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.