Murder Mystery...

A few weeks ago, a few days before Valentine's Day,
Jeff and I threw a Murder Mystery Dinner Date for some of our friends.
It turned out so fun!
I set it to a "LOVE BOAT CRUISE" theme, since it was Valentines, and Jeff and I were the rich hosts of the cruise. We all ended up laughing all night and it was fun to do something different! It was so funny to see everyone get into their characters!
The Gang (with the babies):

Eating and Laughing! :

The settings:
I made the fork holders to hold up everyone's booklets :)


Jeff and I- the "rich" hosts...

Nathan and Rachel- Cop and gossip columnist
Karen and Scott- Mortician and Man Stud

Bruce and Autumn- the Avid Treasure Hunters
Brent and Chantelle- the Butler and Maid

Emily and Robert- Our Rich Diva Daughter and Her Obsessed Stalker
Marty and Ann- The Aspiring Singer and Famous Actress

Thank you everyone for coming!
We had a ball!!

Who's up for another round??? :)

So there's a few videos that I've watched lately that I just think are super cool...
Yes...
This post is completely Random...
That's ok once in a while...
Right?...

The Man Your Man Could Smell Like:
(Jeff and I laughed so hard when we saw this! Love the last line.)


Super Cool Harmonica Dude:
(Hello talent!! This guy rocked it!)


We are the World 2010:
(Loved this- sweet rap interlude!)

Valentines is for the Birds...

With Springtime just around the corner (I know... Wishful hoping...) I thought we'd do a fun Valentine's activity for our little birdie friends outside the window. Dallin had a friend over and we put these together for a little Valentines Party.

You will need a small bag of pre-mixed birdseed, Knox Original Unflavored Gelatine, A Plastic Mold, a drinking straw, and ribbon. Mix two envelopes of unflavored Gelatine with 1 cup of water. Simmer on low until the gelatine has completely dissolved. Stir in 2 Cups of Birdseed until completely mixed. Spray your mold with a coat of baking spray and scoop in birdseed mixture pressing lightly to pack down. We used a little heart mold since it was for valentines, but any type of mold would be cute! :) Cut a drinking straw in small pieces and insert into the top of each mold making sure the straw goes completely through. Leave the straw in and chill for 2 Hours in the fridge.

Stephanie Lynn at "Under the Table and Dreaming" gave a great tutorial with photos on our activity here (I forgot to take play by play photos myself)...

They turned our really cute and Dallin had a fun time. He loves to go outside to check how much the birds have eaten everyday too.

That's MY kid...

I never thought that I'd ever have to have this kind of day...

Where it was MY kid...
MY kid to come home...

with a NOODLE up his NOSE...


Luckily...
Noodles get soft over time...

Family Fun Weekend...

A few weeks ago, Jeff and I had an awesome weekend with both of our families. We came down Cedar and spent the night there, and then went with almost his entire family (minus Steve and Lindsay) to the LDS Temple. Grandma Corry and Danny and Laura watched the kids in the visitors center while everyone went in to do some kind of temple work. It was so nice to go in and do temple work and not worry about the kids. Our ward was actually there doing Baptisms, so Jeff and I decided to join them in there. My brother also had a free day (which is very rare), and came over with us. We got to go into the confirmation room together. That was the first time I had ever been in the temple with my brother- so it was really fun! He's such a good kid! :) It was so wonderful to be there with Jeff's family too. I love that we are all sealed forever. :)

Cute Cousins:

Afterward we all went to Golden Corral- SOOO yummy! :) We had fun eating to our hearts' content! :)

Later that night, we went to my mom's house. It was my brother-in-law's 24th birthday (You're gettin' old man!) :)... My mom made an awesome dinner of "Cafe Rio" Pork Salad, and a yummy jello-poke cake! She's an amazing cook! :) We had fun playing Apples to Apples and making a lot of laughs! :)

The next day, we didn't really have much going on- so we gave my great-grandma Ilean a call and came over for lunch. Kellie, Connor and Scott all met up over there as well. My grandma made a delicious lunch (like usual). Scott decided to put on the record player and we started to look through some pictures my grandma had out. One thing led to another and we ended up going through her whole chest of old pictures and things. There were old newspaper clippings, and some of my grandma's old clothes. Baby clothes, documents and pictures from the war time and before. It was so awesome to look through and hear my grandma tell all of her old stories and her and my grandpa. I think it's a day that us kids will always look back on and remember!

We also took Dallin to my Great-Grandpa's grave for the first time. I miss him a lot.

We then headed back to Cedar since we had the Monday off and spent some more time with the Corry's. The next day, we got together some peeps and went to the church to play basketball. Everyone had a good time and it was fun to talk and have fun.

We were having so much fun and would have loved to stay longer than we did, but the weather was starting to get pretty bad and we knew we needed to get on the road. We decided to go through Springdale instead of over Cedar Mountain- hoping for better weather. We had just gotten through Zion National Park, when all of a sudden we realized we were overheating and had no power steering. Jeff and I are not really "car" people and had no idea what we were going to do. The kids were now awake and wanted out of their seats... But we were stuck in the middle of nowhere, on a dark night, in the middle of a snow storm. I started to kind of panic... and was trying to figure out the best way for all of us to stay warm enough. Amazingly... by an answer to prayer- we saw some headlights far off in the distance. We waited and realized they were coming our way. I tried to flag them down but they passed us... But luckily decided to turn around. It was a very nice couple from Boston who were headed down to Springdale for the night. The man had worked on cars a little bit and was trying to figure out what was wrong. We thanked them for the advice and decided to see if it worked as they watched us pull away. We started to go again, and realized that we were still overheating. The couple saw us pull over again, and came back over too us. The man said... "Ok... you guys have little kids. This isn't going to work. Let us give you a ride home." We were so Thankful! We couldn't believe that these total strangers were giving us a ride home- to a town that was going to be an hour out of their trip! We were so blessed with an answer to prayer and the generosity of this couple! We were also blessed with a great friend who was willing to go tow our van that very night (It was late!) before the snow piled up too high, and then fix it the next day. Thanks so much Bruce! We are very very thankful for wonderful people that were willing to help us! :)

We were also blessed with cute kids who had no idea what was going on, and were happy no matter what. :) (Dallin and Allison were both jumping up and down laughing)

Backtrack to Christmas...

Christmas is such a wonderful time. Full of the Saviors love, family, and friends. Sometimes, it also can be a stressful time- worrying about presents, entertaining, and money. Hopefully, everyone was able to really partake of the earlier three, and try to forget about the latter...

This Christmas was really fun for us...

The first Christmas in our new home.
The first Christmas for Allison.
The first Christmas Dallin really understood things.

As some of you know, we celebrate "Christmas Adam". It's a tradition Jeff and I started our first Christmas together. Since we knew we'd be gone with our families on Christmas Eve, we wanted the night before (Christmas Adam- Christmas Eve... Adam came before Eve... :) Got it?) to be the night with just our little family traditions. So... Every year, we have celebrated this night. It is the night that Santa comes (Yes... we're privileged to have him make a special early trip) and we do our own little traditions together with our kids.
Dallin was VERY specific on what he wanted from Santa this year:
"A Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with a glove balloon with Goofy inside and Mickey and Donald". (Thank you EBAY!)
He wrote a cute little letter to Santa and drew a picture of Mickey and wrote his name. He was very particular about the cookies too- The two red ones were for Santa, the blue one was for the reindeer to share, and the yellow one was for Rudolph. :)

The kids got in their cute jammies and headed to bed...

and didn't wake up until almost 10:00!
Jeff and I were more excited than they were! :)

*Just so you know... Dallin DID get the Goofy- but Santa brought it to Grandma's house the next morning. :) Ooops...*
Showing our Christmas Cheer:

Allison didn't understand why everything was in Paper... it took her a few days to really figure out what she was supposed to do.. :)

Later that day, we went over to Cedar to spend some time with Jeff's family. His Dad's family gets together every Christmas Eve and has a big dinner, acts out the nativity, and has a little talent show. Its a lot of fun to see all of his cousins and have a fun time with them. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera... arg...
Every Christmas Eve, Jeff's dad also reads a book called "Why the Chimes Rang". Before Jeff's mother passed away when he was young, she used to read it to them. It's a beautiful story about two brothers and their ultimate charity and love. After the book was read, we headed to bed.
The next morning was different than any Christmas I was used to. We all woke up. Read some scriptures. Talked. Ate a great Breakfast. And then we realized that there were still presents to open. We all were having so much fun together- we just kind of forgot. It was wonderful! We all finally rolled into the front room and had a fun time opening presents.

Jeff in his shirt I got him (isn't he hot?) :), and Dallin with MORE Lightning McQueen:

Later that Christmas Day afternoon, we headed up to Nephi to my Grandma Apple Valley's and Papa Bill's house. (That's not her real name... I just had so many grandmas when I was younger, and she just happened to live in Apple Valley at the time I came up with new names for them all :)... it just stuck). Almost the whole family went up the their house for a big Christmas dinner, presents, and spending the night. I didn't really take any pictures that either... (I didn't do too well in the picture department this year.) I did get this one of Allison and her cousin Connor though. Arn't they cute in their little sweatsuits? :)

We woke up to a wonderful breakfast and headed out with all of their snow mobiles to the near-by mountain. We all had so much fun! It was cold... but they had a little trailer with an awesome heater and hot chocolate! Mmmm! We all had SOOO much fun!

Me and my Allie-Bug... Jeff and I on a ride...

Dallin LOVIN' the snow...

My Mama, Kellie, and Me... Cute Mom and Darrell...

Kellie and Garrett... My Bro...

Papa Bill and Grandma A.V.- Arn't they cute?...
And My Aunt Kate and Cousin Brooke...

Dallin's obsessed with Hot Chocolate... Chillin' in the trailer...

We come back from Nephi on Sunday, stayed the night in Cedar, and headed home the next day after some grocery shopping. On Tuesday we watched Connor for Kellie and Garrett all day and night while they went to Brian Head for their anniversary. I'm definitely glad I don't have twins! :) He was really cute though.

Then on Wednesday, we finally got to have Christmas with my Dad. Kellie and Garrett came back to our house after Brian Head and my brother Scott was here also. We made a Ham dinner, and watched movies, opened presents, and talked. My dad also made a yummy waffle breakfast in the morning. It was really relaxing and nice. Again... I didn't take any pictures and I was really bummed. We only see my dad a few times a year... Luckily, Scott- who was riding home with my dad- forgot something at our house and I ran outside to snap a quick picture of them (and my dad's dogs) before they left.

We really did have a wonderful Christmas! We are definitely blessed with much more than we need and family so close. We are very blessed by the Lord. I'm thankful for him and this wonderful time of year we have to celebrate his birth.