{The} Bischoff's: 2008

[Christmas 2008]

This pretty much sums up about 8 days of our Christmas...

[LOTS of gifts, and giving]

[LOTS of games]

[LOTS of food]

[MOST importantly... lots of family]

This is what you will find...

Easton doing all of the time! He is such a little boy now.

I have been (dare I say it?) bOrEd the last couple of days. Today in particular. So I decided to go ahead with a post that I was planning on doing in January, and everyone out there who just might happen to read my blog can be entertained with yet another post from me!

Last year around this time I did a post highlighting my favorite moments for that year (2007) which at that time I hadn't had my blog for very long. I wanted to do something similar this year, but I have had our blog the whole 2008 year. Instead of this year's highlights, I decided to list some of the things that I am looking forward to for 2009. And obviously, none of this has happened yet, it is all speculation and me being hopeful in some instances.

[1]

Dan and I have our tickets to see WICKED when they come to Salt Lake in April. We are going with 2 of Dan's mission buddies and their wives, which are now friends of mine as well. I am very excited for this!

[2]

Dan and I will be celebrating our 4 year anniversary in March (Can you believe we made it this far?)! Since we have been celebrating anniversaries, we have only spent one of them alone together. Year 2 & 3 we had Easton. I think that this year I may be willing and may be even comfortable *gasp* to leave Easton for a night. Now, we most likely will not be going anywhere that resembles this picture. But I think it will be just as relaxing, which is something that I am actually looking forward to.

[3]

I am looking forward to the day when all of our little projects around the house are finished! Or at least the ones that we have already started. I think that things are coming together quite nicely, and am confident that it will be completed in 2009! Yay!

[4]

We started the potty training process back in September, and I really feel that Easton got a good start, and now has the concept of using the potty now. Right now we are on a "break" from all of that, and I am planning to resume to full force in January. I am hoping that Easton will be in underwear by the begining of February... is that crazy?? WiSh Us LuCk!!

[5]

Another hope that I have for the year 2009 is to become pregnant. The key here is StAyInG pregnant! :) I don't think that I ever posted this on my blog, but I had a second miscarraige in October, which was a real bummer. I was 9 weeks along and I *think* that my due date was somewhere in the end of April/begining of May. So... I am crossing my fingers that the third time will be the charm! Whenever that may be, which brings us back to the whole 2009 theme of this post. (One last comment on the subject. It weirds me out everytime I realize that the next time that I am pregnant will be my 4th pregnancy...)

[6]

From January going through until April, every Wednesday night I will be taking an intro to photography course at the Salt Lake Art Center. I am very excited to learn more about photography! Friends and family have been nice enough to let me take their pictures, and I seriously love it. I am anxious to learn more, and see if this is something that I would like to go futher with and be "when I grow up".

[7]

The last thing on my list is all the stuff that I don't know about yet! My life is filled with so many surprises and 360 degree turns, but I truly love it. I am so grateful for the experiences (good and bad) that I have had in my life so far... it has brought me to where I am today, and there is nowhere else in this whole big world that I would rather be!

My conversation with Easton:

I am on the computer.

Easton come up to me: "It's Easton's Turn"

Me: "It's your turn?"

Easton: "Yes, I need to check my email"

I guess I am now sharing the computer with Easton these days.

{O Christmas Tree}

We put up our Christmas tree a couple of weeks ago, and I really like it this year. Since we have been married, we kind of change what our tree looks like each year. But I think that we are getting the hang of things finally and are settling on our tree decorations. It also helps that we bought a new tree this year. Yay! (Our last tree was a bit sad looking.) Don't you just love how peaceful a Christmas tree looks at night?

Our next step is to get some wrapped gifts under there!

I am curious... do you have an artificial tree or the real deal? Feel free to take the quiz on the side of our blog. :)

[Ours is from Target]

Our Thanksgiving Tradition

One of my FAVORITE traditions that Dan and I have done since we were engaged, is that we buy a new board game to play on Thanksgiving! We both love board games, and we both LOVE the game TICKET TO RIDE. For those of you who have never played that game, go play it! Or come to our house and play!

This year's offical Thanksgiving game is a dice expansion for any ticket to ride boards. We bought it because we knew we wouldn't be let down, and we weren't! Since we already have 2 game boards (Germany & Switzerland), this makes for a fun version. We never get bored with this game!

Maybe next year we will be adventurous and get a game that isn't a ticket to ride one? Maybe.

{Thanksgiving '08}

What an eventful couple of weeks! We hosted Thanksgiving dinner for Dan's family at our clubhouse the weekend before Thanksgiving, and despite the fact that our FrIdgE stopped working [it's still not fixed yet], our InTernEt was down, our SiNk started leaking, our DiShwAshER flodded our kitchen & our CaBLe went out 30 minutes before the highly anticipated BYU vs. UTAH game... I think that it turned out quite well!

Dan's mom had put me in charge of cooking the Turkey this year... let's just say that if we had actually stuck to that plan, it really would have been a disaster! But we did provide some mean potatoes.

Here are some pictures from the evening.... this was the first time that we took advantage of our community clubhouse. I can't wait to have my family's party there the day after Christmas!!

{FYI, Easton did have clothes on, I always make him eat in his diaper only...

less stains that way!}

We were able to get a picture with Dan's whole family!

CARS

Easton loves the Disney movie CARS! He has only seen it once (since we don't actually own it [YET]...) but he remembers it well, and LOVES it. We have "cars" pull-ups and he plays with them... I mean, drives them around and such. Now, the past couple of nights he's been insisting on sleeping with them! Silly kid.

Guess what he's getting for Christmas?

BYU [basketball]

Easton LOVED going to the game! LOVED LOVED LOVED it! We went to a couple last year, but this year was definately different.

We went to the opening basketball game at BYU last Friday. It really was a lot of fun, and there was more people that came than I expected! [maybe because it was only a dollar??]

This was where we were sitting...

But I was still able to get this shot...

Easton loved sitting in the seats by himself [he made himself comfortable].

Where did it go?

Easton is all about owies. He loves to have mommy and daddy kiss them better, and in some cases he even gets to wear a band-aid.

Today he was saying owie over and over again. He was in bright spirits, so Dan and I asked him where his owie was. He looked all around and then looked up at us and said "Where did the owie go??" and "I don't know".

I am sure another one will come along for you, Easton.

FoRgEt AbOuT ThAnKsGiVinG... We LoVe ChRiStMaS !

Congrats Dan!

Okay, so if anyone remembers [ThiS] post from last year... Well, he made it again! Wahoo! I am so glad that he has found something to motivate him to contiune to develop his talents in the arts. He really is so talented!

The same as last year, his oil painting (the one for Mark & Kimmi, from a couple of posts ago) will be on display at the Springville Art Museum from now until the end of December, for anyone that wants to go check it out.

halloween [20o8]

Halloween was so much fun this year! We went to my sister's house in Lehi for trick-or-treating and dinner. Easton was so much more into the trick-or-treating than last year and he totally understood the concept of it!

He was a cute lion (thanks sha!), he held his own treat bucket the whole time, and he was a trooper and went out just as long as all of his cousins!

Here he is helping to pass out the candy. But he really wasn't helping, he would just snatch pieces of candy and put it in his own bucket!
Here are my beautiful nieces. We have a Jonas Brother, Cowgirl, Pumpkin, Poison Ivy, and they are all rockin out on Hannah Montanah's studded microphone!

Dan dressed up as Jim from The Office.

Here is our yummy dinner, soup in bread bowls that look like pumpkins! Very Festive!

For my birthday I usually have pumpkin pie, or cheesecake. I think that Easton thought that it was his birthday again, so he blew the candle out for me!

..{23}..

One year older... and hopfully wiser, too!

[Pretty Toes]

This morning Easton saw me painting my toes. His response was that they were pretty toes, and he wanted pretty toes, too! I hesitated, and said that he could have pretty toes when we finished cleaning up our toys. So, he cleaned up his toys and wanted pretty toes! I hesitated again and said that he could have pretty toes after we changed his diaper, thinking that maybe he would forget about it. But, he didn't forget and I decided that it would be okay for my son to have pretty toes if that is what he really wanted! I picked out my most neutral color of toe polish (out of the 2 colors that I own) and painted his toes. I didn't do a very good job, and considered taking the polish off and trying again... then I remembered that he really is a boy!

Having Fun Still...

I am still having so much fun with my camera! Mix it with photoshop, and it's even better! Hopefully I can keep this up and get better at it!

Also, I have a feeling that this is the only beanie that this boy will wear during the winter season. I had tried to get him to wear several different ones before this one, and he wouldn't wear it for even a second. Then I got this one out. It's Dan's "awesome BYU football hat"!

At least it will keep his head warm this winter... even if it's way too big, and it doesn't match his winter coat.

Easton's Birthday!

Easton's Birthday was on the 16th. I was planning a very small party for him and a couple of his cousins to really just play together. Unfortunately he was really sick with croup, so I cancelled the party. But not all was lost, we still celebrated! It was more low key than I was planning, but I think that he still had fun! The BYU game was on [which Easton really loves anyway] and so we watched that, had cupcakes and opened presents! The highlight of the evening was definately the TOOLS that he got from Dan and I. This kid is STILL in 7th heaven!

I love his little tool belt!

Dan's parents and little brother came to watch the BYU game, and this picture is so classic. Dan's dad is watching football, his little brother texting, and his mom is cross-stitching.