BUNCO!!

This month I hosted Bunco at my house. There is one great reason why I love to host Bunco, and that reason is. . . my house gets cleaned really well, but besides that I always have such a great time and it's fun to pick the prizes. I play with 12 fun, rowdy and crazy girls. Who can beat a night of laughing, talking, eating, oh, and we can't leave out the dice rolling and the screaming of BUNCO!! (Sorry Tim! Tim was home last night and he got to hear and see how crazy we get. I think next time it's at my house he might think twice about staying home.)

Well for dinner, I cheated. I went with my usual spread of Blimpie, chips, salad and cookies!

After we have a little grub, It doesn't take long for the dice rolling to take place and the rowdiness to start. It was, like usual, a fun rambunctious night with the girls. We were sad that Heather and Ashli couldn't make it and we look forward to seeing them next month, but we are thankful for our wonderful subs, Laura and Debby for filling in. Thanks guys!! (Watch out I might be calling one of you to sub next time.)

Here are the prizes, I am sad to say that at the end of the night I didn't walk away with a prize. I guess not having any Bunkos on my scorecard didn't help.

Thanks for the fun night and I look forward to seeing everyone next month!!

What to change your Blog background?

I have had a lot of people ask me how to change their blog backgrounds. I thought it would be a good idea to post the instructions. I have to Thank Jamie first because she is the one that shared the instructions with me. So Thanks Jamie!!! Also if you don't have time or don't want to try and find paper to change you background you can go to Pyzam.com, they have a lot of different templates that you can download for free. (Thanks Caryn for sharing that website!)

Well I decided that it would be a very long post if I wanted to write all the instructions on my blog, but I noticed that Emily had a link to the instructions on her blog. So instead of writing it all out again, just click Blog Design Instructions to go to to the blog sight. (thanks Emily!!)

I'm not a pro, but if you need any help or have any questions let me know, and I would be happy to help you. Or if you want me to email you the instructions I can do that too.

Good Luck!!

Are you ready?!

After reading some of the recent posts, I feel that our blog needs a little less cute and crafts, and a lot more FOOTBALL! I recently returned from my annual mancation to Denver to watch my beloved Broncos, and I couldn't think of a better way to make my first official post. So let's get's started!

Jon and I flew in Saturday and decided instead of watching the BYU game at the ESPN Zone, we would go to Invesco Field and get a tour of the stadium. We toured some of the suites, the broadcast booth where Monday Night Football was setting up, the visiting locker room, and we were even able to go down onto the field.

Drew came in to town Saturday night, and we decided to go over to one of the local hangouts to play some pool. While we were playing, none other than Carmelo Anthony walked in with some friends and started bowling right next to us. He even came over, and watched us playing pool. After a few head nods, he returned to his friends, but he stayed just long enough to be taught a few lessons.

Sunday we woke up and went to church, hoping such an act would help insure a Broncos victory. I'm kidding of course, although when I was 12, I was convinced that if I left church early, the Broncos would surely lose!

Chad arrived later that day, and we then took off for the ESPN Zone. For those of you who have never been to an ESPN Zone, think 20 tv's all playing different games, arcade games, basketball hoopes, good food, and best of all, TV's above every urinal and stall in the bathrooms! Sweet! After eating, we played enough games to make us sore the next morning!

We woke up Monday to birds chirping. Not really, but that's how glorious of a day it was! Not only were we within hours of kickoff, but the weather was in the 70's! Instead of wearing all the winter gear I had packed, I would have been better suited wearing shorts to the game! We played a little more pool that day, but basically just to pass the time. We arrived to the game 3 hours early, which sounds really early, but it goes by fast. The first hour is when you take some pictures, look at all the crazy tailgaters, and watch the players walk in. You can also enter the Broncos shop and get your souvenirs. At the 2 hour mark, the gates opened, you can go check out your seat, watch the players warm up, find a bite to eat, buy souvenirs, etc. Before you know it, the stadium is packed, and they're singing the national anthem.

This was the first Monday Night Football game that I have been to, and the atmosphere was a little more lively and vibrant than the day games that I had previously attended. Not only did they pass out the usual orange pom poms, but they also gave out Broncos beanies, and orange sponge like rectangles (yeah, I don't know what they were for, although they did work as a good spongie to wipe away all the beer that was spilled on the floor by the guys sitting behind us).

The Broncos looked really good to begin the game, scoring on a 48 yard pass play, and also a 80 yard punt return. In the second quarter, I left our seats to go take some pictures. I really wanted to get some good shots of the stadium. so I wallked all the way up to the 5th level, and started shooting. Here's one of my pictures I took:

The game itself ended up being as good or better than I could have hoped for. There were a lot of big plays, and the Bronocs really looked good. In the end, the Broncos prevailed 34-20, bringing the Broncos record when I am in attendance to 4-2. It also put them back at .500 and into a tie for the division lead.

After the game, we ran in to this kid who had Vince Young's shoe. When VY was leaving the field, he took off one of his shoes and threw it into the stands. The guy who caught the shoe turned to a kid nearby and gave it to him. "You at least have a chance to grow into it", he said. There's a Broncos fan for you!

As we were walking out, I decided to try this picture. I was uncertain how it would turn out, but I ended up being pleasantly surprised.

Overall, it was a great trip, and I look forward to next year! In parting, I will recite the Broncos moto:

I am a Bronocs fan.

I believe in Mile High magic and bleed orange and blue.

I celebrate the Orange Crush, The Drive, and the Mile High Salute.

I create the thunder, share the common dream, and will forever be a proud citizen of

BRONCOS COUNTRY.

Here a few more pictures:

Thanksgiving at the Shirley's

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. Ever since I can remember I have always had two Thanksgiving dinners. We would get together with my Dad's side of the family in the morning/ mid-afternoon and then our family would come home relax/sleep and then we were off to have have another Thanksgiving dinner with my mom's extended side of the family. And ever since Tim and I have been married we have gone to three Thanksgiving dinners. I know CRAZY!! I have to say that Tim and I are very thankful to have so much family so close that we can spend the holidays with. This year, especially with Addison, we thought it would be easiest to spend Thanksgiving with one family. Although it was sad that we didn't get to see everyone on my side of the family, it was nice not to feel rushed and we were able to spend some quality time with Tim's family. We were sad that Marlon wasn't able to come home for Thanksgiving. We missed him, and we are excited to see him at Christmas time.

Well Tim's mom out did herself yet once again. All the food was delicious, Tim's mom spends about an hour or two de-boning the turkey the day before she cooks it. Doing this really makes the turkey taste so yummy. We really appreciate all the time she puts into making all the delicious food, especially her homemade rolls. This year Addison was able to eat her first real Thanksgiving dinner. She had turkey, sweet potatoes, jello, stuffing, and a roll. I think Addison's favorite part about Thanksgiving was walking around with Maddi. Addison just loves Maddi, she is always playing with her and making her laugh.

Here are some pictures with Addison walking with her cousin, Maddi.

Grandpa and Grandma Shirley

Thanksgiving this year came and went really fast. We had an enjoyable Thanksgiving with Tim's family. We have so much to be thankful for, and we are indeed grateful for all of our many blessing. We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Addison's 1-year pictures!

We just got Addison's pictures back, and I couldn't be happier with how they turned out. Here are just some of my favorites that I had to share.

**I just wanted to add this since I have had some people ask me who took Addison's pictures. Skye Johansen is the wonderful, talented photographer who took them. She does an amazing job and I would totally recommend her. You can visit her website by clicking here.**

One Amazing Quote

I was reading my friend, Steph's blog today and she had this amazing and inspiring quote by Sister Hinckley. I wanted to post it on my blog as well.

"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with grass stains on my shoes from mowing Sister Schenk's lawn. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someones garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived." -Marjorie Hinckley

Good friends are hard to find, harder to leave, and impossible to forget

I was reading my friends blog last week and she had a post on Friendships. It made me think about how grateful I am for all the wonderful friendships I have made through out the years. I have been truly blessed to have such wonderful friends. There are so many different kinds of friendships we encounter throughout life. I have some amazing friends a wonderful family, and I feel so lucky to have been able to marry into another incredible family. I have so many wonderful examples in my life who have helped shape me into the person I am, and hope to become. While I was writing this post I remembered an article in Oprah's Magazine on Friends. I think these are some great examples of the types of friends we want and want to be.

Five Friends Every Woman Should Have By Michelle Burford

"Friends are the family we choose for ourselves," writer Edna Buchanan once said.

I consider the "family" I've gathered—with five kinds of pals I count on for completely different things—among the wisest choices I've made. If you can find even one who embodies any of the characteristics that follow, you can consider yourself fortunate.

1. The Uplifter This woman's favorite word: yes. You could tell her you're trading your six-figure income for a career in offtrack betting, and she'd barely pause before yelping "Go for it!" Don't you need someone who looks past the love handles to notice the extraordinarily gorgeous you?

2. The Travel Buddy When the hotel in St. Lucia is a bust, one characteristic becomes all-important: flexibility. This agreeable companion need not be the girl you traded pinkie swears with on the playground; it's enough that she's comfortable with quiet (between gabfests) and is a teensy bit mischievous (as in tequila after midnight).

3. The Truth Teller Intent is what separates the constructive from the abusive. Once you've established that the hard news is spoken in love (not in jealousy or malice), you'd be smart to seek out this woman's perspective.

4. The Girl Who Just Wants to Have Fun One Saturday a pal and I—and yes, we're both over age 12—pored over every glitter lip gloss in a drugstore aisle for an entire 45 minutes. Forget the crisis download (for that, see the Uplifter); this partnership is about spontaneous good times.

5. The Unlikely Friend "Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive," Anaïs Nin wrote. My friends—some twice my age, others half, some rich, others homeless, some black like me, others Korean, Mexican, Caucasian—have added richness to my life that only variety can bring.

Personalize Your Sippy Cup

Now that Addison is drinking Vitamin D milk I thought I should try and switch her to a sippy instead of a bottle. After the first day of giving her Vitamin D, the next day I gave her a sippy instead of a bottle. She made the transition quite well, and the bottles have now been put away since the 1st of November. Since I wasn't sure how Addison was going to do I just bought her two smaller sippys. Now that I know she likes the sippy cup, I went and picked up a few of the stage 3. Addison only likes the Playtex brand, so when I was looking at all the sippy cups I saw this cute one where you can personalize it. (Tim thinks I am a dork for buying it, but I thought it was fun.) The middle part comes out and there is paper where your kids can draw something, put pictures on it etc. So check out Addison's new sippy cup. Mine is pretty simple, just printed something off and stuck it in there.

One Cute Birthday Hat!

I totally forgot to post a picture of Addison's darling birthday hat. Before you even think about it . . . NO, I did not make it. I wish I could say I did, but I didn't. My friend, Heather, had asked one of her friends if she could make it for me. I was so thrilled at how it turned out. I am sad to say that as excited as I was to have her wear it, she felt the total opposite. She wasn't going to have anything to do with wearing it. I wasn't too surprised, since it is a miracle if we can even get her to keep a small clip in her hair. Of course there was a small part of me that thought she might wear it. Oh well, there's always next year for her to sport this darling hat.

I {heart} Photoshop!

I have had a lot of people ask me how I make my collages of pictures on my blog. I use the program Photoshop Elements. I totally recommend it. I'll be honest when we bought the program I didn't know that I would be using it as much as I do. Here are some things, besides editing your photos, that you can do with Photoshop.

You can Digital Scrapbook- I have really enjoyed learning how to Digital Scrapbook, I do admit that I miss using the real paper and embellishments etc. There are so many pluses, and the convenience of digital, it's hard to not do it. Plus Tim is a lot happier now that my scrapbook stuff isn't all over our house. Here are some of my pages I've done. I'm not a pro or anything, but if you want to learn I would be happy to show you.

You can make Blog Banners- Here are a few that I have made.

You can make invitations, Thank You cards and this week I started making Christmas Cards. I know I have talked to some of you that wanted me to make you one. I have made about 10 different cards so far. I will email them to you so you can choose. Here are some examples. (FYI - I wanted to just throw in a photo so I could see the example better. The photos are from Addison's 6 month pictures.)

So there you have it, the reasons why I {heart} Photoshop.

Cookie Recipe

I got this recipe at my neighbors annual Cookie Swap. I didn't know or hadn't been to a cookie swap until a couple of years ago. They are so much fun, if you don't know what it is or if you want to start doing one with friends/neighbors this is what you do. Each guest will make around 3 dozen of one kind of treat/cookies and provide the recipe. (the amount made depends on the number of guest you will have, you typically want to make enough for everyone to be able to take 2-3 of each dessert.) Everyone comes and enjoys great conversation and some delicious appetizers. At the end of the night you will each take 2-3 of each dessert home. (So. . . if you make 3 dozen you leave with 3 dozen, I know that's a lot of treats) You can do this at any time, my neighbor always does hers around Christmas time.

These little cookies are delicious. They are so yummy that I just had to share the recipe. I made them for Addison's party so I used a small pumpkin cookie cutter. My neighbor, who I got the recipe from, made them around Christmas so she used a small Christmas tree cookie cutter.

Dough:

1 cup soft butter
1/3 cup half and half
2 cups flour

Filling:

1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
food coloring

Mix ingredients for dough and chill slightly. Roll THIN and cut with small cookie cutters. Coat both sides of cookie with granulated sugar and prick with fork. (Bakes like pie crust.) Bake for 7-9 min at 375 until lightly browned. Remove and cool. Mix ingredients for filling until light and smooth. Sandwich 2 cookies with small amount of filling.

ENJOY!!

A Quick Run Down

I'm sure most of you will agree that this has been one busy week. Here is the run down of our week:

Monday afternoon I took Addie to get her 1 year pictures taken. Like most one year olds they are so busy, not wanting to stay still, paying attention to everything else but the task at hand, crawling away, etc. Tim and I knew that this is what we would be expecting when we would take Addison to get her pictures taken, so no surprises when I saw Addison doing these things on Monday. Hopefully we were able to get a few good pictures of her. I will post some of her pictures when I get them back. Monday night we, or I should say I, carved pumpkins while Tim watched the Broncos game. Tim wanted to carve his pumpkin with a bronco head on it. Here it is, I was a little nervous when I started carving it, not knowing if it would really turn out. Well this is the best I could do.

Tuesday Addison and I went to a play group with some of my friends. It's so much fun getting our kids together, or I guess I should say getting the moms together. Wednesday was a busy day with Halloween and Addie's B-day. Addison got a fun surprise by her friends, Abby, Elly, and Ally. They brought her a fun new toy, It's a pig that shakes and giggles when you push on it's nose. They also gave her some gerber puffs. (Addison's favorite little snack.) That afternoon we went to Tim's work. They invite all the families to come and do some trick or treating. On our way home we stopped by Grandma and Grandpa Wright's house so they could see Addie in her costume. That night we went to the Bacon's home for some yummy soup and goodies. Michelle had on her cute spider costume. I wish we would have taken a picture of her, she looks so cute in it. (I know it sounds weird to say cute and spider in the same sentence.) We were sad we couldn't stay to long, but we were off to go to one of Tim's co-workers party. We got home and right before Addison went to bed she received a phone call from her Grandma Shirley to wish her a Happy Birthday.

Here is Addie in her Octopus costume.

Addison in her Halloween PJs from Teylor. Thanks Tey, Addie sure loves them.

Friday I took Addison to the Doctors for her 1 year checkup. I was a little nervous about her getting her shots now that she is older, but she did great.

Here are her stats from her appt.

Height: 30 inches (75%)

Weight: 18 pounds 10 ounces (15%)

Who knew we had a tall skinny baby?!

Friday night we played our new favorite game Ticket to Ride with the Mabeys. The win went to Amy, she totally dominated. Way to go Amy!! Sorry Chad!

Saturday Tim went to the BYU game and that night we played our other favorite game Sequence with Scotty, Jenn, Christy and Jerome. Thanks for the fun night guys!

Well that was our week, I was meaning to do a Halloween post etc. but just didn't get around to it so I just thought I would do one big post.