Kickin' back with the Family- Colorado Style

Jared and I had an awesome time at our very first Weed Family Reunion! The best part was just being with family and spending time together. If only we lived in the 23rd Century and could travel at the speed of light......or if only magic was real and we could just use some good ol' flume powder....or even better, did I hear someone say PORT KEYS????.....Golly, if any of these existed, we could just visit Family all the time!!! How sweet would that be.....(wishful thinking....sigh.....) Nevertheless, I LOVE family reunions! So here goes my Colorado Adventure Summary (picture book style).....


         We slid down little kid slides......

And we even slid down a WHOLE MOUNTAIN!!!

 We sat on Santa's sleigh...

 Went on some cool walking trails....

At times we felt a little crazy.....

 But most the time, we just felt like giving crazy kisses!

And even crazier kisses!

  We saw beautiful mountains.

  Rode on a Christmas tree.....

 Got stuck between a rock in a hard place.....

 Marveled at the beauty.

 And sometimes we were a little..... disheveled. 

We saw rock climbers.....

  And even did some rock climbing of our own.....

 We even went to the Denver Temple together!

We turned Dottie into a Mermaid

And Elliot into a Swamp People!

We rode on the Happy Train...

And even ventured into the Jungle!

We picked an Indian's nose.....

Ate some awesome ice-cream!

Played with happy babies.....

And even kept it cool at Hammond's Candy Factory.

Which we were all excited about...

We saw a spooky HOtel....

And some other shocking things....

And Elliot got a coon hat!

And Baby Ruby....she was everybody's little gem- that we all liked to hold and say.....

 "mmmmyyy preeeeciouss"

We saw Rocky Mountains...

And we threw rocks.

Made crazy faces....

Ate yummy food!

And hung out with cool dudes!

Yep- That pretty much sums it up! It was an awesome Family Reunion! Oh, but I did forget one thing-----WATER WORLD------Yep....do I need to say any more? You're probably so jealous already you can't stand it, so I'll just stop there with this blog post.

Peace.

St. George, Utah- Little Mermaid

This June, Jared and I went down to St. George with Janel and her Jared to see Disney's Little Mermaid at the Tuacahn. We had such a fun time together! And the show was AMAZING! I loved it! Especially all the special effects and costumes! They did an awesome job! Here are some pictures of my favorite costumes.....

The Mermaid costumes were so cool, they had black skirts and black heely shoes so all you saw was their fins swimming around.Sebastian was so much fun, the back of his costume had a huge shell too, which you can't see in this picture...but from far away he looked like the actual Sebastian.Here is my favorite- Ursala!

The Sunday after the show we walked around the temple grounds before making our way back up to Provo- Such a beautiful temple! It was so hot though, and bright outside!

Look what I caught- a kissing picture

Hey Good Lookin' !

Can you tell both of our eyes are closed?

I love to see the temple.

Amber and Ian Got Hitched!

Congrats to Amber and Ian! We were so glad to have been able to go up to their reception with Lon and Carolyn. We had a great time too. Amber looked so beautiful too in her dress! And the reception was so well decorated! Loved it! Thank you Amber for inviting us!

Here is a picture of us all with the happy couple!

Even though they aren't looking at my camera, I thought this picture turned out pretty good....it borrowed the good flash from the nice camera!

We LOVE eachother!The Hinkley Family!Some Pretty Decorations!I really liked this gazebo! So pretty!

You can just see it in Carrie's face-- We had a good time!

Janel and Jared Preusz Wedding!

JANEL AND JARED ARE MARRIED!!!!
Heidi and I caught a wee break from the BYU March Madness, and skipped out of school for a few days to fly to Washington D.C. for our sister’s wedding! We had a great time! It was great to see family again and to hang out with the little ones. When we first arrived, between Penny, Margot , and Toby I felt through-o-ly clobbered with love! They were so cute. Kids grow up too fast.

I do have to admit that I missed my Jared quit a bit though....I think I'm still in the "attached at the hip" stage of marriage....which I hear is actually pretty normal for newlyweds. Mostly I just had that sensation that I was forgetting something all the time, which of course was Jared.

Although I loved spending time with EVERYONE- I particularly enjoyed seeing my adopted son/ adopted brother Toby...he showed me how he can use the potty now, make funny faces, do a summer salt, and how he can make surprisingly comical conversation pieces....like the own I've included below....

(Heidi saying goodbye to Toby)

Heidi: " hey Toby, are you going to miss me while I'm gone?"

Toby: " Where you going?"

Heidi: " I'm going back to college, far, far, away..."

Toby: " Will you come back?"

Heidi: " Not for a long, long time."

Toby: "Pleeease, Obi- Wan!?"

- It just came completely out of the blue...and was way to clear to be mistaken

And he can also be very sweet...

Tabitha: " I'm going to miss you while I'm gone, Toby."

Toby: "Where you going?"

Tabitha: " I have to go back to school with Jared."

Toby: "But I LOoooOve you!"

Janel was a positively stunning bride, as I always knew she would be! Thanks Mom and Dad for helping us be able to come out- thanks Stephanie and Bruce for being so generous in letting us all stay at your home- and thank you Janel and Jared for giving us reason to celebrate!

Oh...and here is a video of Toby I simply had to share... for kicks and giggles :)

Valentine's Day 2011

Just in case you all were not aware, Tabitha Weed is married to a stud-muffin. Behind all those brains is a pretty steamy young man! For Valentine's day we went on a hot date, compliments of Events Management (Ron and Kaeli- thanks a ton!). We went to Big Band Night! They had live music from the BYU Synthesis band, and Singers that they auditioned. We also were treated to a lovely dinner (I looved the chicken cordon bleu) and they had a skit they performed and music. It was a very well put together night, and we had tons of fun.

We even goofed off a bit between dancing....we only danced the slow songs, we're not very good at the fast dance swing that everyone else was dancing, but it was sure fun to watch! One of my very best friends, Jessica, also got engaged near the end of the night, I even posted the video at the bottom of the post. So romantic! And they make the cutest couple!! Congrats again Jessica and Chris- Marriage is da' Bomb!

On Valentine's day I surprised Jared with our wall in our bedroom covered with hearts- at the top the banner says, " I LOVE JARED" and the hearts lead down to the chair that had his little present and card. I got him twizzlers, one of his very favorite candies. It may sound cheap, but hey- we're college students.
Jared knows how much I love flowers (I used to want to be a florist)- so he got me this lovely bouquet, smelled so good! - and a box of chocolates <3

That night we celebrated Valentine's with Auntie (Jared's great aunt). We ordered her favorite pizza, Brick Oven's Hawaiian pizza (Yuuuummm!) .....and their root beer. We had the pizza then had root beer floats- soo nutritious I know, but it was very fun. Plus, we just adore that woman. Carolyn also came over, which made it even more fun! It's always a good time with family.


Here's the engagement Video....ahhh....Love, True Love! <3<3
Congrats again you two!

Cooking

So this is a post about cooking....as you could probably tell by my creative title. I've been trying to master the basics lately, and trying some new recipes. I've found that I actually really like to cook....and especially like things that smell good when you bake them....some of my favorite smells include bread, roast, and cookies...
This is our wee-little crock pot, that I have recently become best friends with. We especially like to my JoAnn Barnhart style roast in it....but are also discovering other fun things together.

I tried a new recipe here….bread was kind of too salty I thought though….made good garlic bread later though.

As you can see, my counter space includes mostly our table. I was making sticky buns for a FHE with the MacBeths! Very yummy, and fun to share with friends.

This is the most recent yummy I made. Probably the best peanut butter cookie recipe I've every had....not too hard, not too soft, lots of flavor, and chocolate! Funny...this recipe actually came from Jared's old roommate.
I'm discovering that cooking can be fun, especially if someone helps you with the dishes after. Jared is a good sport when it comes to dishes. I don't even have to ask, he just does them!

To Pennsylvania Folks are Travelin'

Jared and I had a great Christmas home at Pennsylvania. We had a great weekend with the Weeds, then we headed down to my house for the rest of break. It was so much fun to see how much the kids have grown, especially Toby. We have lots of Toby quotes and stories now, like,

"I need a shrink!" ....shrink being drink.

"That's easy, I can do that"...after he saw Dumbo flying with his ears.

"Mommy told me too"

"It's not my fault, Mom."

So that's my update on Toby, he's talking so much now, and it's fun to watch that little ball of energy play.

• Kimber has turned into a beautiful 16 year old....not that she was never beautiful, she always was....still writing her book and getting better everyday at drawing.
  

• Makiah is a good helper in the kitchen and is fun to joke around with. She too is turning into quite the beautiful young lady!
  

• Nephi is TALL....that boy needs to stop growing or we're all going to feel like shrimps. He helps dad alot outside. I was completely impressed at the pile of wood they made for Calcifer (our outdoor furnace that heats the house, quite efficient).
• Laken is a cutie too, growing up so fast! Soon she'll be going into young women at church! She enjoys reading and has an adorable smile.
• Benjamin seems to be doing better at his new Residential treatment center, which is really good news. He's grow so much too, and likes to play with Toby.
  
• Anika is as adorable as ever, and a sweetheart! It was fun to cuddle with her on the couch while watching cartoons with the kids.
• Poor Mom broke her toe not too long ago, but she's a trooper! She made us the most wonderful yummy meals, and I had a great time just talking with her (in person!).
  
• Dad, well, he's still the very best Dad I could have ever asked for! He's a diligent worker, and even fixed our home's dryer. It was fun to play balderdash as a family, and Dad's answers were the best..."A red flower... found in China!"haha

We had a really nice Christmas as well! So many nice gifts from both our families...we especially love our new GPS, my Crock and polish pottery piece, and Jared's new carry-on! And many other lovey things!!! But the best gift of all was being able to be home with family and meeting our beautiful new niece Sylvia! She is a precious little gem! Thank you Weeds and Barnharts for a wonderful Christmas! We love you and miss you all very much!

The Hunger Games!

Jared and I started reading The Hunger Games over Thanksgiving break, and if I do say so myself, I think we've become addicted. We're only about 180 pages into it, so we have another 200 to go, but so far we're thoroughly enjoying it! So, if you're looking for a good book to start, or an easy read, this book is the book for you!

Hallo-Smallo-What-cha-ma-call-o-ween!

It's Pumpkin Carving Time! We were prepared like no other with enough Daily Universes to protect our whole living room from the pumpkin gut throwing fight that I wish we had.



Jared and I had a great Halloween together this year. It wasn't much, and we homework/ work sort of consumed the holiday weekend, but all and all it was good. We watched a super scary episode of Fringe on Halloween Eve, and I feel alseep with a certain anxiety only Halloween could yield. Best part of the weekend was carving pumpkins! Jared went all out on the Darth Vader- I on the other hand stuck with the traditional Barnhart pumpkin carving.
We also had our very first trick-or-treaters (Well, my very first trick or treaters)......I was so looking forward to the adorable primary children from our ward coming to our door, but none of them did :( Wymount did their trick or treat at Heritage Halls this year. So our tricksters were a group of 13-17 year olds....who were loud, late, and had pillowcases as candy bags. The one boy had a certain stench to him too........Can you tell I'm not familiar with this particular Halloween tradition....and to be honest I don't mind. Looters, that's what they were- and they weren't even dressed up. We didn't have any candy, but I had made cookies earlier for a lady in my ward, and had some left over. So I let them have some, they didn't even say thank you! Poor Jared didn't even get one. I just felt like those teenagers should have been supervised by an adult, a real adult. And just felt like it was rude for them to be going around Wymount (poor college students with little babies) at 9:30 at night. (That's why I think they should have had adult supervision)......
Perhaps I'm being over dramatic, but just didn't like the feeling they left us with.

Well....Halloween isn't all bad. But I do think I'm a bit of a Scrooge when it comes to Halloween. I could say more as to why I feel this way, but I won't.

Here's the positive side of Halloween for me....
- Pumpkins
- Yummy Treats
- playing dress up (not the creepy costumes)
-Fun times with Family
- Awesome quilt Dolores made us!
(shown below! I love how happy it is!)

I hope you had a "Happy" Halloween.
To the unhappy parts, "baa-humbug".
Until next year.