christmas time

Wow I seriously cant believe Christmas is this week! Where has this month gone? When the month started out I was SO excited for Christmas, and then last week happened. Not that being busy isn't fun, but sometimes working all day and then being out until at least 10pm every night isn't the most fun, especially since I'm a grandma and love to be in bed early. Not to mention the fact that work was horrible last week. Trying to get out 6500 Christmas cards last minute while having to do my normal work and being the designated driver for co-workers = emotionally draining. But its over, done with, and now I cant wait for Christmas!

This month has been BUSY, in a good way most of the time.

First, ALL of our high school girls FINALLY got together! It was so much fun and long overdue! We talk about doing it all the time but finally a few girls got together and planned it.

All of us {almost}
Love all you girls, thanks for planning it Megs, Al, Trina, Abs, etc. We missed all of you who weren't there!

Then we were able to go to the First Presidency Christmas Devotional which was awesome.

The conference center looked amazing

After it ended we were able to go to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building for hot chocolate, wassail and dessert with the General YW and YM Boards and their families. Its a tradition that they do every year and its so fun being with everyone.

Sister Dalton and my mom

Next we went to the Bagley Family party at Marty and Dee's. We all used to do the Nativity when we were little and then we stopped it for a while because we were all old and too cool, but now its so fun to have so many little kids in the family that are willing {and some older kids too!}

Bud and Lize introduced us to Hatch's hot chocolate {aka the Little Chocolateires if you saw TLC tonight} after the Bagley party, yum! We went there to celebrate my little sis's college graduation! Yay Meg, way to go!

Finally we had another party with my girlfriends. It took awhile to nail down a date that would work for all of us but we made it happen and it was so fun!

We made gingerbread houses which we hadn't done this year and I must say we did pretty good, well Al did good I should say, I just held together the pieces. Brando and Annie totally beat everyone thanks to Brando's mad construction skills.

Thanks Meg for finding the perfect date and thanks Dan for putting it all together, love ya girls!

On another note, Happy Birthday {yesterday} to my gorgeous mother! Love ya momma!

Merry Christmas everyone, have a good week!!

Thanksgiving Weekend

I feel like Thanksgiving was so long ago! Im way behind but here it goes...

Our Thanksgiving works out perfect for us being able to go with both families. We started off with my family eating at Tuscany around noon. The food is so good and we are able to go with my grandma and cousins. Wish we got a pic together Lala!







We stuffed ourselves full and hung out all day at my parents and then went over to Aunt Polly's for pie with the Mullin's and Despain's.

We went to Al's parents at 6 that night for round two! Its nice eating so early with my fam because then we are hungry again for our second dinner with the Hogan's. So we ate with them and played games all night! I love Thanksgiving, its so fun getting together with family and eating all day!

It was SO nice having a few days off work! I love long weekends. We went to Blindside which we loved, Al woke up early to see what Black Fridays deals were at Target and Wal-Mart, and we put up our tree and the few other random decorations we have. I decided that this year I am going to actually buy some decorations when they are on sale after Christmas, all of the ones I use are old hand-me-downs.

Now I cant wait for Christmas! I have been listening to Christmas music all day at work and I cant get enough of it! We have started watching all of our favorite Christmas movies...Elf, The Grinch and The Santa Clause down...Scrooged, Christmas Vacation, Home Alone, Its A Wonderful Life and The Nativity to go!

The countdown is on for Christmas and if you remember from this post a few years ago my mom had put together some amazing advent calendars for her kids. Well she decided to do them again this year and I am so excited! It is so much fun opening each day to see what gift card, treat or prize my parents left us! Thanks for all of the hours you spent running around town getting stuff for these, love you!

18 days to go!

This Year I am Thankful For....

::my hubby. we have definitely had our share of ups and downs, but i couldnt be more grateful to have found him in this life.

::my family. i dont know how i ever got so lucky to be blessed with the best family and the best inlaws that a girl could ask for.

::reality tv. antm, project runway, the bachelor, sytycd, etc.

::the gospel. i really dont know where i would be without it and i dont really want to know. is it my life and i couldnt feel more blessed to have the knowledge that i do.

::my house. i may not have the biggest, nicest or cutest house on the planet, but i love my house. it is so comfy, cozy, warm, perfect. i couldnt ask for anything more and id rather be there then anywhere else.

::daybreak. lame i know but really, daybreak is the best! the darling houses, the lake is so pretty, there are new cute shops, the district is so close, the temple, and most importantly the people. there is just a feeling in daybreak that is different than anywhere else and i feel so blessed to live here.

::target and costco. my two favorite stores.

::the temple. i love being able to go once a month and for the feeling i have there. we cleaned the oquirrh mountain temple the other night and it was such an amazing feeling being there with only 20 of us in the entire temple. it really is heaven on earth.

::my friends. hs friends, daybreak friends, work friends, church friends, i dont know what id do without you guys. girlfriends are the best.

::our jobs. we have been blessed with such great jobs and i couldnt be more grateful, especially in this ecomony.

happy thanksgiving!

Dear Jacob,

I have been on your side from the beginning. And although I dont know the outcome because I still havent finished Breaking Dawn because the part Im at is so dumb I cant move past it, you have for sure won in my book.

This movie looks a million times better than the first one and I am counting down the days until I see it (exept I dont have time to it until next week).

Love Sarah

PS-you're hot.

HaLlOwEen

Our Halloween lasted for about a week this year....

The Monday before Halloween we had a family party with Alan's side of the family. I have to thank Alan's mom for helping us throw together a costume last minute--we had zero time to find anything this year so of course Becky came to the rescue! She put us together costumes for Michael and Latoya Jackson! Al secretly idols MJ so I know he was loving every second of being him.

Maddie, me, Al and Al's mom, Becky.

Al's sister Maddie was the CUTEST wonderwoman-her mom made the entire costume from scratch of course, Becky's amazing!

Me and my gorgeous sister-in-law

My work celebrated Halloween that Friday and it was probably the most fun and funniest day of work I'll ever have! Everyone got so into it and no one really worked that day. We had a huge Spaghetti Factory lunch, tons of candy and lots of trick-or-treaters. I was laughing the whole day!

Some office girls
I love his Buddy The Elf costume, it was perfect and he was acting like Buddy all day!

Oh Brett! Funniest costume ever!
Me and my boss Bill in his real army attire--love him.

That night Megan and Annie had their annual Halloween party. Everyone's costumes were hilarious as usual and Im pretty sure we were all delirious by the end of the night from playing way too much Mafia!

Me and Al as Latoya and MJ again, Im thinking that I look more like a 50 year old who goes tanning too much??

Ya, definitely a 50 year old who tans too much.

The whole group!

Thanks Meg and Annie for pulling it off once again!

benj & rachel's wedding

My big brother Ben got married on 10.24.09 and I couldn't be happier for him and Rachel. They really do make the perfect pair and I am so happy that they found each other. Rachel is so darling, she is the nicest, most free-spirited person I have ever met and she is so good for Ben.

The night before the big day they had a wedding dinner at The Lion House. It was so fun getting together with all of our friends and family to celebrate and reminisce. Not to mention how great the food was, Im pretty sure I ate the whole basket of rolls myself!

The cute couple!

Bagley Girls

Meg and Jon...next Bagley wedding??

Buddy giving a little speech as the best man.

My cutest dad giving the best speech/advice I have ever heard, I really wish I would have recorded it. It was SO cute, Al better have been listening very carefully!

The funnest part of the night was hanging out with the Bagley cousins! I dont get to see them too often (minus the blogging world) so it was fun staying late, talking and singing songs like old times.

Benj at the piano playing all the Grandpa Jiggs classics.

Benji & Rachel

Mr. & Mrs. Bagley!

Bagley siblings....not sure what setting my camera was on for this one??

Love the gorgeous Draper Temple.

Mom & Dad

All the Bagley girls with Elaine Dalton and some of my mom's fellow Young Women Board members.

After they had shoved cake in each other's mouthes!

Congrats Benj and Rach, I couldnt be more happy for you, love ya!