The Most Wonderful Day of the Year

I've put it off long enough. It's time to blog about CHRISTMAS!!

This was the first year Toren and I had a REAL Christmas tree. Our first Christmas we enjoyed a fake 3-foot tree from Walgreens before we went to Washington and Seattle for two weeks. Last year we were living with Toren's parents. They left for Arizona on Christmas day, so they didn't put themselves through the hassle of decorating.

But this year, we had a beautiful 7-foot Noble Fir.

We decorated it mostly with inherited (hand painted by Toren's grandma) ornaments and a few scraggly ones from Toren's childhood (I strategically put these ornaments in the back). Having our apartment decorated really filled us with the Christmas spirit. It was wonderful.



The weekend before Christmas, we met up with my family in Seattle (Mom, Dad and John flew home from Hong Kong. Laura drove back from school. And David had already been living there). First they surprised us with all sorts of knock-off goodies...like my amazing Jimmy Choo purse, and then we just spent lots of time laughing and catching up. It was great. Toren went back home on Sunday night, but I spent a few more days (mostly shopping and eating) with my family.

Most of the ladies of the family enjoying a Chipotle lunch and our new purses from Hong Kong.

My mom drove me back down to Portland on the morning of Christmas Eve, where she accompanied me on an ultrasound appointment.

That night we spent with Toren's family (minus Blake, Maren, Braden, Brent and Mallory). We enjoyed a Christmas Eve feast and watched a Nativity movie.

And then Christmas morning came....

Our stocking loot.

Baxter was SO excited about his new bone he wouldn't even let me get close enough to take the stocking off.

Toren got a pre-Christmas gift this year: a Playstation 3. So all he wanted when Christmas actually rolled around were games.

And all I wanted was a Sonicare (and HP 6 of course!)

Toren's mom gave him this perfect 6-month BYU football jersey. Toren is already daydreaming about the first game he'll get to take his little son to.
(P.S. I don't think I even announced it yet, but we're having a BOY! We are ecstatic!!)

Baxter probably got the best gift of all. (It's a Pez dispense for pets. The dispenser freaks him out but he'll endure it just long enough to get the Pez!)

After opening presents and trying out all our new gear, we went to watch Avatar (of course in 3D) and spend more time with the family.

All in all, it truly was the most wonderful day of the year! And though I've only really mentioned the worldly aspects of Christmas, it also wonderful in spiritual aspects as well. It was a humbling time to reflect on our many blessings and give thanks.

Our Little Sweet Potato

My cousin (who is also pregnant right now) showed me this site called thebump.com. Among other things, you can see what size your baby is in relation to fruits and vegetables. When I saw her adorable little lemon I just had to know what ours was. And I found....a hairy, bumpy sweet potato! It may not be the cutest vegetable in the world, but I sure love our little sweet potato. I mean, who couldn't? Just look at it!

And Baby Makes Three!!

That's right...we're having a baby!! I'm just about 17 weeks and due May 22. Toren and I couldn't be happier. I just stopped throwing up daily, so maybe now I can keep my blog a little more updated.

Ape Caves

Several weeks ago Toren took the Young Men on an adventure to Ape Caves and I got to tag along. The ape caves formed when Mount St. Helens erupted almost 2000 years ago. As lava flowed from the mountain, the lava on the top cooled and hardened but the lava below continued to flow, creating a tube. It is through this tube that we climbed. It's pitch black inside and impossible to maneuver without flashlights. There were several times we had to climb over huge piles of lava rock or jump down dips in the cave. It's only 1.5 miles long, but it took us a couple hours. Of course, the boys had to explore ever little offshoot they could fit into, which added to our time.

The Young Men and their Fearless Leader

Mount St. Helens and Me

Entering the cave....

Beginning the trek.

Bouldering like a pro.

Not the best picture of me, but look at those lava rocks!

We're so happy to have made it to the end!

A Few More Layouts

So I feel like I'm making progress with the whole digital scrapbooking thing. I just looked back at the first few I did (ones I haven't posted on my blog) and thought "wow. ugly." I've redone a couple of those ones already. There's a lot to learn, but it's still so much fun. I love looking at other people's layouts for ideas and inspirations. I can only imagine the digit scrapper I'll be a year from now.....

Here's a few of my most recent layouts. The label is what kit(s) I used for the LO.

Festival by Shabby Princess

Family Ties by ShelBelleScraps

Shabby Fall by Shabby PrincessJenny Rule by Scrapper's Guide

Vintage Floral by Shabby PrincessHoliday Magic and Winter Sampler by Shabby Princess

Clackamas County Fair

One of my favorite things about the end of summer is that it's finally FAIR season!! I absolutely LOVE fairs. So a couple weekends ago we headed to the Clackamas County fair with a few of our friends. It was so much fun!

We started our adventure with the most delicious elephant ear. I think I love fairs so much because I love fair food. And we sure ate our fill...and then some!

The fair had an entire exotic animals exhibits. This tiger was so HUGE. It's hard to really grasp it's magnificence in the photo.

The tortoises were pretty lazy...probably because there were a dozen kids yelling at them.

And of course we loved the pygmy goats! We only wished Baxter would have been there. He would loved to romp around with goats.

Toren HAD to play some of the fair games. Luckily he won 2 out of the 3 he played. This is his winning shot.

And his prize.

And his second winning game...

I've never been a fan of stuffed animals, but it's still exciting to win and see the envy of every other fair goer as you carry them around.

Baxter, on the other hand, LOVES stuffed animals.

He was terrified of the big yellow one, but he de-stuffed and shredded the little monkey in about 20 minutes.

The monkey's remains....

Keeping up With the Gailey's

Many of you probably know that my family (Mom, Dad and John) have moved to Hong Kong. My dad accepted a position with Coke and they're having him working the Pacific region. They've been having tons of fun so far. Every time I talk with them I get more and more jealous. We stay in touch through Skype and their Ooma internet phone.

For those of you who'd like to stay updated, my mom has a blog to document all of their Hong Kong adventures. Check it out at heidiinhongkong.blogspot.com. Beware, though, It'll make you jealous too!!

(Laura's spending 4 weeks in Hong Kong with them before she starts school again this fall. David is living with our grandparents, working, and going to school)