Halloween Present and Past

Recently I came across some old Halloween pictures.  So I decided to keep them close by and add them to this post.  I had to scan some of them in so the quality of those particular ones is not great. But get excited because there are some great pictures ahead! ;)

This is the girls at the salon this year.  Megan was a hippie, Becky is a pirate, and then you see me and I know you are thinking "She didn't dress up!" Oh but I did.  My sign says "Shirt....$20.00, Jeans.... $40.00, Halloween costume with minimal effort.....Priceless!"  That's right, I was a MasterCard Ad.  Crysta was Little Red Riding Hood, MaLynda was a slutty Eskimo (although not very slutty), Ashlee was a cat and Krista was a nerd.  We also had a potluck that day.  There was a lot of good food and we had a fun day.

This is little Adam.  He is the newest member of my family.  He was born October 1st.  It was in Connecticut though so I haven't been able to hold him yet.  He is a cute little cow.  

This is my cute little Ellie fairy.  She is adorable!

Here is Erica, Jeff and Adam.  Jeff sent me this picture with the caption "Blame it all on my roots".  It made me laugh because if you know Jeff he hates country music and everything that goes with it.

Here are the ones that actually live by me.  Marshal was a basketball player, Bret a robber, Danny a football player and Shelayne was a cute little spider who smiles after you take the picture. 

This is Danny in 2000.  He was the same one that was the football player in the picture above.  He is pretty cute both times.

This is McKenzie and Wyat also in 2000.  They are now 17 and 14.  I can't believe how fast time goes!

Here are the girls of Salon Divo.  No we didn't really dress like that in 2000, it was Halloween and we decided to be eighties girls.  There is Bree, Kacie, Dayna, Me, Tanny, Liz and Jamie.

And in case you needed a closer look at me with my awesome eighties hair...here you go.

Here is Danny in 2001.  You can't tell at all that his Dad is a sports fan can you?

Here is Wyat and McKenzie in 2001.  Wyat was a bear in case you can't tell.

Here I am in 2003.  I had just gotten back from Hawaii and had purchased that outfit.  I was super tan so I pretended I was Hawaiian.  I had a picture of all the girls at the salon but the picture wasn't digital and it turned out terrible.  

The next four pictures are from 2008.  I realize there is a large gap but I probably didn't dress up and if I did, I didn't find those pictures. 

This is Kristy as a white trash beauty queen and Kyle as a homeless man.  His sign says "Needs Rich Woman  (Preferably a HOT one).  M-Jay is the creepy cowboy in the background.  It was pretty funny because Kyle didn't even recognize him. 

Erin was gum on the bottom of a shoe, Laura was a bubble bath and I was a magic 8 ball.  My necklace was triangle shaped pieces of paper that had magic 8 ball responses. 

We had a few games....like doughnut on a string.  Jason obviously wasn't very good. 

This is Todd, Mike and Clint.  They weren't really dressed up but the picture made me laugh.

Here is Erin and Kyle in 2009.  They didn't really dress up but some other girls came over as very modest playboy bunnies and Erin and Kyle decided to steal their accessories for a picture.  

I didn't dress up either in 2009 but Ellie did!  She was only about 2 months old in this picture.

I am not missing last year in case you are wondering.  I blogged about it back then so check my older posts if you want to see my awesome "box of Kleenex" costume.  :)

Christmas 2010

You can tell she was really excited.

This year for Christmas I went to my Brother Lyle's house.  Christmas Eve we were going to go to Orderville for my Grandma's annual Christmas Eve party but the mountain road was closed because of getting a lot of snow.  So we didn't make the trip.  Instead we went and looked at Christmas lights and then Andrea (my sister-in-law) played the piano for me so that I could play some Christmas songs on my violin.  Then the kids opened one present.  They begged and begged their parents to let them get up at 6 am.  My Brother told them 6:30 am.  Surprisingly they had to be woke up at 7. 

The two older boys got air soft guns which they spent all day outside using.  And Marshal's favorite gift....a pillow pet.  He walked around all day saying, "It's a pillow, it's a pet, it's a pillow-pet."  I asked him where he heard that and he said, "From the comarshal."   That's right he thinks commercials are comarshals.  He also got a game.  When he opened it he said to his Mom and Dad, "Oh!  This is the game that was under your bed and you wrapped it and gave it to me!"  He said it very innocently like he had no idea he had done anything wrong by snooping.  It was pretty funny.
I got money.  Which my brother thought would be funny to give me in all 1's and 2 dollar bills.  It is a very Lyle thing to do.  He told me it was to buy new haircutting scissors with.  Which I do need.   
Later we had Frogmore Stew for Christmas dinner.  It is a meal that my brother learned on his mission in South Carolina.  It doesn't have frogs in it and it really isn't stew but despite the name it is really good.  I made a delicious cheesecake for dessert.  
 Well it wasn't a white Christmas but it was pretty foggy and it almost looked like one.

This other picture came from main street a couple nights before Christmas.  I thought it looked really cool with the fog.

It was a good Christmas.  It is hard to believe it is over.  New years was fun.  I didn't take any pictures but me and my friend Libby went to dinner and watched a movie.  Then we went over to some other friends house for a little party.  I guess I am getting old but we came home shortly after midnight and I didn't stay up too much longer.  Anyway, Happy New Year everyone!!

Christmas Stuff

I haven't really had anything to blog about lately so I haven't updated in awhile.  Here it is December 23rd and I hadn't even but up a Christmas background or put on my Christmas music.  Anyway I decided I would take a picture of my cute little living room.  Since our tree is so small it turned out nice to put it on the coffee table.

This is a cookie recipe I decided to try this year.  They were kind of a lot of work but I thought they turned out cute.  They were pretty good too.

And this is a scarf that I saw and decided that I could probably crochet it.  I found a pattern and I have now made four of them for gifts. 
It has been kind of a weird Christmas season with my Mom gone but I have loved having my brother's family here.  I told my nephew Marshal that I would sleep at his house for Christmas.  So he has been counting down.  He told me yesterday that there was two more days until I sleep over and three more days until Christmas.  I love that me sleeping over is exciting enough for him to count down.

Fun Halloween pictures!

I don't dress up for Halloween very often, but this year I was invited to a party and I found a creative idea online so I decided to make it.

I'm a box of tissue.  That Rubix cube is my friend Libby.

The party was at my friend Laura's house and she had some fun minute to win it games prepared.  We had a good time.  Here are some of the other people at the party.

Kacee was a bunch of grapes and Kyle was a hell's angel

I don't know the first guy very well but the "Slim Jim" is my friend Jason.  He is so funny!  (He has been featured on this blog before)  It just seemed like a perfect costume for him.

Then of course I couldn't leave out pictures of some of my cute nieces and nephews.

You can hardly see Bret, he was a ninja.  Marshal was a soccer player and Danny a skeleton.

I guess my Brother and his wife went to a party Friday and Saturday so they dressed Ellie up in two different costumes.  She looks adorable in both.

She is kind of pulling a funny face but this was the best picture of her sleeping beauty dress.

24th of July

My brother Jeff and his little family came down from Salt Lake for the 24th.  The night before, his family, my sister's family, me and my Mom and step dad met up at my step dad's cabin on Cedar Mountain and had dinner.

I love this picture of Hoggie and Ellie!

Me and my sister's five year old stayed the night at the cabin with my Mom and step dad.  The rest of the headed to Orderville.  We went the next morning.  In Orderville there was a parade.........

These pictures are all part of my Hoyt cousin's float.  The theme was making memories and theirs was about clowning around together.  That is my brother Jeff that is "The tame one"  They won for best costumes.  Their float was pretty cute.  Even the little ones were dressed as clowns.

Isn't she adorable!

Later we went to the park for lunch and then again for dinner.  The rest of the time is was just hanging out with the fam.  We had a good time.  It was good to see this one.........

Of course.  I miss her now that she lives up north.  But that is better than Alaska where the other two brothers live.

A Tourist in My Own Home Town

Last weekend I took my friends Erin and Libby to Orderville to celebrate the 4th of July.  We went Friday and slept at my sisters house.  Then bright and early Saturday morning we got up and went to the annual Orderville town breakfast.  My dad was the mayor of Orderville for sixteen years and I think he was the one that started that tradition. I love it!   The 4th of July after my Dad passed away the park was dedicated and named after him.  

Then we went to Glendale for the parade.  My sister did a float in honor of my Grandpa Goulding who served in World War II.  We helped her make the banners the night before.

That's right, that is me on there.  My sister, her kids, my Grandma and one of my cousin's kids were on there too.  My sister's oldest was dressed in one of my Grandpa's old uniforms.

I know you can't see the signs very well but if you could you would see that they look really great! :)

Then we decided to visit some tourist attractions.  Our first stop was this "Rock Stop".  It is not even a mile from my house and I don't think I have ever been inside. I didn't know the guy that owns it.  He asked where we were from and it was kind of funny to tell him born and raised right there.  He told us a little bit about the history of the place.  A guy by the name of Elbert Porter built it along with some dinosaur replica's.  They were all in  Orderville until the late 70's when someone, maybe the state of Utah, bought them and moved them to Vernal and now they are part of the dinosaur museum there.  My sister still remembers when they moved them on flatbed diesels.  I had heard a little bit about that all before.  In fact I told a guy I know from Vernal that those dinosaurs used to be in Orderville and he made fun of me thinking I was just trying to be a one upper.

Then we decided to go to Moqui Cave.  I have passed it countless times in my life and I think I have been there once.  It cost five dollars to go in.  We decided to try it out.  It had been a really long time since I was there.  I really didn't remember anything about it.  It was pretty cheesy but we had fun.  They have some dinosaur tracks and some rocks that glow under UV lights.  One thing I thought was kind of cool is they told us it actually used to be a dance hall and bar.

Then we went back to the park and bought lunch.  There was a soup contest and we decided to help judge.  Libby loved it!  There were some pretty good soups.  Orderville's nick name was soup town back in the day. There is a lady who has bought some of the older buildings along main street. One of them is now the Soup Town cafe and the one next to it has a replica of what the town looked like during the United Order.  So we went and checked that out. 

Lastly, we took a detour into Alton and not only did they get to see the little beautiful town but they got to see the Whoa sign.  There used to be more but I think this is the only one left.  
I really did feel kind of like a tourist since we visited some places I had never been. I don't know about my friends but I had a good time.  I hope they did too.

The Good and Bad of Thanksgiving.

The overall weekend was fun. But I have to vent. I basically got sat at the kid table because guess what? I am not married! Yes, but guess what? I am almost 30! I don't know what 30 year old would enjoy sitting with two seventeen year olds and a nine year old. There were three people at the "grown up" table younger than me but they have said "I do". I mean no offense to anyone who might be reading this blog but it was the low point of my Thanksgiving. I have been becoming more aware of the way single people get treated sometimes. I don't think that the people who do it realize how ridiculous it is. It is almost like it is just tradition that gets passed down. Here's an example: Every time my brother and I both go stay at my sister's house he thinks that him and his wife get the bed. I would understand if that just left the couch but there is an air mattress and another bedroom. So why do I always have to sleep on the air mattress? You guessed it, because I am single. Honestly, I am getting kind of tired of being treated like there is something wrong with me. I'm single, not contagious. So I don't have another person that comes along with me. What's the big deal? Yes, I want to get married but I am not crying myself to sleep. I am making the most of my single life and I am really enjoying myself.

The Good part of Thanksgiving out weighed the bad. For those of you that don't know Thanksgiving in Orderville is awesome! (Well if you like volleyball and basketball) We have an alumni tournament. You are eligible it you graduated from Valley High or married someone who did. Guys play basketball, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Girls play volleyball Friday and Saturday morning. My team won consolation. I actually like the basketball part better. I was the scorekeeper when I was in high school and I do it for the alumni tournament. I guess I am the alumni scorekeeper. :) I did the book for all but two of the games this year. I love every minute of it! My brother kept the score clock a lot of the games and it was fun to spend the time with him. They even do a top ten and an MVP. It is a big deal! The whole tournament is for a good cause. They give scholarships to the high school seniors.

So the weekend as a whole was a lot of fun even though I vented at first.