Beginning

Of 2014 that is. I don't really have any new and exciting beginnings, but it is January, which automatically makes new beginnings, right?

Also, just to clarify, I'm not necessarily back to blogging just cause it's January and we all make good goals in January. Frankly my goals have nothing to do with blogging, I just happened to have a free Sunday. :) (not that there's anything bad with blogging goals at all. I like it, it gives me more chance to read up on the lives of those I love. :) )

So anyways... life since October. It's been good! Busy. But good. I've been doing some more photography, which is always fun. Slash stressful. With a full time job, it just gets busy. But that's okay, it's all worth it. :) (How many smiley faces can I make in one post? I look like a 15 year old girl because of all of them. I'll strive harder not to use them). (nothing wrong with 15 year old girls, for the record. I just am not one so I don't want to look like one)

Anyways. Back to my life, since you're all SO interested. I read back through my last post and realized I never updated on my exciting French party. It was awesome. Lots of money cause French cheese is uber expensive, but it was really fun. We ate Raclettes. Raclette is a certain type of cheese, so you boil potatoes and have really thinly sliced deli meat over them and then you slice thick slices of the cheese and basically broil them (in France apparently they all have Raclette machines where you heat the meat on top and put the slices of cheese underneath where there's a flame so it melts the cheese under the flame.) Since we didn't have the magic machine we just used a griddle. The cheese really stunk as it cooked, but it tasted good! So once the cheese is melted you pour it over your potatoes and meat. Then we also had a salad, baguettes with other cheese, sparkling cider to sub for the traditional wine, and for dessert we had pain au chocolate. I found this great recipe online that I was excited to try for that that didn't look too hard .... I read the recipe to make sure I knew how much time I needed, only I somehow skipped the portion of 'chill dough for 4 hours' .... yeah, didn't have time for that, so we just did pillbury crescent rolls with chocolate chips in them instead. I'm sure they don't compare AT ALL to anything even close to the real thing, but they still tasted pretty good. I mean, bread and chocolate, how can you go wrong? I also bought sparklers to use (since we were technically celebrating their Bastille Day) but we forgot to use them. I was sad.

THEN we went over to Kyle's house because he has this French musical on DVD called Le Roi Soleil. Kyle said it was huge over there, they don't really have Broadway at all, it's their like only really big musical. He's shown it to me before and I love it. The music is so fun. And I love listening to all the French and picking out one word here and there that I know.  It was a great french day. A good substitute for not being able to actually be in Paris!

One day in October I decided to play Favorite Aunt for a day. I told Krista I'd take her boys for the evening so they could go out and then Bekah told me they had tickets for the BYU game ....... so I just decided to put both together! The boys were troopers. Casen was hilarious. He loved/was terrified by the sound of the cougar roaring every time we scored. And he loved to raise up his arm to do the 'It's another Cougar... 1st Down!' He was so cute. We saw a cutout of Cosmo when I took him to the bathroom and I asked him if he wanted to take a picture with him. He was in tears, terrified that he would have to get close to him. Ha ha. I told him we didn't have to take a picture if he didn't want to, but it still took a few minutes to recover.

 I love his expression -- so disgusted like 'why did you make me come here?'

Let's see. Next was probably Krista's surprise 30th Birthday that her amazing husband put together. It was really fun! Aren't they a good looking couple?? We love having them so close by. Aaron's such a good sport to put up with all of us and is such a good daddy. He can really get us all laughing; you should see his Charades skills! Krista is always ready for a good time and is so good with her boys. They are wonderful!

Daddy/daugher birthday!

Happy Halloween!

We loved Catching Fire!

 Happy Thanksgiving! I made this pie! All by myself. I was quite proud. It even got a great review from several famous chefs!

 This face!

 Waaaay too many delicious homemade pies.

Inducted Bekah into the family by forcing her 

to come black Friday shopping with us.

 See? This face!

 Girls Night Out at Sub Zero Ice Cream!

And we got to see the lights

Spencer and Heather's family came down to spend Christmas with us, which was so fun. Jared and Bekah were with us Christmas Day but they had to go back for Bekah's job (she had to work the day after) so we didn't get to see them as much. But we still had a great time!

Sisters! (you know you're singing it in your head)

Enjoying time with Grandma. 

They were making each other laugh so much.

Love the giggles.

"We" started work on my mom's fireplace. So mostly it was Spencer, Heather, and my dad ripping this thing out. But I helped clean up and offered moral support.

Hunter even got in on some of the action!

Went to a temple session :)

Cooking with Grandma (still sneaking a taste (see previous post) )

We got to talk to our Sister Luke!! She is doing so well and loving it. 

(Kristi snuck some photos of us as we were all hanging on every word. :) )

The Christmas Day group! 

(Notice Hunter hiding his face... it's kinda hard to see him... where's Waldo!)

Kristi's birthday! Yay! We took her out for sushi and brought her home for a surprise birthday party. She is the sweetest, funniest, most caring person! We love you Kristi Mo!!!!

This was New Year's Eve dinner I believe? They gave him some of he deviled egg.

And Grandpa (not to be left out) joined in as well

Happy Birthday Bekah!! She has just jumped into our family with both feet. She is funny and is really great to notice all the good things about other people. Wish we could see them more!

Yogurtland, in honor of Amy (don't judge, it was after a long shopping day)

And finally, our last hurrah was sledding! Thanks for the idea Aaron, we had a blast!! Freezing cold, but so fun.

SKL's

Grandpa and Casen

A Train!

He was bundled up pretty tight!

Look at that happy grin! Looks like his papa. :)

Even Benson got a turn!

ABT's

Yes, I was sporting my dad's ski pants from 197__. Pretty sweet.

Sisters! (sing it)

Everyone's happy with Grandpa!

We had such a great time with family. Can't wait for more adventures that 2014 will bring!