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" :)

It's the Holiday Season...

I had such grand plans of what I would do on the blog for this special time of year... and so far, it hasn't (obviously) happened! But oh well.. Y'all are in a forgiving mood... right?


And I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I know that we had a good break in Star Valley with Zane's family- great food, great fun, and we met with success on Black Friday shopping might I add! It was fantastic. But as good as the visit was, it felt good to come home to our apartment... and start decorating for Christmas! So far we just have a few decorations on our walls, but we're getting our tree this Saturday! I'll post pictures once it's all done :)

Other than that, there hasn't really been anything exciting as of late. Zane is almost done with the semester- finals are next week! Phew! OH! I just thought of some news... we have callings in our ward. About a month and a half ago, the ward we were in was dissolved and we were reassigned to a different ward. To put it mildly, it's been a kinda tough transition. We had just started to really feel at home in our other ward, then, BAM! New ward. Anyways, Zane has been called as a ward missionary, and I have been called as the Primary Chorister. Which is something I think I'd enjoy, IF there weren't 55 junior AND senior primary children all meeting together at once! It's pure chaos sometimes... and might I add, especially difficult to keep little children focused while I'm talking to the older kids, and extremely difficult to keep the senior primary satisfied when I'm talking to the younger children... SO, if any of you have wonderful suggestions for how to manage/teach children ranging in ages from 4 to 11, PLEASE share your insights and knowledge with me! It won't go unappreciated.

Well, that's if for now folks! I'm so grateful for this special time of year. And of course, for all of you! chao!

Down even more!

So just a quick post today.. I'm down 11.2 lbs!! And Zane is down 15 lbs! :) This diet has gotten a little old sometimes, but I'm glad to know it's working! I can finally fit into a pair of jeans that I ordered online last year but couldn't fit into! YAY!

Another Temple!

General Conference was amazing. I loved it all. There were so many wonderful talks and musical numbers. But one of the most exciting moments was when President Monson spoke on Saturday morning and announced several more temples.. Including one in Star Valley! If you didn't have a chance to watch, here's the link of the announcement :)
http://lds.org/general-conference/watch/2011/10?lang=eng&vid=1194709741001&cid=8

It's Fall!

So with the weather getting chillier outside and with October Conference starting today, I wanted a fall wreath. But all the ones I've seen at WalMart (the only place in town to shop) were too expensive for how they looked- in other words, I didn't want to spend $20 on a some-what pretty (but generic looking) wreath or $10 on a cheap looking wreath. So what does that mean? Make my own :) I bought all the supplies at the Dollar Tree... and I think I spent about $8....

Before

After

Sorry I don't have pics of the steps I took to get to the final product, but I thought about it too late. So, Happy Fall and enjoy Conference today! I'm so excited to sit inside my cozy apartment with a pumpkin pie scented candle lit, a hearty veggie soup to eat, and the Lord's servants to listen to :) Hope y'all enjoy it too where ever you are!