Christmas Eve and Day

This Christmas was the first one that TJ did not have to work!!! It was so nice to have him with us all Christmas Eve and Christmas Day! We started Christmas Eve morning by heading over to Tahsha's to have a birthday breakfast to celebrate her husband Brad's and my Father in law's Birthdays! We spent that night at TJ's mom's eating way to much food, making food for the reindeer, and of course opening our Chrismas Jammies!
Christmas morning we enjoyed time at home. Later we went to my parent's house and attempted to make gingerbread houses..... Didn't turn out so well!
I love Christmas, I love being with family. I love the reason we celebrate Christmas. It was special having a little family night with Toby and teaching her about the birth of Christ. Teaching her the meaning behind Christmas.

Santa and Christmas Parties

We had our annual Santa picture. Toby was so excited to see Santa until I tried to set her on his lap and she cried and cried "No Santa!" She wanted NOTHING to do with him. I was sitting on the arm rest with her in my lap, but that was to close. She wanted Grandma to hold her, Grandma who was around the other side of Santa. To make her little pouty lip stop, the photographer gave her a giant rubber ducky to hold.... Then she smiled!

We celebrated my Grandma and Grandpa's 64th wedding anniversary! All of their children brought them 64 things of something that reminded them of their parents. They were given things like 64 stamps to write their missionaries, 64 memories writtten out, 64 hugs and kisses, 64 pretzels..... 64 years! I think that is awesome, you ready for 64 TJ?

This year I made my first ever cheesecake! It was soooo good. I was quite proud of myself!

Chocolate Dipping and Snow Shoveling

This year my mom and I decided to dip both of our chocolates on the same day... Not recommended. It took us 5 hours to dip our 15 pounds of chocolate! Towards the end we were very DONE! I do however love the time spent with family, covered to our elbows in chocolate. We can get some pretty good conversations going with 5 hours and a little Bing Crosby Christmas playing in the background!

Toby was a very very good helper this year! She took the fondant my mom had rolled into balls and she turned them into "snakes." At least this year she stayed out of my mom's potted plants!

This is the completed chocolates dipped that day. For some reason the picture doesn't quite do it justice. It seemed there was a lot more than that! It's a good thing we had my Grandma Jake, Aunt Susan, Two sisters Jamie and Jerica, and of course Toby to help!

Before Toby and I headed to my Mom's house to dip, we needed to shovel our drive. I'm pretty sure my car would have not gone anywhere. Toby had fun, although she kept fallling over and getting stuck and I would have to help her out. She loves the snow!

Chance of a Lifetime

My little sister Jerica got an invitation to interview for a spot with People to People Ambassador Program to travel abroad to Austria, Switzerland, France and Italy next summer. Only 40 students from Utah County were invited to go. She had her interview and was accepted!!! She needs to come up with $6,000.00. To try and reach this amount, she is selling metal snowflake ornaments for a fundraiser:

$15.00 for a set of 5 different designs or

$4.00 each

$12 for the tree topper

You can choose the finish of bare metal or a rust patina.

Also she is selling 80 oz of Pillsbury cookie dough for $14

Let me know if you are interested.
Thank you so much!

I can't believe it's this time again

Time to make our fondant!

It sure is crazy how fast this year is flying by! Saturday after Thanksgiving my family, 2 of my aunts, uncle and cousins met at my grandma's to whip out 17 batches of fondant! We made: coconut, cherry, mint, chocolate, orange, and olympian creme! My mom remembers helping my grandma make fondant when she was younger. I am so glad this is a tradition that has kept on going. Hopefully on day I will be teaching my kids how to make these and continuing this Christmas tradition my grandma started many years ago.

As I was pouring out a hot pan of cooked fondant onto the marble slab to cool, my Uncle Mike mentioned how he couldn't believe here I was helping. Handling hot pans and helping to stir when only a "short" time ago us kids were getting booted out of the kitchen for being in the way. Always told to look out, not to touch it's hot. All day long I swear, I was saying the exact things to Toby- Look out, Don't touch it's hot... It's a crazy thought that one day she will be in the kitchen helping me, just as I am now helping my family.

Thanksgiving '09

For some reason the amount of pictures I took this Thanksgiving are next to none! I don't know what happened... I think I'll blame it on being to drowsy from all the turkey consumed in our 3 meals! We hit my Grandma's lunch at 12, TJ's Dad and Stepmom's at 2, followed by TJ's mom and her family at 5. It was kind of a crazy hectic day, but at the same time I feel so lucky and am so thankful to have so much family around. I love seeing everyone even if time is short. I am so glad that Toby can know my Grandma. She loves to visit her and go to her house and play. I love that I grew up a half mile down the road from her and was able to have her be so much a part of my life. Nothing can replace the love, kisses and hugs from a grandma. Toby is one lucky girl to have 7 grandma's to love her!

TJ's little brother Keynan and his wife had little Wyatt Oct 1st. I seriously could steal him and not give him back! He is so stinkin cute.

Fun afternoon in Nephi -of all places-

Toby and I had a very fun afternoon with my good friend Nikki and her two little girls Brynlee and Katelyn. We met halfway between our houses which ended us up in Nephi. Not a whole lot to do in Nephi, but we made it fun! We had lunch at Arby's and played for a couple of hours at the city park. It was so good to visit and let Toby and the girls let off some energy. Such a fun afternoon, -minus the little fact that as Toby was sitting in the car waiting to be buckled she spilled a full 22 ounces of soda all OVER the front console, driver, and passenger seats! It was a nice wet and sticky ride home. My leg was soaked from bum to knee! At least it gave me a good reason to deep clean the car.

Oh the wonderful things about Tiggers

Is Tiggers are wonderful things!
This year it seemed like Halloween went on and on.... We had so many fun places to go and fun things to do! We started off by going to my parent's ward chili cook off and trunk or treat, I am proud to say that out of all the different chili Dad's took 1st place! TJ had to work Halloween night, I'm glad he was able to do some trick or treating with Toby. Friday before TJ's extended family had a big Halloween party. It seemed to be more relaxed this year, not as many people dressed up, but It was still fun to get together and visit.
Halloween night Toby and I along with my family went to my Grandma Jake's house for her annual pizza dinner, she has been doing this for as long as I can remember. Toby absolutely adores Grandma Jake and loves going over for visits.
About the middle of September we started asking Toby what she wanted to be for Halloween. I don't think she really understood what we were talking about, or what Halloween even was, but every time she would answer "Tigger!" Luckily TJ's friend had a costume he let us borrow since I couldn't seem to find one. If you asked her what Tigger said- she would jump up and down and say bouncy bouncy bounce! I do have to say that I think she was the most adorable little Tigger!

Cornbelly's

Tahsha and I wanted to take our girlies somewhere fun this fall. We decided Cornbelly's would make for a fun afternoon. Tahsha, Leah, Toby and I along with Grandma Berty went for a tractor ride, jumped on the air pillows which Toby wasn't so sure about at first. Once she got the hang of it, she went crazy! We went inside the "Dragon's mouth" Toby was excited to go in, but soon found that it was a little to dark and not so fun and wanted to go back out. After both the girls talked about how "brave" they were haha. After we had been there for a bit it got colder and started to rain so we left for home to see the daddies who had been out hunting that weekend. Hopefully next time it will be a little warmer!

Deer Hunt

We had a fun weekend at the cabin this year. Every year we go to TJ's family cabin and spend time together. For some reason neither Tahsha or I took very many pictures this year. We did have a lot of fun going on 4-wheeler rides, going for walks, swinging on the swing, reading, crafting, looking at beautiful sunrises(Or at least TJ saw beautiful sunrises...I was in bed!)
No good deer were spotted this year. TJ's dad Mike got a 4 point, TJ didn't get anything this year other than a coyote.
I love the peace that is felt in the mountains. No time set for anything, being outside all day and spending uninterrupted time with family!

Pumpkin Carving

My Uncle grows in my grandma's garden, these HUGE Pumpkins. He gave our family some for pumpkin carving this year. TJ is very proud of his Elk pumpkin. I stood by him to take a picture and he informed me that I needed to scoot over because I was blocking part of the elk.... hahah Funny Kid. Toby didn't participate much with the actual carving so the next day she painted her own little pumpkin.