*Christmas*

This year we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning over at my parents' house. Mom fixed a delicious prime rib dinner with rolls, mashed potatoes and gravy and desserts. It was so yummy! Thanks mom for hosting this year! After the dinner settled, some of us played card games and board games until about 11:00 p.m. Everyone got ready for bed and all the kids slept in the family room on blow up mattresses or couches...or a spot on the floor! That's been a tradition since way back when.....

CHRISTMAS EVE:

John and Hallie playing "Ants in the Pants"


We had a lot of fun on Christmas Eve!

CHRISTMAS MORNING:

Just a reminder...The Hill Family has another tradition of Robert getting everyone up at about 4:00 a.m. to open presents. It makes for a way early morning but it's once a year! :) And remember-I don't care who you are-nobody looks good at 4 am!!

Mom and Dad started the unwrapping. Dad got Dodge floor mats for his new pickup and all of us kids got mom a Scentsy.


Kind of a sad note: This year will be Alex's last Christmas before he leaves for his mission! I can't believe that that time in his life is already arriving! He seems too little to be that old!

I got John some Craftsman tools which he loved! I also got him some coveralls, work gloves, a sweater and a rechargeable maglite.

Here's Ashley opening her big present!


More of the boys!

My parents surprised Robert and Alex with an IPod Touch! Lucky!

Some of the presents John gave me were a new coat, a jewelry box, perfume, a Scentsy, and the new moon soundtrack! :) After the presents were opened, we all went back to bed for a few more hours then we all kinda went our seperate ways for the day. Nick, Ashley and Hallie went over to Nick's mom's house for Christmas breakfast; Mom, Dad and the boys drove to Grandma and Grandpa's house for lunch/dinner; and John and I went out to John's parents house and spent the rest of the day with them. Linda made a great dinner and then we all sat around and watched movies and played some games. It was a lot of fun!

John and I both had a wonderful Christmas! We love spending time with our families especially around the holidays. MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!! WE LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Arizona Visitors/Busy Weekend

On Tuesday Dec. 15th, one of John's buddies from the mission called him up and asked if he and his wife could come up to Idaho and stay with us for a few days! Of course, we said yes! John and I haven't seen Donny and Hayley since they got married a year ago in January. They are from Arizona and unfortunately they didn't bring any of the warm weather with them!!

December 17th 2009: Thursday- Donny and Hayley flew into Idaho Falls Airport around 2:30 p.m. Boy, were they in for a shock!! They're not used to the cold weather like we are! :) Right now in Arizona it's around the high 70's! It's a good thing they didn't come a week earlier when the temperature was below zero-I don't think they would have survived! :) John and I picked them up, drove out to John's parents house, visited for a bit, drove up to the Rexburg Temple, and drove back to Idaho Falls to Texas Roadhouse where we enjoyed a delicious dinner. All through dinner, Donny and John would tell Hayley and I stories from the mission (which I absolutely loved!) From their stories-their mission sounded more like a two year trip than a hard working mission! :) It sounded like the two of them had a lot of fun-while teaching the gospel, too! What fun memories to have! After dinner, we took them back to our house to get settled in for the night. John and I were so excited to show them our home! These were our first visitors!

December 18th, 2009: Friday- Friday morning after getting home from my doctor's appointment, I really needed to get my Christmas shopping done! So, I dragged Hayley with me. She needed to get Donny some stuff anyway so I didn't feel all that bad. We went to the mall (which was insane!) It only took us a couple of hours to shop, then we just came back home to find the John had talked Donny into helping him on his pick-up....what a fun vacation for Donny. Later that night, Donny had a Brazilian companion here in Idaho Falls so we all went out to dinner at Hard Hat and got to hear more mission stories...and A LOT of Portuguese!! All the wives just sat back, nodded and laughed like we knew what they were saying! It was pretty funny! We got home around 12:30 that night.

December 19th, 2009: Saturday- Kind of on a whim, we all decided to drive down to Salt Lake City and go see the lights around Temple Square! It made for a long day but we had fun! The lights were so beautiful! It was kind of foggy-but it made for some awesome pictures!

Temple Square:

Donny and Hayley:

John and I

OH! P.S. Why do people tell me that I look cute pregnant when in fact I look like this!!! Don't lie to me people!! All I can say is...WOOF!!!

Wow! Doesn't the Temple look amazing?! It had been awhile since I had been there to see the Christmas lights-I loved it!!


The pictures with the fog in the background are my favorite! It adds a nice touch to the Temple glow...


John and I again


Donny and Hayley

I forget what this building is but I just had to snap a photo!

John and I....again!

Love, Love, Love this picture!

After we walked around for a little bit, we went to the Joseph Smith Building and watched "The Joseph Smith" video. I had never seen it before. It was so good! It was a good reminder of what our Prophet went through to organize our church. Now, I really want to see Emma's Story....what a wonderful, strong women she must have been!

December 20th, 2009: Sunday- Got up and went to Church and introduced Donny and Hayley to our crazy ward! Enough said....We went to John's parents house for dinner with ALL of John's family! Complete Chaos!!! Poor Donny and Hayley! Bombarded with kids and questions!! After dinner, we took Donny and Hayley down Candy Cane Lane-WHAT A BUST!!! So disappointing!!! I guess Christmas decorations arent' like they used to be when I was a kid. We did go driving around some more to see lights since candy cane lane was a "thumbs down" experience.

December 21st, 2009: Monday- John and I both had to work. But, Donny and Hayley were flying home anyway! John dropped them off at the airport, said thier goodbyes, and off to another week of work! John and I had so much fun with Donny and Hayley! They are such fun people and such good friends! I hate that we live so far away from each other and only get together once a year...if that!

Week 28 Checkup

Today I had my 28th week (7 month) checkup. This appt was a little different than my last ones. I had to drink this sugar drink 1/2 hour before my appointment started and then wait an hour after my appt to do a blood test. They were wanting my blood/iron level to be lower than a 140. Luckily, the test came back at 123! Yay! I don't have to do it again! Garrett Ryker is right on schedule. The nurse measured me exactly 28 weeks...so that's good news! The Dr. said that at my next appt. I'll be about 32 weeks and the baby will be sitting around my diaphram!! Ow! That's great-he already LOVES my ribs!! Why is that the most comfortable spot for him? He's either in my ribs or he thinks my bladder is a squeeze toy! I feel like I spend the majority of my time in the bathroom! Oh well, I only know that it gets worse during the last months of pregnancy.

John and I are getting really excited for Garrett's arrival. Only 2 1/2 months to go! We still haven't painted the room yet and we still don't have a crib, a stroller or a carseat-ya know the necessary things that we need! :)

What's in a Name?

Well, after much consideration....J0hn and I have come up with a name for our little bundle of joy that will be joining our family in March. (Ok, honestly we haven't really given it much thought), but we did both decided (even before I got pregnant) that we would use a "family name" somewhere. So....without further adeiu...Garrett Ryker Spaulding!

For some reason I feel really hesitant about posting/mentioning a name so early on but my friends and family are constantly asking if we've picked out any names and this is the one we always blurt out. And if ANYONE steals these names.....I'll be so mad!!! :)

How we came up with it: SO SIMPLE: "Garrett" is John's middle name. Plus, I've always liked that name so that worked out good. I went to grade school with a kid named "Ryker", who I had a huge enormous crush on. He had dark eyes, dark hair, and was sooo cute! :)

Just an update on how the pregnancy is going: GREAT!! I'm actually starting to enjoy being pregnant! Up until now, I've had on and off days of where I was feeling sick. However, I noticed the other day that my belly button is starting to poke out a little bit...it's weird...and gross. Baby Garrett is moving and kicking around like crazy! I LOVE IT!!! So, that's the update. Everything's fine and the countdown is on!

"The Nutcracker Ballet"

Friday night, John took me to see "The Nutcracker Ballet" I loved it!! "The Nutcracker" is one of my absolute favorite ballets/christmas cartoon ever! I don't know what it is that I love so much about it...the dancers? the music? the mystery and magic? Surprisingly, John liked it about as much as I did. We both thought that the dancers were extremely talented and there were some humorous parts, too. My favorite part was.....well, I loved the whole thing! I did really like the part where Clara and the Nutcracker visit the Kingdom of Sweets. John's favorite was of course the battle scene between the Nutcracker and the Mouse King. It was such a fun and enjoyable night! Thanks John!

Battle Scene


Clara and her Nutcracker Doll


Land of Snow-Dance of the Snow Queen


Dance of the SugarPlum Fairies