We Wish You A Merry Christmas ~

Our Christmas Season is FULL of Family and Travel! Matt and I have always traveled between our parents house's every year, because frankly there is no other way...... We started off Christmas Eve at the Bird Family House. It was very nice because all the siblings were able to be together! Chris, Erin and Rylie came all the way from Stockton! :) Nate and Melissa came from Utah (they win the prize for the furthest travelers) Kevin came in from Rhonert Park, and Matt Hailey and I came from Elk Grove. We are lucky to be able to gather at Mom and Dad Birds house every chance we get! The little Girls Rylie and Hailey loved seeing Nate and Melissa. Nate was SO sweet to read anything Hailey would bring him, and Melissa was a trooper with Rylie climbing all over her.

We have a little program, The Chris Birds had a cute Christmas Poem, The Matt Birds TRIED to sing "Once there was a Snowman" with Hailey's help, and the Nate Imel Family gave a nice little presentation about the Candy Cane. One of the traditions the Bird Family has is that they choose a Christmas Book to give to the families. This year Grandma Bird read the story, and grandpa passed out the present to go with the story. The book was called The Christmas Candle, and each family received a Christmas Candle as our present. We were asked to find a special place in our house to present it to remember the story.
(Mini- Synopsis of the story: On his way home for Christmas, Thomas needs a light for his lantern. He stops in an old candlemaker's shop and is dismissive of all of the old man's intricate and beautiful candles, buying an inexpensive one. However, as he continues his journey, this simple candle takes on some unbelievable power. By the light of the candle, he mistakes a beggar woman for his mother and gives her his cloak and he thinks a man lying in the streets with no place to go is his brother and gives everything he has to put him in an inn for the night. Though he loses all his material items, he finally arrives home with a new found sense of what family can be.)This is where we placed our Candle to remember the importance of Family and the things we have.Another Tradition is for us to get matching PJ's... this year the girls got matching PJ's because they look SO much cuter matching than the rest of our do! :)
One new thing we did this year was Karaoke. It was alot of fun!! I think Hailey and Rylie had the most fun dancing and running around! It was getting late, and Matt and I needed to head to The Andersen Family House for some more Christmas Fun!One tradition that The Andersen Family has is that around Thanksgiving time, we put all the names of the family members in a hat, and we get ONE person to buy a nice present for. It makes the gift giving easier, and then you get to know that person and the things they like. Then on Christmas Eve we all get to open that one present after we read the story of Jesus Birth. (we would act it out as my dad read the story, we usually fought over who was going to be Mary) The picture above is Hailey on Christmas Morning. Another tradition we have is that we negotiate the TIME we are going to wake up on Christmas Morning to open our presents. Preston and Sharon are the only kids left at home and had negotiated 6:15am. This is Hailey at 6:30am NOT ready for this particular tradition! :) I think we made it out there around 7:00am much to Preston's dismay....
Hailey was interested in all the things other people had gotten for Christmas..... This is her looking at Sharon's new Vera Wang Perfume.... pretty....
This is Hailey sitting on the Camping Chair Matt got and eating the Sunsweet Raisins I got from Santa Andersen......
And this is her playing with the new Dyson "THE BALL" that Matt and I got as a joint gift from my parents. Our old vacuum is dead, and my mom told us that she got another sibling a Dyson for their new house, so we asked if we might get a Dyson as well! LUCKY US! She FINALLY left our presents alone once she got the Dress Up Box Grandma Andersen has put SO much time and effort into! She LOVES dressing up, and is SUCH a lucky girl to get a box FULL of dress up clothes....
And a new tradition my mom is starting is getting all the Grandchildren Matching PJ's! This is lonely Hailey in her PJ's looking forward to seeing her other cousins from Idaho in their PJ's.

After resting for a while we headed back over to the Bird Family House for the opening of yet another round of presents! Matt got snowboard pants that ROCK~ I got 2 Willow Tree Figures that I wanted and Hailey got two little people play sets!! We are teaching her about animals, so she asked for the Noah's Ark set and LOVED getting it!

It is such a nice time to spend with family and friends! We are SO blessed to be near family this Christmas Season! Hope you all had a WONDERFUL Christmas!

Sorry ~ Had to Catch up ~

Sorry about all the posts being posted on ONE day! I had them all ready just waiting for the pictures... that I had left at my Parents House after our Tahoe trip.

Today is our Laundry Day, I just HAD to put this picture up because Hailey got to dress herself... and there were not that many options of what she was able to wear... so I thought you might at least get a laugh out of her outfit!! And yes, she is standing in her dirty clothes... gotta love them! ~

FRESNO.... HERE WE COME.......

WHAT?? You ask.....YEAH... FRESNO.... here we come! The Birds are on the road back to Fresno!! Long story short.... Matt got a job offer from B.K. Lighting, and we are moving back to where we came from. With this economy, we HAVE to go where the jobs are!

When Matt was laid off in October, we figured we would be ok because we were in Sac Area and he would find a job. Well, little did we know, Fresno had more opprotunities for jobs than Sacramento does.

I bet you are thinking, WHAT THE HECK! You move everything out there and not even a year later you are headed back to where you moved.... Well YES!

And to tell you the truth, this has been SO hard for our family! We lived with my parents for about 6 months, and Matt's parents for about 3 months. I was pregnant, and wanted a place of our own so we got into our rental in mid October. A week after we moved in, he was laid off. But now we have our early Christmas Present!! Matt got a job! YEAH! And if i had to go through a year of moving here and living there for Matt to get a pay raise.... I'll take it! The move to Sacramento was a big jump for us, and with his work experience in Fresno at Pelco, this new company was very interested and excited for Matt to join their team.

We are SO blessed!! I am thankful for ALL your prayers and well wishes! We really are thankful for all we have! ~ We hope all is well, and there is not TOO big of a suprise with this post...

Oh, and FYI... I will be having the baby here, and we are going to move after we find renters to take over our lease here in Elk Grove. Matt starts on Dec. 29th and will be commuting on weekends back to see Hailey and I. Your continued prayers will help as I TRY to handle our little "wild child" being 9 months prego all by myself! Thank Goodness our families are close! ~

Once a Bulldog.... always a Bulldog!!

Tahoe Trip ~

Tahoe is SO wonderful in the Winter! ~ We (Matt, Hailey, my sister Sharon, and I) were able to head up RIGHT after a CRAZY day of SNOW! Matt was excited to go Snowboarding, and the girls were just excited to get some relaxation in someone else's place! We stayed at The Lodge that Matt's Grandparents have a timeshare at. Matt's parents have taken over the timeshare, and almost everyone in the family has been able to use the beautiful space.

The girls sat back and watched movies while Matt went Snowboarding with his brother Chris. Hailey LOVES snack food, and was VERY happy we got Popcorn for her to enjoy...

She was also VERY excited she got to have auntie SharShar with us! And I was thankful for all her help with the trip! ~

We got outside the first day to enjoy the snow. This is Matt struggling to pull his girls on the little disc sled. Hailey LOVES the snow! ~

We were a little worried she would not enjoy the cold, but she was ALL about getting bundled up and heading out the door! ~

This was in the front of The Lodge, the water fountain had frozen over, and it was a pretty picture.Hailey loved being on the sled alone, until she fell off. This is Auntie Sharon pulling her as Daddy gets her all set up....

We are thankful for the things we are able to do as a family, and thankful we were safe with the weather conditions. It was SO nice to see snow, and it was a great FIRST snow experience for our little Princess.

Raking the Leaves ~

The Fall-Winter Season is SO beautiful! Matt and I really enjoy the changing of colors outside. Matt says that some places remind him of his mission and the beautiful scenery.

Our backyard was NEEDING some cleaning up, but it is hard because it is all paved. I would really love to have grass, but we deal with what we have! We were not prepared for an all paved backyard, so we had to use our rake on the pavement.

It is like Children have an instinct that when their Daddy rakes up the leaves in a pile, that they need to jump in it! I think back to my childhood and remember jumping in the leaves in our backyard MANY times! There are some nice pictures of my sisters and I in the leaves in Oklahoma.

Hailey loved helping rake the leaves as well. After we got the pavement MOSTLY clean, she decided it was a perfect time to ride her little Trike that she borrowed from cousin Rylie... (THANKS RYLIE) She is ALMOST tall enough to move the peddles alone!

One of her favorite outside toys is the Dinosaur Sandbox we bought when we moved into the house. We leave the top on, and Hailey climbs all over it. We were going to fill it with sand, but now that we are moving, we are not sure it would make much sense!

Hope you are able to enjoy the changing weather and seasons as much as we are! ~

Jelly Belly Factory ~

We wanted to get into the Holiday Season right by taking Hailey out for a Fun Filled Family trip to the Fairfield- Vacaville Area for shopping and a Jelly Belly Factory tour.

The Outlets were nice, and not crowded at all. We were only able to hit half of the shops, because we wanted to get our tour in, and get out of the area before traffic hit!

The Jelly Belly Factory Tour was REAL neat! They led us through the warehouses with a Birds Eye View (no pun intended) of all the action. They had windows down low, and Hailey really enjoyed seeing all the people working. My favorite part was once we got to the part where they mixed the beans with their "flavoring" YUMMMM did that smell good or WHAT??

Matt loved it too, he was interested to see all the History, and get our free samples! ~
It was a GREAT little Family Trip, we recommend it to anyone who can make it out there! ~

UOP TIGERS vs. FRESNO BULLDOGS ~

I bet you are wondering WHY we went to a Fresno game without all our gear on... well we were in Stockton visiting family, and were invited by UOP fans.... Not a problem for us, we are fans of both teams. Matt and I wore Neutral Colors for our safety....
Grandpa Bird wanted to sign Hailey up for the Tiger Cubs, they get a free shirt, and get into all home games for free. It was a good time, Hailey and her cousin Rylie were able to bond together, and Grandma and Grandpa got to have their GrandGirls.
When the game started I was sure I would be rooting for UOP, but something took over me when Fresno started off the game with like a run of 6 points to nothing. And when there was a dunk by one of the Fresno players I could not HELP but shout and jump.... We had to explain to the people around us that we were for both teams, but as the game went on, I think Matt and I were obviously both cheering on Fresno State! ~

The game ended, and Fresno pulled out the win in the last seconds. The game was VERY enjoyable because the teams were evenly matched. One of the neatest things that happened was at half time. They had break dancers for part of the half time show, and that was real neat~

I think it was a great time had by all! ~

Oh Christmas Tree ~

It killed me to wait, but we waited until December 1st to officially start the "Christmas Season" I think we need to have the THANKSGIVING season last as long as it can. So I was thankful as long as I could, but we pulled out the Christmas Decorations for FHE last night! HAHA~

This year was different for us. We had been in our Fresno home, and knew where we were going to place everything. It was fun watching Matt move all the furniture all over the front room to figure out how we were going to FIT it all! ( I think women should be in charge of the floorplan for new housing developments, they know where they would want furniture and space)

Anyways ~ This year was also very special because our little Angel was here to help us as well. She was SO cute. We put on Christmas Music to set the mood, and she wanted to be in on that action.

Then we got the tree out and she OOHH and AWWED at the lights after Matt turned it on. She wanted to help put the ornaments on the tree, and she did a GREAT job, the only problem is that there is too much tree out of her reach to keep her deocrations that way.

She danced along to the Holiday Music with Matt, and I gave her one to many "airplane rides" on my feet, so she was TOO excited about the change in the house and the activities going on to go to bed without a fight. I got to give the family prayer that night, and as she ran around her room while Matt and I knealed at her bed, my prayer consisted of blessing her to not act like a crazy child, and rest so we could get rest.

Oh the blessings of the Holiday Season and all the Family Fun that goes along with it!

T.G.I.S.???

Thank Goodness it's Saturday!! Yeah! Matt and Hailey went to visit G&G Bird and family in Stockton today, and I stayed home to clean. YES..... I stayed home to clean!! When do I ever have a QUIET empty home to actually get work done!? Well today i do!!!

I have much needed laundry, bathroom cleaning, kitchen cleaning, and vacuuming to get done. I am sitting here smiling because I only have ONE load left, and I just finished cleaning out the fridge. I am running out to Target to return a gift I got Hailey that we no longer need because I learned someone else got it for her so that is a HUGE plus! ~

AND I am getting some MUCH needed sleep hopefully tonight, as long as baby Landon lets me rest! I have not been away from my little girl too much, and this will be the first overnight trip in like 6 months!! I am a little sad, but I need to take advantage of this one! ~

I thought about putting up our Christmas Decorations, but I thought we could save that for FHE on Monday Night! (Family Home Evening for those who are not members)

Wish me luck and happy dreams! ~

Twilight ~

Ok, so I have to PUBLICLY apologize to my little sister Sharon. When she was reading the "twilight" series, I have to admit I made fun of her for liking a VAMPIRE book! I told her it was not normal to like Vampire books, and teased her for a good 5 months.

Then I decided I should read this book because all my friends were saying how great it was. I thought it was a "teenie bopper" book and there was NO way I was going to get into it.... Well I WAS WRONG! ~

I started reading the series in September, and I have finished ALL the books as of Thanksgiving. And I am SURE there are people who read all four books in like ONE day, but for me NOT being a "reader" getting through all these books in a few months is NUTS!~

So the reason for my post is also to Thank my Mom and Sisters for going to the movie with me as well. Mom treated us all to a Girls Night out to see the movie (yes my mom even read all the books) and it was a blast~

I had heard mixed reviews about the movie, so I was worried I would not like it. I decided I needed to see for myself, and I went in with no expectations of anything great, and I came away very pleased! I thought at the end to myself that I wanted it to keep going! I can not WAIT for the three other movies.... how do we get Stephanie to write more.... That is what I really want! ~Good times with Great People!

Thanksgiving Andersen Style ~

I enjoy the Thanksgiving Season SOOOO much! It is a time I really try to sit back and remember all the great and wonderful things that I am thankful for. Even with our tough times, I am SO Thankful for the love and kindness there is in the world. We go around the table every year and we say things that we are thankful for. This year my thankful items consisted of my family and epidurals. You might be laughing, but when those Braxton Hicks Contractions are coming and going, that is one thing that comes to mind when I am being Thankful for everything there is...We had a FULL table this year! Dad, Mom, Sharon, Preston, Brian, Nicole, Matt, Myself and our two little munchkins Hailey and Katelyn. My mother made AdOrAbLe little Pilgrim Hats that we got at our setting. I think Hailey ate a few before dinner started... luckily Grandma had made extras just in case that happened.After Dinner, we were clearing the table, and there was not enough room for the Mashed Potatoes, I learned from my father not to let things go to waste, so Matt thought it would be funny to get a picture of the Prego Eating! ~ HA HA ~

There are SO many reasons to be Thankful, I wish Matt was in this picture so I could capture them all in one Thanksgiving Photo, but my daughter and I will do... Hailey has made our lives so much more interesting. She truly is a blessing from god!~And here is the Grandgirls with Grandpa ~ Hailey is giving me the "STANK-EYE" for taking her picture... Gotta love time spent with loved ones! We are SO blessed with all we have!
I hope you and your family had the BEST Thanksgiving, and were able to truly be Thankful!!

Wanna hear a Riddle??

HOW DO YOU GET A TODDLER IN THE TRUNK OF YOUR CAR??

GIVE UP???

YOU PUT HER HIGH CHAIR SEAT IN THERE AND TELL HER WE ARE GOING TO GRANDMA'S TO EAT......

Yes, she got in there ALL by herself! The muffler sure was a help, Matt said he watched her, and knew he should have stopped her, but wanted to see if she could do it! And she did! What a kid!

Fishies ~

We have a DARLA on our hands!!

So if you are wondering WHO this Darla is.... come on.... you have seen Finding Nemo haven't you?? Well if not, you need to see it! ~ For those of you that have, you now have a smile on your face because you know that I am comparing Hailey to Darla....

Yes, she got 5 fishies from the pet store the other day, and we are happy to say THREE have survived!! YEAH! ~ Matt was going through his fish tank junk from the move, and we found a 2 gallon tank and decided Hailey would enjoy some fish in the house again! ~ So we went to the Pet Store here, and 0.54 cents later are PROUD owners of fishies!!

Hailey LOVES them! She loved them so much, she wanted to carry them out to the car, and she can't hold them nicely, she had to SQUEEZE the bag.... and shake it too.... I think she only dropped it twice, so NOT too shabby!! I think she killed one with one of her monster grips on the bag, and daddy killed the other one leaving the heater on in the tank too long. I guess the remaining three will be around for a LONG while! ~ :)

I love hearing her talk to her fish, she gives them kisses and everything! ~ These are the things in life that make me smile! ~ Happy fishing! ~ HAHA