Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Christmas Tree 2012

Every year we have three Christmas Trees in our house. Our decorative, color cooridinated one, our live tree. Which we all pick together. And the kids get to pick their own little live tree. Our kids look forward to this every year. They love to get bundled up and see their aunts and uncles. It truly is a wonderful time of year!
 
 
A cute of the kids and Megan and Brandon. They will make an awesome parents. Hint, hint, anytime now!




Libby loving Santa!

Connor on a rocking horse. Look at that cheesy grin.

The pick of the year!

The cutest kids!
 
The Ornaments- Remember my previous post when we discussed Cameron's first proposal idea. Well he still gave her the ornament, and did a cheesy proposal for our sakes!





Megan and her penguin. She loves penguins. Although this is one is mighty sad at the clothes he is wearing!



My little chef and her apron ornament.

Brandon and his workboot. Brandon just passed his final test to become a journeymen! Congrats!!!!
 

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Engaged! Finally!!!!!

So my little baby brother is going to get married! We are so excited and could not be happier! WE LOVE Tiffany! Here is a little recap of the engagement story.
 
 
My little brother Cameron has always been like a big kid to me. When we would go see Disney movies in the theater he would be laughing louder and more often than many of the little kids. I am starting this story with this because Cameron also has other traits of a little child. He is gets so excited when he has a special secret that he can hardly contain himself. He just can't keep it to himself and has to share. (These are actually some of my favorite traits of his)Anyway, about a month ago he said that wanted to propose to Tiffany. So, we all put our brains together and came up with a romantic and beautiful way to propose. During our family tree decorating party, when my Mom was handing out our yearly ornaments she would say she forgot Tiffany's and Cameron was going to say something along these lines. " I have one for her" He would then pull out a beautiful etched pewter ornament that would say " WILL YOU MARRY ME". So cute and sweet right? Well, this is where Cameron's excitement comes into play.
He could not keep his mouth quiet!!! One day when he was talking on the phone to Tiffany she told him that she didn't care how he proposed she just wanted it to be a surprise. So what does he do? He tells her how he is going to propose and when. Why? I don't know! She of course thought it was beautiful, but she wanted to be surprised Dang it! So anyway, we threw this idea out and went on to plan B.
 
Cameron decided that he would propose at his missionary reunion which was this last weekend. He arranged it all with his mission president that he would do it after the devotional. Then plan was that Cameron would pick up the food for the reunion(A Chilean woman was making empanadas) and then they would have Cameron and his girlfriend come up and thank them. Then Cameron would get up there and propose. Only, the lady who was making the empanadas didn't have them ready and Cameron and Tiffany had to wait while the food finished cooking. It took a really long time and they were afraid they would miss the entire reunion. They almost did! They got there for the last five minutes. Basically, in time for the closing remarks and prayer. Then his mission president said that they wanted to thank Elder Nieves and girlfriend for picking up the food. Then he told them to come up. Tiffany said she was wondering why in the heck they had to come up! But they did and then Cameron popped the question! And she said........YES!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!
 
 
I apoligize for these pictures. As we weren't there (thanks to my big mouthed little brother) I wasn't able to document this in the way I wanted to! Someone at the reunion took these with her camera phone.
 
 
Look at how red Tiffany's face is! So cute! Tiffany said Cameron's hands were shaking so bad he could hardly put on the ring.





After at Tiffany's parents house!
 

They reenacted the proposal for Tiffany's parents.



The cute couple!



The bling. Cameron actually had the ring custom made. He designed it himself!

The cake my parents bought to congrulate the couple!




Cameron would like me to mention that he actually did keep the second proposal a surprise!

Monday, December 10, 2012

Friday, November 30, 2012

Thanksgiving 2012- My First 10k

This year I have really gotten in to running. At first it started out as something to lose weight, but after a while it became a great way for me to have some alone time, and just be alone with my thoughts. My goal started out to be able to run a 5k and survive. When I did that I thought I might be able to do more.
(The three of us before the race)
So when Megan asked me to run a 10k on Thanksgiving Day. I nervously agreed! I was worried I might just die. So we signed up for the Utah Human Race. It benefits the Utah Food Bank. The announcer at the race said that 5,100 people were running that day! That is a lot of runners!



It was a beautiful day for a race. Chilly, but not too chilly. We started the race at 7:30, and I finished in 1:02:30. Not to shabby for 6.40 miles. 


This is not the best picture, but this is us after we had finished with our race shirts!

Megan and me!





Us again. Connor thinks that every picture must include him. Which is why he is in all of these! Silly boy!

All in all it was a great experience for me! I pushed myself to do something and succeeded.  I helped out a great cause!  Spent some time with my hubby and sister. And I got to eat Thanksgiving dinner guilt free!!!!!

Who knows what else I can do? A half marathon, a full marathon (highly doubtful!) 

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Photo Shoot 2012

So as is tradition we had Mike's Aunt Amy take our family pictures. She is so talented and I love how she captures my kids. She only comes to Utah once a year, so we really appreciate her taking her vacation time to take pictures of us!
 
We really wanted to try and get pictures of all 6 grand- kids in Mikes family. Getting 6 kids, seven years and younger to look at the camera at the same time is an impossible task. So we were so happy we got at least one decent shot! Pretty decent right?? I love this one of the three Granddaughters. Precious.


Connor, Aidan, Rylee and Isabell, Ethan, and Libby




Check out those eyes!

This is soooo my little Boo!
 

Handsome little guy!
 

Check out those hands in his pockets. I love it!
 



One of our whole little family.




Mike and Shayla (me)

I think this is one of my favorites. Because Libby is the biggest Daddy's girl so this one captures that!



Daddy and his girls!
 


Me and the boy!