Sunday, December 20, 2009

Christmas Eve #1

We wanted to celebrate Christmas eve the traditional way we do in my family, so last Saturday night we went all out:

We had cheese and crackers and Sparkling Cider


We all enjoyed it....


Every year for the past 20 years my mom has given each of us an ornament that somehow represents that year in our lives.


"We Three Kings"


A Truffle Tree




An Angel of Peace for Alyssa

Then we opened everything from each other,











My goal was to make you feel like you were actually there with us, so hopefully you all enjoyed all those pictures!

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!!!

I just finished my semester!!! Finals were slightly hectic, so here's a quick recap of what we've been up to the past couple weeks:

Tyler learned how to crochet!


He crocheted this beautiful potholder!


We've been riding our bikes to school in the snow and negative temperatures!



To give you an idea of how to stay warm when it's -13 outside, here is a description of what I wore that morning (not pictured): soccer socks, regular socks, leggings, jeans, T-shirt, long-sleeved T-shirt, sweater, puffy jacket, small gloves, ski gloves, fur-lined hat, ski goggles, and a scarf wrapped around my face. The snow/ice can be a bit of a challenge as well. I wiped out on my way to school one morning, right in the middle of the road, but luckily I was so bundled up that it was like landing on a pillow as a slid on the pavement!


We finally took lots of pictures of our Christmas tree and other decorations! Last year we bought the tree and couldn't afford anything else, but this year we bought ornaments!! I love the green and gold together!





I made a bouquet and boutonniere for my friend's wedding.


Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Dec 8...Two Years Ago Today

This day, two years ago, is a very special day in history:
Exactly two years ago, my wonderful boyfriend, at the time, took me here:

to go snowboarding for the first time, which I was not good at!

However it turned out to be one of the best days of my life because this happened:

It's amazing that it was just two short years ago that we decided to spend the rest of Eternity with each other!

And to top off the wonderful day, in the evening we went and saw this:

Oh, what would I do without my amazing husband!?

Monday, December 7, 2009

A "Mormony" Day

Here are all the Mormony things we did yesterday:

I made cranberry sauce. I know it's a little late for Thanksgiving, but I had a bag of cranberries!

We made a DELICIOUS apple pie!!
Step-by-step pictures:




And, lastly, my beanie! Well, Tyler's beanie...

I have been working on this for awhile, it started out a little rough, but now that it's done it doesn't look so bad!!

The beanie is gonna be Tyler's Christmas gift, but I needed to check it for size...



PS Did you notice my new bangs? :)

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Speed Climbing Competition

I have officially competed in my first Speed Climbing Competition!! It was so fun! but also scary, the pressure was so intense because you only have 2 times to try each of the 4 climbs, and the first time up is really just to get a feel for the route, then it all comes down to how fast you can climb up it the second time! When you are just climbing with technique, you can mostly use our legs, but when you're trying to climb fast, it's all arms!! And mine were dying!!

I didn't do as good as I had hoped - 5th place. But, just to make myself feel better, these are the reasons I didn't do better: 1) I have climbed once since September, so my hands and arms were so NOT in climbing shape; 2) I've climbed indoors once in the past year, and believe it or not, there's a big difference between indoor and outdoor climbing; and 3) the 4 women who beat me were all married to guys who are employees at this climbing gym, so they climb for free as often as they want. Still, it was fun to climb in a different way than we usually did and things always feel more exciting at a "competition"!

Enjoy the many pictures my dear husband took:
Getting ready! (That girl on my right was the 2nd place winner)

The Competition! The walls are about 30 feet tall. (notice there are two of girls I beat)



It's blurry cause I'm moving to fast :)

The Blue Climb!


Waiting in line...


Chalking up.... (the chalk on your hands gives better grip)


"..Get Set..GO!" We start with our feet up, sitting on the ground.
Side note about the little girl to my right: That girl was like a little spider! She was beating my times all over the place! Luckily she was to young to be in my division!


Out, around and over!


My sister, Alyssa, and our friend, Joy were kind enough to come massage my arms!



"Dang that next climb looks hard!"


The Orange Climb - scroll down fast to make it look like a movie!
If you can see, I'm on an outward incline and going over this sticky-out triangle thing - hard!



Friday, December 4, 2009

Up and Running!

Our blog is up and running again!!
We just received our first Christmas gift - a brand new sleek digital camera! Thanks to my very wise father, who knew we would want our new camera before Christmas, we will now be able to document all sorts of seasonal adventures!

Upcoming Posts to look forward to:
1. Our beautiful Christmas Tree - this is our first year actually buying ornaments to decorate our tree, and it looks great!
2. Our Rock Climb Competition - actually, it's a "speed climbing" competition, whoever climbs up fastest wins!! The competition is tomorrow, so wish us luck!
3. My Clogging Showcase - every semester the clogging classes perform in a "showcase" as a kind of final project. Our dance is so fun, hopefully we'll be posting a video!
4. My Flower Arrangements - I'm in a flower arranging class and I plan on posting my "portfolio".
5. My crocheting project - I'm attempting to crochet a beanie for Tyler for Christmas (don't worry, he already knows about it); I'll let you know how it turns out.
6. Snowboarding/skiing - hopefully we'll go out a few times during Christmas break!
7. Anything else I can think of to take pictures of - I've been so picture-taking deprived for the past 4 months since we lost our old camera, that I just want to make up for lost time by taking pictures of everything!

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

It's Raining Meatballs!

Or, I wish it was!! I tried again to cook meatballs today, and as usual, it just turned into ground beef mush. I don't understand how to make them keep their shape! Is there some trick to it because I can only make it work with the pre-cooked frozen meatballs you buy in a bag. Any ideas??