Two negatives equal a positve.

Best Christmas Pregnant, oops I mean Present Ever.

My Magical Mother

Somehow my Mom has a way of making everything magical at Christmas time. And somehow she manages to take care of all 7 kids, all 3 in-laws, all 6 grandchildren, and my Dad. How in the world does she do it? Christmas is the best time of year and I can honestly say it has nothing to do with gifts or receiving presents. Mom just has a way of making it so magical. Her house always smells amazing, big tall Christmas trees are always decorated perfectly. The house is from something out of a catalog! With the cutest decorations hanging about. Somehow she makes time for gingerbread house night with all the kids and grand kids. It leaves quite a mess, but before you can even blink your eyes the house is back to being spotless. If you asked me where the best place to be at Christmas time is I wouldn't tell you it's Hawaii, or up at a nice cabin, my answer would always be "Moms house". The feeling you get when you enter the house, no matter the drama that goes on, no matter the arguing, no matter the sickness, there is always a peaceful feeling. Sometimes I really wonder if my mom IS magic. I don't know how she does it all. She makes the most amazing Christmas eve dinner, and it doesn't matter if there are 10 people there or 25 (like there will be this year) she always makes the same incredible meal that takes SO much planning and work. And she pretty much does it all by herself! It's unreal when I think about all that she does all year round, and it's magical to think about all she does for everyone at Christmas time. If Christmas is truly about giving, then I don't know anyone who does it better than her and my Dad. My Dad spends his time searching for those in need, while my Mom spends her time serving and taking care of her family and neighbors. I wish I could really put in to words how amazing she is. The only thing I can think of is...she's magic! Cause no human should be able to do all that she does! Love you Mom. How amazing it will be to be with the whole family this Christmas. There is no where else we'd rather be! You make it a magical place.

Happy Halloween 2010

Some friends and I threw a Halloween party this year. It was a lot of work and a lot of fun. Sadly I didn't get a photo of everyone who came, but here are a few...
Buddy and Jovie...looks like I'm trying to do a kissy face, but am also laughing or smiling which equals just a stupid pulled face.
Joe Dirt, and his Cat. Doesn't she just look like a ball of furry fun!
The "Drill" team. hahahaha. Megs face is priceless.
Alice in Wonderland, and her boyfriend, the man who everyone has been waiting for, the NEW BYU offensive coach!!! Yay! Go Cougs.

Skunks, and Asians.
What a great costume. Sophie and Andrew are so creative!
The donut game.
The totally inappropriate potato game! We had Tricks...
And we had treats!

***Side note, yes Kory (or Nacho Libre) did win all three of our "Best Costume" categories. And rightfully so. Thanks for stealing the show Kory. Hahahaha jk. What a hoot!

One Word to Describe our Trip to San Francisco

GRAND!

Let me tell you where it all started.
We (Marianne, Chelsea and I) arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare. Chelsea was SO prepared that she had already checked us in online so all we had to do was go through security and check the big screen for our departure gate. So, we did just that. After breezing right through security we checked the gates. We all looked up. Saw "San Francisco...8:30" which is right when our flight was scheduled to leave. So we found the gate and sat there for about an hour. We were chatting about how we thought for SURE something was bound to go wrong to the 3 of us, but somehow we had done everything just perfectly and here we were an hour early. We chatted about past airport experiences (as there always seems to be). Finally it was time to board the plane. We waited around until they called Zone 3 so we didn't have to be sitting on the plane even longer. We got in line and I handed a nice man my ticket. He scanned it and said, "Um...you're not going to San Francisco...you're going to Oakland". Oh ya...minor detail in the story..we bought our tickets to Oakland cause it was cheaper!!! But somehow all 3 of us forgot this. And of course the plane left at the exact same time and this one. SOO mostly because I was so embarrassed and somewhat because I knew we needed to run as fast as we could in order to get to our correct flight on time, I BOLTED out of that place. Now as luck would have it, we were at gate B17 or something. Which is DOWNSTAIRS. So we had to run upstairs, down the B portal, make a right, run down a huge never ending hallway, take another right and our gate was at the end of that hallway. Well poor Mari was wearing flip flops that were loose so she couldn't keep her feet in her shoes, and Chelsea, being the kind person she is, stayed back with Mari and I just ran as fast as I could to the next gate. When I arrived the doors were shut, the plane was sitting there, but the "suction cup" was pulled away from the plane. They would not let us on. I realized we missed it, and there was nothing to be done. I starting walking back to meet up with my friends and I was shaking my head. They thought I was joking, but alas, I was not. A very nice gentleman was overly eager to assist us in our dilemma (as all delta reps are) and told us (without looking up from his computer) that we'd just have to go use the "help line". So we walked over to the phones. Chelsea picked up the phone and a delta rep was on the line. Chelsea chatted with them for about 5 minutes. They told her they didn't do standby anymore so we'd have to pay 50 bucks, or if we wanted to fly directly to san fran we'd have to pay 150 PLUS the difference of the ticket. So they told us there were three seats on the next flight out. BUt when they patched us through to someone to make the reservation she said the seats had been taken. Our only option was to pay 50 bucks and hope we could all get on a standby flight...not happening. So she hung up and I picked up a different phone. I told the lady on the other line that I only wanted to talk to someone who really wanted to help us out. She told me I was talking to the right person. She said we wouldn't have to pay anything, she'd change our tickets to standby tickets and we'd have to see if we could board the next flight and cross our fingers. Well that sounded like the best option so we went to the next gate and waited for another hour. As the plane boarded our chances looked grim. We starting talking about if 2 of us could get on maybe the last person could later. Finally AS THEY WERE CLOSING THE DOORS 3 women ran up to the gate and BARELY made their flight. 3 traveling women. THOSE COULD HAVE BEEN OUR SEATS! So we didn't get on that flight either. The lady came to the counter and told us what time the next flight left so we could go wait for that one. I started to walk away, feeling hopeless. But Mari and Chelsea turned back around and went back to that lady. She was an older lady with wild white hair. She didn't smile, and was very "matter of fact". I felt that she wanted to help us out just about as bad as the first guy we encountered. But Mari and Chels tried to stay optimistic. They turned around and went back to chat with her. They told her the mistake we had made, and that we were really trying to get to San Fran, but blah blah blah. She told us to hold on while she made a phone call. While she was working behind the desk we tried to make comments that we thought might help us, like, "Oh I think my temple recommend has expired, I need to get on that right away so we can all do a temple session" (hoping she might be LDS and think we were awesome). Mari called Kory to update him and said (extra loud) , "Well this really nice lady is trying to help us. I think she's typing as fast as she can trying to work something out, she's so great" blah blah. Finally she looks up at us, glances around like she's being watched, and tells us to gather round close. Mari hangs up on Kory and we hover over the desk. She puts her face close to ours and says, "Listen up ladies, because I'm only going to tell you this once. This is your LAST chance!" cue me laughing. "Hey...I'm serious, it's not funny...this IS your last chance!!" cue me...shutting up. "Now, I need all of you to go to B1. That's "B" as in "BOY" "1" as in..the number 1. B1!!! You need to be there by 2. NO LATER THAN 2. The flight leaves at 3:14, direct to San Francisco, 3 seats left. Free of charge. NOW GO!" We were SO elated. We were thanking her as best we could, I even told her I'd kiss her which led to her making some really disgusted face, then we started to prance to our next gate. I stopped and said, "We've got to get her name! She just pulled off a miracle for us!" I think she overheard me because when Marianne turned around to ask for her name we THINK she said, "Just go! It's "Grand", but just go! Hurry! Get out of here." It's "Grand"? Like her name is "Grand"? Or everything will be just "grand"? What did she mean? Well either way she shewed us off and we happily went on our way. We decided her name was "Grand". And I decided that is the best word to describe our trip. Grand. Without her we probably wouldn't have made it without spending another small fortune, which I wasn't about to do. So thank you Grand, for making our trip Grand!

Side Note: We made our 3:14 flight. We had front row seats which meant that the 3 smallest people one the plane also had the most leg room! All of us were even able to sit together.

Pictures from our big adventure.

Trolley Ride...funny story really, but I'll let Mari tell that one.
Hotel Carlton
Drunken Karaoke Bar... one of the greatest parts of our trip!
Some guy flipping off and making fun of this other guy who stole his mic.
This dog looks so human like that she better have a name like, Janet or Suzanne.
Me and Erika! Thanks for showing us your city Er!
Fishermans Wharf. Always a joy.
You have GOT to love those amazing people who OFFER to take a picture for you and then it turns out like this...thanks. A lot. And yes, this guy scared the crap out of me, I almost ran in to him from behind. I did think he was a statue.
Chels and Mari got in trouble for laughing through the whole Alcatraz movie presentation so I had to bail them out of jail.

Lombard Street

Just so you know, Erika has this MAGNIFICENT apartment located on the 24th floor of a building in San Fran. Such an amazing view! (which isn't shown in this photo).

Have I told you?

Have I told you about our new favorite food? This salsa is THE BEST salsa I've ever tasted or made. Hands down. Since I found the recipe about a month ago we've made this salsa like 500 times! (More realistically about 5).
Now those of you who know me, especially poor Christian, know that I'm not a great cook like my Mother and elder sister. However, if I may be so bold, I think with this recipe I could beat them both in a salsa cook off.


Mango Salsa
1 Mango
4 or 5 Roma Tomatoes
1 Avacado
1/4 Cup Red Onion
1 Jalapeno
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
2 Tbs fresh Lime juice- (I squeeze all the juice from 1 whole lime, but I like A LOT of juice)
1 tsp Sat
3 Tbs Olive Oil

Dice all the ingredients and combine. I don't care if it's not summer anymore, this is perfect for every occasion! Especially Football games!

I love the Fall!

And I love friends who are willing to be spontaneous with us! Christian and I are always looking for some last minute fun and although we knew about this camping trip for all of an hour before we left, Marianne and Kory had everything all packed up and prepared like they had been planning it for years! Even down to the perfect camping spot. What a blast. Thanks guys!
It's crazy that fall has already come!
It's a little chilly in the mornings. So Christian, Lord of the Flame, went searching for wood in the morning. We burned all our wood the night before chatting and telling stories with some great friends.
Now, at this point in the relationship Christian should know that any picture I take could have the potential to be put on the blog...so...sorry hun. But here he is. Big Foot. Gathering wood to make fire.
And here's Kory, laughing as he burns our last piece of wood for the night, knowing we'll be freezing in the morning if we don't save some for a fire! AHEM!!! Just kidding. There were just too many good stories being told to retire to bed early. Love you kids!

Journal from High School

This is fresh!
My little sister Jasmine came up to me the other day and said, "I found a journal of yours from High School. It's funny. I read it all, I couldn't stop myself." Thanks Jaz, for the honesty!
Anyway she was right. As I started reading through it I was laughing so hard at myself! This journal was from a creative writing class I took my senior year. I wanted to share some excerpts with you.
Disclaimer-I have no idea where most of these entry came from?
2/17/2004
"Bob Marley went to Zambia for a concert. While he was there a bald man grabbed him and started to cut his hair, saying he needed it more than Bob did."
2/12/2004
"I like games, but for some reason games in seminary don't really interest me."
2/16/2004
"My biggest dream I have is that one day I can go to Ireland. And I will go there!" (side note: I did go there in October of 2006).
2/23/2004
"My old best friend from 10th grade. Sitting one seat away from me. It doesn't hurt anymore. It's okay that we aren't friends."
4/5/2204
"April Fools day was a joy. I got my wisdom teeth out and was drugged up for a few days. This "vacation" from school has put me behind. I'm scared and struggling to keep up! However, getting your wisdom teeth isn't as bad as i thought it would be. The worst part is the permanent nerve damage I experienced from this special occasion. You see, the roots were wrapped around my nerve in the back of my mouth and the doctor said there was no possible way of removing the tooth w/o taking a risk of nerve damage. Great, now I can't feel a part of my face."
(Side note: I'm pretty sure I have full feeling capacity in my face? I must have been being a little dramatic. However I do remember when I got my wisdom teeth out Christian bought me a new pair of shoes! Yay!)
5/7/2004
-This one made me laugh because I was expecting it to be deep and serious
"Soft damp grains of white sand slide through my fingers. At the end of the day these grains of sand are the ones lucky enough to have not been caught in between some European man's upper thigh and speedo! Instead these chosen grains of sand are left once again to sleep next to the beautiful crashing waves that break against the other unfortunate pieces of sand that are getting hurled around by the ocean until they erode to nothing.
5/7/2004
"Why do so many men here (Cancun) wear speedos? I'm talkin' 95% of the men I have seen are wearing less than an Indians loin cloth! Do they think this is attractive? I say unto you NAY! It is not attractive. And I word it that way because it should be a commandment to NOT wear speedos. Heck it should at least be common sense."
5/7/2004
There's nothing like the innocence comments of a small child. Today my little sister told me, and everyone else within a hundred mile radius, that i had a booger hanging out my nose! ...she's 10-not a small child!"

Oh sweet mercy. I forgot how much talent I have in writing and expressing my emotions. Or the lack there of.

St. George

Before...
After...
Christian, showing off his natural skills at the Air Chair.
Just making it look easy.

New Meaning

Tanner and Spencer giving new meaning to the term, "Hanging Around". Hey you gotta find something to do on a Sunday right?

Op Smile Youth Events

Me and my Homie Kids up in Deer Valley at a student retreat. It was the most amazing cabin ever!

This was the view from our cabin looking down on Jordanelle!

The boys doing their "Special" dance at ISLC

Some of the student sponsor board and student sponsors in Denver!

Back to when I loved you...for you.

This blog, inspired by Tehmi

You should know that my relationship with Christian started out as a friendship back in the 9th grade. The poor kid was new to our school and needed some friends, so I jumped right in to help him out (it had nothing to do with how hot he was, it was more about my inner devotion to do good and be kind). But this isn't a story about how me and Christian met. This is a blog inspired by a friend of mine named Tehmi who wrote a blog about compromises and how some things in life aren't meant to be compromised. Or more specifically I think she was saying that people shouldn't make you compromise the things you love. One line from her blog was, "J Crew. My closet can be completely from J Crew if I want it to be. If I wanted to shop someplace else I would." another was, "Dance Parties. A really great Fleetwood song on the radio sometimes leads to a dance party. Nothing to be ashamed of..." Her blog got me really thinking about something. And no it wasn't about all the things that Christian makes me do, or all the things he doesn't (although that would be sure to make a good lengthy post as well..jk) but it got me thinking about all the things I don't let Christian do, or all the things I make him do. Essentially I wanted to make a promise to myself to go back to 9th grade, when I loved him, for him. So, here goes,

Color Coordination (or the lack thereof). I will let you wear what you want, even if it's a brown shirt with black shoes, or a gray shirt with brown shoes. (OUCH that one hurt, but its out in the open now).
Scrabble and Angry Birds. I will let you play Angry Birds and scrabble with Mark and Leah because I know it makes you happy.
92.3. I won't make fun of you for listening to this hip hop station even though you aren't a gangsta.
Dishwasher. I'll let you show me how to load the dishwasher the "right" way without getting defensive that I'm the girl and if anything I should be showing you.
Pressed and Primed. I won't make fun of you for wanting to iron ALL YOUR SHIRTS before you wear them. I won't iron them FOR you, but I won't make fun of you for doing it yourself. I know you just like looking neat and clean...even if you don't care about matching?
ABCs once, sure...but 10 times? I won't make fun of you for timing how long you brush your teeth and making sure you don't stop before the timer reaches 2 minutes. It makes sense that you brush your teeth for this long even though I couldn't pay you to floss...?
Mountain Man. I won't make you grow a mountain man beard if you don't want to.
Golfing. I know if you were sitting here you'd tell me that I knew how much you loved to golf when I married you so I should let you go everyday, but that's a financial issue and I know if I let you you would drop out of school and work and take out loans just to go play everyday, so lets not bring that one up.
Backflips. If you don't want to do a backflip on your snowboard anymore I won't tease you for being a wimp. Heaven knows I'd never be daring enough to do something so stupid, I shouldn't make my husband do it just for entertainment purposes right?
This and That. I won't make fun of you for adding possibly every spice and ingredient we have in our house to your new recipe for cooking chicken, beef, and just about everything else. I might not eat it, but I won't tease you about it.

Well I'm sure there is many more. The point is I know I can be critical and I know that's not healthy in relationships. Thanks Tehmi! For reminding me that life is about letting people live and be who they are. Dr. Laura always says, "choose wisely, treat kindly". In other words if you are in any kind of relationship where you find yourself being mean and unkind then it's you're fault for not choosing friends, husbands, wives, co-workers, etc, wisely! You know the type of person you can handle, and once you choose to be in their life you have to allow them to be them. And treat them kindly. Case in point! When I asked Christian to give me some examples of the things I do that are critical of him, all he could come up with was how I make fun of how he dresses (not that that's the only thing I do wrong, he's just not one to dwell on my faults). Anyway I remembered that in the 9th grade Christian always wore these bright blue and yellow swim shorts...to school...AND I LOVED IT! So I knew what I was getting myself in to. I chose wisely, and now I'm learning to treat kindly. Lucky for me the best example of treating kindly is (no, not Dr. Laura, she's actually quite rude) but it's Christian. You know how God says he'll help us make up what we lack? Well he sure did that when allowed me to marry Christian. You're a true pal Chrish. I believe it was Jerry McGuire who once said, "You complete me". And so it is. Wish me luck on my journey back to the 9th grade, back to when I loved you, for you!

Sorry for everyone else who is just going to have to put up with me being critical of them. I can only take on so many projects at once, and for now it's Christian! Don't make me run faster than I have strength.

"You're Out"

I took one for the team sliding to 3rd base. Notice I said "ONE" because it won't be happening again.
This is what it looked like last THURSDAY when it happened...
And this is today... is it getting better? Or worse?

Snow cones and Expectations

You may think this is a photo of a snow cone after it has been sitting in my car for 3 hours in 90 degree weather. But you would be wrong in thinking that. I'm not going to name names in fear of insulting Kellie Harris McCarrel but I was referred to a snow cone vender by said anonymous person named Kellie. "Josh even liked it! And he hates snow cones" she said. So I talked my dearest husband in to taking me there when we were out and about running errands. We pull up and I order a small Kiwi/Pinacoloda. Now where I'm from, Alpine, we have the greatest snow shack ever situated right near the round about. It's a delight! Full of new faces and opportunities. Anyway, when I order my usual they give me the perfect amount of snow, syrup and a little cream on top to tickle my fancy. They don't just mix the two flavors, they do one on one side, and one on the other so that it doesn't become a jumbled up mess. At this NEW location that I was persuaded in to trying he filled my cup with ice, mixed the two syrups and handed it to me. And this is what he handed me! This is literally what it looked like when he gave it to me. And I'm not trying to be dramatic but it tasted like DEATH! I wanted to cry, scream, hit, and set that place on fire. I can't blame the kid who works there, he was a product of bad management. An old dog can't teach a new dog good tricks if he doesn't know any himself right? Well we drove away. I was disgusted and then I learned 2 very important lessons. 1. NEVER TRY NEW THINGS and 2. Don't trust my dearest trusted friend when it comes to snow cones. ( I should have learned that long ago when she told me she didn't LOVE the place in Alpine). So Christian and I went to Chillis last night (BECAUSE WE HAD A GIFT CARD ANGIE AND JENNA) and I wanted to order something new, then I remembered what it felt like to be disappointed, so I ordered my usual even though they've changed the menu. I make them let me order from the old menu. I enjoyed my meal, and was delighted. The end. Oh and I will never cheat on you again place in Alpine! (Please forgive me for not remembering your name).

God Bless America!

We went up to Wyoming for the 4th and it was a treat.

We hiked to a spring where we could fill our water bottles with fresh spring water. Christian and I are going to start a new bottled water business!
This is Titan sticking his tongue out at the camera. He's such a tease!
My boys.




Dirt biking through the forest.