an unconventional christmas card

merry christmas! here is a christmas card--hope style!

(there are parts that are slightly off.....dan had it perfect, but the downloading process messed it up a bit......ARG! also, thank you valerie for the sweet christmas sweaters! we have been dying to wear them!!! hahahaha!)




and if that wasn't enough for you, here is a poem, that sums up our year!

ode to 2008

january brought a lot of snow, but beyond that it was pretty lame,
dan fell playing church basketball, and now his knees won't be the same.
suzanne was sick of being in the apartment with no car and all the snow,
she took up some hobbies, but none of them included learning how to sew.

february we found out the gender of our little baby
it was definitely a girl, he said, not could be, or maybe.

in march dan had his birthday and renewed his drivers license,
we almost crashed on our way there, it was scary and intense.
in our ward we received a calling in the nursery,
in this month we also were past our 2 and 1/2 year anniversary.

in april we decided that we needed more space than our one bedroom,
so we found a basement apartment that would fit the baby in the womb.
dan built a table in our living room complete with sandpaper and saw,
it was a mess, but suzanne was impressed, and the result left her in awe.

may came and we packed up all our stuff and headed to pleasant view,
pregnant and moving wasn't fun and when we were finished, we said 'phew!'

june was full of decorating and planning for our new addition,
i was definitely looking pregnant, and it was hard to find a comfortable position.
we helped watch my cousins kids while they went to haw-aii,
we were both glad we were having one baby, instead of having 3.

july was hot and suzanne's ankles became really swol-len
the due date was drawing near and we both kept asking when?
we went for lots and lots of walks, we even did some jogging.
we ate spicy foods and i even tried squatting.

finally on the 12th, our little baby arrived
labor was pretty hard, and suzanne is glad that she survived.

in august we learned all about the disorder PKU,
we loved our little nova and cleaned up lots of pooh.

in september and october we enjoyed the season we call fall,
we were out and about and we probably went to the mall.

in november we enjoyed our thanksgiving quite alot,
we had fun with family and even did a turkey trot.

now it is the very merry, merry month of december,
and we are taking the time to look back and remember,
all the things we have and love and hold very very dear,
you are all included, and hope you have a happy new year!


we are so blessed and really are so thankful for all that we have. we are thankful for this wonderful time of year and for all the friends and support that we have. we are thankful for this christmas time and for our Savior who is the reason for the season.

have a very merry christmas!!!

love the hopes

shortest blog ever in the history of suzanne

i haven't posted for a while, but here are some cute pics of the nova-nator
hope everyone is having a great holiday season! ONE WEEK TO CHRISTMAS!!!!
oh sweet, sweet nectar!



























also, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY BLAIN AND SARAH!

nova says, "thanks for getting married and having my dad, so my dad could marry my mom and they could have ME! i can't wait to see you next week!"

suzanne and dan say, "happy anniversary! we love you a ton and are excited to see you too. you are wonderful parents and grandparents and you are great examples of the gospel and marriage! we love you! have a great day!"

don't cry over spilled milk.....

i don't even quite know where to begin with this entry. i guess i can only start at the beginning. yesterday i was perusing blogs and such and came upon the following picture at the better homes and gardens website.



















first of all....clever! i loved the idea on the top left hand corner--snowman drink----the donut holes and glasses of milk.....well that idea led to another and i decided that we would have a white christmas dinner! oh, how fun i thought to myself.......BUT, i didn't necessarily have donut holes laying around in my pantry, or clear skinny glasses...and i HATE going to the store, especially if i have already been there ONCE already in a week. (i like to plan and do all my errands on one day so i don't haul nova all over ogden and collect germs along the way....i know i am paranoid....but no one likes a sick kid.....ANYWAY......) despite my dislike for the shopping idea, i did need a prescription anyway and decided to once again travel into the outside world.

we ran to the dollar store for some skinny tall glasses. then to walmart to fill my prescription AND to pick up donut holes---which they didn't have, so i got powdered donuts instead thinking i could make it work (and i also picked up milk and bread and some other necessary things so i could count this as NEXT weeks trip to the store as well. so i got the other items for the things on next weeks menu, badda-bing, badda-boom. done. well sorta. the nice pharmacist at wal-mart.....which i hate the wal-mart here....that is another blog and another time....told me it would be another HOUR before my prescription would be ready. normally i would say, what-ev, i roll with the punches, but i had a hungry child in the cart and decided i would just run back tomorrow without nova, while dan was home.....i wasn't about to breastfeed in public. PLUS i had a totally awesome white christmas dinner to decorate for! holla! so we toodled home.

we pulled in, i grabbed the car-seat in one arm, and grabbed my other groceries and my purse and my gallon of milk in the other and started the trek down our sidewalk to our door.

ok, i don't really know how to explain what happened next, and i am even embarrassed to try. i started up the sidewalk that is slightly inclined and then i ate some cement. i biffed it. i tripped, i ate it, i fell like i have never fallen before. it happened so fast, i didn't even have time to let my life flash before me. first my right knee hit, then my mouth and nose decided to connect with the asphalt. oh, and somewhere in the middle, my left hip took the brunt of the fall as well--i don't remember that part. being loaded down with child and groceries i couldn't even catch myself. i thought i had broken teeth AND bloodied my nose.........but it wasn't blood, it was my MILK---my milk had exploded, disintegrated over our sidewalk and i was laying in the white mess.

seriously. it. was. everywhere.

i quickly got up to make sure nova was ok--she was thankfully. she was smiling, and wondering why her blanket wasn't over her car seat anymore. i grabbed her and carried her into the house, ran back out and carried my milky grocery sacks and set them by the front door, ran back and picked up the pieces of milk carton, and took a jug of water out to rinse off the milk, my pride and my face off the sidewalk, AND i needed to cover the evidence because i tripped RIGHT in front of our landlords front door.

'SERIOUSLY?!?!?!?' i kept thinking. 'did that really just happen?' i ran back in the house to wash my hands and changed out of my milky clothes so i could feed my hungry child. i didn't know whether to laugh....because i KNEW it was hilarious, or cry because my chin was scratched, my knee was swollen and i already had a huge gash and bruise forming on my hip. i fed nova and changed her diaper and then went to survey the damage after situating her on the floor with some toys. my milk was obviously destroyed and had previously been rinsed off the sidewalk. my milk had also destroyed and soggy-ed my 2 loaves of bread. and last but certainly not least, my white, tall, skinny glasses you ask? CRUSHED!!!! CURSE THAT CRACK IN THE SIDEWALK!!!!!

SO......to end this senseless rambling, i still did our white christmas dinner even though it wasn't that cool because i didn't have the cool snowman drink---i just made snowman out of my powdered donuts. we didn't make snowflakes to hang above our table because i was in kind of a crusty mood. but here are some picks of our dinner---a day i never want to repeat. and today i feel like i was hit by a a very large semi truck. (and i know....the soup is yellow....but what ev)


































and here are some pics of nova




























and a picture of the hole in our bathroom ceiling.....but it has been fixed thanks to our awesome landlords!

not all choosy moms choose JIF

choosy moms don't always choose JIF. just recently i was indulging in an occasional past time of mine.....ok, so its not really occasional---its quite frequent in fact---in taking a spoonful of peanut butter and then eating chocolate chips with it WITH a tall glass of milk--(don't forget the dairy!) sigh.....yummy! aNYway, i opened a new jar of peanut butter to indulge, and it happened to be JIF brand. to make a long story shorter, we had a huge stock pile of western family peanut butter that we have rotated through our food storage and have since replaced it with JIF----thank you costco for allowing bulk purchase for a decent price! ANYWAY.....it was gross, not delectible or enjoyable, just yuck-tastic.......maybe i have grown immune to the lack of quality in generic brands, but who cares? give me my western family back! sorry JIF, but this choosy mom is choosing not to choose you.

also, here i have my camera cord back and here are some pics from the thanksgiving festivities.

my lil nephew kade---dance off champion 2008














the jerry hall family turkey trot 08














dan and i pumped for the race














and here is a cute picture of my fam taking a nap on sunday














also another quick story, a few weeks ago nova and i went to dan's work to take him a work treat. he has recently moved buildings and now has his very own cubicle! sort of.....anyway, we took him some square gray sugar cubicle cookies, and a picture of nova for his desk.














and here is a picture of dan reading with one of nova's toy ducks.......weird! :) it looks like mr. duck is trying to move in on my territory!














and nova lookin cute in her sweet winter hat!

trots + turkeys + dancing = fun and colds

so i am completely exhausted and dan and i are both sick after thanksgiving this year, but we had SO much fun. thanksgiving day started out with the first ever, jerry hall family turkey trot. i actually stole the idea from my friend kelli manwaring--thanks kelli! (she hosted a turkey trot for friends and family this year) and since i couldn't go, i decided to put a little twist to it for my own family. i decided to divide the family up into 2 teams, and do a relay in front of our house. i made little packets for everyone with a few treats and their number and team color for the race. we had rubber chickens as the batons, and started the race with a gun. the teams were divided into team red--the yummy-yummy yam-yams, and team black--the green bean casserole team. each person--minus the really little children had to run/walk 2 telephone pole lengths and then pass the baton/rubber chicken to the next runner and so forth. i was kind of worried that people wouldn't get into it, but i think everyone had fun doing it. it was pretty cold, but it worked out really well. afterwards we gathered in our garage and ate warm cinnamon rolls and hot cocoa and passed out medals for everyone. (made by the one and only--heather!)
so, here are some pics of the trot relay
ok, so i just realized that i left my camera cord in idaho......GROWL! oh, well i have video, so here is a video. its kind of long, but what-ev.
.

after that, we went to my brother jeremy's house and a bunch of the family played dart tag/steal the flag. its a game we made up that involves hiding a flag, moving gun-man, stationary gun-man, shields and alot of running around the house trying to find the other teams flag without getting shot by the dart guns. so again, i don't have my camera, but i gave dan some dart guns for his birthday last year, so here is a picture of what they look like.....holy cow, we look rad.














after that we had a delicious thanksgiving dinner, and my parents busted out an early family christmas present--a Wii-- since we won't all be together on christmas. so we played that for a while, and it is completley official.....i am terrible at mario cart, and if i drove like that in real life, my license would definitely be revoked.

LATER, (my favorite part) we all participated in a MDO, or a mandatory dance off. it was absolutely HILARIOUS! everyone participated and i think everyone was glad they did. we all went in a room with a video camera and danced for 30 seconds to the song, "I like to move it, move it." then we all watched it together and voted for our top three who had to preform live in front of everyone to a surprise song that we picked for them. proudly, dan got in the top 3, as did my brother beau and my little nephew kade. the winner recieved a wicked awesome shirt that i designed---fabric crayons are awesome---a sweet trophy with spray-painted gold shoes, and a 10 dollar gift card to cold stone. the verdict? watch the video and find out.





and that pretty much sums up the day. it was full of food and an equal amount of exercise to balance it out. i am really glad my family puts up with my insane ideas---even the pregnant women participated....speaking of which, amanda had her baby yesterday and nova is so excited that she has a new cousin, owen mckay, we left before we could see him, which is good because dan and i both have awful colds. (another reason, why this blog probably isn't clever and is probably disjointed.)

we've seen pics and he is SO cute! congrats ty and amanda.

also yesterday was dan's mom's birthday and we want her to know we love her. i couldn't ask for a better mother-in-law. she is so great and a wonderful example of love, service and motherhood.

i suppose when i get my camera back, i'll post all the pics on my camera, but until then, i guess video will just have to do. hopefully everyone had a spectacular thanksgiving and reflected oon what they are thankful for and how many blessing we have. in reality i am thankful for so much. modern medicine, the gospel, friends, family, the Savior and a beautiful world to live in. for a healthy body and for a healthy mind. but laughing dan and i put together a top three list of funny things we are thankful for.

dan is thankful for:
1. english
2. books
3. cheese

suzanne is thankful for:
1. disneyland
2. ice cream
3. the color orange

nova is thankful for:
1. bathtime
2. binkies
3. milk

p.s. i have been trying to post this since monday and it is taking years to upload the videos. finally-2 days later its done!