Merry Christmas to all and to all a . . . night

I hope everyone's having a great Christmas! We came down to Arizona about a week ago to spend the break with Brett's family. It has been great to get away and have Brett 'home' most of the time. We're staying with Brett's brother Chris, Cassi, and their two little girls. One great thing about staying with them is that Cassi is due in February too, so we can both be crazy pregnant women. Hyrum loves playing with the girls. . . well, mostly tackling them. But it's really fun and cute to watch them. My parents are also visiting Mesa to see us and my Brother Jeff, Jenn, and their daughter Lexi. So it's been a family Christmas on both sides. We've been having so much fun being down here, although Hyrum will most likely have 3 new teeth by the time we get back to Utah. . . which means we haven't been having the best sleep. Let's just hope Hyrum reaches my goal of all his teeth cut through before baby 2 is born. :) Doesn't hurt to wish. Anyway, Just before we left UT we went to Temple Square with the Partridges and I've been meaning to post those pictures. The pictures are the best part, so here you go, and Merry Christmas!

Ammendment

It's been an interesting week. Before I get to the ammendment I thought I would give a little background information. Brett's job with Oaisys has been an amazing opportunity for us and we've been very excited about moving down to Arizona in April and with a job for Brett to go to. Over the last few weeks Oaisys has been having a lot of computer issues (which, obviously, isn't effective for a programer). They also announced that their main client had a 40% reduction in work force in November. And when your main client is suffering that means you do too. Oaisys gave a subtle warning that there 'may' be changes (aka layoffs) at the beginning of the new year. It's not definite, but it sure made us feel a bit shaky, especially when you add that to the computer problems Brett's been having with the company. Not a week had passed after simmering on the new information when Brett got a call from Wally Marsden (Who, I have no idea who he is. But, I've learned he's a well known, successful businessman in the computer world) He's starting up a new project and offered Brett a position as employee #4 of a very promising startup company. Brett would be developing and creating the same kind of stuff he's been doing for his Thesis. So, it would be right up his ally and something he loves to do. Not very often do you actually get to find a job that you would be excited and happy to go to everyday. We feel that the Lord has led us to where we are today. When one door closes another, cooler, door opened for us and we've spent time discussing what this would mean for our future and our family. We've decided to take the plunge and go for it. Here comes the interesting part:

Amendment:

We recently sent out a Christmas card via email ( I know it was tacky, but we figured that was better than nothing) I also want to apologize to anyone who did not get one. We just mailed it out to whoever was in our address book. If you didn't get one and would like to see what I'm talking about CLICK HERE.

With the new job opportunity Brett received, we will NOT be moving to Arizona in April! The new company is based in American Fork, UT. Brett and I have never wanted to stay in Utah. We've never even looked at it as an option. Arizona is still our goal, and we want our kids to be able to grow up and go to school there, but that goal will be on hold for a few years. We'll be looking to buy a home here somewhere between AF and Draper. These are huge changed for us and we know that there will be things that we will miss out on by not moving to Arizona. We're sad to not be closer to our families and friends. But, we're confident that this is where we need to be right now and that we will be happy here and find new opportunities to make friends, and have experiences that we may not have otherwise. With that said: If ANY of you are in the Utah area after we get a house we would love your company!

Turkey Day, and Carmel Chicken

I LOVE breaks! We had such a wonderful weekend. It was great to be able to spend time together as a family and just relax. We drove up to Boise and spent Thanksgiving with my sister Angela and her family. Hyrum had so much fun with his cousins. He just loves playing with other kids. He was also great in the car. On the way back home we caught him having a very heart-felt conversation with his stuffed puppy. It was SOOO funny. I tried to get a picture of it, but it was hard in the car and with a pillow in the way. I think you had to be there.The weekend greatness continued with Lee, Jaclyn, and Bree coming to visit when we got back. It was great seeing friends. . . but kind of made us a little trunky for Arizona. Hopefully, Christmas break will tide us over for four more months. In other news: Hyrum has recently become obsessed with dipping his food. No pictures, but just imagine his most recent 'yummies': clementines dipped in his leftover barbecue sauce, and tonight; chicken nuggets dipped in carmel. Sounds good, huh? Peek-a-boo everyone!!!

Jaclyn, this one is for you :)

They sure do grow up so fast :)

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

A little review

So, I've been meaning to post this picture for a little over a month now. The three of us were all pregnant at the same time, although Angela had her baby a little bit after this picture was taken. It must be the season of babies with the girls in my family:).

We've been trying to get Hyrum ready for the new baby by practicing being soft. During one of Hyrum's ER visits when he kept getting ear infections, they gave him a stuffed kitten while we waited. And, this cute elderly couple in the ward gave him a stuffed kitten a few months later. Anway, we've decided to make his kittens the practice subjects. Normally Hyrum is pretty wild with all his toys, and he loves wrestling with his soft toys, but he's getting pretty good about being 'sooo soft' with his kitties. The only downside is that we're going to have to call our son 'soft kitty' in order for Hyrum not to head-butt him. Anyway, these pictures below have nothing to do with that.

Hyrum likes putting this neck support thing on. It's really funny. Sometimes he wears it on his head or backwards. I think he looks like a little football player. He loves these buckets. He crawls inside and will sit talking to himself for a while. He also plays peek-a-boo with them.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

"It's what you say when you don't know what to say" -Jane Banks

I just have a couple of things that I've been thinking about:

1st: I know that we shouldn't live life thinking "I can't wait till. . . " I'm happy right now with a beautiful little boy and one on the way. Brett is awesome. Life is good. HOWEVER, I CAN'T WAIT until Brett's done with school!!!! We have both had our days where we just feel like being done and having Brett quit school. We hate not being able to see each other very often or having family time to spend all together. The Lord has really blessed us with so much and we can't deny how grateful we are for where we are right now. But it will be so nice to only have a couple of things to consume our days instead of five or six.

2nd: Yes, it's cold, but snow is so beautiful! Last week we had a day that flurried a little bit at night. I love when I'm driving in the dark and have millions of little white specks flying on the window. It feels like flying in warp speed through the galaxy. . . all within the warmth of my own car. I might miss the snow a little bit when we move to Arizona. Snow is beautiful when it comes down, but when it stays for months on end then the love changes. :)

3rd: We've talked to a lot of you, but in case you haven't heard we've decided not to build the home in Gilbert we originally planned on. With how the economy is right now, especially in AZ, it's better for us to take advantage of all the inhabited homes selling. We've been seeing a lot of great homes online from our realtor, and we'll keep you posted when we have a plan.

4th: I love blogging! I know that this isn't a very good post, but I selfishly admit that I blog mostly for myself more than others. It's a great outlet where I can feel like I'm multitasking. Not only am I journaling, but I'm also keeping people updated. Nothing is better than getting two things done in the same amount of time as one!

5th/ random goodness: Tai Pan Trading is amazing!!! BAM is my new favorite cleaning product, and I can't wait until Christmas

Pictures of Halloween and life

Halloween was a lot of fun for us. We participated in our ward trunk-or-treat. Hyrum loved walking around and just looking at everything, and he didn't even mind wearing his monkey costume either. As for Brett and I we put together some very last minute costumes. Brett is the 'typical Utah fan' and I am a villain (no I don't know which one. . . basically I just wore black, a cape and some black eye shadow)We let Hyrum play in the candy, because he had no idea what any of it was. . . or so we thought. He was having fun just playing in it until he found a sweetart and then we were in trouble. He knew what it was because they always give him one at the grocery store. After that we had to watch him carefully when he played with the candy. Luckily though, he still didn't know the rest of it was edible.These next two pictures just happened today. As a background: in the morning I eat cereal while he's eating his breakfast and when I finish I always drink my milk. While I'm drinking my milk from the bowl I play peek-a-boo with him. So, for lunch today he did a great job of eating his poppyseed chicken casserole and and soon as he was done he started to do the same thing with the bowl. It was very cute. I was just glad the bowl was empty.And in case anyone was wondering who's son this is: