It Was The Week Before Christmas

And all through this house….there was always someone stirring.  Thank heavens we never saw a mouse.

This Christmas was one of my favorites of all time.  It was so nice to not have to worry about travelling anywhere.  This year Steven and Alicia brought their family out to see us.  So between having them here for 10 days and having a lot of my family living here, there was always something fun going on.  Steven and the kids had to go out and enjoy the snow.  We love living somewhere snowy…at least so far.

My family got together for a pre Christmas party with Jake and Emily before they headed to California for Christmas.  For several years my family has done an ornament exchange in the place of gifts.  I love it.  It is so much less stressful.  So, we thought it would be appropriate this year to give everyone this ornament.  I can’t believe we haven’t done a BYU ornament before.  And to make our ornament even more awesome…we gave gave it to everyone on the day BYU won their bowl game.

 While everyone was staying with us, I cooked more than I usually do.  It was pretty nice to have a hot meal every night.  It made me want to be more organized and to cook more often.  I’ll start that next week though.  I don’t think anyone enjoyed the spaghetti more than Ian did.  Well, maybe I should say none of us wore as much of the spaghetti as he did.

Christmas Eve came around and everyone came over for dinner at our house.  All the kiddos had tons of fun playing together.  And we had fun playing with them.  They all got to sport their cool new jammies.

  

And of course, we had to track Santa’s location.  The closer he got to Idaho, the more some of the kids were ready for bed…so Santa could come.

But, we couldn’t go to bed before sprinkling reindeer food down our front walk.  We had to entice the reindeer (with dried oatmeal and sprinkles) to stop at our house.

And boy did Santa find our house.  We must have been very good this year….or we really had him fooled.  But, I’ll save all that fun for another post.

Merry Christmas To All

We have been busy enjoying this holiday season playing with several of our cute nieces and nephews.  And their parents too.  They are so much fun.  Having kids in our house for Christmas makes it so much more magical and exciting.

Merry Christmas from Mark and I.  May it be joyous and bright.

And may Santa bring you what you are wishing for this year.

What I’m Loving

A list of things I’m loving right now:

~Sitting in our living room with nothing but the Christmas lights on.

~Getting to have two Christmas trees this year…one upstairs and one downstairs.

~Having the project that I decided to make for all the nieces and nephews actually turn out the way I wanted.  What a relief!

~Getting to babysit my sister’s kiddos so her and her husband could go out.  And getting paid in yummy treats.  Seriously…Sarah, I need that recipe.

~Whole wheat tortillas.  Mark and I love them.

~Working at a job that I am really enjoying…and getting to work with some really cool people.

~The Food Network.  Mark and I are hooked on Chopped…love that show.

~Getting talked into cleaning the chapel this Saturday morning at 8 am.  Oh wait…this is a list of things that I love.  Oops. 

~Mark.  He’s a really swell fella.  He’s doing the 25 days of Christmas for me, and every day this month he has had a small gift for me.  Yeah, I’m lucky.

~Having my cool brother and sister in law and their kiddos come visit.  And the fact that we’ve talked them in to staying through Christmas!

~Getting to meet my brand new nephew, Truman for the first time.  We are going to be great friends.

Storage!

If there is one thing I wish our house had, it is more storage and closet space.  Other than the closets in each bedroom, we have one small coat closet in the kitchen.  I was spoiled by all the closets and storage in our last house.  Mark knew this and he gave me the best early Christmas present.

 

Now, we officially have a place for our muddy boots, dog food, and all sorts of random stuff. 

It’s awesome. 

And so is Mark.

A Beautiful Combination

If you had to choose, would you rather have chocolate cake, brownies, or cheesecake for dessert?

As for me…well…I say who needs to choose just one.  I think they taste best if you stack them together.  With lots of chocolate cream cheese frosting.

Best dessert.  Ever.

Hammer Time

When we left Oregon, we left some of our favorite kids in the whole wide world. 

We are lucky enough to have really cool nieces and nephews.  Now, we are lucky enough to have one more person back there that we love.  I thought you all would like to meet my handsome new little nephew.  He was born yesterday, and I am so sad we weren’t there to meet him in person.  Blast the 14 hour drive between our houses.

So, for now…this will have to do.

Truman Hammer W.

Welcome to the world little guy.  We haven’t had a chance to be formally introduced, but I’m sure we will get along swimmingly.

Is It Too Early For Christmas?

Last weekend my sister and her husband put up their Christmas tree.  I thought they were brilliant!  I was kind of envious, so I tried to convince Mark that we should do the same.  He wasn’t the biggest fan of that idea.  Something about not wanting to skip Thanksgiving and giving it it’s deserved recognition…I don’t know.  So, unfortunately no Christmas decorations will grace our home until next week.  I was ok with it until yesterday. 

He was totally listening to Christmas music.

On purpose.

Cheater.

Family Night

Mark and I aren’t the best at having family night each week.  So, last night we made an big effort to get out and do something meaningful together.  Sweet, right?

We headed for the mall around 10:30pm for the Call Of Duty Black Ops midnight release.  Nothing says love, family, and togetherness than video games.

Mark was so excited for this game to come out, and I thought it would be fun to tag along and document such an important event.

It was pretty entertaining waiting for this game with 75-100 other crazy people.

In the end, Mark was a very happy camper.

And I’m still trying to decide who is more crazy.  Mark…for going to pick up a video game at midnight.  Or me…going along with him so I could document it.

French Fries, Perhaps?

A customer came into work the other day and he brought us a bag of potatoes.  We split the bag up and we each took one home.  I know…it seems kind of lame to take home one potato, but I was really excited because I’ve never seen a potato like this.

It’s as tall as my head.  It’s as big as my little netbook.  It’s the biggest potato I’ve ever seen.

Mark loved it, and we are trying to decide on the best way to use it.

We Should Build Forts More Often

 Sunday night was the perfect night to hang out with some of my family.

We played several rounds of Blokus.  It is a really fun game.  It’s an easy game.  And you can play it in less than 20 minutes…a total win.

Crazy Uncle Mark built Sammi and Jaxon a totally rad fort.  He’s such a fun Uncle. 

 

And since it was Halloween, I had to show off my awesome new tattoos.  Mark decided to grow his hair out for the night.

   

 

 

 

 

Hope your Halloween weekend was tons of fun too!

30 Years 1 Month 7 Days

That’s how long I have lived without ever having stitches.  My lucky streak ended Wednesday night. 

I was getting ready to go to my niece’s birthday party.  I was walking down the stairs in our garage without the light on.  I thought I was on the last step, but clearly I was wrong.  I fell onto a metal workhorse of Mark’s.  Unfortunately, my hands were full and so my chin broke my fall.

My chin doesn’t hurt too bad, but my arm hurts like a mother…dumb tetanus shot.

Why-Oming

We may have won the BYU vs. Wyoming game last weekend, but Wyoming may have had the most hilarious fan.

Way to keep us all entertained Cowboy Ken.

We Rocked The Ponchos

Saturday was my dad’s birthday.  He’s a pretty cool fella, so all of us kids got together and came up with a fun way to celebrate.  We thought it would be tons of fun to drive down to Provo to go to the BYU vs. Wyoming game.  Boy did we surprise him!  Despite BYU not having a great season, and all the rain, we had a great time!

My sister and her husband couldn’t come, so my dad’s good friend Steve came along.  He put up with us all day long, and still left with a smile on his face.

When we got to Provo, it was raining quite a bit.  So we headed straight for the store in the stadium and we all ended up sporting these super cool ponchos.  We are so cool.

I am glad we were able to spend such a fun day with my wack-a-doodle family.  They make for entertaining company. 

And hey, BYU managed to even pull out a win. 

Way to win for dad on his birthday, BYU.  That was mighty nice of you.

Movin’ And A Shakin’

So, this weekend was a bit on the crazy side.  We spent the entire weekend moving all of our stuff out of our storage unit and into here….

We are loving our new house.  And I’ll love it even more when everything is unpacked ,organized and decorated!  Pictures will come soon.  We get internet at the house tomorrow and I’m really looking forward to not having to sit at a Wendy’s to check my email.

When Mom’s Away….

In my opinion, there are two kinds of people.  There are those who put every dish, pan, and utensil possible in their dishwasher.  Mark and I would most definitely fall into this category.  If it fits, it goes in.  Then there are the people who only put the plates, bowls, cups, and silverware into the dishwasher.  My mom falls into that category.

Right now we are living with my parents until we move into our house next week.  They happen to be out of town all week.  You can imagine the inner struggle we had with wondering if we could get away with putting everything in the dishwasher while they are gone.  We were so tempted.  But, somewhere in the back of my head, I knew if I did it, my mom would somehow be able to tell.   Mom’s just have a way of knowing when you are breaking the rules.  So, Mom, you’ll be happy to see this.

Not a single pot, pan, utensil, or anything else you don’t want in your dishwasher went into your dishwasher. 

Because I love you. 

Because I am such a good daughter.

And because I didn’t want to get grounded.

A Question

The other day I was reading a blog post by Pioneer Woman.  She was doing one of her ever so popular giveaways and the question she asked has had me thinking all week.  The question was…

If you could live anywhere, where would you live?

My first impulse would be to choose someplace super cool, fancy, foreign, etc.  But the more I thought about the more I realized something.  If I could live anywhere, I would choose to live right were we are…in little old Rigby, Idaho.  Sounds kind of crazy, right?

Well, we both have jobs that we are really enjoying, we’re moving into our new house in about a week(FINALLY), we can easily jet down to Provo for a BYU game, we love living near two temples, there are pretty mountains and lots of things to do outside, we like living in a quiet little town, and for the first time since we’ve been married, we live close to my family.  I love that.  It makes me happy.  And so, for at least right now, I can’t imagine ever wanting to move anywhere else.

So, I’ll throw the question back at you….if you could live anywhere, where would you live?  If it’s somewhere super cool…can I come visit?

I Really Should Go To Bed Earlier

I saw this on a blog today, and it perfectly describes how I feel most days.

Except I probably crash sometime around midnight.  I’m too old to handle staying up until 2 am anymore.  I used to be able to…back when I was really young and in college.  Those were the good ol’ days.

30 Things You Might Not Know About Me

1.  I love pizza…hot or cold

2.  I refuse to wear socks with sandals

3.  I am not a morning person, but I like staying up late

4.  I can kick Mark’s butt in Mario Kart

5.  I love magazines and I hate to throw them away

6.  I think ice cream is the perfect dessert to just about any meal.

7.  I love to look through cookbooks

8.  I have never been skiing or snowboarding

9.  I love being an aunt

10. I HATE snakes…I am so terrified of them

11. I am a dog person

12. Not so much a cat person

13. I absolutely love living in Idaho near my family

14. I am really reserved around people I don’t know

15. I love the Disney character Goofy

16. I have had a green room in every house we’ve lived in….I can’t decide which room will get painted green when we move into our house

17. I love sunflowers and dahlias

18. The only form of potatoes I like are chips and fries

19. As a matter of fact, I don’t like most vegetables

20. I love it when all my laundry is done and put away, but I hate doing it

21. I married a really fun guy….he’s totally the outgoing one out of the two of us

22. I love Hummers…especially the little H3

23. I play bejeweled on facebook, but I never post my scores

24. I have eaten a chicken heart

25. I love wearing flips…even though it drives Mark crazy

26. I don’t wear makeup…I’m too lazy

27. I love playing board games

28. I always thought I would be a teacher…I never would have guessed I would love retail and enjoy the banking industry so much

29. I have never had a passport….or a need for a passport….yet

30. Today I am 30….that sounds a lot older than 29.  I’m not going to lie, it’s kind of weird.  But I am looking forward to celebrating with my family for the first time over 10 years!

A Funny Conversation

Don’t you just hate it when you aren’t feeling too hot and you can’t sleep so you are up at 2:30 am because of it?  Yeah, me too.  So, I figured I might as well blog a little. 

The other day Mark and I were at a grocery store in town called Broulims.  We had a conversation there that made me laugh.  It went something very similar to this.

Mark:   Katie, look there’s the Broulims bear.  You should go ask to take your picture with him.

Katie:   No, you go take your picture with him.

Mark:   Oh, just do it.  It would be funny.

Katie:   Nah, I’m good. 

Mark:  (yelling) Hey Brollie…..over here….my wife really wants to take her picture with you!

Laughter then comes from everyone around us who heard.  The guy dressed up as the bear got a kick out of it too.  He was laughing the whole time I was standing next to him.

And in the end, Mark got his picture.

Y Didn’t We Do This Before?

When Mark was still in college, we lived in Provo for almost two years.  That time was filled with wonderful friends, lots of games, and spending many Tuesday nights at Movies 8…..that was 50 cent night!  Oddly enough, there’s one thing we never did. 

We never hiked up to the Y. 

So, while we were down visiting last weekend, we decided that it was finally time to do it.  So we did.

It was a fairly short hike.  Unfortunately for my poor out of shape legs, it was steep, and the hike almost kicked my butt.  Once we finally reached the Y and saw the amazing view, it was totally worth it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here we are almost at the top.  Lucky for me, this picture kind of hides how red my face was.  A warm day and a very out of shape Katie do not make a great combination.

I’m really glad we did it.  I’m glad that Mark was patient and stopped whenever I needed to catch my breath.  I’m glad that the dust storm moved in after we started back down the mountain, and didn’t ruin the view.  I’m especially glad that I survived and made it back to the car.

Who knows, I might even do it again one day.

Anyone Missing A CTR Ring?

Every week in the mail we get this little section of classifieds.

I usually don’t pay it any attention at all.  But, this week my sister called our attention to one specific ad.

I really hope that the person who lost their CTR ring gets it back.

Rise And Shout

A weekend away was just what the doctor ordered.  Mark and I spent the holiday weekend down in Provo.  It was really fun to visit where we lived all those years ago when we were so young and Mark was finishing up his degree.

We had tons of fun Saturday night.  We spent the evening with 65000 of our closest friends. 

We were lucky enough to get some last minute tickets to BYU’s first game of the season!  We laughed, yelled at the refs, cheered for the cougs, and I almost lost my voice because of that.

 Boy did that make for a very happy husband…..and I enjoyed myself quite a bit too.  Now Mark is scheming and trying to figure out how we can make it down to all the other home games.  We’ll see.

One of the best parts of the game was the view of these bad boys.

The Wasatch Front.  We love the mountains around Provo and Salt Lake.  They are absolutely beautiful.

Now, we are back home, at work, and trying to figure out a plan for our life.  It’s only been three days since we’ve been back in and I kind of wish we were still on vacation.