talky talky, walky walky

so here are a few more details of what has been going on lately:

1) back when we were in wyoming we found some awesome pics of casey and family

example a:

 casey's mum was Miss Siskyou in 1980! (her county in cali)

 and while looking aroundwe found the original sash :)

i made her put it on.

she complied.

we had casey jump in the pic :)

thanks nan!

example b:

"casey may 1988. decided to eat the marking pens"

yep, that be my hubby :)

2. we got to hang out with one of my cousins, kammy and her husband, rob!

we had a lot of fun catching up together, playing games, eating, and playing wii.

3. we are watching the state of the union address right now (i feel so adult!)

but all i hear is too much clapping!

4. we went to a ward party the other nigh and it was an absolute blast!

we have some totally awesome people in our ward, we love it.

they had it a mansion up in a canyon (far, far away, in a snow storm) that BYU owns.

we played games, basketball, human foosball, and of course, ate yummy food.

such fun :)

5. casey's cousin, brooke, shared this link on facebook and i thought it's quite intersting.

it's an article how a lot of women (many not LDS) are completely attracted and in love with looking at "the mormon mommy blogs".

i like looking at them bc i can relate, that truly is what i hope to have: a family with casey where we can find joy in our kids, our marriage, and in out everyday lives.

it is funny how "crafting", "thrifting", and all other things "homemaking" have become a very popular trend lately, i am so glad they are.

but to me, that's how i've always grown up though. 

i remember always going to the 2nd hand store to go shopping, ha, and i remember it almost being embarrassing. no, we didn't have to shop there, but my mom understood you can get great things there for great prices, and with 5 kids, why not? so when people go "thrifting", that's always been normal shopping for me. being a "homemaker" is one of the most wonderful things i think you can do on this earth as a woman, truly. teaching your children, watching them grow, caring for family, and being able to serve others with pure love. so i'm happy that these "mormon mommy blogs" have become so popular bc i think it shows society that marriage and family can be one of the most wonderful things to experience here in mortality. so, keep blogging friends, mormon, and non-mormon :)

if you don't agree (or didn't read) my 2 cents, it's totally fine :)

Within Bounds

i came across this video today and it really touched me and hit home.

casey and i try to get out to the slopes pretty often and understand why it's so important to stay on directed paths and safe areas.

we also understand why it's so important to stay in safe areas in your everyday life,

one wrong move can lead you to a hurt-some and lonely life

i get a little emotional watching any church video bc they put it across so perfectly.

the love of a church leader to the youth and other ward members is so sincere and wonderful.

watching small children do the right thing, listen to the spirit, and help others along their way.

or purely listening to an apostle of the Lord teach about the sacred role of an apostle.

I now want to share my testimony to you all that these sacred things are true. I know that I have a Father in Heaven who loves me and you individually, knowing us both by name, and more importantly, knowing who we are individually and what our struggles are. I know that if we turn to Him in sincere prayer and faith, our struggles can be overcome and we will be happier. I know that His Son, Jesus Christ, came down to earth, lived like mortal men, and atoned for us all in Gethsemane so that we too, can return to our Father in Heaven and live like Him someday with our families forever. I know that Joseph Smith is a true prophet who helped restore this church today. I know the Book of Mormon to be the true, direct words from God and love it with all my heart. Lastly, I know our prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, is an ordinary man, led by the Spirit in our day to guide and direct us in correct ways. I love that man so much. I love this gospel with all my heart and know it's true with every fiber of my soul. I bear this testimony in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

two and a half hours later we went skiing...

so friday...

ski day right?

kind of.

we planned on going with my friend annalise from AG.

she came, to get us and coincidentally locked herself out of the car in our driveway...

and guess where the spare key was? in the car with her other car keys

(the paper below is her list of stuff to bring skiing, wrong day to be prepared)

talking to AAA: "ya, they're in the car"

so, a half hour later AAA shows up to unlock her car.

other than the fact that he was not the most curtious man ever and annalise told too many white lies and we looked like idiots, it went great!

after we loaded "all" our stuff into the car we arrived up at sundance about 45 minutes later, got ready with all our gear and boots on just to realize my snowboard had not made it into the car.

just dandy.
(annalise smiling away, me with a frowny face no snowboard and keys in my hand, casey with a frowny face
this is about 1 minute after we realized there was no snowboard in the car)

persistent me decided we were not going to waste our day and we drove another half hour back down to provo to get the board and another half hour up to sundance.

fun huh?

yeah we felt totally dumb.

but we did have a long time to catch up on each others' lives more than just what the blog tells.

other than the two and half hours part to actually go skiing, it was wonderful!

a few icy parts but a lot of pretty good parts and the wonderful weather made it worth it.

see you next week sundance!!!

ps- please stop raining and keep snowing!

we're in wyoming this weekend.

downeast basics.

rock springs, WY.

sunglasses on sale for $0.91, usually $12.

don't mind if i do!

16 pairs later...

although some look the same, or plain white/black, they're not,  they are different and fun :)

casey's sister karlee, found a pair of heart shaped ones for herself!

for today's sunday we video chatted for awhile with the cutler siblings in iowa and indiana!

and some other randoms of the day include:

the picture wall,

banana bread,

and a new dress.

 

the most beautiful quilt ever

so let me tell you abut my SIL.

she's incredibly talented, creative, beautiful, and fun.

if you even had slight inklings that i was a little creative or that i do lots of things with the little amount of time in my life (you shouldn't),

but IF you ever slightly ran across that thought,

this girl puts me to shame.

this christmas, she reminded me of that with this beautiful baby:

 the most beautiful, warmest, cutest quilt ever.

i love it.

it never gets folded up bc we're always using it,

it's just wonderful :)

you should go check it her new site, it has just launched so there's not much on it yet but i promise if you look at it often she'll post more of the adorable things she makes bc let me tell you, everything she makes is ADORABLE.

acraftyfox.wordpress.com

and currently she's doing an auction of a cute fox she embroidered and the money will go to help the tragic devastation in queensland, australia

1/11/11

side notes of 1/11/11

1. what an awesome date eh?
2. it was FREEZING today! literally freezing! at 2 pm when i looked at the weather of the day, the high thus far had been 12 and a low of 1. my face and hands became numb in .2 seconds outside
3. this semester of econ is going to be a long one
4. it's miss tayliann's sweet 16 today! happy birthday cute girl!

az lovin

so the morning after we got home from our cruise,

we took a 10 hour journey down to warm(er) arizona to see my family!

ad we had an absolute blast with everyone!

my mummy made a late christmas dinner for everyone

(all my siblings {except kirky} and i were with our in-laws for christmas)

 then we all opened a few gifts gifts from my parents including new lunch boxes which we were very excited for since I we've been losing ours lately :)

they were so sweet to us all!

and it was so fun to have christmas again with them!

btw-this was my FIRST christmas away from my parents! crazy!

we took a little visit to an olive mill in queen creek, az

and it was actually really fun and interesting!

we took a tour where they taught us all about the process and their "farm" of olive trees.

apparently az is a really good climate for olive tree growing, cool huh?

they had so many different flavors of olive oil (chocolate olive oil) and other things they make with the olives!

we were going to get some but decided against it in the end.

my SIL uses some of it and says it's incredible though.

if you ever get the chance, try it out (and they have a cute little cafe inside and it hoppin!)

we also learned the WHY behind only buying extra-virgin olive oil,

all i can say is only buy extra-virgin olive oil no matter what another label says (even if it sounds healthier)

like usual, casey insisted we go to bahama bucks everyday possible.

luckily they constantly send out coupons for that place!

and we learned that annalee connects our visits to bahama bucks snow cones now (she orders hers by colors, not flavors:)...goodness.

kirky came with us one of the times too!

logan and blair invited us to go to the phoenix children's museum with them bc they had free passes that were going to expire,

so we went with and it was so fun!

they are so creative in that place and annalee had a blast!

phoebe was so cute to watch and play with in there too!

they had a GINORMOUS tree house, a noodle forest, a fort room, kitchen room, a fake car wash, and so many other cute things!

 

casey loved it too :)

last but not least,

we went to the dunes for new year's eve!

i was beyond excited bc i haven't gotten to go riding in over a year!

and casey learns more gets better/more comfortable every time we go which makes me an incredibly happy wife :)

although the dunes are more popular for quads i love riding a motorcycle out there, so fun.

my dad is also the best leader ever when it comes to riding as a group,

he always connects bowls perfectly to make for smooth, fun riding.

it was on the colder side when we went but one of kirk's friends was there with a trailer that we used for warmth :)

his friend also let us try out his rhino (like a golfcart/quad mix) which was such a blast surprisingly

my 2 little nieces did great out there and it was so fun to have them around!

oh yeah, and my bum hurt SO bad the next few days, ha!

the pic with the big fence behind us is the mexican border and your tax dollars at work.

and don't we all wear the best outfits when it's cold there? cough cough...yeah right:)

other awesome notables:

we got to see scott, megan, and new baby tristan a little bit too!

so cute!

(i kept forgetting to blog about his birth! but he's here and precious! looks exactly like scotty!)

 my mom also helped my SIL and me do a cute little craft.

she's so crafty, i love it :)

tradition continues and we went to IHOP/Dennys for new years day!

as long as i can remember, we've done this and it's always so fun :)

i think that's about all for az!

it was so fun being with family for the 2nd week off of school.

i love arizona.

we'll see you again soon az!

and thanks mom for all the fun!

and thanks blair for letting your kids get off their normal schedule so we could play with them more, aka 3 sleepovers with annalee. she a doll :)

cruise part 4: christmas cruise festivities

last, but certainly i want to share a little about our christmas on the cruise!

this cruise was the cutlers very generous christmas gift to the family and we were so ecstatic when we found out!
so we tried to make a very memorable christmas day!

it seemed like all day long though we had to keep reminding ourselves it was christmas day!

we went on a little walk around the ship trying to find the bow of this ship, but alast, we failed.

we did get close to the water!

we also went to a little christmas show and saw cute treyson in it!

treyson is on the very left

for christmas eve we read a cute christmas story while the kids were still awake and the story of Christ's birth in Luke 2. it was a wonderful activity and reminded us of the reason we were all together and of the most beautiful gift any of has received: our Savior who provided us the atonement so we can return to Him.

when mom c. was with us, she read us a christmas book as well

after the kiddies went to bed we went to the fancy dinner together (which was hilarious thanks to too much alejandro, our server),

took some super cheesy/cute pictures,

danced a little to live music (we actually did this many times while on board which was a blast! and casey got to actually use his awesome cha cha skills which impressed many of our onlookers! it's seriously so much fun to dance with him!)

 also, on christmas day the kitchen made some totally awesome food art for everyone!

these were our favorites:

the santa and words are a watermelon!

and lastly on christmas day, we watched a beautiful sunset together and tried burning that moment into our minds :)

it truly was a wonderful christmas with the cutlers!

thanks again family for the great memories!