What I have been up to this month.

Item No. 1 The Watches.
I made six of these for family. As stated in a previous blog, I won a chunkybling watch contest, once I received my prize I set out to figure out how to make them...should have taken pics of the process...but this is what I am giving to the women in my family for Christmas

Item No. 2 The Flower Bows.
I have made these before, I made these as a Christmas present for my Step-mom and Dad's baby Leah.

Item No. 3 The gift baskets.
After my mom gave me some extra cash, I decided to make gift baskets for people in Pocatello who have helped us out really big this year...My 6 bosses (Dr. Holman, Dr. Bennett, Dr. Rosentreter, Dr. De Jesus, Lori, and Mary), Andy's boss Greg Emfield, The Benedetti's for letting Andy live with them and many other things, 2 of Andy's professors, our landlord, and of course our amazing bishop. Inside these gift baskets are hot cocoa, peppermint bark, chocolate, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and pumpkin yeast bread. I put all of these items decoratively on a Christmas plate and then wrapped them with a clear trash bag that I trimmed down and then tied with Christmas ribbon and tags.

Item No. 4 Random gift packets.
I made a couple extra gift goodies for our friends the Giesbrechts, The Hymas', the Hamilton's and our neighbors. To the Geisbrecht's: I had promised Katie I would make her a watch if I won the naming contest, so they got a goody plate with the watch, 2 things of hot cocoa and candy. The other three got a nice combo of those pretzal candies and chocolate peanut butter cookies that look like girl scout cookies. As far as what I did with the pretzels....I took mint truffle kisses and melted them on top as stated by the link, then I put mint M & M's in the center and sprinkled crushed candy cane on top.

Item No. 5 Baking Night.
Last night my friends Audrey and Adrianne came over to bake. I made the pretzel goodies again as shown above and Samoa bars; Audrey made Snickerdoodle blondies; and Adrianne made Mouse cookies and 5 minute fudge....we then split up the goodies amongst ourselves....I ate way too much and felt like throwing up all night and then decided to package the goodies up and put them in the gift bags that I am sending off with my sister for family (My mom, Tom and Neisha; and my Step-mom, Dad,Leah, and Tam).

Sigh...

Since she's been gone...

I can breath for the first time ;) Lol I mean since Neisha has gone back home Andy and I had a dinner party with our friends Alica and Blake. We had them over for home made, stuffed crust sour dough pizza and bread sticks.





They brought yummy veggies, fruit and brownies. I am surprised we haven't scared them away yet...in fact I am shocked when they call and say they want to hang out with us again or leave notes on our doorstep....such awesome people. Then I went out of town. My friend Sarah from Provo kidnapped me and took me to Provo with her so I could be at her bridal shower and then she brought me back on Tuesday just in time to teach my Zumba class. I made her a love jar and gave her some other "tasteful" yet "useful" gifts as well as threw the shower.







I made her a fruit pizza with chocolate covered bananas and strawberries in the center, snicker salad, and sherbert/sprite punch. We had fun.





Since I have been back, I have been working on putting a bootcamp together for next week. I will be kicking some cheerleader butt and I want it to be extreme and I am super excited. So far I have been able to get Great Harvest, Jamba Juice, Sports Authority, GNC, Treasures Formal wear, and the Pocatello Co-Op to donate coupons to the girls as a sort of free advertisement slash business stimulus. I am super excited....Oh yeah! I got great news on Monday! I will for sure be teaching 3 labs at ISU in the fall: 2 chem 303 classes and a chem 213 class- yay!!!! I emailed Dr. Herron and told him I was not going to be able to come back to do research as ISU pulled a lot of strings to get me those positions. As far as everything else....Andy and I will be in Utah on the 8th- he will be golfing for his birthday while I am getting further certification in Zumba...also it looks like on our Anniversary, Andy and I may be performing at the Blackfoot fair (Aug 12)....and then My sis and I are leaving on a prepaid shopping spree funded by zee mama...since her honeymoon, she has decided that everyone deserves a vacation and was willing to send us anywhere. Tam and I being responsible lame-o's- decided it would be more practical and less expensive if she just sent us to go shop for clothes...so that is exciting. Well anywho...that is zee update of what is going on...hopefully I will have more to say in the near future ;)

Oh and in case you are bored...here are some videos of my sister and her team doing a reality show called "The Adventures of the Astro Slug"...it's kind of like the office....

Episode 1: part 1


Episode 1: part 2


Duncans blog 1


Skips blog 1

10 days with Neisha.

Day 1:
-Neisha was dropped off
-we made hairbows
-we went to the library
-she went to VBS







Day 2:
-Dance Camp with Century Dance team
-Looked for the Book Wagon, but found horses instead
-went to the library for storytime
-went to ISU and made beads and a necklace- and hung out at the arcade
-went to VBS









Day 3:
-Dance camp
-Made mini pizzas
-Dance camp recital
-Went to the ISU museum
-made friends with the neighbors
-VBS









Day 4:
-ran some errands
-Went to the zoo
-went to lunch in the park-Neisha got wounded
-went to drama group at the library
-rented movies and had a BBQ in the back yard







Day 5:
-Andy took Neisha to the Pioneer day parade (and did not take pics)
-I took Neisha to the fair- she was scared by the bouncy house, went fishing, got her face painted, and rode in a mini train
-Went to a babyshower
-Neisha went and spent the night with Tam









Day 6:
-went to church
-took naps
-relaxed

Day 7:
-watched a movie
-lunch in the park
-arts and crafts at the library
-went swimming in the back yard
-VBS



Day 8:
-went and played at Jennifer's house
-went and played at Mystique's house

Day 9:
-went to story time at the library
-went to lunch at the park where she literllay played on the crane for like 50 minutes, it was pretty funny watching all these boys gather around her waiting to play with it
-got a free book from the book wagon
-went to see Hannah Montana
-made cookies
-played in the pool and with friends until late



Day 10:
-Neisha goes home today
-we are just waiting for mom now

My thoughts:
-I am excited to be able to get sleep again
-I am excited to not have a child to run around all day
-I am excited to not have to watch Disney channel or cartoon network anymore
-I have no idea why she would not eat anything I made for her....and I don't take it personal because my hubby loves my cooking
-it is nice having neighbor kids the same age as the child in your house because then you have hours of peace and quiet
-Why do children have to lie and make up stories all the time?
-Neisha is an attention whore- she must have your attention at all times or she will resort to saying "I love You" to get your attention
-Neisha is super stubborn, sometimes I just wanna.....
-I am glad she is going home, but am grateful that she bought me a few more years of being childless because Andy now realizes how hard it is to have a child around....and he wasn't a huge fan, let's be honest.

A lot of things.

Well...let's see....This past weekend we headed back down to Provo to attend a wedding and it was a blast!



We then headed back up to Salt Lake to Have a family get together with the Petty's and of course gorged ourselves sick.



(Everyone who was there that was not a petty are not in the picture there were probably another ten people including me and Andy not in this picture)

We kidnapped a friend and brought him back to Idaho with us to hang out for the week. Since the weekend I got a job as a substitute teacher and we also got new toy- a beautiful grill!



Then I made a diaper cake for an upcoming baby shower- the first girl baby shower I have been able to make one for.

Thanksgiving and Getting Crafty....

Well Thanksgiving came and went, but it was a blast! We woke up and drove me to my "Earn Your Turkey" 4 mile run.

I cut 2 whole minutes off my time- which if you run is a big deal- so I went from 40 minutes to 38. I was pretty excited. And unfortunately, I do not have any more pics documenting this day. Oh well. We then went to Andy's Aunts house. The boys went to go play the family Turkey bowl and I helped with the rest of the baking- turkey, rolls, green beans, pies, you name it. Family started arriving around 3pm and we started dinner promptly at 5pm. We had a full house and awesome seating arrangements. The adults were at the nice table with the fancy china- us 'kids' ages 20-30 were at the table in the corner, and the actual kids were at a table right next to the adults. It was awesome. There was so much food and so much fun. Andy also took me to see Twilight that evening with another couple (Willie and Emily- our awesome cousins). We had a blast giggling and making fun of the cheesy lines. The funny thing is...I think my husband enjoyed the movie more than me and he had no clue what was going on. So that night he started reading the Twilight series to get caught up. He read the first three books in pretty much 2 days and would have started the 4th except we lent that one out to family and have not gotten it back yet. Friday, my mom, her fiancee and my baby sister came over and hung out. Andy read while I worked on Christmas cards and my latest craft endeavor- diaper cakes.Then Andy's parents came over and we went and ran 4 miles together- after which we came back and watched movies while working on more Christmas cards. Today, I went to my third baby shower of the month- hence the diaper cake- and then Andy and I went window shopping. We stopped by Mervyns going out of business sale and picked this beautiful thing out-

it is my early Christmas present- and as you can see there is my cute husband indeed reading 'Eclipse'. After shopping, we went out to eat at the new restaurant by Shopko called the International Buffet. It was Amazing! The best Asian buffet I have ever been to!!! They even have student discounts!!!! They had things I had never even seen before AND Sushi!!! I was thrilled!!! I highly recommend all to try it out!

Now for getting Crafty...
Like I said- I have been working on diaper cakes lately- why is this? Well I will tell you. Way back at the first baby shower of this past month Emily P and I went shopping for one of the prego family members and we saw in one of the cute baby stores that we went into a small cake made out of diapers that cost $60.00. We ended up settling on a baby outfit and heading to the shower. At the shower (which was more like the baby shower version of 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding') we saw a ginormous cake made out of diapers and it was covered in all the bare essentials. Since I was throwing a shower for Brittany P the following week (prego cousin #2), Emily and I decided we wanted to try to make one. So Emily went and bought the rest of the "ingredients" that we would need in order to make the most awesome diaper cake and then met up the day of the shower 30 minutes before it was supposed to begin (aka not even close to being enough time to doing one of these little puppies especially if you do not have any directions). So we ended up giving up and deciding we would give one to her on Thanksgiving instead- because we are stubborn like that. I took the rest of the stuff that we did not give her home and ended up making it myself and this is what my end result looked like...

Because BYU blood runs deep in this family I decorated it with BYU baby essentials- bottle, bear, book about Cosmo, onesie and socks. I think they liked it. After making that one- I decided I must continue doing these because they are just too much fun to make and made this one for baby shower #3 for my friend Emily W...



I love doing these!!! Everyone is going to get one from me from now on. Other crafty things I have been doing this month include making my own Christmas themed vinyl blocks...


Thank you's for Brittany P's baby shower...

And making homemade potpourri...
I do not have pics of this- but it smells WoNdErFuL!

Ingredients:
cinnamon sticks (or powder if that is all you have)
cloves not ground (ground will work too)
All Spice
Nutmeg
Orange peels
Ginger

Place ingredients in a small pot of water and turn on low to level 3 heat. You should smell the effects shortly. I think it lasts at least two weeks if not the whole month...

Well anywho's...I am off!