Christmas Lights on Temple Square!

We took Phoebe to see the amazing lights on temple square for christmas. It was beautiful, but it was also freezing. When we walked out of the car, it started sleeting, and the whole time we were at the temple it was blowing in our faces and eyes. 

Every single picture I took has snow in it! Phoebe was a little cold....

  

This is my favorite nativity scene out of all the ones they have set up! It is so pretty in the middle of the reflecting pool with all the little tea lights....

I forget exactly how many lights they use...but it's something like 300,000 per tree. This tree has been there since before the temple was built.

Isn't it beautiful?

Konferencia!

I figured it was time for an update. I think it's been over a month since I last blogged. Can you tell school has started? or that I no longer have a life?

But I will make it up to you with pictures. 

Can you tell we had a full house? or rather...living room? Janel doesn't look very happy does she...I think she just didn't smile on time! I am pretty positive she enjoyed herself! 

We made carmel apples in between sessions on sunday. I would tell you that they were good, but as you can see from the picture below....

I just about cracked my front teeth trying to bite into them. Refrigerated apples with hardened carmel...not so good for the teeth. But my taste-buds thought they were delicious!

Carmel apples are so photogenic, aren't they? 

We ate lots of good food. For breakfast we had roasted potatoes, turkey sausage, three kinds of pancakes (wheat, oatmeal, blueberry) fresh fruit and lemonade. We made the apples, and I also whipped up a double batch of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. We munched on all sorts of salty (bad) food during the session like pringles and ruffles and cheetos (why do chips have such weird names?)  but we also had a half a watermelon we finished up too. I ate way to much, but it was so nice to just sit and eat. It's sort of a family past-time. 

Now that school has started, weekends are really the only time we have together. We are home every evening from about five onward. I don't really count that as time together though. My poor husband works nine to ten hours a day, (sometimes more)  and then comes home and works on homework for another four to five hours. I don't know how he does it because when I come home from school (especially after a bad day) the last thing I want to do (or can make myself focus on) is homework. I think I married an extremely hard working man. 

Well...today seems to have brought in the fall weather. It's the first day so far that has been cool and rainy (high of 74) and on the way home around one I got soaked (can you get soaked by hail?) and almost blown over while I waited to cross the road to my apartment. Right when I got home I jumped in the shower and turned the water as hot as it would go, and when I got out I starting making chicken stew to go with the homemade bread I made the other day. 

It just feels like autumn! 

Weekend Madness!

We had a lot of fun this weekend. We did quite a bit. I feel like we are doing more and more fun stuff and sitting around the house less and less.

This is a good thing....I think. 

We were able to see Joanne two more times before she caught her flight back to PA. She came over Friday night along with Janel/Jared and Tabitha/Jarad for brownies and a tour of our new home. Unfortunately- I don't have any pictures of that. Poop. I'm not the greatest at remembering things like that. 

Tabitha and Jared slept over Friday night and the next morning we all drove to Janel's for breakfast. It was a smorgasbord of wonderful breakfasty foods: blueberry pancakes, turkey bacon, fresh watermelon, strawberries and grapes, Janel's homemade buttermilk syrup, MMM! I stuffed myself and then felt sick- but it was worth it. 

Still no pictures- Sorry folks.

We ended up going to Verizon and ordering a new phone for my since mine is on the fritz- luckily I have insurance so it was free- that was the boring part of the day.

Then we went home, changed and met my OTHER beautiful Aunt Cathy at the TRAX station.We had planned a temple trip with Grandma, and we also got to meet the missionary that is responsible for baptizing the first generation in our family as members of the Church! That was pretty cool- and he is a pretty awesome guy- it was neat the listen to Grandma and Grandpa talk to him and reminisce about when they met and what they were doing at the time. 

We also got to eat at a fabulous restaurant with a fabulous view. We were literally at even height with the temple and at night, it was breathtaking. 

And we ate lots of good food. That was my favorite part.

See? I told you it was good. Doesn't it make you want some?

Since it was Grandma's birthday this last weekend, the restaurant asked her to write down her birthday wish on a piece of paper and then they tied the paper to a balloon- and they opened the roof to let it out!

Since Henry has the amazing iphone- he took a video of it, and he also took a picture of the temple all lit up since it was dark. Both picture and video turned out better on his iphone than the pictures I took on my expensive sony camera. 

That just does not compute for me.

I will have to post the stuff he took later- because it turned out really well. And it looks amazing.

It really makes me regret spending so much on a bulky camera. 

Needless to say: we have an awesome family- and we had a blast. ; ) More later.

I feel like I don't have a whole lot to update.

I haven't done a whole lot the last few days.

Have I mentioned that I love the smell of roasting tomatoes?

Who would have thought of using chickpeas in homemade pasta sauce in place of meat?

I certainly didn't.

But it was oh so very good. 

and we had it on wheat pasta so it wasn't too bad-

nourishmentally speaking.

Today Is Friday! and Henry has some sort of training at the Church Office Building.

He was so cute about it too- his nice white shirt was all wrinkly and he kept saying:

"What if I see the prophet? I can't wear a wrinkly shirt!" 

So I ironed it for him- and he seemed genuinely surprised that it took less than two minutes.

I suppose he has never ironed anything in his life- so it's not too surprising.

Anyway-He gets out early today so we are going to go to the temple. Yay! And since tomorrow is Saturday that means I get to sleep in!

Mmmmm...I love Saturdays! 

I think we may go on a short bike trip- goodness knows we need to get our money's worth out of those things- why oh why did I let husband convince me to spend a not-so-small fortune on those.

Would he let me spend 1400$ on scrapbooking stuff?

Not likely-

So why did I spend that much on two mountain bikes when I am terrified of mountain biking?

I will do trails- not even paved trails! Just as long as it's a trail- not a chicken path down a huge incline.

Hobbies like this are why Henry had two broken arms within four months of each other.

I will post whatever we end up doing! Hopefully it won't do anything too drastic....

Visits with Familia

Joanne is here!

She is Cynthia's (Henry's Mom) sister-and she is so much fun! She made the LONG journey out to Utah (driving, of course!) this last weekend and has been visiting with friends and family out west. She came with Heidi (Janel's sister) and Kimber (also Janel's sister!) There are so many girls in that family! It's amazing! ; )

We went over to Janel's to see everyone last night and have dinner together. There were 12 of us. I was very worried that the huge pot of Ham and Bean soup I made wouldn't be enough. But happily- there were about two small bowls' worth in the very bottom of the ginormous pressure cooker I used to make it. Seriously, to clean that pot is no small task - when it doesn't fit in the sink-

But we had great fun! It was so great to catch up with everyone and to meet a few other friends/family members that I've only ever heard about! 

Henry and Kimber talking- she is going to be applying to BYU in the next few months- she is starting her senior year in a few weeks. You would think they didn't like each other- or maybe that one of them smelled- but it didn't look that weird until I got up from the middle of the couch to take the picture- ; )

So...I always feel strange interrupting everyone to ask for a picture...so I get these random ones where no one is actually looking at me....

This is one of Joanne's friends (Deanna- I may be spelling it wrong) she  used to be in our home ward back East. And her Son. Joanne actually used to babysit Keegan when he was a toddler.

I wished I could have gotten more pictures. 

Janel claimed she was sweaty and gross and unphotogenic (yeah, right- when are the Barnhart's NOT photogenic?)

But Janel and Jared where there-obviously it was their house

Tabitha and HER Jared where there

Kimber and Heidi

Me and Henry

Deanna and Keegan
and 

   Deanna (Joann's sister in law- what were the odds there would be two people
with the same name? )

and Joanne of course...

I really married into an amazing family- they are all so awesome. And fun. 

And that pot of soup?

I think it cost a total of 5 Dollars to make

I may be cheap- but at least I make good cheap food
(most of the time)

and I made these- which weren't as cheap- but they were fun-

Winco sells the mini MnM's in their bulk section with all their other baking supplies like chocolate chips (every kind you can possibly imagine), splintered candy cane (around Christmas time) butterscotch chips, huge blocks of milk chocolate, powdered honey, ect.

I love that store

Mostly because it is really cheap to buy stuff like those mini MnM's that I wouldn't normally buy

Anyway- I probably talk to much about my favorite grocery store- I'm sure I mention it at least every time I post a picture of something I make.

I would have posted a picture of the soup too- but I forgot because we ate it all- I'm not good at remembering stuff like that.

My mom is up to her eyeballs and tomatoes. She wrote me an e-mail to tell me about how she comes home from work and picks, washes, cuts, chops, boils, processes jars and jars of homemade marinara, salsa, tomato soup and more.

I am jealous.

I can buy tomatoes for about .99 Cents a pound- which isn't too bad for out here- but they are hard, and pink- they aren't even red. 

Other than the smell of rain- the smell of tomatoes roasting in the oven is probably one of my favorites.

Today I am going to start working on taking in seven or eight of my skirts for church.

They don't fit me anymore- and I have a very limited wardrobe.

This is a good thing.

I am armed with scissors and two different kinds of elastic.

I'm determined to make this work- and to make my clothes fit me again.

Wish me luck! I watched a few tutorials- so I'm hoping I don't just mangle what I have beyond repair.

More later!

Super Saturday!

Saturday was amazing.

Mostly because we didn't sit inside all day and watch House Hunters International.

We went out- and did stuff.

I don't have pictures of this part- but we went to D.I. and I found treasures! Sometimes all I see is junk- sometimes I find beautiful silver plated serving trays with amazing filigree work on them-

And it doesn't bother me at all that the reason they are at D.I. is because the owner was probably some old person that just died.

And the best part is that when I find something that looks cool- Henry looks up...whatever it is on his iphone to see how much it is selling for on Amazon.

That way we don't end up with worthless junk. 

Anyway- back to my amazing weekend! 

After spending forever in D.I. looking through piles of stuff and driving back to the house to drop it off, we got thirsty, so we got these:

 

Despite the freaky clown illustration- it was delicious. Why do I love carbonated caffeine? I have no idea- I am convinced it is genetic-

After that we drove around the parade of homes- that wasn't really a parade anymore. But we drove around a really pretty neighborhood and pointed out the things we like/didn't like about each house. We both decided that we will never buy a house with the garage on the front. 

And we will never hire anyone to do our landscaping.

If we ever have THAT much money- I will buy an amazing sewing machine that embroiders FOR me and all I have do is push a button.

While we were driving around we found that we were right next to the Jordan River trail- which we wanted to walk down anyway- (not the whole thing- the entire trail is 40 something miles long) but we walked for about an hour- and it was beautiful outside!

-I am convinced I married the cutest man alive-

We found a plaque on the bridge and it said it was made in Minnesota- can Utah not build bridges? I'm confused...

The trail actually passed under a few bridges- there were tons of  swallow nests in the eaves-

Forgive Henry's hand- it was just sort of...there

For a Saturday in the middle of August around two in the afternoon- it was unusually cool out- around 89 degrees- so we were both a little sweaty when we got back to the car- and especially once we got IN the car- but it was so worth it.  The trail is just amazing. For spots of it you feel as though you are in the country because there is NO evidence of population ANYWHERE in sight. All there is is the river, the trail, and all the amazing vegetation-seriously, the grass was growing above our heads and it was like a jungle. I felt like I was in Jurassic park or something....watch out for velociraptors.....

We had to make a short trip to Winco for some groceries, (which I also enjoyed..except for the spending money part) and then ate a deliciously UN-nutritious lunch/dinner at Sam's club. I swear- they have the best pizza around. And don't get me started on churros....

Have I ever mentioned what an amazing Husband I have?

He is the most patient, understanding, snugly, sweet, even-tempered person I have ever met. He indulges my every whim (almost-he still refuses to wear a speedo-) and is always there for me.

Saturday night he also agreed to be a chaperone with me for a multi-stake dance.

I didn't even want to go- and it's my calling.

But the good little boy he is- he went with me- and boy did he look cute walking around and taking pictures for me- he endured the terrible music, the bad dancing, (come on, the funky chicken dance? I wonder if I looked that dumb when I was that age....) JUST so he could be with me. What more could I ask for?

I think I made out pretty good-

Forgive my squinty-eyed smile- it was a bright flash in a very dark room

And the whole time I watched my girls' dance at an appropriate distance from their partner, I was thinking to myself:

It won't be too long until we have kids that will be this age, and we might be parents volunteering at this sort of thing.

Weird...

Life just goes by too fast- as my parents are always reminding me. But boy, do I know it. 

Sunday Was busy: Ward Council, teaching in Young Women's, and then a fireside at seven (we get out of church at 4:00)  Busy weekend- I'm kind of glad it's over- but we had lots of fun! I also made this:

And it made everything sweeter.....

Cheesecake is one of the wonders of the modern world.

This one wasn't even made with real cream cheese- it was 1/3 less fat Neufchatel cheese..or something like that.

It was delicious.

Tonight I'm making Ham and bean soup for seven people. I am actually going to do it in my canning pot because nothing else is big enough. I've cooked and soaked a whole bag of white beans-

That's a ton of beans.

And I made chocolate chip MnM cookies for dessert. 

I promise I'm not a fatty.

I've actually lost over 20 lbs since March.

I've mastered the art of eating none of what I bake, or at least very little.

Most the time.

I will post pictures later of what I'm making today- it is going to be wonderful!

BEHOLD!

It is finished!

SEE! SEE!

 

It has taken a total of three days- but it is done! Perchance you are surprised it was such a long process- but I did EVERYTHING myself- including cutting each letter out of heavy duty card-stock and then getting my fingers permanently (almost) stuck together with modge podge while I decoupaged each figure in precisely cut pages from an old cookbook.

And that was just the letters and numbers!

I will demonstrate below. 

This may take a while-

those of faint heart may want to leave.

This was the original finish of the frame- just your ordinary brownish finish-

I found a REALLY cheap way to re-create a crackle finish

without having to use the expensive

crackle medium

It involves elmers glue- and paint

This was the first step- and it was super easy!

It works great on frames.

Here is the link to the blog I got the idea from:

http://makethebestofthings.blogspot.com

She has some awesome ideas-just FYI

And for clueless crafty people like me

it helps that she has step by step instructions

and pictures

Sorry! I get sidetracked easily!

The crackle finish starts to show even before the paint fully dries- and it looks really awesome and totally wicked. 

While the frame was drying I worked on the matte 

That was the original picture

It was some sort of French add for a vet office

Very art Nouveau

I was quite fond of it- but Husband doesn't like dogs

Or animals in general

So it had to go 

I did the crackle finish on the matte as well

Both the frame and the matte took a long time to dry- so while I was waiting I made the letters

They took forever

Albeit- they were free

I used Henry's soy milk box

and pages out of a weird cookbook to cover them

Seriously- it had recipes for things like chicken-jello- I don't think Henry will ever eat that- no matter how sweet and considerate he is-and he is VERY much so

They took a long time- but I think they turned out well- I placed each trimmed letter (or number) on the middle of the page and cut slits in the paper so it would wrap around the cardboard 

This whole process took a long time- but like I said- it was pretty much free. I bought a huge jar of modge podge at Wal-Mart (a total of 6 $) and used less than half of it for the entire project- and that's better than more than a dollar apiece for those cute little metal letters and numbers at the craft store.

Once the matte was mostly dry I used scrapbook paper (cut into squares) as a sort of paper patchwork on the back-

I used a wooden paint dowel to smooth out the paper so there wouldn't be any air bubbles or wrinkles-

I think I used five sheets of that big square scrapbook paper (cut and mixed up) all-together- and I actually had to use smaller pieces here and there so everything would fit flush against the side of the matte

Then it was just a matter of putting it all together- after the frame dried I did smear a layer of sealant over the entire thing. The last thing I wanted to have happen was for the paint to start peeling or coming off after all that work- 

I also used a few little flower embellishments that I had already in the corners and as a substitute for the apostrophe in our last name

I am pretty proud of myself. It was lots of fun. I kind of wish I had more frames to play with. I forgot how much fun glue (and paint) can be.

Now I just have to get Henry to put a big 'ol hole in the wall for me!

Dinner with the Preuze's!

I think I spelled their name wrong.....I always do- Sorry Janel!

We went over to their place last night for dinner while the boys put together their new IKEA cubby bookshelf. Why is IKEA stuff so amazing? It always looks so awesome...too bad Janel doesn't have any Swedish books to go along with it.

Aren't they just so cute? ; )

I am still working on my project I mentioned before. I am just waiting for one last coat of sealant to dry before I put the matte back in and I show you the wonders of the last few days. It took a lot longer than I expected, but I did make everything myself....

This week I did some major de-cluttering. Did I mention that already? Sorry if I'm reiterating. I cleaned out EVERYTHING. You would think since we just moved (again) we wouldn't have that much junk to sort through because usually you do a good clean out when your packing- but we had a ton of stuff I got rid off. Like....

• 14 different phone cords to phones we no longer own
• Two broken MP3 players with appropriate jacks and cords
• Scrubs (Hallelujah! I refuse to EVER wear them again!)
• An extra microwave (No- I'm not kidding) 
• A beat up footlocker (I bought it when I was ten and wanted one like Harry Potter had- it was 10 dollars at K-Mart)
• Weird Wedding gifts (mostly frames and really bizarre pictures from people in our ward back home-the kind of stuff they pulled out of their basements- musty smell included) 
•  An extra keyboard and mouse (the only computer we have is a mac-book)
• Lots of other computer junk that Henry can't bear to throw it away- so I do it for him ;) 

Basically I consolidated 8 -45 gallon plastic tubs to three. They are now neatly stacked in our second closet-

Notice my ghetto labels made out of masking tape?

It is a vast improvement over what it was before....

Anyway........ did I mention we have also have an entire tub of extension cords? 

  

Yeah...try 19 altogether...I forgot that when we lived in our first apartment- we had...maybe...one outlet per room...and we haven't ever gotten rid of any...who knows, we might need them again! ( I sincerely hope not though...)

Now my "craft room" (Henry will roll his eyes if I call it that in front of him) is neatly organized and I know where everything is- hence my recent enthusiasm for projects- I already have ideas for more- I need to go to the D.I. though- I want to look for a few things I can re-purpose or refinish. The other day when I was sitting at my desk, cutting letters out of heavy duty cardboard with my ice-cold fresca sitting next to me, and Pandora playing Phoenix and MGMT and I was up to my elbows in acrylic paint and modge-podge I laughed and though, "wow- life is amazing-"

Isn't it?

Tonight I get to take Henry to the dentist. This is something I'm not really looking forward to. He had a root canal a long time back (when he was on his mission) and they never put a cap on it (typical of post-communist Hungary, I suppose) and now it either needs to be pulled or have another root canal- neither of which make Henry giddy with joy. (understandably)His way of dealing with it is this:

"I just want them to rip it out!" 

This is also typical of Henry- the best way to get rid of any problem, dental or not? 

Eliminate said problem, immediately, and irrevocably.

We will see how it goes...and cross our fingers there is nothing else that needs done right away. Why is dental work so expensive? Even if you do have good insurance?

oh, by-the-by, we are getting rid of our netflix because they are charging more- but we got our last movie today- and it is "Howl's Moving Castle." I am so excited! I am a huge Miyazaki fan- I  have watched "Spirited Away" enough that I have most the lines memorized. Is that sad? Oh well! I am looking forward to snuggling next to Husband and watching it on our new, plush, reclining couch!

Ahhh..the simple pleasures of life.....