We Elfed it Up!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

I especially love J's "What?! I'm hot!" look he's got goin' on! Hahahaha! And I am "just happy to be there." (as always, right, Jenna?)

O Christmas Tree...

Christmas is my favorite holiday! I love the trees, the smells, the lights (I love twinkle lights), the food, the snow, the cabin, but most of all the family.

We got our Christmas tree! I was so excited...it's beautiful! My sister-in-law helped me put it up and decorate it and yes, it's fake, but everyone who sees it asks if it's real! We still don't have a star to put on top, so we have a red, plastic cup. (I know that sounds funny...but it needed something...it looked so weird up there without anything!) We didn't have a tree last year so this was a most welcomed addition to our Christmas festivities this year!

Isn't it beautiful?! There are other Christmas decorations up that would not be up without my sister-in-law, but I still need to finish it so I will put up pictures when it's finished!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Thanksgiving and All That Ensued...

I had an awesome Thanksgiving! It was so fun to have Jason's sister and her family here for the week. I absolutely adore her children. Little A is the best with our dogs...I loved how she followed them around the house bossing them around! And they loved it too...they don't get near as much attention when she isn't here. She is the sweetest little cuddler. She is just so dang cute I wish I could keep her forever. Little D is way good at playing his Nintendo DS and I love sitting and watching him play. He loves that too. O...and he kicked my butt at Yahtzee. That kid has quite the roll! Little C...no words can describe how much I love that little boy. He is the happiest baby I've ever seen in my life! He just chills and plays and eats! I love it when he eats...he is way messy, but he gets so excited! He waves his little arms up and down and I just love it! I miss all of them and can't wait till we sell the heart-shaped potato on e-bay so they can move here!

Little A and Little DLittle C

During Thanksgiving week, Big J and my hubba bubba built a window seat in our bedroom! I am so excited...I admit, I doubted how good it would look, but it's awesome! We are going to paint it and put curtains and everything up soon so I will post pictures of before and after for you all to see their handywork!

We had a bit of a turkey fiasco on Thanksgiving. We put the 14-lb turkey in the fridge to thaw out by Thursday. All the websites said that would be enough time. Can you see where this is going? We pulled out the turkey to get it ready to bake and...yes...you guessed it...it was still frozen. So we sent our husbands on an expedition to find us a thawed out turkey...on Thanksgiving. Mission Impossible??? Not for our other halves! They found us one, the last one, but it was a plump bird, rounding out at 21 lbs. So all the directions said it would take about 3 to 3 1/2 hours to cook it completely. 6 hours later, we decided to just eat our dinner without the turkey. 3 hours after that, it was cooked. Now, we have about 30 lbs. of left over turkey. Gotta love turkey wraps for the 100th time!

Other than that, Thanksgiving was awesome. We got to see the rest of Jason's family on the webcam in Oregon (excluding Sara and Taylor)! That was really fun! I got to see my other niece and nephews and it made me so much more excited to see them at Christmas time!

Here we are buttering up our little man!

Here is Janessa waiting patiently for the turkey to get done!
Here is our friend Celia helping out in the kitchen!
Craft time! (This is us practicing our "1-2-3 Look Up!" Smile...hence the cheesiness) That's Big J in the background...he is one of the funniest people I know pretty much and he got us new tupperware!!! :D
This is my absolute favorite picture. Uncle J and Little C chillin' after a long day of fun.

The Invasion of the Little Black Bugs Otherwise Known As...

TICKS.

My house is infested with engorged ticks at the present time. Anyone want to guess what engorged is referring to? Well I will tell you...it means they're full of blood. They've already had their Thanksgiving feast and are just chillin' in their food coma which means that technically they're not supposed to be a problem as far as biting goes (thank goodness), but they are horribly annoying, pesky things that keep crawling up my wall and filling my head with thoughts of ticks all over my body causing me to itch and inspect myself, my husband, and my dogs, over and over again. The past two nights, my husband and I have shared a twin bed (wow...I am SO grateful for my bed) because they made their first appearance in our bedroom...on our bed. So I lysol-ed that sucker and now our room is clean. But alas, the pesky little buggers followed us into the guest room that was going to be S & J's room when they came to visit.

Luckily, my hubba bubba has connections. His cousin actually runs a pest control company and so we'll be able to take care of the problem quick. They are coming at 7 in the morning tomorrow to get rid of them. We already checked our dogs and "Frontline-d" them so we should be good to go by tomorrow evening!

Thanks to a friend of mine, I learned that to kill ticks you put them in rubbing alcohol and then flush them down the toilet. I have found that I am a very vindictive person. Those little guys don't stand a chance anymore.
I was put in a really bad mood because of all this, but we went to sacrament today and the talks were on Joseph B. Wirthlin's talk "Come What May, and Love It." Wow...hahaha...so now my attitude is, "Now I know what to do if I am ever invaded by these alien-ish creatures again, and at least I have a house to be infested with ticks and a husband with constant vigilance to take care of the problem."

The Twilight Lost Script and Other Upcoming Adventures...

For all of you "Twilighters" out there, you need to read this and go through the slide show because, well...it's HILARIOUS!!! I laughed for hours. I am still laughing actually! Bahahaha...anyways...here is the link:

Twilight: The Lost Script

We are going to the movie tonight, and I've heard mixed reviews, so I am keeping my expectations low and hopefully I will be pleasantly surprised! I hope it's good because I am dragging my husband to it, and I want him to like it. Actually, I just don't want him to think I like reading books that are stupid because I spend a lot of time reading and I love these books.

For all you who have not read them, I haven't met one person who didn't like them once they read them, so maybe that's some food for thought for future reading...It's an easy read, geared toward young adults, so you can get through them fairly fast. For me, they were a "can't put down" read, so I finished the first 3 in about 2 days...you may want to allow a healthy chunk of time for reading these puppies.

I am SO excited for Thanksgiving! My sister-in-law and her family are coming on Sunday to spend the week with us and I am so excited! We are going to have a blast! She is extremely crafty so I am hoping she can give me some fun pointers on decorating my house! She has already given me some cute ideas for crafts, but I have to get my butt in gear and actually do them!

I will post pictures of Thanksgiving in a later post (hahaha...because it hasn't happened yet)! Speaking of pictures...

Jason and I decided that our Christmas present for each other would be a new camera! We are SO excited! We got a Canon EOS Rebel XSI (I think that's the official name) and with this camera, I feel magical. Like, I feel extremely professional because the camera is extremely professional. I can't wait to take pictures of all the fun stuff we haven't been able to take pictures of because we haven't had a decent camera! J is WAY excited too! He LOVES taking pictures, so I am really happy we were able to do this because I love seeing him so excited about it!

Sushi for a sweater...

On Tuesday night, my wonderful hubby and I went to dinner with our dear friends Jenna and Curt! Can anyone guess where we went?? By the title of my post you could probably infer that we went for sushi at Kona Grill (Happy Hour=half price sushi, pizza, and appetizers). I do not like sushi, and yes, I've tried it. Previous to this dinner outing, I had tried sushi 6 times and each time was a different type of sushi, so all of you who use the line, "Don't knock it till you try it," I can knock it all I want because I think 6 times is a fair amount of trying.


Anyways, Jenna and I had a moderate amount of food to satiate our appetites sufficiently, but our husbands gorged themselves. My husband in particular, cannot control himself whilst around sushi. He gets this look in his eye that says, "I am a king, and I will stuff myself like a king because it's half price sushi and I can have as many Atlantic Rolls as I want!" Curt, I believe is the same way because he, after eating about 3 rolls and an appetizer of pot stickers, ordered 3 more rolls for him and his wife, even though she clearly said, "I'm good," when asked if she would like more. The 3 rolls come and Curt is so full he nearly split his pants, so he makes a deal with his wife, the basic terms being, "You eat 7 pieces, I buy you a sweater." Being inspired by this little deal I decided to try and strike up a deal with my hubby. So I pipe up, "I will eat one piece of sushi J if you buy me a sweater," and I was completely serious. You must understand, my husband loves sushi and naturally wants me to love it so we can go eat it more. This deal appealed to that sense and he considered it. Then Jenna decided to sweeten the deal for him a bit by saying, "She'll eat THREE pieces of sushi for a sweater." Immediately, he agreed, and I was on yet another quest to successfully devour THREE pieces of sushi. One time during a past sushi-trying endeavor, I actually started gagging because I didn't chew enough and the seaweed was one big long piece trailing all the way down my throat, so now...I chew. A lot. So in goes the first piece followed by about 2 minutes of chewing. Down goes the first piece. I finished the other two (surprisingly without gagging).
Having earned my sweater and Jenna having earned hers, and being so conveniently close to a shopping center, we went on our quest for some sweaters/sweatshirts, but the ironic thing about shopping is when you aren't looking you find exactly what you want, and when you are looking, there's nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. So THREE pieces of sushi later and I still don't have my sweater. I don't think I'll hold him to it though. I thought that was really sweet of him to agree to such a one-sided deal and honestly, I know he would've bought me a sweater anyways, even without eating the THREE pieces of sushi. He would bend over backwards just to make me happy. He is just really selfless like that, and I realized (for like the gajillionth time since we've been married) that I married the best man in the world.

Happy Birthday, Elder Natertot!

It's my brother's birthday today! He is 21 and is a stud, basically.


This is him showing off his awesome new tie for us. Anyways...Nate is one of the best brothers in the world. When we were younger, we were tight. People thought we were twins, but not only were we tight in physical features, but he was my best friend. He is an amazing skateboarder. He likes to have everything clean except his room which got him the nickname of Mr. Clean. He is one of the hardest working people I know. He can be quiet, but he is really funny once you start talking to him. He will climb anything and everything.


This is him being a monkey man, yet again. The palm tree is really tall...don't let the picture deceive you.
And here he is again, in a tree, I am assuming getting breakfast or something.


From the white shirt, tie, and name tag, you can probably guess he is currently on a mission. He is serving in the West Indies Mission. He spent the first 6 months (I think) in St. Lucia, a beautiful island in the West Indies. Since those first six months he has served in Guyana in a couple of different areas and is now a Zone Leader for one of the zones there. He is an amazing missionary who is working hard to bring the gospel to those who have not been able to receive of its blessings yet. I am grateful for his example and for being such an awesome missionary. He gets home around April 2nd and I am SO EXCITED to see him!


LOVE YOU ELDER! Happy Birthday!

YAY!

Yay for prop 8 and prop 102!!! :D

The day after...

So I was in the depths of despair last night. Overcome with grief for this country that I love so dearly and the people who chose the instrument of its demise. Thankfully, we received the Conference edition of the Ensign last night and I decided to read it to try and console me. I love the leaders of this church. They said exactly what I needed to hear. As I was reading, I got 3 main impressions:

1. "Fear not little flock," it's in the Lord's hands and all will work out the way it's supposed to. It may be hard, but it will make us stronger, and no matter what, we have the Savior always.

2. Enjoy the journey! Learn to laugh in the midst of trials and appreciate this life for all it has because it's short, and when it's done, you'll want to look back and say, "Man, that was hard! But I did it, I did it with a smile, and to tell you the truth, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be."

3. Missionary work is one of our greatest callings. We need to share the Gospel with our Brothers and Sisters. We need to share that inner peace that comes when we rely solely on the Lord and his counsel. We need to build up the Kingdom of God and do so by missionary work, and by service.

I love this Gospel. I am glad that in these troubled times, and the much more troubled times to come that I have an anchor to keep me grounded. I have a shelter to protect me from the storm. I love my Heavenly Father who loves me and knows me to my very core. I love my Savior. I cannot express in words the deep gratitude I feel for His sacrifice for me. I know the power of the Priesthood is real and has blessed my life in countless ways. I am grateful for my trials. They make me stronger and they draw me closer to my Heavenly Father. I am grateful for the prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, that he leads us the way our Heavenly Father has directed him to lead us. He is the mouthpiece of the Lord. I am grateful for his diligence and his love for me and for all. I am grateful for the Book of Mormon and I know it to be true. I know Joseph Smith was key in restoring the only true gospel on the Earth today and I love him for that, and for the sacrifices he made and the trials he went through. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

A Prayer for Election Day...

Please don't let Obama get elected.
Please don't let Obama get elected.
Please watch over and protect our country.
Please don't let Obama get elected.
Please don't let Obama get elected.
Please let the people of our country realize he would be the downfall of it.
Please don't let Obama get elected.
Please don't let Obama get elected.
Please protect our constitution...the very document that good men died to protect.
Please don't let Obama get elected.
Please don't let Obama get elected.
Please don't let my very intuitive 5-year-old nephew's fears be realized.
Please don't let Obama get elected.
Please don't let Obama get elected.

...Amen.

Some wedding photos!!! (Yes...a year late, I know)

There will be more later, but here are some of the ones I've scanned in so far...

The cutest flower girl in the world= Nutmeg, my niece

Two of my four new sisters Our immediate family that was there

My hubby and I cutting our beautiful cake

Darling Nutmeg

Before I became Nutmeg's favorite

My hubby and my new siblings! :D

The girls! (Minus my other extremely adorable niece)

Everyone at the temple!

Like I said, there will be many more later...these are just the ones I have scanned so far and I don't have the CD yet so I have to scan everyone by hand to get them in the computer. Needless to say, it's a daunting task that my never fully be completed without the CD!

Ode to Poppies...

I am going to venture out on a limb and actually claim something as a favorite. Usually I "hem and haw" about favorites because I love them all, but this I believe is definitely my favorite. Poppies are my favorite flower. I love them! They are so delicate, but bold. They are also the source of poppy seeds which make the best muffins--almond poppy seed muffins. I'm even going to say what my favorite color of them is--Wow...look how bold I am being--RED. I am not usually a "red" person. I am generally not partial to loud colors. I'm a mellow person--I like my blues and darker greens, stuff like that. Maybe that's why I can say red poppies are my favorite--because they are so different from what I usually like and I actually love them! Did you know that you can buy Wal*Mart gift cards down here with a package of poppy seeds attached?? I think I might want to buy one just for the poppy seeds and then maybe I can try my hand at growing some. I know they are summer flowers, but it's practically summer here all the time so i would be able to grow some right now right? I need to research that.

I think they might also be my favorite because they seem so graceful and I lack a large amount of grace. I tend to be drawn toward people and things that are something I am not, that I want to be, in hopes I can learn from them.

Poppies are also symbols of consolations in times of death (among other things) and that seems so sweet to me. They seem to be very thoughtful and considerate. They don't need praise from everyone, they are confident, they are peaceful, and sometimes they even seem a bit woeful, but not for themselves. They are a compassionate and selfless flower.

But above all, Poppies just are. No matter what is going on in the world, they still fulfill the measure of their creation and continue to radiate the beauty that Heavenly Father gave them.

YAY!

Today my mother-in-law and sister-in-law are driving to Utah and then staying for a day (yes, I am jealous) and then they are driving HERE on Friday!!!! I am so excited to see them and the whole reason they are moving down is because Jmo is moving here! :D <----That's my big smiling face because I'm so happy! Now, I can have someone to do fun sister lunches and Sunday dinners with. At the same time it makes me kind of sad because it's only one sister, but I guess I can't get too sister-greedy, huh?

Zzzzzzz...

Previous to typing this I think I stared at the screen for about 5 minutes...just staring. I am tired. Sabra would not sleep. She was up pacing and barking all night long and I understand it was an exciting day with moving into a new house and all, but don't dogs sleep anymore, or are my other two dogs weird in their sleeping habits? J had to get up early and was getting very frustrated with her so like a good wife I took her downstairs and slept on the couch. Actually, I just layed there all night and would stand up, and lay down, and stand up, and lay down, and...you get the idea. Probably the most exercise I got in awhile! Hopefully she has gotten some of her excitement out today because if we go through that again I might have "Dead Puppies" on my hands. That's a horrible song. Anyways...

Here is Sabra sleeping (not at night and I am planning on waking her up in about 5 minutes so she sleeps tonight). Isn't she pretty?? Yes...that is a diaper on her. Little did we know, the day we decide to pick her up, our friend tells us she has been in heat for the past week so we bought doggy diapers because when Riley was in heat, we used washcloths and hair ties for homemade diapers and that was not a good idea. I had no idea they made doggy diapers (complete with a tail hole) so this was pretty interesting news to me.


This is Riley looking REALLY annoyed at me because the flash woke her up, but I would hope by now she knows I don't care. She gets to sleep whenever she wants and I (being tired right now) do not have sympathy for dogs who are woken up when they get to sleep whenever they want.


Reagan is camera shy. I had to search the house to find her, but here she is--chillin' on her bed. Reagan is a little anti-social most of the time.

So even in my near comatose state, I am extremely excited for Halloween. I LOVE dressing up so naturally Halloween is a pretty fun Holiday! What is everyone dressing up as? Any good ideas for couples costumes? I know it may be cheesy, but last year, much to my dismay, we didn't dress up at all so I am going to the extreme and we are going to be in a couples costume. Haha. We don't even really know what we are going to do. I thought to myself, maybe this is a good time to practice some "hostess with the most-ess" skills and host a Halloween party, but that's still an iffy idea. Time is running out though and I am seriously starting to worry. I also want to decorate my house because this is the first time since I've been married I have a house to decorate! I need to landscape before I can decorate outside though so that's kind of acting as a deterrent right now. Maybe I could leave my yard without landscaping and that would be scary enough for Halloween. Unfortunately, I didn't want to go for the scary look. I am not a person who likes to be scared or handles people scaring me at all. Haunted houses this holiday? NO WAY! Not unless you drag me through and I guarantee I will be kicking and screaming the whole way. I did that once for a date and I had nightmares for about 2 weeks after! I can only imagine there are others like me out there who are constantly forced to encounter scary things by people who they originally trusted--that can be very damaging. So instead of decorating scary-ish, I wanted to decorate in a cute way because then everyone will want to come and no scaredy cat will have to be forced to go to another scary house. I think it's time to pull out the pumpkin carving knives...

New dog...way too much estrogen in this house

Today we went to our friends house and picked up another dog to share our house with. Her name is Sabra and she is a mutt, so I'm not exactly sure what kind of dog she has in her, but I am almost positive she has some German Shepherd in her. She is a BEAUTIFUL dog with a very sweet temperment but still needs some obedience training. Tonight has been somewhat of a long night with introducing her to our other dogs, Reagan and Riley, but overall it has been a success. We are crazy...3 dogs, all females. Poor J...outnumbered again by females (and he thought moving out of his parents house would help--haha)! Sabra and Riley used to play together when they were younger. It reminded me of my best friend and me and how we would play and then when it was time to go we would be sad. It made me cry when we left Arizona after our trip down here before moving here because I could tell they were sad they weren't going to get to play anymore and I had to be the one to separate them! But no tears now because they are happy...but there will probably be tears later when I get frustrated with all of them. Haha. I will put up pictures later.

My husband is still working and it's a quarter to 10. I am so grateful for him and how hard he works for us. He is amazing to me. Somedays I get really upset that he is still working when it's late and I turn in to a nag, but I am trying really hard to remember that he is doing this because he loves me and he is working hard to provide a great life for me. What did I do to be so blessed with him? That's what I want to know...then maybe if I knew I could do it again and be blessed so great again!

I decided I need to grow up and try decorating my house. As previously mentioned, I was not fortunate enough to be blessed with the "artsy farsty" gene; therefore, it's something I need to work to improve upon. But here's the catch--decorating generally takes money, right? So here's my question to everyone and anyone who reads this blog: Does anyone have any fun, cheap, and cute decorating ideas for my house? Any and all ideas would be appreciated because I don't even know what kind of theme I want to do or anything. Heads up--I currently do not own a sewing machine so any ideas minus the use of one of these contraptions would be appreciated! I have recently felt I needed to fulfill my role has a housewife and the only way I know how to fulfill it is by cleaning and cooking/baking. I am cleaning tomorrow and I can't keep baking stuff because the pounds are just jumping on every time I even think about baking any more cookies, muffins, or cakes. O to have a fast metabolism...

Trying Something New..

I never know exactly what to say in these things, but I'm hoping, with practice of course, I'll be able to be a good "blogger" like the rest of my family. I married in to an EXTREMELY creative family and unfortunately, I missed out on that gene.

Right now my husband and I live in a sauna (AKA the desert) and I am having a hard time adjusting. I love the cold. Every year I look forward to pulling out the sweaters, jackets, and winter coats with the anticipation of seeing my breath every time I walk oustide. I love nights when the sky is still a little bit light outside, even though it's one in the morning, and the street lights are shining their light on the most perfect of soft snow falls. It's quiet and the snow glistens in the moonlight. I love running under the big, fat, fluffy snowflakes and catching them on my tongue. Sounds childish to some people, but to me it's one of the simple joys in life.

It's now October, and instead of walking out to the first snowfall of the season like I'm used to, I walk outside to a 91 degree afternoon (and mind you, this is when it's cooled off) and immediately feel the need to shower again. I am shuffled from my air conditioned house, to my air conditioned car, to the air conditioned store, and then repeat that cycle in reverse. Many people would give me one of those eye brow raises with a look that says, "Dang girl! You are CRAZY! That 91 degrees sounds perfect!" But for those of you who LOVE fall and winter, you'll know what I mean.

I am slowly getting used to this wasteland, and I am able to remain sane because I know it's not a permanent situation. Luckily for me, I married a person who feels exactly the same way I do about Montana.

Jason and I have been married for a little over a year! That's still a little strange to say sometimes because I still haven't gotten used to thinking of myself as married. Sometimes, marriage just feels like a giant sleepover with my best friend! We'll be out doing something and I'll look at him and say, "Hey! We're married!" and he will usually reply, "I know...weird." Hahaha! It's a good weird, but it's still weird. I love it though. Marriage is awesome, but I know my experience is awesome because of who I married. He truly is my best friend and I am so lucky to have him in my life.

Well, I've written a lot and I can already tell this blogging deal is going to be quite addicting, so I think I'm going to cut myself off for the day. Good night all!