Disneyland 2009

BE AWARE.....BLOG OVERLOAD AND TONS OF PICTURES!! (don't feel bad if you just scroll down to see the pictures, or even if you don't finish I won't be hurt!!)

Our December was filled with parties, and tons of fun. We went to Disneyland the middle of December with Jedd's family and we had a blast. We were gone for about a week and I felt like when we got back, that I had missed all of December. Needless to say, when we got back I had a ton of shopping to do!
In December, we had family parties galore and had so much fun. I mostly decided to not take pictures of things this year, mainly because I wasn't in the mood, but we had a great holiday. Our Christmas was pretty much our trip to Disneyland and so here are my pictures of that. Sorry, I don't have pictures of anything else. ENJOY!!

First stop....Seaworld.

(Me trying to be a Flamingo with the flamingos behind us.....so stupid!)

Next stop....Disneyland!!

(Pretending to ride the tea-cups. They make both of us nauseous.)

(He swears he is strong enough to loosen this!)

(Of course you have to ride Dumbo! Luckily, Kallee wanted to go with me!)

(On the train......LET ME OUT OF HERE!!.....not really!)

(Look how fun it is decorated for Christmas!)

(Enough said.)

(In front of It's a Small World.)

(Nattie and I waiting to go see the princesses.) (I wanted to get a picture with Snow White too! I've decided in my next life, I am so going to be a princess at Disneyland. I could totally pull off Snow White!)

(All the older girls getting their picture with the princesses.)

(Waiting to ride Indiana Jones. Way fun ride.)

(Ya.........I rode that!)

(This is in California Adventures.)

(Look how fun, all decorated.)

(Yes, I was brave enough to ride this twice....TOWER OF TERROR. It was a blast!)

(Awe......so cute!)

(Bug's Life props. We pretended like I was getting in a wreck, Jedd's preparing for the hit.)

(Waiting for the Disneyland parade. It's a small world all lit up behind us)

(Probably one of my favorite pictures. The castle looked AMAZING!)

(The big Christmas tree.)

THE END!

We had such a fun time on our trip. We would totally go to Disneyland again.

Fun, Fun, Fun

It has been a while since I have updated. Things have been kind of crazy so here are a few things.

Temple Square

Before my brother left on his mission, my family all went down to Temple Square. Jedd and I arrived a little late (due to the awesome BYU/Utah game where BYU WON!) so we didn't get to hang out with a lot of the family, but we got to spend some time with a few of them. Here are just a few pictures from the night. (This tree was gorgeous, it was like a yellow/orange/red mix. I just loved it!)

Elder Downs

This is my little brother Taylor, the night before he went to the MTC, December 1st. Ok, I should probably say younger brother since he is over a foot taller than I am. He went to the Oklahoma City mission. I have been able to see Taylor grow and mature in the last few weeks since he got his mission call into a GREAT MISSIONARY. We are so proud of you Tay!

For your enjoyment

And last but not least.....this is what my husband wants to wear to Disneyland when we go his week. Um.....I don't think you will see me within a mile radius of this hottie!

I have found the biggest difference between Jedd and I. He wears things like this to get attention and to make people laugh. I wouldn't wear things like this because I would get attention and people would laugh. What a crack up.

Happy December!

Family Pictures

This Thanksgiving, my family was able to get together and take our last family picture for 2 years. (Tay leaves in 2 days for his mission!!). Here is the family. And here are updated pictures of each little family.

(Jerilyn and Jeremiah's was taken in the fall when the colors were gorgeous! LUCKY!)

Jerilyn and Jeremiah with their 2 kids Zach and Hailey. Jon and Holli with their 4 kids Jacob, Jackson, Jocelyn, and Mylee.Michael and Afton.Michelle and Brian and their 2 kids Ashton and Branson.And of course Jedd and I. Many of the pictures turned out so cute, how do you pick just one?? It was so fun to get together and celebrate with both Jedd's and my family this holiday season. We are so grateful to have such wonderful families who love and support us unconditionally! Also just a little tid-bit, we are so excited to welcome 2 more babies into my family. Jerilyn and Michelle are both pregnant and due in June!

New Purchase

I had this totally empty space in my living room and had to fill it with something. I have been looking around now for quite a few weeks trying to wrack my brain to find something. Jedd laughs but it really has been driving me crazy! I went to Rod Works the other day and everything I wanted was WAY over-priced....at least for what I would pay for it. So I found that they had a clearance center right across the street from their regular store in Layton so I had Jedd take me to see what I could find. So...What do you think? It fills up the space perfectly, not too bulky but something that was big. It was a big empty space so whatever I bought had to be big. I only paid $40 for this almost 3 foot by 2 foot rod iron design.

Now if I only I could decide on how to decorate my bedroom....everything would be done!

Late Halloween

A few of us in my family (without kids) go to my mom's house to carve pumpkins before Halloween. This year proved to be the best so far. There were three pumpkins to be carved..... Taylor and Melynn carved a pirate with "AR" on the side....it was pretty funny to hear the boys all night say "ARRRR" like a pirate. It made me smile every time!!Michael and Afton carved a pumpkin looking through blinds...my brother free handed it, he has drawing talent! And Jedd carved Dwight from the office. Look at that concentration! What a hottie! All of us with our finished pumpkins. We had a lot of fun, and I had a lot of fun watching everyone and drinking hot chocolate. I don't carve, I leave that to the hubby! He has more talent than me anyway. Here they are all lit up on the porch....don't they look great??

Pictures of the house

Ok, ok, as promised, here are pictures of the house. We absolutely love it! We have been in almost 2 weeks now, can you believe it? We finally have most things hung up, but I'm still a little unsure about our bedroom walls, so that will have to wait. I have found that I have more "wall space" in my house than I had in my last apartment, so I have a few empty walls. But that's ok, I'll fill them up soon enough. Here are a few pictures of our place. The kitchen/dining room. The living room (sorry the lighting didn't seem to be working with me yesterday). Down our hall. It took Jedd and I a while to be able to hang these pictures, but I think it turned out to be my favorite wall in our whole house. The stairs go down right there so it was quite an event to get them hung in the right place with a ladder. This is what I call our "family picture" wall. I love it! Like I said above, our bedroom proves to be more of a challenge than I thought to decorate for. For now, we have a bed, a chair, curtains, a dresser and a tv. This is our master bath. I wanted so bad to use this picture in our house, but it just didn't fit anywhere until I had a thought to put it in our bathroom. It is perfect, this was just a big blank space and so the picture fits so well there (at least I think so!!)

Well, there you have it. Just a few pictures of what we call "home". We are so happy here and couldn't be more excited to live here for many....many years to come!

Updated Picture

Friday was such a great day, and such a relief to finally have things signed. All the paper work is done for our closing. Tuesday is when the money is funded and so this gorgeous house is ours officially tomorrow....but it's considered ours already. We put up blinds on Saturday so we're ready to move in just as soon as they do a few touch ups this week. Saturday is the BIG MOVING DAY!

Closing

We are officially closing on our house tomorrow! I can seriously not wait. I'll get a few pictures later, but just wanted everyone to know. That means moving in next week!! (of course after I clean it, they never do a great job at getting every little thing!)

(this is an old picture, but I will take a few when we are all moved in and everything is set!)

Elder Downs

My little brother Taylor got his mission call yesterday. He got called to the Oklahoma Oklahoma City mission. He leaves on December 2, 2009. As a family, we all decided to do a poll as to where he was going. As you can tell we were scattered all across the world. Branson (3 yrs old I might add) was the winner. He really did guess Oklahoma, so way to go Branson!
This was Taylor opening up his call. He was delaying reading it as much as possible, as to probably give my mom a heart attack. Of course he read it to himself first before he read it out loud and just started laughing. We all were yelling "TELL US!" And Taylor being the jokester that he is, kept delaying as long as possible.

I think my mom was about ready to jump over all of us and strangle him but she was really good and patient until he read it to us.

Tay, we are so excited for you and so proud of you making the decision to go on a mission! We know you will do great no matter where you go, but think you will be AWESOME in Oklahoma. Just remember the advice Jedd gave you, bring a BYU shirt with you!

WE LOVE YOU BRO!