My Christmas Stalker.......

In my ward, we are doing Secret Sisters and this was my first note I received from my Secret Sisiter the other day. Attached to the note was a whoopy cussion and pop rocks. Reading the note I questioned what I might get next from her. This morning I woke up to this note.

When looking at this picture you may think that it's a box or a poster......
Here's the story. When I headed out the door this morning at 6:25am to warm up my car, still somewhat asleep, I was stopped in my footsteps, literally!! The door was covered in wrapping paper. I was SHOCKED!! I was so shocked I began talking out loud, to no one, "Oh, my gosh, what?!?! What???!! Oh my goodness, who did this?? Hilarious!!" This was all said with giggles and a smile and yet no one was listening. It started my day off so great. Whoever this girl is, she is a trip. I have my assumptions, I guess time will only tell.

Thanks you crazy SS!!

'Tis the Season

Christmas is my absolute favorite time of year. I love the smell of a Christmas tree, I love the magical feeling I get when I look at the lights, I love the music, I love thinking about what gift I should get for the people that I care so much about, I love seeing Santa Clause in the mall and all of the excited kids, I love mistletoe and holly, I love seeing Christmas hymns in church. On Saturday, Maggie and I went out and bought a real tree. Our apartment has been transformed by the smell and magic of it's presence. We have lots of lights in our apartment and looks very festive, it makes me so happy. Sunday evening some friends and I drove up to Salt Lake to attend the First Presidency Devotional. My heart was touched as my thoughts returned to the Savior and His birth and ministry. I am so grateful for Him and the opportunity we have to celebrate His life, it is the love of God that penetrates my heart and makes me so happy and feeling so full of ligth during this beautiful time of year. May your heart be touched by His love also.

Thanksgiving in NC

I flew red eye into Raleigh, NC on Wednesday morning. Red eye flights are not fun, especially sitting next to a drunk guy on Valium. Don't worry he offered me some too, but I declined even though he said they would only sedate me and not kill me. Interesting flight. With little sleep on the flight I was so tired when Matt and Lincoln came to pick me up. Thankfully Matt let me sleep on the 2 1/2 hour ride to Jacksonville, NC. I was so excited to see Heidi and Matt's very first house, which is gorgeous, included with a new dog and baby, what a deal!! This is Kloe Russell, the newest addition to the family. It was so great finally meeting her, she is such a sweet little baby.

The happiest little boy I know... Austin Holtzee with his daddy.

He is ALWAYS smiling.

*Roxy*

Heidi is the master of table decorating and she taught me a few things in the process of creating her Thanksgiving table.

It's funny because our family isn't that big and yet we always make way more food then we need and have tons of left overs.

Paige has a mind of her own- she decided that she wanted her flowers in her water cup and not in her little vase. She is the funniest little girl. Around the house she sings all of the time and you can hear her no matter where you are in the house. She also likes to be Lincoln's second mommy. She is hilarious and has a smile that will melt your heart.

On Friday, the girls took off and went to see Twilight......... This is our scary face. I loved the movie and am still team Edward:)

Matt made a firepit in his back yard and we had a fire and roasted smores, it was so fun.

Like I said he is always smiling. He especially likes when you pull out the camera, he smiles so big his eyes shut and he looks like a Chinese baby. It's hilarious.

So this was a pretty embarassing moment for me. We are standing in front of the Exchange on the base wanting to get a family picture. I just hate making a huge fuss in public and I felt like everyone was looking at us. We finally found some young guy to take our picture and my family made it point to mention that I was single and that he was a very cute young man. Being the only un married sibling can be very taxing.

Grammy and Grandaddy with the grandkids.

I think my mom's favorite calling in life is being a grandma, this is the third time she has been up to visit Heidi since Kloe was born and she has been such a great help to her.

A few other things about Paige is that she LOVES chocolate and she hates wearing anything other than comfy clothes these days. Heidi had to work really hard to get her in this outfit. Heidi told her that she looked really pretty and she told Heidi, "I don't want to be pretty."

So lets be honest, I learned a few things about babies this weekend: always put a towel underneath them while changing their diaper, changing their outfit five times a day is normal and they are a lot of work!! With all that said, I just LOVE baby Kloe. She is the sweetest little baby and I am so proud to be her Aunt:)

These two trees are decorated with 350 purple ornaments that represent the 350 soldiers that have died who were part of Camp Lejeune.

HALLOWEEN

It has been such a fun Halloween season and I'm a little sad that it's over. My friend Collin, who loves Halloween, helped me see all the fun to be had during October. It started with going to the SCREAM ASYLUM, these are the before and after pictures.

I bring it upon myself to make sure all the scary guys feel good about themselves at the haunted houses because I scream or run from them all, I'm not tough at all. We went to three haunted houses and a corn maze and watched a handfull of scary movies. It was so fun, really, I had a blast. Amongst all of the fun, at work, myself and Carl, the HR guy at Maple Lake did the fall decorating. It was so fun transforming the house and putting our creative juices to work. I was pretty proud of our final project so I took a few pictures. (Except I deleted one in the process, oops)

As the season rolled on, I decided that I would be Fancy Nancy for Halloween. Fancy Nancy is a children's book character who likes making everything fancy. I called my mom when I was at the fabric store to figure out how I was going to make this costume and she proceeded to convince me that she could make it the very next day and then over night the costume to me. She didn't have to do much convincing since I know whatever she does is amazing. Sure enough, the Thursday before Halloween the box showed up and I could not believe the creation she made. I dressed up for work and all I saw ALL day was a pink glow, it was tons of fun. Fancy Nancy fits me really well. I helped in planning the Halloween party that we put on for the girls at school and it was tons of fun, everyone had a great time. Here's a few shots with my co workers.

When I got back from work, Alisa came and picked me up to go to her husband's flag football game, we went in our costumes. She is a second grade teacher and she dressed up as Cruella de Vil. It was pretty embarassing walking on to the Intermural Fields so glitzy, only on Halloween was that okay. Ryan won his game and we had fun watching.

When I got back from the game I helped Collin decorate for his Halloween Dance Party, which was so fun. It made me think about how fun it would be to throw a Halloween Party..... some day. Then I went home and got ready for the second time that day. I don't think I have ever worn my Halloween costume for so long. The party was great, everybody really got into their costumes, including my roomates who dressed up like Sarah Palin and a goth, aren't they great!!

A goth and a punk rocker

Think 1 and Thing 2

Frankenstein, Sarah Palin and a Truck Driver (I think)

It was a really fun Halloween season, I just hope Thanksgiving and Christmas are as full and exciting!! We shall see:)

Fall or Winter?

Maggie and I drove up Provo canyon and enjoyed a walk through Vivian Park. Friday nigth a cold front blew in and apparently brought in winter. There was snow on the ground in the canyon, what happedened to fall?

There were still some pretty folliage as you can see behind us,

it just didn't have enough time to stick around before it froze.

Isn't that a pretty reflection? We had such a nice brisk walk, it made for a perfect Sunday.

You might notice that I darkened my hair and I'm really loving it.

Conference Reminds Me of My Fam

I'm not sure what it is about Conference but I always think of my family and want to be with them. I have some really great memories of Conference and my parents, we've watched it together in Utah, Chile and Florida with many different people. I love my fam, each one is special to me. It's hard living so far away and only getting to visit a few times a year. I'm grateful for the gospel that teaches me that I can be with them forever. Here's a few pics of great memories I have with them. Love you guys!!