Christmas 2009

Highlights of this Christmas . . . . .

Christmas Eve

• Spending time with Shawn's Family. We went to see Alvin and the chipmunks (we hated it, but the kids loved it).
  
  Shawn & Preslie at the movies
• Sleeping in

• Telling Christmas stories at my grandparents

• Seeing my grandpa's latest invention. . . it's a tricycle golf cart.

• Spending almost 2 hours talking to my brother Curtis. He is on an LDS mission in South Korea. He sounds so positive and happy. He is completely in love with the Korean people and is trying so hard to become fluent in the language. I definitely have a testimony that missionaries are called to their missions by our Heavenly Father. Korea is hard for missionaries because the people are unaware of the basic christian fundamentals. They don't even celebrate Christmas. A lot of Curtis' time is spent gaining "happy points" (by making some one's day a little better, or by giving a positive representation of our church). Curtis is such an upbeat, easy going, positive person and I know he was sent to his mission because of it. I'm sure that someone has been touched or has gained an interest in our church from one of his "happy points" even though he may not or may never know it!

• We went to see "Avatar" in the mid morning & loved it!
• Nerf guns at my parents (Shawn might also be banned from nerf guns @ my parents)

Christmas Day

• Waking up and doing our own little Christmas.

Maggie got her own little stocking

• Doing brunch at the Schneider's house.
• Playing with Payson & Talan's new toys. (Shawn is no longer aloud to play mario brother's at Mickie's (: haha)

• Talking to Kevin for a bit! It made me sooooo excited for him to come home! 3 more days!!!

  

• Having Christmas dinner at my mom's. She made a yummy yummy ham!
  
• Putting together puzzle's, a fun tradition.
  
  
• and lots of fun other stuff!!!

Fun gifts we received. . .

memory foam matress pad
new duvet

I bought shawn adidas predator cleats! He was so surprised / excited. I also gave him some Michael Jackson cd's (apparently all of his cd's were stolen when he was on his mission), a calle shirt, "Angels & Demons" and some other little things
Shawn gave me a new ipod nano! I was really excited because I have one of the old school first ipod video's. . . it's just too big to take to the gym. He also gave me a new touch phone, a season of friends, glee cd & some other things.

Anyways we had a great Christmas!!! On Christmas day I said to Shawn, "maybe we will have a baby by next Christmas?" And then we both just shook our heads in a unison NO. Sorry Stacey & Mick. I'm really really not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow. UHHG atleast I only have to work mon & tues. All of our family starts to come in on Wednesday for Kevin's Homecoming!!!!! 3 more days!!!

A Blymiller Christmas Party & A Late Routson Thanksgiving

I'm not in the mood to bore you all with a boring novel. I'm sure you are all so sad. 2 sundays ago we did a late Thanksgiving dinner with my family, and last sunday we had a Christmas party with Shawn's family. We love Christmas. This year we are grateful for so many things. It's easy to get caught up in presents, Santa and all of the material things (at least it is for me) .....but we are so grateful for our family, friends and most of all for the birth of our Savior

our little Christmas Tree

Stacey & Rick opening our gift. We pitched in with Mickie's family to get them a bed and breakfast at the Homestead. A much needed little get away(:

We gave Payson & Talan matching quicksilver shirts. I think they were a hit ?

Preslie got this princess walker/saucer toy thing. Shawn wanted to put it together. As you can see from his face he was very frustrated. Not as easy as it looks.

After a couple of swear words here is the finished product! Shawn was so cute putting it together. He didn't give up once. Just practice for one day when we have fun stuff to put together for our own kids right?

Stacey read this cute little story about the true meaning of Christmas. The kids had to put these little symbols on the little tree. Afterwards Payson had a quiz. He failed miserably. haha

I love this picture. I threatened to make a Christmas card out of it, but Shawn really would have been so mad at me!!!

My mom's fun staircase

Dishing up for the Thanksgiving feast. It was all really yummy.

Gma, Gpa & my cousin Jeff were there for dinner too.

Have I mentioned recently that I can't wait for Kevin to get home??? I feel like I'm trying to rush through Christmas to get to his homecoming date!!! ahhhh I miss him. We will be talking to Curtis tomorrow night on Christmas eve, and Kevin Christmas morning. Can't Wait!!!!! Hope you all have a merry Christmas.

there is no place like home

For the last 5 weeks or so Shawn has been coaching his boys in a Futsal league down in Lehi. This last friday night while Shawn was coaching I was able to hang out with my mom and Spence. This is a little cheesy/corny. . . but here is what I loved about this last visit at my parents

Lehi is a small little town, but it feels like home. Shawn makes fun of me, but I just love it. I probably wouldn't want to live there my entire life, but it's the small town feel that makes it feel like home and I love it. So many memories of driving around that town, high school, soccer, friends. . .

gathering around the island, talking & eating

fighting over what to watch on DVR

taking spencer to coldstone

on the way to coldstone I had to stop in the middle of the road to let a 5 point buck cross. I didn't know I missed that, but I guess I did (:

singing in the car with someone who can harmonize with me, Spencer. Shawn is tone def. He tries, bless his heart.

singing along to boys like girls & onerepublic brought back memories of singing with my brothers. My dad used to force us to learn his favorite songs. hahaha It's pretty sad that we know so many elton john, carpenters & james taylor songs.

my mom's house was all decorated for the holiday season. It brought back all sorts of christmas memories.

kevin is coming home in 2 1/2 weeks. A lot of the night was spent talking and thinking about what life will be like when he gets home. I can't wait.

watching Oprah with my mom, just like old times

driving spencer to my old high school for a basketball game. I loved high school. I loved my friends, I loved most of my teachers, I loved my soccer team, I loved going to all the games . . . I hated the drama. now I have new drama. grown up mature drama of course.

not having a care in the world, no worries, no stress.

I told my mom that Shawn and I couldn't have hot chocolate because we didn't have any mugs. She totally whipped out 8 matching mugs and sent them home with me. Mom's are great.

Shawn dropped me off at my parents, so I didn't have a car. I felt a little stranded and trapped. Just like in high school . I had to ask and take my mom's car to go somewhere. haha

my gma and gpa stopped by to visit. my cute gramma loves to tease me about all the junk food I eat. I was still eating my coldstone when she stopped by and said to me, "Angela I don't know why your not a big fat chunk by now". gotta love my gramma (:

Most of all I just loved hanging out at my parents with Spencer & my mom. My dad was out of town. I love my mom's house. It just feels like home. I'm thinking that it's the family part that makes it feel like home. You are probably thinking that my life with Shawn doesn't feel like home. It does, it just has a new feel to it. I love both homes (: And pretty soon I will have 2 brothers home to visit, instead of just one! yay!

When I go to my parents later today for a 2nd thanksgiving dinner I will take a picture of my parent's cute house and post it.

Painting Ornaments. . . a family tradition

This last sunday we went to Shawn's parents to paint our Christmas tree ornaments.

Shawn painted a little dog which he painted like Maggie, and I painted a Santa

Shawn & Pays with their doggies

Stacey helping Talan & Kallie

When we all started painting our ornaments Shawn was helping Payson put together a Lego Car. They were having too much fun. They had to finish their car before they could take a break and paint their ornaments.

Shawn always takes this tradition VERY seriously. . . so intense.

Talan. It is required for Talan to take off his pants and shirt to paint his ornaments. He makes a huge mess. He turned to Mickie and me and said, "how come you guys don't take off your pants?" hahaha he cracks us up!

Team Party!!!

Shawn's '97 Prestige had their team party last saturday. We went to an all you can eat pizza place. Shawn presented some special awards, and their trophies. A nice speech was given by Jason, one of the parents, and I was PRAYING shawn wouldn't cry. I could tell his eyes were already glistening. Jason loves soccer just as much as Shawn. He is hardcore. In his little speech he talked about how he has been around soccer his whole life and he hasn't met a better coach than Shawn. He went on for a bit saying nice things.

Later that night we went to a movie with Jason and his wife Cherie. Cherie and I were talking about the speech and I told her about how I was hoping Shawn wouldn't get emotional and she laughed and said that she could tell Jason was getting choked up and she was praying he wouldn't cry. hahaha. We are married to nerds. I love it.

top row: Shawn, Max (mini shawn), Sam, Mason, Sean, Raquel (this year's mvp) & Chris

middle row: Ethan (goalie) Donavan, Ethan aka "Bing" & Jordan

bottom two: Christian & Bailey

not pictured: Kolby (most improved player), Cameron and Jordan Hancock

Shawn said nice things about all the kids as he presented their trophies. Here is the thing. They had an undefeated fall season. Which is great, but I felt like we were celebrating the end of something. We weren't though. There is never an end to this soccer madness. It's all year round. There is the spring outdoor season, then tryouts, then lots of summer practicing, followed by the fall season. . . and then after that when its freezing outside they play in a futsal league and practice indoors, then after futsal there is just normal indoor soccer league and then after that it's back to spring season.

my husband loves coaching. This team is actually my favorite team that Shawn coaches. Sorry '96 premier team. I'm sure I will grow to love the older boys too, Shawn has just coached this team longer. We have made great lifelong friends and I honestly enjoy going to all of their games.

Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving. What a great time of year. This year was spent with Shawn's family at Rick and Stacey's house. It was just Rick & Stacey, Mickie, Brandyn & the kids, Gpa Allgood and then Shawn & Me. Shawn started the day off by playing football with Mike. Mike was over last night and apparently the stories are true: Shawn was the "star" of the game! Haha. He had a lot of fun. While Shawn was out I cleaned the house, and got started on the "Routson Family Fudge". I first called my dad for the recipe and he was mad that I didn't have it memorized or something so he hung up on me. I had to call my aunt Becky and she willingly gave me the recipe. . . however she got her recipe from my gma and gpa and my dad got his recipe from my GREAT gma so I'm not sure which one is the original recipe. They both taste the same to me. Guess we will never know who's right. ANYWAYS. I made the fudge and it actually turned out!!! This is a huge accomplishment. I think I attempted to make a batch last year and it didn't work. I am so proud.

Here I am with my fudge. Yay! Here is the thing about the Routson Fudge. . . if you aren't a part of the family you either love it or hate it. . . . . . . . . . . .Great news. Shawn loves it. I guess he fits in (:

When Shawn got home we got started on our food assignments. Salad and mashed potatoes. Shawn peeled, cut and boiled all of the potatoes. I just did the mashing. Team effort. I just bought a bagged salad from Costco. I love that place. "You can literally buy everything you need from birth to death. They have diapers and coffins. . ."

Gpa Allgood and Stacey

Shawn and me with gpa

Mickie & Brandyn

The whole crew minus Talan and Preslie who were there but aren't pictured.

After dinner we hung out for a while. Mickie and Brandyn had to head to his parents and then shortly after that Shawn and I went to have dessert at my gma and gpas. They stayed home this thanksgiving to help my great aunt Hilda recover from eye surgery. Hilda is such a cute little old lady. She loved Maggie. We didn't get any pictures at my gma's. So sad. We had a pumpkin cheesecake that I bought. . . . . I mean MADE from scratch. After hanging out with my grandparents we headed back to spend a little more time with Rick and Stacey.

We had a good day. I missed my family. I hate missing out on things, but I can't be in 2 places at once. I also don't blame them for leaving. Half of their kids are out of the country, their oldest is all grown up, married, and has to be shared by another family, and poor Spenc shouldn't have to be bored on Thanksgiving. They went to Arizona to have Thanksgiving with Tyce and Becky and my gma and gpa Routson. They have been enjoying the nice warm weather. lame.

Things Shawn & I are grateful for this year:

Our little Eternal Family

The Gospel
Maggie
Family
old friends
new friends
neices & nephews
2 missionaries
good health
our jobs
working cars
soccer
sushi
nordstrom/the rack
modern family

happy thanksgiving.

Real Salt Lake wins the MLS Cup . . . with out us :(

Our Real Salt Lake MLS team won the MLS Cup last weekend. We really really wanted to go. We seriously tried everything. My aunt Julie offered us tickets, and a place to stay, all we needed was a little miracle to get up there. It never happened. Flights were very expensive. There was even a promotion going on for Real fans, but there would have been huge layovers in California, and I wouldn't have been back in time for work. So sad. We could have driven but we heard the passes were really bad because of the recent snow storm. I'm rambling on. . . Long story short we really really wanted to go but it just didn't happen. We had fun watching the game at the Pasmann's house (parents of a kid Shawn coaches). They won in another shoot out. It went to 7 PK's again. 7 is their lucky number I guess! Shawn went to the little celebration here at the stadium when the players got home. I opted out due to the very cold weather. I think I made a good choice. Shawn had fun though. Die hard fan (:

The Twilight Saga: New Moon

Months ago we bought tickets for New Moon. Lindsey's cousin rented out a theater and sold all of the tickets. Shawn and I have been fans of the books. . . I wouldn't say HUGE fans. But we definitely enjoyed them and read every single one of them. We HATED the first movie "Twilight". So corny/cheesy/horribly made. So. . . the day finally came, November 13, when we went to go see the movie. Shawn was actually not able to go because he was coaching Futsal so I took my mom instead. It was fun to have a girls night out with my friends and my mom. Shawn would have been the only guy, but he wouldn't have cared at all.

Andrea (Lindsey's friend) Lindsey, Liz and Myself

We got there early enough to get the best seats. Good thing we did because they had a fun raffle thing going on. While I was getting popcorn with my mom I won the "New Moon" Soundtrack. Lindsey accepted the prize for me. I was pretty excited, I never win anything.

About the movie: I thought it was a lot better than Twilight. Except for every scene Edward is in is awkward and cheesy. I wish they would have invested in some better actors for these movies. . . but I have to admit Bella or Kristen Stewart did a lot better in this one. I haven't rushed to go see the movie again with Shawn. Not in any hurry to see it again.

Side note: Shawn and I saw Blindside last weekend and LOVED it. Definitely a "Must See".

ShAwN tURnS 26!

Shawn turned 26 on Monday (which was also my mom's birthday but I won't disclose her age at this time). He has been home from his mission for 5 years now so he is feeling a little old. We kicked off his birthday celebrations last thursday by doing some shopping & sushi. Friday we slept in, relaxed, had our hair cut and went to his boys futsal games. Now I know it doesn't look like Shawn had his haircut. You can thank my mom for that. . . she told Shawn that his hair was "embarrassing". So he is growing it out even longer. Thanks Mom!!!

Saturday was a yucky snowy day. We didn't really want to go anywhere. Real Salt Lake played Chicago for the Eastern Conference Finals. For Shawn's birthday we decided to get tickets to the "Watch Party". It was at the Rio Tinto stadium in their little lounge/bar thing. Lots of TV's, all you can eat food & crazy hardcore fans. I have to admit it was pretty fun. The game went into over time and then pk's. They won the game on the 7th pk. Pretty awesome. The finals are in Seattle. We REALLY wanted to go, but flights are so dang expensive right now.

Sunday Birthday:

On sunday we went to my parents to celebrate my mom & Shawn's birthday. I made lasagna. No it wasn't the kind you buy and preheat from Costco. It was the real thing, and it was good, and I'm proud of myself. My dad was in charge of the bread and salad. Spence made homemade brownies. Good job Spencer! So yummy. Gma & Gpa came over for dessert after. Sister Asay/Tille came over for dinner too. It was a lot of fun hearing all kinds of stories about Curtis. They saw each other every day for 3 transfers so she knows him pretty well.

We had to get a picture of Tille with Swayze (Curtis' pride and joy). He found Swayze in the desserts of Eagle Mountain. At one time Curtis said that he was going breed Turtle's, raise them to be Racing Turtles, and become rich. "Who wouldn't want to see turtles race".

All my mom wanted was this little laptop desk that sits on your lap. . . that was an easy gift! Hope you like it mom, now maybe you won't burn your legs from your old laptop.

Spencer & Me


If you didn't already notice. . . I CHOPPED my hair!!! I was so ready for a change. For the last 3 or 4 haircuts I've been cutting more and more off to work myself up for it. I was so nervous to cut it because the last time I had my hair really short was in 7th grade and let me just tell you that chubby cheeks with short hair was NOT working for me. Now I still have chubby cheeks but not as bad I guess. I luv it! It's so easy to do and Shawn is in love with it.

Oh. . . and I wear glasses. Contacts were not working out so well for me.

For Shawn's real birthday I had to work all day and he had a big test in his Mass Comm. Law class. We were able to do lunch together downtown. For dinner we went to his parents house. His mom made shish kabobs and a yummy pasta salad.

I got my work out for the day by running around with the kids for 10 minutes. . .

Shawn & Me


Mickie & Brandyn

I think Shawn had a pretty good birthday week. I asked him what he thought he would have done by the time he was 26. He said. . .

1. go on a mission (CHECK)

2. be done with school (a couple more weeks left)

3. be married (CHECK)

4. be playing soccer professionally somewhere (pretty sure he has played enough soccer for 18 lifetimes)

and that was about it. I asked him if he thought he would have kids by now. He said NO. Looks like his life is just the way he wanted it to be. (: I love you baby, hope you had a great birthday!