Crafting for Christmas!

I decided to make pom pom garlands this year for some festive decor around our cute little apartment! 

Of course I chose blue and green... they're our favorite colors! Plus they'd look good with the decor we already have in our house.

To make the pom pom balls all you do is wrap yarn around a fork (or your fingers, in my case) and then you secure it with another strand of yarn and fluff it up!
My first attempt didn't work so well.. but my second attempt was a little better! 

By the time I had done well over 100 little pom poms, I finally got it somewhat figured out! 

 This project took me a couple days to finish. But it was definitely fun to have something to do while I waited for Drew to come home from work every night! 

 We lucked out and had a day to spend together without either of us working so we spent the day decorating our home and listening to wonderful Christmas music! It was divine!

 I got the burlap tree skirt and bow at Michaels. The skirt has little strands of gold woven into it. I love it!! And I love how our pom pom garland turned out!

Oh, and we had to dress up our antlers a little bit too so of course we hung an ornament and some beads on them. 

I also made some funny little gold trees to go along with our cute Christmas subway print.

I am in LOVE with gold everything right now!

 

Here's Drew :)

 And there's me.

We love our cute little first Christmas tree!!!

Love,

Kate

Thankful 2013

 My heart is so full of happiness, gratitude, love, and joy. It is truly the best time of the year and Drew and I were fortunate enough to spend Thanksgiving with my family this year in Richfield. Although we were only able to spend a little over 24 hours up there because of our jobs, it was well worth it! 

 Thursday morning we started our Thanksgiving day off right with the traditional "Pie for Breakfast" get together with my mom's side of the family!

We showed up to Grandma Micki's in our pajamas and stuffed our faces with delicious pies ranging from fruit, to cream, to chocolate peanut butter! It was delightful!

 Later that afternoon we got back together for the big feast. Almost the entire Hansen/Gardner side of the family was present! [Well, all except for Queen Alex and her husband Chris-- they were greatly missed.]

We had the privilege of writing something we were thankful for on a paper cut-out of a gold dipped feather or leaf. We then tied them up onto a garland that my aunt had made for decor-- it had a specific number of pine cones hanging on it as well as an angel which represented each sibling (the angel represented their sister Keri who passed away when they were all younger). And the pine cones came from the home that they all grew up in. It was so special! After we hung up our papers, we took time to read aloud what we were thankful for in front of everyone. It was really neat.

 

After tearing up and eating some absolutely delicious food, one of my aunts stood up to explain a surprise announcement to everyone. All the siblings had decided -secretly- to give the money that they would receive from my grandparents for Christmas to the Morrison family to help out with their trip to Haiti to pick up their daughter Mara. It was a huge surprise for the Morrisons and they had no idea that this was coming. Not only did everyone choose to give their Christmas money to them, but some even contributed a little bit more.

It was incredible to see both Staci and Corey's face. Everyone in the room either had tears in their eyes or on their cheeks. It was such a humbling and beautiful experience because the Morrisons have been working on getting their daughter here for over 2 and a half years now, and adoption is a very expensive process. It was amazing to see how beautiful the act of giving can truly be. And not to mention how amazing my family is for being so loving and supportive. I am so blessed to be surrounded by such incredible people! 

I am so grateful that both Drew and I were able to be together for those two neat experiences. We are so blessed to have each other and especially to have family who loves us and cares about us so much!
I am also very grateful that Drew and I were able to go home for just a short while to spend time with my family. We are so blessed to be surrounded by wonderful people-- my beautiful, inspiring mother being one of them! 

And that is why my heart is so full.

Love,

Kate

Novemberween!!!

Well I think we have started a new tradition... 

NOVEMBERWEEN: A party that celebrates costumes, treats, and funny games that should have been celebrated in October, but instead is celebrated in November. 

:)

We planned some games, made some fun treats, and invited some of our Cedar friends to celebrate Novemberween with us. 

It was such a fun night!

Drew and I dressed up as Luna Lovegood and Harry Potter.

We also had some skeletons in the group, Jace from Duck Dynasty, a hunter, some creepy zombies, and a cowboy and cowgirl.

It was quite the random bunch I would say!

We started the night with a tricky scavenger hunt that lead us all around Cedar City.

Eventually we ended up back at the house we were having the party at and we awarded the first place winners with a prize!

The night consisted of laughing our heads off, eating lots of treats, and drinking rootbeer from a cauldron with dry ice in it. 

We also had donut eating races and mummifying contests.

From left to right: Michael, Logan, Makenna, Sydney, & Drew!

Besides the contests and prizes, we played some funny games such as "telephone gestures." It is a lot like charades but with a twist. It was hilarious!

By the end of the night we were all exhausted but we had successfully pulled off a fantastic Novemberween party!

Now we're looking forward to our Christmas party sometime in December... :)

Love,

Kate

This is Halloween: Thriller 2013

For Halloween night Drew and I dressed up as Sandy and Danny from the movie Grease. 

With my bangs curled and fluffed I felt like I was 5 years old again! (See any resemblance????) 

Our cute married friends also dressed up as characters from the movie and we enjoyed dinner together before heading over to Tuacahn to watch Thriller. It was fun to get dressed up and Thriller turned out better than I expected it to be! 

The zombies creeped me out a little [okay, a LOT] and I may or may not have screamed a couple times and ran away from them... but it's normal. 

We always have a good time when we get together and we are so lucky to have some fun friends down here in St. George! 

Thriller was DEFINITELY worth it and I would suggest it to anyone! It was so much fun and it turned out to be a great Halloween.

Love,

Kate

ps. sorry for the bad quality pictures... :(

Pumpkins & Corn Mazes

Monday was full of fun! Our friend Whitlee came over bright and early and spent the entire day with Drew and I. We ended up painting pumpkins, going out to eat, and laughing our heads off all day long. It was an absolute blast!

I am actually pretty convinced that painting pumpkins is WAY better and WAY more fun than carving them.

Did we start a new tradition?

I think so!

Drew painted the Harry Potter pumpkin... who knows why. But I must say that I am impressed with his artistic abilities!

I also got to work on my antler project. I shot my first deer when I was 14 and I decided to bring my antlers down from Richfield last time I was there.

 I painted the plaque and added the flowers. I love how they turned out!

Tuesday was a busy day full of cleaning, laundry, and cooking. But later that night after I got off work Drew and I met up with 14 other people and we went to the Staheli Farm Corn Maze! A bunch of Drew's friends came down from Cedar and we also invited our married friends Jaycee & Brady and Lindsey & Parker to come with us! It was so much fun! I wish we could have gone a little earlier just so we would have more time to spend there at the farm. It was such a fun date and it would definitely be such a fun thing to do with a family. Besides the corn maze they had music and play grounds and swings and tractor rides, etc! Unfortunately because we got out there so late we barely had time to do the maze before they turned the lights out, but it was still super fun!

We went out to Denny's for hot chocolate afterwards and had a wonderful time all together.

We are so blessed to have so many friends and wonderful people in our lives!

Love,

Kate

Fall Break Part 2: The weekend was a dream

We had an awesome weekend full of friends and family... It was so good that it just feels like a dream now. It's crazy to think that we had around 10+ people in and out of our little apartment throughout the weekend and that 7 of us were sleeping in our home. 

I'll take it as a compliment though assuming that everyone felt pretty comfortable here. It was obvious that they had made themselves at home because we had air mattresses, blankets, and pillows all over the place.

Now our apartment is back to it's old self: simple, empty, and quiet.

The fun all began on Thursday night when everyone arrived. I honestly can't remember exactly what we did but I know that we had fun.

Friday I had to work for a bit and missed out on my aunt going through the temple and a whole bunch of family members eating lunch together at my all time favorite restaurant EVER (the Pasta Factory on the Boulevard)... I was pretty sad about that, but it was o.k. Drew eventually had to go to work for the rest of the night and I actually ended up hanging out with my 10 year old brother Konner for a little while at my apartment!

We played Blokus, ate some milk duds and frootie tooties, and watched some old school Rocket Power! Ha! It was a lot of fun!  

The next morning we made french toast for everyone and got ready for Cydney and Colten's wedding. Drew and I and my parents got to go to the sealing and that was so neat! Cydney and Colten have both been my friends ever since I was just a little a girl and so I am SO extremely happy that they are married to each other now!!! 

We got to go to their wedding dinner that evening and it was absolutely beautiful. It was fun to catch up with some old friends and eat some good food.

Unfortunately my family had to leave after the dinner (and Drew had to go to work for the rest of the night). It was sad saying goodbye to my family but it was such a fun time being with them over the weekend!

I am so happy they came and I hope they come again soon! I love them all so much. 

Family means the world to both me and Drew and we can't imagine life without them. They bring so much joy to our lives!

However, the fun didn't really stop there...

Sunday evening we had our friends Jaycee and Brady come over and we played Rummikub and ate brownies and ice cream. We love having new friends to hang out with! It is so much fun! 

And Monday and Tuesday were great too-- but that will be in a different post.

Love,

Kate

Fall Break: Part 1

Last weekend a miracle happened. 

Drew and I got to go home to Richfield for the weekend!!! We both got Thursday through Saturday/Sunday off (Plus it was Drew's Fall Break) So we packed our bags and headed to Richfield for a fun-filled weekend!!!

We kept it a secret from my siblings and were able to surprise them when they got home from school! We picked up some french nutella-filled macaroons in Cedar City and gave them to Kambry to wish her good luck before she left for state tennis in Salt Lake. We may or may not have shared one on the way up to Richfield... ;) They were tasty!

We spent Thursday afternoon with the kids. I also got to see my best friend Tiana and go shopping with her! Lucky me, she gave me a piece of her "Better Than...Pumpkin Cake" and it was heavenly!!! It is definitely a must try. 

Friday we woke up bright and early and headed for Salt Lake at 6 a.m. I'm pretty sure the entire trip is a blur because I was soooo tired! 

We got to watch Kambry play tennis [2nd Singles] and she ended up taking third at state! Wahooo!! It was so much fun to watch her and quietly cheer her on (loud cheering is not encouraged at tennis matches, ha ha).

Later that evening we went out to eat and then spent some time at Scheel's. Wow. You can spend hours and hours there!!! It was a blast. We rode the ferris wheel, took tons of goofy pictures, and was awestruck by the sweet aquarium. I guess we're all easily amused ha ha, but it was definitely absolutely enjoyable! 

That night we all stayed in one hotel room HA! It was a party. Kinsley asked for a cot to sleep on, Drew & I were on one bed, my parents on the other, and Konner in between the two beds! The night consisted of loud snoring, and crazy siblings who sleep talk and sleep walk!! Or rather, CRAWL onto our bed in the middle of our night... creepy! Ha ha although I honestly don't remember that. Only Drew does and for some reason my mom too. Ha ha ha!! We're a special family.

Friday morning Kambry gloriously put up a good game against one of the top players in the state. We got to spend the rest of the day shopping at City Creek and then that afternoon we drove back home to Richfield and by the time we got home we were all completely exhausted.

However-

Drew took Kinsley and her friend out to the movies that night! It was so cute of him! He is such a sweetheart!!!

We drove back to St. George on Sunday night and made a stop in Cedar to say hello to Drew's parents! 

Needless to say, we absolutely LOVE our families and we love being with them!!!

Luckily this weekend we get to see them again! My family is driving down for the weekend which means tomorrow night we will have a house full of people! Wahoo!!

Life is good and fall is great!

Love,

Kate
ps. here are more pics.