Christmas 2010

For Christmas Eve, we had Adam's family over at our house. Ashley (Adam's sister) had requested I make my chicken enchiladas. I was happy to accept her request. We had a lot of fun! We ate dinner first and then unwrapped presents. Afterwards we watched Despicable Me. I absolutely LOVE that movie!!! It was fun to host the party, but very exhausting. I was cleaning for two days straight!

Christmas was so fun this year!!!! Logan was old enough to open presents by himself (for the most part). We slept until about 8:30 and then we opened our gifts to each other before Logan woke up. Logan woke up as we were finishing up with our gifts. We then got Logan up and got him dressed. We took him to the tree and he started picking them up. We had to start the ripping and then he would get the rest. He had fun opening his presents! He got a good haul this year!!!!

My mom had made all of us kids a quilt this year. They were all beautiful!!! If you want to see the other four quilts, you can visit her blog. It's the link "Marianne" on the right side of the blog. I love mine and Adam's! The whiter squares are a mickey mouse pattern. She got the fabric from some pajama pants in Disneyland! Which makes it even more special! I LOVE Disneyland and I'm glad I have a part of it on my quilt!
After Adam, Logan and I were done opening presents at our house, we went to Grandma and Grandpa Ross's house. I'm a little upset that I didn't get pictures from there.... Logan got a pillow pet from them! He loves his pillow pet! We hung out there until it was time to go to my parents house for dinner.

At my parents house, we ate and unwrapped presents. Logan had a lot of fun trying to steal everyone else's toys. He loves his toys, but the other kids weren't playing with his toys. Hee hee! He wanted what everyone else was playing with!

On December 26th, we went to my Aunt Laurie's house for our Christmas party with my mom's side of the family. I was asked to make a dessert for the party. So Sunday morning I slaved away on a made-from-scratch cake. Frosting and all! I left it on the counter so we could just pick it up and go. Well, we were about 15 minutes away from our house on our way to the party, when I realize, WE DON'T HAVE THE CAKE!! So we turn around to go get it. When we got home, Adam went inside to get it. Well, our dog, Riku, had gotten to it before us! I was so upset!!! I slaved all morning on that cake for it to be ruined! We ended up going to WalMart to get cookies. Yes, I know it was a Sunday, but what else could I do? We wouldn't have had enough dessert for everyone without them.

It was a little weird not having my grandpa there for the first time. We did an exchange gift last year and my grandpa got a hand made pen from my Uncle Wayne. This year, Wayne made some more pens like that. When it was unwrapped, I sort of lost it. I was trying to blink away my tears like crazy! I got it under control, but the memory was just too much. I miss my grandpa so much and wish he could've been there with us. I'm sure he was in spirit, but I wanted to have his hug and be called "Julie Bug" one more time.

All in all, this Christmas had to have been my favorite Christmas of my life so far! Thank you to my family and Adam's family for such a wonderful holiday! Next year will be even more fun I'm sure!!

2010

I can't believe I haven't posted on my blog since January! Shame on me! I guess I better give an update for 2010.

In February, Adam, Logan and I went to Colorado to visit Adam's sister and her family. We had a blast! We went to the Denver Aquarium and Logan just loved it. We drove both ways with our little Logan in the back. It was quite an adventure! Logan did really well. Better than expected. On the way back home, we hit a storm in Denver but we made it home okay. We slid once. Enough to make our hearts beat a little faster! Hee hee!

In March, Logan turned 1! I can't believe I have such a big boy now! For his birthday, we took him to the zoo. He didn't quite appreciate it like we were hoping, but that's okay! He loved the things that were on his level.
In April, Adam and I went to Disneyworld for our 3 year anniversary! Adam's friend at work hooked us up with a good deal. His wife works for Jet Blue and was able to get us her employee discount. This was the first time either of us had been to Florida. As soon as we stepped off the plane, the humidity hit us! I had never experienced humidity like this. We had so much fun there. Our favorite park had to have been The Animal Kingdom. We just loved seeing all the animals. There was a safari type ride there that took you through open areas with all sorts of animals in it. At one point, we had to stop the car because two rhino's were crossing the path right in front of us. It was awesome being that close to them! I took a lot of pictures! It was fun having just the two of us there, but we missed Logan like crazy! The week before we left for Florida, I interviewed to transfer down to the Farmington office. Another girl at the West Valley office (Katie) applied as well. When we were in Florida, I got a call from the manager telling me I got the position! Katie did too! I was so excited! Another thing to make my week amazing!

In May I started working at the Farmington office. It was quite a different setting than West Valley, but I loved it! Katie and I carpool there every day. All the people in that office are really nice and I love them all.

In July, my Grandpa Ridd passed away... It was a shock for everyone! He had gone in for hip replacement surgery and ended up having a heart attack while in recovery. Every one was effected by this. It was a very trying time for me. I love my grandpa so much and wish he were still here with us today. I know I'll see him again, but the pain is still here with us all. Every once in a while I'll think about him and start crying again. He was an amazing man and an amazing grandpa.
In August, Adam's little sister, Camille, came to live with us. She has been watching Logan for us during the day while we're at work. She has been such a blessing to us and we appreciate everything she has done for us!

In October, Logan went trick-or-treating for the first time! He was Obi Wan Kanobi! He was such a cute little jedi! It rained pretty good on Halloween, but that didn't stop us! We took an umbrella out and went to the people in the ward we knew. When we got home, Logan took a nice hot bath to warm his piggies.

In November, Ashley, Cody and Hayden (Adam's sister and her family) came down for Thanksgiving! They had a surprise for us all. Ashley is pregnant!!! We were all excited, but at the same time really nervous. She had previously been pregnant and had lost the baby when she was almost full term. Her liver was the cause of losing him. We're hoping and praying for her for this pregnancy and hope it turns out alright. Camille went home with them to take care of Hayden while Ashley had some doctors appointments. We will be very glad to have her back!

Okay, I guess I better catch up on the past couple of months. I'll start with Work.

We got a new computer system for work. I'm what they call a "Superuser". Every office in the state has at least one superuser. All superusers had to learn the new system so we could train the people in our offices. I was lucky and got to spend 4 weeks learning it. The first two weeks I was learning it I was just helping test the system to find bugs. The next week was my actual "training". The week after that, they asked me and another superuser to come back and help train the others. We had picked it up so fast they decided to use us. So at this point I was pretty good at the new system and I felt pretty comfortable with it. I guess me and this other superuser did something right because we were asked to help travel to the different offices in the state to help train them. Among the offices, I got to visit Draper, Richfield, Provo, Heber, and Tooele to name a few. It was a lot of fun and I was glad for the experience. I met lots of new people and made a lot of friends. I'll get back to this subject a little later on.

This year we went to Adam's side of the family for Thanksgiving dinner. We had a great time eating and playing games. We played a game Adam and I had never heard of before called "Would you rather..." It's so fun! You get different scenarios that you have to choose between. For example "Would you rather.... without being able to wash either one ever, use a dirty towel, or dirty sheets." The discussions we would get into were hilarious! Adam and I had so much fun playing it we bought it for ourselves. I highly recommend it to everyone. The food and company was excellent!

Christmas was a lot of fun this year! It was Logan's first Christmas and it excited us. Knowing he wouldn't understand what Christmas was, we just got him three presents. We wrapped only one of them to see what he would do with it. He just picked it up and looked at it, tossed it to the side and went for the toys he could see. He was so cute! He had fun playing with them. Later on we went to Adam's parents house for lunch and presents. We didn't have much time to spend there, but the time we did spend was great. After that, we went to my parents house for Christmas dinner and presents. My grandparents were invited to eat with us and it was great spending that time with them. As much as we love the holidays, I'm so glad it's over.

Logan Looking at his presents.

Playing with his toys.

Logan wearing mommy's hat.

Logan and cousin Cason.

For New Years, we didn't do a thing. We were in bed at our regular time and didn't think anything of it. We're lucky if we can stay up past 10! So, nothing to report there.

Back to the subject of work! On January 1st, a new law went into effect. It has made our lives at work a nightmare! With this new law, everyone has to bring in legal documents like birth certificates, passports and social security cards among the few of them. We've had to start scanning all these documents into our computers and it has taken a toll on all of us. Customers are not happy either. Along with this new law, our new computer system went into effect as well! So we were basically thrown a double whammy! These two things combined has made our wait times ridiculously long going up as far as 5 hours. It has made everybody on edge. All of us are snapping at each other and supervisors are pressuring us to work harder because our numbers have been bad. It will take time to learn the new law and to get used to the new system. I have been running around the office fixing problems when they arise and it's even taking a toll on me! I had to recruit help. We got Katie from our office as a superuser as well and she has been a GREAT help! I would've lost my brain if it hadn't been for her. I am so grateful for her and for the help she has given me. Even for letting me vent my frustrations to her (and her to me). She has been my lifesaver! Now we're BOTH running around the office helping problems, but the load has lightened from my shoulders. A couple weeks ago, the manager of our office told me I was the number one superuser in the state. Meaning I'm the person who knows it the best out of all of them. That really made me proud of myself and made my spirits raise. It feels good knowing people are recognizing my work and appreciate it. Sometimes I feel like no one appreciates me, but I am reminded a couple times a week by various people. Although it may get stressful, I love the new system and it has been quite the experience to be part of something so big.

That's pretty much our last couple of months. Next month, we are looking forward to going to Colorado to visit Adam's sister and her family. We are excited to get out of the state and go somewhere. Even if it is the next state over.