Lucky!

Out of 636 names, mine was drawn to receive a box of goodies from Rebecca Sower. For all you non-scrappers, she is a very well-known and loved scrapbooker--one of the top in the industry. She is cleaning out her studio and giving away a bunch of stuff. I'm sure she gets gobs and gobs of cool, free stuff from all the scrapbook companies, so I cannot wait to see what's in the box! I'm still in shock that my name was picked!

Let's see, what else has been going on? American Idol started back up, yay! It has been fun to watch again, but kind of sad to see some of those people's dreams crushed. Can't wait for the real competition to begin! I watched it at my sister's house last night. I got my niece dancing before the show started--hilarious. Here are a couple of clips:
Reading a book:


Singing AND dancing!:



Here are a couple of other pics from yesterday/last night:
My niece with the scarf and hat I just made for her:

She loved the hat but DID NOT want to try on the scarf (she just woke up from her nap):

My nephew, playing XBox:

My niece being a mess (as usual), with yogurt on her face and a cracker in hand:


Oh, and I've decided to do something different with my LOs. Instead of adding them into my posts, I will add them to a slider at the top of my blog. In the bottom left corner of the slider, you can click the plus to make the pics go by faster, the minus to slow it down and the pause button, well, to pause it. You can also click on each LO to see a larger version of it. If anyone has trouble seeing it, please let me know.

Long, fun day!

After not sleeping well last night because of strong winds outside, I left the house at 7:45 this morning and did a breakfast with the children at my church, then went directly from there to a baptism. As soon as I got home, my sister called me and invited DH and I to go sledding/tubing, so we hurried up and got ready, blew up a few innertubes and went tubing. After 8 1/2 years of living in Utah, this was my first time! It was so much fun! It was FREEZING today (in the teens) but I wore so many layers that I was actually pretty warm after walking up the hill so many times! I had three pairs of pants (thermals, cotton strechy pants, and jeans), a long-sleeve t-shirt, a hooded sweatshirt, BIG coat, scarf, hat, THICK socks and insulated boots.

I came home and napped for an hour (well, probably only slept for 30 min.), then DH and I went out to dinner at Red Lobster with one of his co-workers and his wife. When we got home, my sister who lives in our basement came up and chatted for a while, then we migrated downstairs and hung out a little with her and her fiance' and watched the end of the Saints game (yay, they won!!!). I now have to prepare a lesson to give to the kids in Sunday School tomorrow but I am so pooped! Long day but I have to say that I enjoyed every moment of it! Here are some pics of us tubing today:

My niece, all geared up in snow clothes, so cute!!! She could barely walk!


Me, heading down the hill for the first time


A view of the hill from the bottom


My sis and niece coming down the hill--you can't tell in the pic but my niece DID NOT LIKE tubing!!!


DH on one of his turns


BIL and nephew, havin' fun!


My niece was not happy after getting off the tube, hee hee! Oh, and notice my BIL and nephew in the background, ha ha ha!


Couldn't resist another shot of my niece


I sure did have fun!!!


DH came down together, holding hands

And, as always, here are a few of my latest LO's:


Nieces


Nieces


Nieces


SIL and her family


Members of my family and DH's


Nieces

Behind in posting

Haven't been up to too much since Monday. I did take down all the Christmas stuff but the boxes of stuff are still just sitting there in our living room. Slackers we are! The best thing about this week, and possibly month or months:

LSU WON THE SUGAR BOWL!!!!! YAY! We actually stomped Notre Dame 41-14, hee hee! Oh, check out this picture from the Fox sports site from the game:












Too freaking funny, huh?!

Now, I can't wait to see if Florida can beat OSU in the championship game Monday night (not that I am a Gator fat AT ALL but, if they're playing someone in another conference, I do root for them)!

I had a girls' day in Salt Lake City with my sis and a friend today; we ate at California Pizza Kitchen (roasted chicken and garlic pizza, yum!), shopped at Bath & Body Works, and saw "Pursuit of Happiness". The movie was so good, I definitely recommend it. Here's a pic of the three of us:


I've been making LOs this week but haven't been good at posting them here the last few days, so here they are:

The park, just a couple blocks from my house:


Me and my niece:


Me, in New Orleans:


Some of the livestock at the Utah State Fair:


My BIL:


My brother, sister, and nephew:


My niece:

Happy New Year!

Hey, everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful New Year's Eve. Jared and I left Friday afternoon and drove up to Rigby, ID to his sister's house for the weekend. We celebrated our nephew's 2nd birthday (which was actually on Christmas Eve but my SIL had to work, so she couldn't come down to have Christmas with us all). My MIL, BIL and 2 other SIL's were there that night and we played games until really late--they left the next morning.

The birthday boy opening presents, with the help of his big brother:

The birthday boy with a piece of his cake:


DH and I took his sister and her two boys out to dinner Sat. night. For New Year's Eve, we had snacks, watched the ball drop, and played games (You Don't Know Jack, Clue, Yahtzee, and Boggle) until after 1am. Our 3-yr.-old nephew had been put to bed but kept getting up and ended up staying up with us until we went to bed! It was a laid back, fun New Year's Eve. We got up this morning and drove the four hours home.

Me and SIL, playing Boggle last night:

Nephew and SIL:

DH playing Yahtzee:


As we drove back, we listed to a couple of bowl games (the Tennesse game and the Arkansas game) and got home just in time for me to watch the Rose Bowl. I rooted for Tenn., Ark., and Michigan and none of them won. I just hope my Tigers do well on Wed.!!!

Here's a LO I did last week for DT assignment--I plan to hang it up on my scraproom wall, where I will see it every day:


I would like to give a shout out to my friend, Meredith, for her birthday today--I hope you had a great day, Mer!

And, finally, I want to wish everyone a very prosperous New Year--may this year bring you everything you wish for.

New favorite CD

I downloaded the Daughtry CD. It is freaking awesome!!! I love every single song on the album. For those of you not in "the know" (ha ha!), Daughtry is Chris Daughtry's band, who was one of the final four American Idol contestants this year--he was "the rocker" this past season and I thought he should have won (not that I don't like Taylor Hicks but I love Chris' voice and music more). So, if you haven't heard it, check it out; I hope you like it as much as I do! Let me know what you think about it, too.

Oh, Jared and I are headed out of town for the weekend. We are leaving tomorrow afternoon and will return Monday sometime. We are going to visit his sister and her family in Rigby, ID (which is right by Rexburg). We will just have a quiet evening with them for New Year's. I hope everyone has a great New Year's Eve! Check 'ya later!

Christmas 2006

It was a good Christmas. I played a piano solo ("O Holy Night") in church on Sunday (Christmas Eve), then did Christmas activities (told stories, made cards, sang) wih the children during Primary (like Sunday school in our church)--everything went really well. Jared and I drove up to his Dad's house after eating lunch after church. We exchanged gifts and hung out for a while, then went to his Mom's house. I played games (Taboo and Pictionary with 2 of his sisters and his little brother)--we stayed up pretty late.

The next morning, we had our traditional Christmas breakfast, then opened presents. We were all pooped from staying up so late, so most of us took naps. Then, DH and I went to visit his great-aunt for a bit before going to his grandpa's house for a big family gathering there. After we left there later that night, DH and I went and visited his aunt and uncle, then went back to his mom's house and I played games (Sorry and Yahtzee) with my SIL and BIL. DH and I got up this morning and drove home and just lounged around for a bit before he had to go into work. BTW, we came home with so many goodies--it'll take us a month to eat them all!

I hope everyone had as good a Christmas as we did. Here are some pics from the past couple days:

CHRISTMAS EVE:

DH and his dad, with the book his dad gave to us

My SIL making chocolate-covered peanut butter balls

2 SILs, me, and BIL playing games [nice look, Laura, hee hee!]

CHRISTMAS MORNING

One side of the table at Christmas breakfast

The other side of the table at Christmas breakfast

The jacket DH gave me

My new wedding ring (for those of you who don't know, I lost my original wedding ring last year)

DH opening the foot spa I gave him

Some of the stuff DH somehow sneaked from our trip to Louisiana

CHRISTMAS EVENING:

Scenery on the way to grandpa's house

Just some of the goodies that were at grandpa's house!

Here are a couple of LOs I did Sat. night but didn't post:

Our nieces--this was Sept. 2005, when we went up to Moscow, ID to visit them before heading to Seattle and down the West coast