All I want for Christmas...

A new baby niece that is healthy and happy. Her name is Jenni Marie Reeves.





Is for my baby to have a merry Christmas and love all the presents Santa brought him!





To visit my Mom, Fred and his kids and to give her a long awaited album of our wedding pictures for Christmas. Not to mention enjoy a yummy dinner with them!




To have a party with Katie and her family. She made me a quilt with material from her wedding quilt. We love it so much and had so much fun.





And my sister Nora and her family to come visit for Christmas and stay with us!

Days Before Christmas

One of the funnest things we've done this month... was make a gingerbread house. I know it sounds wierd, but if you had a husband like mine, you would understand. It was like a 5 day process! It started off being just a fun thing my mom wanted us to do and then email her pictures of it so she could scrapbook it, but somehow that meant it was a contest to Zeb between us and all of my neices and nephews.
I was only given the roof to decorate (which he ended up embelishing after I was done :) )When he was all done it was the best ginger bread house I've ever seen. He melted mints to make stain glass windows and then cut holes inside and installed a light inside. We even put two little ginger people inside (that was my idea- they are suppost to be me and Zeb)
This is the finished product-
He's so cute!!!!!
We've also had fun decorating our Christmas tree. The last 2 years we've gotten real trees which reminds me of Christmas when I was young. There is nothing like the smell of a real tree in your living room. And I am proud to say that I have turned into quite the haggler- I talked the guy's down at the tree lot from $50 for our tree to $35. I was proud of myself :)
And you can't have Christmas without going and seeing the lights at Temple Square. We went with Don and Faye, Matt, Steph and their kids. We ate at the Blue Aguana and then went to see the lights.
And last but not least we had an early Christmas party at my mom's house because Nora and Jason are in town. My mom gave us the sweetest gifts. Her theme was "memories". She made albums for all of us with pictures from throughout the year, she gave me a comb that used to be my grandfathers when he was a barber and had a salon and beauty school. She also gave me a bracelet that used to be my grandmothers, it has trinkets from all over the world that she collected.
It's been such a memorable Christmas already and we still have 2 more days to go until it's here!

A sunny Thanksgiving in Arizona

Change

It's amazing how in one moment your life can be going along just fine and then literally with one phone call it can all change. It's quite ironic that the week such a huge change comes about in my life is the same
week I teach a lesson in Young Womens on the subject of change. The Lord sometimes works in mysterious ways to bring us comfort during hard times, and this was one of those ways for me.
In my lesson it quotes:

"Every day brings some kind of change into our lives. It has been said that there is nothing so constant as change, for our lives are always moving and developing."
I also liked this one:

"Sometimes we are free to choose the changes that come to us and sometimes not. But we are always free to choose what we will do when the changes come. When changes occur in our families, especially unexpected and undesirable changes, we can adjust successfully."

Throughout this week I was reminded of the simple things in life. The things I regretfully take for granted every day until trials come to my life and remind me to stop being ungrateful! This week made me re-commit myself to the things I let so easily fall by the wayside. This week made me realize again how precious my family is and they are the only thing that matters! I guess this post is for you guys- I love you! My life would be so empty without you. I really do think you are the strongest people I have ever and will ever meet in my life! Stay strong! I love you!!!

Carving Pumpkins!!

Tuesday night we decided we needed to carve pumpkins. We brought the t.v down to the kitchen and watched "I am Legend" while we carved, which ended up just being a distraction to me because I got so scared! But check out how sweet they turned out- Zeb carved Sponge Bob square pants, I did the gravestone and Rachel carved the spider and the jack-o-lantern face. It was fun for all!

My New Nephew- Baby Jack Gardner

I'm an aunt again- for the 14th time! On Friday October 10th, Joe and Megan became parents. But sweet little Jack ran into some complications with his white blood cell count and his platelettes, so they rushed him to Primary Childrens Hospital where he could recieve the best care. They said he should be there for about 7 days. We went up to visit him on Saturday and he was doing so good. He barely cries as they poke and prod him all day long- he's such a trooper. WE LOVE YOU JACK!!!!!!

A look at our first year married

Here's some of the things we've been up to in our first year as newlyweds. We had fun in Mexico on our honeymoon, camping and hiking in Moab, went to the Hogle Zoo and the Lehi Rodeo, date nights at Thanksgiving point walking through the gardens, Park city with my fam, Don and Faye even bought us a motor home.
But more important than all of that is the day to day things that we have experienced together. I've learned that I want to be Rachel Ray and Martha Stewart all wrapped up into one, because then I wouldn't wash his shorts with his wallet still in them and my cooking wouldn't still be in the experimental stage. I've learned that i use the phrases "I don't know" or "whatever" all too often to escape the all too important aspect of communication in marriage. I've learned that I use cleaning as a scapegoat when I get mad. I've learned that we don't have Zeb's goals and My goals anymore- they all are OUR goals.
But I can't even express enough how much I have learned about love. I love Zeb! I love him more than I ever thought possible. And it's so true that the more you serve someone the more you love them-I thought I saw that fully expressed on my mission, but i was wrong.
Anyways- I'm just sounding more and more corny, so I'll end with saying marriage is even more than I ever thought it would be and I can't wait for all I'll learn in the years to come!

More anniversary pics

After flying we went out to eat, then to "color me mine"
that night we stayed at the Anniversary Inn in the Italian Gondola room

Our first anniversary

Zeb and I celebrated our one year anniversary on August 4th. He planned a day full of surprises for me. First thing in the morning we went flying. Yep, you got that right! His boss Mark flew us over the utah lake and all above utah county. He even let me fly for part of the time!

First time for everything

So this is my first attempt at 'blogging'. I finally gave into the peer pressure and decided just to do it. I'm still a little unsure whether or not we will even have enough things to actually blog about- but I guess we'll see. There's a first time for everything... even blogging!

Fourth of July

For the Fourth of July this year we went hiking with Kirk and Shayna during the day and that night we watched the fireworks with Katie and Bentley at the Capital