YoU'rE iT

*PS - Friends and Family...there is a new post with pictures from yesterday, but I've been wanting to do this so just scroll down to see it!

I haven't seen a Christmas Tag at all, so I thought I'd start one! I wanted to write a few of my Christmas favorites down and want to hear from you too! If you have a link to your blog on my page, or if you just visit and I haven't linked to you yet...YOU'RE IT! Can't wait to hear what you LOVE about CHRISTMAS!

My 12 Things at Christmas...

12. Best Childhood Gift - Super Nintendo for the family or four story barbie house with elevator

11. Favorite Christmas Song (traditional and on your current CD) - Hark the Herald Angels Sing and "Believe" by Josh Groban

10. Favorite Christmas Treat - Butter Toffee

9. Favorite Christmas Movie - New version of Miracle on 34th Street and Home Alone

8. Favorite Tradition Growing Up - Staying home all day with my family and enjoying our new presents!

7. Favorite Place to Buy Presents - Target

6. Favorite Current Tradition - Christmas morning with our little family...having a child makes Christmas so awesome!

5. Open Presents: Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning - Christmas Morning

4. Time You Wake Up Christmas Morning - When Peyton gets up

3. Favorite Hot Chocolate Flavor - Peppermint

2. Best Gift You've Given - I loved the Greg Olsen painting we gave both sets of parents the Christmas before we had Peyton. It's the one of the little boy sitting by the Savior looking up at him.

1. One Christmas Wish this Year - A healthy baby! And a Wii :)

Merry Christmas!

Holiday Fun

Oh MY...this last week was so busy and this week will not disappoint either. Here is a list of last week's events (with pictures).

Well, I forgot to take a picture at the Kurt Bestor concert, but it was awesome. We went with Davy and Lisa for a great evening out. Thanks Mom and Dad for watching Peyt!

My Grandpa and Grandma Johnson have been in town the past few days so we've been able to spend some time with them! We had dinner together Wed. night at Thanksgiving Pointe, and then they took us to California Pizza Kitchen Friday night! Fun times.

Saturday night McKay and I were able to go up to SL and eat at the Roof. I've never been there during Christmas and it was an AWESOME view from the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. The snow was lightly falling and it was beautiful! Thanks AGAIN Mom and Dad for watching Peyton!





























Yesterday we had our annual Christmas shopping trip with my Grandpa Johnson. So fun! My cousin Ryan (tallest boy...but not Jack) will be leaving on his mission on Wednesday! Best of luck to him! Peyt got two Cars toys (50 percent off at Disney store...yeah!) And I got a really cute winter coat from Gap. We all ended up at California Pizza Kitchen again for dinner! Thanks for a great afternoon Grandpa! We followed last night up with a dinner at our house for all of McKay's team members from work. I was happy with how it turned out...you can never go wrong with ham and funeral potatoes!















Last night we had a great snow storm so today was the perfect day to try out the new sled! I think Peyt really liked it. I am really BUGGED though because I can't find his nice Gap warm coat...and I REALLY don't want to buy another one. I hope it's just hidden at my Mom's house. I also have a video of this which will be posted at the bottom of this long post :)















Peyt doesn't care what the temp is outside. He just LOVES being outside.




















And finally, per a few requests, here is a few pictures of our Christmas tree. I really love it and I'm so glad we did the tall one. It fits perfectly in our tall room. I'm so grateful for this time of year. It makes me SO happy!







































As for the rest of this week, we'll continue to have lots of fun things! Tomorrow night we get to go to the Voicemail concert, followed by my 16 wk appt. at the doctors!, Erks coming over Friday night and the Shoell family party and fancy Prosper party up at Grand America Saturday! Whew! More pictures to come!

Festival of Trees

I think the Festival of Trees is becoming a tradition with my Mom and sister. I love going every year so it's great by me. I'm not so sure about Peyton on the other hand. He tolerated it for about 20 minutes and then wanted to go. At least he got Pei Wei's Honey Chicken out of the deal :) Here were some of my favorites...




















Ode to High School Musical




















I would have bought this tree and awesome Santa if I had money to spend there. It was awesome. My tree has these colors in it so maybe that's why I was drawn to it...and that Santa was so cool.





















Twilight tree!




















This was the sweetest little princess tree. There was a picture of a darling little girl by it but no story to go with it. I hope she was one of the survivors...The top of this tree was so incredible but I didn't want to post TOO many pictures.




















Very inventive golf tree




















Because Peyton had enough, I forgot to take a picture with everyone! So one of him in the car will have to do! I had a great night Mom and Chels! Thanks! We're off to the BYU/Utah State game tonight and Monday night we get to hear Kurt Bestor! Fun things ahead!

Elder Wirthlin

I will miss hearing from this apostle at General Conference. I always looked forward to hearing him speak. He always had a special phrase or story that sticks with me long after conference is gone...one of the most recent I loved is "Sunday will come..." and his most recent talk where he told the story of his daughter mistaking her date for her little sister's babysitting job :) I know he is so happy with his wife, but he will be missed!

Delicious Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was wonderful as always. We get two dinners each year...turkied out! We started in the afternoon with the Ercanbracks at the big Ercanbrack Thanksgiving. There are a lot of Ercanbracks because Wayne comes from a family of seven siblings and each of them had 4-7 kids each! We really don't see them too often besides the every other year Thanksgiving so it was good to be there.





























Loving his dinner!















Next it was off to the Neigers for the evening. Duh...I forgot to take a picture of the delicious dinner, but this is our usual hang out spot after dinner. We play Aggravation (a marble game) with my family quite a bit. Boys against girls and the boys won out this time.














My Mom and I took Peyt on a walk around our neighborhood. Behind our house there is a culdesac with just a few houses in it. Two of the houses totally deck the halls. They should win awards for all the work they do! I love going around to their homes and looking at them every year!














Up the street another one of our neighbors puts a huge display in their living room and opens up their big windows. It's so neat! She has a different theme each year and it was Santa on a four wheeler this year. They've gone so far as to put Santa on a helicopter one year!















After being completely stuffed, we rolled on home, put Peyt to bed and rented Hancock...OK to see once rented from Redbox. It was a great day!

This weekend we've put Christmas decorations up! I love how my house looks with all the decorations. I am going to enjoy December so much! Happy Holidays!

Liked Twilight

I've heard so many mixed emotions about Twilight. I went into it with NO expectations and was pleasantly surprised. We had a huge group from our ward go and it was a lot of fun. The movie left me wanting to see New Moon so I would say it was pretty good. I would tell you to see it if you haven't yet. It also made me excited for a chic flick about competing brides coming out in Jan. There are are least 8 or 9 movies coming out that I want to see!

I want to wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving. I am excited to spend the day with both of our families. I'll miss my family who is out of town, but we will be thinking about you and love you! And no I am not going shopping on Black Friday. My Mom and I went up to Park City today and I got some shopping done...I'll wait to finish on a weekday around 3 p.m. Hope you have fun if you go though!

Picture overload coming

Part of the reason I have this blog is to keep my wonderful grandparents who live out of state updated on the life of Peyton. As you can tell from my blog this hasn't really happened lately. I've been laying around feeling sorry for myself that I am sick and haven't been LIVING. So yesterday I became determined...sick or not...to get up and get things done each day. Things may or may not change for the next 5 and a half months, but at least my attitude can!

We have LOTS of fun things coming up starting Thursday and well into the beginning of the year. You will be seeing many pictures to come and many memories made at the Ercanbrack household. I am really looking forward to this holiday season...really...

The only sad note to the beginning of it all is that the beloved BYU football team lost. There's always next year at home I guess. Can't win them all at the last second right :) And the Jazz lost a last second game last night...nothing I dislike more!

Today I'm going to gear up and find a few finishing touches for my Christmas decorating. It's all going up Friday! Yeah! And I get to see Twilight tonight (I think I'm one of the last women on the planet to see it though). I'll give you my review tomorrow.

Deck the Halls

So we found a tree. And not the 9 foot tree I was dreaming of...no no no. This is a 12 FOOT TREE! I am so excited! It pays to bring your loving husband along who convinces you that it's OK to get the much larger tree because it will look so much better in our two-story family room! So yeah for Christmas. I just hope I have enough decorations this year to fill it enough. Oh and one more perk...it's pre-lit! If you are in the market for a tree this year, we bought it at Taipan...they have a 25 percent off coupon on any Christmas item and trees are included! We saved a ton of money!

ALSO...I am on the lookout for the 20 percent off coupon for Toys R Us. It came in the holiday gift book which I DIDN'T GET! Sad day. We are buying the big kid Little Tikes slide for Peyton for Christmas and I'd love to save some money on it. If you aren't planning on using your coupon and have one, let me know!

AND ONE MORE THING...I am still yucky sick and I'm trying to figure out how to help myself...Things not working so far: Unisom and B6 and Prevacid. I think Zofran is my next step and I don't know what the next steps are after that. I really just need to feel good for the holidays! ANY SUGGESTIONS ARE WELCOME!

Love you all!

Is it that time again already?

I am SO looking forward to the holiday season. I really think there's not much I love more than a home filled with Christmas decorations. I am THRILLED to have a high ceiling and room this year to put up a big Christmas tree! I bought a round of decorations soon after my birthday (I know...a little excited :) and I just need one more round probably and it will be ready to go! My house is pretty much ready the day after Thanksgiving. I LOVE IT! Now if I can only teach Peyton to leave it alone...that will be the challenge this year.

Also, can't believe it's time already for baby #2. Will be born end of May/first of June! (Due date is June 4th but if I'm given the option to be induced at 39 weeks, I'm taking it!) Aside from being sick, we are so excited and can't wait for a brother or sister to join Peyton.

Happy Halloween

I love thinking of fun things to dress Peyton up in. I better enjoy it while he doesn't have an opinion.




















Little Peyton Manning















Peyt's little cheerleader Addie. Jessica made Peyt's cute football pants for me and her little baby Eliza also had a darling cheer outfit on that matched her sister. So talented!
















Kids minus Peyt. He always seems to be sad at the Halloween party! These girls are all so cute though!
















Our visit to Dad's work on Halloween. These two cute boys aren't too far apart from Peyton.















The cousins at Grandma and Grandpa Shoell's.

Hope you had a great day too! We had SO many trick or treaters I couldn't believe it. So much fun to see all of them though!

Heart Happy

Two stories that touched me in the past two days...

As I mentioned before I've been so impressed with the story of the Nielson family who were in the tragic plane crash in Arizona leaving husband and wife badly burned and requiring months and months of treatment. They had a fund raiser concert for them last weekend in AZ featuring these two sweeties...Stephanie Nielson's daughters...I read on her blog that she sang this to her children at night. I think this is a new favorite lullaby :) And the older one's name is Claire...my favorite name for a girl.

http://www.eastvalleyproductions.com/player.cfm?media=/movies/Nie/Glendhill

I watched yesterday's Oprah about children who've done incredible things. They told the story of the little 9-year old boy who marched into the Olympic stadium with the Chinese athletes this summer. His school was demolished during the massive earthquake earlier this year. Many of the students in his school were killed. This little boy escaped and then went back in to help save two of his classmates. Later when asked why he did it, he simply said he was the hall monitor and he just needed to do his job.

How I wish I was more like a little child...

Love Him

In twenty years, I'm not going to remember what my house looked like today...how clean it was, how decorated it was or how my coffee table was being used. What I'm going to remember are moments like these...




















































...and the pure joy on my little boy's face. I was in our bedroom doing something and heard the squeals and belly laughs coming from Peyton. McKay had propped our very dented/played on coffee table up to the fireplace and was driving Peyt's cars down it...much to his delight. It turned out to be a highlight of our week! This child brings so much joy to my life. No words can really blurt it all out...

I finally read through some of the entries about Christian and Stephanie Nielson...talk about putting your life into perspective. What an incredible journey they've been through. I was deeply touched and will keep my thoughts with them. www.nieniedialogues.blogspot.com

"Happy Day"

Sorry for blog slacking. Whenever I know I need to post a video it takes me forever because my computer is so slow and I don't want to do it...ANYWAY...here's something cute Peyton's been doing. He hit his newfound attitude stage about 18 months. It's been fun. When he gets really mad/sad I tell him to be a "happy boy". Somehow he got "happy day" out of that and will usually say it when you tell him to be happy. The video shows a few of his words thanks to my continuous prodding and repeating...so sorry about that!

This month has been busy and it's part of my slacking. I'm the primary chorister and it's the program this next week...also hosted a little party at my house, was in charge of a super Saturday craft, yada yada. I'll try to make more visits this week.

Thank You!

I have to say thanks to all my cute friends who came to the party tonight! It turned out great thanks to all of you! I was a little nervous because the party I did a few years ago didn't go as great as I'd hoped...but this one was so fun! So many of my cute neighbor friends came over...thanks girls! And I had a lot of friends who made the drive from various parts of Utah County to come...you girls are awesome! For all my neighbor friends...every six months someone needs to host one of these so we can always have some cute shoes to wear :) Any volunteers for next time? I'll get you Amy's info! Anyway...thanks again. I had a very fun night! I'll try and take pics of the cute stuff I got and post them.

Grateful for "Don"

There needs to be more Dons in the world...

I was stuck on the side of the freeway with a blown out tire. Luckily I felt it happen and quickly veered off the road. Could have been a disaster. Prayer answered #1.

Called McKay immediately and he said he'd be right there. Prayer answered #2.

As I'm getting the spare tire out and ready, Don shows up. Prayer answered #3.

He's driving a big construction/utility truck and offers to help. He checks the tire as McKay shows up and still continues to help. We realize there's a big gash in the tire (which by the way...if you know your tires are bad already, just get them changed!) He pulls his truck in front of our jeep and gets his air pump ready. In a matter of minutes, he has our car jacked up, tire changed and safely on, air in the spare tire etc. etc. etc. He was our good Samaritan. He did a job in five minutes when it would have taken McKay 30-40 with the lousy wrench and jack the car manufacturers give...not to mention greasy, dirty work clothes afterward. So thank you for being my answered prayer today Don.

Maybe all of us (myself with the finger pointed deepest) should find our own good Samaritan moments...I know people need our help!

P.S. - Love to see any of you who can come to the shoe/scentsy party tomorrow night. Should be fun! 6:30-8 p.m.

It's a PARTY!

I'm excited about the upcoming Sole Desires (cute shoes!) and Scentsy (yummy candles!) party I'm having! Here's the info...

Wednesday, October 8th
6:30 - 8 p.m.
My House - leave your email as a comment if you need address/directions

These companies both have great products and I'm really excited to have them over. Sole Desires has tons of cute shoes for women and children (even cute boy CHURCH shoes!!! So hard to find sometimes :) Scentsy also has a lot of fun new things including plug-in scents and car fresheners! Everyone is welcome and I hope to see you there! There will be at least five different kinds of cookies to eat too :)

SYTYCD and Grandma Shoell's Bday

Had SO much fun Tuesday night at the show. It was awesome. Dance=chills for me. Had them the whole night!















This was about as good as it got as far as pictures of the show. We had pretty good seats thought and saw everything really well!















Mom, me and Chels. Love my family so much! Thanks Mom for the yummy dinner at Ruby Tuesday's before!















Mom and me.















Chels and me. Thanks girls for an awesome night that I will never forget! Next up was Grandma Shoell's 80th birthday celebration. Stupid me...I didn't even get a picture of her. I'm too occupied getting pictures of Peyton all the time! We love her so much though and appreciate everything she means to the family!















Peyt and Alaynah playing in Grandma's playhouse. It's so cute...I'll post pics sometime of it. These two are so good together and I know love each other :) It's her bday on Monday and we're going to her party tomorrow! Yeah!















Peyt LOVES the phone...caught this at the right moment :)
















Grandma has so many fun toys at her house including this car. Peyt LOVES cars!















All the kids getting ready to surprise Grandma Shoell!




















We started teasing Peyt by tying one balloon to his pants...he ended up with several! He was a good sport though.

Happy BDAY to my amazing sister in law Melissa TODAY! She's such a wonderful, cute, smart, mature person and we love having her in the family. I LOVE dance and she's been a dancer her whole life so it's fun to talk to her about it...along with many of our other shared loves including SHOPPING! Love you Melis!

Update

I used to be so good at updating this a few times a week. Lately it's been about once a week. I'll try to be better :) We've had a fun couple of weeks! I got to go to dinner a few times with a few different groups of friends. Birthdays are the best! On Saturday I had fun up at the outlets in Park City with my sisters Melissa and Ashley. The boys cut wood for my in-laws at their property in Coleville (I think that's how you spell it) so we decided to go shopping while they worked! I found some cute things for Peyt and I and even a few shirts for McKay. We came back that afternoon and Wayne and Pam made us all a delicious dutch oven dinner to celebrate my, Melissa and Alaynah's bdays!















It's been fun because my friend Sarah has been in town so we've gotten everyone together a few times to hang out. The first picture is from our dinner at Texas Road House...yum! I love that place. The pictures below are from our park adventure today. Steph told us about a fun, old park in Alpine. It had some fun toys...but Peyt just likes to RUN away from me and go everywhere and anywhere. He's really hard to take anywhere with open spaces and moving vehicles :) We managed though and it was fun to get together. Our friend Christina came who I hadn't seen for years! It was really fun to see her. Thanks everyone for a fun afternoon. Tonight I get to go to the So You Think You Can Dance show and I'm SO excited. I'll write about it soon!

Birthdays...

I must admit I love birthdays. But honestly it's much more than mine. I've always been so grateful that every person on this planet has a day of their own to be recognized. I look forward to family birthdays and especially my own children (well, right now, child). Anyway, today has been a wonderful day and I have to thank so many of you for nice notes, texts, phone calls, gifts etc. THANK YOU! So blessed :) Funny thing though. I had to get a new SIM card for my phone and lost almost everyone's numbers. So I did get a few texts from people and I don't recognize the numbers because I could just look for your name in my phone :) So if you texted me today, leave a comment so I know who those lovely people were. I'm guessing it was my family, and I think I recognized a few numbers...duh...look what cells phones do to us! Few pics below from today. I CAN'T believe how big Peyt looks in that picture. He's my big boy!

McKay and I also had a fun date Saturday night at Tucanos followed by The Dark Knight...it was a dark movie just like everyone told me...oh well. Thanks babe for all you did for my bday and all you do for me everyday! When we bought our house there were three cabinets in our kitchen that bugged me...REALLY bugged me. McKay let us redo all of the cabinets and I'm really happy with how they turned out. LOVE YOU!