Christmas time!

Christmastime was great for us this year, (besides a stupid head cold). We were able to go up to SLC the weekend before Christmas. We had a family party with Scott's family. We went with some of my family to Temple Square and we had a family dinner with them.

I haven't been to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights in years. They have the most amazing nativity scene there.
My dad took this picture so he wasn't in it. It's my mom, me, Scott, Addison, Nick and Sydney. We had so much fun with them!
Scott and Addison. Grandpa and the girls while we were waiting for Trax.
Scott built a snowman while I was at work on Christmas. We had our Christmas! I had to work until 2:30 that day so I came home, got back in my jammies and we opened presents.
Cosmo got 3 toys and he loves all of them.
This is what we got. Yes I asked and hinted for a snuggie. I am always cold so I'm excited to use it!

The best present that we got for Christmas was this little guy. Cosmo is living with us now for good. He will sit down on the floor staring at us and he just wants to cuddle, so he will fall asleep on Scott's lap. This is the 2 of them sleeping. SO CUTE!

It is so fun to have him here. He is now 4 and 1/2 and he hasn't lived with us since we were married over 2 years ago. When we lived in West Jordan, I could at least see him when I wanted and he could come and visit with me. But when we moved to Price it was really hard on me. I couldn't leave my parent's house without crying. I had that pain where it felt like my heart was breaking each time we had to leave him. We have had "visitation" for the last few months to help wean him from my parents. They love him a lot and have been so great to care for him while I couldn't. It will be a big adjustment for them to not have him there but we are excited to have him be a part of our little family. I'm sure there will many adventures to share in the future!

Tis the season for... glitter

I am afraid of spiders and I hate them to my very core. I have found that Scott feels the same way about glitter that I do about spiders. We got a Christmas card in the mail (from our neighbors next door, how funny is that!) and it was covered with glitter. They even know how much he despises glitter and they still sent it. So I opened it and he stood about 3 feet away from me and asked me to hold it open so that he could read it. I put it away but I still had glitter on my hands, so I chased him for a while threatening to wipe my hands on him. I know I'm not a very nice wife. I would be pretty upset if he did that to me with a spider. But it still cracks me up. Our poor daughters won't ever have a chance to experience glitter. Aw well!

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!

Another visit

I know you guys probably get sick of me talking about my dog, but I love love love him! Not as much as I love Scott (just to be clear), but he is my baby. He came to visit for a week and it was so much fun! I know that most of you don't understand how you could love a dog so much but Scott's cousin Jamin was very skeptical and always made fun of how much I loved Cosmo, but she spent some time with him this week and she is so attached to him now. I think you just have to spend some time with him to understand his cute personality. 

 So here is a video of Cosmo and Scott playing. Cosmo has this fascination with hair. He likes to taste it and then it tickles his nose so has to scratch his whole body. When he does it to my hair he actually chews on it. It tickles a lot. 

He got to know the CEU campus really well. This is a picture of the fountain that he accidentally jumped into last time he was with us. (Yes someone colored it green, I'm glad it wasn't green the time he jumped in.) 

He took a lot of naps. I think it's so cute when he sleeps.

We are hoping to bring him down here permanently very soon. We can't wait! 

Question: How do you get your husband to light the pilot light?

Answer: Threaten to put a sweater on the dog.

Worked like a charm. 

It should be a crime...

I am anti- DWTS. I don't like watching tons of couples dance the same style every episode. Plus not a big fan of watching just ballroom. And I hate that their live band sings and ruins great classic songs, just wrong. I'm more of a "So You Think You Can Dance" fan because of the variety of dance that is portrayed. So DWTS does something to make me watch... They get stars on there that I want to see dance. I don't like supporting the show but I can't resist watching an over 50-year-old Donny Osmond shake it down. I just think it's entertaining. 

They need to get stars that I don't care about to dance on the show. *Sigh* 

Yet another background

I know I haven't posted as often as usual but my computer is still having issues so I'm still using Scott's computer for everything. I will give a virtual tour of our home soon hopefully. 

So as most of you have probably notices. I get really bored with backgrounds really quickly. But I found this one and couldn't resist. This one is for Scott. He has been a sport to let me have the blog be girly for the most part. So this background is for him. Gotta love the Deere! 

(It will probably only last a month, there are tons of cute fall/Halloween ones out there to choose from.)  

Gotta love it baby!

It's the most wonderful time of the year. Yes, that means college football has begun. And how else to start a great season than to beat a #3 team. I thought it was for sure going to be a losing situation, and I'm sure that Oklahoma thought it would be a sure winning situation. But the boys stepped up. Props to the great defense who kept us in there. I can't wait to see what this season has in store! 

It was so fun to listen to the BYU fans being SO loud still 10 minutes after the game was over. It was have been so much fun to be there, but it was still so much fun to watch at home. What a great moment in Cougar history! 

I LOVE MO!

We got to go to Missouri in the beginning of August for Scott's brother's wedding. It was so much fun! We got to stay with my Aunt and Uncle in St. Louis and it was so much fun to spend time with them for a little bit. I love being there. We got to spend a lot of time with family and friends and it was so much fun. It didn't last long enough and I can't wait to go back for Thanksgiving.

One of the great things that we got to do while we were there was go to Lambert's. It's a restaurant half way between Springfield and Branson. They are always packed! It has great cooking and they have a guy that comes around with a cart full of hot rolls and he yells "Hot Rolls!" and you put your hands up and he throws you one from across the room. It's just a fun fun restaurant. If you are ever in the area, it's quite the experience.

There are also a few people that work there that come around with different sides. This is fried okra, and they just spoon it on a paper towel. So good!

This is table 1. We had to be split up since there were so many of us. Starting with me going around the table, there was me, Scott, Matt, Kristine, Makayla, Uncle Curtis, Aunt Colleen, Joseph, Karin, and Mike.

And this is table 2. Baby BriLynn, Kevin, Grandma Smith, Grandpa Smith, Mom, Dad, and Sandra. We were worried that it may be a little much for grandma and grandpa but they really enjoyed the atmosphere and catching rolls.

When we were done at our table, Scott and I moved to another table where all of his friends were sitting with their wives. It was an all inclusive trip to Lambert's. I'm so excited to go back in November!

Thank you to my wonderful husband!

Scott got all of my pictures and documents off of the computer before he had to wipe it clean from the virus. He is the best! But my computer still isn't doing the greatest. It's been pooping out for a while, so I may have to get a new one, ugh. Not something that you like spending money on if you don't have it. So I'm going to endure to the end and wait until it is totally and completely unusable.

Something that makes me not smile.

My computer has a virus. This is what happens when your virus protection lapses for 3 days. Scott is working hard to get my files off of it but there are no guarantees. Luckily he wiped off my system about a year ago and has all of my pictures from then back on an external hard drive. Bad news is that my pictures for the last year are not backed up on his hard drive.  Wish us luck that we will get our files off! It will be a while 'til I blog about Missouri. That's what I get for procrastinating. 

Some things that make me smile.

Using my Kitchenaid Mixer for the first time. We got it for our wedding and I've always been intimidated by it. But it work amazingly well! I LOVE it.
Using that mixer to make cookies for Scott for when he came from his first day of school.

Having a new washer and dryer! My sister is getting new ones that are coming with her new house so she gave us these and they are so gorgeous, I love using them!

Having a toilet that works. This is the 3rd place we have lived while being married and each place has had toilet problem. Our first place we just had to live with. Our second place we got a new toilet after 3 weeks of living there and this time we got a new one after a week of living here. This is a toilet-to-go and it can flush 23 golf balls but the landlord advised us not to try it. Scott and I joke that I curse toilets. I'm thinking it might be true. But now we have this glorious masterpiece!

And last but not least, Scott putting away stuff in our new kitchen while wearing his new glasses. When he wears them, I feel like he's different, ya know, like Clark Kent. I think he looks super hot!