December Goings-On

 December started out with a quick trip down to my brother's house for his son's baptism. It was so great to spend time with them and rocking out to Just Dance till very late at night and sharing the baptism experience with my nephew. I love our family!

 I really simplified Christmas this year and did as much ahead of time as possible. Early on we decorated sugar cookies. Gavin and Micah loved decorating a few with every single sprinkle and color of frosting they could fit on. After they went to bed, Linnea helped me decorate TONS to share with our friend and family.

 Micah has been loving to take pictures. He took this one of Albert and I. Most of the ones he takes are Gavin's video game screen shots and shots of the floor and chasing Linnea around the house trying to catch a shot of her. (:

 My favorite 3 year old and my favorite 8 year old in the WHOLE world.

 Micah took these pictures as well. I am making cards for upcoming birthdays. I love, love Paper Source. I got the cutest paper and crab and mermaid stamps.

 Again, Micah is our photographer. Just a piece of our Christmas tree.

 Micah peeking under the tree looking for presents.

 Gavin is a little excited about Christmas presents!

 Photographer Micah at it again. This is what I do best.....

 I wish I would have gotten more pictures on Christmas Eve. I get wrapped up in the evening and forget. We took these at the last minute. Tera's family also came over and we had a nice meal with her family and my great aunt Marilyn. We read the Christmas story and unwrapped just a few presents and had our traditional candle lighting activity and sung lots of Christmas songs.

 Christmas morning at our house

We loved our Christmas season and enjoyed time with family. Now I've gotten all the decorations down. I love putting them up right after Thanksgiving and I love taking them down right after Christmas. 

Happy New Year to you!

Thanksgiving

Gavin relaxing

My great aunt, Mom and Dad

Thanksgiving meal

 Thanksgiving meal

 We had fun after eating, playing games.

We went to the cemetery to put flowers on my grandparents grave and sister Tami's.

Then we walked over to Dennis the Menace Park.

We had so much fun with our family. It's hard to get back into our normal schedule again. We'll get to see them all again soon this coming weekend when Will (my brother's little boy) gets baptized.

Recently...

 I got a new camera! Nothing fancy but it'll do the job. Here are a couple of pictures of Gavin at a recent game. We didn't get any of him playing because we were on the edge of our seats the whole time but this was half time. Gavin has been quite a dynamite soccer player again this season and has practiced and played quite a bit with the 10 and 11 year old team even. His coach is getting him moved up to the older age group for next year's team. Gavin is #9 above and below is the one pouring water on #8.

 Our good friends and neighbors are moving at the end of this month. We are so sad to see them go. We walked down with two of their kids on Sunday to get a much needed break from sitting after four sessions of conference. I'm anxious to see how they like Utah!

 Micah is going to be a T rex for Halloween! Isn't he scary?! He loves to wear his costume.

What I've been up to....

http://www.refuge.com/hydro_thermal_waterfall.html

 

First off, our camera broke and that is mostly the cause of the lack of posts. I hope to be able to replace it soon. I think it must have gotten sat on on the way back from girls camp this summer. 

 

This past Saturday Albert and I had our date night at the Refuge in Carmel Valley. It was amazing. Talk about relaxation! So, you go through these cycles of hot and cold that both relaxes and invigorates your body, releases toxins and endorphins, and basically just really relaxes you. First you have the choice of going into a Eucalyptus Steam room or a Dry Sauna and get nice and toasty hot in there for 5 to 10 minutes. Then you walk through a cold water pool. You have the choice of an icy river or ocean water temperature. It is cold! But not as hard to do as I thought it would be. You are just in that pool for 10-16 seconds and enough to put your heart under the water. Then you go lay on a zero gravity bed and relax for 10-15 minutes. Then you can do the round again or go explore waterfall hot tubs before repeating the round again. Each round, the relaxation is deeper and body-tingling-feelings more intense. Overall, it was very cool and I want to go back.

 

  Another bit of news is that I obtained the best oatmeal cookies recipe ever. I was visiting teaching my friend, Pauline, and she concocted this recipe for a big party she was throwing and she shared her cookies and recipe with me. Pacific Grove has this quaint, delicious French restaurant called the Red House Cafe. It's one of my favorite places to eat and I'm kind of picky about where I eat. They serve these yummy oatmeal/apricot cookies and that is the cookie Pauline was trying to recreate. I think hers is even better. 

Pauline's Oatmeal/Apricot Cookies

Mix with a wooden spoon: 1 tsp. vanilla, 1 c. butter (soft!), 1 cup brown sugar

Then mix: 2 c. instant oats (I used regular and it was fine but probably a courser cookie), 1 c. flour, 1 tsp. soda, 1/2 tsp., salt

To prepare the apricots, fill a pot with a couple cups of water and boil, then add apricots and just simmer until they are good and soft. Then drain and dry with towel and chop finely. It'll be a little messy.

Mix all together with 3/4 c. chopped pecans and 3/4 c. chopped apricots.

 

Bake at 350 degrees about 8-10 minutes until done.

 

We've also been making lots of jam with our summer berries. First I made ollalaberry and it was so amazing. Then I made strawberry and its good but not as good I don't think. The kids love it anyway though and I don't think I can even eat store bought jam now.

 

Our weather all summer and now continuing on has been cold and cloudy and foggier than usual even. I've been wondering what has happened the the usual Indian Summer that we usually have in September and October and sometimes even into November. Now yesterday all the sudden the sun peeked out and it was gorgeous. We went tide pooling after church with some friends in order to enjoy it a little. Today is supposed to be almost 80 degrees which is almost unheard of here! 80 degrees here feels like 95 degrees in a drier climate! Maybe we'll have time to go to the beach. Hope so. Maybe our warm weather is just coming a month late. By next weekend its supposed to be 60 degrees again though.

 

I've been busy with my calling, feeling utterly humbled and out of place serving in the Relief Society Presidency. I absolutely love Relief Society though so I am glad to be there.

Hope you are doing well and enjoying your October! Can't believe its already October! I love the fall even though it usually doesn't feel like fall here.

Happy Birthday Albert!

Happy Birthday to my sweet husband!

Here we were when we first met and little did I know I would someday marry that boy!

I'm so glad I did. We aren't perfect but we are perfect for each other.

I hope he enjoys his gifts of a new jacket and shorts, the movie Mormons and Mobsters, and tickets to the BYU game. Micah and I made some pretty awesome cupcakes for him and we played Chinese checkers as a family. I also organized and cleaned his chest of drawers and closet as another gift to him. I love this man and hope he had a nice birthday.