Christmas Day

Merry Christmas!

The adults in the matching jammies I looked all over tarnation for....you can't see the ladies pants here, which are really cute and soft! I'll post more when I get home of shots I took with my nicer camera....I can't do that format at my mom's house. The 5 grandchildren (my 3, and Ryan's 2 boys)

Minnie costume I got the day after Halloween

A.J.'s shopping cart:)
Sideways...kids and grandkids on my parents stairs...we take this shot every year

JOY!!!!

My middle name is joy, I've always loved that word. We gave our daughter the middle name Joy,too. That word just makes me smile. It is a great description of this Christmas season. I collect Christmas things with Joy in it, and so does my mom. We are at her home for Christmas, and it's always fun to walk around and see Christmas decorations from my childhood as well as new ones. Joy everywhere:) Tyler and i walked around and counted her nativity scenes and found 32. She collects them from around there world, so there are some different ones. All 3 of my brothers, their wives, and my moms 5 grandchildren are here. Joy. She also collects Snow Village ceramic homes, etc. It all started with a ceramic church she painted 30 or so years ago and now she buys lots of them already made for her. I like the commercialized ones...McDonalds, Ford, Krispe Kreme...."The Village" takes a village to put up. In high school, my guy friends would help my mom pull them out of the attic and set them up. For some reason, I never got joy in that process, and it seemed to fall on my brothers and dad. The kids like it, though. Michael is putting a wager out there on how many items will be broken at weeks end. He said 12, my sis in law Alayna said 15-18, but I'm feeling optimistic and said just 2. When my mom dropped and broke a bowl in the kitchen this morning, Michael was anxious to count that as 1, but I veto-ed that. We shall see.....

Today is also the birthday of the beloved Prophet, Joseph Smith. I found this great talk given by our current Prophet, President Hinckley. Speaking of how everything that the church is founded upon comes from the revelations brought to us from Joseph Smith. He endured much so that we might have the knowledge that we do. We talked to our children about how we have a reverence on this day, as we think of his life and mission.

Joy.

All of the stockings are hung by the chimney with care....my mom made all of these...adults on the top row, her grandchildren on the bottom row. Have a Merry Christmas, everyone...whereever you are! May it be filled with Joy.

8 crazy years!

Today is my 8th wedding anniversary. I gushed about Michael on his birthday 2 months ago, so I'm going to talk about details from our big day. Michael and I were married in the Manti Utah LDS temple on a warm December day. I pictured snow cascading over the hill, my mom made a white cape to keep me warm, but I didn't need it and the melted snow showed dead yellow grass underneath. But it didn't matter, I had my perfect day. The sky was blue, and it was nice enough to take lots of great pictures all around the temple. We got married in Utah because it was a central location to my family in Texas and his family in California. We also had lots of friends from BYU and my extended family that were able to come because it was in Utah. I'm still not sure why I chose Manti out of the 10+ temples in Utah. Probably because it was a bit more unique and out of the way than the many who chose Salt Lake or Bountiful. My brother was also married in Utah 1.5 yrs. before and I thought it was beautiful.

We also were able to celebrate and have receptions 3 different places. Utah, Texas, & Cali. So I got to wear my wedding dress more than the usual bride. I didn't have a sister to be a bridesmaid, but I had many sister in laws, my best friend growing up, and several "honorary bridesmaids" that included college friends. My mom and mother in law made burgendy dresses and My "H.B." I asked to wear something black. I wanted all my dear friends to feel included and a part of us coming together, as many of them played a role in our courtship.

My mom made my dress. She is an excellent seamstress, and after tears just hours before each Prom/homecoming event I swore I couldn't have her do my dress. Just too much stress right up until the last minute. When I couldn't find the dress in my head, I asked my mom to make it on the condition that it would be "mostly done" by Thanksgiving. It was, but we still had to do some alterations the night before our wedding day due to my mom saying I lost weight in those few weeks and the dress shifted differently.

I was pretty "no frills" about the details...had Target make my cake, found a local lady to do my bouquet. My one main requirement is that on my wedding day, I did not want to see basketball lines in my pictures. For those of you who know our churches, that is fairly common. I found a great building that USED to be a church converted to a reception hall. One might think that I interviewed hundreds of photographers, but I didn't really even research that. The hall gave a discount if we used their photographer, so I went with them. They did a great job, and I even had my friend Laurie do candid shots during the day with black and white film. One of my biggest splurges, which I DO NOT REGRET is having a videographer come. It was quite new at the time, and definitely a luxury, and still is. I love our wedding video.

The 2 songs for our video came out around that time, and had a lot to do with us, so I love them. The first is Shania Twain's "From this Moment." Michael and I had some back and forth in our courtship, and when we got engaged and truly committed to each other, the phrase, "From this Moment on....." really meant a lot to me. Then the Tarzan theme song, don't think of the human ape, but the phrase, "From this day on, now and forever" is similar to the previous song. I took my little camcorder and videoed the television for our 5 mintue wedding video, if anyone wants to watch. You'll see the horizontal lines, but watch it if you'd like. We love it, and so do our kids, and that's what we'll be watching tonight as a family:)

This was taken today when I took a little treat to him at work:

I've never doubted that I've made the best decision of my life in the person I chose to marry. We complement each other well. Through ups and downs we know, this is for forever.

Our video from my camcorder to the tv to here:) (wow, this screen shot is enticing, isn't it?)

My Montage 12/17/07

Christmas Lunch with Friends

I have these great Christmas dishes. I got them as a wedding gift in my December wedding. They are ceramic with tree's on them. I should bring them out for my family, but the ceramic-ness makes me nervous. Maybe in a few years. So, I like to have friends over for lunch and share my dishes and my decorations. I decided to add a setting of 4 all red dishes to complement them. I had 8 friends over for lunch this week. Those that I see the most and want to share my mom's yummy zucchini soup with. Michael doesn't like zucchini, so I like to make it for friends. I did this 4 years ago with a completely different group...all of the older group has moved away, so we joked that in 4 years, this group will all be gone. I love bringing my friends together, from church, neighborhood, and school. It makes me happy.

Chrissta (green), Emily, Michele (red) , Stacy (white), Candida (blue)
Chrissta took this so I could be in it....L to R: Stacey, Clair (w/Violet), Candida, Stacy, Emily, Michele, Becca, Me
The soup...looks kinda funny here....
A friend from school has a bakery biz, so I had her make this yummy petite four cakes. So delicious and cute! Chocolate and cake layers on the inside, white chocolate on the outside. Kids played and watched a Christmas movie while we ate...I got a picture of all kids but 1 and matthew twice:)
Zucchini Soup Recipe:

10 servings

6 Tbsp olive oli

1/4 garlic powder/salt

8 zucchini

2 8 oz. cans tomoato sauce

32 oz. can diced peeled tomoatoes

2 Tbsp butter

1 tsp onion powder

1.5-2 lb. ground sausage

16 oz. shredded colby jack cheese

Cut up fresh zucchini into cubes. Cook in oil, butter, galric, onion until soft. Throw in cooked sausage, tomato sauce, diced tomoatoes, and a little water if needed. Simmer until hot. Add shredded cheese at the end just before serving. *I don't like onions, so I use onion salt, but for the lovers, you can cook them with meat or zucchini.

Sneaky AJ

Everytime my friend Michele is over, or in the presence of Alyssa, she knows exactly what to find in her purse....gum! Sometimes she has eaten several pieces before we find her. This time, Michele's purse was on this stool and Alyssa climbed on it and we were so impressed at her kneeling on the free floating stool that we just watched and laughed as she concetrated on the task at hand. Alyssa affectionately calls Michele, "Bishelf" it's really funny.