Jared + Krystal...

We had the best trip on Saturday! Krystal and Jared called to say they were traveling to Niagara Falls; we are only an hour away. So we drove up for the day. It was sooo fun to see them and get away for a day.

We drove up to Niagara on the Lake which is the this quaint little Canadian town outside of the craziness of the falls. We shopped, ate lunch, laughed, bowled and chatted about life and the past! It was really so fun! I wish they lived closer to us but DC is not that far away. We will need to make a trip down this spring. It made my week.



So in honor of Krystal and reminiscing about the BYU days here are a few highlights from the past.....


We had some really great times skiing up in the canyons, BYU football games, early morning kick boxing classes and tanning! Trips to Lander, pinching co-ed's bottoms (that is right-guys rear ends) We were always laughing. I love it!

Don't we look the same....(well krystal does anyway)

I met Krystal our freshman year while living at DT. She is the most dependable, loyal friend I have ever had. She has been there for me through many things in my life and is always positive, always happy and always uplifting and serving others. She is a great friend and a great example! I am a better person because of her. It was wonderful to see her and her cute hubbie Jared.

Thanks for a fabulous day!

a little too early...

No! Never. It is never too early to start decorating. I am so excited Christmas is weeks away. I think because we get to decorate our own house and it will be our first x-mas in it. We have no time off to travel since we played too much this summer. Plus traveling home for the holidays is so hard in the winter. We are already making plans for a summer trip.

We had such a great time on Friday cutting our own tree. There is this really cute little Christmas tree farm in Webster called Wilbert's, and it is family owned and operated. It looks like the middle of the night in these pictures but it was 6:30pm.


So this is it... our perfect tree.




After setting up the tree we could not resist unpacking all the decorations and hours later with x-mas music playing we were still not done. But loving it! We will have to post a done picture when we get everything out and up!

thanksgiving with the branch

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had such a relaxing, laid back dinner and day. It was nice again to spend this holiday with the members of our branch. We ate at the Palmyra Inn. They have a projector and screen, a hot tub, and it feels like a home with comfy couches and x-mas trees. It was really a great thanksgiving and we have so much to be thankful for.

Molinari family

way too many desserts

chris is the turkey king. he makes a great turkey-it soaks in a brine overnight. yum! this year we ran into some trouble with a turkey that did not want to cook. 6 hours later it was still pink. Ah! but is tasted great. thanks honey..

there were 16 of us including the missionaries. as far away as family is we feel surrounded by great people who have become friends and make us feel less homesick.

This is an old picture that someone sent to us from the branch. But what a fun picture to remember all the good times at the GVB.

Jared Bushman, Gary Molinari and Chris.

Good times..

service auction

This was a great idea for a Thanksgiving activity. The activities committee at the branch organized a service auction where members brought food items for Thanksgiving. In exchange they got fake money to bid on services donated by members. Such great services like dinners, car washes, babysitting, music lessons, original paintings, fun dates, anything and everything. It was so funny what people offered! And so funny who bid on what. Chris was the auctioneer. It was of my favorite activities. We ended up with 16 turkeys and bags and bags of Thanksgiving food. The food will be delivered to families in the stake. Plus members of the branch will continue to get to know one another by serving....



HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

borders...

Ok so my points are off and there are many more mistakes. Hopefully, the picture does not show all the mistakes. Good thing you cannot see it close. I am loving the crazy colors and patterns though. And I think it is coming together. So I will love what I have created!

I reread Elder Uchtdorf's RS talk about "Happiness, your heritage." What a great reminder- I love these quotes!

"Our birthright-and the purpose of our great voyage on this earth is to seek and experience eternal happiness."

"Creation means bringing into existence something that did not exist before. What you create doesn't have to be perfect. Don't let fear of failure discourage you."

I am hardest on myself and am working on enjoying the things that I do create and love it! I think that is one of the best parts of being a woman.

no more fall..

hello snow..
our fall leaves and cool weather disappeared overnight! It is winter. We prolonged it as long as possible. I am loving our attached garage. I just jumped in the car and off I went to work. Poor Chris woke up early to get to work and ended up shoveling the walk, the driveway and scraping his car. What a sweetheart!
It is really pretty that first snow before it all turns black. It might be time to try the fireplace.




On Saturday Chris & I had a few minutes between activities and work so we laid down for a few minutes thinking we would take a nap. We ended up talking and then watching the birds. We have a big window overlooking the trees. We saw a blue jay, a cardinal and many robins. It was really fun to watch them! What a simple thing to enjoy if only for a few minutes!

Creative Thursday...

Marissa introduced me to Esty about three years ago and I feel in love with her work. Last year we got Christmas cards done by her. And she has a blog now, fabric and many new paintings.

Curling...

A few weeks ago we took the youth Curling. Even though I had no idea what it was before going it was a really fun activity. I am not very good on the ice so I did not have much luck but it was so fun to watch! We had 52 youth attend! Very fun.




Isn't this the funniest sport ever...

We had a great time though!

YW in Excellence

This has been a really busy week. We were still playing catch up from being sick last week. Work was really crazy and then we had the last minute details of YW in Excellence.

Friday night I found myself doing this...

Making 100 high heel shaped sugar cookies. Yes 100! It took me four and half hours. Ah! They turned out really cute though and totally worth it.

Our program was called The worth of SOLES is great in the sight of God." And we focused on the individual qualities of each YW. That also took every spare moment we made a slide show of all the YW sporting their favorite shoes. It was really funny what pictures came up and what they wrote about each of them. So cute as well.

like these are one of the YM's legs and shoes but sam turned it in as hers with a write up about what makes her unique. Others took pictures of track shoes, dance shoes, bare feet. They were all really different but really fun.

We found these cute little charms online and gave them out with a tag to remember the worth of your soul. They were really cute!

I was really disappointed I forgot my camera in all the chaos that morning because the decorations and the setup just turned out so cute! Thanks everyone for all your hard work!

thankful..

Now that it is November my thoughts keep turning to

Gratitude:

"Walk with gratitude in your hearts" "Let a spirit of Thanksgiving guide and bless your days and nights" and "Sincerely giving thanks not only helps us recognize our blessings, it also unlocks the door of heaven and helps us feel God's Love"

There are so many things I am grateful for:

Chris. He makes me a better person and is the most kind and generous person I have ever meet.

plus how cute is he....chris will love me for this.

My family. Being so far away we miss the weekend visits, the advice and the fun trips in the mountains.

My Savior.



My job!

Past Experiences that have changed my life forever!
Africa:

I am not even sure what to say to express the feelings and the affect it had on me. I love it!

Brazil: the people, the culture, the challenges!





YW: we love them so much! And they have taught me so much!

I just feel so grateful for our life right now. I have not always been grateful for the things I have but the simple things in life are so good!

I had a lot of down time this week to think since we both had the flu....It would be so nice to have a day or two or maybe a week to clean, organize and enjoy being at home. This sick stuff is no fun!