Christmas!

This year we had a GREAT Christmas. We go so spoiled!

Here's us getting our Christmas tree out, just after Thanksgiving. Notice Justin in the box. Silly boy.

I love the red and green lights on our Christmas tree! We use 7 strands of lights on this baby!

This year for Christmas we spent the night at Justin's parents house. We ordered Winger's sticky fingers and buffalo wings for dinner, and just sat and talked, and watched A Christmas Story. I fell asleep around 11pm. These babies make me tired!

At 7am, we woke up to Duke panting really hard in his kennel. We figured he needed to go outside, so Justin let him out, then they got back in bed. Around 8am Justin's mom came in and woke us up saying "Santa came! Santa came!" We were excited, especially since I've been waiting for Christmas for weeks now! So we got up, and Duke was SO excited that he peed EVERYWHERE in the house, literally. What we didn't understand, was we had just let him out an hour or less before! There was pee all over in the kitchen and he was running everywhere, so it got all over! Haha it's pretty funny now. But we spent 30 minutes moping the kitchen and spraying cleaner on the carpet, cleaning up after Duke. We let him out 3 times while we were cleaning up, and each time, he spent like 5 minutes peeing! He must have had a lot of water!

After that, we went down and started with our stockings. My FAVORITE stocking stuffer was:

Justin spoiled me. A couple weeks ago we went to Smiths Market Place to get some groceries. We walked into the store and Justin pulled me into Fred Meyer Jewelers. He showed me some anniversary bands and said "I want to get you one for Christmas!" I was happy, and it was quite cute :) But then I looked at the price... Wow. But we figured, if we don't get it now, we never will with the babies coming. So we picked one out that matched my ring perfect and bought it! It remained wrapped under our tree for 2 weeks. I had to keep it a secret tho! So I was excited to open this stocking stuffer!

Justin got an iPhone as his stocking stuffer. We bought it used from a friend. It has to be jail broken so it can be used with T-mobile. We haven't had any luck yet, but hopefully we'll get it to work!

We moved on to opening presents. Justin's parents gave us:

A paper shredder, calendars, an awesome cupcake book, cupcake papers, summer sausage, a knife set, and some other things! We're grateful for all they gave us! (unfortunately I forgot our camera, so I don't' have any pictures)

Then the phone rang about 9:30... It was Justin's brother who is on his mission in England!! We had a great time talking to him. We even got to get on skype and see him! It was really neat!

Then around 11am, we left and headed to my parents house to do gifts with them. My sister, her husband and my nephew Lincoln were able to come up for Christmas this year! So we arrived the same time they did to do gifts.

Lucky Perfume

A Mag Lite Set

A double decker 24 count cupcake holder! YES!

Justin got some new shirts

My very sweet sister gave me a box FULL of baby lotion, shampoo and head-to-toe wash! There was some powder, two nose suckers, and two of those awesome green hospital binki's they give you! She said she has so much left over stuff since she works at the hospital, and she'll just be getting more when her baby comes in April! She also made me two belly bands! THANKS SIS!!

Also in this picture, Justin is holding his Belgian Waffle Maker! We made waffles on Sunday morning, they were delicious! We also got some other things like:

Blockus, wrapping paper bin, blueberry pancake mix and syrup, wallflowers, iTunes gift card, and other things!

We definitely got spoiled!

We got Dad a set of Miracle Blade knives! We gave mom a pair of shoes and a new watch band!

After we did gifts we all sat around. Kyle played his new xBox 360, Justin tried to jailbreak his iPhone, mom and I took a nap, and dad played with some of his new gifts.

Around 3:30 Justin and I headed back to his parents house for Christmas Turkey Dinner. Grandma Sandy and Les came up for dinner! Brenda, Blair and their kids made it also. Then we opened gifts from the names that we drew in the family. We had Kyle, Brenda had us, and Kyle had Brenda. Brenda and her family gave us a cute 5 set picture frame, hot cocoa, a smore set and a pictionary game!

Then around 6:30 we went back to my parents house for my brothers phone call at 7pm! He called right on the dot! We were all excited to hear his voice, but I think he was the most excited! We talked for 2 and a half hours!!! His mission is pretty easy going. His mission president said he could have an hour or as long as he thought he needed. We all got to talk to him together, then we each got personal time too. It was really nice talking to him, but boy... I sure miss him!

Then we had a Prime Rib dinner around 9:30pm when we got off the phone with Marcus. Justin said the prime rib was good. I didn't eat any... it looked bloody and gross, but smelled good. Haha.

We had a great Christmas this year! I love Christmas time. I can't wait for our little ones to be here so we can spend it with them too!

Shepherd Family Pictures! And Christmas!

We had a great Christmas this year! We had the opportunity to go down to Arizona and spend it with my sister, brother-in-law and nephew. They are so cute, We miss them already!

We decided that we were going to leave the morning of Tuesday the 22nd. But when my dad heard on the news that there were suppose to be bad storms through Cedar City & Flagstaff we decided to leave Monday night. We all worked Monday, so we already had a full day, running around packing and things like that then we left at 9pm and drove all night. It was probably the craziest thing we've ever done. I thought it was terrible. Justin was such a trooper. He drove the WHOLE way. I stayed awake most of the time, all but two hours. Luckily we were following my parents and we had 3 people in each car so 2 people were awake and 1 was sleeping.

We finally got to my sisters house at 7:15am. We were all exhausted, but we were so excited to be there. After a 3 hour nap we got up and the fun began.

While we were there my sisters friend, who she works with, took some family pictures of us. I think they turned out great. These are only some of them, I can post more later when I get the CD from my sister.

I love my family. We have SO much fun together.

My sister on Christmas morning. Doesn't she look good!? (That's because we waited for her and my mom to put on make up and do their hair!)

I gave my sister a waffle iron for Christmas, She was so excited!

Lincoln looking at his new movie!

I should have woke up and done my hair and make up, I look TERRIBLE. But oh well, it's Christmas right!!

My brother Marcus gave me these things for my cake decorating :)

I surprised Justin with a new cordless drill! He loved it!

Justin surprised me with a digital camera, obviously we don't have pictures of that cause we took these pictures with the new camera. I love it!

He also bought me my favorite perfume!!

We gave Lincoln some books

Marcus gave Justin and I a DVD holder. We've needed it so bad!!

Later that day we just sat around and spent time together, we played games, ate a YUMMY dinner prepared by my wonderful sister & parents.

This is Lincolns nightly routine, he has asthma so he takes a breathing treatment to help while he sleeps.

Such a good boy!

Carly got into nursing school this year. She was excited to have a whole bunch of Guinea pigs around to practice putting IV's in and taking blood. She did very well! I wouldn't let her do it on me tho. I don't care for needles

Then kyle... Well my sister let him practice on her. Kyle is in a class right now in high school to become a CNA/Doctor. He loves this stuff just like my sister.

He's intently trying, my sis is such a good sport!

This was the result in kyles try at putting an IV in my sisters hand. He popped her blood vessel. It got worse every hour! Hehe, good try tho Kyle!

Ok... These next pictures have an explanation. My sister and I get in these moods...

Weird moods...

Playing ticket to ride-- and looking like death!

I don't know if i will ever forgive myself for putting this picture up. I don't think i can mimic this picture.. I don't know how I did it. I just know we were hyper! HAHA! How embarrassing!

It looks like I have gumballs in my chin. LOL

The boys played a new game they got for Christmas. Its Jenga Maxx. Instead of taking things away, you are adding it on. It looked fun!

Beautiful Arizona Sunset!

We had such a great Christmas! When we came home on Sunday the 27th we went up to Justin's parents house and exchanged gifts with them! They gave us a camp chef! Its a big portable camping stove. We always borrow theirs when we go camping so they decided to buy us our own :) it is great!

Thank you everyone for a great Christmas. We love you all! XOXO

What we've been up to!

I have been a super slacker. Sorry it's been so long in between posts. It's especially hard when we don't have a camera so I have to bum all my pictures from friends and facebook. But maybe a little someone will bring me a new little something for Christmas :]

A few weeks ago we went to temple square with some friends. Although it was the week when it was FREEZING cold we still had a lot of fun!

Ryan ruined our cute picture

I love this picture!!

Justin's a weirdo when it comes to pictures!

The group!

Back Row left to right: Chelsea Nielsen, Dan Johnson, Ryan Robinson, Zach Johnson, Colby Townsend, Ellen Seely, Antonio Robles and Jamie

Front Row: Jade, Justin, Lindsay, Justin & Me

The girls!

Notice my face. I was standing there ready for the picture, and the boys were intrigued by the snow on the tree, they wanted to jump and hit it so the snow would fall on us. Look at Justin's stance, he's ready to jump and get us all!!

There we go, we actually got it. Justin's hiding between me and Lindsay

I can see up your nose

This is Frosty's House. His name is Frosty Darling. He starts decorating his house like this in October! You have to spend at least 10 minutes looking at it to see and notice everything! It is totally covered! No one else on the street has lights up... I wouldn't want to compete with this! Or, maybe he's hogging all the electricity!

Back in September we had a good family friend take Ballantyne family pictures. I will have to get the rest, but this is all I could fit in an email. We got some great shots of the whole family, Brenda, Blair and her boys, Just the siblings, Just Nephew's, plus more! They are so neat! I love them!

Last night our friend Jamie hosted an annual GINGERBREAD WARS! It was so much fun! Jamie provided the royal icing(icing that stiffens after a few minutes, this is the best for making gingerbread houses) and the graham crackers. Then everyone who came brought candy. We had SO much candy, It was great. Me, Lindsay & Justin N. were on a team. We started making this house, and we were doing the "V" style roof and it kept sliding. So we decided to just flatten it all out, then we added some dimensions. It turned out so great!!!

A balcony and all!!

The pathway is Chiclets!!

Then I took a strainer and dusted it all off with powdered sugar! Notice Lindsay's cute hand-made snow men! I love them!!

We've been so busy and have had so much fun! I will try to be better at posting. I promise. But as for this week I have a ton to do!

• Lindsay and I are hosting a friend party dinner tomorrow night
• Pack
• Bake Kyle a wrestling birthday cake for Monday
• Clean the car & Check the oil and Tire Pressure
• Clean the house
• Do the laundry
• Wrap Christmas presents
• and a couple other things!

But once I get these things done, that means we can head out for Arizona! We are leaving Tuesday morning, hopefully by 6 or 7am to spend Christmas with my sister! I am so excited! Dad, Mom and my brothers will be leaving a couple hours after us! So we'll all get to spend Christmas together in Arizona!

Merry Christmas!!