What's Up Down South

This collage captures all of our Christmas faces! Here's the re-cap of the festivities: Days Prior to Christmas Went with Maria and Marcos to see the lights on Temple Square. We parked at the Trax station in Sandy and then just road Trax to the downtown stop. Such a breeze to not have to find parking! This picture of me and Maria has got to be one of my faves. I think we're getting cuter as the years go by! Finished the stocking stuffers and last minute wrapping, successfully jamming the scissors into my finger. Nice. Just a band-aid injury. Snow, snow, and SNOW! We had to shovel a bunch of times. Christmas Eve We got a call from Ems and Shaun this morning to tell us that Shaun's Grandpa King had passed away. Shaun and Ems and Alexis ended up driving all night Christmas Eve from Nebraska and got to my mom and dad's at about 3 in the morning! It was so neat to have them come out for Christmas even though it was sad for Shaun to lose his grandpa. "The Progra...

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper. Sometimes cellophane. 2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial. But I debate all the time about getting a real one when we have kids. Greg doesn't want to, so we probably won't. But I just have fun memories of going to pick out a tree at the tree lot and bringing it home to set up. I'm sure my mom and dad don't have fun memories of trying to tie it to the top of the car and cut the stump to fit in the tree stand and vacuuming up the needles! But I love the smell of a real tree and I have awesome memories of laying down under the tree by my dad and watching all of the colored lights twinkle pretty patterns onto the ceiling. 3. When do you put up the tree? Right after Thanksgiving. 4. Do you like eggnog? Sort-of. In small quantities. I like to mix it with milk. 5. Favorite gift received as a child? Computron maybe? It was this early version of a computer and it had all sorts of learning games on it like spelling words...

Well look who came to the Hadley Family party! Santa. The Big Man. SC. Kris Kringle. Ol' Happy Claus himself. He comes every year, so we know we have to be good. The Hadley Family party (Greg's mom's side of the family) was really fun. We love seeing everyone and catching up on what all the cousins are doing. In this picture I'm obviously going through the long list of what I want Santa to bring me and he's just looking at me like, "Hurry it up, would ya? My leg is asleep!" No really. I wasn't sure at all what to ask for. I should have asked for a hair cut! (I need one rather terribly and keep putting it off since Ems is in Nebraska. That's a long way to go for a hair cut. Also, I keep saying I'm "growing it out." What else is new??) So really, I asked for a Rottweiler puppy. But Santa recommended a yellow lab. I'm sure we're really not getting a dog this year. Maybe when we have a house. Greg asked for sk...

I've been recording all of the fun Christmas shows that come on this time of year, and last night we watched "The Man Who Saved Christmas" with Jason Alexander. (I like him as an actor, by the way. Sometimes it's still hard to not picture him as George from Seinfeld, but he's a good actor.) I definitely recommend this movie. It's only PG so families could watch together probably. Jason Alexander portrays AC Gilbert, the inventor of the erector set and other awesome toys. (He's also credited with being the first one to give his factory workers benefits like medical insurance and a daycare right at the factory! Way ahead of his time on that.) The movie is set during WWI and he is asked to convert his toy factory into a factory to make war equipment. I don't want to spoil it in case anyone decides to see it, so I won't say more. But just know that it's a really cute Christmas movie with a good message.

I got out of the habit of posting during Thanksgiving, so I'm slightly behind! I just wanted to say THANK YOU to Chan and Shawn and the boys and Sharon and Ger for inviting us to Park City with them for Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful time! Some highlights: Making fabulously yummy pumpkin pies with Grandma Hadley's pie crust. I worked on the crust while Sharon and Chan worked on the filling. Of course we had to snitch a few tastes of the crust to make sure it was just right! Doing foam crafts with my nephew Andrew who is six. Watching fun movies like Muppet Christmas Carol, Dan in Real Life, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and The Prestige. Food, more food, and still more food! The turkey and all the trimmings were delish! I learned that it is a tradition to have grape juice with Thanksgiving dinner. Shopping on main street and at the outlet stores. We didn't quite make the midnight madness sales on Thanksgiving night, but Al and Shawn went out the morning of "Black ...

So I got to go to Twilight. My sis-in-law, Chantelle, was going on Friday with her work (one of the orthodontists rented out the entire theater!) and her hubby couldn't go, so she invited me. Way sweet of her to think of me. So on Friday I drove up to Ogden and spent the day with Chan. She is the big sister I never had, and I am the sister she never had since she has two brothers. She is such a sweet person and the mom of three amazing boys. I had such a fun day with her and with my nephews that evening. My review of Twilight the movie? Awesome. I have said that for me, it's a weird case where the movie is almost better than the books. I think the books are good and I've read them all (very quickly, as in couldn't-put-it-down) but they aren't literary classics or anything. I can only take so much of the wimpy, damsel-in-distress Bella. Know what I mean? But the movie was just the right balance for me. I thought they cast all the actors very well and I r...

I'm publishing this post during work hours but only because it's work related! Yesterday and today I have been the amazing, fabulous, so-sweet-you-could-almost-taste-it, One Woman Basket Shop. For work we have been working on a marketing campaign to send to Utah legislators. Since I am the closest worker to Salt Lake, I volunteered to assemble and deliver these baskets to legislators in this area. I'll mail some of them as well. Here's what the baskets looked like "pre-apples." Some of the gourds are so weird looking! I like them. They're so interesting and oddly shaped. Here's what the baskets look like with the apples in them. YUM! I love apples. They were all donated, by the way. Doesn't it make my kitchen look so "Thanksgiving-ish?" Harvest time at the Halliday house. I swear, if I didn't want the mess of fruit trees, I would grow apple trees. My grandma and grandpa Hurst had TONS of apple tress, and there is nothing...

Is it true that virgos always need to be doing something? I function so much better if I have a project. If I'm not busy enough I always say that my brain is warping. I don't know exactly what I mean by that, but I just know that I like to do projects! There was a way cute one on Good Things Utah the other day for a Thanksgiving book where people write what they are thankful for, and then you take their picture and put it next to their card that says what they are thankful for. It's a cute easy way to preserve memories and remember this year's Thanksgiving. We're spending Thanksgiving in Park City with Greg's family, so I'm excited to have everyone write in the book. I might post what people write on the side of my blog, too, like Jelina's friends. Stopping to actually think about and record what you are thankful for is always such a pick-me-up. To end this post: I am thankful for craft projects and the anticipation of a wonderful Thanksgiving.

We decided to go ahead and make an offer on the Spanish Fork house. I'm excited! I seriously want this to be our last move for a long time. We have moved: from Utah to Iowa From Iowa City west side to Iowa City East side From Iowa to Utah From Utah to Arizona From Arizona to Enterprise, UT From Enterprise to St. George From St. George to American Fork Don't you think that's about enough? Yessiree.

We've been doing a bit of house hunting around and on Sat. we looked at this great home in Spanish Fork. This is the view looking off the front porch. We really liked the neighborhood. Here's the side view of the house that shows the garage. Nice views of the mountains, too! Here's a view looking west. You can see it's a corner lot. Here's a view looking north. The house faces south, which is good because the snow will melt off the front walk. Here's a view of the front of the house. Here's a view of the kitchen. It doesn't have a fridge. So if we decided to buy it we would need to buy a fridge, which would be sort-of fun. Huge unfinished basement! A view looking up the stairs from the basement. Master bedroom with the nice windows. Looking into the master bathroom. We would definitely replace the carpet with tile. No carpet in bathrooms! Here's the family room, which is what you see as you walk in the front door. The kitchen and family roo...

A huge plus in Greg's job is that he has Thursday afternoons off. So instead of date nights, we have date days! I look forward to it all week. An afternoon with Greg makes my whole day and I love that time we get to spend together. Some dates we've had this fall: Shop at Kohl's to buy him some new khaki's and lunch at Applebees Bike ride in Payson Lakes area Walk to Vivian Park on the Provo Canyon parkway. This was one of our most fun dates. We had lunch at Macaroni Grill afterward. The pictures below are from this date. Putting together our Halloween costumes and having lunch at Red Lobster. Visiting Ikea. What a cool store! It's so huge that it can be overwhelming, though. You sort-of have to have a plan before you go to know exactly what you're looking for. We ate lunch at their little cafe, which was a great deal. Greg, of course, had the Swedish meatballs since Ikea is Swiss! Notice we like to eat out for lunch as part of our dates? That...

That's going to be my new motto. Just do it. An example: I'm one of the worst at comparing myself to others or wanting to be someone I'm not. Maybe we all do that. I think lately I'm trying to just enjoy exactly who I am. (Maria posted a way awesome post about this one time about seeing yourself as others see you.) Anyway, I always want to be like this ultimate fitness queen who gets up at 6 a.m. and runs five miles and rides my bike to the store to stay in shape and save on gas (who really does that!?). Or I always think I should be taking a walk right now. Or I shouldn't eat any more leftover Halloween candy. Sometimes I just need to let myself relax and live life and Just Do It. Greg and I found a trailhead up a canyon here in American Fork and I'd been wanting to hike it. So last week, on a Wed. morning I really did get up early and I thought, "It's a great fall morning for a hike!" And it was. I drove up to the trail head, parked, and...

Happy Halloween! We've had a fun October enjoying the sights, smells, sounds, and spooks of Halloween. I was crafty enough to make placemats this year. They turned out way cute. Last night we carved pumpkins. Mine is the ghost and Greg's is the bats. I always like to do luminaries for Halloween. I think it started down on the Rez because they don't have street lights. So, I've kept up the tradition! It's so fun when they're all glowing for the trick-or-treaters. This picture is of last night's test run. And this holiday just wouldn't be complete without "Halloweiners!" I've also heard them called mummy dogs. What a fun, fast, recipe that kids would love to do. Just refrigerated bread stick dough wrapped around hot dogs and baked at 375 for about 12 min or until the bread is brown-ish. They're good finger food for dipping!

The annual Hurst Halloween Howl was last Sat. (Sarah named it that on her blog, and I liked the name, so I'm borrowing it!) We had a great time! Any guesses as to who Greg and I went as? Here are some hints: Greg He may offer you a drink of green elixir. He has a particular fondness for hot air balloons. They call him wonderful. Lisa She looks great in green. Has a knack for defying gravity. She'll get you! And your little dog, too! That's right! It's the "Wizard and I!" Greg is the Wizard of Oz, and I am Elphaba from the broadway musical Wicked. It's one of our favorites. So much so that I was willing to paint myself green to give everyone the full effect! Doesn't he look dashing with a grey mustache? You may have already seen pics on Sarah's Blog, so it might have given it away! The party was great...as always. It's a bit of a tradition at our house because we have a fabulous mom and dad who like to have fun. When we were kids, on...

Monday night Greg was on call. He works so hard at this job! I mean, he always works hard, but he is definitely much busier here with the technical hospital side of things. He didn't do quite as much of that in St. George, so that has made him extra busy with extra long hours. In a normal day he gets up at 6 a.m. (or around then) and is home by 5:30 or 6 usually. So that's 12 hours. In a BUSY day, like if they're on call or something, he's up at 6 a.m. and not home until like 9:30 or 10 p.m. so like a 14 hour day. He's awesome. Anyway, it used to make me feel all alone when he wasn't there and like I couldn't go do stuff by myself. But now, I'm getting better at it. (And I'll add that my cute co-worker, Joan, in St. George is married to the Washington County Sheriff...obviously a busy man...and she told me that when her kids were little, she used to feel bad at first if her hubby couldn't be with them, but then she learned to just take ...

This past weekend I went up hunting and camping with my family. My sweetie was on call working hard, so we missed him up there! A recap of the 2008 Deer Hunt just wouldn't be complete without paying tribute to Nessamuck. Nessamuck, according to my loves-to-hunt-camp-fish-or do anything outdoors-brother, is an extremely good outdoorsman who only packs 27 lbs of gear when he goes camping, and that includes his canoe. Nessamuck sleeps out next to the fire...that's the only way. Nessamuck wouldn't have approved of my ski coat that I wore because it was too noisy for hunting. We loved having Mike tell us all about Nessamuck. I think Mike is one of the best campers and hunters I know. He loves being outside and he is so patient when it comes to waiting for the deer or waiting for the fish or anything. He's good at spotting and scoping, too. He's such a fun brother and I enjoyed being on this trip with him. Here he is in his awesome new coat (it's a very quite ...

This recipe comes from my friend Jen's mom, Sue Haslam. We had it for our LD progressive dinner and it is delicious. Swabbie love! Broccoli Chicken Cheese Soup *this makes a lot! I halved the recipe* 12 Chicken breasts 1 1/2 large onions 1 tsp Lowry's seasoning salt 3-4 small inner celery stalks with the leaves (for the broth) 6 tsp chicken bouillon granules 3 cups diced carrots 3 cups diced celery 3 cups broccoli pieces (I think you can add a little more...I did) 3 cubes butter or margarine 1 1/2 cups flour 1/4 tsp black pepper 8 oz jar of cheese whiz 1 lb. of velveeta Place 12 chicken breasts and 3 1/2 quarts water in large pan. Add to water: 1/2 of a large onion (cut in half or quartered...not diced) 1 tsp Lawry's 3-4 small (inner) celery stalks with leaves Cook ingredients 1 1/2 to 2 hours on low heat until chicken is tender. Remove cooked chicken from stock, allow to cool; cut into small pieces, season with Lawry's and set aside. Strain onion and celery from st...

This recipe comes from Gwen Orton, who lives across the street from my mom. We had it once at a relief society thing I think. Hope everyone enjoys it for fall! Apple Cake with Carmel Sauce 1/2 cup margarine 2 eggs 2 cups flour 1 tsp. soda 2 Tbl. lemon juice 5 cups apples (peeled and chopped) 2 cups sugar 2 tsp. cinnamon 1/2 tsp. salt 1/4 cup milk 2 tsp. vanilla Cream margarine and sugar together. (I used a pastry cutter that you just do by hand.) Add other ingredients and mix well. Batter will be stiff. Pour into greased 9x13 glass pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 min. (Mine was still a little soggy in the middle after 30 min, so it could have been baked longer, but we left it soggy on purpose because it was like this delicious pudding-type cake.) SAUCE 2 1/2 cups of water 3 Tbl. corn starch mixed with a little water 1 1/2 tsp. lemon juice 2 cups brown sugar 2 tsp. vanilla 1 cube magarine Melt margarine in sauce pan over medium heat. Add sugar. Cook a few minutes. Add wate...

This is in response to a tag from my sister, Stacie. (It's a good thing I get tagged on stuff, or I probably wouldn't have things to post sometimes! I have a tendency to think my life is boring and why would anyone want to read about it. But, I enjoy reading other people's everyday live stuff, so I should just post my thoughts anyway!) This is going to be a tough one I think... 1 - I have to try new recipes all the time. I can't seem to be content with just making the same things for me and Greg...even if we like them! I'm always wanting to cook something new. I think my tastebuds just like new flavors. 2 - My tears flow more freely at sappy stuff the older I get! I think this is a good thing, though. 3 - I started an online journal, at ldsjournal.com, but I really prefer to write in a hand-written journal. Online isn't bad, and it's really fast, but for some reason I just like the old fashioned way. 4 - One of our best friends ever, that we need to ...

Thanks for tagging me, Dylan! 8 TV shows that I like to watch: 1. Everybody Loves Raymond 2. House 3. Regis and Kelly 4. Good Things Utah 5. Oprah 6. Alf re-runs. (Seriously, I saw them on this channel and they are so funny because it's so 80s!) 7. Hidden Potential 8. Good Eats 8 Things that happened yesterday: 1. As Greg was leaving for work, he yelled, "It snowed!" We were happy. 2. Spiritual testimonies and lessons 3. Wrote in my journal 4. Took a nice nap 5. Made a little Fall slideshow on Smilebox to sent to my family 6. Warmed up some yummy homemade soup for dinner 7. Watched "The Testaments" 8. Cuddled with Greg and gave him a foot rub. He has long days! 8 Things I'm looking forward to: 1. Seve and Mike having a baby (Feb.) 2. Stace and Mike having a baby (April) 3. Me and Greg having a baby (who knows when!?!) 4. Halloween Party with my fam. We're all dressing up. 5. More fun times with Maria and Marcos 6. Paying off loans (student loans) 7. ...

We had such a great weekend! On Friday night I went to a bridal shower for my soon-to-be cousin Sarah. She's marrying my cousin Geoff, who lives in Washington, but they met here at BYU. She's a way sweet girl, and it was fun to see my mom and aunts at the shower. Seve was the only one of the "sisters" who could make it, and it was way fun to see her and her little pregnant belly just starting to show. I had to dash home from the shower (luckily it was just in Highland) so we could head up to Frightmares with Maria and Marcos. (She posted about it on her blog, and captured it all quite well!) We really did have a BLAST! It was the perfect cold, creepy, fun, cloudy night. We rode tons of rides and were sort-of wishing we had a little more time...especially since they do charge so much! The best was just talking and reminiscing while we waited in line for rides. I'm so glad that all four of us get a long and like to do stuff together. A date night like tha...

Happy Birthday to Brigham! We celebrated as an extended family last Saturday by going to the zoo and then having a little party at Sarah's. She is the cutest mom! She made this darling frog cake and had a pinata for the kids, and party hats for us all to wear. Brigham is such a cute little bug. It's fun to watch Alexis with him, although she does want to take everything from him. She's been working on sharing. Shaun and Ems accepted a job in Nebraska, so we'll miss having them here for family things. We are so excited for them, though! When we lived in Iowa, it was a great experience, so I'm sure they'll learn a lot in Nebraska and love their new adventures. Speaking of family, I don't know if I have mentioned that Mike and Seve are having a baby girl in February, and Stace and Mike are having a baby (we don't know boy/girl yet) in April! So, that will be two more little cousins on the Hurst side. OK, back to the birthday. The Zoo was so much fun! Stil...