Wonderful Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. It was a small one, but it was wonderful to just to be with Nick. The last few years we started opening our gifts on Christmas Eve, and then we go to both parent's houses on Christmas day.

Nick surprised me this year with a new orange iPod nano. I told him it was what I wanted, but with only one income this year, I didn't think I would get it.

Nick's parents went to Oregon this year to visit his sister's family. It was strange not to exchange gifts with them on Christmas. We get to prolong Christmas by exchanging gifts on New Year's Eve.

Another great thing that happened this year is the Nick's sister really like the quilts I made her. When we asked what she wanted, she wanted me to make a quilt with the T-shirts from the races she was in. When I got the shirts, I decided I had to do 2 quilts because the colors were so different. The first group was the breast cancer walks, and I found fabrics that went well with the the pink breast cancer ribbon. The second quilt was the dog walk t-shirts. It was also the brightest quilt I have made. I used a bright yellow print with different color dots all over it. I was so worried that she wouldn't like them. After Nick talked to her, and she expressed how much she like them, I was relieved.

Also, on Christmas night we finally go a bunch a snow. Not a much as the west coast has received. We enjoyed watching the snow from our warm living room.

Nick and I hope that everyone has a wonderful Christmas and that all their hopes came true!

Thankful for many things...

Well, there is two weeks until Christmas, and things are getting really busy. I am hoping to get my Sister-in-laws quilts done before Nick's parents leave to visit her for Christmas. The ward party is on the 19th, and I still haven't started on the video/slide show. I have two work parties to get ready for this week, and I haven't ordered the food for one of them. I am going visiting teaching also this week, and Nick is still unemployed.

I am trying my hardest to keep thinking positive, and trusting that Heavenly Father knows what is best. But I can't help thinking that we are never going to make it. Especially when we might have to spend about $3,000 to get Nick's car fixed. AHHHHH!!!!

But at the end of the day I think of them many things that I have. The Gospel, a loving Husband who is trying his best to find work, Parents who are very supportive, a Home and food in the kitchen, and a niece and nephew who light up when they see us. Nick and I have many other things to be thankful for, and I am trying to keep focused on that.

I am grateful to know that I have a loving Heavenly Father who is watching over us. Hopefully one day Nick and I will look back on this and wonder why we were so stressed.

AHHHH!!! It's Christmas time!!!

I can't believe it is December, and Christmas is comming. I am not ready for it this year. I need another month or two.


This year we only have one tree. I didn't feel like putting up my tree, so Nick put up his. We have a 6 foot artificial tree, colored lights, and Star Wars ornaments, topped off with Wicket. It's not too bad - see picture below. The other thing is, I still have Halloween & Thanksgiving decorations up. I just have had the desire to redecorate.

Unemployed

On November 11th, my employment suddenly came to a halt. In spite of the reassurances that I was getting from management that I was doing a good job, I found myself terminated. The official reason I got was that I was not following company procedures and was producing poor results. It's funny, I never thought that my team walking out on me would result in my termination.
I've spent some of the last week job searching, with plans to continue the search until I find something. I'll also be finding out about unemployment benefits. The positive side is that now I have the opportunity to find something on a day shift instead of constantly working nights.
I did suggest that Heather could be the major bread winner in our house. She didn't like that idea at all!

Mississippi Surprise!

My parents, Sky, Ryan, August, and Royce left today for Mississippi to visit my oldest sister Sandy and her family. Sandy's youngest son and his wife had a little girl in August and will bless her on November 2nd. So the family decided to go visit. Nick and I were not going to go. After a Sky booked tickets for her family and my parents, Nick and I talked and decided to go.
The surprise part of this story is that Sky, Ryan, the Kids, my Parents, and Sandy's kids don't know that we are coming! Nick and I leave Thursday morning and will arrive late that night to Sandy's house. We are so exited to visit Sandy and her family! But I am more exited to surprise August!

Cutest Princess Leia & Yoda Ever!!!

We bought Royce his Halloween Costume this year. We were at a Halloween store, and when we saw it I told Nick we had to get it. Sky made August's costume to go with Royce's.

They came to the Pumpkin walk in costume, and everyone who saw them were ooing & ahhing because they were sooooo cute!!!

The last night of the pumpkin walk when they came with Ryan's mother, also in their costumes, one lady asked.. "I'm not in your family, but can I take their picture?" Sky and I said yes.

This isn't the best picture, because August and Royce were getting grumpy. I will add some additional photos when Sky sends me some.

2008 Pumpkin Walk is over

Val Bagley, a local artist in Syracuse, designed the entrance this year for the Pumpkin Walk. It was huge, and very expensive. It also turned into a large bottle neck for the line because everyone wanted to take pictures in front of it. The second night we put up a barrier to prevent people from going up around the pumpkin people. It didn't work very well. We ended up having 3 spotlights broken not long into the night. We also were keeping track of now many people fell off the bench.

One of my projects this year was this totem pole. I added the wings this year, and it turned out better than I thought. Because it was a little warmer this year, we lost about 5 pumpkins before the first night. I had to re-carve 3 of these pumpkins, and two of them opening night. This should have been 8 pumpkins tall, but due to the large size of the pumpkins I couldn't fit all eight on the pole. So below is the picture of the 8th pumpkin.

I also carved the welcome pumpkins. They were also going to be a totem, but we didn't have time to get them stacked before people started to come on Thursday.

As I said in an earlier post, Nick's project was his terrarium. We were able to get 9 pumpkins carved, not as many as we would have liked, but it turned out alright.

Nick also carved a this Star Wars pumpkin. It turned out really good , considering it was his first really detailed pumpkin. He isn't really happy about how Luke turned out, but Yoda is really good.

Another project we worked on, with Nick's brother Jared, was pumpkins dedicated to their cousin Jocylnn. She was killed in a skiing accident in February. Her nickname is Jiggy. Jared carved the picture of her, and I carved the "Go Jiggy" pumpkin that sat next to it.

The final count of pumpkins this year was 950. Most of those were Jack-o-lanterns carved by city residents and the West Point Kiddie Kollage.

We are sad that the Pumpkin Walk is over, but we are needing to recover from the long nights. I don't think I will pull another 40 hour day for a long time. Next year, I will just plan on taking more time off to get ready.

Now it is time to start looking for pumpkin patterns for Pumpkin Walk 2009!!!

Nick's back & Halloween stuff

Nick went to Denver for some work training. He left Monday afternoon, and returned about 11:00pm on Thursday. I picked him up at the airport and he almost walked right past me when he got to the baggage claim.
It is so good to have him back! Even with him working nights and not seeing each other much, there is a difference when he is home.

We have a long day of pumpkin carving scheduled for tomorrow. We are going to meet up with a bunch of our friends and get as many pumpkins finished as we can. I printed off a bunch of bug pictures, and stuff for my stacked pumpkins. I hope to carve at least 14-20 this year.

On the 18th we have our annual Murder Mystery party with family and friends. We are trying to find our costumes and not finding anything. GRRRR!!! I don't know what to do. I don't have time to sew a costume like I have the last 2 years, and I don't want to buy an expensive dress. We are going to a costume shop tomorrow, and hopefully we can find a great costume.

Getting ready for the return of my Parents

My parents return from West Yellowstone on Friday the 10th. I have never been so exited to have them return. To get ready for them to get here, my mother has asked that we have the carpets cleaned and the guest bedroom fixed up.

While listening to General Conference, Sky and I took August downstairs and started working on the guest bedroom. we stripped the bed and August was sitting on a chair. So I decided to pile all the pillows on top of her.

She pushed the pillows off and then asked to have them put back on her. Since none of us wanted to play that game, Nick put her on the bed. So Sky and put the fitted sheet over her, trapping her under the sheet. If you look closely at the next picture, the bump in the middle is August.

And to end this post, I want to share a typical "Nick" picture. Whenever he has a camera, he has to take a picture of himself. So while holding Royce, he took the following... They are sooo cute!!

1st pumpkin for the year!!

We had our pumpkin walk meeting with the rest of the comittee today. We talked about the new entrance that will be built and what groups/themes we will be carving. We were also told that Black Island Farms picked us a special batch of pumpkins early. So, after the meeting Nick went and picked up 4 pumpkins so he could start carving before he left for his work training in Denver on Monday.

Nick's group that he is going to be incharge of this year is a terrarium for insects. He is so exited that he has already carved his first pumpkin.

We hope that we will carve about 20 different bugs in two weeks and help with other groups. It is going to be many longs nights ahead! It is so worth it!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

178th LDS General Conference

October 4th & 5th is the 178th Semiannual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! I am so excited to hear from our Prophet Thomas S. Monson.

http://www.lds.org/broadcast/gc/0,5161,8176,00.html

Syracuse Pumpkin Walk 2008!!

It is that time again to get read for the Syracuse Pumpkin Walk! We have our first committee meeting tomorrow to make find out all the details we need to know.

Nick and I are so exited to get started carving pumpkins! We should be able to pick up our first batch on October 8th. I plan to carve at least 14 this year, hopefully more.

Nick is planning to do a bunch of Bug pumpkins to group together like his fish pumpkins last year. I will be carving the welcome stack pumpkins again, and help with Nick's bugs.

Another bunch of pumpkins that we might be helping with is a Star Wars grouping. I'm not sure of the details, but our friend Jason had an idea to make a battle with pumpkins. It will be really cool if we can pull it off.

I will post pictures of our pumpkins the day after the pumpkin walk starts. So, for right now the pictures posted on the Pumpkin Walk blog will have to do. But, the best thing is to see the pumpkins in person. The details of when the pumpkin walk are also on the blog below.

http://syrcitypumpkinwalk.blogspot.com/

Heather's Work Conference

September 15th - 18th I was lucky to help with my work Engineering Conference held at Snowbird Ski Resort. Wow what an experience and it was tons of work!! Because we were working such long hours, I was able to stay at the Cliff Lodge.

When I checked into my room, I took a bunch of pictures. This is a picture looking towards the door and the bathroom. The bathroom had a window in the shower that looked into the bedroom. It was kinda weird.

Due to the long hours, 4 am - 10:30pm, each day I didn't spend much time there, but the beds was comfortable enough to get the sleep I needed.

I hope to be able to have the opportunity to help with more conferences in the future!!

Utah State Fair

I love to go to the Utah State Fair, I usually go with my dad who also loves to go. But since my parents are in West Yellowstone each summer, I try to go to keep the tradition going.

This year we went early on Saturday. The weather was wonderful, and not to hot. When we walked by this board with carrots on it, we had to take a picture of the girls. I had to hold August up so she could put her face through the upper hole. She wasn't sure she liked it, she kept complaining and wouldn't stay still.

After looking at the sheep, cattle, goats, and pigs, we went to see the birds. Royce had had enough of us walking around. We didn't know that he had fallen asleep in the stroller until a woman pointed it out to Nick. Since he was so cute, we had to take pictures.

We kept taking turns taking care of August, who would get tired of walking. So we would carry her or put her on our shoulders.

August was not much bigger than the pumpkins at the fair.

In honor of my Father, who loves tractors, we took a picture of August and her dad. If you ask her what a tractor says, she will tell you "Moo!". What a smart girl! She sure knows her Disney films.

Nick's Star Wars quilt

About 3 years ago I made quilts for Christmas presents for Nick's brother and Sister & my nephews. While I was doing that I started making one for Nick and only finished the top. I decided to finish it last week. Since our house is so small, I have to quilt them at my parents house. Sky gave me the idea to use buttons to finish the quilt instead of quilting around each square. It went much faster, and turned out better than I expected. When we went to get material to bind it, we picked up a couple pillow panels and I finished those also for Nick. I told him that he couldn't use this quilt every day, that he should hang it on the wall downstairs. We will see what he does.

August

We watch August and Royce at least once a week. So we take lots of pictures of them, especially when they are bing cute. Here are a few pictures of Nick and August being cute.

Percival Boys

While my sister Kristin and her girls went to girls camp she sent her boys down to visit their Dad's parents in Farmington. We were able to take them to the Gateway and out to diner the Saturday before they went home. We went to the discovery gateway where they played with August in Moom and Mars exibits, Jeremy also went rock climbing at Dick's sporting goods, and Cody played in the fountain with Sky and August. On our way home, Jeremy found the horns we purchased for Nick's halloween costume on year and was using them to scare passing cars.

Camping for the 24th of July

Nick was able to get the 24th of July holiday off this year, so I wanted to go camping. So we invited Sky and her family to go to South Fork and spend a few days.

After setting up our tents I took August down to the river to play. She floated on a tube while I passed her to her dad. She would also hold my hands, pick up her feet and float while I held her. I taught her to throw rocks in the river, and after that all I did was fill the bucket with rocks over and over so she could keep throwing them back in. What I won't do to make her happy.

After playing in the river with August we took a break before we fixed dinner. Royce was being a very happy boy, because we were paying attention to him.

Our camping trip was fun while it lasted. Thanks to me getting sick, it only lasted one day. I wish we could have have spent a few more days there. The weather was awesome, and it was a great camping spot. Nick and I are already planning our next trip up to south fork next year!

Syracuse Heritage Days

Syracuse Heritage Days is held before the Fourth of July each year. I love to go to the city parades, so I had to get Sky and the kids to come with us this year. What a cute pair of kids at the parade. Nick is such a proud uncle!!

We had to keep the little ginger nugget (Royce) out of the sun so he didn't get sunburned. He was happy to lay on his blanket in the shade.

This was the best treat she got at the parade! But she didn't want to share it with her favorite aunt. :(

I asked Nick to take pictures of August eating her Popsicle. I guess he decided to take a picture of Sky and I watching the parade. We look so happy to be there. I was just happy that Sky had saved a place on the east side of the street so the sun was at our back.

After the parade, we put the kids down for a nap at Grandma's house. They are always cuter when they are asleep.

We went back to the fair at the park later that day so we could have some lunch, ride some rides, and visit my older brother Garrett who had booth with his scout troop. August's favorite ride was the train. She would pitch a fit when she had to get out. Aunt Heather spent lots of money so she could keep riding the train.

When we went and visited Uncle Garrett, he wanted to give Royce his first taste of cotton candy. Sky kept telling him no, but Garret wouldn't listen as you can see in the picture. Royce wasn't sure he liked the taste. Garrett kept feeding it to him so Royce could make sure that he didn't like it.

I think he was happy to help Uncle Garrett drive his mother/sister crazy.

I was happy to have someone to share my cotton candy with!! :)