Happy Birthday Jayson!!

December 5th was Jayson’s Birthday so I have to give a late birthday shoutout to the hardest worker I know! I hope you had a great birthday! Enjoy your new year being one year old and wiser to! Happy Birthday to you!!



All his employee’s took his Birthday as a chance to get revenge on him by plastering him with Shaving cream! Well done ISI!!

A Tennessee Thanksgiving

I got to spend Thanksgiving in the beautiful Smoky Mountains!! How lucky am I? Our original plan had been to go to Atlantis resort in the Bahamas, & believe me when I say I was so so so excited to go. BUT when they started booking the trip, we realized that you have to have passports to stay there. But that didn’t stop us, even with the limited time left; we went to work getting our passports. I could seriously write an entire post on our adventures in trying to get passports. But I’ll just skip to the ending… we didn’t get them. Well mostly, just not mine. Stupid “Not sealed” Birth certificate. Anywho, we settled with renting a cabin in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. It definitely wasn’t the Bahamas, but it was actually pretty fun. The cabin was HUGE!! We went with the Klink’s, who are the Waller’s good friends, and their kids. We each could have had our own rooms with space to spare, but the younger kids all shared. Me and Hannah shared a level, each with our own big rooms, with porches on the back, Jacuzzi tubs and TV’s. The cabin had all sorts of fun stuff like an arcade style racing video game, a movie theater, a pool table and a hot tub, so needless to say we were pretty set just hanging out there. But we also spent a lot of time exploring the town, which is pretty much a giant amusement park. It reminded me of a beach town. We did go cart racing, mining our own gemstones, the sky lift {What an awesome view!}, shopping & other amusements throughout the town. & of course ate a lot of good food :) We had a great time!!



The view from the top of the Skylift

*~TwEnTy!!~*

Well, I am no longer a teenager! :/ Pretty sad right?? I turned the big 2-0 on November 22nd. It was also my first birthday away from home. Naturally, I was a little sad that my family couldn’t be there to share my big day with. But between their phone calls, gifts & the Waller’s going ALL out I hardly had time to be homesick. When I say ALL out, I mean it! When I came out of my room, there was a bag outside my door. I opened it, and what was in it you ask? Well socks and sandals of course. What? What? What? Ha ha its kind of an ongoing joke from the Disney Channel show, “So Random”. Pretty Random right? We say it all the time, don’t know why :] So Hannah made a prank out of it and put her stinky sandals and some socks in the bag :] How thoughtful of her!! To make up for it, there was also a ton of candy in the bag! But none of this prepared me for what was downstairs. Streamers, balloons, more streamers, more balloons. A balloon the size of a Christmas tree. A rose cake. Banners. Writing on the door. Writing on the washers & dryers. And top it off with more decorations & you have my birthday at the Waller house.





cRaZy right?? They are too nice. On top of all of it they got me a Victoria’s Secret Pink sweat suit. I love these things!! I have wanted one forever!! They ALSO got me some more cute PINK pink pants :) and a cute VS pink top. They are the best!!! Then I took the girls to school, in the Hummer, with Happy Birthday saying like “Honk it’s my birthday” & “Big 20” written all over it. Embarrassing!! Later in the day we went to the Mooresville Christmas parade that Hannah got to walk in.




Finally, just as I was about to be done for the day, I was splattered in the face with a pie. Here is their warning: I plan revenge.



When I got up to my room & cleaned the rotten milk smell from the pie off me, I opened up the gifts I had received in the mail from the fam back in Utah. I got some good stuff like Glee season 2, a laptop desk, a donut maker, some really cute slippers & some $cash$. I had a terrific twentieth birthday!! Thanks to everyone who made it that way :)

Fall

I had been looking forward to the North Carolina fall all year!! & it finally came… just way to fast!! But it was beautiful while it lasted. I really wanted to take some good pictures, especially of the tree’s on the lake shore that were just breathtaking, but time flew past me and before I knew it, all the leaves had fallen off! :/ Well here are some I just took in the yard. Definitely doesn’t do it justice.

Hello Krista!!!! :D

This post is dedicated to my super fantastic sister{in-law} Krista Lou...

I have been working my toosh off to catch up on my blog. I have all but one post ready && I want to post them all at once. I just can't bring myself to do the last one. I'm blogged out for the day. But I have been thinking about you the whole time I was working, wanting to get it done because I know you usually check it on Monday's & I hate to disappoint you with no post... AGAIN! SOOOO here is a "placeholder" post just for you; An invitation to come back on Tuesday & see my real posts!! I love you girl!! 9 days left & I can hug your guts out!!

Renaissance Festival

I have been looking forward to the Renaissance festival pretty much since I’ve been here. The Waller’s are always talking about it & telling me how much fun it is. & It didn’t disappoint! Lots of yummy food, fun vendors, games & crafts & a lot of interesting people. First thing we did was eat :) I had spinach artichoke dip in a bread bowl. Can you say YUMMY?! The kids all did a great job on the rock wall, Kenzie & Hannah both made it to the top in a jiffy.


Then we went & did this jumpy thing. Either I am getting braver or they just have a way of talking me into things, but I did it. I figured if I could do the sky diving thing, I can do just about anything. + it didn’t look to high from the ground. But it WAS high!! I kept going higher and higher when I got on :/ It must have not been too bad though, because I managed to keep my eyes open the whole time. I kinda felt like a nerd because it was mostly younger kids doing it & none of them were screaming, but I was. What’s new? Apparently even Londyn went higher than me. But I went so that has to count for something.






Then we went & did some more activities with the kids & they did some shooting. We had some giant pickles. Enough said.




Then Hannah made me make a hand wax sculpture. A couples one. Of me & her. So that when I leave I won’t forget her. Hannah, I will have you know that I won’t need a wax hand thing to remember you. We’re like sisters :) But it did turn out pretty cute, & kinda funny. We’re just madly in love :) Here is our materpiece. Don't mind the stuff in the background.




I am so glad I finally got to go, it was awesome!!

Halloween 2011

I absolutely love Halloween! It definitely is on the top of my favorite holiday list. This one was no different!! The first part of the day went as normal, with the exception of a Halloween themed preschool for Londie-lou. When the other girlies got home we made some Bloody bandaid snacks and they decorated the golf cart with streamers and spider webs. It officially became the Halloween-mobile :) Then I made a Halloween themed dinner that consisited of mummy hot dogs, mummy pizza’s and pumpkin shaped quesadillas. As always, they didn’t turn out as cute as I wanted, but oh well, I had fun making them, especially with Kenzie as my assistant.


Londyn making some yummy bloody bandaids, check out the face :] * The finsihed result * Kenzie helpiing with the Halloween dinner

Then came the really fun part: Costumes!! I had to rush a little bit with mine, hence the reason you can still see my blonde hair in the pics :)



Me & the cute kids


Christian the Sailor * Minnie & Mickey(aka Jay & Liz) * Londyn the Cheerleader, Carter the boxer & Kenzie the Monster witch



I had to show ya Jayson & Liz's fun costume's from a party they went to earlier in the week. Vampire Flintstones, oh my :) & Jessie & the Gypsy (or is is Hannah & I??)


The Waller’s invited a few friends over & we headed out for the main event: Trick-or treating!! I’m not sure if it is something they do in NC or just this neighborhood, but almost everyone came to the end of their driveways and had canopy’s the adults sat under & gave out candy. In one cul-de-sac they had a buffet set up for those that lived there and then they all sat in lawn chairs in a circle with candy. The kids went around and got one from each of their bowls. Isn’t that a fun idea?? I’m bringing that one home to Utah. We had a ton of fun driving around on the golf cart and running up to houses to get the candy. Jayson, Liz & Christian went home about ½ way through, but the girls, Ashley, (One of the Waller’s friends) her son & I stuck it out to the end. Which was only 8:00  The neighborhood apparently has time limits for trick or treating, lame huh? But it actually worked out pretty well considering it was a school night, we had some young ones with us & + it felt a lot later than it was. So at 8 o’ clock we made our way back home to make some homemade root beer, a Halloween tradition at my house that I couldn’t give up this year. Turns out dry ice isn’t an easy thing to get around here. I got some pretty weird looks when I was asking for it. BUT I did find some & the kid’s thought it was just about the coolest thing ever!! && the root beer was pretty darn good if I do say so myself :) Happy Halloween!!