On the "Eleventh Date of Christmas"

We joined a group of our friends from high school at the Olive Garden for dinner. Always a good time. (Don't judge me that we've been to the Olive Garden twice in the last week. It's Christmas!!!)

On the "Tenth Date of Christmas"

Last night my parents invited us to the Salt Lake City sing-along at Energy Solutions Arena. It was so much fun! It is free, you get a free hot dog and drink, sing lots of fun songs accompanied by a full orchestra, and you got a free ticket to a Jazz game on the way out! And the best part of the night was the performance by John Schmidt. He played this amazing song, which I am too dumb to post as a video, so here's the link. Watch it, it's really good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxLKzuGhDR4

It turns out this is the 25th year they have done this sing-along, but we had never heard of it! We definitely want to go back again!

On the "Ninth Date of Christmas"

Every year, the Burger Stop in Layton has a hayride through the Layton Park Christmas Lights. I guess they've done it for 12 years, but this was the first I've ever heard about it. We went and it was really fun, but COLD, and we were not prepared!

I was pretty bummed because my camera died right as we got on the ride, so the only picture I got was this one of Caydence kicking blocks of ice around with some of the other kids in line. She thought she was pretty big :)

Then when we got home I replaced the batteries in the camera, and we made some delcious sugar cookies!
YUM!

On the "Eighth Date of Christmas"

My sister Nicki invited me last minute to the Peter Brienholt concert in Salt Lake, so I sped down there and we made it just in time. It was so fun! Her friend from France came too, and another girl that I didn't really get to meet because we were so late :) So Danny wasn't there, but Nicki said I had to put it as one of my dates. :)

On the "Seventh Date of Christmas"

Danny happened to get off work a few hours early, so we went to our favorite restaurant...

And to see new moon.
(How could you not convert to team Jacob after this? :)

I know it wasn't all that Christmas-y, but it was actually a DATE (no Caydence, thanks to my mom!)

Delema...

I like to believe that people are inherently good, but I just have had so many bad experiences with car accidents that I am beginning to think otherwise.

Occurrence #1: While living on a main road in Bountiful we had a car totaled by a (naked) drunk driver who tried to run, but luckily her car was so damaged she could only get as far as the neighbor's front yard. I was asleep when it happened, it was late and there were no witnesses. We got lucky on that one.

Occurrence #2: While driving home from work one day, another driver pulled right out in front of me causing an accident, and she lied her way into convincing me not to call the cops so she could get away. I called them after she left, and it turns out she gave me fake insurance, fake phone number, she didn't have a license, insurance, and it wasn't even her car. I got really lucky again because they tracked her down, ticketed her, and she paid my insurance deductible of $500 to get my car fixed.

Occurrence #3: Today I was sitting in my front room when I heard screeching tires and a loud crash. I ran outside to see what happened and saw an SUV had hit my across the street neighbor's car that was parked on the road. (We live right on a busy intersection.) He ran right into the back bumper, and then proceeded to back up and drive off. I have, no joke, always wanted to be the hero in one of these situations and get the plate# and save the day, but alas, I was at the wrong angle, had no shoes on, and there was a wall of snow in between us, so I got nothing. I was so frustrated!! The poor neighbor boy was home alone, so he called some family to come help and called the police. I went over to see if I could give a statement (even though I didn't see all that much). The cop said there is almost no chance of finding him. So frustrating!!! Someone said "I hope they have a change of heart, or it was a teen and their parents make them come back," and the cop just laughed like yeah right. He sees this all the time and it seems that it never ends well.

What am I supposed to think?!

On the "Sixth Date of Christmas"

We went to my sister Paige's Christmas ice show.

She's pretty cute.

On the "Fifth Date of Christmas"

We started with a dinner that was completely red and green. (I even dyed the noodles green and the sprite red.) I know it looks kind of disgusting, but it was actually fun!

And of course, candy cane ice cream for dessert.

Then we finished the night watching elf (our favorite Christmas movie that we watch year round) and wrapping all of our Christmas presents.

On the "Fourth Date of Christmas"

We finally put up our Christmas tree! So it has nothing on it yet, but at least it's out of the box...

Then we made our "12 days til kiss-mas chains" *see note below*

I can't do a post without a cute picture of Caydence. This is where we found her after dinner tonight :)

***My grandma started making us these chains and sending them to us when we were little. I still love to make them. You just wrap 12 Hershey's kisses in plastic wrap and tie bows in between (we used alternating red and green yarn) Make sure the kisses are Christmas colors and the top one is gold.

The poem on the back goes like this:

12 Candy kisses

Hanging in a row,

Eat one candy kiss each day

And this chain will surely show,

Christmas is getting closer

Only a few days to go,

Reach the gold and you will wake

To Santa's HO HO HO

Don't worry, it's not too late to make your own. The countdown starts on Sunday the 13th.

On the "Third Date of Christmas"

We watched Four Christmases and worked on Christmas crafts (pictures to come when they are done). Verdict: The movie was cute, but predictable. It was a little dirtier than I'd expected. I don't think I'd watch it again. But the crafts, company, and popcorn were good :)

An Amazing Man

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/deseretnews/obituary.aspx?n=willard-fullmer&pid=137019000

I had the privilege of knowing this great man as the bishop of my teen years. He was also the father of one of my best friends. I spent many fun years at their home, and those years have left me many great memories. Our love and prayers go to their family.

On the "Second Date of Christmas"...

We went to Tuba Christmas!! My sister invited us to come watch her play in this at BYU on Saturday. I guess it's a tradition that has been going on all over for YEARS. On man there said he had done like 61. She is the only girl in this picture, with the green beanie with a puff ball on top :)

This is her actually playing, but I'm too dumb with the camera to get a good picture.
Here's the whole group. Pretty impressive.

It was so much fun! Caydence absolutely loved dancing along.

And she really liked this hat.

Danny was pretty serious about wanting to join in next year :)

We couldn't head down to Utah County without a trip to the new In-N-Out!! Verdict: A-MAZ-ING!! I pretty much can't stop thinking about it. I almost had a heart attack when we saw the drive through line; it was almost around the block. But we went inside, and that line was MUCH better and moving MUCH faster, so if you go, go inside.

And we ended the "date" with a trip to Thanksgiving point to see the Ice Sculpture contest. It was supposedly held 2 days before we got there, and they were going to leave the sculptures out until the melted. We got there and there was only one sculpture, and a guy working on another. It was possibly -150 degrees, so we didn't get out of the car, we just looked from the window, so sorry, no pictures.

All in all a great day :)

And just a side note, Caydence thinks EVERYTHING is a phone, and it's always Pa Pa on the phone. This was her at the in-laws tonight with a bridge from a wooden train set. She's too funny.

On the "First Date of Christmas"....

We went to The Festival of Trees. This is one of my favorite things to do at Christmas time every year. We head straight for the $1 scones :) and then for the gingerbread houses. They are so amazing! This one is a birdhouse (notice the hanging birds)

This one is from the Nightmare Before Christmas. I've never actually seen the movie, but I already like its style.

Here is a tree made of fondant!

I love the trees that are just pretty. Loved these colors.

Had to get the NYC tree.

But our favorites are the really different trees like this one made of rocks. But it is being overshadowed by the ugly white one in the background.

And I love this upside down one (also from the Nightmare Before Christmas.)

P.S. I got the idea for the 12 "dates" of Christmas from a friend's blog, and I thought it sounded so fun! The goal is to have at least 12 "dates" during December where we do fun Christmas things. I'm so excited, I have so many fun plans!!! Stay tuned for more fun "dates" to come!!

A weekend of firsts

We packed this Thanksgiving weekend! It was so fun, but we did lots of things for the first time. A few months ago I talked almost my whole family into running a 6k on Thanksgiving. We all registered so that we were committed to doing it, and started training. Nicki and my dad are runners, so they were all ready to go, but my mom, Danny, and I had to start from scratch. We started a running program "from couch potato to 5k in 9 weeks." It was a really great program, and got us ready for the race. It was such a fun thing, even though I have always hated running, but it was pretty fun running together as a family. We've decided to make this a new tradition.

(On a side note, I have been getting really bad side aches while running, and of course I had one for the WHOLE race, which was my fear, so we were pretty slow, but didn't walk! Anyways, for all of you runners out there: any advice? I read tons of articles suggesting how to get rid of them- exhaling on alternating feet, running leaning back (really hard), etc. but I still seem to get them REALLY bad!! Help!!)

Here's Danny finishing the race.

And me and Nicki.

All of us at the end.

My next first was going "Black Friday" shopping. I have NEVER had the desire to to it, but I have been searching for a coffee table, and Ikea had one that was regularly $119 on sale for $59! (Thanks to Danny's mom for calling to tell me about it!) I just couldn't pass that up! So I got there at 7:15, I was 3rd in line, and everyone was very nice. They opened at 8, and everyone got what they wanted. I definitely wouldn't go if it had been 5 am or if it was Walmart, but Ikea was great.

On Friday we went to see the lights at Temple Square, which we've done many times, but we went to see them TURNED ON, ha ha. It was pretty anti-climatic, but always fun to see.

Needless to say, it was a good week :)

Top 3 signs you know your husband is now a dad...

3. He has no problem carrying around your girly diaper bag.

2. He has no problem spending 2 hours in nursery every Sunday (even though it's not his calling) because his little girl is the one kid that won't stop crying.

1. He asks you at night if you want more "blankie"

I have never laughed so hard as when he asked me that. It was a slip, but it was pretty funny.

Family Pictures

We had a neighbor come and take some family

pictures for us and here were a few of the favorites.

Caydence loves her "pa pa"

Just for fun

This one is the favorite

Sorry guys....just need to vent....

I've just had one of those days (and it's only 11:30), and I needed an outlet, so here it is, I won't feel bad if you skip this post.

So when I had my surgery back in September I stood right in front of the Dr.'s receptionist and watched her as she looked up in her insurance book where I could go to have the surgery that was IN-NETWORK. I assumed she knew what she was doing and now I know I should ALWAYS check for myself. Anyways, I got an EOB saying the surgical center alone would charge me almost $600 because they were OUT OF NETWORK! I was so furious, but then when the bill came in the mail it was only for like $175, so I felt like that was good news. That was like a month ago, and I just get another bill today from the anesthesiologist and he is charging me another $150 because he is OUT OF NETWORK!! I am so frustrated!! Money and insurance are already sore subjects as it is, but I WATCHED her look up the info, with my insurance card IN HER HAND and she told me I could go to that surgical center!!!

And to make matters worse, I just took Caydence into the back yard to run around and saw my bike has been stolen.......

Halloween and some extras

Sorry this is so random, but I finally got all the pictures off my camera and decided to blog them.

Halloween:

I just couldn't justify spending a lot of money on a Halloween costume when Caydence wasn't going trick-or-treating, and she doesn't get it anyways, so I bought her this $5 shirt at Target and she wore it a few times throughout the month. (You may recognize it from her pumpkin patch pictures.)
We had a pretty low key Halloween. We went to see "This is it" the Michael Jackson movie. Review: It was really interesting. I don't think I am very qualified to give the best review because I don't remember even knowing who Michael Jackson was until recently. Weird, I know, but the first time I remember hearing any of his music was when my mom video taped him singing at the Superbowl half time show when we were little. We watched it a million times, but I still didn't really know who he was. I enjoyed the movie, but I have to admit, I didn't really know a lot of the music, but it was still good. It was also kind of funny watching Kenny Ortega (the main director) because he is the one we worked with filming High School Musical, and it was weird to see him in that venue.

Anyways...we then spent the evening at my parent's playing games and having treats.

On Friday, we went to our friend's house to watch "Young Frankenstein" and here were some of the cute treats.

Apple mouths with Almond sliver teeth.

Skeleton Cat

Random, I know, but here is a picture of the first snow of the season. It didn't last long, but it sure was cold! (It's hard to tell, but there is snow on the grass, and it is snowing as well)
Danny and I finally carved our pumpkins and forgot to put them out on the porch for Halloween! He did the bats on the left, and I did the vampire w/bats on the right.

We had a girl's night a few weekends ago with Nicki, Paige, and Paige's friend Kate. We carved pumpkins (but I didn't get any pictures before they started shriveling) and then Nicki taught us how to build huge ice cream cones at Maverick's self serve frozen yogurt machine. Here's the only picture I got that night. Caydence sure loves Aunt Nicki, and she just started calling her Ki Ki, it's pretty cute.

And here is Caydence's new obsession: she feels the need to stop and touch the symbols on every car in the parking lot every time we go out there. It's pretty funny, and she even feels the need to kiss them sometimes.