Holiday fun

I think this is the first year since we've been married that we've gotten into the Christmas spirit more than a week before Christmas.  Up until this point, our tree went up about the 15th of December and we didn't do a whole lot in preparation for Christmas.  But one of the nice things about living up north is there are more things for us to go out and do as a family.  There are quite a few pictures so enjoy :).

Seeing the light of temple square

I had to add this one because I have been known to give some pretty dirty looks and they're usually not on purpose I think I just look angry when I'm tired.  Anyway,  Ashlynn clearly has the dirty look thing down.

Our friends the Fuessel's.  It's nice to have good friends to go out and do stuff with. 

We went to the Zoo light of Hogle Zoo. 

Not too many animals were out and about, but the bears were.

Ashlynn with her friend Leila

We also made a huge batch of sugar cookies.  Thanks to pinterest, I found this REALLY good recipe.  I would highly recommend it.  It says to use cake flour, I just used regular and they were still delicious.  I don't know how to make a link...so just go to that website

http://www.abountifulkitchen.com/2012/02/cutlers-famous-sugar-cookies.html

My brother and sister in law came up from provo to help decorate.

Ta-da!! we aren't relaly the best of decorators...but they were still good

Oh Chirstmas Tree Oh Christmas tree...

This was the first year we went to a tree farm to get a tree.  We were used to just buying a tag and going up on the mounting and cutting (or one time shooting...) down our tree. We didn't know how the whole 'buying' a tree thing would go.   This year we went with some friends to get a tree.  I'd have to say, it was the best one we've had to date. 

say what?

So, there I was driving home from work one day and I drive past this bank.  The electronic sign had a banner that said "Come in now to get your Christmas loan"

What???! I coudln't believe it.  This is one of the dumbest things I think anyone could do.  It got me thinking about my other posts about money and how crazy people get and how rich they think they are becuase it's Christmas time.   If you have considered this crazy idea then you have been sucked in by stupid advertising....don't do it!! Sorry...but it's sooo not worth it and here's why.

1 - You will be purchasing things to give away only to pay on it for the next six months.
2 - While you are paying off your christmas gifts that you gave away, you will also be paying alot more becuase of interest.
3 - Christmas is not an emergency, it's not something that is a surprise.  It is a day that happens ever year at the same exact time! Therefore, why not save for it thorughout the year.

Then here's the kicker...you may not be taking out a loan...but maybe putting it on a credit card.  FYI, it's the same concept.  That's why I'm a total believer in going with cash.  You know what you have, what you can spend and where your money is going.  Then when you pay for it, you're done.  Never to be thought about again.

Since we started doing cash for everything we decided that holidays and birthdays are things you should view as a planned expense and you should work it into your budget. So here's what Danny and I did.  We first decided how times we buys gifts a year.  So we calculated how many siblings we each have for birthdays,  Mother's Day (both sides of the family), Father's Day (again, both sides) then we figure about 3 other times for wedding/showers etc.  Then we also calculated christmas and who all we give to.  In my family, we all give to one sibling, and then our parents and kind of the same things for Danny's side. We then decided you can get a decent gift for $15-20 dollars give or take.  You can see this as cheep or high or whatever. Do what you think you can do.  Then...times that by how many gifts you will probably purchase a year and TA DA! yes...lots of money a year goes to gift giving so you better start saving up!

In case you were wondering, when I take out my cash each month, I take $50.00 out each month to save for when needed.  That totals to 600.00 a year.  The nice thing is that we know we always have cash to give a gift and we never have to worry about not having enough money for someones birthday or what not.  In fact I never even think about how I'm going to pay for gifts because I know the money is always there.  Saving up and rolling over month after month.

So there's my two bits for the day.  :)

Family Pictures

I'm such a slacker when it comes to pictures.  I feel like I take alot of pictures...but not formal family pics.  Well Ashlynn turned two, which I just realized I haven't written about, and I realized it had been about 2 years since we had had family pictures.

So, after we moved I really wanted/needed some formal pictures.  For christmas last year, we got a nice Nikon camera with the justification that we would take our own family pics.  So, after we moved to Heber, we had Danny's uncle come out and take some pictures.  I really wasn't a fan of the time of day we did them, I would have prefered to do it in the evening when the light was better, but this was really the only time he could come out and take them.  There's a few that turned out good and we didn't have to pay for them, so that made it even better.

On a side not...I learned that day that I'm REALLY bad at doing little girls hair.  I think people think that just because I'm a mother I automatically know how to do hair.  I don't.  It's sad and on picture day I had a bit of a come apart because I had NO idea what to do with Ashlynn's hair.  Good thing she's cute to make up for mom not being able to do hair. 

I had to add this one so I could share all the funny faces Ashlynn pulled that day.  I'd say that 80% of the pictures were of her sticking her tongue out.  she hardly ever does that and of course she chose not to keep it in for pictures. 

That tongue is really showing in almost all the pictures.  Silly girl.  Pictures with toddlers is not easy...

Heber really is such a beautiful city! But after looking at these, I really would like to learn to take better pictures.  At least of Ashlynn. And there are a ton more pictures we took, but because of the sun they just didn't look as good.  But I like the second one.  So I think that's what we'll use.

Water Fun

During the summer, Ashlynn and I did some watercolor painting.  Well, one day she got particularly messy so instead of giving her a bath somehow, I don't really remember how, we decided to go outside and hose her down.  She loved it! And, I think dad loved it too... enjoy :)

Where did the water go??

There it is! Geez dad....

She loved soaking herself