Christmas

Happy Christmas to everyone!

Here are a few pictures from our holiday!

We were able to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my family. 

It is tradition in my family that we draw a family members name and then have to make a homemade gift for that person. Everyone one did a great job this. I was very impressed. 

Here is what I did. 

Before and After

Gift I made for Jenny. 

Before and After

I hope she liked it. 

Before and After

Scott made me a message board for my kitchen

Brett made Shane a model car. 

Brett and I had a lot of fun getting ready for Christmas this year. 

I got Brett a new monitor for his computer. I knew if I wrapped it and put it under the tree he would automatically know what I got him. So... I found a box that an old tredmill came in and wrapped it. Brett then saw the box behind the tree and decided to find a box equally big and put my present in it. It was really funny having these two gigantic boxes in our living room. 

Brett got me this ring with Tori's birthday stone, and really nice Dr. Marten's. 

Tori got clothes. 

The two of the them were so cute just watching tv together on Christmas. 

christmas with Feltners

We had a wonderful time hanging out with all of our family for Christmas. 

We had a great time with the Feltner's. 

We did a nice little gift exchange and went and saw the Christmas Temple lights. 

I love family. 

Our little family

Feltner's

Tyler, Halle, Kristin, Austin, and Jayden

The cousins together

So Cute

(See Tyler she likes you) 

"Thanks for the toys"

Halle already loves her so much, and can't wait for her to grow up.

A month late

It's okay. I've been busy just like everyone else. 

I am finally blogging about Brett's Birthday

I must say that I am pretty fantastic wife. 

I must also start off by saying that we are die hard Tim and Willy fans. 

They are Radio DJ's here in AZ and are now back on the air after a year off. 

Brett has been faithfully listening to their Podcasts weekly. 

Each year Tim and Willy have a Live Christmas show. We have always wanted to go but were never able to. 

This year it just so happened to land on Brett's Birthday. 

Like a good wife I bought tickets the minute they were available for sale, I bought the best seats I could ...... in my price range.  

I too then started listening to the Podcasts.

They would give away free tickets if you could answer questions about that days' Podcast. 

Well.....they emailed me back and said I won tickets. Not just any tickets. They VIP tickets. 

I was so excited and almost cried. Of course I couldn't share my happy news with Brett because I wanted it to be a surprise. 

So with the VIP tickets we were able to go two hours early, have a catered dinner, have two front row seats, AND meet the entire Christmas show lineup and take pictures with them. 

HOW COOL AM I!!!!

I was really good about it and didn't say anything. He found out a week later when he heard the next's week podcast and they announced that "Heather Gordon is the VIP winner"

It was really cool and I was able to surprise Brett. 

We were able to give our purchased tickets the Alan and Tiff. 

They were even able to sit with us because there was a couple seats vacant. 

Thanks for spending Brett birthday with us. 

Us with Tim and Willy 

Yeah KMLE 108!!

Me and Willy

On stage in front of us. 

Our favorite act. 

I can't figure out how to spell it. sorry. 

It was a very fun night. Happy Birthday Brett. 

Happy Birthday Brett!

Happy Birthday Brett. I will post later on what all we did for his birthday. It was pretty fun. 

But in the mean time here is a nice little survey about Brett and me, I guess me. I love ya babe!

What is your husband's name? Brett Jay Gordon

How long have you been married? 3 1/2 years. :)

How long did you date? We dated 2 1/2 months then we were engaged another 2 1/2 months. 

When did you meet? At Highland High School, We were juniors. 

What were your first thoughts? "Alan has some good looking friends, he's nice."

What/where was your first date? My senior prom. My date ditched out on me at the last minute and two days before my            prom he called and said he wanted to take. Thanks Jenny Mo : )    Brett was even a great guy then. 

How old were both of you? our first date we were both 17.

How old is he? 25 now. only 8 months older than me. 

When did he meet your family? When we were in high school. I don't remember exactly. We went to the AZ science               center with my family for our prom day date. That was pretty fun. I met all of his family at his missionary farewell.           Even though none of them remember me being there nor does Brett. 

Who is taller? He is by, i think, 8 inches. Even if I stand on the curb he is taller. 

Who can sing best? Probably we are equal. He will never admit he can sing. 

Who is smarter? Now that really depends on what the subject matter is. Computers... hands down Brett of course. directions.... maybe me. 

Who said I love you first? I did. He was just barely off his mission and still a little scared.

 Who kissed who first? again that was me. 

Who proposed?  He actually did that one. We went to Disneyland  with his sister's family and his parents. 

      he proposed right outside Cinderella's castle by snow whites wishing well. It was so romantic. 

Who does laundry? Me.

Who does the dishes? I do. But I'm home all day. 

Who pays the bills? I do. Brett trusts me. 

Who mows the lawn? Brett does every Saturday morning. 

Who cooks dinner? Probably Brett. It's probably 80-20. You would think I would cook more that I am home all day. Not the case. But I've been working on it this past month. 

Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Usually Me. I hate any contention(sp?)

Who wears the pants? He does for sure. He has all these house rules that I muse follow. For example: I'm not allowed to dance in public if no one else is dancing, OR I can't go to Michael's, target, and now Hobby Lobby by myself or with Brittany. 

Whose parents do you see the most? Mine we just moved 3 miles away from them and his parents are in Utah. : (

Who has more siblings? Same. We both have 4 siblings. But Brett is the youngest and I am oldest. 

RIP: Robert Lee Allen

My very good friend Brittany Tashjian lost her father last Wednesday. 

They asked me to take some pictures for them at the funeral. 

I wasn't sure what to really take pictures of. But I did my best. 

Here's to you Brittany and your lovely family. : )

Christmas work party

Brett's new job at Osam Document Solutions had a fantastic Christmas work party.

We were able to enjoy a night out without Tori. 

They had their party at The Point Hilton Hotel. 

Even though there was an open bar it still wasn't your traditional Christmas party. 

We had a fantastic buffet dinner which included Salmon, roast, and some kind of chicken. 

Dessert was also over the top. 

We played name that tv show tunes.  Our table came in second place. 

Then they had eight people dance to random tunes and the best dancer won a gift card. 

Somehow I was picked to go. I must say I did a pretty good job; even though I had never met any of the people before and this was going to be their everlasting perception of me. 

I'm really glad that my video uploading thing is not working. 

But I couldn't really compare to "Michael Jackson", or a "drunk kung fu fighter".

The majority of the boys ended the night with a sexy leg contest. It ended up being a competition between a guy doing the shopping cart dance and a man with a beer belly becoming topless and doing a belly dance *scary** Obviously the second won. 

We had a blast laughing till we cried and dancing the night away. 

Thanks Osam!!!

Thanksgiving

I can't believe Thanksgiving has already come and gone. Many months ago Brett and I decided to host Thanksgiving at our home. All those months of being able to prepare came fast. 

Brett's parents came, My parents and my 3 sibling, Jenny and her husband Shane, Brett's sister Kristin and her husband Tyler and their 3 kids came as well. 

It was a pretty full house once we sat down to eat. 

All of the food was FANTASTIC! Thanks to everyone for pitching in. 

I had a lot of fun making homemade pies and cranberry sauce. 

We had two turkeys and I still probably have a whole one left in my fridge. 

If you're not sick of turkey yet please come and eat some of mine. That goes for pie as well. 

This year I am thankful for many many things. 

Here are a few:

   to live in a house

   to have a great husband

   for a perfect daughter

   my health 

   my family

   jobs

   that gas is under $2 

   that target is now open by me

   beautiful az weather

I had a lot of fun decorating for our Thanksgiving feast

Tori loved being spoiled by her Grandma Gordon

Happy 1st Thanksgiving

And because I didn't want to start another post so here is a picture of Tori and Pixie that we took last weekend. 

They are so cute together. Cassandra you also make a cute kid : )

I love how they both have their hand in their mouth

Primary Program: I'm a child of God

So after one month of being assigned to my new calling in the Primary Presidency I was told I was in charge of writing the primary program.  What? Really? Me? Are you sure Julie? Well we pushed the date back as far as we could to give me time and help the kids to memorize their parts. 

We had our program this Sunday and it was a hit. There was some divine intervention that went on because the rehearsals didn't go that great.  But I guess and bad rehearsal makes for a great performance. 

It went sooooo smoothly. There is nothing that I would have changed about it. 

Some of my highlights were:

      *Sitting behind the podium, making the kids smile and sing, and only they could see me.

      *The song If the Savior Stood beside Me while a flute played along.(brought a tear to my eye)

      *First part of the program that ended in a girl saying "I'm Taylor, I am a comedian, but most importantly".... and every child stood up and sang I am Child of God without the piano. 

       *Or when they put on missionary name tags when they sung Called to Serve

        *Or when they held up pictures of All the prophets when they sung We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet. 

Can you tell that I am proud? I am so proud of my primary. They did a great job. I am overcome with happiness. 

Thank You!

Nate is 20!!I

Just wanted to give a shout out to Nate Dawg who is now 20 years old! I'm glad I got to spend time with you on your birthday day. Party like a rock star!

Also congrats on finally getting your braces off. It's been, what..... 10 years since you got them on? Congrats!!!

10 months old

Oh man time is flying by so fast. 

My baby is already 10 months old. And around 19 1/2 pounds.

She is getting bigger and bigger everyday. 

She still can't crawl yet but I'm totally okay with that. 

She is eating more baby food now and sings instead of cries when she wakes up. 

I love her. 

Veteran's Day

This was the first year that I have ever really done anything for Veteran's Day. I went with Nikki and her son Benjamin to the huge Veteran's Day Parade in downtown Phoenix. 

(Thanks for the great idea Nikki)

I had a lot of fun being patriotic. Tori loved the marching bands and all the colorful floats. 

There were so many entries that we had to leave an hour early because Tori was getting tired and we had already been there 2 1/2 hours. We enjoyed our cotton candy, hotdogs, and waving our flags around. 

Thanks to all of our Veteran's. I'm proud to be an American!!!

Benjamin was actually really excited in this picture. 

Is Christmas still in December?

So I was driving home from work last night and I love to listen to Dalilah on 99.9. I like her heart felt dedication songs on my way home and knowing that people truly care about others. However, due to my surprise, they have already started to play their Christmas jingles. It's November 7th PEOPLE. This particular station fulfills AZ holiday Christmas carol needs (during Christmas time).I thought to myself okay having one song every now and then is okay but it was one continuous Christmas song after another. Apparently they decided to not wait until after Thanksgiving and start right after Halloween. 

Don't get me wrong I LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas song. But come on. It's a bit early don't you think. Two straight months of Christmas carols??? Okay!?!

Maybe next year they will start after Labor Day.

Chicken Little

So I just found out that my chicken little just won the University of Phoenix Halloween costume contest. Yeah!!!

I have to give credit to Brett for the Chicken outfit. Last year when I was pregnant we saw a 

fluffy chicken outfit at Babies R Us and Brett fell in love with it. I was against it at first but he said if I let him pick the first year's outfit for Halloween I could have the rest. 

So I gave in obviously and I'm super happy I did. 

I love my chicken little. 

Happy Halloween

Hope everyone had a great Halloween. We sure did. We actually had our ward Trunk or Treat on Thursday. There were lots of people there and it was great hanging out with our family and friends. Our ward had a chili cook off and Brett won the spiciest chili. Good job Babe. Tori also won the cutest costume award. Her costume was so warm she could only wear it for a little bit. 

Tori with Uncle Nate and Shalene. 

Tori loved Elmo's outfit. 

My Parents

Tori was smaller then pumpkin head. (So cute)

UOP had a Halloween Festival on Friday during the day. We went to visit all of my old co-workers. It was so nice to see everyone again. 

Silly Gary Parker dressed up as Santa. (Thanks for the candy cane)

Hey Jenny Mae! We love the purple hair. 

Our funny little photo shot. These pictures show off her cute tiny pigtails and baby teeth. 

Chicken Halloween outfit