Christmas List

Dear HoHo (as my niece would say),

All I want for Christmas is a Southwest flight back east!!
and a little something else very special to me :)
Love,
Lanae

Meridian, ID Temple

I heard the GREATEST news EVER today!!
Today the location of the Meridian, ID temple was announced;
The new Meridian, ID Temple will only be a few short steps from my house in Meridian!!
I am so excited to be able to walk to the temple when I want and see the temple every day through the windows from my house!!
It is the greatest feeling to know that we have the Lord on our side and that we have been so righteous, and are blessed to have this sacred building just a few blocks away!
No words can describe what a joy and blessing it will be to watch the temple being built and realize it is practically in my backyard!!
I love the temple and can't wait for all the exciting events to take place during the building process. I can't thank the Lord enough of how happy and joyful and what a blessing this is!!

Here is the link of the announcement and location:
http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/61848/Site-for-Meridian-Idaho-Temple-announced.html

(My house is at the bottom of the screen/map)

Our Christmas Tree

Remember how Mike and I bought a Christmas tree like three weeks ago and I decided it was too late to put it up?...Well...I finally decided it wasn't too late to get out and put together, and decorated it with all my new ornaments!! :)


Star placement

Tree without ornaments...

My pretty Christmas tree all decorated

Mike was not able to help me put together and decorate the tree because he was/is SO BUSY with finals this week :(


(Sorry about the ugly, scary look I'm presenting. I had just taken out my hair etc. and was in the middle of getting ready for bed when I decided to start).
Gotta love the random time of day you decide to start tackling projects.

Letters..

DEAR SANTA,

(we wrote letters to Santa and put them in the North Pole mailbox at Macy's)
I love seeing the kids so excited around Christmas time with all the fun things they get to do and all the fun service we get to participate in :) I love kids!

Sleigh bells ring...

The other day the next town over was offering free hot chocolate. free photo booth pictures. free visit with Santa. and FREE sleigh rides!! We, of course, jumped on that deal!! And had a blast!!

It was a gorgeous cold winter warm day (yep you read that right)


Sarah and Emily LOOOVED every second!!

All Bryant wanted to do was sit up front with the 'real cowboy' (because he is a cowboy too, duh)

And the rest of us enjoyed it too! :)

Our sleigh ride

GirLs...and boys....

My nieces lOOve trying on my shoes.
I had just bought a few new fun pairs of shoes and they just had to try them on, of course! :)




My newest nephew is learning at an early age... He is growing up SO fast!

and friends depart...

A few weeks ago Mike and I were going shopping. We had gone to Walmart first to look for what we needed and they didn't have it! (I thought Walmart had everything!??). He decided it was too cold to walk to Albertson's (right next door) to look; so we hopped in the car and drove two car lanes over and parked again. We got out of the car and Mike had something stuck to his foot. He kept walking thinking it would come out. But he kept walking and it kept staying. He turned around and looked at me and said, "This bag is stuck in my shoe! and it won't come out!" I immeditely burst in laughter and couldn't stop!! In the middle of my nonstop giggles I said, "WAIt, Wait, I HAVE to take a picture!! Hold on a second" He walked slower while I bust out my camera and tried to take a picture. I decided it wasn't good enough and Had to take another one because this bag was just NOT letting go!! He finally bent over and took the bag out.

We shopped and found what we needed. As we were walking out the door the bag that used to be his best friend was still waiting at the door for us. We literally had to jump over the bag so it would not latch onto either of us!!

Mike laughed SO hard with me! :)



P.S. we still have NO idea where this bag came from and how it got stuck to his foot and how we didn't notice until he got out of the car!!

Christmas cheer

Ok it's almost Christmas and I have not bought or made anything off my shopping list. I'm in big trouble. Good thing Santa produces miracles! (love that man!)
Last year I think I was finished by October/November. And it felt good. This year not only was I done early I knew what I was getting everyone. And they were sweet gifts! This year.....nothing. no ideas. not as much time. not as much money. Yet Christmas is only days away!! HeLp!
I still need gifts for my parents. Mike (the one I'm stressed out about the most). and my oldest brother.
Anybody have any ideas?!?! I desperately need help!!

I also thought this year I needed a little extra Christmas spirit in my room, so I had my brother Justin pick my up some white Christmas lights from Home Depot that I strung around my window. But if you have lights you can't stop there, you need a tree too! So last weekend I asked Mike to take me to Walmart so I could buy a tree. We found a tree. Then we decided you can't just buy a tree. So we looked for some ornaments to match my cute tree. We searched for the 'perfect' ornaments, and finally spotted to cutest red and silver ones. Well you can't just buy a tree and one package of ornaments. You need a star too. The silver star was the perfect match for this cute little tree :) But Mike just couldn't let me go with just one small box of small ornaments. He led me to another aisle of cute ornaments and picked out some hanging glittered snowmen. But you can't just have two kinds of ornaments. He also picked out a matching red string of shiny garland. He was then satisfied. :)
(I have not yet had time to put together our beautiful Christmas tree) :(

Hope you are enjoying this Christmas season :)