James' company just had their winter party up at Snowbird. It was a scary drive through the snow, but it was a fabulous party - complete with karaoke! James loves to sing so he wasn't afraid to belt out a few tunes. After an hour or so of convincing, I finally gave in to the silliness! (I'm still embarrassed when I think of how aweful I was!)
I spent this past weekend covered in paint and mod podge, doing a fun project for the baby's room! Designing a nursery that is "gender neutral" has proved a little challenging for me. I finally have the entire room completely designed in my head so now comes the fun part... seeing it come into fruition! This project is just a little sample of what's to come, to wet your whistle so to speak. I can't wait to post pic's of the finished design. (Don't mind our Lilly in the photo - I couldn't get her to move... I guess she's just as excited for the baby to come as we are!!!)
At our church, James and I are nursery leaders. We teach (or mostly play) with all the 2 year-olds. At the beginning of January, our fun little class of 12 kids graduated to move into the "Big Primary Room." I made little hats and sashes for all the kids to celebrate their graduation! We were so sad to see them go, but now we have a brand new class of 2 year-olds. We're going to have to teach this new bunch all of the games that we played during the last year like ring-around-the-rosy and the ever popular duck, duck, goose! We have the best job in church if you ask us!!!
A few days into the New Year, a bunch of our neighbors got together for a date night out. We love our neighborhood and are super lucky to have made so many awesome friends! 
My BFF Ashley and her daughter Cameron were in town for Christmas! They live in Baltimore so it was super fun to play together while they were here! 
The zoo was freezing cold so there weren't many animals out, but it was still a fun adventure!
Bright and early Christmas morning, we all gathered together in the hallway and waited for Grandpa to give us word if Santa had come... then everybody ran in to see what surprises awaited them!
"Can I go back to sleep yet?"
With all these gifts, I'm surprised that Santa didn't get stuck in the chimney!
Little Gavin showing off one of his favorite toys!
After opening our gifts and eating a scrumptious breakfast, we headed over to see James' family 
We exchanged gifts and then ate more yummy food!
Cute Curtis couldn't wait until he got home to play with his new treasure!
We played a few games and then set off to meet up with Heather's family at the movie theatre!
This year's Christmas flick was TRON and it was awesome!
He even remembered to leave a gift for our Lilly!
She loves anything with feathers!
She got this cute Christmas collar that she wore just long enough to snap this picture! (her eyes look a little freaky in this pic - yikes)
It's a tradition in both of our families to lay out all of our Christmas gifts to display. Santa sure spoiled us this year...
He even left all kinds of fun presents for our future baby!
(Photo evidence that James actually DOES know how to cook!)
Yummy German Pancakes
Our new Black Friday toy was a Belgium Waffle Maker!
James' favorite breakfast food is biscuits and gravy so I attempted to recreate his mom's classic recipe and I failed miserably! It turned out alright, but it was nothing like the original!
All hail Paula Deen (she's my fav)! We devoured these egg McMuffin's!
k the reason why I do it is so that I am even smelling on both sides. I highly doubt that if I only swiped 6 times on my right side, and 5 times on my left side that anyone would be able to tell any difference, however, it’s my way of trying to make the universe a little more freshly scented. Plus I am the man that your man could smell like if he used Old Spice! (shameless commercial plug)
r to dip a spoon into a toilet bowl and then eat with it, than to set your spoon in your sink and then pick it up and use it again. Their explanation is that most people clean their toilets on a regular basis with some sort of cleaner containing bleach, but most people hardly ever deep clean their kitchen sink so the combination of germs (like salmonella) sit in a warm and wet environment and multiply like crazy! Yucky, huh! A lot of people use kitchen rags to clean their countertops (it is the “greener” thing to do after all) but then they leave that towel sitting on their kitchen sink and it becomes a breeding ground for germs. Have I adequately grossed you out yet? Introducing: the paper towel… clean, disposable, and fairly cheap. I know that it may not be the “green” way of doing things, but I’d rather save our house from being overtaken by an army of germs!!! 
Our next Holiday adventure was super exciting. This year, the Dickens Christmas Festival came back to Salt Lake City! I had the awesome opportunity of being in the plays when I was younger and it was a total blast!
The play "Oliver" 
The play "Scrooge"
This is the infamous mouse lady! It's been 12 or 13 years since the Dickens Festival was in Salt Lake, but I can totally remember this mouse lady! She makes these little finger puppets of mice - weird, I know! They are actually really darling so we had to buy one for our little nephew Taylor! Going to the Dickens Festival brought back so many memories for me and I'm so excited that it's back in Salt Lake! I hope it comes back for the holidays permanently so that I can share it with our kids one day! As the holidays get under way, I promise to do a better job of posting more frequently!!!
Every year my mom and I decorate a Christmas tree to donate to the Festival of Trees. This year, we named our tree "Soda Shoppe Rock!" and we had a blast with it! It's hard to tell from the pictures, but we used 3 different sized trees and filled them with all kinds of fun ornaments: mini pink Chevy's, ice cream sodas, fuzzy dice, and of course records! We added a fun soda bar complete with a jukebox! We also had fun laying out a checkerboard floor to complete our design!!!
The Festival of Trees in an amazing event! In addition to the large trees, people also donate small trees, gingerbread houses, and Christmas wreaths. Everything is auctioned off to the highest bidder and ALL of the proceeds go to Primary Children's Medical Center. The Festival usually raises over a million dollars each year! It's always fun for us decorators to see who buys our tree each year! My mom and I start working on our tree in January and we work on it all year long. It's hard work, but really rewarding because it's for such a great cause! 
Many people dedicate their tree to a loved one who has passed away. This year, we dedicated our tree to James' awesome mom, Carolyn. It was an incredible opportunity to really reflect on her life and the amazing person that she was! James and his sisters helped us prepare and even came on decorating day to lend a hand! The Festival asks us to write a little story to be placed by our tree so that spectators can read more about it if they so choose. We asked James to write it this year and this was his story:Take a walk with us down memory lane to a time when our mom and friend, Carolyn, celebrated her teenage years - a time of sock hops, poodle skirts, and soda shoppes! Carolyn loved the music of the 50's and instilled that love of music in each of her 8 children. Carolyn passed away surrounded by her family in March 2010, due to liver failure. We hope you enjoy this tree that was decorated with love in her memory.
We miss you, Mom!
James:
This is my classic recipe - Jiffy blueberry muffins:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
1 box of Jiffy blueberry muffins
1 egg
¼ cup of milk
Mix all ingredients until fully blended. Pour mixture into greased muffin tins or cupcake papers. Place in oven and cook until golden on the top (about 13-15 minutes)
This is probably the first recipe that I ever learned. Every Saturday morning I would wake up to watch Saturday morning cartoons, and around 8:30 I would hurry up and make the blueberry muffins so they would be ready for the 9:00 show - Saved by the Bell. The recipe would normally make 6-8 muffins - I would eat 4, and my little brother would get to eat the rest. To this day, whenever I make Jiffy’s blueberry muffins, I always remember Saturday morning cartoons.
Heather:
Warm Chocolate Melting Cake 
(from Carnival Cruises - soooo yummy!)
8 ounces of semisweet chocolate
1 cup (2 sticks) of butter
7 eggs
6 tablespoons of sugar
½ cup of flour
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Melt the chocolate and butter and cool for 10 minutes. In a separate bowl, mix four eggs with sugar. Then add the flour and whisk. Add the remaining three eggs. Add the egg mixture to the chocolate mixture. Pour this entire mixture into individual ramekins. Bake until just done, about 15-20 minutes (interior will be melting, not set). Garnish with powdered sugar and serve with vanilla ice cream. Makes 8 portions.
James and I discovered this dessert on our last cruise. We ordered it the first night, not knowing the decadence that lied ahead. Needless to say, we ended up ordering it every single night of our cruise... it's just that good!
