Christmas Candy Time...

Last weekend my sisters and I got together for our whole Making Christmas Candy Tradish. We made truffles(3 different kinds), fudge, and caramels. It was fun, for the first 5 hours then we all started to get a little tired and possibly crazy. I believe we started our first batch of truffles around Noon and rolled our last caramel around 11:00 pm. Needless to say it was a long day, but now we have lots of good candy to share. I think the mint truffles are my fave...

All these photos were taken before our tiredness set in..

Why do I have a random pic of Patch? Well, we were listening to Christmas music(Reba, of course) and the dog just totally loved it. She just sat there and listened for the duration of the album. I was amused!

Finished truffles...

I Love To See The Temple....

Last Saturday we went to see the lights at Temple Square with my sister and her family. I hadn't been for probably 5 years so it was good to go back. Nothing says Christmas like Temple Square.

The tree in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building

The crowds were ridiculous, but what else do you expect on a Saturday night, right? We had such a good time. Thanks for the invite Kid and Jason! Plus, after that we went to Famous Dave's for some dinner and that just topped off the night. Especially when Carter had to tell every waitress that it was his birthday. However, he did score an awesome birthday sundae so I guess there is a method to his madness. By the way, Carter is 5 today! Happy Birthday, Dude!

Houston, I Have A Problem...

I'm addicted......

to this game!

Past:

I have always despised any Call of Duty. In fact, I believe a year or two ago I did a very blog post about my dislove of that game. In recent months my hatred had only grown. I absolutely refused to take any part of this killing/shooting video game nonsense. In fact, it caused some friction between Jared and I. He loved it as strongly as I disliked it. But of course, I love Jared and I knew he enjoyed it so I allowed it(obviously not as much as he would have liked). He and his brothers/nephews all play online and think this is the greatest game ever. I never understood how they could play for 5 hours and still think it was not enough. This went on for a good 2 years until last week it all changed...

Present:

Jared was logging on to play and I was just settling in to update the blog(because that is what I do when he plays...and then I make the internet lag and get in trouble, "You're making me lag!!") So anyway, he started it up and I said, "Is it my turn?" and I took the controller from him. I figured I would fiddle around with it for about 30 seconds and get killed about 10 times then give him the controller back. Weeeeellllll, instead I ended up getting my very first kill and now I'm hooked!! Every game is like this personal competition within myself to get one more kill than I got last time. Am I terrible? Pretty much! My highest for one game is 7, but that doesn't mean I don't get all kinds of into it now.

Believe me I have searched deep within my soul to find out where this change of heart came from. I have yet to reach an answer. Maybe it really is a good way to relieve stress.

I think last night we may have played for 3 hours.

As much as I really do hate to admit it....

I love me some Black Ops!

O' Christmas Tree

I don't know if you know this, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE to decorate the Christmas Tree. I seriously look forward to it all year long! It very well may be my favorite thing about this time of year.
I have such happy memories of being a kid and decorating the tree. We always went in the afternoon on the day after Thanksgiving and cut down our tree at Eggli's Tree Farm. Then we'd go home, crank the Christmas music and decorate the house. My dad would get the tree in the stand and put the lights on it and the rest was up to the girls to finish. Ahhh, it makes me happy to think about those days. Reba's Christmas Cd playing(which is why I know every second of that cd and me and my sisters can recite the entire Christmas Guest poem...in the exact voice that Reba does it), and just being home and cozy with the people you love most. So yes, I love decorating the tree!
Since this year is a little different and we couldn't have our traditional decorating of the tree/house, I had to go elsewhere to get my fix. Our 3 foot tiny tree just didn't do it for me, so we went to my mom's to help her with her tree. And by "we" I mean "I". Jared shovelled her driveway so I guess that was a good enough excuse. For some odd odd reason Jared is kind of a Grinch when it comes to the Holidays. It's very strange because we are complete opposites in that respect. He told me this year, "everytime you listen to a Christmas song before Thanksgiving, a kitten dies." In all honesty, I don't care too much for kittens so this didn't change anything. Plus, I have no proof of any kitten deaths.
Anyway, back to the point. I helped my mom decorate her tree this year. I have done it for a few years now and I quite enjoy it. So thanks mom and Doug!

Straightening the tree skirt.....
Hanging the last of the ornaments....

For someone who hates snow she sure does love snowmen...

Done and Done...
Merry Christmas!!!

Happy Turkey Day!

We had a great Thanksgiving!

This year we were with my family so we went to my mom and Doug's house for a feast.

My brother-in-law, Jason, smoked a turkey and Doug made a regular turkey as well. Needless to say, we had a lot of turkey and it was delish! Not to mention the sweet potatoes...mmmm!

Watchin' some football while lunch gets ready.

I am not allowed to mention the Cowboys game according to Jared.

Me wearing Aubrey's turkey hat.

Blake's turn

MMMMMM......Kid made all these pies from scratch and they were fabulous! Look at that cherry pie! Martha Stewart ain't got nothin' on that! And don't worry, I got my share of that pumpkin pie...

It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without playing games.

This year we didn't wake up too early for Black Friday. My alarm did go off this morning but we didn't feel like waking up. We went later, got some breakfast, and did a little shopping, So many of the stores were still crowded even at noon(and we really don't care for that) so we just came home. Jared helped his dad hang some blinds and his mom made us a fabulous 2nd Thanksgiving dinner. It's been a good day. Oh yeah, and we put up a little tree in our room. I just couldn't stand the thought of not putting up a tree this year.

And now we are watching Kobe beat the Jazz! Hopefully....

I have so much to be grateful for. Mostly my amazing husband who always lets me know he loves me and will do anything to make me happy. I'm also thankful for both of our families who do so much for us. We don't know what we would do without you and we love you all! Happy Thanksgiving!

Overload...

So what, I go in Blogging Phases...sue me! Not only that, but I'm doing another post about the snow. I just feel like this storm should be documented. I never remember a time when they actually cancelled school/work before it even started snowing...an Anticipation Cancellation, if you will. It's Crazy!!!

This is Jared. He is excited to go plow...I mean, do donuts in the snow!

Before it got horribly bad...

Shoveling the sidewalk...

Unfortunately this was about 5 seconds after he shovelled the sidewalk...yep, good job.

After 1 hour of snowfall we already had over a foot. These pics were taken a few hours ago and its still going strong...I love it!

Don't Judge...

The Greatest Invention EVER!!!!

Fuzzy Socks. I am sort of addicted to them.

To Be Safe....

Welp, it snowed today.

I figured I best document this on the blog. Why? Well the other day I was having a "discussion" with Jared about how it snowed way earlier last year. I said,

"It was like October or something".

He disagreed.

So naturally I went to the blog for reference. I would just rather be safe than sorry, incase next year we have the same "discush" and I want to hear those sweet words,

"You were right."

It wasn't too long before Jared and his dad decided they really need to get the plow on the four wheeler.

So what else has been going on? Why has it been 3 weeks since last post? I got scolded from my mom today for being such a slacker of the blog world. Apparently she checks it right when she gets home from work and for the last 3 weeks she has been sadly disappointed. Sorry mom, I shall do better.

Truth is we have just been super boring lately. Jared's parents are remodeling their upstairs and he and the rest of the family have been spending a lot of time on that, trying to get it all done before Christmas. So this means between work/school/remodel, we do nothing else. I have high hopes for the future though. December brings many happy blogging days and just happy days in general.

I love me some Christmas time!!! Busted out the music today and could not be happier about it.

'Tis the Season already in my book...

More Pics....

Here are our pics that Amy took for us last week. I love them so much! Every time I look at them I love 'em just a little bit more. Thanks Amy, sooo sooo sooo much for doing this for us!!!!! I pretty much love having a photographer in the fam...

Create your own slideshow design

P.S. you have to click on the photo and then it will open a new window to play the slideshow (yes, that was for you mom, so I didn't get a phone call asking how this works....ha jk!)

Did We Not Learn Anything From Last Year?

Saturday we decided to try our luck at a Corn Maze again. I think it is because last year the whole family was not present for the near death experience and they wanted a piece of the action. However, this year we went to a way more awesome one. Also, it was not just my sisters and I stuck with all the kids. We had our manly men with us this time. They had so many funtivities there. It is called Little Bear Bottoms in Wellsville. Loved It!!! They had this huge hay stack you could climb up and they even had a tunnel or two you could crawl through(if you do not have claustrophobia, of course). Then you could jump off the hay stack onto some mattresses. The kids loved it. They also had a Spooky Barn Ride, a String Maze, a Haunted River Walk, the Big Corn Maze, the Little Corn Maze, Homemade Donuts, Concessions, a huge ole' fire pit....I think that was all. It was such a cute little place, way better than any other corn mazes I have been to.

This picture is absolutely amazing! How I timed this just right, I have no idea! But I just love it..

Who says white boys can't jump?

Jared and I a little ways up the huge hay stack...

From close to the top, the corn maze is behind us

We had so much fun! A lot of the group(everyone but me, Jared, Jeremy, and Doug) gave up on the Big Maze and went through the Little Maze. I'm not gonna call them quitters...ok yes I am....but as soon as they gave up we pretty much found our way out of the Big Maze. I simply knew there was absolutely no way Jared was going to give up without conquering the maze. It would have really bothered him to not finish it, so I'm glad there were a few that wanted to do it with us.

But we all had a good time, even mom who started to panic about 5 minutes into the adventure. She did say that she was "still having fun because she was with her kids and grandkids." I said,"That is great because you might have to eat one of us if we are in here much longer!" Thank goodness it didn't come to that. It only took us about an hour and a half...is that good?

After the maze we went and got some ice cream. What a great way to end a great day!

Punkins...

Yesterday was a good day. I didn't work yesterday and Jared had Fall Break from school so we got to spend the day together. Our sister-in-law, Amy, took our pictures again(in the beautiful fall leaves and I can't even wait to see them!), we spent some time with family, and then we carved pumpkins.

I love carving pumpkins! It was tradition each Halloween when I was growing up. Jared always acts like he is not so fond of carrying this tradition on, but every year we carve them and he has fun. Last night was no exception!

Pumpkin guts!

Mine is the one on the left. After we lit them I told Jared that it looks like his pumpkin did something embarrassing and mine is rolling its eyes at it...He said, "Yeah, kinda like real life."