Family Home Evening Fun.

This past Monday Nikki invited James and I to join her and the kids to go to Temple Square for Family Home Evening. James and I hadn't had the chance yet to go see the lights so we were really excited that she invited us. When we got there it was packed. there were people everywhere...but that's ok it didn't deter us from going to have fun. First we needed to find Justin to give him his coat. While we were waiting, James and I took the kids up to see the Christus. It was so cute I was holding Gavin and we had to stand on the ramp to wait for the group in front to exit. As soon as Gavin saw the statue he asked what it was. I said it was Jesus and his mouth fell open and he just stared then he started to push against me saying that he wanted to see him. It was so cute how excited he got. When we sat down on the bench his sister and brother took him to sit up front during the little presentation they have. The whole time he just sat there staring up at the Christus. It's amazing to see these little kids flock around pictures and statues of the Savior. James pointed that out as we were listening to one of the missionaries bare her testimony. Almost all the children in the room were in the front sitting on the floor by his feet. What a wonderful example little children can be to us. I love the whole spirit that you feel at Temple Square. We had a great time! Thanks Nikki for inviting us. :) We love the chances we have to spend time with you and the kids.

HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!! SEE YOU IN 2009

Christmas time

Well here we go... :) For Christmas James and I went to visit my parents in Monticello. We went down on Tues night so we could try and beat the Christmas traffic...we kinda did...not really though. But it wasn't to bad the weather was good too. We hit one bad spot at the end of Spanish Fork canyon but other than that smooth sailing the whole way. That evening was spent watching movies and relaxing. The next day was Christmas Eve and my dad still had some shopping he needed to do. So him and James went out shopping while mom and I stayed home and baked. My brother Preston decided he was going to come down for Christmas so we kept getting update calls from him to let us know where he was. it was so nice to just be able to relax and do what I wanted and not have to worry. It felt really nice. Every year on Christmas Eve all the churches in Monticello come together to do a live nativity at the pioneer park. This is something that James and I look forward to seeing when we have Christmas with my parents. Everyone is invited you just show up. So we bundled up and went down to the park. A lot of people show up and the have Hot Chocolate to help keep your insides nice and toasty. :o) They start off with a prayer and they have a small choir who sing songs. They also have solo performances that go along with the scriptures that are being read. It's really neat and the spirit is amazing. It's so nice to see all those people from all the different faiths gather together and celebrate the birth of the Savior. Because they start at 5:00 after the sun goes down they keep it to about 30 min so everyone doesn't get to cold. It's amazing the impact that 30 min can have on you though. After the performance we went home to watch A Christmas Story and eat dinner. :) We actually watched A Christmas Story/ football. I think Preston, James and I won over Dad and his football most of the time though. Everyone was staying up pretty late but I was still battling a stomach flu so I went to bed early. Christmas morning came and Rosko decided to wake me up early to be let out. So I got up to let him out but no one else was up so I tried to go back to bed. After awhile I gave up. But Mom was up by then. We started Breakfast while we waited for everyone else to wake up. After breakfast we started with our Stockings and then James got to play Santa. :) We got Wall.e from my mom and dad as well as some clothes. I got James some clothes, "The Dark Knight" DVD and the 6th season of "Simpson's". James got me (besides the painting) the 2nd season of "How I Met Your Mother" Some smelly good around the house stuff ( those fragrances with the bamboo sticks in them) and some other little things. It was a good Christmas. After presents mom and dad usually go see what the grand kids got. James wasn't feeling to well so we didn't go. Instead we watched a couple episodes of "How I Met Your Mother" and then "Wall.e" while I helped get dinner for that night ready. It was really snowing outside and when mom and dad got back they were thinking of telling everyone not to come out. But we couldn't get a hold of everyone so out we went to try and get most of the drive way shoveled. Everyone was able to get in ok. We only had one instance were we had to push a van out of the snow. :) The it was dinner time. Christmas dinner is very traditional in our family. Turkey, cranberries, mashed potatoes, different kinds of salads, etc. Dad looks forward to it EVERY year. After dinner the kids were anxious to open presents. So we started with the kids and had them open up their presents from the cousins and my mom and dad. Then they would go and play with their new presents while the grown ups opened theirs gifts from each other. It's always fun to see the reactions of the kids when they open their presents. James and I went shopping with mom and dad while they got their presents for the kids so it was fun to watch them open them. Just as we were visiting and getting ready to have pie...the lights went out. :) Luckily dad and mom had a stash of candles. mom pulled out a HUGE bag full of candles while dad grabbed candle holders. After we had candles lit and could see, pie was served. :) It was kinda fun eating pie by candle light. My sister Denese and her family went home and since we couldn't really watch a movie we decided to try and play cards by candle light. :) The whole game the lights would come on and the go off again. We kept making jokes that it was a guy at the power company who had a little to much to drink for Christmas and decided to have fun with the town's power supply. :) After the game was over Jason went out to warm up their van only to find that they were snowed in. So with power still out and all but one kids asleep on various couches. We found more blankets and tried to get everyone as comfortable as possible for a sleepover. The next day we woke up and started shoveling, plowing and snow blowing snow. At one point I even had snow shoes on and was trying to pack it down. :) Around 1 or 2 we were able to get Jason and Heather unstuck and they were on there way free to do whatever they wanted for the rest of the day....we shoveled more snow. :p We finally stopped around 4 but my dad didn't stop till around 7. We were exhausted. So we enjoyed another evening at home. On Sat we had the chance to escape the house for awhile and were very excited about it. :) So to celebrate we decided to invite my mom and dad to go to the temple with us. James hasn't been to the Monticello temple yet and I have only been once. So we were excited for the experience. It was also fun to see all the different people I knew. I had a chance to talk to President Fuller (Katie I love your dad, he's so awesome) in the lobby and then I saw Brother Blankenagel and Sister Blankenagel. She actually was in the session with us (Emily your parents are so cute. I don't think your dad recognized me but your mom was just excited to talk to me as I was to her. :0)) I saw a few more people..but sadly didn't get to talk to them. It felt so nice to go to the temple, it was so refreshing. Yet again the rest of the night was spent watching movies and playing cards. It was so nice to relax. Sunday we started packing up early and by 10:00 we were on our way. We had a little "car" trouble we thought with pushing our car out that it had thrown off the alignment..but it turned out to be a little ice stuck in the...I want to say rotars. I cant remember. :p But we got it melted and was on our way again. When we got to the outskirts of Moab James started telling me how he wanted to see some of the different places of Moab that he hasn't seen before. So after we gassed up I took him to a couple places (I thought he'd like) that I use to go to a lot when I use to live there. One was an Indian ladder in Moon flower canyon. It was nice to get out and walk around. the ground was almost solid ice. I couldn't believe how much of it there was. After looking at the Indian ladder and a few petroglyphs we hiked back into the canyon. At first our intent was to just look at the different campsites there. But we ended up hiking the whole thing. :-) It was a lot of fun. Rosko had a lot of fun too. But it was really cold and at time he would stop and look up at James after awhile we realized that he wanted to be picked up. It was really pretty in the canyon. There was this small stream that ran through the middle of it and at times it was completely frozen.

This one point the ice was so clear you could see all the little rocks, pebbles sand at the bottom. We had a lot of fun. But it started getting cold so we left to go get some food. On our way out of town we stopped at a natural spring that comes out of the rock. James and I love the Artisan water you can get in North Ogden. The water is so yummy...and for me that's saying something. :p So i knew he would enjoy this stop. After filling up a water bottle with the spring water we were back on the road and our next stop was home...kinda. We went home unpacked the car, left Rosko then headed up to mom and dad Armstrong house. James wanted to watch The Dark Knight with them. They loved it. We had a great week. :) Here are some more pictures...

Oh I forgot to post pictures of the snow we got so here are some of those and then I'm done I promise. :p

Sunday before Christmas

Well a lot has happened this past week. So I am going to start and hopefully be finished by the end of this week. :) On the 21st James and I decided it would be fun to have the family over to our house for dinner. Since things have been really tight we decided to just get white elephant gifts. James and I were really excited for this. On top of the white elephant gifts we also had a present to the family in general planned. It could be whatever you wanted. This is a tradition that James' family has done for awhile. One year James got everyone fire safety kits. So I was really excited to see what everyone was/is going to do. After dinner we made as much of a circle as we could in our little living room with the presents in the middle. James and I didn't know if there was a price limit so we decided to get general gifts. Something fun and a little funny and something practical that could be used. Well all I have to say to Nikki and Uncle Kim is WE'RE SO SORRY!!! People started opening gifts like mantle clocks and dish towels, itunes gift cards, nice sweaters and gloves, video games, etc. then came our gifts... We got two packs of AA batteries and attached a note that said "gift not included" Nikki got this gift. then we did a City Slickers 101 course. With the topic being S'mores. We bought marshmallows, graham crackers, chocolate, a couple forks and a candle. Complete with instructions and homemade slippers that were suppose to be funny but ended up being...well...not so funny. Uncle Kim got these. Sorry again. I got the itunes gift card and games got a Chronicles of Narnia video game. It's really fun. Then came the moment that James was REALLY looking forward to. He got the family gift and because it was somehow linked to one of my Christmas presents he didn't tell me anything about it. Well he pulled out a canvas oil painting of the Savior in bountiful. He said that because this year (not just at Christmas but the entire year) he really wanted to focus on Christ and the growth he has felt this year because of it. He wanted a chance to remember that and for the whole family to be able to remember Christ as well. It's his favorite picture and he wanted to share it. He said he wanted the picture to be displayed somewhere where we can all enjoy it. So as soon as we get it framed I think the family is going to talk about where it is going to be hung. It's a really pretty picture. Well after he gave that to the family. He rolled it back up and said that he wanted to give me one of my Christmas gifts early cause he wouldn't be able to take it with us to my parents house. He left and came back with my all time favorite picture. "Pool of Thesba" I have been searching for this for a long time. But it has been so hard to find. I can't believe he found it for me. I am so excited about both of these painting. They are so beautiful. We had a great Christmas party. I think everyone had a great time....despite receiving batteries and s'mores for Christmas. :)

Weekend before Christmas

Christmas is on it's way and what better way then to start the last weekend before Christmas with a huge snowstorm. :) James and I were able to leave a little early from work which was nice. It took us a little over an hour to get home and we heard from other friends that it took them a lot longer. By the time we got up to Ogden though it wasn't snowing very hard. So we grabbed the shovel and got to work shoveling out snow from our little back porch area and from around our cars. Rosko loves the snow so he was very happy that we spent so much time outside. He would burrow into the snow and run through it as fast as he could. He even stopped climbing up a snow bank long enough to posed for a picture. :p I cant believe how much our little dog loves the snow. It's fun to watch him play in it. After that we spent some time over at Nikki's house watching "Journey to the center of the earth" then we got all of Nate's things for a sleepover and headed home. James and Nate placed video games while I did some laundry and cleaned the house a bit. Sat morning I cooked Christmas pancakes for everyone and James and I took turns cleaning the house and playing video games with Nate. I think he though it was kinda funny. When I would pick up the controller and start to play James' character Nate would laugh and say "your not James" After some cleaning and video gamedge we realized how late it was a that we needed to get to Nikki's house for a gingerbread party. I thought that we were going to be making ginger bread house out of a kit or with graham crackers. But I was wrong. :) James went to work cutting out the pattern for the gingerbread church while Mom and Nikki started making the gingerbread. Then I was put in charge of the cutting out the pattern for the other house. After i was done with that. Nikki joking told me that I needed to make a pattern out of this picture of the London bridge that she handed me. Well I thought she was serious to I started trying to eyeball how it would look and I started to cut out a pattern. I had the pattern for the first tower almost done when Abby asked what I was doing and Nikki overheard me tell her that I was making a pattern for the London bridge and Nikki couldn't believe I took her seriously and tried to make the pattern. :p oops. After we had the patterns of the church and house that we were going to do and after the gingerbread was ready. mom rolled it out and her and James cut the pattern into the dough and then started to bake them. We had a lot of gingerbread dough. But it was fun. We even tried to make a ginger bread moose so we could put it in the front. Well when the gingerbread came out of the oven mom and James started cutting out the patterns as fast as they could before the gingerbread hardened and out little moose barely survived. The kids had a lot of fun as well, they helped pour ingredients into the mixer and they were also very excited to eat the gingerbread that we weren't going to use. After all the pieces were cut out and the frosting made the cementing process began. :p The kids were getting really excited at this point and wanted to start decorating. But as they waited for the icing to dry they started to drift away from the table. When it was time to decorate Nate helped Nikki and I for a few minutes then got bored and went to watch TV. So Nikki and I started decorating the church and mom started decorating the little house. We were half way through the church when Abby said she wanted to help. So Abby and I did the roof and the steeple then her and Nate put coconut for snow and I finished it off with some icicles around the roof. Mom and Dad had to leave so James helped finish her house with the help of Abby as well. So without further ado here is the finished product... Nikki and I were particularly proud of our stained glass windows on the back of the church. :)James was very excited about his candy cane light post....it did take awhile for it to dry though.and needed lots of reinforcement.At the end of the night we were all very tired but very happy about our cute little houses and it was nothing but smiles for the rest of the night.

Holiday Fun

This past weekend was a great family weekend. Friday night James and I went to his sister Lisa's house and for dinner and a movie. We had taco's and brownies for dessert and then ate popcorn as well while we watched Horton hears a Who. We all loved the movie. it was the first time any of us had seen it. James and I highly recommend it. :) Then on Sat. because of the baby blessing mom invited us over to help prepare food for that as well as Christmas. The whole day was a girls day full of baking, laughing, sore hands and feet. We had a lot of fun. my mother in law makes these french pastries that are oh so yummy...but very messy to make... These are kinda what they look like. They aren't finished and I forgot to get a picture of the finished product but we take butter creme frosting and do pretty designs on top or do a border with cherries in the middle. They are VERY yummy and a huge hit at the blessing. We also did sugar cookies and frosting,crepes and chili for later that night. Dad and James came home later after all the baking was done to have chili with us. Abby being silly. We were all feeling a little goofy after all that baking.

Sunday Thoughts

This past Sunday, James and I had the chance to go to the blessing of little Ethan and it got me thinking once again about babies. They are so amazing. The first few months of a childs life is so simple...sleep, eat, get changed. But also very deep and meaningful. Before sacrament started, Ethan got passed over to my sister in law Lisa and we just watched as he just stared in a certain direction and then he would smile just a little. At that point it just made me wonder what it is that he could see that we couldnt. I told Lisa this too and she simple said "who knows, it could be anything." The blessing was beautiful and Ethan looked very cute in his blessing outfit. But throughout all the mingling afterwards and watching family members pass Ethan around my head was still buzzing on the things Ethan knows and could tell us if he could talk. I also thought of the many people he was able to get to know before he came down to join our family. What a great opportunity to be around this little guy. I am so thankful for the church in my life. I am so grateful for the priesthood and for the blessings we can receive through it. I know that we have a loving Heavenly Father who wants us to return to him. I know that Christ lives and is our Savior and Redeemer. I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the true church here on earth. I know that we have a living prophet of God and that he receives revelation from our Heavenly Father. I know all these things are true and can testify of them. This is only a part of my testimony that I would like to share in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen

...then halted and wobbled in his grip. "Give me a hand here!"

My friend did this on Facebook and I thought it was fun so I wanted to post it here. I did make a few changes to the rules seeing as how we don't have status on blogs. :)

Rules:* Grab the book closest to you. Now.
* Go to page 56.
* Find the 5th sentence.
* Write that sentence as your Title.
* Copy these instructions as your post.
* Don't go looking for your favorite book, or the coolest one you have -- just grab the closest one.
Write a comment...

The title sentence is from Brisingr. It's the book I am currently reading and it was the closest. :) Have fun with this.

A First for Everything

Making a ginger bread house is something I have wanted to do in a long time. This year when my parents came up to stay with us, my mom bought me a gingerbread house kit complete with frosting, house, and candies. They even had gingerbread snowman you can decorate then hang on your tree. I was really excited to make this little house. Finally I got some time and a chance to do it. I am very excited about the end results. I tried to make little icicles like the picture showed but they didn't turn out as pretty. But needless to say I am still very proud of our cute little ginger bread house. Here are some pictures. I was so excited that I took quite a few. :p

Christmas TAG

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Paper
2. Real tree or Artificial? Real, I like cutting down our own tree..and if we cant do that I still prefer live ones.
3. When do you put up the tree? At least the week after Thanksgiving
4. When do you take the tree down? After Christmas...sometimes after New Years
5. Do you like eggnog? YUM!
6. Favorite gift received as a child? The only one I can remember well was my Barbie Dream House. I was SO excited
7. Hardest person to buy for? Preston
8. Easiest person to buy for? Lisa
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes a few of them...But I want a really nice one that will take up one of my end tables. :)
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Cant think of any
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? I don't have just one. I like A Christmas story, Muppet's Christmas Carol, etc.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas ? As soon as I have money to do it. :)
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present ? Yes, I gave a friend a gift a friend gave me cause I felt bad I didn't get her anything.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Fudge, Sugar Cookies,Candy Canes, etc.
16. Lights on the tree? We have white ones but I really like colored ones
17. Favorite Christmas song? I like them all..but I really like "Mary Did You Know"
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? if we have Christmas with The Armstrong's we stay home and then later that day we go to Nikki's If it's Christmas with the Earl then we drive to Monticello and stay with my parents.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid Donner, Blitzen, and then Rudolph
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? We have both. On tow different tree's of course
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? PJ's on Christmas Eve, presents on Christmas Day in the new PJ's. :)
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? People in the stores, they're mean and it's too crowded
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I like yearly ornaments we just got our 2008 ornament
24 . What do you want for Christmas this year? A baby. :) But since I'm not pregnant...I don't really know what I want. I want to organize my house and finish putting in the tile, hardwood flooring, and carpet. So...a home depot gift card?
25. What is one of your favorite family Christmas traditions? I like when James and I decorate together, baking cookies and other goodies, going to see the different lights at Temple Square and at Ogden Christmas Village, Etc.

Okay Tag your it, Post your answers on your blog.

Christmas Time

This weekend we decided to get started for this Christmas season. Friday James and I went to the Ogden Christmas village. It's so neat in front of city hall they always have these fun decorations. All the tree's have lights on them and they have fun little houses all decorated for Christmas with fun things inside.We saw everything from Jack Skellington, to a house full of nutcrackers to a Weber students dorm rooms decorated for Christmas in purple. :) It was a lot of fun. They also had a children's choir singing in the amphitheater out there. Santa was there so the kids could go see him and you can donate to shoes for tots by buying a cookie and some hot chocolate for $1.50. It was so great. If you haven't been to this fun little place It's a great way to have an inexpensive date night or family night. Everything is outside though so bundle up. :) We didn't have any cash to buy any hot chocolate and they didn't take debit cards. So after James and I went over to Village Inn for dinner. It was a great date night. James and I want to go back soon with some cash on hand and warmer coats. :) On Saturday after some cleaning and errand running, we had a chance to go to a birthday party for our nephew Nate. He had it at the Ogden ice sheet. It was a lot of fun. Nate had about 11 friends show up and some of the parents stayed for the festivities as well. We also had most of the family there too. Mom and Dad Armstrong came, Bob brought his girlfriend Amy, Justin's mom Barb, and of course Nikki and Justin. :p After everyone had some pizza for dinner and watching Nate open his gifts. we all took the kids out to get them skates and helped them put them on. Then everyone went out on the ice...even little Gavin. :) The kids had a lot of fun. It was fun watching them. Bob would take Gavin and skate really fast to get up to speed and then hold set Gavin's feet on the ice and hold him while they slowed. It was really cute. After a little while we got all the kids to come back in for some cake so any who wanted/needed to leave could. After the cake I decided to try and skate. James went and grabbed me some skates and after I had them tightly secured he helped me out on the ice and taught me how to ice skate. It was a lot of fun. I stayed close to the wall though the entire time and sometimes used it to push myself along. :) After awhile I got the hang of it and started to get farther away from the wall. I have to admit ice skating isn't as scary as I made it out to be..in fact...it's kinda fun. :) James and I even took Abby out, and the three of us skated around a few times. I felt bad cause I realized that I was using my arms a lot to keep balance and help propel myself forward. Which meant I was pulling little Abby all over the place. When I realized what I was doing though I was able to try and work on not moving my arms as much. :) It was a lot of fun...although I do have to say it hurts your feet quite a bit. James had a lot of fun spending time with the family and kids and getting to know Amy a little more. After Nate's party we went home to decorate our little Christmas tree. This year our good friends Lindsay and Mark gave us these great end tables and armorer(Thanks again guys , we love them.) :). Plus we had brought our desk and computer upstairs so we dont have quite as much room as we did last year for a Christmas tree. My good friend Dawn told us that every year her and her family go to wendover and cut down trees and sell them. She asked if we wanted them to cut us down one and we said yes. they brought back a lot of beautiful trees but there was one that caught my eye it was the smallest one there and Dawn's dad said it got a little squished cause another trees fell ontop of it. But I loved it so I said it was the one I wanted. it's so small that it fit in the back seat of of Jeep. :) We were able to pull it out of the side door. Well so after Nate's birthday party we went home to our waiting little tree. James put the lights on while I decorated a fake tree that sits in our window. After the lights were on I set to work putting on the ornaments. After all was said and done Our cute little tree looked very festive. I got so excited that I took tons of pictures. :) I love out little tree. Sunday after church we headed over to Nikki's house for dinner were we helped her put up her Christmas tree. Gordy, Nikki, James and I helped form the branches and then put them on the tree. Then Bob, James and others helped put on the white lights and just when we started to get out the ornaments we saw Abby trying to put on her pink lights and realized we still had colored lights. So after all the colored lights were put on the kids got very excited to out ornametns on. It was a lot of fun watching them. They do what I do, (and I think James hates it when I do this...) when they would see a certain ornament they would tell all of us the story behind it. It was so cute to see them getting so excited. After all the hard work we all were able to step back and admire the tree. It looked really good. Even the Abby sized grinch that got stuck in the tree. :) We had a great weekend and it really helped to get us excited for this Christmas season and spending time with friends and family.

I had James stand by it to show how small. :) The tree before these pictures is the one in our window.

For You Mom. :)

We've all seen the e-mails that go around this time of year with different houses that have lights that play to music. Last year and this year James and I have noticed more and more houses with the musical lights. They sell the set up at Costco and other stores. They are so fun and make you want to stand out in the cold to watch them...Although James and I have never seen one of these houses with these lights I always though t it would be fun and Yes no matter how much I hate the cold I would stand outside and watch for awhile. Well this week James and I went up to his parents house and we finally saw one of these houses...well two in fact. :) Poor James and Rosko stood outside shivering while I watched and got it on video. :p They are very festive and a lot of fun. I am so excited to go around this month and see all the different lights. Temple Square, Christmas Town in Ogden, Fantasy by the bay at Willard bay. I cant wait...in fact maybe I can talk James into going to one this weekend. :) Here's the video I took as well as another fun one. This house is two houses down from Mom and Dad Armstrong's.

This video is just a fun one I received from a friend. The one below is the house by Mom and Dad Armstrong's

Images of Me Tag

Nikki did this on her blog and it seemed like a fun idea, kind of like a tag. Here is how it works. Look up the answer to each question below on a Google Image search. Take your favorite image from the first page results only and post it.

What I want to be when I grow up:

My bad habit:

First Job (post high school or college):

My first name (girl's beware of this one, make sure your filters are on!!):

Town where I was born:
My favorite color:

My favorite animal:
My favorite food:
Place I want to travel to:

My age:

I tag anyone who wants to do this. It's kinda fun.