Christmas 2009

We celebrated Christmas this year at several family parties that lasted all weekend long - it was great! We spent time with Nate's family and also with my grandparents and cousins in Kamas (we miss all those family members who are far away!) We played lots of games (I was introduced to Christmas Story Monopoly!), ate delicious food and way too many treats (Grandma's homemade cinnamon roles are incredible), watched the three movies we see every season (Mr Krueger's Christmas, Luke II, and A Christmas Story), and of course gave and received lots of great treasures.

. . .

We had a blast at our yearly white elephant gift exchange with the Tews and our gifts got voted 1st and 2nd place!! (Brady asked where we find these things and I told him that I am a magnet for the weird and strange gifts in this world)

1st Place: An extra large decorative fan for all you dog lovers out there!

Yes, this bad boy took our white elephant careers to the next level.

2nd Place: Pick Your Nose Party Cups!
An instant hit of course! Brady and Becky got this one and were kind enough to let everyone share the joy of picking their own nose cup...check out Nate's grandma! And Kristy's husband Dave could totally be the company's next model!

Hope you all had a great holiday!

Smittens

cute huh?
they are sold out here
but wouldn't they be easy to make?

The seemingly never ending school saga...

the semester is over!

(only one more to go - hallelujah)

So....here is the -so close to graduation we can taste it- update:

Jess: I have completed all my BSW classes (hooray!) and will be officially starting my internship at Crossroads Urban Center on January 11th and ending April 28th. The internship requirement is 450 hours (which is roughly 30 hrs a week) along with a weekly seminar class (so the school can make sure we are behaving as interns) - and unfortunately at Crossroads there is no stipend. Bummer. However, I am super excited to be working with Linda Hilton and the CORC doing lots of advocacy and social justice work up at the Capitol during the legislative session which begins January 25th.

We are going to be pushing to stop a bill that has been introduced to increase Utah's sales tax on food. This bill would impact all Utahns, but it is most detrimental to those who are already in poverty and struggling in this economy - a higher tax on groceries should not have to be an extra worry. Anyway, I am a little intimidated and feel quite inadequate but I think it will be incredible to see how the legislative processes work and to be able to learn the elements of macro social work. Between the internship and my job I'm looking at about 60 hours a week away from home...I am hoping I can balance it all and not lose my sanity!

Nate: Nate only has two classes left and is thrilled about that. He is super busy with work and can't wait to put all his efforts into expanding the business without having to worry about classes. I just wish he could intern with me...Nate sure makes me happy.

Babies

I'm totally going to have to go see this with my mom...

darling babies? check

animals? check

beautiful scenery? check

count me in!

Charlie

Don't get me wrong, I love both my boys.
But I sure have a particular fondness for this sweet face.
Charlie makes finals week not seem so stressful.

Flashback Friday

Christmas in California
2002
(I think?)

Tradition

Our holiday season officially began last week by going to see
"A Christmas Story" at Pioneer Theatre. It just doesn't feel like December until I have heard words like Bumpus Hounds and You'll Shoot Your Eye Out.

(and yes, we wore those shirts to the show - thanks Brady and Becky!)

Flashback Friday

8th Grade Polaroid
1996-97

Cactus

My Christmas Cactus decided to bloom for Thanksgiving.
I told it I was cool with that.

Nate's 28th Birthday

We celebrated Nate's birthday this weekend with lots of pumpkin pie and a surprise getaway to a cute little bed and breakfast in Lava Hot Springs.

...

When we arrived at the b&b we were pleasantly surprised that it was on 10 acres of lovely countryside and that there were all sorts of animals to greet us!

3 horses
2 miniature horses (one was pregnant!)
2 dogs
2 cats
15 kittens
1 large cockatoo
dozens of chickens
several roosters
a HUGE white turkey





We had a fun night playing arcade games, shopping at the trading post, eating disgusting Thai food (I think the locals who recommended it need to get out more!), playing serious bingo at the White Wolf Restaurant (I won $16!!), and soaking in the amazing hot springs.

Thanksgiving

thanksgiving
2009

playing apples to apples and eating with family in Kamas
black ice adventure in Parley's Canyon
tew extended family get together in Brigham City
food. food. and more food.
games at rick & georgia's
being thankful

[picture courtesy of T Spoon]

MLS Cup Champs 2009

Nate couldn't be happier!
(We just gave each other high tens in the air. Twice.)

Flashback Friday

Cheer Times
1997-1998

Zuri

A couple weekends ago Nate and I were nannying some cute kids and they really wanted to go to the zoo to see the baby elephant Zuri. Most of you know I'm not a huge fan of the zoo for various reasons; the main one being that I always feel sad when I see the big animals stuck in such small quarters...day in and day out - for the rest of their lives. I'm way sensitive!

Anyway, when I saw baby Zuri my heart melted! I can't remember the last time I saw a baby elephant and she was absolutely darling. Floppy ears, too much wrinkly skin, a chubby belly...and she acted just like a toddler! She was super curious and clumsy and put all sorts of things in her mouth, she would venture a few feet away from her mom and then run back for protection, and her trunk was too cute! We all thought she was adorable and had to go back by the elephant exhibit again before we left.

Flashback Friday

Jess E. & Jess B.
BYU-I
2001

Pumpkin Spice

for those of you silk fans...
this is delicious!!!

nate said it would be even better without the soy...and that's funny because when I ran out of soymilk the other day and had to use some of his milk I almost gagged at the taste! I used to love milk and would drink large glasses of it in high school...then my 2nd year at BYU-Idaho milk didn't love me back. I realized I had some lactose intolerance issues and started drinking soy milk. There was a brief adjustment phase but it's been true love ever since. I have pretty much tried every brand of soy milk and have even tried almond and rice milk, which are both pretty decent - but my preference is for:



plain light silk. yummy.

Branding

I got 27 out of 36...how many do you know?
Take the quiz here.

Cottage Cheese & Applesauce

lately I just can't get enough of this combo:

+

{nate thinks it's disgusting}

Flashback Friday

BYU-I Group Guitar Practice
Haylee, Jess, Val
2002

Halloween Festivities

Friday night we went to a co-worker's Halloween party and since we

didn't really want to spend money on costumes we dug around in our crazy clothes bin and decided to put my yards of green polyester to good use....
dead cheerleaders!!
We typically don't do the whole scary costume thing and everytime I looked over at Nate I felt a little creeped out - didn't he look awesome?!

Saturday morning we volunteered at a Halloween carnival - the social work program sponsers the event up at Fort Douglas. Nate and I were working the fish pond and the weather was perfect, we had a great turnout.
We decided that it was too much work to do the whole dead cheerleader make-up again so this time around I was the cheer coach and Nate was the cheer captain.



Then we had a trunk-0-treat at our church for the little kiddies...
of course our trunk was the most popular - two words:
dry ice!

Then we went over to chill with Nate's family...
Lindsey and Justin came as old folks and they pulled it off perfectly!


Brady and Becky came with their kids and I taught Kenny
the important skill of Halloween candy organization.


Of course Rick and Georgia had on the only Halloween costumes
I have ever seen them in
(and I have known them for almost 10 years!)
so I decided to snap a picture
to do a comparison from last year:
(update! Nate just read this and told me to look through our Halloween pictures from previous years...no 2007 but I added 2006!)

2006-------------------2008--------------------2009

I think I have started a superman pumpkin picture tradition! Wouldn't it be fun to take a picture each year in that same spot and after like 15 years print all the pictures into a book?

Flashback Friday

Top: Tyler, Gary, Matt, Brody, Audy, Patrick
Bottom: Erik, Travis, Robbie, Mike
1997/1998 ish