Christmas in February

I'm going to try to play catchup in a few posts, so here I go.... Christmas 2011! I had my second foot operated on just a few days before Christmas, ergo,I was pretty drudged up at the entire holiday. We went over to Eric and Tara's house for Christmas eve, unfortunately I can't say much about it because I don't really remember much! I think I slept on Steven's shoulder the whole time and ate the filling out of his pumpkin pie. The next morning wasn't too much better for me, but I was starting to ease off the pain killers so I wasn't quite so tired. Later I was told I had been a Grinch/Scrooge hybrid the entire day, so maybe I wasn't as myself as I felt.We had a good morning with Grandma and Grandpa coming over and then later the Underhills, Vestals, James and Stacia, Hannah, Ridge, and Sean, Rachel + Matt, Kathy and John Mark. Luke Luke, Mitchell, Matthew, Uncle Greg, and Nora

Rachel, Stacia, and Me + Sean (Who is so small compared to now in the picture here)
Kathleen, Mitchell, Matt (Rachel's boyfriend), John Mark, James, and Greg. Lastly, Mitchell and Sean who is 3 and a half months old. SO cute!!!!
Ok, so now only a few months to go. I'm pretty busy with homework/classes/more homework, but I will try to post more, yet, I can only do so much, sorry.

two down and one to go

So, not only was this probably one of my favorite 4th of Julys ever, but I also accomplished one of my New Year resolutions! What you may ask? If you remember I had three: first, I wanted to donate blood, second, make a lemon meringue pie, and third, ride on a four wheeler. A few months ago I gave blood, but that didn't turn out to well, and for the fourth I made two lemon meringue pies. I'm beginning to become a little worried about the whole 4 wheeling thing now, because those pies where, let's just say more like lemon pudding:) Although I do think for pudding they tasted pretty good.....At least I know how to fix them for next time: use a double broiler. We started out the day early in Bigfork to watch the parade. I have to say I missed not going for two years and was really excited to go. Steven came over to our house early and even though we were a good 45 min early, we still had to park aways away. Oh, well, the walk was worth it. Sorry I don't have any pictures of the parade, but we forgot the camera.

Oh, funny story.... The last car in the parade was throwing full sized candy bars quite generously and Luke and Steven both caught a few. But was 3 enough for Luke? Nope. So Luke chased the car the rest of the way having the guys on the car throw them at him. At one point I guess the guy told Luke that if he could catch up to the car, he would give him 5. He did. All in total Luke came home with 19 candy bars. Haha, my funny brother, but his insanity paid off in the long run (pun intended).

Steven brought over sooo many fireworks, and then James brought over a load too.

People started coming over to our house around 5:00 and I was really grateful it was such a wonderful temperature outside because in total we had around 39 people come over. Yup, quite the group.We had a BBQ dinner and lots of other goodies. I have to say I'm a bit of a watermelon addict:) We so seldom have it, and when we do only for the few short months of summer, so I love the fresh flavor. *yum*While waiting for it to darken up the boys (and girls), played various things. They even had a short lived game of soccer going. I found out I suck at soccer. It was sad to see, but we made up a pretty pathetic game of badminton too. I guess those muscles are still hibernating:)I think James and Steven were really excited for fireworks because we started them pretty early. They were really great though, we had just about everything you could think of, plus more.Some people tried out the stilts dad made for Luke but none were quite the master my brother was!Poor Cleo was sooooo terrified of the fireworks she hid in the van in the garage. We had to lock Shelby up too because she was barking at every "bang" she heard, which as you can imagine is quite annoying after the second firework.The boys put on a terrific show this year! Steven did an awesome job entertaining us all and even did a fantastic grand finale. You can't see too much in this picture, but if you look close you can just make out Luke, Steven, Christian, and Matthew about ready to do some pyromaniac endeavor.

*sigh* It was such a great day. I was never bored and I do think that this was my favorite fourth ever. I highly doubt that I will ever have a fourth that will live up to this one: Great day with Steven, great parade, great afternoon, great evening, great fireworks, and overall just a great time with everyone I love.

S.A.D.

I'm so tired of grey and white: Grey sky, white ground, white sky, grey ground. It seems to never change. On those few days it is actually sunny it feels wonderful (even if it is only like 10 degrees out). This winter has felt so long. I've heard someone say something along the lines that we have only had around 12 sunny days this whole winter. I can't wait for summer, forget spring, I just can't wait for Summer. I believe this is why they throw Valentines Day right in the middle of the gloomiest month; to get some color into this world. Now it's white...., grey....., PINK, and RED! The change is somewhat a welcome. I'm normally not a Valentines Day person, but this year I have been having fun with some crafts.

A few weeks ago I started making lots of cards. I first drew an anatomically correct heart card, then moved to somewhat morbid cards, to well, even more morbid. I eventually decided that I needed to tone it down a little and started sketching these S.A.D. little people. Yesterday I found this neat craft on a blog where you wrap yarn around a wire. It was a little frustrating at first, but I eventually figured it out. I think it would be fun to do names or sayings with this technique. Lastly I found these instructions on how to make these paper flowers on Green Wedding Shoes, and on a whim decided to give it a try. I like the way it turned out, but seriously what do you do with a huge paper flower once it's done?

Besides these few crafts I haven't done too much in the creative department. My life mostly consists of homework, and because I have been a little sick lately; naps, lots of naps.

I hope everyone has a great Valentines Day this year even if you don't have a special person in your life. It's so easy to find someone or something to love. Just look around and tell them you love them. It can be your parents, siblings, dog, random person on the street, I don't care maybe you even love that flowering bush in your room. God gives us so much love everyday the least we can do is spread it around a bit.

A Pictureless Post

I thought I would do a nice Christmas post like I normally do for holidays, but for some reason we didn't take one picture! This is very unusual for us, but I'll post on it anyway.

On Christmas Eve we went to a service at a Church we were trying with the Underhills and Cunninghams. It was fine, nothing great, but defiantly not bad in anyway. Later that evening the Underhills, James and Stacia, and Tina and Christian came over for a snackish dinner, games, and to exchange gifts. I think we all had a good time, it wasn't a big shindig or anything, it was pretty low key, but still really enjoyable.

On Christmas morning we had a nice family time. Just doing what we always do: bumming around in our pajamas until it was getting close to the time when people might start coming over. My dad went to get Grandma and Grandpa, we all took showers and got ready, and the Underhills came over again and we had a Lunch/ Christmas dinner. We didn't do as much as we normally do as food goes, but we were all still stuffed by the time dessert came around. Mitch and I played on the WII for around an hour and a half, which actually was a feat to try to pry the boys hands off the remotes. I think we must have looked funny flinging our arms around and getting a little competitive (I beat him at sword fighting!). Hannah and Ridge and the Tina/Kathi bunch came over later and we had more dessert, talked, and played games.

Sorry if this was boring especially without pictures, but like I have said before I use my blog for more like my personal journal so I can look back and see what I was doing at that time in my life.

All I want for Christmas is "The Zombie Survival Guide"

So, I was strolling through Modcloth (does anyone notice a pattern here?) and I came upon the book that any sort of "off the deep end" type of girl would just kill to get. Well, I just happen to be that very type so I decided to post my Christmas wish, emphasis on the "wish" list.

First up is the Zombie Survival Guide. Complete Protection from the Living Dead. I know how absolutely weird of me to actually even look at a book like this, but come on, you got to love a little imagination and adventure in one's life, and you never know when it might be needed info. Second up is a very girly, comfy, wonderful looking wrap sweater. I don't think I can find one thing that I don't like about it. It's just about as perfect as a sweater can get. I don't really know why I liked this necklace so much, I think I just found it intriguing. A necklace, with a bike, with a watch, it will multitask for you! Last, but not least, is my favorite pair of boots ever. I found these on amazon, and had they not had been almost $200, they would be in my closet at this moment. *sigh*. Anyhow, I just love the color, laces, buckle, you have to love a good buckle, pocket, POCKET!!!, perfect heal height, and so on, how much better can boots get. I mean seriously, could they add anything else to these things that would improve on them? Like the sweater above, they are, as clothing goes, almost a good as it gets.
I hope I didn't waste your time too much, I just really wanted to blog and share my finds with you all, and now when I mention my dream boots you'll know what I'm talking about. Well, I'm so close to being done with my first semester of college, and have enrolled in my classes for the spring, but it's late, and that will give me something good to post about later, so bye, and keep an eye out for zombies (especially around this time of year).

The best veggie tray I think I've ever had.

Hi, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I thought I would start this post with my brother's zombie snowman. Isn't is great? The one unfortunate thing about this photo is that we have probably 100% more snow. Right now we have around a foot and a half of snow. Yuck! I am so not ready for winter. I still feel gypped about the cool July we had, and I never got my swim therapy in that keeps me sane throughout the winter. So I'm not sure how mentally stable I'll be these next few months, but I'll try to be thankful, we leads me to Thanksgiving. Here is our mismatched, yet yummy looking table. We had a medium sized group this year. The Underhills went to Plains which was the first time they haven't had it with us since I think we moved up. We had my grandparents, James and Stacia, the Vestals, Hannah and Ridge, Kathi and Rachel, and Doris and John Mark. Stacia made a delicious veggie tray:) My mom did the Turkey, and even though I'm not really a big bird fan, It was really good. Luke and Ridge played Chess. I never found out who won, but I have my suspicions.My grandpa, James, and Stacia.Christian relaxing after the meal and the little tyrant Shelby foraging in the background.Hannah, Rachel, and I looked through some books that Hannah brought from the library. We had a great time laughing and striking stupid model posses after devouring Hannah's Anthropologie catalog she brought also. Ugg, talk about drooling over clothing. If only I was a great knitter, maybe I could replicate a sweater or two....

Even though we were missing a chunk of our family, I still think everyone had a blast, I know I did, it was Thanksgiving to be Thankful for.