We spent the last weekend in my favorite place in the whole world - Blanding. The reason for the trip was because my baby brother Josh is going on his mission this week and he spoke in church on Sunday. He did such a great job and I have no doubt that he will be a great missionary in Paris, France. I can not believe that he is old enough to go. I think most of us still picture Josh as the little wild boy with the cutest curls in his hair.
Josh doesn't allow pictures of him to be taken so I don't have any recent pictures of him that aren't of the back of his head or his hand over his face. If you want to see some cute pictures of him through the years check out Kristi's blog. Josh has always had a personality all his own and I think this will work strongly to his advantage on his mission. He will be the type of missionary that everybody loves. Most of the stories that I can think of about Josh might be kind of embarrassing for him so I'll keep this post mild and just post some things that you might not know about him. Josh is a total carnivore; pretty much since he started eating solid foods he has LOVED all kinds of meat. I like meat but I'm all about the carbs (noodles, rice, bread...) so if my mom ever made a dish that included like noodles and meat I would trade a bunch of my meat with Josh and he would give me a bunch of his noodles. When Josh was quite young (probably 4-7 years old) he made people call him Steve Young. Sometimes he answered to Josh but a lot of the time he would only respond if you called him Steve. There was a tiny break in this a couple of times during basketball season when he switched over to being called John Stockton but for the most part he was all about Steve Young. He loves pretty much all sports and always has. Josh is very humble, he has no idea how cool/smart he is. Hopefully his mission will help him realize what a cool dude he is. Josh absolutely knew he would be called to serve in France and even though the rest of us doubted (I was sure he'd be called to Brazil) he never wavered and he was probably the only one that wasn't shocked when he opened his call (even though he wasn't shocked he was pretty dang excited). I am so proud of Joshy Squashy and I will definitely miss him over the next two years.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
B-town happenings
While in Blanding over the weekend we had a lot of family time and a little bit of friend time. There is never enough time to see everyone that I'd like to see while I'm down there. Here are just a few pics of our fun days.
If there's any question about where our allegiance is just stop by any family gathering and you will probably find at least a few BYU shirts. Here's Jeremy, Taylor and my dad keepin' it real for the Cougs.
Addi and Oakley doing some serious gaming
The kids love to mess with Uncle Tay so he makes sure to put them in their place like he is doing to Logi in this picture. If you're wondering why Logi Bear's face looks weird it's because he has a sippy cup in his mouth which is covering his cute face.
Laici and Tye invited us over to their house for some fun games and reminiscing of the good ole days. Trevor and his wife Niki also came. Laici, Tye, Trevor and I all grew up together. We had so much fun hanging out with them. We love Tye and Laici's house and luckily Tye said that if we ever move down there he will build us a house too and all we have to pay him is a bunch of Mexican Coca-Cola.
Trev and Taylor hangin' out
We roasted marshmallows in their fireplace and made some delicious smores.
Laici and Tye's little girl Jacelyn is so dang cute and she showed me all her toys and we played with her dollhouse. She has such a fun personality. Looks like she might grow up to be a cowgirl.
If there's any question about where our allegiance is just stop by any family gathering and you will probably find at least a few BYU shirts. Here's Jeremy, Taylor and my dad keepin' it real for the Cougs.
Addi and Oakley doing some serious gaming
The kids love to mess with Uncle Tay so he makes sure to put them in their place like he is doing to Logi in this picture. If you're wondering why Logi Bear's face looks weird it's because he has a sippy cup in his mouth which is covering his cute face.
Laici and Tye invited us over to their house for some fun games and reminiscing of the good ole days. Trevor and his wife Niki also came. Laici, Tye, Trevor and I all grew up together. We had so much fun hanging out with them. We love Tye and Laici's house and luckily Tye said that if we ever move down there he will build us a house too and all we have to pay him is a bunch of Mexican Coca-Cola.
Trev and Taylor hangin' out
We roasted marshmallows in their fireplace and made some delicious smores.
Laici and Tye's little girl Jacelyn is so dang cute and she showed me all her toys and we played with her dollhouse. She has such a fun personality. Looks like she might grow up to be a cowgirl.Monday, January 19, 2009
Super Bowl
When: February 1, 2009
Where: Our place
Who: Cardinals vs. Steelers
Why: SUPER BOWL BABY!
Time: 4-ish I think
Ok so ever since we were younger my friends and I always got together to watch the big game. This was always a girls only gathering and our place of choice to watch the game was Cassie's house. There was always an abundance of good food (mostly thanks to Bonnie) and a seriously good time. Now, to some people reading this a Super Bowl party with a bunch of teenage girls might sound pretty lame but that would mean you don't know us. We actually liked and followed football; we knew the teams and players and we knew what had gone on in the season. We all had our favorite teams and no matter who was playing in the championship game we would all bring/wear our favorite team memorabilia. Tyrel would bring her cheesehead; I would wear my 49ers hoodie; Kace would bring her 49ers cushion backrest thingy; Cassie and Marci would don their Cowboys gear; obviously Nicole wasn't a Texans fan back then but now she proudly displays her Houston license plate holder everywhere she goes (I can't remember what teams some of my other friends cheered for). Whether we truthfully cared about the two teams playing or not we would all state before the game who we wanted to win and we would stick with it throughout the game. At halftime we would go outside and throw around a football and let out some of our energy before we headed inside for the rest of the game. We actually watched the game and understood what was going on. Anyway, this tradition has continued more or less throughout the years. Some years the gatherings are bigger than other years but every year we get at least a few of us together to watch the big game. Obviously now that a bunch of us are married and a whole plethora of kids have been born to my friends the dynamics of the parties have changed but it's always a good time and it seems that every year there's more food than the last. Last year was a sad year for me because I watched the game all by myself in New York so this year I want to make up for that and bring back the old days when EVERYONE watched the game together. So consider this your official invite to watch the big game with us at our place this year. I don't want to hear excuses about living too far away or having morning sickness or sick kids (ok so that's kind of a legit excuse), but the bottom line is if you don't already have plans to watch it somewhere else then maybe you should just plan to come watch it with us. It will be lots of fun! Husbands and kids are welcome :) Let me know if you have any questions about the big day.
P.S. this invite is not only for my friends from way back when; it's open to any of our friends, new and old, that might be reading this.
Where: Our place
Who: Cardinals vs. Steelers
Why: SUPER BOWL BABY!
Time: 4-ish I think
Ok so ever since we were younger my friends and I always got together to watch the big game. This was always a girls only gathering and our place of choice to watch the game was Cassie's house. There was always an abundance of good food (mostly thanks to Bonnie) and a seriously good time. Now, to some people reading this a Super Bowl party with a bunch of teenage girls might sound pretty lame but that would mean you don't know us. We actually liked and followed football; we knew the teams and players and we knew what had gone on in the season. We all had our favorite teams and no matter who was playing in the championship game we would all bring/wear our favorite team memorabilia. Tyrel would bring her cheesehead; I would wear my 49ers hoodie; Kace would bring her 49ers cushion backrest thingy; Cassie and Marci would don their Cowboys gear; obviously Nicole wasn't a Texans fan back then but now she proudly displays her Houston license plate holder everywhere she goes (I can't remember what teams some of my other friends cheered for). Whether we truthfully cared about the two teams playing or not we would all state before the game who we wanted to win and we would stick with it throughout the game. At halftime we would go outside and throw around a football and let out some of our energy before we headed inside for the rest of the game. We actually watched the game and understood what was going on. Anyway, this tradition has continued more or less throughout the years. Some years the gatherings are bigger than other years but every year we get at least a few of us together to watch the big game. Obviously now that a bunch of us are married and a whole plethora of kids have been born to my friends the dynamics of the parties have changed but it's always a good time and it seems that every year there's more food than the last. Last year was a sad year for me because I watched the game all by myself in New York so this year I want to make up for that and bring back the old days when EVERYONE watched the game together. So consider this your official invite to watch the big game with us at our place this year. I don't want to hear excuses about living too far away or having morning sickness or sick kids (ok so that's kind of a legit excuse), but the bottom line is if you don't already have plans to watch it somewhere else then maybe you should just plan to come watch it with us. It will be lots of fun! Husbands and kids are welcome :) Let me know if you have any questions about the big day.
P.S. this invite is not only for my friends from way back when; it's open to any of our friends, new and old, that might be reading this.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
2009!
So this post is a little late but since I've got nothing else of interest to add to the blog I'll blog about our New Year's festivities. We spent New Year's Eve at Noelle and Trent's house with a bunch of my siblings and a few friends. My nieces and nephews kept things lively and interesting as usual. And there was WAY too much delicious food; I think I ate enough to last me all of 2009.
Elmo kept everyone entertained with his story-telling.
Addi and Livvy - the cutest little cousin BFFs ever
Cohen - this little man never stops and he is SO dang smart and silly.
Addi and Taylor rocking out
Logi rockin' the drums
This is shortly before midnight. Taylor and Logan are such good buddies and they fell asleep watching Shrek 3. Kristi and I were watching people play Rock Band at this point, too lazy/tired to get off our own butts and play. I barely kept my eyes open until midnight...
Happy New Year everyone!!!
Elmo kept everyone entertained with his story-telling.
Addi and Livvy - the cutest little cousin BFFs ever
Cohen - this little man never stops and he is SO dang smart and silly.
Addi and Taylor rocking out
Logi rockin' the drums
This is shortly before midnight. Taylor and Logan are such good buddies and they fell asleep watching Shrek 3. Kristi and I were watching people play Rock Band at this point, too lazy/tired to get off our own butts and play. I barely kept my eyes open until midnight...Happy New Year everyone!!!
Sunday, December 28, 2008
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.
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 fastThe 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.Sunday, December 14, 2008
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.
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.
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...
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...Monday, December 1, 2008
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!!!
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!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)