Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Monday Drugstore Deals

Here are yesterday's drugstore deals. At Rite Aid I got 12 D batteries and a bottle of Orajel for $17.xx after coupons. I will get $15.99 back in rebates, so it cost ~$2 for all those batteries! These are going in my emergency supply stash for our flashlight.


At Walgreens I got 2 Revlon blushes, 4 tubes of Desitin and 5 bottles of Robitussen. It cost me $22.xx out of pocket after coupons and I got back $9.79 in rebates and $23 in register rewards. So this one was a money-maker!

Christmas Morning

This was technically our first Christmas morning in our new house (we moved in at the end of December last year), and it was so much fun! We actually slept in, which was really nice after our busy Christmas Eve festivities. Then we opened our presents, and played Rockband 2 for a little while before heading off to our families' houses.

The presents under the tree. Thanks again, Santa Lynne!

Apparently Chris has issues when we take photos of ourselves by holding the camera out in front. He thinks that his head always looks big, so in this photo he's trying to hold his head as far back as possible. See how we're almost tipping over? See my hand in the background trying to shove his head forward? Yeah.

Rockband 2 with a microphone! (Chris's favorite part is the singing...guitars will follow later.)


We had a very merry Christmas and especially enjoyed spending lots of time with our families and getting time off work!

Breakfast in Bed

On Chris's actual birthday, I woke up early and made him a surprise breakfast in bed. It was a Sunday that I had choir practice, so it was SUPER early, but Chris was a good sport. He said he didn't even hear me in the kitchen making cooking noises or smell the cooking bacon or muffins, and I was amazed!


Chris doesn't like "sweet" breakfast foods (like pancakes and waffles -- all the things I LOVE), so I made him non-sweet breakfast foods. There were eggs (I'm not sure I'll ever be able to make them as good as Stan - I'm still going through Stan-eggs withdrawls), hash browns, chocolate chip muffins, sausage, bacon, english muffins, and fruit.


Then Chris got to open his presents from me, which included a freezer-load of Omaha steaks. Yay! This was something Chris had actually asked for. I think their advertising got to him because when he ripped the page out of a magazine and gave it to me he was practically salivating. But we cooked a couple of the steaks for dinner a few days later and they were REALLY good.

Happy 90th Birthday, Grandpa

Here's a picture from my Grandpa's 90th birthday party. We had a lovely dinner at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and watched a little photo montage of him through the years. All of his children and grandchildren were there, it was a fun evening.

Happy birthday, Grandpa!

Friday, December 19, 2008

Tucker and Nora Jane Say Hi

Chris and I have been watching our niece and nephew, Tucker and Nora Jane, while my brother and sister-in-law (and the rest of the fam) are in Hawaii. We've been having a lot of fun with them, they're such cute kids! And they both wake up smiling every morning! It's so cute, I had to give you a peek.

Here's a video of Tucker from this morning, saying hi to mama and dada.




And here's a video of Nora Jane from this morning.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Happy Birthday to Chris

On Sunday we celebrated Chris's birthday with the Spencers. We had a big family dinner, cake and ice cream, presents, and a little Wii action. It was a fun night.

We also celebrated our niece Hannah's birthday at the same time. All the kids teased Chris that he had to have a tinkerbell cake.


Luckily, Chris's mom came through with his favorite -- turtle pie. Mmm!


Chris opening his presents...


Singing "happy birthday" to himself...


And blowing out the candles!


Happy Birthday, Chris! Love you!


Friday, December 12, 2008

Diaper Cake

Last week I got a call from a lady in my mom's ward. She was throwing an impromptu baby shower for her sister who just adopted a baby, and she wanted a diaper cake. My mom told her that I'd made them before, so she called me and asked me to make her one. This is how it turned out.


I used a pack of Pampers Swaddlers Sensitive size 1 for the top and middle layers, and a pack of Pampers Swaddlers Sensitive size 2 for the bottom layer. I rolled 'em up, wrapped 'em in ribbon, stuck a dowel through the center and, voila! A diaper cake. I think I'm getting better with practice, they get cuter as I go. My apologies to Emily who was on the receiving end of my first attempt. Better have another baby so I can do my penance with another one.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Michelley's Big Game

This post is an ode to my little (big) sister, Michelley. She plays basketball for Westminster and had a game this week versus the University of Utah women's team up at the Huntsman Center. We all went to dinner at Rumbi's before the game.

Stub and Annalisa.

Grandpa, dad, Amy, mom.

Then we headed up to the Hunstman Center to get good seats and watch the game.

Amy and Annalisa.

Michelley's cheering section.

The whole time we were watching the game I was just so in awe that we were actually sitting in the Huntsman Center watching Michelle play. How cool is that? I remember when Michelle was a shy little 4 year old with big blue eyes, and now she's like this amazing grown up who's going on to do great things!

The jumbo-tron.

The pre-game huddle.

Trying to bribe the ref before the tip-off?

Michelley #25.

Some of the action.

Here are a few more pictures of the action. Michelley talking to the coach, sitting on the bench ready to start, running through the tunnel, and huddling at center court before tipoff.





And here was our halftime entertainment - some awesome people-watching. I give you -- the lady with BIG hair, and the man with an awful taupee/mullet.



(sorry they're blurry - they were halfway across the arena)


We thought Michelley played great and we had so much fun coming to watch her. I can't get over how grown up she is. You are amazing, Michelley!


Thursday, December 4, 2008

Bambara's

Last night Chris and I went to my company Christmas party at Bambara's - the 4-star restaurant at the Hotel Monaco downtown. It was super gourmet but really yummy! Chris's caesar salad was essentially four whole leaves of romaine lettuce topped with two whole anchovies and dressing. Ew! But the appetizers and our filet mignons were fabulous! I even tried the calamari, which is daring for me.

They had a private room set up for us, which looked out onto main street and 2nd south. It was a gorgeous view! We sat and talked and laughed for a long time, and didn't end up leaving the restaurant until almost 11:30 PM. The only thing that would have made it better was if they'd given us the next day off to sleep in. :)

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas...



...and Happy Gas Prices! Yay!

Monday, December 1, 2008

Priceless

Black Friday at Target

DVD boxed sets -- $13.00
Guitar Hero for Wii -- $59.00
32" LCD TV -- $199.00

Catching some Zzz's in the checkout line?

Priceless.