It's not what you think...

Read all about it,

my love affair with Mr. Yarn 

that is...

SANTA made an EARLY DELIVERY a few nights BEFORE Christmas Eve...

...and LOOK what he brought.-

-GRACIE-

and

-LITTLE SIS-

{for now at least... we can't seem to all agree on a name for this one, Chandler was the one asking for a puppy and when he saw them he was overwhelmed with excitement, he was speechless with big tears in his eyes... finally he said "I'm just happy!" and started to cry. How sweet is that, a real Christmas wish came true. Shortly after he claimed the darker brindle puppy his and without any hestitation said "I'll name her Grace!" and we all liked it so Grace {Gracie} it is. Then he said the lighter fawn one can be Sissy and I added Sissy-Loo and Marcus claimed her his own. After a few days "Sissy" started to not feel right to most of us, I started to imagine her big and calling her Sissy seemed wimpy. I did a search on female dog names and made a list of a few to choose from and most of us are fine with some of the new choices of names, but Marcus just can't seem to let go of Sissy or Sis.. the ONLY thing that he has settled for replacing it with which the rest of us don't want either is Snookums. We keep trying to talk him into other names and everyday we call her something new, but we can't get Marcus to agree and he says since she's HIS dog he has to like it. Oh bother... Hopefully we'll all decide on something soon or the poor puppy will never know what to answer to.}   

Maybe YOU can help us out!

Here are the two that the rest of us are fine with, leave a comment and tell us what you like best or if you have a different suggestion please tell us.. Little Sis needs a permanent name.

• Cider (Cider-Loo) {since she's the color of apple cider}
• Oaklie

Marcus says that "Oaklie" reminds him of his worse enemy at a school, a little kindergarten girl who throws snow down his back at recess and he just doesn't like Cider.  So his list of choices are:

• Sissy (Sissy-Loo) {the original name from day one}
• Snookums {The rest of us would rather make it Litte-Sis than Snookums}
• Sis (Little-Sis)

Who would've thought it'd be such an issue to name a cute puppy???

They are Daniff's!

A mix between a Great Dane & a Mastiff, a really good family dog. Their mix is 3/4 Great Dane, 1/4 Mastiff. We're loving their puppy stage because they are so fun to hold and cuddle with, but we are also looking forward to them getting big too. We hear that even when they get big, they're just a big puppy and think your still supposed to be able to hold them. I think they'll be holding us instead. We love big dogs! {Thanks Jaci for telling me what kind of dog Bruno is, because of that we were able to ask Santa for exactly the kind of dog we wanted!}

Anniversary in the City

The weekend before Christmas Andres & I escaped to the foggy city in celebration of our anniversary! Andres was given a generous gift certificate to The Anniversary Inn last year from a good friend that he has done contract work for over the years, so that's where we stayed.. in the Jackson Hole Suite both Friday and Saturday night. We even had enough left over on the gift certificate to also enjoy a special package that included two 1-hour in room massages, rose petals scattered throughout the room, a box of chocolates, and a late check-out on Sunday. Things have been so busy for quite a while now.. that having that weekend away just for us was really nice.

Friday night we had our massages, Saturday we went back to the temple we were married in, shopped around at some little consignment shops I've been waiting ever so patiently to visit since they are uptown and went out for a late lunch & to see the movie Avatar. Andres really liked the movie, I thought it was entertaining yet a bit long and I even had to laugh in a few spots. Sunday, we of course slept in... milking that late check out time for all it was worth, how often do ya get to do that. Once we left we went back to temple square and visited the old and new tabernacles before returning home.

{searching for the addresses of the little shops I could hardly wait to behold...}

~The Old Tabernacle~

Thanks to Aaron for the gift certificate, to Andres' parents for watching McKynlee and to Carly {the best babysitter ever} for staying in our home with the rest of the kids! We really appreciate your gracious gifts and willingness to help out so we could have some time away and celebrate 14 years together!!!

Hey Sweetie, what d'ya say next year we pick up where we left off 15 years ago and celebrate our anniversary back in the romantic city of San Francisco! Until then... thanks for everything, for being you, for growing with me through all the ups & downs and for still looking at me like we've only just met! I love you.-

My Birthday Man

Makin' a wish...

that he'll be able to figure out

what kind of rifle he wants to get.

Oh the choices...

This year we celebrated Andres' birthday at our monthly FHE where we gather with his side of the family for dinner and a lesson. His actual birthday was the next day, a Monday and my parents were kind enough to watch the kids so we could go out with some friends to dinner, then he and I went to see The Blind Side. What a great movie, we both loved it! One question.. why does Hollywood wait so long in between making really good movies???

Kisses from me to you...

All I want for Christmas... is an old-fashioned vintage Christmas!

{vintage Christmas photos from photobucket}

Isn't this the most gritty, vintage Christmas picture you've ever seen... I'm smitten by it, I could just sit and look at it all the day long... it makes my heart go pitter-patter, reminds me of the magic of Christmas as a child & gives me a feeling of peace. 

Anyhoo-- you can visit "all things gritty" if you wanna take a peek through my cozy little house at Christmas time! 

Tanner. Hot Cocoa. Gingerbread Cookies.

Tanner is a super huge fan of hot chocolate and if it's served along side a goodie it's even better!!! Last week we had some pretty cold weather... like single digit temperatures cold weather and lots of snow-- it was A-Okay with us though cuz we just snuggled up inside and read from our basket full of Christmas books, watched Christmas movies, and sipped -n- munched on lots of yummy hot cocoa and gingerbread cookies.

This one cracks me up... hee hee hee

He looks like he's sippin' on something a little stronger than hot chocolate and like he's sippin' on his fifth or sixth cup!

He's VERY particular about the way he likes his hot cocoa too... just plain old hot cocoa won't cut it, that's just the beginnig.. then you add some flavored creamer {he really likes gingerbread or pumpkin spice} then you top it with a big swirl of whipping cream {it has to go up to a peak} then you sprinkle with some pumpkin pie spice and don't forget a straw... he has to drink his hot cocoa through a straw!

Now that's hot cocoa perfection through his eyes!!!

Fancy Pigwit.. ToTaL WeEkeNd RanDoMneSS... & My Latest Obsession...

Oh the weather outside is frightful... 

...with temperatures dropping rapidly we are having to bring Mrs. Pigwit indoors more often and I cannot handle the shedding hair, so we took her for a grooming and to have almost all her hair shaved off. Andres was worried that now with most of her coat missing that she'd get cold easier so he let Sydnee pick out a little dress outfit for her and the groomers put little blue snowflake bows in her hair. Needless to say, she's not resembling Yoda AS MUCH now that she's all fancy-fied, Sydnee's in love with the whole package of course and the rest of us are finding her quite irresistible too! 

Total Weekend Randomness...

Tanner is always begging me to take pictures with my big camera and I won't let him.. so I've finally started setting him free with my point & shoot and he is in photo-taking heaven! All of my kids love for me to set them free with the camera come to think of it. So this weekend they've been snapping some random photos here and there. This is Tanner's Santa Clause is Coming to Town Counter. As you can see, we are a little behind.. gotta fill in those cotton balls!

More random little people photos include:

{Sydnee's Hannah Montana Barbie house she spent lots of time setting up & decorating to play with!! Oh how I remember those days... I think I always took longer doing all the set up than actually playing barbies after it was all done.}

{A blurry photo of the gritty little gingerbread house we bought at Bath & Body on Friday! You can lift the top of the house off the base and put a candle inside, it's so cute lit up at night.. l-o-v-e it! Note: how the angle is from way down below looking up at it. It's way up on a tall shelf.}

{These two were taken tonight by Tanner & Marcus while we were gathered together as a family watching the movie "White Christmas"  and eating our homemade cinnamon rolls.}

{I took this one of Kynlee while we were waiting in the car for Dad to pick up some mouthwash and milk on our way home from watching a cousins ice skating performance Saturday night. You can't tell very well, but I had her hair chopped into an a-line the week of Thanksgiving and I must say it's MUCH easier to comb out now. I like it this way for that reason and it's cute on her, but I miss her long hair sometimes... the good thing is- her hair grows like a weed, so we can go back and forth from long to short pretty quickly. For now we are having fun with it short -n- stylish, & I'm crossing my fingers because she's been keeping in her little flower/bow clips better than I thought she would. Woot-Woot!}

My Latest Obsession...

Crocheted Flowers/Headbands

I wore one that I made from this "so lovin' it" yarn that Lara gave me the other night to Church today, and I even got a compliment on it and asked where I got it.. it was fun to be able to say that I actually made it all by myself! YIP-eeeeeee!!!! I gotta get some more of that yarn in yummy, happy colors. I asked Sydnee to take a picture of me wearing it and we got a little silly and photo shoot happy, hence the large quantity of crochet flower headband photos! Tee-hee-hee It was a fun moment in time though, and that's what matters!

{This one makes me laugh... har-dee-har-har!!!} 

My face looks like I just got flashed by a dirty old man!

Peek-a-boo!

{seen enough of the gritty yarn headband yet???}

No...

{Good, cuz there's more where that came from!}

J/K

That's really the last one...

This little guy...

...likes ice cream!

Over the River & Through the Woods...

...to Col-o-rado we go!!!

This year we went to visit Jamie & Caro with most of Andres' family for Thanksgiving. It was a lot of fun, other than the fact that I was really sick at the beginning of the trip. We left Tuesday night and followed Alan & Elisa and Dewayne & Elli's families, even know we weren't in the same cars it was still fun to travel along side each other, see each other at the stops and it felt more safe that way especially since we were traveling late at night. 

Jamie and Caro were great hosts.. I can't believe how laid back they were for having as many kids as they did all over their house for 4+ days straight. A most yummy Thanksgiving dinner was planned, we cooked & ate together, watched movies, laughed, shopped, swam, went to the park and more! It was really nice because Saturday was Christian's baptism and we were all able to be there and celebrate with him. Summer, Jaxon, Hallie, & Sydnee all played "I Am A Child Of God" on their violins while Nico accompanied them on the piano, that was a special moment and neat for them to all be able to do together.

-Playin' at the Park- 

The last night, Andres' parents stayed home with all the kids so the parents could go out together. We drove into downtown Denver and went out to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory! The food was beyond good... it was deliciously divine!!! Although I wasn't all that impressed with the cheesecake itself. We had so much fun together, Jamie made us all about pee our pants.. he is hilarious and Andres just about rolled the truck with all of us packed in there like sardines taking a full circle on-ramp a little too fast - Elisa thought she was going to die for a slight second.

The drive home was really nice, we made it during daylight so we could actually see all the gorgeous scenery we'd missed on the way by night.