Way back in December we decided it would be fun to make some gingerbread houses. We have made them before, but that was at Megan’s parents’ house. We wanted to make them on our own this year =) We couldn’t find any gingerbread molds despite Megan searching around all the local stores, so we used graham crackers instead. This proved more difficult, but also added to the fun as we all figured out how to build our roof and make sure nothing caved in (except in Russ’s case…it actually did become a man cave, so I guess he didn’t have to worry about that).

We had a great time with Russ & Camille (if you’re lucky enough to be invited, check out  http://www.russandcamille.com/ for close-ups of their houses) building our houses. Megan and I still found sprinkles and frosting everywhere the next day =)

Here’s mine close up…The others referred to it as the house/chapel barn. I guess if you’ve seen the movie The Proposal, then that doesn’t seem so far-fetched. I only intended to build a house, but apparently I did so well it was good enough to be called a house of God

Megan actually did build a house of God, well, a manger, but anyways hers looks awesome and I really liked how it turned out (especially the 3 Wise Men and the shepherd with his crook).

We also made gingerbread men to go with their houses. Unlike their counterparts that were born only minutes earlier, these gingerbread men were forgotten and became the shadows of gingerbread men past (or I guess you could say we had a culturally diverse set of gingerbread men). The best part is that we will always remember this night because this baking mat will not wash clean and will have the shadows of the shadow gingerbread men forever.

We decided to have a little party for Halloween. I had a lot of fun cooking up a bunch of haunted treats. I have to say I don’t like trick or treating, I despise scary movies, but there is something about turning an oreo into a spider that I just love! Brandon even went to a bunch of different stores to find dry ice to make our cider sparkle. Oh I also love dry ice and am totally fascinated with bats. Did you know dry ice is  -110 degrees? Awesome! We dressed Miley up like a bat. We thought she would destroy her costume, but she didn’t. She even let Zak hold her for a good portion of the night and I don’t think she bit him. Go Miley! We had fun eating and visiting with friends. We had planned some games, but we didn’t get around to them. We watched 1408, which was not as scary as I had anticipated, but still quite creepy. Thanks to everyone that came- we had a blast!

For those of you who never thought you would see the day, yes I went camping all on my own and I even have pictures to prove it. We had a lot of fun trying out our new camp gear- notice the picture of a very clean camp stove, making tin foil dinners and cobbler for the first time, exploring, and enjoying all the fun company! Oh I also ran into a deer at about 3 in the morning which scared me to death, but as you can see I survived.

We had a lot of fun with many of the people from our ward. Brandon even found time to pick up some trash on the beach- what a stud!

Since we moved here I have really wanted to do some gardening, but in an apartment you don’t have many options. Well this last week Brandon and I decided to try out some window boxes. We planted all sorts of things and if we are lucky we will have blooms now until the end of spring, maybe even longer! I guess that can be one thing I like about Texas.  We planted a couple already established plants, but I was thrilled when a short four days later sprouts began to appear and have grown a ton in the last few days!

I have the cutest mom ever! I got two packages this week full of fun Halloween decorations and goodies that she and Gabby put together for me. They even made me my very own treat bucket when I mentioned I couldn’t find one that I really liked. So cute!!! Very creative ladies! Check out the things they sent. I also threw in a few pictures of some decorating I already did. I don’t really like trick or treating, but I love decorating for Halloween!

We love this girl.

She loves wheat thins, ranch dressing and still enjoys chewing on us. She is not so in love with our attempt to take her for walks, but she does enjoying being outside. She keeps me company while Brandon is gone and makes me laugh all the time. Her latest goal is to make it into my flower boxes, not so safe seeing as we live on the second floor. She also had her first encounter with a dog this week. Is it bad that we were totally entertained when she came running in all puffed up?

We went to see about a million bats fly out from under the Congress Bridge in Austin. Our first attempt we got there a little too late and missed it, but we did enjoy a good dinner. The second time we made it. We didn’t get any good pictures of the bats themselves, but it was incredible!

We had so much fun with my family down in Mexico. We did a lot of this:

But we also spent a lot of time hanging at the beach, playing games, reading, relaxing and enjoying time together! We were even able to watch some BYU football!

If you know me you know I’m no good at most sports. So I became the photographer and had to stray from the game a few times to catch the amazing surroundings.

Look at these cute sisters! Oh and Brandon seems to have some sort of force field that pulls kids in.

The boys went fishing one day. Scary looking fish if you ask me.

The new house has an incredible upper deck. We tried to get some pictures of the view.

Whose ready for church?

Fun in the Sun!

This was the last time we will all be together before Christmas so of course we had to take some pictures for that beloved holiday card.

These pictures need to be adjusted a little to brighten our faces, but I don’t know how to do that on Brandon’s computer. We had about 30 people with us on this trip, but you can’t really tell that from my pictures. So I would love to get some pictures from everyone else that was there. We had so much fun with everyone!!! Oh and this is how we road from the beach house to the Phoenix airport. Some of us weren’t so happy about being squished, but I thought it was a blast to be in a car with everyone for the last few hours.

I know we have now been living here for 4 months, but I’ve gotten several requests to see the place all put together. I was waiting and waiting for it to be all clean, but then I caved and realized this is about as good as it gets. Enjoy!

If you want to see more you will have to come visit, but you probably should just come visit anyway!

We are in need of an update, I know. We have been pretty busy with a lot of different things. My computer is on it’s last leg and I am not able to load any new pictures and what is a blog post without pictures? Anyway here are a few Brandon was able to upload. They are of me painting tap squares for my new dance classes and some of the room I’m teaching in. It’s very low key, but I’m loving it. Still need a name… any ideas? I would love a play on words with a french word or something. We will try to do a bigger update when we get back in the states.