Snowmobiling/New Years

Every year the day after Christmas we go to Daniel's Summit snowmobile lodge and stay there for a week and snowmobile. My dad has 9 snowmobiles and is so kind to let us all use them. We left on Sunday this year and made the 12 hour drive up the Heber, UT. It was definitely an adventurous ride. Normally we take 2 vehicles but this year we thought we would save a lot of money by all driving in my mom's denali because there were 8 of us. I offered to sit in the back so we could take one vehicle and wouldn't have to take 2. I really didn't know what I was getting into. The back seat is not a full back seat so your legs are up higher and it is really squished. Blair, Robby and I sat back there for the first half of the ride and then my mom and Blair traded. My rear end and legs were numb by the time we got there because they were so cramped up. It was insane. I sat in the back with Robby and Cory the whole way home from the trip as well. It is definitely a necessity to get out and stretch the legs at gas stops. I learned what sacrifice really means! :)

The whole week was a lot of fun snowmobiling. We each had our own machine and would go on a good family ride and then the boys would usually go out for a really fast ride. Last year I made the mistake of wanting to go on the boys ride and after crying through the whole thing and falling off about 5 times I decided I wouldn't do that again. They are pretty much insane. This year however, I did hit a rock when I was going really fast and it threw me off and my foot got stuck in the foot holder and it drug me along until it got uncaught and I stopped. It was pretty scary and I was lucky I didn't get hurt. That's why we wear helmets because my head smacked like 3 times pretty hard. It was fun other than that though. On Tuesday and Wednesday it snowed and it's not fun when you can't see, so my mom, Kristin and I decided to stay inside and play games. We played a lot of games at night, did a lot of reading, made bracelets and watched movies. It was a lot of fun. The boys brought a ping pong table up and took 3 hours setting it up and every night they would play sting pong with each other.

These boys are crazy! It always makes me a bit nervous!

On the bottom is a picture of my Mom, Kristin and I-the three stooges on the trip.

Aren't these trees and the view gorgeous?

My mom saw these trees and made us all turn around on our trip and go back and take a picture! Ha gotta love moms and pictures! But they are really pretty!

Here is the whole gang-the boys refused to take their helmets off because they were going back on a ride.

We rode over to strawberry lake and ate at their lodge a few times for lunch. It is a lot of fun and we are always tired at lunch time so we are all laying down. Robby got a camera for Christmas and LOVED taking pictures the whole time. He probably took 10 pictures of the elk and deer on the walls so I had to include that picture-he is hilarious!

We were laughing at Robby because he still wears his sweatpants under his snow clothes that he wore when my parents picked him up from Russia 5 years ago! Blair and I shared a room with Craig and Kristin and we had a great time. Kristin decided to ball up like a cocoon and take all the covers so Craig pushed her off the bed and she thought it was more comfy! ha, we had to snap a shot of this. They are so funny!

We drove to Provo to go to Tucanos one night because we all know my Dad lives for good food. I hate the feeling of being so stuffed afterwards but it sure tastes good while you eat it!

You could frequently find us girlies playing games-my mom and I were just grateful Kristin was a game player because we don't know what we would do if she wasn't!

For New Years Eve we hung out after dinner and the boys played ping pong while us girls watched them while playing games. It was very entertaining to watch the losing team get stung with the ping pongs balls.

There faces were hilarious!We brought in the New Year with our sparkling cider. I love my favorite New Year's kiss!

Here is the whole family celebrating the New Year!

We came back up the Flagstaff on Tuesday. As Blair and Robby were packing the truck up, they put a special present in the Bernina box....

It was Robby!

Robby is like gumbi and can fit anywhere, he is so funny! I love how helpful he is though. We sure miss him since we have been back. He got a phone for Christmas and texts Blair everyday the same thing, "what are you doing". He is just hilarious to text back and forth with because of his sense of humor. It cracks me up.

We are enjoying being home and getting settled before school starts again on Monday. Blair is enjoying using his season pass to snowboard everyday. Can't wait to get my last semester of school done!

Christmas!

I know it's almost two weeks after Christmas but I haven't had a chance to blog about anything yet! A forewarning that this will be long and I will not be offended if nobody reads it because it is a journal for me to print off and have for my family! We had a great Christmas and are so thankful for our Saviour and his sacrifices for us.

Blair's family always does a big Christmas program with Bev's side (Blair's mom) on the Monday night before Christmas. The program is always put together so nicely by Bev and starts off with fun things and ends spiritual with the real meaning of Christmas. Blair and I got roped into singing a song that we sang at our ward Christmas party acapella. I can't wait until we have kids that can participate so we don't have to be the ones embarrassing ourselves! It was fun to spend time with all the family we don't get to see very often.

The night before Christmas Eve we did our "Christmas Eve" celebrations with my mom's side of the family. My grandma has made it a tradition to give us pajamas on Christmas Eve every year so we can wear them to bed. It is so nice of her to continue this tradition even after Craig and I are married and there are now 2 extras to give PJ's to. We loved our PJ's and couldn't be happier to get a new set every year. We always dress up and do the nativity every year too. It's a fun tradition and fun to see what everybody ends up as. Nobody wanted to be Mary and Joseph for some reason so Blair and I got to do it again this year. We haven't done it since 4 Christmas's ago (when we were almost engaged) and it's so funny to look back on the pictures.

Here is the gang all dressed up for the nativity!

Here is all of us in our new PJ's from Grandma!

That night we went to see Avatar 3D at the Imax at 10:15! It was really good and I couldn't believe the amazing graphics. It made me want to live where everything glows at night. I love this picture of all of us with our 3D glasses on, we were ready to get in there and watch the movie.

On Christmas Eve we went to my Dad's parent's house and did the nativity a second time. We have a tradition to have all the kids share a talent. Cory somehow roped Blair and I into singing Silent Night with him so he would have a talent. Once again, I can't wait until we have kids to do talents so we can act like we participate :). All my cousins were so cute with their talents. One of my favorites was Brooklyn and Reagan singing I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus. It was adorable!! We got our presents from my grandparents since we wouldn't see them on Christmas and they are always so generous and kind to us.

We spent the night at my parents house that night and woke up with Cory and Robby to open presents Christmas morning. I love walking out to the Christmas tree in our new PJ's with my bros!

Blair totally surprised and spoiled me by getting me a Bernina sewing machine! I have been sewing on my mom's Bernina for forever and never really thought about when I would get my own. It will be so nice to use it at my own house or with my mom at her house on projects together. It has a nice transporting case and everything. I am so excited for this gift and so grateful for my thoughtful husband!

We got so many awesome gifts from our family, we are so blessed! My brothers are so sweet to give us such nice gifts. In Cory's gift he gave us he made me these clay letters that said "KT". They are adorable and he is so sweet. He has made amazing things in his clay class, he is so talented at everything!

My parent's big gift this year were these pictures. They had the temple picture done with our name and anniversary and the first vision picture. They are so pretty! I'm just sad we can't enjoy them here because we didn't have room to bring them with us and we figured it would probably do more damage bringing them up here and then back down in 4 months when we move back. We can't wait to put them on our walls some day!

My mom made me this really cute skirt, like the one I made this summer taught to me by my sister in law. Now I have 2 of them!

After presents at my parent's house we went to Blair's parents for breakfast and more festivities. I like the tradition Blair's family has that they watch the Luke 2 nativity movie to Breath of Heaven sung by Amy Grant before opening presents. It really puts everybody in the right mood for Christmas and helps the kids realize it's not just about the presents. It's a lot crazier over at Blair's parents with the 11 nieces/nephews running around but it's a blast. All the siblings went in and got Blair's parents a memory foam mattress top and they seem to love it.

We have a tradition that we draw names for the siblings and a letter and make the letter match with the gift. Blair's brother, Blake, had me this year and he got me the lion house bread cookbook and his wife made me the adorable apron. I'm so excited to start learning the yummy new recipes. Blair's sister Brooke had her and she got Blair the game Qwirkle. This is one of our favorite games and we didn't have it yet so it was perfect. I bet we played it 50 times between my parents and Blair's parents house this winter break. It is so much fun! Blair's parents got these scooters from California that have one wheel in the front and two in the back and they are so much fun! Blair can't stop talking about how he wants to get one. It's even a work out when you ride them. Blair's parents got each family a karaoke machine and it will be so much fun with all our friends in Flagstaff! (Sorry Niki and Chris, you already think we are loud enough living above you!)

I had my sister in law, Tanya's, name and her fifth baby was born in October so as my mom and I were brainstorming what I could give her she thought of making a diaper bag. My mom said she saw diaper bags like this at a boutique being sold for $160 but because she is such a good sewer she made up the pattern to make this diaper bag. She was so nice to make most of this and I barely helped! It turned out really cute. I can't wait until I have kids one day to make cute stuff like this. I hope Tanya liked the diaper bag!

Later that day we went back to my parents house and talked to Derek from his mission in New York. It was so good to talk to him and see that he is doing so well! I can't believe how much he has grown spiritually; I love missions! I know that our family is blessed because of his service. Derek got us all Brooklyn shirts for Christmas so we put them on a took a picture all together. Since Derek is obsessed with Zach and Max (the dogs) we had to get them in the picture too for proof that they are still alive. Derek is worried that Zach is going to die when he is gone and frankly, I'm not sure how he is still alive. He can barely hear and see but I think he is hanging on for Derek to come home. Derek just says don't tell me if Zach dies, I don't want to know. Poor kid is so worried, but we'll show him with this picture that everything is still good!

My mom's brother's family came over for the rest of the day and we played lots of games. Let's just say my Aunt Leigh Ann and I smoked everybody in Qwirkle playing teams. My mom tends to get a little competitive in games and knocked my Aunt out of her chair by punching her arm too many times. It was hilarious! Gotta love family games!! :)

We are so thankful for all the gifts we received and know that we really didn't deserve all of them. We are truly blessed and are so thankful for the gospel in our lives. Blair and I truly are grateful for the real meaning of Christmas. I read recently about how we our prayers are answered usually by those around us. Which means that we need to be in tune with the spirit enough to know when to answer somebody else's prayer. This was amazing for me to think about. It is so true, because we were able to witness miracles that occurred for people this Christmas accomplished through the hands of giving. I know that we can be the answers to people's prayers around us. The real meaning of Christmas is found through giving to those around us and through the Savior's perfect example. I am always astounded at how he could love everybody, even when they spit in his face and mocked him. We are so lucky to have his great example for us to live by.

Winter Break So Far...

Blair and I arrived in the valley on Friday, December 11th and I feel like I have been busier here than I was in Flagstaff in school! I haven't even had time to check my computer. It has been pretty crazy busy but that's how I love to be anyways!

On that first Saturday morning I told my mom I would help her with her ward's breakfast with santa. I was an "elf" with my pointed ears and helped keep the kids in a line and going to see santa. I'm not quite sure how I got roped into that...

The big project my mom and I worked on all last week was making scripture bags. Her friend asked us to make 10 of them for her kids for Christmas and it turned out to be quite the project. Many, many, many hours were put in and we finally finished them. My Grandma had knee surgery and so was staying at the house all last week. She helped us with the gathering and pinning, which was wonderful! It was also fun playing games late at night with her! These pictures below are some of the bags before they got decorated.

We gave the bags to my mom's friend who wanted to put the finishing touches of decorating the outside on them. They turned out so cute! I was so impressed!!! I don't know if these pictures do any justice.

On Friday was Kristin's graduation party and it turned out so great. It looked like a wedding! I wish I had pictures. Congrats Kristin we are so proud of you! :)

Saturday I went Jake's (Blair's best friend) friend's (Melissa) baptism in Glendale. Blair was at the cabin helping my dad set up furniture. When I got home I helped my mom, Kristin and Grandma finish the chocolates they were making. They had been covering pretzels with caramel and chocolate. Then we made homemade chocolates which includes adding the flavoring and food coloring to fondant. Kristin and I had a hard time because ours turned out like taffy, so we just put it in the fridge before forming the balls and dipping it in chocolate. I then had to leave to watch my 5 nieces and nephews, who are so cute. I came back home to make more chocolates, dip strawberries and clean up the kitchen. It was a long day!

We went to lunch after the baptism and my friend Taylor and her husband were in town from Texas. I grew up with her and helped her with her wedding this summer in California. It was so fun to catch up on life since being married! This is Taylor and I:

On Sunday we had to go caroling as a family like we do every year! I had to snap some pictures of the new hats this year. My mom always makes us wear hats and we got some fun new ones this year. Isn't Blair's hat so cute? Can't say the same about my reindeer ears (one was limp) but it was better than wearing a santa hat! Robby's elf hat was perfect for him.

This is the whole gang. Don't be surprised if next year you see us show up on your door step singing Christmas carols. I can't believe the tradition is still going! Derek is not sad to be missing this one this year :) Ha, I love how Blair towers over my family-too funny!!

This week I'm working for my uncle at his pediatric dental office and can't wait until Christmas. It has come so soon!!!

Insane Snow Days!

Blair was so excited all weekend because he had been hearing that it was supposed to snow so hard on Monday and get 2 feet of snow. I guess sometimes the weatherman can be correct! It has been insane here but so much fun! Blair can't wait to use his season pass at Snowbowl and is sad we will be leaving for the whole winter break. Here is a picture of me on the left before I left for my final at 7:30 am Monday morning; Blair likes to make fun of me because I bundle up sooo much! I love waking up to snow on the ground and it makes it easy to get Blair out of bed because he is so excited! He is the best husband and always cleans off the car for me and warms it up so early. I appreciate the little things he does for me.

I just had to take some pictures Monday afternoon of the beautiful trees. I can't believe how much it just kept snowing and snowing and snowing. NAU cancelled school Monday at noon. The past two years we have lived here there has been about 1, maybe 2 snow days for NAU because they just don't cancel class for anything. Blair turned in his take home final for one class and he was supposed to have a final at 12:30 and 5:30 Monday. The university said that students have two options: take the current grade in the class or take the final the first week of spring semester and get an incomplete for this semester. Blair was stoked! He took the grades he had in the two classes and was so relieved he didn't have to take those finals. At 6pm Monday night we found out the verdict for school on Tuesday and once again it was cancelled!!! This was totally insane and Blair was once again so excited to take the grade in his finance class and not have to take the final. He also got an email from his Wed. night professor that said he is canceling class and if students wanted to take a final they could write an essay. Blair was more than happy once again to take the grade. Wow, what an answer to all those prayers we were asking for Blair to do well on finals. He got out of taking 4 of his 5 finals! Someone from our ward called Blair and asked if he wanted to go shovel snow Monday night at this large apartment complex for $15 an hour. Blair went with a few friends and they got on top of carports and shoveled snow for four hours. He came home and felt like he was run over by a truck, it was such hard work! I hung out with four friends from our complex and we talked, watched a movie and ate hot chocolate while the boys were gone. It was such a fun snowy day and night!

We woke up Tuesday morning and this is what it looked like: the porch was completely covered with 2-3 inches of snow, the bikes and stairs were covered, the cars were covered. It was crazy!! There was supposed to be 50-60 mph winds that night and you could definitely tell because of all the snow that was blown on everything. It was such a peaceful, sunny morning though that you would have never been able to tell the night before was such chaos. I went to my annual eye appointment that morning and they dilated my pupils. Bad idea when there is snow everywhere outside making it 10 times brighter. I had my glasses on with sunglasses over them and could hardly see. I had to drive straight to pick my visiting teaching companion (Lindsay) up so we could go visiting teaching. She lives only a mile from me but is in a neighborhood with houses and it's not top priority for the snow plows. There was a one way road paved by the snow plows in her neighborhood for cars to get through. After I picked her up I couldn't turn around so we decided to go through the neighborhood to get out. This was not a good idea because there kept being cars directly in front of us and we couldn't get around them. Lindsay was laughing so hard at me because I was so nervous driving with 2-3 ft of snow around me and trying to get by these cars. At one point she almost made me get out and let her drive to go through this deep snow but I was too nervous we would get stuck. So we asked the one nice person who had plowed his driveway if we could turn around. We turned around and when I pushed the breaks all of the snow from the top of my truck came down and covered the entire windshield. At this point we had been trying to get out of the neighborhood for 20 min. and we were cracking up so hard! She got out and used her sleeve to get the snow off so we could continue driving. Luckily our truck as four wheel drive or else we would have been stuck for sure. We went visiting teaching finally, but it was definitely an adventurous day to remember!

When I got home, there were our friends Abby and Chris, and Melissa and Adam at our apartment. We went to lunch at this super yummy greek place and met our friends Chris and Lauri and Lydia. It was a lot of fun. Then we decided to go get snow clothes on and meet back at Melissa and Adam's house where there were hills to make snowboard jumps. We snowboarded and sledded down the hill and the boys made a really good jump. Here is a picture of Blair doing a backflip of the stump, blair jumping on his snowboard, and Blair and I sledding. It made me get really excited to go snowboarding this season!

On the left are the boys: Adam, Chris and Blair. On the right are the girls: Me, Melissa, and Abby. We had a lot of fun, but went in around 5:30 and it was super cold then!!

I love my Blair!

Today (Wed), the roads were still not super good to travel on. The Flagstaff public schools are still out for snow day. Blair and I cleaned a house in Forest Highlands this morning and we had to trudge through a foot and a half of snow to get to the door (it is someone's cabin and they haven't been up for 3 weeks). It has been fun with all the snow. I can't believe we got so much snow (2-3 ft) in one day! We sure are going to miss this next year!

These pictures are of Blair and his friend Greg who helped get this lady unstuck right in front of our apartment complex. It's amazing all the snow that is piled up from the snowplows!

Christmas Party

It's funny how when I'm supposed to be studying I can always find other things to do! Last night we had another fun party with the cute couples around us. Everybody brought food and we had pesto bread, rolls, chimichangas, homemade pizza, stuffed shells and it was delicious! I was seriously in heaven with all the carbs and I probably should have run at least a mile last night with how much I ate. Let's be honest though, when really was the last time I ran a mile? Anyways, we had a white elephant gift exchange and it was a lot of fun. We are going to miss all these fun people when we move in May but we won't think about it until then.

This is Greg and Danielle Matheny and they are great to have as neighbors. Blair enjoys playing disc golf with Greg (when the weather was warmer) and I loved visiting teaching Danielle (until they took her away from me). They are so fun and got his Christmas blanket, which I really hope they like because it was our gift! ha They sure do make fun times when they are around.

This is Ben and Karen Fillerup and Karen is the party planner. I just love her! They got the movie A Christmas Story and it was hilarious because Karen HATES this movie but Ben LOVES it so now Ben can enjoy having it at his house. After the party Karen and I talked for a few hours and it's so much fun to just chat with her.

I was so grateful Abby and Chris let us do the party at their house. It was supposed to be at ours but I was helping Blair all afternoon (after working in the morning) editing his 16 page paper due that evening and my house was a mess! They got a cute home and gardens sugar cookie mix with a christmas pot holder. It was perfect for mrs. healthy Abby because it was made out of wheat flour! Thanks again Abby and Chris!

This is cute Laura and Daniel from our ward. We are so glad we've got to know them because they are so much fun to be around. Laura is so cute pregnant and due in February with a baby boy! When Daniel and Blair get together they act like little boys but they have so much fun! They got a cute cow that moo's We Wish you a Merry Christmas I think. Laura loves Christmas decorations and it should be a great addition to the baby's room for Christmas!

Our neighbor, Elizabeth, and her baby William came. They received this car adapter that you can plug into your cigarette lighter and it has a three prong plug. We all wanted that after seeing it because it would be so cool to be able to plug your computer or whatever in while you were driving.

It was really funny when we opened up our gift it was in a box that showed a cat cookie jar on the outside. I tried to act excited, even though we aren't really cat people but then Danielle said to look inside and there was a gift card to sonic. She was laughing because she was just trying to get rid of this cat cookie jar that she didn't want. It is actually cute and I might like it if there are cookies in it! :) Blair was so enthused with the sonic gift card, it was perfect for us. He is obsessed with sonic and I'm always trying to save money and not eat out so now he has money to spend there!

What a wonderful Christmas beginning! Now we get to go down to the valley next week after finals and enjoy Christmas festivities with the family. Can't wait! I love this time of year with giving and holiday cheer!!!!

Thanksgiving 2009

Blair and I went to Show Low and met my parents and all the Breinholts there for Thanksgiving. We just had a blast! The whole weekend the boys all rode the razers, quads and dirt bikes around and the girls talked and played games. It was such a nice break from school and so great to get away! It was fun having smores around the campfire and watching movies in the theatre room. We are so lucky to have such a fun place to hang out with my grandparents and aunts and uncles cabins so close.

We enjoyed many sand volleyball games with all the family. Everybody is really competitive which makes it even more fun!

Thursday morning my mom, Kristen and I were in charge of making all the pies. My Aunt Natalie called and said she wanted to come over and learn how to make some and she didn't know what she got herself into. We made nine different pies. And we made homemade pie crust. I love baking normally, but the homemade pie crust I gave up on and made Kristen finish. I just stuck to doing the pie fillings. We had to take a picture of the finished product that we spent hours and hours slaving over!

This is one of my cute cousins, Brooklyn! Everybody says she is a mini me and it's so funny because I look at pictures of myself when I was young and she looks just like me. I still think she is way cuter though. It was so fun to spend time with all my fun, cute cousins (they all seem more like nieces and nephews to me especially now that I have 12 on Blair's side). It was a lot of fun spending time talking with all my aunts, uncles and grandparents too. I don't get to do that often enough and Blair and I had a great time.

The weather was great and I had to capture at least one picture of Blair and I.

When we drove home it was snowing but there wasn't a whole lot stuck to the ground when we unpacked. I went outside about 3 hours later and all the cars were covered. This morning I woke up and there were about 3 inches of snow on the ground. I was soooo cold in my bed I had three blankets on and didn't want to get out. We can't control the heat because there is one thermostat for the whole apartment complex and we are one of the two apartments that have two large windows in our bedroom so it gets super cold. We can't complain though because we have to best landlord ever (not to mention the great rent we pay)!

We truly are so blessed and I love this holiday where we can reflect on everything we are thankful for. I couldn't even begin to list all the things we are thankful for but we really are blessed to have the gospel and great family in our lives. We couldn't be happier at this time.

New Moon

An orthodontist in town rented out a theatre for New Moon and my friend got me a ticket so I could go with them at 6! I sure felt bad for all of the people that were waiting in the already huge line for the midnight showing when we got there at 5. Lauri was nice enough to get there at 4 for us and we had awesome seats right in the middle. I loved all the screaming that took place during the film when Edward or Jacob would do things, it was so cute! It was a lot of fun to be there with friends and have a girls night out. The movie was sooo much better than the first one. I totally loved it, until at 8 when the power went out. We sat there for 30 min. while the power was out of a large area in Flagstaff including all of NAU campus. Then at 8:30 they evacuated us and gave us each two free movie tickets. Well now I can go back with Blair and watch the last 10 min. I missed for free! Can't wait to see it again!