Christmas Decor

We're doing a snowman theme again this year!

On the top of our small book shelf.

Mugs and salt and pepper shakers.

All the nativities are on our entertainment center.

The wall behind the couch.

I LOVE Christmas. The entire season is full of music, laughter, love and light. I don't like snow (mostly because it comes with cold), however, I love snowmen. My collection hasn't grown but I have arranged them different than last year to give it a new feel. I also wrapped some pictures.

Gram

Corinne Day Hansen

12 Feb 1931 -- 24 Oct 2009

Gram was the greatest grandmother I could have asked for. Her home was always a place where everyone was welcomed and loved. I will miss seeing her smile every time I walk through the front door. I'm so thankful for the time we had and the love we shared.

It's Been a While

Life has been a little busy lately but in a good way. Sam is substitute teaching just about every day and I've been getting a good amount of hours at work. Sam is playing softball two nights a week and I've even gotten the softball bug. I'm playing Thursday nights on a team with people from work and having a blast. We've been practicing for about a month now and games start in two weeks. It's going to be a lot of fun! I also have been really crafty. I'm working on about three projects right now and having tons of fun. I like being busy with things to make and do.

Good Times With Family

This week has been great! Sunday I taught the 5-6 year olds primary class. It was a little challenging but I had a good time with the kids. I'll be teaching again next week too. After church, Sam and I went up to Oakley to have dinner with his family. That's always fun with good food and great company. We spent the night with Matt and Heather so we wouldn't have to drive back and forth too many times (thanks guys it was supper nice to be able to crash at your place).

Monday, Sam didn't get a call to sub so we hung out at the store. Sam had the idea to buy me an early birthday present! We went to the AT&T store and bought me a new phone, the LG Vu. I really like it. It's a touch screen which I like a lot more than I thought I would and it takes pretty good pictures. After more hanging out, Laurie and I headed to the card class. We made a stop along the way and I got another birthday present (no my birthday isn't really for another month). She bought me a suit jack which I REALLY needed. Thanks Laurie, you're an amazing mother-in-law!

The card class was so much fun. It was great to hang out with the girls and learn how to make cute cards. It gave me all kinds of ideas for cards and scrapbooks and the know-how to actually make them! It did make me want more tools and supplies but that will come over time. I'm so excited to use my new talents and hopefully others will enjoy it too.

Tuesday had an interesting start to it. When we got home late Monday night, I saw that a tire on my Jeep was completely flat! Sam and Seth spent some time Tuesday morning changing my tire (thanks Seth, it's good to know you're close when we need you guys). Then, Sam and I went down to the San Jose Institute and had lunch with my mom and sister. Mom puts on a free lunch for the college kids every Tuesday during the semester. Then, Rachel, Sam and I went to the Rosicrution Museum. It's a really neat Egyptian exhibit that has all kinds of artifacts from jewelry to mummies to models of pyramids! We had a fun time looking and learning and took some pictures with my new phone. Here are my favorites:

So today I've been working on Rachel's scrapbook and we're going to a San Jose Giant game tonight. Tomorrow I'll be back to work but I think these last few days have restored some needed energy. Thanks everyone for making my week great!

Card Making!

Work has been pretty slow lately so in my free time I've been getting domestic and craftsy! Saturday I cleaned the entire apartment, did laundry, ironed, and sowed a button back onto my jacket.  Sunday, I made a card for my best friend's 21st birthday.  And Monday I baked cookies and a huge casserole. 

  

This was my first homemade birthday card (I made Christmas cards last year but that's all the card making experience I have).  I think it turned out ok but I'm way excited for the card making class I'm going to in a few weeks with Laurie and Heather.  I like making cards, scrapbooking, and other crafts but don't really have the ideas and tools to make them so that they don't look like a fourth grader made them.  I was looking online for ideas for this card and got a lot of cute ideas but didn't have the materials for them (I'm trying not to make scrapbooking and card making turn into an expensive hobby).  This class should give me all kinds of ideas and teach me how to do them but it could also make me want to buy a lot of cool stuff.  Either way, I'm excited to learn new things and spend some time with the Seeno girls!  Wish me luck!

Pancakes, Bar B Que's, and Fireworks...

What else do you do on the 4th of July, right? Every year on the 4th of July there is a pancake breakfast at the Cherry building in San Jose, where we used to live. We thought about going this year but decided we would have to get up too early to get down there by 8:00 (It also wasn't a very practical use of gas to drive down there for breakfast, back to our own ward party in Fremont, and back down to Kelsey's parents for dinner). So we slept in and had our own pancake breakfast at our apartment.

Another building in our stake has a full baseball field and picnic area so the various wards took turns having activities out there. Ours was at 2:00. We were only able to stay for lunch, but it was good to visit with and get to know some more people from the ward.

After that we headed down to Kelsey's parents for dinner. Her dad bar-b-qued various types of meat and we visited with everyone.

Her siblings YSA ward had a bar-b-que there for lunch and some people from that stayed around. After dinner we went with them to see fireworks at the San Jose Giants stadium. They shoot the fireworks off from the parking lot right behind the outfield wall. They rope off about 50 yards or so, but you can go and sit at that point. It pretty cool to be that close and to see them light off the fireworks and then see them go off literally right over your head. Kelsey's family has been going there since she was little. This was my second year going now, so I guess we can say it's our family tradition. Since the city of San Jose didn't do fireworks this year that was the only place to go so there was tons of traffic getting out. But from listening to the radio that was a problem all over the place.

So, that was our 4th. Pretty traditional, but I guess that's what the 4th is all about, tradition. I'm grateful for the opportunities that we have to look back and celebrate the great men and women who helped form our country.

Books

Lately I've been reminded by a few different things that I love to read.  Unfortunately, I don't take the time to read very often.  Sunday School yesterday gave me a renewed determination, so I'm asking for your help.  D & C 88:118 tells us to study out of the best books.  So what are some of the best books you know of?  They can be religious, classics, historical, poetic, biographical. . . anything you think would be educational or uplifting or just a good read.  I'll take whatever suggestions you can give me.  Thanks!

Memorial Day Picnic

For Memorial Day, Sam took me on a little outing.  We drove down some windy streets in Sanol to this quite park where there were picnic areas and trails.  I had packed a simple lunch and some books and games and we had a very enjoyable quiet afternoon to ourselves.

Poetry Month

I just learned that April is Poetry Month!  I've been collecting poems for about four years now so I have lots of favorites.  Since I've been working in the funeral business I have a lot of funeral poems.  And even more recently I started collecting Dr. Seuss quotes.

My two favorite poems are written by my Grandpa Tilton:  "Bubble Jum" and "Lamentation of a Squirt Gun."  They are both long so I'll spear you but let me know if you're curious.  

I would like to share this one with you.  It's called "A Smile for You" but I don't know the author.

Smiling is infectious, you can catch it like the flu, 

When someone smiled at me today I started smiling too. 

I passed around the corner and someone saw me grin.  

When he smiled I realized I'd passed it on to him.

I thought about that smile, then I realized its worth,

A single smile, just like mine, could travel around the earth.

So, if you feel a smile begin, don't leave it undetected.

Let's start an epidemic quick and get the wold infected.  

1st Beach Trip of the Season

   

I LOVE THE BEACH!  When I got off of  work Saturday, I had a voice message from Angie saying that she, Seth, JD, Trek and Breeanne were at the beach if we wanted to join them.  So we did.  We also added Rachel and Brandon to the group.  We stopped for Jack in the Box on the way and got to Twin Lakes Beach at about 6:30.  Sam and I went down to the water and got our legs wets.  Then we had fun roasting marshmallows and hanging out.  Sam's favorite part was burning things (something he has in common with my family).  My favorite part was being with famiy.  I even got to hold little JD!  

We finally remembered to take the camera and we took a lot of pictures before it ran out of batteries before the sun even set.  Here is a little sample.  There are more on Facebook and scrapbooking all 50 will be my project for this week.  

 

Easter Weekend

Another great weekend started Friday night with Sam cooking. I got home around 5 and he had already started. When he told me he was making cookie dough for dessert I got very excited (cookie dough is my favorite, better than cookies... unless they are right out of the oven). He made very yummy chicken marinated in a maple syrup gaze. The cookie dough was as great as anticipated and we ate it until we couldn't eat any more. We finished our date night by watching A League of Their Own (a very good baseball movie).

Saturday morning we did laundry and baked the rest of the cookie dough. The cookies turned out really good! We took them over to my parents' house where we spent the rest of the day. Mom helped me with some family history and I worked on that until the rest of the family started arriving around 3. Sam went out and helped Uncle Eric and Aunt April with the BBQ and I helped Mom get things ready inside. All the food was as great as always and everyone had fun. The kids even had an Easter egg hunt! After the family party, some of Rachel and Brandon's friends came and we played Missionary Impossible (it's a very cheesy card game that only Mormons would think is fun).

Sunday was great too. In sacrament meeting, the choir sang a few songs mixed in with great talks about the Savior and His atonement and resurrection. One of the songs involved the primary kids "singing" the chorus! It was so great to think about the Savior and all he did for me, his life and example, his sacrifice, death, and resurrection! It's what I should have in mind every day but I'm grateful for this holiday to remind me.

After church, we went to the Wallingers' for dinner. Robert's cooking is never short of amazing and I ate way too much pasta, chicken, potatoes, crab, and bread. And on top of that, we had brownies and ice cream for dessert. The time spent with family was even better than the food (and if you know Rob's cooking, you know that's pretty darn good). We all had fun hunting for our egg and just spending the day together.

I'm so grateful for the weekend of fun and family. I love all my family so much and missed the ones who weren't there. I hope everyone had a great Easter and take this opportunity to think of the Savior now and throughout the year.

(Sorry, we forgot the camera again.)

Weekend Fun

This weekend, Kyle and Suzanne were in town for Greg and Gabi's wedding.  They got in late Thursday night so I only saw them briefly.  Friday night, Sam and I had my siblings and some cousins and friends over for dinner and to play the wii!  After spending an hour or so baking four pizzas, my siblings were a little late but we had lots of food and fun.  Liz, Seth, Angie, and JD came a little latter, followed by Toni.  We had a lot of fun eating mints and bowling on the wii.  A few of us even hula hooped!

Saturday was a big day!  I got to my parents house around 8:30 to get ready for Suzanne's baby shower.  It was a little crazy at times to get everything cooked and set up buy by 10 we were ready to roll when guests started arriving.  We had plenty of food and fun games. There was almost 15 people there.  I think everyone had a lot of fun and Suzanne got away with some really good stuff for future Miss Hansen!  

Saturday afternoon, was spent just hanging out with family and relaxing.  We went to dinner at some little place Kyle knew of that made cheese stakes.  I ordered the chicken cheese stake and it was really good but really big (Sam finished it off the next day for lunch).  

Then we went to Greg and Gabi's wedding reception.  It was so good to see them.  They were so happy.  I'm so glad to have them as friends and to see them happy.  It was also good to see some old friends we hadn't seen for a while.  Getting married and leaving town kind of makes it easy to loose touch with people.  I guess that's really what blogs and facebook are for.  Maybe I should stop bowling so much and start talking with some old friends.  

Sunday, Sam and I went to his parents house for family dinner.  We had really good stakes and potatoes.  Andrew is getting so big, walking everywhere.  And Terry is getting really good on his bike.  It was great to see everyone an just hang out together.  We even remembered the asparagus to take to the Wallingers!  

I love having a nice weekend to spend with family and relax.  

Road Trip!

This past weekend my cousin Olin got married in the San Diego Temple. S0, we took this wonderful opportunity to take a road trip. We left Friday after I worked for a few hours, stopping to pick up Trek and Jeremy along the way. Driving with three boys for seven hours wasn't exactly my idea of exciting. The mostly talked about cars, trucks, and, well, cars. Of course Trek set up his ham radio so there was a little command center in the back seat for a good part of the trip. Luckily we had beautiful weather and only hit moderate traffic in L.A. We got to the hotel in Carlsbad at about nine or ten and spent the rest of the evening hanging out with my family at the hotel.

Saturday was a blast. The wedding wasn't until two in the afternoon so we spent the morning at the Wild Animal Park! First we went on a tram ride around the park and saw really cool animals and pretty scenery. Then we spent another couple hours walking around and seeing the other animals. I think my favorite were the strange monkey things hanging out on an island and the lions.

    

After changing quickly at the hotel, we headed for the temple. This was my first trip to the S.D. temple and it is as beautiful as people say (though I still think the Sacramento Temple is even more amazing, but I might be biased). The sealing was great. We even had a little earthquake in the middle of it! Olin and Jentry looked so beautiful and totally happy. I had to hold back tears more than once. It made me remember our wedding day and all the mushy feelings that went along with it.

   

Then, we went back to the hotel to try to take a nap but as soon as I laid down I wasn't tiered any more so I just chatted with Kyle, Suzanne and Sam (we were all sharing a room and it was a lot of fun!). Going the the reception was a lot of fun. Mom had directions but we were following behind in our car. Well, Dad got a little lost. . . or was it one of his famous "short cuts". . . I'm not really sure. But we made it only a little late. The reception was beautiful. There was good dinner food as well as a candy table! Olin sang Jentry a song he wrote and the couple had there first dance and the father-daughter dance. You could just see how happy they are!

We left the reception a little early to visit Chad, a cousin on my mom's side that we hadn't seen in at least ten years. It was great to see him again and meet his cute wife and three cute kids (number four is on the way). It was a long day so we were happy to get back to the hotel and get some sleep.

Sunday morning we left at about nine. We traded Trek and Jeremy for Brandon so we could stop by Jenna's, another friend, in Yorba Linda. It was good to see here and visit for about an hour. She even made us sack lunches to take on our way, it saved us about half an hour. The trip home we didn't hit any traffic! but we did hit rain. Just after the grape vine it started misting and was raining pretty heavily by the time we got into Gilroy.

One of my favorite parts of the trip, was when Suzanne asked me to throw her a baby shower! She isn't due until July 4th but they will be in town the end of next month so we're planning it for then. I am so excited and already have lots of fun ideas. If anyone has any ideas or baby shower favorites, let me know.

I am so glad we had the chance to get away for a little bit and to support Olin and Jentry on this great occasion.

Valentines Day :D

Since we're on a low budget these days, we didn't do anything too exciting.  I came home from work and there were red tulips, a card and a teddy bear with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (one of the few chocolates I like)!  For dinner he made me a yummy pasta (he's getting the hang of this cooking stuff).  Then, we ordered a movie from On Demand.  I wanted a chick flick (it was V-day after all)  and the only one he was really interested in seeing was Baby Mama.  It was Ok, it had enough comedy to keep Sam interested and it was kind of an interesting story.  So we had a great first Valentines Day as a married couple.  It was perfect!

Baking...

It's Sunday afternoon and Kelsey is taking a nap. She has been telling me that I need to blog so I guess now is a good time to do it. So, I've been spending some time in the kitchen lately. We got a bunch of cookbooks for our wedding so I've been looking through them to see if there is anything that I want to attempt. Anyway, here are a few of my experiences.

So, some of you have heard this story but for those who haven't...

A couple Friday nights ago Kelsey wanted chocolate chip cookies, but she didn't want to make them. So I decided to do it. Using the recipe on the bag of the chocolate chips it was all working out o.k. After everything was mixed Kelsey came in to eat some of the dough and said that I had over mixed it since it looked more like frosting instead of dough. When they came out of the oven they had bubbled over and didn't really resemble cookies too much. We weren't sure exactly what went wrong other than I may have over mixed it. The next morning Kelsey had to work and she told me to try again since we had the missionaries coming for dinner that night. So, I began gathering the ingredients again and noticed another jar in the back of the cabinet, which I did not see the night before. This jar contained flour. The night before I had mistaken the powdered sugar for flour. This time the cookies turned out much better.

On Friday night there was a dance for all the adults in our old stake down in San Jose. It didn't start until 8:00 so I flipped through the cookbooks and decided to try making pizza. After a quick run to the store for toppings I used the mixer to make the dough and made two personal sized pizzas. They actually turned out pretty good. 

25 Things

This is borrowed from my facebook.  I just thought I'd share with those who don't have FB.  I did change a few of them because I thought of better things to share.

Rules of the Tag: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.
(To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people, or as many as you feel like (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)
Side note: I was tagged by five people but didn't really want to do it, but I told Sam that if he did it, I would. So here it goes. Hope you enjoy.)

1. I love my family more than anything in the world.

2. I grew up with three older brothers so a lot of their craziness rubbed off on me. (I hated playing Barbies with my little sister but Loved Legos.)

3. I have had the same best friend all my life. Jody, you're amazing!!!

4. I broke my arm when I was five and I had a neon pink cast.

5. I used to collect anything orange.  It became a very large collection.  It's actually surprising I still like the color orange.

 
6. When I was sevenish, I was in the play "The Little Red Hen" at school. I was a little chick. I didn't have any speaking part but I sang those songs with all my might.

7. Before I started elementary school I took a ballet and tap dance class for a few years. I've never taken a dance class since but I would really like to. 

8. I learned to read music in elementary school. We had an amazing music/choir teacher named Ms. King.

9. I played the clarinet in my school bands for seven years. I LOVED it.

10. I love baseball and enjoy watching and playing most sports.

11. I played softball in high shcool. I wasn't very good so I spent three years in J.V. and played on the bench in varsity my senior year. But we had a blast.

12. I didn't drive until I was 18. 

13. I have an AA degree in Business Administration.

14. I hate being disorganized.

15. I've changed what I want to be when I grow up a million times but I've finally decided on a Mom.

16. My heroes are my parents.

17. I went to church every school day in high school at 6 in the morning to learn about the scriptures.

18. I am a big fan of aviation. A few years ago I started making model airplanes and now they are all over my room.

19. My husband proposed to me in a little airplane over the golden gate bridge. It was so perfect!

20. I am a lot younger than most people would guess. 

21. I hate making decisions.  

22. I really enjoy decorating but I don't think I'm very good at it.

23. Don't tell my husband, but I used to bite my nails when I was younger... a lot younger!

24. I work part time as a funeral home associate and love what I do.

25. I get cold really easily. 

Just Rambling

So today I don't have to go to work until about one so I'm enjoying a morning off.  Sam went into work to get a few things done so the apartment is pretty quiet.  The good thing about it is that I get to listen to my country music and don't have to have the T.V. on all the time.  The bad thing about it is that we don't get to spend the day together.  

So the weather is being very strange here.  It is sunny and warm.  I went to my parents house the other day and Grandma was out planting and weeding in her garden.  I asked her if it was spring already.  I wasn't even wearing my coat or a sweater!  The only reminder that it's only January is how cold it is at night and early morning.  I love warm weather but we could really use the rain.  

Our new ward at church is really good.  There are a few young couples but mostly it's kind of an older ward.  Everyone's been really friendly and I love being back in Relief Society to learn from the Teaching of Joseph Smith.  We haven't had to speak or been given callings yet but the bishop is coming over to visit tomorrow so we'll see.  

Sam is still working hard at his first year teaching.  There have definitely been ups and downs.  The budget crisis is making everyone nervous, especially me.  Who knows what will happen come the end of the school year.

But for the most part we're doing really well.  I'm so happy and wouldn't change a thing!

Happy Holidays

Sorry I'm so far behind.  Life has been pretty busy these past couple weeks.  Sam has had the two weeks of work and although I've been working a lot, we got a lot done.  We finished hanging pictures and panting the coffee table.  Plus, Theresa gave  us a great couch so our new apartment is looking great!  

  

Christmas was fantastic.  We spent Christmas Eve with my family doing the traditional celebrating, eating, and singing.  After spending the night at my parents' house, we opened presents and Sam and I made breakfast for everyone.  Then we went to Sam's parents' house.  We opened more presents, played games and had a great time with his family.  It was so wonderful to celebrate the birth of our Savior with family.

  

New Year's Eve we had a party at our house and we actually fit 16 people comfortably in our apartment!  We played games, ate snacks, watched crazy people flip trucks and jump motorcycles and counted down the new year.  I think everyone had a good time.  And luckily there wasn't a lot of mess to clean up so we made it to Brandon's after party where we hung out more and played wii.

All in all we've had a great few weeks.  We played hard, worked hard and spent a lot of time with the people we love.  Thank you to everyone who shared this holiday season with us, we love you so much.