Let the Holidays Begin!!! Our Thanksgiving Weekend!

Ah! I love the Holidays! It really is the most wonderful time of the year! I love the excitement, the thrill, the spirit of giving, the great music, the "get togethers" with family and friends, the parties...pretty much I love it ALL!!! Our Thanksgiving weekend began our holdiay season in a great way. Deryk and I went to my parents house for Thanksgiving. Both of our parents are great cooks, so no matter were we went, we would have had an amazing meal!! The feast was great! We then played night games with my siblings and thier spouses and all the neices and nephews. We had a lot of fun and didn't want it to end. Unfortunately it did. The next morning, My sisters and I joined in the chaos of Black Friday. We had a ton of fun out among the crowds and just hanging out together without any children--who were obviously still sleeping!

And tonight Deryk and I joined my older sister Debbi and her family at the parade of lights in downtown Pocatello. We had so much fun--it was a bit cold, but we had the hook-up, and we were able to stay warm or get warm when we got to cold in Justin's Dad's shop--Pocatello Electric(thanks to the Meyer family!) We've had such a great weekend. And tomorrow we get to see Deryk's family. It has been a great way to get the Holiday season started!

Here are a few pictures from our weekend.

Grace and Grandpa, looking for any good deals in the MOUNDS of adds in the Thursday Paper

The parade of Lights with Debbi and Justin's family

Happy Holidays to all of you! May this season be full of joy and happiness! Our goal this year is to spend a little less and show a little more love! I'll let you know how it goes :)

Adventures in Babysitting!

It has been an awesome opportunity for me to be able to stay home this semester with Gracie, and I owe that opportunity to my sisters! I watch thier children for a few short hours durring the weekdays and they pay me for the time (although, I would be happy to do it for free, I am grateful for the financial bennefit.

Anyway, the experience has not only been a blessing financially, it has also been a great experience to have my neices and nephews in our home. Grace will never know what it's like to be an only child because she will always have had someone in the home to share her life and possesions with. I think that is pretty dang cool!

The children are so sweet with thier newest cousin and they are so loving, they are always telling Gracie that they love her and are giving her kisses. It's amazing how accepting and instantly loving they all are with eachother (the joy of cousins!). Anyway, Deryk and I have really enjoyed the experience and we have a lot of pictures to show just how much we enjoy it all. By-the-way, a little shout out to my neice Sarah!! Thanks for helping me fold the laundry! Another bennifit of having my neices and nephews here! Gosh I sure do love 'em!

Our Football Hero!

This Weekend we went to Deryk's hometown, Malta, to watch his little Brother, Bridger, play his final football game. The kid is a great athlete, and we had so much fun watching him. He got a little beat-up but that's normal for our football hero! We think you're great Bridger, it's been fun watching you play these last two years!

Happy Birthday to One Fine Lookin' Man

Yesterday was Deryk's birthday, and the poor man was sick!! But we celebrated his day the best we could. I made him home-made pizza, the boy is a sucker for a good pizza, I'm still trying to make it, but I think in the many, many years we have ahead of us I just might master the perfect pizza.And of course we did the cake and candles and i made a wish as he did too--I wished that he woudn't spread whatever he had when he blew out the candles :)

So, I just wanted to wish my lover a happy birthday. I really do think I'm the luckiest woman in the world to have found someone as amazing as he is. I waited a long time to find Mr. Right, and boy was it worth it!!! He gives me a reason to lighten-up and laugh every day and he is more than willing to help me whenever i may need it. He is literally my life-saving-intertube on wild and tumultuous waters. this life is hard enough, I can't imagine trying to make it through with out him.

So, happy Birthday Deryk! I can't wait to grow old together, I know the best is yet to come

1 Little Ghost Goes BOO!

Since this was Grace's first Halloween, we deccided we would do the costume thing. We kept it simple. So here's our sweet little apporition.

One Wickedly Awesome Prank

Through the years I have found great joy in being a part of the perfect prank, I think it all began in highschool with Becca, one of my very closests friends, whose birthday just happens to be on April Fools Day. I thought the best way to celebrate her birthday was by playing pranks on her. (Sorry Bec!) On the mission I would leave little surprises for the sister coming in after me, or the elders moving into the apartment after us. And when I was "single" living with roomates the opportunities were endless, the best was when I lived with a mastermind who needed someone who was brave enough to carry out the pranks she came up with in behalf of our home teachers. I'll never forget the night I came home only to find my door baracaded with bags and bags of old rotten leaves! If only they had taken the time to make sure all of our cars were there, we immediately carted the old mushy bags to thier apartment to baracade them in and turn thier nasty prank back on them with a note saying something like "Smoothe Move Ex-lax."
But out of all the pranks I've been a part of this one beats them all--it was perfect!
So, I was wandering through the isles of the 50-percent-off-halloween-junk at Walmart yesterday, just looking to waste time until Deryk would be coming home soon. When I saw a tube of blood for 25 cents! My mind immediatly began to create the prank. I had it all planned out to this...
later that night I was making smoothies for Deryk and I. just as I was finishing them up, I got that tube of blood out, poured some of it all over an old dish towel, then dropped a piece of ice in the blender, covered my hand in the blood and turned the blender on, just as the ice crunched with a loud, horrible sound I screamed and went running into Deryk with my hand covered in blood. Deryk jumped up and came running, his face was WHITE, and so concerned looking. Well, as soon as I saw that I had caused him more alarm than I probably should have i gave up the prank and showed him I was Okay.
In my mind it was the best prank ever, it achieved exactly what I was going for. In Deryk's mind it was the worst prank ever. If anyone knows Deryk, they know just how protective he is, so he was very very worried and did not see the humor in it immediately. He did laugh about it after he had some time to calm his mind and racing heart. He swears I'm in for it, but all I have to say to that is, "Bring it on Baby, try and do your worst!!"