Dream Dinners

Once upon a time, Ashley and I ran a 5k for a charity her grad school was supporting.  We were pathetic and slow (it was the day after I got my wisdom tooth out!  But I would have been slow anyways) but it was fun and for a good cause.  AND in the raffle afterwards, we BOTH won prizes!  I won 2 free milkshakes at Sammy's, which we used that night.  Ashley won $150 gift certificate at Dream Dinners.  Whatever the heck that is.

OH WAIT, DREAM DINNERS IS AWESOME.  We finally used the gift certificate last night and it was soooo coooool.  There is an incredible menu.  You pick 12 meals (of 3 servings each) (or fewer meals of 6 servings) (or 8 million meals if you feel like it), go in, and make them in IN AN HOUR.  Everything is all together for you to just combine ingredients and put in ziploc bags and take home and put in your freezer.  Ashley and I had so much fun!  And we walked out of there with a box full of meals. I am so excited to try them.  I am pretty sure they'll be good because they gave us a sample of two things from next months menu, and they were DELICIOUS.  Kyle is excited because we will finally have some real and fancy meals around here.  I go through phases with cooking, and right now is a fend-for-yourself kind of phase.  So now, we get to look forward to chicken yakitori, monte cristo chicken, baked potato chicken, baked chicken tetrazzini, sage crusted pork chops, chateau chicken with almond butter sauce, and other things that I don't even remember.  I know Ashley got some mango glazed salmon and greek shrimp pasta something or other.

ANYWAYS.  It was fun.  I am excited to have these meals in my freezer to bust out.  I wish it was cheaper so I could do it every month--maybe after Kyle tastes the food, we'll decide that it's worth paying money to do it all the time.  I hope so, because it was fun and easy and for some reason, really exciting!

biznez

3 more books until I am finished with the Goodreads 2011 Reading Challenge!  Katy totally schooled me, she beat me ages ago.  This was great because it made me actually keep track of my books on Goodreads, and it was occasionally motivation to read instead of mess around on the computer.

Yesterday I was put in charge (along with another girl) of decorations for our ward Christmas party.  Which is in 2 weeks.  OH SNAP.

Starting tomorrow, I am babysitting an adorable 6-month-old every weekday while her normal sitter (Kelsie) is out of town for 2 weeks.  I am excited because Sophia is so cute--but sad that this means Kelsie will be gone.  Honestly, going to her house every afternoon is such a habit, I don't know what I'll do without it. Especially with another baby to take care of!

On Saturday we're driving 7 hours to Telluride, picking up Katy, playing around for an hour or two, and then driving 7 hours back to Springville. Probably in the snow.  Worth it to get to hang out with Katy for a week!

We're in the process of getting Ruby off the binky.  She's gone 2 days without it--night time is fine, but naps are hard.  We probably shouldn't have done this while she's teething.  I just didn't even think about it.  Moron!  I think she's getting her molars, which basically just means she is drooly and has a runny nose.  Runny nose=death for me.  I hate it.  She's a bit needier than normal, but is generally still happy.  She already loves Sophia, so we'll see how Ruby deals with me taking care of another baby instead of Kelsie doing it.

I think Thanksgiving is going to be completely overshadowed by Christmas this year, just because I'm going to be spending the next 2 weeks frantically preparing for the ward party.  But we'll still have a nice meal, and Katy will be here, hallelujah!  And we'll still watch Poltergeist.  It just isn't Thanksgiving without that.

Also, Mitt Romney is fabulous.

That's all.

Busy Morning

Normally after breakfast I make Ruby sit with me and read books.  Yesterday, I let her run wild and followed her around with the camera.  We both had a blast.

But she ended up reading a book anyways.

Her first exposure to Han Solo!!

Thanks for the Star Wars book, my awesome sister Christy!

YW in Excellence

After spending the day setting up the Primary room for the YW activity, Kelsie convinced me that I should go to the activity.  I'm not in any way affiliated with the Young Women, but I'm really glad I went!  It was such a sweet meeting.  The parents got up with their girls and spoke about how their daughters depend on the Savior (that was the theme...D.O.T.S) and gave them a little gift as a reminder.  I basically cried the whole time.  Everyone said such sweet things and it was so tender to see the relationship between these girls and their parents.  You could tell everyone was so proud of their girls.  I think most people in the room cried, so I didn't feel silly.  Wasn't that a great idea though?  The spirit in the room was amazing.

Afterwards everyone looked at the projects that the girls had displayed in the room that Kelsie and I decorated.  It looked so cool!  The girls loved it.  One Laurel told me that she walked in and knew that that was how she wanted her wedding to look :)  I don't know about that, but it was certainly festive!  And fun to do.  Kelsie and I spent the day together setting everything up, it was a good bonding experience!

It looked cuter with food on the table and projects on those little tables

Letters for every value--some people didn't get it though!

Kelsie! See, she's real.

The leaders of the YW are really cool.  They were nice to me even though I was an interloper :)

The girls are super sweet!

old school

It's funny how blogs change over the years.  When I first started my blog, my posts were like "I'm going on a date with this boy, oh man school is hard, it was so cold today!"  Not just the subject matter has changed--it was all very day-to-day, here is what is going on kind of stuff.  That's probably why it was easier to blog every day!  And now I have to wait until I can have a post dedicated to cute pictures of Ruby's little bum in her crib.

So here is some of what is going on, without pictures or themes.

I have started indexing during Ruby's naps.  It is fun, and it makes me feel better than just browsing the interwebs. I'm currently working on a census from Surrey.  My favorite thing is when they mark the occupation of 4 year olds as "scholar."

Ruby is entirely off of bottles.  Yay!  She can finally drink from any sippy cup we give her. I think I read that babes should stop using bottles at 14 months, so I've been stressing for some reason. Needlessly, because she's only 13 months.

 I have been sewing circle garlands until my fingers ache.  Kelsie is in charge of decorations for the Young Women in Excellence activity, so I've been helping.  It's tonight and will be super cute.

My finger AND toe nails are painted in a gray Essie shade--chinchilly.  I am ridiculously in love with it. I look down and see winter and sophistication.  (Mind you, I am not sophisticated.  Nor are my nails.  Just the color.)

It is freezing here. I don't hate it yet, but I will soon. Stay tuned.

We are 97%ish done with Christmas presents.  I think we've done a good job this year!  Much better than last year--our presents were so lame.  Sorry, family.  And I have an idea for what I'm giving Kyle that is going to knock his little argyle socks off.

AND I've just started a wish list for what I want for myself.  Oh snap.

Every day I change my mind about whether or not I want a purple streak in my hair.  Oh, I haven't blogged about that yet.  Awkward.  I've been wanting to forever, and now  I have a friend in the hair business.  I've been taking a poll of everyone I know to decide if I should do it.  If you haven't been contacted, consider this your invitation.  I keep going back and forth.

I kind of miss this style of blogging.  It's been fun.

Little Sleepy Bottom

This has only happened once, and she didn't make a mess in her crib, so I think it's adorable.

Next time, not so cute.

The way she sleeps with Bunny--that kills me.

Halloween 2011

This was a really great Halloween!  Even though Ruby is too young to care, it is still more fun when you have a baby.  She loved wearing a costume and was so cute running around as a cat all evening.  She thought my makeup was funny, but was really scared of Kyle at first.

We went to the 4th Annual Bluffs Halloween Party, and it was so fun!  When we move away someday, we might have to travel back to Utah for Halloween, because I can't imagine that we can miss this party.  We covered all our traditions-- Garfield's Halloween movie, werewolves, costume contest, and talking late into the night.

My friend Kerry did my makeup.  SHE IS SO AWESOME.  She's also the one who cut and colored my hair a couple weeks ago.  AND did my nails.  I am so lucky to be her friend!

Our friends had awesome costumes, as per usual:

CB trying to capture Edward's sneer was pretty great.

Grapes and a sailor girl.

They have a thing about geography.

Thanks, Emily and CB.  You always throw an awesome Halloween party. And we always have a freakishly good time.

Kyle was creepy.