Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year

Oh the holidays!!  They were the best.  I was able to spend lots of time with friends and family.  It seems that every weekend and most weekdays were booked with dinners and parties.  Here are few pictures from Christmas day............

The Tree

Matt

The boys playing a very old Nintendo.
Our family has a weird tradition of breaking out the old Nintendo on Christmas.

Some of the nieces and nephews. Oh, and Trevor too.

April and Ava

Brad and Jess holding the newest additions- Ava, Ben and Matt

We play lots of games.

Then came New Years Eve.  The plan was to spend it with my family but at the last minute plans changed and I ended up going to a fabulous dinner party hosted by Brooke and Gina.  It was so much fun to visit and play games before we headed to the dance party put on by our friends Jeff and Jess.  I have a few pics from the dinner party but none from the dance.  I guess I was having to much fun dancing the night away.

I'm ready to go!

Brooker, Gina, and Lisa

Jami, Jen, Kari, Janae, Brooker and Me

Back row: Jami, Kari, Jen
Middle: Me, Brooke, Gina, Keri, Alison
Front: Lisa, Beth, Janae and Brooke

 A wonderful thing about Christmas is that my friends come back to visit their families and so we were able to get together for a dinner with Jenn and Taletha.

It was a whirlwind of fun and crazy busyness!!  Things finally calmed down this past week. I was finally able to get some sleep but not enough to ward off a bad cold.  These past couple days I've been sleeping and recouping but it's been totally worth all the fun and late nights!!

Another Example of Not Thinking Before Posting....

Gift Buying Guide

Provided by Mint.com

Running In a Winter Wonderland

Last Friday, we participated in the Elf Run.  We had a fun time.  We dressed up like this:

I think we may be a little crazy.
We not only ran a 5k but we did it in 20 degree temperatures in skirts and leggings.
Yeah, we're crazy.

Hope you're having a very happy and festive Christmas Season!!!

Kid History

These were hilarious. I was pretty much crying by the time I was done watching.

Reporting In.....

Not much to report on around here lately.

Thanksgiving was ushered in with a snow storm that keeps starting and stopping and I've been building my snow shoveling muscles. It's been a blast.  Let me tell you.  The bank even closed early on Tuesday.  That was nice.  I've also been working on my slick, ice covered road driving skills and my snow covered, drift busting driving skills.  That's also been a blast.

Thanksgiving found me with my parents going to my grandparents' house. None of my siblings were there and almost all the married cousins couldn't make it.  However, all of my mom's siblings, spouses and the unmarried cousins showed up; so we still had a pretty large group with 28 of us.  The meal was awesome and the desserts were even awesomer.  I renewed my love of and commitment to pie.  I love this time of year!

Friday I had to work. It wasn't fun but I'm just grateful for my job (and the fact that it got me out of Black Friday shopping).  That night Jarom and Taletha, who'd come home for the holiday, came over and we had a very fun game night.  It was so good to see and talk with T.

Saturday was the BYU v. Utah game.  I watched. I cheered. I groaned. I hoped. I was disappointed.  Nuff said.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.  It's filled with family and food.  Two of my favorite things.  But more than that, it's a day to think about my life and all the blessings I have.  It makes me feel happy, hopeful and, well, thankful.  I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving too!

The Trip to Twin

Last Friday night Jen, Janae and I hit the road to Twin Falls to visit Jenn.  Did you know that Jenn moved?  Yep, she did.  And we are very, very sad.  So we took advantage of the weekend and went for a visit.

The weather here has been crappy, to say the least, but, thankfully, we left on Friday night and arrived at Jenn's just as the snow started. Then we left Sunday morning and made it back before the flurries started to fly again.  The roads were dry and the weather mild.  We were lucky.

Anyway, we had a great weekend.  It was one of those lazy Saturday mornings complete with sleeping in, biscuits and gravy, and long warm showers.  We just really enjoyed the heck out of it.  Then we headed out to see Shoshone Falls.  They were very pretty---

Did you know that they are 212 feet high?  Higher than Niagara Falls.  Now that's high!  It was beautiful.

Jenn, me, Jen, and Naez

Then we took a drive around the temple and headed home for lunch.  During lunch we decided we'd hit up a matinee movie.  We saw Megamind in 3D.  Very entertaining.

Then, of course, we did some shopping.  We kinda got stuck at one store for about 3 hours.  I don't really know what happened there.  I just know that I can't be held responsible.  None of us can. :-)

When we were all tired and hungry we stopped for dinner.  The food was yummy and they had very good live entertainment.

It turned out to be a very fun, relaxing, secret revealing weekend- just what we've been needing.

Last Week...

 my house went from this.......

White walls

More white walls

Even more white walls

to this....

Beige and Green Walls

Thanks everyone (Kari, Jen, Janae, Jeff and Willie) who came and helped me!  But especially my parents.  They were troopers.  It was a lot of work to do in 3 days and I couldn't have done it without them.