Planning A Tea Party

Tea Party Bridal Shower on Saturday! I'm getting ideas ready for treats for the party. This is a chocolate cup with mint cream! Aaron liked it so I hope that that is a good sign.Don't know if I will do it or not but yeah...they are pretty adorable! I'll keep you posted!

Why Dee is Amazing

I am totally in love with my sister in law, Dee. She is pretty much the best thing ever. She made my wedding possible in so many ways and I'm totally indebted to her. She is always great to talk to and discuss life with. I love when we are able to go down to Provo and visit with her. Dee is a wonderful sister and I'm tremendously lucky to have her in my life.

Why did I forget to mention that she made some amazing yams for Thanksgiving? Why did I not tell you that we had a great visit late into the night?

Because she is so great that I don't want to share.

Also, I wrote that blog post while watching Burn Notice...so I don't actually know what I wrote about anyone that came that day. That's right...I was totally phoning it in on my blog posts and Dee caught me. HAPPY!?!?!

But seriously...you can't have her. She is mine.

Temple Square Lights

Aaron's parents had never been to see the light at Temple Square at Christmas time. Since Friday was their last day with us and the second day of the lights, we decided to spend our night checking out the lights.

We went to hear the Nativity story first outside of the North Visitor's Center. It was really nice. Crowded...but nice.

Picture the kind and gentle Joseph, think of the mother Mary fair.
Then we went inside of the Visitor's Center to see this statue of Jesus. I got this awesome picture of the reflection of the statue in the window. AWESOME!
This is the boys outside of the Tabernacle. We didn't go inside but we walked around to look at the beautiful lights.

Barb really liked the red lights in the trees. I was also a big fan.
We all have a beautiful and cold night.

Before we headed back to the car, we went into Deseret Book to warm up. It had a great window display and we got free cookies!

Probably one of my best Black Fridays ever!

Thanksgiving Day

For Thanksgiving this year, Aaron and I were able to have his parents come and spend a week with us. It really made the holiday more special and...let's face it, less stressful when it came to getting everything done in the kitchen.

First though, I'll show you the decorations! I got to use this bunting for a second time!

While I was making it last year, I kept telling myself that it was worth the time because I would use it again the next year so I'm really glad that I was correct and that it was really worth my time.

I made the "Give Thanks" Jar last year but we didn't end up using it in time for Thanksgiving so it has been sitting in the closet all year waiting to see if we used it.

Aaron and I wrote on paper leaves every day for a month with things that we are grateful for, like good neighbors and our jobs.

Onto the food! I got a cheeseball out and I'm SUPER proud of how well the display looks.

Turkey!! Aaron carved it up with his "man of the house" self. The ladies, of course, cooked the turkey and stuffing and made it awesome.

(Side Story: Aaron didn't drop the rack down in the oven before putting the turkey in and totally caught the bag covering the turkey on fire....awesome start to the day.)

Beside that, Aaron did a great job with the turkey and helping out. He is pretty much the best.

Crystal bought two wonderful pies and they were great (Even Bambi got some of the pumpkin pie...behind my back...)! She also brought dinner rolls and homemade cranberry sauce. Aaron and his family were big fans of the cranberry sauce. I'm not a fan but I'm glad she was able to make so many people happy.
I made a cherry pie. I haven't had any of it but I hear that it was pretty yummy. I'm glad that it turned out so well.

Aaron's dad, Mike, was in charge of the mash potatoes. At the beginning of the week, I asked if we wanted real mash potatoes or just add water potatoes and he said, "We don't have to have real potatoes. Well.....I want real potatoes so real potatoes. But who will mash them? Oh....I could mash them. I'll mash the potatoes if we have real potatoes. But someone else will have to peel them. I don't like peeling them. I can peel the potatoes."

And I said, "You really want to be a good house guest, don't you?"

That is how Aaron's dad became in charge of the potatoes. And they tasted awesome. I made him gravy from the turkey drippings so I think that he was pretty happy with how it all worked out.

Aaron's mom, Barbara, made the stuffing and jello. Mike didn't want fruit in the jello and since he was so great about the potatoes, we made the jello without fruit.

Doesn't Barb have the best vest ever? It is perfect for the season!!!

Once we started eating, I started eating and talking and NOT taking pictures. You will just have to imagine people sitting around eating, sleeping, talking and general merriment.

And that was our day. I should probably end this post by saying that I'm very thankful for the wonderful year we have had. We got to travel and see both of our families. Aaron got to meet some of my family that he has never seen. We both have jobs and I'm doing well in school. We got our roof safely up. We've had a bunch of really fun parties at our house and enjoyed the company of great friends and even some of our family members out here. I'm excited to see what I will have to be thankful for next year when it comes around.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

The Almost Eggnog Disaster

You have to make Eggnog the day before you want to drink it. For some reason, it has to ripen over night to reach its full deliciousness.

So last night I started making it. When I had looked at the list of ingredients a couple days before I thought, "Awesome! I already have most of this stuff sitting in the pantry!" I opened up the can of sweetened condensed milk and got out the whipping cream. I poured in the sugar and then I got the can of evaporated milk out of the back of the pantry. I opened it up and saw this:

That didn't seem right to me. I mean...the top was all crusty and the yellow color didn't seem right. I stared at it for a couple minutes trying to decide if I would be able to still use it. I mean...maybe if I stirred it?

Finally I looked at the bottom of the can to see when it was good until.

October 2008

Before I was married. 3 years ago. It went bad 3 years ago.

Gross.

My father-in-law took me to the store to get some more. Have you ever gone to the store the day before Thanksgiving? The night before Thanksgiving? It was crazy. I lost Mike for half an hour. But we finally got out.

When I opened up the new evaporated milk I was shocked by the difference.

I'm so glad that I didn't throw that old milk into my Eggnog. That would have killed everyone!

But I got to pass on the Eggnog family tradition. I even put it in the same container that my mother would use.

Classy.

Mike Reinert's Birthday!

Aaron's parents are here for Thanksgiving and yesterday was Aaron's dad's birthday. They spent most of the day in Provo while Aaron and I were at work. I got Mike a "present" along with the cake for singing Happy Birthday.The present was a bag of Lima Beans....which Mike promptly ate with his dinner. It is an inside joke that I actually wasn't part of but I knew that the family would get a kick out of it and they did.

Happy Birthday Mike!

Pinterest: Shooting Star Bean Bag

I've been needing some cute bean bags and I found a super cute idea on Pinterest.

I think that I liked the way mine turned out a lot better. I will have to get a better picture.

I can't wait to try them out! I might bring them to work tomorrow and for sure use them in church on Sunday.

Bambi Equals Number One!

Bambi started her intermediate dog class on Halloween. Her third class was tonight and we had a competition to see who could have their dog at a heel while the human walked the dog with the leash and a ball on a spoon in their hand and not drop it.

Bambi and I were the only ones who did it without dropping the ball at all. Actually, being humble, I can still say that it wasn't even a competition. Everyone else dropped the ball at least four times. The teacher said out loud, "It is going to be really hard to pick a third and fourth place out of this."

When the teacher gave Bambi the giant squeaker toy, myself and three other people said, "Wow, that is as big as she is!" The class also voted to say who they thought did the best and so she got two toys.

The second toy was generously donated to Pippen when we got home. He isn't taking classes because he doesn't really keep up as much as I would like and for $100 a student...I would rather pay for Bambi and then train him as home. That way it is more like $50 for each dog...and that makes it a little better.

Anyway, Pippen dragged the toy into his "liar" to eat.

Bambi could care less about her toys.

More on the Board: Aaron and Reverence

I brought the boards with me to church in case I came up with a way to use them in our class. We didn't think of a way to use them in class but one of the children found it in my bag and wanted to play with it. I said that he could if we sat by him during sacrament.

That is how I found a place to sit during sacrament. The kids loved it...and that included Aaron...who drew this dinosaur. The boy from our class wanted to name the dinosaur "Ryker" so Aaron spelled it and the kid wrote it on the dinosaur.

Update: Aaron informed me that it wasn't Aaron who drew this dinosaur but rather, the little 5 year old next to him. Aaron just wrote "Ryker" in the corner of the picture.

Pinterest: Dry Erase Board

I found an idea for dry erase boards that you could slip papers into and write on top of. I thought that it was brilliant. They are made of plastic report covers and duct tape. If you leave one side open, anything can slip in there...so I did. I thought that it would be cool to stick different tracing papers in them.

I found a site that makes sheets of the ABC's for practicing letters. I mean...I had to use Photoshop to make it the way that I wanted it...but yeah...the site is still cool. And this is the JPG if you want it.

I finished these pretty quickly but I was scaried to bring them to school. What if the preschoolers hated them? What if they thought that these were dumb?

I was a little nervous today when I put them out to the kids (we almost didn't have time to try them out because the kids went to look at a helicopter...(including Aaron...actually)). Guess what? The kids totally dug it! I was so happy that it wasn't a waste of my time!
At the very least, I thought that the kids would have the back to color on if they hated working on their alphabet.
But no, they sat down and got to work on tracing their letters. It was actually freakishly quiet in the room...till they finished and yelled for teachers to come and look at the work they did.

This made me feel like I was kind of valuable at the preschool. Coming up with ideas and really being part of helping them learn. Love it! This is the best job ever.

Pinterest Date: Hot Springs

I've become addicted to Pinterest and it has really lit a fire under my butt to do fun and/or creative things.

I found an idea to put glow sticks in the bathtub and so I decided that it would be awesome to throw them into the hot springs.

I couldn't get a picture that showed how awesome it really was.
I had glow sticks hanging out in the basement. We've had them for over a year and I got them 15 for $1...and I only used 7 of them...so...it was a pretty good deal.

Even if the water is dirty and gross, I love going. It is a great place to feel warm in the middle of winter so...it is something that I would never give up.

New Goals for New Students (In Two Months)

Toward the end of the year, I start to look back on the year and think of what Aaron and I could have done better all year round with our callings and how we can improve next year.

This is going to be our third year in Primary and I'm pretty excited about it. The funny thing is...Aaron is too. He wasn't super confident when we first got this calling but then again, neither was I.

Working at a preschool and being in a lot of child development classes, has helped me look at what I'm doing even more and how I can be more effective.

This past year we worked harder on:

* Making sure we had opening and closing prayers

* Reading scriptures to the children right out of the Bible and Book of Mormon

Today I started doing things that I wanted to do next year to see how they would work.

* Start with a wiggle song (Not Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam...this induces screaming) that ends with arms folded so that we lead right into having a prayer

* Line leaders are picked while we are walking to the next class. This is a clear incentive to walk reverently because for some reason....children will do ANYTHING to be the line leader. So, if you are really good in the hall this week, next week is your turn to be the line leader. We had 6 kids today and they walked extremely well in the hall.

I'm also going to have a reverence chart for each kid next year. I made one on Photoshop.

They get to put stickers on if they are reverent and if they get 10 in a row, they get a new sheet AND a dollar tree prize. That means that they get the chance at 5 treats during the year...it might just be 4...but yeah...we aren't shelling out a ton of money but each week, the kids get to see that they are making progress toward an "awesome" goal!

Feel free to steal this JPG by clicking on the picture and simply dragging and dropping on your desktop.

First Snow Clean Up

Even though snow was really slow getting here this year, our trees hadn't started changing orange and falling into our yard. All the leaves were still on the trees...which made it very heavy when the snow got dumped onto them.



Our yard was full of fallen branches...so...it all looked really awesome. Nothing makes our home look better.
Aaron started cleaning up the yard pretty quickly. He can't stand it looking bad for too long.
Pippen came out of the house to "help" and by that, he meant that he wanted to stand in the yard and eat ice chunks.
Look at this tough guy.


We're really glad that the roof is brand new and we know that it can stand up to a lot of weight since we took so many layers of shingles off of it. It is so nice to know we are safe inside of our house. But check out the right side of the roof.

I'll zoom in.

Turns out that part of the tree was resting on the house for part of the night since the tree got too heavy. That might be a problem at some point and we wished that when the city came by a couple weeks ago to trim branches, that they would have asked us which ones we thought should go....since there are some that are dangerously close to the house.

One thing that is super awesome about the snow though are the adorable PUPPY SWEATERS!!!