We had a great Christmas this year. The Tuesday before we had my Noble family party at a church in Circle G Ranch in Mesa. For those who have never been to Circle G Ranch, its a neighborhood of million dollar homes who go ALL OUT for Christmas and decorate like crazy. Its always an experience to ride around their neighborhood and enjoy the Christmas spirit. One of the activites that the Noble's set up was to go riding around on a hay ride while Christmas caroling. We had a blast, and Braxton just LOVED being able to look at all the Christmas lights. (One of his most favorite past-times.)

Braxton and Daddy before the hay ride

This is Braxton's excited "OOO" face he makes when he sees something he really likes or gets excited about. He was doing this the whole ride. It was adorable! (I took some pictures of some of the homes all lighted up, but pictures just don't do them justice at all so I decided not to post them.)

Me and some of my beautiful cousins (and sister, and B-rax) at the party. I love family! Thats what the holidays are all about!

Christmas day was lots of fun. Braxton could actually kind of understand what was going on and even though he didn't understand WHY he was getting lots of good stuff, he sure enjoyed it all.

Christmas morning...

This was one of his favorites. A little climb and slide set. He loves climbing and loves sliding, so...he has a blast with it!

One of his other favorites was a HUGE bag of balls Justin bought for him. As soon as he saw it he dumped them all out and just rolled around in them and threw them up in the air and was having a ball! (No pun intended. :)) He is definitely all boy!

B-rax opening his radio flyer turtle. He doesn't quite know how to ride it yet, but he loves pushing it around and chasing the dogs with it. :)


By far this is probably his favorite toy he got. We didn't get it put up until a few days after Christmas, and he hasn't stopped swinging since! Too bad I can't put it up inside the house...I would be able to get so much more done!

And here is by far the biggest surprise and most awesome gift I got this year!

Yes, ladies..."He went to Jared!" :) I have always wanted to say that! My first pair of real diamond ear rings! Justin hid the bag and pulled it out at the very end after I thought we were all done, and I was so surpised! He did a great job this year. I got alot of awesome stuff (an iHome for my ipod, a foot messager, tickets to the Billy Joel/Elton John concert, an external hard drive for all my many pics to name a few) but this by far was my favorite! Thanks baby!

So the holidays are over and its back to real life. Bummer. This is always a sad time now that all the excitement has died down, but starting a new year is always exciting too. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and Happy New Year!

Beautiful Art Work!!!

My oldest brother is an amazing artist, and he just started a new website, called Autumn Sky Gallery, to sell his artwork! Someday he is going to be right up there with Simon Dewey and Greg Olson and Liz Swindle, so NOW is the time to buy his work when its still nice and inexpensive! He is even having an AFTER HOLIDAY SALE on his Old World Art, so go check it out and see if there is anything you are interested in. You won't regret it! Check out his website HERE! (Check back often as he just opened it and will be adding new artwork all the time!)

Here is a sample of a few of my faves:

(Some might recognize this from the CD cover artwork from 1856 The Musical)

(Beautiful Christmas picture of Mary and Baby Jesus!)

(Mesa Az Temple)

ONE YEAR OLD!!

I can't believe my little boy is one year old!! It seems like just yesterday I was listening to him cry for the first time in the hospital. He has grown so much. Here are some of my favorite things about my little man:
1. He walks around all day saying "Bop" or "bok." I don't know what it means, if anything, but it sure it cute.
2.He points at something that he wants or anything that he thinks is interesting and makes an "oo" face and gets really excited.
3. He LOVES vacuums, balls, anything outside, stairs, playing in the car, parks, and cheese.
4. He gives the BEST hugs and squeezes so tight. It just melts my heart.
5. He has the cutest 4 tooth smile ever
I could go on forever! To get to the party though, here are pics of our little gathering we had for him after our trip to Utah. Even though his birthday was the day we left, we had to postpone it until we got back.

Alisha squeezing in some study time before the fun starts

Daddy and the birthday boy admiring the presents

Grandma enjoying the yummy food

Grandpa asleep on the couch. He is always so busy, he catches a nap wherever he can! The poor man!

Uncle Johnathan and Aunt Shaliah frosting the cake

Uncle Joseph and my baby

Opening the presents! He loved each one and just wanted to sit and play with them rather than open the next one. I guess thats typical for a one year old though, huh?

I think the toy vacuum was the biggest hit of the night. He wouldn't put it down and just kept pushing it around everywhere he went. Maybe I will have a little helper on my hands soon when I clean the house. :)

Enjoying the birthday cake! He wasn't sure he was allowed to make a mess at first so it took some coaxing so get him to start eating with his hands, but once he got going he loved it!

It was a great little party and we were glad we had family close by to enjoy it with! Family always makes it better!

For those who knew my sweet Grandma Speakman, she passed away this last week. We knew it was coming, but it was still hard to accept. She has always been one of the most amazing women I have ever known, and I have tried so hard to emulate her in my own life and with my own family. Her dedication and service to her family and to the gospel is unparalleled. I am sad my children will never get to know their great-grandma Speakman, but I hope through they can learn of her through her journals and life history and know of the amazing heritage they came from. Both Grandma and Grandpa were true examples of what this gospel is all about here on earth, and though I know they are dancing together again and just having a ball learning all there is to know about the after-life, we sure will miss them here on earth.
Her funeral was last Friday and Saturday, so my family all packed up and headed up to Utah for the service. Justin and I actually already had tickets to fly up there for his work party that was happening Saturday night at the Grand America Hotel in SLC (his job is based out of Linden, Ut) so we just moved the tickets a few days earlier so we could be there for the service. It was so nice to be able to see all my dad's side of the family again, even though we didn't get to spend a whole lot of time with them. I love them all so much and wish we could be closer so we could spend more time together and our children could become friends. We stayed with my cousin Jess and her little family in their new home Thursday and Friday night. They have a little girl Braxton's age, so it was nice for them to meet eachother and be able to play together for awhile. Thanks Jess and Drew for your hospitality and making us feel at home!! We had a great time with you guys!

Dani, Jess, Drew, Maggie, Braxton, and Justin at Chili's, gettin some grub

Saturday night Justin's job paid for us to stay at the hotel where the pary was at, and I must say I was definitely impressed. I believe the Grand America hotel is the only 5 star hotel in Utah, and it lived up to its rating. The service was wonderful, the hotel was beautiful, accomodations were amazing, and the food was absolutely FABULOUS! Unfortunatley i didn't get to go to much of Justin's party, since all our babysitters for Braxton fell through, but we were there long enough to enjoy a nice dinner and meet his head honcho boss, some of his co-workers and their families. Sunday I spent alot of time with Braxton walking around the hotel and playing outside in the COLD weather, and we enjoyed a wonderful brunch in their Garden Cafe before checking out. We walked around the SLC temple and visited the visitors center, then headed to the airport to hang out there before our flight home that night. All in all it was a nice family trip. Its never really a "vacation" when the kids come along since there is never a break for mommy, but it was still nice to be able to be in the nice cold weather and enjoy the beautiful surroundings.

This is pretty much what our room looked like, with an Italian marble bathroom. It was BEAUTIFUL!


Our little family at Temple Square

Justin in front of the temple

B-rax chillin in his car seat. I couldn't get him to keep any socks on his feet! The second he was sitting down he would take them off.


Justin pushing the baby around temple

Check back soon for pics of B-rax's birthday!