What I really LOVE...

I absolutly LOVE this time of year like most people. What I really love about this time of year is..
1. Christmas Cards= I LOVE getting Christmas cards!! It is so fun to read what friends and family have been up to. I love looking at all the pictures too!!!

2. Family!! I love getting to spend time with family!!
3. Christmas Music= Not only do I LOVE listening to Christmas music but I LOVE singing Christmas Music!!! I can remember Thanksgiving afternoon, we would bust out the Christmas music, decorate Gingerbread Houses and sing as loud as we could!! (I'll never forget when my Mom and Aunts danced on the table singing) I also really enjoy singing for different Christmas Party's and Church Activities!!!

4. Gingerbread Houses= Every year we make them!! It's so fun to get together with the kids and let them decorate, then the older girls get there turn to decorate!! It is SOOO fun to have Amanda here to join us again!!
4. Christmas Lights!! Spencer and I have a date night of drinking hot cocoa and driving around looking at all the lights!! The best ones I have seen are the 2 houses on 51st Ave. and Olive in Glendale. (this is a picture of our house)
5. Christmas Trees- Spencer surprised me with our tree this year! It is Beautiful!
6. Traditions= I could probably go on forever about traditions. Spencer says, "I never knew a family could have so many traditions." I will mention a few:

• Christmas Caroling at the Life Care Center (We do it every FHE before Christmas, yep that's tomorrow night)


• Secret Santas, we draw names at the FHE 2 weeks before Chirstmas and serve that family member, ex: make a bed, leave a little note. Then we reveal it the night we go caroling. (it's not as fun with just Spencer and Myself, can't wait to have a family!)


• We have a special FHE anytime during December and my Mom gives us all a Christmas Tree ornament of something we accomplished that year. She goes all out making many and is very creative! (Spencer and I have continued to carry on that tradition: He went to NY with his Dad and Bro this year so he got the Statue of Liberty)


• Reading Christmas stories every morning during breakfast!! Growing up my Mom or Dad made us breakfast every morning. During December she would read us a Christmas story.


• Christmas Eve: I LOVE Christmas EVE! It has been fun being married and sharing different Christmas Eve traditions. Both Families act out the manger scene, which can be entertaining with little kids! No matter which side of the family we have a great time!


• Matching PJ's. Since I was little we always had matching pj's with all the cousins that were there!! The girls matched and the boys. Then the couples had matching pj's too.


• Christmas Goodies= We LOVE eating goodies and handing out goodie plates!


• Santa= Spencer still laughs at my family!! We all still believe! We still don't know what Santa has gotten us until we get up EARLY Christmas morning. Christmas Morning= We get up really early look what Santa brought, eat Cinnamon rolls and Pull-Apart. Drink Hot Cocoa and fresh Orange juice!

• Christmas Parade! I Love the Christmas parades! I hope to be able to make it to the light parade in Phoenix when we have kids (its awesome). I also love the Sierra Vista small town Parades. (this is part of our group waiting for the parade to start: Sierra Vista's first light parade)
• We also have a Manger that is empty and whenever we serve somebody we get to put a piece of yarn in it to fill the manger. It is fun to see how full we can get it before Christmas.
• Like I said we could go on forever with traditions but one Spencer and I have started this year to collect small Christmas gifts and give to a family. Thanks to the help of my in-laws, we were able to put together a great Christmas morning for this family.

Okay now if you read this entire Novel I am impressed! I had to write it all down for journal purposes! I Love the Christmas Season and ALWAYS miss it when it's over. The good thing is that it comes again! Love you all and hope you have a Merry Christmas!

AMAZING....

This is my Brother, Elder Jared Haymore. Does he look good or what? I can't believe he is now serving in Chile. He is doing so good. We have really enjoyed getting the letters. He just sent us a few pictures since he has been in Chile for 2 weeks now. It's amazing to hear the experiences and the change in him. His testimony has grown and he is doing amazing, even his Spanish! I can't wait to talk to his on Christmas!!!! Love you Jared and we are SOO proud of you!

Thanksgiving

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

We had a great Thanksgiving with the Forsberg Family! We all went to the cabin in Pinewood. We had such a good time!

Who is who?

I know, what a cute family!! After admiring each person look again at

My sister-in-law Katie. Correct me if I am wrong is that Reese? Would you not agree? Well she was nomiated for celebraty look alike for people magazine! Now, call me crazy, don't you think she should win!!!

www.people.com/lookalikes

Sad Day!!

Well I/We NEVER thought that this day would actually come!!! We said Good Bye to that Maverick!

For those of you that didn't know, Spencer has a LOVE for old cars. This was the car he got when he turned 16. It was literally his Baby! It was full of memories and good times!

"After watching the man drive away in my car... I could have cried."- Spencer

p.s. Don't think he had to get rid of it, he got a new toy!! 66 Mustang (pictures will be posted later)

I'm to sexy...

Looking good SPENCER!!! Spencer rode his bike to work this morning and lets just say........ "It was freaken freezing, but it was fun." - Spencer Forsberg

I walked in the bathroom and caught him stretching! I had to take a picture... especially in his beautiful pants! I love you Spencer!!

Also this past weekend was another fun weekend! Friday was Halloween.. which we didn't celebrate as much as I like to. We missed the AWESOME Halloween dinner at my Mom's and didn't hand out candy or dress up. No lie I was a little bummed!!! This is what we did do.....

ANOTHER TRIATHLON!!

We Drove to Casa Grande Friday for a triathlon Saturday morning. We did get to stop and eat in Tucson where a lot of people were dressed up. That was fun. We stayed in a really cool Hotel that night. Not going to lie.. I was a little weirded out when I realized we were the only ones in the ENTIRE hotel. That was a little creepy... plus is was out in the middle of NO WHERE!!! It was nice and after I learned the history of the hotel it became awesome. It was actually where the Giants (the baseball team) stayed while training. It is REALLY old but cool! They have really done a lot to keep it nice and modern.

Then Saturday morning came quick! I had been sick that week with some stomach virus and was recovering but determined to do the tri. I had a great time besides the swim and LOVE the run course!! My time improved a lot from last year which was exciting! It was fun to be able to do it with my SIL Jessica, Bro Justin, BIL Landon, and friend JJ. The next one will be Rocky Point!!!

Just a thought...

So life for us has been great!! We have been busy but we can't complain!!
I LOVE this time of year!!! I love watching the leaves turn, the beautiful weather, and the holidays. You can't beat the weather right now, it has been in the 70's the past couple weeks. I can't believe that it is this time of year again but boy do I love it!! What I really can't believe is halloween is over........which means Thanksgiving is just around the corner and Christmas is just around the block!! I love both of these holidays! It's so fun to get together with family!! Something I also enjoy is making New Year's resolutions. I have been thinking really hard about what I want to focus on next year. I'm not the best at keeping them up the entire year but this year I want to make a couple goals that will be more life changing goals for me. When I was visiting with my visiting teacher she read a quote from the message that really stuck out to me.
"Women of God can never be like women of the world. the world has enough women that are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind.... We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need women of faith." - Margart D. Nadauld (former y/w general pres.)
After visiting with her I really thought, WOW, Marlee you need to become more of a "Women of God." I want to be the person that always thinks of other people before I think of myself instead of thinking of other things I really do need to get done. I am a guilty girl when it comes to following through with A LOT of the nice thoughts that come to my head! Next year I am going to really try hard to serve other people and not just think, "Oh I should call this person, or I should take them dinner, or I need to go by her house." I often think those nice thoughts but only carry out with them half as much as I should. Sorry for rambling on! I do have many other goals I want ot accomplish next year but I will share them when the time gets closer.