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!

I'm thankful for...

You!! :) You guys are all awesome friends. I love this holiday because being thankful means eating a lot of food. I agree, no Christmas stuff until after Thanksgiving. Starting Friday I will be celebrating Christmas in full force the entire month of Dec, including parties, a NY trip, plays, etc. I hope I can see at least some of over the Christmas break! We should all get together. Also, if you ever feel like coming out here to visit, I'd love it! You're all welcome to stay with me anytime.

I hope you all have exciting plans for the weekend--I'll be going to my grandparents' (and probably be the only person under the age of 50).

HAPPY TURKEY DAY

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I can't believe how fast this year has flown, especially how fast November has gone. I have to say I'm a bit jealous of Nicole for becoming a Layers distributor. They are probably my most favorite shirts. I think I wear them almost every day, either as a shirt or as an under shirt since they are modest and LONG! Hallelujah for that! :) The long torso-ed people need a little break sometimes and luckily long shirts are the "in thing" right now. We just need more people to sell long inseam pants. I went to Express the other day to get pants for work and only a select few styles came in long. What's the deal with that? Don't they realize that there are tall people out there that don't enjoy walking around in either floods or the same pants every day because they don't come in long? I'm not talking about jeans...I can find those at my favorite jeans store...Buckle, but work pants are hard to come by (at least I think they are). So there's my plug for 2 clothing lines...Buckle and Layers! :) Well, I really didn't have too much to write about! I just hope everyone has a happy holiday this week. And after tomorrow (turkey day) people can put their Christmas decorations up. I don't know why but it really bugs me that people already have their trees and lights up already. What about Thanksgiving? :) Bryce told me that I'm letting it get to me too much, but I guess I have my own opinions right! Well, have a fun weekend everyone!
Love ya, Karen

Layers Clothing

Hey everyone! I wanted to let all of you know that I am the newest distributor for Layers Clothing company! I am really excited and think it will be a really fun thing. Yesterday I got my starter kit which has 19 samples of their Autumn line they are currently featuring. Now I'm ready to throw some parties!! Here is the website if you would like to check them out. They have some really cute shirts right now I must add:
www.layersclothing.com
For those of you who have never been to a "tee party" as they are called, here is how they work. First I give you (the hostess) invitations to invite all your friends and family that you want to come. You send them out about 2 weeks before your party and then call and see who's coming if you want an idea and to remind people! Then I show up on the date you choose and bring my samples so that everyone can try the shirts on and figure out what size they are. I have catalogs with me showing pictures of the whole line including the sizes, colors, and prices for each.

The great thing about being a hostess is that you earn free shirts! The hostess benefits are 8% of the sales of your party before taxes towards any Layers shirts. Also, you receive 20% off towards any five shirts (I assume you would do this if you wanted more shirts after your 8% ran out).

If you have any questions or are interested in having a party or you know of someone who might, let me know! Give me a call or email me! I own a few of their shirts that I bought previous to becoming a distributor and I love them. They are no only cute, but they are also comfortable and of course modest!

Finally

First of all hello to everyone! What a fabulous idea! I hope everything's going well for everyone. These are my babies Hallie and Blake on Halloween, as you can tell Hallie is really excited about carving pumpkins. All's well at the Button end, our house is nearing completion but not there yet. We hope to be in sometime in January, but we all know construction is never on time. Hallie is sick now, but is mainly an angel. She speaks fluent Chinese Jibberish and is now working on the Engish language, putting 2 or 3 words together at a time. It is so much fun to hear her start to talk, her latest is sound, she starting to wonder what she's hearing. Blake is sleeping through the night now and is close to crawling, but not yet. Ryan and I are going to be using our wells fargo rewards points at the end of this month to go to Kauai! We are so excited, Ryan probably more just cuz I'm the mom and have some kind of attachment to my kids. It'll be a nice break before kids start coming again.

Anyway, today I was watching Oprah and this remarkable woman figured out the baby language. She has photographic sound (don't quite know how to say that). Christine is the only one with a newborn so she will have to test it. All babies make 5 sounds (words) out of reflex. Since this lady has amazing ears she figured it out. Hear's the site.
http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200611/tows_past_20061113.jhtml
Now all of you can start having babies! Yea!

Ryan's kind of freaking out, the computers making crazy sounds but there are three pages to read and it tells you the "words" they make it is fascinating!

See ya later!

Jewelry Party!

Hey everyone! I am having a jewelry party this Saturday, Nov. 18th at my mom's house in Sandy from 11 am-1 pm or whenever. I hope most of you have recieved an invitation by now. A few people in my family have, so hopefully you have. I would love for everyone to come and also bring a friend or your mom, sister, whoever! I have invited all of our friends and my mom has invited some people in the ward. It's just going to be an open house, so drop by whenever.

The company is called Lia Sophia. I went to a party in September and thought it would be fun to do with our friends and anybody who wanted to come! You can look up their website and check out their jewelry if you'd like at http://www.liasophia.com/nora. Also, if you can't come on Saturday but you would still like something, just let me know and I can order it for you, even up to the following Wednesday I believe (the party doesn't officially close until then). Even if you don't want to buy anything you can come and look and just chat with everyone! It's totally a no pressure thing.

I look forward to seeing all of you! If you have questions let me know!

Nicole

hi everyone!!! I have looked at this friends blog a few times, but have never had time to figure out how to post something, but I think I finally figured it out...so we'll see if this works. This is such a great idea, it's so fun to hear how everyone is doing. By the way, Meredith- I loved your guys' halloween costumes!

Me and Ty are doing well, we're living in Provo (but I still hate BYU football- probably even more than before). We're both in school and graduating in April!!! Yeah!! I'm in dental hygiene school and really love it. I'll actually be sad when I graduate. Nicole and Justin came in to our clinic to get their teeth cleaned a couple of weeks ago- it was so fun! Ty has a job in Los Angeles, so we'll be moving out there at the end of the summer. Before we move, we're going to go to Thailand for 2 months (hopefully with Nanette and Jared!) for our last big trip before we start working our lives away. But if anyone wants to go to California next year, you'll have a free place to stay!

It's so fun to see all the new baby pictures. Christine- Claire looked SO adorable in that little pumpkin, I can't believe how much hair she has! Well, I really have no exciting news in my life- but I'm glad I finally figured this out. I hope to hear from you all soon!
love,
em

Halloween

Hey everyone! I hope everyone had a happy Halloween. Personally, I'm sad it's over because it's one of my favorite holidays. Adam and I were a cop and convict!

I'm glad I finally joined this blog! I miss all of you and want to hang out with everyone sometime! I think Ginger is right, we should all do something for the holidays.

Just for an update, Adam and I are living in Murray. I officially graduated from the U in August with a BA in English. It feels so good to be done! I work at the U for a former professor who has a business called Yourstory: Record and Remember. We record people's life stories onto CDs (usually older people). It's really fun, and if anyone wants to have me interview one of their grandparents or anything, give me a call (243-4978) or e-mail me (meredith.rock@gmail.com). The website is www.yourstory.utah.edu. It's a really good family Christmas gift to give everyone a copy of your grandparent(s) life stories. Plus it's good for geneaology/family history work!

Adam is working on his Bachelor's in Communications at the U. He still works at Mstar, an internet/cable/phone service provider. He is so busy that lately he has been working all night long! We are going to Phoenix to visit his family for Thanksgiving. I'm excited!

Well it's really good to see everyone's updates! Congrats to everyone on recent babies! See y'all later!

p.s. Laura and Meghan, cute pictures!

Yay for posts!

I'm so glad that people are finally posting! Hopefully this is a regular occurence! Ginger...I can guarantee that you will be so happy to be done with school. Coming home from work and having no homework is one of the best feelings ever! I still enjoy it and I've been done for almost a year now! :) I really don't have a lot to say because there really isn't anything exciting in my life that often! All I do is work all day and sit at home all night while Bryce does homework! But work is fun! :) We do go on vacations every once in awhile, so that's fun. The only reason why we go on vacations is to watch football though! If any of you have ever seen Fever Pitch...that is pretty much Bryce, but he likes all college football rather than just one team. We went to Chicago in October to see Notre Dame play Stanford. It was definitely fun and I got a vacation out of it so I'm not complaining. I don't have any of those pictures on my work computer though so I can't post any cute pictures. We are already planning next year's football trip and we might be going to a Tennesse game. That will be exciting because that is my favorite team (besides the U of course). I chose Tennessee when we first started dating because I liked their colors the best! Ha...girls and football! :) Anyways, sorry I don't have any exciting news but I do hope that everyone is doing well! Have a happy day!
Love ya, Karen

Figured it Out

Hi everyone! I am not sure if I am doing this right- but I guess I will find out soon! I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween. I like this blog thing!

Laura Bird

Happy Halloween!

Hey guys! I hope you're all doing well. Congratulations to Christine and baby Claire. I'm happy to hear about the Firths too. I just moved back to DC last week and I am so glad to be here, other than it is freezing cold! I wish I had something really exciting to tell you all, but I don't really. Oh, Jeff (my boyfriend) will be doing Washington Seminar (an internship program through BYU) next semester from Jan.-May. Yay! I can't wait. I have so many things planned for us once he gets here. As for now, I am back working regular hours, which is a relief. That's about it. Have a spooky Halloween! :)
p.s. We need to encourage all of the rest of our friends to post on here so I have more to be entertained with while I work!

Hello everyone! It's been so fun reading all of your posts....it took me this long to figure out how to post one myself. I'll give everyone a quick update on the Firthies......we are both graduated and working up at Primary Childrens. It's stressful, but great! We were both able to take care of those conjoined twins that were separated last month. I have not been working much lately becuase I have mono....not fun. Anyway, life is good. Ash is moving out and leaving me all by myself. We won't be connected at the hip anymore! The love life is interesting.....isn't dating always that way? Since we are the few single friends left, you'll actually still get updates on that. :) I'm still dating that boy I've been dating for a year now, but no marriage yet. Ash ws dating his best friend, but that ended. Now she's dating like crazy and I have to approve all of them! (She doesn't know I'm writing this)
Hope everyone's doing great and has a great Halloween! Hope to see everyone soon! Congrats to all the pregnant ones, new moms, birthday girls, and friends with new houses.

Love the Firthies!!