Merry Christmas 2010!

The Thanksgiving Feast that started the Holidays. I took this using the Panorama feature on my phone so it's a little weird but cool. 

 Our Christmas Decorations

 On Christmas Eve, we decided to watch A Christmas Story and eat at Panda Garden Chinese Restaurant. It was delicious and we weren't the only ones either...there were tons of people there. Here's the girls having fun with the empty takeout boxes.

 After dinner, we headed to the Temple Nativity Display...an annual tradition for our family.

 The sunset and the Christmas lights were gorgeous. Things like this always remind me how blessed we are to live in such a wonderful world.

 My sweetheart girls. Love this picture of them in front of the Temple steps.

 We drove around town to look at Christmas lights. One of our favorites is the Stapley's house. They have their lights synced to music in an amazing display. We always enjoy it!

 After we opened our Christmas Eve pajamas (aren't we cute?), we had a wonderful Christmas Devotional given by Taylor. She gave us a quiz about common Christmas beliefs and then we read the Christmas Story. She had a handout that she'd received in Seminary which combined the different parts of the story from the four Gospels and JST into one. We read it out loud and it was amazing to remember the real reason for the season. My favorite part was when Taylor pointed out that when we were in the preexistence, we were likely part of the heavenly host that sang for the shepherds on the night of Christ's birth. What an inspiring thought!

 On a more worldly note, Taylor asked for money for Christmas and I wanted a cute way to deliver it. Luckily Santa came through with this cute money tree! I think it was super cute!

 Santa left some great presents for Taylor under the Christmas tree...some dumbells and a new phone!

 Shaylie got a new Flip video camera and a remote control car and Moxie girl driver, among other things.

 Christmas Morning Mania! The girls woke up at 6:30 on the dot, and raced down stairs to find the booty. It didn't take long to make quite a chaotic mess!

 I think Taylor liked her tree and Shaylie was pretty happy too!

We ended the night by having our friends the Sabaitis family and Chad, Lynn and Kaiah over for a Just Dance 2 party...lots of fun and laughing. A perfect way to end the night!

Our Travels in 2010

We had some fun trips this summer! We visited Salt Lake to see some Real Salt Lake games. There is always such a fun atmosphere there. We love hearing the drums beat through the game and as they march in and out of the stadium with their flags flying high. 

 Grandma Rose joined us for one game. It was fun to see her for the afternoon.

 Here we all are at the end of the game! Shaylee Sabaitis came with us and she was taking the picture.

 I decided to go blonde for the summer and this is me getting my hair done at my mom's house in Holden. Gotta love Dawn's Butch and Bleach! :)

 We visited Las Vegas for my brother Chad's wedding. He married a lovely girl named Lynn Matthews. We are so glad to have her in the family! I love this picture of Lynn's daughter Kaiah, and Chad's daughter, Bella...new sisters waiting for the wedding to start! Could they be any cuter?

 Mom and Chad looking just a little nervous...I'm sure he just wanted to get the Honeymoon started. The staff made us put our cameras away before the bride came out so I don't have any shots of Lynn. :(

 Me and my hubs....looking so fine! I love weddings..this one made me all gushy and reminded me of my own except that theirs was much more posh! But my groom was just as awesome...and 18 years later here we are.

 We took another trip to Salt Lake/Park City later in the year. We took the girls to Temple Square and the Church History Museum, visited Timpanogos Cave and got to see Grandma again for a bit. We had a blast!

What fun times! I love getting away and spending time with just my crew. I always feel closer to them when we get away and spend time without all the distractions that come at home. I hope we get to do a lot more of this soon!

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween this year! Lots of costumes and candy! Shaylie was a witch and cute as she can be!

 I dressed up in my Luau gear for Red Ribbon Week at school. Scott and I had fun watching Shaylie's last Halloween Parade. Next year she'll be in 6th grade (OMGsh) so we wanted to help her celebrate!

 At our ward's Trunk-or-Treat Carnival, I reprised my role as Madame YasMEANa...Misfortune Teller. I love doing this and it's always a big hit with the kids. I entice the kids into my lair and let them choose a MisFortune, which say things like, "Your nose will soon have a booger in it" or "The fleas of a thousand camels will soon infest your armpits." I love hearing the kids giggle as they walk away. So much fun! This is the fourth or fifth year that I've done this and I'm sure it won't be the last.

 Taylor decided to borrow a football jersey from a certain someone for her costume. I'm not naming names.

 Working my Gypsy magic!

 There was a cook-off at the ward party too! Scott made Chili and ended up winning "Best Overall" after the vote was tallied. He was super surprised!

 The night after Halloween we drove to a house out in Little Valley where they carve about 80 pumpkins each year. The girl is actually one that grew up in my home town, Holden. She is super creative and I love seeing what they come up with each Halloween. The girls loved seeing all the different characters. This will definitely be a new tradition for us!

It's Been a Long Time!

I can't believe that I haven't posted since October 31st! I'm going to try to get caught up before the New Year begins. There have been a few fun times between now and then, but mostly I've been busy, busy, busy with work, school, and kids! Facebook is more my speed for quick updates lately.

We had some fall fun playing in the leaves. Shaylie loves playing in the leaves! It seems like our tree is the last one to lose it's leaves each year, so it's a test of patience. But, once they've fallen, it seems like the only natural thing is to bury her completely! :)

Scott sure loves his puppies! I couldn't help but snap this photo of Scott and Cricket napping while Bubba kept watch. Is there anything sweeter than a boy and his dog?

 Taylor had a flute solo this year for the Christmas concert. We are always so proud of our girl! She is amazingly talented and has gifts I only dream of having. It is pure pleasure for me to listen to her practice and play.

Shaylie is growing up so fast! I can't believe how grown up she is looking these days. She's such a joy to me--with her fun sense of humor and her super clever wit! She is going to be a lovely young lady and I can't wait until everyone else can see what I see in her! 

Taylor's soccer season came to an end and she decided that she wanted to tryout for the Pine View Basketball team. She wasn't sure she really wanted to do it until halfway through the tryouts, then she just knew her life would end if she didn't make the team. ;) Luckily for all of us, she did. She has been picking up on the game beautifully and even though their team is struggling, it's fun to see them improve each week. She's played on both the freshman team and the sophomore team, so she gets lots of playing time. 

There is also much teenage drama this year as Taylor is in the middle of her first romance. I won't say more since I know she would kick me but I am enjoying this stage of her life. She is so darling and the boy she likes is one that I really like too! I just keep telling her to have fun and know that I'm keeping an Eagle Eye out!

Our Dango Daikazoku Adventure

A couple weeks ago I went to Phoenix to visit my brother Mike, his wife Erin and their cute little Myka. While we were there, Erin took us to an Asian Supermarket called Lee Lee's. I wished Shaylie had been there with me because they had some amazing things. My mom wanted to buy her some Dangos since she's been completely gaga over them for months now. We didn't exactly know what Dangos are but we knew from the Internet that they are Japanese dumplings made out of rice flour that are either boiled or fried with many different kinds of sauces or fillings. We explained the best we could to the clerk and he directed us a couple different kinds. Shaylie was so excited when I came home with some Dangos to try. 

The first attempt were frozen premade Sesame Dumplings which were meant to be boiled for 5-6 minutes. They turned out rather disgusting looking but the sauce inside tasted kind of sweet and peanutty. Shaylie was the only one brave enough to actually put one in her mouth. 

 First, she put maple syrup on it and took a small bite.

 She was not very impressed. It tasted gooey and slimey.

 Then it got stuck in her expander and she gagged in sink. 

   Needless to say, the entire plate of those ended up in the trash. Definitely not the right Dangos. 

 The next morning I promised to make the fried kind before school because she did not want to go to school hating her beloved dangos. So I got up extra early and tried to decipher the lovely packaging. I think the direction were written in Korean, but at least there were pictures.

I mixed up the dough and fried them up. These were looking much more appetizing.

 After dunking them in sugar and putting them on the skewers, they looked just like the Dangos of Shaylie's dreams. 

 I woke her up about 6:00 am to try the final product. 

 Sleepy but happy with the yumminess. 

I'm glad we finally figured it out. She got to go to school and tell all her friends about the Dango adventure we had. Luckily for me, I won't be able to get to the Asian supermarket everyday so these will just be a special treat.