Christmas Cards Anyone?

Thanksgiving is officially over and now you all have Christmas on your minds...I on the other hand have had Christmas on my mind for a couple months now. I've been designing Christmas cards here and there when I'm not in the mood to scrapbook my regular pages. I've made these for friends and family to use for free. All you need to do is choose the one you want, email me, and we'll get started! I'll probably be designing more throughout the month, as time allows, but you can only send Christmas cards out so late right? So here's the link to find them all: http://spiffycreations.blogspot.com/search/label/Christmas%20Cards. I'd love it if you decide to use one so just let me know if you like one and we'll get started!

My reminder to be thankful...

Tonight has been one of "those" nights. You know, the ones where you get a little down on yourself and worry about all the relationships you have that aren't perfect, all the flaws you have, and pretty much everything you should be doing but you aren't. I think we all do it occasionally.
Well, I sat down to blog about Thanksgiving and realized I'm not being very thankful! So I decided I list a few of the things I am most grateful for in my life right now.....

• My awesome husband who treats me like a princess and loves me unconditionally
• Little Zackie...his silly games, his cute laugh, how EASY he is to love, and that he constantly says "momma" all the time now...it seems like he's telling me he loves me every time he says it. I LOVE that kid!
• Being able to stay home with Zack and have time for him the way I always wanted to.
  
• Having such AWESOME parents and in-laws who help us ALL the time and are such a support system for our family.
• Siblings
  
• Friends
• Black Friday shopping :)
• Internet
• Blogging
• comfy home
• Trent graduating...YAHOO!
• Digital scrapbooking...yes, it's an addiction
• Prayer
• The support system and inspiration from going to church
• Zack being ok in nursery...FINALLY
• Chocolate
• The Zoo
• Christmas is coming....yay!

I think I could list about a thousand more but I don't want to bore all of you too much! Sorry for doing so many "lists" lately. I promise I'll post some cute movies of Zackie soon.

Thanksgiving Day
We had an AWESOME Thanksgiving. We decided to make it a little more mellow this year and just stay with one family for Thanksgiving and one family for Christmas. So we stayed at my dad's house all day and helped him prepare the house and the meal. It was very different to not be running around from house to house like we usually do. I actually kind of missed it, I hate feeling like I am missing out on fun with the other family...ya know? But at the end of the night we really enjoyed the conversations that occur naturally when the family is just sitting around letting their food digest.
I don't have many pictures for you because my camera battery died Wednesday and I forgot to bring my charger to SLC with us. :( Tragic! Anyway, it's been a good weekend!

This time I actually was tagged! :)

8 Things About Me

Sorry to do 2 of these in a row! :)

Rules, Rules - here are the rules:

1. Post the rules on your blog.
2. Answer all 8 of the six items listed below.
3. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

8 Favorite TV Shows:

• NCIS
• Numbers
• The Office
• Gilmore Girls
• That's pretty much it! I'd rather blog and scrapbook than watch TV :)
  
• Oops! I forgot Sesame Street!
  

8 Things I Did Yesterday:

• Created a new blog...soon to be released! Aren't you excited?
• Went to dinner with Trent and Zackie
• Watched NCIS with Trent
• Went to Gym and Zack didn't cry in the day care at all! yay!
• Cleaned our car and and vacuumed it
• Trimmed our roses
• dishes, laundry, clean, clean, clean
• Discovered I somehow washed some used dental floss with my laundry. Does that mean I can use it again? hum...
  

8 Things I Look Forward To:

• Thanksgiving
• Christmas
• Getting the newer version of photoshop
• Finding out where we'll be after Trent graduates
• Melissa coming home to visit for Thanksgiving...yahoo!
• Trisha's fam coming home to visit for Christmas...yahoohoohoo!
• Richie coming home from Iraq...yahoohoohoohoohoo!
• Steve and Alan's wedding...yippideedoodade!
  

8 Favorite Restaurants:

• Wingers
• Chili's
• Training Table
• Olive Garden
• Iggy's
  
• Pierpont cafe
• Cafe Rio
• Brick Oven
  

8 Things on My Wish List:

• The new version of photoshop
• Upgrades to my computer
• lots and lots of new clothes
• Really awesome toys for Zack for Christmas
• Money to buy Trent the Wii he's been talking nonstop about!
• A king size bed
  
• New furniture
• A HOUSE (I don't ask for much!)
  

8 People to Tag:

• Trisha
• Melissa
• Kira
• Katie
• Mallory
• Erin
• Sue
• Amy
  

I wasn't tagged but I'm bored so here you go...

4 Random Things I Love About My Husband
1. Even though he is crazy busy right now it is just as important to him that he spends time with Zack and I as it is to us.
2. He is an awesome dad and Zack ADORES him.
3. THE smile...I keep trying to explain it but it is indescribable. He just has a smile that he gets when he is truly happy...it makes me happy! :) (I know, I'm so cheesy!)
4. His sense of humor

4 Jobs I've Had
1. New Haven (Treatment center....no, not a resident, an employee!)
2. Iarchives (BORING-cropped scanned in documents)
3. Rock Creek Pizza
4. Delivered Newspapers in the middle of the night...yahoo!

4 Movies I liked but never watched more than Once
1. Iron Man
2. 5 people you meet in heaven
3. August Rush
4. Wow, I'm seriously drawing a blank here..................

4 TV Shows I Watch
1. NCIS
2. Numbers
3. The Office
4. Gilmore Girls

4 Places I've Been
1. Caribbean
2. Mexico
3. Hawaii
4. Georgia

4 of My Favorite Foods
1. French Fries
2. Chocolate
3. Wingers sticky fingers
4. Chocolate
Just stick to this diet and you'll get really skinny really fast! :)

4 Places I Would Like to Visit
1. France
2. Pretty much all of Europe
3. Hawaii again, I loved it there
4. Monterey California....to see my sister and her kids again!

4 Things I Look Forward to in This Coming Year
1. Knowing where we'll be living and where Trent will be working
2. Hopefully having a baby
3. Zack hitting the terrible 2's! No really, I am looking forward to it!
4. Richie coming home from Iraq

I tag whoever is bored, intrigued by this survey, or has really interesting things to share.

I Love America!

Wasn't it awesome to be able to vote and watch all the election news this week? I really felt a sense of pride to be a citizen of this awesome country. Let's make sure we all remember all our troops past and present who help keep our country free. My brother is over in Iraq right now and I can't even imagine the trials and hardships that come from being separated as often as he and his wife are. So let's all make sure we are grateful to all the people who dedicate their lives to serving our country. Even the poorest of us here in America are better off than many people in this world. We are so lucky!
Besides saying a big thank you there are so many ways we can help. As soon as my brother got to Iraq he quickly saw service opportunities. He told us a major goal he had for his deployment was to find ways for people here in America to learn about the needs in Iraq and motivate people to help fill them. He has done several service projects and has more to come. These are his direct words from a newsletter he sent out a couple months ago:

"We plan to purchase needed goods such as clothing, blankets, heaters, etc. off the local economy and give them to the Iraqi Army to hand out in villages that could use the help. These projects act as a double edged sword because they not only heighten the Iraqi Government’s reputation and provide needed goods to distressed people, but they also provide a needed boost to the local economy. Steps have been taken to set up a charitable bank account to collect donations for these projects."

He has received donations and packages but SO much more can be done. So if any of you want to help out then let me know, he has hundreds of ideas...big and small!

Happy Halloween!

I have never really been a big fan of Halloween but this year I had so much fun! It was fun watching Zack enjoy it so much. We practiced trick-or-treating at Grandma Broderick's house for awhile and he caught on really fast. Apparently candy is a great motivational tool. :) For our Halloween party we went to my Grandma Carlow's house and she made her delicious world famous chili...it was sooo good! Then all the kids went trunk-or-treating in her ward parking lot. Zack very shyly, looking at the ground, said "tick-tick" to each person. Most of them probably couldn't even hear him because it was so chaotic there and he was so quite. But I thought it was very cute! One lady gave out microwave popcorn and he held that the rest of the night. When my aunt tried to help him put it in his bucket he got very worried. :) Apparently the biggest thing is always the best! I wish I had more pictures at our family party. I took a bunch of pictures in the afternoon with Trent's family but almost none at our family party. Guess I was too busy talking!
The best costume of the year award goes to my cousin Ashely and her Boyfriend. They dressed up as each other and it was very funny! I wish I had a picture of how they normally look for you to compare this picture with because they really did a good job with their costumes. I didn't even recognize Ashely when she walked in, it was pretty funny! Anyway, Happy Halloween to everyone!