Happy Birthday Melissa!!!!!

Today is Melissa's birthday (she is in the middle of the picture) and for her birthday she made Amber and I pumpkin pancakes!! Wasn't that nice of her? The pumpkin pancakes were super yummy! I hope it wasn't a secret family recipe because I want it! After the yummy breakfast we went to the new theater by University mall and watched Bolt in 3-D. We were at the first showing and we were the only ones there. I always wanted to have a theater to myself and it was all I'd imagined it would be! And the movie was so cute...I suggest it for everyone! The 3-D was really cool. Pretty much we just loved the glasses! They weren't the cheapo card board ones, they were high quality plastic! haha...it was tons of fun. And the whole time Caleb got to play with his friend Caleb.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MELISSA!!! :)

ChRiStMaS PaRtY!!

Yesterday we had our ward Christmas party and it was so much fun!! We had a yummy catered dinner (chicken cordon blu), a photographer, dance, program, and a visit from Santa! The party was a formal so it was fun getting all dressed up and seeing other pretty dresses! Caleb was so cute in his little vest and we just had to take tons of pictures of him! He was a very happy boy.

One week closer to Christmas

Wow this week has gone by fast! I woke up this morning thinking it was about wednesday and then I realized it's the weekend!!! Yeah!!! I LOVE weekends! I actually get to spend real time with Kiel.
So this week I had to do some baby proofing in my house. Caleb is a very mobile kid now and although its cute to watch (kind of like having a puppy follow you around) it def presents some problems! One problem that we encountered again this morning is: as he is crawling around little hair balls get stuck b/w his fingers and then eats them! He choked on one this morning and scared me half to death. He also likes crawling over to our christmas tree and grabbing the little icicle strands and eating them. Can he die of eating too many forgeign things???! He hasn't even started on bananas yet!
Kiel has been super busy this week also with school winding down. He had a presentation and hes been working on translating a japanese book. The story is pretty dumb tho. So he just has one more week of class and then finals!! woot!!!
I'm also proud to announce that I worked on my stats class this week! Actually, I started it but I've almost completed 2 chapters.
And the best thing about this week being almost over: we're one more week closer to Christmas!

Little Christmas Survey

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? I love them both!!!! Yummy!!!!!

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? He wraps them and writes on them...he has the same handwriting as my mom!

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? My very favorite are the long white iceicle lights but I like the big colored ones too...we just have little white lights on our christmas tree.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? I haven't yet...but I'm sure Kiel would appreciate it ;)

5. When do you put up your decorations? I try to hold off until after halloween. Usually mid November.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? The Christmas breakfast omlet!!! It beats out everything!

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? Trying to stay up all night watching movies and then waiting on the stairs till my parents were ready.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I think I've always known...sad huh?

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Nope but we probably will this yr since we aren't having Christmas till the 27th so Kiel can be with us.

10. What's your fave stocking stuffer? I like the cold cereal and fruit snacks. Kiel likes the cologne.

11.How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? Candy canes, silver bows, red bulbs, white lights, and silver garland stuff.

12. Can you ice skate? Yes and I'm so glad! thats what brought Kiel and I back together...the second time.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? This is hard...I have recieved tuition money which was much appreciated and I really love the piano I got last yr!

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Being with family. That ties with drinking plenty of hot chocolate.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Moms Danish pastry! Of course!

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Making christmas candy all week long and then take it caroling to everyone we know, their relatives and friends, and their dogs. Pretty much everyone in Mesa. Kiel likes the hogies on Christmas eve :)

17. What tops your tree? A little silver bow.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? I'll say both equally...I admit. I love getting presents. But I also love shopping for other ppl!

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Who Would Send a Baby? Its not super well known but I love it! ...or Oh Holy Night.

20. Candy Canes? As far as I'm concerned candy canes have 2 uses: for decorating the tree and as a hot chocolate stirrer (is that a word?)...I like the minty taste it adds!

21. Do you feel Christmas is too commercialized? No. But we probably do need to focus more on the the real meaning of Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had an awesome Thanksgiving holiday! We stayed here in Utah this year because we are spending Christmas in Arizona. Thats the way to do it! Enjoy the time here while the weather is bearable and then go to AZ when its freezing cold and still enjoy the sun. Anywho! Our thanksgiving holiday started Wednesday night (after kiel did homework for 12 hours straight!) when we realized there was no school or work the next day!!! yay!!! So we watched WALL-E--way cute movie! Kiel and I both really enjoyed it. While we watched it we dipped a thousand pretzels in almond bark because we were assigned to bring munchies to the thanksgiving party. Thanksgiving day we woke up bright and early at 8:30 and I made a peanut butter cream pie and a cheese ball. Then we headed North! We spent the day at Rob and Suzies, mostly snacking and playing Mario Party on the Wii. It was pretty fun! Oh, and did I mention Natalie and I schooled all the boys in the game?? Yeah...they thought they had nothing to worry about but we showed them! Cyber high five Nat! We ate Thanksgiving dinner at 2 and it was so yummy!! All the fixings. I think my favorite part were those yummy rolls from kneaders with homemade strawberry jam...You just can't beat that! Then we played an intense game of Mad Gab, which I suggest we avoid in the future (oh and it was boys vs girls, girls won of course) and just sat around and talked. Then we broke out all the pies! I'm not a super huge pie fan but I enjoy a homemade fruit pie. Lets see...then we kept munching and Rob called Kiel and I on in a game of Rook and like we'd turn that down! Good news: Kiel and I shot the moon with 200 points! Bad news: we still lost the game by less than a hundred points! Yeah...bummer. Then we munched some more and started Kung Fu Panda at like 10:30 pm. We really enjoyed the movie and we laughed whenever we were awake! We are going to have to watch it again when its not so late. We got home a little after 1am and then got up early this morning and went to breakfast and Best Buy before we had to get back to real life and Kiel went to work. So as you can see we had a lot of fun and we have a lot to be thankful for! I am especially thankful for my family- for my husband that tries so hard to be the best husband in the world for me and for my cute little baby. I love them both so much!!! Happy thanksgiving to all of you!

Shoes are a girls BEST friend!

My sister-in-law Lyndsie threw a shoe party yesterday and I'm gunna show off the goods! (If you want to see a really cute rendition of this post, check out Natalie's blog :)

Lyndsie's: Gold skin heels Suzie's: Classic black heels Natalie's: Red flats Mine: Colorful flower heels Kristen's: Black flats

I say, the more shoes the better!

One LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG Day....

So Caleb and I were having a rather boring day yesterday and we were looking at pictures together on our bed so we decided to take some! Caleb is so stinkin cute!

I had to add this one b/c I think it's funny how they are both making the same face! lol

I'm thankful for...

I love Thanksgiving!! I love everything about it; I love the fall colors, family, the wonderful food, and the fact that Christmas is close! But really, thanksgiving is about being thankful so I'm going to write down 5 things I a thankful for every week...that means this week gets 10 things because I didn't think about it soon enough to do it last week. (These are not necessarily in order of most to least grateful)

1) My cell phone
2) A two bedroom apt.
3) Having family only 45 min. away
4) Family period.
5) Free internet
6) Carbs
7) My piano
8) (For Kiel) Dave Matthew Band
9) My religion
10) Steven's mint truffle hot chocolate (+ big marshmellows)

XtreMe RoOm MaKeOVeR: Petramalo Edition

While I was in AZ this past week I decided to make my parent's bedroom my project! My parents did some extensive remodling of our entire home but they just never got around to finishing decorating their room! So I enlisted my little sister Mary's help and we fixed up my parents room in our spare time- all for under $150! The only thing was that she wanted lots of pictures of her family and I was NOT allowed to touch my dads corner...thats the corner thats still a disaster at the end.

Workin' It

BEFORE

My dad's corner...oh dear.

The armoir was actually closer to the doors and flat against the wall with a smaller TV on top and golf clubs in the corner but we had already moved it and put a bigger TV on top when we took these pictures.

AFTER

Mary! We forgot to get a different lamp shade! We'll have to fix that at Thanksgiving.

And...my dad's STILL disturbing corner.

THE END

Home for the pre-Holidays

Caleb and I got to spend a great five days back home in AZ! We missed Kiel so much but we had alot of fun! There is always something to do at home...but I guess that comes with having 1003 family members on the same street. In fact, the ongoing joke (that was really the truth) was that we had to keep leaving parties early to get to other parties on time! We're just pArtY ANiMalS and thats the way I like it. But my favorite part (besides maybe the pizookies because that was chocolately-chip goodness + family) was just being with my family and talking to them. They are so wonderful and I am so lucky to have such an awesome family!

Going to OREGANOS to get PIZOOKIES after Friday Forum

Pizookie: N. A giant crunchy-around-the-outside-gooy-in-the-inside deepdish cookie(best in the form of chocolate chip but available in PB and macadamian nut) served hot out of the oven with a giant wallop of vanilla ice cream in the middle of the cookie

Dad, my cousin Chad, and sisters Allie and Mary

The BIG french toast breakfast with fresh strawberries and whip cream, coconut syrup with bananas, pinapple, and nuts. We don't know anything about plain maple syrup :)

Blowing Rasberries: Volume II

The first video was so popular we decided to post a sequel!

hAPpY HaLloWeEN!!

This halloween we had a family theme: Ninjas!! Well, sort of. Kiel had a very authentic samari...robe?... he got in Japan and my costume came from my days of teaching martial arts. We went to dinner halloween night and several ppl asked us where we got our cool costumes because they wanted them too! Too bad! You gotta be in the biz. Caleb was a cute little pumpkin. If you look closely you'll realize the pumpkin has eye lashes...oops! Oh well...he was still pretty much the cutest little pumpkin I've ever seen.
Because Caleb is still a little too little to go trick or treating and the scale knows I don't need the candy! we spent the day in So Jo and watched scary halloween movies all night! K, the movies were kind of lame but the company was fun!

You thought Kiel could only fight verbally, well watch out! He taught the karate kid his moves!

The dark fairy (Aunt Lyndsie) and our pumpkin man!

My 2 very smart boys :)

Today has been pretty exciting!! (When your with a 5 month old 24/7 small things like blowing bubbles with your spit is pretty exciting). Today Caleb learned how to roll all over the place! He loves it. Now I don't know how I'll get him to take good naps because he always wants to sleep on our bed but I don't want him to roll off! Its quite the dilemma. Once he gets onto his tummy he pulls his little legs under him and gets up in a crawling position. My money is on him crawling like a pro by two weeks. Hes such a smart boy! He gets it from his daddy. Also, his 2nd tooth broke thru today! So now he has two little daggers he can bite me with. They are pretty cute though.
The final exciting thing for today has to do with my other boy! Kiel won honorable mention for his Chuck Norris paper in a paper writing contest at BYU! He won $100! And because I edited it he said he'll share a little with me so we are going to go do something fun. Yeah...I'm pretty proud of him :)

Rasberries!!!

I love it how Caleb seems to learn something new and cute every single day!! He's so smart. Well, his new thing is blowing rasberries and it is so cute we had to take a video and share it with you all! Enjoy!

Caleb's 1st Tooth!

Most babies don't get their 1st tooth for several more months, but what can I say? Our baby is advanced. He gets that from his daddy! He's actually had this little tooth for a few weeks and his 2nd one is on it's way in, but these are his first 1st tooth pictures :) The process has been a little rough for him...hes been more fussy than usual, which means hes just a little fussy cuz he never use to be at all! The nights are a little rough too...thats the hardest part! But the past 2 nights have been better...one of them he only woke up once! And did I mention he druels a hundred gallons a day??!