Christmas Eve Plans

I am so excited for Christmas Eve. I just had to share what Chad and I are going to be doing this year. I figured since we didn't have any kids, yet, that we needed to bring some of that "little kid" excitement into our holiday celebration. So, we're going to blow up or air mattress, throw out the sleeping bags, pop some popcorn, watch movies, eat cookies and pizza, and sleep under the Christmas tree. I don't know why I'm so excited about doing this, but I can't wait. I'm looking forward to our little slumber party more than opening presents. I think this is going to be a tradition that we'll need to continue doing in the years to come. And I figure that once we start having little ones we'll still have slumber parties during December, just not on Christmas Eve. So, what do you think.....sound fun, or a little juvenile for us?

50 RaNdOm ThInGs

1. Do you like blue cheese? I loved it right after my mission. I haven’t had any since.
2. Have you ever smoked heroin? NO!
3. Do you own a gun? Chad does.
4. What flavor do you add to your drink at Sonic? I’ve never been to Sonic.
5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? Depends on the appointment
6. What do you think of hot dogs? I like them with all the toppings: onions, relish, the works.
7. Favorite Christmas movie? White Christmas or A Christmas Story
8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Orange Juice, but I hardly ever have it
9. Can you do push-ups? Yes, but not very many.
10. Age? Does a girl ever tell……29, looking at 30.
11. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? My wedding ring
12. Favorite hobby? Blogging
13. Favorite Actor: Tom Hanks, Harrison Ford
14. Do you have A.D.D.? It depends on what I’m supposed to be focusing my attention on.
15. What's one trait you hate about yourself? I interrupt a lot
16. Middle name? Don’t want to share that one on my blog
17. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment...The talk I have to give this Sunday, The dinner I have to set up for tonight, The talk I have to give this Sunday.
18. Name 3 things you bought yesterday/today? Doughnuts, sliced deli meat, 2 bags M&M’s/2 bags kisses
19. 3 drinks you regularly drink? Water, lots of it, Milk, Kool-Aid
20. 3 Current worries? Getting my Christmas cards done and sent, My talk for Sunday, Do I have enough neighborhood gifts for Christmas
21. Current Love right now? Sitting in my living room with all the lights of except for the Christmas tree lights. So relaxing and pretty.
22. Favorite place to be? With Chad
23. How did you ring in the New Year? Haven’t yet, but it’s my anniversary so I’m hoping to go to the cabin and go snowmobiling!!!!
24. Where would you like to go? Where wouldn’t I like to go? I’ll keep it simple….I would like to go to temple square to see the lights. I love it!
25. Name three people who will complete this. Connie, Courtney, Tibi
26. Do you own slippers? Yes, big fuzzy Cookie Monster kind. They are aqua blue and I got them from Chad.
27. What shirt are you wearing? Scrubs. I’m always wearing scrubs.
28. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? Never tried
29. Can you whistle? Yes
30. Favorite color? Aqua blue, red, brown
31. Would you be a pirate? I was a pirate in high school, that was our mascot.
32. What songs do you sing in the shower? Church hymns
33. Favorite girl's name? Alli
34. Favorite boy's name? Jaron
35. What is in your pocket? Keys
36. Last thing that made you laugh? Chad pulling on my pony tail asking me “where’s my dinner”
37. Best bed sheets as a child? A Gummy Bear sleeping
38. Worst injury you've ever had? Diving head first into a pool. Don’t ask! Although, my cousin reminded me of another one. I fell and hit my head while roller skating one Christmas morning. She was right there with me. I landed head first-did'nt even have a chance to get my hands out in front of me. I ended up with a concusion. I spent that Christmas lying in bed and throwing up.
39. Do you love where you live? Yes
40. How many TVs do you have in your house? 1 very little one, but our computer doubles as a TV
41. Who is your loudest friend? My nieces and nephews
42. How many dogs do you have? 0
43. Does someone have a crush on you? Someone hit on me at the gym once, so I guess I’ve still got it. (Heeheehee)
44. What is your favorite book(S)? Too many! I can always reread Ella Enchanted
45. Where were you born? Provo
46. What is your favorite candy? Snickers
47. Favorite Sports Team? BYU Cougars
48. What songs do you want played at your funeral? That’s a little grim to think about right now. But I love Be Still My Soul.
49. What are you doing at 12 A.M.? Sleeping
50. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? NOOOOO!!!!!!

Flashback

This flashback is in honor of the whole Girls VS. Boys thing.
Today we are tyring to determine who is better at keeping themselves clean when eating; girls or boys. First we have my adorable little husband. Look at those eyes. Now, look at that face. The face only a mother could love. (Actually- it is pretty cute!)

I new Chad had a major sweet tooth, but goodness.

And then we have me. Apparently I had just gotten a new tea set and wanted to try it out. Notice how careful I am at pouring my tea into a saucer and doing that without spilling a drop. 1 point for the girls/0 for the boys.
Now, in all fairness to Chad, I must point out that I am serving nothing more than air. I don't think my Mom would have even trusted me with water. Also, for any of you who truly know me you will know that it is impossible for me not to spill on myself. I can't help it. All food must somehow end up on me. And I'm now how old???? So I guess that means that the points should probably stand in favor of the boys. Sorry Ladies.

I NEED YOUR HELP

We are going to be adding a little something extra to our Christmas card this year, so I need all of you to email me your address! This request includes all of my family members out there. I just want to make sure that the address I have is current. Plus, I would like to add all of the friends I've found through blogging to my Christmas list. Thanks for your help.

You can email it to me at chadandcamie@yahoo.com

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin

Last night around 11:30, Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin passed away in his sleep. At 91 years old, Elder Wirthlin was the oldest living apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. According to the LDS Church Web site, his oldest daughter, Jane Wirthlin Parker, was present. A member of the family had been staying with and caring for Elder Wirthlin, whose wife, Elisa Young Rogers Wirthlin, died in 2006. His son, Joe, told KSL this morning, "He lived a life of full activity until the last breath." Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.

Chad called me this morning to tell me of the passing of Elder Wirthlin. I was a little shocked and surprised. Not because it was totally unexpected, but because last night for family night Chad and I read together Elder Wirthlin's most recent conference talk, "Come What May, and Love It." It's a great talk and one that I think all of us need to read and study time and time again. He talks about adversity and times of test and trial, and recommends four things that will help us get through those times.
-Learn to Laugh
-Seek for the Eternal
-The Principle of Compensation
-Trust in the Father and the Son

I am so grateful for Elder Wirthlin and each of the apostles. I am grateful for their willingness to sacrifice so much of their time to serve their Heavenly Father and each of us. And I am even more grateful for their words of counsel and prayers in our behalf.

"The Lord compensates the faithful for every loss. That which is taken away from those who love the Lord will be added unto them in His own way. While it may not come at the time we desire, the faithful will know that every tear today will eventually be returned a hundredfold with tears of rejoicing and gratitude."

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin

Welcome to the family

We'd like to introduce you to our new little nephew KEAGAN. My sister was induced yesterday morning and Keagan came a few hours later. She said it was a really fast and easy delivery. In fact she stayed at the hospital last night and was back home sometime today. At first I thought she was insane going home so soon, but she's got lots of family visiting, which means plenty of helping hands. Besides, Elden and Bennett can't get enough of Keagan, and I'm sure they will be more than willing to hold him for mommy.Keagan wasn't the only addition we had to our family yesterday. A few hours after talking to my sister on the phone we got a phone call telling us that Chad's brother and his wife had just had their baby girl. What are the odds??? So, we have a new niece and nephew and all within a 12 hr. period. How lucky are we. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of my niece, but I'm sure she's adorable.
If you want to see some more pictures of Keagan and the family you can go to my sister’s blog.

The BIG game

VS.

Does anyone have any predictions or shout outs about the big game tomorrow? My shout out......GO COUGARS!!!!If you can't tell, Chad and I are a little partial as to who we would like to have win.

Super Saturday

Today was our Super Saturday. It was great. We started off with a breakfast and mini visiting teaching conference. They had a question and answer panel, a film on V.T., and a musical number. They did a really good job putting it all together and it was nice to have that added motivation to get out and visit teach. After that we broke out for the crafts. This is what I ended up making.They had a ton of cute things to sign up for, but I really wanted to get some things knocked of my Christmas list. So, I opted for these little hot chocolate jars. I'm planning on giving these away as gifts. (I also went and purchased some little mugs to give away with them.) They were so easy. All you do is pour some hot chocolate mix in them and tie a bow around. I thought I'd share the idea in case any of you do neighborhood gifts for Christmas.

We didn't use a homemade recipe, but I thought I'd post a couple. That way you can add a personal touch to the gift.

2 c. nonfat dry milk powder
3/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. Hershey's cocoa
1/2 c. powdered non-dairy creamer
Mix in large bowl combine all ingredients; blend well. Store tightly in covered container (16 servings). Single serving: Combine 1/4 cup mix to 3/4 cup boiling water.

2 cups nonfat dry milk powder
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup powdered nondairy creamer
1/8 teaspoon salt
1. Measure all of the ingredients into a mixing bowl and whisk them until they are evenly blended. 2. Store the mix in a tightly covered container at room temperature until you're ready to package it. Makes about 4 cups of mix.

1½ cups skim milk powder
1½ cups white sugar
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa
¾ cup non-dairy creamer
Place all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir well. For a finer mix, combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor and mix well. Place 2 or 3 tablespoons in a mug and add boiling water.

Variations:
*After processing all other ingredients in the blender or food processor, empty mix into a bowl and stir in 1 cup of mini marshmallows.
*Replace the plain non-dairy creamer with a flavored creamer such as French Vanilla or Hazelnut.
*For spiced hot chocolate, add 1 teaspoon of cinnamon to mix, or ½ teaspoon nutmeg and ½ teaspoon of cinnamon.
*For raspberry hot chocolate, add one package of raspberry koolaid to the mix and increase the sugar to 2 cups.

RaCinG go CaRtS

Chad and I were lucky enough to both have this Veterans day off. To celebrate we decided to have Kyle (Chad's brother ) come up to stay the night. We couldn't think of a better way to spend our Family Night than by going to race go carts. So we picked up some pizza and soda for dinner, stuffed ourselves, then headed over to the raceway.

Kyle and Chad watching and analyzing racers and their techniques.

The briefing room.

Here you get to watch a really lame video on the rules of the road.

Community helmets. Yuck!

The great thing is they give you these niffty little hoodies (that are yours to keep) to put on . They've come in really handy for four wheeling and snowmobiling in cooler weather. Chad and Kyle looked like a band of bank robbers.

Getting ready to race.

First you have a five lap qualifying round. Who ever has the fastest lap gets to be first off the line for the 15 lap race.

ThE RaCe

THE WINNER!!!!!

Chad smoked everyone. Kyle was able to pull out a second place win on the second to last lap. It was a pretty exciting race and lots of fun to watch.

The two boys going over their racing stats.

After the racing we picked up some ice cream sundays then headed over to the gym. We spent a couple of hours working out and then came home and crashed for the night. The next day we got up, had some pancakes for breakfast, then headed over to the pool to go swimming. After swimming we headed back to the gym and played some basketball. Then it was home again for lunch and a movie. All in all I'd say it was a successful holiday. We had lots of fun and were constantly busy doing something. I was dead tired by the end of it all, but it was worth it.

Flashback

This flashback is a tribute to parents who dress their kids up like weirdos.

First we have my family picture. (I'm on the right. The one with my finger in my nose. Oh, wait!)Now, I shouldn't blame my parents too much for this one. It was crazy dress up day at school, so they can't be held responsible for too much of what we look like. Although, I think my dad may have gone a little overboard on my brother. Notice the different sized shoes he's got on. Now for Chad's family. (Chad is the one in the middle) Talk about your ten gallon hat! I have to laugh every time I see this picture. I think it's hilarious. I can imagine them tyring to ride their stick horses through the house bumping into everything they pass. Seriously, they wouldn't even have been able to turn their heads without knocking each other over. Well, to our parents, we thank you for taking the time to make each of us look like big doofs. Our childhood would have been incomplete without these moments. Besides, if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have these great pictures to post for the entire world to see.

Halloween

Every year we decide to dress up at work for Halloween. We try to keep our costumes simple, as we have to work on patients throughout the day. So, we've created a couple of costumes that still allow us to wear our scrubs. This year I went as a black cat. Total cost: $1.00 for the headband that I attached my ears to. (I made the ears from construction paper) Jeni, one of the assistants, came as a mummy. She got the shirt at Target and wore it over a white shirt and white scrub bottoms. Then she tied cheese cloth on her arms and wove it through her hair. Total cost: ??? I don't know how much she spent on the shirt, but I couldn't have been that much!

And then we have the Dr. who decided to go as a nudist on strike this year. You can't really see it, but underneath his "declaration" he wrote....."will end strike for candy." I actually thought this was a pretty funny idea for a costume, although it would have been better had he showed up wearing a bathrobe. Total cost: $0.00
We had a pretty fun day handing out candy and treats to patients. Jeni made some cupcakes and we had plenty of candy which we had scattered all over the front desk. Jeni also made some great little treats for each of us to take home to our families. She is so thoughtful and really talented when it comes to this kind of stuff. I just had to share her cute little creations. First she made these cupcake witches. She said their faces kept wanting to slide off, but I think it makes them look more like a witch.
Then she made these adorable little mummy brownies. She made them like you would cupcakes, then frosted them and put cut up strips of gum for the cloth with M&M eyes. I thought they were so cute.
These are just some decorations I made one year with my brother and sister. I saw them in a magazine and thought they would be fun to make. All you need are some sheets of that spongy foam, scissors, glue, a marker and some silly eyes. They are super easy and make a great craft for your kids. I usually hang these up on my front door the night of Halloween.
Anyway-I hope everyone had a great Halloween. I also hope too many of you aren't sick from the gobs of candy you've eaten!!!

Flashback

My cousin does "flashbacks" on her blog and I thought it would be fun to start. I don't know if I'll do a good job at keeping up on it as well as she does, but it's worth a shot I suppose. I decided to start with a flashback of the both of us. Taah Daah....... These were taken when we were both 5. You can probably guess the date by the great outfits we're sport'n. Big shirt collars, yarn for a bow......yep it's the early 80's. Actually, these are some of my favorite pictures of the both of us and I have to admit that we look pretty darn good. (Fake smile and all!) I carry both of these in my wallet and have had several people ask if they are my kids. I guess that doesn't surprise me too much since one of them looks an awful lot like me!

Opening Day

This last weekend, as some of you may know, was the opening weekend of the deer hunt. I don't know how it happened, but over the last few years it seems that the hunt has become a bit of a family tradition for the two of us. I always wanted to go with my dad when I was a little girl and hated being left behind when he would take off with my brother. Of course, I completely understand my dad's reasoning and don't blame him one bit for not wanting to take his daughter, who would have cried the entire time about how wet and cold she was. Now that I'm all grown up, and can keep my complaints to myself, I've somehow been able to convince Chad to let me tag along. Luckily, he's been a good sport about having his wife interrupt his "guy time" and I've had no problems with being accepted by the group. I've really loved getting out to hike the hills in search for the wildlife. Unfortunately, I haven't been around when someone has actually gotten a deer, but I've certainly enjoyed the effort it takes in trying to find one. The last few times I've gone the weather has been pretty bad, with nearly whiteout conditions. This year proved to be the exact opposite; warm and toasty, which made for a slow day. Warmer weather means the deer are usually higher up and scattered, making them harder to find. I guess that just means that Chad gets to go out for another weekend of hunting.

This year was pretty fun. Chad's grandparents and a couple of his relatives came out and joined us for the weekend. They all brought their families and trailers and camped out on the lake with us. The hunt starts Saturday morning, so with the warmer weather we spent all day Friday riding and shooting. It was nice to get some riding in before winter arrives. Saturday was a get up at 5:30, drive up the mountain, hike to our hunting location and hike until dusk type of day. In other words, fun and very tiring. We got back into camp that night around 6:30, loaded up, headed home and crashed into bed. I think we both had a good time and are looking forward to the next weekend of the hunt.

Keeping a Record

This week for our enrichment activity we had Ann Cannon, the daughter of Levell Edwards, come and speak to us about keeping a record. She's written several children's books and currently writes for the Desseret News. (I think I got all of that right.) Anyway- she shared several ideas on ways to keep records and journals. I've never been big into keeping a journal of my everyday happenings. It always felt too time consuming and became too tedious, so it was refreshing to realize that there are several easy ways to keep a record of my life, without spending hours writing it all down. In fact, blogging was one of those ways.....yeah!!!! She really stressed the fact that a journal should be personal and reflect who you are and what is important to you. So, here are some of her ideas:

1. Keep a list journal -write down things you want to do some day in your life. Write down 10 things you love about a friend, family member, or co-worker. Write down things you would rather being doing with your day. Write down things you want to do during the summer vacation, etc.
2. Keep a grateful journal-everyday write down something you are grateful for.
3. Keep a Christmas yearbook-every year she buys a new children's Christmas book and has her family member write down something they enjoyed about the holiday season on the title page. They write down their comments and then sign it like a yearbook. She also staples her kids Santa letters to the front page.
4. Scrapbook
5. Blogg
6. Keep a diary- this would be your day to day, or week to week activities.
7. Keep a letters book-copy your emails, or letters and put them in plastic covers that you can keep in a three ringed binder. A lot of times are letters have important dates or information in them. I thought it would be a great idea to do this with all the letters I sent home from my mission.

After she was done speaking we went into the gym and started making our own little journals. My friend Shauna is the most creative person I know and she's the one that came up with these adorable journals.

Aren't they super cute. They bought them at Michaels for a dollar and all we did was spice them up with some ribbon and tags. They had a wide variety of tags and ideas of what you could do with them. Some of the tags said: Thoughts, Quotes, 52 Reasons Why I Love You, Scripture Journal, My Book of Funny Quotes, Bedtime Stories, etc. I thought it was a great idea to have different journals for different things. These were super easy and tons of fun to make. In fact, I bought a couple of extra to give away as Christmas gifts. Anyway- just thought I'd pass along the helpful ideas.

Winter Wonderland

This is what I woke up to Sunday morning. A winter wonderland.

Isn't it gorgeous. We've been having some colder weather, but I wasn't expecting to wake up to this much snow so early in the year. I was pleasantly surprised. I love the way everything looks when it's been wrapped in a fresh blanket of snow. So, I ran to my closet, threw on a coat and my snow boots, and ran outside to take a couple of shots of the first snowfall.

(The one above is of our neighbors barn)
Our poor little trees in the back yard weren't quite ready to bear the burden of this much snow. They still have their leaves, so they hung a little heavy almost touching the ground. I had to go shake them of to help relive them of their burden. I'm actually surprised we didn't loose a few branches, although now they do look a bit droopy, even without the snow.
Across the street from our house is a small, undeveloped, field that our neighbors have kept for their horses, sheep, and cow. That's where I got the picture of the barn and the horse. It's nice to still have a little bit of the small town feel in our suburban neighborhood.

Saying Goodbye

Well, she's gone. We said goodbye to Little Red this evening and she sold in record time! We posted an ad on ksl.com and within 3 hrs we had four calls and two offers. We were amazed at how fast she went. We thought that with the economy the way it is that it would have taken longer than 4 hrs to sell her. Who knew??? We were also amazed at how sad it was to watch her drive off. I know it's just a truck, but it's sad. It was such a great truck and we've done so many fun things with her. So, in memory of Little Red and in honor of our first truck of 9 years, we're posting this tribute.




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Conference Goodies

My awesome visiting teacher is due to have a baby this month and wasn't sure if she would be able to make it over for a visit. So instead, she gave me this little package of goodies to enjoy during conference. Isn't she the sweetest thing! She covered a composition book with this gorgeous scrapbook paper and tied everything together with the brown polk-a-dot ribbon. Of, course I couldn't bring myself to throw the ribbon away, so I glued it to the side. Thanks Becky-you are the dearest friend and visiting teacher I could ever ask for. I appreciate your thoughtfulness, friendship and all that you do to make my days a little brighter.


One of the girls I work with came up with this idea and I thought I'd pass it along. She thought it would be great to make German pancakes for Sunday conference. I don't know how many of you know what German pancakes are so I went ahead and made it the other night. It is really good and tons of fun for your kids to watch, because it grows as it cooks.

Ingredients: 1 cup flour/1 cup milk/6 eggs/6 tbls. butter/pinch of salt

Optional: 1 tsp. vanilla/cinnamon

Directions: Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Put butter into a 9x13 pan, and put the pan in the oven until hot. Meanwhile, mix the remaining ingredients together. Once the butter is melted, pour the batter into the pan. Then, watch it grow! (Bake for 20-25 min)
Serve with: syrup/powdered sugar/jam/peanut butter/fruit and whip cream/or anything your little heart desires.


ENJOY CONFERENCE EVERYONE!!!!