Whats Been Happening

First of all I must say that today was a very beautiful day. It seems like it has just been snowing and snowing and snowing. Here is a great picture of all of the snow we have had. We had a great snow cleaning party before work. We also voted. This is my second time EVER voting. Our last ward party was called, "The Newlywed Game." Patrick and I were in it. We were in the first group of four couples and we won. Then we had a face-off round with the Olsen's and I must say it was close, but we just couldn't cut it. It was a lot of fun to see how much we think alike with the answers that we gave. Some of the many questions were... What was your favorite vacation? When was your first date? What is one item of clothing that your wife owns that is crazy? What color is your husbands toothbruth? How long was it before your first kiss? It was really interesting to find out so many things about different people in our ward as well. We had a great time. By the way, Happy Valentines Day!

President Hinckley

I have to admit what a shock it was when we heard that President Hinckley had passed away. I guess I thought that he would just live forever. At 97 years he did so many wonderful things. I have really enjoyed hearing all of the stories and things he accomplished in his life. As I watched his funeral, I couldn't help but think of how happy he must be to be with his wife again. I will truly miss him and remember him forever. I really like this tribute to President Hinckley that Jamie had posted on her blog. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DONH655IR1E Last night as I was watching the broadcast of our new first presidency I had the best feeling. I am so excited for the coming years and getting to know these great men better. I loved all of the answers that President Monson gave during the question and answer part. I can just tell that he is being led by the spirit. Over the last week I have been thinking how it is going to be hard to feel the same way about another Prophet as I felt about President Hinckley. He is the Prophet that I remember, but last night as I watched President Monson, President Eyring and President Uchtdorf, I had an amazing feeling. It will not be as hard as I thought. I don't think I have ever seen President Eyring smiling so big. I love and support the new first presidency. If you didn't get a chance to watch the broadast you can access it at http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/

LOST is back!

For anyone who does not know, we are HUGE fans of the show called LOST! It is going to be starting the 4th season, and I must say that I am rather excited for something to actually happen...lets hope we get more info this season. I don't want to ruin what has happened for anyone, but the with last years season finale, I am really interested in finding out what the heck is going on. It all starts next Thursday night with a two hour season premier.

Once there was a Snowman!

The other day we woke up to so much snow. Snow can only mean one thing...It's time to build a snowman of course! We had so much fun getting our snowman all put together, and then it was time for the face, buttons, hat and scarf. Growing up, I always would find rocks for the eyes, mouth and buttons, but we searched all around our apartment, and no rocks were to be found. We had a game that had some round black balls that were perfect for the eyes. For the mouth we used a plastic candy cane top(you know the kind you get in your stocking that are full of kisses or M&M's). We didn't have any large carrots, so a baby carrot was great for the nose. The buttons were the peppermint candies, and Casey was walking by and donated a wonderful scarf to finish it off.

The man with the horned rimmed glasses.

I'm not sure if you can tell what this is a picture of, but for those of you who have ever watched the TV show, Heros, this is a picture of Clair's dad. I was sitting on our couch one day and when I got up, this is what was left. My pants evidently made a great picture in our couch. Patrick noticed that it looked like a person and then we both thought of the man with horned rimmed glasses. It was just interesting...

Happy Thanksgiving...Merry Christmas...Happy New Year!

Our Christmas Tree-Each year we get a new ornament. This year we got a really cool one of the Grinch shoving a Christmas tree up the chimney. Wow! I can't believe it is the new year already. It seems like I was just graduating and now all of the sudden Christmas is over and the new year is here. I just wanted to tell how are holiday's have been. Starting with Thanksgiving. We were able to go up to Rock Springs, Wyoming for Thanksgiving. It was a quick trip because I had to work the day before and after, but we really had a great time. Patrick's mom's family is from there, so we had Thanksgiving at his Aunt Jenny's house. My sister got married, and we had a reception on December 1st in Orem. It was really great to see all of my family that were able to come out. I am the youngest of eight children, so usually when we go home for visits there are not many kids home, it is always great when everyone gets together. Christmas came very quickly. This year we spent Christmas at my parents home in Orem, Utah. My sister Denise and brother in law, Scott and their kids, Jordan, Spencer, Kelsey, and Cody were also able to come from Effingham, Illinois...Yes it is really called Effingham. My brother Gary and sister in law Katie were also there from Lehi. We had a great time just relaxing and spending time with family. It was so great to have a white Christmas this year as well. I love waking up to snow on Christmas morning and have been wondering if we would actually get it. A few years ago my mom decided to make each of us a Christmas decoration box so we would be able to have Christmas decorations. This is one of my favorites. It hangs perfectly over the towel rack. Patrick and I decided to do a big present this year instead of a few small ones. WE BOUGHT AN XBOX 360. Crazy, I know, but it has been alot of fun. We got Dance Dance Revolution from our parents, this is my all time favorite game...I think:) Although, Fruzion Frenzy is pretty fun too. Patrick got NCAA 08 Football which was a huge hit with my nephews and brothers. Whats Christmas morning without a bow in your hair? We were back home for less than a week when we ventured back down to Layton for an annual New Years Eve party with Patrick's high school friends. It has been great getting to know them and seeing the changes in them each year. As friends get married or have kids, we always have someone new. We played alot of games and had a white elephant gift exchange. Well, now we are back and ready for the new year. It always seems like once Halloween hits, the new year comes rather fast and then we are back to work and school and our normal lives. We are very excited for this coming year and the new adventures life will bring. We wish everyone a Happy New Year! Here are few more pictures of Christmas!

~Happy Halloween~

Our Awesome Pumpkins! Okay, so I know it is almost a month too late for this blog, but I have been a little busy. We had a great halloween just staying at home and handing out candy. The Bowcutt's came over and we played games and watched a movie. Here is Patrick focusing very hard to make his pumpkin just perfect...I think the pirate flag was great. I decided to take a goofy stand and make my pumpkin crazy. For work we could dress up if we wanted to. I went as a 50's girl. This next picture is of my office. From left to right, Krista was a gypsy, Jaime had some crazy socks on, Lori was Princess Leia, Rhonda was a nurse, then there's me, and lastly we have Lynette, who just wore black and orange.

What If I Was On The Simpsons?

I have never really like the Simpson's, but really who can say that they haven't seen someone that they thought looked just a little bit like a character from the Simpson's. I found this website on a friends blog and thought it would be funny to see what me and my husband looked like, so I tried it. Patrick Nicky If any of you want to try it yourselves, here is the website. http://simpsonizeme.com/#

Pick'n Pretty-Plump Perfect Pumpkins

Today, Oct 8, 2007, Patrick and I decided that it was finally time to visit Paradise. Last year we found out that there was a pumpkin patch down in the town of Paradise, Ut that was planted by some young women in the local ward to serve as a fundraiser. So we went on a trip to pick some pumpkins. When we got there we were lucky to find a orchard next to the patch that sold some apple cider. It was great. We enjoyed the experience so much that I couldn't wait to go this year. We've been so excited for Halloween this year that we couldn't wait any longer to get pumpkins. Not only did we get pumpkins today that are exceptional but we also stopped by to get some apple cider from Paradise Family Farms. I would recommend this patch to anyone. I found out about it off the internet last year when I was reading up on Halloween. Here is the website if any of you are interested. http://www.pumpkinpatchesandmore.org/UTpumpkins.php

Pizza on the BBQ???

The other night (Sept. 21, 2007) we decided to be creative with dinner. Pizza sounded good, but we wanted to try something a little different for our date night. I had seen a picture with a recipe for pizza on the bbq. I didn't have the recipe, but how hard can it be....right? Earlier in the week we had been to the gardner's market and so we already had peppers, onions and tomato. An alfredo pizza sounded good, we just didn't want to take the time to make the chicken, so we decided to use ham. In High school Patrick worked at Papa John's Pizza, so I thought it would be good for him to make the crust. However, we bought one of those little Jiffy box mixes and it didn't work very well. By the time we put it on the bbq, it was so sticky and didn't stay looking so much like the shape of a pizza(but we got it on there). First you cook it on one side, after you flip it over, you put all of your toppings and then let it cook and melt the cheese. The end product was very good, but next time we will try a different pizza crust recipe and maybe pre-cook the vegi's. We had a great time with trying something different.

Memories of the Hogle Zoo!

I have been begging Patrick to take me to the Hogle Zoo for many months. A few weeks ago(August 22, 2007), he surprised me by taking me. I was a little worried because I had heard that the zoo had really gone down hill since I was little. I remember getting so excited to be able to go to the zoo. We would walk around, what seemed like a huge place back then, for hours. My favorite animals were always the monkeys, the polar bears and the seals, although I would have to say that I liked all of them. I always thought it was great to drink out of the 'huge' lion drinking fountain. We were in luck this trip because they still had the fountain, it was much smaller to me know though.As we walked around the park, we saw black bears that just kept pacing back and forth. It was really funny. They didn't have one of my favorites, the polar bear. They said that it kept getting sick and they had to move it to another zoo until they have a better place for it with more water for it to swim in. We saw some really cute gorillas that were lounging around. One of them just kept looking at us. As we were leaving the gorillas, we came upon this great gorilla statue that we had to be a part of. "Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery." ~Dwight Shute, The Office. We also saw elephants which were Patrick's very favorite. They were really playful, I think it was because it was lunch time. There was a white alligator. It was really crazy and I thought it was fake, but it was definately real. They are extremely rare because if they are in the sun, they will die. It was not albino, but has some sort of skin disease that causes it to have no pigmant. We also saw rhinos, monkeys, giraffes and so many other animals. It was a wonderful day and so much fun to be able to remember being a kid. I would love to go to the zoo again soon, especially if they bring back the polar bear.

I'm Addicted!!

So, a few months ago my friend Lacey told me about a book that I just had to read. When she told me it was a Vampire Romance I sorta just laughed and thought to myself that is was definitely not the book for me. Later, she told me that I would really like the book, so I decided to give it a shot and now I am ADDICTED. I couldn't put all three of the books down and am really excited for the fourth. To anyone who hasn't read them yet, I would strongly recommend it. So, I saw this quiz on someone else's blog and I just had to take it. Here is the person I am most like! If any of you are interested in finding out which character you are most like, here's the website. http://www.quizilla.com/users/twilightnexus/quizzes/Which%20Twilight%20novel%20character%20are%20you%3F Want to know about these books, you can visit this website. http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/ I know I am crazy for liking a Vampire romance, but it really is so good!!!

Off To Work I Go

A little over a month ago, Patrick and I both were "let go" from our jobs. We worked at World Savings and they were bought out by Wachovia. Shortly after they decided to shut our office down and so we were left jobless. I took my time looking for a new job because we were getting paid for a few more weeks and then severance on top of that. It was nice for awhile not having to worry about waking up on time for work and planning my day around a job, but after a couple of weeks I started to go crazy. Once Patrick started school, I was so bored that I had to find something soon. I saw a position for a loan processor, which is what I was before, and decided to apply. I didn't think I had any chance in getting hired because so many people from my old company were looking for jobs and this is one they would be going for. Well, I took in my resume and they interviewed me the very next day. The day after that I was hired. My new job is not at all like the last one, but I am learning alot and really starting to enjoy it. I will say that I didn't like it AT ALL in the beginning and even thought about quitting, but after giving it a chance, I have started to understand more. It is nice to have a job and feel like I am actually doing something each day.

Our New Purchase

For many months we have been testing out different couches. Always looking with the knowledge that it was only "window shopping." Well, on Thursday, September 13, we decided to splurge. We had seen this particular couch about a month ago, and it was love at first sight. After much consideration we decided to go for it. I have to say that in the store it looked quite a bit smaller compared to all the other sectionals, but we love it. When we got married Patrick's parents gave us their old loveseat and it has been great. We will really miss our "first couch" and are very grateful to them for giving it to us. Don't be too sad though cause it will not be completely gone...it is staying in the family. Derrick recently moved out and we have decided to give it to him. It will be nice to know it is going to be in good hands.

The Office is coming back!!!

Okay, so we are very big fans of the office. Tonight while talking to some friends we remembered seeing a preview of The Office on the internet and decided that we needed to post it for everyone to see:) We are excited for the next season and hope this sure makes you all want to start a new obsession. http://www.nbc.com/The_Office/video/#mea=150375