Closer to 30  

Posted by Amber

On Dec. 5th, I became closer to 30 than to 20 :p Happy 26th to me!  I celebrated by pretty much doing nothing.  I took the day off of work and hung out around the house.  I'm pretty sure I never got out of my PJs either.  I must admit, I felt a little guilty taking a day off of work and doing nothing, but it was most enjoyable.

Lynell and John stopped by to give me a gift - a pretty sweater and some cakebites (yum!).  After Matt got home, we watched ourselves some Star Trek Deep Space 9 (cuz we're nerds).  Since it was also Monday, Matt wanted to watch Funday Monday, so I hung out in the office with him and colored. (Thanks Big O Tires for sending out a coloring page with the ads! haha)  Afteward, we read .... well, I read some Christmas stories to Matt.  It was fun and very relaxing :)

So the camera was at the computer, and Matt decided to take a snapshot :)

Now I know this is out of order, but I'm over that.  On Sunday, the 4th, it was Denise's birthday (the Primary president).  So she and I were sung to in junior and senior primary.  Good times.  The 4th is also Lynell's birthday.  We went to Matt's parents' for dinner and had yummy trifle.  Lynell and I each got a turn to blow out the candles lol.  It was very tasty.  My parents also gave me a card for my birthday, although, I had to go pick it up myself ;) (Okay, I was borrowing a drill and stuff for the ward Christmas party...so it worked out.)

Also a fun note was all of the Facebook birthday wishes.  It was extra fun because I have friends in the Philippines who are a day ahead, so I was getting birthday wishes on Sunday and Monday.  It made me happy.

Thanks to all for making my birthday enjoyable!

The End of Thankful November  

Posted by Amber

Yes, I know Christmas is almost here, but one day at work (shh...I was really working.... maybe...) I clicked on this link.  It's the First Presidency message, and it fits perfectly with my theme from November.  It was a nice culmination of what I had learned over Thankful November.  President Eyring starts off by teaching it is a commandment to be thankful.  I love that.  It can be hard, but it must be really important if we are actually commanded to be thankful, right?  With following commandments comes blessings, like being happy :)  Also, we get filled with the love of Christ and are better in tune with the Spirit.  We want to help others be lifted up.  The hard things are easier to bear.  You really should all go read it.  It's really good (naturally... I mean, the First Presidency doesn't put out anything sub-standard, do they?).  I need to work on staying thankful, I think.  Wait, no, I know I need to.  *Sigh* Okay - time to maybe start keeping a gratitude journal, eh?


Also, as a sidenote - during Thankful November, I ended up behind this Geo with the word "swell" on it.  I don't know why it was there, but it made me smile because life is swell.

Black Friday and the Weekend  

Posted by Amber

So, being broke and not having a lot of gifts to worry about, I did snag a few ads from my grandma's house on Thanksgiving.  Fortunately for me, they weren't crazy Black Friday things.  One was even specifically a Saturday thing.  So on Friday, Matt and I hung out at home, and probably watched a lot of Star Trek on Netflix (yeah, we're nerds like that :)).  Although, I did log in from home and work for a couple of hours.  I'm glad I have the option to work from home for days like that.

Finally, Saturday afternoon (we were so lazy :)), we headed out to go shopping.  We took care of a few gifts, and even went to Petco for our kids' gifts.  Yay for sales!  Roberts was also having a sale on yarn, so I got some standard colors (not as many as I'd like considering they were pretty well cleaned out), and a cute purple that I have an idea for... if I can remember yet again how to crochet....and then learn something besides single and double stitching.... like following a pattern! ha!  I have about a month for my plan though, so it's all good.

Sunday, we headed north to Pleasant Grove where Matt's cousin was reporting on his mission.  It was kind of fun because they had two returned missionaries speaking.  Austin did an amazing job, and totally made me cry lol.  Matt's family ducked out at the end to head up to Plain City to hear Jackie report on her mission.  We, however, decided to go to Sharon's for bread and muffins.  Mmm - so good!  Again, we had an enjoyable time visiting with family and playing with Nicole's babies - Ruby (chinchilla) and Lily (pug).

Mostly, for the extended weekend off of work, I enjoyed spending time with Matt.  It was very nice to have a few days of nothing to do but hang out with each other and our animals.

Thanksgiving Day 2011  

Posted by Amber

For Thanksgiving this year, we went to my Grandma Wilson's house. We had fun adventures of searching for silverware, and Koreen spilling the drink on the floor and Elisabeth's feet - tee hee. When we did eventually get to eat, we enjoyed tasty food and catching up with family.

Dinner prep

After dinner, I looked throught THOUSANDS of ads for Black Friday.  I do enjoy it, but there were so many that I did eventually get sick of it :p.  Matt joined me in the parlor and took a nap while I finished going through the ads.  After I found a few to swipe (total=3 - and they weren't even technically Black Friday deals), we headed back for dessert.
Caleen encouraged me to take this picture since, from her angle, it looked like Matt was eating all of the pies :)

We did some more Black Friday 'shopping' with my aunts.  Caleen had Elisabeth's laptop out and was buying the Black Friday stuff that went live online on Thanksgiving Day.  Koreen then hopped on to get some stuff she wanted too. Oh the joy.
 Caleen was very paricular about her ads....
Koreen trying to find the best deals.



That evening, we went to Matt's aunt Lynell's house to visit with family.  Brian and Melody had come down to spend the evening before Black Friday shopping, so we chatted with them and watched the kiddos play.  We, naturally, took Mocha.  Apparently, Chloe wasn't so impressed with having a full house. 
Chloe being cute and sleepy.

At one point, Mocha was passing under the couch, and Chloe went into assassination mode... She went to jump on Mocha from above (my poor, unsuspecting puppy lol), just as one of the kids came running past, knocking Chloe off course. lol It was entertaining :)

We had a really good time visiting with family all day and eating yummy food.  I am definitely thankful for my family and for the fact we all (well, most all) live so close that we can see each other on a regular basis.