Marshmallow Guns & Games

This Christmas will be remembered as the year of the marshmallow gun. When Mark and I got our gun as a white elephant gift, we thought it would be so fun to give our families marshmallow guns too. So we got all the parts and cut all the pipe to size....then let everyone put together their own.

The ironic thing was.....Steven and Alicia made marshmallow guns for all of us too.

So, obviously there were a lot of marshmallows flying around the house all weekend. When we weren't busy shooting marshmallows at each other we were playing lots of games. Twister was a huge hit with both the kids and adults.

Mark got a Halo edition of Risk for Christmas. So, of course we had to try that out too.

And we played Carcassone. As you can probably tell, we dig playing games.

The boys also spent plenty of time playing video games and I got to play with my new little toy. It's the cutest little laptop I've ever seen.

Santa was too good to us this year, and it was so fun to hang out for a few days with Mark's side of the family. Now we're in Idaho with my side of the family having some more fun. I love this time of the year and being able to spend time with both of our families. It makes the holidays so much fun.

So, They Say It's Your Birthday

Today Mark turned the big old 32. We celebrated by driving 12 hours to my parents house. Yeah...we know how to party.

Once we got there we did celebrate with a yummy dinner and some presents. Mark did not lack any help in opening any of his gifts.

No birthday would be complete without a birthday cake. Emily made him an awesome birthday cake...inspired by his love for fishing....and by Cake Wrecks. What a perfect combination.

It was the ugliest fish cake ever....which made it just so cool.

Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve was wonderful...a bit hectic at first...but such a fun day. After Mark and I got off work, we headed out to spend a couple of days with his side of the family. After we got there and we all ate way more than we should have, there was a lot going on. There were definitely some wrestling matches...

That tends to happen when you hang out with some of the silliest nieces and nephews in the entire state of Oregon.

We left some cookies and milk for Santa....and of course some carrots for the reindeer.

Then we sent the kiddos to bed and there were lots of elves helping out with some last minute gift wrapping.

When it was all said and done, there was quite a pile of presents under the tree.

So, the only thing left to do.....was to go to bed so Santa could come!

And so we did.

Par-tay

We have cool friends. Not only are our friends cool, but they also like to throw Christmas parties. Awesome, right?! This weekend we had the pleasure of attending two extremely fun parties. At one we totally scored the coolest white elephant gift ever.

I know, you're probably wondering what's so cool about a bag of mini marshmallows. Well they are for this...

Our brand new marshmallow gun...Mark's new pride and joy. He wanted a new gun, and now he's got one. Lucky guy.
We also went to an ugly sweater party. People sure don't hold back when it comes to ugly sweaters. Here we are sporting our new sweaters. We thought they were both pretty ugly, but everyone thought Mark's was actually kind of cool.

To see some hilarious pictures of the other awesome sweaters, check out the pictures Laura took.

Cream Cheese Chicken

This is probably one of my new favorite meals. Not only is it so delicious, it's ridiculously easy to make too. I'm always on the hunt for great easy meals, and I thought that this one was definitely worth sharing.

Cream Cheese Chicken

You will need:
1 cube of butter
1 envelope of Italian dressing seasoning mix

3 chicken breasts
1 brick of cream cheese

1 small can, cream of chicken soup

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Turn your crock pot on high.

Melt the cube of butter.

Once butter is melted,

Pour in Italian seasoning and mix well.

Slice chicken into small strips or pieces.

Put chicken into butter mixture.

Cook on high for two hours.

Scoop chicken out of the crock pot and set it aside.

Put cream cheese and the cream of chicken

Soup into the leftover juice in the crock pot.

Mix it until it is smooth.

Put the chicken back into the gravy and stir.

Spoon chicken and gravy mixture over rice.

Stuff your face.

Figure out how soon you can make it again.

Then make it again.

I did.

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Thanks google images for the picture since I was a slacker and forgot to take one when I made it.

Totally Random

Mark and I bought the new Super Mario Brothers game for our wii. It's really fun and totally addicting. Seriously. We've already spent way too much time trying to pass new levels. Consider yourself warned.

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I ate some good old Kraft Mac N Cheese for dinner last night. I kind of felt like a kid for a bit. Are we the only adults that sometimes still eat like we're

in college...or high school....or like we're 5?

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I'm making chocolate covered pretzels today with some friends. Yummy. My neighbors have some coming there way. They have no idea how lucky they are.

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I've got to go to the Goodwill today. I really need to find an ugly sweater for both Mark and I. We can't show up to an ugly sweater party in nice clothes. What would people say?

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I enjoy my job probably 95% of the time. I enjoy the environment and interacting with people all day long. Every once in a blue moon, I have a day where I kind of wish my job required me to work quietly in a room. Alone. Yesterday was one of those days.

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What's your take on having lots of inflatable holiday yard decorations?

Mark and I...not huge fans.

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I'm almost done with my Christmas gifts. Thank heavens. I have one to make, and one to purchase. Then let the gift wrapping begin! Speaking of which...better get on that.

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Our Halls Are Decked

Finally, our whole house is all decked out for Christmas.

As you can probably guess, I don't really tend to go overboard when it comes to Christmas.

Ok, maybe just a little bit....I can't help it.

Our tree is up and considering we've packed two trees worth of ornaments on to one tree, it turned out great. A little on the packed side, but that's just the way I like it.

Our mantle and just a couple of my nativities. I love nativities, and I have several more in our dinning room. I think I picked up my love for them from my Mom.

We even got the outside of the house all dolled up too.

Christmas lights are just the best.