Park City Dinner with Mimi

My good friend Mimi has been up in Park City for a school snowboard trip she does every year. This is her very last one, because she finished school! Congrats to her.  We absolutely had to drive up and see her because I have missed her so much, and I will only continue to miss her. She is a very busy girl. She will be leaving soon for Kona, then China, then Ecuador, then will be living in Chile. By the way, there is no set end date for Chile. Plus she is in love with her Chilean boy, so it will be awhile...

I will however hopefully get to see her the end of February. I think we will both be in San Diego the same time.

So again, seeing her was mandatory! We had a great dinner and exchanged some Christmas/Birthday gifts. It was so nice to see her and catch up. She is definitely a part of the family.

Gingerbread House

After Diane left to go back to San Diego, Jillian and I began to decorate the gingerbread house. I was a little nervous about doing it with Jillian, thinking she wouldn't really be able to participate. Boy was I wrong! All I had to do was the icing and Jillian decorated away. She was concentrating to hard. Trying to figure out the best places to put all the different colors and sizes of candy. It was such a blast! It was the best thing we have together in awhile. We might have to make a few more before Christmas!

 

 

 

 

Day Visit

Kyle's mom came into town to stay with us last week. She hopped over here from a Vegas trip. She was only able to stay for a day, but it was worth it! After she flew in we went out to dinner at a yummy and fun Italian restaurant in Salt Lake called Stonehouse, I think...

We will have to go back.

The next day it would not stop snowing! We bundled up and watched the snow fall. While we bundled up, Sasha ran wild in the snow. Playing in it and eating it. Since we declared it a snow day we decided to start on our gingerbread house.

 

 

Poor Kyle had to shovel TONS of snow!

 

 

 And then it was time to say goodbye.

 

 

 

Like I said before, it was a short trip but well worth it! Hopefully it won't be too long until we see each other again!

Thanksgiving

During Thanksgiving we were so happy to have my Aunt Lindsay stay with us a couple of nights. She was visiting for the holiday from San Diego. We pretty much just took it easy. We treated her to dinner one night at this little Mexican restaurant around the corner from our house, and she loved it!

After staying with us she headed down to Provo to spend time with my Aunt Gail and her family. She ended up taking Jillian with her. It made me a little nervous. It was two nights away from home. When I asked Jillian if she wanted to go she was overjoyed. When I explained it was going to be two nights away and asked if she was sure she wanted to go she responded by wrapping her arm around my neck and saying something along the lines of "It's okay Mommy, I'll be back soon."

She had a blast with her "sleepover". Here my Aunt Gail is reading her a story.

 We all got together at my Dad and Karey's for Thanksgiving. The Cummings and Passmores. Cooking in the kitchen can get a little crazy with that many women in the kitchen. I don't know how the Cummings do it!

We had:

Aunt Lindsay,

Aunt Gail,

Jamie, Michelle, Kristen, Brittany (cousins)

Karey

Aly and me!

 

 This is what Kyle did while we were cooking...

 

 Jillian had so much fun with everyone. This is one of her favorite things to do with my Dad. He used to do it with us when we were kids, I'm surprised he can still do it!

 

Jillian of course found the ice cream.

 

She ended the night by reading stories with Karey.

 

 Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Crayons

When I was a child one of my favorite things to play with were crayons. I would color with them, but my favorite was to play with them like they were people. The pink, yellow, and purple crayons were girls. The black, brown, blue, and green crayons were boys. Red kind of fluctuated depending on what I needed. Also, if the crayons were broken in half, they were children. It actually got quite complicated with the children because if it was in half, blue, and had the pointed edge instead of the flat bottom... it was more than likely a girl, despite the color...

My mom clearly thought I was mad. Here she had all these dolls, barbies, etc. for me, and I insisted on playing with the cheap crayons. I think it was pretty disappointing for her considering she LOVED Barbie. Sorry Barbie, you just didn't do it for me.

I have often wondered if Jillian would ever somehow have my crazy imagination, too. Well today as she was supposed to be putting all her colors away, I saw it. There she was doing a very similar thing. She had her colored pencils as the parents, and crayons as the children. One of the crayons was going to get married and the colored pencils were discussing the "married dress". I couldn't believe my eyes! Maybe I'm not as original as I thought...

Marriage is a big one for Jillian right now. She asks Kyle and I almost everyday if we are married. She even asks randon couples. If they say yes, she then asks where their baby is. If they don't have one, she asks why. Nosy little thing isn't she?!

Sasha

We had been wanting a dog for some time. Kyle and I are both animal lovers and couldn't wait for the time to be right to bring one home. Over a year ago we were at dog beach in Solana Beach when I saw a massive creature. I had to run over to see what this HUGE thing was. Kyle and I talked with the owner and found out it was indeed a dog, a Newfoundland. We fell in love immediately. Why, you might ask, would we want such a beast? After doing a lot of research on the breed, we couldn't think of a better family dog to get. Many sources declared them as THE BEST breed to get with young children. Remember Nana from Peter Pan? A Newfie. They were bred to be great swimmers in the icy cold waters of Newfoundland. One saved Napolean's life after he fell overboard. They even have webbed feet!

Here is a description that wikipedia.com gives:

The Newfoundland is a large, usually black, breed of dog originally used as a working dog in Newfoundland. They are famously known for their giant size and tremendous strength, and for their sweet dispositions, loyalty, and natural water rescue tendencies. The Newfoundland dog excels at water rescue, due to their great muscles and partly to their webbed feet and acute swimming abilities. Newfoundland dogs require grooming at least once per week (and frequently more often). They are extremely loving and patient, and Newfoundland puppies are laid-back and considered easy to housebreak. When it comes to physical strength, this breed is thought to be the strongest--even beating some characteristics of the Great Dane, Mastiff, or Irish Wolfhound.

Temperament

The Newfoundland dog is legendarily known for its benevolence and strength. It is known to be one of the kindest and gentlest dogs, if not the very best and gentlest dog of all when it comes to children. It is for this reason that this breed is known as "the gentle giant". International kennel clubs generally describe the breed as having a sweet temper. It has a deep bark, is easy to train, makes a fine guardian or watchdog, and is extremely good with children.
The Newfoundland dog is also extremely good with other animals. Its caring and gentle nature comes out in play and interaction with humans and animals alike. As with any breed, the Newfoundland can have dominance issues, but this is unusual for the breed. "Sweetness of temperament is the hallmark of the Newfoundland; this is the most important single characteristic of the breed." - Newfoundland Club Of America.
"Its soft expression reflects its benevolent and dignified temperament." - Animal Planet about the great Newfoundland Dog.

We decided it would be easiest to train a puppy while we still had only one little peanut running around. On halloween day we purchased our little newfie, Sasha.  Two weeks later we brought her home. She is now 9 weeks old and we love her. She is already huge, but doing great. We are currently crate training her and can't wait for her to be potty trained so she can be out with us all the time. She really has been great. The only problem is the chewing. We hate it, but she will grow out of it when she is done teething...

Here are some pics of the day we brought her home. The first is at the breeder's. The rest our at our home.

 

 

 

Halloween

We started halloween out by carving pumpkins at my dad and stepmom's. Kyle and I loved doing it! This was about the only time we could get Jillian to stick her hand in and help. I guess she wasn't too into the slimy texture.

 Jillian lokked so cute in her fairy costume! I was so glad I got to get a couple pictures in before it got too cold. Brrrrr!

 

 

 

 

Jillian had a special time going door to door with my dad. It was really fun to watch. And yes, that is snow!

 

 

 

 

 Jillian's favorite part of the night!

 

 

Until next year!

OMNITURE halloween party!

Aly's boyfriend Mark works for the awesome company OMNITURE. Every year they decorate their corporate building into a huge halloween bash with themes and everything. It is for the families of the employees. Since Mark doesn't have his own family, he adopted us for the day. Thanks for the tickets Mark!

We found our way over to Sesame Street! Elmo always makes us giggle...

 The law department was converted into a Japanese game show!

We got a little crazy in Vegas, Mark's department. Aunt Aly and Jillian went clubbin' and showed us some super cool moves! Then Elvis married Kyle and I! Fun!

 

 

 

 

We then headed over to Smirfland. We saw Paper Smirf and all the others.

 

Star Wars has always been my personal favorite. Darth Vader wasn't as bad as he seems.

 

Bedrock...

 

 

We had such a blast at the party. And there was so much more! It was amazing how much detail went into everything. What a fun way to bring families and coworkers together!