Here it is!

Another year of Holiday Goodness!

Christmas came and went soo fast this year. We have a lot to celebrate this season and here is a little re-cap of our fun month!

Johnny and Ben made these really awesome edible mice out of caramel Hershey kisses, chocolate dipped maraschino cherries, nuts and oreos. It was funny watching Johnny create because he was soo into it and excited to show us the final masterpiece! Olivia, of course, LOVED them and they were really quite delicious! Dec.19th was Johnny's 30th birthday! Olivia was really excited to help me make Johnny's birthday cake. We made a white cake and she INSISTED on adding blue sprinkles to the mix--turning the cake blue--boys need blue cakes, obviously. She wanted pink frosting for herself and added the candles on her own! Check out that grin she was so proud of herself! We took it pretty easy this year for our birthdays and just hung with a small group of friends. Johnny and all his guys friends took a Saturday to go paint balling and do guy stuff. My birthday was Dec. 22nd and I am officially 28! Jess treated me to lunch and pedicures for a fun Saturday while the boys were doing their thing! THANKS JESS, it was soo much fun!

Christmas seemed to come really quickly this year, but it was the first year that I actually got my shopping done early! It was nice to be done and just "relax" as much as we could in our torn up house! We did our usual Christmas Eve party at the Millers and SANTA CAME! What a surprise! All of the kids LOVED their Jammie's and Floam that they got from the fat man! Olivia got spoiled this year. The only thing she really wanted Santa to bring was a "talking baby doll". Santa brought her the funniest little Munchkin Cheers doll. It is a cheerleader that sings about 6 diff cheers and it is HILARIOUS, seriously. It came with pom-poms for Liv which are a big hit! Santa also brought her a new play kitchen-which is nicer than mine, a cool backpack (that she didn't take off for an entire day), play make-up & polish, a play chainsaw ??, play food, some outfits.....so on and so forth. As for our gifts, Johnny bought me a gun safe and I got him a paper shredder! Serious. Is this what growing up means? Is this what it has come to? Well, anywho I'm glad Johnny and I think alike because I really wanted that paper shredder!

Olivia had a Christmas Program for her school and did an excellent job! Her class, the crocodiles, learned a little Peppermint stick song and sang it to the audience. It was supposed to be a surprise to all the parents but I knew what was up for about 2 weeks before the program because she would walk around singing "I took a lick of my peppermint stick and thought it tasted yummy. It used to hang on my Christmas tree, but now it's in my tummy!" over and over again! After their peppermint stick rendition they performed another song which included a lot of jumping around and dancing! It was adorable! I can't believe she already has school programs. She's growing up too fast.

We spent Christmas Evening with my family which was fun! The adults did an emergency preparedness exchange and we came home with some good stuff! We've been doing this type of gift giving for several years which has really helped johnny and I get prepared for a disaster! We have built up our food storage and emergency kits in case we ever need them! This year we got a big huge pack of AA batteries, two buckets with hermetically sealing lids, dried strawberries and brown sugar. I never thought I would say this but, it was awesome!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010! This was one of the funnest New Years Eve's I've had in a long time! My family decided to all stay at Saratoga in our condo on New Years Eve. We let all 10 of the Grand kids stay up until midnight to ring in the new year! At midnight we had them all get on their coats and we went outside to bang pots and pans. We paraded up and down the long driveway hoping to wake up whoever was lame enough to go to bed. The kids LOVED it and Olivia thought it was kinda weird. She was totally into banging her pan but kept saying "what are we doing?" It was funny.

New Years Day was laid back. Johnny and I were completely comfortable letting the child run free with her cousins while we slept in until 11! Nice! Luckily my sister made pancakes so our kid didn't starve or try to eat anything out of the garbage while we slept. Swimming at the Saratoga pool is always a fave in the winter. Olivia and her cousins thought that the snowballs were the coolest and Liv loved to watch them melt in the pool.
What a fun New Years... I hope we keep this tradition alive!

Johnny and I celebrated our #6 ANNIVERSARY on January 3rd! We dropped Liv off at my Moms and went to Dinner and a DOUBLE Feature. That's right, we saw TWO movies in a row, we are such rebels! Thanks Mom and Dad for watching our peanut! Johnny and I have come a long way in our relationship it seems, and I couldn't imagine not having him. He is the BEST Dad to Olivia, she just adores him! He is such a hard working person and a loving husband. He even still buys me flowers, I am so lucky! We love you Johnny so much!

Hope you're Holiday events were safe and happy too!

Jungle Jim's with Jet!

Johnny and I picked up Liv's little buddy, Jet, and hit up Jungle Jim's for an awesome good time!

They had a BLAST and especially loved all of the cotton candy we let them eat!

I accidentally cut off their heads on this one...but look at those GRINS!

They are so happy and cute!

Just For Di!

I'm sorry, but I have to.

I've heard enough horror stories, seen enough Oprah shows and thought about it just plain long enough...I am going private before somebody steals my pics, or our identities.  As much as I hate private blogs and logging into others...I'm not going to be the next vicitm either, so, hope you want to stay with me!

E-mail me if you want in!  Beccaleemiller@gmail.com

p.s. Christmas pics are coming SOON!

The bun has a gender...

We are so excited to add a little testosterone to our family and Olivia is thrilled to have a baby brother to put make-up on and tease! Thanks Bliss for sneaking us in to take pics last Saturday, we are SOO thrilled to know the gender this early! Johnny seems particularly excited that the scores will be even. He's already started to plan this baby's future and his fight career, i'm in for a ride, I can't wait!

Halloweener

Fun year. Fun year. Olivia is just old enought to completely enjoy Halloween. She had SUCH a fun time dressing up and going to school in her costume! She had an adorable Halloween parade at preschool and two sweet parties to attend this year. Olivia LOVED trick-or-treating. She got to go around with her cousins Ethan and Aspen to get candy. Olivia learned quickly, she would get to the door and yell the appropriate "TRICK-OR-TREAT" and wait for the candy to be placed in her bag. As soon as she got the candy she'd say very sweetly "Thank You" then turn around and run towards us screaming "I GOT MORE CANDY!", "LET'S GO TO THE NEXT HOUSE MOM!!". It was soo funny to watch! We made it to about 13 houses and decided to go inside, however, Olivia wanted to keep going all night! It was awesome. I haven't had such a fun Halloween in a long time! I love her enthusiasm :)
Our cute little bumble bee
Jade, from work, dressed up as Kate Gosselin. Check out that wig!!! She won first place in our work costume contest! haha
arrrg.
Cute Cohen is a Dinosaur!
Baby Jayne and Liv being super cute.

Jayne and Liv

Nancy & Randy ( I LOVE that mask!)

The Miller Crew

Nasty Gummy Hand

The bumble bees:

Mummy Dogs

Brain Cheese Ball

AWESOME RIBS!
mmm. Dirt cups.

The spread.
Aspen and Olivia trick-or-treating! Olivia was super excited that they BOTH got to be Bumble Bee's :P

Cute Cohen

Dance PARTY!

She loved my pirate boots!

Our Costumes for Halloween!!

Yep! It's TRUE ...there IS, in deed, a bun in my oven!

SURPRISE!

This is how we broke the news to my folks on Halloween! Even though they didn't get it and we had to tell them it was a double meaning and Johnny was a BAKER on purpose :) ...it went over well! We are both soo excited! Olivia is excited too, when I tell her there is a tiny baby in my belly she says "OPEN IT, I want to see it!" haha Of course, I want to see it too! But, we'll have to wait until June 5th! I've always wanted one of those creepy bouncing babies on my blog, and now I can have one! :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

BONUS! Here are some sweet Vids:

The DANCE PARTY at Paul and Jessica's

This one is just for you, DI!

Livi before going to School!

(Sorry It wouldn't flip cause I filmed it the wrong way!)

DDD

Daddy Daughter Date Friday!

Johnny is the cutest Dad. Last Friday he took Olivia to Jungle Jim's...just him and her. She just ADORES her Dad and is so lucky to spend all day Fridays with just him! When I was young my Dad used to take me on Daddy Daughter dates and I will never forget how special and grown up it made me feel even as a tiny kid. My favorite Date with my Dad was when he took me out to dinner and then to buy Rainbow Brite Rollerskates! I am glad that Johnny is building this bond with Liv and I hope she will remember (even as a teen) how awesome her Dad is!

Oh, I also told Johnny to be sure and strike up conversation with all the Moms at Jungle Jim's, that way he may be invited to join their play groups! haha.

Lucky Girl!

The Farm

We've had our Holiday Season Kickoff...CANADIAN THANKSGIVING!!

My new favorite holiday of the year~

(Unfortunatley I don't have any pics to prove it yet...but I will post them as soon as I can!)

Every year we celebrate this amazing holiday with Johnny and his family and our friends! I love that I married Canadian, two Thanksgiving dinners is always better than one! It was really delicious this year and it was a beautiful day to party, even though we missed our BFF's!

Before Canadian Thanksgiving we hit up the Thanksgiving Point Farm with the Kids! It was so much fun and Olivia is still talking about Pony Ride!!

I always think of Napolean Dynamite! "Tina, you fat lard, come get some dinner!" Livi and CohenWe would make cute prisoners.
This giant bird almost bit our fingers off! Be aggresive, b-e-aggresive!
Aren't these little love-pigs cute?

Liv's FAVORITE part!

Mr. Goat

On a side note:

Johnny got a new ride (to add to his collection of rides)... a 1934 Frazer Nash. It's a gem. We've already taken a drive around the hood. We look pretty classy in this peach! Olivia thinks that we bought it for her...i'm glad we've still got 13 years!

The Biter...

Besides Olivia LOVING school...she has been bit twice so far! Seriously, two year olds, act your age! She survived, and Cameron (the guilty) must now stay a safe distance from Olivia at all times.

Johnny thinks this is unacceptable and has begun teaching her how to fight! Oh geez.

First on the arm...
...and then a kiss on the cheek, gone bad.

{Blood and tears added for dramatic affect!}

New Chapter

We are starting a new chapter in our lives.

{photo courtesy of OLIVIA} hence why i look crazy.

Driving home from work the other day everything felt unfamiliar...not a bad thing, just not the same. Our whole world has changed in the last couple of months and this is our new chapter.

It REALLY all started at the end of July when our best of best friends ditched us and moved across the pacific ocean to Oahu, Hawaii (but seriously, who could blame them?). Life has felt different since they left. There is always something (someone) missing.

Mid September, both Johnny and Myself accepted new Full-time jobs and Johnny's Auto Shop, Lake City Auto- became no longer. Once we'd both accepted our new jobs we decided to put Olivia into Preschool...considering all she did at home for the past couple weeks was get into trouble (see previous posts and the latest, attached images) This is what I like to call "The Marker Incident" This is, indeed, caused by a sharpie pen.

So Naughty. We decided she was ready for more stimulation and would LOVE to go to school!

It has been just over a month since we closed Lake City Auto, put Olivia in school and began our new jobs. We are pretty well adjusted by now but MAN what a change it has been. Johnny travels a lot more now and is known to be gone for 3-5 days at a time. He loves his new job and WE LOVE the Salary!!! We have never had a steady paycheck since we've been married and I've just got to say....it rocks! He has tons more freedom, less stress, and gets to spend every Friday with Olivia. YAY!

As for myself, I have worked at University Hospital for 7 years now, let's just say It Is Familiar! When I got offered a Lead position at one of the U of U Community Clinics I decided it would be a great option for me! I had been waiting for a full-time position to open up in my department at the hospital for some time but nothing was available. When this was offered to me I decided it really was ideal...unlike the hospital it is regular banker hours, no call, no holidays, Lead pay....sold, I took it. It has been a HUGE change from what I'm used to, huge! For example: I am no longer surrounded by a big bundle of my good friends, the clinic is A LOT slower pace than what I'm used to and I find myself walking...just to walk, I park...and I walk right in --instead of fight traffic, finally find a parking spot, take a shuttle bus and get to work late (obviously a positive). Most of all I miss all my friends! I now work with a dear lady named Jackie. She's older, has bad knees, wears an obvious wig, walks with a shuffle, finds working a bother, LOVES cats and dogs and HATES Kids. We sure have a lot in common. haha Thank the Heavens for JADE the cute scheduler for Radiology. If it weren't for her I would have slit my wrists by now! Oh, and Lollicup--which makes the most delicious Boba's in the world and it's right down the street (That's a whole other topic, seriously I love Boba's). I don't wish working 5 days a week upon anyone it makes you boring and slowly sucks out your soul. BUT, it isn't forever and I can't make it worth while while I'm here, I already have improved this place by 1 million. Besides, the $money$ makes it better!!

Olivia LOVES preschool, she goes 4 days a week and thrives on it! She loves her teachers and is making a lot of new friends. She gets outdoor time and Gym time 3 times a day, a nap, 3 meals and 2 snacks, activity centers, games, songs...who wouldn't love that?! This week they have been dressing up everyday. Yesterday was pajama day, today, crazy day. She has been SOO excited to go to school and show her teacher Andrea her funny clothes that she hasn't even noticed we are there. I'm so glad she loves school, if she didn't it would make work that much harder to attend! I have already seen a HUGE change in Olivia. She is talking in full sentences and talking VERY well too. She's turning into a little adult. She always busts out with a new song and sings us the whole thing, she can say her alphabet and count up to 20 and she talks about her teachers and a little boy named Dominique when she isn't at school! It's so cute! The best part is she gets to spend every Friday with her Dad!

Along with all the school and work changes...Johnny got a wild hair and ripped up all our carpet last week. I guess it's time to re-model. We've lived in our home for 2 years now, this has been the longest stretch so far without doing some sort of home re-model project. IT STARTS... There is nice hardwood floors underneath our old carpet and we were hoping it would stretch throughout the whole upstairs, but it stops in the kitchen. So I am hoping Johnny grants me my wishes and allows us to get NEW Hickory floors throughout. That would be amazing. Besides I work so hard these days.... ;) (I use that to my advantage a lot) I am excited to finally make our home what we've wanted it to be!

A lot of changes, but I am excited for our future and so grateful for my little family!