Thanksgiving in Sunny St. George

We had such a good time in St George for Thanksgiving to be with Nana and Bob (Steve's grandparents) and Momeo (Steve's great-grandma). It is always so nice to get away for a few days. I made our favorite pie: Sour Cream Apple (pictured here) which turned out great. It was a new experience making a pie in a real pie dish. We've been using a frying pan until Nana gave us some of Momeo's pie dishes last weekend (thanks Nana). We played tons of games including Guitar Hero. Cody was able to play outside at the park because it was so nice outside. He also had new toys to play with which is always exciting and kept him busy. The only thing we didn't do is shop which made the trip very budget-friendly :) Thanks Nana and Bob for a great time!

Family pictures without the whole family

Last weekend my family got together to take an official family photo to hang over the mantle. The family picture has been long over due. The last one we had taken was right after I got home from my mission and is missing three additions: Steve, Bob, and Cody. We planned to meet at Cedar Hills park where Steve's mom would be our photographer. The weather wasn't too bad. It was chilly, but the sun was out. There was one problem though...my sister, Brooke, was missing! No one could get a hold of her on her cell and time was running out. Brooke had to work later that day so there was no time to go to Provo to find her. We decided to go ahead and get some individual/couple/small family shots to start out. Then we took group shots that are nice, but incomplete, and therefore cannot be used for the mantle (but make nice pictures for my blog). When we couldn't stand the cold anymore we all headed out. My parents drove down to Provo to find Brooke and found her at work by that time. Apparently, Brooke's alarm clock had not gone off, her cell phone was on silent, and she had slept in. Oh well. Some day we will get that family picture crossed off our list.

Christmas Tree Hunting

This is it! Our Christmas tree is a beauty!! Last Saturday we went hunting for our Christmas tree in the wilderness. We went with Steve's family and Grandpa Farnworth. This is the first year that Cody will have his own Christmas tree since the last two Christmas' we were at Wymount where they didn't allow real trees. So we were all excited to finally get our own tree again. Christmas just isn't as fun when you don't have a tree!
Not only did we get to pick out our own tree this year instead of just helping everyone else find theirs, we had great weather!! Usually by this time of year there is a lot of snow in the mountains and we are all bundled in as many layers as possible. I think Cody especially appreciated the warmer weather. Last year I remember spending most of the time in the car trying to warm Cody up and visiting with Grandma Farnworth. Since Cody wanted to hold the saw we gave him a stick to pretend with which he was pretty happy with. He didn't let go of his saw the whole time. I am excited to decorate our tree this next week and get out all of the Christmas things.

Cooking with Daddy

We love to cook. Trying new recipes is a favorite family activity. This is a picture of Steve and Cody making "alfredo" (as Cody calls it) a few weeks ago. Steve is really good at perfecting a dish. We can go to a restaurant and he can pick out the ingredients that were used and then go home and make it himself. Although this makes for some really great meals it takes the fun out of "going out" which is something that I really love to do. But Steve doesn't like to pay someone else to make something that he knows how to make (makes sense). One of our favorite things to do is get the restaurant copy cat recipes off the internet. Tonight we tried a new recipe for "Papa John's" pizza. It actually turned out really good. Although it wasn't quite the dream that Papa John's pizza actually is, it didn't taste like homemade pizzas usually do. Maybe we'll perfect it eventually, but until then we can still go out for pizza. :)

Christmas Train in September

I just found these pictures: Two months ago we finally gave in and let Cody get out the Christmas train that he asks to play with every time he sees it in the closet. He is so funny. His new thing is anything to do with trains. He actually asked to get the train out the night before this picture was taken but we were brushing teeth and getting ready for bed so we said that we would do it when he woke up. (That's our way of saying tomorrow to a 2 year old: "after you go to sleep and wake up"). Well, the next morning we went in to his room to get him out of his crib and the first thing he said was "train?" in a sweet little voice. We had completely forgotten about the train by then so it made us laugh that 12 hours of sleeping had not deterred him in the slightest. So we got the Christmas train out and set it up. By the looks of the pictures you'd think it was in fact Christmas Day. Little does he know that the Christmas season is on it's way and he will be able to play with the train for a lot longer than just a Saturday morning in September. Who needs presents when you've got a train?