Dec 11, 2008

Christmas Tree

When Justin and I went to Wal-Mart to get some lights and some things for the tree. When we were in the Christmas section we were looking at the non-breakable balls that go on the tree and Justin kept insisting that he wanted blue balls. I kept thinking what could I do with blue but then I saw these wooden penguins and they were cute so we did blue and silver with black and white penguins all over it. It really did turn out cute. It was fun decorating our first Christmas tree together.




Thanksgiving Fun!

This thanksgiving most of my family members got together and wonderful time and eating a lot of food. There was a lot of activities planed to keep everyone busy and having a great time. The men got to go pheasant hunting and the girls went shopping. Then we all went and cut down Christmas trees on the mountain. It was a lot of fun but cold.








Grandma's passing

This last month my grandma died. She was someone really special to me because I loved going to her home in the summers and riding the bikes,cooking and sewing with her. As family gathered it was nice to tell all the remembering stories and share how we felt. She is going to be greatly missed but we know that she is where she needs to be.




Nov 4, 2008

Advice for Men

(1) Fine: This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.

(2) Five Minutes: If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.

(3) Nothing: This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing usually end in fine.

(4) Go Ahead: This is a dare, not permission. Don't Do It!

(5) Loud Sigh: This is actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back to # 3 for the meaning of nothing.)

(6) That's Okay: This is one of the most dangerous statements a women can make to a man. That's okay means she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.

(7) Thanks: A woman is thanking you, do not question, or Faint. Just say you're welcome. (I want to add in a clause here - This is true, unless she says 'Thanks a lot' - that is PURE sarcasm and she is not thanking you at all. DO NOT say 'you're welcome' ... that will bring on a 'whatever').

(8) Whatever: Is a women's way of saying SCREW YOU!

(9) Don't worry about it, I got it: Another dangerous statement, meaning this is something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing it herself. This will later result in a man asking 'What's wrong?' For the woman's response refer to # 3.

Oct 28, 2008

Halloween Pumkin Party

Myself, Justin, Jordan, Garrett, and my Mom had a really fun time carving pumkin's. Some of us are really fast and don't plan anything for carving their pumkins, others took a long time planning it all out. It was really fun to do an activity with my younger bothers, expecially Jordan that complained about touching the seeds and the goo inside the pumkins.

The boys had a great time!

Justin was really enjoying his carvin project!

Mom had a Toadally Great Time!

Oct 13, 2008

Drug Endangered Confrence



This last week Justin and I were both able to attend the DEC conference. This was special because Justin and I work in two different agencies but they both sent us to the same training. It was fun spending all week working/playing with my husband. We spent three days in Salt Lake City taking classes and listening to speakers. My favorite part of the conference was at the end when they had two young boys who were victims of parents on drugs talk to us and tell us there story and how it had affected them. One of the boys told this story of how his mother was on and off meth and how she had attended 7 different treatment centers but it wasn't until someone told her that she was worth something and that she could do it. Later in the same meeting the mother actually stood up and told us that she had been clean for 6 years and it all started when she was molested as a child and she felt that she could talk to no one. Then eventually she told us how she turned to drugs to cope and then when she almost lost her child and when that person said that they wanted to help her and that she was worth something it changed her life. She finally did treatment for her, not for her children not for her father but for her she was successful. It was a powerful moment in the conference to see that us as social workers can help those people to take the first steps to change. It was great and I hope more and more people get to see those stories and help people to make change in their lives.

Visiting Grandma



This last weekend Justin and I were able to go out and visit my Grandmother who has been very sick with cancer. When we got to the house early on Friday we were able to help her with some things that needed doing around the home. Justin just jump right in a fixed the lawn mower then we picked all the fruit off the lawn and Justin mowed. We then had a fun time over the weekend picking fruit off the pear tree and apple tree. It was fun helping around grandma's house and spending some time with her. We are all hoping for the best but you never know how things are going to turn out, so spending every little time with her while she is here is a gift and I am greatful for the fun weekend that I had with her.

Sep 8, 2008

Camping

This last weekend Justin and I went camping with his twin brother (John) and family (Mariam, Hunter, Elizabeth, and Hyrum). We had a blast. We went up on Friday to Skull Creek(by far my favorite camping site) set up our tents and then spent the rest of the day talking, making dinner, whirly pop, smores, and playing phase ten.



Justin and I got to try out our new tent. It was great, we had plenty of room for everything and even more. I am sure that in the future we will keep puting this tent to good use (Justin and I do a lot of camping in the summer months).


The next day we took our time getting up and making a big breakfast of french toast and then we went to the Flaming George Dam and took a tour. It was fun learning about the dam and feeding the fish

Justin and Myself

John and Mariam's Family

Justin and Hunter

Sep 2, 2008

HAWAII

At the beginning of this year my parents decided that since there was a lot of us graduating that we should take a trip as a family. We decided on Hawaii becasue my younger brothers have never flown on a plane. It was a great experience for Justin and I being newly married. Here are some of the things that we did in Hawaii:

DOLE PLANTATION : The best thing about the Dole Plantation is the Pineapple Ice Cream. And yes I ate a ton of pineapple ice cream. It was great. I wish they would sell that by the gallons and i could take it all home with me. But that is prob. why they don't because i would take it all home. While at the Dole Plantation we were able to do the Dole Maze. It is the largest maz in the world. When you go into the maze they give you a card with words on it and you have to go find all the items before you are done with the maze. It took us 45 min. to complete it. We sure had fun there.

SWIMMING ON THE BEACHES: Next to the homes that we stayed in there was a couple of beaches. The first night that Justin and I were in Hawaii we decided to take a walk on the beach. It was dark so we take this little flashlight that my dad had given us, and as we are walking down the beach we almost step on this rock but Justin pointed the flashlight down and we realized that it was a sea turtle not a rock and so we ended up taking a ton of pic. of sea turtles that were all over the beach. i think that there was 12 in all. We talked back to the house to get Jordan and show him and everyone ended up coming. So much for the private walk on the beach.
Later in the week we got to swim on 5 different beaches and had a blast. We swam at sharks cove, mohoma bay. sunset beach. and a few unknown beaches. We did a ton of snorkeling and i realized that i am one that can not put my face under the water for i feel claustrophobic. But it was fun to learn.

Polynesian Culture Center: We had a ton of fun here. We were able to see all the shows that were very interactive. Justin even did the hula in Tonga. After all the shows we went to the luau enjoyed the food and the entrainment for the rest of the evening. It was great and Justin and I enjoyed it all.

Arizona: We arrived here at seven in the morning and we couldn't believe how may people were already in line to go to the Arizona but as we were standing in line the director over the program noticed my dad and he asked why we were waiting in line and we went around security and right in. it was really fun. if that had not happened we would have been waiting for more than 2 to 3 hours to get in. That was crazy there were so many people. But it was great, and we had fun learning about a little history.

FUN INFO: Durning this whole trip Justin and myself were deemed the navigators of the trip and as we traveled everywhere Justin would find it on the map and direct my dad with everyone else with radios to get where we needed to go. On the last day Jennie and John happened to get off on the wrong exit and i was on the phone with them and Justin was directing the rest of the clan to the restaurant that we needed to be at. Lucky we all made it to the right spot. at the same time. It was a little crazy. Oh, did was good except i didn't get to eat any of it because we went to this Japanese res truant and i had an Asama attack in the middle of dinner because of the smoke and everything else...so we paid for dinner that we didn't eat. it was great fun.

The last thing that we actually got to do while in Hawaii was go the the biggest them park in the world. It was so much fun even when we had to pack wet swimming suits to get on the plane. Overall a great fun experience though we almost missed our plane.




Fishing Trip

One of Justin's Favorite Things To do.