Matchy Matchy

Some people hate when other people copy them. Others consider it flattering. And the rest of us just like good deals. The only problem with everyone getting the same great deals is we're bound to show up in the same outfits. Oh well, it's made for some cute scrapbook pages and now blog.


Michelle and Andrew showed up at the mall dressed like this. They had no idea they were matchy matchy until we pointed it out. How could you not know? They're total twinners.


Carrie fit right in with the matching marrieds



Carrie bought this super cute brown coat at Nordstrom for a great price so of course Nettie and I had to buy it too.

No More

I am SICK and TIRED of the snow. I have loved the past 3 snow free days and hope they stick around for a while even if it does mean an inversion. At this point I will take inversion over spending countless hours trying to get to and from work in the stupid snow oh yeah and shoveling. On the upside I did burn 250 calories shoveling the other day.


My roommate Joanne's car was literally frozen to the road. We had to chip away at the car so she could actually get in and drive it.

the almost finished project. it was a major group effort, but she finally was able to leave.

Holiday Recap

I love the holidays-all of them, but Christmas is my favorite of all. The holidays were great. I'm so sad they are over. We finally took down the Christmas decorations yesterday, and our house looks so empty now. Here's a recap of my holiday break.


Karlee helped with my bday presents. I got some great stuff including Miracle Blade knives



fun with Karlee-in her Christmas outfit, meeting Ashley's dog and playing



Karlee's first Christmas-she is so spoiled already



My dad always wants to take pictures of the whole family while we're there but springs it on us at the last minute so we're not exactly looking our best



the too-close-to Christmas crappy Dec bdays celebrationThe holidays were great-lots of great time with the fam, lots of relaxing, lots of celebrating. Happy New Year!

Seriously?

At what age do you stop getting so much for Christmas?



Between 5 kids plus a brother in law, 2 parents, 1 dog, and 1 baby what can I say? Santa still comes to our house! Merry Christmas everyone!

4th Annual Christmas Sweater Party

What better way to bring in the Christmas season than with an ugly Christmas sweater party? It was a great way to premier our new place and introduce our new roommates. We had a great turnout full of fabulous sweaters. I even got a sweet Christmas charm bracelet at a white elephant party the night before. We love this annual tradition and are already looking forward to next year's party-maybe with a slightly new theme.


my sweet charm bracelet selling in salons near you for the low price of $16. Who would ever pay $16 for this thing?
our new roommate Carrie, me, and Nettie me, Nettie, Jen, Lindsay
Rocky, Roman(yes that's an ugly sweater), Nettie, Quinn, Carrie, and me old roommates

It is Winter...

...And I HATE it!

Karlee Comes to Visit...And Chelsea

Chelsea had the great idea to come drive up with me after Thanksgiving and spend the week visiting friends and family before Jeff flew in for the weekend. I loved having her and Karlee here all week. We took her to see the elves at Gardner Village and the lights at Temple Square but we didn't last long in the frigid weather. She also tried peas for the first time, started sitting up better, had bath time, and met lots of new people (mine and Chelsea's friends). It was so fun coming home from work everyday and playing with her. Karlee is such a good baby, but she was definitely off her schedule/routine here. After the week was over and Chelsea was up lots in the night with Karlee, I'm not so sure she thinks it was such a great idea to spend a week away from home. She did get to see lots of old friends and roommates and also spend time with her in laws, but you'll have to ask her if it was worth it. She might be regretting our almost two week trip to Missouri coming up. I on the other hand am loving all the time I get to spend with her and Karlee.

Thanksgiving

I always head down to St. George for Thanksgiving. This year was no different. I got down there Wednesday night after quite the drive complete with a 45 minute stop in Filmore for a bathroom stop and some food (at Larry's Drive In). Grabbing something to eat took a little longer than expected, but we weren't in too big of a hurry. I went down with a couple of friends which made the drive so nice.

I got up Thursday morning and went for a long run to try to burn off some of the millions of calories I knew I would be eating. The rest of the fam including Marsha and Gale and their two youngest girls started showing up. We had a delicious meal (my grandma is a great cook even if she thinks it's not good) followed by some good family fun.

We spent a couple of days in St. George before heading to Vegas for a couple days. We did a little shopping but avoided most of the Black Friday shopping/"deals". Is it really a good deal if you have to get up before 4am to get it? We kept the tradition of going to the craft fair. I got some good ideas for craft projects.

I have so much to be thankful for. Even though the holiday was over a week ago, I couldn't let it go without posting about how blessed I really am. Compared to all the craziness going on in the world these days, I am one lucky girl!

the whole fam
Karlee with the cousins

Karlee got her first haircut Karlee and me

Karlee loves the bumbo

Buh-Bye Turnberry

After 4 great years filled with lots of fun, friends, and memories, Nettie and I officially said buh-bye to Turnberry a couple of weeks ago. I don't think anyone really believed we would actually move. In fact I don't think we really believed it ourselves, but it happened. We had a caramel apple party a few weeks before the move to officially say buh-bye. It was a lot of fun, but I can't seem to find the pictures right now. We (with a lot of help from all our really great friends) loaded up the biggest UHaul you can rent and practically filled it up. I know that seems silly for 2 single girls, but you accumulate a lot of stuff in 4 years. The move left us with the biggest mess in our new place, but we are slowly getting organized. The house is looking much better than it did a few days after the move. Luckily the new house is HUGE compared to our apartment and has A LOT of storage space. After searching for days and days and looking at tons of dumpy places we found a really cute house. We're sad to leave all our friends at Turnberry but excited for new adventures and excited for you all to come visit us in our new house.



This is only a small part of the mess we created on moving day and only some of the great people who helped us move. We're so lucky to have such great friends and family!

Sample Anyone ?!?

I never used to be a big fan of dressing up or Halloween until I discovered how much fun it is to do a group costume. The past several years my friends and I have done group themed costumes. Each year the goal is to outdo the year before but still keep it simple, inexpensive, and funny. Most of the usual group is either married, out of town, or just Halloween scrooges this year so I pulled another group to together to try to top last year's oompa loompa costumes by being Costco sample ladies. We had tons of fun making the costumes and getting ready. We showed up to the party in our costumes complete with big hair, makeup, and of course samples. I couldn't stop laughing at how funny we were. Our costumes were a big hit and we had lots of fun doing them. Any good ideas for next year?

This...

...is what I woke up to last Sunday morning. I've already been dreading winter, and the snow made me pretty mad. So much for hello fall...more like hello winter. I think I need to take up a winter sport this year or consider moving. I hope I don't wake up to this again tomorrow.

The Trip We've Been Waiting For

This is old news, but I have been wanting to post about this for a while. Nettie, Michelle, Dyana, and I along with other friends over the years have traveled a lot. We always talk about doing a humanitarian trip. This summer we actually made it happen. We signed up with a group called Family to Family Humanitarian Expeditions not knowing exactly what we were signing up for. We packed our bags and headed to Ensenada, Mexico for a week of service. We got a week of service and so much more. Michelle wrote all about the trip on her blog so check it out for the details. We were a little worried before the trip because we didn't know any details. Once, we got there and worked for a couple of days all our worries disappeared. Nettie sent an email saying "It was one of those experiences that I will never forget. I will think twice before I complain about anything. We worked with families who had absolutely nothing other than each other and yet they were some of the happiest families I have ever seen. Material possessions do not equal happiness. Doing hard work with people you love makes the job a whole lot easier-I'll be more ready and willing to lend a helping hand AND I will look for more opportunities to serve those around me." We spent the week working on 4 construction projects, and Nettie summed up the trip really well. If any of you are thinking of doing humanitarian work I highly recommend it.