Gift Card/Money Tree

A couple of people have requested a picture of this, so I thought I would post it (thanks Jaclynn for emailing it to me!) One of my co-workers, Jaclynn, recently got married and we held a shower for her at work. When I went to see what she was registered for at Target, I couldn't find their registry and thought it would be cuter to put together a gift card/money tree. I wasn't going to use a Christmas tree at first, but couldn't find a cute topiary that I liked. I found this tree at Michael's and thought it was perfect as her colors were a lighter green, black & white. I attached the gift cards first and then added the money. I think it turned out pretty cute and who doesn't love money as a gift?

Warren Miller Time

It's become a tradition in our household to attend the Warren Miller film when it rolls into good ol' Utah. It started as a cheap birthday present for Alan as it usually comes to our area about a week or so after his birthday. This is our fifth year attending and we still love it! Plus, when you buy tickets you get a free lift ticket to The Canyons in Park City. It's sort of a birthday bonus for Alan.....being able to take a day off of work and go hit the slopes with a buddy or two. Who knows, maybe this year I'll even use the board we bought, oh, about four years ago! The film title this year was "Children of Winter" which is on the sign Alan is standing in front of, but you can't really read. If you haven't ever gone, you should. It's a lot of fun and REALLY makes you want to go snowboarding/skiing!

Happy 1st b-day Tagers!

On Saturday we celebrated my nephew Tage's first birthday! I have to apologize for the blurry pic of him......the little stinker wouldn't look at me when I tried to take his picture. He would see me sitting there with my camera ready to go and would hurry and look away. That and he was more interested in his cool new John Deere tractor, so he wouldn't hold still. This was the only decent picture I was able to get. In the other picture Alan took our picture without us realizing it....I look thrilled, don't I?

Rob & Big

For Halloween this year Alyssa and her friend Bell went as Rob & Big. For those of you who aren't MTV fans, Rob & Big is a show based off of Rob Dydrek (a professional skateboarder) and his bodyguard Big Black's antics. I think they look pretty good!

Tag, I'm It......

My sister-in-law Kiersten tagged me the other day, so here I go!

Here are the rules: I have to answer the following questions with one word answers and one word only! Then I must pass it on to seven others. The questions are as follows:

1. Where is your cell phone? Charging

2. Where is your significant other? Work

3. Your hair color? Depends!

4. Your mother? Work

5. Your father? Dunno

6. Your favorite thing? Alan

7. Your dream last night? :)

8. Your dream/goal? Happiness

9. The room you're in? Office

10. Your hobby? Reading

11. Your fear? Death

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Happy

13. Where were you last night? Sis-in-law's

14. What you're not? Rich

15. One of your wish-list items? Kindle

16. Where you grew up? North Ogden

17. The last thing you did? Payroll

18. What are you wearing? Clothes

19. Your TV? OK

20. Your pet? Cat

21. Your computer? PC

22. Your mood? Happy

23. Missing someone? Nope

24. Your car? Rocks

25. Something you're not wearing? Watch

26. Favorite store? Roberts

27. Your summer? Awesome

28. Love someone? Alan

29. Your favorite color? Yellow

30. When is the last time you laughed? Now

31.Last time you cried? Saturday

Okay.....now it's you're turn. I'm tagging Vining Family (Misty), Vining Family (Tara), Romero Family, White Family, Williams Family, Durling Family, Burch Family. Have Fun!

Good times.

Well since I (Alan) don't post much, I figured I'd grace the world with my presence. The birthday (party) was a ton of fun. Who doesn't love Rock Band (karaoke on steroids). It's hard not to have a smile on your face watching friends make total fools of themselves. If you know me, and know me well, you would know I am a huge Oasis fan. Well for my birthday Marisa, (with mom and dad pitching in) got me tickets to see them in Vegas in December! It should be amazing and I've never, or ever will be more excited for a concert. Thanks to all who came on Friday, and to those who didn't... you missed out, lightning struck the back porch, we all got knocked out by the shock of it. We were then abducted by aliens and partied in space. What a night.

Happy 31st Babe!

Today is Alan's 31st birthday! Hooray for him! On Friday we had some friends over to celebrate with pizza, pie & video games. Who could ask for more? Then on Saturday we headed down to Salt Lake to see Thriller at Kingsbury hall and went to dinner at Red Robin. Unfortunately I forgot my camera on Saturday, crap. So, you'll just have to trust us that we had tons of fun. Hope you had a great birthday, babe. I LOVE YOU!

Birthday time fun

Buckets of fun!

So for Halloween this year I thought I would put together buckets of Halloween treats and goodies for some friends, neighbors, etc. However, as I started making the list, it kept growing and growing. Then, Alan wanted to add to it......needless to say, 32 buckets later and I think we're done! Ugh....next year, we'll just buy cookies! But, they did turn out pretty darn cute (at least I think!)

Les Miserables/St. George

Whew.....and, we're finally done with the trip! Wow that took forever! I wanted to post these pictures last because I think this was probably my favorite part of the trip, and the whole reason for it. Back in January of this year I purchased tickets to go see Les Miserables at the Tuacahn in St. George, Ut. The Tuacahn is an outdoor amphitheater that has a backdrop of the red cliffs of Snow Canyon. Normally the weather is pretty good, but of course it had to rain on Saturday, the day of the play. It was cold and windy all day, but started raining about an hour before the show started. We didn't anticipate the cold weather, so all we had were jackets and one little blanket that Alyssa just happened to throw in the car. But, I think we were meant to see the play. As soon as the performers started, the rain cleared up and the wind stopped. By the end of the play (which was around 11:00 pm or so) it was around 37 degrees. For those of us (okay me) that didn't have very good shoes and no socks, it was freezing. But, it was worth every minute of the cold. I love Les Miserable and seeing it at the Tuacahn had to be one of the coolest things ever. If you're interested in any of the plays, here's the website: http://www.tuacahn.org/.

Before the Tuacahn started we decided to explore more of St. George which is something we really haven't done before. I have a friend who told me about the Town Square in the historic district, so we headed that way. They have the cutest little park and we found an LDS Tabernacle that was open for tours to the public. It was one of the neatest buildings and the church has spent thousands of dollars in renovating it. It was very cool to tour the building and see the love, hard work and ingenuity that went into building it. One of the best things about the place is the pulpit at the front. The guide told us that every prophet, with the exception of Joseph Smith, has stood there. Some of them weren't prophets at the time, but later became so. Of course we had to get a picture with us standing there......who wouldn't want to? Also in the historic district was the winter home of Brigham Young. Unfortunately there wasn't enough time to go tour it or see the visitor's center at the Temple, but we can leave that for next time.

One of the last stops was Dixie Bluff and Silver Reef. I guess if you live or visit St. George you have to get a picture up there. It was a pretty cool view, even if it was cold and kind of rainy. I wanted to go find some old ghost town's and the closest one was in Silver Reef. It was kind of a bummer as it wasn't very good, but we found some great camping spots.

Well, I guess that's it. Sorry there's so many pictures, but hey, we had to capture all the fun. Hope you enjoy!

Les Miserables/St. George Pics

Las Vegas, Baby

Sorry, after this post there's not too many more pics to add. We went to Las Vegas Friday after visiting the Hoover Dam. It was the perfect time to go.....great temps and not a lot of people. We ate yummy food at the Cheesecake Factory and then headed off to go see the sights. I had to take a picture of my burrito for Steve (my little bro). Last year when we went down to Vegas he ordered the same thing and ate IT ALL plus finished off a whole slice of cheesecake! I couldn't even finish half of it. Of course, it didn't help that it had a LOT more chicken in it than I remember. So, after completely picking it apart, I finally gave up. One of the other pics that might not make sense is the black light pic. While we were at the M & M Factory we decided to go on the little tour thing they have. We walked down a hall that had black lighting and everyone looked like Oompa-Loompa's! When Alan went to take the picture of us dinking around, you can't really tell it's a black light. Oh well....I have to say, this trip was a LOT better than last time we went to Vegas. No almost being hit by semi's, breaking down on the freeway, life and death situations. You know, that sort of thing!

Las Vegas Pics

Hoover Dam/Lake Mead

On Saturday we headed to Vegas but thought first we would go see the Hoover Dam. On a previous trip Alan and I tried to see it, but due to construction and a million people, we quickly gave up on the idea. Although there were still quite a lot of people, it was fun to see how the dam was made and see Lake Mead. When we were leaving we saw a steamboat on the water that looked like so much fun. Oh well, maybe next time!

Hoover Dam/Lake Mead Pics

Mt. Meadow Massacre

One of the first stops on our trip was to the Mt. Meadow Massacre sight. Alan and I have wanted to go there on previous trips, but just didn't have the time. It was amazing to see how desolate the location was where the actual massacre happened. We first went the burial sight where 26 bodies were buried. We were the only one's there for a while and it was amazing how quiet and reverent it was. Later we went up the road to where the memorial was built. Again, it was so quiet and peaceful. After we tried to find the marker for where the actual massacre occurred, but couldn't find it. In traveling back to the townhouse we drove through Snow Canyon which is gorgeous! Although we took pictures, it's just not quite the same. One of the last pics are of rock climbers, and no, they aren't us. Alan wishes, but we just didn't bring our gear. Maybe next time!

Mt. Meadow Massacre & Snow Canyon Pics

Traveling Fun!

We're Back!

Whew....what a weekend! On Thursday Alyssa, Mom, Alan and I headed down to Southern Utah for some fun and adventures. However, due to too many late nights and early mornings, traveling all day and an early wake up call of 5:30 am tomorrow, sleep will win over blogging tonight. I've got so many pictures of this weekend that I'll be putting them in a slide presentation over the next couple of days, so check back. Yeah.....bedtime, here I come!

Girl's Night!

My sis-in-laws Tara & Misty, along with their kids Ellie, Reece & Tage (and how could I forget my mom?) came over for girls night on Saturday night while our menfolk went to the Priesthood Session of conference. We decided to hold our 1st annual craft night, although we really didn't get too many crafts done. But, we did have fun helping the girls decorate Halloween buckets and frosting Halloween cookies. Oh, and poor Tara put together a cute foam Halloween house most of the night. It was supposed to be for ages 4+......yeah, I couldn't really figure out how to put the stupid thing together! Thanks everyone for coming! Hopefully we'll do it again, and maybe actually complete some of the crafts were working on!

Girls Night Continued......

Poor Tagers......stuck with all of us yucky girls. As you can see, although I didn't get any crafts done, I did get my front door done (for the most part, anyway!) This gave me some great motivation......hmmm, maybe I should have craft night more often! :)

Pretty, Pretty Princess

Last week for our lesson in Sunbeams, we talked about being good examples to others. We made "good example" crowns which the kids then got to decorate. Lyssy was gracious enough to model some of the crowns for us. Looks good!

Movin', Shakin' & Rockin' Out!

A couple of weekends ago Alan's sister and her husband came and stayed with us. We got kind of bored of Sunday, so we busted out the Rock Band & Wii Fit. Here's pics of us rocking out, shaking our groove thang and doing our best yoga moves. Oh yeah....and of Alan eating oreo's! Who needs Wii Fit when oreo's are in the house?