Birthdays, Decorations and a Niece!

The start of our busy holiday season is here!!! Friday we celebrated James' Birthday :) With thetransfer of his job to California and added travels, we have not been able to see him for 3 weeks so we decided that more than anything, James would wish to spend time with his family. With that in mind, Chris and I decided that we were going to take James and Fran on a double date for his birthday gift! He loved it and we did too! For dinner we went to Goodwoods in Draper the following Tuesday and hung out chatting catching up and playing games! We love James so much and it has been sad not having him home as often to welcome everyone into their home. James has a way of making us all feel so special, loved and missed even if it was a day since we last stopped by lol! To not hear him in the most exciting tone say, "Hey!, It is so nice to see you!!!" following with a big hug has been missed!

My sister Abby also shares the same birthday as Chris' dad so I usually pull aside to sing Happy Birthday to her by phone! This year is exciting because the family is actually on their way to Utah!!! Yep they are coming to our house for to exciting reasons. One to be hear for the birth of our little niece, Harli and to spend Thanksgiving with Chris and I!!! I am really excited to break in our new kitchen to cook Thanksgiving dinner for 11 people :0)

In preparation of having my family here this next week, Chris and I spent all of Saturday decorating our house for Christmas! Our most favorite holiday of the year!!! I have posted some of our decorations ;) This is an event that Chris and I love to share in together and we make it as fun as possible by baking cookies and playing our favorite Christmas tunes each year!!! It is funny how over the 3 years we have had being married that we have taken on specific jobs such as putting up the tree and then setting up the Nativity is Chris' thing while I get the little stuff put everywhere and then we both decorate the tree together :0) My favorite part is the warm cozy feeling it brings into the home with music on the savior and serving others with the spirit that we should all have all year long.

Nov.22, Sunday afternoon Tyrel and Jessi welcomed little Harli into the world which makes this baby number 2! Chris and I are so very happy for them and we are grateful all went well with the delivery! We can't wait to see her but we have to wait till they come home from the hospital. The spread of the swine flu has caused the hospitals to not allow more than two people to enter the hospital other than the couple who are expecting and they have to be over the age of 14 I think. None the less we are super happy for my brother and we still got pictures sent to us so we can see how beautiful she is!!!