Saturday, December 31, 2011

New Years Cheer

We totally sucked at passing out Christmas Cheer to our friends...since I was dying the day I was planning on doing it.

I decided to do New Years Cheer!! I made some super mini cheese balls that we combined with crackers, candy canes and some sparkling apple ciders.


It was lots of fun to go around with Aaron and I hope that this turns into a tradition. I love that we're able to have such wonderful friends here in Ogden and it was wonderful to get the chance to let them know that we care.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Clarise and Geoffrey Insch!

On the 27th, we ran all over the place picking people up from the airport. By "we" I mean, Daniel and I. We got Andy at 5 and got home in time to go out to dinner with my family for some Texas BBQ. I had some really great brisket...in fact, I really want some right now. Then Daniel and I headed to another airport to pick up Kerianna! We didn't get home until late...like 2am late.

We woke up early the next day to make sure that we made it to the temple in time. I was so scared of missing their wedding and so we got to the temple 45 minutes early.

(Photo Credit: Grant Anderson)
The ceremony was so beautiful. I wish that we could bring cameras into the temple because the whole ceremony is picture perfect. I cried. I'm not going to lie. I've been friends with Clarise for 4 and a half years and I've seen how much she loves Geoff for the passed 3 and a half years and it was so great to see them FINALLY start their life together.

Presenting Mr and Mrs Geoffrey Insch!

The whole day was wonderful and it was great to see all of the family and friends that could get to Texas, gather around to shower love down on them. They are two amazing people and I'm so happy that I helped them find each other. If that is my only contribution to the world, I will die happy.

The reception was in Vidor, TX. Clarise has TONS of family there and they are all such talented people. Her aunt even made her wedding cake! It was delicious and beautiful! The food was provided from the BBQ place that Clarise's uncle owns and that Clarise worked at for awhile. It was the best BBQ that I've ever had!


The day was filled with love and I know that their lives together will be as well.
Congratulations Geoffrey and Clarise! I know that you will be so happy together!

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Got Them All

Pictures of my siblings with significant others that is!

I was SUPER flattered that my brother texted me before Christmas break to ask me if I would be able to take pictures of him and his lovely lady friend over the holiday. Apparently she is a fan of my work and wanted pictures of her and my brother. I couldn't turn them down.

Christmas day my brother asked if I would be free the next day to take pictures. Are you serious? I was on vacation. My whole schedule was free.

On the 26th, my brother brought his girl friend over and we headed out to get some pictures. This girl, seriously, has the PRETTIEST eyes ever. Like...no joke, I wanted to get rid of my brother and just take pictures of her eyes.


But I had to focus up and get some of Markus too. Then Markus started to be silly... This is his Calvin Klein face.
This is my favorite picture so far. I'm not done editing since I had a wedding to edit also. But yeah, they both look so happy. Love it!

It was a ton of fun to spend some time with my brother and his girlfriend! I hope they like the pictures!

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Christmas in Katy, Texas

Aaron and I went to Katy, Texas to visit my family for Christmas. It was an odd kind of trip.

On Tuesday the 20th, I was suppose to be going around to my neighbors dropping off cookie plates and being merry and bright. Instead, I spent the day on the toilet and feeling super crummy.

So on Wednesday when we were getting ready to leave for Texas, I was dragging and feeling like death. As you can imagine, I wasn't in high spirits. All I wanted was to get to Texas and go to sleep. We made it to the airport and didn't have any problem getting to Texas. My dad was there to pick us up. The rest of the family was getting ready for a candle light vigil because one of my brothers Varsity basketball teammates had died the night before. Between me feeling so bad and my brother going to team meetings to talk about upcoming games that were being cancelled and the impending funeral, we were a very somber crowd. Aaron and I spent the evening at my parents house alone.

Thursday was spent getting ready for a Christmas. We cleaned the house and got rooms ready for other family that were headed over. Aaron and I shopped for a dress that I could wear to Clarise's wedding that was going to be in less than a week. Do you know where all the birds go in the winter?


Man it was freaky. It sounded like we were in The Birds.
Also, Wal-mart is freakishly crowded the days leading up to Christmas.

Friday, my family headed to a memorial service for the boy who died. Aaron and I stayed at the house since we don't know this boy and didn't feel like being looky-lous. While my parents were out, my aunt and uncle showed up with their wonderful daughter and two adorable Corgis. Aaron and I tried to help them settle in and we visited. I'm a huge dog person so my cousin Heather and I got to spend some time talking and playing with dogs.

The rest of the day was spent sitting around and talking. It was nice to sit and visit. We did a fair amount of cooking and crafting but mostly just general catching up. Aaron went out for hours with my brothers "shopping". They were gone most of the day. Aaron is really happy that he has brothers to play with.

Christmas Eve was awesome like it usually is. We spent the whole day wrapping presents and talking. Again, Aaron ran off with my brothers. My aunt learned how to make peanut brittle and I learned how to make a yummy cheese ball. It was a good day for food. I only got one picture that night and it is very fitting that it is of my uncle Joe.


Does he look like anyone you know? Maybe if he were wearing red? It is a tough season for my uncle Joe. Kids run up to him and start telling him what they want for Christmas and asking why he isn't at the North Pole.

One of our family traditions is opening a Christmas present that is always pajamas! We run upstairs and put them on.

You can barely tell that there is a tree behind us!

I didn't get any pictures of Christmas morning...sorry. We were all slow getting up. By 11 o'clock, we were all ready to sit down and open presents. Aaron and I got a couple of amusing gifts. My brothers gave Aaron Twinkies and Kool-Aid since they know that I don't let him have them as much as when he was a bachelor. Aaron, Daniel, and Markus bought each other little Nerf guns. That was adorable. Seriously, Aaron is making up lost time. Santa got Aaron and I a Kindle Fire this year! Yeah for Santa!! He got it for us a month ago but he reimbursed us on Christmas.

Aaron and I made each other our presents this year. I made Aaron a organizer filled with dates for the next year. Aaron won't have to plan a single date and we will have a great year of dating.
I will have to show you pictures. Aaron is really excited for it. I got cookie cutter ornaments! Aaron took some cookie cutters and put pictures of our last two Christmases together inside with string to hang them on the tree. It was so sweet.

We went to church that day and enjoyed a choir program and talking about/remembering/focusing on the real reason for the season. Jesus Christ. It was nice having church on Christmas day so that we could focus our attention on the spiritual part of Christmas.

When we got home, it was back to cooking to make sure that Christmas dinner was ready. It was an amazing dinner. I love holidays that come with yummy food. Perfect end to the day. Eating and talking with the family that I love. And that was Christmas.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Christmas: Round One

Aaron and I always have two sets of family presents to open up for Christmas. We get one set on Christmas day and one set either before or after Christmas. Last year it was after and this year, it was before.

This is Aaron's new scarf!

Monday night we decided to open our presents.


This is mine! I also got some new gloves.
Then I started to open a present that I thought was going to be a humidifier but it turned out to be so much better. This is me goofing off while opening it.
This is the face that I made when I saw what was really in the package.
I was surprised.


All in all, a pretty great first Christmas!

Friday, December 16, 2011

Snow that Sticks!

We finally had some snow this week that has stuck on the ground. The other times this year that it snowed, it melted away pretty quickly.

Aaron came home from work and said, "Man...it's this time of year. Everyday I'm shovelin'!"

Hilarious! I love that guy.


What a stud!

Some of the Christmas decorations fell over and so I came out to put everything back up. Loved how this worked out!
There was even enough snow for me to make a snowman! I got a gift card for my birthday back in October and I bought this snowman set for $2...or rather, I got it for my birthday.
Money well spent.


And the decorations look great with the new fallen snow. Christmas time sure is pretty in Ogden.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Bambi's Graduation & Canine Good Citizen

Yesterday was a really big day for Bambi.

She has been taking a class at PetSmart since Halloween. It was the intermediate class that they offer. Her and Pippen graduated about a year ago from the beginners class and we finally had time to start the second class. Pippen takes a while to learn a new trick and so we thought that it was better for him to sit this class out and I would work on him later.

Bambi has been a star of the class and so we weren't that concerned for her test. She passed with ease.

After the class graduated, we had her lined up to take the Canine Good Citizens test. Again, she passed with ease. I was so proud of her!


We are mailing in for the official certificate and a tag that will identify her as a Canine Good Citizen.

At the end of the test the evaluator asked, "Have you ever thought about doing therapy work with her?" To which I answered, "Yes! That's why we wanted to take this test!" And she said, "Yup, this will get your foot in the door. I'll e-mail you some information." Awesome! I've wanted to train a therapy dog since I was 12. I'm so excited and I know that Bambi will love it too!

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Love to See the Temple

Aaron and I had a super amazing great temple trip yesterday. It was a very special experience.

Clarise was going through the temple for the first time!!

I wasn't asked to be her escort through the temple, which was fine with me since I was scared that I would mess it up. Our friend Kerianna was Clarise's escort, which was also very special.


I was praying all week that I would be able to sit next to Clarise somehow. We have been friends for 4 and a half years and I love her so much. She helped me so much my first year at college and has been a great example to me of what a woman should be.

Well, we showed up so early that I thought we had missed her going in! I almost started crying. Luckily we found this woman who had the list of people who were going through and told me that we had another 30 minutes. And guess what? We were able to be the "witness couple". That means that Aaron and I were sitting in the front row to show other people stuff that needed to be done. Which means, I got to sit right next to Clarise!!! Yeah...Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers...in case you didn't know.

One of Clarise's aunts and uncle were able to come and her cousin. A couple of Geoff's aunts were there and so was one of his cousins.

I had a really great day so I can only imagine how nice it was for Clarise and Geoff. I got to work on some Family History while I was there also. It was a really wonderful day and it will forever be in my memory as one of the greatest days of my friendship with Clarise and Geoff.
Also, this is the best subject for my 100th post!

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Ward Christmas Party

Believe it or not, this is the 3rd Christmas party that we've gone to so far this year. At the end of November, we went to one where we got some "awesome" White Elephant presents and got to do some charity.

Then on Thursday we went to Aaron's Sobran Christmas party. His work party is always pretty lame but it has an open bar...so all the Shirley Temples that I want. I got to meet some of his new coworkers on his new project. That was kind of fun.

The ward Christmas party was on Friday and I was in charge of pictures of the children with Santa. Yeah, I got to hang out with Santa for HOURS! Jealous?! You are totally jealous.

I didn't get to see much of the program and Aaron had to sneak me in food but it was pretty fun. My favorite were the children who RAN into the room and jumped up on Santa to give him a big hug around the neck. This one girl almost made me cry when she turned around and said, "Good bye Santa Claus!" How magical that day must have been for her! This one boy kept taking any excuse to wonder into the room and walk up to Santa and ask to sit on his lap. Seriously, he came into the room like 5 times.

Children make Christmas seem so magical and so we are very lucky that we have them in our life to make our Christmas seem more magical by proxy.

One of the best ways to make it magical again, besides having children, is to make sure that you remember the real reason for the season. I'll be trying to think about Jesus and being charitable this year to make our Christmas magical.

I hope that you have a very magical Christmas.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Reinert's Tradition

This is our third year being Mrs. & Mr. Aaron Reinert during Christmas. The coolest thing about this is that I finally feel like we have real family traditions.

The first year is trying to combine family backgrounds and ways of doing things and coming up with new idea and traditions.

The second year is basically seeing if any of those things stuck from the year before. Will it turn into a pattern? Or is it something we tried twice and then gave up?

The third year is finally the year that something becomes a tradition. You did it three years in a row! You are on a roll!

One thing that has stuck through all of the Christmases that we've share, is our family vacation ornament!

Aaron and I went to Orlando, Florida for our honeymoon and so while we were at Disney World, we stopped in the Christmas shop that they have, with Aaron's Grandma Marge.

We thought that this would be the perfect souvenir for us! And ornament for the year we got married. It was in this shop that I said, "Wouldn't it be cute if we got an ornament every year that tells something about what happened that year?"

The next year while we were exploring a shop in Kauai'i, Hawaii, I found this and thought that it would be so cute on our Christmas tree.
And I said to Aaron, "We got an ornament last year from a place we went on vacation. We should get an ornament every year from the place we go on vacation!"

This year, while we were in Mexico, we made a concentrated effort to find a Christmas ornament. Which was a little hard since it was the beginning of summer.

I'll spare you the haggling story, but I'll just say that I formed a pretty fast mutual respect for the man who sold this to us.
It is a red clay, hand painted bulb. It reminds me a great deal of how bright and colorful everything was painted down there. Especially in the smaller villages that we saw. I love the bright colors and that it will always remind Aaron and I of the great trip that we had in Mexico.

I'm already excited to see what ornament we will have on our tree next year. I can't express how happy I am to be having another Christmas with my favorite man in the whole world. We've been married and known each other for so long and it is a great feeling to know that by next Christmas, I will still be with this great guy and carrying on our own family traditions.

...and maybe some carry over from our families of origin.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

The Tree is In the Building

On Tuesday night, we moved to working inside on making Christmas happen. It makes me sad that we leave in the middle of December and we don't get to enjoy the decorations that we have set up for our family. But at the same time, we are going to our homes and those are decorated in a special way that is close to us too.
I got the Raggity Ann last year. My mother made it for me when I was about 6 years old. She stayed up all night making it so that when I woke up in the morning, I would know that Santa was real and that he got my really late letter. It was well loved and started falling apart and my mother has had it in a "to mend" pile for 15 years or so. I got it last year and it is a reminder to me of what the Christmas spirit should be and remembering charity and the true life of Christ and how closely that aligns with being a mother.

These are my cute puppy babies under the tree!

Monday, December 5, 2011

Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

While I was down in Provo for Clarise's bridal shower, Aaron put up the Christmas lights outside. That made me so happy when I got home.
Tonight we had to get all the branches from the wind storms chopped up and in the trash can for pick up. While we were out there I decided it was time for us to start setting up for Christmas.
So I got the wreath up.
Look how cute Aaron is! Sorry, I feel like I do this every time.

But seriously, he really is the best. It was cold outside and he was out there putting up out tree.

What "tree" you ask?

This one!


Last year in....March?...or something, we went to the DI and got this 7 foot light tree for $6. Awesome! Normally $40...so...yeah...I love the DI. I love it when I get something cheap when the holiday is already over and I'm finally able to use it.

With our 3rd Christmas underway, it is very nice to see our yard starting to look festive. The first year, it was just the roof lights and the wreath toward the ends. After Christmas we got the candy canes for cheap. Slowly but surely, we are started to really establish traditions and collections of decoration.

I'm a little excited for snow to complete this scene. It was the prefect way to spend a Family Home Evening.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Clarise's Bachelorette Party

We had a Bachelorette Party for Clarise later Saturday night. We went out to Spark in Provo for some "mocktails".
It is how good Provo Mormons pretend for a while that they are normal girls out for a night of "sin".

We sat around drinking and laughing and playing "Never Have I Ever". Good conversation about skinny dipping.

I got a Shirley Temple. That's right. I wasn't even pretending like my drink was alcoholic. I love the cherries and this one had cotton candy on a stick coming out of it!

Look at these sinners.


We all walked down the street afterwards laughing hysterically and loving life. It was the perfect end to a day devoted to celebrating Clarise.

Clarise's Bridal Shower

Clarise's tea party happened and it was a smash! I'm so glad that I was planning it with another one of Clarise's friends because she was brilliant at being in charge. The food was amazing and the guests were such fun. We played great games and people won prizes. It was the perfect way to spend the afternoon and I love celebrating this girl!
She is so sincerely lovely. I can't wait for her wedding. If anyone in the world deserves a happily ever after, it is this lovely woman. My universe is full of wonderful people and Clarise is the brightest star.

I didn't get that many pictures of the wonderful food and the fun we had because I was too busy being gorgeous and talking with people. Oh...and making food.
One of the fun and interesting parts of the day, were the presents being opened!

Perfect!
It was wonderful having a big girl tea party. Seriously, the food was really good. Lovely little bite size things. Great lady company. Tons of pinkie finger daintiness.

I'm so glad that we were able to give Clarise a proper send off before her marriage.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Thursday (aka The End of the World)

Thursday happened....yeah.

I woke up in the morning to the sound of something scrapping down the driveway. I didn't know what time it was since the power was off in the house so Aaron's alarm clock was dead. The wind sounded scary and so I pulled myself out of bed to look outside and see what was happening.

My garbage cans had been pushed out of the backyard against the house, down the driveway all the way to the curb, where it was fallen over and my trash was being blown around the neighborhood. I ran outside to grab them back into the yard and trying to gather my trash.

I found that our shed was slumped down. Our rain gutter down spout in the back was almost ripped off the house. I went back into the house and called Aaron to let him know at work what was going on. He wasn't too concerned since it wasn't suppose to get too bad at our place.

I went back to sleep since I had another hour before I had to get up to get ready for classes.
About 10 minutes later, I got a text message from the school. "Due to high winds and flying debris, W.S.U. is asking everyone to stay inside campus buildings. Shelter in place."

Okay people, if I was going to hide in any building that day it NEEDED to be my final botany class! We were going to go over the last material of the semester and then go over the final exam that we would be taking this next week.

I called some friends and forced them to drive me to school since the bus systems were so messed up from the wind knocking over semis and UTA was like, "OH NO! Hide the buses!" for awhile and then they were all late and crazy.

Anyway, I didn't realize how bad it was outside till we were driving. The power was off in the whole area. All the lights at the intersections were off...and some of them had flown off and were in the road. Pine trees were down everywhere. We didn't see any in people's houses but some pretty close calls with some cars. HUGE pine trees.

There were only 4 people in the classroom when I got there...and my professor. By the time I got into my class I got another message from the University. " Weber State University classes are canceled until 4:30pm. Evening courses will be held. Shelter in place until you feel its safe to move about."

Yeah...super. My friend who gave me a ride to campus IMMEDIATELY called me to tell me that she would come get me to bring me safely home. I told her to hold on because I needed to check the children's school.

The walk to the children's school was...kind of frightening...not going to lie. I almost got pinned to a building in the wind. Do you know how stupid that would look? Also the wind would be blowing hard in one direction for awhile and I would lean into it to stop from falling over. Then, it would suddenly turn and I would almost fall over. The school is on a hill and I needed to get to the bottom which made stairs REALLY scary. All of a sudden the wind would be at your back pushing you down the stairs. Also, when they said "flying debris" they meant, everything not tacked down will whirl around your head. There was glass from broken windows. There was all manner of trash. There were ice chunks from the roof. There were shingles from the roof. Trees were giving way all over the place. I mean, the score board in the football stadium was knocked over...so the size of the debris was kind of ridiculous.

I got into the children's school and one of my coworkers told me that they were sending the kids home. My boss handed me a stack of emergency cards and asked if I could start making phone calls to parents. I could indeed. I had been trained at APX Alarm to make professional sounding calls. When I was done reaching parents I went to read with the kids until their parents could come get them. Some of the children seemed super confused when their parents showed up early. One girl's mother came to pick her up without us calling because a tree had fallen into their house and she needed to take her daughter to her grandmothers since the house wasn't safe. That poor girl started crying when her mom told her that couldn't go get her favorite something or other from the house. I felt really bad for her.

Once the last child was out of the classroom, I started walking to the bus stop to wait for my friend to come get me (seriously, this woman is amazing). I stopped in the bathroom on my way out and puked my guts out. It was so weird. I had been feeling queasy while standing up making calls to parents but not full on barfing sick. After vomiting, I felt better and hoped that it was a one off.

By the time I got home, I had the chills. The power wasn't on in the house yet. I couldn't get warm. The only place that would be warm was in the shower. I took a warm shower and quickly dried off and jumped into bed. The dogs came and snuggle me for warmth. I was probably only asleep for 45 minutes before I had to jump out of bed to run to the toilet. This pattern continued for a while. Usually I would hop in the shower after a vomiting spell to try and warm up again. That was probably where Aaron found me when he got home. He got me the warmest clothes that he had and I laid on the bathroom floor praying that the heat would at least come back on.

We were told that the electricity would come back on at the very least, in 12 hours and at the most 48 hours. So, I laid on the bathroom floor with the humidity from the shower I had just taken, trapped in the room with me and I prayed.

At 4:58pm I heard the greatest sound in all of the world. The heater kicked on. It was a miracle. The power was off for less than 12 hours for us. Prayers are answered.

Aaron had put about 6 blankets on the bed for me which was sweet of him. I climbed into bed and we watched The Biggest Loser while I barfed next to him in my bucket. Because every family needs a barf bucket. Finally Aaron left me while I was in the bathroom in a very bad way. I weighed myself after I was "finished" and I was 125lbs. Which is nice...but I need those 3lbs of water weigh. Not good.

When he got back he gave me a blessing. I had been freaking out while I was barfing and while the power was off about my final the next day and not missing work and being able to go down to Provo to get ready for Clarise's party. I didn't tell Aaron about all of my worries but when he gave me a blessing he blessed me that I would be able to "get all the things accomplished that will need to get done tomorrow". And that is why you marry a priesthood holder. I was able to get a bit of sleep and FINALLY hold down a little bit of fluid. Finally, the horrible day was over.

I got all of the things done today that I needed too. I know that it was because of Aaron's blessing from my Heavenly Father. I'm so grateful that I have a Heavenly Father who is always mindful of me and never gives me more than I can handle.