Tis the Season

Tis the season for (in no particular order)....

family
friends
parties
shopping
crowds
dipping chocolates
eating entirely too much
colds (sniff!)
hot chocolate
stress (too much to do!)
Santa Claus
new PJs
snuggling
snow - yay! (mixed with rain - yuck!)
warm fuzzy feelings
serving
Christ
Christmas caroling
presents
not having any money

Lately things are just busy. Nick has been asking me when I'm going to update our blog and I'm finally getting around to make a quick entry. As always, life is grand and we are happy. Happy Holidays to everyone!

Happy Halloween! (a bit late) We had a fun weekend. Nick actually went hunting on Saturday and I decided to stay home and do some much needed cleaning. I did a heck of a good job, too! We got a bunch of trick-or-treaters. Nothing like what we used to get at our old apartment. I think the most we ever got there was maybe 7 or 8. On Saturday I was starting to lose count so I started a tally and we got about 40 that night and then another 30 or so on Sunday. Good thing I bought enough candy. Of course we still have some left, though. Just what I need... Last Wednesday was the only night we had to carve our pumpkins with Nick being in school and having a ward calling in the Scouts. We looked online for some patterns and decided to do King Leonidas and an immortal warrior from the movie 300. Nick did King Leonidas and I did the warrior. I think they turned out pretty darn good. Here's a few more things we've been up to...
We went to Yellowstone with Nick's family over conference weekend. It was a lot of fun driving around seeing everything. We didn't see a whole lot of animals but we did catch a few elk and buffalo with our cameras.

We stopped to picnic on Sunday and fed some camp robber birds. It was pretty funny when they came to get the food off our heads. Saphronia's face is classic! I can't believe it's already November. This year has really flown by. Thanksgiving and Christmas will be here before I know it. Crazy! I'm excited for the holidays, though. Busy, busy but fun, fun, FUN!

My brother... a Hero

"This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave." - Elmer Davis

My brother, Jason is one of those brave ones. I got to go to the airport yesterday to see him off before he left for Mississippi. He'll be at Camp Shelby for about a month and then ship out to Iraq for about a year.

He's my baby brother and at 19 years old I can't help but still think of thim as just a kid. I'm still proud of him, though. He's grown up a lot and he's doing a good thing. I love you Jason! Good luck!!

Summer Fun

Okay, so y'all better appreciate this post cause it took me forever to upload all these pictures...

This has been our summer so far...

Nick and I went up to Green Canyon Hot Springs to see some neices and nephews on the Fullmer side of the family at swimming lessons. They've been going every summer for quite some time. All of Nick's siblings and cousins went and now it's the next generations turn. It was fun to watch all the kids during there lessons. I think half of them are better swimmers than me.Here's the group that made it this year.

We had some life-long friends come and visit for a weekend and we got to spend a little bit of time with them while they we're here. We went to a family reunion on Saturday morning and then to a barbeque at my sister's mother-in-law's place.

Here's Nick playing with our nephew at the family reunion. I love the look on his cute little face.

and my dad holding Tucker, one of my friend Sarah's...

triplets! Here they all are getting as sticky as they can with watermelon. They just couldn't get enough.I'm holding Sean, Sarah has Tucker and Teresa has Audrey.

The next weekend was pretty busy. In both Nick and my family we have birthdays on June 30, July 2, 3(mine!), 4, 5, 6, 8, & 12 plus there's always at least 1 or 2 family reunions PLUS, 4th of July happenings. You can imagine how hectic it gan get. This year we went up to Driggs on Friday the 2nd and enjoyed a barbeque to celebrate Grandma Hansen's birthday and then on Saturday we got up at the bcod to make it to the balloon races. This year some of my family even came to see them. It was a lot of fun to have them there with us.My sister's cute little family.

You ever seen a beaver in the sky before?

Our neices, Violet and Paige

It's gonna squish me!

Jack-o-lantern and green cat thing. Strange if you ask me.

After the balloon races we went back to Nick's parents house and I made this...

It was the first one I had ever made and it was so easy and fun. I've made a few more since then and I love to wear them.

Moving on... We went to the Goodwin (my mom's side) family reunion for lunch and from there we just hung out at my parents until a barbeque that evening at my aunt's house. We used to have a breakfast every year at my grandparents house but now that they are both gone, it didn't happen. My aunt was feeling bad so she decided to have the barbeque and we've decided that we're going to try and just have a family reunion around the 4th each year. I'm glad we can still keep some sort of tradition going. Breakfast at grandma's was always one of my favorite things about summer.

Sunday, the 4th, is always a special day in my family. It's my mom's birthday! We've always said that she's just so awesome that the whole country celebrates. We had another barbeque at my house this time. Everyone was there including my mom's twin and her daughter. Talk about a full house! I loved it though. It makes my house feel more like a home.

My wonderful mother and her twin sister, Sandy.

Here's all the grandkids in my back yard. We tried to get a cute picture of all of them together and this is best one that turned out. I love that half of them have oreos all over there mouths. Aren't they cute?

The next weekend we went on a white water rafting trip with some friends up to the Hoback in Wyoming. We did it last year and it was such a blast that when they invited us again this year we just couldn't say no.
We're headed down the river.

Getting ready for some (little) rapids.

We stopped and Nick did some cliff jumping. I was to afraid of floating away so I made myself comfortable in the raft and watched.

The next day we drove up to this water fall just below Granite Hot Springs. I guess they shot part of a movie at this waterfall. Have you ever seen "A River Runs Through It"? (I think that's what it's called) I haven't.

We crossed the river just below the falls so we could get to...

this! Just a small spot where some hot springs came out.

The following weekend we had our annual Fullmer campout. This year we were missing 2 of Nick's brother's families so this is the group that got to be there this year.

Here we are jusr before out big hike up to...

the wind caves! Can you believe we took eleven kids up there?

Of course we had to stop at Paul Bunyan's bread. If you ask me, that's a big loaf of bread. You can see me headed somewhere else. I'm on my way to get to...

the other side of the creek. Here you can see that Nick decided to join me.

and here's another water fall we stopped at...

and another one...

and we made it to the top! We had to cross here and side wall along the edge of the creek on the other side in order to get in the caves. They were really neat. That's definetally a hike I would like to take again someday.

Last weekend Nick went out of town to help his dad with some work so I made myself busy and did this...

all by myself! I was pretty happy with the results. It didn't take me as long as I expected but it was still a lot of hard work. I got to go play that night at my brother's house...

The water was cold!! So I went a hopped in the hot tub and met Karli there...

isn't she just so cute!

The more time I spend with my neices and nephews, the more it makes me want kids. I guess I just need to be patient. I'll have my own someday.

Well that's our summer so far. We still have lots more left and more fun to be had.

Home Sweet Home!

Well, here it is! Everyone has been asking for pictures and I'm finally getting around to posting a few. This is our new home! Nick and I were able to meet our goal and close on the 15th (yay!) and after a couple days of cleaning we moved in that weekend. We're still unpacking of course but hopefully it won't be too long til we have everything put together the way we want it. Here's a little tour...

Welcome to our home! It has 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms (one full, one 3/4 and one 1/2), a living room, family room, laundry room and a two car garage. So, you might be thinking... "That's a big house for just 2 people!" Nick and I thought that at first, too but we actually filled the house with all of our stuff. It's crazy to think it used to all be crammed into our 2 bedroom apartment. I'm sure once we finish putting things away it won't seem as full.

Here's our living room, that leads to the dining room...

and then the kitchen (so much better than the tiny one in the apartment!)

and our table looks so little in the dining area. It leads to the back deck...

We're going to be spending a lot of time outside grilling this summer. I'm sure we'll enjoy this deck a lot.

Here's the master bathroom off of our bedroom. Kinda weird that it's a half bath but it's still nice to have there.

and here's the full bath. It was a lot of fun to pick out new decorations but thing sure do add up fast when you're buying things for a new home.

Well, that's all the pics for now. The other rooms haven't been put together yet so I'll have to save them for another day... We love it here so far! The neighborhood is great and everyone is so nice. I know we're really going to enjoy it here.

Oh, yeah...

By the way, I forgot to mention some wonderful news! Nick and I got an accepted offer on a house. Yay! Right now we're just waiting for the appraisal and inspection to be done so we can close. Our goal is to close by the 15th so we don't have to PAY taxes and then refile for the tax credit. What a pain! Oh, well. We'll see how things go. I'm super excited to have things all done and moved in. It will be really nice for Nick and I to have our own home. Wish us luck!

Family Photos

We had family pictures taken last December and I'm finally getting around to posting some of them. These are some of my favorites...

I've got some good looking men in my family, don't ya think?

And here's the rest of them. One big happy family!