Ugly Sweater Party

I am way behind on posting about Christmas so hopefully I will get around to posting about all the fun things we did. For starters, we had an Ugly Sweater Party before Christmas with our friends in Pocatello. Some of the outfits people came up with were quite hilarious! Wish I would have taken pictures more pictures but we did get quite a few "cheesy" shots.

Spencer and Cali

Brooks and Lindsey

Brett and Mickenzie

Weekend in Salt Lake

Last weekend we went to Salt Lake for BJ and Amanda's wedding reception and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Concert. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures at the reception but we are so happy for Beej and Amanda. And we are especially glad another married couple is joining Alan's group of friends...slowly but surely!! It was great catching up with everyone and seeing old friends from high school.

Saturday night we went to the MoTab Concert and looked at the lights on Temple Square. The temperature was perfect and the concert was fabulous. We can't wait to spend more time with our families over Christmas.

Gingerbread Houses

A couple weekends ago we made graham cracker gingerbread houses with Ray and Dani. I think after the experience we will for sure be using store bought gingerbread houses next year. I think it took us about an hour to get our roof to stay together and not cave in. And just a note...hot glue and graham crackers do not mesh well together. Alan had a lot more patience than I did. However, I think the finished product turned out pretty good!

Our First Christmas Tree

We were so excited to decorate our first Christmas tree together this year. Luckily, we found a tree that fits perfectly in our home. It was a bit of a pain pulling out and arranging all the branches...growing up that was always my mom's job and then I would help decorate the tree! Alan thought I was being a little obsessive after I took off the ribbon 10 times because I didn't like how it looked. It still isn't perfect but I think the first year is just a practice!

Thanksgiving 2009

This year was our first Thanksgiving being married. We headed down to St. George to catch some warmer weather with Alan's family. Alan got to golf on Thanksgiving morning while the girls cooked. My mom told me that Thanksgiving is a man's holiday filled with lots of relaxing and football and I think she is right!!!

Thanksgiving dinner was great and it wasn't too bad hanging by the pool after we ate!

We played some intense games of Sequence...it's an awesome game if you haven't played it!

We went hiking at Snow Canyon

We got some great deals on Black Friday at Tai Pan. Alan was pretty happy when I dragged him out of bed at 6:00 a.m. to look for Christmas decorations. Lucky for us we found a Christmas tree and some great decorations and a FREE purse. I only had to spend $200 to get it! What a deal!

I relived my childhood with a game of kick-ball! It was quite the competition with some awesome catches and home-runs.

And to top off the trip I got to see Skye!

We have been so blessed this year and we have so much to be grateful for. Happy Thanksgiving!

Mincemeat

I was not joking when I said that Winco has EVERYTHING in bulk. First of all, who eats mincemeat pies and second of all, who fills up a bag of this gooey mess?

But check out the other awesome things they have in bulk. This is only one aisle!

Halloween

We had a great Halloween this year but unfortunately we didn't dress up. Things have been so hectic lately that we never got around to finding costumes. The weekend before Halloween we went to Salt Lake and went to Thriller. I LOVE this performance and try to go every year. I was a little disappointed this year because I thought it has been better in the past but it was still a great night.

On Halloween night we headed to Idaho Falls with Dani and Ray to go to Cafe Rio and a haunted house. Did I mention that they are building a Cafe Rio in Pocatello...we are pretty excited due to the extreme lack of restaurants here. I felt like I was in middle school all over again waiting in line for the haunted house. It was quite hilarious!