it's that time of year..

we finally got our christmas tree up! i love christmas. i am not ashamed to admit that i listen to christmas long before most people will allow it. i do it in secret. i don't even care. i love christmas. i love watching christmas movies every night, in fact i am watching elf right now. it has been on tv two times in a row. it's also in my dvd player right now. i am a little obsessed with christmas! i just love it. moses loves laying around the tree and pouting. it's what he is best at. sean and i work with the young men and young women in our ward and this week we got to go on a combined activity up to temple square. it was a little chaotic and there were tons of people but it was so beautiful! i haven't been able to go see the lights in a few years, so i am glad we were able to do it this year. it's so beautiful! sean and i kept talking about how next year at this time we will have a little 10 month old and how it will be so fun to experience christmas through his eyes. i can't wait!

christmas through pictures.

let's just say it's been a great christmas. we are both worn out. which means it was good right? going back and forth all over the place is exhausting. but totally worth it. i wish i could have gotten pictures from all the parties that we went to but i forgot. we feel so blessed and my only wish is that i had the rest of the week off like sean. too bad my job is always the busiest during the last week of the month. i'll just let these pictures and the words on them do the talking for now. p.s. sorry some of the picture quality isn't the best. indoor at night = not ideal for pictures. 

sean got his boots and waders so he is one happy camper. haha.. no pun intended but it is now. i should have gotten a picture of him trying those on. it was hilarious. i promise one day i will get one! i hope you all had some very happy holidays! we had our last family party tonight up in salt lake at david's kitchen. it was delicious! i have a huge, busy week at work this week so i better get to bed!

our tree.

this year we decided it was time to get a bigger tree. since we have been married we have had a small 4.5 foot tree that sean's sister gave us! we have loved it but felt like it was time to get a bigger one. on black friday we decided to check out target to see if we could find anything because we had to get a rice cooker there anyway. we found a $60 6.5 foot pre-lit tree on sale for $30! sweet! and there was no line at the check-out. not too shabby for black friday! i love target. later that day i went to tai pan and got 20% off a bunch of ornaments and stuff for the tree. it's still not a very big tree, but our house isn't very big so it will work just fine for now! i don't feel like the red tree skirt we had for our old tree goes with this one so i am planning to make one! also my friend lee suggested putting an "A" for ashby as a tree topper instead of a star. so i went with it! anyway, here is our tree! oh and p.s. that clock doesn't work. well it does but i took the batteries out because it was loud. so the first picture was taken at night and the rest around noon. not that that really matters. but whatev... oh and this post will probably be really long and boring.. so feel free to just look at the pictures if you want!







growing up? we never had a tree that had matching ornaments. everything was home-made and mismatched and i loved it that way! every ornament has it's own story. as kids we always got a new ornament every year. my parents tree is full of random stuff now and i think it's pretty neat. it's a little hard to start out a tree like that though so for now this one is a little more themed. but we have been starting our mismatched collection since we got married! thanks to sean and my parents.



sean is a little more sentimental then he lets on. while we were engaged he always told me how much he loved my parents tree. he promised me then that he would find a new ornament every year that would represent something that happened that past year. this will be our third married christmas. so far we have one for 2009 and one for 2010. he will give me 2011 as a gift on christmas eve. in 2009 he gave me a lady and the tramp ornament to represent our first year of marriage. in 2010 he found this snoopy ornament with snoopy's dog house because last year we got our first dog and bought our first home. i love it. i don't really know what he will come up with this year since nothing really major happened.. but i am sure he will come up with something sweet.



the christmas we were engaged, my parents gave us some ornaments to put on their tree. since we have been married they have given us one every year to put on our tree. in 2009 they gave sean that grill ornament because sean got a new grill and he was a little obsessed with it. this one lights up and the hamburger patties spell ho ho ho! i love it. one of my favorite christmas movies since i was a very little girl is mickey's christmas carol. i own it on dvd now and watch it all the time. growing up though we recorded it on VHS on tv and tried to watch it every year. it even has all the old school commercials on it. i actually love that version more than the dvd. anyway, hallmark comes out with a new or different ornament for mickey's christmas carol every year. i think they might do it in phases or something but that is why we have one of bob cratchit (mickey) and then ebenezer scrooge. i love them. can't wait to see what we get this year!

anyway. if it is not obvious yet.. christmas is definitely my favorite holiday. i'll admit i listen to christmas music on the radio way before thanksgiving. they won't admit it, but i think it drives sean and the rest of my friends and family nuts so now i just do it when i am alone. it puts me in such a good mood. i just love christmas and want to spread it out for as long as possible. besides.. there is no thanksgiving music that i am aware of and if there were it would probably be weird. also i love baking and feel like the holiday season gives me more chances to make cookies and yummy treats. but let's be real here. i pretty much do that all year round anyway. and who could complain about that anyway? but hey! i didn't decorate until after thanksgiving so people can't be too mad at me! :) right now i am watching home alone 2 lost in new york. i actually watched it last night while babysitting and recorded it. so i am watching it again. elf has been on the past three nights on TBS and i have it on almost every night. last night i switched back and forth from home alone and elf. oh and don't worry.. i own all these movies. but i can't not watch them when they are on tv. in fact the first dvd i ever purchased with my first media play gift card was home alone.

i used to make myself sick every year at christmas because i would get too overly excited on christmas eve. i would get so anxious that i would throw up and have to go lay down while everyone partied. i have gotten a little better about that... but yes. i just love christmas. and i can't keep secrets from sean so i have to wait until the last minute to get him anything or else i'll end up trying to give it to him early. or the surprise will get ruined by golds gym! anyway. i don't have all our decorations up yet.. but here are a few! every year i mean to add our names to those stockings but i just haven't gotten around to it. yeah. i am lazy. sean's is the reindeer one and mine is the one with the tree. we even have one for moses but it's not pictured.

christmas 2010.

we had a great christmas this year! we started out celebrating on christmas eve by heading over to sean's nana and grandpa ashby's house. she had 5 different soups to choose from. the nice thing about it was that we could come over anytime on christmas eve. it worked out great so that we could make it to other parties. we went over there around 4 and then after that we headed over to sean's parents house!









we had such a blast eating yummy food and watching the little kiddo's open their gifts. my nephew kaden kept cracking us up saying things like "oh my gosh, i always wanted this!" it was so cute! sean's parents surprised us with a gift card to texas roadhouse and a night at the anniversary inn! they even included babysitting our dog when we use it. they are so sweet! we can't wait to use it! thanks so much :) it was so much fun over there and i feel so blessed to have such wonderful in-laws! i love all of them!



after that we headed over to my grandma's condo to eat some more food and play games with my side of the family! we played white elephant and had a blast. on the way to the party sean realized that he forgot to get a gift for the game. for this white elephant game we were supposed to spend around $15 because we weren't doing any other gifts that night. so it had to be something that was either funny, useful, or neat. well we stopped at seven-eleven on the way there to see if we could find anything. and right when we walked in we saw a snuggie and knew it would be perfect. we were actually hoping that my dad would win it and he did! he wore it the rest of the night. it was pretty awesome. we had such a great time over there. i love my family so much! after that we headed home and decided to exchange gifts that night because we were going to my parents in the morning and had to be there at 8.

sean spoiled me. first he gave me some of my favorite perfume, then he got me some mixer tools to go with the kitchen-aid that my sister in law sarah gave me because she got a brand new one. he got me some pajama pants and then these awesome tom's shoes! he did such a good job picking them out. they are perfect. i love them.



well i thought he was done giving me gifts but then he said he had one more thing. he ran upstairs and told me to close my eyes. then he handed me a small wrapped gift and told me to open it. it was a wii paddle! then he pulled out a black wii and i was totally shocked! i was not expecting it! i have been wanting one for a while for multiple reasons, but one of them being that we just got netflix and can use it on our tv upstairs but weren't able to use it downstairs. now we can use netflix in both rooms. sean did such a good job surprising me. we used to be horrible at surprises but he has gotten very good at keeping secrets. i mean the whole first anniversary surprise trip to vegas was brilliant. i am horrible at stuff like that.



on that note, i tried really hard this year to surprise sean. last year was ruined when i got him a gold's gym pass and they mailed him a welcome letter the week before christmas. you can read about that here. if you remember, i was pretty upset about it. haha. anyway his main gift was at my parents house and i planned on him opening it on christmas morning. it was kind of supposed to be a combined christmas/brithday gift because his birthday is 2 weeks after christmas. i got him a few "filler" gifts so it wouldn't seem like he just got nothing because the gift was a pretty big gift and i couldn't afford much else. well when he wanted to open gifts on christmas eve i started to panic. his gifts that were at our house were pretty cheap and lame.. and i know that it doesn't matter because that is not what christmas was all about, but i was afraid he would suspect something after opening the gifts. i gave him a wallet and reversible belt, some cheap t-shirts, and a $6 toaster. i didn't tell him how cheap it all was until after he opened his big gift. but he really wanted a slicer toaster instead of a toaster oven. he said toast is better in a regular toaster... so i caved and bought him an $6 toaster from walmart. i probably shouldn't have gotten it because the display model was cracked and broken and that's not a good sign. oh well.

anyway, he was happy with his gifts and i made up some lie that he had a couple of gifts that were being shipped to my parents and they were nothing big but he could open them there in the morning. all night i couldn't sleep because i felt bad that he got me a wii and i gave him  a $6 toaster and some $5 shirts and socks. sean was such a great sport though and loved everything i gave him.

well we got to my mom's house and i pulled out a ring box out of my purse. sean doesn't really like his wedding ring because it's too heavy and he forgets to wear it a lot. we talked about getting him a new lighter ring, but he finally decided he liked his old one just fine. well when he opened the ring box, on the outside it said "i know you told me not to..."  and he started laughing like he knew what it was. then inside there was a ring made out of paper. he opened it up and it said "but go outside and look in the shed for a "precious metal". he was all confused and started going outside to the shed. he thought that it was a new tool or something like that. now keep in mind sean comes up with a new goal or hobby every year. well he has so far since we have been married. 2 years ago it was golfing. last year it was hunting, so he got a gun. well a few weeks ago he told me he wanted to get into mountain biking but he would have to save up for a bike. well i had no clue what to get him for christmas.. and i ended up finding a really good deal on a sweet mountain bike. so i got it for him. and he went out into the shed and there was a bike in there with a bow on it. he didn't see it at first but after he realized what was in there he was pretty happy. he was totally shocked and i was just happy that i could keep a secret!



then we finished opening up gifts with my family. my mom got me the cutest boots! i love them so much! my parents got sean a weed-whacker and he was sooo excited about it. guys are weird i guess, but whatever makes him happy eh? haha.



after that sean and my dad made us breakfast and then we played some new wii games that my parents got us kids to keep at their house. after that we headed over to sean's other grandpa's house and hung out with all of his cousins and opened gifts and ate yummy tacos. then we headed home and came back down later to go see true grit with my family! it was a busy, crazy christmas. but it was sooo much fun. i feel so incredibly blessed and more than anything just loved spending time with family and friends.

unfortunately on christmas night at the movie i started feeling terrible. my throat hurt so bad and my body ached to the point that i felt like i could pass out or throw up. we came home and i went right to bed and had to miss church the next day because i felt awful. monday was no better and i had to miss work. i made it to work on tuesday and wednesday, but then on thursday i started to lose my voice. today i am starting to feel a little bit better. yesterday i was able to go out and spend some time at ikea and i think it was good for me to get moving. although today i woke up with a cold sore.. and we all know how i feel about herpes right?

we had a great new years and my goal for this year is to get healthy. i have been terrible this year. i am going to run a 5K in may with my friend sara, so i am going to start training for that. i know a 5K might not seem like much, but the thought of walking down the street makes me tired inside! i also have lots of screws and metal in my feet, so this will for sure be a challenge for me. but it's time for a change so i am going to do it. that will also include me eating better. i am not cutting out sugar or diet dr. pepper because i know that it will just be too hard for me. but since christmas i have already cut back sooo much. so i think if i just be more careful and do everything in moderation, i should get feeling a little bit more healthy! anyway, sorry this was a long post! it is way jumbled and all over the place but i will blame that on the cold medicine. i need to blog more often and make my posts smaller, don't ya think? if you made it this far i would be impressed! I hope that everyone had wonderful christmas and a happy new year. here is to 2011! i can't wait to see what this year brings! :)

oh and right before this i posted some before and after pictures of the decorating i did this weekend on our house! in case you missed it, check it out!