Pre-Christmas 2009

Mesa Temple Christmas lights My mom and dad

My parents decided to come and spend a few days with us before Christmas. It was such a whirlwind trip, but it was so much fun. We picked them up and headed out to the Mesa temple to go and check out the Christmas lights. It was so beautiful this year and much bigger than what I remember from five years ago. It is always so nice to be on the temple grounds, but to see so many people there was amazing. There were families everywhere and missionaries talking to the people there. It was such a beautiful sight. Afterwards, we headed home for some hometown fun.

Saturday, Cade took my dad and bro out riding in the ranger. They had such a great time and came back covered in dirt. My mom and I stayed back out the house for some craft time and headed to the show to see "The Princess and the Frog". It was adorable. It's based in New Orleans and Louisiana bayou so it was fun to see how accurate they got it. They were spot on! It was great. We had dinner with Cade's parents and the missionaries afterwards. It was hilarious! Sunday we all headed to church and had lunch together. My parents and bro then headed out to Palm Springs to go get some R-n-R. We followed behind them on Monday. We decided to hit the outlets and the aerial tram. It was so awesome! It was quite interesting to see my dad and brother swimming that morning then having to be bundled up due to the seven inches of snow on the ground and the snow that was still coming. It was so beautiful!

It was so much fun to have them out here. I wished they could have stayed longer, but there is always next time...

Thanksgiving

Getting things ready to eat...

Dad carving the turkey. YUM!!!!

Me and my sweetie

The family

This year Cade and I went over to my parents' house for Thanksgiving. It was so nice. The weather was perfect. I didn't need anything more than maybe a sweater the entire time. Cade flew down Wednesday before Thanksgiving and was able to stay the rest of the week. What a blessing! My mom's side of the family came down for dinner as well. We haven't gotten together like that for a really long time. It was wonderful to be able to have us together. We were able to talk about so many things. It was really nice to be able to talk to my grandparents about the gospel. I don't think they realized how involved Cade and I really are with the church. It is really different comparing west coast to the south. They do not have very many members in the south so they were surprised to hear about how many temples there are and even how many people are in our ward. It is so nice to be able to share these moments with people you love. I am so grateful that I am able to have these moments.

A Couple of Projects

Letters for my sister A baby blanket

I have discovered crafting and if I do say so myself, I am a little addicted. I love it so much! There are so many wonderful ideas that I finally get to work on now that I have the courage. It took a long long time, but it is finally here. I have had so much support from my mom and girlfriends. Thank goodness they have patience because I am such a perfectionist that I would talk myself out of things before I got started. I am so glad that I am over that fear now. I have so many fun things that I want to tackle all at once...now I just have to master time management.

Point Taken

I did not realize that I had not blogged in forever. (Thanks for snapping me back into reality Sheena :) ) There has been some pretty neat things that have happened since my last post. For starters, I went to my first ever Time Out for Women. It was awesome. I got to go with a wonderful group of girls from church and some family. The speakers were amazing. It was your classic scenario where we are laughing our behinds off one moment and then the next there is a powerful, spiritual moment where we are all sobbing. I even won a $50 gift certificate. It was awesome. I learned so much and realized that I love the feeling of unity with so many women who are striving to become better.
I also got going with school again. I am so excited. It is completely online so I don't have to travel so many hours a week. And I think that I am doing really well. Granted it is only my first two classes, but I am having a great time.
My girlfriends, I am sure, were relieved when November 20th came around because then I would shut up about Twilight for a little while. Yes, ladies, I am a Twi-Hard! I was so excited for "New Moon" to come out, even Cade knew when it was coming out. Friday night at midnight I went out to see the first screening with two of my great girlfriends. The next day I went with a pack of Edward and Jacob hungry women for another showing. It was so much fun!!!

Obviously I am an Edward Fan!!! Is it really that hard to not see why?

It was so much fun. We went and watched the show. Then thanks to a wonderful girl (love you Tami) we were able to munch on Twilight candies and smell yummy in our Twilight lotion. We went to eat afterwards and laughed so hard we were crying. It was such a great girls trip!

Last, but certainly not least, I just got back from visiting with my family for Thanksgiving. It was so nice. Thankfully I was able to get my homework done within a reasonable timeframe and was not bogged down the entire trip. We were able to do some really neat things: visiting an old candy shop downtown (it was so cute. There was even an old soda fountain bar that they still used.), some of the best restaurants I have been to in a long time, Thanksgiving (obviously), and a Rennaissance festival. I am sad to say that I did not have my camera with me when I went, but it was super fun. I have had some wonderful things the past few months. I hopefully will be getting some pictures in that I can update with.