Our Journey Through the Land of Jagged Breasts (Teton National Park)

We survived a winter vacation in the mountains. We went to Grand Teton National Park for a few days and had mucho funno. We spent the first night there taking "artistic portraits" of each other in our lovely hotel room which hasn't changed since 1953.

We went on a few hikes through the snow. We planned on renting snowshoes but never did. We figured it wouldn't be too hard to hike in the snow. My legs are still sore.

Katie contemplated even ditching her boots and hiking barefoot.

If you are ever wandering around Jackson at night and you are craving a hamburger and you stop at a local coffee shop to ask "Where's a good place to get a good burger?" and they answer "Billy's" don't believe them. Worst Burger Ever!!

We went on a horse drwan sleigh ride out onto the Elk refuge where we got really close to the Elk.

And we played in the snow and made a foreboding snowman to scare away any hikers.

If you want to see more pics click HERE

Fall Semester at Santa B and a BOY

This fall semester has been so fun! I have two great roommate who have taught me a lot about kindness and supporting each other. For their Christmas gift from me, me and my "friend" Rob made breakfast for them last Saturday, needless to say it was delicious!


This was my birthday dinner at PF Changs, it was so good and I got my food for free cause they messed up on it. I invited all my closest lady friends to come celebrate with me cause they were the next best thing to being with my family. My roommates are the two blonds, they are so great!

My roommate Nicole made me a gluten free cake out of black beans, it was so moist and delicious! I had a party and had so much fun cause all sorts of my friends showed up and we just had fun talking and I got lots of great gifts including that scarf made by my other roommate Sarah and a hat box full of surprises from Lauren. the best gift though was my new laptop that I love so much! thanks dad and mom! Its a beauty!

Here is the good part!! his name is Robert Fowler, he is from Scottsdale, AZ, his dad is a doctor, and mom is a violin teacher. He is graduating in mechanical engineering in April and might continue at BYU to get his masters or go work for a prestigious mechanical engineering company in Denver. I tell him all the time that he is a smarty pants! He is the most amazing guy I have ever met, so nice, so sweet, gentle and funny too and I really really like him... a lot! His last girl friend also had celiac disease... hmmm interesting!

ROOMMATES!!!

These are the girls of 102 and I have LOVED living with them. We were meant to live together. I came as a stranger to them and they were so nice and we are great friends now. Nicole is getting married in August, and Sarah is stickin around and going to school. Her major is exercise and wellness. Nicole is from Park City and Sarah from Pleasant Grove. Sarah lived in Mexico with her parents who were mission presidents there for two years and went to school to be a pastry chef. They are both so talented and encouraging! We spend a lot of nights after we are sick of homework, watching little dorrit and north and south! I know next semester will be just as great with them there to support me and share my happiness and sadness or whatever. I also hope there will be another addition to our apartment, except that he cant sleep over! wink wink!

Bisbee, AZ

Ahh! Why is this blue/underlined again? Anyway, this is Bisbee AZ. It's an old mining city here in AZ. I guess it's known as the San Francisco of AZ. It's a really cool city. This is me in front of the courthouse as the wind is blowing dust in my face. It was SOOO windy the day we went and cold (but cold for here is like 45*F).

This is a picture of one of the streets. They're all like this, really skinny and surrounded by old buildings. Most of the shops are antique shops or artsy stuff.

Finally, this is Andrew and me in a mining cart. It was really hard for my pregnant self to get in this thing. I'm a major clutz now.

Tombstone

So here are some pictures of Tombstone, AZ. This is me in front of the OK Corral where some famous shootout took place. We watched a re-enactment of it, but I was pretty bored and somewhat fell asleep. (PS why does my text always come out underlined and blue?). (PSS, Katie I'm wearing the shirt you loaned me...you know the one that you wore and someone asked you if you were pregnant?)


This is Andrew and me in a buggy. You could get in one with a horse and everything, but that made me want to vomit...horse poo is stinky.

This is the courthouse, but I guess they didn't use it much. They were more into just killing you on the spot if they thought you had done something illegal. The sheriff was apparently sheriff, judge, jury, and executioner.

Kanami's Snail

Kanami made this snail today. She wanted me to put it on "Grandma's" blog.

Elann's New Glasses

Elann got glasses yesterday. Doesn't he look cool!

Sweet Potato Soup

Hello. Here's my recipe of the millenium. I made this last week and thought it was pretty good. It's sweet and boy like at the same time. You, know... boy like... smells like onions and garlic? Anyway, I though Christine might like it because it can be made gluten free. Enjoy! Click here to see the website I got this from

Creamy Sweet Potato Soup Recipe

Ingredients
2 Tbsp (1/4 stick) butter
1 cup chopped onion
2 small celery stalks, chopped
1 medium leek, sliced (white and pale green parts only) (I left this out)
1 large garlic clove, chopped
1 1/2 pounds red-skinned sweet potatoes (yams), peeled, cut into 1-inch pieces (about 5 cups or two medium sweet potatoes)
4 cups chicken stock or canned low-salt chicken broth (use vegetable broth for vegetarian option)
1 cinnamon stick
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 cups half and half
2 Tbsp maple syrup or brown sugar
The leafy tops of the celery stalks, chopped

Method
1 Melt the butter in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Add the chopped onion and sauté for about 5 minutes. Add chopped celery stalks and leek, sauté about 5 minutes. Add garlic and sauté 2 minutes.

2 Add sweet potatoes, chicken stock, cinnamon stick, and nutmeg; bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.

3 Remove cinnamon stick and discard. Working in batches, puree soup in blender until smooth. Return to pot.

4 Add half and half and maple syrup and stir over medium-low heat to heat through. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cool soup slightly. Cover and refrigerate soup and celery leaves separately. Bring soup to simmer before continuing.) Ladle into bowls. Sprinkle with celery leaves.

Serves 6 to 8

Quilt Patterns

It's quilt time baby. Mom wants to make a quilt and I want to help her with my vast quilt knowledge. Actually, if you knew me you would know that is a false statement. Anyway, here is a pattern of a quilt I know how to make. I made the pattern with my computer so the colors are horrible and the layout makes you want to barf but hopefully you can look beyond that and picture a quilt with the following design and complimentary colors.

Scrappy Strip Quilt pictures from crafts photos on webshots

Scrappy Strip Quilt pictures from crafts photos on webshots

Halloween pumpkins

Here's an updated picture of my belly (and no, it's not a pumpkin inside)

Andrew and I decided that carving pumpkins sucks, so we painted ours this year.

Future Reference

You would think I could remember how to add a very clever picture to this post, but I can't. So you have to imagine that you are looking at a picture of a worn-out old woman who just finished de-junking her kitchen (at least most of it).
Now here is a little heads up. When I die and any of you comes into my kitchen to get rid of all of the stuff, please remember that I will be right next to you where you can't see me and when any of you says, "What am I supposed to do with all this crap?" Then I will give you the mightiest kick you have ever felt. I just thought you would like to keep that in mind for future reference.

Pumpkins

Carving pumpkins and listening to Mikelle's impersonation of Dr. Laura were the evening's entertainment.

Our friend Dave tried carving a pumpkin on his pumpkin, but it ended up looking like female genitalia. I didn't get a picture of it before he destroyed it but it was something Georgia O'keefe would have been jealous of.

In the true spirit of the only two pumpkins to come from our garden (one giant and one tiny) we carved the big one eating the small one.

Brother Yeltsin

We had a Regional Conference today, held at the USU basketball stadium. It was a great conference. Elder Eyring and Elder Ballard spoke. From the nose bleed seats at the far end of the stadium Elder Ballard looks just like Boris Yeltsin.

"Its a birthday present to me!" NOT ANY MORE BABY!

This is pretty much the conversation that happened to me last tuesday at my family impact job:

Kuzco: Oh, and by the way, you're fired. Yzma: Fired? W-W-What do you mean, "fired"? [Kuzco snaps his finger and a servant comes in and writes down Yzma's "pink slip"] Kuzco: Um, how else can I say it? "You're being let go." "Your department's being downsized." "You're part of an outplacement." "We're going in a different direction." "We're not picking up your option." Take your pick. I got more."

just replace the word "fired" with laid off and its pretty much right. They were really nice about it, but kinda sudden. The business is not surviving and so they could not afford to keep me. At least I know its not due to job performance.

SOOOO... the point is: No more laptop birthday present to me!

I guess I will have to wait until I can find me another job, that one took me 2 and a half horrible months to find, and then I can invest in a computer. But I have faith. I have been working so hard and being a good little girl, so hopefuly the Lord will bless me to find something else for winter semester! :..( I liked having money! boo hoo

I suddenly feel like Wii Tennis is not such a good idea

Watch this video and tell me what you think...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

For my 22nd birthday I am going to buy myself a laptop!!

Here is how you can help:

1. Donate to the laptop for Leesa's birthday fund

2. give me advice about what to get and where to get it

3. just buy me one! haha jk

my current laptop is a BYU rental because my old one was a pioneer in laptops, I think it came on a boat from asia, it has finally hit the dust hence the need for a new laptop. Renting is good but eventually I will have rented long enough to have used that money to buy my own.

NOW YOU KNOW...

Inside the fat self

I had my 20-week ultrasound this week and here are the latest pics. The first one is looking straight at his face. I personally think it's a little scary, but the other one's are cute.
This is a side profile, you can see his nose, mouth, hand, and the black thing near the end of his tummy is his bladder. I thought that was funny.

And here he his showing of his muscles.