SNOW DAY!

We've been really itching to go to the mountain and play in the snow but weekends just haven't let us but this weekend was PERFECT!! so we got all dressed up warm and drove up there! Here is our little journey!

So we have some friends that live way out of town and this is what has been up in their roads for the last few days! that wash isn't' running but...

But this one is!! and on the other side is their house... so yeah needless to say with the smaller vehicles they have, they have been stuck on the other side of the wash. I've never seen a wash so full and flowing.. but I don't see washes flowing EVER!! so this was pretty amazing to me!

This the first appearance of SNOW!!! this is SUPER low for snow to be on the ground! remember how much snow is on the mountain and around it!

Driving up the mountain was so fun and beautiful... until we started loosing traction and sliding on the road that's when I started freaking out! with a mountain on one side and a drop off on the other is not a fun road to be sliding around on!!

So when we got to the snow Brandon goes "now what do we do?" we didn't have any snow toys so I told him "let's make a snowman!!" Brandon goes "how?" so I then proceeded to tell and show how to make a snowman and once we got the second ball on top, Brandon starts talking about making some crazy creature.... so once he sold me on to the idea also, we came up with this..

A SNOW BLOB/CAVEMAN!!

weird I know but it was fun!

I just wish the pictures would have turned out better.

The Creator of the the snow Blob/cave man!

Me and our snow blob/cave/man! Brandon added the skirt!

My favorite!

kisses on my cheek!

His snow angel...

with a skull shirt?

just kidding love! :)

my snow angel!

another picture or leaving the mountain!

the sky was beautiful that day!

This is us leaving the snow! :( notice that this is the same hill as the first picture.. see how much melted in just a few hours!! there were water falls all over the place on our way to the mountain!

Good bye snow!!

I HOPE we can visit you again this winter!

Pray for snow in March so we can go

snowboarding!!

One of the Top Coolest Place I've Been to Here!

So during the Christmas break our awesome friend Jessica and Jacob invited us to go to Eden with them! I've heard stories about it and all sorts of rumors and so I had NO idea what to imagine what it looked like! but now I do know!! here are some pictures! we are FOR SURE going back and I'll take better pictures then!

this is us in the super hot tub again! you can see the steam coming from the water to show you how cold it was out of the water!! Ha ha nice face Jacob!!

This place is supposedly where the rolling stones would come and stay. there use to be this huge mansion but it burnt down last year or something. but this is what is still there...

This picture is of the old boat house! pretty awesome! it looked across a huge pool like Olympic size! (it was dark so I couldn't get a good enough picture) and all the water in the pool are from these natural hot springs. but this one is like one of the last pools so the water isn't hot at all.

there were a TON of random things here!! like hippies go there and have were party things there and I guess they give massages too. these are right next to the hottest natural hot tub!
there were also things like this along

the trails to the

different hot tubs.

This is us in the coolest hot tub!! yeah that right it's totally natural like just coming out of the ground super hot water!! and some AWESOME person

decided to control it some more

and made streams that lead to other

hot tubs! it was pretty sweet!! like really amazing! I think this was the one that is in the shape of

the guitar.

This is Brandon...not too happy he is walking to the other trail barefoot. It wasn't THAT bad of a trail! ( like that farmers tan?)

this is the hottest hot tub! and our friend Jessica (by the rail) and Jacob with mud all over him) and Jessica's sister sitting next to him! this tub was the hottest one!! it felt so good though because it was FREEZING outside!

so What Jessica told me is that this mud has like the best minerals and stuff for your face so you rub it all over your body and let it dry and then wash it off in the hot tubs! and it's super good for your skin.

I was a little scared to do my whole body but did my face! it was pretty cool because the mud was even warm so it warmed your face and exfoliated it!

here is us applying the mud!! Jacob looked like crazed hippie!!

There were random house/hut things out there and some random art out there... and a bunch of other random things that I'll have to get better pictures of later! but it was super fun!! thanks JESSICA AND JACOB for inviting us!! and we HAVE to go AGAIN!!

SURPRISE!!

For my birthday I had THE BEST SURPRISE!! I originally thought it was going to be boring because Brandon had to work and school hadn't started so I had really nothing fun to do till he came home. So I was in the bathroom when I heard the door bell multiple times! I had no idea on who it might be and as I walk closer to the door I hear little kids voices.

I open the door and see these AMAZING people!!

It was so much fun!! they brought yummy Krispy Kreme donuts!! that's my moms tradition for our birthday she would always have our favorite donuts!! They were so yummy!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

I gave them a tour of our house and then we went out to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant and then hit up a park for the girls! it was so much fun seeing you all!! thanks so much for the

SUPER AWESOME DAY!!

When Brandon got home He got ready and we went to the

Branding Iron! so yummy!!

and an AMAZING view!! Brandon gave me the

sweetest card EVER!! And money to buy crafty stuff!! because I'm obsessed with crafty things!!

He was going to get me Wii but our Wii buying source was out! I told him that it was alright because I really need to focus on my last semester!And that would not happen with a Wii in the house!

so I told him he can

get it for me for my graduating gift!

:) thanks Babe you are the BEST!

Tortugas!!!

So for Christmas my mom gave us 2 baby

sulcata turtles!! they are SO stinking fun to watch!!

Yeah that's right I just said FUN

to watch!! These guys are only

4 months

but they grow to what their environment allows!

They are so stinking cute! And they squeak!! yeah it sounds like a muffled squeaky toy! they don't do it very often but I've heard it! Brandon doesn't believe me!

The one on the left is Crush and the one on the right is

Coopa Troopa!

Crush eats EVERYTHING in site! and Coopa Troopa sleeps in his little box and scratches, ALL the time!

I wish I could take them outside more! but it's too cold. So maybe next week it will warm up for them! oh and tortuga is turtle in Spanish! and it's a fun word! so we call them our tortugas!

LAUNDRY Soap Making Party!!

Okay so I have been wanting to make soap since like, the end of August. And I didn't want to make it by myself. So I decided to call it a party and invite some friends that would like to try this out with me!

Okay so a lot of you are probably wondering... well not a lot but who ever reads this... make laundry soap? yeah it totally works in the washer (and I've heard that it can work with the HE washers too) and according to my sister it works well with kids and all the stains they make and it works great with her clothes too!

So here are the things that are needed!

-5gallon bucket with lid

-1 cup of 20 Mule Team Borax

-1 Pink Zote Soap

-1 cup of washing soda ( I used Arm and Hammer)

-3 gallons of warm water

Step 1- put about 4 cups of water into the pan and put it on the stove on high until it's boiling, then lower the heat until it's simmering.

Step 2- while it's heating up, take a bar of soap and cut it into little bits. we used a box grater which worked great but it would have been easier if we would have used the smaller side.

Step 3- When the water is boiling, start throwing in the soap. just a little at a time and stirr until it dissolves.

(We found out the more you stirr the less it will clump and will dissolve the soap faster. we also found out that using a whisk worked better to stir.)
Jessica and Loralynn stirring away!!
Thanks Loralynn
for stirring mine!
Step 4- stir the soapy water with a spoon until all the soap is dissolved. Eventually, the water will take
on the color of the soap you added, abiet paler. In the
end, you'll have some very warm soap soup.

Step 5- Next, get out your large container and add three gallons of warm tap water to it

Step 6- to this bucket add a cup off the washing soda, the borax, and the soap solution you made and stir. After stirring
you'll have a bucket full of vaguely soapy water!
Step 7- let the soap sit for 24hours preferably with a lid on it!


This is was our only mishap while making soap...
yeah that's a whisk!!
or what use to be one!
Pouring the soapy stuff into
my bucket! yeah mine had some
clumps in it.
Here is my final product!!
Yay I can't wait to
use it!!
Valerie came late but this is her soapy goodness!!
hers turned out the best when
we figured out to use
the whisk the whole time!
And us girls with our awesome Laundry soap!!
Thanks girls
for joining me!! It would have
been super boring without you!

I have this email that also breaks down the prices and shows how much cheaper using this stuff then buying other soap and gives some more info about the soap and how much you will need for a
year supply.
If you'd like to leave your email in the comments and I'll send you all the information!

I had so much fun!!

Thanks girls for coming and making soap with me!!

Happy 2010 New Year!!

So this is a little how we spent our new years.... the real new years was spent watching the ball drop on my laptop.... yeah not so awesome! Brandon had to work till 12AM so i celebrated solo until he came home!

This is what I prepared for our

new year! yeah that is sugar on the

brim with coconut drink

mix slushy with a bit of 7up.

yeah I made it up! but it was YUMMY!!

Us enjoying our drinks... probably a

little too much! we're nerds!But

we're nerds together!!

This is me being bored

while I wait for Brandon to come home!

Here are the FUN party POPPERS!!! can't
celebrate New Years with out them!!
my mom taught me that! and you don't have
to clean up after them until the
day after new years either!!

Every New Years day while everybody else is "sleeping off" the late night or early morning, my family goes out to the desert for a "hike" yeah it originally started off as that and then we just decided that it was more fun to hang out in the desert and shoot guns, ride quads, and Arctic cats, eat smoore's and hamburgers and hot dogs, etc. and just enjoy the great company!


This is what the boys come for!!
yeah there were more than 9shot guns there!! the boys play their own made up games with the
citrus and clay pigeons!
They all LOVE IT!!
After they are done playing they let everybody else shoot!

Us on the Quad!

sorry for making you freeze on our ride Babe!

Here is another pic of the boys playing their games!

Please excuse the tired eyes! we celebrated New years then got up at 7AM and drove to desert, (3hours away) then spent the

whole day out there! yeah we were tired.

but we had so much fun!

thanks mom and dad for having such a fun tradition!

OUR FIRST CHRISTMAS!

Please forgive the order and the lateness

but whatever this is what I'd do in my journal.

So here ya have it! our

first Christmas together!!

Brandon and His family came over to our place for Thanksgiving!and our little town had this is like Merry Main Street thing so of course I love the small town events so we went!! It was a lot of fun! they even had SNOW!!

This is my 2nd visit to

AJO!

So Brandon took me on the grand tour!

it took 5 min!!

ha ha no not really but it was short!

This is a super cool old building that

use to be a school but now it's apt. but anyway we had a fun time exploring in there.But really cool building!
This is the name of the
school.
I took it so I'd remember!

This is what I call the

Ajo Grand canyon!

its the old copper mine there!

and it was HUGE!!

Here it is! okay so all those little ridges each are 40 feet high!! and they would have trains go down there and the guy said that there was over 300 miles of train tracts just to get to the bottom!! crazy! and i think also that he said it's like a mile and a half wide! there ya have it Ajo's own Grand Canyon... well kind of

This is Christmas morning at my house.... yeah boxing... it was actually really entertaining to watch. I actually don't even know why they were boxing. nobody got gloves this year...boys...

This is what was on my present! MY love is so cute!!

Here is what I got!!

A FIRE PIT!!

Can't wait to use it babe!! thanks so much!

So I put these frames together and didn't know what to put in them,so they have just been empty frames for a couple of weeks. So while I was wrapping presents this is what came to me! ornaments and wrapping paper.

Not going to lie but I really like how they turned out!

And this of

course is our beautiful

TREE!! and our wonderful lights up on our house!

Yeah Brandon MADE me put up all the lights!!

ha ha just kidding Love!

he did them all except the ones on the roof!

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas and are truly so thank full for all the blessing we have and for the opportunity we had to spend Christmas with our families! hope your Christmas was just as fantastic!