Christmas Goodies

It's January 8 and I am finally posting about Christmas..yay for me!  Hope it was all good for everyone.  We spent Christmas Eve at my parents house and Christmas day at the Larsen.  We mostly took pictures of what we got, but not a lot of people opening their presents.  Not a lot of Lucy and Jack, unfortunately.  But here were a few of ours.

 Here's an overview of all the goodies we got!

 This was to Brennen from my parents

 Brennen got me a new battery for my laptop (which is AMAZING by the way) and some canisters for flour, sugar, etc.  My parents got us two new baking sheets and Brennen's brothers got him the new COD game.

My awesome brother got us a $25 Jambacard

Brennen's parents got us this Garmin GPS.  It was probably one of the best things we could have gotten because we always use theirs when we go out of town.

This was a gift from me to Brennen.  He really wanted this hat.

I also got him a tackle box.

Got both pairs of earrings from Brennen.   He picked them out all by himself.  Between these and my wedding ring, I trust him to pick out jewelry for me anytime :)

It's always a tradition for my parents to get me a "temple calendar" fro Christmas.  It's really the only thing I actually ask for each year.

My cute new watch!

New shoes for work..

mall gift card from Matthew and Nicki

RoboStir!!! If you've never seen one of these, click here. Gift from Mom and Dad.

Some lovely smelling lotion from Meaghan, my sis-in-law.  The one on the left is my new fave.

Also got a new pea coat and a nice chunk of change!

I also got Brennen a bathrobe.

And this is us with our loot! 

This is the Robostir in action

My parents also got us this nice cheese grater and a dutch oven.

Lastly, this is the gingerbread house that we made at the Tietjen's Christmas party.

Brennen was the mastermind behind the house design, i just held up the pieces as he glued them together :)

Finals Are OVER!!

Ok...So i don't have any finals.  But THEY'RE OVER!! That's all anyone is talking about...That and the 1/2 inch of snow we got yesterday and and how awful the roads are.  But FINALS ARE OVER!  do you know what that means? peace and quiet in the city of Rexburg for two whole weeks.  It will be nice.  Just hoping the locals don't overcompensate for the lack of college students.  Excited for Christmas to come in about a week! Whoop! Still have a lot of shopping to do. And I'm excited to see my little brother go through the temple on Saturday morning!  And could someone please sell us a good car for a good price? Much appreciated.

Cookies/Missionary Moments

COOKIES:
Brennen asked me to make some goodies to take to friends, family, etc. for Christmas.  I probably got a little crazy.  Saturday was my day off of work so i spent the whole day cooking up something scrumptious.

 The ones on the left are pumpkin cookies and the ones on the right are my famous snickerdoodles.

 Chocolate chip ready to go in the oven!

These took the longest to bake.  I almost didn't finish them. 

 This is the result of waiting for cookies that take 20 minutes to bake.

 It's a good thing this guy doesn't like cookie dough.  More for me! :)

YAY. I'm so happy to be making these cookies.

MISSIONARY MOMENT:

The Elder's Quorum  does a "Missionary Moment" every Sunday.  They asked Brennen to do it next week.  So we decided to buy two Book of Mormons and write our testimony in them and send them to our friend, Sister Miller, who is on a mission in St. George.  I decided to go through the whole book and mark my favorite scriptures.  This took me about an HOUR.  I wasn't planning on spending that much time on it, but I'm glad i did.  It was really cool to mark all the scriptures that I really had a testimony about.  And i just hope that whoever gets this Book of Mormon takes the time to read it because I know it's true.

Deck the Halls

Christmas decorations are up!  Now if only we could find a little snow...

 Remember when you made the Christmas countdown chains in elementary school?  Well Brennen wanted to do something creative with construction paper.  This is about how creative i get.

 The chain goes down almost to the floor, but it's about halfway gone now.

 My mom gave us this nativity for Christmas last year, and I almost forgot I had it!

 This year's christmas tree is a little eccentric.  We weren't able to get a real tree so we bought this 6.5 ft pre-lit one at walmart for 40 bucks.

 Our ornament colors are red and blue.  Brennen picked out the colors, but i put my foot down and said "Ok. if you pick the colors, they have to at least be sparkly."

 This is Brennen's favorite ornament.  He got it in a happy meal from McDonalds.

 Yep.  This is a pickle ornament.

 And this is me.  When i was 7

Brennen made this star out of construction paper and cotton balls.  He is so crafty!

So Brennen and I did try to get a tree from the wilderness this year, but the snow was too crunchy and deep to get through.  But on our way back home we found this:

I'm gad that I was able to get my camera to take a decent picture of it because it was stunning!  Idaho may not have a lot to offer, but we have some of the best sunsets.  I used to look for sunsets every night in high school.  To me they were a symbol of Heavenly Father's love.  I love that he gives us such beautiful things.

Turkey Coma

Ok, there really isn't a turkey coma.  How was everyone's thanksgiving?  Ours was great.  I did take some pictures, but not a lot.  I'll post them later.  Brennen and I got to sleep in thanksgiving morning, which was much needed!  We then took the turkey down to Idaho Falls for my dad to cook.  Around 1:30 we decided to try and do some shopping...and all the stores were closed.   Minus Wally World of course.  I think if there is ever a day that Wal-Mart is closed, someone, somewhere will try to sue them.  There wasn't much we wanted from there, so we headed home.  Really we went to look at used cars.  Remember my Intrepid?  It's gone now. :( Sad face. I sure miss that car.  Now we're looking for another.  We ended up with $4100 from the insurance.  That's about twice the blue book value.  But not enough to buy something nicer.  So we're still looking.  Anyways, back to thanksgiving.  Basically we just ate a lot.  It was all divine though!  Hope everyone else had a good holiday!  Next is Christmas! :)

Hard to give thanks?

I have found that it is really, really hard for me to give thanks when certain people are making my life EXTREMELY frustrating.  Who are these people you ask?  And when can we get together to kick their butts? Well they go by the name of Farm Bureau Insurance and the guy that totaled my car.  And let's get together tonight.  About a week and a half ago, I got in another wreck. Long story short, the guy (that totaled my car) won't answer his phone or return anyone's phone calls.  So that means I can't get into a rental car until, but the earliest, Monday.  Maybe he can take me to work and grocery shopping and to the bank and school everyday until I get a new car?  Seriously.  As much as I love walking 2 miles to and from work in the single digit weather, my 104 pound, 5 foot 4 frame just isn't going to survive that much longer.  Be a responsible adult and own up to your mistakes and QUIT MAKING MY LIFE MISERABLE!!!!  You got the ticket for pete's sake.  It's over and you know it.

Ok. Rant over.  I feel slightly better now.  I get really worked up over some things.  Well, after this rant, i guess it'd be good for me to list five more things I'm grateful for, to save my sanity and get some perspective back.
1. I'm grateful for two strong-ish legs that will get me just about anywhere I need to go.
2. I'm grateful that every time I have to walk home from work, I manage to find a ride at the last minute.
3. I'm grateful that Brennen can usually take me where I need to go.
4. I'm grateful for the government for paying for my education and my rent.
5. I'm grateful that no one was injured in this accident.

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving wouldn't be complete without one of these:

WE ARE THANKFUL FOR:

A mild beginning to winter

Having more than one vehicle

A steady job

Family and friends

the Gospel

Service men and women

teeth

food

spaghetti

music

Bones

Chuck

Roof over our heads

clothes on our backs

...among other things

Hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday!