Cheesecake Factory

My mom left Karli, Llama, and I a gift card to go to the Cheesecake Factory while they were at the Dunes. So last night all three of us went! It was so good and lot of fun, but almost anywhere you go with Llama is fun!!

Here is me and the Llama Face!

Karli feeding the Llama!

And lastly all of us together! Isn't that an awesome picture of Karli!!

Hanging out with Brittany

My cousin Brittany came down from Show Low to get away and hang out. I haven't been able to hang out with her in a while since she was at school and then student teaching in Germany for and now she works in Show Low. So we spent the whole day together. We went and got an early lunch, went to the mall, went and got our nails done, and finally ending the day by going and seeing Twilight, since she hadn't seen it yet! So here are our pictures from in the theater before the movie started!!

Here is Brittany!

Here is me!!

And here is Brittany and me!!

It was great to hang out and I hope we all, as in all of my cousins! Get to all hang out soon!!

Christmas!!

This year Christmas was great! Konner was up and woke up all of us a little after six and all four of us got up and went in to wake up our parents, which this year wasn't that hard to do! I only got a few pictures since I was busy watching everyone open gifts and I was opening then as well but they at least show how awesome Christmas was!!

First we started out with Rayvn. My parents got her this little pet stocking from Petsmart and a toy. She ran out there first thing and we were pointing at the stocking and saying Rayvn get your toy!

She got so excited and was trying so hard to get it out of the stocking!!

Finally she just gave up and carried the toy around in her stocking like that was how she was suppose to play with it. Karli then helped her out and got out her new basketball squeaky toy that she thought was the greatest thing ever. After that she was so excited that she would come up and try to bite the wrapping paper off the gifts we were opening!

Next is mom opening her gifts. Here she is opening her very own Twilight book that us four kids got her! This year she also got a Coach purse that I was able to get at a crazy deal because of horrible customer service! Let's just say I got two Coach purses one for her and I that were suppose to be over six hundred dollars together and I only paid two hundred for both!!

Here is my dad. I didn't get any of him opening a present but he got some really nice stuff an as you can see happy with the whole Christmas thing!!

This picture wraps up Konner's Christmas! It is him putting a toy together surrounded by the boxes and wrapping paper he destroyed to get to those toys!!

This year Karli and I sat really close together when we opened our gifts and in the end she was pretty much covered in wrapping paper and boxes!

Now these last pictures I have to explain before hand. The only real thing Llama wanted for Christmas was a kilt. A real red Scottish kilt. He talked about this thing for months and how he planned to wear to the Ren fair with his fairy wings and anyone else he could wear it! He would show my mom almost daily what one he wanted and where she could get it.

On Christmas morning my mom tells him that this one gift he has to open last. And being the crazy speed demon that he is he was through his presents and on to that one pretty quick.

Here he is opening up the gift to find a USPS box in it. Once he got to this point he moved with supernatural speed to open the box and get whatever was inside out! And once he got the box opened this is what he found!!

At this moment he was like a five year old again opening up his most desired toy!

He even bounced up and down with excitement!!

And of course had to go and put it on for all of us!!

Christmas cupcakes!!

Today I made Christmas cupcakes for work!! I haven't made any in a while so I'm a little rusty at the decorating but I think they turned out really cute!!

This time I decided to make Christmas ornaments!! I think they turned out pretty cute!

Here is the green one!

And my favorite the yellow one!

Here is the blue one!

And lastly the red one!

Our little gingerbread houses

Every year we go to the dollar store and buy a ton of cheap candy and frosting and come home and make little personal graham cracker gingerbread houses. This year only Konner and I made them but it was a lot of fun once our houses stopped falling down and the frosting dried to hold them together!!

Here is all the goodies we got to use on our houses!

Here is Konner's house, complete with fire pit and stick man!

And here is my house, complete with walk way and door!!

The big gingerbread house

Every year my mom gets a big gingerbread house from Costco for us to put together. This year Konner and I took on the challenge of putting it together. I assembled the house and then we each took to decorating a side. I got the front and he took care of the back and we both did the trees. I took of couple of pictures of it during and after of our finished product!!

Here is the house after it was out up without the trees and decorations.

Here is our house all set up and waiting for the candy!!

Here is Konner's side of the house when he was all done.

Here is Konner and I and his lovely decorated back of the house!!

Here is the front of the house that I did.

And lastly Konner and I and the side I decorated!

Work Christmas party!!

Last night was my work Christmas party and it was a lot of fun! Not a lot of people came but there was enough for a really fun time!!

Here is the whole group that came! From Top left Ruth, Maria, Kim, me, and Kelli. And from bottom left Kerri, Christina, Niki, and Danielle. Also note that I was the only support staff that came! Everyone else are nurses!!

Here is a candid funny one of us!

Karaoke time!! We came over to sing and some guy came up and starting hugging Kelli and making her sing with him!

This is Christina, Kelli, Ruth, and I singing Material Girl!

Kelli and Christina singing away!

And lastly me busting out to Before He Cheats!!

It was a really fun night and great to get together to hang out! I have to say that I'm really glad I went!! I have to say that I work with best people ever and they are so much fun!!

Dylan and the box

I was looking at the pictures in my camera and I found these ones of Dylan and a little plastic toy box. Someone must have taken my camera that was sitting on the counter and took them since I didn't. But I thought they were really cute so I figured I would post them of the little monster!

You caught me!!

Hey don't just take a picture! Push me around!!

And what do you do when you are not sitting in the box? Wear it as a hat instead duh!!

Christmas baking!!

This afternoon my dad and decided to do our Christmas baking! We looked and picked out the recipes that we were going to do this year and then we were off to the store to get the little odds and ends that we needed. We each picked out a few recipes each to work on and once we got home we set to work. I was able to finish everything that I decided to do and my dad made his fudge, popped popcorn for the popcorn balls, and made the chocolate crinkle cookie dough mix that had to chill for at least two hours before baking. I didn't get any pictures of us making our goodies but I got pictures of the finished projects!!

First I made Italian Pizzelle cookies!! Mmmmmm!

Then I made thumb print cookies with strawberry jam in the middle!!

This is my dad's fudge with walnuts that he made while I was making my cookies!!

Next on my list was peanut butter kiss cookies!

Then it was the tradition sugar cookies that Konner helped me frost. I had to make duck ones because ducks are awesome!!

And new this year are white chocolate and .............................

And normal chocolate covered pretzels!!!

It was a lot of fun and I can wait to share them with family and friends and of course eat them myself!!!

Family home evening at the Temple

Monday night we went as a family to go see the Temple lights and to see two sister missionaries that we have been so lucky to meet. So of course I had to get more pictures so I could blog!! It was cold and rainy so not a lot of people were there so it made it a lot easier to get around and take pictures!!

Here is the star of the nativity that I couldn't get a picture of last time I went!

And the palm tree lights that I think are just awesome!!

And since there wasn't a lot of people there I got to take this awesome picture with hardly no one in the way!! Yeah I know your all jealous!!!

So then after we were done outside my family decided to go in and see the nativity sets because they haven't seen them yet. Again a huge mistake because I had to take more pictures of the ones I didn't get pictures of last time! But I didn't feel that bad because my dad was even more camera happy with my mom's camera while we were looking at them then I was!!

Here is one from Germany! I have a small one like this that isn't painted that I bought when I went to Germany.

This one is hand carved from Israel.

A very cool Native American one.

I don't remember where this one is from but I love it!!

This really cute one is from Scotland!

And lastly a hand made one from Ireland!

Once we were able to drag my dad away we went and talked with Sister Winder and Sister Hales. They are so sweet and awesome! Sadly Sister Winder was being transferred to Scottsdale the next day. We will miss her!!

Sister Winder (the one on the right or the shorter one) and Sister Hales (the one on the left or the taller one)

They are so awesome!!!!

After we were done at the Temple we went to Starbucks to get hot chocolate and apple cider to warm up!

Here we are deep in conversation!

Of course in this picture Llama isn't looking, Karli is trying to ignore the camera, and Konner's eyes are shut!

This time it was dad that was not paying attention!

And finally all of us looking at the camera. I know it's sad but some of us have the attention span of a chipmunk that suffers from ADHD!

It was a very fun night and by the end my legs hurt from the cold and walking so much through out the day and evening. And my stomach hurt from laughing too much but it was completely worth it!!!