The Gingerbread Making Contest 2011

We got to participate in the gingerbread house building party that Kyle and Stacey threw again this year! We've been able to participate in a house-building contest ever since we met (that's what we did with Mason's family on our 2nd date) and we just keep getting better and better each year. How's that for boasting? Ha! We had a ton of fun creating our masterpiece. Mason and I make a great team. He constructed the pyramids and the sphinx and I decorated and made it cute! We titled our entry: "We Three Kings."

The official rules were:

1. Teams will have two hours to complete their entries.
2. All teams must have access to the same supplies... no hoarding!
3. Entries must be completely edible.
4. Entries will be judged by a third party based on the following criteria: Theme, execution, creative use of supplies.

Here is our masterpiece! My favorite thing about ours is the camels and the crushed graham cracker sand.

Kyle and Stacey's entry: "Christmas in London". How cool is the London Bridge?!

Friends in their ward's entry: "The Polar Express"

Another friend: "A Country Christmas"

I love this tradition! It's so much fun!

Christmas Card 2011 (Family Photos)

Mason's cousin Jessica took these photos we used for our Christmas card on Thanksgiving up in Woodland. Here are a few of my favorites:

My handsome boys:

ASU Graduate!

This guy graduated yesterday!!

Congratulations Eric!! I am SO very proud of you. Let me tell you about this guy Eric. He has done a total 180 in his life over the past 2 years. He realized that the road he was going down was leading nowhere. He up and moved leaving behind ALL his friends (no loss - they were only dragging him down) broke some VERY HARD habits and he kicked it into high gear and graduated doing school NON STOP (I'm talking Winter/Spring/Summer/Fall sessions) and graduated in 2 years. Way to go Eric. I'm so happy for you, but the real reason I'm happy is because I see that you are happy and I haven't seen that from you in a long time.

I love you little brother!

Afterwards we went to Rustler's Roost to celebrate. All the boys had fun sliding down the slide!

Twas the week before Christmas

I love this time of year. I love the warm feelings and the cold weather. I love having a baby at Christmas time. It just makes everything so much fun. He LOVES all the lights and sights. Tomorrow our Stake is having a live nativity and I know he's just going to love it.

The oranges in our backyard have turned and they are yummy! Boonie LOVES oranges, but he hasn't quite figured out that he loves the inside of the oranges, not the outside. He sees them hanging in the tree and goes up and tries to eat them. He then makes a disgusted face and tries again the next time he comes out.

Ewwww.... gross. :)

Our eggplant plant has done really well! Here are 5 of the beauties! I made eggplant parmesan the other night. It's SO YUMMY!!

Boonie helped us decorate our Christmas tree... It must have looked like we were just piling junk on... so why not add a sippy cup. Makes perfect sense!

Nutcracker week!

Last week we spent the whole week in Casa Grande, away from Mason, for the Nutcracker. I decided back in August that I wanted to be on the opposite side of the scenes than normal (being I've been in the Nutcracker probably 15 times) and choreograph one of the numbers. I wanted to do more, but even one was a huge time commitment driving down every weekend starting in October to do a dance. If I lived closer I would have volunteered to do more.

I had so much fun choreographing the Gigone dance. I had wanted my mom to be the mother gigone, but she refused. So... I did it. The kids I worked with were so stinkin' cute and if I can brag here a little... I must say that dance was the cutest gigone dance ever! I loved it!

The story of the dance was when they all popped out from under my skirt they each had a partner to dance with except the little boy. He got frustrated, but danced anyway. At the end of the dance as all the children are going back under the skirt the little boy runs to the side and refuses to go back under. The mother beckons him, but he still refuses. So the mother walks away and at the last second the other Gigones poke their heads out and call the little boy and he runs back under the dress. The audience loved it! It doesn't help that little Connor was just adorable!

So we spent the whole week down there in Casa Grande. We had dress rehersals Monday and Tuesday and then the show was on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I took the pictures on Tuesday night and had a huge order that I just sent off yesterday! It's been a crazy, busy, fun time!

Can I just mention that being on vacation with a 14 month old is hard? Utah was hard. Casa Grande was hard. Naps get off... babies get cranky.... houses aren't baby proof. I feel like all I'm doing the whole time is telling him no and don't touch! Poor little guy. But we did have a lot of fun down there spending time with my mom. We even got to pick out the Christmas tree!

We bought this little monster hat for Boonie. I think it fits his personality perfectly!

Stacey and Darci came down Wednesday and stayed the rest of the week to help with ticket sales. It was fun being roommates with Stacey. I felt like I was in college again staying up talking late!

I forgot how much time the Nutcracker took up as a kid. My dad asked me if I would like to direct the Nutcracker next year (by the way... I KNOW it would be amazing) and I told him that if I didn't have a new baby I would. So we'll leave it up to fate.

I totally want a baby more than to direct this thing!

Now it's almost Christmas! Time to get ready!

I'm alive...

Hello blogging world.

I am alive... I've just been crazy busy with photo editing and Nutcracker. But I'm back and hoping to be posting sometime soon.

I was kinda burning out on the whole blogging thing. But I must press forward!!

Plus I love all your blogs and would be sad if you stopped.

Just thought I'd drop in and say hi.

Hope you are all having a great Christmas season!

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful time up in Utah for Thanksgiving. Time went so fast and we did so many things. I didn't get nearly as many pictures as I would have liked. Oh well.

We had Thanksgiving up in Woodland at Mason's grandma's house. There were 37 adults and a bunch of kids there. But I'll tell you what... that was the MOST DELICIOUS Thanksgiving dinner I have ever had! Oh yum... my mouth is watering just thinking about it. There were a bunch of Mason's family (but not all) and his cousin's the Brady's there.

Here's a look at the table:

Here is Aunt Jean and Uncle Mark (and little Dane). Aunt Jean, Aunt Jann, and Grandma Lefler did the cooking. My compliments to the chef!! I guess Mark is winking in this picture. Haha!

After dinner everyone had to write on a feather what they were thankful for and then we created these turkeys. Cute idea for center pieces.

We took some family pictures, but you'll have to wait on those. They are going on the Christmas card. Here's Boonie in his crash dummy monkey hat swinging on the swings. That little fat belly hanging out the bottom is full of turkey. He loved his Thanksgiving dinner!!

The next day on Friday we had another Thanksgiving dinner compliments of Laura. This one was with Mason's immediate family being a bunch of them were missing on Thursday. Have a mentioned that Thanksgiving dinner is my all time favorite meal?? I was in heaven. Sadly I didn't get any pictures of that.

Saturday I visited some friends (Klara - actually that was Friday) and Kim (Kristina you were missed!!) and wished I had more time to see more people. That night we went up to Salt Lake and went out to dinner with all of Mason's friends. It's been over a year since we've all gotten together. It was so fun to see all the new babies! After dinner we all went to the temple lights. I was so mad because we forgot the stroller. So poor little Boonie had to walk/sit on dad's shoulders the whole time. It was a chilly night!! But nothing a cup of hot chocolate couldn't fix. I love chilly weather!

The Furstenau's:

This picture below makes me laugh because of his tongue sticking out:

I'm so thankful that Mason's parents live in Utah because that means we'll always be able to go back and visit no matter where we go. I just love that place! Until next time!!