Spaghetti Dinner

So we have a tendency to go to Derek's house a lot when we're all home for the holidays, cause it about the only place that handles us all very well. But we went up a little earlier to help prepare dinner, where I was recruited to fix my garlic cheese French bread. Ry came up with Dad Joos as soon as Dad was home from work. Amanda, Greg, and Darian met us there. We had lots of fun just being together. Chad was having fun with Lisi and Kallen playing with blankets.


Greg also showed us a trick he uses to occupy Darian while shopping to amuse both of them. But I took the video of it sideways and I'm still trying to get it to flip!! I guess I need to talk with Derek to maybe get that on eaccompmlished!! I was laughing so hard at the clip. So Greg has Darian on his sholders and then lean from one side to the next and fron t and back while Darian tries to hold on!! He just giggles and grabs on to anything he can. Greg's hair, nose, eye sockets anything!!! It's hilarious.

Pizza night at Derek's!!

So later on the 18th we traveled up to Archer for a pizza party. We made our traditional supreme pizzas, but had to get in our new favorite chicken garlic pizza and also the dessert pizzas too. It was wonderful.




Ryan had brought his bucket of money to count the donations from his Seminary class going toward a needy family for the holidays. Way to go BUD!!!


The next day (Dec. 19th) Chad and I went to the temple and did a session, but had some technical difficulty with the hearing impaired and audio was messed up, but we still got out of there in a timely matter. But then we were able to go to Karen and Jed Hancock's apartment for lunch. I got to see their youngest boy for the first time and then the older two were cute as always. They were a little shy just waking up from their nap, but by the time we were leaving we got great hugs from both of them. We had a great time there, and Chad finally got to meet them after all my stories. (I've always thought that Jed and Karen lived in Summerset 209 when Chad was in 108. But he assures me they lived there the year after he was in there. I think I agree once I think about it, but I can't tell how many times I think we just missed each other on campus).
Then we were off... Chad with his nephew, Derik, and me with my mom. We split up to do some Christmas shopping for each other. It was nice to have some of it completed. Derik was in town after having gone to the temple with Carlos and Trina and then we all went up to St. Anthony to watch Erica play ball for the Snake River varsity team. They ended up losing, but Erica played very well.

Making Clocks

December 18th was the start of our errand days. Chad and I went shopping at Lowe's to find all the stuff we needed to make crackled clocks for Brittney and Amanda for Christmas. (I learned how to do it at an Enrichment activity in Pullman). It actually ended up taking a few trips to get everything, but we sure had fun getting to learn how to use the router for the clock mechanisms to be in the back. But Chad got pretty good at it. Here he is sporting his sexy safety goggles!!! So we did this in my Mom's kitchen. SORRY!! We had sawdust everywhere. So note to self. ..Never do it in my own kitchen or house. We spent a little time after just cleaning up the mess, but it beat doing it out in the cold garage!! So this was just the start of our endevor, but they ended up okay except for the clock hands didn't show up until after Christmas and then the hex nuts that helps put it together are missing. So hopefully we'll get them all put together eventually.

Pullman Christmas Dinner-December 9

How could I have forgotten about our Christmas dinner we had the Sunday before we left Pullman. I was great to be able to have some close friends come by and share the day with as after church. It's one of those things that make you wish you had more resources so we could invite more people. But we had over the Hanks, Griffiths, Hunts, Barnes, and Andrus'

(Milo was on a rotation for Vet med that didn't allow him to come though). We had ham, sour cream potatoes, green salad, a veggie tray, rolls (that Merkley's brought even though they were unable to make it, HOW NICE), and of course dessert. I made a cake with my new skills from my cake decorating classes. I wish now that I'd taken a picture of it, but it was a two layered chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, but I had made some poinsettias to cover the top. I can't believe that it turned out okay, except that I made the layers quite large. After I'd frosted it and before I'd put the flowers on top I'd put the lidof my pedestal on and hit the top. Half of my frosting came off when the lid came off, but it patched up nicely and with all the flowers to top it off then no one knew.

We thoroughly loved the time we had to just enjoyed being together before we all parted for the holidays.

.Leah and Rachel playing after dinner!

Extended Joos Family FHE

So Monday morning we work up, packed up and then went to Aunt Beverly's place to pick up Mom. While we were there, my assistance was needed so Beverly could shut down her computer. She had been trying to show Janet some geneology pages, but was unable to find the one she needed and lost the place where she was working. She had so many applications open that the bottom task bar was full with several bars and each of them had about 5-7 documents pulled up in each of them. I started closing them and she was so afraid that I was going to lose all the work she'd done on them. I closed them and saved them as I was doing so and assured her that I wouldn't lose anything that was pulled up. I just hope that nothing was lost before I got there, and that she can find it when she goes to work on them again.


But then we were off. Back on the road and up to Idaho we went. We had an enjoyable drive and it seemed so fast. We finished reading that we had started on our way down, and we even put Janet to sleep. I wonder how late Aunt Beverly kept her up! Or I'm just a boring reader. The later could really be the cause. But before I knew it we were in Blackfoot and dropped Janet off and picked up the scooters that we bought in Boise and off to Idaho Falls we went.

We got to IF and got settled into the basement of my parent's and had finished assembling the scooters, just in time to pack up to go to Derek's, my brother, place for our Extended Family Family Home Evening. It was a great evening too. It was good to be there. My mom gave the lesson and it was on our own personal ministries. It really got me thinking about what it is that God would like me to accomplish while I'm here on earth.

After some wonderful donuts for dessert, we got to hear some great karoke from Derek's clan!! Boy do those girls love to sing!! Oh and don't forget how Kallen is starting to get on things.

So again, I have some video clips that are loading well. So stay tuned.

Sunday December 16th

After a wonderful night sleep at Chuck and Cheryl's, we got to sleep in (Well maybe mostly me, Chad' took Janet to her sister's Aunt Beverly's since we didn't wuite make it there the night before to drop her off.) Then we went to Sacrament meeting with Drew and Ali (Chuck and Cheryl's son and daughter-in-law). Drew's Sacrament meeting was at 11am and that allowed for Chad and I to visit my brother Brek again that afternoon. So since Derik, Kim, and Megan went to Provo for a homecoming talk by one of Derik's companion's from his mission. So Shayla and Shandarae came with us to Drew's house and we got to see their new house and all the work they've completed on it. We also go to meet DUKE. Their Burnese Mountain dog. It was fun. This is the type of dog that I decided I wouldn't mind having (as an outside dog of course). The picture on the right is an example of a Burnese Mountain dog. CUTE huh!!

So we made arrangement to adopt a puppy when the time is right. So after Sacrament we went back and the girls changed and spent the afternoon with Drew and Ali and off we went to visit Brek.

We were able to go see his new apartment, since we haven't been down to see him since he moved to downtown SLC. We had an enjoyable visit and got to see all the little perks about his apartment that he's been enjoying.

That early evening the entire Larsen family (except for Jordan, since he's still on his mission) gathered at Chuck and Cheryl's and we enjoyed quite the feast. It was wonderful to see everyone again. We ate till we were stuffed and then played games. We played some intense games of Speed Uno that some twist that were fun to try and get used too. It sure took me while. Rachel had to leave early so she couldn't show Drew up, but watching the two trash talk was great entertainment. Rachel even called after her little get together just to see if she had to come defned her title!!

Then Stacie and Kenny came over after his family's get together and we played Wizard. It's a trumph game with 4 wizard that are the unltimate trumph and 4 jesters that are zero and I actually really enjoyed. My dad would be so happy!! We played a round of that and decided to go over to Stacie and Kennny's place to see their newly decorated nursery for their expecting little girl. It was very cute and we spent the rest of the night just chatting away. We really had so much and fun and didn't want to go back, but we were so tired and needed to get to bed. So we just need to be closer to them in the future so we can have more great evenings like that!

Decmeber 15th-Mormon Tabernacle Choir Concert

So from New Plymouth we made our way to meet more Christensen family for the Mormon Tabernacle concert!! We made our way past Burley (we didn't even have time to stop for a visit!! How sad!!) and then headed south to Salt Lake City, UT!!! We were meeting Mom Christensen, Derik & Megan Christensen, Shandarae Williams(nieces and nephew), and Kim Jensen( Derik's date) for the concert. I had made arrangement with my brother, Brek, to meet for dinner and we came up with game plan of what would be some good restaurants to go to, but they all had long waiting time. So our big plans to stop for dinner before we went to the concert were crushed and then we left our plans into Brek's hands cause we couldn't even get reservations for one reason or another at any of the places we'd picked. So our concert was 6:30 pm and lasted about 2 hours. We were so hungry and new it'd be worse by the time we got out.

But we went to the concert and loved every minute of it. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Temple Square Orchestra and Bell Choir performed with the King Singer's from England. I can hardly wait until it comes out on PBS to be seen again. It was wonderful and we even had dancers to watch during a few of the numbers. I only had my cell phone so the picture of the set isn't that wonderful, but it was spectacular and we decided it would be worth putting in for tickets every year!!

But I do suggest that if you go, don't have it on the night that a Jazz game or another ballet!! We took about 50 minutes to drive 3 blocks to Buca di Beppo's the restaurant that Brek was kindly enough get us all reservations for. We didn't walk cause it was really cold out side and I already had blisters on my feet from the walking we already had done, but I'm sure we would have made it there faster had we gone that route. It was painfully slow, especially to start with because we sat with in the 5 car lengths from were we started for over 30 minutes of the travel time. And who could forget when Derik got caught in the intersection on a red light and almost ran over some pedestrians trying to get out of the way!! Here's Buca's during the day light, just down the street from Brek's apartment!!

We were all starving by the time we to got the restaurant, but we enjoyed the food(the lemon chicken with artichokes was my favorite), but it was even better to spend some time with Brek! We don't seem to see him as often as the rest of the family since he lives right there in SLC and not closer to home.

Brek also gave a great Christmas gift of 2 buddy passes to fly on Delta sometime in the next year!! Thanks Brek!! We're so excited to actually be going somewhere for a real vacation!! That means I really need to get my new passport with my new married name!! Anyone been a great vacation that you would strongly suggest?

So I think we left the restaurant about 11:30 pm and still had our drive to South Jordan to stay with the Larsen's (Chad's cousins). They were gracious enough to put us all up for the night and we didn't get settled until about 1:30 in the morning!! What great sports!

Christmas Vacation Begins Dec 14th!!!

So after a stretch of nights (Dec. 12-13th) and Chad's crazy week of finals (One test each of the 5 days of finals week), we finally headed out for our Christmas break. We packed up the morning of December 14th after Chad's last final and headed to New Plymouth to stay the night with Kreal, Stacie and the kids. It was nice to be able to show up at early evening and not late at night like it is usually when we go to visit. We had such a great time babysitting Collin, Alyssa, and Landon, while their parents got out and had some time for themselves and did some Christmas shopping without them. We had some wonderful games of Hide 'n' Seek (in the house this time), where Landon would always go and hide under his bed. Not predictable at all!! But the following to movies show some of these games.

I will eventually get all the movies uploaded. so stay tuned!!!

After a few more games with the kids like you'll find in the videos below we resorted to coloring. Anything to get them to start calming down.



After a little too much playing, Collin became not too very happy about a little coloring book and crayon episode with Alyssa. He fell asleep in the rocking chair as he listened to story time as I read to Alyssa and Landon. Chad then took over the entertaining as I cleaned up kitchen from dinner, when all of sudden there was a big thump!!! Collin had fallen out of the rocking chair!!! Hilarious. He went to bed well after that, but all Chad could say was that he wishes he would have seen it happen (His back was to Collin at the time). You better believe that Alyssa didn't leave that part out (Chad's wishing he had seen it) the next morning when she was telling their parents about their night. It was just great to be there and sad that we already had to leave the next day, but on to next planned activity!!

Christmas Card Party- December 7

So after a few more night shifts this week, a few of us girls from work had planned a little get together so we could: first- socialize, and second-make our Christmas cards. Notice how the first was to socialize and not to make cards. but we need that excuse.

Now there was weeks into this planning process. First trying to find a day that the majority of the people who planned on making cards was a feat in itself, but well worth the day. Anita Parrott and I even ordered some cute Christmas stamps and other items from Stamp' Up. We were pretty please when we got our stamps, but really had to put them to work

So Anita, Anna Henderson, and Tina Tenney all met over at our house on Friday around 10:30 am. We had cookies and other munchies out and then set off to work to get our Christmas card completed.

Tina already had her cards made and showed us here cute christmas trees made from ribbon that zig-zagged up the card to form the trees. Very nice!! So she just started working on other types of cards. Tina the over acheiver!! GEEZ! Make us look bad. Okay maybe only make me look bad, cause Anna brought out some cute little snowflake stamps and her papers and got to it. She just went to work and eventually came up with a great idea. Anita had already made her prototype card a week before, but had already decided that she needed to emboss most of the things stamped on the card due to her shiny finish on her cards. So away Anita went too.

So there was I sitting there without an idea and I sat there really until we went to Papa Murphy to pick up the pizza. Really and how convient that Paper Pals is right next. door. So I finally got my black craft pad that I could emboss with too.

So we went back cooked the pizza, enjoyed every bit of it!!! And then I decided I might as well help Anita and Anna with their embossing, since all my ides were striking out! We had such a blast and I really wasn't ready to see an of them leave.

Eventually after everyone else left, and it was only me. I finally came up with an idea and went to work. I worked on it that night and the next to complete them all. But I really liked this design and was very happy with them. I still think that I'll have to come up with more to get all the family and friends covered. I guess I need another card party!!

Hot Cocoa Fest 07

For the second year in a row, Mike and Jenn Barnes gather a big group of us for the new yearly tradition of hot cocoa and apple cider with goodies. Here they are after making all the cookies!

Here we are with Amy and Madilyn Harper (with Kelly and Drew Hanks and Holly Merckley in the background) posing for the camera!!

Here is Rachel Hanks and Madi playing in the middle of the circle.

We had a great time just chatting with everyone around for the first while, but we did have a large game of Catch Phrase. Again it was Men vs. Women. It just happens to be the easiest way to get even teams. But who will forget the awesome charade act that Traci Woodard gave as she's gave her clues!! I especially like the garter belt action. She too cute!! It makes it so much more enjoyable. Or even Chad Hunts clues, I don't even now how to explain, but they are very concise and well thought out. So not like my rambling when it's my turn.


Tracie and Ben Woodard, Jerica and Carter Platt, Camille Rupp and Lillian Harper.(Above)
(Below) Brian Rupp, Ryan Merkley, and Chad Platt hanging out in the kitchen near all the apple cider and hot chocolate!!

Crystal Adams made this adorable candy train. It was so cute that no one ate it. But Jenn was excited when she became the adopted owner of it, cause everyone knows she's got a sweet tooth!! We love you Jenn!

So here are Zach and Crystal Adams with Lilly Harper enjoying

After such a wonderful time with games and chatting some went to go sledding on the hill next to the Barnes, but Chad and I were so tired we called it a night along with a few others!! But what an enjoyable evening!!! Way to go Barnes.