The Joy of Christmas!

For Christmas, we were fortunate enough to go to Boise and spend time with the Sager Family. It was so great to go to Boise and have a WHITE CHRISTMAS. Here are some pics of our little vacation. 

We started out trip out by flying out of San Jose with a connecting flight in Las Vegas. Well, our first plane out of San Jose was so delayed, that we didn't make our connecting flight in Vegas. So, they airlines were nice enough to put us up in a hotel right by The Strip for the night. Of course, we had to make the best of it, so we went and hung out by the New York, New York Casino - Christmas in Vegas, Baby!!!

After 24 hours of traveling, we finally made it to Boise, where the Christmas Eve Dinner was waiting for us. 

Kyle and I in front of Mom's beautiful Christmas Tree.

It is tradition in the Sager Family to play the money/fan game. The parents put money on the ceiling fan, and then turn it on. As the money floats down, you can only hope that it lands on you. If it lands on you, it's yours! Great game! Here are all the kids/grandkids waiting for the money...

A new tradition, thanks to Katie, is exchanging pajamas on Christmas Eve. So, Kyle and I decided to surprise each other with PJ's. As everyone was opening their pajamas, each person got the cutest pair. I was the last to open mine...and this is what I opened:

Complete with Footsies and a Zipper. When we were taking this picture, Kyle tucked his shirt into his sweats to make himself look as dorky as me. I think I still look dorkier than him... But I love my PJ's. I was definitely the warmest out of everyone!!!

Santa found us in Boise.

Whenever Kyle cuts up onions, he literally cries for hours. Lately, he has been wearing his snorkeling goggles while cutting up the little buggers just to keep himself from crying.  So, I found him the greatest invention ever...ONION GOGGLES. I figured it was a good exchange...He gets me footise PJ's, and I get him onion goggles!!!

It was truly a White Christmas. Ryan, Kyle's brother, decided it would be a good idea for us to run all the way around the house barefoot in the snow. Stupidity won out that day and our feet hurt SO BAD after we were all done running around the house. 

We were able to go to an Idaho Steelheads Hockey Game and watch a beat-down in favor of the Steelheads. Here is half of the fam in front of the hockey rink.

One great thing about going back to Boise is getting to see our good friends. In this picture, Justin, Megan, Kyle, Mel, Mike, and Kim. 

In this picture, Eric, Rachel, Mel, and Kyle. 

Kyle (The Sagdaddy) grew up with Justin (Boomhower), Mike (Weber) and Eric (Squirrel), and they also were roommates at BYU. Rachel and I were roommates as well.   

It was so great to go back to Boise, spend time with family and friends, and have a wonderful White Christmas. We are so blessed to be able to have such wonderful family and friends. We love you all!

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas Holiday. Now, I guess it is time to say:

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!!!

Tag-a-lag-a-ding-dong

I was tagged - not once, but twice - by my good friends, Rachel and Jessica. Both tags were a little different, so I am combining the two...

Here are my 8 favorite things!

8 TOP TV SHOWS:

~The Office

~24-

~Lost

~Desperate Housewives (Guilty, I know)

~ER

~American Idol

~The Food Network

~Saved by the Bell...you know you all secretly love it too... haha

8 FAVORITE RESTAURANTS

~CAFE RIO...I seriously miss this place...

~House of Prime Rib (SF)

~Yumi Yogurt

~The Cheesecake Factory

~Applebees (Even though I worked there for 3 years, I still love the food!)

~The Fish Market

~Yume Sushi

~Macaroni Grill

8 THINGS I DID YESTERDAY

~Went to Church

~Colored little characters for the Nativity.

~Acted out the Nativity with my Sunbeams Class using the characters I colored

~Made Homemade Pizza

~Fed a lonely bachelor some pizza (Yes, Kristen, Evan misses you...)

~Listened to Christmas Music

~Made cookie dough

~Ate a lot of cookie dough

8 THINGS I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO

~Christmas

~Our 3 year anniversary

~Boise vacation with the Sager Fam

~Scones with the "Boise Boys"

~Seeing the snow

~Talking to my family

~Eating...I seriously look forward to eating every single day!!!

~Mexico

8 THINGS I LOVE ABOUT WINTER

~Snow

~Stephen's Hot Chocolate

~Snow Machining

~Snow Boarding

~Cuddling

~Sitting by the fire

~Sweaters and Coats and Scarves

~Soup

8 THINGS ON MY WISH LIST

~Growing old with my hubby

~Having a family of our own... someday

~Buying a house

~Going on a culinary tour of Italy with Kyle...We both really want to do that

~Moving closer to family... someday

~Going back to school

~Living a long, healthy life

~Being a Millionaire... after all, it is just a wish list :)

PEOPLE I TAG - only if you want to...

~Stef F.

~Kristi W.

~Rachel S. (You can update yours to make it as long as mine...)

~Hayley A.

~Kaari J.

~Kristen S.

~Ashley B.

~Erin M.

************

On a seperate note:

Our good friends, the Atwoods, invited us to go to "Bethlehem" for FHE last week. There is a church in Santa Clara that puts on a huge production - complete with the entire Bethlehem City, Roman soldiers, angels singing from rooftops, a live reenactment of the Nativity...the whole nine yards. Here are the pics:

Official regulation from Caesar to pay your taxes and sign the census "IN AN ORDERLY MANNER, WITHOUT INCIDENT!"

Mary and Joseph coming into Bethlehem on a live donkey:

Roman guards maintaining order in the streets:

Mary and Joseph arriving at the stable:

The Three Wise Men:

Complete with a live camel:

This is the second year that Kyle and I have gone to Bethlehem. The whole experience is so wonderful. I love remembering the birth of our Savior, and I am so grateful for the Christmas season.

~Merry Christmas~

They are after you...

Recently, Kyle was up in San Francisco. As he was driving around, he came upon this car:

It makes you wonder who they were looking for?!?

The next time you are up in San Francisco, beware of the Psycho Patrol!!!

24 Ho-Ho-Ho's

I saw Mellie kissing Santa Clause...

Kyle was Santa for our Ward Christmas Party! First of all, he was too skinny...(we didn't have any pillows). Second, he made about 7 kids Kick and Scream and Cry!!! But don't worry, I came to the rescue as the Elf Helper, giving them a little candy cane. That seemed to cheer them up! Here is Santa's favorite child of the night:

I think both Santa and Trevor were being naughty...

HO-HO-HO... MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!!!

********

Birthday time! Last week was my birthday, and I am 24 years young! It truly was a great birthday, thanks to Kyle. He completely spoiled me. He told me that it was not just my BirthDAY, but it was BirthWEEK!. So, all week long we celebrated my birthday. He truly did spoil me. Here is what happened.

On my actual birthday, after opening up presents, Kyle took me up to Saratoga to the cutest little Italian restaurant. The food was super yummy.  When all was said and done, we had been there for over two and a half hours! It was great, though, because we just sat and talked, and had a great evening together!

Me in front of the restaurant sporting my new coat...LOVE IT!

The next night, Kyle took me to my favorite place...YUMI YOGURT. It seriously is the best frozen yogurt ever. It beats any ice cream, hands down! (Yes Rach, it even beats out Cold Stone.)

Then, on Saturday Morning, Kyle woke up before I did, so he surprised me with our traditional Birthday Breakfast. He made me the ever so delicious "German Pancakes." MMMMmmmmm...

That same day, Kyle was so sweet, and he made me a Birthday Cake. (Lots of baking for Kyle that day!!!) We didn't have any candles, so he held up a lighter as my candle while he sang to me. It was so cute!

OK, please don't be offended by the following wording of this...

When Kyle was decorating my cake, instead of putting the traditional "Happy Birthday" on the cake, he wanted to do something "funny." So, he wrote something that rhymes with "YOU BAG," but really starts with an 'F.'  I laughed, but gave him the look, so he quickly started to change it to "You Rock." It didn't work, so the cake ended up saying "YOU RAG." Isn't Kyle so thoughtful...

I proceeded to tell Kyle that a simple "Happy Birthday" would have been the been good enough for me :)

Kyle seriously has the best creative mind. He is constantly making me laugh...just like he did with this cake. I love him so so so much! Thanks Kyle, for a GREAT Birthday Week!!!

Then, after we ate some yummy cake, Kyle and I were playing with Howie on the floor. He played too hard - it made him tired:

Howie loves to cuddle!

P.S.

Because I am 24 years old now, I have special Jack Bauer powers for the entire year! JUST TRUST ME!!!

Sweet Treats!

This is a long post. You can just look at the pics if you want...

Christmas is a time to do lots of things...but one of the best things to do is EAT! 

...And to wear ugly sweaters. We went to the Kearl's house for an Ugly Sweater Party and Gingerbread House Contest. We didn't do so well in either categories. As far as the sweaters go, we couldn't find any good-n-ugly ones, so we ended up getting this...... (we have such dorky smiles...)

Kyle was known as Mr. Rogers for the night...I just thought he was OH SO SEXY! He really was dressed like an old man! My sweater ended up shrinking because I washed and dried it on the day of the party...it was HUGE AND UGLY - then it shrunk. It ended up not looking that bad, though - I was disappointed in my sweater selection. Oh well.

Now for the gingerbread house contest: We didn't win...   :)

Here is our future house:

In detail:

Overall, it was a fun night. Although our house didn't win the contest and our sweaters weren't that great, it was still fun to hang out with friends, drink hot wassail, and eat lots of candy!

Here are some funny pictures of Kyle from that night. 

Kyle is doing a little dance in the kitchen in his AWESOME turtle-neck.

Kyle thought it would be funny if he tried on my sweater...

What a sexy man! 

~~~The Next Party~~~

Like I said earlier, Christmas is a time to eat. We went to Kaari's house for her 4th annual Cookie Swap/contest. We had to make 72 cookies, and then we brought them to the party to swap out for 72 different cookies. All the cookies were then judged by 5 men (Kyle was one of them). 

Because I am not a good BAKER, I decided I would try out a new recipe. I thought it would be fun to enter the competition with a cookie I had never made. The recipe I chose was called "Candy Bar Surprise Cookies." It was a chocolate thumbprint cookie with Rolos and Score Bars, with a white chocolate drizzle.

So, the baking began, and I made 72 cookies. After the cookies were all made, I gave one to Kyle to try right before heading to the party. He told me the cookies weren't all that great and that he was not going to give me a good score.  

When we got to the party, all the cookies looked AMAZING. There was so much effort put into so many of the cookies. They all looked delicious. As the judges were tasting all the cookies, all the girls ate some yummy food and had a good time just chit-chatting away. 

When the judges came out to announce the winner, everyone was so excited to see who won. 

I was so surprised; I placed 3rd in the competition! 

The winners: Natalia, Erin, and Mel.  Erin won first place, Natalia won second. She has placed in the top 3 for the past 3 years.  Awesome cookies! 

I am holding my experimental cookie and a fun goodie plate for placing in the top 3...

The results from the Cookie Swap:

Now that Kyle and I have this many cookies, we are happy campers. 

CHRISTMAS PARTIES ARE THE BEST!!!

Thanksgiving Vacation

Over the Thanksgiving break, Kyle and I loaded up the car and headed to Green River, Wyoming. We had a great - but busy - holiday. Right when we got to my parent's house, we began helping with the cooking.  Most of it was already done, thanks to everyone in the fam, but we did what we could. It was all worth it, though, because the Thanksgiving Dinner was WONDERFUL! I wish I had a picture of the table. We had SO MUCH FOOD.

Believe it or not, the day after Thanksgiving, we started cooking AGAIN. Not for Thanksgiving, though. 

The reason for all the cooking was for my parent's 30th Wedding Anniversary Party! Here are the results:

My beautiful Mom with all the food...

Slushy Punch and Wassail, cheesecake and pumpkin rolls... This is where I hung out during the whole party :)

The entire night, I did not get one single picture of the Happy Couple. But, I cropped out a picture of the two, and this was seriously the best I could do. (Sorry for the blurriness...but I had to put a picture of my Mom and Dad on this post. Afterall, it was their big night!)

The party was a great success. Friends and family came from all around to celebrate my parent's wedding anniversary. It was great to see everyone there. The highlight of the night was when my Dad surprised my Mom and sang, "You Are So Beautiful" to her. It was so cute. All of us girls were his backup singers. Right after that, my Mom turned around and sang to my Dad. She sang, "When I Fall in Love." It was so cute how they both surprised each other with a song. They truly are In Love!!!

To Mom and Dad Stevens: Congratulations on 30 years of marriage. We love you so much.

Here are some more pictures of our vacation...

All the sisters with Uncle Roland and Benji

My parents have this hideous hippo (along with a rhino...my mom thinks they add character) in their driveway. I know, in Wyoming...hmmmm :)   Kyle and I were putting reindeer antlers on the hippo, so we thought we would climb up on the ol' hippo for a pic. 

Howie wanted to climb up for a pic, too!

These are just some pics from the trip. We had a ton of fun in Wyoming. Now, we can't wait for Christmas. We are off to Boise to spend time with Kyle's family!

Head start on the holidays!

TODAY WAS THE BEST LAZY SATURDAY EVER! Here is what we did...

Went to the theater: watched Twilight - two thumbs up!

Stayed at the theater: watched James Bond - no thumbs up!

Shopped around...

Came home and had a great BBQ that included chicken, corn on the cob, and artichokes - YUMMY!!!

Now for the best part of the day...

Made Stephen's hot chocolate and turned on the Christmas lights to kick off the holiday season...

Watched White Christmas - Two thumbs up!

It's tradition to watch this movie during Christmas time. If you have not seen this movie, it is a must... such a classic! What a great way to start the holiday season!

PS... We realize that we watched 3 movies in one day... but it is Saturday - that is our only justification.  

Silly Fears

Here is a little secret about me. I love to cook...I hate to bake. I have cooked a lot of good meals in my life, but when it comes to baking, I am a failure. I can't tell you how many times I have tried to whip up some yummy banana bread, and it comes out of the oven burnt on the outside and gooey on the inside. Is that the oven's fault, or is that my fault?!?

Part of the reason I am not a good baker is because I really don't like to use measuring cups. Cooking doesn't require the EXACT measurement like baking does. Also, cooking does not require the use of YEAST - and baking does. 

Here is another little secret about me. I AM DEATHLY AFRAID OF YEAST. I know it is the silliest of fears, but I have always been afraid to make anything that calls for yeast. The thought of making something "grow" before adding it to the rest of the ingredients sounds REALLY HARD to me.

Well, today was a big day for me. I put my fear of yeast to the side, I made plenty of phone calls to ask lots of questions, and I made my very first batch of home-made potato rolls!!!  YAY FOR MEL!!! 

How did they turn out, you ask??? They were totally yummy. They still didn't stand up to the way my Mother-in-law makes them, but they were still pretty good knowing it was my first time baking these amazing potato rolls.

Here is another little secret about me. I was giddy the rest of the night because I made yummy potato rolls.

This is a picture of what they were supposed to look like. They didn't turn out as good looking as this, but you get the idea. I am sure mine tasted better...