Our Christmas

The fun all started on Christmas Eve. Oh how I love Christmas Eve.

First, we delivered presents to a needy family here in Colorado.We dropped off the gifts, rang the doorbell, and hid. When the mother opened the door, She said, "Who brought all these gifts?" Then the kids answered, "SANTA!!" I was giggling so much, I thought for sure we were going to be caught!I absolutely love this tradition. I can't wait to do it with our kids someday.

Then we came home, and opened our PJ's. Hidden inside my PJ's, was the Beauty and the Beast the Enchanted Christmas movie. I watch that movie every Christmas Eve, but I didn't have an actual copy. Joe finally tracked one down. He's awesome like that.

We spent the rest of the night doing a few other traditions (you can read about those HERE), and then came Christmas morning!I look evil, but I was just really happy.Our homemade gifts to each other: For Joe, I framed a picture of us walking out of the Temple after being sealed, with a quote from our patriarchal blessing on it. And for me, Joe framed our tags from the Temple.
After we tore into our gifts, we got ready to have Ben and Idealia over.
We ate: Opened gifts: and made cookies:It was a good Christmas.
Ask Kismet. She'll tell you.

Catching Up

I've been a complete blog slacker lately! I guess I'm still learning how to keep up two blogs. Life has also been pretty quiet lately, so there hasn't been too much to blog about. I also got selected to be on the jury for a murder trial, and it pretty much consumed my life for about 3 weeks!

In an effort to shake off being a blog slacker, I thought I'd catch you up, and hopefully get back into the blogging swing of things again!

Here's a little bit of what's been going on in our lives, over the past month (or so;):

Hanging out ;) :
Losing weight, and getting healthy:This is me, about 22 pounds lighter!

Getting home injections:
(I tried getting him to smile...)I was taken off my medicine a couple months ago, so they can be all out of my system, by the time we start trying to get pregnant. I was on Remicade, which was an infusion I got every 2 months. Now, I've switched to a home injection called, Enbrel, that I take every week. It only stays in your system for about a week, so it's safe for me to take until I have a positive pregnancy test. I just started the home injections a couple weeks ago. Because I was on jury duty, I couldn't go to my doctors appointment, where they were going to teach me how to do the injection myself. So, Joe had to go in my place, so he could learn how to give me the injections. I don't know if it's harder on me, or Joe! I think I can stand pain more, when I'm the one in control...in other words, I don't think I'd act as much like a baby, if I were the one doing it! Every time he takes the injection out of the fridge, I seriously run away, and freak out like a 5 year old! Once he calms me down, and I'm brave enough to have him poke me with a needle, his nerves start to kick in! The whole process probably takes 20 minutes, when it should take 3! I think he feels bad that he has to be the one to poke me. It probably doesn't help that I cry like a baby. Hopefully I'll get better (braver) with time! I do like the fact that I can take them at home, instead of going to the doctors every 2 months, and getting hooked up to an IV for 2 hours! But, I'm also allowed to be more of a wimp at home! I never acted the way I do at home, when the nurses put an IV in my hand! I'll get better ;)

Lots of dog baths! :I think we have to give the dogs more baths during the winter, then in the summer...or it at least seems that way!

Dates with my sweetheart:
Spending time with fam:We've had Ben, Idealia, and little miss Kismet over a couple times for dinner. It's always nice spending time with family. We've been collecting lots of toys so kids can actually have fun when they come visit us! Kismet was entertained the entire time, and we only brought up about 1/4 of the toys! (Which is probably a good sign that I should stop buying them now. I think we have enough!:)
One of the nights they came over, Ben and I had a craving for some Gallacheritos (did I spell that right?;), so we HAD to make them for dinner! They were good, but something was missing compared to when Dad makes them. Maybe it's the fatherly love he puts in the sauce ;)

And playing Monopoly Deal! :LOTS of it!
I got Joe this game for Christmas, and we have seriously played it every single day since! Sometimes we play round after round! I started out strong, but Joe is currently whooping my butt!

So that's what we've been up to! Lots of relaxing nights at home together, more then anything else. I think the cold weather makes you just want to stay home, sit in front of the fire, and watch TV shows! With the warmer weather, our blog should get a little more interesting! My mind is racing with everything I want to do this Spring! I'm SO excited!

Our Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year, we had to stick close to home. We had planned to just have a low key Thanksgiving, but when we found out our Friend, Alex, wasn't doing much for Thanksgiving, we thought it would be fun to fly him to Colorado, and visit!

I first met Alex back when I was 12, when we lived in upstate NY for a year. Joe, Alex, and Ben, were all friends. Although my family only lived there for a year, Joe and Alex's friendship continued to grow over the years. When Joe and I were reunited, and then married, I got to see Alex again a couple times while Joe and I lived in upstate NY. Shortly after we got married, he moved to Chicago, and we moved to Denver. A couple years later, Alex went on a mission. So, Joe and I hadn't seen him for over 4 years, and for me, it felt like I really hadn't seen him since we were 12! It was so much fun to spend some time with an old friend, and get all caught up!

Thanksgiving day, Ben, Kismet, and Idealia came over, and we all made the "feast" together.
let me take a moment to say "THANK YOU!" to all the people who have ever invited me over for Thanksgiving dinner, having slaved in the kitchen all morning. This was my first Thanksgiving where I didn't just have to make a dish or two, but I actually had to put together the entire thing! I learned that it is like, seriously stressful! I had a perfect vision of me doing it all by myself, and then calling for everyone to come and dig in, (in a very Martha Stewart/Julia Childs kinda way), with my hair perfectly in place, and not an ounce of sweat, or stress on my perfectly made-up face. In the end, it was NOTHING like my perfect vision, and I was very grateful for the helping hands in the kitchen! Amidst the chaos, I would from time to time, chuckle in my head. Having Alex at our house, would sometimes make me feel like I was 12 again, and the image of all of us as kids in the kitchen, trying to put together a thanksgiving dinner cracked me up! In the end, it all came together. Although, I did have a cold, and couldn't really taste anything. I was blissfully unaware if anything tasted not quite right...but I'm assuming it did in fact all come together in the end ;)
Joe and Alex took charge of the turkey. Joe and I weren't quite sure what to do for the turkey, but luckily Alex had a few tricks up his sleeve!Kismet got to meet Ruby for the first time. They became good friends ;)Our blood, sweat, and tears;) :
After we were all done eating, Joe and Alex headed to the Bronco's game together:They were sweet, and made sure they took lots of pics for me. Even if it meant getting weird stares from people, looking at two guys pose for a picture together ;D
Over the next few days, we went to downtown Denver where we went to the Cheesecake Factory and saw "The Blind Side", went to the Aquarium, went to the Nuggets game, and enjoyed catching up with each other.

Ridding the bus into Denver:
Aquarium:I find this picture to be cute, and freaky, all at the same time:
Nuggets game:
It was so much fun getting to visit with Alex. It was fun looking back on old times, and laughing at ourselves. It was also fun to see how far we've all come, and how much we have grown and matured. He was a lot of fun to be around, and kept us laughing the whole time, with his witty sense of humor!