My Favorite Christmas Treats

I wanted to do a Christmas post about my favorite foods to eat at Christmastime. I feel like during the holidays I just eat and eat and eat, but the food is just to dang good to resist. These are my faves...I hope I didn't forget any. I also wanted to do a tag some people for this post: Steph Thompson, Kate Messick, Lyndsi Morrow, and Angie Guymon.

SUGAR COOKIES

We just discovered how good the Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix is. I'm not one to like ANY mixes, but this does not disappoint. I made these cookies for my family Christmas partyvand I love how the big white sprinkles look like polka dots! hot chocolate

Life Saver Storybooks
We used to always get these in our stockings when I was younger and I will always love them. I especially love the tropical and berry packages.

fudge

There are so many different kinds: rocky road, walnut, peanut butter, and just plain chocolate.

Mint M&Ms

Candy Cane Toosie Pops

Peppermint Milkshakes

My dad used to make these during Christmastime because of all the extra candycanes laying around, and they are wonderful. Oranges and Tangelos

What are your faves?

GRADUATION

I had my graduation last Saturday and I'm so relieved to be done with college! I really appreciated my parents and Tyler's parents coming to support me. Elder Richard G. Scott came to speak at commencement which was pretty exciting. I really enjoyed the talk that the president of the school, President Kim B. Clark, gave. He went over three guidelines to live by: keeping the spirit to be with you, serving the Lord and others, and keeping wordly things out of your heart. I really believe that we can learn so much from just these three principles that can greatly impact our lives and help us to become better individuals.

It was a freezing cold day, but I had to get a picture by the BYU-I sign. I love my parents so much and they are always so sweet and supportive of me. It means a lot to me when they tell me how proud they are of me for graduating. I love you guys!

Love my little family.

hello arizona

Well it's been awhile and I'm sorry, but boy do I have a lot to say...

I don't think that I ever really announced that we are going to Midwestern University in ARIZONA for medical school. We're excited and anxious to get going with school. It's a very bittersweet thing to me. People ask me if I'm excited and I am very, but I'm also very sad to leave family. I'm definitely a homebody and Idaho is all I've ever known, but it will be a wonderful experience for our family. Tyler is such a hard worker and I know that he will be a great doctor someday. Hello Arizona. This is our Christmas card for this year. My mom took our pictures a couple weeks ago and it was FREEZING cold, but she did a great job. Thank you, mom!
Kate came up to see me the other night and to have me help her with her Christmas cards. It was really fun to see her and Krew. We tried to get our boys to sleep so that we could have a couple hours to work on scrapbooking, but the little stinkers knew what we were up to and didn't go to sleep like we planned. Well, I'll be generous and say they were pretty good and played together for awhile. :) Our little Christmas tree.

Olivia and I went to the David Archueleta concert last week and it was a rockin' good time. I may or may not have a little crush on him. He was super good in concert and I absolutely loved it. It was really fun to go with Olivia; I love that girl.

You rock.

Tyler's parents gave Jacoby this little basketball hoop last year and he has recently been very interested in it. This is all that he ever wants to do anymore and it's pretty fun to watch him. He's starting to do so many fun things lately and it's a lot of fun.

lots of fun

We had a really nice Thanksgiving this year with Tyler's family. Tyler's brother just got married back in September and they were able to come to Thanksgiving with us too. His aunt and uncle always host Thanksgiving dinner at their home. It was really nice to see everyone and visit and pig out on lots of yummy food. I was even able to make my favorite pie to take, banana cream pie! I made one to take and one to eat at home and they were pretty tasty. I will have to post the recipe on Make Your Tastebuds Dance soon. I feel so grateful for so many things in my life right now such as: the good health of myself and loved ones, our wonderful families, my hardworking husband, Tyler being accepted to medical school, sisters and a mom who are my best friends, missionaries all over the world and especially Elder Long down in Brazil, wonderful friends who are always there, our wonderful ward, the gospel, finishing school, staying at home with Jacoby, being a wife and mother, and living close to family. I love my life and I realize that I need to try to focus on all of the things that I do have and how blessed I am.


Last night we all went over to my grandma Long's to help her decorate her Christmas tree. As I'm sure you have noticed, we love decorating trees! We each made something to go on the tree using lime green and red and it turned out really nice. My grandma is such a sweet lady and I love her so much.

I went shopping with Steph on Black Friday and we got a ton of stuff. I'm kind of embarrassed to say that we were at the mall at 4:45 a.m. along with many other crazies. I wanted to get most of my shopping done, but I would say that I'm only about half done. With all the birthdays in December it makes it pretty tough too. Tyler's brother and his wife waited in line at Target ALL NIGHT Thursday, so I gave him a list of toys to get Jacoby. All done with that little guy now thanks to Trav and Betsey. It was really fun to go with Steph, but we missed Becca and Tom this year. What am I going to do next year when I have to go by myself?

Visions of Sugarplums

One of my favorite new traditions that my family has done the last three or four years is decorating trees for the Festival of Trees! I love to decorate and wish that I had more money to be able to buy or make things for my home. This is a great way for me to get to do that a little bit. It's so fun to go shopping and buy all the things you would like to use for a dream tree of your own and put it all together. I realized that this could be my last year because we'll be moving away, and I will miss it so much next year when I hear about my mom and sisters doing their trees. I was able to do a full sized tree and a smaller alpine tree. The Festival of Trees opens today and goes through Friday from 10:00 a.m.-10:00 p.m. all week long. Try to stop by and check out all the beautiful of trees and help support the Development Workshop. Steph and I are also selling our crocheted earrings that you can find here at the Festival of Trees Boutique. This is the smaller tree that I did at about midnight-2:00 a.m. I'm so glad that Jess, Steph, and Katie were able to help me get it done! I love this color combo; I would probably do a tree like this if I could spend a bunch of money on mine.

"Visions of Sugarplums"

When we went to Taipan Trading to get our stuff for our tree Olivia told me that she really wanted to do lime green and plum for the tree and I was a little reluctant because I had other ideas in mind, but I ended up loving the colors. Of course Livi was really proud of the fact that it was her idea and likes to rub it in my face. Oh well. My good friend, Jessica, was able to come help us decorate and it was so fun to talk and hang out with her.

My uncle Dave and aunt Janell with their tree. I think that Dave is trying to look as manly as possible because he had just helped Janell with her tree, but I think it's cool that he was willing to help her. It looked beautiful, Dave! :)

"Merry and Bright"

Becca and Steph's tree was so beautiful. I loved the color combo and the bird cage with the little nest and birds inside. They always do a great job.

a fun Halloween weekend

I always love when Halloween falls on a weekend. We had a party with my family on Thursday evening and on Halloween we went trick-or-treating to my grandparent's and Tyler's aunt's. I always remember wanting to go over to see my grandparents on Halloween and show off my costume. I know it always meant a lot to them to have us come over then and I know it still does. This year was a little more fun than last year because Jacoby could actually hold a sack and carry it to the door. I remember last year all we did was dress him up as a monkey and stay home. :) He looked really cute as a lion I thought. My brother, Thomas, was a lion once when he was little and my mom always said it was adorable so she helped me make the mane. I want to try to find that picture of Tom and send it to him with a picture of Jacoby. I hope that everyone had a nice Halloween weekend!
My friends used to call me Mufasa in high school because of the big hair, so this is for you guys:

Mufasa and Simba :) At our Halloween party we played carnival games. For Steph's prizes she had these sticker mustaches...I know, we are dorks. We always do this smile too; it's an inside joke that I'm not telling you guys about. :)
For my carnival game we did a donut eating contest. I hate to brag, but I'm GOOD at eating contests because I love to eat. Well I was doing pretty good, but you see that donut above my head that Devan is eating? It fell in my hair! Well that's my excuse for letting Lonnie beat me. Ha ha.

When we were at my parent's I looked over and saw that Jacoby had a sucker in his mouth. I asked everyone if they had given it to them and they said no, so I went over by the candy bowl and there was the wrapper on the ground. That little thief! Well he loved it so who cares.

This is Jacoby's new toy! He was always playing with our broom and I didn't really like that, so his Grandma Roe picked him up this broom. He doesn't really like toys very much, but he loves just regular things that we use all the time. Funny kid!

Subway

Subway is having buy 1, get one free today for customer appreciation! I heard it on the radio today, so my mom, Steph, and I ran over there for lunch. On the radio they said it was going on all over Southeastern Idaho. Just wanted to let you all know!

jack o'lanterns, earrings, & my boy

Awhile back I was told about this awesome blog and I found this great idea for some Halloween decorations, so during the priesthood session a couple weeks ago my mom, sisters, and I made these jack o'lanterns. It's such an easy craft to do and very cheap. You will have to check out her blog, she has many great ideas.
Pictures of these cuties in the dark....blurry. Pictures with the light on.

Steph and I have recently started making these fun crocheted earrings. We have started a blog called "String and Bling," so you'll have to check it out here. We have lots of fun colors: raspberry, dandelion, oatmeal, shadow, marshmallow, lilac, ruby, rose, chocolate, and honeydew. Here's Steph modeling the honeydew for ya.

I haven't done a monthly update of Jacoby since he turned one, so now that he's 14 months I wanted to remember all the fun things he's doing now.

-Dancing to music, and dang he's a stud when he dances.

-Climbing and FALLING. He climbs up on the couch, trunk, chairs, and hearth.

-Sleeping so well through the night, from 8:30 pm-8:30 am.

-Says day doo(thank you), mamma, and dadda.

-Holds my hand when we walk.

-Puts things back where they go. He loves playing with our pans and so he had them out in the kitchen and all of a sudden he went over to the cupboard where they are kept and opened it and set it inside; I was thrilled. And another time I was going through my coupons and he wanted to "play" with them, so I handed him one I didn't need and he went over to where the garbage is and waited for me to open it, because it has a child safety lock, and threw it away. That smart little devil.

-Gives kisses, only with his mouth w i d e open.

He's a lot of fun and keeps us very busy. He's so hard to get pictures of now because as soon as I set him down where I want him and am ready to take the picture he stands up and tries to run grab the camera, so I mostly have really close up shots. :)

more good news

Last weekend I got together with my sisters and mom during the priesthood session. I always look forward to hanging out with them during that. We worked on some Halloween crafts that I found on a blog, so I will have to post pictures when we get them finished. It was nice because we had the guys watch the kids from 4-6 while we did our craft and then we met them at Arctic Circle to get the kids and then they all played on the toys and we ate. After dinner we went to Deseret and Robert's. It was fun to hang out with the girls all night. My mom took this cute picture of Jacoby and Johnny in their matching shirts. Funny story...I had bought Jacoby some clothes at Target and was telling Becca about them and she said she had a green shirt for Johnny too and it sounded like the same one. So when she was coming last weekend, I called her to tell her to have Johnny wear his green shirt and Jacoby and him could match and she said she was already planning to. We were pretty much on the same wavelength. Ha ha.

They're cute. Today I made mint brownies! They are pretty tasty, but take a little bit of time. I'm way too nice, I let Jacoby lick the beater. He went to town.
We went to the park the other day and it was pretty chilly, but he loved getting out of the house.

I'm loving being done with school and being able to hang out with this kid all day long.

More good news: Tyler was accepted to Kirksville! It's a really great school in Missouri and we have heard so many great things from people that have gone there. Way to go Ty! He's still waiting to hear back from another school and then we can really start deciding, so stay tuned.

Midwestern University

Last Friday while Tyler was on his trip to Missouri and Iowa for his interviews he received a phone call from Midwestern University saying he had been accepted to their school. We were all so excited and so relieved. It's nice to know that he has been accepted somewhere and now we can really start looking into the area and see if it's somewhere we want to go. Tyler really liked it down there when he went last week. I'm so proud of him and the hard worker that he is, what a wonderful accomplishment. He should be finding out in the next couple weeks if he gets accepted to Kirksville or Des Moines and then we can start to look into things more and really decide where we want to move. He had an interview lined up in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, but he decided to turn those down now that he has been accepted somewhere. I'm glad that he's done with his trips because I've really missed having him around the last couple months. Tyler's dad went with Tyler on two of his trips; I'm so glad that he was able to go with him. I really wanted to go to with him on this last trip, but he had to drive a ton and we knew that Jacoby would have a really hard time. We decided it would just be too hard, so I just stayed at home. He had a really great time and enjoyed both schools down there too. We will see what happens. Now this is all starting to feel more real!!! Congrats Tyler! You're the best.

just a few things

Tyler just got back from two interviews at med schools in Arizona. He felt like things went well, so we'll see what happens. I went and stayed with my parents for a couple days and it was nice spending time with them. Tyler heads to Missouri and Iowa next week for a couple more interviews. He's has worked so hard on getting things ready for medical school while still going to school. We are really proud of everything he has done. It will be nice to find out where we are going to be living for the next four years. We'll keep you posted. I love this picture of Jacoby. He looks like such a little frog and especially with that green, gingham outfit.

I love to have cards on hand when things come up, but it seems like I never have the right card that I need. Well I finally decided to break down and do a bunch. There's still some events that I've probably missed, but this covers most of them.

A lady I work with asked me to make carmel, chocolate pretzels for her son's wedding. Her colors are pink, black, and white, so I thought these heart sprinkles would be great. It was fun to make these, but I ended up having to make two flippin' batches because a few pans of pretzels fell out of the freezer and broke. I was so mad!!! Thanks to my mom and all her help we got them finished finally.

I really love cupcakes right now. There's this great little cupcake cafe up here called the Cocoa Bean and they have the best cupcakes. I tried to copy them with these red velvet cupcakes.

We had Travis, Betsey, and Savannah over for dinner the other night and it was a lot of fun. They're all going to school up here too and it's so nice to have them so close. We had a great time visiting and playing games. I love having people over for dinner, but then I realize how small our apartment is. We had to use our computer chair and rocking chair to have enough chairs to sit up to the table. Ha ha.