Christmas Time is Here!

Here are the new additions to our home!! First is Freddy the fir tree in his green, gold and red glory.

The pictures do not do his beauty justice!!

The next addition is the beautiful Christmas Village!! I came home from school to find that my wonderful husband had set it up on the amazing chest that my mom gave me for my birthday! Thanks mom and Andrew!!!

My home truly feels like Christmas now and I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday Fun!!

Yesterday I made scones for breakfast and then I made homemade bread!! First time without my mom or sister to tell me what to do. I know they don't look very good, but they taste amazing. I didn't even have to call my mom for help!

Then Andrew took me to the fall ball put on by the institute. The pictures didn't turn out very well because the camera was being difficult so I couldn't post very many.

What can you do?

Happy Halloween!!!!

Andrew and I got all dressed up so that we could go to a Halloween party thrown by a member of our ward. We started putting our costumes together at 5:00, Andrew did such a good job on the homemade swords. Andrew told me the party started at 8:00, then at 7:30 he checked the invitation and found that the party actually went from 6:00-8:00 oops. We had time to get our picture taken and get a goody bag, we also got to watch other ward members play games. A good night overall. I did have fun giving out candy to the little kiddies, well til I fell asleep while Andrew was making the swords and he was left with the task. Hope everyone else had a fun holiday!!!

Happy Birthday to Me!!!!!

Andrew worked so hard to make my birthday wonderful!!! He got up and made me french toast for breakfast, he played games with me then took me to Roberts so we could browse the Christmas decorations. We went to the homecoming game and SUU even won!! Andrew bought me pizza and invited friends over so we could play games and eat the yummy brownies, then we went down to the Snow Canyon caves to play! Thanks for making my day so wonderful, I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful husband and such great friends and family who showered me with birthday wishes in the form of phone calls, text messages and emails. Thank you!!!!

This is the brownie treat that Andrew stayed up until four in the morning making for me. I like brownies more than cake so he made me birthday brownies instead of a cake. He did such an amazing job!!

Pumpkin Carving!!

Question: Am I the only person that has to spend 20 minutes messing with the pictures to get a post to look decent?? Seriously, I always think I've got blogspot figured out but no, I have to fight with it every time. Wouldn't you think that clicking on "align right" would mean the pictures would actually align on the right? Anyway onto the post.

We're getting ready for Halloween!!!

The this last Saturday was the only chance Andrew and I would have to carve pumpkins before Halloween so we did, even though I do realize that by the time Halloween comes they will be all shriveled and distorted (Carving book says you can soak a jack-o-lantern in water and it will un-shrivel).

Brennan and Emma came to carve with us, and we finished the night by watching Coraline, which totally creeped me out.

Andrew's is farthest left, then Brennan's, then Emma's, and mine is the one with the pathetic candle in it. I never remember to buy candles for the pumpkins so we had to light them with decorative candles left over from a wedding, there were only three of those though, so my pumpkin was lit with a scented candle that had a very small wick. My pumpkin did smell the best though, cinnamon!!

Hey this is Andrew, I found this video on LDS.org and it really caught my attention. It is a reminder of our responsibility to help protect religious freedom.

Coming up for air

Have you ever experienced that euphoric feeling when you finally completed a huge task?? In this case the huge task is the 25 page research paper that I just grabbed off the printer and will turn in today. Ever have that wonderful feeling? Then have you had that sinking feeling of remembering all the stuff you are now behind on because you have devoted so much time to that huge task? I have two papers, a test and a book panal and another book presentation to prepare for all in the next six days, plus a 300 page (boring) book to read. If you have never experienced these feelings, you can not relate to how I am feeling right now. I seriously need a break.

Weekend FUN!

I love my Family!!!!! I think it is so fun that we can all get together and enjoy each others company!!

We all love each other and can work together.
We can chat and laugh and play games and work on the dreaded puzzle at the cabin!!

Thanks for making it so fun to come home, it is something that I always look forward to and I'm sure that will never change!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Crystal!!!!

We missed you Lindsay!!

Nursery Leaders and Graduation Papers!!

Yep, after volunteering to help in the Nursery one week you are extended the calling!!! Andrew and I now are Nursery leaders in the ward, yesterday was our first day officially, not the first since we'd already been in there due to Andrew volunteering. Things went smoothly, except we don't have a manual yet so we kind of just wing it, which we will probably do even when we do get a manual, we just will feel worse because then we'll know what we should be doing. Anyway, we are enjoying ourselves so far, the weird thing is that we'll only be in there once a month, twice if there is a fifth Sunday, because we combine with another ward for nursery so it might be harder to get a routine going. Oh well, we are excited to serve!! (p.s. this is making Andrew super baby hungry!)

My other exciting news is that I turned in my graduation papers today!!! Now it just has to be approved, I have to pay for a cap and gown and diploma and then pass all my classes this semester and next and I will be done!!!!! The papers aren't even due until October 16th so I'm totally on the ball with this. Go me!!!

Food Storage!!!

Who loves the semi-annual case lot sale at Smiths?????

We do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First Week

So I just completed my first week of school for this semester, I always find the first week very overwhelming, as if the teachers are trying to scare everyone out of their classes in the first few days so they don't have as many tests and papers to grade. So I'm telling you the enjoyable parts of my week, the ones that made me excited to be back in school.

• Day 1 of History Seminar: Professor asks a girl if he can borrow her pen, then refuses to touch the pen because of germs and the swine flu...then he did it again.
• Day 1 of Hitler and Nazi Germany: Professor says a kid looks too nice to be in that class. Professor also keeps lapsing into a german accent (hes not german) and tells us that this is a german studies class and we will emphasize efficiency!!!
• Day 1 of Constitutional Law: Professor tries to grab a girls water bottle for a little object lesson but she grabs it too and they proceed to fight over it for a full 5 seconds. She won.
• Free T-shirts on Campus!!! I even got my size this year!!!
• Free ice cream at the Institute!!!

Fun Weekend!

Congratulations Lara and Brian!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Due to the fun wedding of Andrew's sister Lara we got to spend the weekend in South Jordan with Andrew's entire family, and there are a lot of them. When we first arrived on Friday night we felt like we were in the opening scenes of Home Alone with 17 kids running around and even more adults. But we had so much fun!!!

Brian's father acquired a soft serve ice cream machine for a picnic the night before the wedding and then for the reception as well. I believe the record for most ice cream cones eaten was 17, I was surprised none of the kids threw up.

Happy Birthday Andy, Lara and Ben.

Food and games and talking and family make a fun weekend for me!!

Summer Project

This is the main project I assigned to myself and Andrew this summer. My parents gave us this old coffee table when Andrew and I got married. I decided that it needed to be darker, especially since the color it was exactly matched the doors and cupboards in the duplex that we used to live in, and I didn't particularly like the color that was probably very popular in before the 60's. So we have spent time sanding, conditioning and staining, we finally finished last night (though I started at the beginning of the summer, moving and traveling put the project on hold for quite a while), Andrew was so nice to get up this morning and put the finished project together for me. The stain is a lot more red than I thought it would be, but I do love the darker color. Any suggestions for my next project, well after we make the hand-me-down end table match the made over hand-me-down coffee table???

The New Place!!!

The spare bathroom

The wonderful kitchen!!

See the beautiful quilt my mom made!!! Thanks mom!!!!

Here are a few pictures of the new place, I only included my favorite rooms. Sorry the pic of the living room has the stair railing in it, thats the best angle I could get with my camera, it doesn't zoom out much. We have two spare rooms and lots of blankets, we would love some visitors!!!!!! Thanks for coming to see us Mom, Dad and Lindsay!!!