One of the rare moments when Blake is attacking Hallie! Other than that not much is going on. Blake is the sweetest little thing when Hallie's down for her nap and he's in the spotlight. If he gets too hungry all hell breaks loose! He takes after his daddy. Hallie's in the copy cat phase and is now telling me to 'hang on one sec' and 'stop it'. It just goes to show that they really are listening. She does have a jealous bone, Ryan cant give me a hug without her complaining about it. It's hillarious!

They just put our cabinets in our house and are starting to stucco, it's nice to see it turning into a home. We cant wait to move in!

Hope everyone it doing fabulous! and planning babies, ha ha ha; but I'm totally serious!

HAPPY VALENTINES MONTH!

Sara is speaking in church!

Sara wanted me to let everyone know that she will be speaking in the Union First Ward, aka the ward she and I (and others of you!) grew up in on Feb. 10th at 11:00 am. I know that only one or two people made it to hear her speak when she had just returned, so I'm just letting you know that you will have another chance to be listen to this amazing speaker!!:)

Also it was a lot of fun to see so many of you who were able to come to the Layers party on Saturday! Don't worry if you missed it, we'll do another one in the next few months with the spring line coming out in March sometime!! If any of you would be interested in hosting a party, either with our friends or with your friends and family, let me know! Karen earned a lot of free shirts at her party!!

Receptionist

Hey there!

I just wanted to spread the word that we are looking for a receptionist at my work. The office is located in Draper. It's a great opportunity for someone who needs a full-time job with benefits. I'd consider it a starter job, not really an aspire-to-a-career job. :) We're looking for someone to answer phones and greet visitors and who is bright/intelligent and experienced in an office setting. I love working here and will be sad when it's my time to leave. If you or your sister or your cousin or neighbor would make a good candidate, let me know! You can call or email me.

Thanks a million.

Hello! As most of you know, our good friend Nicole is a distributor of the Layers Clothing line. Well...we are finally having a party so that she can start selling shirts. I will be hosting a party this Saturday from 1-3 PM at my house. I will also be sending an email and I mailed invites today...hopefully you get them tomorrow. Sorry this is such short notice. : The shirts that will be available this Saturday are from Layer's fall line. They are getting ready to show their spring line so all of the fall line is up to 75% off. If you want to check out any of their shirts you can by going to www.layersclothing.com. They really have cute stuff and their shirts are LONG, which is fabulous. We would love to see you there on Saturday...even if you don't buy anything! It is an open house so you can come anytime you want between 1-3 and stay for however long you want as well. I hope everyone has a fabulous day! :)
Love, Karen

PS...this is unrelated, but I realized yesterday that you can click on the pictures that people post and it will show you a bigger size. It's kind of nice since the pictures posted aren't huge. So I just thought I would let people know!

A Few More

I'm waiting for time to pass so I can pick Justin up from work (he is still working weekends and gets done around 11 pm) and I was looking at some of our pictures on the computer. I decided to share a few more pictures with you (and sorry if you're sick of looking at pics of me!!) of some cold moments...maybe not quite like Nan's, but they're taken in Star Valley which I hear has been -30 degrees lately!! A day or two after Christmas I went on my first "real" sleigh ride! There were four horses and they had bells on!! It was really fun and I got to learn how to "drive" them, which by the way is not as easy at it may seem! I will also include a picture of Justin's lovely shaved head. And I think more people should share their pictures with us!! They are so fun to see!

Our Little Cougar

Hi all, I just had to post a picture of Claire wearing her "you're looking at one cute cougar" shirt, given to her by Nicole. We were able to get tickets to the UNLV/BYU basketball game last night-on the 6th row! She wore her cute little outfit and we had a blast. We left at half-time, though because it was pretty loud for her, but that is okay considering that we lost :(. Anyway, just thought I would share. I know her hair looks red in pictures, but I would say it is more light brown, it is weird how pictures always make her hair look red.

New Years Vacation

Hi everyone! I love reading these posts, and check this Blog almost as much as my email!! (:
In contrast to Nicole's sunny, warm Mexico pictures, I thought that I would post some pictures from our icy, cold ice climbing and ski trip that we took to Colorado over the New Year. Every year we go with Jared's sister and her husband, and a few other friends. It is always so much fun!!

This is me climbing at the Ouray ice park

This is us at the top of Silverton. We had to hike 1,500 ft to get here!!!

I hope that everybody is having a good 2007! In May, I graduate in meteorology, and cannot wait!!!!!

Claire

Here is little Claire, well, not so little Claire. She is already in 6 month clothes and is only 10 weeks old. She fills them out length-wise, but not width-wise.

Cruisin'!!

Justin and I returned Saturday from our cruise to the Mexican Riviera aboard the Diamond Princess with his family!! We had a lot of fun. We went to Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas. We went on a jungle canopy tour, Justin went fishing (although they didn't catch anything!) and golfing, and I went on a colonial villages tour (only ok) and shopping of course! So anyway, if you chance to go on a cruise, GO!! The food, entertainment, and even the rooms were great. We thought the rooms would be so tiny, but they really weren't that bad...although the bathrooms are another story :) !! The only negative thing was the big waves on Friday and I was seasick! I threw up that night but the next day when we were back in LA I was just fine! Here's a few pics, hope you enjoy!

P.S. I have a new niece and nephew!! Baby Major belongs to my sister Natalie (boy #2 for her)and baby Alexis is my brother Ryan's first. Mothers and babies are doing well! The babies are both soooo cute!! They were born five days apart. Nat had a scheduled induction and Becky (Ryan's wife) had a c-section but is recovering well. We had quite the exciting couple of weeks!

Oh and so you know...left is Justin with two of his bros (third is on a mission), middle is riding in the Mexican Hummer (as our driver referred to it) on our jungle canopy tour, and right is one of the formal nights.

Baby Bode on Christmas

Here is the crazy Bode on Christmas. He is the cutest kid in the world. He just loves his new pound puppy!!! Anyway hope everyone is doing good!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone! Well I told myself that I wasn't going to stay up because if Claire was sleeping, I needed to sleep, but Seth made me stay up. I am exhausted today, but I guess it was worth it :). Last night we went out on the balcony, with our Martinellis and watched the about 8 different firework shows (we have an incredible view of the entire city). Those on the strip looked so amazing. Seth really wanted to be downtown, but I sure as heck didn't want to be driving with all of those drunk people. My sister-in-law went but she stayed downtown at Caesar's palace and she said it was amazing. Well that is about it for our Las Vegas New Year, hope everyone had a great time.

Happy New Year

Hello! I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas and that you all have a Happy New Year! We had a great Christmas. It was so fun to be with our families all weekend. Our big Christmas present this year was our house. We are so excited to be living there. It is so fun to be home owners. (Especially since we haven't made our first payment yet!) Tyler is going to start his fun project of finishing the basement this weekend. Sara, welcome home! When is your homecoming? I haven't heard. Nicole you need to call me on this one. Christine, we will all miss you, but that is very exciting for you. You always wanted to move away and now you are moving to the big city of sin! jk! Good luck to your cute little/long family. There isn't too much new with me other than moving into a house. The picture is kind of dark because we took it at night. I hope all is well with you. We need to figure out some get together. Love you all!

Finally

Well, it took me forever, and I finally did it!!! Karen, thanks for all your help...and thanks for setting this up it is awesome! So Merry Christmas! I hope everyone had a great day yesterday. Clint and I had fun just hanging out with my family and watching Bode play in the wrapping paper. We spent the day at my parents house and just played games with my brothers and their wives. It was a blast. Things are good these days, I just get to stay home with my little boy and lets be honest, he is a blast. It is such a blessing that I get to stay home with him and see his every move! Clint is still working way hard and going to school. He has about one year left, which is awesome. He just got a different job and he is now a machining engineer. It's pretty cool, but he has been working a ton. So it will be nice this Christmas break to spend time together. Well, on our spare time we are working on finishing our basement, and I really don't know if I was made to frame and put up sheetrock, but we will see how it goes.
Anyway, I think that a Christmas party would be a blast, and let me know if I can help with anything or what! Hope all is well, Patrice

baby Claire

Well, we had Claire's two month check-up two days ago. She had to get 5 shots and it was the saddest thing ever! I had always heard how hard that was, but man, when it is your own it is so hard. She is doing very well and is in the 95th percentile for her head size and her weight and she is off the charts for her length. She is quite the long baby! We are leaving for vegas early tomorrow morning. It is weird that I am leaving Utah for good, or for a very long time. Yet it is a very exciting adventure. I will miss you guys!

Guess Who?!

Dear Friends,

Can you believe I'm finally posting?! I've been reading the updates on this blog for quite some time, but I've never actually registered until now... Sorry, Karen! :) I hope you are all doing well. I think it's great to keep in touch. Hopefully the activity on the blog will continue to increase.

If you haven't already heard, I'm pregnant! Adam and I are expecting our first baby on May 12th. We just found out Monday that it's a BOY. We're soo excited!! I'm five months along, and my belly pops out like crazy. It's a lot of fun and really special.

I think it's a great idea to have a get-together over Christmas break. It will probably be hard to coordinate schedules, but we should still make the effort. I'd love to help out! Maybe we could choose to have an open house style party on the 27th, 28th, or 29th. One of those dates should catch most of the people who'll be in town, plus we'll get to celebrate Sara's homecoming. And everyone could just bring a treat or snack. The main issue will be finding a place to hold the get-together... Any ideas? Well, I hope we can get a few people to organize something! It sounds like a bunch of people would show; everyone keeps mentioning their hope for a big friends gathering. Let's work on it and see.

I am so excited for Christmas!! Be safe traveling and I hope to see all of you soon.

Love Becky

Sara!

I'm sure some of you know but I wanted to let those of you who don't know that Sara is coming home this Friday, the 22nd from her mission! I don't know any details about her flight or exactly when she'll be home, but her home phone number in Draper is 523-1275. So give her a call over the break, I'm sure she'd love it! She will be attending BYU next semester. I just thought I'd share the good news!

Hey All!
Well... I finally figured out how to put up pictures. This was Jake's "initiation" to the family from my cutest neices Brooke and Anna. Welcome Jake! :)
I just want everyone that we MAY have found our future house. We are still working out the deal and the details, but we may put in an offer. It's pretty scary, I don't know if anyone else is a home owner, but the thought of having a mortgage is slightly nerve racking. I'm going to have be a "real adult."
Christine your moving to Vegas?! That's awesome, we have some friends that live in Henderson, and they LOVE it there. It gets a little warm, but they like it. Then off to VA or someplace cool. That's awesome, Congrats on the acceptances. Jake keeps telling me that when he is retired we are going to move to boston for a baseball season and get tickets to all the Red Sox games. He's a nut! But I'm totally jealous and that will be so awesome.
Nicole, aren't look busy.. .jewelry and layers? WoW! I've thought about becoming a rep for The Mod Bod, but I just haven't gotten around to doing it.
Anyway, everyone I just wanted to give you all the latest update, who knows! We could have a house under contract by the time we come to Utah for Christmas. Which is the 21st. I hope there is going to be some sort of get together that I can see everyone.

Layers Sale

Layers clothing is having a sale starting tomorrow, Thurs. Dec. 14-Sat. Dec. 16th and I thought I would let everyone know. They are having 25% off all their fall line, which is everything on their website: www.layersclothing.com. They are also having free shipping this month, so if you are interested in buying any shirts, right now is a great time!

You are welcome to order online or you can call me and I can order for you. It is probably simplest to order online because you can just enter in all of your shipping and billing information, but if you would rather have me do it, I am happy to! If you do order online, I'd love for you to give me credit! There is a place on the page where you review your billing, shipping, and credit card info, and at the bottom of the page it says "Referring Stylist, if any". Just enter Nicole Pendleton in that box. They have some really cute stuff right now with almost everything in long sleeves. If you have any questions, let me know! Oh and also they are doing this sale at their warehouse which is in Murray at about 4500 South where they also have what's left of their spring line, which is up to 75% off I believe. I can forward the email on to anyone who may be interested.

Besides that I don't have much else to say! Things are going well for Justin and I. We are going on a cruise Dec. 30th-Jan. 6th to the Mexican Riviera with Justin's family and we are so excited to go! I will have to post some pictures here if there are any decent ones when we get back!

I hope all of you are well and happy and enjoying the Christmas season!
Love, Nicole

We got in!

Yipee! Seth got in to the University of Virginia. I am so excited because that was our first choice. I really cannot believe that we are in, it is such a blessing. Only 10 % of applicants get accepted. We are still waiting to hear from other schools. Seth just got back from Harvard and he pretty much decided that if we got in we have to go there (a very slim chance) and I guess that I could get used to Boston, but I really want to live in Charlottesville, VA.

In other news, Claire got blessed yesterday and it was really special. It is so wonderful being a mom. That is about it for us. I hope everyone is having a great Christmas season. Love ya!

Finally

Hi everyone. Well I have been trying to get on for the last two months but apparently i was using the wrong user name :). Well, as for me things are going well. I love being a mom, and I feel great. It is much better than being pregnant and throwing up every day for nine months. The second Claire was born I felt better. She is getting really big and is now 6 weeks old. She is pretty skinny with chubby cheeks, but is super long! No surprise there, considering her parents. She also has big hands and feet and she hasn't lost any of her hair. She is starting to smile and has a cute little dimple right above her lip. She is wonderful. I have been truly blesssed.

In other news, Seth and I are moving to Las Vegas on December 22nd. He is going to work for his dad who is the president of a home building company. After lots of considerations, we feel this is the best for us. If anyone is ever in Las Vegas let us know! Also, we are waiting to hear from schools for his MBA program. It is pretty amazing because he has been invited for an interview to all the schools he applied to. This is pretty cool considering most schools want an average of two years work experience. We don't know if we will get in, but after some work, we have a much better chance. We have applied to Duke, Virginia, Yale, Cornell and Harvard. He is going to Boston next week for an interview and we already found out about Cornell and he is on the waiting list. Pretty bummed about that, but nonetheless we are really blessed. Kath, if we do end up in Virginia (which is our number one choice), we will have to come see you! Anyway, that is about it for the Vances. Love you all!