Life before our Christmas Break

After going through my pictures, I realized how many big parties we missed taking pictures at, like Thanksgiving. Oops. This year we spent it with my side of the family. My Mom prepared a gorgeous feast at our house, which was packed with people. The next day we went to the Wayman Thanksgiving dinner hosted in Manti at the stake center. It was super fun to visit and see everyone. However, it was short lived as soon after we went back home because of school and the stresses we were dealing with. 

With this being my last semester, I found it really hard to motivate myself. I was kicking myself the whole semester for choosing to take 18 master credits. It was hard having Ray gone so much with his classes and being home all day with Mady. I had to be extra creative in come up with ideas of how to entertain her.
It was hard wtih the extra stress of what my family was going through, my Dad in particular, having to decide which job to choose, where to live, whether to buy another car, and so on and so forth was super hard on me. Not to mention the stresses of school and work life. I"m glad we got through it and made the right decision. Which I'll say more on in the next post.

Christmas is my most favorite time of the year. One of my favorite past times has been to sit in the glow of christmas lights, with hot chocolate, a blanket, and my textbook. I wish I could say an actual book or movie, but for the past four years its been a textbook; so bear with me. Because of this, and other very good reasons, our Christmas tree and all the decorations were put up the week before Thanksgiving (so sue me). Having all my Christmas up and Thanksgiving just around the corner, brought such a kindred spirit into our home, that helped lift my spirits. I found more to be grateful for, especially seeing all my Christmas decorations and what they really mean.

Mady even had a tree of her own, in which she decorated time and time again. It also helped me get a lot more studying done.

We had such wonderful weather through October, November, and December. I loved how warm it was and no snow. However, I knew it wasn't going to last, and we received our first snow. Mady was ecstatic. So I took her outside to play.

And then fifteen minutes later.....

She cracks me up. Reminds me a little bit of someone else who hates snow....Good thing I have an amazing husband who doesn't mind being out in the snow. Mady loves her Dad.

So after much stress and tears, we finally finished the semester! Ray did an amazing job and ended with a GPA of 3.8. I finished my last semester at SUU graduating with my double masters in Accounting and Business Administration, GPA's of 3.9 and 3.7 respectively. It feels amazing do be done! Ray only has Spring semester and then he will be done as well! Mady was glad we were done too. And this is how she celebrated: