Christmas time is here...

Well, since Jaiden and I both have a cold today and are staying home from church, I decided to post some pictures of our Christmas festivities. Here is a picture of the Lyman Christmas tree. Unfortunately, I forgot to get a picture of the one at the Byrd household.

This is one of the many nativity scenes that is up around the house.
On Christmas eve day, all the girls made gingerbread houses with the kids.(The men were out playing golf.) It was really fun!! Everyone was getting pretty fancy with their houses.
This is the one that Jaiden and I decorated. It is very hard to do windows on a gingerbread house when Jaiden keeps trying to steal the candy off the other parts of the house.
For Christmas eve, all of the kids did the nativity scene while Justin's dad read it from the Bible. Justin was one of the shepards in the back. Anyone that didn't get to dress up for one of the characters was an animal and was supposed to make the animal noises when they were told to. I was a sheep. It was a really great way to spend our Christmas eve.
I just wanted to point out that we did have the appropriate gifts to give to the Baby Jesus but for some reason we ended up using bananas and a microphone. Don't ask me how that happened.

Party!!

The weekend before Christmas, Justin's family decided to have a birthday party for everyone that had a birthday in December and January. There are five of us. It was really fun. Barbara (Justin's mom) did a separate birthday desert for each of us and we all blew out our candles together. My desert was cheesecake of course. This is a picture of all of us together right before we opened our presents. I had other pictures but they all turned out blurry.

Go Donkey Go!!

For Christmas, I picked up a little donkey and cart made in Mexico that my dad wanted to give to my mom for one of her presents. We thought we'd have a little fun with it before we had to hand it over to my dad.

Having fun at the Byrd household

Here are just a couple of pictures I took during Thanksgiving. I didn't actually get any of the dinner or anything but oh well.

The men in the family decided to go play a game of Bocce balls. For any of you who haven't played this game it is really fun but the girls wimped out on it this time because it was way too cold outside.

We kept trying to get Jaiden to play with his cute little cousin, Corrina and they finally did on one of the lasts days that they were together. It was so fun to have his cousins there to play with.

Justin liked playing with Corrina too. She was the sweetest little girl to be around. She loved hanging out with her Uncle Justin. One more day around her and Justin probably would've been convinced that we needed a little girl too. :)

My dad decided that he was going to go fly fishing the day after Thanksgiving and so he broke out all of his gear. He had to pose for us before he left. Doesn't he look great?!

What Year do I Belong in?

You Belong in 1953

You're fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in!

What Year Do You Belong In?

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble!

Hey Everyone! Just wanted to write and say Happy Thanksgiving! Hope everyone ate lots of food. I sure did. Me and Justin enjoyed spending time with my family and Justin's sister and her husband. I was so glad to be able to be there with my brother and his family that I only get to see about once a year. He has the funnest family. Well, anyway, stay tuned for upcoming pictures and more exciting Thanksgiving stories.

Death to the Layers (The ongoing story of my hair)

Okay, so this may seem very vain of me but I'm going to talk about my hair for awhile so I can stop complaining to Justin about it. Ya, my hair was pretty long. It was probably down past my shoulders and it had a lot of layers in it that I was starting to get sick of. As I was looking at old pictures of myself I saw a picture that I really liked of myself in college.


I loved my hair back then. I loved how it looked without all of those layers and how thick it was. So I told Justin that picture was my goal for the future. I wanted my hair to look like that again. Well, one day last week I was looking in the mirror and just decided that the layers needed to go ASAP. Before I knew it was calling for a hair appointment for the next day. To make a long story short, I chopped off all of my hair just to get rid of those layers. I was pretty sad about it the next day. I wouldn't have been so sad but the lady that cut it only took 10 minutes to cut off six or so inches of hair. Doesn't that seem a bit quick for a hair cut? She also cut it crooked. Okay, so there's my complaints about it but after having this short hair for a week now I guess I am finally learning to like it. I just can't wait until it is past my shoulders again.

I hope all of the men out there that read this blog endured this post that was dedicated to my hair. :)

Finally, A New Post! YEAH!!

Okay, so I finally figured out what recipe I am going to do for my tag.

"Marie's Cheesecake"

Crust:
6-7 whole graham crackers
1/4 cup butter (melted)
Mix together then pat into a 9 in. pie pan or spring form pan.

Filling:
2- 8ox. cream cheese (softened)
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs (beaten)
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. lemon juice

Beat cream cheese and add the rest of the filling ingredients; beat until frothy. Pour into crust. Bake 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until surface is no longer glossy. Refrigerate for at least 5 hours, or for best results overnight. Top with favorite cheesecake topping. (I like using chocolate fudge topping.)

This is the easiest, most inexpensive, and best tasting cheesecake I have ever made and I love to make it all of the time. It only takes about 15 minutes to mix everything together.

Girl's Night Out

Last Thursday, Jenny, her friend, Anna, and I went to a Tastes of Home Cooking School in Sierra Vista. We were hoping to win one of their door prizes. (It seemed like there was 50 million of them) But unfortunately we didn't win anything. We learned how to make 12 different dishes and they all looked really good. Maybe I'll try making one sometime. We had a really fun time!!


I really look like a picture hog in this one. Poor Jenny and Anna could hardly fit in there. :)

Halloween Fun!

We had a lot of fun on halloween this year. Our ward had a trunk-or-treat in the chapel parking lot, and Marie did an execellent job decorating. We decided to carve small pumpkins this year just for fun, and they turned out pretty dang good. Jaiden was a pilot for Halloween thanks to the cute outfit that the Horspool family gave him for his birthday, plus the addition of a scarf that Marie made, and some black sunglasses, oh and Marie bought him a little airplane too just for good measure.

This picture is blurry, but it is too cute to leave off.




Jaiden's first sucker

Jaiden Playing With His Tonka Truck

Jaiden's favorite thing to do is push his Tonka truck around the house. He hasn't figured out how to turn yet so he just keeps running into something until Mom or Dad come to turn for him, luckily he has a pretty short attention span.

Jaiden Sportin his Redneck Style!

We found this wig in the produce section at Wal-Mart, and decided it was about time Jaiden got some hair. Fortunetly the Labo's were around to take some snapshots, Jenny is always prepared to take a picture.

I've Been Tagged!!!

#1. rules of the game must be posted at the beginning.

#2. each player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves.

#3. at the end of the post, the player then tags six people and posts their names, then go to their blogs and leave them a comment letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

6 Things That Everyone Must Know About Me

1.I love my husband more than anything else! He is my high school sweet heart.
2.I love being a mom, it is hardest and the best thing in the world to do.
3.Yes, I will admit, I am addicted to junk food of almost any kind.
4.Someday I want to go into wedding cake decorating.
5.I love to read. I am like a kid in a candy store when I walk into a book store.
6.I am shy but love to be around people at the same time..I don't know how that's possible but it is.
I tagged: Jenny and Josh

Fun At The Park

Last Monday we went to the park and had a little picnic with Josh and Jenny. It was a lot of fun, and the chicken was finger lickin good.

Jaiden swung in the swing for the first time and loved it, he didn't want to get out, until he found out how fun it is to play in the sand.








Josh and Jenny liked playing in the sand too :)

A Day of Sorrow

Early this morning three of my co-workers were killed in a plane crash over the Colorado mountains west of Alamosa. My heart and prayers go out to their families and friends. I know that there are going to be hard times ahead for everyone involved. I am proud to work with such a good group of people who have dedicated their lives to helping others, and in this case have payed the ultimate price to do so. I just want to say to those who lost their loved ones today, that even though our world is filled with so much uncertainty, I know that if we put our faith in Jesus Christ that he is a loving and merciful God, and will help us through even the most difficult of times.
~Justin

"Got My New Shoes On"

Ofcourse we have to put another post about Jaiden on our blog just because he's so cute. Here is Jaiden trying out his first pair of shoes. He loves wearing them so he can go walking around outside (with his mom or dad's help).




He had to step away from the camera for a while so he could go chase some bugs.

Jaiden sportin' his new clothes

here is Jaiden showing off his new clothes(thanks Aunt Shelly and Uncle Jeremy) and cheesin' it for the camera.

Jaidens 1st Birthday

Jaiden's first birthday was a blast! We had a lot of fun spoiling the little guy. Thanks to everyone who sent presents, Jaiden loved them all.

Here is the cake Marie made, isn't it awsome!


The party!


Jaiden enjoyed his cake a little too much.


Jaiden opening his presents, he is an expert now.


Jaiden looking at his new book.

Fun at the fair!

On the 22nd we went to the Cochise County Fair with our favorite neighbors
Josh and Jenny, and there friends Chris and Jen.

Here are Josh and Jenny, what a cute couple!


Jaiden Liked the goats.

Jaiden posing for the Camera

On Saturday, we headed over to Sierra Vista to get some professional pictures of Jaiden for his upcoming first birthday. We had them done at Sears and I thought they turned out pretty good. I thought the photographer was a little inexperienced but she did okay. Here are some of my favorite shots that were taken, (Don't tell, but I stole them off the sears website)



We thought this one was so funny because it shows exactly what his personality is like.




Jaiden's big birthday bash is going to be on Saturday. I'm probably making a bigger deal out of than is really necessary considering he probably won't even know what's going on. I guess that's just my job as his mom though. So I will post all the fun of the party next week after we get some good pictures of the extravaganza.

Douglas Sunset

My favorite thing about Douglas is it's beautiful sunsets.