deer crossing

http://youtu.be/9K3MoxlCaJ4

One of my dad's friends sent him the link to this a couple months ago and we have honestly listened to it over and over again, SO FUNNY!

Happy Thursday!

The Liebster Award

Can i just start by saying that the name of this award reminds me of my little brothers leapster? Anyways, this is the first time I have ever even heard of the Liebster, but I think its kind of a cute idea! I was nominated by Morgan over at Reece's Pieces! 

{What is the Liebster Award?}

The Liebster Award is for blogs that have 200 followers or less. The word "Liebster" is German for kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, valued, cute, pleasant, endearing and welcome.

here are the liebster rules:

1. list 11 facts about yourself

2. answer the 11 questions the blogger who nominated you left

3. ask 11 new questions for those you nominate

4. choose 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers to nominate

5. go to each bloggers page and let them know about the award

6. thank the person who nominated you and link back to their blog

{11 facts about myself}

1: When I was ten years old I cut my pinky almost all the way off and I now have a scar that looks exactly like a lightning bolt. I share a birthday with both Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling so I think thats kind of a sweet coincidence. 

2: I really want to learn photoshop and illustrator. I don't want to be a graphic designer or anything I just find it really interesting and fun. 

3: I love board games, card games, and puzzles.

4: My favorite color is gray.

5: Nicholas Sparks is my favorite author, I have read almost all his books.

6: I love to sew and make quilts along with my mom and sisters. The first year we started we made about 25 quilts. 

7: I go to bed in a full on sweatsuit and socks with the covers pulled up to my chin no matter what season it is. My husband thinks i'm ridiculous.

8: When I write papers or blog posts no one can watch me type, I get embarrassed. They can read it as many times as they want when I get done, but not while I am working on it.

9: I am the oldest of six kids and I seriously love everything about having a big family, its the greatest.

10: I am an awful cook. The worst part is that I don't even have the desire to improve. 

11: I sleep talk and my husband loves it. He tries to carry on conversations with me and sometimes I wake up and get mad. 

{11 questions from the blogger who nominated me}

1. best advice you've ever been given?

Finish school before you have babies! My Grandma Gates tells me that all the time. She's a pretty smart lady and I definitely want to finish school before we start a family!   

2. who is your celebrity boyfriend/girlfriend?

    Here's the thing... I'm not really into celebrities... but Ryan Reynolds is pretty good looking!

3. the thing that annoys you most?

    Fighting. I hate seeing people fight or getting in fights for that matter. 

4. if you could live in any time period what would that be and why?

    I like the time period I live in and am perfectly content with it.

5. Audrey Hepburn or Marilyn Monroe?

    Audrey Hepburn!

6. favorite comedy?

    How to lose a guy in 10 days. My very favorite movie!!

7. guilty pleasure?

    Diet Coke:)

8. mac or pc?

    Just got a Mac and I love love love it!

9. what's your best feature?

    I'm a good listener, I enjoy learning about other people's lives.

10. what was your favorite year in school and why? {like first grade, sophomore year, senior year, etc.}

    Kindergarten was the best! Our class was filled with the best people, and kissing tag was our favorite game!

11. most inspirational person in your life?

    My Grandma Gates, she is incredible!

{11 questions for the new nominees}

1: Are you a morning person or a night owl?

2: If a genie granted you three wishes what would they be?

3: What is your favorite color?

4: What annoys you most?

5: guilty pleasure?

6: If you had a day to yourself what would you do?

7: What is #1 on your bucket list?

8: What's your favorite app?

9: What would you love to learn if you had the time?

10: What three things can you NOT live without?

11: What made you decide to start blogging?

{My Liebster Picks!}

1: Abbey at This is Life.

2: Aynsley at Aynsley Ovard

3: Alex at Alex + Logan

4: Jessica at A New Day Has Come

5: Mikey at Chad, Mikey, Scotlynn

6: Maddi at Girl Meets World

7: Josie at Josie Lynn

8: Marissa at Brock and Rissa

9: Kortney at Hello Kortney

10: Megan at Megan Chalmers

11: Alexa at World Spins Madly On

clean up crew

Today was a rainy day in St. George. I got up and got ready for work knowing I probably wouldn't be staying the whole day. I got to work and after an hour they sent me home. I did some shopping and when I got home I decided I would make the house so sparkly clean and surprise Alex when he got home from school. Well joke was on me, because as I went to plug in the vacuum water soaked my sock. At first I thought it could be coming through the ceiling but then I noticed that it was we throughout our whole hallway. I called Alex in a panic and guess what, he already knew, our hot water heater had been leaking all morning. Luckily the plumber was able to come over and replace the hot water heater today, but we ended up having to pull up all our carpet and tear out all the padding underneath it. We are feeling blessed that we were able to borrow some fans from a flood company and our carpet should be dry by the morning, we are also pretty happy that the carpet guy is able to come on Monday morning to replace the padding and put the carpet back in.

{I swear we don't have moldy floors, I totally thought it was mold but I guess its just from gluing the carpet to the ground}

happy birthday to the queenie

Happy Birthday Heidi! We sure love you and appreciate all you do for us! You are always so willing to let us stay at your house when we come up and we love when you come down! We love you and we are so glad we get to spend the day with you!!

the nephews

they don't hold still for a picture very well, but gosh we sure love these boys!

one with a cold + one with the flu

Saturday night we headed to Red Robin for dinner with our good friends Sam and Kelly. After dinner we came back to our house to watch a movie and I sniffled the whole way through. We went to bed and at about 3:00 in the morning I woke up to Alex shaking so so bad it was pretty scary. We got him all wrapped up and we went back to bed. Sunday morning neither of us felt very good but I had to teach primary and Alex had agreed to help me so yes, we did make it through all three hours of church, and yes, we were proud of ourselves because we were definitely not feeling up to it. Sunday afternoon Alex was really lightheaded and had the chills. Sunday night was a long one, we were both up a lot and couldn't go back to sleep. I started a little routine for every time I woke up. Blow my nose. Use Nasal D. Put the doTERRA essential oil "breathe" under my nose and on my temples. drink OJ. Then I would try to fall asleep again. Monday morning was miserable. I was supposed to work but I texted them right when I got up and I never heard back from them. When I finally decided I better get up for work I got a text saying they figured things out so that I didn't have to come in. I was so so grateful for that, I was miserable. Monday Alex was feeling better, YAY! Monday I laid in bed, THE WHOLE DAY! By seven that night I had cabin fever, I seriously couldn't sit inside any longer, so we went to coldstone for ice cream and watched the Jazz game in our family room. It was so good to get out for even just a bit. Today I was feeling a little better, we are keeping ourselves busy with the office, and the bachelorette. Happy Tuesday everyone!

Diet Coke helps with colds right? Oh and blurry pictures are nice too.

uncle buck's

This year we spent our new years at uncle buck's cabin in Beaver. We headed up on new years eve just in time for a yummy dinner of dutch oven potatoes and hamburgers (my fav...not!) I actually got some chicken nuggets at burger king on the way but the potatoes were sure yummy! Bryson and Paige had some t-shirts made for the winners of the tournaments that night which included, ping pong, mario kart, pool, and nutz. I have never even heard of nutz before but it was so fun, and I think we may have set the record for the biggest game ever. Every time it was almost my turn (or ten people away from me) I went into panic mode, it was so stressful. I actually got two people out and stayed in for three rounds which I was so so proud of. The boys played Halo till four thirty in the morning and I passed out at three. That night Alex and I somehow scored our own room, it was nice since I was so sleepy at three and went right to sleep. Around seven thirty in the morning I woke up and could not breathe because it was so hot in our room. I got up and walked around the cabin for a bit and since everyone was asleep I went right back to sleep. The next morning we found out the heater for the cabin was in our room and someone kept turning it up trying to heat up the rest of the cabin. I felt SO BAD that everyone froze the whole night and we were sleeping in a sauna. I guess if losing weight was my new years resolution I am off to a good start, ha. The next morning we had waffles, eggs, and sausage for breakfast and it was sure yummy. The boys played halo some more and we headed home. It really was one of the best new years I have ever had. Thanks for the fun time Bryson and Paige! 

and this is what happens when you leave your drink in the car in Beaver overnight!

happy new year everyone!

lucky us

During school this semester I literally had zero time to even think about Christmas. I decided to get Al tickets to a Jazz game probably two days after school ended, when my brain started functioning again ha. My dad's cousin has seasons tickets so I actually got a way sweet deal, we were on row nine at a Jazz vs. Clippers game and our two seats split half court! 

When we got up north we met with one of Alex's favorite mission companions for lunch at CPK, our favorite restaurant. We did some shopping before the game and ended up in a big rush to the game so being as fancy as we are we made a quick trip to McDonalds before the game in City Creek. Alex got our food while I tried to find a place for us to sit. I noticed some ladies getting up so I hurried over and sat down. Little did I know that it wasn't my greatest idea to take that particular table. After I sat down the mother of the kids on the table next to me rushed over and made a really big scene about how they weren't fast enough to beat me to the table and I was feeling pretty dang awkward by then. When Alex finally got there we started to chow and pretty soon the grandma of this clan comes over and says, "hey since you beat us to this table, can we have it when you are done?" Of course we said yes and continued to eat. Well then grandma #2 of this family starts patrolling the row of tables and is questioning everyone to see if they have finished yet. I was appalled. A few minutes later these ladies came over and asked if they could borrow two of the chair at our table since someone had taken theirs. We said yes, but Grandma #1 would not have any of that. SHE TOLD THEM TO PUT THE CHAIRS BACK BECAUSE SHE HAD CALLED THE TABLE NEXT. It was all we could do to hold in our laughter, this was insane. 

After we finished our nuggets we headed to the game and seriously loved every minute. It was a bummer that the Jazz lost but they put up a fight and made it a fun game to be at. After the game we headed back to City Creek to get a treat before we called it a night. Apparently City Creek closes at ten and we were bummed. Because of this we had to take the long way back to our hotel and as we were passing past the side of our hotel Alex saw Dave Rose and the rest of the BYU basketball team in the hotel we were staying at. We went in and as we were waiting in line for the elevators they just happened to be leaving their meeting. We talked to Dave for a little while when he asked us what our plans were for the next day. We said we were planning on going to the temple but didn't have any plans otherwise. He said, "well why don't you come to the game I will put tickets for you in will call just text me tomorrow and remind me." That night Dave let us know there were tickets waiting for us, we were glad that we didn't have to text him and bother him on game day, but we were thrilled.

 The next morning we went and did sealings in the Salt Lake Temple. Word of advice: never do sealings in the Salt Lake Temple on a Saturday morning, there will be a really short supply of sealers due to their crazy amount of weddings! 

We went to the BYU game at noon and it was such a fun game! Our tickets were almost exactly across from where we had sat the night before at the Jazz game and on row 10! Sweet seats! We sat next to Elder and Sister Coleman, he had just been released from the quorum of the seventy and they were hilarious. He would constantly say things like, "Number 11 has 11 points," or "Number 4 has 4 fouls." Sister Coleman also took notes on the whole game which I thought was pretty funny. 

After the game we did some shopping and then met up with Heidi, Abbey, and Grant for dinner at P.F. Chang's. Alex and I had never been there but I don't know that we will be going back. I guess we are more Panda Express kind of people.  We laughed about pretty much everything at dinner and I really enjoyed the Great Wall of Chocolate (all by myself) and I hated the styrofoam in the noodles ha. We got up the next morning made a quick trip to visit Abbey and headed home. It was such a great trip! 

yes i did eat this whole thing myself. yum!

christmas day

Having both our families living here in St. George makes the holidays a crazy time for us. We try our best to make it to all of our families parties and activities and I think we do a pretty good job! We started out by having Christmas at our own house and opened presents together. Alex spoiled me with a MacBook, I was so surprised and I seriously love it. I got him Jazz tickets and some tools, then put him to work fixing things for me haha. After we opened prezzy's (presents) we headed over to my parents for presents. This year it was our turn to have breakfast at Grandma Hafen's house and ooh it was so yummy. Then we went to breakfast at Grandma Gates' house. We sure eat a lot of food on the holidays as we try to make the rounds. Next we went to Grandma Esplin's for lunch and then we ended the day at my mom's house for dinner with the Isom family.

Christmas morning in our Christmas jammies

Ryker got a chance to say goodbye to Ellie the Elf for the year, and he was allowed to touch her only to hug and kiss her goodbye. He didn't dare kiss her but he hugged her and he really had a hard time saying by, it was the cutest thing.

The next day we did Christmas with Alex's family because everyone worked Christmas day, it actually worked out quite nice for us this year! We babysat the nephews for a couple hours, we watched Madagascar 3, and worked on puzzles, it was a good time. That night everyone came over and we opened presents together. It was so so good to see everyone, I was loving it, I missed them all like crazy. Ace was throwing up during presents, it was so sad but he was such a good boy about it. 

Then Abbey tied Jett's legs together and it was seriously hilarious, he did not know what to do.

December was such a good month for us, we were so happy to be done with school and spend a whole lot of time together, and with our family. We sure have learned to appreciate every minute we have with our families since we don't get to see them as often.