VEGAS BABY!

Well I didn't really take pictures on Christmas but we had a very nice holiday. It was nice and slow and relaxing. We slept in and got up when we felt like it, opened presents and then made biscuits and gravy and cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Then we hung out for a little bit before heading to Taylor's parents' house. We spent the rest of the day there with his family. It was a very good day.
Last night we went to Temple Square to see the lights with our friends Rye and Jessica. It was cold, but completely bearable and the lights were totally worth the cold. I forgot my camera so I don't have any pictures of the Square but I did get a phone picture of their gecko named "Sticky". He totally climbs up the wall - it was so cool!

He's kinda blurry because he was moving so fast

The weekend before Christmas we went to Vegas with most of my family for the Vegas Bowl. BYU did what they love to do lately which is break our hearts. The weekend as a whole was fun, but the game was stupid. A couple of things that happened at the game besides BYU playing awful was early on in the first quarter I had just taken a drink of Dr. Pepper and was putting the lid back on the bottle. Taylor got excited about something that happened in the game and flung his arms up (anyone who has ever watched any sporting event with Taylor knows how intense he gets). Anyway he slammed into my arm and the Dr. Pepper went flying forward. It was almost completely full and it got all over the people sitting in front of us and on their bench. Needless to say they were not very excited about that. Then in the second quarter Taylor was upset about some play or call and once again his arms went flying and I had my phone in my hand and he hit my arm super hard, the phone shot straight forward out of my hand and hit the lady who was already covered in Dr. Pepper; it hit her right in the butt and then went under their bench so they had to reach down and get the phone for us. I'm sure my face was bright red and I can't remember the last time I felt that stupid. Overall though, we definitely had a great time spending the weekend with my family in Vegas.

Stupid final score

We took BYU face tattoos and everyone put them on before the game.

Our view - not bad at all

Marilyn's view - it looks like she was sitting right on the sideline

Taylor and Jeremy right after a chest bump before the game

Standing around "pretending we don't know what we're doing" as Josh puts it. Taylor looks cute with my purse right? He was holding it because I was playing with Josh's crutches. I used them a lot more than Josh did.

I love Christmas!!!

Well it's Christmas time and I'm actually kind of sad that it's already the 14th of December; Christmas is coming way too fast and before I know it it's gonna be over.
We've had a busy couple of weekends. On Friday last week we went to Taylor's cousin Amanda's UVU Christmas ballroom dance production. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would and I was completely impressed with all of the dancers. It was a good night. We went to another dance recital yesterday; this time it was our niece Livvy's recital. I'm not gonna lie, we got lost on our way there and her dance was the first one so we totally missed it. She looked very cute in her little leotard though and I'm sure she did great. Hopefully next time we'll actually make it to see her dance.
Last Saturday morning I went to a bread class taught by the "bread lady" and her daughter. For anyone who hasn't heard of this lady she is amazing. She's seriously a bread (and all things bread-related) guru! Check out her blog here bread lady's blog. Marilyn and I went to the class together; I was excited to go and I knew it would be helpful because I am definitely not a bread-making genius but I had no idea how much I would love the class. I learned so much! This lady has been giving these classes for over a decade and now I can see why she continues to be in such high demand. The bread lady's not only a genius about bread (although that's obviously her specialty), she's also very smart about budgeting and meal planning and food storage etc. She gives awesome tips and advice about so many things. Even for anyone who thinks they're already pretty bread savvy I would HIGHLY recommend taking this $20 class.I put my new knowledge to use last Sunday. We had Landry and Susan over for dinner and we had homemade pizza, breadsticks and for dessert a delicious strawberry cream cheese braid. I forgot to get any pictures of my creations. Yesterday we had some friends, Nola and Brian, over for lunch and we had soup and breadsticks. This time the breadsticks turned out even better cause I put more seasoning on them. I also made some loaves of bread. I hope to never buy store bought bread from now on.

We LOVE homemade bread! At our house we're pretty much on an all carbs diet most of the time.

After our nephew Porter's baptism last Saturday we went to the mall and did some serious Christmas shopping, which was very enjoyable :) I sure do LOVE shopping! After shopping and stopping by a friend's house for the end of the Jazz game we came home and even though we were so tired I made Taylor help me put up the Christmas tree and some lights and decorations around the house.

If you look closely you can see the twisty lights on the railing of both our decks.

This pic's kinda blurry.

We got this chintzy tree last year because that's all our little apartment could fit.

This year we were too lazy and cheap to get a new tree so we're sticking with this little guy. It works for now. Taylor likes how my dad uses all blue lights for his Christmas decor (go Cougs!) so we are kind of following in his footsteps and showing our love for BYU with all the blue. We made some delicious hot chocolate because it seems like you should drink hot chocolate when putting up Christmas decorations. Last night we built and decorated the gingerbread house. As you can tell, we didn't put a lot of time and effort into the design but we had fun. Bring on Santa!

Yeah, it looks like little kids did it...

Turkey and Twilight

Well I'm really annoyed right now because somehow I managed to lose my most recent pictures both on my camera and on my computer so I don't have any good pics to go along with this post; sorry I know that makes it boring.
Thanksgiving was fabulous as always. We ate at Noelle and Trent's house and the whole family was there, which made for a very loud and fun Thanksgiving. We ate a ton of food and also managed to get some family pictures taken while everyone was together. Because of the millions (well it felt like millions) of kids I did not get my usual Thanksgiving Day nap, nor did we manage to watch much football, but it was still an enjoyable day. I had to work the day before and I also had to work on Friday and Saturday (boooooo) so I did not get in any good shopping or relaxation for that matter. It was great to see all of my family for a minute though.

The things that I am most grateful for, and I'm sorry that they're all the same cliche things that everyone puts but it's truly what I'm thankful for, are the following:

Taylor, because he is so much fun and refuses to be a grown-up because grown-ups are boring. He keeps life interesting

My whole family (including my in-laws); I couldn't ask for better parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, grandparents, in-laws etc. than I have. I'm very lucky

A stable job (knock on wood); in today's economy I guess I shouldn't complain about working Thanksgiving weekend; I should just be thankful I have a job and steady income.

The gospel; who would I even be without it? It's scary to think about.

The best friends in the world; my friends played a huge part in making me who I am today (which may not be fabulous, but could be a lot scarier without their friendship and good influences)

I have so much more to be thankful for, it's kind of ridiculous that I spend any time complaining about anything.


Now, on to the second topic of my post...TWILIGHT. When I first heard that they were making a movie out of the first book I was not very excited or optimistic about how the movie would turn out. I just couldn't see how they could put the emotion and details on a screen in two hours. I figured that I'd eventually see the movie, but probably just when it got the the dollar theatre or something. But then the movie came out and I heard mostly good reviews, especially from my friends who saw it so I decided I needed to see it sooner than later. I got Taylor to go with me last week (what a good husband) and I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. Obviously they had to leave out plenty of details, but they included the important stuff and they kept it intense and humorous and emotional and everything you'd want to see in the Twilight movie. Overall I was very pleased and after I saw it I kind of just wanted to watch it again. Now the hard part is going to be waiting for New Moon to be made into a movie...patience is not a trait I was blessed with.

Hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving and that you're all getting ready for Christmas! I LOVE Christmas time!!!

Family Time

This post is coming from the middle of nowhere, which is also the center of the universe...Blanding.  Taylor and I decided to come down for the weekend for a little bit of Lyman time.  We talked Noelle, Maxon and Scout into coming down with us so we've been having a lot of fun.   Below are my feet, Noelle's, my mom's and Camryn's.  We glitter painted our toes blue for the big game tomorrow.  Don't mind that it's more of a periwinkle blue than cougar blue, it's the closest we could get.  Kristi's out to dinner with Jeremy tonight but I'm sure we'll get her toes glittery before tomorrow afternoon.  We love Blanding!

And yes, we realize we have creepy huge gaps between the big toe and the second toe...don't judge us for it.

Glitterin it up

Our favorite part about coming to Blanding is playing with the kids.  Taylor and Logan are good buddies.

It's very hard to get a smiling picture of Camryn, but look how pretty she is when you can somehow trick her into smiling in front of a camera.

Taylor and Josh looking very excited.  Josh is getting all ready for his mission to France; he leaves in January.

How awesome are these little dudes?

This was a couple of nights ago.  We got free tickets to the Jazz game - we never turn down free anything.  This was the second game we've gone to this season, we love Jazz games.

Go Jazz!

At a family dinner at Jeremy and Heather's last month.  I just think this picture is so cute - Kolton reading to Maxon with Jensen looking on.

How cute is Scout?!?!

And how cute is Maycie the ladybug?!?!

The annual Harrison family Halloween party.  Grandma Harrison reading one of my favorite books to all the kids in their cute costumes; the book is called The Halloweiner.  I was laughing harder than the kids through the whole book.

My cute sister-in-law Meg, holding my cute nephew Easton who's holding his cute cousin (and my cute niece) Maycie.

8 Fun Things

I was tagged by Cami...enjoy!

8 tv shows I love to watch
1. The Office
2. The Hills
3. Grey's Anatomy
4. Friends reruns...til the day I die
5. Private Practice
6. Desperate Housewives
7. Ace of Cakes
8. Big Bang Theory

sadly I could add a few more but I'll leave it at 8

Favorite 8 restaurants
1. Old Spaghetti Factory
2. P.F. Chang's
3. Texas Roadhouse Grill
4. The Cheesecake Factory
5. Red Robin
6. Crown Burger
7. The Olive Garden
8. Wingers

8 things that happened yesterday
1. Taylor and I went to the BYU game...GO COUGS!
2. We went to the mall and did a little shopping :)
3. I cleaned my house
4. I introduced Taylor to Ernie's Sports Deli in Orem...I hadn't eaten there in years and I LOVE their sandwiches
5. I went to the gym
6. I watched multiple college football games while Taylor rubbed my feet...good husband!
7. Paid bills
8. Watched Friends reruns

8 things I'm looking forward to
1. The next two months...I love the holidays!
2. Having a kid...hopefully soon-ish
3. Moving to Blanding some day
4. Having long hair again some day
5. The BYU-Utah football game
6. Deron Williams finally being able to play
7. Taylor finishing school some day
8. Going snowmobiling with my cute husband

8 things on my wish list
1. Like Cami, I wish for new bedding
2. I wish Taylor would never pass out again
3. I wish for a lot of new clothes
4. I wish I got a huge raise at the end of the year
5. I wish Taylor got a huge raise at the end of the year too
6. I wish that this winter would be half as long as last winter
7. I wish that gas would keep getting lower and lower, or at least stay where it's at right now
8. I wish that Taylor liked cheese

8 people I tag
1. Mom
2. Marilyn
3. Kristi
4. Heather
5. Noelle
6. Kera
7. Matt (I don't think he'll do it but I'm out of people to tag)
8. Jeremy J or Jeremy R (ditto)

More mood swings than a pregnant woman...

This is Taylor. I just wanted to get out some feelings I have had on my mind since Thursday's events... First of all the BYU game... Wow, what a painful couple of hours. We had some friends over, and Stacy made a smorgasbord of delicious treats. It seemed like it was going to be a joyous event. Not so much. By half time I was just wanting everyone to get out of my house. It is absolutely nothing agianst them obviously; I just did not want them to see me cry.
I had to give up hope of any kind of comeback with about two and a half minutes left in the game. I know I held out FAR to long, but I just love my Cougs so much I was having a hard time accepting the fact that the BCS was not in the cards this year. So when I did give up on the comeback, I swiched to TBS to see how my Red Sox were doing. Down 3 games to 1 in the best of 7 ALCS - American League Championship Series. Quickly to clarify, the Braves are my number one team.

But as Jeremy Redd taught me, you have to have a team from both the NL and the AL. Plus I need to have a team to cheer for in the postseason, and my Braves have been letting me down in that category the last few years. And I fell in love with Big Pappi and the Sox in '04 when they came back and beat the Yankees. I HATE the Yanks! Well, the Sox were down 7-0 in the 7th inning. Not looking good! But after some clutch 2 out 2 strike hitting from Dustin Pedroia, the Sox were on the board. And then Pappi being Pappi, took it to 7-4. Then they were able to tie it up in the 8th, which included a 2 run homer from J.D. Drew. This entire time, my emotions are all over the place. Excited about one of the better postseason comebacks in recent memory, to depressed once again in the pain my Cougars had put me through. Then in the 9th... an error, and another clutch hit from Drew, and I was on cloud nine!!! 'Til I thought of the Cougars again...
Clearly I take sports much too seriously, but it's just who I am.

Fun Day Friday, Pumpkins, Odds & Ends

This post will be kind of a hodge podge of information just to get caught up in the blogging world. Every Friday at my work we have "Fun Day Friday". Over about a six month period each team is assigned to be in charge of one Friday competition of some sort for the whole office. The winning team is allowed to wear jeans to work the next Friday. My team has never won; in the last competition we took second place by a VERY narrow margin and it was so heartbreaking. We decided we'd rather take last place than second. It just hurt too much to be so close to the jeans and then to have them ripped away from us. Yesterday's competition was a pumpkin carving contest. The below pumpkin was my team's entry. Another girl on my team and I concocted up the idea, made our own template and carved the whole thing. If I had my way we would have just done something Cougariffic but more than half of my team cheers for the wrong team so we had to compromise and include both schools. We were pretty pleased with how it turned out, but we did not win.

without the light

The winning pumpkin - Napoleon
I have to admit, he looks pretty cool. The winning team got their template online...not as original as ours but whatever. Notice the pocket with the tots, the chapstick and the "Vote for Pedro" t-shirt. The team sits right next to us so when next Friday rolls around and we have to see them in their jeans all day it's going to hurt especially bad.

Some of the other pumpkins. The one on the far right is the CEO of our company. In real life it looked better than in this picture. It was very easy to tell who it was supposed to be.

Binge-drinking - never a good idea!

Maybe I should try to transfer to the team that carved this pumpkin - they obviously have their priorities straight!

Continuing with the hodge podge, this is just a picture of Taylor and I at Lagoon this summer. We went with Kacey and Joe (and the rest of Kacey's office, which used to be my office). It was really fun.



For Valentine's Day this year Taylor drew me a picture of a coffee table that he planned to make for me, which I was very excited about of course. Since we were in NY at the time he wasn't able to start right away. When we got back he got started on it and worked during his breaks and sometimes he would stay late to work on it. Well he finished it on my Birthday and I absolutely love how it turned out! He designed it and made it from start to finish; I was incredibly impressed!

While my sister Marilyn and her husband have been on a cruise their five kids have been making the rounds staying with different aunts and uncles. This weekend has been mine and Taylor's turn with them. We've stayed with them at their house. Five kids is so much more than a handful! We wanted to do pumpkins with them but we decided that actually carving them might be a little more than what we could handle so we got these peel off pumpkin tattoo face things and did them instead. Best of both worlds, the kids got to make cute fun pumpkins to put on their porch but we didn't have to deal with the mess and hassle of carving them.

Awww - how cute are they?

Uncle Tay helping the kids :) We couldn't get Kolton to do pumpkins with us - party pooper!

Uncle Tay being such a fun uncle, playing Legos with Oakley.

The above video is what Addi and Oakley did for a large part of the weekend. They fell more times than I can count, they ran into each other and doors but never once did I see one of them cry because of it...hey, whatever keeps them happy and busy!

Colorado cabin - Labor Day

I'm trying to get caught up on my blogs so that I'm not always a month or two behind but for a little while longer I'll still be reporting old news.
My family has made it a tradition to go to the Colorado cabin over Labor Day weekend. This year every single one of us was there, which meant there were 15 adults, 11 1/2 kids and eight dogs; it was a serious zoo! But we had so much fun.

We went 4-wheeling

We rode horses

We ate food

We played games

Some read books and some watched 'Rella on iPod

We watched anxiously for bears (and saw none)

And we ate more food. We had so much fun :) This is a tradition I look forward to every year!