So this is Christmas!

Wow! It sure is amazing how time flies around the holidays! I sure hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that they were able to spend time with family and friends.

The 3 Wise Guys

On Christmas Eve, the Duehlmeier's had their annual Christmas party. Doug and Susan host it every year and they always do such a wonderful job. Despite the crazy snow storm everyone made it there safely, some earlier than others. After we all fed our tummies, we had a special visit from the 3 wise guys who brought gifts to all the unmarried grandchildren and great-grandchildren in the family. This year Bret was able to play one of the Wise Guys. McKinley was so funny sitting on his lap. You could tell she recognized the voice, but not the face. But most importantly she didn't cry. (Santa wasn't the best experience) It was fun to be there with the family hear the Christmas Story, and sing Christmas Songs.

Danny and Bret the Wise Guy

Jayson and Bret the Wise Guy


Bret and Mike the Wise Guys, Ethan and McKinley


McKinley and Dad the Wise Guy


McKinley and Dad the Wise guy again

This year for Christmas Bret and I decided that we wanted to do things a little differently and much to both our parents disliking, we had Christmas for the first time since we've been married at our house first. (usually we haven't opened the gifts we got for each other until about 4 or 5) Although it was very different for both of us, it was nice to be able to do things the way we wanted to do them.

McKinley with her Maraca

McKinley surprisingly enough actually liked the toys we got her more than the wrapping paper boxes and bows. Bret got me my weight set I wanted and I got Bret anatomy flash cards for his i-pod. It was a lot of fun to see McKinley's face when she opened her gifts.. the smile was tattooed on her face for almost 3 days until the lack of sleep finally kicked in.

McKinley and her blocks

Later that afternoon we went to my parents house to open gifts and to talk to Spence. It was really nice to hear his voice and his laugh again. I almost had forgotten what it sounded like. It made me that much more excited to have him coming home in just a couple weeks.

Mom and McKinley

After that we made our way over to Bret's mom and dads. We had made a deal that we would sleep over and open gifts at their house the next day. It was SO nice to be able to do it that way. I really felt like we were able to spend the amount of time we had wanted to spend with them every Christmas without being rushed from one house to the next. Mike and Robyn showed up a bit later and brought the Wii! We had a blast building our characters, playing tennis, baseball, and guitar hero.

Laura and Jay playing Tennis

Mike laughing at Jay and Laura's attempt to play tennis

Christmas this year was really nice, the best part though was that we were able to spend a lot of time with our families and that Bret was able to have the WHOLE week off of work! (hurray for left over vacation days)

Oh I almost forgot... We also told our parents our big news... We are going to be having another baby! Although it was a bit unexpected and I cried the first month I knew everytime I thought about it, I am finally ready to tell people. McKinley and the next baby will be 17 months apart. I always said I wanted my kids to be close in age, but not this close. But now we don't have a choice and we are getting excited to have another baby. The biggest thing I have learned this year... Sometimes YOUR plan isn't HIS plan. Now we pray for a healthy baby.

Baby Ket #2

Nose Picker

A long time ago (earlier this fall) Bret and I were playing around with Robyn's camera at one of Jayson's football games. Robyn finally got around to downloading everything to a disk for us and I was so glad to get all the pictures and video of all of us. There is one video of Bret that was on the disk that makes me laugh every time I see it, so I told Bret that I was going to post it.... I hope you all think it is as funny as I do.

Family Matters

Yesterday Robyn (my sis in law) and I went to Layton to pick up a few things for Christmas and we were able to visit a little while with Kelli (Brets cousin) and her kids. Kelli's little girl Karlee, is 4months older than McKinley, but they seriously look like they could be sisters. Since McKinley was born I have always told everyone about how much the two of them look alike. But now that they are getting older, they look even more alike. Yesterday while we were there, they both pulled the same smiley face at the same time. It was a crack up! I took a picture of Karlee and decided that I would post it up here next to a picture of McKinley just to see what you all think too.

Karlee is on the top and McKinley on the bottom

The King Singers

Yesterday was the day that my family (the Forman side) and I look forward to every year at this time. We were able to go to the Mormon Tabernacle Choirs Christmas Concert. This year they had the King Singers.

This of course for me brought back SO many memories of choir in high school. If you haven't heard of them I recommend checking out their website. They are absolutely amazing and I really enjoyed myself. They sang O Holy Night with the men in the Tab, and it was the most beautiful version of that song I have EVER heard. Bret thought that I was crazy to be so ecstatic about hearing them sing live. It was well worth the huge crowds, walking in the freezing cold and even paying a babysitter.

Just a side note, Spencer comes home in 32 more days!!!!

Winter Blast

Bret in grandams backyard after shoveling

I guess its time that I update the blog. Things have been so crazy around here lately.
Mckinley now has 4 teeth. That is 4 teeth in 15days too. She has been a real trooper though. She thinks that she is a big girl and needs to eat mom and dads food instead of her own. I tried to feed her the apricots that she used to absolutely devour, and she shook her head as if to tell me no and pointed to my plate. It was cute and funny but at moments like that I have to remember to keep a straight face.
Friday night our neighbors moved out. It was sad to see them go. I really am going to miss them. Its funny how attached you get to your neighbors. Because we live in a duplex, its almost like a part of the house is missing now. I am happy for them though. They bought a house.... man... one day we will be able to have one too.. I know it.
Our street on Friday night was packed. Between the neighbors moving and everyone helping them, and the Cox party going on over at grandma's no one had any room to park. So Bret and I decided to take advantage of the time and little space and left to do some Christmas shopping. When we left our house, it was raining. We went to eat and by the time we were done it had started to snow CRAZY snow! As much as I love snow its different driving in it now that I have McKinley. I totally trust Bret and his driving (he served his mission in Alaska... he should know how to drive in the snow) I just don't trust everyone else out on the road. so driving home was a little crazy. By the time we had finished shopping and eating and got home, we had 3 inches of snow!

The front of Grandmas house with all the snow

Saturday morning we woke up and I went with Bret to go pick up the food donations from around the ward. I think everyone forgot to donate because of the snow. When we got home we started shoveling and blowing all the sidewalks. I took a few pictures this time too, so you can see the amounts of snow we had.

McKinley and I in front of our house

When we got in from shoveling, our power went out. So we changed our clothes and went out to get the rest of the Christmas shopping done. When we were out, Bret surprised me with what he wanted to get me for Christmas, a little puppy. He is SO cute. He is half yorkie half maltese. He shouldn't get bigger than 5lbs. We named him Dash cause when we got home and I let him down he took off like a wild dog and ran around our coffee table about 7 times before finally stopping. I still need to take some pictures of him. He is so little and black that I think I need to wait for him to get bigger before you will be able to tell that it is a dog.
Anyway, our power was off for the rest of the day and well into the night. When we went to bed our house of 53 degrees. I called the power company because our neighbors power line had snapped from the weight of the snow and the boy who lives there said no one had called it in. I figured that he was just joking around, but he wasn't. The line had snapped about 11 and when I called at 9 that night, no one had even called it in. So I was mad at my stupid neighbors for my house being cold. If they would have called it in when it happened, maybe we would have had power sooner. The power did finally come on about 4 in the morning. I was so greatful to the men who work for the power company I could have ran out in my pjs and gave them all a huge hug. Bret told me I couldn't do it.

looking down our street.. I think you can even see the broken power line too.

This week bret is finally done with finals, he took his last one today. Its sure going to be nice having him around the house again!!! At least for a few more weeks.

Let it Snow!

I was planning on taking pictures, but it didn't happen. I have never been more excited for snow in my life!
Friday night Bret and I went to see Enchanted (I LOVED it! I recommend it to everyone) As the rain was falling I was so sad, I thought that the news people had my hopes up again for lots of snow and that all we were going to get was rain. We got home fairly late (around 11) and it was still raining when we went to bed. Saturday morning when I woke up to McKinley singing to herself in her room, I thought I should check just to see if it did snow. I really was so nervous to open the blinds in fear that my hopes would be shattered at the mere fact that there was going to be no snow. I slowly opened the curtains and to my surprise there was about 4" of snow in my front yard. I started dancing and singing and jumping on the bed. Bret was not excited about my dancing, singing and jumping as I was though. I got McKinley out of bed, and we sang Christmas songs and danced around the front room with the Christmas tree lights on. It was almost like Christmas morning. I opened all the blinds and curtains in the house and watched in amazement as the snow fell almost all day. Luckily Bret was able to get his grandpa's snow blower working so we didn't have to shovel anything but the stairs for grandmas, us and the neighbors house. Even if we did end up shoveling, I dont think that I would have been too disappointed about doing it. I was SO excited about actually having snow, that I would have done the whole street if someone asked me to. They say that we are supposed to get snow again on Wednesday and on Saturday. I really hope that is the case!!!!
I sure love the SNOW!!