Ugly Sweater Christmas Party

Well this is super late, but better late than never!
So this year I hosted the 1st Annual Ugly Sweater/White Elephant, Christmas Party. It was an absolute blast, most people showed up in some hideous sweater they had conned one of their loved ones out of, or fought old ladies at the DI for!! There was a prize for the ugliest sweater and Brigg took that one hands down!! Thanks Granny B, lol.
The best part of the night was exchanging the white elephant gifts!!!!!!!!!!!! There were the silliest things ranging from almost empty bottles of liquor to bags of trash, dirty diapers included. The pictures below have most people with their white elephant gifts. Yes that is a vibrator that girl is holding. Thanks Shalyse, that was hilarious!

SANTA

Every year My Aunt Sarah and Uncle Mike have all their grandchildren over to decorate cookies, well during the cookie decorating celebration Santa comes to visit.
The last two year we have been able to share in their holiday tradition with Taylor. She is fearless, not afraid of Santa at all. She was bopping him on the head with a balloon that he gave her, wanting to sit in his lap while other kids were taking their turn and telling him no, no, no! She was cracking everyone up!
Here are some pictures from the festivities!

The little things matter the most!

So I am just gonna brag about how cute my honey is!! The other day I had a horrible day at work, I hadn't eaten lunch just a late breakfast, the people driving home from work with me that day were absolute idiots!! I was cursing and honking so much, thank goodness Taylor wasn't in the car, or she would have learned so new words ;) I walk in the door and Taylor is all excited to see her mommy, which I absolutely love coming home to that everyday!!!! Cody looks at me and says "rough day?" I proceeded to dump my days woes on him for a few minutes. I walk into the kitchen to set my purse down and notice that he had done the dishes!!!!!!!! Between Taylor getting excited to see me and Cody doing the dishes my bad day had disappeared! I love my family, I am one blessed individual!!

Sharpies

So as Cody and I were cleaning up dinner last night, we were under the impression that she was watching cartoons. OH BOY we were so wrong!!!
She was upstairs with a green sharpie!!! The sharpie ended up on the carpet, paper, legs, arms feet, tummy, calfs, bottoms of the feet, fingers, toes, arm pitts....no need to go on!! I wanted to be upset, but all I could do was laugh.
Here are some before and after pictures.












This was while we were cleaning the carpet.


























I "googled" how to remove permanent ink from childrens skin. found out that soap and warm water is a good place to start.
So these are pics of her after that....


































...Then it told me to take a cotton swap and use rubbing alcohol to finish the rest. I applied lots of lotion so that her poor little skin wasn't all dry and chappy after.
It actually did quite well, there are just traces of it left on her skin.














This is her showing you where she colored on herself.

Christmas is here...

So this year I was able to schmooze Cody into setting the tree up earlier than the week before Christmas!! So Monday night during the football game us three set up our cute tree. I love the ornaments because they are all the different ornaments that Cody's parent had given him over the last 25yrs!! His theme was Santa, so there is any kind of Santa you can think of, Skiing (of course), bbqin', baseball, etc.
Taylor had so much fun!! This year is going to be my fave Christmas to date. Tay has no idea what is in store for her! I cannot wait to see her over exaggerated excitement for gift she opens!!






































Tuesday night Taylor and I decorated a gingerbread house. I am not a baker so I opted for the kits you buy at the grocery store, no brainer right? Not exactly. So I followed the directions on the bag, but decided that those weren't the best!! Next year I will buy a icing bag and I will heat up the icing so that it comes out more smooth. Well here is our gingerbread house, not the most perfect but pretty dang cute.




















Taylor was so funny, she would stick her fingers in the icing as she was putting on the candy and say "nummy mama, mmmmm" It was so funny and every so often I would look up to see what she was doing and she would have candy in her mouth. Pretty sure she ate more than the put on the house!!



Here is the proud architect of the gingerbread house!!!

Thanksgiving

Can I just tell you I love the fall holidays. Thanksgiving is one of my faves. Lets break this down for a min; an entire day filled with NFL from morning to night, family and no one looking at you with disgust when you go back for thirds!! What more could you ask for?
Like every year my side of the family does a dinner on a different date than the real Thanksgiving. So this year I decided to host it at our house the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Reason being I still wanted to watch football all day as well as enjoy a traditional turkey day.
So I started cooking at 10 am and didnt stop until we ate at 4 pm. I was in charge of the turkey of course, mashed potatoes & gravy, green bean casserole and the rolls, all of the other food was brought by the guests. That made it super easy. Cody was such a big help, which helped me keep my sanity through out the day, Thanks babe!!

I was so proud of my turkey this year I made Cody take a few pictures before he carved it.















The turkey was so golden brown and cooked perfectly, it was not dry at all. Let me give you my secret weapon. Bags, get yourself a turkey bag by Reynolds!!!
My mom was in charge of the pies, holy moly did she bring so many pies!! There was a double chocolate cream pie, two different kinds of cheeescakes, and pumpkin. They were all so yummy!!

There were a total of 12 guests, yes we were able to fit 12 people comfortably in our house. There were three table spread out through the dinning room right into the living room.

The pictures below are of Taylor experiencing aerosol whipped cream. She absolutely loved it. She ate more of the whipped cream than she did of Scott's pumpkin pie!!










































The Follow Thursday was a much more relaxing day!! We had gone out to see One of my favorite bands, Royal Bliss preform their annual Thanksgiving show. So needless to say we were out late, but were able to sleep in!! We lounged around the house until it was time to Head over to Korahle's house for dinner with the extended family. It was a great dinner and we played so fun games. My little monster played with her little cousin and let me tell you those two are T-R-O-U-B-L-E!!!

HOLY WAR

Well the big game was a blast!!
The day was a busy day that ended fantastically.
I started off the day Shopping for new Utes gear for the fam @ 10a.m. (if you know me at all, you know that is a big deal that I was ready and out of the house before noon on a weekend)!!
When I was done it was then shopping time for baby stuff, Cody's cousin Ashli is due Chirstmas Eve. Right after I found the gifts it was time to head to the shower. It was a fun shower. I sat right beside a Y fan. I wish I would have taken a picture!!
I unfortunately had to leave the party early to head to the grocery store to shop for turkey day a
my item for the pot luck.
My side of the fam had an early turkey day...that
is a whole other post.
I was in charge of wings for our holy war party, so as soon as I got home I threw those together. They were actually the best wings I have ever made. Thanks for the recipe J!! If ya email me I will share the recipe, super simple!!

FINALLY it was time to head to the Millers, YAY!!
Taylor slept threw the first half, so Cody and I were able to watch most of the game together. Which was nice.
When she finally work up she was the cutest little

Utes Fan That I have ever seen. I was sure to send this picture to all of my friends that cheer for the blue side!!

The party didnt really start until after the game. A large portion of our friends have season tickets, front row right behind the north goal post!! So when they came home the celebration really began.
That is why you only see girls in the first picture. Cody and Tyler were the only males at the first, which I'm sure they loved.

It was so much fun to follow the Utes this year, the undefeated season was an added bonus.







I dont take shots so I was incharge of the picture taking during this one!!












This is my beautiful friend Sandee and her lil Utes princess Izzy