Christmas Ornaments

Okay, so this is my 6th post today...but I think I am finally caught up with everything I wanted to blog about (well after this post!).

My mom always gets us ornaments each year to hang on our tree. This is what she sent us this year...

This was Dan's (obviously...). The runner's shirt says, "Born to Run", how fitting....:)

And this was mine...sorry the picture is a little fuzzy. I love Smores ornaments so this was perfect to add to my collection. The little Smore is holding a sign that says "I Believe" while standing next to Santa Smore.

Probably my #1 "Sierra Moment" of the year....

So speaking of having a bad day at work on Wednesday....Thursday seemed to be even worse. It really wasn't that bad now that I look back but it sure was stressful during the process.

One of the Attorneys had a trial to go to this morning. So yesterday there was lots of scrambling...he was in a bad mood as well as his secretary. Anyway, his secretary was having a hard time getting everything done so I offered to help make copies of all these photos for her. This is normally not my job, but I was trying to be nice so I offered. While making copies one of the original photos fell in between the wall and a a desk that is built into the wall. There was the teeniest, tiniest crack and somehow that stupid photo just happened to fall in it.

Long story short...we had to have that photo. The secretary freaked out, the attorney freaked out, and I spent most of the remainder of my day trying to get that stupid photo out. I called the company that owns the building. They sent maintenance up here to look at it who then told us they couldn't tear it out without the property manager's permission, who just happened to be in a meeting. It got to the point that Jimmy, the attorney, told me he was going to demo the whole wall if someone from the realty company didn't do something about it within the hour. Right in the nick of time...the company sent up 3 guys that they hired from outside the office to help with the ordeal. They had to take out the built-in, get the picture, and then put it all back together again....

To say the least...I am glad that is over with and I just might not offer to ever help anyone again! Just kidding...but boy is it tempting after yesterday.....

Christmas Caroling

After work Wednesday Dan and I went Christmas Caroling with the youth at church as well. One of the members of the Bishopric brought his trailer full of hay. We invited families to join us as well. All the kids were on the trailer while the adults walked. It was really fun, one of the best activities I think we have ever had for the youth. We got to sing to a few families that really needed to be uplifted this Christmas Season as well. Christmas music is one of my favorite things about Christmas. I love the peaceful feeling it gives me, especially Christmas Hymns like "Away in a Manger" and "Silent Night." I had a rough day at work and was having a hard time handling everything that had taken place. I was amazed at how much the carols really calmed me down and lifted my spirits. I might just start listening to those songs all year long!

Cady & Ellee Pettit's son, Merik.

Both the Heathers strumming to the guitar.

Cady, Madison, Kaitlin, and her friend.

Sarah & Kali.

Silly Jean....

Work Christmas Party

On Wednesday we had our annual work Christmas party. We just do a potluck during lunch in the boardroom on the 3rd floor. I really wanted to make a Christmas cake this year and decided the work party was as good of time as any to do it. I had a lot of fun making it. I spent so much time on it though that I didn't want to cut it! I understand I can't just keep cakes forever...but I sure didn't want to be the one to destroy it! Maybe I need to find a hobby that lasts a little longer than a cake...but yet, if we had to store everything I made we would have to live in a mansion!

Christmas Cookies and Holiday Hearts.....

In between setting up the nativity room, the Christmas party, and church I made a ton of sweets last weekend to take to friends. I made 3 different kinds of suckers, white chocolate popcorn, Oreo balls, and Dan made banana bread and cleaned up after me!

The finished product....

Me "cheezing it" majorly...

Dan on cleanup patrol.

Nativity Room

Last weekend was our Church Christmas Party. Somehow my friend ended up being in charge of the nativity room for the party...everyone says she volunteered, but to her knowledge she doesn't remember saying anything. Anyway, she agreed to do it and called me to help her with the project. We didn't have much time to prepare for it nor a budget for it, so everything was kinda thrown together at the last minute..but we really enjoyed it! I love decorating for Christmas so it was fun to get to decorate again after I finished my house.

The nativity room is a yearly tradition at our church Christmas parties. It is basically just a room that everyone can bring and display their nativities in. We had over 40 nativities displayed. There were some really cute ones that I want really bad now! I am just like my mom...I love to collect nativities so this project was right up my alley!

We had the lights turned low and Christmas music playing. It was really neat. I love the peaceful feeling Christmas brings and walking into that room full of nativities reminded me just what I love about Christmas.

There is a really neat Church in Kaysville, Utah near my parent's house that displays nativities from around the world for the whole month of December. We toured it a couple of times growing up. I always thought it was so cool to see all the different nativities...so this event also brought back great childhood memories.

The room had tables all around the perimeter as well as a few Christmas Trees, with this round table in the middle. We put my Christus and a plate that says "Wise Men still Seek Him" as the centrepiece. We wanted everything to be white, gold, and silver...but ended up having to use just about every Christmas color to get enough table clothes to cover the room. It still turned out okay though.

This was one of my favorite nativities. It is a tree with the manger scene at the bottom. It lite up and had a music box with it as well.

The one in the back is mine. I owe four or five but only took a picture of this one. Dan's parents gave it to us our first Christmas. The figurines have glitter on them. I really like it.

I LOVED this one on the piano too!


I thought this Fisher Price one was really cute as well.

Cake!

A couple of weekends ago I spent my whole weekend surrounded by cake! A friend from church asked me to help her make her little girl's birthday cake as well as a co-worker of mine asked me to make 4 dozen cupcakes for her grandson's birthday. Talk about a LOT of cake!

The little girl was having a "Fancy Nancy" birthday party so the cake was quite fun to make. I loved getting to do all girly colors and girly things. All the cakes I have made in the past haven't ever been for little girls so I really enjoyed it. It as fun being able to visit with her mom too while we decorated.

The cupcakes were for a "Diego" party. I didn't realize how long 4 dozen cupcakes would take! I woke up at 7:30 on Saturday morning to begin the process. It took me until noon! My hand was shaking horribly by the time I was finished because it was so tired! You can definitely tell which ones I decorated at the beginning and the ones at the end when my hand was a limp noodle! It was worth it though...I was able to use the money I made off it of it to buy a few cake supplies I have been needing/wanting.

Trees Galore!

Right before we left to go out of town for Thanksgiving I spent a busy few days setting up lots of Christmas trees! Dan and I wanted to set up our Christmas tree before we left so we could enjoy it for as long as possible since we wont be home for Christmas this year.

Our Tree...

I love frogs...as many of you know. So our tree is red & retro green. I have about 8 frog ornaments right now and want to collect one each year.

Dan's basketball penguin ornament. We each get an ornament every year and this is what I choose for him. He has a smores basketball for last year and a frog basketball for the year before.

We also have a few alligators on our tree!

Last weekend my friend, Jenni, helped me make these Christmas blocks. I have done lots of projects for others with my vinyl machine but never get mine done so she helped me finish my first project! I am hoping to make a stocking board before Christmas as well but we will see!

I also decorated our apartment window since we don't have a house to put lights on!

Jenni and I also set up the two Christmas trees at the firm before Thanksgiving. The are a little scraggly...but that's what you get when you work with a firm full of boy attorneys who don't get the reason why you would spend money to decorate!

I also brought up this little tree for us to put in the receptionist area. One of the attorneys called it our "Charlie Brown" tree...lol. Which is quite accurate...Dan and I bought this tree for our first Christmas for like $10 because that was all we could afford!:)

Thanksgiving Weekend Half Marathon

So, as I said before in the last post, the main reason we went to Gulf Shores, Alabama was for a half marathon Dan had been training for. Dan ran a half marathon while he was deployed last year but this was his first time running one in the states. He was really excited for the race and had been training constantly for several weeks before the event, he even ran 10 miles on Thanksgiving morning!

So on Saturday morning we got up bright and early to head to the half marathon. I stayed to watch the race begin and then went shopping for the hour and a half Dan was running. I actually saw him a few times running by while I was at different shops....I definitely had the lazier morning of the two of us! I even honked at him once while driving by...it wasn't the brightest moment I have ever had...I scared him quite a bit as he was running alone the shore. I made it back to the finish line about 10 minutes before Dan came running in with a time of 91 minutes and as the 3rd Place overall Male finisher. I was quite proud and he was quite exhausted!

The Start of the Race
Coming across the finish line.

Stretching after the race.

I stole his medal long enough to get my moment of glory...before he proudly took it back.

1st, 2nd, and 3rd Place Male Finishers (Dan is short, but not that short...they are all standing on pedestals of different heights.)

Overall, Dan enjoyed running and I enjoyed the good excuse of getting to go to the beach to watch a race!

Post Thanksgiving at the Beach!

After we finished Thanksgiving dinner at Dan's parents we continued on for the remainder of our planned trip for the weekend. Dan signed up to run a Half Marathon in Gulf Shores, Alabama, which ended up being a lot longer of a drive than we had planned on from their house. We arrived around 10pm. Upon arrival we found out that the condo rental company had forgotten we were showing up that day. Usually they give you a code to the building so you can pick up your key that they leave out on the front desk...but since they didn't remember about us, there was no key to be found. We had to wait for a security guard to arrive and get our key for us.

The next morning we had to go back to the main office and pay our balance. They kept on apologizing over and over again for the trouble they put us through...which honestly wasn't that big of a deal, other than we were tired and were sick of being in the car. They ended up giving us a $50 gift card to a local res truant for all the "trouble" they put us through. Dan was also given another $25 res truant gift card, $20 Tanger Outlet gift card, and a free night stay at the condo for the race...so between everything we got a great deal on our weekend getaway! All we paid for was the gas and 2 nights at the condo. We cooked our own breakfast and ate sandwiches for lunch...and had free dinners! It definitely worked out to our advantage!

This is the view from the living room balcony at the condo.

This is the bedroom balcony view.



And this is a picture I took of the pool area. The pool was as cold as ice water but at least the hot tub was nice!

On Friday morning we decided to hit a few souvenir shops. One of them had a really cool Shark as part of the entrance.

After we were done shopping we headed to the Beach! The water was ABSOLUTELY FREEZING! I love looking for shells though so we walked along the beach and let the water hit our legs and feet. By the time we were done at the beach my feet were totally numb:)

There were the CUTEST little birds on the beach. They would run up to the edge of the water to eat bugs and as soon as the tide got close to them they would run away at lightning speed. Their little legs would move so fast you could barely even see them! Dan kept on teasing me that I was just like the birds....I would run up to the water's edge to look for shells and as soon as the water came near me I would squeal and run away because it was so cold! It was totally worth it though!

After we were done searching for shells we attempted to make a sand castle and then buried one another. We were the only people playing on the beach (there were a few people walking on the beach and such...but we were the only ones actually playing like it was summer!) but we had a lot of fun!

Me by our sandcastle...it was collapsing as we were building so we didn't get so far.

Dan by our sandcastle.

I buried Dan entirely except for his head...I accidentally got a lot of sand in his ears too!

Dan imitating the Incredible Hulk....lol

Dan got it easy...he buried me in the same spot I buried him. So all he had to do is pile all the sand on top of me that I had dug out for him!

After the beach we went out to eat at one of the "free" res truants. The food wasn't that great...but the view was nice! (Pardon our extremely cheesy smiles...)

For the rest of the weekend it rained almost constantly but it at least stopped for the race! So although we didn't get much More beach time we enjoyed being able to relax, shop, go to the movies, etc...I even dragged Dan to see Twilight with me for my second time of seeing it...his first!

Thanksgiving....Cajun Style

This year we were able to experience our very first Cajun Thanksgiving. We went to Dan's parent's house and celebrated with all the family, there was almost 30 of us! Overall, we enjoyed it...it was definitely different than we are used to but was nice to experience something new. Our favorite part was the cajun fried turkey, it was SOOOOOO yummy! I never want to eat another baked turkey in my life after tasting that! It was really neat to watch how the turkey is fried as well.

The turkey is fried in 5 gallons of peanut oil. Usually you do it outside but it was too windy so they moved it into the garage. The ladder is used as part of a pulley system to pull the turkey out. I was surprised at how quick it cooked! It only took about 45 minutes compared to the several hours they take to bake.

Close-up of the Turkey

Dan was so closely monitoring the turkey you would think he actually had something to do with it! The only thing he did was eat it!

The sidedishes for Thanksgiving were definitely different than the traditional thanksgiving we are used to. The biggest difference for me was that they do rice and gravy instead of mash potatoes and gravy. I love mash potatoes and didn't quite think I could handle a Thanksgiving without them so I planned on bringing some of my own and making an extra side for the meal. When we got there I learned that Donna's sister-in-law was making a potato dish of some sort so I decided not to make my potatoes, figuring I could live now that there would at least be some sort of potato dish.

When Donna's sister-in-law arrived she came in carrying a huge dish of Mac & Cheese! Who the heck has mac and cheese for Thanksgiving??? I mean seriously...last I checked I have never heard of that before. Anyway, so in the end...I didn't get my potatoes at all....oh well...there is always next year. The turkey still made the day worth it...and the family of course:) I also fell in love with Louisiana Pralines..Donna made the best ones I have ever tasted! I definitely got a sugar high that I didn't need that day but it was well worth it.

P.S. The making of this post was not intented to offend any Thanksgiving Mac & Cheese lovers...

The official Cheerleader

A few weekends ago after Dan finished running 12 miles (I think...I've slept since then...) we went over to help my friend, Jenni, train for a physical test she is taking. So along with the 12 he had already ran he ran another 1.5 with Jenni as well as helped her with her sit-ups and push-ups. Dan seemed to really enjoy helping someone else train, I told him he should become a personal trainer!

Anyways, while Dan and Jenni trained I was the official cheerleader/babysitter/photographer, which was plenty for me...I would much rather be the cheerleader than run myself:)

My official helper...Colt kept on trying to take the camera from me so I took several pictures of him to keep him occupied.

Push-ups

Sit-ups...Cold decided he wanted to do sit-ups too!