Gingerbread Houses

I have an amazingly talented friend, Teresa, who is a fabulous cook! Last year, she started a tradition of doing gingerbread houses at Christmastime. Starting about a month in advance she starts to make a ton of gingerbread houses by hand & freezes them until Christmastime. Then in December, everyone brings treats to share, and we enjoy a girl’s night out decorating gingerbread houses.

I missed the activity last year because we weren’t in the area, so I was excited for it this year. It was great to get together with everyone and enjoy the night. It’s also a good thing that Teresa is such a good sport letting everyone crash her house until the late night hours- at 10pm I was one of the earlier ones to leave, apparently some people partied it up until 2am. The boys were sure excited to see the gingerbread house the next morning.

So often I’m reminded of how lucky I am to be surrounded by so many fun, amazing, talented, and thoughtful women. I’m so grateful for good friends, these women really are like sisters to me.

Lizzette, Alissa, Teresa

Stacey, Me, Lizzette

Ward Christmas Party

Our ward had a fun Christmas party this year. We were able to get together with friends & ward members for a yummy dinner and an evening of good company. I’m glad there’s a gym in the church, because the kids just have a blast running around with all their friends. Matthew thought it was awesome that the dessert table was right at his level, I’m still not sure exactly how many cookies he had that night.

The highlight of the night of course, was the visit from Santa. Each of the boys took a turn sitting on his lap and telling him what they’d like for Christmas- even Matthew did great this year, especially since he got a candy cane afterwards.

Work Christmas Party

Jeff had a work Christmas party with all of the residents at his hospital. It was a fun evening to get together to enjoy a fabulous dinner with friends. The food was excellent, these big catered events really are amazing. (even if we didn't care for the open bar too much) I still wish I would have gotten a picture of the dessert bar. There was a live band playing music, and we enjoyed some fun & very entertaining conversations!

I do have to say that it's always interesting to try and come up with a good outfit for a formal event when you're almost 7 months pregnant- pretty sure I was the only pregnant one there. Good thing I have a husband who makes me feel cute no matter what! :) My favorite part was definitely being able to spend an evening with Jeff. Big thanks to our friend Scott Matson who came over to stay at our house while our boys were sleeping!

8 of the 9 Ophthalmology residents- these guys are great!

Residents with spouses

Getting Ready for Christmas

We like to put up our Christmas decorations early around here. This is the 3rd year in a row that we haven't been home with family for Christmas and it's nice to have cheerful things around. Normally we decorate the day after Thanksgiving, but we were in Virginia so we pulled out the boxes a couple days into December. The boys are really getting to the age where they enjoy the whole season and everything that comes along with it. Jeff was out of town again, so I was grateful to have three eager little helpers to put up the tree and decorations. We've had the same little artificial tree for 8 years straight, same as most of our decorations- it's done pretty well over the years. I decided to add some extras to the tree this year, usually with young kids around everything just gets pulled off, but I figured Matthew is old enough to be better this year. I love how cozy the apartment feels with all the decorations and lights. They're definitely not anything fancy, but they're just perfect for us! We love our little place at Christmas time.

The boys with the finished product

All lit up

I decided to make a wreath for our front door this year, and was pleased with how it turned out; especially since it only cost me about $7.

My mom got this little nativity for the boys last year. It's been one of their favorite things to help set up. I usually find the pieces rearranged throughout the day, and that's what it is for- they love that it is *their* nativity set.

Vinyl is one of the greatest decorations ever!

The Rest of the Holiday Weekend

We stayed with Mike & Kimber until Sunday morning, so we had lots of time to spend together doing fun things.

On Friday morning we walked down to a parade in the nearby shopping center. It was perfect, close by and about 20 minutes long. The kids had fun seeing all the cars, trucks, bands, dancers, and everything else in the parade. They even got a few pieces of candy.

The gang watching the parade

A strange, star-like creature attempting to attack (hug) Matthew. He wasn't a big fan of whatever it was.

Trying to get a picture of our group after the parade, unfortunately the sun came out right then and this is what we got. Cracks me up! At least Kimberly is looking & smiling...she's the only one.

Family picture after the parade, in the shade...

Later on, we went for a walk along the Monticello trails. We took the paper airplanes we had made earlier, and had flying contests. Kimber always has so many fun ideas, the boys loved every minute! We headed home afterwards where we met up with Mike who had been busy studying during the day, and enjoyed a yummy dinner while we watched the BSU football game. Kimber and I even headed out for a little while at about 10pm to make a stop at Old Navy to see if we could find some good deals. Girl’s night trips are the best!

The mighty fliers!

More high-flying competition and a 25-week belly shot. (well..6 hours short)

Saturday we went with Kimber & Mike to a fun little place to pick out their Christmas tree. The boys loved running around this cute farm with tons of Christmas trees growing all over. The boys enjoyed seeing and feeding the sheep, drinking hot chocolate, picking out coloring books, and of course- helping to pick out the perfect Christmas tree!

Matthew loving the cows & sheep, it was too hard to get him to actually look at the camera. We'll settle for a finger point.

Jacob and Caleb with their 'perfect' little tree.

Matthew was Jeff's little side-kick. He wanted to follow him wherever he went, and would chase after him yelling, "Daddy, daddy!"

Mike cutting down the perfect Christmas tree.

That night was the BYU vs. Utah game. Kimber & Mike have some friends who had the game on, so we all went over. I didn’t stay for too long before I took Caleb & Matthew home to put them to bed, but everyone else had a great time watching the game. And what could make it better than a sweet cougar victory? As with every night, we stayed up way too late talking, laughing, and having a good time with interesting conversations. We were grateful for the Menssen’s great hospitality; their place is even a little smaller than ours- so squeezing 8 people in for 3 days isn’t the easiest thing, but we all had such a great time.

We took off on Sunday morning and stopped for sacrament meeting in Washington D.C. It was a great meeting, and afterwards we were able to eat lunch at the temple and enjoy walking around the grounds. It was such a beautiful day and a perfect way to end the holiday weekend. This was definitely a great one and we'll always cherish the fun memories.

Happy Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year, we were able to go to Virginia to spend the holiday with Kimberly, Mike & Tyler. Flying home for a 3-day weekend isn’t an option so if you can’t be home for the holiday, being with family away from home is the next best thing!

(Stevens Family & Menssen Family)

We drove down Thanksgiving morning and would have been there sooner if we hadn’t gotten caught in traffic, we had 20 minutes before it was time to head over to have Thanksgiving dinner at the law school with a bunch of Mike & Kimberly’s friends, classmates, and ward members. It was fun to get to meet everyone and enjoy a yummy dinner. There was lots of great food and we had the whole afternoon/evening to sit back and relax. Someone even planned well & brought a tv and some dvd’s for the kids to watch after the dinner.

(The whole group)

The only sad thing about the get-together was that they had received news that their fellow student, friend, and ward member John Jones had passed away that morning after becoming stuck in a cave in Utah. He left behind a daughter, and wife who was expecting their 2^nd child. He was a good friend to many of them and it was a hard thing to experience, especially on Thanksgiving.

We were glad that we were able to travel down and spend the holiday with family. It was a great time to reflect upon the many things we have in our lives to be thankful for, we really have been so greatly blessed.

New Moon...Yes, I Was There

I didn't ever really get into the hype of the Twilight books. In fact, I didn't even read them until a few months ago when all four books were already out and I was at home on vacation with plenty of time to spend reading. At that point, I did get into them. I really enjoyed reading the series, watching Twilight, and was excited for New Moon, but still didn't really consider myself a 'Twilight Crazy'. I knew some friends were going to go to the midnight showing on Thursday, but I figured I would just see it another time. Well, late Wednesday night I let myself get talked into going to the midnight showing. Never mind that I had to get up at 6:30 the next morning and run around all day taking kids to school, helping out in classes, making snacks, etc.

I admit that I'm so glad I went! It was a blast and so fun to spend the night with friends. I was worried I wouldn't be able to stay awake for the movie, (at 24 weeks pregnant, I feel ready for bed by 10pm) but due to the excitement of the movie (and maybe a little help from my smuggled-in chips & salsa) I had no problem. It was a great movie and I'm already excited to see it again! I think I've even convinced Jeff to watch it too! :)

Chili Cook Off

Our ward always has an annual 'Chili Cook Off' in the fall. We were able to enjoy it last night. There were thirteen people participating in the chili contest and it was sure fun to see everyone and try all the fantastic varieties of chili.

(The Fabulous Chili Cooks)

I thought about making some chili, but then our Saturday ended up being busy so I ended up just doing a double batch of cornbread and brownies to go along with the meal. After I saw the 13 pots on the table I didn't feel too bad! Everything tasted great and the judges (the missionaries) did a good job of awarding prizes to the top chilies, although I think the awards could easily have gone to any of the entries!

The boys had fun trying the yummy food and having fun with their friends. This is definitely one of my favorite activities of the year.

Random November

I find that I usually have a few random pictures/happenings from each month, and they usually end up in a ‘catch-up’ random blog, but I enjoy seeing the pictures and looking back at them later.

I can tell when we’ve had a busy day. Matthew always fights me on taking a nap; he has so much energy that he can usually make it through the day just fine without one. But if he’s had a busy day and he’s tired enough, he can fall asleep anywhere, in his car seat, on the couch or even on the floor.

If Caleb sees me taking a picture of someone or something else, he’ll usually ask that I take a picture of him as well.

We did our traditional “Thankful Tree” family home evening this past week. It’s always fun to sit down together and write down things that we are thankful for. It’s usually pretty entertaining to see some of the things that the boys come up with.

I was in charge of snacks this week for Jacob’s kindergarten class. Fortunately they let us bring in homemade snacks so I don’t just have to stick to plain old store bought snacks. I especially love it when it gets close to holidays because you can find some creative ideas. On Friday when I came in to help in his class, we brought these rice krispy treats made to look like corn on the cob, with fruit roll ups for the husks. Only bummer is that it’s impossible to find plain green fruit roll ups, so we had to go with a red/green combination. The kids loved them anyway.

I decided it was time for a change and cut my hair. It was a quick decision and Jeff was sure surprised when he came home from work on Tuesday night, but it’s fun to have a change and I’m enjoying the new style. It’s definitely a lot quicker & easier to do!

Friday night, Jeff and I had a date night out. We finally got around to using a gift certificate to a restaurant that we got last year for Christmas. It was fun to spend the evening together. I love date nights!

I was also fortunate enough to be able to go with our Young Women's presidency & leaders to a regional training meeting. Elaine Dalton, the general young women's president was there with other general authorities to do some training. We ended up being right on the front row when we broke up into groups. It was such a neat experience to be right there with her, close enough that we could have reached out and touched her if we had tried. It was a neat experience to have such an intimate, close meeting with such an incredible lady! She is such an inspiration and I think we all came away feeling very uplifted.