12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS.......DAY 3

Day three consists of three french hens......here's my version:


Day 3 arrives but we're not in France, and three french hens don't come by chance. What should we do? We couldn't decide.......so we opted for dinner.....spaghetti, sauce and french bread are inside! Pretty self-explanatory I think....

12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS.....DAY 2

I bought turtle chocolates from Mrs. Cavanaughs and then found a cute container to put them in......super easy.


Today you have turtles & doves coming your way. So relax, enjoy and eat all the chocolate you may. Because in your family you have quite a few, we've left on your desk more than just two.

12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS......DAY 1

I thought I'd share another Christmas gift idea that I'm currently working on. Every year for Christmas, the bub's co-workers pool their money together to get a bigger gift for the owners of the company (the main bosses). For the past, well, I can't really remember, I've been in charge of putting the gift together. I don't mind actually PUTTING the gift together, it's just hard to figure out what to do for them year after year. I mean, these people have three homes, what do you give someone like that? This year (after literally months of thought) I decided to do the 12 days of Christmas, MY style. I've actually have had a lot of fun with this. It was kind of hard thinking about what to do for each day and coming up with the verses, but once I finally got that figured out (thanks mom for the help!) it's been a lot of fun to put together. Because I didn't have a lot of money to work with, this has had to be VERY budget friendly. So, I give you Day 1: A Partridge in a Pear Tree (I took a 2 ft. Alpine tree and rag tie decorated it. I then found a cute serving dish, placed the tree in it, put some fabric around the bottom and then placed the pears in it. I also found some really cute tea towels with pears on them at Tai Pan....how perfect is that?)


Here's the verse I started with:

'Twas the first day of Christmas and all through the house, er, office, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. 'Cept suddenly some little souls did appear, it is the Harmony Crew, bringing you holiday cheer. Today calls for a partridge in your pear tree, but partridges are tough to catch, as we came to see. So how 'bout fresh pears, and a few ornaments for the bird? These pears are quite tasty, or so we have heard. Today's the first day, and this is where it all starts. Know that each of these gifts comes straight from our hearts. Now each day going foward, we'll bring gifts to your door. The twelve days of Christmas, not one less or one more. Beware of this warning - the crew will be here. But you better not look, or we will all disappear. Then all of your gifts that we've carefully planned, on some other desk they will surprisingly land.

CHRISTMAS CAME EARLY THIS YEAR.....

The bubs came home with some of the best news last night. Because it's almost January, tis' the season when insurances renew and open enrollment begins. So, his company health insurance rep. paid them a visit. In discussing their health insurance, bubs found out that fertility IS NOW COVERED. Happy dance here! They also will also help cover in vitro, which makes me want to cry. We weren't going to even go that route as it can be anywhere from $10,000-$15,000 per procedure and most of the time it takes more than one time for it to take. We were just going to do adoption because both would have been way too expensive. But, now both may be feasible for us. My mom works with a lady that has been doing fertility for years and just had a baby. She found a fertility clinic down in Sandy that she loved and highly recommends. Everyone there has had some sort of problem getting pregnant, staying pregnant, etc. so when a patient does get pregnant, the whole office celebrates. She also said it was nice because unlike some other clinics, you're an actual person, not just a number. It's also cheaper than the University of Utah (which is where we were headed next) so that makes me happy. I've been kind of putting off making an appointment because we are going to starting the adoption paperwork in January, but now it looks like I can go ahead and schedule the appointment to get the testing started. Merry Christmas to us!

CHRISTMAS FUN....CO-WORKER STYLE

Every year I put something together for my co-workers for Christmas. This year I decided to do Santa's Cookie Kits. I'm also doing these on a larger scale for friends/neighbors/siblings. I'll take a pic and post that a little later....you just have to promise to be surprised if you get one!



These were actually really easy to throw together. Walmart had the cookie dough on sale and the cutters came from the dollar store. I think they're pretty dang cute! I'm also pretty proud of myself for getting them done earlier this year. Usually I procrastinate and then scramble to put everything together. My poor house looks like a craft store threw up in it. There are literally craft supplies EVERYWHERE. My next goal is to actually pull out my Christmas decorations.....I haven't even started!

ST. GEORGE TRIP

I was supposed to post these a while ago....yeah......so anyway.....Every October (well, for the past three years or so) we've gone to see Thriller. It's performed by the Odessy Dance Theatre and if you live in Utah and haven't seen it, you need to! It's so much fun! This year I bought tickets to see it down at the Tuachan in St. George, Ut. It's an outdoor amphitheatre that's amazing. We saw Les Miserable down there last year and had a blast. It was nice to just get away for a couple of days and enjoy each others company.

Waiting for Thriller to begin....



You can't go to St. George without going to Zion's National Park. I seriously love that place. We forgot to bring hiking shoes with us, so we just kind of bummed around for a while.





Our rental car (Dodge Caliber)....I'm sorry and don't mean to offend anyone if they drive one, but these things are pieces of crap! The thing was a gutless wonder. But, it got us around and safely home, so I guess I can't complain too much!

CRAFTS, CRAFTS, CRAFTS

I've needed to updated my blog for a while, but let's face it, who has the time? Especially right now? I thought my first blog updated would be some crafts I've worked on in the past couple of months. Some of them are from Halloween, sorry! But, I thought it might give people ideas for next year!

My first attempt at a diaper cake for a baby shower. I was actually really happy with how it turned out! I know it's hard to see, but I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the paper I found for the card. I don't even know how to explain it, but it fit perfectly with the color scheme and look I was going for.


Every Conference Session the girls get together while the guys go to the Priesthood session. This is one of the crafts the kids made....super easy, but the candy corns don't stay on for too long!


One of my bosses is a huge peppermint patties fan. For bosses day I put together this bucket and filled it with peppermint patties. The stupid thing dried for two days but was still pretty sticky when I gave it to him. I also included caramel apples I made.



I didn't make this, but found it about a month ago and had to have it. Don't ya just lurve it? I'm so excited to use it next summer!

HAPPY TURKEY DAY!!

Happy turkey day everyone! I hope everyone has an enjoyable day and a wonderful black Friday! :)

THINK PINK!

I'm such a slacker when it comes to this and totally blew it off. As you may or may not know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Kind of a subject that's close to the heart. My mom has been battling breast cancer for a couple of year now. She's currently in remission and has to go in every couple of months to make sure it hasn't grown or moved to lymph nodes. Usually I'm all about Thinking Pink in October, but I completely forgot this year as I just had so much going on. So, I'm unoficially dubbing November Think Pink month for me. Because my mom has breast cancer, I have a 50% greater chance of also getting it, which means I start with the mammogram fun next year at the tender age of 30. So, if you happen to see me this month wearing pink (which I'm hoping to do most of the month) I'm hoping it will be a reminder to you to do self breast exams on a regular basis and Think Pink for your own personal health!

CHrIsTMaS, REAllY?

So, first off, happy belated Halloween! The bubs and I headed down to sunny, warm (not) St. George to celebrating the haunting season (I'll post pics tomorrow). After I had taken the dog out this morning, I grabbed the Sunday newspaper to look it over and of course check out the ads. Now, I understand it's November 1st today. I also understand that Christmas is literally around the corner. I'm fully aware of that as I'm currently planning my work Christmas party and also the bosses gift for Alan's work (both parties are on December 4th. While I'm glad they will be both be over early, there is a TON to get done this month! I'm happy to say, though, that I finally figured out what to do for Alan's main boss. Every year we collect money and then I usually put something together. And every year, it tends to get harder and harder.....what do you get the person who LITERALLY has everything? This year I've decided to do the twelve days of Christmas for them....fun, huh? Now I just need to figure out the rest!) Anyway, imagine my surprise this morning as I looked at ad after ad and all I saw was CHRISTMAS stuff! Ugh! C'mon, Halloween was YESTERDAY, give us at least another week, please? How 'bout some Thanksgiving cheer? What happened to Thanksgiving? I know, I'm kind of a bah humbug. Truthfully, I'm not the biggest fan on Christmas (shocker, right?) I love the meaning behind Christmas, but I hate how stressful and commercialized it's become (not to mention the music...I swear they start playing it earlier and earlier every year. I HATE Christmas music! Well, not ALL Christmas music. I think it comes from working in a mall when I was younger!) So, for today, I'm totally protesting and pulling a Scrooge (who said it best)....Bah Humbug!