Christmas Crafts

This year, I decided to be crafty.  Literally.  It all started when my sister-in-law, Shannon, and I wanted to start a monthly craft night with the Ogden sisters and sisters-in-law using my lovely Cricut machine.  This sprung me into doing a bunch of other crafts to decorate my apartment with, as well as making some of my Christmas gifts for people.  Here are some of the things I have done so far:

This is hanging above our front door. (And yes, I know mistletoe is really one word.)

I had to modge podge every letter on this plaque.  Yes, it took forever.

I know that this is normally a decoration you might see more around Christmas time, but I wanted to make this a decoration I could have around my house all year long.

 

These are some coasters I made out of travertine tiles and rub-ons.

And here are some more. :)

Giving Thanks

Covey and I had the opportunity to celebrate our 3rd Thanksgiving together. We decided to hit up Heather and Brett's house for lunch and by the time we finished eating lunch and dessert there, it was time to go to my mom's house for dinner. Talk about stuffed! But we had a lot of fun and were able to stop and think about the things we are grateful for.

Driving to Brett and Heather's house for lunch

Austin just could not stay away from the fruit salad.

He finally just stuck his nose in it!

The boys cooking

Heather got to carve the turkey.  It was sooo good!

The Shan's

We are so stinking cute!

My nephew, Cooper

My niece, Kinsey, who loves to have her picture taken.

G is for Jesus

The other day my sister in law told me something her daughter said one day while driving. My niece, Kinsey, who is four, looked up on the mountain and saw a big 'G' painted on it (for Pleasant Grove). She said "Look mommy! It's a G like Jesus!" Her mom corrected her by saying, "No, Kinsey. Jesus starts with a J." Kinsey then responded, "Mommy. It's not Jay-sus. It's Gee-sus." Boy, I guess she put her in her place! :)

Mean People

Most days, I like my job.  Other days, not so much.  Today was one of those not so much days.  I got to work at 9:15 when I normally do and had to immediately jump on the phones to help out with the high volume of calls coming in.  I didn't get a chance to breathe until 12:30 when the calls finally started dying down and we had enough people come in to take them. 

My position as a supervisor usually protects me from having to take too many phone calls but some days are insane, like today.  Other things, it does not protect me from.  Such as an angry husband who came into the office today and demanded to know why his wife's book hadn't been printed, and were we software developers and why didn't I know how to fix the problem, and...  It was no bueno.  And he was mean.  I hate mean people.  I'm not sure why people think they have to be mean in order to get their way.  I'd much rather help someone who is being nice to me, than one who feels like demeaning you is a good plan to get what they want. 

Unfortunately, we are getting into the holiday season.  I say unfortunately because when it comes to the world of customer service, the holidays bring out the worst in people.  You might be surprised at some of the things that people say in an effort to get their way during this time of year.  I still get surprised.  Some of the most common are "You did this on purpose", "Now my children are going to think I don't care about them" and "I want to talk to your supervisor."  The last one becomes more and more common the closer and closer it gets to Christmas.  And some days, I wish there was no Christmas because then people wouldn't get so crazy mean.  Of course, if there was no Christmas, there would probably be some other holiday that would be as big of a deal so I'd still be in the same predicament.  All I can do each year as this time approaches is remember that no matter how bugged I am about something, I need to not be one of those mean people I don't like so much.

Halloween

Basically the only thing I like about Halloween is that I get to dress up in something that I probably wouldn't normally dress up in.  Since I had already gotten a witch costume for the Witch's Night Out at Gardner Village earlier this month, I decided to just be that again for Halloween night.  Covey decided to dress up as my broom.  He came up with this idea all on his own as well as the costume itself.  It ended up working out really well and it was funny.  We went over to Shannon and Grayson's new house in Spanish Fork to hang out with them and some other of their friends.  We had a good time, but I am sure glad Halloween only happens once a year!

Riding my "broom"

 

Homemade root beer!

 

 

Covey and I had some fun with the dry ice...

 

Grayson dressed up like Bam Bam

When I gave Covey a kiss on the cheek, the middle of it looked like a heart!

 

Pedestrians

Today, I had a miracle happen on the BYU campus.  A pedestrian actually stopped when I approached the crosswalk instead of walking in front of me like I didn't exist.  I know.  It's hard to believe, but it happened.  And I was so thrilled and shocked that I did a little half thank you wave at the person.  So to all you inconsiderate BYU pedestrians out there--shame on you for not being more aware of the cars around you who are trying to get to campus just as much as you are.  But to those of you pedestrians out there who remember what it's like to be a driver on campus at 8am trying to make it to class on time, thank you.

Witch's Night Out

This last Saturday, myself and some of my lovely friends decided to go down to Gardner Village to the annual Witch's Night Out.  Basically, you dress up as a witch and then go around to the different stores and get your fortune told and see all the other crazy witch costumes people come up with.  All the girls in our group decided to do striped socks and some of us made our own witchy tutus.  It was so fun!  I don't have all of the pictures I'd like to post because they are sort of scattered around 3 cameras but this is what I have so enjoy!

Some pre-event photos

We are such cute witches!

Hanging out before dinner

Showing off our legs.  I mean, tights...

 

Witchy Women

 

Riding "side broom"

My totally awesome hair!  I put spiderwebs in it. :)

I'm a brunette!

Yes, it's true.  I've become a brunette.  I've never done anything quite this drastic with my hair before but now that I've done it, it's kind of fun.  Granted, I keep looking in the mirror and forgetting that I have dark hair which makes me laugh, but ya know.  And yes, Covey likes it. :)

My Sweet Husband

When I woke up on my birthday and walked into the kitchen, I saw a beautiful bouquet of flowers in a vase with a note! Covey is so sweet. Every once in a while, and always on my birthday, Covey goes to the flower store and picks out flowers for me and creates my own unique bouquet.  I love him so much!  :)

 

More Birthday Fun

I have always really liked my birthday and having it be my day to feel special.  When Covey and I started dating and I found out that his birthday was 10 days before mine, I thought that was kind of fun.  Now being married, I love that mine and Covey's birthday are so close to each other because it makes it a whole lot easier to celebrate with friends and family.  I just wanted to put some pictures up of our birthday fun. :)

Hanging out at my dad's on Covey's birthday after helping lay sod

Our nephew, Cooper, at our niece's 4th birthday on the 24th

Hey Coop!

Blowing out the 3 candles on our cupcakes

Licking the candles

A fitting movie for those of you who know us...

I totally had one of these as a kid!

 

Covey got these awesome corn holders that were golf balls

This was probably Covey's favorite birthday present. :)

My First Attempt at Zucchini Bread

So thanks to my friend Katie Smith, I had an unusual amount of zucchini in my possession.  In light of this, I decided to try my hand at making zucchini bread.  Much to my surprise, it turned out really good!  So I've decided to post the recipe in case anyone wants to try it. :)

3 C. flour                                     1 C. sugar
1 Tbsp. cinnamon                        1 C. brown sugar
1 tsp. salt                                     1 C. olive oil
1 tsp. baking soda                        1 Tbsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. baking powder                2 C. zucchini, grated
3 eggs, beaten

Beat eggs, sugars, oil and vanilla.  Stir in flour, cinnamon, salt, soda and baking powder.  Blend in zucchini.  Pour into 2 greased and floured bread pans.  Bake at 325 degrees for 60-70 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Birthday Dinner

Dinner at Tepanyaki's
Since mine and Covey's birthdays are so close to each other (his is on the 19th and mine is on the 29th), we decided to go out to dinner one night at Tepanyaki's.  Covey had never been there, so I was excited for him to experience it.  We had gone to Beni Hana's the night we got engaged, but I think that Tepanyaki's is better. We ordered Filet Minon and Chicken and it was absolutely delicious!  It was funny because there were two other families sitting at our table and both of them were also celebrating birthdays.  I think the waitress thought we were all just trying to get free dessert when we told her that because she gave us a funny look when we told her.  But she brought us all out ice cream anyway. :)

Labor Day

Tibble Fork

Covey setting up

Hello Mr. Fish

My First Fish!
This Labor Day, Covey and I decided to go fishing up American Fork Canyon.  We packed a lunch, got the fishing poles and started on our way.  The original plan was to go to Tibble Fork but it was too crowded, so we went a few more miles up to Silver Lake.  Our poor little car was a trooper as we went over bumps and rocks and up hills.  Thankfully, it's still in good shape.  So we made it up, but it wasn't quite as pretty.  It was less crowded though so we decided to stay.  We started fishing with some worms we had dug up, but it was really windy so that made things a little difficult to fish effectively.  Even with as little as I know about fishing, I know lots of wind isn't good.  I'm not gonna lie.  I started to get in a bad mood.  I was reeling my line in when all of a sudden it was harder to reel it in.  I thought it had gotten caught on something but then I realized I had caught a fish!  So I started reeling like crazy and Covey started laughing at me because I had this confused look on my face.  But I got the fish out of the water and was like, "What do I do now?!"  Covey came over and the fish flopped off the hook, on to the ground and almost back in the water.  We grabbed it just in time.  Covey took a picture of me with my first fish and it made the day worth it. :)

EEK

So the other day I was watching TV and Covey yelled to me to come into the bathroom. I walked in there and Covey pointed to the bathtub and said, "Look." So I peeked over into the tub and saw a HUGE spider. I ran and grabbed the camera because I'd never seen a spider that big in our apartment. A couple days later, Covey told me he'd found out what kind of spider it was and pulled up a picture on the internet to compare to the picture I'd taken. It was a hobo spider! Eeeekk! All I can say is we better not find anymore or I'm going to have words with my landlord...