Christmas Decorations

I'm still loving the red and white outside lights.  We made a trek down to Modern Display in SLC to buy replacement bulbs.  We had tons of lights out and couldn't find replacements anywhere else.

I ordered more paper lanterns in a rainbow of colors so that I can have the colors I want for every holiday.

My mom and I made these ornaments the other night.  We were hoping to do more, but the cardstock I bought to use was too thick for most of the tutorials we tried.  These were the only ones that worked out.  They are pinned on my Christmas Pinterest board if you want to try them yourself.

Christmas Lights at Temple Square

Last Friday we spend the day in Park City with some friends.  While we were there, some other friends (who live in Orem) called and said they would be at temple square that night and asked if we would like to join them.  We jumped at the chance since we don't see them very often, and it was on our way home anyway.

The peachy-pink and yellowy-orange trees were my favorites.

The floating lights in the reflecting pool are also really pretty.

 All bundled up.  It was COLD outside! My poor toes were frozen.

The whole gang: Megan, Brent, Ashlee, Kristin, Travis, me, Pat, and four kiddos.

It was fun looking at the lights with the kids.  They get so much more excited about things.  I was actually quite disappointed with the lights themselves.  When I was a kid they were much better - more and bigger trees lit.  Temple square is also a lot smaller than I remember it being.

2011 Pumpkin Shoot

This post is a bit late.  I took these pictures with my camera, but I've been using Pat's camera for almost everything, so I forgot they were there.  We did the pumpkin shoot this year the second weekend in November.  It was a very snowy weekend.  There were several inches of snow on the road as we headed up the mountain to our usual shooting spot, but we made it without incident.

Paige and his date, Alexis.

Noel and Alex, our neighbors, joined us for their first time ever.

Pat getting ready.

We had a smaller than usual turnout this year, but we still had fun.  It was shorter than we would have liked because the wind picked up and it was COLD.  The mission was still accomplished though; the pumpkins were dead!

November Book List

Ghost Story by Jim Butcher - 477 pages
Blood Work by Kim Harrison - Graphic Novel
Ganymede by Cherie Priest - 346 pages
Angels of Darkness - compilation by Nalini Singh, Ilona Andrews, Meljean Brook, and Sharon Shinn - 406 pages

TOTAL - 2 Books - 1 Graphic Novel - 4 Short Stories - 1,229 pages

Pineapple

We got a couple of pineapples in our most recent Bountiful Basket.  When scrolling through Pinterest a while ago, I remembered seeing that you can grow another pineapple plant by just using the leaves of an eaten pineapple, so we decided to give it a shot.  We mostly got our info from this website and this video.  Hopefully we will see some growth soon, and I won't kill it like I do most plants.  I'll try and keep you updated!

UPDATE 1/11/12:  We've tried this with several different pineapples now.  It is not as easy as the tutorials make it look.  Or maybe we just have black thumbs at our house.  Either way, it looks like growing a pineapple plant is not in the cards for us.

Thanksgiving/Autumn Decorations

I've had this table runner for quite a few years now.  Red seems to work well for a lot of holidays, but it wrinkles very easily.  The gold charger was originally Pier 1, but I found it at Savers.  Unfortunately Savers put the price tag on the front of the plate, and the gold leafing peeled off with it, so its uses are fairly limited.  I grabbed the pinecones on a camping trip last year and they have come in handy.  I just found the little glass pumpkin on clearance at Jo-Ann for $3!

These lived in my office at my last job for a long time. They were all originally from Tai Pan.

I changed out my lanterns & poufs for fall color.  I want to make some yarn spheres out of balloons so I have some more options to play with.

I made this wreath this year - I didn't realize that the wreath was so oblong until I got it on my door.  The felt stars also aren't sitting the way I want them to.  At least it will work for this year even if I end up modifying it or starting over.

They are pretty colors though!

My tree is also providing some pretty color.  I keep meaning to pick these berries and dry them so I can use them in other projects, or just put them in a jar.

Halloween Party

The whole crew: Toga Mike, Dorothy Liz, Riddler Carl,  Waldo Aaron, Devil Heidi, Doctor Matt, Cow Damage, Pirate Booty Adam, T-Shirt Brian, Footballer Kristen, Pikachu Linnea, Ash Jae, Go Go Megan, Pirate Alex, 80s Sonya, Pirate Noel, Monster Hunter Me, Cowboy Pat, Betty Laura, Barney Mike, Fred Brent, Wilma Megan, Zombie Jesus Jim, Footballer Ashlee (hiding in the pic, but you can see her head in the one below), and Sonya's friend (forgot her name, sorry!)

We had tons of good food (which I forgot to take a picture of), friends, and fun.  I spent basically the whole next day recovering, but it was totally worth it.  Somehow, we got pictures of most the attendees, but none of our whole costumes!  Kind of a bummer.

Halloween Decor

 Yarn spiderweb

 Fall lanterns & poms

Castle walls

 Complete with hanging skeletons

Sleeping bats

 And flying bats

 Devil cow

 Bloody glasses and lightning ball

Lights, feather wreath, streamers, fog

October Book List

Envy by JR Ward - 454 pages
Changes by Jim Butcher - 438 pages
Wanderlust by Ann Aguirre - 312 pages
Grave Secret by Charlaine Harris - 274 pages

TOTAL - 4 Books - 1,478 pages

Roller Derby

I first heard about roller derby when I was at a concert a few years ago.  Some of the Salt City Derby Girls were there trying to recruit members, and invited me to come try out.  I didn't, because Salt Lake is a bit too far to drive on a regular basis, but it sounded like fun.  A little while later I heard that Ogden had a league called the Junction City Roller Dolls.  It still sounded interesting, but I never got around to going to a game until this last weekend. 

I have to admit that it wasn't quite as exciting as I thought it would be.  After hearing about it and watching the movie Whip It, I thought it would be a bit more aggressive.  It was also a little hard to follow at times, but we still had fun. 

At this point I don't think I could actually compete on a team because of my bad knees, but it did kind of make me want to get some skates for fun and exercise.  Plus then I could still dress up in adorable outfits like theirs and get away with it.