Melissa and Blake - Engaged!

Once upon a time, my darling little sister started dating a boy named Blake. 

He was kind and funny and made her so happy. 

They did fun things together and always made an effort to come and spend time with our family. Whether that was playing games in Morgan, going shooting with the fam in Wyoming, coming out to dinner with us, hanging out with us in Lehi.  

He fit in perfectly, and we all fell in love with him.  

 

Which is a good thing, because Melissa did, too!  

They are engaged to be married on March 15, 2014 - and we couldn't be more thrilled. 

I'm so grateful that Melissa lives close and that we've been able to be so close to these two while they were dating, and are even more grateful that they are staying close by. (Hopefully buying a house in Eagle Mountain, just 15 minutes away from us.) Melissa is one of the most thoughtful people and has a way of noticing things and making you feel special. She's also a little sarcastic and likes to do crazy things, (i.e. rock climbing, or buying a saltwater fish tank). Blake is the perfect complement to her. He is so kind and willing to help/serve. He is patient and funny and is perfect for Melissa. 

We love you both and are so happy for the two of you.

Here's to Happily Ever After! 

Jenna's Baby Shower - Baby it's Cold Outside

My sweet Jenna sister is having a baby in just a few short months (Due January 17th - yay!), and when I offered to throw her a baby shower - she expressed her desire for a casual yet intimate gathering of some of the people that she loves. So we invited some close friends and family and had a nice time chatting and celebrating this big event in Jenna's life. We each made name suggestions, then wrote a card for her to open in the weeks after her baby is born, then ate some warm tomato soup, grilled cheese sandwiches, and hot chocolate. It was perfect. 

We are blessed to have such supportive and loving family. From left to right, Aunt Kim, Grandma Walker, Jenna, Mom, Lydia, Shantel, Melissa, and Aunt Wendy. Jenna's friends, Jenna Browning and McKinzie Enlow.

We are so excited for Jenna. She is such a sweet person and I know that she is going to make the most amazing mother. For part of the shower, I wanted to share a story about Jenna as a baby. I asked my mom and dad for any memorable stories that I could share - but the only thing that they could come up with is that she was such a sweet baby and she brought them so much happiness. The one word that they kept using to describe her was Joy. So much so that soon after she was born, they seriously considered changing her name to Jenna Joy instead of Jenna Anne. I think that joyous personality has really stuck with her all her life. She brings so much happiness and joy everywhere she goes. Her baby is going to be so lucky to have her as a mom. Congratulations again! 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around the Peaden home. We decided to set up our tree for Family Home Evening one night and David headed down to the basement to get the tree. Lydia loves the basement (I think it's a novelty thing - we don't go down there very often so anytime the door is open she makes a beeline for the stairs), so she headed downstairs as well. A couple of minutes later I heard David talking to Lydia as they slowly made their way up the stairs - together. Lydia had decided all by herself that she wanted to help carry the tree and was helping David carry the box upstairs. I grabbed the camera and snapped a few photos and then even got the most darling video of it. I can't believe how cute this girl is. 

To say that we are excited about Christmas would be an understatement. 

Lydia loved the tree, but her favorite part was definitely when she found the box of candy canes that were to be used for decorating the tree. Somehow she figured out in a matter of minutes that the only thing she needed to do in order to get to the sweet stuff inside was snap the curved part to break the plastic. Even now, we only have candy canes on the top half of the tree because she's either gotten to all of the ones on the bottom - or we've moved them out of her reach. 

Merry Christmas from our house to yours!