The one with the memories

That title is pretty vague, huh? I mean, you make memories doing anything! This post though is full of what have become the best memories. This past week have been so great! I'll start from the beginning.

Last weekend, Austin and I babysat my niece, Clara. She is the cutest little thing! Courtney took Ben out for an (early) birthday date. It's not that I didn't love babysitting Clara before (because I totally did) but, now that she's gotten a little older, she's fun to play with. I've never met a little girl who loves books so much! I mean that. She would bring me book after book. She's point right at it, walk over, pick it up, bring it to me and climb on my lap to read to her. Once I was finished with that, we'd do it all over again. I finally just picked them all up and pick them right by me.

Clara loved Austin when she was first born and we'd babysit. That hasn't changed. I don't know if she likes being held by just any guy/man, but he has the touch! I'm sure she missed her mom and dad - especially at bed time. But, when I just couldn't get her to sleep, Austin took care of it :) He'll be an amazing dad.

Austin's mom used to "bribe" Austin and his siblings to date people with red hair. She is so funny. She wants curly, red-hair'd grandkids. I hope this gene keeps running in the family so I can stay on my in-laws good side :)

There was a deal at Deseret Book on a "secret item" that I can't mention here - just in case. Austin and I didn't know what the huge line was for outside so we skipped that and just walked in to get what we needed. I should have known :) I took these pictures and sent one to Erin. She's visiting Illinois right now. If she had been in Provo, she would have made me pick her up and bring her back to meet him. She freaked out, thinking I'd actually met David Archuletta. No, I just took some pictures from outside the line. I'm so tricky. It was fun seeing him though!

I've been jumping the gun on Christmas. Now that it's actually "appropriate" for Christmas decorations, music, treats, etc, I don't regret starting early! I feel like I've been having more fun than everyone else! :) I've only busted out the cookie cutters and colored frosting twice - both before Thanksgiving. This picture shows the small batch Austin and I made before going to Riverton last week. Like I said on Facebook, we won't say who made which cookies... :)

We went to Riverton the next day, straight from work. It's always fun to hang out with the Fotheringhams. We really appreciate them letting us crash at their house so much! It makes fun great memories!

Paige and I worked on crafts all night (to be blogged about soon) while Austin entertained the kids :) He's such a good sport. Lorin was only gone to a Young Mens' activity for a couple hours.

I don't think Austin ever fell asleep but Polly must have been tired! I think she was watching something Austin was doing on his phone. He said she fell asleep maybe 10 seconds after she was saying something to him. What a funny girl.

We left their house just in time for lunch. This was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Austin and I were too hungry to eat in Provo or Heber (where we were headed) so we stopped at Village Inn. We didn't even think about them being busy but one of the girls working told us they had over 500 pies reserved for Thanksgiving. yikes!

We wanted to take a picture but it was either windy or too sunny to even see. So, this is what we got! At least we have some :)

While we were in Heber for Thanksgiving, we got to hang out with friends from VH7.

For those of you who don't know, "VH7" is Austin's group of friends. There were 7 guys that hung out all through high school and even some in middle school. They all lived in the same neighborhood in Heber (most of their parents still do) called Valley Hills - hence, the VH. They're all still friends now and hang out pretty often. I think it's awesome that they've stayed so close!

We went bowling then back to one of their parents' house to hang out and play Mt. Dew Pong. haha. I know it sounds bad - like beer pong. But, it was completely harmless, as always :) It's pretty self explanatory, from the picture. But, the point is to pounce the ping pong ball into the other person's cups. When you do, they have to drink that cup. If you'll notice, Austin is one cup away from losing - and a major stomach ache from playing multiple games and drinking the equivalent of maybe 5 or 6 cans of Mt. Dew. Needless to say, after we both played all those games, we were up prrretty late that night :)



I have no idea how to get this rotated... I'm working on a Dell here. ahh!



Austin and I made it back to Provo on Thanksgiving day. We watched a few episodes of Bones until we decided to scout out which store to go Black Friday shopping at. We drove by Best Buy - nuts. There were people in tents, lined up all the way down the strip mall and around the corner. We drove by around 8:00pm and they didn't open until midnight. No thank you! Next, we drove by Target. They didn't open until midnight either... ugh.

We got to WalMart and just decided to stay there since they're open, you can be inside, walking around and just wait for them to uncover the Black Friday products. We walked around, waited in a couples lines, left those and finally ended up in a line for xbox and wii games. They wouldn't tell us what was actually in the cart so we just stood there, hoping we could score some Kinect games! Luckily, the people by us in line were awesome. They were helping each other out and would tell all the "cutters" to go to the back of the line - everything I was thinking but just too scared to say.

We got a $50 xbox Kinect game for $15 and a bunch of $2 and $5 movies. While Austin stood in line for about a half hour, I walked around. There wasn't really anything else we needed or even wanted. When I was walking back to Austin, I passes this SNL game. It was $3.88. The perfect impulsive Black Friday buy :)

Thanks for the face, Austin

I thought my hands looked creepy...

There we go :)

 After sleeping for probably 9 hours, we braved the no-so-crowded crowds again. We went to Best Buy for a 3 month xbox Live membership for $7 ot $8. I went to Michael's for Wrapping paper and supplies for a wreath I made. We went to WalMart again for (breakfast at McDonalds and) a few gifts.

My favorite purchase BY FAR would be these cds. I've been looking for them every since I moved out. I found a pack with both of them and a dvd (weird) of some music videos from the cds. I. Was. Thrilled.

I stopped at Hobby Lobby for more craft supplies and we were home free!! We spent the rest of our Black Friday watching Bones, napping and crafting. Austin made a half leftover/half made-at-our-house Thanksgiving dinner. Yum.

I miss having a big Christmas tree but we really don't have room for it in our small apartment. I'll have to settle for this cute 3 footer.

Ok. I didn't actually make these. Paige's sister-in-law had a huge D.I load since they're in the middle of a big move. I thought these were so cute and, since Provo doesn't ever get much snow, it may get me through the winter.

I made this all by myself without a picture or anything - pure creative abilities. Ok. It's pretty simple but, it looks cuter in person, too!

So, these are all the memories I've been so happy to make. I wish I had more pictures of us with family but I'm so bad a remembered to get the camera out of my purse! That's why half the pictures are from my phone, too. But, I love my life. I love all the chaos and excitement and I love all the relaxing times, just hanging out with the people I love. I'm so blessed.