Merry Christmas!

I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas! This is my very favorite holiday! I love everything about this time of year! :)

We stayed the night at my parents' house and woke up to our annual "baby Jesus hunt!" My parents have about 12 different baby Jesus' in different nativity sets. We have been doing this every year since I can remember! On Christmas Eve, the children gather all of the baby Jesus' from all the nativity scenes and my parents then hide them over night. When we wake up the morning of Christmas, we have to find all of them before we can wake Mom and Dad! I think this tradition was started to give Mom and Dad an extra hour of sleep on Christmas morning! Although they don't need that extra sleep now that all the kids are now teenagers and sleep till 8:00, it is still a fun tradition!

We spent the rest of the morning opening gifts, and eating breakfast...

Merry Christmas Everyone!

John 3:16-17

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas eve morning around our own house. Shaun and I exchanged our gifts to each other. This year I gave Shaun a pair of Snowboarding boots. He is very excited to get to use them the next time we go up to the mountains! He is a new snowboarder and this year he won (yes won) a snowboard from a competition at our work.

Shaun gave me a lovely matching diamond necklace and right hand ring. He picked it out himself and it is beautiful! I love it and catch myself looking down at my gorgeous gift!

Later in the day, we made our way up to the Dickison home. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening decorating gingerbread houses, watching a bunch of christmas movies, cooking and eating a wonderful meal, going to a candlelight church service, and decorating sugar cookies! I love our traditional christmas eve festivities!

Christmas with the Palmers!

We did Christmas with the Palmer family a few days early. We spent Tuesday and Wednesday opening gifts, eating wonderful food and playing reindeer games. (in case you were wondering....Shaun and I dominated the games this year! :)

We enjoyed our time out there with them. Our nephew is almost 16 months old now and it was fun to have a little kid running around. He is such a cutie! We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family!

This is were I would insert a few photos from the two days....but sadly we forgot our camera....maybe i'l be able to attach some photos in the next few days from someone else's camera.

Disneyland!

Last weekend we got the opportunity to go to Disneyland with Shaun's family. They usually go every year in December. The family was unable to go last year, so this year was extra fun because we hadn't been in two years.

It was fun being there with the nephew and seeing his excitement for everything!

Our friends, Blake and Julie, just happened to be there at the park the same weekend. We were able to meet up with them over the weekend and ride some rides with them. Our favorite ride was the new Toy Story Ride at California Adventure. If you visit the park, you must ride this ride! I think we rode it more than 10 times! ha!

Here are some photos from the vacation:

Like always, we already can't wait to go back to Disney!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Shaun and I spent Thanksgiving Day at my parents house.

We played our traditional Petanque (Bocce Ball)

and then a little football

And then we ate Thanksgiving Dinner. It was wonderful! I am so thankful for my family! I Love them so much.

The day after Thanksgiving we went down to Tucson to spend it with Shaun's Family. We had a really relaxing time. Here are some cute photos of my nephew:

We also took family photos and then went to the gaslight theater. So much fun!

I have so much to be thankful for this year!

What I did on my LAST break...

Here are a few photos from my break....

@ a wedding shower for my wonderful friend

Hiking with some of the girls from school

At My Sister's Softball game! She had a few hits and got home twice!

Other things I did:

-Put together the house. Everything almost has its place! :)

-The christmas decorations are out of the garage and ready to be hung

-I got a pedicure and a manicure with my Mom!

-Did some shopping

-Spent some time with my family

-Did a lot of cooking and baking

-Hung out with some girlfriends

-Watched my sister, Hope's, first softball game of the season

-Went to Hope's band concert

-Enjoyed time with my hubby

-RELAXED

Tomorrow is the big day....the first day of my last semester. I am a little nervous, but very excited.

Wish me luck....only 115 days till I am done with school!

Nursing School Update

I just finished up another semester of nursing school. It was a tough one, but I made it through. If you all remember, I had Mental Health, Leadership, and Med/Surg.

Here are some things that I found out this semester:

-I will NEVER be a nurse on a psych floor

-I'm content being a follower....not a leader! haha jk

-Becuase of the flu season, I am now an expert in giving Flu shots :)

-because of a huge paper I had to write, I now know everything I can about delegation in nursing! :)

-I LOVE surgery.....I really think I could see myself being a surgical nurse!

-As for working on a med/surg floor....not that exciting.

-Working on a Telemetry floor is much more exciting because the patients are sicker with more complicated diseases. I enjoyed the days that I was there.

-I wish we got to spend some days in the ICU

-I feel more confident as an almost nurse!

-The end is near...I can almost taste it :)

Right now I am on a week break from school before I start my last semester. I can not believe I only have 4 months till I can sit for my boards! It is going to go by really fast!