Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas - I know I did!  The day started out with a beautiful Christmas program at church.  I liked that Christmas fell on a Sunday because we were able to really start the day off the right way and remembering why we celebrate Christmas!

After church, we took the annual "stair" picture... this year's picture included a laptop as we skyped Mandi and family.  It was sad not having them here with us, but I love that technology allowed us to feel like they were part of our Christmas morning.

My favorite part of the skype was that Hailey put on the cape I had sent her and said "Super Hailey to the rescue!"  Ahhh, I sure miss that girl.  Then of course came stockings and breakfast and presents, followed by a nice long nap and dinner with the fam. 

Matt had to work yesterday (I counted down the hours until he was off!), so I was excited when he and Kylee showed up at my house just before 8pm.  Kylee squealed with delight when she saw what Santa had brought her, and immediately needed her food (she already had a shopping cart with food at my house) and her baby so she could be a "mom" and cook us all sorts of delicious treats.

She wasn't super interested in opening other presents at first, but then she really got into it and wanted to open my presents and Matt's presents as well.  I can tell that I'm going to enjoy Christmases more than ever from now on.  Seeing how excited sweet Kylee is over everything made my day.  Well, that and her great dad and my wonderful family...  I'm looking forward to an entire week off work and spending time with those I love :-)

I Found it on Pinterest

I think there are some people that are getting tired of hearing me talk about Pinterest, but I have really grown to love it since I first posted about it!  The reason I love Pinterest (over something like Facebook) is that I actually use/do/try some of the stuff I post on my boards.  For example:

• We decided for a Young Womens activity to spotlight the 9 missionaries serving from our ward and then write them letters.  We had wanted to do a care package, but didn't have much money in our budget for shipping.  I found these adorable paint chip snowmen on Pinterest - they were practically free to make and didn't cost any extra money to mail along with the letters we wrote.  

• For another Young Womens activity, we made these cute snowman candy bar wrappers.

• The Young Women were in charge of activities for the primary children at the ward party.  I searched on pinterest, and we ended up making these M&M wreaths and these paint chip tree ornaments (can you tell I like the paint chip crafts!?).

• I made this delicious peppermint mousse brownie trifle for a holiday party last weekend.  Yummy!

• I play WordFeud on my phone with my dad and my coworker Mandy.  I pretty much get creamed every time, but I immediately thought of them when I saw scrabble tile coasters on Pinterest and decided to make some of my own. Merry Christmas dad and Mandy :-)

• I couldn't figure out what to get Jen for Christmas, so I simply looked on her Pinterest board and decided on this custom fortune cookie necklace.

 I could go on, but I'll stop there for now... you get the idea :-)

WordFeud

For the last seven or so months, I've been playing a game on my phone called WordFeud with my dad and coworker Mandy.  I thought it was such a coincidence a couple weeks ago when the words they played correlated!  I couldn't figure out the screen capture on my phone, so forgive the crummy picture, but I thought this was such a coincidence!

Gingerbread-mania

Sunday was our annual gingerbread house making party.  I love carrying on these Christmas traditions, and it was extra special with Matt and Kylee :-)  Here are the finished products:

And speaking of gingerbread houses, my mom is pretty amazing.  She never just makes enough houses for our family.  She is always making extras for other families who would have fiun making these houses too.  One of the families my mom often makes houses for is the Tanner family.  One of the Tanner girls got an article published in the Deseret News talking about how new traditions helped their family after their father passed away - and she mentioned my mom and the gingerbread houses.  Check it out!

Christmas Run 2011

Saturday was the annual YMCA Christmas Run.  I ran the 2.5 mile race with Beki and Bryce and my parents walked the same course.  I always run this race "just for fun" - I never know what the weather is going to be like, and I don't really care about my time.  I know I could have run quite a bit faster (I told my brother just after the race that I thought I could have finished in sub-20 minutes), but I enjoyed the time with Beki and Bryce and we finished in about 23 minutes.  I just found out that I finished second in my age group... by one second!  I KNOW I could have run two seconds faster to finish first in my age group!  Maybe next year :-)

And one of my favorite parts about this race is that everyone dresses up.  Several months ago I bought long BSU gloves and leg warmers for this race, and I had been looking for a BSU tutu.  I hadn't found a tutu, so decided to bag that thought until Wednesday when Kris told me she had made a BSU tutu for her race day outfit.  She offered to make me one as part of my Christmas present.  I loved it!!

Me & Kris with our cute tutus!

Idaho Steelheads

Now that football is over, I actually have to make plans for the weekend!  Jen and I had been talking about trying to make it to a Steelheads game, so we made it happen last night.  She was even able to score us some free tickets through one of her patients!  The Steelheads lost, but it was still a fun night.

I just have to mention one more thing.  A couple months ago, Jen and I had conversations with David and Matt about our favorite desserts.  We were surprised when both David and Matt said they like apple pie.  Jen and I prefer sweeter desserts... like chocolate satin pie, and apple pie would be toward the bottom of both our lists.  Anyway, Jen found a recipe on pinterest for apple pie bites - they have a glaze over them (making it sweeter than normal apple pie).  I made these apple pie bites for dessert last night (we had dinner of chili, cornbread, and salad before the game), and Jen and I both agreed it was the best "apple pie" we've had.

Christmas Craft Project

Mandi: Christmas Present Spoiler Alert!!!

While I was visiting Lisa earlier this year, she made a really cute cape for her niece for her birthday.  I loved the idea and was able to get the pattern from her before I came back to Boise.  I decided then (yes, back in March!) that is what I would make for Hailey and Tanner for Christmas.  I put it off and put it off, but finally made them yesterday.  I made them reversible... Tanner's has a letter "T" on one side and a superman logo on the other side.  Hailey's has a letter "H" on one side and a princess crown on the other side.  I am not super crafty (at least when it comes to sewing!), so I was pretty proud of myself :-)  Here's a picture of Tanner's cape (I only remembered to take a picture after I had wrapped Hailey's).

My Mom Loves Me :-)

Here's a text/email conversation I had with my mom this week:

Me: Will you email me your roll recipe? Thanks.

Mom: Are YOU making them? Just curious when... because I have to make them a couple times in the next little while - I didn't know who was making them or when or how many... if I can help, let me know.

Me: I need to bring rolls to a potluck for work tomorrow and was thinking about trying to make some.  I am not sure how ambitious I will be tonight... I may end up buying some rhodes rolls.

Mom:  Well, I am actually making rolls tomorrow for a Bishopric dinner, I am wondering if BJ could bring the rolls down to you tomorrow... or something like that?  The recipe makes a lot - how many do you want to take - and what time do you need them?

Me:  I was planning on bringing a couple dozen and would need them no later than 11:15.  Just let me know.  I'm happy to do something else if that won't work out for you.

Mom:  BJ will bring fresh baked rolls to your work.  Do you want jam?  I have 3 different kinds!

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Yes, I know, my mom spoils me.  But the rolls were delicious - a big hit!  Thanks mom :-)

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Andrea, Lance, David, Jen, Jared, Brooke, Candice, Jared, Matt

No, it doesn't look like Christmas outside (with the exception of all the Christmas lights), but it looks like Christmas inside my house!  And it is really starting to feel like Christmas with the annual First Presidency Christmas devotional and my Christmas fondue.  Once again, we listened to the words of our leaders and then filled our tummies with deliciousness.  This year, we had both chocolate and caramel for dipping.  But I have a TON of leftover.  Not sure what I'm going to do with that since Brandee has challenged us to not gain a single pound over the holidays (she weighed us at the end of October and will weigh us again the beginning of January). 

Gray is a pretty color, right?

Yes, I like gray.  But not when it's in my hair.  Over the last few weeks, I have found two gray hairs.  They were each 2-3 inches long - I promptly pulled them both out of my head the second I found them.  I really am not liking this!  I'm not old enough to have gray hair... I don't even have any kids yet!  Good thing I have my great hair dresser Savanah to help me cover up any gray she finds.  I much prefer my brown.

I Might Look Ridiculous...

... but I sure stayed toasty warm at last night's Bronco game :-)  Here's a picture of me and my dad at the game.  I was wearing thermals, two pair of socks, a t-shirt, sweatshirt, beanie, coat, scarf, mittens, and had hand warmers and toe warmers.

My dad joined me for the last game of the season.  It was kind of bittersweet... it was nice to have our first shutout of the season, but it was senior night and it was sad thinking that was the last game those boys would be playing on the blue.  This year's senior class has had an amazing run - a record of 49-3 over their careers.  Let's hope we can make it an even 50 wins with our upcoming bowl game!

Speaking of bowl games, the BCS frustrates me yet again.  Seriously? Number 23 West Virginia gets a BCS invite over #6 Boise State?  Oh well.  We should be used to that by now!  We will head to the MAACO Bowl in Las Vegas and I'm sure our boys should stomp all over Arizona State (6-6).  Great match up, huh?

And one last picture from earlier this season - Jen joined me for the Air Force game in October.