be good for goodness sake!

First of all I want to thank my cousin Liz for letting me take these off her blog! I didnt ask but I am sure she wont mind! First things first.... Like every year, we gather together on Christmas Eve either at Auntie Jo's or mama Baird's house. This year we ended up getting together at the Cleggs home and had some delicious food and way too many giggles! As the night was winding down Maddie was startled by some very loud bells and a ho, ho. ho'ing from outside the window. Mitch and I were not able to see how cute she was as we were out in the front yard looking for "santa" and we completely missed him and his loud bells and her reaction (darn it)...... Its amazing how easy you forget how fun Christmas Eve ad Christmas can be with little cuties batooties around.

Maddie looking for Santa outside!
As soon as Santa had left, Maddie ran down the hall... jumped into her jammies and got into bed and was out! So dang cute!

What a lovely Christmas Eve it was!

Its been an interesting one!

So I borrowed these from google because I didnt actually catch our thief in action. Last week I was getting ready for the day when I headed out to run some errands when I noticed something was really wrong. My glove box, middle console, and just about anything else you could open and destroy had been opened and cut up with a knife. I hurry and unlocked my car and noticed that we had a unwelcome visitor during the night. This brilliant being decided to take a knife to the side of my door and open panels that I didnt even know existed! Needless to say I kind of wish I could have caught this piece of work and just given him the GPS that he so desperately was after. After quite some time at the police department right down the street I found out that this fella had been busy. Felt kind of like a kick to the gut and then I felt sorry for the guy.

Speaking of kick to the gut, maybe it was just the back pain that I have recently had. I finally broke down and went to a Dr. and if any of you know me well, you know I only go to the Dr if I have walked on a broken foot for 2 weeks and cant take it anymore and that is about the only time I will go! Apparently I have a disk in my back that is acting up and that might be what is causing my numb thigh.

GUESS WHAT!!!!!!

Nobody on our street has put up their Christmas lights yet! I almost feel guilty turning ours on!

I am grateful for New tires today!


During our famous "blizzard" I realized how rediculous my front tires were! In a panicked effort to just get home, I stopped at the store and bought 14 bags of water softener salt to weigh the car down. The gal who was one of the only checkers ended up blacking out at the register, we waited with her while the ambulance came to pick her up.

Although it has been a long, stressful week.... I am still so grateful that it is Christmas time. I think I will turn on some Christmas music, light a fire in the fireplace and snuggle with Mitch and Hunter tonight.

My awesome cousin Shane!

This sweet man is my cousin Shane Mitchell. He recently was taken from this earth way too young and was quite the class act. I was thinking back today about what an amazing family we have and how much we really do truly love each other. We are extremely close and love to get together and celebrate! On this day, Shane had returned from serving our country and like the Halls do, we celebrated!!
We got up early and lined the yard with as many American flags as we could find. It was truly breath taking.

some of us that were gathered that day.

Did I mention how much I love these people! Truly such a great group !

We will miss you Shane! I know that it hasnt been very long since you passed but I swear everyday I think about your sweet little guy Preston and Holly. We know that you are on the other side sharing the gospel like you did here on earth. We love and miss you and cant wait until the day that we get to be with you again

We garden at Midnight

So we heard the weather was going to be awful and we both have put in a bunch of time at work but we really thought that it was time to get out into the yard and get some things done! Who cares if it was 11:45 at night right! I almost forgot what time it was when I went to get the lawn mower out. My neighbors probably wouldnt have been too thrilled! Especially our next door neighbor that just had a baby

Mitch started in one corner and I started in the other. What a mess! We have about 7 trees in the back yard that are almost taller than the telephone poles so needless to say, we have plenty of leaves if anyone ever needed any!

We accidently took off our back yard fence that goes to the walking trail and golf course and we accidently raked 7 piles of leaves in that direction. hahahah

Super man?

Wicked witch?

Dont ever hesitate to call us in the middle of the night, we will be outside gardening!

Is it too early!?!?!

My cute sister came over and helped me with a project today! Normally Linda is around but she is up helping Diane get her Christmas stuff our for her Gingerbread Shop Store! We went to Michaels and bought some garland and golden ribbon
I guess we will learn by trial and error! We probably took it down 100 times before we got it right!

Audrey made some cute bows that we tried to attach throughout.

Dont you love this time of the year! The snow is falling, the Christmas music is on (a little early but I dont care) and now we are off to make soup and breadsticks!

My new fun finds!

Since I havent blogged in a while I thought I would just show you some of my really fun finds that I have gotten lately! This is my new Burberry bag! I am in love! It could seriously hold 2 liters of Diet coke!

Mitch and I went on a date to Z Gallery at Gateway! Its really sad when the old lady inside knows you by name, I guess we should learn hers! These were in a clearance bin in the corner covered up. We have so many black accessories that I nearly put them back but then I decided that they might be super cute painted! We will see how crafty I end up feeling.

Just another angle

These place mats were in the "holiday section" I thought that they would be cute everyday placemats! They are silver and sparkly! The best part was that they were only $5.00 each! Yahoo!

Just a little closer look. Probably should have straightened the plate but it was late! Oops!

Mitch, being the center pieceI guess! Silly guy!

My mom got us this cute cute rug! Our last one had a little run in the corner so we moved it over by our garbage can where so one can see the run and we replaced it with this! Thanks mom!

Super Saturday here we come

Here are a few pictures of Caramel apples and pretzel rods that I made the other day to show my relief society! This Saturday we are making apples for 2 different wards! It should be fun but I have to say that I am just praying that everything works out perfectly.

This is liquid yumminess when it is all gooey and delish

The finished project!

We will be making

Coconut apples

snickers apples

oreo apples (Pictured above)
Slivered almond apples

Cinnamon and Sugar apples

Holiday Sprinkled apples

Traditional apples

Peanutty goodness apples

and who the heck knows what else! Now off to shop!

Well its almost caramel apple thirty! I dont know why I am so nervous but I guess it will be my chance to be like Paula Dean Ya'll! haha

Pray for us and I sure hope it all goes as smooth as it normally does at home! Hey since we will be making hundreds of apples, do any of you have any requests! I am going to be up to my elbows in sticky, gooey caramel! YUM!

I also told them that we would show how to make caramel pretzel rods and caramel and chocolate drizzled rice crispy treats! (secretly I cant wait! It has felt like a century for next Saturday to get here!) Pray for me!

Can I be honest for 2 seconds. I secretly hate hate hate halloween, but,.....since my Mom and Auntie Jo decided to throw a Halloween party my heart has been softened. The only hard part every year is topping last years costume or the year before... We sure do have a good time but this year my creativity has run dry!!! HELP!

Halloween again?

Is it seriously time for Halloween again? It is my least favorite holiday and I always struggle to figure out the perfect costume, trying to top off what I did last year.
Every year I try to do some kind of pumpkin but for the last 2 years I have tried to just do cute ones instead. I enjoy them much more! This year Mitch and I decided that we would spray our pumpkins rather than hand paint them like we normally do. We went to Michaels and bought some hay and ribbon and then purchased some pumpkins.

Then we went to Lowes and bought furniture fabric tacs. You know the ones that look like giant thumb tacs? They were the easiest way to make the fabric stick. I was going to modge podge it on but it just wasnt working!

I think this little guy is my favorite.

Tis the season I suppose!

Dont you love this time of year! The air is crisp, the leaves are changing and all you really want to do is cuddle up in a blanket and watch a movie with some hot cocoa...
Instead, I have my cup of warm thera flu and a washcloth on my forehead with a lovely big box of fluffy tissues..... and for dessert, cough drops!
Tylenol PM, you have become my comfort and joy!

No internet for me!

Yep, desperate times call for desperate measures!
Sitting here drinking my .99 Diet coke blogging!
(google.com for picture)

I found my guilty culprit

The other day I noticed that we were getting some patches in our lawn out by our back sprinkler that were dry spots. I really didnt think anything else of it until it got worse and worse. I kept repositioning our sprinklers to make sure that all corners of the yard were being taken care of and then one day stumbled upon our little Hunter.

He wouldnt stand still for even a second so I had to use a picture that would give you an idea. He attacks the sprinklers and plays in them. My parents were over the other day and we ended up getting the giggles watching him.

I LOVE SUMMER!

We are craazy!

On Monday night I got a brilliant idea to start going through the rest of our boxes in the garage that we just havent had time to go through since we moved in to our new place in Feb. Trying to motivate myself to get excited about my new activity, I stumbled across a brand new can of stain that was used for our deck. We recently had added a few additional posts to the corners of our deck in order to make it more sturdy. I grabbed a paint brush with the intention of just painting the new posts that my dad and Mitch put in but when we got outside, we realized that the deck could really use a brand new layer of stain to give it a little refresher!
Little did I know that it would take seriously hours! First we wiped down the deck and swept away any dust or leaves that had fallen and gotten stuck by the hot tub. I moved my gigantic planters and cleaned under them and put them out on the lawn. We had to move our patio furniture out on the lawn as well as learn how to turn off our sprinklers that shoot over to part of our patio and then we got started. For a while, it went really fast and we were making fairly good time, when the phone rang. Mitch had gotten called into his other job and it was going to be just me! Oh dear!!! By the end of the night, I looked like stained mess but it sure was worth it.
I finished at about 10:45 and was painting by moon light practically but I am sure glad that I stumbled across that can the other night.

A little bit country!

Mitch had a great opportunity this past weekend to drum for a band that traveled to Price. I wasnt sure if country was quite his cup of tea but he looked like he was having a blast.

The rest of the family was not able to attend. We took our "nearly yearly" camping trip up to Willow Flat. Cant wait to hear you guys next time Mitchell!