Grandmas Pillow

For my grandparents Christmas presents the last couple year I have made some sort of something and gave it to them. This year it was a pillow with AZ on it and UT and our initials they loved it!

The whole thing. I made the pillow by hand!

Stefen and Bri in Arizona

The heart connecting us together.

Grandma and Grandpa in Utah

Ice Skating

When I went up to Utah in June we did a BBQ for the friends and family that wanted to come see me. This time we did Ice skating. Even Megan who is still in her wheel chair got to skate and she had a blast drifting around the corners and we all had fun. Only one person fell and of course it had to be me!

Everyone took Turns Helping Aniston

And helping to push megan too. The walker and the wheel chair helped me not to fall.

Anistons first go around. This walker was a lifesaver for her and me...

The gang.

Aniston and I

Sants Pirate Ship

So While at the Bolander Christmas we all thought it would be fun to do gingerbread houses. Stefen and I being who we are had to go out of the box and make Santas Pirate Ship... With an engine thing and everything.

The top shot

The engine 

Side of the engine

The front with lights 

Side

And the competition house!

Christmas Day

We all know that I fail at actually taking pictures... I think a nice camera might help me take more pictures. We spent Christmas with both familes and although it was crazy it was a blast!

Anistons new princess fake nails!

Jenas snowman cheeseball

Mandy Opening gifts

Then my sisters took pictures

Silly pictures

Christmas Eve Pageant

Christmas eve consisted of a nutcracker dance by Aniston and the funniest pageant ever!

Shelbi as the donkey and I think Jena as the rider or Scott?

Riding to Jerusalem 

Seeing the new baby Jesus "Elsie"

The actors

Anistons Nutcracker dance!

We had a blast watching all the gift opening and dancing and eating yummy food.

A full Heart

This post may be boring for most and if you so desire you can just move on to something a little more entertaining. This post is for me to get my thoughts out.

Tonight was our relief society Christmas dinner. If you are not a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, relief society is a place for the women of the church to spend time with friends and learn about Christ's teachings.The relief society Christmas meeting is my all time favorite every year and I count down the days until the next year. This years was no exceptions. A wonderful narration was done by the most awesomest narrator ever. He has that perfect voice for movie previews, commercials, and the radio. Anyway enough about him. We watched a beautiful rendition of the book A Christmas Bell for Aniya by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. We were all in tears. And then we watched the Nativity. Along with amazing songs sung by amazing voices it was wonderful.

I love this time of year because it makes me so grateful for what I have and who I am. With the trials and miracles we have had in the last 6 weeks I have never had a stronger testimony that the church I belong too is the true church. My sister who fell 260 feet should not be alive and although we have our tiffs I love her and I am so grateful that god was able to stretch his hand down and cushion her fall. I am grateful for a small gift that came in the mail today that makes it possible for us to live.

While listening to the wonderful program this evening all these emotions flooded my mind and soul of everything that I have been blessed with in the last 6 weeks. Its been rough but because of friends and family I have made it through alive and kicking.

Christmas Angels

If you dont know already my sister Megan fell from a 200 foot cliff and then fell into a 60 foot slot canyon. She came out with some broken body parts and some slightly damaged organs but without a helmet she managed to live. We ask ourselves and pray everyday as to why this wonderful young lady lived through such an awful experience and the answer we have came up with is Angels were surrounding her. She should have not lived but those angels helped cushion her fall and make it so she is alive today. She is going through a hard time emotionly and physically and so my dad has come up the angel tree idea. 

He would like it if anyone and everyone can donate an angel to their tree. This will remind her and our family that there are angels around every corner and that they come in every size and shape. This will also show her that her friends, family, and complete strangers are there to be her angels as well. You can mail your angel or hand deliver it, I can get you the information for either method. 

My dad made this announcement last night so I went and made my angel last night. I made my angel to look like my sister. I am so grateful and blessed to have her here and alive. 

An eventful 2 days!

The 2 days of thanksgiving which I count as Thanksgiving day and Black Friday were very eventful. We went and spent thanksgiving with a bunch of people from Utah. We went Black friday shopping at midnight. On Friday we went and played arcade games, then went to a festive and then went and saw the coolest house. There are like 10 times more pictures on Facebook if you care too see more. I just posted my favorite.

Some of our food!

Truly the best turkey I have EVER had!

We went on a carriage ride. But let me tell you it is not the same when it is 70 degrees outside and NOT snowing!

The BIGGEST rocking horse ever!

So in Arizona people think it is alright to decorate their WHOLE entire home from top to bottom with anything you can imagine and then let you walk through their house without an escort. Does anyone else find this oddly unnerving? Because I sure did! But let me tell you this dude had 50 yes 50 christmas trees in his house not to mention the 60000 lights and all the other crap. I chose a few pictures but I went a little picture crazy so go look at facebook for more madness.

The entrance

These are the explanation. Just as I was taking these Soap fell from the sky. It was slightly odd

Inside this giant gingerbread man is a crash test dummy

This room had like 10 trees I think. Including an upside down one.

If you dont know me even the slightest then this wont matter to you. But I LOVE cows! And he had a cow nutcracker! And we tried to buy it off of him but it wasnt happening. And he didnt remember where he got it. So if you see one of these cute fellas remember me!

Yep! He went there!

I wanted to buy this tree from him too!!! But I couldnt afford it even if he would sell it

We had a blast of a 2 days before I had to go work at the hospital!

Were into the Blogging Business!

Well against Stefen's will we are blogging! (He thinks blogging is stupid!) But since we are so far away from our social network of friends and family I have decided that we need to keep everyone posted! So what will I blog about!? Well about our adventures and recipes and projects and well maybe just random stuff!

So to start with:

I am going to start school and do it online...

Stefen is doing AWESOME with school!

I am teaching swimming lessons and loving it...

We love our ward!

Well Thats all for tonight. Soon I will update with pictures from adventures and Christmas.