Time Sure Flies When You're Having Fun

I can't believe 2011 is already over. I have really slacked in the blogging area. For those who do actually read my blog and want to know what is going on, here is a quick update of the last couple months.

November flew by! I got a job at Health Equity right before

Thanksgiving. For Thanksgiving we spent a few days in Cedar with Bryce's extended family. Unfortunately, we had to cut the party

short because Bryce needed to study.

After Thanksgiving Bryce spent the next two weeks studying like

crazy for his finals. He had worked so hard and put so many hours into studying over the semester and it definitely paid off in

the end. Bryce did great on his finals and then it was time to

party!!! Unfortunately with my new job, I only had one day off

over Christmas so once again the holidays were short lived.

(I have so many pictures from Christmas that I am going to have

to do a post completely dedicated to that later).

Once January hit, Bryce was busy with school and again and I was pretty busy with my job. January is the busiest month and that is why they hired so many people for temporary positions in Jan.

My job finished the middle of January and now I am just looking

for a new job to occupy my time. As we look back on the last year, we realized we have been truly blessed.

So this post would be extremely boring with just a quick update

and no pictures, therefore I am adding this picture that Bryce

sent to me before Thanksgiving.

This pretty much sums up my feelings about celebrating Christmas November 1st!

Halloween Festivities

The week before Halloween, Bryce and I went to carve pumpkins with some of Bryce's medical school friends. The host would bring all the supplies, we were just in charge of bring our own pumpkin. In my family, we don't take finding pumpkins lightly. Growing up, we used to go to a large pumpkin patch and walk around for hours (probably not, but it felt like it then), until we found our "perfect" pumpkin.

This year, however, I didn't have time to go shopping for our pumpkin in the big pumpkin patch. Instead, I had to settle for the small selection that Walmart had. However, I was not going to "settle". I was determined to find the biggest, and best pumpkin to take for our carving festivities. Needless to say, I found this big baby and plopped it right into my cart. I must have found a winner because while I was walking around Walmart I had many customers jealously eyeing up my pumpkin. As I was checking out one man exclaimed, "Wow, that pumpkin is bigger than you." haha.

Bryce and I had a lot of fun carving our pumpkins with his friends and we were extremely proud of our little masterpiece.

When we got home, Bryce decided to try out some of his cooking skills. While I was busy, he got online, looked up an apple crisp recipe, and made us some apple crisp from scratch. I was so surprised and totally impressed when I smelled those delicious aromas coming from our kitchen. It was DELICIOUS!!!

For Halloween Bryce and I decided to go trick or treating with a twist. Instead of asking for a treat from our neighbors, we decided to make Halloween sugar cookies and deliver them instead. However, delivering cookies was simply just not enough. We decided to dress up as Mario and Luigi and deliver our little treats. Our neighbors' reactions were priceless and Bryce and I had a blast!

Pumpkin Walk

Bryce and I decided to make a surprise visit to Logan two weekends ago to celebrate my mom's birthday. Since we had seen my family the week before, my mom wasn't expecting to see us again. My little sister was such a perfect little fibber and she made sure that my mom had no idea we were coming. When we got to Logan we met Brittanee at Maceys (my mom thought she was going to Twizzle Berry with her friend) and picked up some balloons and a birthday cake Brittane had already ordered. Then Brittanee texted my mom and said that her friend wanted to come by the house and wish my mom a happy birthday. When we walked in the house Bryce and I both yelled "Happy Birthday" and my mom sat up and was like "That is NOT Amy." She was so surprised, but so ecstatic that we were there.

My dad cooked some steaks on the grill and my mom made some homemade french fries for dinner. It was so amazing and it was so nice to finally go home. We haven't been to Logan since we left in July and I felt like our entire house had changed. I kept walking around saying oh this is cute when did you get this, and then my mom would say oh we've had that for months. So far, my mom has redecorated her living room and now has an adorable hanging family pictures on the wall, my dad has started to repaint the trim around the house, and they got a new sink. I felt like I was at a stranger's house.

After dinner we decided to go to the pumpkin walk since Bryce had never been to one before. It was kinda chilly, but we all dressed up nice and warm and had such a fun time. Here are a few pictures of our favorite displays. It still blows my mind how people can be so creative and make their pumpkins look real. I love the pumpkin walk and I am truly impressed every year I go.

Kung Fu Panda

American Flag

Mickey Mouse from Fantasia

Angry Birds

Dorthy from Wizard of Oz

Despicable Me

We love those little minions

Gilligan's Island

Fido (pronounced FEE-DO)

Boy Scout camping

This display was so neat. You can't really tell from the picture, but the waterfall was coming out of the pumpkin's mouth

Tangled. Brittanee was so sure that there would be a Tangled display. Although it was one of the last displays we saw, she got her wish.

Bambi

A Christmas Story

Winnie the Pooh

This Tigger was so impressive

I Love My Hunny

Yoda

"Can he fix it, YES HE CAN" Bryce is definitely my little handy man at home

The Sweet Mickey Mouse (this Mickey Mouse is definitely cuter than the Fantasia Mickey Mouse)

"You're Wish is My Command"

"Expelliarmus" Mom was prepared with her magic ward to scare away the wicked witches if we happened to run into any of them. Unfortunately, we got there too late and the witches had already left.

"You Got a Friend in Me"

The Lovely Snow White

The Little Mermaid

Cinderella

There were so many people at the pumpkin walk that we had to park our car a few blocks away and then ride a bus to get to the entrance

Once we got home we were so inspired (really Mom and Brittanee were inspired) and wanted to make our own creations. They had already spray painted the two larger pumpkins and were just getting ready to finish their caterpillar. Needless to say, we had a little too much fun with the spray cans and ended up painting some of the sidewalk and some of the grass. Dad always wanted really green grass, now he gets bright lime green grass. Once the pumpkins were painted we still hadn't gotten all of our fill with the "vandalizing". We tried to talk dad into letting us spray paint the back fence (which is falling apart anyway), but he said No Way Jose. Brittanee was a good sport and brought out one of her old T-Shirts and we had a hay day with that.

After the Pumpkin Walk and once our pumpkins were finished we ended my mom's birthday with the traditional singing and birthday cake. We didn't get a picture of her present, but we aren't horrible children and we did get her something. We went in with my grandparents and my mom used that money to buy herself an ipod touch.

Happy Birthday to the most amazing, wonderful, beautiful, self-less, caring, talented, mom in the whole world. You are such an amazing example of what a mother should be. I love you so much. Bryce and I are so blessed to have you for a mother and our children will be the luckiest grandchildren in the world. Could we be any more blessed??? (Maybe if you let us win once in awhile at Snarf :) haha. We love you so much mom, and hope you had a fabulous day!!!

Home

A few weeks ago, my mom came down to Salt Lake to watch one of Brittanee's volleyball tournaments. While she was visiting we decided that my house needed a few more decorations (I've been told we have too many pictures, and everything in our house in black and white). She brought down some cute letter blocks that spelled the word HOME. After looking at the blocks we decided that they would be cute in red, black and white scrapbook paper. Haha, no real surprise there. We had such a blast working together and I love the end result.

Thanks mom for all your help and for your artistic ability. I love the new addition to our little home.

A Great Weekend

This past weekend was such a blast. Bryce and I were asked to speak in sacrament meeting, so we invited my family to come down and listen. Saturday was my grandpa's birthday and he wanted to take everyone out to lunch at Maddox, so I caught a ride up to Brigham with my aunt and then I was going to come back home with my family. Unfortunately, Bryce had a school meeting he had to attend so he missed out on lunch (but his amazing and thoughtful wife brought him a turkey steak dinner home :) haha).

Anyway, once my family got here and Bryce finally finished with his meeting we laughed all night long. Something you must know about my family is that we are all pretty shy around people we don't know, but once we get to know you, a completely different side of us comes out. Bryce discovered this while we were dating and I took him to Logan to meet my family. On the drive home he said that he thought I was a fun girl before, but he couldn't believe what a goof I really was. Not many people get to see this side, but if I feel comfortable around you, then you will be surprised at how different I really am. haha.

Anyway, Saturday night we played every game Bryce and I have (monopoly deal, life, phase 10, white lies, and cranium). By the end of the night my side was so sore from laughing so hard. We stayed up way past our bedtimes and having 9 am church the next morning was kinda a killer. After church we came home and had spicy shredded chicken, Spanish rice, chips and salsa and caramel apples. Everyone must have been wiped out because after we all clean up I left the room for a min and came back to find this...

What a bunch of sleepy heads!!!

Bryce and I are so blessed to have such an amazing family!!!

Date Nights

My husband is amazing!!!! Although he usually is studying and at school everyday from 5:30 am to 10 pm, he never studies Friday nights for Date Nights. I love and look forward to every Friday night. Here are just a few of the things we have done since we have moved to Salt Lake; went to a Bees Game, rented a movie but ended up playing games the whole night, ate a Sizzler, and last night we had a picnic at Liberty Park. This is one of the biggest parks I have ever seen. The website says that it is 100 acres, and it seriously goes on forever. What is in this park???

• Bird Aviary
• Swimming Pool
• Tennis Center
• Pavilions
• Lake
• Playgrounds
• Seven Canyons Fountain
• Duck Pond
• Concessions and Rides
• Horseshoe Pits
• Bocce Ball Pits
• Basketball Court
• Greenhouse
• Sand and Concrete Volleyball
• Rollerblade Path

(I forgot to put my new camera in my purse, so we had to use my old broken camera. Sorry the picture is so blurry)

Once we got to the park we decided to eat our KFC on one of the picnic benches, and then lay the blanket out on the grass and just relax. Bad Idea. We were about halfway through our dinner when we were attacked by bees. If someone was people watching and saw us I am sure we would have looked hilarious!!! We got up from the table and starting running around the table swatting at the bees. Finally Bryce hit one by it flew right into me. I thought for sure one of us would get stung. We eventually decided that we weren't going to be able to eat in peace anymore, so we took our food and our blanket and went to the middle of the park where they weren't any garbage cans. We thought that would take care of the bees, but they still followed us. Finally, we through my chicken bones and the rest of Bryce's mashed potatoes into the KFC box and put it about 3 feet away from where we were sitting. IT WORKED!!!! The bee buzzed around the box and eventually went inside and we didn't see it again!!!

Here is our amazing bee contraption! Once the bee flew inside the box this is the following conversation Bryce and I had.

Bryce: "We could catch ourselves a bee tonight."
Me: "What are you going to do with a bee?"
Bryce: "Get honey!!!"
Me: "I bet you get stung before you get any honey."

Haha, regardless of what we are doing (watching a movie, eating out, or being attacked by a swarm of bees) Bryce and I always have fun and enjoy each others company. I couldn't have asked for a better husband. I love you Bryce!!!