Wishing You a Merry Chirstmas From the Crockett Family

Dear Family and Friends,

We wanted to wish you all a very merry Christmas.

Christmas season is a great time of year for so many reasons.

The number one reason is our Saviors birth and what it means for all mankind.

During the Christmas season there is a special feeling in the air. A feeling of Love and Peace. Feelings given to us by the Holy Ghost testifying that our Savior, Jesus Christ, was born at this time of year, long ago. He came to set the perfect example for us and to sacrifice His life so that we can all live with Him and Heavenly Father again.

The Christmas season also gives us the opportunity to reflect on the experiences we had throughout the year.

As is typical of a family Christmas letter, we wanted to share with you some of the things that we did this year.

Here is our year in 12 bullets:

1.On December 29th 2009 (two days before the turn of the year) we found out that we were pregnant! We were so excited, thrilled, nervous and a whole bunch of other emotions that come with news like that.

Showing off my baby bump. Which would get much, MUCH bigger!

2. Novalee celebrated her third birthday.

She likes chocolate. :)

3.Wesley studied diligently for Part 1 of the National Boards of Optometry and PASSED!


4. We found out we were having a girl! I had been secretly hoping for a girl. Wes and I actually made a bet on if it was going to be a boy or a girl. As usual, I won. Not that it was a competition but if it had been, I would have won. ;)


5.In May Wesley began his 4th and final year in Optometry school and began his clinical rotations.

This is all I had to represent this. This was taken after Wesley's 2nd year. :)

6.In June Jared graduated from preschool, stating his goals for the future were to become a magician. :)


8. July 2nd we added Meala, our black lab, to our family. For the most part we complain that she is a pain but we secretly like her.


9. In August, at 38 weeks pregnant, we packed up our things and drove and drove and drove. Our destination, Tucson, Arizona where Wesley worked on his 2nd clinical rotation and we lived for three fantasic months.



Things we did while there:
a)Had our car broken into and our tire slashed. :) Seriously, it happened.
b)Visited the Saguaro National Park
c)Visited Pima Air and Space Museum
d)Had a baby (See Number 10 on this list)
e)Went inside the Colossal Caves
f)I got stung by a wasp (several times)
g)We all got poked at least once by a catus.
h)Got friendly with preserved animals at the International Wildlife Museum
i)Loved the Reid Park Zoo
j)Blessed a baby
k)Wes shot a deer from 408 yards away.

10. September 9th one of the greatest moments of the year came with the arrival of our dear Sadie LuAnn Crockett. We can't seem to get enough of her.


11. November 9th, once again we packed up our things and drove. This time the trip was shorter. We arrived in Bountiful, Utah where we will be staying for the next six months. We love it here. We love the mountains, our apartment, and just about everything else.


12. For Thanksgiving we got the opportunity to visit family in Oregon. After driving 18 and a half hours through a blizzard we arrived safely there. We loved spending time with our extended family. While there Wesley took Part 2 of the National Boards...let's hope he passed. We will find out in about a month and a half. Also Jared celebrated his 6th birthday in Oregon. 6! Can you believe it?


We had a great and amazing year! We have had so much fun and so many new adventures. We feel we have been so blessed this last year. We feel grateful to have such a happy and healthy little family. We hope you had a great year too.

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and the best the New Year can bring you!

The "Kissing" photo.

Why? Because we're Crockett's and it's tradition. :)

Wesley, Brandy, Jared, Novalee, and Sadie baby.

Thanksgiving Trip to Oregon 2010

Our trip to Oregon from Utah began with a winter storm warning.

So instead of taking my rear wheel, 2WD car we decided it would be in our best interest to drive Wesley's beefy truck.

Which meant we would need to buy two new car seats that fit in the truck. That part was kind of a pain.

Look how cute Sadie looks in her new seat. She was so happy to be in it.

Thankfully we did take the truck. We definitely needed it, when our 11 & 1/2 hour trip was slowed to a halt due to white out conditions.

Two road closures (which we got through right before they were closed) and 18 & 1/2 hours later we pulled into my parents house.

We loved spending time with family.




Jared even got to celebrate his sixth birthday here with his cousin Sterling which was the number one thing on his birthday wish list.







Sadie started wanting to be rolled over onto her tummy. While here she also rolled onto her tummy on her own for the first time and laughed for the first time within 5 minutes of each other. We were so excited!



We searched and found the perfect Christmas tree.







And I said goodbye to long hair and got the shortest hair cut of my life. I love it and look forward to highlighting it to add a little more fun. :)

This is what it was like a couple of days ago. (I do realize this picture is on this post already.) :)



A little cut here.


And a little cut there.

And this is what it looks like now.



Tomorrow we wake up at 4:30am and head back to Utah! We'll see you Oregon in two and a half weeks. We'll miss you until we meet again. :)

I got it cut!

My sister cut it like this:



Obviously I don't look like this girl. But I really, really like it!

Haircuts

Talking with me sister tonight kind of sparked my desire to get a new haircut.

Here are a few I like.

I really really like this one. But Wes wonders(worries) what I will look like rolling out of bed. :) He has a point.

I also wonder if I'm brave enough...


I like this one too but I have had my hair cut like this before. In fact several times before.


Option C could be just getting what I have now layered.

What do you think?

Our New Place

We love it here in Bountiful! Well I love it! I think Wesley likes it too but guys are hard to read sometimes when it comes to feelings. :)

Anyways, here are some pictures of our apartment when we first got here.






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Here is what it looks like with things actually put away.

Oh yes, we have a fireplace. We love it and therefore will have a ridiculously high gas bill in about a month. :)

More living room.

I bet you can guess what this is. :)

See how the ceiling protrudes out a little from the wall on the left. I totally know it's the duct for our central air but I just love that it makes our room something other than a square, Silly, I know.

Even out bedroom is large! There is so much walking space! I love it!

(Notice how there are no pictures of the children's room? It's because it is never picked up enough to actually get a decent picture of it.)


We feel like we are living luxuriously here. In fact I even declared after moving in that I wouldn't mind living here forever. (I might have been suffering from packing and unpacking too many times recently). :)

Sadie sure likes it here.

As a side note:

The doctor Wesley worked for in Tucson, Dr. Charles Edmonds, painted this painting for Wesley. Isn't that neat? He is so talented. And so kind, we love it!

Crafts and Good Deals

Project 1:

A while ago Wes said that maybe I should refinish our couch pillows.

What? Wes inviting me to be crafty! Okay!

So here are our yucky pillows before.





I couldn't find any material I liked for a while. Finally out of desperation and a coupon sale I bought fabric I probably wouldn't have otherwise.

It should be pretty easy to make pillows. I mean really they're just squares, right?

Wrong!

The big issue was the old pillow stuffing. It was made of chopped up foam and padding.

What a Mess!

And on top of that my material was too thin and so my first pillow was bumpy so I had to take out the stuffing and make a liner.

Anyways, here's how they turned out.





They're not perfect but they'll do. I like how bold they are. Having them really live'ins up the place. :)


Project 2:

In our old apartment I had three totes, one was a cooking utensil tote, one was markers and craft tote for the kids and one was an adult tote (for permanent markers, sharp scissors, etc...).

Anyways, they weren't the most fancy way to keep things organized and I personally hated (don't tell the kids I said that word) having to rotate which tote was on top of the pile of totes and pop a lid every time I wanted something.

So on my first trip to the DI (Deseret Industries) here in Bountiful I found this cool looking basket thing ($4.00).



As a side note, we also went to payless shoes that day because Novalee needed some church shoes. They are always (it seems like"always") doing that buy one pair of shoes and get the second half off. Well hers were $14.99 and mine were regularly $22.99 but already on sale for $10.00 so I got them for $5.00!

Seems random I know but you'll see why I did this little brag about shoe shopping later.

So after a little sanding and painting my basket turned into something useful.

And since it was a basket it didn't really have a divider in the middle of it but who would have guessed Novalee's church shoes box lid (that's a mouthful) fit perfectly in the box.

So...with a little paint and hot glue it became the divider. Granted, probably not the sturdiest divider but hey, it was free and it gets the job done.

Total Cost: $4.00

Project 3

Look at this cool nook in my kids room. I always wanted something like this when I was a little girl. I'm not sure my kids are that into it. But either way, we live our dreams through our kids sometimes, right?

I wanted the kids to be able to play up there without ruining the paint. I also thought it would be cool if it was soft to lay on.

So I decided I was going to buy foam padding at Joann's and cover it in fabric.

Well the Joann's here happens to be right next to the DI. I couldn't help but go to the DI first. And as it turns out I found two foam camping pads for $5.00. I thought that was a find since Wes bought some just a year or so ago for $20.00 each (granted they were foamier, is that a word?)

Anyways, when I brought them home, one fit the window almost perfectly.

After scoring the pads for so cheap I kind of wanted to challenge myself and see how cheap I could make the entire thing.

At best buying fabric to cover the pad from Joann's would cost me @ $3.00/yd, $18.00.

So then inspiration struck and I decided to head back over to the DI to see if I could find anything there to use, such as a blanket or tablecloth.

I totally got lucky and found a bundle of unused fabric for $3.00.

So I used the green-rough feeling material to make a lining, I learned from the pillows that it would be bumpy otherwise.

Then I covered it in this fabric.


Doesn't he make a cute middle eastern girl? Jared just said he's a ninja in the picture. :) Okay ninja.

Here's how it turned out.

Total Cost: $4.00

Project 4:

Wes always feels bad when Meala goes into her kennel at night without a pad.

This next project was for Wes, not really for Meala, who I think is a dog and could probably sleep anywhere and be comfortable and none the wiser.

So those $5.00 camping pads, were two pads rolled together. So I just cut two identical pieces from the left over pad, to fit Meala's dog kennel.

Then I hot glued them together.



Can you see the wear from moving my table received? Poor thing.

Then I sewed a slipcover for it. I've never done anything like this before but it came together surprisingly well and was super easy.

Meala likes it.



She is kind of a pretty dog.

Total cost: $3.25.

Project 5:

I feel like I know all too well what moving does to your furniture and things.

Well this has been moved many, many times.

So I repainted it and covered it in a clear protective coat.

How it looks now.

I should probably update the photo in the frame since that is Jared holding Novalee.

Total Cost: $3.28

Project 6:

My kids like to do crafts too.

So to help us get in the spirit of Thanksgiving the kids worked hard.

And made us these for our home.



And just for fun, some of the kids.

This is what I get to look forward to in the mornings. I really love it. :)

The kids driving their cars.


Cute Sadie


Novalee's growing up so fast!


Oh, yes.

We have a thumb sucker.

We tried to discourage it but she is determined. :)