Celebrating The Season

We've had fun getting ready for Christmas this year. Here are a few things we did to celebrate the season.

When Jordan and I got home from our running our Thanksgiving day race we were surprised with a package on our stairs. Inside was an adorable elf named "Elenore". She came with a note saying she'd come from the north pole to watch over our family until Christmas, and then she'd send Santa our report. My sisters all also "mysteriously" received similar elves that day. Jordan and I have had so much fun with this little elf through the holidays. We've found it in random places like the car, closet, fridge, bed, etc. -We had an elf named "Edgar" when I was little that I loved, and I'm so excited that "Elenore the Elf" can be a part of our little family now.

We decorated Gingerbread houses, and made Christmas candy.

I had fun decorating the house as usual. We bought a Christmas train to go around the tree this year, which the neighbor boys and Jordan have LOVED! (PS... the neighbor boys asked where my "real" tree was, because apparently having 3 little trees is lame. Oh well, I think it's cute.)

I went to Alyssa's 3rd Grade Christmas program.

Jordan had a nice work party at the Davis Conference Center. We went and saw the Christmas Carol play at the Centerville Theater with my parents. Our ward had a very nice Christmas musical fireside. We went and saw the lights at Temple Square. I had a Girls Night out at Olive Garden with Jordan's Sisters, Mom, and Grandma. We were on the ward Christmas party committee, and had a fun ward breakfast. We have had so much fun with Julianne's family being down for the holiday. I have tickled, wrestled, teased, and kissed those kiddos as much as possible while they've been down here. We went to the Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert, and we celebrated 4 wonderful years of marriage together.

I love this time of year.

Our Wild Wind Storm

December came in with a bang this year, that's for sure. We woke up at 2am December 1st to a major east wind storm. Wind speeds reached 100 mph. It was so so so scary. I seriously felt like we were in a tornado that wouldn't end. Our walls, windows, blinds were shaking, pictures fell off the walls, and we were freaked out. I cried while hiding in my closet with headphones on. We looked out the window and watched our little Farmington city get torn to pieces. We feel grateful that we are safe though, and that our home only had minimal damage compared to others.

-Here's some of the damage around our house-

-Here's some pictures from around our neighborhood-

A construction site just a block away from our house.

-The power was out all day until about 9pm. I'm grateful for kind family that let us spend the night so we could have heat and peace from the noise of the wind. Wind is powerful, and I hate it more than anything. What a great start to the holiday season. Looks like Santa will be bringing us a new fence for Christmas this year.

A November to be Grateful for

We've had a great November so far. We've enjoyed the fall weather and are getting ready for the upcoming holiday season. We put the Christmas decorations up yesterday, and I figured I better document the great November we've had so far before Christmas gets in the way.

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Earlier this month our ward had a "Day of Service". I've never been a part of this before, but this year I made a special effort to attend. I went to an Endowment session Friday morning, and then did Sealings later that evening with Jordan. I felt the spirit so strongly that day being in the Temple, and really enjoyed giving my day off of work to the Lord that day.

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Our Young Women's President has really made a push for the leaders to work on their Personal Progress alongside the girls lately. So I've been working on passing off goals, experiences, and projects again. I earned my medallion when I was in YW as a youth, but it's neat to do it again as an adult and really realize the importance of this program. We had our Young Women's In Excellence night last week and it was a wonderful, uplifting evening. I love all the girls in this ward, and am enjoying my calling (even though it is extremely demanding at times).

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Jordan, my Dad, and I did something brave earlier this month... We registered for the Ogden Half Marathon, which is May 19th 2012. Up to this point the farthest race we've done is 6.2 miles, so 13.1 will be a feat for us. I'm excited to do a race like this with my Dad, and am ecstatic that Jordan is doing it with me. I love running with these two. Hopefully we'll stay healthy and enjoy training together, and have a good time come May.

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McKenzie's High School put on the musical "Fiddler on the Roof" this week. They did such a great job, and we all enjoyed watching it. It was fun to see her on stage with her friends, and reminded me of when I was in High School. The play was the highlight of my senior year, and I'm sure it will be for her too. I love that lil' sis of mine.

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Jordan was able to go to the U of U football game last weekend with his buddy Nick. Never mind that there was wind, rain, snow, and freezing temps that night. They still had a great time. We sure love us some Utes Football.

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I went to the premier showing of "Breaking Dawn: Part 1" with friends Amberly & Eliza from the ward last week. It was great. Cheesy, like all Twilight movies are, but we had a great time at our Girls Night Out together. -Jordan went to the movies with Am & Eliza's husbands that night too. I'm sure our movie was WAY better :) I'm grateful to have good friends that Jordan & I both get a long with. That is a huge blessing, and I'll say it again... we love where we live.

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And yesterday we began our week of Thanksgiving festivities. Jordan's family had their Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday, and my family will do dinner on Thursday. It's so nice of Jordan's mom to do it the week before. It makes it so much nicer to not have to split time with families on the actual holiday. We had a great time together, catching up with family that we don't see near enough, and eating delicious food as always. -Jordan and I have so much to be grateful for this year. Family, Faith, and Friends always top the list though.

(I wanted to document our Thanksgiving celebrations in my November post, so here we go. We woke up that cold November morning and ran a fun little 5 mile race with my Dad and his friend Boyd. It was a race up at Ogden Regional Hospital and the entrance fee was canned food. It was a great way to start Thanksgiving. Helping others, and exercising before the big feast. We had Thanksgiving dinner at my parents house, and my mom's whole family came over. It was a huge event, the food was delicious, and my mom threw a beautiful party as always. I tease her so much for worrying over every little detail, but I am becoming her more and more everyday, and honestly I couldn't be more proud. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.)

Harry Potter Goes Halloween

Me and my friend Casey decided we wanted to throw a Halloween party this year. And what better theme to have then "Harry Potter goes Halloween?!"

Casey made these awesome invitations and they just made my day.

Harry Potter & Ginny Weasley

The Weasley & Potter Families

Casey's Step-Dad is a "Master Pumpkin Carver". He carved all these pumpkins special for our Harry Potter party. They are so cool!!!

I wanted to put just how awesome he is at carving pumpkins into perspective by comparing it to my work of art.

Wa-la!!! Pathedic isn't it?! (Oh well, GO UTES!!!)

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Okay, back to the Halloween Party... Jordan & I came up with our version of "Fear Factor". It was simply amazing if I do say so myself.

We did all sorts of gross things like dig through bowls of pig snot (whip cream) for boogers (bubble gum)...

Ate spoonfuls of Dog Food (corn beef hash)...

and yes Nick did barf right after attempting this.

Sucking on lemons soaked in lemon juice and salt.

Bobbed for onions in a cauldron filled with gold fish.

I wasn't so good at this so Jordan took over for me. Notice how he just dove right in to win the task.

Drenched after the nasty onion bob.

Haha this was a task where we tied paddle balls around our waists and tried to trigger the mouse trap as quick as possible. Hilarious.

Other games included things like: eating chocolate covered worms, sticking your hand in a bag full of crickets, digging through spaghetti covered in mill-worms with your face, eating harry potter ever flavor jelly beans (which included flavors such as; rotten egg, pencil shavings, barf, centipede, skunk spray, booger, etc).

It was a fun filled night full of good food, disgusting food, laughs, dry heaving, and tons of fun!!

Happy Halloween Everyone!!!

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In other news... Jordan & I were lucky enough to get to go to the Jason Aldean concert Oct. 22nd compliments of our great friends Chauny & Deb. Thanks guys!! We had so much fun!!

And... I love being an Aunt. Ethan, Alyssa, and I couldn't resist diving into Grandpa's giant pile of leaves the other day. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE these kiddos.

Monster Mash & Dash

Jordan, Dad, and I ran in the Kaysville City Monster Mash & Dash 5K race this weekend.

It was fun to dress up and run in the dark. We had a great time being a little silly, and it got me excited for Halloween which is right around the corner.

Pumpkin Patch

Fall is in the air.

We got together with my parents & Kim's family over the weekend and went on a little hayride to a huge pumpkin patch and had a great time picking out pumpkins. We also picked up a few trees for our yard while we were out. We got fuji and yellow delicious apple trees, a peach tree, and a flowering plum. I'm so excited!

We also had fun being a little silly that day.

McKenzie didn't come to the pumpkin patch with us this year because she was too busy beautifying herself for the Homecoming dance. Is she not gorgeous? I love my little sister that just turned 18 this week!!! Can't believe she's all grown up.

St. George Weekend

My Dad is seriously awesome. On Oct. 1st he ran yet again another St. George Marathon!

He is my hero. 26.2 miles and he's almost 64!!!

It was so crazy. I've seen him run a million races, but this race was different. I WANTED TO BE THERE RUNNING IT WITH HIM THIS TIME. I had the crazy running fever. It was like when I used to watch musical plays and die over not being in there singing with them. (This musical craziness has since left me, and now I've been taken over with the racing bug.) I told Dad and he said he'd run the Ogden half marathon in Spring 2012 with me, and then when we got home he registered me and Jordan up for a Halloween 5K. Ha!! I can't wait to have my Dad back as my running partner. It's been hard to run together when I was training for a 3-6 mile races and him a marathon before. So hopefully it'll be easier to get together now.

He's seriously awesome!!!

Besides the Marathon we had a great little weekend vacation to St. George. Jordan & I rode down with Mom, Dad, and Kenz, and met up with Kim and her family there. We celebrated Ethan's 2nd Birthday down there, and I fell yet again in love with her kiddos. And then on Sunday we took a tour of the beautiful St. George Tabernacle, and then found this really cool splash pad that we had so much fun playing in.

We had a great weekend with great weather, and GREAT FAMILY.