Christmas Day

We had such a wonderful and relaxing Christmas day- we got to sleep in until about 8:30 and then we gathered up all of our presents and our stockings and headed to Becca's house. It was definately not calm and quiet during present opening with a 4 year old and 2 year old- but it was a blast! Both Steve and I got some very nice gifts and were very blessed! Steve got lots of new clothes, a book he had been wanting, some movies, and some new Jordan shoes! I got a new jackets, some cute boots, a new sweater, a purse, new silverware, and some new seasons of shows!

After that Steve and I went home to rest and get ready for the day. We watched the Suns vs. Spurs game which was intense since I love the Spurs and Steve loves the Suns. Don't worry- in the end my Spurs won!

Then we got ready for Becca, Jesse, Luke, and Livi to come for dinner... which was amazing! We had London broil, mashed potatoes, rolls, green beans, asparagus, oriental salad, and I made delicious chocolate cream pie!

Steve and I have been extremely blessed this year and have been grateful for another wonderful year together!

Christmas Eve...

This year Steve and I decided to stay in Utah for Christmas. Since Steve is the manager at work, he really couldn't take the time off this year (they are growing and doing alot of new things right now and he needs to be there). It was sad because this is the first year in my entire life that I haven't been with my parents on Christmas. But we have actually enjoyed ourselves because it has been a wonderful time to relax! Steve was super busy at work last week and he finishing up finals and I was sick at the end of last week and over the weekend.

Although, we couldn't be with my parents we did get to spend some awesome and fun time with my sister and her family. Last night, we went over to their house and had a Christmas eve fondue party. We had steak, chicken, shrimp, onion rings, and deep fried mushrooms. To say the least, it was all amazing.

After cookies and eggnog the kids went to bed we sat around and watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and put together all of the toys from Santa for Luke and Livi. Overall, it was a great way to spend our Christmas Eve and I wasn't even lonely.

Winter is Definitely Here...

This past week we have really been dumped on! On Monday, I couldn't even get out of the garage to get my hair done. It doesn't help that our house is near the mouth of Spanish Fork canyon and we are the side of the street where ALL the snow blows. This is a bit of what we've seen recently...

In this picture, Steve got stuck trying to get into the garage and it took him 30 minutes to get his car out of the deep snow.

Friday Night Lights

Steve and I had a really fun weekend. On Friday night we got to spend some time with our really good friends Tori and Tim. Since they are moving to Arizona (frown :( ) in 2 weeks we are trying to hang out a bunch before they go! So on Friday night we decided to go up to Salt Lake to dinner and to see the lights on Temple Square. Seeing the lights is a bit of a tradition for Steve and I because we love it so much!

Originally we had planned on going to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner but after we were told that it would be like an hour and a half wait we decided to try somewhere else. Then again we were told at Texas Roadhouse that the wait was at least an hour! Finally we ended up at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Trolley Square (it was definitely not anyone's first choice). After an extremely eventful dinner, with me seriously embarassing myself several times, we ended up at the temple. There was tons of people on Temple Square but we still had a great time!

Thanksgiving Break & Baby Foxx

This past week Steve and I went home to Colorado to spend Thanksgiving with my family. We flew out Wednesday evening (Steve had to still work until 5 on Wednesday). Thursday wasn't our typical Thanksgiving due to several reasons. Well, first of all my sister and her family weren't there because it was their turn with Jesse's family. Also, we usually have dinner with my grandparents and my aunts and uncles but my grandpa is really sick so they didn't have Thanksgiving. Lastly, and the best, Ashton and Kylie had their sweet little baby at 3:36 am on Thursday morning! Foxx Kimball Gardner was 6 lb. 10 oz and 20 inches long! What a perfect and wonderful thing to be grateful for on Thanksgiving.

Since Ashton stayed with Kylie in the hospital we got to have little Fiona spend the entire weekend with us. She is so much fun to be with. After we got up and got ready on Thursday we headed for the hospital to see the new little addition to their family.

After a great Thanksgiving day and a wonderful Friday it was already time to come home. We got to spend time with my grandparents and only a little more time with baby Foxx. It was a great trip and a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Tagged...

Eight TV Shows I Like to Watch (I can only list 8!!!???):
1. One Tree Hill
2. Gossip Girl
3. Smallville
4. Desperate Housewives
5. Private Practice
6. Grey's Anatomy
7. America's Next Top Model
8. Beverly Hills, 90210 (the old one)

Eight Things that Happened Yesterday:
1. Watched the season finale of America's Next Top Model
2. Went on a walk with Steve
3. Went to the School Community Council at school
4. Practiced for our school progam on Monday
5. Cooked dinner
6. Watched 2 episodes of Friends
7. Did reading group lessons for up until Thanksgiving
8. Talked to Becca on the phone

Eight Favorite Places to Eat:
1. Olive Garden
2. Red Robin
3. Bajio's
4. Magleby's Fresh
5. Texas Roadhouse
6. Cafe Rio
7. Black Eyed Peas
8. Panda Express

Eight Things that I am Looking Forward to:
1. Thanksgiving Break
2. Christmas Break- time to relax
3. Smallville (starting in less than 3 hours!)
4. Seeing Fiona in Colorado next week
5. James Bond with Steve tomorrow!
6. Being finishing my winter bulletin board on Saturday
7. Finishing our basement
8. Starting our family

Eight Things that I Wish For:
1. A finished basement
2. All my kids could pass their multiplication facts!
3. Angel food cake with chocolate whip cream (yum!)
4. The other 3 seasons of Beverly Hills, 90210
5. My Spanish Fork city bill to be less every month!
6. My brother and sister-in-law to have their new baby by the time we come for Thanksgiving
7. Live closer to all my family
8. My hair to get cut again

What's Up with Us...

It's been awhile since I've updated this thing. Well, not a lot has been going on lately- just the usual busyness.

-Last weekend I had parent teacher conferences and my parents came into town. It is always fun to have them here- we cooked, we ate, we shopped and just had a fun time being together.

-This week we finally got the final piece, an amoire, to complete our bedroom set! We love it- finally a real place to put our tv!

-We had an awesome Halloween in my class yesterday... we had some wonderful moms who planned such a fun party. I dressed up as an angel, the kids told me that it was so fitting- Steve said he wouldn't always agree :)

-Today I hosted a baby shower for my friend Jessica. She is such an adorable pregnant girl- I only hope that I look that cute! It was fun to see her and to see all the fun things that she got!

What Happens in Vegas...

This week we had Fall Break on Thursday and Friday, we orginally we planning on going on a cruise with my sister Becca and her husband Jesse but that didn't work out. So we planned a little get away to Las Vegas. Neither Steve and I had ever been there so we thought it would be fun. We left early Thursday morning in our car- we stopped off in St. George at In & Out for lunch. Yumm! While we were there we saw one of my students from last year and his family- what are the chances!

We arrived at about 2 o'clock and headed for the Stratesphere where we were staying. After a quick rest and freshening up we left for dinner at Chili's (out of the places in Vegas we went there!). Then we headed for west Vegas to go to the "Assylum," this was an old haunted insame assylum. It was ranked one of the ten scariest hanted houses in the country! Steve and I were both a little apprehensive about going- especially Steve, if you know him at all you know that he gets scared so easily. So we all went through and it really was scary but so hilarious at the same time! Steve would not open his eyes and in the end there was this guy that literally chased you with a chain saw. Well, we had to make a train to go through the whole thing and Steve was in the back. When the chain saw guy chased Steve and I, Steve started running pushed both me and Becca out of the way and into a wall. He was quite entertaining.

After the haunted house, we headed down to the strip to ride the New York, New York. Again, Steve was very entertained seeing as he HATES roller coasters! But it really was fun. We then walked around down there, saw the lions in the MGM Grand, took lots of pictures, and just had a good time being together.

On Friday we woke up, went to the breakfast buffett at our hotel and went to the pool for a quick relaxing dip. Of course, in Vegas the pool was filled with drunk people who I have to admit are very fun (but sad) to watch. There was this one group of guys from Colorado who kept thinking that Becca and I were swedish twins! After we got ready for the day we went up the elevator at our hotel 107 stories to the top of the Stratesphere. We didn't ride any rides but just had fun looking at the city- and yet again since Steve is afraid of heights it was all quite amusing.

This is what Becca and I call our Swedish twin picture...

Later we headed back to the strip to go to Madam Tussauds wax museum in the Venetian hotel. This was so cool and we spent a really long time there! We walked around some more and looked at lots of stuff and then went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.

For dinner we went to the seafood buffet at the MGM Grand- it had the most amazing food and dessert. It was expesive ($30 a person) but totally worth every single penny. Later we went the M&M store and the Coke factory and then walked to the Belagio for the water show!

Saturday morning we got up, got ready, packed our stuff, ate breakfast and headed back for Spanish Fork. After the 5 hour drive home and some more memories, we were back home safe and sound.

Playing Catch Up...

Well, it's been a busy couple of weeks! No pictures for this post because basically our camera is lame. Well, Steve is busy as usual doing the full time school and more than full time work at the same tim- he even has 4 hour classes of class on Saturdays :( The past few Saturdays he has been really into BYU football and always wanting to have football parties.

Let's see... its really just been the usual for me lately. Always busy with school and my cute 27 third graders. And of course, I've kept busy with all the season premieres of ALL my shows. Trust me, this is enough to keep like 3 people busy- One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, 90219, Fringe, America's Next Top Model, Grey's Anatomy, Smallville, and Private Practice and Desperate Housewives (which both premiere this week!). Steve doesn't like me to tell anyone that I watch all of these shows faithfully, but now you can see we are one family who actually uses and benefits from TiVo. Thursday was my birthday and it was a wonderful day. Eight year olds always make you feel so loved- my desk was filled with cards, letters, balloons, candy, flowers, and so much other stuff. I even got gifts from students from last year. I didn't get home until 8:30 that night because we had a Back to School Night at school that night. But I did come home to a candle light dinner from Olive Garden- my very favorite! I also got some very nice gifts (picture below) from Steve... a new camera (yea!) and some new tennis/running shoes! So you can look forward to new posts with lots of pictures!

Except mine have yellow instead of red.