Merry Christmas

This year we had a blast at christmas! My mom and dad were so great to have the twelve days of Christmas for our little family. We got candies, books, ornaments, CDs, and alot of cute little items.

Coleton loved opening them each night and got really into it but i think he thought that the wrapping paper was a treat that he was getting to eat! On Christmas we got a calendar with all family pictures in it,a tent for our emergency supplies, pajamas for Coleton, and a family home evening book that my mom made, they were great!

Here is Coleton opening one of the twelve days of Christmas!

Since we stayed in Cedar City for Christmas we had the chance to be with all of Brandons family. Since we were sick we didnt get to spend much time with them but we did have a little nativity reenactment on Christmas eve!

Candice was mary, Andrew was Joseph, Kate was baby Jesus, Grace was the angel, Brandon was the three wisemen, and Grant was the lion (note him in the corner of the picture) he just really wanted to be a lion, who could blame him!

Here is a picture of all of the grandkids except Grant, he was facinated by the tree!After reading about the nativity scene and Brandon reading The night before Christmas to Coleton the kids went to bed and this is some of what our little family got from Santa!Then on Christmas morning we opened gifts with the whole family!Brandon and I got an IPOD dock, itunes gift card, 5 disney DVDs, date night gift cards, a gift for a new windshield, cutting boards, and a flour sifter! Coleton actually cut his index finger pretty bad on my sifter and we thought we were going to have to go get one stitch but it finally stopped bleeding and we were able to bandage it up, but Coleton almost ate the bandage a few times so it was quite the adventure!Most of all we were grateful to have this little gift this year! We have been so blessed to have a healthy, happy, active little guy that we wouldnt be the same with out. He is such a blessing to us and cant wait to see when the Lord will bless us with another! Merry Christmas!

A sickly family!

A family shares! With Brandons family together the germs began to spread. Brandons sister, Candice, had the flu going around her little family so when we started hanging out we caught it! Coleton caught it first, he was throwing up his rice cereal so we put him on a pedialite diet for almost 3 days and then a milk and pedialite for a week. He was up so much at night so no one really slept and I caught it the day after Coleton did and i was in bed for two days so sick it was miserable. We had to cancel the aactivites we had planned with his family and Brandon had to take over the house hold duties and take care of our sick baby for me. He did an amazing job folding laundry, cleaning the kitchen, and running to the store when we needed meds. We were lucky that Brandon didnt really get sick had night that was a little ruff for him but he was ok. We were luck that Candices 4 week old little girl never caught it evn though everyone in the family did.

Snowy Weather in Cedar City

This is the time that we are so glad to be out of rexburg, Idaho!

Even though it still gets pretty cold it is not has cold as Rexburg was, the average temps here have still been in the low 40's and we have been wearing light sweater and feeling great about it, But the other day it finally snowed and so we thought we would take Coleton out to see it first hand!He was a little confused what was going on and since he was in way to many layers of clothes on he just sat therein amazement!Though he was quite warm in his outfit we spent about 3 minutes outside but before we went in we thought we should get a picture with Brandon who at the time was shoveling out long driveway/road with his dads four-wheeler.No need to worry everyone he really didnt take a ride with him just wanted a cute picture!This picture is kind of hard to see but with our roof the icesicles grow like crazy! they are almost touching the ground in the picture and if you look down a little father they actually curve in towards the house and touch our windows! When the ice in the backyard fell i thought a plane crashed it was so scary! For safety reasons brandon knocked these down after we took the picture!

Happy Birthday!

I am now 22 years old! Brandon did his best to give me a special day! When I got up from a nap friday evening the house had been cleaned and decorated for a little party!

He talked to one of the teacher at the seminary,Brother Jones, who has horses and the agreed to give me a chance to ride horses on Saturday!Brandons mom watched Coleton while we went and though it was really windy and getting cold it was great.

I rode a beautiful calm white horse.....

and Brandon rode a spunky white horse, that at times wanted to buck him or run but Brandon did great at keeping control!

To make the horse ride even more festive Brandon made me a birthday cake that had two horses and a barn on it that was so adorable. All together i had a great birthday, one to always remember! I love you, Brandon!

The Nephite Family

For our ward Christmas party, we were asked to be part of a small skit. Each group has a room in the church and groups of people in the ward would wonder through the rooms to hear the Christmas story. They had shephards, the three wisemen, Mary and Joseph, the choir of angels, and a few others. We were asked to play the part of Nephi (3rd nephi to be exact) and his family. We were to decorate the room we were in, make costumes and have a little speech that talked about what was happening in america at the time of Christ birth and a little on Samuels prophecy. Brandon did a great job making the speech and Coleton charmed everyone as the Nephite baby. I had a lot of fun sewing the outfits and getting it all set up.

here is the little speech Brandon wrote... "Thousands of miles away from jerusalem the Nephites eagerly awaited the birth of the savior. As a Nephite Prophet I spent most of my life teaching the people of the coming of a savior, but it wasnt until Samuel stood upon the city walls and prophesied of the signs of his coming that the persecution truly became great. According to the prophet, a day and a night and a day would pass away without any darkness, afterwhich a new star would appear, marking the birth of the Savior. From that point on, non-believers began to watch, not for the signt to appear, but for the sign to not appear. Eventually a day was chosen when all of the believers would be gathered together and put to death. When the chosen day arrived, I spent most of the day praying to the Lord for help. Eventually his voice came to me saying, "be of good cheer, on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world." As the sun began to set, we waited faithfully, even as persecutors drew near with swords drawn (he had his real sword that he pulled out), but to our joy as the sun went down, the light remained as samuel had prophesied. The next night a new star appeared (we had the lights turn off and had glow in the dark stars on the wall for the new star) completing the prophesies made by samuel on the city wall. You can imagine our feelings as the birth of the savior truly saved our lives, much as his life would later save our souls."

Coletons Eight Months!

Our little guy is just growing so fast! He has now hit eight months old and growing. He walks along furniture and is trying to go from standing to sitting and will try to stand on his own. We would not be shocked if he started to walk soon!

He is still so giggly but is starting to figure out how to throw tantrums so it has been fun ok not so much!

We go through dad spirts where he doesnt want mom and just has to lay with dad!
Here is a video of when he was suppose to be sleeping but just was not ready for bed!
We have a much better video on my moms camera of him doing this but he realized that he has a tongue and thinks it is so funny to show you!

Decorating the house for Christmas!

This year, we are actually in a house where we can decorate! It has so much more space then our little apartment but since we are not use to the space we dont have enough decoration to fill it all but that doesnt matter we took what we had and had a blast getting ready for the holidays! Coleton woke up from his nap with the house full of boxes and strange items but quickly got use to all of it and has no real desire to touch anything!

Last year we got a little people nativity that is made of plastic and he loves it! I thought it was so funny that as soon as we got it our for him to look at he immediatly grabbed the baby jesus and held it the whole time we set up everything!

Brandon was in charge of putting up the tree and putting on the ornaments, since they were all his. His family has a tradition were they get one new ornament each year showing something he did and he loves to look through them!

Everyone has a little movie like this and i just could not resist! Sorry its sideways we forget sometimes that you cant flip it! Merry Christmas!

The lights on Temple Square!

Since we were already so close to salt lake city, we took advantage of going back to the salt lake temple where we were sealed. Brandon had never seen the lights so the day after they lite we backed up Coleton and headed to temple square!

We knew it would be cold so we got coletons winter jump suit on him and put hats, gloves, extra sweaters, and of course our utah jazz blanket. He could barely move but he stayed warm! We went and saw most of the lite trees, the nativities that were scattered around, and of course the reflection pool where we took our first couple picture while we were dating!

About half way through our walk Coleton noticed that the other kids were able to walk on their own so he no longer wanted to sit in the stroller and walk(which he cant do but thinks he can) so i held him and boy is he getting heavy!

By the end we had seen all we wanted and Coleton was done being outside but we were glad that we were able to go see the lights on temple square it was fun just to be together!

Heading to Kaysville!

The friday before thanksgiving, our little family headed up to Kaysville, Utah for an extended Cheney get together. We were able to see and meet alot of my family and was able to have a little thanksgiving dinner with my siblings since we would not all be together for Thanksgiving so we really had a fun time. Coleton did great on the car ride, he slept the first half(two hours) and then we stopped and saw Brandon mission president, President Rowley half way and then he slept the other half so it was great.
Coleton and I stayed the whole week til thanksgiving. My mom and i made christmas candy, I went dress shopping with Caralee, and coleton loved playing with my dad and his new toys with him. My mom taught Coleton that he had a tongue and he has been playing with it ever since and thinks he is just so funny. Brandon had to come back to Cedar to teach his monday and tuesday classes so tuesday night he came and spent the rest of the week with us. He loved just laying around with Coleton. Then on thanksgiving day we watched the parade on tv, had a great meal, watched a few movies, and took a nap. Coleton was able to have his own personal gerber thanksgiving and loved it! All together it was a great trip and we loved spending it with family!

Our Many Blessings!

When Brandon and I started our adventure together almost 18 months ago, we knew that as we did what we thought the Lord wanted us to do that he would provide away for us. Though i knew that was true i had never had seen it so evident as i have sense we were sealed in the temple. When we got married we had "our" life all planned out. As the Lord has directed us in paths we were not planning on taking we have loved were he has taken us! We never thought that we would be living in Cedar City, have an amazing little boy, or working for CES. We have loved the adventure but of course there are struggles that come with everything. As Brandon and I have struggled with health, shelter, food, finances, and other small necessities, we often layed awake at night wondering how we would make it through up coming months, but i can now say with a full heart that the Lord does provide. We have been blessed with such amazing families and close friends who saw our needs and without a second thought came to help! We have received clothing, toys, food, anonymous gift cards, and even a phone call from family or friends at the perfect time. Though it would be near impossible to begin listing the help we have received from each person because so many have helped us but i hope that the pictures below (though it does not cover all of it by far)will show how much we have been blessed by all of you. Most of you will never know that you were truly answers to prayers but i hope you do know that you have truly been the means of us coming closer to our Heavenly Father. We thank you so much!

Some of you may not understand why some of these pictures are up but for those who put time and money into helping us can recognize how you have helped. Whether by the things we are wearing, toys that are being used, and other things that can and can not be "seen". There are so many more that i dont have pictures of but i hope that you all understand how much we appreciate everything we have been given, thank you so much!