Merry Christmas AND a Happy New Year!

Can I just say I am so glad this year is over? Not that we had a terrible year or anything, just a year that was quite exhausting for us, but with that said, we GREW a lot. 2010 for us was "the year of Growth" for our little family.

But before I get into that, I just want to share our Christmas.

We had a pretty great one, (Christmas eve on the other hand not so great.) I don't know how many of you know this about my husband (actually a lot of you do know) but he waits until the very last minute to make a decision when it comes to gifts. Which is why he hates Christmas I think, because I nag and nag and nag him all month long about what I should do for this person or this person. I come up with fabulous idea after idea, and they never are good enough for that person, and because I can never come up with the "perfect gift" (is there such a gift?) I always end up going out Christmas Eve to pick up last minute gifts.

So anyway, on Christmas Eve, I was pretty proud of how quickly I got our gifts done, (all before lunch time I may add) all I had to do was run to the store grab some last minute grub for our Christmas dinner and breakfast and then I could spend the rest of the day wrapping presents, or so I thought...

But when I got home I remembered that in order to cook our delicious Christmas dinner I had to first clean out the week old ham juice that spilled out onto our oven floor last week when someone asked me to cook the ham for our ward dinner (side note, I am not a bad cook, I am a decent cook, I make balanced meals that are MOST of the time worth eating) However, I do not EVER cook things like ham, or whole turkeys. So I had no idea that putting a tray at the bottom of the oven would be wise to catch all that grossness. Needless to say our house REEKED of not just Ham juice but BURNT HAM JUICE all week, and literally our entire house filled with smoke every time we tried to use the oven.

So to make our Christmas better I decided I better clean the oven first. How hard could it be anyway right? Well, if you have never done it before, MAN it is NOT something you should do while pregnant OR on Christmas Eve, because it will for sure ruin your evening.

So the rest of the Christmas eve I spent mostly in bed, because my back KILLED. Kory helped me wrap presents but our Christmas eve was kind of a flop. We did however still let Axel open up one present before. (Jammies of course :) ) In the future he will not be so happy about that... but until he actually cares, we will keep doing this our way. (he was pretty tired, we kept him up pretty late because Kory was trying to move a bunch of stuff out of his room)

But Christmas, was much much better. My back still killed, and still kind of does. I am pretty sure I pulled something or I am just at that stage in this pregnancy.

But both Axel and Kory slept in until 10:30 that day, I was not complaining since I had a little "Santa" Stuff to do before. We took oodles of pictures and I wish you all wanted to see them all but I know you don't, so here are just a few of my favorites.

Axel was sooo funny to watch this year. He inspected every present and you could tell he was happy about each and every one. (Although his favorite gifts were the soccer and basketball, once he opened those he kept them by his side the whole time.

He thought the stocking was pretty neat

This was our tree this year.
He got a whole new collection of books...
And some blocks and other trinkets...but his favorite of course was the basket ball...and the soccer ball, he thought they were perfect size to ride his new skateboard
he and dad skating together...
We had a simple Christmas Kory and Axel got me a cutting mat and rotary cutter for my sewing which I have been loving and Kory cleared out Axel's room and moved all my stuff down stairs to my new craft room. (Which is why I have been MIA)

Axel and I got Kory a nice big tool box to organize all his tools.

After like 2 hours of watching Axel open presents we went to my parents house for my side of the family Christmas. We ate a delicious food, exchanged presents, and played the white elephant gift game. My mom made each family this year a quilted advent calender, I wish I would have taken a picture that day, I packed it away before I did, but I will take a picture next Christmas, it was really spectacular!
Here is our Family and the WHOLE family in the picture below.

After that we went to spend some time with Kory's parents/and a few siblings. We played some games and ate some good food then went home and did some more moving :) before going to bed.

We ended 2010 with a MUCH more organized home, and are glad 2010 is over with. It's like we get to start over! That is how I look at it. Not that 2010 was awful, it was just a hard one for us.

It had a lot of good stuff in it tho like...
Axel grew sooo much that year, most of his firsts happened in 2010!
He crawled, he talked, and walked all this year (yep in that order), and so many many other things.

One of the biggest events this year is we found out we were pregnant, and although we almost lost this baby, he/she is still here growing strong and we are SO excited to have it join our family in a few months.

WE have learned soooo much this year about faith and patience and hard work. Nothing comes easy, but when you work for it the pay off is SO much more rewarding, than just having things handed to you.

The skills Kory has acquired as he has been building his studio amazes me every day. He has learned so much, we both have. We couldn't have done it with out all the help and support from those around us. When I see all that he has done towards it, with little to no help from me, I am just amazed by him. I married a pretty incredible guy, with pretty incredible talents. He also some how managed to hold down a great job, be an awesome husband/father, and have 4 callings (yeah I said 4 at once) this year. Sheesh! He makes me tired just thinking about all he does each and everyday.

I know 2011 will be a rewarding year for us, we have many things to look forward to in the next coming months, from the house/studio being finished, to a brand new baby! eek we are half way!

Anyway speaking of halfway... Friday we find out what we are having. SO here is where you get to vote, I am torn, Kory is 100% sure we are having a girl. At this point I am just hoping all is healthy and ok, this pregnancy has been a tough one for me, I am not going to lie. Every night we pray that our baby will grow healthy and strong. So boy or girl I just want a clean bill of health for our little worm.

Happy 2011 everyone!

PS CONGRATS TO my good friends Jon and D who had a baby girl Opal Mae Browning yesterday night! Can't wait to meet her someday...