Movies

One thing I love about the holidays is usually a lot of good movies come out!  I feel like Dan and I have seen quite a few movies in the last month and here are a few I recommend...

Tangled

We saw this Christmas Eve with part of my family and everyone really liked it!  It was cute and another great Disney fairytale.  I didn't love the music, but I did like the story.  Even the men liked it.  We also brought 2 of my nephews who are 5 and 7.  My 7 year old nephew told me he loved it!  I think he also loved the large amounts of popcorn he ate.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Dan and I saw this the weekend it came out.  We enjoyed the past 2 movies and were excited for this one too.  It definitely did not disappoint!  If you liked the last 2 Narnia movies, then you should definitely see this one too.  Even if you haven't seen the other movies, I still think this is a good one.  The only thing I didn't like was the gross snake/creature at the end.

Megamind 

This movie was the biggest surprise to me.  We went to see it at the cheap-o theater near our house.  I ended up loving it!  I thought it was funny and had a good story.  I even want to take my siblings to see it this weekend when they come visit me :).  It was that good!

We also saw Harry Potter, which I liked, but thought it was kind of intense.  So I am not recommending it because if you don't like Harry Potter you won't get it and probably won't like it either :).  But if you do like Harry Potter, then see it too!  The last movie on my list that I still want to see is Gulliver's Travels.  Oh and after seeing so many previews I am looking forward to Kung Fu Panda 2 (which comes out in May).

Amazing

This picture is so amazing to me. The Provo Tabernacle had a fire last week and here is one of the few things not burned... (if it is hard to see, Christ is the only part of the picture not burned).

It was sad to hear the news of the tabernacle. I had many stake conferences held in that building. Hopefully they will rebuild it. Anyway, just thought I'd share this photo, pretty amazing!

the Orange Peel

One fun thing about moving to a new place is checking out new stores, restaurants, sites, etc. in the area. And today I think I may have found my new favorite place in St. George. It is called the Orange Peel!

It is a smoothie shop and it is delicious! I was on my way to Dan's work today and I saw it on the side of the road. So I decided to check it out. I ended up getting a watermelon, orange juice, strawberry, peach smoothie and it was soooo good! I got Dan a pina colada, strawberry, banana smoothie, but I still need to see how he liked it. Anyway, I have a feeling I may make a few more trips to the Orange Peel in the future. And if you come visit me, we can go together :)

And in other news, my sister Noelle doesn't have a blog, so I will blog about this for her. Her husband Jared started working at Dan's old company a few months ago. Just about the time Dan quit. Anyway, if you will recall last Christmas, Dan and I went to his work party and won about $2000 in cash. Well this year Noelle and Jared went to the huge Christmas work party and guess what they won? A trip to London and Dublin!!! How crazy is that? I told Dan he should have waited until after the Christmas party to quit... haha... oh well. Congrats Noelle & Jared! Enjoy your trip! I hope you send me a postcard!

Good weekend.

Here are a few pics from our fun weekend... Of course we celebrated Dan's birthday, but we also decided to check out some of the sights of St. George.

Dan opening his presents. I got him movies, games and a new phone.



After presents we went to Red Lobster for dinner. Yummy! Dan got steak & shrimp and I got steak & lobster. Delicious!



After dinner we went to the outdoor ice skating rink. It was fun but we quickly found out it is a popular place for Jr. High kids to hang out. We may have been the oldest people there! We still had fun though and Dan was by far the best skater on the ice. He tried to teach me, but I was bad and scared and it was too crowded to practice much.



We then came home and ate cake! I made Dan a giant cupcake! It was filled with chocolate pudding and topped with whipped cream and chocolate chips. Dan LOVES pudding and whipped cream.

Saturday Afternoon we went and saw the new Chronicles of Narnia. It was awesome! We really liked it.



Saturday night we went to Tuacahn for Christmas in the Canyon. They had lots of pretty lights!

 

More lights!

The live Nativity. The camel was my favorite part (even though it is not in this picture).

There was also a train ride. You can't really tell we are on a train, but we are!

It was a good weekend. The end!

Happy Birthday!

To my most amazing, sweet, hot husband!!!  I love you, Dan!  I am so happy you were born :)

I know Dan doesn't read our blog... haha... but still, it's his birthday and i love birthdays and i love him, so i had to give him a shout out!

For his birthday I am making a huge chocolate cupcake (i got the mold over thanksgiving), filled with chocolate pudding, topped with whipped cream and chocolate chips... as requested by Dan.

We are also going to dinner (not sure where, but it probably involves steak) and to the outdoor ice skating rink.  Some of you may not know, but Dan used to play hockey quite a bit, so he's good at ice skating!  I thought it would be a great activity for his birthday :). Then we'll come back home and he can open the rest of his presents (I gave him a few this morning during his special birthday breakfast). 

Pictures will most definitely be posted once all of this takes place.

Moved!

Well, we made it! We are all moved in here in St. George. Luckily the move went very well. Our kitchen table got scratched, but other than that nothing too drastic happened. Thanks to all of our family and friends who helped us. Especially my parents, we definitely would not have been able to do it without them! I was so worried we wouldn't have help here in St. George, but our prayers were answered and some men from our new ward came and helped out. That is one fabulous thing about the church, it makes it easier to find help in any part of the world :).

Our new apartment is still kind of a mess, but we are getting close to having it all organized. I will probably post some pics once it's all done. I even put up our Christmas decorations tonight. I could not wait any longer!

We attended our new ward today and it has quite the variety of ages, which is nice. Our old ward was very young families and couples. This ward actually has a young womens and young mens. I am excited to be in a ward with a lot of different people. Everyone was super nice too. We had lots of people welcome us to the ward and introduce themselves. We even had some neighbors bring over cookies tonight :). I've never been in such a welcoming ward. So we are excited about that too!

This week on my agenda I plan on organizing the apartment more, buying things for the apartment that we need (hooray for living 5 minutes from Target... I used to live 25 minutes away!), and possibly getting around to Christmas shopping as well.

Friday is Dan's birthday and we have big plans. We are going to dinner and then to the outdoor ice skating rink here. Should be lots of fun!

Another great thing is the weather forecast said it's going to be sunny and in the 50's and 60's all week!

So far St. George is going great! I will for sure keep my blog updated since we won't see friends and family as much anymore. I miss everyone and I miss our condo too, but I am excited about our new adventure here!

vacay

We're back from San Jose and we had a great time (once we finally got there... yes, we were stuck in the airport during the blizzard)! Our vacation included delicious food, shopping, playing games, cutting down a christmas tree, seeing harry potter and spending time with family. Although it still felt cold there (in the 50's) i hear it was much warmer than Utah. Now that Thanksgiving is over, it means it's... moving week! I'm not ready! I feel stressed just thinking about it.

I hope you all had a fabulous thanksgiving. I really feel so blessed and thankful for all of the many good things in my life!

TSO

Last week we went to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I honestly had only heard a few of their songs, but I thought it would be a fun concert. We invited my parents because I knew my dad liked their music. We went to the show and it was crazy! haha... we had a good time though. When we walked in they even traded our tickets for better seats because the show was not sold out. We went to the matinee, so I don't know if the evening show was different. But we got great seats!

When you hear orchestra, you would think all of the music would just be instrumental. But they actually had singing too. I didn't love the singing (i swear one song was at least 10 min. long), but.... all of the instrumental songs were great. They really rocked out and got into it. There was even some headbanging going on! I was not sure if my parents would like it, but they both really did! My favorite parts were the Christmas songs with the cool pyrotechnics and lighting effects.

Here's a few pics from the show...

Cool lights!

During my favorite song (the one I have on the blog playlist)

They came out on these walkways that were right above our heads!

My parents have been telling my siblings about it and it sounds like everyone wants to go next year! Maybe it'll be a big family event next time. All of my brothers/brother-in-laws love electric guitar/rock music... so I think they would really enjoy the show a lot!

it may be a little early, but...

...the blog got a little winter makeover today.  I then decided to add music by Trans-Siberian Orchestra to my playlist because we are going to their concert in a few days!  I wanted to prepare myself :).  I've heard their show is awesome.  I can't wait!  I then proceeded to add more Christmas music to my playlist.  I know I have a million things to do before Christmas, but it's still fun to think about!  I even have all of my christmas gifts planned, I just need to go buy them :).  I also keep asking Dan to watch Elf with me, but he says we have to wait until after Thanksgiving.  At least he'll drink hot chocolate with me!  I just love this time of year!

weekend trip

This weekend we made a quick trip to St. George to get everything set up with our apartment down there.  It was in the 60's and sunny!  Then we came home to 40 degree weather.  Oh well, gives me something to look forward to!  However, I was slightly disappointed with the apartment.  It's not bad, but our condo is much nicer.  It's a little hard to leave something nice for something not quite as nice.  I keep having to remind myself that we are going for a great job which will help us get a really great house some day :).  And honestly, the apartment is not bad at all.  It's pretty much the same layout as our condo, just doesn't have all of the upgrades.  I am just too spoiled here, I guess!  I do like the little apartment community though.  The managers are great, they even gave us a cute little welcome bag w/ treats, toilet paper, and paper towels.  Plus the clubhouse always has free cookies and one of the pools is about 10 steps from my building.  It looked so fabulous!

See:

Pretty, huh?  My favorite part is the waterfall, which you can't really see.  I also love the palm trees!  If you are ever in St. George, you are welcome to swim at my house :).  I also decided the drive really isn't that bad.  I have a feeling we will be doing that drive a lot!

Oh and side note, while we were there I got to go to bath & body works to get my foamy soap and wall flowers!  Yay!

Lately

I went to work today!  Hooray!  The kids were so funny, they asked me questions like "Mrs. Deceuster, why were you sick?" and "Mrs. Deceuster, how did you get sick?"... etc...

Anyway, just thought I'd put up a post about what we are really up to.  As much fun as it is to blog about random things I want to buy, events I want to go to, and stores I love, it's time for a real update.

Let's see, we move in less than a month!  It's crazy because I feel like we haven't gotten anything done and we are not ready to leave yet.  But, we'll figure it out.  Lately we have been debating whether we want to hire movers to do all the work for us, or just get a truck and do it all ourselves.  My vote goes to movers, but still not sure if it's worth the price.

We found someone to live in our condo too!  We're actually having Dan's brother, Ethan, and his wife & baby live here.  It's quite a relief to have someone live here that we know and trust.

Dan has already started working for his new company.  He works from home and I can tell he is sick of being at home all the time.  He's a very social guy, so I think he is really looking forward to working in an office again.  He also spends lots of time on the phone trying to work things out with his co-workers in St. George.  It'll be much easier for him to work once we get down there.  But... I think he likes his new job.

As for my job, my last day is Friday.  I am excited and sad.  I will miss those cute kids, but there are some aspects of the job I will not miss.  The next two days will be spent training the new person.  Once I get to St. George I haven't decided what I'm going to do.  I will probably wait to look for a new job after the holidays. 

We are getting excited to move, but I will really miss being close to family and friends.  Luckily St. George is not too far away.  I will also miss Gap, Zupas, and Carrabbas... three places not in St. George.  I am however, looking forward to warmer weather, having a pool, and a change of scene.  It'll be an adventure, for sure.

I also love...

Hmmm... what should my random post be about today?  I really thought I was going to go to work this morning.  I even got up early and got ready, which I think took all of my energy for the day.  So I had to find a sub and can I just tell you, it was kind of awkward!  I was calling people super early in the morning and I didn't have much of a voice.  I mean, it's one thing to lose your voice while talking on the phone to a friend, but it's much different when calling a complete stranger!  haha... needless to say, the last person I called and got out of bed, said he could sub for me.  Thank you stranger!   

So here I am still at home and what have I been thinking about today... Bath and Body Works!  Ever since I got their email showing off their new holiday fragrances I have been wanting to make a trip over there (I'm sure you can see how much I love the holidays).  My favorite products are the foamy soap and the wallflowers.  I got some for fall and I loved them, so I most definitely need to get some for winter.

And now, just for fun, I am going to put a poll on my wall.  I want you all to vote on which Bath & Body Works winter scent sounds the best to you (and who knows, I may even purchase the one with the highest # of votes)!  I love polls :). 

Enjoy!

I love Costco!

So I know there are some people out there who are way into Harry Potter... that is not us.  We like it though.  I have read some of the books and Dan likes the movies and of course we are planning on seeing the final movie this month (well the first half).  Now onto the real purpose of this post, the other day I was at Costco and I found all 6 movies in a set for only $33.  It seemed like a pretty good price and then I saw that it also came with 2 vouchers for tickets to see the 7th movie.  So 6 movies plus the price of 2 movie tickets all for $33?  Great deal!  So I got it.  I couldn't resist!  haha...  I brought it home and Dan has now decided we are going to watch all 6 movies before the 7th one comes out.  Thus far 2 down, 4 to go! 

All I'm saying is I love Costco and Harry Potter is pretty good too.  :)  But really, for those who love/like Harry Potter and would be interested in owning the movies, I suggest checking out Costco. 

And you may be wondering, why all the post lately?  Well... I've been home sick the past 4 days!  I don't have much else to do except sleep, watch tv and post random blog posts, oh and watch Harry Potter movies.  What I initially thought was the flu has turned into a weird cold and it seems like it is definitely taking its time.  There may definitely be more random blog posts these next couple of days.

Holiday Expo

Today I decided I want to go to this...

Because it looks fun.  And if it has to do with the holidays, then I definitely know I'll like it!  It kind of sounds like festival of trees only closer to our house :) and it's in a couple of weeks!  Plus... admission is normally $5; however, if you bring a can of food to donate then you get in free!  Sounds great to me!  Anyone else interested?

p.s... if you click on the picture it'll take you to the website for more info :)

Halloween Week

I guess it is time for me to blog about Halloween.  We had quite the Halloween week last week... well mostly me, but Dan was there for some of the festivities.

It started with carving pumpkins on Tuesday night.  

Dan's pumpkin

I cheated

Me carving

Then on Wednesday, I went on a field trip to the pumpkin patch with the kindergarten.  We went to Rowley Farm in Santaquin and it had a cute red barn full of fun things for sale!  The donuts were super good.  I need to take Dan there some time.

With the other kindergarten aid

Friday was the Halloween party & parade at my school.

I was a pumpkin!  The kids really loved it.  Dan insisted on spraying my hair orange :)

That afternoon I went to a 2nd Halloween parade at my nephew's school.  Luckily it is just down the street from my work.

With cute Ryan, the skeleton

Mom was there too

And JanaRae with Andrew

Scary teeth!

Ethan came first dressed as a ninja

Then Jake the vampire,  normally his hair is red!

That night we went to our ward trunk or treat.

We decorated our car.  Most people didn't.  I thought you were supposed to!

And here's the crazy doctor!

That's all the pictures I took, but Saturday night we went to a Halloween Hunt.  We went to different businesses in the area and got clues by text message on our phone.  It was sponsored by my brother-in-laws company and they had a good turnout.  We got lots of great coupons and lots of candy!  The candy was my favorite part.  We also left a bowl out for trick or treaters.  We came home and it was mostly gone!  I'm thinking we had few kids who took lots, not lots of kids who took few.

Sunday I made a yummy Halloween dinner of soup in pumpkin shaped bread bowls, orange jello, carrots & olives, and pumpkin cake.  I love pumpkin cake!  I also love Halloween and this time of year.  It's so fun having Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas all in a row!  We've got lots to look forward to!

24th Birthday

I can't believe I haven't blogged about my birthday yet! Especially since it was one of the best birthdays ever :). I had family, friends and of course, Dan make it a very special day. Actually, Dan knows how much I love my birthday so he made sure to spoil me the whole month! It started with getting many free birthday meals at multiple restaurants in the area (I signed up for all the emails on their websites). A few of the restaurants include... Tucanos, Archibalds @ Gardner Village, Carrabbas, and Red Robin. Dan also made sure to spoil me lots during our trip to St. George, which was the weekend before my birthday. Then a couple of days before my birthday Dan took me laptop shopping and let me pick out whatever I wanted. I have been wanting a laptop for a while, so it was definitely a great present!

On my actual birthday, Dan was going to get up early and make me breakfast, but I get up at 6:30 for work and I can never eat much that early in the morning. So I took a rain check on the breakfast and he made it for me the following weekend instead :). I then went to work and of course took birthday treats for the kindergartners. They sang to me and were so excited it was my birthday! They really wanted me to wear the special birthday crown. At lunch Dan surprised me at work by bringing me my favorite chocolate cake from Magleby's. We shared the delicious cake and then it was back to work.

After work I had such a great birthday!  The rest can be told in pictures...

While I was at work my sister in law, JanaRae, and my nephews decorated my door.  It was a great surprise!  In fact, it's still on my door!

Then I came inside and found Dan!

He let me open more presents :).

We then went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner.  Mark & JanaRae came.

Noelle and Jared came.

Dan and me at dinner.

My parents also came!  Which was very fun because they have not been here my last 3 birthdays.

They even made me ride the saddle.  It was only slightly embarrassing.

After dinner we went back to my parents house and my mom had made me cheesecake.  Yummy!

I hope my wish comes true :)

Baby Andrew even decided to make an appearance at the after party.

Then my parents gave me more presents!  Yay, I love presents!

 After we left my parents house we went over to my friend Melissa's house where a few of my friends were there to give me balloons, candy and cake.  I then went home exhausted and happy after such a wonderful day!

I also had so many people call, text and facebook me to wish me a happy birthday.  I also got other presents, cards and even dinner from various family members.  I felt very loved!  Thanks to everyone who made my birthday month such a fabulous one! 

condo for rent

So... remember how we're moving? Well, that means we need to find someone to rent our condo. We looked into selling it, but now is a bad time to sell, so we've decided to rent it out. If you know anyone looking for a great place to live in Utah County, please pass on our info. I'd prefer to rent to someone we know or a friend of a friend, rather than a complete stranger.

I made a blog with info and pictures (I'll be posting more pics, as soon as I clean my kitchen...). Please feel free to let anyone know about it :). Thanks!

Condo Blog

St. George

This past weekend we took a little trip to St. George. Luckily I had a few days off from school for fall break (one of the reasons why I like working in a school... random breaks!) We had a lot of fun! The weather was amazing and we played all weekend.

We swam, shopped (which i loved, dan spoiled me cuz it's birthday month!), ate, slept, went to the movies... twice, visited the temple (just the visitors center), went to tuacahn and enjoyed being together. Here are a few photos...

I love this temple. It is really unique and beautiful. I had no idea some of the temples don't have Moroni's on the top... St. George is one of them.

pretty temple!

At Tuacahn we saw the show Crazy for You. I really wanted to see Tarzan, but it was sold out. This show turned out to be good though and the amphitheater is really awesome!

Tuacahn.

So... we did go to St. George for a nice weekend getaway, but we also went for another reason... we are moving there! Dan was offered a great job there and has decided to take the position. We went down to check out the area and to find a place to live. Luckily we found a really nice apartment close to everything (it also had everything on my wish list, which was... a pool and an exercise room). At first I really did not even want think about leaving our family, friends, and home here, but... after visiting the area it has really helped me feel much better about our decision. I am excited/nervous for this new adventure in our lives. I have lived most of my life in Northern Utah and I know St. George is not all that far, but I am excited to see how Southern Utah treats us. I look forward to great weather, new scenery and seeing more shows at Tuacahn :). I also hope many friends and family will come visit us! You know you are always welcome. Any time you need a break from the snow, give us a call! But you don't have to say goodbye quite yet, we are planning on moving the beginning of December (just when it starts to get cold here).

perfect

Tonight was a perfect fall night. It started out with a dinner of chili and cornbread. Followed by FHE. Our activity was visiting the pumpkin patch (only 1 block from our house). It was the first time I had ever been to a pumpkin patch (that i can remember).

Searching for the perfect pumpkin...

Dan's criteria: the biggest one he could find.

My criteria: perfectly round and not too heavy.

Found it!

Ta da!

We had a fabulous time!

We then came home and enjoyed some delicious pumpkin bars/cake, which i found here on Food Network. Super easy and good! They were the perfect ending to a fall evening.