I have decided this new year's that I am such a lucky girl! I have an amazing family, great friends, wonderful brothers, new sisters that are such good moms and I get to pursue my goals with great support from those around me! I really enjoy spending time with my family and those that make me happy. The beginning of this post has pictures from our Sunday dinner. I love Monroe! She is changing everytime I see her and she is such a beauty!
The above picture is her expression to the bright flash. It shocked her at first haha. Then she seemed to learn as she wouldn't seem to open her eyes back up for me to take a picture.
My family definitely makes me laugh. Aren't Jordan's pj pants awesome! I love pink! I didn't hear the whole story of why he came to dinner in Roni's pj pants but it did make us laugh. Barrett's comment, "I keep thinking I am checking out some girl's butt." Jordan let him know that Barrett should be checking out his butt because it was a nice one. Haha what a nerd.
Tristen was asking for Jordan's hat. Jordan let him wear it and Tristen just beamed when he got to put it on his head. I brought Mr T into the bathroom to let him see himself in the mirror and hear is his adorable expression. He is such a cutie! He is definitely our little chunky monkey and food is his friend but he is just too darn cute!
Benjamin was teasing Danika most of the evening. He took off her collar which is a big no no and then he put it on his head. She tried to ignore him so then he started pestering her by holding her hand. As you can see she had had enough. Haha.
Here is a picture from Tristen playing with Grandpa. Oh one of the cutest things from the night was when Dad was sitting on the floor holding Monroe. Apparently Tristen wanted to hold her too so he was walking towards Dad with his arms outstretched. We were laughing as he then was climbing on Dad's lap to get closer to MOnroe. 
The sad part of the evening was Jordan tied Tristen to this chair below. He then spun him around very fast and Tristen was squealing and laughing but then all of a sudden he slid between the backrest and the seat and face planted the floor. Poor little guy!
After Jordan hurt him he still would only give Jordan kisses. Tristen gives such cute kisses, but he only seems to freely give them to Jordan.
We brought the New Year in by pulling an allnighter at Barrett and Holly's house. We had the refreshments: grape soda that turned blue when ice was added*pepsi and diet pepsi*crab dip for the crackers*celery sticks*carrot sticks*grape tomatoes*snow peas*ritz crackers with deli meat and sharp cheddar and pepperjack cheese*baked chips*snickers*chocolate covered cookies*
Poor Monroe was hungry and wouldn't take the pacifier and Holly was gone. Barrett showed us how he uses his nose as a substitute. He wasn't too happy about me taking a pic of this haha.
Aren't they just adorable! Holly is such a good little Momma! 
Bandit was a goofy dog that night, but I learned this is his sleeping position.
Here is a our little glow worm in her bili blanket. She slept so well during our all nighter. She would wake up for feedings but other than that she slept the entire night. I don't even remember her fussing except for a little bit right at the beginning when she was hungry. 
We then met over at Jeff's house at 10AM for breakfast burritos. They were yummy! Jake came over too! Can you see how tired we are? I got to sleep for an hour and a half and then Mom and I went and bought another pair of MBTs (in brown), knee high EMU boots (Thanks Aunt Colleen!), mittens with fleece fingers inside and 180s (both in pink of course!) So that marks some more stuff off my mission list. Then we came home and ate dinner and I was up most of the night again, but I was asleep by about ten thirty Sunday night which is VERY early for me. I have recovered from our all nighter. :)
Here is a picture of Jeff and Katie's unique, yet spunky tree. Haha. I had to take a picture just incase Katie didn't get one for her scrapbook!
I thought this tree looked pretty cool with the ice on it.
These are some of the views I get to see from the hospital. I will miss getting to see the sunset every night. I loved the view from the 7th floor and will miss it. 
Flag hill with the Christmas lights
Milwaukee station
Heading home on 3rd Avenue North after dropping somebody off, late after work I noticed the fog, but thought it looked so neat around the cathedral!
This tree just looked like something from Halloween. I am always glad to have my camera in those moments when you see something unique and rare. When I die I am totally going to hug the person that created cameras! Haha.
So I didn't have to work on Saturday due to working the holiday which meant i got to be home when Barrett and Holly came over with Monroe. The above picture is MOnroe hanging on to Dad's finger.
Monroe hanging out with Grandma.
A big yawn!
I think she was getting a little tired of the Auntarazzi in this picture. I couldn't help it though she is just so cute and absolutely perfect!
Mommy and Daddy bundling her up!
We had a last minute dump-everything-on-Jessica week in primary--Blah! Our presidency members minus myself were gone that week and our chorister was also gone. The person in charge of sharing time apparently had more important things haha SOOOOO I got to take the whole sharing and singing time. We had 12 kids and thank goodness for good teachers. Saturday night I decided we were going to acknowledge Joseph Smith's birthday (Dec 23). We followed a timeline of his life while shaking a jar to make butter (we were successful by the way!) We also made little covered wagons tha the kids seemed to enjoy (pictured below) All in all it was just a fun primary day!
I tried on my MBT shoes I got for Christmas for my mission to see what they would look like with a skirt. The actually weren't too bad!
This was actually at the hospital Christmas eve.
It was Holly's birthday the 27th so we all had Sunday dinner at their house where they made tacos—they were yummy! We watched the
They also got their canvas from 
Congrats to Jordan and Roni! They made their engagement official this week!
Christmas Eve I got to leave work early due to the low patient census. Jake and I headed to the traditional family dinner at Jeff and Katie's to find out that everybody already left. We ate dinner and headed up to the hospital so Jake could meet Monroe.
Isn't she just beautiful!
Poor Holly was pretty tired when we came up. I had come up earlier that night and visited with her while she was feeding Monroe. She is a good mom and so loving! This picture also cracks me up because as you can see Barrett kept drinking Holly's water.
Look at this face! Tristen and Aunt Jessica were having lots of fun playing on Christmas day.
Aren't these socks the cutest! They look like the adult pairs you buy in the store.
As you can see there was chocolate in the stockings.
Tristen was our little garbage man as he carried around a bag and gathered the wrapping paper.
Dad and MOm got Tristen this little, well big lion. Tristen wasn't quite sure how he felt about it at first.
Benjamin had his leg up on Grandpa like the above picture. Grandpa looked down and Benjamin's hairy legs and Benjamin made a comment about, "you know you like it." It was funny.
I left our house and then headed to Grandma Carole's for a short while before work where I got to see the family but also see Little Karsin who isn't so little! He is also quite the cutie!
Dad put this label on a giant jar of jelly bellies. The joke behind this is that Grandma bought a jar of jelly bellies this size before. That same night Benjamin found them at her house and took them home where he ended up eating the jar so she didn't even get any. Also this container of jelly bellies hasn't left our house yet. I saw it in the living room tonight. Haha.
Some of the neat gifts I got were meant for my future home. Esther made this beautiful cross stitch for me. She has it displayed in her home and I love it. It shows how even Santa Claus knows the reason we celebrate Christmas. Helps to keep things in perspective.
Mom and Aunt Katie have the willow creek nativity sets. I have mentioned to Jake that when I have my own family I want a nativity set for my family to enjoy. This year he bought me my first nativity set. It is pretty large and I love it. I am told Grandma Carole helped pick it out so thank you! I was surprised to not have seen this set before but I really do like it and look forward to displaying it in my home with my family!
This year I made my Christmas presents for the girls. What a pain! HAHA. I started making it and everybody that was supposed to get it would get interested in what I was making and I would have to postpone it some more. Thankfully Benny sacrificed some sleep in helping me to cut paper so I could get them all done in time. Sorry to the aunts and cousins because I didn't get that far. They are little perpetual birthday books!
Baby Monroe in her Christmas present outfit from Aunt Jessica. She was definitely my favorite of Christmas presents!
