Christmas 2008

As usual, our holidays are pretty hectic, so we split things up a little bit and spent Christmas Eve at my step-dad's house in Santaquin. We had a good time with food, drinks, games, presents & just hanging out. I won the word find game :) I'm really glad we split things up because we were able to spend a lot more time with my family that I don't get to see very often and John is so comfortable with my "Weight" family than anyone else. He likes talking with my dad "Papa Kent" :) I also had fun talking with other Twilight lovers :)

Amos & Homer J sleeping on Christmas Eve

Christmas Morning we slept in, opened our stockings only, and then went to John's parents for breakfast and presents. We didn't stay too long since we knew we would be back later in the evening. (I'm glad his parents only live a few blocks from us).

John & the boys with their stockingsMe & the boys

We went home to relax for a little bit and opened the rest of our presents. We do a good job of keeping our presents a secret from each other so that we are all surprised on Christmas day. John spoiled me as usual. Afterwards we headed to my mom's house for the afternoon. Because I'm so special (and her baby) my mom still gives me a stocking :) After my mom's we went to my dad's house. But before opening presents at my dad's, I had to help my brother Mike wrap all his presents!! Mike has a tradition that he does ALL his shopping on Christmas Eve and every year he never gets all his gifts wrapped & I end up having to help him. When we left my dad's, we went back to John's parents for dinner. I'm so grateful that John's family is SO flexible & they are always SO willing to work around my 3 families crazy schedule. We had a really good day and also had pretty good timing since we seemed to dodge traveling in the worst parts of the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day storms. MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

John & his mom

Christmas morning mess (No we didn't get another 50" tv, I had to wrap one of john's presents in the tv box because he likes to shake his presents to guess what they are.)

InfiniTeam Christmas Eve party

Christmas Eve fell on a Wednesday this year, so my work had a party instead of really working. It was potlock so I brought an Artichoke & Spinach dip that I made that morning and chips. It was gone before I left the office :) We also do a "White Elephant" game where everyone brings a gift. The day before the party I still had not bought my gift. On the way back to the office from the Christmas Box House, Destini & I were brainstorming for what I should get, when we saw a lingerie store. We got the same idea...but it would only work if one of the guys chose it. So of course us girls had to make a plan. Everyone in our office is pretty competitive, so the gift stealing usually goes on for quite a while. It was pretty late in the game, but as luck should have it, someone stole my gift and I made the choice to steal Marshall's gift so that he would have to either steal someone else's gift or pick a new one. He chose to pick a new one and chose MY gift!! He opened the box and immediately closed it shut! Just as I suspected, no one would let him get away with not pulling it out so he had no choice but to pull out the nightie :) It actually was a very cute nightie that most girls would not have mind keeping. I also put the movie "Sleeping Beauty" with the lingerie to keep with the theme. Marshall was such a good sport and even put the nightie on! It was HILARIOUS and everyone was almost in tears from laughter!!

Mine was the blue one on top with the blue blow.

Jason & Dave helping Marshall into his nightie ;)

Marshall is such a good sport!!

Christmas Box House Quilts

For the past few weeks, my work has been working on making quilts for the kids at The Christmas Box House. Barb, Destini & I went to Joann's and picked out all the fabric. We chose fabrics for 5 boy and 5 girl quilts. We set up a quilt frame in an empty office for everyone to go in and work on tying a quilt whenever they wanted or could. We also had been successful in getting a few of the guys to do some ties and Monday the last quilt was done!! Thanks to everyone who helped with the quilts! They turned out to be SO cute and a few of us were tempted to keep some of them because they were so adorable :) On Tuesday afternoon, Barb, Destini and I went to The Christmas Box House to deliver the quilts along with a nice cash donation. They were thrilled and said they would let the kids who would be staying there for Christmas pick one for their gift :) That made me feel so good!! I have loved being active in this Charity that we've chosen this year and doing all I can to help out.

I chose this one....its one of my favorite boy ones. I love the monkeys :) My favorite girl quilt. I think Destini picked this one. I love the purple, pink & green together

Halona 'Ugly Sweater' Xmas Party

Last Sunday we had my family Christmas party at my dad's house. My brother Mike put himself in charge and chose to do an "Ugly Sweater" party. So we all had to find the ugliest xmas sweater we could find and purchasing the sweaters proved to be the most embarrassing part of all. I remember the look of my cashier wondering if I was serious or not, LOL. It was a lot of fun to see what everyone came up with and in the end, my oldest brother Shane won the prize by wearing a grandma, sparkly, black Christmas vest with a turtleneck. I wore a very adorable mint green sweater with sparkly snowflakes across the front & sleeve, and a built-in turtleneck that was embroidered at the edges. I got John a sweater that had the 'Kansas City' lights on the front AND back. It was truly gross and not too mention it shrunk in the dryer and was a little tight! But he matched my sister Gia's husband, Tim, who had a light blue sweater w/snowflakes that was too small as well! Even my little baby nephew Hurley wore an ugly Mickey mouse sweater with ears but he's so darn cute that it didn't look ugly :) We all had a blast teasing each other, eating mutton stew & frybread, and playing a very funny & somewhat embarrassing game of "Boxers & Briefs". We all laughed until we cried and now we REALLY know what we think of each other...LOL! I love my family and love hanging out with them....even if we do look ridiculous in ugly sweaters :)

InfiniTeam Xmas Party

Saturday night we went to the Millcreek Inn which is up Millcreek Canyon for my annual work Christmas party. It was fun to get all dressed up and the setting at the Inn is so beautiful with all the snow. I was so happy there was no snow blizzard like last year so we actually made it to the party on time. We had a fun social hour with cocktails and fancy h'ordeurves before dinner. The food was absolutely delicious and after dinner we danced and listened to the "School of Rock" bands. The "School of Rock" is a music school for kids, and my boss Steve has a son who plays the drums. They are actually amazing and its hard to believe they are just kids. There was a 15 yr old singer who I swear could have won American Idol, he was that good. We all had fun rockin' out and letting loose. I'll post more pictures as soon as Courtney sends them to me.

Favorite Things...

8 Favorite TV Shows
1. House
2. Clean House (Style channel)
3. Gilmore Girls
4. Friends
5. HGTV
6. Food Network
7. Kitchen Nightmares
8. Numbers

8 Things I did Yesterday
1. Slept in (kind of)
2. Dishes
3. Went to my Grandpa's Xmas/Bday party
4. Went Christmas shopping with my mom
5. Got dressed up
6. Went to my work Xmas party up Millcreek
7. Danced w/co-workers to the School of Rock kids band, they're amazing!!
8. Watched Dark Knight

8 things I look forward to:
1. Christmas
2. More snow in the Mountains for snowboarding
3. Traveling
4. Time off work
5. Summer
6. More time with Family
7. A house
8. Quitting my job...someday

8 Favorite Restaurant
1. Tiburon
2. Benihana's
3. Bohemian
4. Macaroni Grill
5. Outback
6. Porcupine
7. Market Street Grill
8. Mimi's Cafe

8 Things I wish for:
1. Patience
2. More free time
3. A House
4. Energy to do the things I want
5. Money to do the things I want
6. To see Graceland
7. To see the World
8. To stay 29 forever

8 People I tag:
1. Destini
2. Courtney
3. Re'
4. Gia
5. Sara
6. Morgan
7. Shannon
8. Melissa

Italian Sausage

Sunday we went to John's parents for our annual Italian Sausage night. John's dad side of the family is Italian and every year during Christmas time we freeze our hands and make Italian Sausage and scones :) We had a good time and John even got to have his birthday pie and a few presents early.

O' Christmas Tree...

This year I put up 2 Christmas Tree's. This one is our main tree and his been up since the week after Thanksgiving and is in the living room. It's the same tree we had last year, kind of "woodsy" and has a lot of snowmen. I really like our tree, but because I like so many different styles, I think I'm going to change things up and do a different one next year. Destini is right, the picture never does the tree justice. I promise its better looking in person. Here it is all lit up...

This tree is a new addition this year. I've been collecting Elvis ornaments for the past couple of years, but there's not enough for a big tree and as much as I LOVE Elvis, I honestly did not want my main tree to be all Elvis. So I bought a little 4 ft tree and put it in our bedroom :)

Festival of Trees - Auction Night

Yesterday, Lynzie & I did our annual volunteering at "The Festival of Trees". It was auction night (by invitation only) and all the trees, wreaths, gingerbread houses & playhouses are auctioned off. We work in the invoicing area and we get to see how much the trees are sold for. We always write down the ones that sell for lots of money so we can go look at them afterwards. Lynzie's mother-in-law (Marq's mom) is on the board and so a lot of her in-laws, "The Rasmussen's" help out. Grandma Rasmussen (Vera) and his Aunt Cheryl, always help out in invoicing as well. Every penny raised goes to help children in need at Primary Children’s Medical Center. We had a good time hanging out and after we were done invoicing, we went and looked at some of trees. Thanks Kae (Marq's mom) for letting me help out! (We were so busy we didn't have time to take a pic :)

Christmas Box House Tree

Yesterday, a few of us from work went to 'The Christmas Box House' (CBH) to decorate their tree for December. They have a tree that is up year round and its the first thing that a child see's when they are brought to the CBH. The tree is surrounded by stuffed animals and when a child comes to the CBH, they get to choose an animal to keep. Each month it is decorated by different people and/or organizations with different themes. We had signed up for the 'December' tree a few months ago and I was so excited to do it. Last week Barb, Courtney & I went to Target and bought all the stuff for the tree and then we ordered some things online. I helped Courtney come up with the 'theme' of the tree which was "Santa's Workshop". We got bright colored ornaments of red & green, wooden block toys, a sparkly santa hat for the topper, and filled little bags with small toys for the kids to keep after Christmas. A few of the guys went early to put up the lights and then Barb, Courtney, Christy, Julie, Ryan and his brother-in-law and I decorated the tree. It was a lot of fun and it turned out really cute! We were all so happy to be able to do this for the kids and we hope they like it! Merry Christmas to the kids at The Christmas Box House!

John's EARLY bday

I bought a Samsung 50" Plasma HDTV on "Black Friday" at 5am for John's birthday which is on the 18th of Dec. John is turning the big 3-0 this year!! I am TERRIFIED of turning 'that number' in Feb, and even though I know it's not as big of a deal to John as it is to me, I still wanted his birthday to be a special and/or big deal. For me, I want my 30th to either be a BIG MEMORABLE BANG....or spent in hiding as if it didn't happen. That's how scared I am!!! The worst part is, my 30th birthday fall's on the worst day....MONDAY!! So if it's not going to be a memorable day, I don't want to remember it at all. Anyway, that is why I went shopping at 3:30am (without sleep) on "Black Friday" to go ALL OUT and get my honey an awesome 50" plasma HDTV!! As you may have read below, I got home close to 7am before John got up to go to work, and hid the TV in the garage. Long story short, by Saturday he saw it, LOVED it and didn't want to see it go!! He didn't care that it was early & so we set it up that night and watched "Lord of the Rings". Happy 30th Birthday Honey Bunny, I love you!!

Black Friday!

I've only done "Black Friday" a few times. The first time I did it was about 6 years ago and some lady tried to steal my cart at Kmart over some bed-in-a-bag. The 2nd time I did it was about 4 years ago when my older sister, Leigh & I waited in line at Circuit City for several hours. We took turns waiting in the heated car for the store to open at 5am. Since then I have not gone shopping on "Black Friday" unless it was later on in the day after I slept. But this year, there were some crazy deals going on, so I snuck out of the house while John was asleep, went to the Sandy Wal-Mart at about 3:30am (without sleep) and found massive amounts of people and couldn't even get to the item I wanted. I had to take John's truck because he was parked behind me & I didn't have time to switch. I texted my sister Gia, she called and said there were hardly anyone at the Springville Wal-Mart that she, her husband Tim, my other sister Re', her husband Buzz, and my mom Pam had been since 1am. She said she would hold the item I wanted since it was the same item her & her husband Tim wanted. I got in the truck & cruised to Springville. She texted me about half way there and said it was starting to get busy. A few minutes later she texted that it was starting to get crazy & to hurry. I prayed for no cops & stepped on the gas. I got there at about 4: 35am and they unleashed the pallets at precisely 5am. We already had a strong grip on the Samsung 50" Plasma HDTV's that we wanted. Re' was at the sheet sets, Buzz was at the DVD's and our mom was at the luggage & towels. The second they said go we pulled them off the pallets. Gia & Tim were pulling the TV off the top of the one I had a hold on, so I had to duck and hold while they pulled it off over me while I held onto the TV I wanted and pulled it off as soon as I was clear. Luckily it went by so fast and they held their TV high enough it only brushed my hair and didn't fall onto my head. We met Re' & mom at the checkout and waited. I finally got home close to 7am, just before John got up to go to work. I backed his truck up to mine, slid the TV onto the bed of my truck, closed the garage and went to bed for 3 1/2 hours before waking up to go to the movie "Twilight" with my mom. We were supposed to go to my step-dad's for Thanksgiving Pie that evening but I fell asleep at about 4:00pm, woke up briefly to barely eat and passed out for the rest of the night. But it was worth it for the deal I got on John's 30th birthday present :)!!!

Tim, me & Gia waiting for the 5am go ahead to pull our TV's off the pallets!

Tim & Gia with their TVFoolishness & Mayhem at 5amRe' & Hurley waiting in line to make our purchases!

Hurley slept through the whole thing :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!

As it is with every family holiday, its a little chaotic because I have 3 families + John's. And because my family has grown so much, my dad's side of the family has been doing a Thanksgiving Breakfast for the past few years. So we started our eating frenzy of a day by going to my dad's house at 8:30am for a yummy breakfast of sausage biscuits & gravy and breakfast burritos. Afterwards we visited while looking through the ads and mapping out our Black Friday. We then went to my mama's house and I set the tables and helped my mama finish making our Thanksgiving Lunch. She & my sister Leigh had drove to Arizona the week before to pickup my Grandma Dorothy, my Uncle Curtis & my cousin Josh's daughter and brought them to Utah for Thanksgiving. So we had 14 of us for lunch, and we were only missing one of my brothers & his family of 6. We had a good time eating Turkey, potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffed mushrooms, deviled eggs, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, rolls & of course watching football. We then went home for a few hours to let the boys out before heading to John's parents for Thanksgiving Dinner. We're lucky enough to have his whole family together, including his grandma & grandpa, a grand total of 7....at 1 table :) Actually I should say I'M lucky that John has a great, wonderful and SMALL family. I love them all and they've been so loving & accepting of me and I couldn't ask for a better family...nor do I think I could handle someone that had a big family like mine. After dinner John's dad put on one of his notorious slide show performances. I got to see a cute picture of John when he was little dressed up as "Big Bird" for Halloween :) His mom promise to get me prints :) Tomorrow we'll be going to my step-dad's for pie :) Happy Thanksgiving to all, I hope everyone had a wonderful day and rememered everything that they are thankful for.

The man of the house, my oldest brother Shane, cutting the Turkey

Table #1 - the adult's

Table #2 - the kids

Craft Night

Last Friday night Desiree' had a "craft" night at her clubhouse where anyone could make anything that they wanted. She brought all of her stampin' up & scrapbook stuff. Our mom, Pam, and myself brought all of our stamps as well for anyone to use. Mom bought Pizza & Hot Wings for dinner, and Re' & I brought snacks to share. We had a lot of fun making cards, tags and whatever else we wanted. I made Turkey cards for Thanksgiving and made a lot of the Snowman cards that I wanted to give to people at work for Christmas. Thanks Re' for a night of fun :)

Grandpa holding Hurley

Scrapbookin' stuff

NKOTB - A childhood dream come true

Last Saturday I got to go back in time and live a childhood dream. 17 years ago (wow I'm old) I had a dream to see my favorite band, 'New Kids on The Block', in concert. I had begged my mom to let me go to their concert as so many of my friends were going. I was devastated that I couldn't go & thought it was the end of the world, and then a few laters they broke up. Now, 15 years later....they're back!! I can still remember listening, singing & dancing to their tapes, watching my VHS music video dreaming that my favorite band member Jonathan Knight was my boyfriend. Me & my sisters were all about New Kids and had T-shirts, posters, trading cards, dolls, etc. So when we heard they were coming to SLC, we were not going to miss our chance to finally see NKOTB in concert! I didn't care who made fun of me or how old they are, I was not missing my 2nd chance! The timing couldn't be better as my sister Desiree (Re's) birthday was coming up, so me & my sister Gia thought the best birthday present EVER would be to take Re' to the concert!! So we talked to our family and we all pitched in to get her ticket :)

Gia & I had bought the tickets in advance (floor seats row 30) & decided to keep it a secret from Re'. FINALLY, the day arrived and with the help from Re's husband, we surprised her at her doorstep, had her listen to "Happy Birthday" by NKOTB, and gave her the ticket! She was so excited and could not believe we were actually going to be seeing NKOTB live! We then went to my house to get ready, 80's style :)

We got to the concert and of course we each spent outrageous dollars $$$ on NKOTB memorabilia. We each bought Tour T-shirts (which we wore throughout the concert) keychains, and "Property of" T-Shirts & Buttons of our favorite guy. Re' also got a onesie for baby Hurley :) The whole concert we screamed our hearts out until we had no voice left. Half way thru the concert they put a spotlot on a spot 3 rows behind us and it turned out to be a rotating mini-stage with a piano & the NKOTB!! We FREAKED out and could not believe our eyes that they were INCHES FROM OF US!! Everyone around us went ballistic and we about fell off our chair (literally) as we each made some sort of contact with our favorite guy!! I kept screaming "I LOVE YOU JONATHAN"!! He actually blinked AND waved at me :) Donnie winked at Gia, posed for her camera and she had to grab onto me to keep from falling of her chair & passing out :) There was a girl behind me that also grabbed onto me to keep from falling. Re' was screaming after Danny saying how HOT he was. If it weren't for some girls in front of us, we would've touched all of the guys!!

We had the time of our lives at this concert and we still get excited when we talk about it. They sang a ton of their old songs which was AWESOME and brought back so many memories. It was a childhood dream come true for all of us. We felt like kids again, and we had SO much fun hanging out together. It was GOOD TIMES!! Re' said it was the "best birthday present EVER"! I only wish that Loni was with me because she is a HUGE part of my NKOTB memory as we both loved (or obsessed) over Jonathan ;)

After the concert we each called our hubbies and told them that we "fell in love in love with another man" :) LOL.

TAHNA + JONATHAN KNIGHT (I guess I was always destined to be with a Jon...I mean John :)

RE' + DANNY WOOD (Took us awhile but the minute she saw him she remembered who her guy was :)

GIA + DONNIE WAHLBURG (Even at age 5 she had good taste in men :)

I wish I would've snuck my camera in because 90% of the pics that Gia took were of her favorite guy, Donnie!! I think Donnie is hot & all, but I had to keep yelling at her to remind her to take a picture of Jonathan & Danny. The pictures of Jon & Danny in the slideshow are seriously the only ones we have. The rest are Donnie!! LMAO! Not that I blame her because if I had my camera, they would all be of Jonathan :)