Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. We went to my grandma's house here in Kansas. A good number of people came. The food was really delicious. Chris and I made pumpkin pies the night before. Good thing too because I would have gone crazy the next day trying to make the rolls and the pie at the same time. The pie turned out perfect, as it always does every time. The rolls were also very scrumdidilyumptious. I could have just eaten that and been happy. Okay, not really. All of the food that I had was very good that everyone else made. Mmmm! I can't wait until Thanksgiving next year.

Now that Thanksgiving is over it is the Christmas season. Our tree is up and our stockings are hung on the hutch with care while yummy candy cane hershey kisses get eaten all up. While I in my footy pajamas and Chris in his too sit in front of the Christmas tree playing a game of Skip-bo.

I should make my own 'twas the night before Christmas' story. Maybe I will put it in my Christmas card blog. To be continued...

Well, I hope everyone had a really good thanksgiving and that you remember all of the things that you are grateful for. I am grateful for Thrift stores, my family, the Savior which is most important, the gospel, my callings to help me grow spiritually, my home and much much more.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Preparation and thoughts

The holiday season is just around the corner and, well wait a minute it is here. Wow! Thanksgiving is in two days and Christmas is in 32 days. Where has this year gone? Pretty soon we will be in 2010. I feel that I have accomplished a lot and that I have been blessed with even more. I have an amazing husband who goes to great strides to provide for this family and to have fun with us. Emma adores him. He gave a talk this last Sunday. He also blessed the Sacrament. Emma noticed Daddy on the stand and she of course wants nobody else but him. She starts saying "Daddy" really loud and I thought, "Here we go. Time to go out to the hall because she will not give up." As we get up to leave, my grandma, whom I call Nana, said that Chris was looking at me then looked at Nana with a big grin on his face as we were walking out. Emma was saying "Daddy" all the way as we walked out. She is a silly girl.

You know, I am excited for this Christmas season. We are in our new house, I started listening to Christmas music, but still can't convince Chris to put up the decorations yet, but I look forward to our tradition that we started last year. I can't give it away because you might be affected by it. It is top secret!!! Only my good friend Sherra knows. I started it with her last year, though I don't know if it will be her tradition as well, which will be just fine.

Tomorrow I am going to make some pumpkin pies with candied pecans to put on top of them for thanksgiving dinner. The crust is homemade as well. The pie is from an actual pumpkin, which by the way, there is no other way to do it. I am not a pie person, but this is too good to refuse. I am a brownie and ice cream kind of gal. I am also making crescent rolls for thanksgiving. But, if anyone wants a good pumpkin pie recipe I will gladly give it away. It is a Crisco recipe along with the crust. Mmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will give the crescent roll recipe away too. I found it online. I am an online junkie when it comes to recipes. If I have something delicious at a restaurant I have to find the recipe. For example, I had some sort of a burrito at a restaurant with Poblano sauce on it and it was so stinkin' good, I just had to have the recipe. I looked up how to make Poblano sauce and let me tell you it is so easy and very very good. I cook some chicken up salted and peppered and cook up some brown rice with a little lemon juice or lime juice, which ever I am in the mood for, I prefer lime most of the time then add some cilantro after it is cooked, make the Poblano sauce, then I put the chicken on the rice and top it off with some Poblano sauce and that is it. It is so so so very good. You just have to try it. Or Bierocks. Now that is a good recipe to have. I also found it online. I love the internet just so I can have recipes. Chris bought me a folder just for my recipes that I print off from online. As you can tell by the way I ramble about food, I love food! Maybe way too much and sadly enough it shows. I am working on eating less and working out more.

Speaking of working out...Chris and I decided to do Yoga together each night. Last night was our first time doing it. We are doing the P90X yoga. It is 1 1/2 hours long, but we only did 30 minutes of it because it was late. I didn't get up to work out this morning because I was wiped out. I got up yesterday at 5 am to go to the YMCA and ended the day with Yoga. It was an intense day. Today was also a wearing day. I went to Nana's and mowed her lawn. It wasn't that her grass was long, it was that her trees no longer had leaves on them and I mowed her leaves. I bagged 20 huge bags full of leaves. It took me 4 hours to do it by myself. I enjoy yard work, but her yard kills me by the end every time. I have been slacking on doing her yard and decided that I ought to do it before thanksgiving since everyone will be going to her house. It makes me feel good to serve her. Yesterday at the gym I worked my obliques and today doing the yard work I could really feel the effects of it. It hurts so good! No pain no gain right?!

I need to start on my Christmas cards if I am going to get them out on time. Yet another project to work on. Yippy! I do love projects. It keeps me busy. I finished my book so I am kind of lost right now on what to do with myself while Emma plays with her toys. I could play with her, but she prefers to play by herself most of the time. That is how it is in nursery. I don't ever have to worry about her or get after her. She is in her own little world most of the time. It is nice to have her there.

Well, I have rambled long enough. Thank you for reading.

Just Thoughts

A while back I told Chris that I wanted Father in heaven to trust me with anything and I wanted to know that I would do anything he asks of me. Well, I think it is interesting how the Lord works and how he tests us. I feel somewhat in tune with the Spirit. I try to listen and follow His promptings often. The other day I was talking to a friend and they were talking about how a few people in the ward were going to be getting a ward choir going for the ward Christmas program, but there wasn't a ward choir director called yet. For some reason I felt like I should volunteer. I don't know why I do this to myself. I want to be as free as I can so I can do what ever I want to do without being tied down to anything.

Well, a couple of weeks ago a brother from the high council called me on the phone before church started and asked if he could meet with me after church. I agreed. So, after church I met with him and he said, "So I under stand that you are the ward choir director and the nursery leader." then I said, "No, I am just the nursery leader." Well, it all came down to he wanted to extend to me the calling to be the assistant camp director. The camp director is Sister Rawson, who by the way is so totally awesome. I am really excited to go to camp this year with her. It will be fun. So now I have two callings. 

Now, yesterday while I was in nursery Chris comes in during the last block of classes and motions for me to go out in the hall. I follow him to brother Sorenson who is standing in the hall. We go inside a room and brother Sorenson tells me that he wants to extend a calling to me. I am going to officially be the ward choir director. He made mention that every calling I have been given I have volunteered for and that they were aware of that. They knew that I volunteered to be the director until they called someone, but they felt right that it should be me. Hmm! go figure. I told the Lord that I would not ask for another calling again. I guess I didn't ask, I just followed the promptings of the Spirit. That's what I get for being in-tune I guess. Actually, I am a little excited for the calling only because I am musically talented, I have a good ear and I know somewhat of how to direct a choir. How hard can it be right? I have been leading the choir for a couple of weeks now and it seems to be going pretty well so far. I don't know how the people will feel about it though. Hopefully they won't be too disappointed. So now I have three callings. I think that the Lord is letting me know how much he trusts me and how much he can rely on me for many different things. I am glad that he can though. It makes me feel good to know that.  

This morning as I was at the YMCA I started thinking about something. I forgot my ipod at home so it was just me and my thoughts. I have this little decoration that is framed which says, as many have seen, "Live, Laugh, Love." I was thinking about the first which is "Live," and I thought "how do I want to live and how am I living?" Then came to me many things. While we are here we are to live our life to it's fullest. I want to live instead of just being here doing nothing. There are many things I wish to accomplish. I want to stay healthy so I can experience more of life with my family. I want to be a spiritual giant so I can accomplish all of what the Lord has promised me in my Patriarchal blessing. I have many wonderful promises in there. I want to be able to be worthy of them all. Not only that, but I want to accomplish all of what the Lord has for me to do. I want to expand my talents and also acquire new ones. I wish to be better at knitting, by taking a knitting class. I want to take a cake decorating class. Well, these are just a few things I wish to do. But I want to "Live" and not be a lump on a log. My greatest desire is to be free spiritually. I don't want sin to bog me down. I know that I am most happy when I am obeying the Lords commandments. For when I obey then am I truly free. That to me is the biggest part of living. 

The other day I made some homemade Cream of Broccoli soup. It was so very delicious. I found the recipe in my soups and bread  cookbook. I recommend it to all to make. You don't have to get many ingredients. I also made homemade rolls to go with it. Mmmmm! So delicious. 

Colorado and Thrift Stores

I went to Colorado to watch Michael and Nikki's kids while they went to Arizona for a couple of days. I drove there in our new mini van, which did very well. It got great gas mileage. Emma did really good the whole way there. She was content watching movies the whole time. we stopped a total of three times just to use the bathroom. I had a cooler full of food that we ate on the way there. I had all of the chairs in the back besides Emma's down since it is a stow-and-go. I had plenty of room for all of our stuff. The drive actually went fairly fast. I was a little tired going, but I did good. That is the first time I have driven by myself for such a long distance. I was a little nervous, but I didn't get lost. I used google map for directions. 

Reagan painting with finger paints

Mom wanted me to let them finger paint them a picture. I decided to let Michael and Nikki do that. When they got home Michael opened it up right away and let them finger paint. He also cleaned them up too. 

Madison with her finger paintings. 

Chase with his baby sister Riley

Riley. She is so sweet. 

Reagan 

Uncle Chris let the kids shave his hair. Chase went first, but I didn't get any pictures in time. 

Madison looks like a serious hair cutter. 

Madison sweeping up Uncle Chris' hair. 

Colorado was a lot of fun. It was a lot of work. Riley kept me on my toes. She is a bottomless pit. When she is hungry she lets you know. She will scream at the top of her lungs until you come and get her. Reagan is also a bottomless pit. Any chance she gets she wants to eat something. She is also full of questions. Her favorite question is "What's your name?" and she will ask you that at least a hundred times a day. She is cute. Madison is a handful. She is a big pouter. If you tell her that you are going to brush her hair she will try to get out of it and pout all the way to the bathroom. She didn't want to take a bath or do anything that she was supposed to do. She is fun too. She is a very boisterous little girl. She only has one volume and that is loud. Chase is fun. the first thing that he wanted to do when I got there was to play the Wii with me. I played and kicked his trash. Not on purpose. He was in school most of the days I was there, so it was fairly quiet during the day. 

All in all it was a lot of fun, and it was more fun when Chris got there on Friday. On the way to the airport the snow was coming down pretty hard, it was at night and I didn't know the airport at all. I was getting a little flustered. I tend to get anxiety attacks when I don't know what I am doing or where I am going. 

I am glad to be home now though. I was happy to go and spend time with the kids. 

On the way home Chris and I stopped in Hays Kansas to eat dinner and we saw a thrift store there as we were heading back to get on I-70. We stopped there after dinner. it was 7:00 pm. We weren't sure if it would be opened, but it was. They closed at 8pm. We got lucky. We usually go to thrift stores to see if they have polyester ties for Chris. We were in luck. They had 13 ties. They were nice too. We also decided to look at clothes for Emma. We found so much stuff for her that seemed almost brand new. All in all we spent about $70. It was a really good deal for all of the stuff we found. I love thrift stores. I found some pants for myself as well. I was happy. 

On the drive home Chris and I played the ABC game, 20 questions and talked a lot. He is great company. I really love spending time with Chris. He makes me very happy. We are definitely in love. 

Zoo Fun!

We went to the Zoo today for a birthday party for Kenidi Steimle who turned 4. We had cake and ice cream first. Some peacocks wanted to join in all of the fun. you can watch a video at the bottom of the page. 

Kenidi, the birthday girl

Adam being himself!!!

Emma with cupcake frosting on her mouth.

Kaden and Sherra

Giraffe

Elephant

Emma and Kenidi

Sporting the Radio Flyer Wagon

It was such a perfect day to go to the Zoo. It was in the 70's. Beautiful, especially for November.

Happy Birthday breakfast to Me!
This is my birthday breakfast. Chris made me an omelet with some turkey bacon. It was delicious. That's my idea of how bacon should be. 

Beautiful emma with her omelet. Isn't she so beautiful in the morning!

Say Cheese!

I was just taking pictures of Emma and she was glad to pose for me. She is so fun. I wanted to get the most candid pictures and got this one. 

Out with the old and in with the New. Well, new to us.  One day Chris came home with the van that you see behind the Lumina. It is a Stow-and-Go. If we could get any other car it would be a Stow-and-Go. the only thing I didn't like about it is that it didn't have a dvd player in it. You can't have everything right. Well, to make a long story short, we test drove the van for about a month. Every time we called the dealer he kept telling us to just keep it another night and he will call us the next day. This went on for about a month. So we drove the van with no payments.  The only problem we had was that they didn't give us a dealer tag. I didn't get pulled over at all. the reason for this picture is I just wanted to take a picture with my very first car that dad gave me. It was a great car and gave me very little trouble. 

Now, we didn't get that orange van but we did get a van, and I like it better than the orange one. Plus it doesn't smell like cigarette smoke. It also has a dvd player in it which will make for nice road trips. Ooooh, Ahhhhhh! 

Project time!

This was one of my projects that I had. I made a "Hooter hider." It was really easy. I found some instructions on the internet and got the materials and then just followed the instructions. I really enjoyed it. I got the material, corset boning and some D Rings. It didn't take me very long to do. Also, it was really inexpensive. I can do that!

Play Time at the Park

Emma looking up at the sky. I have no idea what caught her attention.                             

One, two, three, GO!

Emma is a little zoner. She reminds me of Kayla

She loves the park. She especially loves the swings. When we are at home she thinks that she can use the couch as her slide or me or Chris. She is silly. She will turn the big pillow of our couch on its side and sit on it and pretend she is sliding down and says "Whee!" She has such an imagination. 

TI-GG-ERRRRR

Emma loves Winnie the Pooh and when she saw herself in this Tigger outfit she was so excited. 

Look at me, love me, then look at me some more!!!

I think Emma looks so cute in her hat that I made her last year. I had to get her picture. 

Zekelford the kitty

He is the sweetest little cat. He is so lovable. Every time I am sitting in a chair reading he has to be right there on top of me so I will love on him and so he can get a little cat nap. 

Jerusha and Chris' kids came over the other day and Davis picked him up and asked if I would let him keep Zeke. He told me he would give me his cat in exchange. Mmmm, Let me think about it.....Nope! He is too cute and sweet to part with. Such a cute kitty!!!

Just think of Sanford and Sons. Need I say more!?

Actually, Dad came over to help Chris in the Attic to put down some insulation and this was what both of them wore up there. Ingredients needed then you could be Sanford too: one pair of goggles, a hairnet from a lunch lady, and a face mask thingy mabobber. 

The Living Room Project

If you remember the before picture of our living room, this is the somewhat finished product of what we have done so far. 

Life has all kind of twists

Well, I was released as a seminary teacher on Sunday. I am not exactly sure of all the details, but I know that the Lord is in control. It is actually an answer to prayer for me and the new seminary teacher. I do have a new calling. I am the Nursery leader in primary. It is so much fun and I really love those kids. They love me too. It is nice to be appreciated by so many. I am sad though because I received a call this morning from a mother of one of my would be seminary students asking if we were having seminary this morning. Her son really wanted me to be his teacher this year. I taught him over the summer for sunday school. a couple of the kids were really sad that I was not going to be their teacher any more. But I told her that I was released and that the new teacher is going to be amazing. She seemed kind of disappointed. But life goes on, right? Right!!! I know that growing is an ever changing process that I don't fully understand how it works in all the details. I just know that Heavenly Father knows though. I am glad of that. Aren't you? If I was completely in charge of my life than it would be a mess. I am glad that Heavenly Father allows us to rely on him for help and advice.  

I went to the new teachers house yesterday to give her all of the books and stuff for seminary. I am sad that I am not going to teach. I was told by the Stake President that if I were to continue to teach that I would not be able to be as effective as I wanted to be because others would not allow me to succeed. I think it is sad that Satan uses even members of the church to accomplish what he wants, but I think that it is for the better that it all happened how it did. I am grateful for all that I learned and to have been able to work with the youth of the church. I am really excited because now I am going to wake up early to exercise instead. I am hoping that now since I won't be so stressed out that I will actually be able to get pregnant. I am hoping and praying that it will happen soon. 

Last sunday was my first Sunday as the nursery leader. I am the only one called in there right now. It went really well. I helped in the nursery when I was in my last ward, so I was trained by the best. I loved how they did everything. It was so structured and organized. I pretty much did what they did, but just a little different. It goes by a lot faster when there are things for the kids to do except play the whole time. 

Emma with Brendan's sunglasses. So cool!

Gardening...

Here are some pictures of my little growing garden. It has been really fun. I am excited for next spring when I have a whole huge garden. I hope it will be successful. It will be in the ground then and I will have a lot more variety. 

These tomatoes are so good when they get ripe. It looks like I will have a lot of ripe ones pretty soon. We have been having tons of rain lately so I haven't had to go out and water them. 

Tomatoes and a Bell Pepper. these bell peppers are so good. They are so sweet. They haven't grown as big as I thought they would, but they are perfect. I wonder since this one is turning red if it will have a different flavor. We are going to make some pizza tonight. I think I am going to use this one on it. Mmmmm!!!!!

We had a storm the other day and this one got knocked off. I was a little sad because it had tomatoes on it and it was flowering which means that I am getting more. I decided to put it in this cup and put it by the window and it started shooting out roots. When the roots get big enough then I will hopefully plant it back outside. The tomatoes in the bowl fell off when the plant got knocked over. I decided to see how they would turn out if I let them ripen inside. The red one I am going to put on the pizza as well. They are so juicy and sweet. I love them. I am so excited. 

This is a serrano pepper. Hot!!!! don't ever eat it plain. bad mistake, for me, not Chris. My tongue was on fire and even milk couldn't calm it. I only took a small bite. Never again!! I picked a lot of them off and gave them to Uncle Alan. I knew that he would use them. I had way too many to know what to do with. I am looking forward for more to grow though because I am planning on making more salsa and canning it and putting it in our food storage in the basement. 

The plant on the left here is also a tomato plant. It grows the bigger tomatoes. I have a few growing on it now. They are getting big. Yay!!! Who would have thought that I would be doing this? It is actually quite rewarding and fun. I have enjoyed it very much. 

Our little project

As you can see in the pictures our beautiful walls. I know, It is ingenious. Who ever thought of that design....Clever!!! ...I know. It is sheet rock. It makes it look like we live in a dump. We have tons of projects here. No, we don't live in the projects, but we have our fair share of them. It is exciting to know that we are getting things done though. Slowly but surely. There was only one sheet of wall paper on it. Thank goodness! But they painted over the wall paper. I was ready to get it all off because our house reeked of stale cigarette smoke and old person. Yuk!!! Let me tell you, it is 100% better now that it is off and out of our house. I can breath!!!

Emma loves to read

Emma loves to read. She is very persistent when she wants to read a book. She will come up to me and say "book." If I put the book down by me she will pick it back up and put it back in my hands and say "Booook." So, I have to read to her. I am glad that she loves books. I didn't much care for them back in the day. 

Papa and Zeke

Zeke is such a sweet kitty. He loves to be loved. He also loves to love. He is so funny. This video he decided to love on Papa and make him his pet. 

We got such a kick out of this video. I am glad that i got it on video. 

More projects

Emma and I decided to go and play outside this morning. Chris and I have stone that we were going to put in our front yard and do a little landscaping. I decided that today was the day. I know that I can't wait for the perfect day to do it or wait for Chris to do it because he is so busy working. Plus by the time he gets home I know that he is tired. So I decided to just do it myself. It was fun working out the little details and getting things put where I wanted it. I think it is going to look really good when it is finished. Especially when we put more dirt in and plant some flowers and such. I love working in the yard. I grabbed some stone, put it in and Emma was looking at my back and said, "oh, hi bug. spyer. hi spyer." I knew what that meant. I had a spider on my back. I went to the door to see if I could see it in the reflection of the window. Sure enough I had a huge spider on my back from the stone. I went inside and flicked it into the sink and it was toast. I am glad that Emma told me. She would have loved it if a spider were crawling on her. She thinks that everything is her friend. Even flies. We were at a friends house last Sunday and she was having the time of her life thinking that a fly was playing with her. Every time  a fly would go past her she would start to laugh hysterically. She loved it. It was so funny. I love that little angel.