2007 Christmas Card

This is my Christmas card for the year. We are starting to get so many wonderful Christmas cards and letters from all of our friends and family. It is so much fun to receive them all! We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas Frames

Brandy, my mom, and I made these Christmas frames this year to give away as presents. They were so fun to make! We made all different variations by switching the paint color on the frame, the Christmas paper and the ornament that we used on each one. Here are a couple of the frames that I made.

A close up of the poem

ICE!

Eric's parents came to visit us last weekend, we had so much fun with them! One of the nights they we were here, we met up with my parents and went to the ICE show at the Gaylord Texan. It was so amazing! They give you special coats to wear because they have to keep the temperature at 9 degrees! Everything was carved out of ice and the sculptures were absolutely amazing! We had been wanting to go to this for a couple of years now, so we were glad we were finally able to do it this year.

The Twins Are Finally Here!

Carter and Clara are finally here! We are so excited to have them join the family. Here are some pictures I got of them this afternoon just after they were born. They are very cute babies! Congratulations Jeff and Brandy!

Carter


Clara


Carter and Clara Together-Look closely you will see two heads!


Carter and Clara


Brandy with Carter and Clara


Brandy and Clara


Jeff and Carter

Advent Calendar

I saw this fun Christmas craft on Splitcoast this morning and had to share it. Here are the instructions. I'm excited to try it!

Supplies:
-One 16" x 20" blank Canvas
-24 metal tins (2" diameter Wilton® favor tins were used here, available at Michaels in the wedding favor section)
-Patterned Paper
-Coordinating Cardstock
-Number and Letter Stamps
-Ink
-Strong and regular adhesive
-Ribbon
-Paper cutter
-24 Velcro™ dots

Directions:
1) Cut 24 2 5/8" squares of patterned paper and 24 3" squares of cardstock.
2) Lay out cardstock pieces in four rows with six pieces each. Add patterned paper on top. If more than one patterned paper is used, lay them out in the pattern you would like to have when the calendar is finished.
3) Apply adhesive to the back of the patterned paper.
4) Center and adhere over cardstock square. Repeat with all 24 squares.
5) Apply strong adhesive to the back of all cardstock squares.
6) Line bottom left square 1/2" up from the bottom and left side and adhere to
canvas.
7) Line bottom right square 1/2" up from the right and bottom edge and adhere to canvas.
8) Adhere the remaining squares. The spacing is 3/8" between each square and each new row.
9) Cut two 2 1/2" x 12" pieces of coordinating patterned paper and adhere them to a 2 1/2" x 18 7/8" long strip of cardstock.
10) Stamp calendar title and tape down. Add embellishments if wanted. Here, letters were stamped in pigment ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. Adhere patterned paper strip to the top of the canvas with strong adhesive.
11) Adhere a bottom piece of Velcro in the center of each square.
12) Cut 24 1/2" x 7 1/2" strips of patterned paper. Add a small piece of strong adhesive on each end and regular adhesive in between.
13) Tape one of these strips around the bottom of each tin.
14) Add one Velcro top on a bottom of each tin.
15) Stamp numbers from 1 - 24, cut them out and adhere them to the front of each tin.
16) To hang the calendar, cut two 30" pieces of ribbon. Add a 1 1/2" long strip of strong adhesive on one end of both ribbon pieces.
17) Adhere ribbon piece on each top side of the canvas board. Reinforce with small nails or thumb tacks if needed.
18) Fill the tins and let the countdown begin.

Tattooed Prophets

I saw this picture recently and couldn't help but laugh. It sure is an interesting way to remember the prophets!

Tagged!

I have been tagged. I'm supposed to share 6 random bits of info most people don't know about me and then tag other people to do the same. So, here it goes!

1) I was on the drill team in 6th grade. We were the Star Steppers and we thought we were cool. I even had my 6th grade picture taken in one of my Star Stepper shirts, it was that important.

2) I have broken another girl's rib. Here is the story. I was playing soccer and we were playing against a super aggressive team. They were all over us the entire game! I can't remember if I was playing offense or defense at the time, but the girl that was covering me/I was covering kept shoving me around the field. Well, I got sick of it on one play and let her know it by giving her an elbow. I clearly didn't know my own strength behind it because she immediately went down and an ambulance was called to the field. I broke her rib! I felt bad about it, but at the same time liberated because after that play the other team quit messing with us and we won the game.

3) On that same line, I however have been lucky enough to have never had a broken bone.

4) I absolutely hate sleeping. I would much rather be doing something fun than sleeping.

5) Much to my mother's delight, I was born a month late. Even at that point I had to be forced out and was not very happy about it. This is why I my first facial expression was a frown, I did not like what had just occurred. I was perfectly happy and content where I was. That kind of goes along with my personality though, I still don't like being forced to do things.

6) Being LDS has more than one meaning in my life. Since I did not have a middle name growing up, my initials were LD. There was this man in my home ward that always told me that I needed to marry a guy whose last name started with an S so my initals could be LDS. Even though it wasn't my purpose in life, I just so happened to do that. My initials are officially LDS.

So that's it. Now you all know a little more about me. I tag Amber, Anna, Brandy, Kari, Lisa, Melissa M., Melissa N., and Stefanie!

Pay it Forward

I love mail. I love sending it and I love receiving it. There is just something about the surprise factor of what is waiting for you in the mailbox that makes it so exciting. So yesterday, I was in mail heaven! I received this wonderful Halloween package from one of my best friends full of all the things I love. Thanks Kar, you made my day!

So, I figured I would take time to "Pay it Forward". I have seen this done on a few blogs and thought this was the perfect opportunity for me to try it. Here is how it works:

PAY IT FORWARD: I will send a handmade gift to the first three (3) people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. You may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog. (so, you must have a blog to participate.) I can't wait to see who I will be giving to. To join, just cut and paste this on your blog and comment away. So get posting.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! Eric and I carved our pumpkins last night. It was so much fun! I carved a witch and Eric carved a vampire pumpkin face. I am so excited for tonight!

Halloween Card

This is the Halloween card I made this year to send to some family and friends. I love making Halloween cards, they are so fun to make. If you couldn't tell by now, I love this time of year!

Halloween Candy Boxes

My mom and I made another Halloween craft this weekend. We made these cute Halloween candy boxes to give to the kids I teach in Sunday school. I tried to make each one a little different so each kid had an "original". I filled mine with candy corns, but any Halloween candy would work. I love these little boxes because you make and decorate them for any holiday, super fun!

It's Time for Pumpkin

October and November are definitely the months to bake things with pumpkin in them. I have a few pumpkin recipes I had been wanting to try, so I tried this first one yesterday. They are so good and they make your house smell wonderful too!

Pumpkin Pie Bars

1 1/3 C. flour
1/2 C. firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 C. granulated sugar, divided
3/4 C. cold butter or margarine
1 C. quick-cooking oats
1/2 C. chopped pecans (I left these out)
1 pkg. (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
3 eggs
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin
1 T. pumpkin pie spice

Preheat oven to 350. Mix flour, brown sugar and 1/4 C. of the sugar in bowl. Cut in butter wiht pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in oats and pecans. Reserve 1 C. of the oat mixture; press remaining onto bottom of greases 9x13 pan. Bake 15 min.
Beat cream cheese, remaining 1/2 C. sugar, eggs, pumpkin and pumpkin spice in bowl with electric mixer in medium speed until well blended. Por over baked crust; sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture.
Bake 25 min, cool completely. Cut into 24 bars. Store leftovers in tightly covered container in refrigerator.

Halloween Smores

The holiday craft making has begun! My mom and I made these Halloween Smores jars a couple of weeks ago, but wanted to wait to post them until it got closer to Halloween. These were so fun to make and I am excited to give them to people as a little Halloween treat. More Halloween crafts to come!

I Actually Won!

Eric and I always tease each other about our luck, we never win anything! We enter contests all the time hoping for the small chance that it will be our lucky day, but we never win anything! Well today I was lucky! Ryka has been giving 50 pairs of shoes away a day for about a month now. I decided that I could use a new pair of running shoes, so I decided to enter. I had actually forgotten I had even entered the contest until today when I got an email from Ryka telling me I had won and that my shoes were in the mail! I am so excited. If you want to get in on the contest, there is still time to enter. Go to this website http://ryka.com/main.asp and enter. Maybe you will have a lucky day too!

Deep Thoughts from a Walmart Greeter

"One has the money while the other must have the time"
Has anyone heard this phrase before?? Every time Eric and I go to Walmart, there is a Walmart greeter that says this to us every time he sees us and we don't know why! We have watched him greet other people and as far as we can tell he doesn't say it to anyone else, just us.
Now, granted, he is an older man, so he could just be senile, but it drives Eric and I crazy because we don't know what he is talking about!
The latest occurence was last week. We walked in and we saw he was the greeter for the day, so I said to Eric, "Get ready, it's him again." And just as we predicted, as soon as he saw us he said, "One has the money while the other must have the time" Only this time he added something new to it! He then said, "But, which one is it, that is the question." Well Eric couldn't handle it anymore and decided to ask him what it meant. The man then mumbled something like, "Oh who knows, everyone just uses plastic to pay these days anyways."
So once again, we were left wondering what this little phrase of his means and why he only chooses to say it to me and Eric.

Go Cougars!!!

I think the highlight of the trip for Eric was definitely the BYU football game! All of Eric's family in LA got all dressed up in our BYU stuff (except for the traders in our group) and screamed our heads off for the cougars, but in the end they sadly lost to UCLA. It was still fun to see the Cougars play in the Rose Bowl though!

GO COUGARS!

Sporting our new BYU gear!

Eric and his cousin Tyler (one of the UCLA traders)

Reagan Presidential Library

Who knew a Presidential Library could be so interesting?!? We went to the Reagan Presidential Library and I was shocked at how much fun I had. The highlight was seeing Air Force One! They had Air Force One there at the museum and we were able to walk through it and see how everything was set up on the plane as it was when President Reagan flew in it. They didn't allow pictures inside the plane, but we got some outside of it. We watched movies about him and the various things that occured during his term. I was able to learn so much about President Reagan that I never knew before.

Eric and I outside Airforce One

The front of Airforce One

The Reagan Memorial

We are so patriotic!

The Presidential Car-Definitely 80's!

Disneyland and California Adventure

Last weekend we went to LA for the BYU game and to see some of Eric's family. We did so many fun things while we were there! We went to Disneyland and California Adventure and had so much fun. There were a lot of rides at California Adventure that we hadn't been on before, like the roller coaster that takes you around the loop of Mickey's head, so much fun! For some reason we didn't take too many pictures that day, only a couple. This is me and Eric just finishing riding one of the roller coasters at Disneyland.

Our cute niece Elise trying on Eric's sunglasses at California Adventure.