You've had a birthday, shout WOORAY!!

That's right, it's another birthday!! It's for MAXWELL!!! My little buddy turns 3 today! I can't believe he turns 3. I hope he has a good birthday!


Maxwell went from THIS....


to THIS....

Happy Birthday Maxwell! I love you! You always make me smile. You love to be around Grandma and Grandpa. You remind me soo much of your daddy. I love how you just laugh and laugh whenever you see me because you know what's going to happen! I love kissing you so hard that you can't control yourself! :) We love having you be part of the family! I miss you so much!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone had a good christmas! I was not able to go home to Orangeville for Christmas. I had to work yesterday (FedEx delivers on Christmas so I was still working) so I stayed up in Salt Lake and due to the weather, I didn't want to risk anything. FedEx was soooo slow yesterday that we did nothing at work until they delivered at 1 yesterday so we started working at about 1:30. After work, I went over to Tammy's and I watched THE NIGHT THEY SAVED CHRISTMAS with the kids. We got the webcam all set up and we talked with mom and dad and the Browns. It was fun. Koy had fun talking to "NaNa" and Kayden just liked to see himself in the camera :)

Santa did make it to my house :) I got a nice Columbia coat. I needed a new winter coat since we have been getting non-stop snow here. Thanks for the gifts everyone. I got a $50 gift card toward southwest airlines from the Browns and a necklace, a digital picture frame from the Gales, and a gift card for iTunes from the Labrums. Lexi was also so thoughtful and bought me a gift from a store they had at her school.

I woke up and went to Tammy's and spent the morning with them. It is always so much fun watching little kids get so excited over the gifts Santa bring. Koy kept bringing me his gifts to open for him because he just couldn't do it. I hope everyone liked their gifts from Aunt Nicky :) I tried to do my best but it is really hard to get things when the family is so spread apart.

I am being honest, this Christmas was really hard for me. Since I was alone, it was hard. Last weekend, I did have a breakdown and I cried to dad. I really wanted to go home or at least be with mom and dad. But with this weather, I completely understand. We didn't wake up to any new snow but down in Emery they did. It has been blowing really hard all day and the storm is coming in. My new coat is working great!:) I really appreciate the Gales letting me spend christmas morning with them. I even took my nap there and I loved having Koy come and cuddle with me and he ended up falling asleep with me (I love having my little snuggle-muffin by me sleeping). I have been really emotional this christmas so all the gifts helped out knowing that people care about me. I didn't like working on Christmas Eve.

I am glad I was able to talk to all the kids today! Knowing they are happy makes me so happy! I love them all so much! I miss all of you so much!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Do you know what to today is...........

"It's the day before the night before christmas! and I'm busy busy busy being good!" :)

I woke up this morning and this is the first thing that came to my mind... :) Tomorrow I'll think "Who's that Up on the ROOF?"

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

"I'm going to tell you one more time. Sing anything you want. White Christmas, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. But no more Jingle Bells!"

Last year, I got this movie for Christmas from Barrett and Chantel. They were WONDERFUL and got it copied to DVD for me. I have watched it a few times this season already! This movie is sooo old, I don't know if very many people know about it. But we have watched it ever since I could remember. I was looking it up on the internet today, and I found out that David is one of the dr's on ER now (Dr Archie Morris).. WOW! The things you learn! :)

The snow is falling once again here in SLC! It's going to be a white Christmas!

Oh the weather outside is FRIGHTFUL!!!!

It is sooo cold outside! Yesterday a big storm made it into the SLC valley. I sat there at my desk at work and watched it roll in. The snow came down and it didn't seem to let up ALL day! We would watch out the window at the cars going down the road and they would just slide. One car actually slid into a parked car because it was turning into ice. I was so worried about driving home. I knew I had good tires but some people just don't know to drive in the snow. The poor maintenance guys were blowing the snow off the sidewalks all day and I kept thinking about my dad and how he does it everytime it snows.

It has been snowing on and off today but not much. But it has been really cold. I was able to finish all my christmas shopping today. I didn't have much left. AND, I got it all wrapped and it is under my tree now waiting for christmas. I hope that Tyler, Morgan and Max got their christmas gifts. I thought I sent them off in plenty of time.

I hope everyone has been able to stay nice and warm! I have been wanting to take pictures of all the snow, but it has been way to cold! :) I can't stand the cold!

Merry Christmas! I will talk to you guys this week!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

It is officially looking like Christmas outside! This morning I woke up to wind blowing like crazy. I climbed back in my bed for a little more sleep. Woke up at 9 and it was SNOWING!! The weather forecasters said there was a storm coming and they were right. It has been snowing pretty much all day.

We had our Christmas Party at Myriad yesterday. HR makes Breakfast (YUM!) Everyone looks forward to it. It starts at 8 and goes until about 11. Everyone lines up for the bacon! :) They make sure we are nice and full! They feed us with pancakes, bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, pastries, doughnuts, fruit, juice.. It is so nice! I love working for Myriad, they really treat their employees good!

Today was the Labrum Christmas party! It was out at Aunt Luanns. We missed a lot of people because of the weather but it was good. We still had a good turnout. The food was good, as usual. Me, Tammy and Uncle Mike made sure to test out Jen's chocolate first! :) After lunch, the special "visitor" came. All the little kids got their chance to sit on his lap and get their bag of treats. Koy was cute when he saw Santa! He sat his lap and he said "ho ho ho merry christmas!" Kayden on the other hand, he wanted his bag of treats but did NOT want to go NEAR Santa! Aunt Luann helped to get him near Santa so we could get a picture. We got him to sit on the stairs so we have a picture with a wall between Kayden and Santa :) that was as good as we could get. In the bag of treats, they had better treats then we had growing up! We had peanuts and and orange! LOL.. they had good candy! Only the Labrum family would give out fruits snacks but what kind are they... JOHN DEERE!!! We left the party early so dad could head home. Me and Tammy headed to Walmart to go shopping. I got my Christmas shopping done except for mom and dad... So, yay for me! :) When we were at Walmart getting christmas gift, Kayden said he needed to get a christmas gift for JJ (Jeremy and Rachel's little boy) he then said "I LOOOVE JJ"

While at the family party, I was telling Tammy that we didnt get all the entertainment growing up like the kids now have at the party (they had the Christmas Classics DVD going on the Big Screen). We had the parties at Uncle Lee's and our entertainment was the rabbits. And we all crammed upstairs for the family "talents". But I think that because of those memories, it makes the Christmas memories memorable. The Labrum parties are always so much fun, and you all have to admit, we always have fun. No matter how often we get together, we can always find something to talk about. It was different not having the whole family there..

The snow started falling when I pulled into my driveway. The storm is supposed to last the next few days. Hopefully everyone stays nice and warm. I took pictures at the family party, I will post them hopefully... soon! :)

Christmas Traditions

Everybody has traditions with every holiday. I want to know what Christmas Traditions people have. As you get older, those traditions change and when you get married, traditions merge and you make your own traditions with your new family.

We always put our christmas tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving. The tree was lit with colorful lights and had ornaments from my moms students from over the years. We have had 1 ornament (i think she still has it) from Marci Stilson, she was in 6th grade and she made it for my mom for Christmas. My mom has kept every ornament from her students and now she puts them on her tree in her classroom (i think).

As we got older, our tree changed. It then became a peach, blue and silver tree with white lights and we ALWAYS had my grandma Nells icicles on it. The icicles topped the tree off and made the tree gorgeous!

The Labrum side has a Christmas party in Mid-December. I remember it always being at Uncle Lee's and having Sloppy Joes. Each family would have a "talent" to do. We would do that upstairs in the living room. Then we would go downstairs and do the gift exchange. Then the big visit from Santa would come and EVERYONE has to sit on his lap. We even had Grandma and Uncle Rulon sitting on his lap! :) Nobody got away without sitting on his lap. We sang and laughed. I loved getting the gift from Grandma Labrum, and I will always remember it. There were too many grandkids/great grandkids for her so she made the gifts for us. She would make airplanes out of candy. With a package of lifesavers, sticks of gum.. That is something that I know Grandma did for her grandkids because she loved them so much.One year, Santa was so weird.. He has us sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus. That is still a joke in the Labrum family. Now we all go to Aunt Luann's house and the little kids sit on the lab (the family is just getting too big) and we have $5 gift exchange.

We would spend Christmas Eve with the Ware side because they were right down the road. I remember 1 Christmas Eve traveling from Logan to Orangeville and it was a long day. Grandpa Rue would read to us The Night before Christmas and the Gift of the Magi. We would open the gifts from Grandma and Grandpa that night. Which were always pajamas. All the girls got matching pjs and the boys got matching pjs. We had to have the group picture in front of the big mirror.

When we got home that night, Mom and Dad would try to wind us down and give us their gift and send us to bed. It was always so hard to sleep that night. They even started to put sheets up at the doorways of the front room so we couldn't go peek at what we got for christmas. We would get up at 4 am Christmas morning and wake everyone up to open gifts! :) Dad had to go in and "check" to make sure Santa came to the house. We would open the gifts and by 6 christmas was over! :) Later that day, we would make the rounds to the Watsons, Leeflangs and Grandma and Grandpa Ware and they would come up to our house. We all enjoyed the food at every house.

Growing up, I never thought that Christmas was hard or I had less then anyone else. My Christmas' were always the best ever! We were never without. Thank you mom and dad! I love you so much!

Christmas Tag

I was tagged by my sister Nancy.. It totally surprised me that she did this because growing up she was the one that was totally NOT into Christmas! But once she had Tyler, that has totally changed! :) Yes Nancy, you know you were a complete Scrouge! :)

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I do both. But I LOVE wrapping gifts!

2. Real tree or Artificial? I have the artificial with a pine candle. But growing up we had both.

3. When do you put up the tree? I have all intentions to put it up this next upcoming weekend! I already have the pine candle going!

4. When do you take the tree down?The weekend around New Years!

5. Do you like eggnog? It's alright

6. Favorite gift received as a child? I got a lot of good gifts but I don't remember a favorite.

7. Hardest person to buy for? My parents! When you ask them what they could use, they always say "nothing"

8. Easiest person to buy for? nieces and nephews, lol or when the family drew names, I always had Josh! He was easy.. give him a package of socks and he was happy! :)

9. Do you have a nativity scene? My parents let me have their old one that we had growing up, Tammy borrowed it when she was living in Saratoga Springs and I'm not sure where it is now.. So if you know where it is.. let me know!

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? I don't take pictures of myself and send them out to friends and family.. but I have bought cards and sent them out to friends and I do email a christmas letter to friends

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Uncle Kenny rocked at getting us dumb stuff. I don't know of a "stupid" or worst gift ever. DITTO!!

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? The Night They Saved Christmas...

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? December! LOL

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? My moms cheese ball, Aunt Ruanne's Oreo Cookies, Clam Dip

16. Lights on the tree? White.

17. Favorite Christmas song?
Bishop Sharp singing the inn keeper (always!) Where are you christmas, Christmas Shoes

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? we did both when I was younger. We would spend Christmas Eve with the Wares but I do remember 1 christmas driving home from Logan and getting to Grandpa's late.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Yes

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel..

21. Open presents on Christmas Eve or morning? We always did Grandma and Grandpa's present on Christmas Eve (they were always pj's) and then we came home and we did mom and dads.. remember when we thought our reading pillows were lions. lol

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? people get so MEAN!!

23. Favorite Ornament theme or color? My tree is purple and silver (thank you Tammy!) growing up my parents had peach and blue.. it was SOOO pretty AND they had the icicles that topped off the tree.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Turkey

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? My family!

26.My most wanted gift? My family!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

I tag:
Bridi
Jaley
Jenn Sitterud
Katie Barton
Natty McKnight
Mandy Gibbons
Rachel Tomsick
Kim Tomsick

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!! I went to Tammy's for Thanksgiving Dinner then headed down to Orangeville after. It was just a nice dinner with the Gales and mom and dad. Lexi made the little place settings, it was all really nice!

We took the 3 kids down to mom and dads because Tammy and Josh had to work. Friday we took the kids down to moms classroom for a bit to watercolor because the "appointments" started for December. Saturday we had to find another way to get them out of the house so we had to tell them we should go to the playground! Good thing the appointments weren't long. The kids did really good away from mom and dad for a few days but come Sunday you could tell they were ready for mom and dad!

I have officially shown my clutziness--AGAIN! I fell at mom and dads and sprained my ankle. That crack in the sidewalk got me and I fell. I thought for sure I had broken my ankle cuz I heard a snap when I fell but I ended up getting an xray on it today and it was just sprained.

Well, back to work.. We didn't have much work to do today.. We are actually done 4 hours early today.. So now I get to go home! I will work on getting everyones christmas out (and bought) :)