Ross Family

Well I guess its about time for a Ross family update! It sure felt nice to have a break from school and work for a few days of holiday memory making. Jordan is such a smarty pants and got A's in his classes. I got two A-'s which I was pleased with and so stoked to be done with my last super hard math class! We are both looking forward to new classes next semester. Me getting closer and closer to teaching and Jordan continuing to explore his career options.

Mom, Dad, Kathy, John, Jordan and I went on a fun double date to Spanish Fork. We got pizza at Two Jacks and then went to the Festival of Lights. We tried to take pictures but the light creations were just too awesome for the camera. For a first timers (Baileys) it was pretty neat-o!

We missed having Elder Ross around for Christmas but got to send him a Christmas package that he loved and he got to email us on Christmas since he is still in the MTC. Its so fun having a missionary out. And as you can see in our picture, he was with us in spirit. :)

New Christmas outfits :) I love being matchy matchy! Thank mom and dad Bailey!

Jordan and I celebrated Christmas just the two of us on Tuesday before heading down to Herriman. I'd say it was a pretty great first Christmas! We spoiled each other but I'll say that one of my favorite presents was a coupon for an hour long massage! My prego body could sure use it! This is a picture of Jordan holding his finale present. I made a scrapbook of his mission pictures! It took quite a lot of effort but turned out great and he loves it. :)

Thank goodness I have had my own 4ft tree growing up. It fits perfect in our apartment and was fun to decorate with both of our ornaments.

Christmas breakfast was "red" french toast and bacon, with green eggs and milk. Yum and festive!

This is kind of old news but we found out that we are having a girl! So excited. We have a couple names that we like but are leaning toward Ellie Afton Ross or maybe Ellie Mae Ross. Nothing set in stone though. The other names we like are darn cute too!

It was fun having grandma Bailey and grandma Ross at our ultrasound. Of course they loved seeing their little grand-daughter. Find the tissues! She waved at us. :)

Well I think that is about all that is new for us. We are very very happy and had a wonderful holiday spent with family. Looking forward to a couple more days of work and play before school starts.

Happy New Year!

Findley House Holidays

Well we have had an amazing holiday, so I thought I would jump on here and share a couple pics :)

First, my sweet friend Shawna found out how much I wanted a real tree for Christmas because I never had one growing up, and surprised me with the most beautiful Christmas tree ever. Unfortunately we are blocking it in this picture, but I had to take a pic with her and her sister Kelley because I was so grateful for their sweet gift this Christmas :)

{Our Christmas get-up, courtesy of mom and pop Bailey!}

Here comes Santa's cookies!...

{This is our super awesome Christmas gift from Manda. I am slightly in love with this. My bestie sure does know my love for vintage looking things!}

Link and me cutting out the cookies. We had to force him to do it once, and then after that he couldn't stop because he was having so much fun :)

Putting sprinkles on was his next favorite task :)

Link and daddy putting the cookies and milk together for Santa.

Link on Christmas morning! He was SOOO excited when he saw this car out in the living room :)

This was our Christmas breakfast. Red muffins, green eggs, and oranges :)

Link loving his Mr. Potato Head that he got from Grammy and Papa Bailey

My kid is a goober! I don't even know where he learned that cowboys wear cowboy hats, or that they ride horses {aka candy canes}. He is so smart. He even knows how to navigate my iphone to find all his favorite apps, including the one and only Angry Birds, which he is pretty good at. 

We had a fabulous Christmas this year {even if we did have to spend it away from family}. We were able to start a few of our own traditions including: Making Santa's cookies, opening 1 present on Christmas Eve, Reading the Christmas story in Luke, and watching a Christmas movie on Christmas Eve. We chose Home Alone this year and it brought back a lot of memories for Matt and I :) 

Link loved opening his presents, but would get easily distracted by any new toys that he opened, which would then give Matt and I a couple of minutes to open a few of our own :) We got some awesome gifts including a drill which I have put to good use already and used it to decorate my laundry room with some pictures from Shawna and her sister Krissi. Also, mom sent us a lot of camping/food storage stuff, and we were very grateful for that, especially with all this crazy weather we have had the past year. {Speaking of weather, it is 60 degrees today, and we couldn't be happier!}

Well, we hope everyone had a really great holiday!

Love, 

The Findleys

Green Family Fun

Bryce and I celebrated our two year anniversary!! Yay! We spent it at a condo in Bear Lake and it was super nice and relaxing. We are so happy and in love :)

I'm done teaching the little kindergarteners. Bryce is still working like crazy and keeping up with school. I am so excited that school is almost over except the end of my homework does not seem near so it isn't real yet.

We will be spending Thanksgiving with the Greens and I am actually making some things to bring to the feast so hopefully all goes well there. Love and miss you all.

Special happy birthday to Link!! (We love him lots)!

Findley Family: Crazy Crap

I know it is a classy title, moving on:

We are getting super excited to see the fam in just about 2 weeks! So excited, in fact, we shook all of Oklahoma (hardy...har...har...**cough** -old man joke-).

Yes, we had 3 earthquakes in 2 days. It was a little unnerving (ok, kind of a lot), and I had no idea that they were so scary even when they don't cause damage. I have to say, though, the one on Saturday had me about ready to wake Link up to hide under the table :) It is funny because people out here don't really know what to do because they didn't have a billion earthquake drills a year in Elementary school like we did. Good thing Matt and I are here to show them the way!

All-in-all, it has just been very exciting to say the least. In fact, Matt and I tallied up all the natural disasters that have happened since we have been here:

Tornadoes
Earthquakes
Floods
Microburst
Hottest month EVER in US history
Worst ice storm they have ever had
Hail storm (they were as big as softballs in some places, lucky we have a garage now!)

Good thing they don't have mountains or I would think a volcano erupting would be next. I am starting to think us being here is causing it, are you sure you guys want us to move back? We might bring it all with us :)

Good times :) Besides the earthquakes, we are actually doing awesome this month. But I have to share a "Link is so cute" story:

We walked into Kohl's (my girl friends and I) and this little old lady in a wheelchair, with her husband beside her, saw Link and said "what a handsome little man you have", and as I was saying "Thank you", Link walked over to her to give her a kiss, and then a HUGE hug. It was so sweet, and she absolutely loved it. He sure already knows how to work the ladies :) He has such a sweet heart, I hope he always remembers to care about others.

And that's all folks :)

The Findleys

Ross Family

Well there is not a ton new going on with the Ross' besides a contagious case of Christmas Cheer. I am usually one to give Thanksgiving its lime-light but Jordan jumped on the Christmas train and I don't want to be left behind!
This week we already watched Elf and Beauty and the Beast Christmas. Jordan has been practicing Christmas hymns on his piano. And we always have Christmas music playing on Jordan's ipod. He was of course very excited to learn that Justin Beiber had a new Christmas album! ha ha Oh Jordan :)
I about have all of my Christmas shopping done for Jordan and can't wait to wrap his presents and put them under the tree! We are very excited to spend out first Christmas together. :)
Any new Christmas traditions that you guys have started?
Jordan's family normally does a twelve days of Christmas for a family and each day gives them an ingredient to their cookie recipe. Maybe we'll start doing that! :)
With all of this Christmas cheer, we have not forgotten Thanksgiving and are very much looking forward to spending it with the Findley family!!!! If you could try to ask the tornados and earthquakes take a break during our visit, we would appreciate that! :)

Love you all!

Green Family

YAY! Just so you all know, Bryce has been officially accepted to his dream school! He will be starting at Wyotech in Sacramento, California on October 24, 2012. He is so excited, as am I. We had our first snow last night and it is kind of fun to know this will be our last Logan winter :)

I filled out my graduation papers this last week and it is super nice to feel like graduation is finally coming. As Bryce and I looked up schools in Sacramento, we found that if I start teaching full time (which my hopes are to work part time as a middle school math teacher) in two days, I would make as much money as Bryce makes in two weeks, working 40 hour weeks. Ha, it's crazy what they pay teachers out there!

That's what is new here. Love you all!

Findley Family: Harry Potter Dinner and Halloween

I have finally found some time to upload our Halloween pictures from this year :) We have an annual Harry Potter Feast/ Halloween Party with a couple of our friends and their family and so there are a couple pictures from there and from trick-or-treating :)

{Link the destroyer!}

{Zelda}

{Ganondorf}

{This is the grand table where we all ate, and the pumpkins above are floating, just like in the books!}

Now on to trick-or-treating...

{Link with Maddy, his best friend}

{Tonya and Maddy, Link and I}

We had a great time this Halloween, and my favorite part is easily watching Link in his adorable costume. His big ole belly made him look like a pregnant Link and I loved it! He had such a great time trick-or-treating, and he would RUN from house to house. {Matt has a video on his facebook}. 

Well, just wanted to share a little from Halloween! Love ya

Ross Family

Meet baby Ross. He/She is very energetic. I think he/she was just so happy to see us this morning! :) Spent most of the ultrasound upside down, and kicking those little legs. Looking forward to our due date of May 3, 2012!

Green Family

Glad to hear how everyone is doing! Not too much new here. Mom spoiled our news about getting the motorcycle but here is a picture :) It is started to get really cold but at 45 degrees and up we are still going for rides (Bryce could care less about how cold it is but I bundle in my biggest winter coat, scarf, and gloves).

Bryce is still working really hard, just going nonstop with work at the Lube, here, and at school. He is almost fluent in Mandarin these days!

I taught my little kindergarteners the Tony Chestnut song today. That song is such a hit in the elementaries. Who'd have known that grandma having us do that song as a family would become so valuable in my schooling.

We have been enjoying the season too! I put up all our fall decor including making a new cute bulletin and a little scarecrow, haystack scene out front (I'm really proud of both). Bryce also planned a Halloween date night for us last night complete with dirt cups and orange sherbet floats.

All is well, love you guys!

The Grand Baileys'

I am done with Jetblue, but seem to have even less time in my day! But I am really enjoying it! Charley and I loved our visit last week with Sydney/Bryce and Marrie/Jordan. Some of us did a fun craft project, of course mine was the "spookiest"! I think Marrie or Sydney has pictures. It was a great car ride with Charley, we got into some really deep gospel decussions, and that was really cool. And the best was, Bryce's new motorcycle. Love red, so it was really fun!
Ashley had a blind date last night that Jacquelle Rosquist set her up on. I think she was more excited about the dinner than the date. I can't pronounce the name of the restaraunt, but in her words "it was really! expensive", she got a lower end entree and it was still over $20. They went to dinner and then back to Ben's house (Jacquelle's date/lives with parents) and played games. Both boys are return missionaries. Joe, Ashley's date just got back from Brazil. Ashley said he was nice and she had a nice time but does not foresee a romantic interest. He drove her home and did the linger longer at the door, so she finally just said thanks and jumped in the door. Ha, that's our Ashley (I'm just happy, she's happy). She is making lots of new friends at school and I know that helps.
Dad is still really busy with church calling, and this week there's been more than normal meetings. So haven't seen him much. and he's so tired by the time he gets home, he just goes to relax in bed about 9pm and is out like a light in seconds. But last night he woke and asked me to feel his pulse. His heart rate was really irregular. Not sure what that is about. He says he has noticed it before, so I think we are going to need to get this checked out. He says he feels fine/nothing different or unusual.
I've been really busy getting ready for our Stake Auxilary meeting that was last night, I was in charge of invitations, decorations, food, name tags, and my talk. Yes as usual, I volunteered for everything! But it went great and I really think the sister's felt our message. We focused on Presidnet Utdorf's talk of the Forget Me knots, and not forgetting the "why" we do our callings. Now my focus is on my big Halloween Bunco Party this Saturday. So far everyone that rsvp'd has said yes, even Sam and Marcia are coming, that should be fun. I have a lot of work still to do on the house to get it ready, so I better get started! Love you guys! and we are so excited to see the Findley Clan at Thanksgiving!!!!

Ross Family

Well life is good in the Ross family! We had the opportunity to speak in church last Sunday, as well as like 3 Sunday's before that. Silly bishopric, didn't notice that we had just spoken. ha But we said yes and didn't seem to put too many people to sleep, so I call that a success!

Jordan is getting used to work at Jiffy Lube and is doing a great job, getting compliments from management so that's awesome!

I am loving not having to grade ALL of the time and getting to focus a little more on my school work! I have a big exam this Friday so keep me in your prayers! Tonight I got to go hear from a panel of principals and assistant principals about what they are looking for when hiring teachers. It was super informative and inspiring. I am really excited to work in the schools more!

We have our first doctors appointment on Thursday!!! Very much looking forward to that! (Not really looking forward to getting poked and prodded again though...) We'll let you know how it goes! Hope we get to see an ultrasound or hear a heartbeat to prove this thing is really in there! ha

Jordan and I were in the Halloween spirit this week. We carved pumpkins, made caramel apples, and roasted pumpkin seeds! I hope you all get to do some fun holiday activities. I wanna hear about them!

I also wanted to include our tender mercy of the day! We are borrowing the Envoy this week while the Allero is getting repaired. Since we don't have a parking sticker on it we have to park it on the road and you Loganites know that close to campus, (where we live) It is hard to find a spot while everyone is parked on the street for class. I finally found a spot to park a block away. Later, on our walk to work, I looked down the road at the car and saw a bright orange paper that I was sure must be a parking ticket! That made me upset but I tried really hard not to freak about it, reminding myself that I couldn't change it and that we would just have to pay it and be fine. On our way home from work that day, we walked to the car where we found all the contents of the following picture stuck in our windshield wiper.

I hope you can read the super nice note that this amazing person left us. What a great example! Do something nice for someone today! :) Love you all!

Findley Family

I wanted to share this video of Link helping Matt mow the lawn :) He is such a goof and loves to push anything, including a super loud lawn mower. He also loves to push this purple and pink stroller that we got from Goodwill. He calls it "push" {original, right?}, and it keeps him preoccupied for hours. Anyway, I guess he moved up from pink and purple to the John Deere mower, which dad is super grateful for since we all know how Matt feels about Link liking girly things :)

The other funny thing I wanted to share is this picture after Link an I left Walmart:

He is such a goof! {pushing the cart is another favorite thing to do} So I looked down while I was pushing and realized that this is where he decided to stick his walmart sticker, lol. He was just walking around with a sticker on his nose like "what? Isn't this where stickers go?". He is such a character, and a lot of fun to hang out with. 

As for Matt:  His study worked!!! He has been working really hard on this study and it is now ready to get ready for a Journal publication. He has been really stressed about it, and is now very excited to get writing his own paper {I say "own paper" because he is now currently working on about 10 for other people, which is still a benefit to him, but this way he is first author which is AWESOME!}. We are super proud of him. 

As for me: I am getting ready for the Etsy holidays trying to stock up on book clutches. Lucky for me the library had a book sale last weekend and I STOCKED UP on a ton of super awesome books for really cheap. I have already been working on them {in and out of migraine pains} and they are coming along quite nicely. I also got surprised when I went to get fabric and realized they were having a 50% sale. All in all the book clutches are working out great :)

I also still love teaching Seminary and I have been learning so much. I am also learning to be a morning person which I never thought could happen {I'm sure you all agree}. 

So that's our update for the week :) Can't wait to see more posts!

Love, The Findleys

Ross Family

Sorry it took so long for me to post! Life sure has been crazy!
Jordan has kept busy with school work, maintenance at Old Farm, and applying often for a second job.
I have been working super hard with school, managing the Old Farm office, and grading for the math department. When added daily exhaustion began to hit, I felt a bit overwhelmed. Jordan and I discussed for a while if we thought it would be okay for me to quit one of my grading jobs. We are making it by fine financially now, but need to save our pennies for our special delivery in May. It was a tough decision, discussed between us and the Lord. With faith that the Lord would provide, I gave my notice that I would no longer be able to grade. The very same week, Bryce informed Jordan of a possible job. Jordan interviewed today and was hired on the spot! We also received an email granting my financial aid for the year. We know the Lord is watching out for us. He has blessed out little family so much.
We also want to extend a special thanks to the Green family for all their help to get us going.
I am sure Jordan will be glad to give the homemaking duties back to me as we begin to adjust to these new opportunities. He has been such a great help!
We are also very much so looking forward to mom's Halloween party at the end of this month.
We are glad to report we are happy and healthy. Love you all!

Findley Family

Hello ladies!

Can't wait to see all the posts keep growing :) I don't have pics this time, just wanted to add a quick first blog for the Findley family :)

Link has been growing his vocabulary at an extremely fast rate lately, which has been fantastic for us because instead of him just saying "pleasies" for everything, he now actually tells us what he wants, which is usually, "show" {which then includes "wah, wah" (word world), "shwashwa" (spongebob)}, "juice", "toys", and the one we hear the most "The Park". He LOVES to play outside at the park, and mostly swing on the swings. He has just learned to swing on the big boys swing and he thinks that is pretty cool.

Matt just got some really great news because two of his studies worked which means that he now gets to start writing a paper to be published {hopefully}. He is REALLY excited about this, and he deserves it after all his hard work. We are very proud of him.

I am still LOVING seminary, even when I have to be tyrant Sis. Findley. I have learned SOO much while teaching, and I am really learning to love the Old Testament, which I never thought was possible. The other fun thing is that this Saturday is the opening party for the boutique The Art House, where my book clutches will be sold! I am REALLY excited about this, and hopefully they sell well :) Mostly it is just an excuse to party in Tulsa while Link plays with his sitter Koriane :)

So there is our quick update.

Love you!

The Findleys

Green Family

Yay! We are very excited and appreciative that ruby created this super cute blog :)

Our update is that we just got home from Virginia which was very fun but now we are trying to recuperate. We are both super busy with work and school but overall doing great!