Christmas Week

This past week has been a busy but fun week. Mix in some work, a little Chuck E. Cheese and family and it has been great. My cousin Kyle turned 21 on Wednesday so we had his birthday party that night at Chuck E. Cheese. (He suffers from epilepsy, and has the mindset of an 8 year old in case you were wondering.) Chuck E. Cheese is his favorite place which is nice because it is becoming Broc's favorite "house" to go to. We had a good time playing games and hanging out with some family.
Christmas Eve is spent at our house with Justin's family. My mother in law makes a giant pot of the best clam chowder ever. His dad brings a ham and we just eat and relax. The kids get to open a present from whichever cousin drew their name and then we usually do some caroling of some sort. This year, my sister in law Kim, her husband and my brother in law made chimes and we played carols with our chimes that were assigned a number. The carols were written in numbers rather than words. It was so much fun. Note to Kim and Linda, we need to do that again next year. Once everyone left, we put Broc to bed so that Santa could come....

Christmas morning was fabulous. Broc got a giant train table, some movies, a camera and some Wonder Pets toys. He didn't care for anything but the train. We then got ready and went over to grandma Linda's to visit and open presents. She got Broc a motorcycle that he didn't want to part with from that point on. It came to Ogden with us which is where we spent the remainder of the day. We went to my parents for dinner and some more gift giving. My brother and sister thought it would be funny to get Broc loud toys. Heidi you just wait til Ryland gets older. I am just saying. All in all it was such a good day. Christmas is so much fun when you have a child to share it with. I am so grateful I have a family that I can have traditions with. I am grateful for the true meaning of Christmas and for the birth of Jesus Christ. I love this season and all that it represents. I hope you have had as good of a week as we have. I also hope that everyone has a Happy New Year!!

Sugar and Spice......

....And everything nice. That's what little girls are made of. We went to the doctor on Tuesday to find out what we are having and as no surprise to my husband, we are having a girl!! It's a good thing I had already been getting stocked up on shoes. She had 5 pair before we were 100% sure she was a she. We are so excited for the addition to our family. I am excited for a little girl in the house. I need some more estrogen around here. Broc wants to name her Taser. I am thinking not so much. We are still discussing and debating names. Any suggestions?...

Tis the Season

I love December. I love the snow (not driving in it mind you) but I love to watch it and play in it. I also love December for the friends and family togetherness. This year is no exception. This weekend has been full of parties and driving in the snow. Saturday night we had an ugly sweater party. It was fun and nice to see some friends that I haven't seen since high school. Cassi we missed you. Today (Sunday) was my cuzins Christmas party up in Pleasant View. Our family is getting HUGE. There are 100 or more of us now. I look forward to it every year. It's just good food, awesome family, a white elephant game and Santa. Broc loves to play with all of his cousins that we don't see all the time (his all time favorite being Wyatt.) We were afraid some family wouldn't make it due to the snow. We were getting dumped on. Justin even got stuck in my sister's driveway. Oh the joys of my Malibu. Luckily everyone made it to and from safe and sound. When Santa got there, all the kids were so excited but Broc was unsure. He wanted to sit on his lap after Wyatt sat on his lap but he wouldn't look at him. He spoke to him but never wanted to look at his face. Maybe next year. I am so grateful for the family and friends in my life. I have been blessed that's for sure. I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season!! I know that we are so far.

My cousin Shannon playing her flute
before Santa's arrival.

All of the kids waiting for Santa

Ryland and Santa for the first time

Broc and Santa. He didn't want to look at him.
Not at all."I want to hold that"My brother Colton "holding" Ryland for the first time.
He has a thing with babies and refuses to
hold them until they are fun.

Baby Ryland

I have been the biggest slacker in the blogging world lately. Lame, I know. I have been so busy with no time to think. Oh what a life. Anyway. My nephew Ryland Michael Patterson was born on October 16. He weighed 7lbs. 9 oz. and was 20 inches long. He is such a little stud. Broc was excited to go see him until he realized that he couldn't play with him. Ryland is a "no touch toy" or so Broc thinks. He will say "I want to hold that" but then gets scared. We finally got him to hold Ryland a couple of weeks ago but it was a real short holding. We also finally got him to give Ryland a kiss. It kind of makes me wonder how he will act when our baby gets here in May. Hopefully he warms up to the idea and baby a little quicker than he has to his cousin. I guess we will find out in 5 months. We are so glad that Ryland is here and a part of our family. He is such a cute little guy!!Cute little cousinsHeidi and RylandFamily picture: Taya, Caden,
Heidi and Mike"Grandma's precious treasures"

Mission Call/Good News

So much has been going on these past few weeks. Work is keeping me busy (no surprise there), Broc is growing like a weed still and we are waiting for my nephew to be born. Besides all of that, we have had some good things happen. My brother Colton got his mission call a couple of weeks ago. It only took a week to get so it must be a sure thing. He is going to go to the Mexico Cuernavaca Mission. It's by the bottom of Mexico. Aucapolco is pretty close to it. He enters the MTC on February 3rd. I am so proud of my brother and his decision to serve the Lord. He is such a good example to our family and to Broc. Colton will be the first of anyone on either side of my family to serve a mission so this is HUGE

On another note, we found out we are going to have a baby the beginning part of May. We are so so excited to add to our family. Broc hasn't quite gotten the concept of things, but give it time. In the mean time we are hanging out and getting ready for Halloween. Nothing else too exciting. We will just have to see what this next week brings. :)Sorry about the glare.
I tried a million times to get
a good one. My camera
hates me.

Oh it Just Had to Happen

What happens when part of this breaks

and leaks in through this windowYou end up with fans and smells
throughout
your entire basement

I have decided that owning a home has its ups and it's downs. The ups are that it is yours. No one can tell you what to do with it, how to decorate it, etc. (Well sometimes that is.) Don't ask. The downfall would be that you have to deal with the disasters that come with it. Last year on October Conference weekend, we had a sewer backage that flooded our basement. Pain in the rear but a blessing in disguise. It enabled us to redo the basement which needed it so terribly bad. If you had seen it, you would agree. So come right around Thanksgiving we had new everything down there. Thanks Scotty and crew for helping on that one. There is the little back story which leads me to today. We woke up this morning to mud outside and Justin hearing water running. He went downstairs to check on things and the carpet rippled like water under his feet. Not a good sign. There was a good 2 inches of water covering every inch of our basement. A water main broke and leaked in through the toy room window over night. So awesome huh? I wish I would have taken pictures but I was too busy stressing out over things. Justin's friends Scotty and Tye came over to help suck things out. (Thanks Ashley and Paige for letting us borrow your husbands ;) All in all we filed a claim and ServPro is yet again bailing us out. Thank you for them and for our insurance company who must just love us at this point. I just hope this isn't becoming a yearly tradition.

Family Fun

Last Sunday after church we headed north to Ogden to have a family bbq. My grandparents left to go back to Arizona last Tuesday and will be gone til next spring. While the rest of us freeze it out in Utah all winter they go and snowbird down in Quartzsite. It's a little town with not a lot of things. They have a gem society and spend a lot of time out in the desert looking for geodes and cool rocks. (We went down a couple of years ago and that is what we did.) Its cool to see different things though. Anyway so back to the topic at hand. BBQ. Broc got to play with his cousin Avery and I got to spend time with cousins I don't see quite enough plus got to spend one last time with my grandma and grandpa. It was a nice afternoon.