The Pixie

Between my favorite restaurants and favorite meals and treats of my mom's, we always eat way too much when we come home. I didn't make this situation any better this week when I suggested taking Kyle to The Pixie in Mt. Pleasant. The Pixie is a small old fashioned diner famous for their coney dogs and bitty burgers. Not because they are especially delicious, but because if you eat so many of them you get your name on a tiny litle plaque that is forever displayed on their wall. I knew Kyle would be up for the challenge, so we loaded up our nieces whom we had for the day, drove to Mt. Pleasant and did a little shopping, then met my dad for lunch. Kyle had to eat a minimum of 10 "bitty" burgers which he did effortlessly. He ordered an 11th just for fun, and could have eaten more if he didn't have to pay for them. I have been eating like a cow during my 2nd trimester, but walked out feeling skinny after stopping at just 1 bitty burger and some fries. I can't say that I've ever eaten only an eleventh of what Kyle ate.

In this last picture they are admiring the wall. The record holder in 1992 ate 30 burgers! We didn't ask what the record is now but maybe next time Kyle will go for it. :)

Michigan Christmas

It hasn't snowed since we've been here and I don't think it will, but it still feels like Christmas and it's great to be home. Our trip started off with a baby shower on Saturday that my family threw for us. It was open house style here at my parents and it was so much fun to have friends and family that I haven't seen in a while stopping by all day. Many of them Kyle had never even met. Kyle thought it would be fun to display all of our new gifts for a picture (or maybe he just wanted to mock me and my belly?) and you can see by looking at these how spoiled we were. We received so many nice things, including some of our "big stuff" that has been shipped to Utah. We are so blessed to have such amazing family and friends that are excited and want to be a part of this with us. Our baby is so loved already.

Speaking of baby, she has been moving like crazy lately, and last night Kyle and I were watching my belly move for the first time! Makes me wonder how long she's been kicking hard enough to see it and I didn't know. It was the weirdest and coolest thing EVER. I felt a little like Bella in Breaking Dawn, but our baby should be all human. :)

While it has been a great week so far, it got even better this morning when my dad received good results from his latest blood work! We've all been a little nervous all week, and now it is safe to say it will be a very MERRY Christmas!

We hope that yours is as well!

Gingerbread houses

Saturday night was the Haskell's annual Gingerbread House competition (although I don't think they were ever really judged) and it was my first time being apart of the fun tradition. We had pizza from Payson's famous pizza place, and ate way too much junk along with it. The second house shown is the one Kyle and I made. We tried creating his parent's house but we ran out of time so it was a hurried attempt. Our favorite cousin Kelsey joined us, and finally gave in and made a house of her own. Hers was.....lets just say, the smallest one.....

We ended the evening by going to the Festival of Lights in Spanish Fork, which was also a first for me. We all met there and then loaded up on Lee's big hay wagon and Andy pulled us with his truck. We ate doughnuts, sang Christmas carols, and laughed about the missing cooler full of hot chocolate Maxyne made that must have fallen off the wagon on the way there.

The Festival of Lights is something special for the Haskell boys to share with their parents because it was the last place they took Amy just a couple days before she passed away. Today is the anniversary of her death, and while it took place 18 years ago, she is just as much apart of her family and always will be. I'm privileged to have come to know her through them. They keep her memory very much alive, and I am really grateful for that. I can't wait to meet her someday.

Go Cougars!

Kyle's favorite pastime is cheering on his team, and Andy buys season tickets to the BYU basketball games so we are lucky and get to reap the benefits once in a while. A couple weeks ago they played in the Energy Solutions Arena in Salt Lake against Oregon and he was so generous and gave us 2 of his tickets. Justin and Tabitha came as well. It was fun to see her reaction. She jumped every time the crowd started cheering, which was a LOT. But she had fun, and would clap when we clapped. Love that girl.

Christmas Party

This year we hosted the annual Christmas party with Kyle's friends he grew up with. It's always so much fun when the whole gang gets together. The boys are always entertainment enough, but the White Elephant made it even better. Especially when they were the ones to open gifts like these:

Nick put Sophie to sleep. It's adorable to see the guys holding their friend's babies.

Until they pose with a trashy romance novel. Then it's not so cute.

Oh wait, this one wasn't a gift. Benny actually wore this that night...

The girls received some interesting gifts as well. Kyle's contribution to the exchange was a bag of goldfish. (In case you're ever in search of some pet fish, Walmart has a 72 hour "mortality policy". For reals.)

Kyle put together a trivia game with questions from their past. It was pretty funny. Some of them have been friends since elementary school and it's always fun to hear their stories. They were usually up to no good. For example one of the questions was, "What was the last thing that was said before we rolled that car down the mountain?"

Christmas decorating

First of all, I need help with my blog. I tried changing to a Christmas background and (obviously) it only changed half. I don't have the patience to continue trying to figure it out. Any ideas? And does anyone know why my pictures keep getting posted on the right side instead of to the left? I've been posting them the same as I always have. It's driving me CRAAAAZY.

Speaking of patience, this tree took a lot of it. I was really sad when we got out our 1 year old artificial tree this year to find that half of the branches no longer stay in very well. I didn't even attempt to put ornaments on it because I knew that would result in all of the branches on the floor, along with my eyeballs. I was telling my Aunt Linda about it one day, and she mentioned that her friends Dan and Heather happened to have a tree they wanted to give away. They had built a loft in their home and it no longer fit where they wanted it, so they bought a new one. A phone call later, we had a new tree! It was SO nice of them.

Well turns out, it didn't fit in our home either. But we were determined to make it work. We thought about just taking out part of the middle, which didn't look bad, but the lights on top weren't working. So I decided to just make a really big topper that would cover up what should have been there. Can you tell our tree is missing its top?

The whole process took way too long, and now we only get to enjoy it for about 9 days before we leave for MI. Oh and did I mention it took several days and 3 attempts to make a topper that wasn't too ugly or too big, but big enough to hide the missing top? When this tree breaks, we're definitely switching to real trees! I just decided.

And finally, here is my beloved village. My mom gets me new pieces every year for my birthday. And THAT is my new bench that Amber and Andy MADE ME. Like, actually built, added the design, painted, and everything. How talented are they? I love it. Thanks to Christmas and this bench, my once empty room is now decorated!