Last Day of the Year

Wow! It's the last day of the year--I can't believe it will be January tomorrow!  It feels like it was just Halloween...

We had a really fun day today.  I wanted to take the boys and go sledding or something fun like that up in Park City or Midway.  BUT, due to the lack of snow and it being nearly 60 degrees, we had to change our plans.

I went to the gym with Molly at 7am--we went to Step class at the University Gym.  We got back to Spanish Fork around 9am.  Jim looked up movies and times at the Spanish Fork theatre.  They had 3 kiddie movies playing--The Muppets, Puss in Boots, and Happy Feet 2.  When we told Ryan what movies were playing, he insisted on seeing Happy Feet 2.  We've never seen Happy Feet 1 so I was nervous about going.  The movie started at 11:15am so I hurried and got ready for the day and we went to the movie.  Scott, Molly, and Kendrick came, too.

I was really pleased with the Spanish Fork theatre.  No, they do not have stadium seating.  But the tickets are only $3 (we didn't have to pay for Jake--2 and under are free) and their prices on concessions are really reasonable.  We got a large drink for $2 and a large popcorn for $2.  We also got the boys little drinks and the were $1 a piece.  Usually drinks and popcorn are $6 each! 

Just a little side note--I never thought we would eat all of our $2 bag of popcorn.  I was giving Scott crap for getting the $3 tub o' popcorn.  Well, we were a little bit early to the movie (I wasn't sure if it would be busy or not because of New Years Eve so we went down at 10:45am) and we immediately started snacking on our popcorn.  By the middle of the movie we were out of popcorn and Ryan wanted more!  Luckily, they gave me a refill for only $1.  I can't believe we ate that much popcorn--it was good though :)

The movie was pretty good--a little long, but good.  My boys were a little restless by the end of the movie and Kendrick fell asleep.

After the movie, we went over the Cafe Rio to get a bite to eat.  I won't lie, I was stuffed with popcorn, but I still managed to eat half or more of my veggie tostada salad :)  My boys actually ate all of their kids quesadillas, too.

We were all tired after lunch so we headed home and all took a nap.  I don't like to nap--well I like to nap, I just hate to because I feel like I have to much to do to be napping.  But it felt good to take a little snooze today.

Before we left for the movie, I had told Ryan that we needed to get groceries.  After we all woke up from our naps, he reminded me that we needed to go to the store.  He doesn't forget anything!  I was being lazy and didn't want to make my menu/list for the store even though I needed to.  But Ryan was persistent and kept bugging us to go.  I finally sat down and figured out a few meals for next week and made a list so we could go to the store.

My boys love going to the store.  They love driving the car carts and helping me pick out fruits and veggies and putting them in the cart for me.  They had a grand time at the store tonight.  We got some ice cream and root beer to make floats after dinner tonight.  

When we got home, Ryan said he was ready for his float.  I told him we needed to have some dinner first.  He got mad and said he didn't want dinner.  My boys haven't been the best of eaters lately, so I told Jim we should just give them a float.  There is no sense in making dinner just so they won't eat it.  SO, that is what we did--the boys had root beer floats for dinner!  They did decide that they wanted some cereal after they finished their ice cream though :)

Jake eating his root beer float.

Ryan's last picture of 2011

We got "dinner" cleaned up and  put the boys in the tub.  They were in bed by 9pm and they actually went right to sleep.  Usually they stay up and jabber and play for an hour or so but not tonight.

Jim and I played on our computers for a bit and then watched a movie.  We made ourselves some nachos to enjoy with our movie, YUM :)

Here's to the new year! Bring on 2012!!

Birthday Lunch @ the Cheesecake Factory

We met for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory today to celebrate Molly & Amy's birthday's.  Molly's birthday was December 7th and Amy's is coming up on January 10th.  Lunch was good but we all know why you go to the Cheesecake Factory--it's not for the food :)

We were all actually really full from lunch and debated on whether to get cheesecake or not.  BUT, we decided we better especially since we were there so we got a yummy Raspberry Lemon and the Caramel Macadamia Nut cheesecakes.  They were both really good!

The group at lunch.  Our server took our picture for us.  He said his dad was a professional photographer--well, obviously his dad didn't teach him anything.  The picture he took was terrible.  I had to doctor it up the best I could in photoshop, but you can't fix blurry, ugh.

We all had a few returns to make at different stores from Christmas, so we went in Fashion Place Mall and returned/shopped for a bit.  My mom had to be back to Levan by 6pm for tithing settlement so we couldn't shop too long (probably a good thing) so I was home by 5:15pm. 

It was fun to get with my sisters over the Holiday break to celebrate.  We always have a grand time while we're together.

Jim stayed home with Ryan and Jake while I was gone.  When I got home, Ry kept telling me about going to the park.  Finally, I asked Jim if they went to the park today and he said they had!  They got McDonald's for lunch and had a picnic at the park while they played!  Who would've thought that would be possible on December 30th!  It's been a crazy year for weather.

Visit to Oak City

Since we didn't make it over to Oak City on Christmas, we decided to take a trip down to visit.

When we got to Oak City, it was sunny and quite warm outside.  Guin needed to feed the chickens so the boys went outside with her to help.  Ryan had just woke up so he was a bit ornery and wouldn't help.  It didn't take him long to warm up and he was running around and playing.  The boys even got to play in the sand box without a coat on!  I think it was close to 50 degrees--amazing, I tell you.  It felt soooo good!

After an hour or so outside, we went back in to help Guin make some candy.  She had some orange and maple fondant made and was going to dip them in chocolate.  I got sidetracked with my computer, but Jim and the boys helped Guin.  Ryan even got to dip a few chocolates by himself.  He LOVES working in the kitchen especially if you'll let him actually work with the food.

After they were done with chocolates (Guin wasn't done--just the boys were, ha ha), they went outside to play.  They had a grand time playing in the ditch where there was frozen water that they'd walk on.  I hope they don't get any ideas though--they have STRICT instructions to stay away from the ditch 99% of the year :)  They also played like they were on the Polar Express and that they were conductors--too funny.

Jim took a picture of a wood pecker while he was outside with the boys.  We didn't have the zoom lens for our camera so this is the best picture he could get.  Can you see it?  I have a red arrow pointing to the head/neck of the bird.

We had dinner in Oak City with Jim's parents.  After dinner, Jim and Crandall worked on my computer.  I had an old version of Microsoft Office that I could not get off my computer so they figured out how to get it off.  Ryan and Jake ran around and were especially loud after dinner.  We left around 6:45pm and I'm sure Guin and Crandall were glad to see us go so they could have some peace and quiet.

We had a good visit with Guin and Crandall today.  I'm glad we were able to go down for the day.

Girls Day & Night Out

This morning I went to the gym with Molly.  It felt SO good to work out! I'm still mad that I wasn't able to go yesterday...oh well :)

After I got home from the gym, I hurried to get ready to head to Nephi to meet up with my friends from high school for lunch.  

Of course, I was fashionably late but Leslee showed up after me, ha ha.  It was so fun to chat and talk about how life is for us now now that we all have husbands and kids.  Kathryn even suggested we go around and tell a blurb about ourselves, which was great because people move, change jobs, etc. so it was nice to catch up on the little things like that.

There are 2 pictures because I think  I look like a cow in this picture, MOO!  But the second picture isn't much better :)
Starting with me and going around clockwise: Me, Alisha Jones Lynn, Marci Blackett Rasch, Kathryn Woodland Andrus, Kaydee Morgan Ivers, Meagan Sperry Bosh, and Leslee Rasmussen Haynes.  We are missing Miss Lynsey Stoddard Cuff because they had to head back home to Vegas :(

I got home a little after 2pm and had good intentions of starting to take the Christmas decor down.  Instead, I lied down on the couch with my boys and took a little snoozer :)  When I got uncomfortable on the couch because Jake was crowding me, I decided to do a little blogging.  I am behind and desperately need to catch up...

Around 5pm, I started to get ready for my next girls outing.  Lacy invited me to dinner and a movie with the girls that we went out with a couple of months ago.  I was happy to go :)

We tried to go to dinner at Brick Oven, but the wait time was too long.  Since we didn't have our movie tickets yet, we decided to eat at Red Robin at the mall so we could purchase our tickets.

We went to the movie "New Years Eve".  It turned out to be a really cute show.  After the show was over, I realized that I have a mini crush on Zac Efron--holy cuteness!!  

From L to R: Me, Lacy, Merissa, Robin, and Tiffany

I had a great time with all of the girls I got to spend time with.  I'm sure Jim wasn't super thrilled with me being gone for a good portion of the day, but I'm sure glad that he was kind enough to let me have a girls day and night out and didn't complain!  He was fine--he was able to make deer steaks for dinner, ick! :)

Christmas {2011}

Morning came WAY to fast this day--we stayed up way too late last night (past Midnight) trying to get little boys to sleep so Santa could come.  I slept horribly and woke up with a kinked neck, ugh.

My boys slept with Grandma, and last night Ryan told my mom that he wanted stay up so he could hear Santa come down the chimney.  When he woke up this morning, he was mad because he hadn't heard Santa.  Ry said, "I didn't hear Santa come down the chimney!  Santa didn't come!"

I was in the computer room bathroom getting ready for church and the boys had to walk by their Santa stuff to get to me.  Ry asked my mom, "Who brought all these presents??  Santa DID COME!"  All was well once they saw Santa had come and left presents for them.  The boys were satisfied with looking in their stockings to see what Santa had left them.  Then we had to hustle and get ready to make it to church by 9am!  We were a few minutes late, BUT, we made it to church with my parents, The Brenchley's, and the Eyre's.

The boys checking out what they got in their stockings.

While at church, Ryan said church was making him mad, Sad, and SERIOUS!  I about died laughing so I told Jim.  Jim then told me that the Choir program was making him mad, Sad, and SERIOUS because they weren't following the program.  Again, I nearly died laughing :)  OH, and I wore a dress with a belt and a black cardigan.  Ry asked me if I was wearing a witch belt and if I had my cape on. I must have looked pretty witch-y :)

After church, we came home and opened gifts from Santa (we didn't get a picture of us all dressed up for church, sad day).  Ry was pretty excited and into unwrapping his gifts, but Jake was more interested in what Ry got and would play with his toys.

 We were all pretty much starving after church.  As soon as the boys were finished opening up their gifts from Santa we made a delicious breakfast of griddle cakes, bacon, eggs, hash browns, milk and orange juice.  It was awesome!  I will definitely need to hit the gym up next week :)

We got breakfast cleaned up and then opened the rest of our gifts.

Jim got me a tripod, external flash for my camera, and a reflector to take pics.  Lacy gave me a cute necklace with a camera charm that says "capture life" and a notepad for list making--I LOVE both.  My parents gave us a photo book about my Great Grandma Bruno and cash.

Jim got a miter saw, a three piece nail gun set, a Green Bay hoodie, and a book.  I had also got him a subscription to National Geographic, but he got a card in the mail one day that said Guin Nielson had bought him a gift subscription to the same magazine.  I about crapped my pants!  So, I need to call and make sure they can just extend the subscription rather than get 2 magazines every month :)

Ryan got a Leapster Explorer and games, a pirate ship, movies, a fishing game, a sleeping bag, and books from Santa.  He got some play food for his kitchen from Sophie, a play gun and money from Grandma and Grandpa Mangelson, and a super hero cape, shield, and sword from me and Jim.  

Jake also got a Leapster Explorer and games, a race track for Hot Wheels, a Cars toy, movies, a Memory game, a sleeping bag, and books from Santa.  He got a Cars book and a Cars 2 airplane from Hayden, a play gun and money from Grandpa and Grandma Mangelson, and a super hero cape, shield, and sword me and Jim.  

I think the Cars 2 airplane from Hayden was the hit toy!!  Both boys fought over it for quite some time!  Oh and they really like their super hero get up :)

* We left a couple of presents home because they were quite large that we saved and opened the day after Christmas.  One was the boys present from Grandma Guin & Grandpa Crandall.  They gave the boys this awesome fort--it is a card table with a cover with a zipper and pockets, etc. that Guin sewed for the boys.  They love it!  The other present was to Jim and I from Charlie and Eliana.  They gave us a step ladder, a water cooler, and an electric pencil sharpener!  Random, I know, but these were all ideas that we gave them for us.  I LOVE all of the gifts they gave us.*

Jake opened his super hero cape first.  As soon as Ryan saw it, he was freaking out.  SO, we let him go out of turn and open his gift with his super hero cape in it.  As soon as we got the cape on him, both boys were off to fight crime, LOL!

We took a much needed nap after opening presents (Ry went to the potty and insisted he go by himself.  Well, he couldn't get his pants down quick enough so he peed his pants.  He got REALLY upset and was bawling and carrying on.  I got upset--mainly because I was tired and couldn't deal with it--and I freaked out.  I figured we all needed to lay down and take a rest).

The rest of the day was spent chillaxin!  We played a few games of Blokus, Jewel Quest, Memory, Fishing Game, and watched t.v.

I forgot to mention that the fishing game is a little too stressful for Ryan.  He gets a little irritated and upset when he can't get the fish on the hook.  This isn't the best game for him to play :)

Blokus is such a fun game--I'm not a huge game player and I would highly recommend this one.  We played 4 games of Blokus and Scott won all 4 games! 

Ryan with a match, yay!

Ryan finally convinced Grandma to play Apples to Apples with him.  She mentioned the game to him months ago and he hasn't forgot about it.  SO, she got the game out and they played it.  They didn't actually "play" the game though.  Ryan had a blast!

I was stressed as to how the whole "Santa" bit would play out being that we wanted to go to church, but it all worked out.  I think this is the only Christmas I can remember where we were all up, showered, and dressed by 9am, ha ha.  It was nice though.

We had a fabulous Christmas!

Our 2011 Christmas Card--pictures were taken by the fabulous Emilie Ralph with Photo By Emilie.  

Christmas Eve {2011} in Levan

This year Christmas Eve was spent in Levan with my family.

We had planned on staying in Levan Friday night after Jim's uncle's funeral, but I wasn't completely prepared for Christmas and still had a few loose ends to finish up so we went home Friday night.  BUT, that made it so I was able to go to the gym on Saturday morning :)   I also had to run to the grocery store, but amazingly enough it wasn't a mad house at Macey's.  It was actually pretty slow for the most part so I was able to get what I needed and get out of there in pretty good time.

When I got home from the grocery store, I finished up my salad for dinner that night and cleaned up the kitchen.  Then we got packed up, ready, and headed to Levan.

Dinner started at 4pm.  My mom had cooked a ham, yummy potatoes, and home made rolls-YUM!.  The rest of us brought salads and sides to share.  Dinner was so good!  After dinner, we just hung out and visited. It was really low key.

Jackson is still growing out his hair.  He has had it trimmed up a few times, but it's getting pretty long!  Can't wait to see what it looks like for baseball season :)

We tried to get a Mangelson Grand Kid picture.  As you can see, it was quite difficult.  It was my boys who were being uncooperative, of course.  We're missing Paula & Casey's kids in the picture.

Love Ryan's face in this picture!

Jake LOVED wearing Hayden's Santa hat.  He would put it on and say, "Ho Ho Ho!".  We'll have to get him a Santa hat.

Molly played a few Christmas songs on the piano.  After she was done, these 3 hooligans decided to take a turn pounding out a tune.  We eventually had to kick them off :)  I LOVE Ry's face in the middle picture.

We got the boys in the tub and in their Christmas jammies.  I took a picture of them in Scott's Santa hat right before bed.

I can't get a good, true smile out of Jake--this is as good as it gets :)

Of course, my boys didn't partake of the scrumptious home made meal that was made for Christmas Eve.  Before going to bed, they had to have a bowl of cereal.

After the boys finally went to bed, Santa dropped of some gifts for them.

Christmas Eve was great--we are ready for Santa to come :)

Lew Alldredge {April 2, 1939 - December 15, 2011}

Jim's Uncle Lew passed away last week.  His Aunt Jill asked Jim to be a pall bearer for the funeral.  Lew served in the Navy so Jill asked if Jim would wear his dress blues for the funeral.  

We dropped our boys off in Levan with my parents so we wouldn't have to take them with us.  It worked out nice since Levan is kind of on the way to Oak City :)

The funeral was really low-key.  They had a viewing, a really short service, and then a graveside service.  It was actually quite refreshing, but not knowing Lew I understand why people give eulogies and tell stories of their loved ones at funerals.  Again, I didn't know Lew at all but seeing Jill and her kids so sad at the viewing, I couldn't help but tear up.  It was quite sad.

After the graveside service, we went back to the church for a luncheon.  We had the usual ham (or jell-o ham as Jim and Jerry called it) and funeral potatoes.  I don't know what it is about funeral potatoes, but they are the BEST!

We went back to Jim's parents house after the luncheon and spent some time visiting before we had to get back to Levan to pick up the boys.

Jim in his dress blues helping carry the casket.

The family at the graveside service.  From L to R: Angie--Trent's wife, Trent--Lew and Jill's son, Rachel--Lew and Jill's son,  Jill--Lew's wife, Suzie--Lew's daughter, and Suzie's husband.

The American Legion helped with the funeral.  They are so good to help at funerals.  The commander talked to Jim after the funeral and had told him they had helped with 16 funerals in the past week!

We're so sad to see Lew pass but we know he is in a better place.

Mangelson Christmas Party @ the Nielson's

We went to Alpine tonight for dinner at the Nielson's house.  It is Paula's year to spend Christmas with her in-law's so she likes to have all of us up to her house for a Christmas dinner.

Dinner was really yummy--Paula had made chicken and mashed potatoes that are to die for!  She also had a bunch of delish appetizers.  I love the cream cheese with chili sauce that you dip fritos in.  I know, it's so easy, but it is one of my favs!  We had all brought salads to share.

After dinner, Paula had a few activities.  I should say Cade and Zach had a few activities for all of us--she put them in charge :)

The kids decorated red velvet cupcakes while the adults enjoyed White Chocolate Cranberry Bread Pudding.  It is another recipe of Paula's that is to die for--and I'm not even a bread pudding fan!

Ryan loved decorating cupcakes.  I think he put a whole bottle of sprinkles on his 1 cupcake :)

Jake wasn't so much interesting in decorating the cupcake as he was eating it, ha ha.

Madeline and Keaton decorating cupcakes.

Ryan grossed us all out by eating gobs and gobs of frosting.  He just couldn't resist :)  What can I say, Casey makes a mean cream cheese frosting!

After decorating cupcakes, we went upstairs and did the white elephant gift exchange.  No pictures to document the exchange, but it was super fun.  There were some pretty awesome white elephant gifts given a zen garden, the ultimate school teacher Christmas gift bag, an awesome framed poem written by a lady in Levan, and I won a small white elephant figurine!  It was lots of fun!!

We then had a game of Just Dance on the Wii.  It was loads of fun!  I've never played Just Dance so I didn't really know what to expect (I've only seen the commercials for it--I know, so behind with life, ha ha).  I think the best part, even better than watching my family get down with their selves, is watching the dancing example on the game!  Hilarious!!  Zach's favorite dance is a Russian dance called Rasputan.  Oh my, I could watch that Russian guy dance for hours--too funny!

All who wanted took a turn competing.  I can't remember who the champion was--either Paula or Emilee.  All I know is it was a lot of fun--good times had by all!

Thanks to the Nielson's for being good hosts--good food and a fun party!