Valentines Adult Dinner...

Every year Justin's family has an adult only dinner. It's a favorite of mine because we get to have adult conversation...UNINTERUPTED!!! :) Each year we switch...the women decorate a table and the men prepare the menu or vise versa. This year I had a lot of fun coming up with an 'Alice in Wonderland' theme... funny enough my sister-in-law, who's married to Jusitn's twin, also came up with Alice in Wonderland! :)

Justin's on the right ;)

Tender Mercies...

I just wanted to share an experience Justin and I had this week that reminded us that Heavenly Father is very aware of each of us... As many of you know, since Justin went back to school we have been on a pretty tight budget. We've been living off of the "envelope system" from month to month to stay on track. Several weeks ago I thought I had given Justin our envelope with our remaining tithing money. It held 2 more months worth of tithing to be paid in Jan. and Feb. Well, needless to say, it was NOWHERE to be found! With January's tithing coming due, we decided to go ahead and take money from another bill to pay our tithing so it wouldn't go unpaid...this left us short for other expenses. I knew that Heavenly Father knew our circumstances and would bless us for our efforts...however, since he knew, it never even occurred to me to pray and ASK him to help us find the envelope. Well, things were getting tighter financially and finally out of desperation I thought maybe I should pray and physically ask for help. After getting up off my knees I went directly to the closet to search Justin's suit pocket for the 50th time. Still I found nothing. After deciding to go downstairs to check the coat closet, I stopped to pick up an empty mug sitting on my nightstand to take with me to wash. As I picked it up I moved the book it was sitting on, and THERE WAS THE ENVELOPE!! Talk about a QUICK and DIRECT answer to prayer! I learned or was reminded that... Heavenly Father does loves us and is mindful of our needs but often times He needs us to do our part and ask for what it is so that we can exercise our faith and see His hand when He answers. "Behold, ye have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when ye took no thought save it was to ask me.....Therefore, if you will ask of me you shall receive..." Doctrine & Covenants 6:5, 9:7

Hangin' with the fam...

Girls Night In...

My sister and sister-in-laws have decided it's time to start a monthly Girls Night... We had so much fun at the Women's Broadcast back in October, it was time to do something again... I hosted a girls night at my home complete with foot massages, facials and fondue. It was a lot of fun! Mom and Em didn't make it... :( But we'll be sure to do it again!!!

Yum!

Eli's not so sure about squash...

Things We Do on Wintery Days...

Go to the Kid Zone at the mall and drive the school bus...

Go see the fast trains & Lego village at Thanksgiving Point...

Make snowman pictures...(Love the arms :))

Play with play dough...

Watch "Shows" Particularly Thomas and Toy Story 2...

and Hang Out (He LOVES his bouncer!!!)

6 Months Old!

I can hardly believe Eli is 6 months old!!! Where has the time gone! He is SUCH a BRIGHT SPOT in our lives! There isn't a day that goes by that I don't feel extremely blessed to have his happy little soul in our home. Happy 6 months little man! We celebrated Eli turning 6 months by making 1/2 a birthday cake. It's not real pretty because we were trying to save on calories... let's just say, buttercream frosting an sprinkles looks a lot prettier than whip cream and blueberries:)

Give a Day Get a Day...

Disney!!! So Disneyland is encouraging everyone to get out and serve your communities... As an incentive, they will give you 1 free voucher (worth $72) towards an all day pass to Disneyland or Disneyworld to be used by Dec. 15th 2010. Isn't that GREAT! Justin and I will be married for 5 YEARS this September, and since our honeymoon was all of 2 days long, we are GOING TO DISNEYLAND! I'm SO excited! (Can you tell!) Saturday we volunteered for Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit organization that builds homes for low income familes. We had a BLAST! Justin was put to work using his skills as a finish carpenter. The director was SO happy to have someone that knew what they were doing! I also learned how to hang a door, put in base board and trim and run the chop saw. Not too shabby!

Base board I put in :)

For more information on how to get started go to www.disneyland.com

Drinking his "Tall Boy"

My Family on the News!!!

This is a clip from the local news about my brother and sister in laws family. We helped in the renovation of their home... it's pretty amazing to see it come together. Clayton (my other brother in law) was nominated for getting the whole project started. ksl.com - High 5: Man leads effort to renovate home If you look closely, Justin and I are in the background! :)

A Few Random Pics...

So our car is having issues... The drivers seat just broke so it leans ALL the way back. The drivers side door won't open either so we have to climb over the seat and gear shift...well imagine my surprise when I went to open the passenger side door after arriving at the gym this morning to find...

That door doesn't work either! I had to climb through the window! Luckily it was 5:30am and still dark!

Wow! What a man! Isn't he good looking! Eli 5 months! Wow! (He's in his muscle shirt :))

Ringing in the New Year!!!

New Years Eve at Jon and Jens... More food, family, games, football and waiting for the BIG moment!

Ahhhh!

Christmas 2009

Christmas Eve we spent with Justin's family. Every year we participate in "Sled Races", a kid/adult white elephant gift exchange and a kid/man/woman gift exchange we drew names for. It's always a lot of fun with a lot of people and a lot of food!

We make sleds out of candy bars/boxed candy and candy canes. We came in 3rd place this year

Back at home we unwrapped pajamas, told the Christmas Story to our boys (flannel board) and went for a drive to look at lights and watch for Santa.

Christmas Morning we have family prayer then venture off to see what Santa brought!

Estin was SOOOO excited Santa brought him a train table! We had to cover it with a blanket and have him open his other presents first, but once he discovered there was something UNDER the blanket there was NO stopping him! We hardly saw him the rest of the day!

Eli loved his toys too!

My Grandma, Doris Nelson, handmade this piece (0ne of DOZENS she's done). Each stitch is an INCREDIBLE amount of time and love. Justin had it framed for me with a name plate "Doris H. Nelson. Hardanger" (The name of the stitch is hardanger). He couldn't have done anything sweeter....

Except maybe this... he typed 15 pages (single space) of our love story. How we met, how we fell in love, firsts... such as holding hands etc. Could I ask for anyone better!!! He REALLY outdid himself this year and was paying attention when I told him that I just wanted his gifts to come from the heart.

Me reading our love story

Justin and his MP3 Player for working out..

The Before....

The After Math...

Merry Christmas!!!!