Week in Review

I apologize for taking so much time off from the blogging world- time went so fast that I didn't realize I had been gone so long! Jared and I have had a fun week together...let me just give you a little update.

1. We spoke in church on Sunday, which always throws me for a loop. I get so nervous, and it takes me forever to prepare for it because I want so badly to say the right things. Jared, on the other hand, puts it together the morning of (and does a great job), and mocks me while I tell him I might throw up. (just kidding, he doesn't mock me, he just wonders why it makes me so scared.)

2.I had a lovely half a day off on Monday-which was really nice. I got a lot of work done in the short time I was there. You'd never believe how much work I can get done when I don't have adorable children telling me that they might throw up, that they forgot their lunch, or that there's a giant poop in the toilet that might not go down.

3. I made Jared and I a cafe rio salad for dinner the other night, and it was actually quite mouthwatering! I have a cookbook that has the recipes for the rice, beans and oh so delicious creamy dressing. I topped it off with some homemade guacamole and it was deliciouso!

4. I watched American Idol. I hate it when American Idol comes back on, because I love to watch it, but feel like it's a waste of my time. Especially when they have 2 hour episodes!

5.I drove home in some really thick fog/smog yesterday. It was actually really cool, because as I was driving down the freeway, all I could see were the taillights of those closest to me. I couldn't even see the huge green exit signs until they were right above me. It seemed as if they were appearing out of thin air!

6.We had some friends over last night for pizza and games, and it was a lot of fun. We played malarkey, scene it, and some old-school video games that made me laugh so hard I couldn't breathe.

Now it's Saturday and a new week will be here and gone in no time. How does time go so fast?

The Other Room

We have an extra bedroom in our house, and it doesn't have a purpose. We have our bedroom, the office, and the... other room. I've been thinking about what we could do to that room to make it look complete, and this weekend we finished it! I thought that if we bought a little chair it would maybe feel more like a den or reading room. So, yesterday morning, we got up early and drove up to the avenues to pick up a peach (yes, peach) chair. I found it on ksl.com, and it is quite perfect for what I wanted it for. After that, we went to a really neat store called second hand chic in Sugarhouse and bought some accent pillows. This store was so cute! All of the items in it were used, but the collection of items were so detailed and beautiful and cool. I loved it! Now we have a reading room, that doubles as an art room ( which makes me think I should really start another project). What do you think about my chair?




On a different and more random note, I have an extremely large bruise on my knee. I have no idea where it came from, and it's driving me nuts! You would think I would remember a blow that hard-hard enough to make my knee turn purple- but I don't! Don't you hate that?

Home Sweet Home!

Yes, everyone, we are finally in our new home! We moved in last Friday, and we were able to get settled just in time for Christmas. We had a lot of help moving- and we are so grateful for all those who pitched in! Thank you so much Rob and Tammy, Mom and Dad, Brandy and Dave, Thatcher and Chris. We chose a pretty rotten day to move, but we just didn't want to postpone it... We were too excited to get in! It went pretty smoothly, but we did get the U-Haul stuck once. We love it here, and have been having so much fun putting things away, and decorating our walls. We can't thank Rob and Tammy enough for letting us invade their home while we were in between homes. They are so good to us and we love them so much. Here are some pictures of our new place...

We'll post more pictures when I get everything else put together.

Jared and I had such a nice Christmas. We spent a lot of time with our families, which is one of my favorite things. We had a progressive dinner with my dad's side of the family on the 23rd, which has been a tradition for as long as I can remember. I made a molded jello for the salad course of the meal, and let's just say that it didn't turn out right. I was so concerned that it wouldn't, and it actually looked alright when I took it out of the mold at my mom's house- whew- but within just a few minutes, it started to liquify before my very eyes. Sorry, no picture, I was too embarrassed to document...

On Christmas eve, we always go over to my parent's house and have pizza. For the past couple of years, we've been eating The Pie pizza, which is the best pizza in the world! After dinner we always read the Christmas story in the scriptures, and as a new event this year, we had a nativity. I thought it was so fun to see my nieces and nephews dressed up in robes and towels.

On Christmas morning, Jared and I opened our gifts from each other and then got ready to go to my grandma's house. We got there eventually, after digging ourselves out of very deep snow on our street. After breakfast at my grandma's house, we headed over to the Olsen home to open more gifts, eat some lunch, play some rock band, and visit with each other. We had a lovely time, and love spending time with Rob and Tammy and Brandy and Dave.

At the end of the night, we made our way home in terrible weather, and were really worried about making it home. No plows had been in our neighborhood that morning, and we had gotten stuck then- and it snowed almost all day long! When we got to our neighborhood, we realized that one street had been plowed, but the street in front of our house and behind our house had been missed. We decided to go for it, and ended up immobile just about 15 feet away from our garage. The next hour and a half was spent shoveling and digging, pushing and slipping. We would never had made it if some of our neighbors hadn't come to help. They were stuck as well, but knew there was no way they could get out of their predicament, so they came to our aid. Boy were we grateful! We made it in our garage, and we were both dripping wet and freezing cold. What a fun Christmas night! Plows finally made it today at 12:00pm- Which meant Jared got to stay home from work. We had a snow day!

Sorry for the length of this post, there was just so much for me to tell you about! I love Christmas, spending time with family and thinking about the Savior and his birth. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and we are so grateful for friends and family like you.

Movie Trivia

Jared has a pretty fun job. He gets to do something he's really interested in, and he gets to enjoy movies and food on a regular basis- what a lucky guy! These pictures are from some of Jared's orientation and training presentations. They are a pretty good way to entertain the new teenage employees during a long meeting. Can you identify any of the movies that these pictures are from? It's pretty hard without having the familiar faces of the actors in the image!

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Graham Cracker Houses

Last Sunday we had our monthly family dinner, and afterwards the little ones got to decorate graham cracker houses. They had so much fun putting candy and chocolate on their houses and licking their fingers. I spent much of my time repairing the houses that I accidentally broke though-Sorry kids! I just have bad luck with fragile things sometimes.

I love experiencing the holidays with my nieces and nephews, because it reminds me of how exciting and magical this time can be. Look at how cute these houses came out!

What a Nice Weekend!

Oh how I love Thanksgiving! We had such a nice holiday weekend, spending time with our families and with each other. On Thanksgiving day, we helped prepare a delicious meal, and watched a movie with the Olsen family. We visited my family later on in the day, and watched another movie. It was so nice to spend time with all of the people we love, and really think about the many blessings Jared and I have in our lives. I often feel overwhelmed when I think about the good things in my life and how lucky and blessed I am, and I am so thankful to my Heavenly Father for giving me these wonderful things to be joyful about.

The rest of the weekend was filled with relaxation, movies, family parties and a Jazz game. Twilight and Quantum of Solace were the movies of choice- and both were pretty good! The Jazz game was especially exciting, because we got tickets with special privileges to go eat dinner and snacks in the VIP room in the Energy Solutions Arena.

Also, we checked out our townhouse, and it is so close to being finished. We are still hoping to be in it the weekend before Christmas, which is only three weeks away! It is painted, and our tile looks so nice. Our cabinets should be in by the end of this week. It has been so much fun to watch our little plot of land grow a house! We really can't wait to start living there.

We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving weekend, and hope you have a wonderful Christmas season!

A good way to spend my time

For the past few weekends, I've employed the help of my mom and sister to complete a project for the Festival of Trees. I've been going to the Festival of Trees for as many years as I can remember. It started with my mom. She decorated and donated a few trees when I was younger, and the Festival became a traditional mom and sister outing every year. I loved walking up and down the aisles, listening to Christmas music, smelling cinnamon and scones, and feeling the magic of this charity for Primary Children's Medical Center. When Jared and I were dating, I became involved on the small fry committee thanks to Tammy and Brandy, and the rest is history. While this year we are taking a little bit of a break, I've still been able to donate some of my time to the festival. My mom and I have made several double batches of suckers, we've decorated about 130 really cute plates to be sold at the small fry shop, and I'll be working a shift or two during festival week.

I love the Festival of Trees, and the spirit of giving and love it gives me. If you have the time, make sure you stop by the Southtowne Expo Center and see why so many people are hooked!