For a contest on another blog I have to choose my favorite shot of people. After looking through TONS of photos I've decided to just go with my favorite recent photo to save myself from hours of sorting through my cajillion photos. So my favorite photo right now is..... drumroll please......

This one!

Daniel discovered the thrill of his first snowball fight. I discovered his deadly aim. This kid has got a great arm.

So I got this from a friend's blog, I think it's such a great idea and can't wait to do it.

{Lucky you!

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It'll be done this year.
4- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry or an article on properly cleaning your face before a masque. I may sew or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!}

November 2008:

The highlight of the month was our trip to Kansas for Thanksgiving. We had to keep it short because of the weather and school, so we packed as much as we could in the little time we had. We spent the majority of Thanksgiving Day cooking, the boys were particularly interested in basting the Turkey it turned out beautifully. I made a bunch of pies, including my first banana cream pie. Thanks to my mother -in-law's recipe it turned out sooooo well. Dani wanted to make my grandmother's ambrosia salad.After we had started making it we realized we didn't have any mini marshmallows, so Bryan improvised and spent a long while cutting jumbo marshmallows with (sterilized) kitchen shears. I think I actually liked it better that way!My parents called from New Zealand so we each got to talk to them for a few minutes. It was nice to touch bases, they were missed.Dani showed off her cute new hair cut.The kids all sat down for dinner. It was so nice to have all of Daniel's cousins around, he had so much fun with them all.We spent a while outside and played some games. (okay, so I was inside getting my baby fix by holding my new nephew Nathan....But almost everyone else was outside playing ;)We also made a trip up to the Kansas City Cabella's. They had some great gloves that I really wanted, but were out of stock! I ended up finding a pair I liked even better in the children's section, thank goodness for little hands!These two girls are inseperable. They are so lucky to live so close to each other and get to be such good friends!

Unfortunately I got really sick and a snow storm was due to roll through the next day, so we had to head out. It was far too short and we had such a great time. We'll definitely be back soon. Thanks for having us Dani and David!

5 Years!
This past month Bryan and I celebrated our 5th Anniversary! (k, so now that I've actually gotten around to posting it, it's more like a few months ago, but who's counting?) It's hard to believe we've been married so long, sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday. (and other times it feels like we've always been married) Our wedding was one of the best days of our lives, and we couldn't have asked for a more perfect day.

In the morning we braved the icy roads and were married in the Mt. Timpanogos Temple. All of our family was there and it was a beautiful ceremony. Most of my really good friends were able to come as well, which meant so much to me.

We spent a while outside taking pictures. While we had been in the temple the clouds had cleared and it was a sunny day, still cold, but sunny.

In the afternoon we had a wonderful luncheon at our now favorite restaurant, Chef's Table. Both of our families were there and the place was packed. It turns out we didn't take any pictures of the luncheon, luckily Bryan's Grandfather remembered! If anyone else out there randomly has pictures of our luncheon (or wedding!) we'd love to have a copy.... :)

After our wonderful lunch, (honestly I don't remember what I had to eat, I remember where my friends and family sat though!) We headed over to the Ballroom where our reception was being held and took yet more pictures. We had our reception in the newly renovated Provo Library. I love that building, it's where my grandfather went to school while he was at BYU, and my mother even had classes there too. Our reception was wonderful, filled with friends and family. The only mar on a perfect day was the lousy dj, he played all of the songs that we had asked him NOT to, lol. Luckily some of my friends from BYU Singers came and sang a beautiful rendition of "The Nearness of You," and saved the musical portion of the evening.

Thanks guys!

It's been a wonderful 5 years filled with lots of great times and fun memories. Bryan's put up with my "creativity" smiling all the while and now that we've made it this far, I know we can make it all the way. Love you honey.

HGTV's Dream Home Giveaway:

I've been entering this contest for a while now and am certain that I'm destined to win it. Now I just have to come up with the $665,000 in taxes and fees I'll have to pay when I do! You can enter once a day until 2/19. Good luck! If any of you win it I'm calling dibs on the guest room!

Rolls!

For Jo:

I've been promising Bryan's (very young;) Aunt, JoLynn, the recipe for my Mother's rolls. (pictured above in the background) And I always forget. But here it is now Jo, all because you joined Facebook! :) I only hope my Mom and Sisters will forgive me for sharing the secret ;) My Mom got this from someone else, so it's not really ours anyways!

My Family's Roll Recipe
In a medium/small bowl combine 2 Tbsp. yeast and 1 Tbsp. Sugar into 1/2 cup warm water. Set in a warm place. The yeast needs time to rise and become active. (maybe 10-15 mins.)

In a large bowl combine:
1 Cup butter (melted)
1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Boiling Water

Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add the ingredients from the first bowl (yeast, etc) to this mixture.

Add: 4 eggs, beaten
1 cup cold water
2 tsp. salt
7 1/2 cups Flour
in the order they are listed and mix with a spoon.

Cover and refrigerate overnight. About 2 to 3 hours before baking remove from fridge and form rolls. For crescent rolls, divide dough into fourths and roll each part out into circle. Spread melted or softened butter all over the top. Cut the circle into wedges with a pizza cutter and roll up each piece, beginning at the wide end of triangle. Place the rolls on a baking sheet with about an inch of space on all sides. Cover the rolls with clean dish towel (or something similar) and let them rise for about 3 hours. Bake at 425 for 8 to 12 minutes. Altitude and humidity seem to affect these a lot, so check them often to see how long it takes where you live!
These are amazing all by themselves, or you could serve them with jam and butter on the side. 

Caffeine Free!!!

I have officially made it 1 full month without one drop of caffeine! I didn't want to post about it before now in case I chickened out, but now I'm quite confident that I've kicked the habit.
You know I didn't used to have a problem with it. All throughout high school and most of college I never drank pop, let alone caffeine. But I spent one summer at home during college and my Mom finally got me addicted. I LOVED. the. STUFF. During Carmen my wee Irish friend Lyndsey (the other Carmen) and I bonded over many a can o' the stuff. For a few years now I've gone off and back on the stuff, but I've never really made a decision and a conserted effort. I'll still have one on rare occasions as a treat, but other than that I'm done with the constant fatigue/headache cycle!