New Year's Resolutions

Here are some of our resolutions:

Go hiking every weekend

Accumulate 3 months of savings by the end of the year - including rent

Curl my hair more often (this one just applies to me)

Go on vacation to all the National Parks in Utah

Make lunches every night (we did really well on this one last year until about October)

Graduate (This is Brandon's goal, but I am a very active participant)

Keep studying French in the Book of Mormon (we are almost done with 1st Nephi)

Have 3 months of food storage by the end of the year

I've suspected this for a while, but now I know for sure . . . .

. . . I can type without looking at my fingers! This is a big deal. The only key boarding class I ever had was in 4th grade. I spent all of school typing while looking at my fingers. Yesterday I finally caught myself typing an e-mail while I looked at the screen. I guess that 8 hours a day at a desk job for two years can teach you to type better than 4 years of college.

On that note, I've now been with my company for 2 years. And I can honestly say that I still enjoy working there.

Christmas and New Year

We attended the annual Christmas Eve party at Brandon's parents house. May favorite part was the chimes.

The we drove back to Logan to spend Christmas on our own. Here is our tree Christmas morning.
And here is the after. I have to brag: Counting everything including gas to go to salt lake we spent under $200 for Christmas this year.
We had a nice breakfast.
Between Christmas and New Year Brandon took apart his lap top to fix a little tiny plastic thingy that was bothering him.

Our water got turned off on the Monday after Christmas. I guess a pipe down the street burst. (Funny story: Brandon is the stake emergency preparedness guy, but did we have extra water in our fridge - NO. We learned our lesson)

Here is a pic of all our New Years Snacks. I'm pretty sick of junk food now
New Years Day we went for a hike up Logan canyon. (Yes those are plastic bags over my boots, and yes I will be buying new water proof boots soon)

Happy 2010

The Great Sleep Over of 2009

The last time my family all slept in the same house was the night before I got married. In the last 2 1/2 years we have added 5 family members. Three husbands and two baby boys. Last night we had a big sleep over at my parents house. Since the house barely fit the seven original family members we had to get a little creative in order to make the 12 of us all fit comfortably.

Asher slept in a laundry basket that had been converted into a beautiful bassinet.
Rocklond got the crib that was donated by a very nice family in the ward.
Mom and Dad slept on a borrowed air mattress in the Family History Room.
Billy was sick so he got Mom and Dad's queen size bed all to himself.
Hillary slept on a bed that is propped up on wheat food storage in the storage room. She named this "the cave"
Me and Brandon slept in the living room on our air mattress.
And Emily and David slept next to us on the floor. Emily said the floor was comfy. David said it was like camping.
And Lindsey and John slept in Hillary's room, but I forgot to get a picture of them.

In the morning the son-in-laws had a wrestling match. Brandon and David against John.
Surprisingly they pinned him once. (You can see that they knocked Billy over in the process.)

Hillary's present

My family has two Christmas traditions, drawing names for gifts and making homemade presents. This year we combined them. I drew Hillary's name. After some brainstorming Brandon and I decided to make her a garden box.

Brandon contrived this clamp so he could glue the wood for the bottom of the box together.
Here is the box when it was done being put together. (Brandon did it all while I was at work. So I have no idea how it went together)
I helped stain the box.
I love how pretty stain makes wood.
Hillary loved her gift.

Gingerbread houses

We had our family Christmas party on Saturday. We took pictures, ate sandwiches, exchanged homemade presents, visited with extended family, and we made Gingerbread houses. Here are the pics from that.

Billy's house had a couch and a big screen TV inside.
This was the one I made. I invested everything in the roof.
Hillary's house. What you can't see is all the wafer cookies that she stockpiled on the inside.
Lindsey decorated her whole house before she put it together.
This is Emily and David's house. It is one of my favorite gingerbread houses ever.
This is my Grandma's house. Brandon built it for her in a dutch style and she decorated it.
Here are the pics of assembling the houses.



And here they are all in a little "gingerbread neighbor hood"

Christmas Under the Tree 2009

Brandon's family has a really cute tradition. On the Friday before Christmas they all get together for a family party. We played games, ate treats, told stories, and put out the manager scene while reading the Christmas Story. Then we have a big sleep over. Here are some pictures from this year's party.