Christmas

We had a great Christmas! We spent it with the McDonald side up in Salt Lake. This was our first year with a "real job" and not a month long school break. So our Christmas went really fast. We drove up late Christmas eve. Spent Christmas day opening presents, playing games, eating and the best part was talking to my brother who is on a mission!! The next day we all woke up sick and thanks to the snow we couldn't drive our car to go visit anyone. That night my father in law took us to temple square and we took a carriage ride around it. Its my favorite. Then we headed up to Brandon's sister and her husband's house and played games and stayed there. On Saturday was the McDonald family Christmas party and on Sunday morning we were headed to St. George. We had Christmas dinner with my family and opened gifts, cut some hair then headed back to Vegas! My mom made Hadley this ABC quiet book for church. It is so cute, but what we didn't know is that Haddy knows all of her letters but "S". We were shocked when we were flipping through it and she pointed and said the letters.


All of us on Christmas morning waiting to go get our presents!

Hadley didn't want to open anymore, she just wanted to play with the playdough!

Her new princess phone.

This is Dallas. Hadley loves him!
Waiting for our carriage ride.

This is at my mom's. She was so funny opening her presents. She would kneel on them, turn them around, flip them over then finally get them openend.

An Early White Christmas

The other day Vegas got almost 5 inches of snow! I went out and took this picture when I thought it was at its worst, but I was wrong. It snowed all day long. I loved it. I never thought I'd say that about snow. After moving here from Salt Lake we do NOT like snow anymore. There is something nice about it when you know its not going to last long. Good thing my Sister in law gave us some snow clothes, who knew we'd use them here. So I dressed Hadley all up and I was so excited and she hated it. She couldn't move in her snow clothes so she just stood there. She liked just staring out the window and saying "snow."



We are going up to see the McDonald side of the family for Christmas and since her new kitchen set won't fit in our car we had Santa come early. When you ask her what Santa says she says "ha, ha .....ha"

How the Grinch stole Crew

This is how my friend Riley won mother of the year! This is poor little Crew, Hadley's long distance love. His mean mom wouldn't wait in the long Santa line so she settled with the Grinch. This is by far my favorite Holiday picture so I just wanted to share with all.


P.S I love you Ri! And you really are a good mom!

Bad Santa

Dear Santa,

I guess the economy isn't bothering you yet. Well it is for most of us. We can't and don't want to spend $15 for one 4x6. Nor do we want to spend $40 for a package of my kid trying with all her might to get away from you.
Maybe next year you will waive the high prices to see you and we can get a picture with you!

Here are the kids waiting at Santa's door for him to let us in from the cold. We waited over 30 min and because we wouldn't buy a package of pictures, they wouldn't let us take some with our own camera. So we were out of there pretty quick!

This was after Santa scared her. Maybe next year she'll like him.

Hadley's men.

So my mom and I went to the Ellen show and it was so dang fun! And it serves us right for being greedy because that was the day she didn't give out any prizes. It was still so cool though. We were the only ones who followed the rules about no bringing cameras. So I have no pictures to show for it. Anyways so after that I went home with her and spent the whole week in St. George. I got to see a few friends, (Sorry Erin that Hadley was so mean to Carter) hang out with my cousins and spend time with my family and grandparents. It was fun. I even got to have a girls night with my mom and we went to see Twilight. My dad is the best. He watched Hadley for me. He got her already for bed and everything. I don't know what he did but she even slept 13 hours. Isn't this the cutest picture! This is what we came home to. Hadley is obsessed with her "Papa." She loves to feed him and wake him up and she follows him around the house.


This is Hadley's other main man, Nate. Or "Nete" as Hadley calls him. Remember back in the day the play pins. Where are mom's just threw us in there with toys and called it good. Well after Nate's nap Hadley wanted to get in there with him and I seriously could not get them out for 10 minutes or so. I folded two batches of laundry while they played in there. I promise Lindsay I don't always just throw them in there when I babysit him, just this once.

PBR

Let me tell you what a great date night is.... When your good friends invite you to come with them to the PBR and watch great bull riding. AND they even have a babysitter for the kiddos all lined up! It was so fun! We've wanted to go the last few years.
Just as Brandon was forgetting that we threw his cowboy boots out, Wes has to come along and show his off!

This guy is hilarious!

Dear Hadley-

Let me be honest, you are driving mama nuts with your waking up at 5 a.m. every morning! This is causing marital problems. You are so dang cute but when I say, "Do you love mommy?" will you please stop shaking your head NO. You tell Daddy you love him. Also when you are in time out, that is NOT the time to make mommy laugh. I put you in there because you hit lately, and when you are in there it is NOT the time to play peek a boo, or head stands.

I love when you are eating something you don't want you don't throw it on the floor anymore but instead find me and spit it in my hand. I love when we put you in your high chair you fold your arms, bow your head and say a few words. I love that you think its funny to call daddy "baby" and then you laugh. I love that you like to push on peoples noses and say "beep beep". I think its funny now (not in the moment) when you stand up in the tub, look at me and say "ought oh" then look down and poop.
I love you,
love mom

Happy Halloween

I hope your Halloween was better than ours. We have all been sick around here. So thank goodness for Grandma and Grandpa who took Hadley trick or treating. She had so much fun begging for candy and then loved handing out candy. I can't believe how big she is, its crazy to think just last year she could care less about Halloween and this year she was running around having fun in her costume.

Oh and I got tickets to the Ellen show!! I know this has nothing to do with this post but I'm so excited! She's coming to vegas so I signed up for tickets last week and they called me!



Her favorite thing right now is coloring. Its so funny. She found Grandma's primary bag and went to town with the pencils.

Pumpkin Patch

My cute mom came down last week to pay us a visit. So we decided to go to a pumpkin patch. Call me cheap, but I'm not paying $25 for a dang pumpkin patch. I'll make my own. So on our way home we saw a mini pumpkin patch on some corner. You know the dinky rides that I swear are ran by inmates and go up in different parking lots a few times a year, that is what we found! They had a ton of pumpkins as you pulled up so we thought what the heck. All we really want is some pictures, so this will do! I'm so glad we didn't pay the $25 because all Haddy wanted to do was sit on different pumpkins, call them "balls", throw them, and put hay in her mouth. It was fun anyways.

RoDeO TiMe!

These pictures are a little late, but I finally got them from my mom. Last month we went up to St. George for the rodeo! Its a family tradition we do every September with my Grandpa and Grandma. Its so fun. Hadley actually did great and loved looking at all the animals and eating tons of treats. I don't think she has the cowboy blood in her, cause she HATES her boots.




Here is my cute grandpa.



This is the whole clan that went this year.

Help

I just had to post this cause I think its so funny. I put Hadley in her crib for a nap and I thought she was asleep. But as soon as Brandon came home I think she heard his voice and she starting yelling, "Help, help."

I Owned the Nevada Bar Exam!

Well, I found out the good news today that I passed the Nevada Bar Exam! I've never been so relieved in my life! I counted down the hours until 3:00 p.m. today when they post the results on the Nevada Bar website. I had a sick feeling in my stomach all day long. Luckily one of my friends up in Reno obtained a "leaked" list about an hour early and he let me know that I passed. So from now on, I expect all of you to call me either Brandon McDonald, Esq., or Counsel McDonald. For those of you who still don't believe me, I've included a screen shot of the list:

Patience!

You know those days you pray for patience, then Heavenly Father answers and gives you "oppurtunities" to grow?!  Well that was my whole day Friday with Hadley! I guess I failed because I feel like whatever patience I have is officially gone. 

To start off my Friday I got food poisoning.  Then it is the one day Hadley does not want to take a nap.  She's always been my good little napper so on days like these I have no clue what to do! 

She loves to throw things in the garbage lately so after I changed her she grabbed her diaper and I thought she heard me when I said "throw it in the garbage"  Well I guess she thought I said toilet.  This is what I found later.

This picture is my favorite.  Once again, she has always traveled well and I'm sad to say its gone!  This was the final straw of my patience!  She screamed and I mean screamed for 45 min on our drive up to Utah.  She threw her binky, blanket, favorite stuffed animal and kicked down our dvd player.  (I promise she's not always a little stinker.)  So of course when we get into St. George she decides to give in and fall asleep.  But even in her sleep she was still so mad!

Bath buddies and our Move!

Last month our friends Riley and Crew came to visit for the weekend! We had a ton of fun shopping and eating! These two are little buddies. I know this picture is wrong on so many levels but they're still young and innocent.




We finally moved into our home! After our closing date got moved three times. Thank you to our friends and family who came to help! I had to post these pictures of these strong men moving my elliptical machine down our crazy narrow stairs that we're glad we don't have anymore. I should've taken pictures of the chunk of wall they took out or made a video of the words they used as they moved it. (They weren't bad words, so settle down) But at least I didn't have to help move it!

I don't know why this turns upside down when I post it on the blog. Its not upside down in our pictures.

Please ignore the dust. But on a sad note our entertainment center after fours years of entertaining us collapsed right after this picture. It was the first piece of furniture we bought after we got married. We were in luck we got it on sale for like $70. Dang fake wood, after every move it would tilt more and more. On a happy note, it has already been replaced and we are very happy about it!