Happy Birthday To Me!

A week and a half later... I finally have a minute to blog! My birthday was fantastic!!! The best part of the day was my moms fajitas! She makes our favorite meal and oh how I love her fajitas! I feel like I could die when I eat them, they are so good! I got many phone calls and birthday songs sang to me, thank you to all my many friends and family. The theme of my birthday gifts this year was PILATES! Everything was from my favorite store lululemon! And I got a gift certificate to get a massage from my sweet hubby. 

What is it?

My new pilates bag that I wanted SO BAD!

I spent most of my birthday with these cute little ones, and they sure did make my day special! 

UP UP AND AWAY

We had a ward activity last night and it was so fun! It's one of the favorites of the year. People volunteered to be "hosts" of a table. The activities committee divided the ward into groups and assigned each host about 10 people. The host had to (with the help of table members) decorate their table to best represent the movie they picked, then all the members dressed up as characters from the movie. They also brought food that went along with their movie for dinner. I can't believe the creativity of people! It was amazing. I was in awe of the ideas people came up with. During the night we mixed and mingled while writing down what movie we thought each table was, there was a picture slideshow reviewing the past year, we had dinner with our tables, and ended off with awards. Our table was the disney movie UP.

Troy and Kristen ( Carl and Elle Fredrickson) Me (Elle as the little girl) Brandon & Josh and Meredith Duffy as Russell.

Below are some of the movie tables! Pictures don't really show the incredible detail people put in, but you can get a good idea.

Night at the Museum - they won "Best Table"

Grease- they won "Best Picture" which was best table and costumes combined

Elf- won best costumes

Twilight

Cast Away - do u see wilson?

27 dresses

I was volunteered to be the girl who handed Brother George the envelope with the Award results.

Downtown Disney

NuSkin had a convention this weekend in Anaheim at the Disneyland Hotel. My cousin Fallon works for their events team therefore bringing her down to California. Saturday night after she was done working we walked around downtown disney and then ate at the Rainforest Cafe. It was so fun to catch up with her and especially to hang out with her little one- Claire. I could kiss Claire's cheeks all day long they are so cute. Fallon and I have always lived far away but have kept a great relationship throughout the years. It's so neat and fun to have a cousin that Im close to and love so much. Maybe someday we'll be teaching our kids how to potty train together!

Claire will randomly have outbursts of laughter- it is hilarious!

Claire was lovin the table!

Din Din

While living at home, I have enjoyed many many meals my mom has cooked! She is a fantastic cook and boy have I loved not cooking myself. Im not too much of a cook. I don't really like it, I would rather be on clean up duty and do all the dishes. Well my mom (with Brandon's strong encouragement/influence) said that I needed to start cooking on Sundays. She said, "I'm not doing you favors by cooking for you every night." I was a little bit sad and was reluctant to agree but I did. My mom is right, and what better way to learn then alongside of my wonderful mother. Who knows maybe I'll learn to like cooking??? We will see... So today was my first day and I decided to try a new recipe that we never tried before- Marinade for Balsamic Chicken Breasts (I used tenders) and I have to say it was fantastic! We had our own little salad bar, with excellent chicken to go on top!  Anyone want the recipe just ask! Happy Cooking!

Family Pedicures

What a fun outing! It started with pedicures for the whole family- even the boys! Ended with sandwiches and yogurt land. 

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS

This Christmas was one of the best. I got my shopping done early and felt like I really enjoyed the month of December. I enjoyed every minute of it. I loved just sitting at home by the fire and being around family. I enjoyed listening to Christmas music any chance I could get. I loved reading about my Savior Jesus Christ and trying to really focus on the true meaning of Christmas. This is the first year that we weren't up at 7 to open presents. Paige and Doug came over at 10 so we waited for them. As we were making our Christmas Breakfast and being with one another I thought to myself, I really could care less about the presents. The presents don't matter to me anymore. I just truly loved the feeling of Christmas all around, playing games and being with family. I am extremely grateful for my presents though, thank you very much! I kept saying to my mom, I don't want this day to end. I love Christmas! Until next year...

Daddy in his new relax the back chair.

Nice Shades Chelly

After our opening we always take a picture in the wrapping paper.

Jacuzzi on Christmas Day. I mean how many people can do that? The weather was so nice. It was about 70 degrees with no wind. It was so pleasant. I love California.

Christmas Eve

I love being with my family on Christmas Eve. We have a wonderful program where everyone in the family has to do one thing. I played piano and we sang Christmas songs, Dad told the Christmas Story, Grandpa gave a wonderful story about the history of Rudolf the Rednose Reindeer, Mom read us the story, "I believe in Santa Clause." And told us a story about the symbols of Christmas. Paige and Doug had us play a Christmas game and Mckenzie and Chelsea put on a rap for us. The spirit was felt and we had a great time. After the program we opened our Christmas pajamas and of course we had to take a bunch of pictures!!!

              

In Brandon's family they had a tradition where every Christmas Eve they slept by the tree. I thought that would be so fun and so we did it. Paige and Doug had to be at Doug's house so we missed them but they were over in the morning. Sleeping downstairs by the tree, going to sleep to the movie THE GRINCH was probably one of my highlights. It was so fun! I told Brandon that is definitely a tradition I want to carry on with our family.

Waiting for Santa to Come