Christmas in Nevada

This is the first year that Doug and I have spent Christmas with my family.  I was very happy to leave the cold weather behind for almost 2 weeks!  Yes snow is great on Christmas but.....you can only handle it for so long.  So we got to go down to Logandale and spend it in 50 degree weather.

All of my siblings were home except for Logan, who is on his mission in DC.  It was great to see my family!  We had fun playing games and just relaxing.  My favorite tradition is to have a big Christmas Eve dinner.  I just love having everyone around the table and the time we get to spend with each other.  Here is our big spread and of course our desert!  That is one big apple pie(definitely my favorite)!

      

I love being in my parents house around Christmas!  My Mom's decorations are amazing and Dad always has a huge fire blazing (even if its not that cold outside haha).  We bake and cook and cook and bake!  It seemed like most of our time was spent in the kitchen but I loved it!  One thing my Dad said while we were there was, "You know I would be fine just skipping presents and everything every year.  It's the most fun to just have my kids around and spending time with each other."  Amen Dad!  Thanks! You helped me find the true meaning of Christmas.  We enjoyed every minute of just being around our family!

Burley enjoyed presents after he realized he got something fun and new every time we started ripping the paper off of one.  After a while though he was more excited to rip the paper balls up that we were throwing into the garbage pile.  He got a very cute scarf and new bone from Mom and Dad Hansen, some very delicious treats from Mom and Dad Waite, and a new bed, rope toy, and of course new bones from us.  He was one happy dog!

     

The biggest project we undertook was making a massive gingerbread house.  I don't know why we decided to do it, maybe because I just like to be challenged and stressed, or maybe it was the fact that my brother thought we couldn't do it.  So we built this monster with the help of many hands.  It took so long we didn't even have it finished by the time we left.  So I guess we will save it and work on it again sometime who knows : ).

          

Oh I must give credit to Doug.  He was the amazing architect of the roof and without him I think I would have ruined the whole thing.  The singles we made out of ginger snaps.  We used just the head of a ginger bread man cookie cutter.  The two tone color is pretty sweet, if I do say so myself.  Funny thing is its because I burnt the first batch that we even got the idea to make the roof look so cool.  My sister made the windows look awesome, I again would've ruined them by myself.  We melted sugar for them and used tooth picks for the window pane look.  It is missing the deck railing, some landscaping work, and snow but at least the house was finished!

Christmas Tree Hunting!

Oh how I love Christmas!  And of course it is always a busy time of year so I am a little late in writing about it : ).  We started the season off a day or two after thanksgiving by going tree hunting!  We have cut down one tree in the past and it was a lot of fun so we thought we should do it again.  Believe me you should plan before you go!

We left a little later than we should have and so decided not to go very far.  We ended up having the choice of one kind of tree (and they weren't my favorite kind).  They were all very sparse or had two trunks.  Finally after hunting all over the side of the mountain we settled for one.  I think we kept trying to talk ourselves into how great it would look.  So we chopped it down and strapped it to the car.

When we got home, we measured it and found it was 12 1/2 feet tall.  Of course it was too tall!  So we had to cut the bottom half off, which by the way was the best part about the tree.  We were left with a little tree that had branches about every 2 feet.  Not my kind of Christmas tree : (.  It was too sad for me to even take a picture of so you will just have to imagine it.

Then we had a GREAT idea!  I'd heard all the stories about how Grandpa Boyer would always buy two not so great trees and use the branches off of one to make the other look fantastic.  He would drill holes and stick the branches in.  So we tried that with a couple branches from the bottom half of the tree......It looked good......but.....if you even breathed on them the wrong way they fell out!  I do not know how Grandpa Boyer could possibly have made a tree that they could decorate!

We soon decided that it was just not going to work to put extra branches in.  Now we were left with the problem of holes drilled in a poor tree that didn't have enough branches to cover them up.  Plus the fact that the tree was going to die ten times faster because we had drilled holes into it.  So our final decision was to just go buy one.  And here it is, the best tree we've ever had.

      

I learned many things about Christmas Tree Hunting:

1. Leave early enough to go somewhere with a variety of trees.

2. If you're trying to convince yourself that the tree will be ok....it most likely is not going to look as good when you get home : )  Every tree looks good on the mountain.

3. Grandpa Boyer had some secret way to make branches stick into the other tree. Without that secret you should not attempt to do it on your own.

4. Grandpa Boyer got the trees the day before Christmas eve and it was taken down the day after Christmas.  Fake branches will most likely die a lot quicker than the rest of the tree (Yes we only thought of this after we had put them in).

5.  Don't cut a tree down that you may not end up using, you feel really bad for cutting it down.  I'm sad I ended the poor trees life for no reason.

6. Cutting down your own tree will always be a wonderful experience and give you great memories!  It's not about the way the tree looks but about the time you spend with each other as a family : )!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was wonderful!  We spent it here in Rexburg with Doug's family.  I just love getting ready for the 'big dinner', when everyone is in the kitchen helping, and making delicious food.  True the food is delicious but its more than that.  Its about the fact that family is all gathered together.  That you can feel the love that is being shared as everyone is happy to help and contribute.  Thats what I love about the tradition of a 'big dinner' on thanksgiving day.

My other favorite thing, something that is a tradition in the Hansen Family, is going around the table and saying what you are thankful for.  It is a wonderful opportunity to share your feelings with your family that you don't often share.  I always come away feeling uplifted and having my testimony strengthened!  Thanks family for all of your wonderful examples!

The Hansen Family (minus a few truly missed members)

September/Halloween Catch-Up

Septemeber brought us to my birthday and of course a fantastic birthday present: Burley!  The cutest little fuzzball on this planet : )!

       

We went to visit Becca & Craig in Twin Falls over Labor Day weekend and stopped to pick him up in Burley (no its not a coincidence that this happens to be our pups name) on the way home.  He was so tiny and cute I just can't believe how he has grown up so fast!

He was not too bad to potty train.  He actually caught on rather quickly and only had one accident every couple days.  It was kind of funny because he never would whine at the door or scratch when he needed to go.  Instead he would just come up to you,  sit, and stare at you, willing you to read his mind and the fact that he needed to go outside.  Needless to say potty training only took about 3 weeks and now he never has a problem with it.

I have really enjoyed teaching him tricks and taking pictures of him.  For those of you who know him, you know that these pictures don't do him justice.  He is just way too cute.

His first time digging.  He loved it! He had such a messy

face afterwards though : ).

     

Playing outside at Doug's parent's house.

    

Just being adorable.  He climbed up onto this shelf we have in the kitchen and just sat there watching us do whatever.  It was too cute not to take a picture.

Ok moving on : ) I will have many more posts about Burley with lots more pictures.

Halloween was a lot of fun!  I just love to see little kids dress up and enjoy all of the colors that come with fall!  I'm not a fan of the scary stuff.  We had fun doing another murder mystery dinner with Doug's family.  We even got to have Becca and Craig come do it with us.  Here are the great pictures : )

        

I don't know how we missed Mom & Dad Hansen but they looked fabulous as well.  We enjoyed lunch together and a good mystery.

Dutch-Oven Dessert Cook Off

We also had the Quick family reunion about a week later.  We had a lot of fun playing games, seeing family, and of course eating.  My parents decided that the dessert cook off was so much fun at my Dad's reunion that we should do it at the Quick one too!  I decided I might as well compete.

I soon found out that almost everyone was going to cook something and they were practicing to make sure it would be just right.  So of course the competitiveness in me began to come out.  We practiced making and apple pie in the dutch oven and it surprisingly turned out so well!  So I was set for the competition, thinking I had done it before and shouldn't make any mistakes.

I love to watch competitions on Food Network and I sometimes wonder how when they cook and practice everyday they can ever forget something or mess something up.  Well I now know : ).  We were given a time limit and it didn't seem like enough time at all!  I was hurrying so fast I totally forgot to put the sugar in the pie crust, which I didn't notice till after the whole pie was made and the lattice top put on. It went a little something like this:

Me: Mom, does this pie crust taste salty to you?

Mom: Woah! Yeah did you put too much salt?  Its WAY salty!

Me: No I swear I know I put the right.....(I was looking at the recipe).....Awww I forgot to put the sugar in!

Mom:  How much sugar did it call for?

Me: ummm....a 1/3 of a cup (cringing).

Mom: Thats a lot of sugar....we'll just have to see.

I was sure that I had ruined the whole thing and gave up all hope of winning.  The good thing about the pie that I chose is that the filling is extremely sweet and right under the top crust is a whole ton of sugar.  You sprinkle a mixture of brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, and pecans on top of the apples before you put the top crust on.  So when the pie was done and I tried the first bite I was pleasantly surprised to find it was even better without all that sugar in the crust.  It helped to balance the sweetness of the filling!

Everyone had to sample the different desserts and then on a silent, private ballot cast their votes.  They announced the third and then the second.  My name wasn't in either and I knew I had won!  We got a 12" lodge dutch oven which is great because we only had one 10" one!!  (my Dad was in charge of the prizes and of course went all out on the dutch oven stuff : ).   I felt like I was in a food network competition for a couple of hours.  The only thing missing was the $10,000 check at the end : ).

August Catch-Up

We started August with the Boyer Reunion.  It was so much fun as always.  We got to see a lot of Doug's cousins, which was great!  Some of the high lights of the Reunion were boating, rock climbing, and of course skits/talent night.  I got a lot of pictures during the rock climbing but seemed to have forgotten my camera for the other activities.

The Great Climbers...

     

We also took the kids to the Splash Park and Carousel.  It was so much fun to watch them play! Here's me and a couple of my adorable nephews.

  

Later on in August Mom and Dad Hansen drove us, Rachel and Bryant to meet Becca and Craig in SunValley and go to the Symphony.  We enjoyed the drive and were able to stop and say hi to Grandma Boyer for a couple of minutes!  It was so good to see her again.

We listened to wonderful music while the weather got pretty rainy. Luckily we were under the tent during the concert.  We got some blankets to walk under while Doug and his family reminisced about their days while Dad played in the Sun Valley Symphony.  It was fun and we had a great time!

      

The Waite family reunion was in Island Park this year!  So we only had to drive a couple hours to get there.  We got to stay in a fun cabin, play games, sing songs, buy fun things at a bazaar, and bid on items in an auction.  It was so beautiful up in the mountains and we loved spending time outside playing horse shoes and darts.

I think one of my favorite things about reunions is most definitely the food.  We always eat so well! We got to do dutch oven cooking one night and got to sample delicious desserts from the dessert cook off.  Unfortunately I forgot my camera and I have no pictures : (

July Catch-Up

July was a pretty crazy time for us!  I graduated with my Associates in Piano Pedagogy, so my parents came up to see me.  I also was lucky (or should I say unlucky?) enough to be asked to play a musical selection at convocation.  Of course I had to say yes although I really hate the pressure of performing, especially in front of all of the music majors graduating.  Here are some pictures from that extremely terrifying and yet still relieving experience.

         

  

Of course everyone was there to support me from Doug's family and for that I was very grateful.

So after that was over my Mom stayed for a week while my Dad went home and worked.  We had a reunion up in Idaho so he would return the following week for that and they could both go home together.

My Mom was such a sport!  She got thrown in the middle of Becca's wedding, helping me quilt and the Boyer Reunion!  It would be so overwhelming and yet she loved every minute of it and made herself at home like she was just part of the family.  I was so glad to have her here for a whole week it was wonderful!

As I said she helped me finish the quilt I made for Becca.  It was crazy because I put the quilt top together while I was going to school and got the quilt up on the frames right before finals week.  Well I didn't get too much quilting done because of finals so we had a whole lot to accomplish in 5 days so we could have it ready to display at the reception.

           

   

Luckily we had the help of the whole family!  Yep those are the Quilting Hansen Brothers!  They were great sports to come and put a few stitches in.  Dad Hansen and Bryce did put ONE stitch in and wanted to be sure everyone knew it, I just didn't catch them on camera with the evidence.  Needless to say I think they all came away with a new understanding of how hard quilting can be : ).  They really were awesome at it and their stitches were so neat and straight!

So then that brings me to the wedding.  We were so excited to witness Becca and Craig being sealed!  It was a special experience to have see so much family together in the temple to lend their love and support.

                 

Becca was such a beautiful bride and Craig looked rather dashing in his tux : ).  We enjoyed a beautiful reception with a wonderful program and of course wonderful food!  We are definitely looking forward to having Becca and Craig back from Twin Falls!

Well that wraps up July.  Stay tuned for catch-up from August....