Temple Square Lights

One of my favorite things to do during the holiday season is to go around looking at all the Christmas lights. One of my favorite places for Christmas lights is downtown at Temple Square. I was able to go with some friends last night and had a great time admiring the wonderful job the workers did to make it beautiful. The pictures aren't that clear because it was dark, but you can kind of tell that each branch on each tree is wrapped with little tiny lights. They are everywhere...so beautiful!

Jazz Won!

My friend Israel has season tickets for the Utah Jazz games. He was nice enough to take me to the game last night. They played the Memphis Grizzlies and won by quite a bit. The final score was 117-100. It was a good game and I enjoyed hanging out with Israel! Thanks, Israel, for inviting me!

Israel wanted to make a funny face in the picture we took of us. Fortunately, he agreed to do a "normal" picture. I let him do a funny face one for being so cooperative about the "normal" one. Looks hot, huh?

Thanksgiving Presents

We received our Thanksgiving package from my mom the other day. I was so excited to see what she had sent! I know...you are probably wondering who gives Thanksgiving presents. I was told yesterday that it wasn't "normal" to give or receive Thanksgiving presents. I have a wonderful mom who always thinks of us and sends us stuff for most major holidays. Thanks, MOM! Anyway, I was so thrilled to see that my mom had sent me a nativity set. I love nativity sets and love collecting different ones. The one she sent me (pictured below) is a Jim Shore set. I love the detail each figurine has on it. She also sent an angel to go with my Willow Tree nativity (I don't have it out yet, so I didn't take a picture of that). Thanks again, Mom...I love it!

Weekend Visit to Vernal

I was able to go visit Rick, Kristen, Gracie, and Pepe in Vernal this last weekend. On Saturday we did some shopping at some of Vernal's cute stores and, of course, Walmart. Kristen had the wonderful idea of making chocolate cookies with candy cane kisses in the middle. We made them on Sunday before I left and they turned out very cute.

The candy kisses melted so you can't tell that's what they are, but the colors are still cute and they were very yummy!

While we were making the cookies, Rick was in watching the 49ers game (they ended up losing...sorry Rick). We tried having Gracie chill with him in the living room so it was easier to make the cookies. She didn't like that idea and just wanted to hang out with the girls in the kitchen. She loves sitting in her highchair playing with toys. The only problem...she likes to try to share her toys with Pepe. This means Kristen ends up picking up toys the whole time. Oh well!

(Isn't she so cute? I wish they lived closer!)

Some Late Halloween Pictures

So Halloween has come and gone, but here are some almost month old pictures.

This is Marianna, our school's wonderful speech pathologist, and me on Halloween. The members of our Special Ed. team were all M&M's. I was a bumble bee...again!

Here are some of the spiders that my students made as one of the centers in the Halloween party. They have York patties in the middle. They all turned out very cute!

I'm Still Alive!

Jen, Paige, and Carter politely reminded me that I needed to post something new...thanks guys! I have done a lot since my last post when I was in Seattle. I flew back to Salt Lake with my mom and then drove out to Vernal to visit Kristen, Rick, and Gracie. Unfortunately, I had to come back to start school. I mean...I love school and all, but Gracie is so dang cute and fun to be around. Kristen and her family brought my mom back to Salt Lake on Friday. My mom watched Gracie that night so that Kristen, Rick, Chad, and I could make a trip to Lagoon for Frightmares...it was a lot of fun! We went to get Gracie's pictures taken the next day (that is a whole other crazy story!). This picture is my favorite (it doesn't have very good resolution but it's still cute).

Mom flew out on Saturday and Kristen and her family headed back to Vernal. The first week back on-track was good and busy. I was definitely looking forward to a good weekend, too. The weekend started out great, but I ended up getting the flu on Saturday night. I spent Sunday and Monday resting and went back to school today. Fortunately for you, that is the shortened version. Goodbye for now!

The End of a Very Busy Day!

I am still in Seattle until tomorrow morning. In the morning my mom and I are flying to Salt Lake and then getting in the car and driving to Vernal to visit my sister and her family. I had a pretty busy day today though...full of shopping, shopping, and more shopping.

Every time I come to Seattle my mom and I go shopping at Seattle Premium Outlets. We made that trip today with my Aunt Susan. We bought lots of stuff, but one thing is more exciting than the rest. There is a Coach store at Seattle Premium Outlets and they had a great sale today. I have wanted a Coach purse for a really long time and I finally got one. I am very excited about it!

We finally got home at about 5:45 and were soon off to dinner with Uncle Brent, Aunt Susan, and my parents. Sara was able to come out and join us as well. We went to a really good restaurant in Redmond called Coho. We ate, talked for a while, said goodbye to Sara, and were headed home. My uncle usually keeps me pretty entertained and he succeeded with doing so again. We were in the car on the way home and this is a conversation that took place between my dad and Brent:

Brent: "The weather is supposed to be pretty nice tomorrow."
Dad: "That's what I heard."
(Talking between all of us)
Brent: (a minute or so later and with a bit of excitement in his voice) "I can't wait for tomorrow."
Dad: "Why is that?"
Brent: "Because I get better looking everyday! That's what people tell me."

Now you may be asking yourself "Is he special?" Well...he's definitely special to us! I have included a picture of him.

This is kind of an old picture, but can you imagine this man getting any better looking than he is in this picture?

Dinner with Sara

I have been in Seattle since I left Ohio last Saturday. I have had a great time! I got to go to dinner last night at a Thai restaurant, The King & I, in Bellevue. The dish that I got was delicious, but the best part of the night was the company I was with. Sara, a friend of mine that I met at BYU-Idaho, joined me. It was so good to see her and to catch up on what's new with her. I really do feel fortunate to have Sara as a friend. She is always there for me and is very trustworthy! Thanks Sara! I didn't have my camera to take a picture of us at the restaurant and this was the only picture I had of her on my computer. She is the one in the bright orange dress. I know you are all very jealous, but the dress is one of a kind!

Trip to Ohio

I went off-track on September 26th. On September 27th I flew to Ohio to visit my cousin Jen and her family. Jen is my dad's brother's daughter (in other words...my cousin). We were very blessed to grow up in the same neighborhood as Jen's family. Jen and her brother are like siblings to my brother, sister, and me. Jen has three beautiful children. They are: Paige (7), Carter (5), and Ella (1). I had a lot of fun with all of them. Here are some pictures of some of the fun we had! (My camera's battery was low so I have to thank Jen for these pictures.)

Drew stayed home with the kids one night so Jen and I could go get some yummy ice cream at a place called Jeni's. They have some pretty different flavors. Some of them had cayenne pepper in them and a couple were very salty. We both got the flavor "Gravel Road." This was "Salty Caramel" ice cream with almonds mixed in. They also have really friendly employees...one of which possibly broke her ankle while drunk and getting off a cruise boat in L.A. a couple days before. Anyway...this is a picture that a couple very nice men took for us.

We had a lot of fun reading. Paige is a fantastic reader and she read a few books to me. One of my favorites was Magic Tree House: Midnight on the Moon. Carter and I read a few books together as well. As you can see in this picture, we read Balloon Farm (which is one of my favorites).

Ella is learning how to walk. She is really trying hard to be able to walk by herself. Jen, Ella, and I went to the Eddie Bauer Outlet and all Ella wanted to do was to get down and walk...not ride in her stroller or be carried...just walk. She has a little scooter thing that she can hold on to while trying to walk. We had a lot of fun watching waddle across the room.

Paige, Carter, and I got to make Monster Cookies on Friday. Both of them are excellent bakers and the cookies turned out to be very delicious! (Unfortunately not so good for a diet!)