Kicking the Winter Blues

I know most of us are done with winter, the bitter cold, the dirty slush, and cloudy days.

Though the past week has brought us MUCH more sunlight this month has been a
tough one for me. The winter blues have just taken over me. Is anyone
with me on this one?! (please say yes so I'm not alone here!)

I have struggled getting out of bed in the mornings, my body aches more than normal.
Let's not even start to talk about the constant irritability, and moodiness. My poor
husband has put up with a lot this month. Poor guy. I want to publicly thank him
for his ongoing patience and love for me. He may not have a lot of patience for
stupid drivers but he has always had incredible patience with me no matter
what. He has been my strength this month and he deserves the gold medal!
(isn't he handsome!? I think so!)

I love you Mikey! Thanks for being my everything!

Also...Oranges are really good in the morning and I have found this boosts my
morning spirits a bit :)

Go away blues, go away winter, bring on spring!

Simmons Style 2009

Mike and I were lucky to bring in the New Year with some of our closest friend. We hosted the get together at our place and everyone helped out by bringing goodies to share! We played Music Scene It, I'm not sure that we ever declared a winner on that...hmm it was still fun to say the least. I must say I think the highlight of the night was playing Mormon Mouthful. For any of you that have played or at least heard of Mad Gab it's the same idea, but Mormon phrases are used! Quite fun actually and we play it often at the in-laws (Mikes parents)! While playing the game this time Nino was a reader for one of the teams. I'm not exactly sure what the words looked like that he was reading but all he had to say was "Me Huge" and the room roared with laughter.....for a long time!
Anyway.......it was a really fun night topped off with a birthday cake for Amanda after the new year! Her birthday is, of course, January 1st and we were the first to sing and celebrate it!

Thanks friends for joining us, we won't forget how we brought in 2009 with such wonderful people!


New Year also meant New Hair...I have had a few requests for pictures but I'm waiting until I really decide what I'm doing with it! I have gone shorter and a bit darker....ok a lot darker from where I was at! Mike for one LOVES it and my good friend Melinda really did what I asked her too, I think I just wasn't prepared for the shock of it is all. I may be adding more blond, still trying to decide! So until then I may or may not post pictures...you'll just have to wait and see :)

My little brother Jeph...

Yes, he spells his name with a "ph". Anyway, he and his best friend Trevor left me a voice mail today that I will, without their permission of course, share with the world. Enjoy.

Wrapping it up!

I figured the best way to show all of the fun we had this Christmas season
was to just create a slide show!
At the Simmons' family white elephant exchange we played with new rules!
If you wanted to take a gift you had to challenge that person.
I wanted the Gold Fish so I challenged Mike B. to hop on one leg without switching
legs, whoever lasted the longest, won!
He fell, I won!
Mike and Andy had a leg wrestle, didn't last long, Andy has soccer thighs!
They also had to whistle like old men. I thought I married younger, apparently not the case!

We were happy to see the Santa paid a visit to everyone! Thank you Santa, and thank you everyone for a memorable Christmas!
We love you! Bring on 2009 :)

Merry Christmas to All!!

So Elder's Quorum got out a few minutes early today so I went and sat in Primary and waited for Kimmy. The closing prayer in primary was given by a very special autistic boy. In his prayer he asked Heavenly Father to "please bless us all that we will give, and that we will love, and that we we all be kind to each other because... well, because it's Christmas! And that's what this time of year is about." Anyone who knows this young boy knows that he meant every word of that prayer from his heart. It was a good reminder. Thank you Tage.

The following is a clip of audio from Glenn Beck's radio program. It is the story of the birth of our Savior from the perspective of Mary and Joseph. I hope you all listen and enjoy.

Merry Christmas everybody!

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December 2008 catch up!

Mike is a huge Glenn Beck fan so of course when his new book The Christmas Sweater hit stores and tickets went on sale for the show we had our book and tickets! We traveled up to Layton Hills Mall with Jeff and Venita for the book signing and later to the show, after scoring a few extra tickets we helped a few people see the show as well :)

We also got our tree that same day, though it took us all week to finally finish decorating it! We are happy with our first ever Christmas tree! It might be a little sparse with decor but we don't care...we love our tree!

This weekend we attended 2 Christmas parties at my parents home. The Marchant side Saturday night and the Limb side tonight.

Next week we start with the Simmons' family parties!

Hope everyone is having a joyous time of year :)

An Advent Blog

Thanks to Mike's mom Lynn for sending us a new blog link! Each day there are new stories to share during this wonderful Christmas season. I've added them to my blog list, they are A Shadow Canyon Christmas. I thought it was really neat and wanted to share it with all of you! So go check them out!