Problem.

I figured that due to the amount of recent *big--blogworthy* events (see: Christmas, Christmas crafting, Downtown Lights with the fam, and Vacation...), it would be a good idea for me to get blogging. Well, it was at that time that I plugged in Mrs. Mac, and started to select the pictures I wanted to share with everyone...and...well...

This is what I got.

If you can't tell from that pretty picture, I will be MIA for a few days while I sort through these pictures!! Lots of stories and pictures (obviously) coming up though! :)

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!!

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving was (as always) wonderful, and busy!!

We started the day out at Aunt Amanda and Uncle Marks for dinner and games! Kass and I were both on our diet still, so we packed lunches and stayed strong!! We were able to eat some turkey, and some salad. So, that was wonderful!

Next, we went to the Wooten's for dinner and games take 2! It was really hard, especially during the prayer, to not have my Grandma there. It feels so different. Hard to explain. Not real still, I guess.

Overall though, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving. This part of the year is my favorite!! I love getting together with all of the family!!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, and Christmas (tomorrow!! :))

The answer is yes!

Yes, I have a lot to blog about!
Yes, I know it's been forever.
Yes, I'm sort of sorry.
Yes, I have been extremely busy.
Yes, a "real" post will be coming soon!

and my favorite ones...

YES, you've come to the right place if you are looking for adorable iPhone backgrounds!! (Download the app "Cuptakes". It's .99, but totally worth it!)

YES! I, too, have been looking for a cute girly iPhone case, and I finally found the *perfect* ones!! (Go to getuncommon.com! It will make you happy!)

I'll post soon, and *Happy Holidays!!*

Our first tattoo!

When Grandma was diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer, Alexis, Kassi, and I considered getting a tattoo, in her honor.

I was too scared to mention this idea to Grandma because well, she probably would have talked us out of it. I know that I for sure would not have done it if she didn't want me to.

Therefore, we waited...and thought about what we'd get.

Alexis wanted a butterfly. Grandma loved butterflies.
Kassi wanted Tinkerbell. She was Grandma's favorite.
I had a hard time thinking of something original, but finally decided I wanted a needle and thread. Sewing was a very large part of Grandma's life. Each member of our (large) family has a special blanket (or 2 or 3), made by Grandma. When we were younger, she would sew us a pair of pajamas for Christmas, and she'd make a matching set for our dolls. It was so wonderful.

I've always sort of wanted a tattoo, but I wanted to make sure what I got was something that I'd never grow out of, or regret.

A needle and thread was the perfect thing.

It truly means a lot to me.

I'll never grow out of it.

And, every time I look at my foot, I'm reminded of what a special lady my Grandma was.

Kassi and Alexis decided a needle and thread would be a great idea as well, so we all got matching tattoos!

Alexis was the brave one and went on Saturday. Once Kassi and I saw her tattoo (on Sunday), we decided we couldn't wait any longer! We fell in love!

We called AWOL tattoo and found out that Kory would be ready to go as soon as we got there.

10 minutes later we were in the car and on our way.

Holy cow. It was really happening. I was freaking out. Yet, so excited.

Meet Kory. He made the magic (PAIN!!) happen.

Alexis said her tattoo "Hardly" hurt. I have to agree, this part was pretty painless and I was so glad!

And then he started the tattoo and OH. MY. GOD. it was painful!! At one point Kory said "Okay, awesome! We're all done with the black!"

"Oh, nice!! Thank God!"

"Now we just have brown, purple, and gray, and then we're all done!!"

--Not the greatest news in the world, but I stuck with it! (I totally thought I was going to be one of "those" people who leave with a portion of their tattoo finished. I was dreading having a half needle on my foot for the rest of my life!)

So, I crunched my toes, and squinted my eyes...and took deep breaths.

And before I knew it, it was over!! (It only took about 35 minutes!)

Before we got to the shop, I told Kassi that I wanted to go first. I knew if I watched her, I'd chicken out.

Leaving the shop, I confirmed my assumption. Kassi made the tattoo seem as if someone was breaking every individual bone in her foot. She said "Jess, you made it look so easy. I'm positive mine hurts worse than yours!!"

But she pulled through as well, and now we each officially have our very first tattoo!!

We love and miss you Grandma...and hope you like them.

Oh yeah, we looked up the color for Pancreatic Cancer awareness and it's purple. How perfect is that? I love purple!

On Friday November 5, 2010...

...I did something for the first time. Ever. (So far)
I felt so accomplished.
I felt so relieved.
I started thinking of new toys I wanted with the extra money, instead of thinking of saving it.
I bragged a little.

I wanted to go and buy a truck.
I was so happy!
I did something that I know for a fact would make Grandma proud.

(She co-signed for me since it was my first loan. She wasn't the least bit hesitant. A few years later I asked her why she did that for me without any worries. I had just graduated, and was at my job for less than one month. She said "She just knew she could trust me.") Turns out she was right. I'm still at the same job, and I never missed or was late on a payment. Crazy how she knew me better than I knew myself.-- I wanted my first call after paying it off to be to my Grandma. I know she knows, but it's not the same. I want to talk to her so. bad. --

On Friday November 5th 2010, I made the very last payment on my little girl!

Five years, and lots of money later...she is ALL MINE!

Halloween at work--2010

Each year, the Supervisors at work work with their teams to decorate a cubicle. This year they turned out amazing!!

(Double click to increase the size of the picture.)

Love. Hate.

I love that I had Friday off. (If you're keeping track, that's a three day weekend for me! WOOT!)
Hate that I had a Dr. appointment on Friday, and that they drew blood. :( (I don't know how I'll ever manage when I'm prego. I had to ask the blood drawing lady to please stop because I was about to pass out. Sweaty, numb, Nauseous, Chills, Dizzy...the whole bit.)
Love that I was so productive on Friday! (Ended up going to about 9 different places. Gotta love day off errands!)
Hate that I had to make a Dr. appointment for Mrs. Lappy. Turns out she was really sick, and I had to leave her with Dr. Mac over night! :( it was my first night without her, and I found out that I have serious attachment issues. Plus, it was sort of a strain to get comfy while I was holding my iPhone, watching Housewives.
Love that I was able to pick Mrs. Lappy up today, and now she's all better!!
Hate that I had to drive in a really scary snow storm!
Love the snow storm now that I'm home!
Love that I set up the house for our Christmas tree!! Can't wait!
Love that AK hung out at the house for awhile.
Love The Price is Right on Wii.
Love staying in on this wintery night!

Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend!!

PS- Things to come:
Halloween cubicle decorating contest pictures! (Hopefully before Thanksgiving!)
Remember when I did something really exciting a couple Fridays ago? Well...I finally got what I was waiting for in the mail, and I'll be blogging about that very shortly!
Christmas/House pictures!

Come to think of it...it WAS #1 on the list of most popular girls names in 1987.

This conversation happens at least 3 times a week and, bless his heart, I think it's adorable.

Security Man: (Yes, another Security Man story) "Have a great night!"
Me: "You too!"
Security Man: "Hey, can I ask you a question?"
Me: (Think to myself "What would he need to ask me, he already knows my name..") Smile and say "Sure!"
Security Man: "May I ask what your name is?"
Me: (Really? I just told you two days ago..) Smile and say "It's Jessica"
Security Man: "Jessica! Okay. I've got to get all of these Jessica's straight!"
Me: "Yeah, there sure are lots of us!"

Three times a week.

This conversation takes place with the same man three times a week people.

I'm so confused.

Awkward conversations with the security guard. Part one.

"Have a great weekend and drive safe!"
"Oh I will!! Thanks!"
"Be careful with that car right there!"
I look to the car right next to mine--"yeah, it is a little close huh! Gotta love that!"
"No, that ones my car."
"Oh! Well ya, I'll be careful! You um...have a great weekend!"

Halloween 2010--Dress up!

So, you may have already guessed that for Halloween we were clowns!
I was sold when I saw the shoes, and the glasses. Not even because the glasses looked really rad,

but check out the nose!! So great, right?! The only bad part was nose condensation from wearing them all day.

I never thought I'd say that I had a problem with nose condensation.

Anyway, Kassi, AK, and I all dressed up as the cutest clowns I've ever seen! It took quite a few stores, and brainstorming to put our outfits together, but they were great!

Later that night, Trav, AK, and I went to the same party that we go to every year with some friends(Devan and Kelly). Kass and I just started the HCG Diet not too long ago and might I add right here that it is not the greatest idea to start that around the holidays! Oh man!! Halloween was a challenge for sure. I'm a sucker for pumpkin cookies. Travis is a sucker for saying "Oh man, I wish you could taste these. They are so amazing."

Um, hello. Lesson number 1 on what *not* to say to someone who is just starting a diet!

I stayed strong though. We took pictures, and more pictures, and then some more pictures. It kept me occupied! The below pictures that I'm about to release are (supposed to be) confidential. AK will most likely strangle me, and so if you never hear from me again. Blame it on my Aunt. But really, they are cute pictures, and her faces are adorable.

The end.

Idaho. Bad Weather. Roman's 3! Cake Decorating Pros.

*No, this is not what I did on Friday. I'm still waiting for something to come in the mail!*

This is a "I've been slacking and this happened around 3 weeks ago, but is post worthy" post.

So, first and most importantly--I was in Idaho for my bestie's son's birthday party. THIRD birthday party. I can't really believe those 3 words. How has it already been three years since the day I met his 4 pound self in the hospital?! Wow!

I do have to say though, that the older he gets, the better the parties are! He is so animated about everything! He went cake shopping with us and was so let down when we walked out of almost every store without a cake!

"Where my birt-day cake?!" he kept saying over and over.

To calm him down, we tried to give him some rice krispy treats (Every kids favorite, right?)

Wrong.

"I don't yike it."

--I might have given him things all weekend (knowing he didn't like them) so I could hear that adorable phrase.--

It was a football themed party this year, and since Roman doesn't just sit in one place..it's a bit of a challenge to get multiple good pictures of the kid. (Unless you count a blurry, motion picture as a good picture.)

This years dilemma was the cake! Mari forgot to pre-order the cake and all cake stores need at least 24 hours notice! What were we to do?!

Well, we finally resorted to buying to ColdStone cakes (has to be ice cream cake!!)

Totally football themed, right?

Yeah..we had a little work to do!

This was the end result and I think they turned out SO wonderful!! Especially for this being our first time acting as cake decorators! I think we took up an even harder challenge being that these cakes were ice cream cakes! Decoration=takes lots of time + ice cream cake=melts in no time= Not a good combination!

But we handled it, and they turned out so cute! Roman even "yiked" them, so that was a plus, too!

Another plus was whoever bought him his "I-Man" (Iron Man) action figure. The kid could not put it down. (See pictures!)--I think I-Man may have even had a little taste of the cake. How sweet of Roman to share!

The drive home was really scary. The weather was bad! In fact, it rained non-stop from Friday until Sunday, and didn't slow down at all on the way home!

As always though, it was good times, and totally worth the drive! Next up, Presley's SECOND birthday party! I cannot believe how fast the time is going!

I never thought this day would come!!!

So, I just did something *totally* exciting today, and I can't wait to tell you all!!!

The bad news is that I have to tell you and show a picture, too. Well, I don't have to, but I want to.

The other bad news is I'm super busy at home and work these days (hence I'm still sporting my Halloween header) so it will have to wait until (hopefully) this weekend.

Be be excited, it's amazingly wonderful!!

Have a great weekend!

1 store, dinner break, 4 stores, Auntie Tammy's house, and 4 hours later...

It was time to relax, and go to sleep. For tomorrow, we would officially have the coolest costumes ever!

Stay tuned. Full pictures coming soon!

Have a wonderful Friday and HAPPY Halloween!!!

Silly Kassi. We'll give you a Pumpkin 101.

Posting about our Pumpkin Carving Party reminded me of a conversation between Kassi and my Aunt Kristine.

AK: Hey, keep your eye out at the stores for pumpkins. The cheapest I can find is 0.11.
Kassi: Okay.

Jessica: Pumpkins are only 2.50 each here.
Kassi: Well AK found them for 11 cents. We have to beat that. 2.50 is way too much.
Jessica: Right, Kass..11 cents means 11 cents per *pound* not 11 cents per pumpkin!
Kassi: Ohh!! I was wondering why she wanted to find them for cheaper than 11 cents, I thought that was a really good deal!!

"Whatever it is"

I'm (mostly) from Idaho.
My entire family listens to Country.
My sister and cousins know (and openly, loudly) sing every possible Country song known to man. I think it's to spite me.
I've always secretly found something really cute about cowboys.
I'll admit, I've cried at a fair share of Country Songs.
While I'm admitting stuff, I'll get this out of the way too--When I was younger (a lot younger) I would sit at the boom box with my grandpa. We'd listen to the Country station and press "Record" as soon as a song that we both really liked would come on. This happened on a daily basis for quite some time. We were tape making pros. My favorite song was Ex's and Oh's.

If you know me pretty well, you know that somehow all of these things have taken a quick turn in the opposite direction. I'm not a fan of Country music. Or at least mainstream country music.

I am however, a really big fan of music. Country is pretty much the only genre I'm not a super huge fan of.

A portion of my dislike for Country music was quickly changed when Travis came home from work one day...excited to tell me about a song that we just "HAD" to get. He proceeds to download this song, and play it for me.

"Whatever it is--Zach Brown Band" is playing on our home stereo and I look at him, give a little chuckle and say ... "Country?! Are you serious??" (He's about as not for country music as I am, so it was surprising!).

"Yeah, just this song. It's a good one." he says back in a shy voice.

"Uh huh! Suuure"

(Background: Trav's boss at work is a HUGE Country Music fan, the other guy in the shop likes rap/hip-hop, and the rest like rock so their day consists of 1/3 listening to Country, 1/3 listening to rap/hip-hop, and the last part rock. Due to this, Trav is becoming quite familiar with Country, and I always give him crap for it. Deep down though..I think it's adorable.)

Listening to the lyrics was enough (and is every time) to tear me up! Something about Trav coming home to show me a Country song that he liked was pretty cute. :)

Of course I couldn't tell him that.

So, hopefully out of all the songs on my new playlist, "Whatever it is" doesn't play when he reads the blog. Oh yeah, and I hope he doesn't read this post..that would make this girl a little red-cheeked.

Third Annual Pumpkin Carving Party!

Three years ago, we decided to dedicate one day near Halloween and get together as a family to carve pumpkins.
Turns out, it was a really, really good idea. Everyone looks forward to this day, and it's so fun to get together as a family and carve pumpkins!
This year, we decided to change it up a little bit.

For a few weeks now, we've been keeping an eye on the pumpkins at local grocery stores to find the lowest price. (Big family!)
I got to thinking about it, and realized that I've never ever been to a pumpkin patch, and I've always wanted to experience that. I brought up the idea, and we took it and ran with it.
Ran all the way to this cute little field of pumpkins, next to someone's cute little house.

We piled out of the three cars, and scattered throughout the field to pick our very own pumpkin (or two).
Everyone was on a mission to find the best pumpkin!

We learned a few things along the way:
Pumpkin patches are awesome, and we'll most likely add this to the tradition.
Pumpkins are not actually still on the vines, so there is no picking.
Pumpkins are pretty pokey, and it starts to hurt after you grab stems over and over.
Pumpkins come in ALL different shapes and sizes and colors, and they are definitely not all as round and good as the ones at the stores. (Which makes it sort of fun.)

After piling the pumpkins in the wheelbarrow, Katie man-armed the thing up to the front! Total success! (And, there was even still tons of pumpkins left after our 25..or something like that. I thought we'd quite possibly clean them out!)

Oh yeah, another thing we learned is that next year we should dress for the occasion.
This lil' gal done showed us up! (One day I will have a pony purse just like hers. Promise.)

We piled all of the pumpkins into AK's truck, and we were on our way! It was good times Maybe's Pumpkins Patch! We'll see you next year.

After piling the pumpkins, we saw the perfect picture opportunity, and took advantage!! (Wish you could have been there Grandpa! ...And Grandma--I know you were there. Right next to Harley, behind the girls. I wish you were physically there, though. You would have had such a wonderful time. (I miss you!)

Auntie Tammy took on the official job of pumpkin washing and pumpkin seed cooking! (Sweet!!)

Then it was time to carve!! The living room turned into a pumpkin carving, mess making, tools passing, Halloween music playing, food sharing, story telling, picture taking wonderland.
One of the topics that came up this year was how we love to have friends over to share this tradition with us! The first year Megan brought a friend, next year it was Katie's friend, this year Kassi brought someone, and Mariah's friend came! Love it! Maybe next year we'll be able to leave the pumpkin patch with 50 pumpkins!!

Now, for the pumpkins!!
Camille picked the coolest looking pumpkin! I've never seen anything like it!

My pumpkin (left) (that I wasn't able to finish! Apparently I'm a slower than average pumpkin carver) and Megan's freestyle pumpkin (right) for Grandma.

Kassi's pumpkin (left) (She carved two. This is the one to remember. Trust.) Alexis's second pumpkin (middle), and my first pumpkin (right)

Alexis's second pumpkin (left) (took second place in our pumpkin carving contest), and Carly's (Baby Blake's) mini pumpkin (right)

Harley's pumpkin (left) (I love his pumpkin because it had a face on every side! Good job Harley!! It turned out cute) Katie's pumpkin (freestyle--middle), and Kassi's second pumpkin (right) (told you.)

Carly's first pumpkin (left) (took third place in the pumpkin carving contest!), Carly's second pumpkin (right)

Aubrey's pumpkin (left), David (middle--freestyle--wicked tongue), and Megan's second pumpkin (right--freestyle)

Mariah's pumpkin (left), and Harley's second pumpkin (right)

We had a carving contest this year, and these are your three winners!! (1st place Jessica, 2nd place Alexis, 3rd place Carly) --Although all of the pumpkins turned out adorable!!

Good times at the pumpkin carving party this year. AK made some Taco Soup, and the house is definitely the most festive house on the block now.

The countdown is on to next years fourth (holy cow) annual pumpkin carving contest!!