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Sunday, December 21, 2008

A Christmas Tree Adventure

So, here is the story about us chopping down our very own Christmas tree. Jeff's Aunt Char let us stay at her beautiful cabin in Forest Lakes, it's more like a house though cause it's so nice and clean (Jeff's hard drive on his lap top just crashed so we lost a lot of pics from this trip...sad.) or else there would have been a pic of her cabin.

We went up early with our friends Jenny and Mike Stephan and tried to stay up late the 1st night playing games, but nope we are old and married and ended up in bed pretty early. Here is a pic of Jenny and I when we first got to the cabin...brrrrrrr it was cold!!


Then here is one of the boys doing whatever needed to be done to turn the water on.  What cute hubbies they are!!! Jeff and Mike have been good friend for a while so it's fun to always double with them and hang out! :)

The weekend at the cabin was very relaxing and just what we needed to get away for a bit from work and school. The first morning Jeff woke up and made some delicious breakfast burrito mix, I was supposed to help him, but of course I didn't do much! He said that his hash browns turned out so tasty cause he put the grease from the sausage in them, whatever he did worked!! We then got ready for the day and decided to go out and explore for a bit while we were waiting for our other friends Jeremy and Liisa Sharp to come up with the trailer and saw to cut our trees. I had to take a pic of Jenny cause she looked oh so adorable in her beanie!


We drove around and found this look out place and the edge of one of the points at Woods Canyon lake and took some fun pics as couples, but once again I only have a few of them! :'(


We had to stop and get gas and luckily enough the Chevron we went to also had a Dairy Queen!! I love that place cause I'm hooked on one of their Blizzard's, it's called the Pecan Turtle Fudge Blizzard and you must try it sometime!! My husband is funny and always orders the LARGE Blizzard, and every time when he is done he complains that his tummy hurts! Here is proof of all the ice cream that he can eat! :)


Jenny loves peppermint anything and she was in luck cause they had peppermint ice cream. The employees were telling us not to get it cause most customers didn't like it, but she was determined to try it! Despite the bad reviews she ended up really liking it! I had to take a pic of her by the poster!


Jeremy and Liisa arrived and we all squeezed together in the back of his truck. Then we were off on our Christmas Tree Adventure!! :)

There was so much snow everywhere!! Here is one of my trying to imitate Ralphie from "A Christmas Story" and then one of us 3 girls freezing!



We drove around to a couple of different places trying to find the "perfect" tree, but we learned quick that there is no such thing, and that we were going to end up with one that was not exactly full but had character! I was told later that those full, nicely trimmed trees people sell in parking lots are grown somewhere else and that ours would not look like that! :(  It really burst my bubble cause that was what I had been imagining all along! :'(  We walked all over the place and would find one that we liked and then heard another couple say that they found one, and then realized that ours was not that nice compared to theirs so we kept looking. It was getting dark... so it came down to all of us chopping down 30 foot trees (not really legal) and just taking the top from them. (Sorry trees for ending your life a bit early...) Jeff and I have really high ceilings in our condo so our goal was to find the tallest tree that we could possibly chop down. We were successful and our tree ended up being at least 12 feet tall!!! Yay!! Here is a pic of Jeff working so hard at chopping the tree down.

Here is our tree!! I was even a trooper and helped carry it for a while before I started complaining and then Jeff carried it the rest of the way to the trailer! I think ours may have been the tallest out of the 3.  It was a wonderful weekend and our trees did make it safely back to Phoenix.



Here is the tree all dolled up! :) My plan was to only put white lights to match the red and gold decorations I had, but since this tree was so tall it required more, so we just put in those tacky colored ones too! When it was done it looked like it was ready to go to the Prom...it just didn't have a date!! Ha ha!


In conclusion to our tree story I had to share the moment when I put on the dazzling tree skirt!  Sorry to talk about it so much but I really do just love it so much!! 



Thursday, December 4, 2008

My Dazzling Christmas Tree Skirt

My oh so very very very talented Mom who is capable of doing everything put her skills to work and made me a Christmas tree skirt over Thanksgiving while we were in Sierra Vista. I found this cute sparklie snow man material at Wal-Mart and it was pretty cheap.

My Mom is the most energetic 58 year old that I know, she can still tough it out and stay up til 2:00 a.m all the time! My plan was to help her sew, but of course I didn't do much and my Mom just took over and without a pattern created the most perfect tree skirt that I could ever ask for. I did make all the little red bows you see on there though! During Christmas time my Mom's house is like a Winter Wonderland and she has been collecting decorations for years...it's really beautiful to see actually. I don't have much to decorate with yet for Christmas, but we are getting there. Our condo will be more festive when our tree is all set up this weekend. I can't wait and I'm determined to make our house more "Christmas-ey" looking! Not to mention my mom didn't even use a pattern, and came up with everything for this skirt on her own. Please give a round of applause for my new tree skirt...

Here is a close up view just in case you didn't get enough from the first pic...

You guys...I was so in love with my tree skirt that I even debated on wearing it to a holiday party! What do you think? Whoops....one problem though...my waist is definitely NOT that tiny!!

My mom busted out with a whole entire box full of Christmas crafts that she hasn't completed yet and so she also made me this wreath!! My house will be a Winter Wonderland in no time!!

I have to give one more shout out to my mom again--THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU MOM!! I LOVE THE DECORATIONS!! :)


I don't think I could triple post today so I'm also going to squeeze in some more pics from Turkey day! Jeff is really good at hiding his talents (I guess you could say he is humble) but he pretty much can hear a song once and then play it again by ear. So, him and my sis Joc sat down and were playing together.

This was a first, but my brother Phil brought his girlfriend Nicki home as well. We were happy to have her there, she is super sweet and has the best laugh! I love my brother Phillip, he is so generous and fun to be around...he always has something humourous to say.


Thanks Dad for making such a delicious turkey! It was funny cause my Dad makes this really yummy dessert with cranberries, and my fam is famous for picking on the food before we actually sit down to eat dinner, so my dad and I got creative and labeled his dessert "Green Bean Casserole" and for the most part it kept the fingers away. Dad we are funny! :)

My sister Amber came all the way down from Texas to spend Thanksgiving with us. I'm so happy she did cause I just love her to peices. She is going back to U of A in Jan.

Last but not least it was my little brother Jarom's 18th birthday! We went out to this really tasty mexican restaurant in SV and instead of giving him ice cream or some other dessert he got a cheese quesadilla! How odd. Happy Birthday Jarom...P.S. you and Joc are never supposed to grow up. Isn't he cute?!?

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Top 12 Things I am Thankful For...

The holiday season seems to just point out all of your blessings directly that you should be thankful for. I know that Heavenly Father has so many blessings in store for all of us and I have a testimony that if we are living righteously we will be worthy to receive them. I often feel like Heavenly Father is testing me and saying "Come on Elisa...just give and do a little more and endure through your trials and there will be endless amounts of blessings for you!" So, here is what my lil' heart is thankful for:

1. Of course the top one on my list is that I am ever so thankful for my sweet husband Jeff who can handle my baby tantrums and still love me. We are 10 days away from our 1 year anniversary! :) :)

2. I'm thankful that last night Jeff went quietly into the kitchen and made me some yummy hot chocolate with whip cream on top. The funny thing is that I was sitting on the couch wanting some since it was cold, but I was to lazy to make my own. Jeff makes it perfect anyways, because he actually measures the water.

3. I'm thankful for my loving and hard working Mother who makes numerous sacrifices for us 8 kids constantly. My mom is incredible and one of the most thoughtful people I know. I only hope to have some of her qualities one day. My mom is a soldier and can get through any trial with the largest amount of faith I have ever seen. Mom, I love you.

4. I'm thankful for my sweet, supportive father who honestly has never missed anything important in my life. I'm thankful for his example that he has always set for me to be a better person. Dad, it meant so much to me when I was at EA with no car and you would come and pick me up at the drop of a coin whenever I was homesick to take me back to Sierra Vista. I love you so much Daddy!

5. I'm thankful for my 4 brothers and 3 sisters who keep me laughing all the time. Now that I am older I can definitely say I enjoy being in a large family. My mom would always tell me, "Blood is thicker than water Elisa."

6. I'm thankful for the opportunities I have had to hear my Primary kids sing "I am a Child of God" and how it always gives me goose bumps.

7. I think I have been tremendously blessed with amazing friends. People always ask me how I am so good at keeping in touch with all of them and it's honestly because you guys have all made an effective mark on my life, how could I not want to keep in touch with you?!?

8. I'm thankful for the perfect love and outreaching hands that my Heavenly Father always offers me.

9. With how the world is right now I am extremely grateful to have a job, our own home, 2 cars and food on the table.

10. I'm thankful for my generous and humble in-laws the Schaubs. Just the other day they thanked me for being in their family, and I thought..."Thank you for letting us always eat your food and for raising such a thoughtful boy that I got to marry."

11. I'm thankful that I had the opportunity to work in the temple cafeteria for a bit last year. My most fav thing about being there was that I would run the cash register and all the little old people would come through the line dressed in white and I felt like I was in heaven cause they reminded me of angels.

12. This is silly, but I am thankful for Jeff cause he loves my little "Ellie Elf Ears" that I have, and always wants me to put my hair in a pony tail to show them off. I always want to hide them.

If you haven't yet, take some time and write your blessings down. I promise you that afterwards you will appreciate more of what you have and the trials in your life won't seem as BIG.