Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012!

Last New Year's Eve, Zane and I moved into our apartment here in Laramie-- and the move here included a blown tire, road closures,  I-80 with high wind gusts, (when it finally opened) blowing snow causing slick roads, low visibility, and a lot of prayers!

This New Year's Eve, we're happy and grateful to still be here in Laramie. Our apartment, which at first looked a little ghetto old, has become home and we love it here. We're grateful for our jobs, home, family, friends, the gospel, and the memories we've made in 2011.

We wish you all a happy, blessed, and safe 2012!    HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!  :D

Gingerbread Houses

On Sunday we had our friends Tyler and Katie over for dinner, and then we all made gingerbread houses. They made one together, but Zane wanted to build his own (and he wanted it to be better than mine) so we all got to work making gingerbread houses out of graham crackers, homemade frosting, and candy. Here are the results :)

(Tyler's favorite part is the Buckin' Horse on the roof)

And Zane just had to have one above his door! :)

Right after we took the picture of the backside of Zane's gingerbread house, this is what happened...

The Final Products:

And it just wouldn't be Christmas without singing Christmas carols.... so Zane surprised me with an early Christmas present this year! The words to describe my reaction? Excited shock :)

I've been playing it basically every day since it was set up and love, love, love it! And Zane of course! :)

How to get a Christmas tree in Wyoming:

It starts early on a Saturday morning (and by early, I actually just mean it's about 8:30/9:00... somewhere in there..). ANYWAYS, after going by the Forest Service building (which Zane likes to refer to as the Forest Circus) to get our tree permits, we head about 30 miles out of Laramie to a very small town (in fact, I think "village" is a more appropriate word) called Centennial. Once there, we head off into the woods, which if I might add, are at an elevation of 8,000 feet. We tromp through 2 feet of snow and look at all the different evergreen trees surrounding us. Upon choosing one, you do what you have to do to cut it down....

SO, we went out last Saturday with some good friends of ours and did just that- found our Christmas tree!

The lady at the Forest Circus Service was VERY particular about where we could legally cut trees- it had to be behind the barbed wire fence. Lucky for us, this one was :) but just barely (as you can see)....   And after cutting it down, the joy of getting it back to our trucks began...

(yes, that's Zane carrying our tree across the highway...)

The view from the other direction- isn't a beautiful winter wonderland? 

Anyways, we came up in 2 truckloads, so half of us were done before the others were, and in order to pass the time, Tyler and Zane decided to leave a little surprise for Evan and Olivia when they got back ;)

Then the Yeardleys came back with their tree, and Timmy wanted to put it on top of the snow pile too...

Evan and Olivia got back with their tree and were good sports about finding the condition of the truck :)

Then they (meaning the guilty culprits) had to clean it off...

Ater cleaning off the truck, we all got on our way... and eventually (after Zane and Evan shot Evan's new pistol) we headed back to Laramie. After the tree thawed out and dried thoroughly, we brought it inside (cut off an additional 4 inches of the trunk) and got it lookin' all purty ;)

"Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree, how lovely are thy branches" :)