I Passed!

Ok, so this is old news....but

I PASSED MY IDAHO STATE BOARDS!

(this means I am a licenced cosmetologist)

I was supposed to take my tests a long time ago but kept having problems so it was so nice to get them over with! I had to take a 4 hour practical test first, which I was seriously a hot mess during. I was at station #1A which was front row, right by the instructors station and I was SO NERVOUS. I had practiced a ton before, but for some reason could not get a hold of myself and was pretty sure that I had failed.

Then I had to take a 90 minute written test which was actually quite easy.

After 8 days of waiting in agony, I finally found out that I passed!

This is what my kitchen looked like for 2 weeks

It's great to feel legit now, and know that I can go work in a salon if I needed to. (I am so lucky, that Brandon can support our family right now, and I get to stay at home with Grant)

So, no more free haircuts, people! I have spent a lot of time and money on learning this profession, and because I'm not working in a salon, I'd like to get SOME reward for my work.(Did I mention that I did 8 family members hair at Thanksgiving for F-R-E-E ;)

Christmas!

We had Christmas Eve at John and Caroline's with a few members of Brandon's family.

Brandon's sister, Katie, made Grant this adorable frog hat and the vest he is wearing was Brandon's when he was a baby

Me and Care. I would be dead out here if it weren't for her!

The kids and their cute jammies
Reindeer bum :)

Grant loves to "fly"

"Oh, hello there!"

Brandon's parent's, Joelle, and Grandma Roberts

Carter and Grant are best buds

Everyone eating Hez's "Christmas in a cup" and watching "Joy to the World"

Grant loves watching tv (oops!)

I may or may not have shed a few tears from not being with my family in Beaver this year...and waking up alone on Christmas morning (Brandon had to go out to the dairy :(

It was also the first year I've ever slept in my own bed!

Considering I already got a new car, Santa was very good me this year!

Brandon's loot:

Grant was so excited to see that Santa had came!

(let it be known, that only 2 of those gifts are from Brandon and I)

Later that afternoon we went to Brandon's parent's and played lots of games and saw "Tangled" then spent the night and went to church with them on Sunday.

Hope your Christmas was as grand as ours!

Partay

Thursday night was the Andersen Family Christmas party at Brandon's parent's house. It was pretty crazy with all those people and their children but tons o' fun!

Santa came to visit! He went straight over to the cute babies.


Grant loved him! We'll see how long that lasts...

The Nativity

Grant got to be Baby Jesus

Sweet Hannah as Mary

Luke was my fav as the sheep

Trey gave Grant this ball and tractor and Ben and Robbie took our family pics and then blew up one onto a huge canvas that I love!

Archie!

We were lucky enough to get 6 tickets to the MoTab & David Archuleta concert (they had 1.5 million requests) on Sunday morning. It was my first night away from Grant and it was hard!

John and Caroline were nice enough to take him for the night, luckily he slept till 8am!

We went to our fav restaurant "Bangkok Grill" in Orem and stayed at the Hancocks. We stayed up way too late, and had to get up at 6 the next morning!

I loved this tree in the Conference Center

The Hancocks, the Illums and Us.

We have missed these good friends so much!

The concert was AH-MAZ-ING. I was seriously blown away by how great and humble David Archuleta was (oh yeah, and Michael York was the narrator..whoever that is). I am definitely a new fan!

Jersey Cow

This is Brandon's favorite cow at the dairy :)

And somebody fell asleep in their bouncer!

Imma bout to scoop me up some...

Try it.

My sister's and I became obsessed with it at Thanksgiving.

It will change your life.

Gooo Cougars!

The next Jimmer Fredette.

(No, Grant did not loose his hair. It has just turned really blonde, and we've started to comb it over, the mohawk was getting too long and kept being mistaken for a curl ;)

Merry Christmas!

This sweet boy is definitely on the nice list :)

Thanksgiving

We got to fly down to beautiful, sunny, warm Arizona for Thanksgiving! I had literally been counting down the days for months. I never thought I would miss AZ this much, but it hurts my heart to just think about how long it will be till we are reunited again...

Grant did awesome on all of the flights. He either slept the whole time, or just sat on my lap.

Anyways, I wasn't very good about taking pictures, but here are a bunch of random ones..and most of them I stole from Ashlee!

There was madness going on at all times the whole week. We had about 30 people over for dinner!

JoJo feeding Grant by the fire

Some of us went to the Mesa Temple lights.

My Dad with 5 of his kids
This one cracks me up, all I wanted was a smooch!

Brandon and I hadn't been back there together since we got married over 2 years ago

Cute Luke

These girls were pooped!

Grant loved Nancy!

My Mom is all about the "Baby's 1st..." shirts and got this for him.

I swear every day she would give me a new toy or outfit for him, and we even had to bring home an extra suitcase to fit all of his Christmas gifts!

And someone took this random pic with my camera...

Till we meet again my Arizona...till we meet again...

1/4 Of A Century?!

Brandon turned 25 on the 18th of November!

John and Care and kids came over for some caramel carrot cake and ice cream

But we spent the whole afternoon at the car dealership trying to get a good deal on this puppy..

2007 Ford Edge SEL

(some random photo off of the internet, ours is now covered in mud/snow ;)

It was our first time buying a car so we didn't really know what we were doing, and Brandon does not take these kinds of decisions lightly! But after hours of research and negotiating we finally got it! And I LOVE IT! Black interior, leather seats, seat warmers, navigation system, back-up assistance...it rocks!

And we luckily got it the day before the huge snow storm or I really would have sat in my house all winter long.

I got Brandon some new Puma sneakers but this was his ultimate birthday gift...and our entire Christmas..