Memorial Day

Memorial day was quite the treat this year. we spent time with family and friends and good food.

here is mom getting all the good times started!

once all the fam made it over, we all climbed in the cars and went on a little hike.

Melinda with Alex and Ian

Mom and Dad

Mark

Steven and boys

Dad teaching the boys to make whistles out of grass

Me and sleeping baby Alex

After the hike we went home and got our lovely dutch oven breakfast going!!!

Mark made orange rolls. i think we put too many in, and let them rise too much. but they still tasted glorious!

It was a wonderful relaxing day!

I Love This Time of Year

For just this very reason

In fact, Mark just called me as i was writing this post saying that he just had a Reese's egg and we need to stock up. I couldn't agree more babe!

Valentines Day

Well I have finally updated my blog. I have several new posts, so scroll down if you would like to see them all. We took some cheesey pictures of us today for V-day. Here we are just before leaving for church.

Mark got me this cute new headband!

Christmas

Christmas was great! we had a little Christmas morning at our apartment with just the two of us. Here are the pics. I was pretty disappointed we didn't get one with both of us. we were just too excited to open presents. And, as you can see, we went back to my family tradition of getting ready for the day before presents!

Mark got me several new earrings

Mark got a new game!

i am very fierce when i open presents!

Mark got me some booties to keep me warm!

I got Mark some Dutch oven accessories. I didn't know how to wrap this lid lifter, so i thought i would add some humor.

Mark's mom got him this apron along with a Dutch oven for Christmas. so here he is showing it off. yes, those are chaps!

Showing off my new booties!

The back to Mark's apron

Mark with all his new Dutch oven gear. the oven, the case, the liners, the lid lifter, the lid stand, and some tongs!

After presents Wendy came and picked us up and we went up to Sandy to Mark's parents house. We made a glorious breakfast!

Wendy slicing the quiche!

i made these delicious lemon poppy seed pyramid muffins!

The Quiche

Melinda and Alex

Ian playing with his train!

Strauss trying to catch the chickens that got loose

we had a great great day!

It's Christmas Time in the City!

I've been meaning to post this for a while now, but we got our Christmas tree and other Christmas festivities all set up! Once again, we just got an itty-bitty!

In addition to the tree, i made Mark a new Christmas countdown. If you remember last years, Mark got to open a new "gift" everyday until Christmas, in each gift there was a new coupon to use. This year, there is a new activity/adventure to do everyday! It is so wonderful!

So here is the countdown. Everyday Mark opens a new envelope telling him what we are going to do that day.

so far we have read several Christmas books, had an egg nog taste test, made cookies, gone for a winter walk, and more. (they will get more exciting once we are done with school and have some time!)

For the countdown i got a bunch of wonderful Christmas books from the library

the nativity

the final tree set up

Merry Christmas!

Thanks Day

We spent Thanksgiving with Mark's family this year. Here is our day in pictures!

We had Thanksgiving dinner at the American Fork house.

Katrina did all of the decor and set up! It was gorgeous!

the candlelit fireplace

Wendy made these great coloring/activity packets for the kids to color in this room. (they are on the table)

Yummy gumballs!

The hot chocolate station!

The dining tables! My favorite!

MMMMMM!!!

Here is my main man prepping for some yummy dutch oven!

Getting the food!

Mark checking on the progress of his masterpiece!

Wendy and I taking a break from cooking to snap some pics!

My love and me!

After dinner we all played some games.

first we played a Thanksgiving trivia game

Then we moved on to some Thanksgiving pictionary

We had a great time, with great people, and great food!