MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Hello everyone! It has been one crazy month. Between moving, the snow, family parties, more snow, and all that comes with the holiday season, I feel like we missed the entire month. Now that things are back to normal, hopefully we can keep this blog updated. 

The best part of this season was getting into our new home! Thank you to everyone who helped clean and move all of our stuff! We are so happy to be in our house and have had so much fun organizing and making it feel like home. No pictures yet, but I promise I'll post some soon. 

I love Christmas because it brings family together and you get to enjoy all of the traditions that each family has. We do a fondue night with the Hammond family every Christmas Eve and it is a FEAST! We also made some sugar cookies with all the nieces and nephews on the Reeder side. On Christmas night we saw our annual movie. This year we saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button which was excellent. 

We hope that all of you had a wonderful Christmas that was spent with family and friends. 

should've worn elastic pants....

after our thanksgiving feast with my family at 3 and then the second with dannys at 6, I feel as though i'm ripping apart at the seams. i LOVE thanksgiving. i love the traditions, the food, the family, and the fact that its finally ok to be excited for christmas! we hope that everyone had a great day eating turkey and spending time with those you love! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

embarrassed to even post this but.....

I received my TWILIGHT tickets today and I'm so excited! (and Danny's excited that he doesn't have to go with me) 

-one year older and wiser too-

Yesterday was Danny's 24th birthday! Its crazy to think that I met him when I was 15 and he was 17. There are so many things that I love about him and I thought that to honor the 24th birthday, I would write down 24 reasons why I love him. Here it goes-

1. He can ALWAYS make me laugh. It doesn't matter how mad or irritated I am, he finds a way to make me smile.

2. He is such a hard worker. This applies to everything he does in life whether its his job, school, basketball, or any other thing he may have going on. He always gives it 110%

3. He is so friendly. He can talk to anyone and become friends with them. 

4. He respects women. This is the first thing about Danny that I fell in love with. To this day I have never heard him speak unkindly of his mother, sisters, mother-in-law, and any other ladies out there. 

5. He is such a giver. Even if he doesn't have what someone needs, he goes out of his way to find it. This includes driving around for an hour until I finally decide where I want to go to eat. ;0) 

6. He is a great role model. I love seeing how my brothers look up to him and admire all that he does. 

7. He has such great style! Some may call him "metro".... I would have to agree. He spends more time shopping for things than most girls. (I'm talking spending 25 minutes picking out body wash and deodorant)   ;0)

8. He cares about his health and has always been active and tries to live a healthy lifestyle.

9. He is good at doing the Laundry. I'll be the first to admit that without him, all of my clothes would be faded, shrunk, never folded, bleach spots, etc. I hate laundry and love that he doesn't mind doing it. 

10. He is my best friend. I can talk to him about anything and he always listens and has the best advice. 

11. He is going to be the CUTEST dad someday. Kids flock to him. He isn't to old for games of hide and seek, Monopoly, Go-Fish, Ninja Turtles, Hannah Montana, tickle tortures... the list goes on. It melts my heart when he holds babies and takes the time to play with 3 year olds.

12. He is so smart. He will deny this til the day he dies but don't let him fool you. He will definitely be the one helping our kids with home work. 

13. He is a great cook. 

14. He sets high goals and doesn't stop until he accomplishes them. He knows what he wants in life and won't settle for less.

15. He has such a great Testimony of the church. It has strengthened me many times throughout our marriage and I feel so blessed to have a husband that has the same beliefs that I do. 

16. He's got mad dance moves. But don't ask him to bust them out. They are for my eyes only. This goes along with reason #1 (Making me Laugh)

17. He looks incredibly sexy with a weeks worth of scruff on his face. 

18. He can sing Celine Dion and Mariah Carey with the best of them.

19. He treats me like a princess even when I don't deserve to be treated like one. 

20. He ALWAYS smells good. Seriously! I love it. When he was out of town for basketball I would switch my pillow with his because the smell never went away. 

21. He supports me in everything I do. He has stood outside in the most extreme weather conditions (-10 degrees and 110 degrees) to watch me cross a finish line with a smile on his face. He believes in everything I do and encourages me to push myself to my limits. 

22. He gets really embarrassed when I tell him how good looking he is.

23. He's a family man and loves to spend time with each of our families. He is super supportive of my brothers and his nieces and nephews. He would rather do things with them than with anyone else.

24. And last but not least... he is the greatest husband a girl could ever hope to find. Not a day goes by when I don't look at him and think of how lucky I am to have him. He has brought so much happiness to my life and given me so many wonderful experiences. He allows me to be who I am and has stood by me through thick and thin. He is so fun to be around and I love the little world we have created for ourselves. Thanks for being mine and thanks for being born! I love you babe and hope that you had a great birthday!

changes...

Ever heard the phrase when it rains it pours? In most cases this saying is associated with negative happenings in life. However, in the Reeder family, it has been a down pour of blessings. Its amazing how fast life can change and in a matter of a few hours, your are going down a different road that seems like its taken forever to get to. So first off, my cute husband finally landed a job after a couple months of searching. We are so excited! He graduated with a Bachelors of Accounting this summer and let me tell you, the job searching thing completely sucks! It felt like we were stuck in this awkward phase of life and that nothing was ever going to happen. Then he got the call... He is now a Tax Accountant at Larsen & Rosenberger, a firm located in Sandy where he seems to fit in quite well and is now filling his time with numbers and tax returns instead of Xbox, Family Guy, and laundry. This is such a relief and we are so thankful to be taking the next step. Being the blogger I am, I just had to take a picture of his first day of work for all of you to see! (He's going to kill me for this!) 

Isn't he SO cute? So if anyone out there needs their taxes done come January, you know who to call! Now onto the second set of good news. As most of you know we have been dwelling in the lovely basement of Dannys parents house for the majority of our marriage. This in its self has been such a blessing for us. If you have to live with in-laws, mine are the ones to live with. I have grown so much closer to my mother and father in-law and feel so grateful for their generosity. I'm not sure what we would have done with out them. So what I'm about to say is bitter-sweet.... we BOUGHT A HOUSE!!! We are so excited and have fallen completely in love with our little cottage in Holladay. We don't move in for 6 more weeks but I'm sure I'll be able to fill up that time with shopping for furniture, getting paint samples, and dreaming of what I'm going to do with each room. I don't have any pictures yet but I'll be sure and put some up asap. 

snowbird

On Sunday the family ventured to the Snowbird Resort and rode the Tram to the tip top of the mountain. I love Utah this time of year and feel so lucky to live near the amazing scenery. I couldn't believe how much snow was already on the ground!

the CUTE boys

If you haven't made the drive to check out the mountains, I highly suggest that you do it soon! The leaves are starting to fall and it is getting chilly! Thanks for a fun Sunday Hammond family!

Fall Fun...

We had such a fun weekend with the family! On Friday night we went over to my parents house for a yummy dinner of soup and rolls and then pumpkin carving afterwards. The Warr family joined us and it was great to spend a beautiful fall evening with everyone!

Cute little Kayzia and my grandma.

This was Bradens' pumpkin. He thought that he would be able to fit it over his head.... obviously it didn't work. 

This was our pumpkin. Actually I should say it was Dannys. While he was busy carving, I was busy.... not carving. Im not a fan of the guts getting all over me. As you can see... Danny could care less.

a boy and his dog

So we have this dog. Her name is Reeda. No not Rita, Reeda. As in Reeder, our last name, but gangster style.  I thought I was the greatest wife in the world when I bought her for Danny two Christmas's ago. Now, there is nothing more in this world that I would like to get rid of. I know its mean but I'm just not a dog person (probably should have figured that out prior to the purchase). However. . . watching Danny play with her secretly melts my heart and I can't help but smile when I look at this picture. All I can hope for is that he looks this way when he's holding our children.

enjoying the journey....

i SO enjoyed this conference weekend. it seems to come at the perfect time of year when change is in air and you are looking for that uplifting thing to get you through the long winter months ahead. as we went through the weekend, i couldn't help but think how incredibly blessed we are. we live in such a beautiful place and have all of (well most of) our family and friends within a few miles. president monsons talk in the morning session on sunday was meant for me to hear. i tend to get ahead of myself with planning, schedules, wants etc. listening to our prophet challenge us to "enjoy the journey" touched my heart and uplifted me when i needed it most. so... i'm going to take the challenge and try to enjoy this journey that we are so blessed to be on and i hope you will do the same! 

SluMbEr pArTy!!!

My youngest brother Cale has been BEGGING to have a sleep over with Danny and I.  We started off the night by stocking up with treats from All A Dollar and seeing Iron Man at the good old Movies 9. By the time the movie was over the night was still young so we broke out Monopoly. We had a great time and are so glad that Cale still thinks we're cool enough to hang out with! Love ya Monkey!

so long summer...

Well the time has finally come. I believe that summer has come to a close. The BBQ's, family vacations, days lounging at the pool, and warm nights are all done. Even though we had a great summer, I have to admit that I'm SO excited for the fall. It is my favorite season and I love the atmosphere that lingers in the air over the next couple of months. So heres to a great summer and an even better fall!

p.s.- Sorry for the absence in the blogging. I recently lost our camera and have been slightly upset. I hope the cab driver in San Francisco enjoys it!

MEXICO

Before I even begin to write about our trip, I need to apologize in advance for all of the pictures. There were just too many to choose from. That being said... this trip was the BEST EVER!!! We have had this planned since January and it was everything we had anticipated. Ty, Sasha, Dan, and Anj came as well which made it even better. We went with nothing on the agenda but to relax. We stayed at the Barcelo Maya Beach Resort in the Mayan Riviera. It is All-Inclusive and every part of it was wonderful. The days were spent by the pool, at the beach, and at the buffets. There was seriously SO much to do there. We went to bed every night exhausted! From the moment we got there and had our first Pina Colada, it was paradise!

I think we all discovered that Volleyball is not our greatest strength. There were 8 year olds that were kicking our trash! Pretty embarrassing.

If you like people watching like we do, this was the place to be. So many speedos, boobies, and  revealing clothing. Here are Dan and Danny doing their best to imitate the large population of Euro Trash that stayed at our resort. 

Those who know me know that I have a strict bedtime that I try to stick to of about 9:00. You will all be happy and surprised to know that I not only stayed up til 2:30am,  but I was clubbing at the Jaguar Discotheque. It was a riot! I've never had so much fun! We all busted out our best moves. You might know them as the lawnmower, sprinkler, putting the groceries into the cart and so on. Danny got the majority of the club to form a Congo line. I'm sure everyone thought we were wasted. Who says you can't be sober and have a fun time?

Sasha and I spent a lot of time reading Breaking Dawn. When I say a lot I mean most of the day. Our husbands couldn't understand why we wanted to spend more time with Jacob and Edward than with them!

We spent a day off the resort and went to Playa del Carmen. It was a fun little town with lots of shops and restaurants. We ate dinner at Senior Frogs and I think we all left with a migraine. That place is CRAZY!!!

We made lots of memories and spent way too much time laughing! Thanks for such a fun trip. Can't wait til next year!

schools out FOREVER!!!

Needed to give a BIG and well deserved congratulations to Danny. He finished his last final last night and can now officially say he is a graduate. I think that I might be more excited that he is! Now we are headed on a much needed vacation to Mexico for 8 fabulous days! Adios Amigos!

three...

yesterday danny and i celebrated our three year anniversary. the three have gone by too quickly and we've experienced so many things together. i can't write down exactly what this man means to me but i'm going to give it a shot so that all of you reading this get somewhat of an idea of how blessed i am to be loved by him. i have never felt safer that i do around danny. i know that when i'm with him everything will be ok. he gives me a sense of security that others can not fill. he knows what he is capable of and won't settle for anything less. he acts happy to talk to me all 50 times i call him per day even if the conversations are only minutes apart.  i find myself growing more and more in love with him everyday. he treats me like a princess and always has my best interest at heart. he reminds me that life is supposed to be fun and not to take it so seriously. he makes me laugh and helps me to find humor in the toughest situations. he always saves the last bite for me even if i know its something he wants. he encourages me to follow my dreams and doesn't hold me back from trying to reach them. he lives in the moment while i on the other hand have to have a plan for everything. he knows me better than anyone else and can make the worst of days better. he acts like a child and ignores me when i tell him to stop. he has taught me patience and that life finds a way no matter what. he is my other half that without i would not be complete. we have experienced so many things together, both good and bad, and i wouldn't trade any of them for the world! i am so blessed to have him in my life and feel like the luckiest girl to wake up to him everyday! i love you babe! happy three year!

Sun Valley, ID

We were able to spend a week on a very relaxing trip to Sun Valley, Idaho with the whole Hammond family. For those of you who have never been there it is a must! There is SO much to do there, the only problem is finding enough time to fit it all in! 

The entire town and those surrounding it are covered in paved bike paths. We made the loop through Elkhorn in the mornings and ended up at our favorite, Java Hut, for breakfast and the famous Mexican Hot Chocolate. These bike rides have become a tradition and I still look forward to them even though I've been going on them since I was five. Its so fun to have family traditions continue on throughout the years.

We also spent lots of time at the pool. I was completely entangled in the newest Stephanie Meyer book, The Host (SO GOOD!!!), while the boys had competitions to see who could jump the farthest into the water and bothered pretty much everyone else.

One night the adults got away from all the kids and went out for a nice dinner at Sushi on Second. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!

There are several golf courses in this little resort town and also a river that flows throughout. The boys always walk the river and come back with bags full of golf balls. 

It was a great trip! Thanks for all of the laughing, traditions, memories, and good times!