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Last week was our last sunday teaching this class of RUGRATS.

  We try to prepare a good lesson, really we TRY!   Last week went something like this:

Jes- "So what did we just learn from the story about Noah and the arc?"
Issac- "I have an x box and a playstation and I can play it in my car!"
Brady -  "My dad doesn't let me play Halo because I'm too little."
Dave - "You know what Halo is? I mean, lets get back to the lesson."
Jes- "Does anyone remember the story I just told you about Noah? ANYONE?
Brady - "I got a nurf gun for Christmas. Its called the Deployable 68Z."
Jes- "Oh that sounds fun. Does anybody remember how many days it rained when the earth was flooded?"
Brady - "You're going bald."
Daxton - "Teacher, teacher, Brady said I'm bald.
Issac - "Um....Brady took my shoe."
Jes -  Alrighty. Who wants fruit snacks?????

Seriously. We try.

Next week we get moved up a class to the 6 year olds.  Sigh. Wish us luck!

Memories of the warm sun

Last year at this time we were just getting off this big boat in St. Maarten

We were swimming in this BLUE water

Playing with the Iguanas in Aruba

Wandering the streets of Curacao

and snorkeling in St. Thomas.

While Meg & I got our tan on in warm sun

David & Matthew found a few guys to play basketball with, and they ended up winning the entire 3 on 3 basketball tournament!

We dressed up on Christmas Eve and ate lots of yummy food

Watched football games and had endless shirley temples at the bar.

All made possible by this lovely couple!

Goodbye Motorcycle

Yesterday, Dave sold his beloved motorcycle.  I know I know, you're thinking what motorcycle? you guys had a motorcycle? Um....YES. Dave bought it on our long drive home from Boston this summer.  Dave fell in love with this bike online and it just happened that the dealership that carried it was located in Iowa.  We took a small detour, and after a ride around the block Dave was in LOVE, twenty minutes later he signed the papers and the bike was his!

He was giddy as a schoolboy. (Don't worry, he didn't drive this all the way home. He had it shipped.)

He named it LaVell.  You know, after LaVell Edwards. Duh, what else was he going to call his white and royal blue motorcycle! Obsessed with BYU football? Ya, 'lil bit. 

Sadly, after riding the bike with him a few times I realized that somewhere along the way I turned into a paranoid SPAZ.  No matter how cautious or great of a driver you are, the fact is people DO NOT SEE MOTORCYCLES.  I felt like every intersection was a death wish. I know I'm a little dramatic, ok maybe a lot dramatic, but I did not like "LaVell" anymore. Dave rode it to school for a week and every time I heard a siren from an ambulance I would call him to make sure it wasn't for him.  Like I said, PARANOID SPAZ.  

I'm torn between feeling really bad about being a terrible wife and not wanting Dave to keep his motorcycle, and being absolutely thrilled that I don't have to have a panic attack every time he takes the motorcycle out.  Sigh. I hope the man who bought this bike from us has a cool wife that will let him ride this brand-spankin-new bike. 

A Christmas Carol

Last Saturday was non-stop fun.  It began by driving to Cache Valley Saturday morning for the Hansen family Christmas party.  Luckily Santa came and I was able to tell him that I want the new nikon camera for Christmas....so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that his little elves will find me one!

 After the party, we raced back so that we could hang out with the Madsen family.  Thanks John and Cathy for getting the family tickets to go see A Christmas Carol. 

It was a great way to get us all in the holiday spirit. I LOVE Christmas time! 

"God bless us, everyone."

A Thanksgiving Anniversary

This year we had Thanksgiving at OUR house.  It also happened to be our 2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY the same day.  We had a full house to celebrate our anniversary....I mean Thanksgiving with us.

Nicole.Sarah.Megan

Cathy.Jennie.Annie

John cutting the turkey.

We all searched through the paper to find any good Black Friday deals.

Played some silly games. 

I taught Sarah how to crochet while the boys watched football. Yes...I'm like an 80 year old woman, I know. 

After everyone had gone home and I got our house semi-clean again, we watched Elf.  

What a great day. 

We celebrated our anniversary more the next day by shopping shopping shopping!

I have such a great husband. 

Pain.

This is a painful post, so its gonna be short.
We were there. Last Row.

We were ahead during pretty much the entire game.

But a couple of mistakes from the Cougs, one very important, bad, and ultimately game-changing call from the ref, and a blocked field goal resulted in a loss for our men in white and blue.  If you saw the game.....you KNOW what I'm talking about. We'll get em next year! Now it's time for my favorite..... BYU BASKETBALL.....JIMMER TIME!

Go Cougs!

We have been waiting for what feels like FOREVER to see if we could get tickets to the BYU vs. U of U game this saturday and today was our day!

In case you forgot....
Since 2006, BYU is 10-2 vs. Utah in basketball and football combined. Ouch!
We'll be there cheering on our COUGS....will you?

Weekend in St. George

Last weekend we celebrated my dads 49th birthday! With the recent events concerning his health, he was feeling really lucky to have this birthday.  Since he doesn't have the strength yet to hike 45 miles around the Uintas, he decided he wanted to take the 4-wheelers out.  We headed to St. George and rode to a place called Babylon...terrible name but it was a really cool place.

This place here is called Little Purgatory. Doesn't seem like hell to me but I guess when the Mormon pioneers came across here, they must have had a hell of a time to give it the name Little Purgatory. It was actually really pretty.

 Then we rode over to Sand Mountain and went for a little hike.

It's only been 2 months since my dad had his heart attack and I was so amazed at the energy he seemed to have.  He is so positive and determined to get back to all the outdoor activities that he loves.  I am so happy to see him slowly getting back to himself. 

Sunday morning we got up and went for a walk on a trail that is right by my parents house and found this guy...

And thats all. Just wanted to leave you with that image.

Enjoy! 

ha

oh so THRIFTY me

I have been without a job now for 2 months (I'm not counting the summer because that makes me feel better about myself.) I go crazy without something to keep my days busy so I have been restoring a few items around the house.  I absolutely LOVE the store FOUR CHAIRS FURNITURE and I'm always wandering through their showroom to get ideas.  They sell all the paint and stain products they use on their furniture and are willing to give tips on how to achieve their look.  Below is an old hutch that Cathy didn't want anymore.  I took off the hutch and decided to use it as my entry table.

I needed a place for my computer, but I didn't want it to take up too much space in our kitchen.  I have had my eye on this desk from Pottery Barn but there were 2 problems. ONE- it cost about $1000 and TWO- it's too bulky for my space. So I improvised.

I went to TJMaxx and found this Black desk for only $130

Found a comfy chair at Bed Bath & Beyond for $30

Sanded, painted, sanded some more & stained like crazy for a few hours and.....

WaLa! My personalized-less expensive-more time consuming version of Pottery Barn.

I also was in serious need of nightstands for our bedroom.  Again, I found the style I wanted on Pottery Barn, but didn't want to pay $250 for each nightstand.  Once again, TJMaxx came to my rescue. I found 2 of these tables for only $60 each. What a steal! 

It's amazing what a little sand paper & paint can do. 

 (If you're wondering who those people are in the frame....don't worry, so am I. I am terrible at buying new picture frames and then forgetting to put my own pictures in them! What is wrong with me?)

And finally, I refinished David's old dresser.  (I forgot to take the before picture.) I decided to be brave and paint it mustard yellow.  After about 4 trips to Home Depot to try a different shade of yellow, I ended up with this.

  Now I think I'll take a break from painting and move on to other things like finding a JOB!

Put Your Shoulder to the Wheelbarrow

A year after moving in, we finally tackled landscaping our yard.  When we moved in the yard needed a little help. See all these rocks.....I hated them. 

Believe it or not, we moved every single one of these rocks by hand! What were we thinking? (maybe that we could save money by doing it ourselves....or perhaps we just wanted a killer workout for an entire week). Dave's family helped us a ton with moving all these rocks. I really don't know how we would have ever finished without their help.  

We got about halfway done with the rock removal and we broke the wheelbarrow! At this point I'm really wishing we would have just paid the landscapers to do this for us. 

After we finished removing all the rocks, we let the landscapers take over.  They lifted the front lawn, put in new sod, reconfigured all the sprinklers, poured some new cement and planted all our trees and shrubs.  

I didn't realize I would care so much about the plants, but once we started looking at all the nurseries I soon found that I am quite opinionated about my trees & shrubs.  Our poor landscaper was probably so annoyed by me.  Sorry. 

A few days later it was all done and I love how it turned out.