Thursday, December 2, 2010

Thanksgiving and Sewing Camp 101

So, Russ gave me an early Christmas present this year. He is letting me stay in California until December 6. We came to California for Thanksgiving and we had a wonderful time. We had lots of family around, we had two fabulous Thanksgiving dinners, we dressed up in costumes and went to see the new Harry Potter movie, and we have been playing massive amounts of games. On Black Friday, my sis-in-laws and I went to JoAnn's sale at 5:00am and we bought tons of fabric. So, after Russ left to go back home, Kristal and I have been sewing up a storm. I have never really done much sewing before, and I never knew how to follow a pattern, so Kristal has been my teacher and we have been having a blast. I am making a few things for Mirian as Christmas presents, and then a dress for me. I just finished making her a cute rag quilt, and now I am on to toddler dresses. I will post more as I finish. It has been a blast and I am learning a lot. Thanks Russ! I love you and miss you!


Learning to make Homemade Noodles with Nancy Miles (Author).
My cute little Indian in our family pageant

She looks so grown up with the other kids
Hardcore game playing

Kristal, Emily, and Olivia at JoAnn's
McDonald's was the only place open with hot chocolate

Kristal put rags in Mirian's hair

After a little work, the results of the rag curls


Starting my rag quilt


Finished rag quilt

Monday, November 22, 2010

Let it Snow!

So, it has been snowing all day today. It is crazy! Last year, Mirian was too young to experience snow, so I took her out today to see what she thought of all this white stuff. The experience didn't last long. She wasn't even outside three minutes before she wanted to come back inside. I had to force her to even stand in the snow at all. And it didn't help that Maced was so excited to have a friend to play with her in the snow that she almost knocked Mirian over. Too bad it is too early for Christmas lights and Christmas music!

Not sure what to think


Noooooo!!!!!!!


Maced loves the snow!


Russ had just scraped our driveway less than an 30 minutes ago.


Front of our house

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Russ' Mission Buddy

While on Facebook the other day, Russ wished a fellow Gringo Missionary (who served in Peru) a happy birthday and noticed that other fellow missionaries had also commented on his page. One of them was Freddy Alva. Freddy is from Peru and was a good friend!!!!

Russ added Freddy as a friend and began to look through his info and pictures. Low and behold, Freddy only lives an hour and a half from Selah. HOLY CANOLI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A week later, we were at his home where his wife Andrea (who he also knew from one of the wards he served in) had cooked an AMAZING Peruvian dinner. We had Aji de Gallina, Arroz con Pollo and INCA KOLA!!!! Inca Kola is a soda made in Peru and it's awesome!!!! Finally, for dessert, Andrea made Picarones which are essentially sweet potato homemade donuts with Fig honey. OH MY GOODNESS THEY WERE AMAZING!!!!!!



Here are a few pictures of Russ, Freddy, the Inca Kola, Mirian and her new friend and Picarones



Wednesday, November 3, 2010

You knew it was coming, didn't you . . .

Without letting everyone down on Russ' annual tradition . . . we bring you the latest breaking news. He hasn't let you down . . . .

As you'll recall, Russ' wrists tend to have a difficult life. Read about it here, here, and here.


Russ finished his post-surgery physical therapy on his wrist in late September. For several weeks now, Russ has had new pain in the side of his surgically repaired wrist. He went to the doctor who performed the surgery and was informed that due to keeping the wrist immobile for 4 months and then putting it back to use, he now has tendonitis in his wrist. Now he gets to keep it in the brace for another 4 weeks while taking some ibuprofen as needed for the pain and swelling.

Wish him luck!!!! Hopefully it heals quickly and properly!!!

Monday, November 1, 2010

Happy Jedi Halloween

For Halloween, I made Russ and Mirian dress up as Star Wars characters. Russ was a Jedi, I was Princess Leia, and Mirian was an Ewok. For Christmas a few years ago, my Mom made me and Russ costumes that were Star Wars/Bethlehem costumes so we could use them for Halloween and Christmas. We hadn't had an opportunity to use them, so I thought it would be fun to try them out this year. We had a little party at our house on Friday night. It was fun to decorate the house, and get all dressed up. On Saturday, we went to our ward Halloween party. No one knew who I was. I guess the black hair really confused people. On Sunday, we took Mirian trick-or-treating to our old neighbors, Bob and Rhinda. They loved her cute little Ewok costume. I didn't get any pictures at the ward party, or trick-or-treating. I forgot to put the memory card back into the camera. But enjoy the pics from our party.


Our cute little Ewok


My Spider Cheesecake that I made


My Handsome Jedi with the Ewok


Princess Leia and Ewok


Do you like my scary spider on the ceiling?

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Silly Mirian

Mirian has so much personality. She is so funny and she knows it! Here are just a few pictures to show some of the silly things that she likes to do around the house. I'm not great at capturing the moments, because there are so many different things that she does and I am usually too busy laughing with her to take pictures.


Trying to chase Daddy and tickle him


In her defense, the spoon was too small


Mirian loves to play with Maced under the table


She kept coming up to me like this and then growl at me. I think she was an alien.


Mirian loves getting into things!!!!


Mirian loves to share her food with the animals. It looks like she is pushing the cat away, but really, she is pushing noodles into the cats mouth.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Pumpkin Patch and Jack o' lanterns

On Saturday, we took Mirian to the pumpkin patch. She loved looking at all the pumpkins out in the rows. She would stop to touch every single one. At the pumpkin patch, they have a huge pumpkin cannon that shot a volleyball size pumpkin about 1/4 of a mile. It was pretty cool, but it scared Mirian to death. She did not like the sound of the cannon at all. So while Russ watched the cannon, Mirian and Mom went to get fresh pumpkin donuts. The donuts were delicious (and that is coming from someone who does not like donuts at all.)


She was so happy to be outside


Look, I found a pumpkin!


Picked one out


The Pumpkin Cannon


Mirian was just a little worried

On Sunday evening, we got together with our good friends the Lawson's and we carved our pumpkins and then ate yummy caramel apples. It was so much fun. Mirian didn't really care for the jack o' lanterns, even though she tried to use the carving knives a couple of times.

That's why she wanted to play with the knives, Daddy was having so much fun with his!


Poor baby Carter


Cat on a fence


Igor

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Southern California Trip Continued


I know it is a little late posting the rest of our trip. We have all been sick with colds and we have had family visiting. But I guess it is better late than never. To continue our Newport Beach Vacation, we went over to Crystal Cove to look at the tide pools. Crystal Cove is a protected beach, so we thought it would be a lot of fun to see different sea creatures. Only problem was that we went at high tide. It was still a beautiful beach, and we had a good time, even if it looked like rain.


Russ and Mirian Looking at the Ocean


Olivia, Robert, Scott and Sydney Carter (aren't they the cutest family?)


Watching the waves come up to our feet


Looking for shells with Syd

That evening, we went to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. It was fantastic! We really need one of those closer to us. On second thought, maybe not, because I would want to eat there everyday!


Beautiful Sunset


Delicious Thai Chicken Wraps!!!

The next day, we kept pretty low key. Scott and Olivia had to leave, so we played games all morning until it was time for them to pack up. Once they left, we just crashed. We were so tired from all the playing and all of the sun.


Mirian Loves her Cousins!!!

On Thursday, Russ and I woke up sick with colds. We felt so miserable, especially since we were on vacation. We did go swimming, but it started raining on us. That evening, we drove to Long Beach, to meet up with one of Russ' Brokers for dinner. We ate at Parkers' Lighthouse. We forgot the camera, which makes me so sad, because it was the cutest place ever! And my Chilean Sea Bass was to die for.

The rest of my family came down on Friday and we spent all day at Crystal Cove. It was a beautiful day and the water was perfect! We spent the whole time playing in the surf, while Grandma watched babies. Again, I forgot my camera (Kristal, did you get any good shots I can steal?) To finish the trip off, we went back to the Cheesecake Factory for another fabulous meal and then games back at the time share. We had such a wonderful trip. It was nice to not have any responsibilities or time schedules. We loved every minute of our trip and wish we could do it all over again.