the saddest night of the year

Every Christmas night my father in law has always said with a sigh, "Well, it's the saddest night of the year."

  After all the excitement and hustle bustle has come and gone, you are left with Christmas night.  The presents are open, the house is a mess and there your Christmas tree sits, all lonely and bare underneath.   Yep, there is not much to look forward to anymore and you know you have another 364 days until you can do it all again.  

This year we didn't feel those feelings at all on Christmas night.  We still had the Matthews Christmas program to look forward to!  

Here's the lineup:

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

(I'm sorry, but how cute is that rudolph!)

Beautiful, harmonious song that I can't remember the name of, but I know it was good.

Story of Good King Wenceslas 

Night of Christmas Poem

Free Time:

Really, the best possible way to spend the saddest night of the year. 

laysie and ollie

This is my little niece Olive, and Layla's closest cousin.  Her family calls her Ollie, which I think is pretty much the most adorable thing ever.  Layla can not say Olive, but she can say Ollie.

I am so happy that these girls are so close in age (four months apart) and I think that they'll be little best friends.  We also think that they look a lot alike.  Such sweet little girlies!

new years eve

Our New Years with the Fuehrer's in a nutshell:

table setting

sweet cheeseballing

Layla snoozing

Mark disappearing

chip dipping

boys yelling

kids running

Jason lounging

girls dancing

charades playing

major acting

hysterically laughing

weenies simmering

food eating

pants unbuttoning

picture taking

cider toasting

lip reading

kids late-late-nighting

salue wishing

kiss giving

Happy New Year!

Sure love these guys.




ps.  Layla was there, but went to bed at seven, therefor missing the entire party.  

pass!

So proud of this guy!  It's over. . .now we can start packing!

my little puddin'

She's trouble, this one.

an update is in order

I have been on vacation from the blog for awhile, obviously- and still am- but there's lots going on and if I don't share it now, I might never do it.  Here's a minimal look into the last month for us:

• Took a trip to Disneyland in December.  It was very fun, despite McKay's depression due to the fact that before we left he found out that we would be moving to an unknown location.  Not very good news for a six year old.  

• Our trip to Utah for Christmas was wonderful.  We did lots of fun things, lots of nice visiting, and ate way too many treats.  Like just ate and ate and ate.  Regret.

• Took two trips within our trip to Pueblo, Colorado and Twin Falls, Idaho.  Pueblo?  Well, we're not fans.  It was kind of  fun/horrifying to be in a huge snow storm while there, and we were so glad we got out on time.  Twin (as the locals say) was nice and we had a house picked out to rent by the time we left.  We felt good about moving there, okay about the job, and excited for the new possibilities.   

• We were this close to accepting the position in Twin Falls (and excited about it) 

• Went to the temple, got the feeling that going to Twin Falls was "okay!"  Not a place we were drawn to or a feeling that it was meant to be, but okay.  Fine.  Good.  Okay.

• Then the Utah group sent an email- like down to the wire timing here.  We hadn't heard from them in months and had absolutely no thought we would.

• Brian met with the Utah docs the next day and began discussing their position.  We had a few concerns with their package, but couldn't ignore the impeccable timing and interesting chain of events that led to this discussion. 

• We celebrated New Years, played a hilarious game with the whole Fuehrer family (Rollick) and pondered on our decision.  

• Had quite possibly the worst drive home in the history of all drives.  Elle- puked three times (yes, the first was chunky, fragrant and got everywhere), Layla had diarrhea (I always promise not to write that word on my blog, and I can't seem to keep it) which resulted in two change-the-clothes leakages, and I had tweaked my back from an awesome game of bowling two weeks earlier and had since been suffering with extreme back pain- you can imagine what sitting in a car for twelve hours does for a bad back.  It was not pretty.  It was actually really, really awful and I didn't know if I could make it home, but some how we did it.  

• Got home, more phone calls and emails with the doctors and some of the initial concerns with the position were dissolved as some changes were made.  

• Idaho was still waiting on our decision and we had less than a day to make the decision once the Utah offer came through.  I will admit, our house was divided.  

• We both recognized how incredible it was that he was the one being offered this job.  It is not easy to get back to Utah as a CRNA.  In fact, I wondered if we ever would.  So to be given this opportunity was huge.  It just came a little sooner than I was ready for.      

• A desperate prayer was said (by me) to know what path we needed to take.  A very specific answer was given and I knew Utah was where we were supposed to be.  But I also knew that this decision and process would be very uncomfortable for me.  I am very excited to be by our family again, but I am mourning a lot of things on many levels with this decision.  I know I have to have faith in this path, and that there are great things in store for us, it just feels like it's a long way off.  I'm doing so much better than I was a week ago.  Getting better everyday.    

• We took the Utah offer and will be driving away from Oregon in exactly two weeks.  I'm already crying.  It's going to be so hard to say goodbye.  Change is hard, even when it's a good change.

• We learned that paperwork and credentialing from the hospitals take several months to process, and therefore we will be unemployed until April, and therefore, we'll be moving in with Brian's parent's for a few months.

• I went into shock at this news and wondered why we had never heard that credentialing would take that long.  I pictured myself in a new (to us) house with a backyard by February.  But that's not to be- more waiting.  I thought I had waited quite awhile for this so to add six months to that plan has taken some getting used to.  

• Brian will be working at Orem Community hospital, American Fork hospital, and also at a facility in Sandy.  The job is just okay right now, but will likely be his dream job in a year or two. . .or less, we hope.  

• Brian is currently studying for boards all day, every day.  I cannot wait for his test to be over (next Thursday!) and I know Brian is even more anxious than I am.

It's been an eventful couple months for us and isn't likely to slow down any time soon.  I'm anxious for when it does though.  Then I can fill you in on all the details, like how Layla has just begun to say poop repeatedly for no reason or how our hard drive died and we are desperately trying to recover all our pictures from 2011, or even how Ellery admits to being glad that we ordered a girl baby (Layla) and not a boy baby.  Until then...  

christmas favorites 2011

Gingerbread houses

CHRISTMAS EVE @ ALLRED'S

Christmas Eve Program

Two Marys

Non and Me

My sweet family on Christmas Eve

Watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Ready for bed in new jammies.

CHRISTMAS MORNING @ GRANDMA & GRANDAD'S

Santa came!

Keyboard for this  sleepy girl.

Santa came through and brought the triops that McKay wanted.

Excited about Rapunzel.

Dad

Grandma, Grandad, Jaynie.

Mom and Layes, Christmas morning.

CHRISTMAS AFTERNOON @ GRAMMY & POPPY'S

Me and the parents.

Rylee, Kara, Gemma, Ellery, Jason, Ashlyn, Krista, Alyssa

Fuehrer's!

Special gift for Nonnie

Let the present opening begin!

CHRISTMAS NIGHT PROGRAM with the MATTHEWS

"You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen..."

Our cute little Rudolph

Story from the Johnson's

A poem from the grandparents

And a cute Laysie Lou for good measure!

Great Christmas filled with family and fun.  

thoughts on a sunday

Celebrated Friday night with a trip to the mall to see Santa and to eat at Cheesecake Factory.  

• Just a few thoughts tonight.  First, Brian is DONE!!!  He worked for free for the last time on Thursday and got to come home a day earlier than expected!  

• This morning as we were driving to church I was thinking about the wonderful weekend we had together (doing nothing really) and then he said something funny and I looked at him and saw my  husband again.  I knew he was under a lot of stress, and I knew that he was not himself for a good portion of this last year. . .or maybe the whole portion. . .but I am starting to see him again!  I can finally see that old Brian coming through and I am so happy to have him!  

• He thought he would be too tired to feel relief when he was finally done, but I am definitely seeing the relief on his face.  He is a happy guy.

• Part of that is due to the fact that some good things are happening on the job front.  We are flying starting to see some things happen and it feels good to know that we will probably have options.

• I really love Christmastime- but perhaps not more than my little four year old.  Ellery has been telling people "merry Christmas!" for the last two weeks- people in stores, people at church, people at the dinner table.  It's really adorable.  But what's even more exciting is when she walks around with this elated look on her face and says, "it's the most wonderful time of the year."  Someone has been listening to my holiday tunes.  But she really means it- and she's right.  I am so glad that I get to experience Christmas through their eyes.  It's really fun.

• Today we had tithing settlement with our brand new, called-today bishop.  I feel bad for him.  I also felt bad because he was talking to the kids about tithing and having a really great teaching moment, and Layla, out of the blue, began to wave at him and say clear as day "bye-bye".  We all laughed as he waived back and wondered aloud if he was boring us, and then McKay got the giggles and could hardly stop.  Better than last year when he threw a fit and hit me.  It's always something. 

That's all.  Graduation is Friday, leave for Disneyland on Sunday- lots to do!  Happy Sunday!