The Holidays

So here it is, the fun stuff from the Holidays. We had a jam packed holiday season, as I'm sure everyone else did too. I had so many fun things I wanted to post, but I didn't get the time. So you'll have to settle for Christmas, St. George & the Utah game. Christmas Eve we went to Cory & Kelly's for the traditional spaghetti dinner. We had the Baldwins, all of the Powell's, and all of Kelly's family too. It was a packed house, but it was so much fun. The kids went sledding in the back yard, Emma crashed and got a nice raspberry on her cheek from the snow. We got home around 9:30 and told the girls that if they weren't asleep by 10:00 Santa would pass us by. Emma was so excited and worried, she couldn't go to sleep. Somehow, she eventually did go to sleep. She woke us up at 8:30, not so bad, and freaked out about all of the presents under the tree. We don't put any presents under the tree until Christmas eve for 2 reasons, 1) then the girls can't "accidentally" open any presents & 2) it makes the anticipation that much more fun. So we pulled Maggie out of bed and got started on presents. The girls loved everything they got and we headed off to my parents for the rest of the day. I love being with family, especially on the holidays. It was all so much fun. We got a surprise visit from my Uncle Mark and cousin MarDee, and Lizz and Grant came a day early without anyone knowing. It was all so much fun, I was sad for the day to end. But we did get together again the next day for some more games and to trade family gifts. Chris and Trish couldn't be with us on Christmas, so we decided to do it all the day after Christmas. We played games and had hot chocolate at my parent's church. We've realized we just don't fit in my parents house anymore, there's too many of us.

On Saturday, we headed down to St. George for the week. Nick was so excited to go, we ended up leaving 3 hours earlier than planned. We made it safely and I can't tell you how nice it was to be away from the snow!! We had such a good time. KP & Sherry were down there already and Kelly, Garrett and Averie showed up on Monday. Nick got to golf twice, we went swimming, hot tubbing, to the movies, a nice dinner and played lots of fun games including Farkle (the dice game). Emma got to test out her new Easy Bake Oven from Grandpa & Grandma Powell. She absolutely loved it, no doubt. She felt so grown up and was so proud of her yellow cake with chocolate frosting, made by just her.

We had a lot of fun spending time with the Powell's and we were very sad to leave and come back to the snow on Friday. We went to Mat & Candyce's house for the Utah game and we were not disappointed on any level. It was a great party and the best part for my sweetheart is his team's big win against Alabama and their undefeated record. He was so stoked, he couldn't sleep until 3 a.m. It was a great game and even though I'm not a Ute fan, I did enjoy the game. So in a very big nut shell, there it all is! Our action packed week. I'm a little sad to be back to normal life, but a little relieved too. Not looking forward to all the daily chores again, but I'm glad to be back in my own bed and own house, and back on schedule. Back to the grind :)

Holiday Season

I just thought I'd say how excited I am for this holiday season!!! I love everything about Thanksgiving and Christmas. I think my parents did a great job making sure that we always had a spiritual and enjoyable experience through the holidays and I hope I can do the same for my little girls. I hope you all have a wonderful and safe holiday season. I hope we all remember that it isn't about the presents, the best trees or anything else. It's a very special time to remember the birth of our Savior, the life He lived, the example He set and the sacrifice He made for all of us. Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!!!

Crazy 8's tag

Okay, so I got tagged like a week ago, and I'm now just getting to it, sorry!

8 Favorite TV Shows

Heroes

Biggest Loser

The Office

Jon & Kate plus 8

Fringe

Phineas & Ferb...I know, but it's funny!

If walls could talk

Ugly Betty

8 Favorite Restaraunts:

*Cafe Rio

*Wingers

*Chile's

*Olive Garden

*Bacci's

*Pizza Factory

*Bear Paw

*Red Robin

8 Things I did yesterday:

*Laundry

*YW activity

*Volunteered at Emma's School

*Dishes...blah

*Tried a new recipe

*Learned Calligraphy

*Went to the Library

*Updated my blog :)

8 Things I love about Fall:

*The Leaves

*Football Season...Go Cougars!

*Halloween

*Buying the pumpkins

*Carving Pumpkins

*Cooler weather, but not cold

*Shopping for winter clothes

*Bowling starts again!

8 Things I look forward to:

*Thanksgiving & Christmas

*Getting our family pictures back

*Nick coming home from work everyday

*My girls bedtime

*Checking peoples blogs

*Playgroups

*The Weekends

*The next BYU game

8 Things on my Wish List:

*A bigger house

*More time in the day to get things done

*Taking my girls to DisneyLand

*More Family time

*More Golfing for Nick...really...

*Going to Brazil

*A Cleaner house

*Less laundry

So now I'm supposed to tag a couple of people, so let's see....Jessie, Amber, Chantal, Angie & Shelly. You're it! Have fun :)

Mat & Candace

On October 11th, Nick and I were fortunate enough to attend Mat & Candace's wedding & reception. It was a beautiful ceremony, and an awesome reception. My ears have just barely stopped ringing, but it was well worth it. The ceremony was at Post Chapel up by the U. It was beautiful and very sweet, no doubt I cried. And Candace looked amazing! I wish I had gotten a better picture of her, but she was always on the move. I love weddings & how mooshy we all get! Then we went to Pierpont Place for some great food and dancing. I even tried sushi, anyone who knows me will agree that's a big step. I don't like fish cooked, eating it raw...not so tempting. But it wasn't so bad. Honestly, I probably won't ever eat it again. But hey, I tried it. The rest of the food was really yummy and then the band started up & Nick pulled out all the stops. It was very entertaining! I don't dance, so I was happy to let him take the spotlight and enjoy the show. It was so fun to be there with all of our good friends. Especially since we don't get to see them as much as we'd like. Here are a couple of pictures from the reception. Mat & Candace, we love you, congrats and thanks for the great party! Lori, Chris, Misty & Shaun, thanks for keeping it fun and making us laugh! And Nick, what can I say....I love you and thanks for being so much fun!

My Family

So I might just be breaking my blogging record, I'm posting a second time in a week. I know, watch out! Just teasing. I was checking out a lot of other people's blogs and I stumbled on Nick's mission presidents daughter's, Avery. I didn't know her that well, but I've met her a couple of times and liked her. Well she's since been married and has two little kids. Her little girl, maybe a couple of months old, has had some serious heart problems and has Turner's, I'm still not sure what that is. Anyway, so I'm reading her cute posts about how glad she is that her and Bela are home from yet another surgery and long stay in the hospital and how she's looking forward getting things back on track. She gives a list of her daily tasks and the list of times she has to give meds (10 separate times in a day) to Bela. Her posts are always so positive and upbeat, which just makes me feel horribly guilty for my silly complaints about normal life. I'm sure she'd love to just get back to normal and enjoy the stupid things I gripe about. I really am so blessed to have such a wonderful, happy life. I have a fantastic husband and two beautiful, healthy girls. Truly, I do worry all the time about having another baby, what if it's not healthy or what if it needs special care and I'm not able to offer or help with the needs. I know it's stupid, but I worry about that. And then I read Avery's posts and how sweet she is with little Bela and her patience. Not that she'll ever see this, but if you do, Thanks for the reality check Avery! I have so much to be grateful for, and I truly am. I'm not sure my life could get better than this. I have everything I could need and more. And I'm grateful to my Heavenly Father who blesses me with all of these things.

Fall

Fall is here. This makes me both happy and sad. Happy because I love the fall weather. I love football season and I love the leaves changing. Sad, because summer is officially done and I only have snow to look forward to. It's a love/hate relationship for me. I'm excited to go pick pumpkins with my girls and excited for Halloween. But really, does it have to get so cold and miserable? Oh well, what are the options.

Camping

We went camping two weekends in a row, first week down in Manti at the Palisades and the second weekend in Park City. We went to the Palisades for the Powell Family Reunion, we do this every year. And every year it's just as fun. Nick has an awesome family and they're a lot of fun to be with. We got there on Friday and Nick got in 9 holes with his cousins. Then on Saturday he went again in the morning and when he got back the family did the auction. It's a lot of fun, but man, the bidding gets out of control! You end up paying $5 for a glow in the dark bouncy ball, that only really costs 88 cents! But it's all part of the fun. The kids had a lot of fun riding bikes and catching frogs, ewww! I can't figure out how to spell my disgust for those little frogs, it's something along the lines of yuck, blah and gross. Emma was loving it, I'm not sure why. At one time the kids had caught 22 frogs. Why is this so much fun???? Then we pulled out the homemade slip and slide, the kids always love that, and Paula volunteers to hose down the kids while they're sliding. She's so cute with the kids. Then we pulled out the vanilla and chocolate pudding and they did some body painting with it. They enjoyed it a little more than we thought. Averie had her body and hair completely covered in chocolate. At least it'll wash off without staining right? It was a lot of fun to watch though.

That night we watched a slide show that Kelly had put together for the family. It was just the Powell family from very early on and very neat. Kelly did a great job. It was a lot of fun for me to see these pictures of such wonderful people I never got to meet. Thanks Kelly! Sunday morning we rounded things up, said our goodbye's to family until the next year.

Then Friday we were at it again. We went to Park City with our good friends, Dave & Lisa. Bob and Chantal joined us for a little while and the Ruttenburs came up on Saturday to visit. But the first thing on Saturday morning, Emma hops on her bike and decides she's going to take on the little dirt road hill by our spot. So she gets going as fast as she can, and totally eats it. I wasn't there, fortunately Nick and Dave were. She got a bloody nose, fat lip, scraped knee, and a lot of scrapes on her face. Poor Emma. I felt so bad. Her little lip was swollen hurting so bad she said she couldn't even drink her capri sun. :( Well, she learned to be a bit more careful and not so speedy. Overall, we had a lot of fun camping and feel like we are done for this year.