I wish it was Christmas today

Merry Christmas!

Oh, Christmas time is one of my favorite times of the year... just like everyone else. We all focus on our loved ones and finding them the perfect gift and the miracle of the birth of our Savior.

What did I want for Christmas? This guy. He can wear whatever shirt he wants, even that ugly pink sweatshirt. I don't even care! Look at him!

Sigh.... He's pretty.

Okay, okay so I didn't really ask for him out loud, but he would have been nice.

Instead I got something way better (better in a different way)... I got a brand new

SEWING MACHINE!!!

If you listen really close you can actually hear me squealing with joy.

I LOVE it!

It's perfect. So if you need help sewing and I'm free, be my guest in the craft basement and we'll sew. I've had a few peeps stop by to see it so far and there needs to be more!

Did I hear someone say Cousin Craft Time?

It's about time

Let's see here... it's been at least 7.... maybe 8, or like 10 or so years since I've had a new pair of glasses. Anywhos it's been a long time so I asked for that to be my Christmas present from my parents, how functional, right? So I went to go and get them (well, my parents had to drive me, but that's another story) and I did a little impromptu photo shoot. Here they are....

I HATE glasses and refuse to wear then unless completely necessary, but these I actually like. Will you see me wear them outside my house? That depends... is my house on fire? Do I have pink eye? Are we camping? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then it's still a maybe, but most likely no.

They have kind of librarian feel to them... I don't know if I'm smart enough to pull them off, but their mine. Yay for being blind!!

Family Picture Time

I wanted to get some new family pictures done of all of us before Christmas because my dad had been asking for months and months, so we bit the bullet and did it. Here are some highlights...

If anyone knows my dad, you know he LOVES his grey t-shirts.

The stars of every show...

Yeah, we love our mommy.

This little pose was K's idea... soo cute!!

We had a lot of fun. It totally helps if you know photographers and happen to work in a studio. Thanks Breck!! They look great and we had fun doing them. I'm still sad dad didn't bring his Harry Potter wand though... next time.

Leaf Fight!!

So the tree outside my parents house always has a ton of leaves that fall around December and the girls had never really played in them. So I figured M&K have a new camera, I want to get some pics for a calendar for my parents, they like to get dirty... it's a win win win.

The afternoon started off with laughing and silly little girls tossing leaves in the air...

See how cute is that?!

I was trying to get B to lay down so I could bury her in the leaves, so I was kicking leaves all over her and she just kept laughing at me. Priceless.

Then it becomes an all out leaf war. B is taking armfull after armfull and throwing them in my face and I'm throwing them back at her... the neighbors are laughing at us and K is taking pictures and then it happens... The Tornado from next door comes to B's aid and gets a sled full of leaves...

and dumps them on my head. Over and over and over again.

It's cool. I'm a big girl. I didn't cry or anything. I took it like big kid and took their sled and buried them in the leaves. The Tornado's mom asked if I could keep him under there, but there's no keeping that kid down.

I also had the idea of snow... well fake snow at least. Let's just say these are the two cutest pictures I got.

Oh yeah, and T loves puppies. Like a lot.

Oh yeah!! I'm 30 now.

I'm 30.... yeah, it should be a big deal, but it's not. Maybe next year when I get kicked out of singles wards I'll make it a big deal, but this year as low key and pretty easy going. I mean, it wasn't like i didn't have things planned... it's just nothing ended up like it was supposed to in the beginning of my day.

Why you ask? Because in Arizona apparently they stop time for your birthday. It's not as cool as it sounds, trust me.

This is what I woke up to.... a blank clock, microwave, everything. Oh, what's that? They turned the power off? It's gonn be off for like 4 hours? Awesome.

So my lovely parents took me to Subway for breakfast. Mind you none of us were showered or ready for the day because WE HAD NO POWER. That means no hot water. I had planned to go to the groundbreaking of the Gilbert Temple, but that just wasn't in the cards. So we had breakfast there and an assorment of hot chocolates from the Starbucks next door. Their pepermint hot cocoa is to die for, but their salted carmel cocoa is just so so.

The power finally came back on, mom and I went to Joanns to kill some time and then there was lunch with the bro and fam. Yeah, everyone was there, but these two were sitting in front of and and were just so dang entertaining... I mean look at that face!

After lunch I was forced to get a dozen Krispy Kremes (thanks Kristi) form the drive thru. In case you didn't know, they give you a free dozen for being born. yay. I don't even like them and I had to get them.

My next stop was for Boba tea/slushes/drinks with The Cousins. It was a grand time... especially for Tru-man. He got to squirm alllll over and eat straws and look at cars. He's my favorite little guy. Can you move back? PT school is over rated.

I also hung out with my best friend Lorena and Marisa and watched a movie.. no I don't remember what movie. I'm 30. I have a very short memory.

Thanks for a great birthday everyone!!

Love ya!!

... and then it was Halloween!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Yeah, yeah, so I'm a little behind on my blogging. I'm trying to make up for it a little at a time, okay? So, the end of the year is always crazy with birthdays and holidays, but there were some highlights this year. One being the Halloween party of Mr. & Mrs. Gunnell and what a par-tay it was!! The decorations by cousin were stunning and the food was delish! A good time was had by all. There were quite a few characters that made an appearance, like....

A cute little cow and a sassy little pumpkin

Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore

(Way to go on making those costumes Candy!!)

Dorthy came all the way from Kansas.... complete with ruby red shoes!

(My favorite part of the night by far Bran!)

The Best Fisherwoman in the World and her two big catches

and

The cutest little hot dog brought along Mustard and Katchup.

The Tin Man and Hello Kitty had fun too.

Cousin did such an amazing job on all her decorations!! Everything was perfectly spooky and so tasty. Look at all her little details... she even made those shoes full of treats!

My other stop for the night was the spooky fun Everhart potluck. I didn't even bring anything, what a loser! But they still let me in and we talked and talked and had a wonderfully horror-filled night. Here's to next year!!

Mike's 29th

Happy Birthday Brother!!!

.... in October, but really did you expect it to be up in the blogsphere that same month? Psh, I didn't think so! Here is a recap of all the fun we had that night with your Basket O' Strange Foods!!

Okay, so for the run down of fantastic foods we taste tested: Shredded squid, some really sketchy beef jerky, jelly sticks, chocolate and honeydew filled bears (separate, not together, sicko), Pennywort drink, Cocoza, Prawn Crackers, yogurt drink, and Aloe Vera dessert. Mmmmmmmmm..... so delish!!

So the first up were the Prawn Crackers and yes, he ate the whole bag. Not right there that night, but eventually. No one else liked them, surprise. The yogurt drink was next and it was not that bad, not that good but we kept it down. After that came the Pennywort drink. So if you've ever wondered what the smell of cut grass would taste like just grab yourself a can of Pennywort drink and you'll know.

Next up, shredded squid and "beef" jerky. Fishy and strangely white both were not the best (and yes, he ate them both.. all of them.)

Taylor wanted to try everything.. "Some! Some! Peeeess?!" so she got to try just about everything while Brooklyn was a little more selective in her choices like her mom was. My mom on the other hand didn't really want to try anything but was forced... and she hated every thing she tried.

The Cocoza tasted like liquid cotton candy and was gross, unless you like that sort of thing... which we did not. The chocolate and honeydew filled bears were pretty good and the girls really liked them. The jelly straws were a little strange, but Brooklyn loved them. I don't know if it was because they came in a purse or because most of them were pink, but she wanted to take them to school in her lunch.

Last, but not least we tried the Aloe Vera dessert. Now we saved this till last because it looked and sounded the grossest of them all. This was the very first thing I found in the store when I was buying all this stuff and I just knew it would make a great grand finale. It did not disappoint.

It. Was. Awesome.

I'm not kidding people! This stuff was like a blast from the part when we used to try and fake sick to get Grape flavored Dimetapp, you know what I'm talking about... the good stuff. Mom would hide it or tell you that if you took it and you weren't sick it'd make you sick... That's the stuff. You know you loved it too and now you can have it as a grown up and not even fake sick!! Aloe Vera dessert is great and healthy(?) Okay, I could be making the healthy part up. It has artificial muscat flavour and we all know that artificial muscat flavouring isn't very good for you but there's not fat!! Woo Hoo!!

Brother, I love you so much!! You are one of my best friends and such a great daddy! I'm glad I got stuck with you. Thanks for being so adventurous and having an unforgettable birthday taste test with us!!

Happy Birthday!!!