Gingerbread Contest 2010

On Christmas Eve we had our Annual Gingerbread Contest. This year, everyone worked VERY hard on the houses because there was a prize!!

Katie's mom and dad's Gingerbread House:

They took the sentimental path...their house represented their family. :)

This side represents Katie's sister, MarLi in Hawaii with the ocean, palm tree and her van, Flow.

This side represents, Katie's brother, Rand's family with the camo, a baby, a dog and a cat.

This side represents Howard and Katie...since we're selling our house and moving to the East Valley. (Nuttybars = moving boxes)

And this side is my parents...with their yellow kitchen and blue door.



Katie's cousins, James and Dakin's log cabin.

And without talking, Katie's Aunt Colleen and Uncle George did a log cabin too! (such a cute idea!)

And the winner is (2 years in a row, might I add!) is our Gingerbread House! Our Gingerbread House was sponsored by Mr. Hersey...even though he didn't give us any endorsements. ;)

Its such a great tradition making our Gingerbread houses...thanks Grandma and Grandpa! :)

Wild Life World Zoo

We went to the Wild Life World Zoo with the Davis Family.  I love this zoo because you can get close to the animals and really see them. 

 Byran was the brave one who fed the giraffes.

Howard and the White Tiger

Howard and Marek

Lillie

My niece, Lillie Burton McIff.  She's ADORABLE as you can see from the pictures!  

With her daddy, Rand.

With her favorite Uncle, Howard.

And with her BFF, Aunt Katie (I even found a shirt that says so!)

Thanksgiving 2010

This year we went to the Sand Dunes for Thanksgiving weekend.  We had so much fun, but FROZE!!  It literally was freezing! 
We were cold and didn't care how we looked all bundled up.

YW In Excellence

For one of my value projects I put on this year's YW in Excellence.  I has so much fun planning and preparing for it!! 
Our theme was "Our YW Values Help Prepare us for the Temple" About a month ago, we had a mutual activity where the girls chose women in our ward who represented the different values.  Last week we took them a goodie plate and told them why we chose them.  We have some pretty amazing women in our ward. 
For the program, we asked a few of them to speak on the different values. 
For dessert we had Cheesecake with different toppings which were all the Young Women Value Colors:

Faith {white} = Whipped Cream
Divine Nature {blue} = Blueberries
Individual Worth {red} = Cherries
Knowledge {green} = Green Sprinkles (I had to get a bit creative!)
Choice and Accountability {orange} = Mandarin Oranges
Good Works {yellow} = Lemon Pudding
Integrity {purple} = Blackberries
Virtue  {gold} = Apples

Plus we had Wedding Slush...mmmm!  Its always a hit!

For the handout I made these temple blocks...I found the idea on this blog.  They turned out pretty cute and were perfect for our theme!

Now just a few shots of our adorable Young Women! :)

I have the best calling! :)

Murder Mystery

This year we were invited to a Murder Mystery Party.  It was sooooo much fun!!  A couple from our ward invited us over and it was a great way to get to know everyone!

The Torturous Dentist and the Mummy

The Prince of Dimness and The Wicked Witch of Depressed

 The Clairvoyant, and the Monster

 And then Howard was the Cannibal who turned out to be the murderer and I was the fiance of the guy who got murdered

Thanks Sarah and Jeremy it was a blast!

Vacation Time

We've decided that a cruise is the perfect vacation.  All the food you can eat, someone cleans up for you and then when you wake up you're at a new destination.  We went on the cruise with our good friends the Nally's. 

First shot of the ship...we were so excited!

Our first stop was Catalina Island.  I am in love with this Island.  Its so cute and quaint.

Dinners were the best food on the boat.  Fancy dining and good food. 

Our favorite dessert was the Chocolate Melting Cake.  They had it available everynight...mmm! 

 Next stop was Ensenada, Mexico.  We got off the ship and walked around and looked around the shops a bit.

Formal Night.  It was so fun to get dressed up! 

The night we left Ensenada there was alot of fog.  We thought it would be neat to watch the boat leave the dock.  Because of the fog we had to wait a long time for teh boat to leave.  Overall, it was so not worth waiting.

Friday morning after we got off the boat we went to Disneyland.  Disneyland really is the happiest place on earth.  We had a blast...it was so fun seeing all the Halloween decorations all over. 

 So excited! ;)

Howard at the Lego Store with Woody.