Lots has happened...we had an amazing Christmas. Santa, parents and family spoiled us rotten. Jaidynn was so unbelievably fun and cute! Having a munchkin makes everything more fun in our opinion! We started off the new year and have been really enjoying it so far! I had an amazing and I mean AMAZING month doing slumber parties. Wow, just when I was about to throw in the towel I made bank! Thank you to my wonderful hostesses for helping me do so well! Jeremy is rocking at work! Man can my hubby sale! Give him the tools and he'll go crazy! I'm so proud of you honey! We're hoping he can start applying for promotions soon! Jaidynn is doing great, she had croup and we had a crappy few days but she recovered so quickly it was amazing. I completely attribute it to the blessing she received, what a faith builder! She is spunky and smart and so so fun!
My mom and I were able to go up to Idaho to visit our life long friends and had the greatest time! Jaidynn loved the kids and every minute to be with them! I have the GREATEST mom, she is everything to me and I hope I can be like her some day!
I also received a second calling, I now get to teach the 5-6 year olds in primary and they are adorable! I have a wonderful partner and am excited for the year to come!
What else? Hmmm...we have several family birthday parties coming up which always makes for good times! I am now expected a new NIECE OR NEPHEW and am SOOOO excited! Hopefully we'll be expecting ourselves soon...I'll keep you posted!
Ok I think that's all for now! I figured posting something would be better for nothing so that's our recap on the last 2 months. Now Febuary here we come!

Grandpa Simmons

Sometimes I forget I have a blog to update but when life changing things happen I remember and want to write it down.
Last Wednesday night (the night before Thanksgiving) Jeremy's dad called to tell us Grandpa Simmons had just passed away. He had been suffering from congestive heart failure and diabetes so we knew it was coming but it was much harder than expected. We had the opportunity to go over to Grandma and Grandpa's house that night where we met many family and friends and were able to say goodbye. It brought such a peace and made the viewing last night (meaning Monday night) much easier for both of us. It was neat to be with family and friends and feel so much love. This is Jeremy's side of the family so althoug I may recognize a face, I don't necessarily have a strong relationship and neat relationships formed that night. His cute (great) Aunt Jerri took me in her arms and comforted me. His wonderful Aunt Tressa was a absolute joy as always. His cute little cousins loved visiting and saying hi. And his sweet Grandma was amazing through it all. It's amazing how a loss of a loved one reminds us of how important family is and can bring a family even closer together.
This morning was the funeral and many feelings were brought back up to the surface. We know that he is so much happier and has a feeling of freedom now that he doesn't have the mortal pains of his failing body. We know that we will see him again and feel blessed that we have a special reminder of what to be thankful for every year as we celebrate Thanksgiving. We are so grateful for the gospel and plan of salvation. But even with all of this, every time I look at our sweet Grandma, my heart breaks for her loss. He was her sweet heart and best friend and I couldn't imagine being in her shoes. She has been amazing through all of this and all of our testimonies have grown stronger. It's neat to see someone rely on the Lord through the hardest of times.
We will miss him so much. We are so grateful for his life and his example. It seems that we had mourned so many loved one's since we've been married but I guess that means there will be more loving faces when it's our turn to go to the other side.

We had such a fun halloween. Jaidynn is only 18 months old but totally got the hang of trick or treating down to the knock, the "trick or treat" and the candy. She even took the time to shut everyone's screen doors and say "bye." It was so much fun! We went and saw grandparents, had yummy Halloween soup and Brooke's parents, did the trick or treating and ended up at a very fun friends party!

October was SO much fun!

Here at Nana's 50's themed birthday party!

Enjoying witches night with the girls at Gardener Village

We (meaning mom) raked and raked ALL the leaves in our back yard and there were a lot! I couldn't fit them all in bags or the garbage can so they ended up in our trampoline hole where Jaidynn had a blast playing in them! She was so dang cute...who knew leaves could be so fun!

Such a fun weekend!

We had such a great weekend while Curtis and Karen were here from Texas! Friday morning the girls and I got the 4 grandkids together to do pictures for the birthday present I was making Karen. They were hard to get but turned out so cute! Then Friday night the women dressed up as witches and went to Witches Night at Gardner Village. It was so fun, we had dinner, shopped, danced and hung out. Everyone kept stopping us to admire Jaidynn's outfit and thought she was so cute. She walked around saying "Hi" and "Bye" and blowing kisses. People kept asking where we got her outfit (which I had made so it was a huge compliment) and she was just darling!
Then Saturday we had Karen's surprise 50th birthday party which was a 50's theme. Everyone dressed up and looked so great! We had hamburgers, french fries and shakes for dinner and got lots of great pictures! She was so surprised and had such a great time. The kids were all so cute together playing...we loved it!
Sunday and Monday we hung out as a family and had a great time soaking up as much of Curtis and Karen as we could. Overall, it was a great weekend!

I am on a cooking experimenting frenzie! It's been so fun! Jeremy and I talked a few weeks ago and decided we wanted to try to get our grocery budget down to $100/month...huge difference from what we were before. So I decided I was going to start coming up with meals from what we had in our food storage and try to make things from scratch. So far I've made wheat thins, graham crackers, wheat bread, pizza dough, and bread bowls and for the month of September we made our budget! It's been awesome, I feel so accomplished after preparing a healthy, home made dinner from scratch and it really has saved us money! And I have to give myself a big pat on the back because these are things I've wanted to try but never had the guts to, and the best part is they have all turned out and been way yummy! I'm excited to keep trying recipes and hopefully my good luck will continue!