It just wouldn't be Christmas...

without CHRISTMAS TOES!!! :)











Isn't Santa SO stinking cute?! I designed him. It was Meg's first time painting him and of COURSE she did a marvelous job as always. :) Merry Christmas.

I had asked what Chuck thought I should get and he said Santa's sleigh on my big toes and reindeer on my little toes (the one on my pinky toe with a red nose). The first thing he said when he saw my toes was "You didn't like my idea?" I love that he expressed an opinion AND that he was mad when I didn't use is. Maybe next year.

Bairds Dry Cleaning - where the customer is NEVER right

and even a LIAR. I am still SO upset about this.

To start at the beginning I bought a pair of pants in my chubbier stage so when I lost the weight and inches I took them to a tailor to take them in. Well, She took them in 5" at the WAIST but not the SEAT. So now i have crazy baggy weird looking pants. I asked my mother in law if she could possibly help with the baggy seat problem. She passed me onto my sister in law who agreed to help.

With the intentions of getting the pants seat taken in, I wanted to make sure they were neatly pressed, and took them to the dry cleaners. I've gone to Baird's since marrying Chuck and he has gone there even longer than that. I took them in last week. When I pulled them out of the plastic they had a HUGE stain on them. WHAT!?! Okay, they must have gotten something on them in the process of cleaning them because that stain was NOT on the pants when I brought them in. I'll bring them back in and they'll take it out. I brought them back in pointing the stain out that was not there when I brought my pants in.

WELL, tonight I went to pick them up once again AND... the spot was still on them! So! This is a problem. What do we do about this folks? The little girl at the counter didn't know what to do. She grabbed the manager. He looked at it and said "That's a water mark. We don't use water."

I asked how he knew it was water and not liquid cleaner, or if it was water did they not have ANY water in their store at all, and why if it was just water, why it wouldn't come out after two cleanings. THE only thing he would offer was to take it somewhere to tell me it was water. What is that going to do? I asked if they didn't have a program for when garments were damaged. He said he did for when they actually mishandled the garment, not this. What?!? Why not my garment? It was not on the pants before I took them in. He then argued with me saying "Yes it was. It was on the garment before you brought it in."

Okay, NOW I'm mad. It's one thing to ruin my pants, and not do ANYTHING about it but NOW you're calling me a liar and assuming I'm here to swindle you for a new pair of pants or something. If I didn't want the pants why would i have gotten them tailored? I was BEYOND offended. I told him I'd been coming to him for years and had given him great business, but NO LONGER. NEVER again would I walk back into this store, but do the opposite actually and name drop and warn all of my friends about them as well. All he said was "I'm sorry." I said "No, you're not." He said "Yes I am." And again I said "No! You're NOT!" I was so upset that I was on the verge of tears when I left. How dare he? Ruin my pants and then tell me its my fault and then I'm lying about trying to get them fixed.

Baird's Dry Cleaning in Orem off of state street. Don't go there!

And... The HUGE stain

So, now I need to look into the stain to figure out what it is, and if a dry cleaner could've done it. Then I need to get the stain out and find a new dry cleaner. D-R-A-M-A. Chuck totally supports my decision. So offended!

Craft night with Dennis and Sarah

We feel so blessed to have so many wonderful people as friends. Dennis and Sarah are definitely in that category. They came over and brought some craft projects with them for us to make and give away. I love this season of giving. :)
We started the night with some Bajio and then got to creating. :)






Dennis had mad skills with the glue gun


Sarah had mad skills with the ribbon. I'm sad I didn't get a closeup of her ornament. Loved it.






Here's the mess we made.








Here's Chucks pretty creations.









Closeup of our craftiness.
Dennis beautified the poinsettia ribbon frame, the red, gold and green snowflakes and the blue and silver ornament, and the multicolored star (for BYU who won last night. Go cougs!)
Sara did the red ribbon frame, the green star with sparkles and ribbon, and the red ornament with green ribbon
Chuck painted the blue star and the white ornament
I painted the gold star, the white, silver and blue snowflakes, the green ornament with white polka dots and the merry Christmas frame. We watched some choice videos on the Internet and finished the night watching the beginning of Elf. That movie cracks me up no matter how many times I've watched it. Brilliant!




Group shot with the crafting. Thanks so much for coming over guys! It's ALWAYS SOOO great to see you and get to chat! We had a blast!

Shooting guns

I've never gone shooting before. I have held guns before however. :) Back in 06'



I dated a guy who was into them and Dev and I posed with the guns, but that's it. I cannot remember why he brought them over to our place... random, but we had fun posing.
























On the fourth of July, my brother in law Austin tried to take us, but it didn't happen. Yesterday he asked if I would want to go today. I immediately said YES!



We filled up the car with water jugs he and Rosanne had been accumulating for a long time.







Grabbed the bullets, targets and clay pigeons.

Then we drove south of Eagle Mountain for forty minutes and found the perfect spot.







All the jugs







shooting the 22



















shooting the 40 caliber












bad form, I know. Austin told me to lean into the gun and I did not mind.







AR 15. Doing a little better leaning in.

And the shotgun. It had some fat KICK to it! Again leaning away.

We used clay pigeons and I NAILED my first one and many after. I STUNK at flinging them though. I had to throw them like Frisbees. Sorry!

The view.

Thanks Austin for my first experience shooting. I had a great time! I've been shooting now! I LOVE experiencing new things!!!

Happy Thanksgiving 09'

Happy Thanksgiving! This year Chuck and I have SO much to be thankful for!

• Loving, close families
• amazing friends
• our house
• our jobs
• functioning, paid off vehicles
• our talents and strengths
• our trials
• being temple workers
• the scriptures
• the gospel of Jesus Christ and his loving infinite atonement

We are so blessed and feel it is important to express our gratitude to our loving Father in Heaven, daily, who has given us everything. The thing I am most grateful for is my loving husband who shares my beliefs and desires and always shows me his support and love. He has been the greatest blessing in my life. I love him VERY much and I thank my Heavenly Father for blessing my life with him as well.

There is ALWAYS something to be grateful for. I think it's perfect that we celebrate our Thanks by spending time with those who mean most to us, our families. :)

For our contribution to dinner we brought:

Cake pops in the making. It was a mess.











But look how CUTE they turned out. My cute little turkeys.









profile shot








The whole lot.
They cracked. I froze the cake pops and I think the cake was too cold with the warm chocolate. There's a fine line of cold enough/frozen to be stiff to pat the excess chocolate off but thawed out enough not to make the chocolate crack. hmmm.... But they still turned out cute.





My 7 should be 10 layer jello. It was a HIT!! and SO yummy, but a total pain to make. There were supposed to be 3 more layers but I ran out of room.

and we brought a green bean casserole.

Entertaining ourselves before the BIG dinner

The 21 lb turkey

Chuck prancing as he brought the carved turkey to the table

The fam

The spread. Dinner was amazing! YUM!

Of course after dinner there's the normal nap taking and game playing







All of the desserts. There was blueberry, cherry, apple, chocolate and pumpkin pie, snicker doodles, pumpkin cake roll and my turkey cake pops.

grandma and mia eyeing the sweets

The little kiddies loved them

And some classic dinner of turkey roll sandwich left overs for dinner. YUM! We had the perfect day. :)

Service for the orphanage

I've been singing with the Jenny Phillips Fireside group for four years now. (It doesn't seem like it's been that long.) Ii sing with her in firesides about once a month, unless she takes time off for family purposes. For the past year and a half she and her husband have been trying to adopt a little girl in an orphanage in Africa. She met this little girl when they went over to Africa performing firesides. When they visited the orphanage she felt like that beautiful little girl belonged in their family. The audition process has been long and hard with still no end in sight. Jenny's little daughter asked what Santa was bringing to the orphanage. When Jenny said nothing she was devastated and Jenny decided to take matters into her own hands. That's where we came in. Jenny hosted a service project at her house to provide gifts for each of the kids at the orphanage. She picked up all the supplies and we paid a certain amount to make and give the gift to a child in the orphanage. You could make as many as you wanted. Chuck and I each made one.

Jenny played a slide show of pictures they'd taken while they were in Africa. I cried. We are each SO BLESSED. I can't imagine living the way they do. I'm sure those kids are taken good care of, but they don't have a family of their own, they don't have anything. (Our friends Cristi and Jeff are going through that process as well to adopt a little boy.) What a gracious, loving act.



First we drew the names of the kids we were giving to. Here's Chucks name.

Here's my name. Notice how Chuck's child and my child have the same last name? They are not siblings. That's the last name they give to children who are found in the city dump or on road sides and have no idea how old they are or where they came from. The city DUMP!?!

Then we picked a little bag to hold the candy and toys.

Then we selected the candy and toys.

In the picture are some of the girls selections

Here are the boys selections

Ta Da! The bags are FULL!

Then we got to decorate cute labels

Chuck was the stampin' up MASTER! :)

The place was packed!It was amazing.

Here are some cute kids joining in on the action.

Once the labels were made then we punched holes in the paper and bags and tied them together.

There were A LOT of bags made

Jenny and I

And some yummy food. We got there late so we helped as part of the cleanup crew as well. it is always such a blessing to give to those who have very little in the holidays. That is the true spirit of giving. :)

Thanks Jenny for providing the opportunity. Chuck and I will need to find more ways to give.

Clean car!

I was sick of my car being filthy. It's just not the same cleaning it on your own with the wipes and the vacuum. It was time for a DEEEEEP clean. It hasn't been given a good hearty inside and out detailing since I bought it. Love it. Super Sonic is amazing. I spent way too much getting everything done but I love it being clean! CLEEAANN!!!

Before of the dash

After. SHINY and NEW! YUM!

Dusty and Yuck

Sparkly and clean.

Cruddy and gross. I don't even know what the soggy poop looking spot is. That's what put me over the edge on getting the seats shampooed.

And gone!

Aah. What is it about clean that feels SO good!