Birthday Tines

On the weekend after my birthday, we had a Christmas party at our house with some friends. We had soup, salad, and cupcakes and had a white elephant gift exchange. It's always a bunch of fun with Lauren & Justin and Becky & Christopher! They also surprised me with a birthday twist on the Christmas party. They brought hats and ice-cream and sang the birthday song. Woot. It was a lot of fun!





After opening white elephant gifts, we played a game and then watched the Christmas favorite, Elf! Then the boys played some video games. We had a great time! Thanks, guys!

Family Thanksgiving-ness etc.

Yep, it's a little late - but better late than never! The whole E family was together for Thanksgiving this year! It was the first time we've all been together since my parents left on their mission. I love when my family gets together! It's always so much fun and there is never a dull moment with all the kids and the children. ;) We got together friday afternoon for the delicious dinner - mmmmmmm. And then it was play time and hanging out with the fam. It was so nice to see everyone! The weather was awesome too! A little on the chilly side, but just right to play in.

On Friday, we had our family reunion. We met in the morning for breakfast and then spent the morning playing games and decorating squares for a family flag. We had a Wii bowling tournament where my 8-year-old niece blew everyone out of the water with a score of 198! Her little 5-year-old brother came in second place with 193! They were awesome! I have never gotten that high on Wii bowling! Their family took the tournament by storm! We had sandwiches for lunch and then played a getting-to-know-you game.

Then it was time for the scavenger hunt! We split up in teams and then went at it. It was so fun! For those who know the E-family, you know that we are competitive. It was a photograph one where we needed to take a picture of our team at the place where the photo clue was taken. We got 2nd place! Yeah!

We then headed to the church to play some games! We played glow-in-the-dark games with glow-stick necklaces. It was a lot of fun! We also played some basketball games.

After the games at the church we chilled at the house and hung out until it was dinner time. Then we had family skit time. Ha ha! It was awesome! We were given a bag of props and had to do a skit to show what we had been up to all year. I loved the creativity! Then it was board game time! It was such a fun couple of days! You can check out all our photos here (I can't choose just a couple to put on here):

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150600662839535.481232.747789534&type=1&l=5fd6fb2e2b

We love our family!

Oh, Bearded One

Thanks to Cortney's awesome Halloween costume, he was fortunate enough to allow his facial hair to grow longer. We both didn't know how we felt about the longer facial hair, but it turned out okay. I still don't know how I feel about it, actually. One part of me likes the long facial hair because Cortney looks so robust and more mature (the age-type mature). Another part of me doesn't like it because he doesn't look like Cortney, AND because I don't really like kissing a cactus. Even though it is no-shave-November, he decided to shave it off. The final collection:
If you give a man a razor...
Creepy? Like the wood paneling and vintage curtains? And the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' Shirt?
This is a picture from Cortney's birthday, but it does a great job at showing my handsome hubs with a freshly shorn face. Isn't he good-looking? I sure think so!

The Turkey Trot!

A few weekends ago on a cold and snowy Saturday, I headed on up to M town to participate in the Turkey Trot! It was put on by my niece's volleyball team. While driving up there I was hesitant to even participate because of the weather. Then I said to myself, "C'mon you wussie!" When I arrived, they had plenty of warm drinks to keep your core temperature up. We even got awesome t-shirts! This is us before the race:

Thanks to the fact that it is a small town and that fewer people participated, we both won turkeys! (Sorry about the flash...)

After the race, we chilled for a bit...
And J practiced being debonair...
Afterwards, we headed to L's basketball tournament. It was fun to hang out with the girls!


L's team (coached by my sis) won all their games! Woot.
Aww, the cute family.
It was a fun, snowy Saturday!

Don't Fall Over!

Fall is my favorite time of year to take photos! The colors are intriguing and it really does fill my soul to be out in nature, especially during the fall. The more I take pictures, the more I come to appreciate Heavenly Father's creations and reflect on the grand scheme of things. It's amazing to me the beauty that is found right out our door! Here are some of my favorites from the fall:





















Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?

State Champs

Last week, my niece's volleyball team, the Trojans, took state! Congrats Trojans!

I had the opportunity a couple of times this season to see some of their games. My niece, J is a freshman, but since she is so awesome, she was able to play on the J.V. team (and occasionally varsity). She is quite the athlete! She has only been playing volleyball for a short time, but she's definitely a natural and has become an awesome volleyball player.

We had a lot of fun hanging out at the games and watching the awesome Trojans dominate each team they played! The following pics are from a game at Bear River:

J is number 21...
C by her nickname stamp...
Ha ha!
Teamwork!
Waiting for the serve...
That's J - the blurry one who just KILLED the ball...
After each kill or point, the team on the floor comes together to cheer each other on. It's so cool to see their team spirit.
After the win against the Bears, we came outside to this sight....
Awesome, eh? Then this sight! (It's the old school Arctic Circle logo! Yeah!)

After we enjoyed some burgers and fries, we headed back home. Thanks C family! And congrats, J and the Trojans!