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Christmas Photo Shoot

Last Friday we went up to Shirley's to take some Christmas pictures of Tafton. We got some really cute ones and Tafton was so good and happy the whole time. We're going to send out Christmas cards with one of the pictures but here's some shots of our "Christmas Photo Shoot." Enjoy!


"What am I supposed to be doing?"





This bow was sad looking by the end of the night!



He couldn't decide what to play with.



and back to the silver bow



When Tafton gets excited he shoots his arms straight out. Example A:



This is our Christmas card picture. I love that we got Santa, our Christmas trees, and the presents all in the shot.

....Christmas Photo Shoot Continued

I ran out of room because of all the cute pictures. Anyway, here's some more!!

Who's this new guy? I like his belt...

We got him to stop playing with Santa but no smiles! :-( :-)

He really liked the penguin.....

....maybe a little too much! Everyone thinks it looks like he's making a move!

Tafton kept looking at the sheet on the ground so I thought maybe the bow would distract him.

it worked! I LOVE this picture!! His little face is so cute!

We tried to get a shot with all three; Tafton, penguin, and Santa. Tafton wasn't handing out any easy smiles though...too bad. It would've been really cute!!

He really liked playing with the sheet...the photo shoot had to come to an end because he wouldn't stop pulling the sheet up and so in every picture he was looking down at the ground.

Tafton's turn to take some pictures!!

Good shoot Tafton!!

Is he a Keeffer or a Passey?

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Pedigree - Geneology

The Passey Family Christmas Tree

According to tradition, the Passey family once again embarked on the search for the perfect Passey Family Christmas Tree. Dad, Mom, Natalie, Megan and her friend Jenna, Nate, Kristen, and Aiden, Megan, Tafton, and myself all left town the weekend after Thanksgiving to the Uintah Mountains looking our tree. It has been our family tradition, one of the only firm traditions that we have, for as long as I can remember. There have been some years in the past that for some circumstances we didn't make it into the mountains to cut down that tree, and for me those years didn't seem as complete. There is just something about getting stuck in a rusty old chevy 100 yards off the main road and spending all afternoon digging out of an icy rut with a toy snowboard and a metal saucer-sled, while the girls trounce around looking for the largest, heaviest, monarch of the forest.

This year was slightly less eventful, but that is OK with me. After the hour and half drive from Ogden up to the familiar spot, we all piled out of the trucks, suited up for the snow, and started taking an inventory of the nearby evergreens. Megan and I started off and made a huge circle around the truck looking for possible candidates that could fill the front room window with its natural majesty.

Nate and I got to try out the sweet equipment that we got earlier this spring, and I don't know about Nate but I have put on all my new pants, coats, and gloves at least three times in anticipation for this cold season. Little Aiden was so bundled that his arms rested comfortably out from his body, I don't know if he had fun being pulled in the sled but I had fun dragging him over the ice crusted snow. Tafton seemed oblivious to the snow and was his usual mellow fellow.

Finally I convinced Megan that the tree I liked was the one, I cut it down and drug it out of the woods.

I love the mountains and I love the smell of a Douglas Fur in the living room. I am really excited for Christmas this year. I love Christmas time because everyone seems to change just a little bit making it a very happy month. Megan and I swore that we were not going to get anything for each other, for the sake of not spending to much money, and we both agreed that there isn't much that we need... Then we bought a pretty descent gift for our family (it's a surprise).

We will soon take a family photo in front of "The Passey Family Christmas Tree" and send it out to all of you.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and we hope that all of you feel our love for you.

The "Perfect" Husband....

What?!

I've been thinking a lot lately about how glad I am I met Ben and the great things he does for me. It made me think about Young Women's. Every year it seemed there was a lesson on who you date and what you want and look for in a husband. I kept the paper I wrote the traits I wanted in a husband when I was thirteen. I'm turning 23 on Thursday. It's been TEN YEARS(!) since I wrote this list on the perfect husband.

First I wanted a return missionary....

Second I wanted someone who was caring, empathetic, and loving. Ben is always thinking about what would make me happy even if it's not something he would want to do. He's always willing to get out of bed to get me a drink or whatever I need even if I ask after he's perfectly situated under the sheets. He is the sweetest guy and I know he loves me because of the way he treats me and the way he kisses me!

Third I wanted my husband to be a good Father. Ben and Tafton have so much fun together. I used to be jealous of how excited Tafton would get when Daddy came home. But Ben is such a goofball and making us laugh, it's easy to see why Taffer gets so excited.

My Handsome Boys

Fourth I wanted my husband to have a good job. Ben works at Ogden Regional Medical Center helping save lives. He wants to be a Doctor eventually.

Fifth (I got pretty shallow near the end of this list. But remember I was thirteen!) I wanted my husband to be muscular, gorgeous, have good taste, tan, and have brown hair. In that order. Benny has muscles, is definitely gorgeous!, he has great taste and we agree on almost all decorating ideas, isn't tan, and has blond (puffball) hair.

I love Ben so much! He is my best friend and he makes me laugh everyday. I'm so unbelievably happy when I'm with him and we're just having fun being goofs. I love it when he holds my hand or rubs my back. I hate/love it when he tickles me. I love LOVE when he kisses me and looks at me like I'm the best thing that ever happened to him. He is the best thing that ever happened to me and I'm so happy that we get to spend forever together.

Tag! You're It!

Eight Favorite TV Shows (times/stations in case you're interested)
1. 30 Rock (Thursday @ 8:30 on NBC)
2. The Office (Thursday @ 8 on NBC)
2. My Own Worst Enemy (Monday @ 9 on NBC)
3. How I Met Your Mother (Monday @7:30 on CBS)
4. Friends (at my house 24/7!)
5. America's Next Top Model (Wednesdays @ 7 on the cw)
6. Gossip Girl (Mondays @ 7 on the cw)
7. Biggest Loser (Tuesdays @ 7 on NBC)
8. Ugly Betty (Thursdays @ 7 on ABC)

Eight Favorite Restaurants
Out to eat! What's that?! Does fast food count?
1. Taggarts
2. Chilis
3. Burger King for their fries
4. Maddox
5. Arbys for their mozzerella sticks
6. Roosters
Shouldn't be this hard to think but we never go out!
7. Wingers
8. Dennys

Eight things I did yesterday
1. Went to work
2. Watched a chick flick with my sister!
3. Bought some hair stuff
4. Picked Tafton up from Ben and Sarina's.
5. Made dinner for Tafton
6. Cleaned up the food tornado Tafton left
7. Laughed with Becca and Mike
8. Went to sleep! finally!

Eight Things I Look Forward To
1. Thanksgiving tomorrow
2. Tafton crawling
3. having our debt paid off
4. Going to Cut down a Christmas Tree- Family Tradition
5. The semester being over
6. Decorating my home for Christmas and spending our first Christmas with Tafton
7. Ben being done with school!
8.Visiting the Morans in Germany (yeah that might be years away but I'm still looking forward to it.

Eight Things I Love About Fall
1. the smell.
2. The leaves changing color
3. cooler temperatures
4. Sweaters
5. home made bread and winter-y food
6. snuggling to get warm
7. Apple Pie
8. Thanksgiving and Christmas and birthdays coming soon

Eight Things On My Wish list
1. Be a stay-at-home Mom
2. Ben being done with school
3. To see my family more often
4. Gas to stay under $2.00 a gallon
5. New Wardrobe
6. Thicker Hair
7. Skinnier Body
8. Being a World traveler

Eight People I tag
1. Nanette
2. Katie
3. Zjani
4. Stephanie
5. Brittany
6. Melanie
7. Charissa (so maybe you'll finally post!)
8. Nate & Kristen

Chance to Serve

Hi everyone! Spring Semester is coming and we've signed up for all of our classes. I am still working at Wadman Corporation and so we need help from anyone who is willing to watch Tafton. If you're available to watch Tafton during the week Monday thru Friday from 8-5. Any days or hours please let us know! Thank you so so much for your help. We love you!

ELECTION DAY

As everyone knows, election day was yesterday. To say that it was an important election seems obvious, but it was important. The last and first election I voted in was the 2004 Presidential Election. I didn't know much about the candidates or the issues. I knew I didn't like George W. Bush too much but i also didn't know anything about John Kerry. In the end I voted for the lesser of two evils in my mind.

This election I went to the website leaveyourprint.com and actually checked out each candidate in my area and read what they believe and where they stand on different issues. I decided who I wanted to vote for and when I went to the polls yesterday I felt prepared and excited.

It was amazingly WET yesterday when I got to the polls. I went around eight o'clock in the morning and I thought that there would be lines but I was surprised when I got there and there wasn't a line at all. I went to the wrong table at first because apparantly after two years of marriage I still think "keeffer" is my last name. Once I got to the right table they gave me my card and I went to the booths (there were like 5 open!), put it in and WRRR WRRR "Your ballot has been canceled, please see a voting coordinator." I was a little worried that I wasn't going to be able to vote and after all my preparation!! But they just reloaded it and I voted without a hitch.

All day I was waiting for people to ask me "who did you vote for?" This is the 2nd most exciting thing that i've got to do this year (the first being, Tafton). I voted for Bob Barr, Libertarian for President. I didn't watch the results last night thinking he would win but it was fun and interesting to watch the coverage last night and see Barack Obama win.


I think I'm more interested in who is winning the local elections. I still haven't found out everyone who has won but I have my notes here of who I've voted for and I'm going to compare it to who won. I wish I had more time to give to campaigning. If I was a stay-at-home Mom I think I would participate in campaigning.

Overall, I hope that the excitement in the democratic process and picking our leaders stays up over the coming years. I think it is wonderful how many young people got out and voted. I think America is getting back its patriotic spirit.

GOD BLESS AMERICA

Family Update

Sorry we have not written in over a month now! We are all doing well. Tafton has leveled off on his weight gain I think. He's been at 20 pounds for at least a month now and he is cuter than ever! He's mastered sitting up this past week and is rolling from his back to his stomach pretty regularly. It's funny when he does because he'll roll over but he gets stuck on his stomach and starts crying. It's funny to me. Hopefully he'll start rolling over the other way soon so he won't get stuck anymore.

We went to the cabin over conference weekend. It was Tafton's 2nd cabin visit and I think it went a lot better than his first. He loves the outdoors, he could stare out a window all day and he loves to play with (and eat) leaves.


He seemed to like the puppies too. I hope he continues to be comfortable around animals. I'm not really comfortable around dogs but I want Tafton to be. My brother Matt brought his dog, Gizmo over and Tafton was perplexed by him, it was like he was thinking "who is this hairy small person?" It was so cute though, it made me want to get a dog for him before he knows enough to be scared of them. Ben would love that!


We're trying to work on our house when we have time. Ben and my brothers Matt and Ben put up some Sheetrock in the master bedroom. It looks really good but we still have more to do. I think Ben is planning on blowing insulation in the attic this weekend with our friend Cory. We also got our yard all ready for winter last Friday. We fertilized the lawn, cut down all the perennials, emptied and cleaned out all the flower pots, and mulched the gardens. It was a lot of work, put it looks really neat now and hopefully all our hard work this summer and fall will be shown off in the Spring. Thanks Shirley by the way for helping us! and Sarina for watching Tafton while we worked!

This last weekend my sister Sarah and her family were in town to see us one last time before they are transferred to Germany. I love her and her family so much! It's going to be so sad that we won't be able to see them as much. It was nice that they were only a seven hour drive away. Maybe in four years they'll be transferred to Hill Air Force Base and I can see those cute girls again! It's crazy to think that Madison will be a teenager and Natalie will be in Kindergarten. I wonder if Abigail will still be a crazy cool monster of a kid? We had a lot of fun with them over the weekend though. We went out to lunch and went shopping on Saturday. Then Saturday and Sunday night we played card games and talked until way too late. I'm running on ten hours of sleep over the whole weekend. That's ridiculous now that I see it in writing! But it was worth it! We had lots of fun and like I said we won't be seeing them for a couple of years at least so we had to soak up as much time as we could.

"The Prophet said to get food storage, so that's what we did!"

YAY FOOD STORAGE!

Ta-da! I finally feel like our food storage is about where it should be. I've been trying to buy a few extra things here and there for awhile but it wasn't really working. So instead I just went out and got a lot of things that we needed during the "case-lot madness" that almost every grocery store in town has going on right now. We still have a few more things that we need or want to get but for the most part we are done! I love looking in our storage room at all of our food storage!

I never would've been excited for something like that before I got married, but I am now. There are a lot of things that I never thought I would be interested in. It's unbelievable to think that Ben and I have been married for two years(today! Happy Anniversary us!), that we own a house, that we have an adorable baby boy, and so many other things.

TAFTON PLAYING WITH GRANDPA PASSEY

Speaking of our adorable boy, he had his four month checkup last Tuesday. He now weighs a whopping 18 lbs. 2 oz. and is 26 inches long. The doctor says he is in the 95th percentile for weight and the 90th for his height. He isn't rolling over other than those eight times when he was two months old but he is starting to hold his bottle more and more. Also - he laughed for real for the first time yesterday. I was talking to him about different kinds of vegetables he could eat and for some reason he thought "squash" was hilarious! It was so awesome to hear him laugh a real big kid laugh. I hope he keeps that up!

OUR CHUNKY HUNK

School is in full swing for Ben. He has his first math test tomorrow and he's been studying real hard for it. He's so smart, I'm sure he'll do great on his test. We're so lucky that we have family that can help us out with Tafton so Ben has time to study. Thank you to those that are helping us watch Tafton, you are lifesavers!

TAFTON & AUNT NATALIE

"Just a skiff"

I was waiting for something to finish here on my computer and I was perusing some pictures. I like these Pictures but I think that we need to start taking more good ones of all of us, we are too dang cute not to... Soon we'll be able to post some videos. I can hardly wait to capture Taft's
awesomeness and post it here. This Labor Day weekend was a nice break. We couldn't hit the road for relaxation "cabin-style" but we did get to spend some time together and breath some fresh cool air. Monday was the perfect day to do some projects in the garage (sorry nate). I was lovin the cool weather and I hope that it stays.

School is already full throttle and I am determind to keep up and get some A's this semester. One of the academic advisors for the "Pre-professional" department told me that she has confidence that with a nice stack of A's the next few semesters and we can put together a descent application for medical school. I was supercharged to hear that, and am fixated on that goal. She councelled me against staying on the fence as to whether I am going to commit all my efforts to medical school; I had tried to be realistic and wise not to put all my hopes and efforts into one chance at a very competitive career. She said that the people who make it are not still wondering if they can do when they leave for grad school.

Tafton has round two of immunizations on this week. He didn't develop a fever with the last shots so I hope he is tough enough again and stays his healthy happy self. He's big enough for his age that it probably wont even phase him. We'll see.

First snow of the year always turns something on inside. Just one look at the thin skiff on the mountains gets me all excited. I ready to wax up the twins and try out some of my new gear! So get ready Nate and Dad! I've got a special savings account that I've begun pooling lift ticket money( I'll have to eat more microwave noodles and less of everything else, but it'll be worth it!)

We're Back!

Hey Y'all,

Ok, so we've had internet at home for a couple of weeks now so there are no more excuses for not posting. We certainly are busy which means we probably have a lot to blog about. For sure the biggest thing going on with us is Tafton. I was warned but I could not have possibly imagined how much it changes your life to be a father. Megan has been back to work for three weeks now and it has been just Taft and I staving off disaster at home. Each day I get a little better at it and now I can manage not to make the house a complete mess. We spend most of the mornings eating sleeping and watering the yard (no auto sprinklers yet).

Tafton is growing so fast, I know that people say that about babies but it's exceptionally true for him. He skipped size three-to-six months and is wearing mostly six to twelve month sized clothes. He is in the 90th percentile for both weight and height. It probably shouldn't surprise us since we eats really well and has started to eat some rice cereal.

Still the mellow happy baby, he is getting closer to laughter and loves his goofy dadda. He is almost four months old now and just as cute as we could hope. Sleeping through the night almost always, and really doesn't give us any trouble as long as we talk to him and tell him how awesome he is... it's true he is AWESOME.

School Starts on Monday and then the Taffy-Daddy duo will be put on hold for a bit, I have school Monday, Wed, Thur, Fri, and work some of those nights. Just about everyday I think of that country song by Trace Adkins "Your Gonna Miss This," and hope that I am not wasting the time I have with him.

We sure do love him.

New Pictures

We've haven't posted in forever! If you want more frequent posting we'll need to start up a "Ben and Megan Passey need the Internet" fund! Tafton is now a little over two months. At his two month checkup he weighed 12 lbs. 13 0z. and was 23 inches long. The doctor said he's in the 75th percentile for both his hieght and weight. Here are some new pictures of Tafton and the family.

Passey Family on 4th of July

So Patriotic!

Grandma Keeffer & Tafton

Ben and Tafton

Standing up with Daddy's Help

Looking cute in his "Grandpa is my Hero" onesie. Both Grandpas are his hero!

Bath Time!

Becca acting weird at our 4th of July Breakfast, Ben not doing anything at all!

Ben and Sarina

Grandpa and Tafton