santa baby

So remember how I made my cmas list and checked it twice? you can check it too here...

I put some "big ticket" items on there. You know the ones we all put on our Christmas list. The ones you know you'll get around the same time Santa stops eating cookies or the elves form a union and go on strike...

(never... although I'd like to take a look at what those elves are getting paid...maybe they could use a union)

One of my desperate for it things on my list this year was a cell phone. Not just any cell phone.

The MyTouch.


The commercials sure are catchy aren't they? From the moment I saw Whoopi Goldberg, Brad Paisley, and Chevy Chase with this phone I knew it had to be mine.

Well Christmas came and went and although I was so grateful for all the gifts I had...no cell phone. My 15 year old sister was informed however she would be getting one it just hadn't come yet.

I was sad.

I may have wept one glistening tear or two...


Today the box came. Kenzie was so excited. Mom walks out with Mackenzie's cell phone and hands me a small box and it was the most beautiful box I had ever seen. Ya know why? It contained this...


A Christmas miracle as my friend Jess put it. Yes Jess there is a Santa Clause. He exists as certainly as the sun will come out tomorrow and your Dad has had a successful few months at his job. (maybe not quite like that)

I was shocked and excited and even though I know that Christmas is not about the presents...it doesn't change the feeling you have when you get that one thing that you really really wanted. (insert nostalgic story of the time I got Newborn Nancy from Santa- the one gift I had wanted more than anything my 8th Christmas...)
Now someone better go make sure Santa has his cookies and the elves aren't forming a picket line.

merry christmas ya filthy animal

So a quick Christmas recap...

The house did not explode. Although it was bursting at the seams with tons of Christmas goodies...



And we only suffered one cookie causality. I'm thinking Kamikaze cookie obviously.


Christmas Eve we went down under to Outback Steakhouse for dinner (our tradition). Only this year as a special treat Uncle Steve, Aunt Michelle, and Meagan got to join us. We had so much fun.


After going back to our house for ice cream we then opened our traditional Christmas Eve gift...pajamas.

Dad read the story of the birth of Christ from Luke 2

"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord."

Kian and I arranged a plate for Santa and the reindeer.


The stockings were hung by the chimney (TV stand) with care in hopes that St. Nicolas soon would be there...


Then the children were all nestled in bed with visions of sugarplums dancing in their head...more like the children who are 23, 20, and 15 had their own dance party. Good times.

Christmas morning Kian woke up and was so excited to see that Santa had left him what he wanted more than anything Wii Sports Resort.


And thank you Santa because we have had a BLAST playing this.


We opened some more gifts and I got some good stuff.

"Presents are the best way to show someone how much you care. It is like this tangible thing that you can point to and say 'Hey man, I love you this many dollars worth."

Along with The Office DVD ultimate challenge trivia game, an adorable handbag, and other goodies.
Later that night the Miguels came over and we had some fun with them. It was a great Christmas!

Now if you'll excuse me I've got to run over to The Max to hang with Zack, Slater and the gang....


Merry Christmas Buon Natale Feliz Navidad Joyeux Noel Mele Kalikimaka

However you say it I hope you had a good one!

when i grow up and get married i'm living alone!

a classic quote from one of my favorite Christmas time movies...Home Alone.
Another classic quote that may also pertain to me is when Kevin's brother Jeff says...

"Kevin you are such a disease"

This Christmas has been a testing time for me and I'm not sure why. Let me just explain. I'm usually not very accident prone or klutzy or anything like that. I'm very efficient, I have my head screwed on (mostly) straight. However this holiday season I seem to be losing my mind. It all started (as most disastrous stories do) at the post office.

My mom put me in charge of sending out some Christmas packages for her. Usually I would do this very responsibly. While she was giving me instructions I specifically heard her say she wanted me to mail them Express. I got the the counter and told the lady express and she gave me a strange look but said ok. I get the receipt it was....$70.00 for 3 packages. Well...my mom must have known that right. So I casually mention it to her when I see her next. She informs me that no she said First Class. I then explain to her what happened and how I might have paid for Express shipping (with her money) . When she found out how much it was needless to say she was not happy. Strike 1.

Next night I get put in charge of dinner. Chili. Yum. Things are going great. I go to turn off the meat because it was done cooking and return to watching "Criminal Minds". Return to the kitchen to smell burning. I had turned off the boiling water with the beans in it and left the burner with the meat on. Meat is black. Strike 2.

Yesterday was our traditional "clean before Christmas" day. I was very efficient. Cleaned the entire kitchen (even the microwave) and was finishing up. I look over just as the vacuum cleaner is tumbling towards my mom's beloved Precious Moments Nativity set. From the sound of it I had just caused the Nativity set version of the Apocalypse. Upon investigating none of the pieces appeared to be broken. Until I was looking at Joseph and something seemed to be off. Further examination showed that half of Joseph's shepherds crook had broken off. Now Joseph looks like he has a club in his hand. We nicknamed him "Ghetto Joseph" as in "Step off shepherds you be gettin too close to my baby! I will beat you". Nice. Strike 3.


While wrapping presents tonight I ran out of bows and needed more. Searched for 15 minutes for the new bag to no avail. Was shown the location of the new bag by my 6 year old brother who showed me that it was indeed in the middle of the floor I'd been staring at for said 15 minutes. Upon opening said bag of bows...the entire contents exploded all over the room. Strike 4.

I volunteered to do all the Christmas baking. Why you might ask? I don't know. (Especially after baking for 12 hours and not getting done until 2 am...and that is only the first half). Things were going pretty good. I had ironically just been having a discussion about all my Christmas mishaps with my family when I go to check on some treats I had just put in the oven. As I did so smoke came pouring out of it. I looked at the treats and said "oh...can you not put wax paper in the oven?"....Strike 5.
(I did get some good stuff out of it though)

How many strikes am I allowed and how soon until the entire house just explodes?

In other news something that I have not screwed up.
Wrapping. I am an amazing gift wrapper (and now that you mention it rapper but that's a different post). I've really enjoyed wrapping gifts this year.


Kian got some new controllers for the Wii and this is what I did with them...

I was proud.



and I wrapped like 90% of these gifts too...



That's about it for me. If you don't hear from me for awhile could someone come check on me? The Christmas tree might be on fire.

Remind you of anyone else?

If I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn't be more surprised than I am right now.

when the lights go down in the city

or maybe when they come on?

My family decided to head up to Salt Lake City on Friday night to go see the lights at temple square and see what other shenanigans we could get into. Going to see the lights in SLC was always my very favorite thing to do as a kid. I would count down the days. I have a strong affinity for twinkle lights so this is like my dreamland.

It was an early day for Kian and Kenz so we went up early to catch the Joseph Smith movie playing at Legacy theater. Oh my goodness...it was amazing. One of my favorite songs has always been "Praise to the Man" and towards the end they play this montage to the MoTab singing that song and wow...chills. It was beautiful. Then we took a little walk around Joseph Smith Memorial Building...They had different nativities set up from different countries

Kian with the Native American nativity

Calah with the Japanese nativity

It was freezing by the way. Like feet numb, face numb, hands numb freezing. And while we were there we saw President and Sister Lemarr and Sherri Rock! (for all my Fishers readers out there) they look SO great! After a quick chat with them we took the train over to Gateway mall (the mall made by the hands of angels) and got a quick bite to eat and headed over to Old Navy to buy some much needed hats and gloves- and watched the lights/water show...



Then we rolled back over to Temple Square.

The lights were beautiful as usual. Around this time Kian was big time complaining about wanting to go eat. I guess the magic of twinkle lights does not extend to 6 year old boys.

After temple square we went to this place called Pat's BBQ for dinner. We had seen the restaurant highlighted on the show "Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives" on Food Network. It definitely lived up to it's potential. Live blues music and some killer beef brisket. It was awesome.

All in all it was a great night!

my brother can beat up your brother

my little brother started karate...and he is so boss at it



Ya scared? You should be.

i love winter

I've been spending a lot of time on the couch in fuzzy red and white socks. In my peripheral vision is our lit up Christmas tree. This is my favorite time of year.

The other night our family went out to take Kian to see Santa and when we were driving the main strip of restaurants in Provo. I've driven down that road and seen those restaurants a billion times- since I was 8 years old. Somehow they've never looked as perfect and welcoming as they did that night. It was Friday night and there were cars jammed into every last parking spot available. I could see the smoke billowing out of fireplace chimneys into cold winter air. It's the holidays. People are coming together and going out for dinner and something about seeing that just stuck with me. I love everything about this time of year, but mostly the way that people find ways to be with the ones they love. And I love sweaters. Everyone is wearing sweaters right now.

We also got our first big snowstorm. It started yesterday morning and has continued pretty much into right now. It's still snowing. I love the way the world looks covered in a blanket of snow. Pure and beautiful.

Until Calah and I had to walk home from singles ward in the snow. In our cute shoes and short-ish dresses with tights. Then it wasn't so beautiful.
Oh who am I kidding? I loved it.

Sweet Dream or a Beautiful Nightmare?

(Disclaimer:credits go to the one and only Beyonce aka Sasha Fierce for the title of this blog)

Ok so last night I had this dream and it was so weird. I was hanging out with Dr. Travis (from the show "The Doctors" and formerly of "The Bachelor")

and then all of a sudden he lived across the street from me. And I was vacuuming. And then he was throwing rocks across the street so they would hit my front door and get my attention so he could talk to me. And I remember thinking "Oh my gosh a guy is actually throwing rocks at my window trying to get my attention right now"...that only happens in a Taylor Swift song- so here is my question- why is it that I can be surprised in my own dream? Aren't these things that come from your brain? I can guarantee I've never thought about Dr. Travis throwing rocks at my window before and yet my brain gave me that image. Dreams freak me out. It's like your brain takes over your body. I knew I nurse back in Indiana who took Ambien and woke up the in the middle of the night and she was outside eating grass. Sleeping is a scary thing guys...your mind has a mind of it's own.
Thank you is in order to my brain for letting me dream about this doctor...


and not the creepy plastic surgeon Dr. on the far left....


Thanks brain.
So any ideas about why our minds give you something you never even thought of before? Or maybe I just shouldn't watch "The Doctors" right before I go to bed?

Also just as a side note: One thing to remember about rock throwing- In one setting it's one of the greatest romantic gestures of all time and in the other vandalism....so watch out for that.