all pig out, this is so that we get the pie in and we can gorge on regular food on Thanksgiving), Thanksgiving feast, watching movies with the kids, going on a daddy/daughter day to see "New Moon" with my SIL's and my FIL, hanging out with friends, family pictures, games, the boys playing tennis, going to the park, more eating, our niece Makayla's baptism, BYU/Utah game, celebrating Christmas since we won't all be together, catching up on sleep and spending quality time with family.

To say the least, it was a blast. I didn't want to come home. The 17 hour drive (one way) was worth it. I'm so glad that we went. Here are some pictures from our family photo shoot.

This is the whole family. Scott's aunt that took the pictures still has some touch ups to do.

These are my awesome in-laws! I sure do love them. There were lots of other pictures of them, but I LOVE this picture.

Us.

And just for fun I added this picture. This is our niece BriLynn. She was holding a rock and she stuck it in her mouth. She is such a doll!

A race against time

We are leaving for Missouri early early Tuesday morning for Thanksgiving and for about 4 days I have been going crazy. I go to work and come home and clean and do laundry and organize. I don't know why I have this urge to have my house so clean before I leave, but I think it's partly because I hate coming home to a dirty house and loads of laundry, so I am in a race against time. I have also had a talk to prepare for for Sunday. I am also worried about sleep. I have got to get a good night's sleep before we drive to Missouri because I can't sleep in a car, and 17 hours is a long time driving. The stress of worrying about sleep will make it hard to sleep.

I really am excited about this trip but I will be glad when I'm actually there in Missouri. Hopefully we won't have any setbacks and we can get there by Wednesday evening. I doubt I will be blogging before we leave, so I will go ahead and tell you some of the things that I am thankful for...

I'm thankful for my amazing husband. He is definitely my better half. He is so patient with my stubbornness and my short comings. As I tell him all the time "I won".

I'm thankful for my wonderful family. I have amazing parents that have taught me so much and been so supportive of me. I'm grateful for the rest of my family as well. And my in-laws, I've been blessed with great in-laws.

I'm thankful to be a member of the gospel of Jesus Christ and to have that light in my life.

I'm thankful for a job. It would not be my first pick of a job (obviously I would prefer something in the field I studied) but it supports us (and we have insurance) and I have made amazing friends from working there.

I'm thankful for my dog. He brings so much joy to my life. I truly do believe that a dog is a man's best friend. He doesn't judge me and when I am mad or sad he cheers me up.

I'm thankful to be living in a house. I love our retro crazy house. It's so nice to have so much room for all of our stuff.

I am thankful for this wonderful country I live in and the freedoms that I have.

I have so many other things I'm grateful for but it would take forever to list them. I am truly blessed! I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving and will take the chance to count the blessings in your lives!

Linger a little longer

Scott has started his own blog. One thing that I absolutely love about him is that he is so knowledgeable in the gospel and is a deep thinker. I learn so much from him and I love hearing his perspective. Check it out!
www.swestwoodfamily2.blogspot.com

I'm a slacker

I haven't blogged in a while because of this little guy.
I know I shouldn't blame him but we are having a great time with him. (Here is he laying by the fire, he loves it). He has just fit into our lives very nicely. We have had to sacrifice a bit in order to make sure that he is taken care of while we are at work/school but it is very worth it. He comes with us a lot of places. He is the "theater dog". He loves going to the theater at the college and he could sniff that place for hours and be happy. And the kids (college students) adore him. He keeps me very active and we get out a lot after I get home from work.

This is Cosmo on Halloween. Scott's cousin Jamin bought him this jersey. He is not posing, he is standing there stiff because he doesn't like to move in it.
We are taking him back to my parents house this weekend and I am trying not to think about it. I can't think about it without my heart hurting. We are going to bring him back over Christmas break but that will be 5 weeks away. It's been nice to have him around while Scott has been working late.

Some other happenings in our lives...

Christmas music has begun on the radio and for the first time I'm excited for it to start so early. Sometimes it doesn't quite feel like Christmas here in Price because I'm used to going to the mall and seeing the decorations all around town. Plus it doesn't snow much here (no complaints with that). So it's getting me excited for the holiday season and getting to be with family.

The countdown has begun and we are leaving for Missouri in 13 days. Next week will be dedicated cleaning my house and getting ready for a LONG 19 hour drive (Ick). We are praying for good weather. I don't want to drive in bad weather, nope I really don't.

Albertson's has turned into a Western Family store here in Price. I'm not usually a fan because I think that they hike up their prices because they know that people will still shop there in support of them being closed on Sundays. But... sometimes they have killer deals. I'm not afraid to say that I grocery shop at 3 different stores here. I like to save money, so sue me. It is nice to have it so close to us in case we need something quick. I would have gone across town before going to Albertson's because they were incredibly expensive.

And finally, the downside of moving... we have to speak in church a week from Sunday. Scott loves it, me...not so much. Oh well, life will go on. :)

A House of Order

It is finally complete! After 2 and 1/2 months of living here, we are unpacked and organized in our new house. Living here with all this space, I don't know where we put all of our stuff in our last place. I have taken some pictures to give you all a virtual tour.

A little background on this house... it was build in 1898 and only had the master bedroom, the kitchen and the living room. No bathroom or upstairs, those were later added on. This house is considered "Howard's house". That is how everyone around here refers to it. Howard passed away about 4 years ago and he lived here for over 40 years. He and his wife raised some daughters here. Howard worked for a salvage yard. He would go to crash sites and salvage whatever he could. Therefore our house is a complete variety of randomness. He would bring things home and put them up in his house. For example the kitchen has 3 different types of textured walls and our master bath has an accordian door with a stain glassed window above it. At first I didn't know what to think, now I don't think twice about it. We love "Howard's house". Our landlords live next door and we love that. They are not only our landlords but the husband is Scott's boss/professor and they are both really good friends. They even let us have Cosmo here which has been a huge blessing.

So here is the tour....

This is the master bedroom. It is smaller than our last bedroom but we like it.

This the master bath. It's pretty good size with a shower.
One of my favorite features is this... Howard made a lot of stuff and I believe this is one of those homemade masterpieces. This comes in super handy since Scott and I like different kinds of toilet paper. And it has a magazine rack. This is our living room. It is pretty good size so we kind of split it into 2 seperate rooms, since we have enough couches to do this. So this part is Scott part/TV/exercise/office. (Yes you may spy Elmo and a Castle Grey Skull on Scott's desk). And you might be able to spot our teeny tiny TV. (We still have to get our projector fixed.)
This side is our formal living room. We usually only sit here when we have guests. But it is relaly nic to have the 2 separate living spaces.
This is our retro kitchen. It has a lot of space and some awesome homemade cabinets with groovy shelf paper. This is the main bathroom. It's a lot bigger than it looks.
This is one of the bedrooms upstairs. We use it mostly for extra clothes and our shoes. It has a desk in there too. There is another bedroom upstairs but I didn't take a picture of that one. We have someone renting from us that lives in that one. She is a student here in town and I work with her. It works out really well for all of us. Our basement... SO excited to have shelves to put food storage. I never thought I would be so happy about food storage but I love knowing what we have instead of it being packed into a cabinet.
This is a work bench that Scott will use.
Storage...
And our washer and drier space.

We love being here and I feel more at home here than I did in our last place. It is so nice not to hear neighbors above us. I always felt like I was sharing a house with other people. This place may be old but we love the character and history that it has.

And the last thing that makes a house a home is this guy...
He will be with us for 3 whole weeks this time!

2 whole years!

Well it's been 2 years since we got married. It's great to say that we will get to see each other on this anniversary where I couldn't say that last year. We had a wonderful weekend together and it's always good to take that time to renew that love that brought you together. Happy anniversary to the man of my dreams!

(He was about to sneeze in this picture.)

Back in business!

Scott was finally able to fix my computer and it is now virus free. There was a point where he suggested that I look into getting another computer because it looked so bleak, but he worked his magic over countless hours, and many late late nights, and it is finally all back together. He pretty much rocks my world!

So now I get to get used to using a PC again instead of a Mac. There will be some things that I will miss about a Mac (that frustrated me to no end when I first started using it), but I'm so glad to have my computer back up and running. What a blessing!