Our Future Home

Another of Justin's family traditions is to make and decorate gingerbread houses. His mom probably spends all day baking each part to the house and then several accessories, like trees, sleds, snowmen, people, etc. I have a very poor imagination when it comes to decorating these houses, but I was pretty pleased with my creation this year. It features what our future house will look like and a typical winter day scene. Justin is pulling two of our children on a sled in the front yard. (not yet pictured in this photo) Our other two children are frolicking on the ice pond in the back and I am waving from the front door, most likely waiting for the apple pie I just baked to cool on the windowsill. We also have a small but profitable tree farm that helps pay the Christmas bills. All in all I think it is pretty close to realistic. What do you think?

It only takes two years

My niece and nephew were born on the same day four years apart. Last night at their birthday party, Easton showed that it only takes two years to catch on to what wrapping paper on a big box means. He was so cute, he grabbed all the presents in the stack even his sisters and started tearing at the paper. He would only ask for help when he actually got to the box and could not get the toys out due to twisty ties. In the picture to the right, Easton opened a cute train set and Emery opened white ponies. Easton immediately threw the train aside, yelled horses and took Emery's present. It is a good thing his sister is low key or didn't like the ponies, because she said Easton could have them.

Rollercoaster Sickness

I am unsure if I have a weak immune system or if it is the fact that I am around 40-50 small children each week that is causing me to be sick all the time. I try and use antibacterial hand sanitizer especially after they wipe their noses on your sleeve. I don't so much mind being sick normally. I was never one to skip school for a cold/headache but when you have to act like Barney all day to entertain small children and accomplish their speech goals, a cold somehow makes it impossible to do that. I have several friends working in the medical field and I am wondering if they are constantly getting sick like me? Besides being sick I am enjoying this time of year. I only have one present left to buy, what do you get your sister-in-law? I have all the other presents wrapped and under our tree. It makes it look like we are going to make a haul this year. However, they are all going to be distributed out to family members. Justin and I could not wait and started using our presents as soon as we bought them the day after thanksgiving.

Just when you are getting comfortable

Just when you start to get comfortable, wham they spring a new calling on you in church. I honestly thought I was going to be in Primary for a long time to come because every week they would tell me what a good job Justin and I were doing. Two weeks ago they split Justin and I up putting Justin in the 11 year olds class. I should have expected something, but I blindly went along thinking oh I get to stay with my cute five year olds. Well that was not the case. Today they called me to serve as the Laurels teacher. I have absolutely no idea how I am qualified to teach 16-17 year old girls but apparently the big guy thinks I am. Hopefully I will receive the revelation that I am too, because at this moment I am quite scared. I am also a little upset. Christmas songs are my favorite and their is nothing like listening to cute little five year olds sing away in a manger, Christmas bells, and many more.

One Crazy Weekend.

Thanksgiving was anything but restful this year. Thanksgiving weekend started out nice because I had work off starting on Wednesday and I was able to relax before the storm. Thursday we woke up bright and early ready to get the apple pie and yams made that were on my list of things to bring to the big dinner. I was taking my time making these things when I suddenly realized we were late to meet my mom and of course that makes her stressed and then tension is running high. We made it to Orem only a few minutes late to have dinner with my family and my moms extended family. After a few too many helpings we played a the "name" game. I had a blast. Justin was dragged into it, but at the end he had to admit it was an "okay" game. We left Orem and came home to our house in time to say Happy Thanksgiving to the in-laws before they left. Even though it was early 9pm Justin and I decided to go to bed because we were going to wake up and do Black Friday Shopping. Most everything we wanted was at Office Max so we woke up at three at got to office max around 4am to be third in line. This year we decided to just do couple gifts for Christmas so we bought us a new camera, external hard drive and a paper shredder. Merry Christmas to us. After that we made a few stops at Wal-Mart and Circuit City and Best Buy where we scored a few movies, some memory for the camera and photoshop elements 6 (Thanks Rachel) . After an exhausting morning we went straight home and got our snow stuff to drive to the Uintah's to cut down our Christmas tree. I of course am a perfectionist and last year ended up crying because I could not find the perfect tree on our first Christmas being married. This year I was a little more laid back, but still wanted a fuller tree than the in-laws settled for. Justin finally found me the best tree. We immediately cut it down and hauled it back to the truck.
Sometimes the best things come in large packages. This tree was definitely large. It was around 9 feet tall and five feet or more wide at the bottom. I personally love how big it is and after we cut it down to fit in the basement and had Justin drill some branches into the bare spots it was perfect. Saturday we dipped chocolates from 10 until 4. I have never seen so much chocolate at once. Also all you want to do is lick your fingers the whole time because they are covered in ooey gooey chocolate. We made cherry cordials, covered caramels, chocolate covered strawberries, orange fondant, lemon fondant, peanut clusters, and haystacks. At the end of the day we each went home with a large amount of chocolates.

Sled Fest 2007

At least once a year, our group of friends tries to go up to Brighton Ski Resort after dark to go sledding. We sled down a run that ends up at the parking lot. Last year there was so much snow you would sled all the way to the parking lot and then several feet on the lot. This year we were hoping for at least a couple of inches of snow but alas it was man made snow that had turned to ice. You would think that we would be smart and drive back home but no, we ditched the sleds and used our bottoms to go down the ice. We quickly discovered that if you dug your heels in they provided a sufficient braking system to slow you down before a ditch that Brandon P. said didn't feel to good crashing into. After several times going down the hill we ended back up at the parking lot to enjoy a nice cup of hot chocolate. The other wives were sitting in the car and did not participate in the bum sledding.

Lazy Sunday Afternoons

One thing I still can not get used to is the fact that I don't have to stress about Monday coming on Sunday night. I was so use to relaxing until around six and then freaking out about what homework I didn't do or driving back to school from home that I forgot what it is like to just sit at home and really have nothing of great importance to do on a Sunday evening. I am loving this.