Our Days of Birth

We have just about finished celebrating our birthdays. We tend to celebrate all month long... First up is Scott's birthday: Scott with the cake I made him.

I can't take credit for this cake... I found it off of Pinterest (of course!!) and here is the blog that I copied: http://www.raspberricupcakes.com/2011/09/mint-chocolate-chip-cake.html

This frosting is PERFECT for Scott. Mint Chocolate Chip is his all time favorite ice cream. I only made her frosting recipe and of course followed her decorating pattern :) Scott's cake is marble though. I thought it turned out pretty well. I am not so much a baker as I am just a cook. I would much rather cook a dinner meal than cakes and cookies. BUT here is the end result:

Scott wanted car parts for his birthday, which seems to be the growing trend for birthdays... I also surprised him with a coin that he collects and some earmuffs for the trax stop! Lots of family came over to celebrate and gave such generous gifts as well. Here is the birthday boy opening gifts.

And Dubs with his Aunt Boots... he is always pretty excited to hang out with his favorite girls.

My birthday was next! (Just a few days after Scott's). This sounds so lame but all I wanted for my birthday was to watch the Bachelor in peace. Ha ha. So Scott made us a spaghetti casserole for dinner and a tres leches birthday cake! They were SUPER delicious. My family came over and watched the bachelor with me. It was lots of fun.

Scott spoiled me (as per usual!). He gave me every season of Parks and Recreation on DVD, as well as The Office Season 7. He let me get my hair done- and I LOVE it. My family also spoiled me with their generous gifts. Scott found these super cute slippers... they are basically the definition of Elise: Gray, Purple, Green and BIRDS:

They are from Fossil and I love them.

Thanks to everyone who made our birthdays so special!! Our families are the best and really do spoil us!! Happy Birthday to my man. I hope you had a great day.

100 Posts- Merry Christmas!

I find it fitting that my 100th post is all about Christmas!! We had a lot of fun this year with all our decorating, parties, presents, food and of course- family and friends.

We have a group of friends that we get together with and have game nights and an annual White-Elephant Christmas party. These were the best two gifts there:

This is the second year that we have WON the picture of Todd. We have started a Todd wall in our basement. And yes- it stays up year 'round. And Dano drew that picture on the shirt himself. Very artistic!! We always eat lots of good food at this party as well. We brought some artichoke dip with toasted baguette slices and some chai cookies.

Christmas Eve is our traditional family party at my Nana's house. (Dubs' Great Grandma). We sit around laughing at Uncle Steve's stories, read some scriptures, watch a movie on the birth of Christ, open gifts and of course... eat good food. We brought spaghetti casserole, veggie squares and tres leches! It was a busy day of cooking- but we have a ton of family and I wanted to help out. I need to do a post on these and give the recipes cause they are all delicious.

Here is the baby opening his very first Christmas gift- pajamas and a blanket from Nana, Papa and Aunt Jennie. And his favorite toys... a Sock Monkey from Uncle Eric and Aunt Colleen as well as a remote control from Grandma Halladay!

Here he is on "Santa's" lap. AKA Papa.

And the entire group! (Minus Alec and Courtney...) The group is getting HUGE. So many family members got married this year and we of course had a baby!

On Christmas Day we went to church where Scott and I sang in the ward choir. Scott's family came to watch and take care of William. Afterwards we all went back to our home and had a yummy Christmas Breakfast that included homemade Cinnamon Rolls (Cinnabon copies), Creamy Crockpot Hot Chocolate and fruit. (Again, I need to do a post with the recipes. The hot chocolate is SOOOO good!)

Before we went to the Halladay's we opened our gifts at home with William. Here he is with Mama opening a book. He loves books.

And here he is with his daddy... checking out daddy's comic books. Seriously- how cute are my boys?? I just love them.
We spent the rest of the day over at the Halladay's where we ate tons of good food and opened waaaay too many presents. We are so blessed to have such great family around us! William's first Christmas was a hit! Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas.

Festiveness

We have really been on top of our decorations for Christmas this year. Last year we didn't put up anything because I was sick and pregnant... This year we put everything up the day after Thanksgiving. Dubs loved watching us decorate and he really likes the tree.

Here is the "famous" bookshelf and the top of the piano (most of it, anyway). Sad to say, this is my LEAST favorite bookshelf decoration. I don't know what to do with it during Christmas and Winter.... I have been searching Pinterest for ideas...so if anyone finds anything great...let me know!!

We decided to start something different with our tree...normally we decorate it with all my late-Grandma's crystal decorations, which are awesome. But we wanted to add our own touch to the tree. So I found a ton of cute decorations at Hobby Lobby. Our tree is now all red berries, red birds, white birds and white owls. LOVE it. Here are just a couple varieties of the birds and owls:

Here is the tree! Finished with a Mickey Mouse Santa Hat on top.

And the BEST picture of a baby with Santa you will EVER see.... I guarantee 100% satisfaction:

I can't believe how cute, handsome, adorable, perfect, funny and happy my baby is. Honestly!! I don't know why I am so blessed...but I am thankful that I am. Here he is at 6 months.

We are excited for the Holiday Season! We have been festive so far and will continue to do so. It makes it so much more fun when you have a child. They just get excited about everything.

So Thankful!

I can't believe my little brother got married in November!!! It is so crazy that everyone is growing up, getting married and having kids. Don't get me wrong- its fun and exciting. I just can't believe it. Here is the happy couple:

Sam & Hannah

They had a really cool wedding. Hannah made a brooch bouquet and her family made everyone their outfits:

It was such a beautiful day and I am so happy for them! We love you guys. Welcome to the family Hannah :)

Here are my favorite girls ever. My sisters! (Boots, Me and Kylee aka "sister" but really our cousin)

Thanksgiving was great this year. We spent it with my side of the family, which is always fun. Scott and I decided to pitch in this year and we made garlic mashed potatoes, regular mashed potatoes, asparagus gratin and Scott made Pumpkin Pies. We are no chefs...but we love to cook. And YAY for Pinterest and finding all sorts of yummy recipes. (Thats where I found the Asparagus dish. My family ate the whole thing. I easily could have tripled the recipe!)

Here is my little one with his turkey bib. He was sleepy.
I have SOOOO much to be Thankful for:

My amazing husband

The BEST baby boy in the ENTIRE world. Literally.

My sweet family (including great in-laws)

A part-time job that really helps out

A cozy home and nice car

This blessed country and all those who protect it

My life!! I can't believe how lucky I am and how much my Father in Heaven has blessed me. I do not deserve this great life that I have. I am blown away every day when I spend time with my angel William and the love of my life Scott. I have the best friend and sister that anyone could ask for- Bree. I have such great parents and parents-in-law and such great friends... I seriously can't say it enough. Thanks to everyone in my life for making it what it is :)

Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue!!

For Halloween we decided to go down to my mom's work and go trick-or-treating with all the kids that she watches. (She works at a daycare) Here is Buzz with his Grandma! "Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue!!" (Doesn't he look like a 2 year old??? Ha ha ha, he is only a few months old)

And here he is with Grandpa. He looks so serious.

Next we visited Scott's parents- here is what kept happening with Buzz's hat. He thought it was hilarious and so did we.

Buzz loves all his grandparents- he is so spoiled and loved!!

These guys spoil him too...just a little ;)

I think Buzz had a great first Halloween. I hope all of you had a great Halloween too!

Everyone hale to the Pumpkin Song!!

Scott's family all wanted to go to Disneyland in October, so we joined them! Even our nieces from Idaho got to join us!! It is mass chaos when you have a group of 15 or so all from the ages of less than 1 year up to Grandparents! So we didn't see everyone too often, we all kind of broke into our own little groups. This Disney trip was not my favorite... in the above picture we were riding Small World- we had been there for about an hour and when we got off, I realized that my diaper bag along with my wallet was all stolen. So that was a great way to start off the week.... blegh.

We went to Mickey's Halloween Party which is an extra fee, but it was totally worth it. Here is some of our family all dressed up!!!

And here is little Buzz Lightyear ready for the party!

Mickey's Halloween party consists of Trick or Treating and getting TONS of candy, extra decorations, a special parade and firework show, and lots of characters walking around to meet everyone. Dubs slept the entire time, but it was a lot of fun.

One of our last days there we went to dinner at Cafe Orleans with the entire family (pretty much the only time our whole family was together). This sadly, is the only group photo. But the food was fantastic and the company was even better!

We love Disneyland at Halloween... we have been every year since we've been married. This year was quite unusual though, it was SOOOOOO hot!! Seriously, it was 95+ degrees and 90% humidity. So needless to say, the heat was miserable. Poor baby was without pants most the time, ha ha. But we did have fun despite the set back of all our money and credit cards being stolen.

It's not easy being this adorable...

My little man is growing up waaaaay too fast! Last night we tried Rice Cereal for the first time and he LOVED it. I couldn't believe how well he did with eating it- Scott and I were the ones making the messes! He ate the entire bowl and probably could have had seconds. I just can't believe it.