Thanksgiving x 2

Thanksgiving was great. We spent the morning and dinner #1 at the Newson’s house. There was a lot of company, hussle and bussle and great food. Then we left and trekked it over to the Stones house for dinner #2. Grandma Baker is visiting and Sean, Mat, Erica and Deanna’s families all came up. It was a full house and lots of fun.  

One of the three Newson Tables.

We tried to get a 'holiday' picture of both of us but it is really hard with the camera counter thing to get a really good one. (My neck looks broken)

Newson Pie Festival

The Newson Family has a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving Tradition, a pie per person. The idea is that if you have a pie per person the pie will last through the weekend to Monday (that is being eaten breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert). This year we had Jeremy and his family come from Utah, Uncle Kent dropped in for a surprise visit and we had some family friends over. In total we had 22 people (including Malcome who is 2 months old). There were naysayers who doubted our pie making abilities but on Thanksgiving we had 25 PIES!! That is right a quarter of a century worth of pie, a pie for each of my years since birth and MORE pies than people. One of the friends visiting brought a pie with a NPF carved into the top; he said it stood for Newson Pie Festival. We all thought Newson Pie Freaks or Newson Pie Fiasco might have been more suitable.

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving I brought Hannah, Jared and Aimee over to our place to make pies. Each of them made their own pudding pie and then while the one fruit pie was baking we played Settlers and relaxed; it was so much fun. I forgot to get A LOT of stuff from the store so some of the pies weren’t perfect but they still tasted and looked great. Hannah made a pistachio/chocolate pie, Jared made a peanut butter/chocolate pie and Aimee made a Chocolate/Heath Bar pie. I made (with Aimee’s help) an apple pie and later made a caramel pumpkin pie.

Here is the end result:
1. Minced Meat
2. Cherry
3. Apple
4. Apple
5. Mixed Berry
6. Coconut Meringue
7. Lemon Meringue
8. Egg Nog Pumpkin
9. Chocolate Nutella
10. Bannana Cream
11. Chocolate Death
12. Cayenne Pumpkin
13. Strawberry Cheesecake
14. Pumpkin
15. Pumpkin
16. Pumpkin
17. Pumpkin
18. White frozen thing- I don’t know what it was called.
19. Chocolate/ Toffee
20. Pistachio/ Chocolate
21. Peanut Butter/Chocolate
22. Apple with Crumble top
23. Carmel Pumpkin
24. Pecan
25. Pecan

Crocs Chili Cook-off

Wednesday night while sitting at the kitchen table playing Skipbo Ben suddenly said, “Tomorrow is the Croc’s chili cook-off and I signed up to bring chili.” WHAT? This is one of those times similar to when a child comes home and says I need a science fair project tomorrow, or needs to write a 10 page paper by tomorrow, ect. I helped him find a recipe, we went to the store and, I must admit begrudgingly, I helped him make his chili.

The evening of the cook off he came to see me at work and with a huge grin on his face told me he got FIRST PLACE in the green chili category. He said he got a certificate and one of those crocs shoe men with a cooking hat to put in his office. He also got a $50 gift card. I was so proud of him and he was really excited.
YAY for last minute Chili!

To get our recipe go to the Stones Recipe Blog. Oh, and a big shout out to Andi- who's recipe we used!

Oh, November…

I didn’t think I had that much to say about each of these topics so I decided to put them all on one post- boy was I wrong. Sorry it’s so long and daunting!


So, as previously mentioned, I got sick. At first it was a head cold; coughing, sore throat, runny nose. Then I got a fever and I coughed so much I threw up- miserable. Then I started feeling better- hurray- I slept all the way through the night and woke up Wednesday November 1st feeling GREAT.

Tuesday night is snowed and so I got up early with Ben and shoveled while he got ready for work. I then decided to, not only shovel the path to the car, but also do our driveway, sidewalk and the neighbor’s driveway. After about a forth of the neighbor’s driveway I got queasy and at about half of the driveway I realized it was much more. I raced inside, didn’t take off any of my wet and snow-covered cloths, ran to the bathroom and threw up- Gaa. So I went back to bed, by this time I taken off the snow/vomit covered clothing. About half an hour later, I threw up again, and then I went outside to finish shoveling (why? I am not sure) but needless to say it was a short shoveling experience because, once again, I ran in and threw up. I felt woozy the rest of the day, but not ache, so we didn’t think it was the flu. I took three negative pregnancy tests, so you can all remove that instant thought from your mind. By the evening I was still pretty nauseated but I ate some food and went to bed only to wake up three hours later and throw up AGAIN. So…yes I was sick, after another day of nausea, I feel great. No return of the dreaded cold or vomiting- Yeah for very weird healing immune systems.

There is an adorable European antique shop in Louisville just down the street from where I live called the Fuzzy Antler. On Friday Mom, Grandma and I went to their Holiday Open House (aka SALE). It was so amazing, like walking into a really fancy Santa’s workshop, they had trees decorated, food to sample, music, heavenly smells and the whole shebang. I got a candle; now this is not an ordinary candle it is the most divine Fir (Pine) smell in the world. I grew up with a real tree and this is an instant Christmas smell for me. I have it in the box, in the bag, in the computer room and I will occasionally get a waff it and just melt with joy. While at the Fuzzy Antler I put my name in the drawing and I WON! I have never won a drawing in my life and let me tell you- it is super exciting. I went over this morning and picked up my little basket of goodies. I am getting so excited and ready for Christmas, this will be the first year that we get to decorate our own place!!

Friday night Ben and I went to the University of Colorado verses the University of Southern California game (aka CU vs So Cal) we got the tickets for free from the Chriest’s next door to the Newson'- thanks. It was a black out game so everyone in the stadium wore black, which is a good effect. This season, as with most of the season’s of my lifetime, CU does not have a very good (aka scoring/winning) team. Ben however has been a true blue CU football fan since childhood and will not give up the idea that they are just really bad. This game was great because the first play of the game CU scored a touchdown- yahoo! It ended up being the only one they scored all game but it sure was an exciting moment and despite the cold, we had ton’s of fun.

Saturday one of our good friends, Jaime Forsyth, had a baby shower. They are having a baby boy in January. It was so fun to go and see all my friends and celebrate with Jaime. I am so excited for their little growing family.

Sunday was a special day for the Jesse and Becky Newson Family. They blessed Malcolm in church and then Melinda was baptized that evening. It was so fun to get together as a family, with Becky’s parents, and celebrate the decision that Melinda made to be baptized and receive the Holy Ghost. She was very excited and was beaming. It was a great family moment.

Monday I had my first official day at work. I got a job at the REI in Boulder and have been training for the past two weeks. Monday I went in and did a buddy shift on the floor, so I was out there with someone to help me. I have never worked in retail before so I am a little anxious but I just have to be friendly and willing to talk to people, which I am, so that eases the tension…a little. I am a little nervous about learning the product, I am working in the footwear and clothing department and there are a lot of things to learn. Customers ask really specific questions and most of the time, I just don’t know, but I am doing better and knowing how to get the information and how to help the customers. REI is an exciting environment with great values and morals so I am really excited to work there.

So that is a brief..haha…summary of our November beginnings.

Halloween 2011

For Halloween this year we were planning on going up to the mountains with some of our friends but I got sick, so here is what we did instead. On Sunday, the day before Halloween, we went to the Newson’s for a special spooky Halloween dinner. We had pumpkin fruit, bones (French fries), mummies (wrapped sausage), brussel sprouts (scary on its own), eye balls (devilled eggs), slime juice (with floating fish and bugs) and monster cupcakes. It was so much fun to have such an exciting meal!

On Halloween, while eagerly awaiting the evening fun, we went in the backyard and played in the leaves. I love playing in big piles of leaves. Ben and I decided that we definatly have the best leaves for jumping in, throwing up in the air, ect.

I am trying to make a leaf angel!

On Halloween we were both excited to have Trick-or-Treaters. Ben has always lived in a remote country community so he never experienced the art of passing out candy. Then the last couple years we have either been in NY (where passing out candy is scary), in an apartment or at the Newson’s (where, as said before no candy passing). This year we were excited for this new experience. I taught Ben how to answer the door with an enthusiastic Hello and to oooh and aww over costumes. We practiced a couple times and he thought I was crazy but he saw that craziness in action later on that night and joined in on the fun.

So we got everything ready; our huge bowl of candy, front porch light on, decorations set and we sat on the couch and watched some scary movies. Every time we heard a noise we would both turn around to see if we had anyone but…no. In total we only got 14 trick-or-treaters; 7 were teenagers and 3 were family. I thought we would have a ton but Ben figured that since we were at the edge of the neighborhood (aka there are no houses in front of us) that kids just didn’t make it that far; so alas, we did not get very many but it was still fun to get all eager and excited. I told Ben that we should have gotten better candy (aka chocolate) since we have SO much left over but I guess it is good that it doesn’t call my name.

This is our candy bowl AFTER all our trick-or-treaters!!

Hope you all had a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Side Note: Yesterday when Ben got home he sadly said that all he was looking forward to for Halloween was Vampire Weekend and now that it's over (we missed it) he wants to move on. Then he brightened up and said, "So I've been listening to Christmas music all day!!"  I already took down the Halloween decor and our house is ready for Thanksgiving!!!

ANOTHER Reason Ben is the BEST!

The past two weeks I have been sick. Last Sunday I started getting a stuffy nose, cough and started loosing my voice. All week things got progressively worse and every night I had to go do training at work, so I wasn’t staying well rested. Friday, my first day off, my body decided it had had enough. I got a fever, coughed so much I threw up and felt over all achy. Friday was also the day we were supposed to go up to the mountains for our Vampire Weekend with friends but we ended up not going. I slowly started to get better and I am know feeling well but just have the lingering of the cough, stuffy nose and man voice.


I was in charge of the Vampire Weekend Halloween Party (costume party with games, food and the works) on Friday but because we weren’t going we thought we would just send up some food. Ben, determined that I would not get anywhere near the food or kitchen, took charge. We had signed up for devilled eggs and witch fingers (molded chocolate on pretzels). Ben kept running in asking me where stuff is, what to put in stuff and to taste test stuff (which was probably off because I had cough drops in my mouth all day). He was so dedicated to his projects and 6-7 hours later he finished. I laughed that it took him so long but was so grateful that he would take his whole day to help me. That night I went to the kitchen and found it had exploded. I do now know how he got stuff where he got it and how he managed to use every bowl we owned, but he did. He looked at me sheepishly and I just had to smile. Ben is adorable and I love him so much! He truly is the Best Husband!!

First Snow of the 'Snow' Season!

This year there was a forecast of the first big snow storm rolling in by Wednesday October 26. The stores were bustling with people trying to get outfitted with snow boots, gloves and jackets. People were digging up their gardens preparing for the freeze. Some people were pulling out their skis eager to head to the mountains and get the ‘powder.’ And as planned Tuesday night it started snowing. In Boulder we got about a foot but other places were recorded to have gotten about 2. It honestly was a beautiful site to see.

One of the things I like about Colorado is how beautiful the snow season is (I have to say snow season because the winter in general is not beautiful) because unlike Idaho, or any other northern states, it will snow and then the sun will come up and the sidewalks and roads will dry. Then is when the world seems like it is in perfect bliss with beautiful drifts of shining crystal white snow covering everything and with perfectly safe roads and walkways. And to add to the splendid glory it warms up a little, the sun shines and we have a beautiful winter blue sky!

Speaking of cold weather- We were trying to prepare for the weather by changing he filter on the furnace and turning on the heater. I tried the heater on Monday with no avail, it just wasn’t getting warm. Tuesday night, when it started to get cold, Ben turned on our heater and again nothing happened. He crawled under the house with our neighbor and they tried to fix the problem (so handy). After a while they called the landlord who came over, crawled under the house and tried to fix the problem. It turned out that the pilot light would not stay lit. So around 10:30 they all came out, frozen to the bones, and decided to try again Wednesday. Tuesday night we put 4 blankets on the bed and had a space heater and we were quite cozy. Wednesday morning, before nine, the landlord and his son (the handy man) were under the house again. They soon replaced some part and got the heat on- YAY. Then they came inside and finished fixing the dishwasher- Double YAY! I was so grateful for everyone’s help, especially since it was so cold.

NEW Window!!

When we moved in our front window was in bad shape. The seals were broken, the frame was bowing and it had moisture stuck between the panes. Because of these problems we had holes from the outside, hence me flooding the living room with the sprinkler, and we would get bad drafts, making the house cold at night. In an attempt to rid ourselves of our nasty wasp problem the landlord told us to just caulk or expand-foam the cracks; we did and must have gotten a little carried away because it expanded and cracked the window. So we are getting our front window replaced!! Yay.

This is the outside trim

It is cracking, broken seal

The window has bowed so the pain around it is all cracking.

It has been quite a process. First they had to come look at it and get measurements and determine what was wrong, it turns out that the installation was bad and there was no insulation. (While he was here to measure the window, he fixed out dishwasher- yay!) Bruce (our super awesome handy man) came back Tuesday and started taking things apart. The more he took it apart the more evident it was that it was really messed up. He spent six hours on a 2 hour job- because he had to fix so much; he removed most if not all of the calking around the window, so it was just sitting there by a screw. So the window was ‘holey’ last night and let in a lot of the cold. I sat in my room reading with gloves and a winter hat on till Ben got home.

He cut all around the window, so removing it would be easy and fast. This is why we had such a cold night.

Removed trim- this hole should not be here. This is where the wasps lived!

Removing the lining he saw that they had chopped up the stabalizing boards.

He came back Wednesday morning to give us a NEW WINDOW!! Yay.

No window!!

New trim- he even re-pained all the blue trim on the whole house because it was not the right color!

This morning he came by to paint the cauck (he couldn't paint is yesterday because it was so wet), to clean stuff up and do finishing touches. I love the new window; better to people watch through, shiney and keeps the cold air out and the warm air in. YAY- Thanks Bruce!

Notice: No trapped water, no broken seals, no crack!!

Beautiful with repainted blue!

Weight Whining

I recently got weighed at the doctor’s office and upon hearing my weight almost shrieked and broke down. According to my BMI I am officially ‘overweight.’


I gained the freshman 15, lost 5 when I came back to live with Mom, gained Sophomore 15, lost 5 when I went to CA, gained junior/pre wedding 5, lost 10 in NY (I did a LOT of walking), gained Senior/Sickness 15, gained 15 living my lazy life at the in-laws, gained 5 pounds on this new medication. If you did count that up, which maybe you don’t want to, I have gained a LOT of weight. I have been doing a lot of thinking about this. When did this happen? Why did this happen? Are my habits really that bad? How did I not notice? Why didn’t anyone tell me?

First to start with the excuses; this all started after my surgery when I was trying to gain weight, so I kept the bad habits and the craving for whole milk. I didn’t know how to cook in college, so I ate cruddy food. I wasn’t in dance and all my high school sports, so I became sedentary. I hit ‘womanhood’ and my body is turning into a baby machine. My medication gives me the munchies, so I have to eat. I don’t like to exercise outside and the rec. center is far away and expensive.

Now for some realizations; all my cute friends, who are pregnant or just had their babies, were talking about how amazing it was that they have no stretch marks. Looking at my body I have stretch marks in places I did not know it was possible- do you really stretch there? My cute cloths I have had since college are now in the give away pile. Buying new cloths is not fun when you have grown 3 pant sizes in less than a year.

I have been running at least three times a week for the past month. As I mentioned before any ounce of athletic ability I used to have is now dried up and in a corner. The park across the street from us is .6 miles all the way around. I speed walk around once and then run/jog, about as slow as a speed walk but with more vigor, around once. So I figure I am doing about a mile a day- way more than I could do when I started. I was talking to Ben and he asked if it was really hard for me. Not really, I have gotten strong enough to do the mile. Then he said that to loose weight I needed to do MORE than was easy-Oh man!

I moved all, if any, of our junk food to the very bottom shelf in our pantry (Ben is not a fan of this, by the way) so that it is not what I see when I go for a snack. I tried tracking my food at an online calculator and found that even on the days that I am trying really hard and really focusing on what I eat, I am over my daily allowance and way over my weight loss allowance. Then I get depressed and eat red vines for lunch; that is one that I can’t really ‘excuse’ away.

Now it brings me to, how did I not notice this downward spiral? I have no answer for this. In middle school I had problems with my weight. I saw my body changing, due to puberty, and decided to eat unhealthy to keep my 10 year old self. After I got over this, with a little threatening from my Mom, I realized that weight doesn’t matter, what matter’s is that you are eating right, being active and feel good about yourself. Since then I have strived to be athletic, active and healthy. So when did that change?

I know that I am just going to have to buckle down and do it. I want to have children so I need to be healthy. I want to hike, rock climb and play sports so I need to get active. I want to change the lifestyle of my family. But, as a whining child might say, it is so hard. I can’t exercise for 5 hours a day, like they do in the Biggest Loser. I don’t want to go on 50 diets, loose a lot of weight get off the diet and gain it all back. I want to change my activity, my eating habits and my life!

So after this deep and personal revelation, what should I do? Any suggestions?

Pumpkin Painting with the Thevenin's

We went and did FHE with the Thevenin’s this last week. As with tradition (well we did it two years ago so…kind of tradition) we painted pumpkins.  It was fun to sit outside, talk and let our creative juices flow. Everyone is so different and it was fun to see how everyone decorated their pumpkins. Their son, Damon, got a little carried away and ended up painting his and his father’s face- it was funny. Then we sat inside and talked while munching on treats and drinking the most delicious warm apple cider. As always it was great hanging out with them (they really are some of the coolest people I know) and to get in the Halloween spirit with some pumpkin painting!!

Happy Birthday Melinda!

Melinda turned 8 this week and we were so excited to share her birthday with her.  We get together with the Newson’s often for Sunday dinner, but it just seems more special when it’s for a birthday. She got a lot of cool stuff (most of it eight year old crafts- which she was excited about). This was also the first family birthday Malcolm got to attend- which was fun. She had a beautiful unicorn cake but Ben and Jesse had already stabbed it before I got a picture. It was so much fun to be with everyone and celebrate this special day with Melinda.

Gardening and Bulbs

This weekend our neighbors, the Woods, and us built a garden in the back yard. We mapped it out, removed rocks and tilled it. In the tilling process we found more rocks (oops) and some bars buried deep into the ground. Needless to say we did not get the bars out- so matter how much digging and pulling we did- so we put a steel pipe, also found in our yard, over it and we are going to plant a squash or something there, that will look beautiful draped over a steel pipe (haha). We bordered it was the rocks and wood we found in our yard and we are excited for spring so we can start planting. We built it now so that will be soft and ready in the spring, we are planning to get some type of fertilizer (manure or mulch) so put over it through the winter.

Because I was already covered in dirt I decided to plant my bulbs. My front flower garden has been so sad and pathetic this year. I got plants but they mostly died, due to the dry direct beating sunlight, and so it just looked like a dirt/weed garden. I am determined not to repeat that disaster this year. I bought 90 daffodil bulbs at Costco (great price for a lot of bulbs) and traded some of them with the neighbors to get some tulips bulbs. In total I think I planted about 80-90 bulbs in the two gardens by my front door. I am really excited to see what happens in the spring; I got a pack of daffodils that would grow all spring, summer and winter.
(I was going to take a picture of the bulbs- but until they come up...it's just dirt!!)
So those have been our cool outdoor projects. They do not look like much now but we preparing for better weather, even though the bad weather hasn’t even gotten started.

A simple reason I love Ben...

Ben is CREATIVE!!

The other day Ben decided to make a big breakfast. Instead of making sausage and pancakes he made sausage pancakes. They were unusual but kind of good.

Before work oneday I asked Ben if he wouldn't mind making the bed. He went in the bedroom, said he made it and then went to work. When I went back into the room this is what I found...

I must say it is a VERY creative way to make the bed!!

Man, I do love that kid!!!

New Beautiful Art

I saw one of my friends, Michaella's, art at this Fine Arts thing I went to last Saturday. She took some holiday pictures for Ben and I a couple years ago but landscapes are her passion and she is FABULOUS. Here is her etsy page and one of her pictures- you should check it out because she really is amazing!

Musical Bliss

I love when Ben sings. He has an amazing voice and he sang in advanced choirs in high school and one semester in college. He sometimes sings in the shower but doesn’t sing in front of people anymore, I am constantly telling him that he is hiding this great talent under a bushel. The other day on the way to the Newson’s he was singing Les Miserables in the car and it was fantastic. When we got to his parents house I told Rachel and of course the pressure ensued to have him sing for Rachel, Nedra and Ron. After a lot of pressure and a lot of coaxing he relented and sang (Rachel just happened to have the music so she accompanied). He sounded great and because he messed up a little, he sang it again. Then Ron sang a piece from the Phantom of the Opera, he has a very good low booming voice. Then they made me sing a duet from Les Mis with Ben. I was so nervous, I don’t really sing in front of people, especially people with formal musical training. But we sang it and then they made me sing another and another and another. I loved it. After I got started I was no longer nervous and I just wanted to keep trying. Rachel then graced us with her amazing voice. It was such a fun night of pure musical bliss.

Speaking of musical bliss, on Saturday night there was a Stake Night of the Arts. The gym was full of artwork, quilts, photographs and statues done by members of our stake. Some of them done by people I did not even know had artistic talents. Then they had a concert with singers, pianists, violinists and much more. It was so wonderful to hear all the talent and see how spectacular all these people were. I didn’t feel like I was at a Stake Arts Concert at all, I felt like I was at a real grand concert (like those we used to go to when I was a child) and I loved it.