Christmas 2012

I can't believe it is over already! We had a really nice Christmas this year.

We spent Christmas Eve day with Tyler's family. We had yummy Mexican food and the kids (and a few of the grown ups) did the Nativity. I was a zombie and took zero pictures.

When we got home Papa was here waiting for us.
We made our cookies for Santa.

 Nathan took extra time to make his special.

After the kids went to bed Santa came and this is what we woke up too.

We forgot to take an "after" picture...
Josh and Sarah came over while we were still in our pjs. Josh gave Nathan two frogs in an awesome tank for Christmas, so we now have pets!

After we got ready and played for a little bit we had a really yummy lunch with the family, then took it easy for the rest of the day.

We were so glad to have Eric, Chelsea, her cute daughter Ara, and my Dad here since we don't get to see them very often, but missed my mom. We know she knows we love her and missed her though!

The kids have been having so much fun with all their new toys, and I am finally getting to sit down and catch up on blogging while they are occupied. And we have all had this entire week off! Yippee!

December

This has been a very busy month. I am sure all you Moms can relate! Here are some of the highlights.

My mom came up to visit. She was nice enough to babysit so we could go out. These are the pics what she sent me while we were gone:
Ava buried Nathan in leaves


Then it was her turn


Santa stopped by our ward party.

(Ava wasn't too excited)

I was too cheap to buy a cute centerpiece so I made these:


We made gingerbread stuff.
 





The kids got all cute for  Christmas Sunday.


Eric came home from medical school (he's made it through 1 Semester already!) so he could do this:

And she said yes! We got to help out (alot!) with the proposal so we are sure glad she said yes, haha.
We are so excited to have Chelsea and Ara in our family.

Merry Christmas from The Mursets!

Christmas 2012

Dear Family & Friends,

This year was a busy one for us. After Monica’s baby brother went off to medical school, we moved out of her parent’s basement and into the main part of their house. We will continue to rent here until we figure out what we are doing next.

Tyler is still working at the school district warehouse getting the best deals on all the products the teachers need. He set up a website so the teachers can order supplies much easier and they all love him for it. He also tutors college math online in the evening. Somehow he managed to get his MBA in less than 6 months from Western Governors University while working, moving, and being a great dad!  We are not sure where his new degree will take us. Right now we feel like we are in the right place, so I guess we will just wait and see!  To make a little extra money he buys things from the district surplus sales and resells them on eBay and Amazon.  His latest deal was a 60 quart Hobart mixer.  The mixer is about five feet high and weighs almost 800 pounds!  He sold it to someone in California and will more than double his money.

Monica has been a nanny for a family in our ward for the past year.  Most of her “free” time is spent chauffeuring the kids around, helping in Nathan’s school class, doing her primary calling, and just being a Mom ~which she feels so blessed to be able to do.  She also had the opportunity to sing with William Joseph this summer.

We wonder how two shy people ended up with two of the silliest, most caring, outgoing goofballs ever. The kids are always making us laugh and we wouldn’t trade them for anything! They are really great kids.

Nathan is in 2^nd grade and doing great. He loves to learn and reads at a 4^th grade level! He is a great friend, brother, and is always looking out for others.  He loves playing sports and is getting better and better thanks to Tyler.  They spend a lot of time playing catch and working on proper form. His favorites right now are football (you should see his spiral!), basketball, and baseball. He also takes Hip Hop, is learning to play piano, and is a great artist and story teller. Yep, he is a busy kid!  He is also very excited to get baptized in the coming year!

Ava loves going to work with Mommy, and is a great little Mommy herself. She is a great helper, and mom’s little buddy. She is alllll girl. If it has pink or sparkles she loves it.  She loves her ballet class, and is reading extremely well- she will often pick up books in Nathan’s class when we are helping and start reading them by herself. She is really upset that she misses the kindergarten cutoff for next year, but the principal says they may let her go straight to 1^st grade the year after!       

We hope this year was a great one for you and hope that next year will be even better.

Love,

Tyler, Monica, Nathan, and Ava Murset                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Wow, has it really been a month since I last posted?!? I will make it up to you by sharing a fabulous recipe with you.

 One of my dear, childhood friends shared this on her blog, and I just had to try it. THEY WERE SO YUMMY!

Jayci and I lost contact when I moved up to Utah 13 years ago. We were in the same ward growing up and I have many memories jumping on the tramp, salting snails, swimming, and listening to the Beach Boys at her house. Good times. I stumbled upon her blog awhile back, and it has been so much fun to see her as a mom now. I wish we lived close so we could hang out again! Thanks Jayci for sharing these yummy treats!

 White Chocolate & Dried Cranberry Cookies

 
 My camera is lame so I borrowed this picture from Jayci's blog

3/4 c salted butter, softened
3/4 c light brown sugar
1/4 c granulated sugar
1 extra large egg
2 t vanilla extract
2 c all-purpose flour
2 t cornstarch
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
3/4 c white chocolate chips
1/2 c dried cranberries

 •line an ungreased cookie sheet(s) with aluminum foil, set aside.

 •with a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugars together on medium speed until fluffy and light in color. Mix in egg and vanilla. Scrape down the sides when needed. Then on a lower speed, mix in the flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Stir in the white chocolate chips and dried cranberries.

•preheat oven to 350ºF. Drop balls of dough onto cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes for small cookies/12-14 minutes for larger cookies, until barely golden brown around the bottom edges. Remove and let cool on the cookie sheet, then transfer to cooling rack. 

•wait until cookie sheets are cool before dropping the new cookie dough balls onto them, or drop them right before you're ready to put them in the oven.

You HAVE to make these- you will not be disappointed!

Oh and a little trick I learned to keep cookies nice and chewy is to drop the pan, from about 6 inches, onto the counter or stove right after you remove them from the oven. It sounds crazy but keeps them tasting great!

Halloween 2012

Halloween started out pretty rough for us.

I got up super early to make these, so I could pack one in Nathan's lunch...

(how cute are these little monsters?!? )

...Plus his costume takes a little while to put together so I needed to have enough time to help him get dressed. We were right on schedule and getting ready to take a picture when he says, "Mommy, I don't feel so good" and then throws up. At least we were already in the bathroom.... It was SO out of the blue! So then he had to get back in his pjs and go back to bed. It was very traumatic. What kid misses Halloween like this?

 A little while later Ava was trying to get into the candy stash. It was way to early for it so I told her no, and of course she started crying. She was wearing a brand new white shirt and rubbed her nose with her sleeve, ugh, a bloody nose (first one she has ever had too).  I was on the verge of tears. I was so sad that Nathan was missing out, and so tired, and then I had to scrub blood out of Ava's shirt.

Around lunchtime Nathan was running around like his usual self and was starving so he had some lunch, but then got queasy again. After lying down for half an hour he felt fine again so after re-getting him ready I took him to his school party and stayed to help out/keep an eye on him. (For the record- If he would have had a fever or thrown up again I would have kept him home) I honestly think it was nerves ~ after he threw up in the morning he just kept saying how nervous he was that he might throw up again, luckily he didn't.

That night I made skeleton pizzas for the kids (regular ones for us) and we got the kids ready for trick or treating.

Before:

After:

A VERY special thanks to Aunt Melissa for making the AMAZING mermaid costume for Avas's birthday. She wore it alllllllll day long and got so many compliments!

Mermaid Hair

Nathan chose this coat from Grandma Carolyn's costume stash a while ago when they were getting rid of stuff and decided he wanted to be George Washington for Halloween. I bought the hat/wig, and made the vest, fluffy part of his shirt, and put the rest of the accessories together using some stuff I had in my own craft stash. I think it turned out really well!

They got lots of good stuff and both looked so cute!

I am so glad that the day got better as it went on, and maybe next year Tyler and I will dress up.

Family Pictures

A few weeks ago my brother did our family pictures (with the help of his cute wifey). I LOVE THEM! We were supposed to do them in Kolob, but the night before it snowed up there and I just didn't want to have Ava purple lipped again in our pictures, so we ended up at the opera house in town and I am so happy with them.
When we uploaded them to Flickr it changed the coloring, but I still think they turned out great. Here are some of my favorites.

And the funnies....

If you are in need of some family pictures and want to have FUN doing them you can contact Josh on his website HERE.

Pumpkins

A few nights ago we finally picked out our pumpkins and got them carved!