Getting Ready for Christmas. Yeepee!

We spent the weekend after Thanksgiving with my family in Cache Valley. We enjoyed delicious Thanksgiving leftovers (my mom is a great cook), stayed up LATE playing Monopoly, I ate one of my fav's-Costa Vida with my momma, while we watched a fantastic TV movie called "Love Comes Softly." I absolutely love watching a good movie with my mom, in the upstairs living room with dinner in front of us.
On Saturday me, Russ, Molly, Tom, Evelyn, Adam, and my dad went up to Idaho to cut down Christmas trees! The guys did the actual cutting, but we were all there for the adventure. There was actually quite a bit of snow for us to walk in, which was fun. While my dad and Adam were busy finding and cutting their trees, the rest of us got in a miniature snowball fight. We had a fun time!

Russ and my dad with our tree!
Striking a posePlaying in the snowThe proud owners

A while ago I bought some great items from Michaels to make a wreath. (Michaels was one of my favorite stores this season) I thought it would be fun for me and my mom to make them together. When she was off work, we went to Michaels for things for her wreath. We found some great things! We made them on Sunday at Adam and Hillary's, while others were watching a movie. We had a good time! Here they are...

My new wreath is hanging on my door:)

Happy Thanksgiving

Russ and I spent Thanksgiving Day at his grandparent's house in Provo (Patsie and Papa). There was a lot of family there and we had a good time...and of course a lot of good food. I enjoy my Mother-in-law's family. Here are a few pics.

Patsie and Papa

My in-laws (Doug and Heidi) and Heidi's sister, Dixie

That evening Russ and I and his family went over to Bob and Dixie's to play the Wi. We ate treats (Bob raided the food storage and brought out a jar of mini candybars) and had a good time.

HaLloWeeN pArTy 2009

Last weekend we had our 3rd Annual Kirschman Halloween Party. It was great! My brother Adam and his wife Hillary hosted it again this year. There old place was perfect for a Halloween party. It was an old house with a lot of character. It's always fun to see what costumes everyone comes up with. Russ' costume was all his idea! (Can you tell who he is?? ha ha)

Me (genie), Russ (Angel Moroni), Adam (Phantom of the Opera), Hillary (Sandy from "Grease")

Mom (gypsy), Dad (an old time golfer.. he put the mustache together!)

Tom (satyr), Molly (Queen of Hearts), Sophie (flower), Evie ("Alice")

Mason (Newsie), Kelsey (Fairy)

Chris (Harry Potter..he totally got his own costume), Christine (Rizzo from "Grease"), Henley (Princess)

Kelsey with Kenna and Mark's baby, Beck (Pooh)

Two Queen of Hearts! Molly and Kenna

The winners of the costume contest! (Mark was hilarious and made so much of his costume! Nacho Libre)

It was great! Thanks Adam and Hill!

Fall Fun

I love Fall
Beautiful colors
Pumpkin patches
Baking
Halloween

I enjoy October. It is a good time of year and we were glad to have some good weather!

One night Russ and I made caramel apples to give to some friends and neighbors. I was melting the caramel and it seemed to be taking a very long time (the heat wasn't too high, cause I didn't want to burn the caramel). Then, all of a sudden, the power went out! Dang! It gave us a fun excuse to hang out with some friends. Russ opened our door and there was our neighbor, Tyler standing there with his flashlight. He came over. (This is us pretending to be scared..or scary)

Our friends Dave and Jessica also came over a little while after, and we chatted over candlelight and flashlight.

The power was only out for about 45 mins, so Russ and I finished up the apples.

We went to our Tri-ward Halloween party/Trunk or Treat. I pulled out my leprechaun costume from last year and Russ was a tourist (he wore that nice outfit on our cruise).

Suzi, Kevin, and their son Cody (the cast of "SCRUBS")

We invited our friends Tyler to go with us and we gave him Russ' hat to wear.

It was fun. We had dinner (there were tons of different soups and chilis to choose from) and then we sent our trunks for Trunk-or-treating. We hung my little pumpkin quilt and had a real pumpkin. It was very chilly, but we got hot chocolate brought to us on a cart, which was great.

One evening our friends Tyson and Lauren invited us over for dinner and pumpkin carving. Dave and Jessica came too.

After a few tries...Russ finally came up with"FIND YOURSELF." Good ol' Russ

I love my nieces!

I stinkin love my cute nieces! I'm glad my sis Molly and I still live close enough to each other, and that we see each other often.
Russ and I watched the girls a couple weekends ago while Molly and Tom took a short trip to Zion's. It was a CRAZY weekend, but we had fun! I love these girls.

Sophia is 1 yr and so much fun! Three things I love about her:

*Her laugh! (It cracks me up)

*When she "kisses" me (she leans in with her lips to my cheek)
*Her snuggles (She is so precious)

Evelyn is almost 4 yrs old. She has been my little buddy since she was teeny. I truly love my Evie.
Three things I love about her:

*She is so smart/ when she asks questions
*The way she talks ( I wish I could capture her little voice

in a bottle...I think my sis, Molly has said that or
something like that before)

*She is a sweet pea!

Russell was teaching Evie how to be "cool". It was so funny! Ev totally played along.

I am glad my nieces have Russell in their life as well.

Thank you Molly for sharing your girls with us!

Church History Tour 2009: Part I

Two Saturdays ago Russell and I went on a church history tour downtown Salt Lake. (I know we live about 15 mins away, but it was still fun.) Russ planned the tour and we only ended up going to about half of the places, because we were pooped by the end.

We started our day doing a session at the Draper temple. It is such a beautiful temple and we had never done a session there before.

We ate at a yummy Thai restaurant named Thai Lotus then started our tour. We spent quite a while at the Church History Museum, which is great. There is a lot to learn there.
The original death masks of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. One of the workers told us that "back then" they took molds of people's faces when they died to preserve how they looked. They didn't have photographs.

This desk was used by several of the past prophets
A pulpit like the one used in the Conference CenterThis was neat. A page of Pres. Hinckley's notes before giving a talk.
We went to see the Christus statue at the Visitor's Center
We walked past the Conference Center and the Tabernacle
We went to the cemetery in Federal Heights to visit Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley's grave

This was on the back of the monumentWe also ended up seeing the gravesites of Pres. John Taylor, Pres. David O. McKay, Pres. Heber J. Grant, J. Golden Kimball, and (I think) Orson Pratt.It was fun spending the day downtown with my hubby and learning more about our church's history.