Wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas!

The 12 pounds of Christmas

At Hill Air Force Base, where I work, we don't celebrate the 12 days of Christmas. We celebrate the 12 POUNDS of Christmas. Each work day in December, except Friday, one person in the office brings something for the rest of the office to snack on. Well today was my turn. I took my sister-in-law's chocolate fountain and tons of good food. I couldn't decide on healthy, salty or chocolaty type foods so I took a little of each. We had grapes, strawberries, bananas, pineapple, oranges and clementines from the fruit department. Then for the dessert department we had cinnamon bears, cream puffs, rice crispy treats, marshmallows, graham crackers, chocolate chip cookies and pretzels. Many of my co-workers commented on how nice it looked and how great it tasted so I took a photo and I thought I'd share.

But as you can see...if you eat like this for a month you'll gain 12 pounds just like I am on my way to achieving the 12 and probably then some. Today I actually skipped lunch because I ate too much junk food all morning long. Unfortunately, my boss is TDY to Virginia so he wasn't there to taste the goodness. But don't worry I texted him this picture just so he knew what he was missing out on!

Black Friday at WALMART

This is a long post but it has a funny story that you can’t explain in a paragraph or less.

So like every other year in years past we decided to brave the crowds and go shopping at the busiest place in the world WALMART!! I mostly go for the entertainment of seeing it all and hope that I get a great deal. This year was no exception. I stood by the TV’s and Kayla stood by the Cricut. I had a pretty uneventful time. I just grabbed one and went on my merry way to the $2 DVD’s (we always get about 10 of them, this year 12). Kayla however had an experience.

The Cricut’s were few in number but she stood right there to get one. There was a larger woman that had been there since 2:00 am waiting to get herself one. Well she had parked her cart by the display and left to go and try and get some other stuff then would come back and put it in the cart. When you move you lose any advantage you may have had. Mistake number 1. So when she came back a lady let her in to stand by the display again to get one. Mistake number 2. The lady should have given up then. She was just foolish. At those types of sales do NOT move from your post.

According to the Wal-Mart ad, the black Friday sales start at 5 am. So about 4:40 am there was a tidal wave of people ripping black plastic from the displays to get to the bargains. Although it was 20 minutes early not even 500 armed soldiers could have stopped the madness. So back to the Cricut story…

When the tidal wave of noise started Kayla dove in on the ground, got smacked in the cheek by something hard, and successfully ripped one from the display and put it in her cart. Well the larger woman also went after one of those coveted Cricut machines, but wasn’t as successful. There was another lady who was also on the ground with her hands around the box so the larger woman decided to sit on the box…You can see where this is going…The lady on the ground is crying that her arm is broken, the larger lady sitting on the box is crying and saying it’s hers because she’d been there since 2 am. Next the police officer and the Wal-Mart manager show up and start yelling at the larger lady to get off the box. She continued to whine “It’s mine!!! I’ve been here since 2!!!” The officer told her he didn’t care and to get off the box so as not to hurt the lady on the ground any more. Dumb larger lady made an ass out of herself for a Cricut and she didn’t even get one.

Since there were so many people and carts by the Cricut machines there was a traffic jam. People abandoned their carts in the aisle and started walking towards the front of the store. So those that had stuff in their carts could not work their way out of the crowd. About 5 minutes later we rendezvoused at in the clothes section. At that point Kayla realized that her Blackberry was gone, it had fallen out of her hoodie pocket. I started frantically calling it hoping somebody would answer and give it back. No luck!! I thought oh great there goes a $300 phone! Meanwhile she ran back to the Cricut display and rummaged through the garbage and there it was just sitting there. She said it would have been thrown away with the garbage if she didn’t dig through it.

Black Friday morning ended with us waiting in line for 1 hour to check out. During that time you couldn’t move because there were so many people, carts and lines you had to ask 20 people to move if you wanted to go anywhere. Wyatt slept over at my mom and dad’s house so we didn’t have to take him with us. We stood in line next to a lady who brought her newborn. STUPID. You shouldn’t take them to Wal-Mart in the first couple months and let alone on the craziest shopping day of the year. We got several good deals. Afterwards, I always wonder if it is worth it though. But I think it was! And I am sure I will do it again next year.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was really nice. We went to my mom’s house for dinner. Most of my mom’s siblings were there with all of their kids. I think I counted about 43 people all together. That is not all of us either there were 2 more families that were out of state or going to the other family for dinner. It was really nice to get together with those you don’t see that often. However, for my family, Thanksgiving can be a particularly hard time. My cousin committed suicide the day before Thanksgiving a few years ago and that probably resonates in my mind, and probably my whole family’s too, more than turkey, mashed potatoes and pie. This year before we even started to eat we watched Jeremy’s funeral video. I don’t know that I saw anybody that wasn’t crying. We certainly miss him.

After lunch at my family, riding four wheelers, watching Hancock and Fred Clause, we went to Kayla’s Aunt’s house in Syracuse for pie. We haven’t seen a lot of this side of the family because they are actually step-family but since Kayla’s Grandpa Anderson died unfortunately, we just haven’t seen too much of them. It was nice though because most of Kayla’s siblings were there and many of the other cousins and aunts and uncles. Above all I am thankful most for my family, especially my wife and Wyatt as well as my immediate and extended family too. They are all great!

Uneventful Month but there was a semi-date

Everything has been pretty much uneventful around our house. Hence, there have been no new posts of anything. Kayla continues to fight through her math class. There are only a few more weeks until it's over so it will be great once she is done!

Yesterday we did go on a semi-date. I use the word semi because I went to my parents house to take back a bunch of junk I borrowed and my mom said she would watch Wyatt for a while. So we got a free coulpe of hours together. (man those just seem so rare). We went and saw Twilight. I've read the books but Kayla hasn't but she still wanted to go see it with me. Overall we both liked it. We both though it was really slow at the first but got better as it went on. I do not think the characters of Edward and Bella are what I pictured from the books but I guess they'll have to do.

Anyways we are getting ready for the Holidays and we will be going shopping on Black Friday. I love it! It is almost more amusing at watching all the people fight over things than it is to get super deals! I will have to post about that next Friday after I set up our Christmas tree!

milk's favorite cookie..

& the world's coolest dad.

All Hallows Eve

The souls of the dead were left to roam the streets and villages at night as the Innocent sleep peacefully. The vile spirits were once thought to be friendly, so gifts and treats were left out to pacify the evil. From this custom has evolved - trick-or-treating... and PARTIES! Here are some fun pics a our 'all hallows eve' partay!

This year we are themed from the Shrek Movie! Josh is Shrek, Kayla -Princess Fiona, Wyatt is Donkey and Roxy the dragon. We were feelin crafty so Josh and I made our costumes. My wonderful husband who i love dearly thinks that because i can think up an idear i can execute it... not so much the case. The dress was a team effort inbetwixed me, Josh, and Momma Shar.. Let's just say it was a BEAST! It looks so awesome though.

Shrek, Fiona, Donkey and Dragon


Polygamists (travis & brooklin, nicole & nate)

Bubble Gum on the bottom of my shoe and partly cloudy.

prego rockstars (kendall & megan) Along side McCain and Palin (chris & kim)

More of the polygamist folk with the one who got away.. (nikki)

Maggie, Marge and Homer (ashley, mike & miley)


Ute fans eating dinner next to partly cloudy and a chance of showers. If you asked what they were Shay would say Partly Cloudy and Robbie would say with a chance of showers and spray you with is bottle.

Mid-Evil peeps (anna & shawn)

Weber State, Weber State, Great! Great! Great!

I attended Weber State University for 4 years and Kayla has gone there for about the last 6 and neither of us had been a football game…until their homecoming game this year. Katherine and Marc (Kayla’s sister and her husband) are the biggest Weber fans I know. They go to every game, of just about any sport, have all the free stuff they throw out, and sport their “Weber Wear” everywhere. The game was ok…nothing nail biting close but there were a few really good plays. My favorite was when the ref got smashed –HARD! My next favorite was when Kayla caught the Wildcat Claw. Wyatt seemed to enjoy himself too. Here are the pics so enjoy!

My new closet

So I’ve been so handy lately and that is not generally me. I finished installing our floor about 2 weeks ago and vowed to myself no more do-it-yourself home improvement projects until winter (when I have to be inside). That vow didn't last too long. About 5 months ago we went to IKEA and we bought some stuff to organize our closets and we made another trip on Labor Day and I bought some more. Well I decided to tackle the project. I always start strong and then finish wishing and promising I’m not ever going to do anything like that again. My closet is not that big but it is really deep so I decided all of my clothes were about to burst out if I didn’t do anything. So I split my closet in half and put two smaller places to hang clothes and with the other half I installed a pants hanger, tie/belt drawer, sock basket and another shelf. I’ve pretty much filled up the entire thing and am wondering if I made anymore space or just made it a little more organized or maybe I should get rid of some clothes?? Oh well another home improvement project down the drain… there will probably be more in a while (I’m thinking basement office or more closets). Until then NO MORE projects I promise! But I always feel proud to have completed something I wouldn’t normally do. Do you see my dilemma??

Before

All my junkFinished ProductAll my clothes put away

Happy Birthday

August is birthday month for us. We started with Jaxon and Wyatt on the 9th and 11th. Then it is my dads birthday on the 14th. One week later it is mine on the 21st. About another week later it is my mom's on the 30th and then my sister-in-law Jen's birthday is today. WHEW!! Happy birthday to all!!