Busy Past Month

WOW, so why haven't I blogged in a month? Pretty much because I was overwhelmed by how much I had to blog about..I mean geez--Christmas, Birthday, January...don't get me started..actually I should get started so I will. December was fab of course, Christmas Break was amazing and I think I'll just give a brief synopsis of what we did...even though my "brief" isn't always that brief......

Before we hurried off to Dallas, we had our own little Christmas here in Utah, we exchanged presents and pretended like that was our only Christmas even though it really wasn't..it was still a lot of fun and our tree is too cute.

Once we got to Dallas, we spent our first week with Randall's fam. It was waaaaaaaaaay fun! Let's see what did we do? We went to the Fort Worth Zoo which was amazing because it was like 80 degrees out and in Heaven. We went with the nephews so that was loads of fun seeing their reactions to all the animals-SO CUTE. What else did we do that week? We went shopping for Christmas, we got to babysit our nephews one night which was sooo great--they are too fun, we went and saw "True Grit" Um...weird--yeah it was..fo sho. I got my hair cut to my ears!--not really, but I did get like 7 inches off!!, we hung out with the in-laws, we went to a really good Mexican place called Chueys with Ryan and Brit because Ryan builds them all over the south east part of the U.S., we had an amazing Christmas Dinner with all the good stuff,man, I can't get enough of that food, we had an awesome Christmas Day watching the kiddies open their presents and seeing all the fun things we got while also playing Loopit!! Yay for Loopit! Randall of course played basketball a ton, it was just overall way fun and I'm so happy we got to spend that week with his fam!! See amazing pics below :)

Look at that cutie patootie tree! It's actually one of two for a set you would put outside your front door, but since we don't actually have a real "front door" yet, we just use one as our X mas tree!

Ahhhhh...Randall looks a little tired, but I like the pic

"Before" hair pic--it got sooo dang long!!

"After" hair cut pic! It definitely looked the best that day I got it cut--definitely can't get it to look like that again..there was maybe a gallon of product in my hair..

Look at our cute sister Brittany and her amazing fam! This pic of Ethan is SO Ethan

It's Christmas Day in the morrrrr nin (the song)

My nephew and I at the zoo--he is such a cutie, kinda dark pic, sorry

I could not get over how nice it was that day, I pretty much should have brought shorts to wear

Havin fun at the Zoo

My nephews are too dang cute..they had fun riding on the crocodile or whatever that fake animal is..

Maxwell got such a thrill out of feeding the birds--one even came up on his lap!!

Max and Uncle Randall

The next week we spent with my fam. Oh so fun! On Christmas Eve we went to the Nutcracker!! Can I just say I LOVE the Nutcracker, we use to go every year with my grandma, but the tradition kind of died as time went on so we had the chance to see it again with her and the whole fam (well..accept Russell and Rhett..I guess not the whole fam) SO we went and saw that and then made crepes for Christmas Eve Dinner and had a talent show! My talent was doing 10 hand stands in a row..everyone was really proud-yeah right, I wish, I actually played the piano as an accompanier to everyone else that sang, Heather played the violin, Roycey told a story and sung with Heather, Rhett looked awesome, Robert showed us a performance he did, Randall did push-ups, Russell showed us kung fun (kung fu), mom showed us her talent for sewing, and dad showed us his coin collection, such talent the Severson family has!!

That next week the festivities began! My mom made a calendar with a million things we were going to, of course we didn't get to all of them, but we did get to a lot. On Monday, we did a Mystery Dinner consisting of 5 courses--not knowing what you're ordering for each course, if you really don't know what it is, then look it up, but it was way fun and one of my courses consisted of all utensils! It was amazing, OH and one of my courses I ate my ice cream with a pita chip. The next night was cheese tasting contest--of course I lost b/c I do NOT know my cheeses, but it was still waaaay interesting and ate chocolate cheese! (I have eaten this before) That night we went to a wedding reception and took pics in a photo booth they had there!! Sorry..I don't have them to put online..just tangible copies. We also ate sushi and really good cake balls. The next day we got our professional pics done!! I wore my prom dress from high school, ha, that would be too funny, but we did get professional pics done and unfortunately, we don't have those either to put online, just tangible copies, you'll have to come visit me if you want to see them. I think we had our road rally or scavenger hunt that afternoon and it was SOO fun, we had to go to all these different places and take pics! Fun times, and then the meeting place at the end was put put!! Thursday, i really don't remember what we did, but Laura came over and we made yummy macaroons, only the yummiest treat of all!! Then on Friday was New Years Eve! We went out and partied all night long! Not really. I actually brought in the New Year by eating fondue with the fam (I made a caramel one that was too good to be true) and then scrapbooking!! HA HA HA, who would have thought? Me...scrapbooking as the clock struck 12, but don't you worry because my mom and me totally scrap booked all week and I think I got like 7 or 8 pages done of my wedding scrap book! It was amazing and we got to work on mom's new cricut!! Anyone who scrap books should invest in one. SO we did that and of course played games all week and that night and drank lots of wine, I mean martinellis and had a gay ol' time. Anyway, that was the majority of the weeks that were just very exuberant and wouldn't have asked for anything more. The only thing is that I used up all my vaca and now i have none left so I really don't know how I'm going to make my hubby's graduation in April but it will happen..somehow..someway... oops::)

Us at the Nutcracker at Bass Hall! SOO good!

There's nothin like getting a family pic with my dad's balding head right smack front in the middle

This was part of the road rally! We had to get a taco with an expired coupon--this lady truly loved being in this pic! I was too excited!

Um..don't ask me what I'm doing with my hand and my face and this ice cream...

We all had to sample frozen flavored ice..yum

um..yeah

SO that was the amazing 2 week break that we both indefinitely needed. My birthday came a week later and we celebrated by going to Happy Sumo!! The best sushi in pretty much all of the United States..ok that's probably a lie but I haven't had much sushi and that was Randall's first time trying it!! SOO good! Randall got me Pen and Teller tickets so we're going to Vegas over Presidents Day Weekend and we get to see them perform! Most Mormons don't know who they are..I think that's funny..don't worry, they're clean. On Saturday night, Royce, Heather, Russell, and us went to The Garden for my b day--great view of the temple!

January has been pretty much me focusing on the fact that BYU Basketball and Jimmer is amazing. I'm sure I'll look back in 20 years to this blog post and ask myself why I blogged about BYU Basketball but they are so dang good that I just had to mention it. We've gone to a bunch of the games and we'll continue to go!! They've only lost twice!!

Anyway, that has been of late, this was oh quite long but so much to say!! Yay for December and January. I really hope to never fall this behind on blogging again after big events because it just takes FOREVER to catch up, I know all you bloggers know what I'm sayin sayin. Peace.

I mainly wanted to show this pic because look how cute my sweater is that I got for Christmas! It's pretty much darling. These flowers were so sweet of my hubster for my b day.

Um..why does it look like this game is consuming me up?

Penn and Teller tickets! So exciting!

Us at The Garden for my b day, pretty good food.

Russell! Why did you eat my green beans?!

Heather made me a huge cupcake cake!! It was awesome! We frosted it green and put sprinkles on top, Heather's such a good baker

This is my pretending to blow out the candles even though there wasn't any ;)

Us at the BYU Basketball game!! woo hoo!

Go Cougs! I'm a Coug and I'm proud of it..in both ways :)

Parties Galore!

SO, Christmas parties have definitely begun! Actually..I think they have already ended as well. Last week we had 4 Christmas parties in a row!! It was fab! We first had a Christmas party for one of the organizations that is affiliated with Randall's major. I think it was a real estate one. They served really good food, had great socializing, and good speakers. (Ok, so maybe the speakers were a little boring but whatev, the desserts kept me occupied.) It was held at a place call Noahs that has an indoor ice skating rink on the 3rd floor!! Pretty nifty!

The next night was my work's Christmas party!! SO fun! We all went to Tucanos! Tucanos is a place that serves delish Brazilian meats with a fancy dancy salad bar--not to forget the best Brazilian Lemonade in the world! SOO amazing!! We talked and chatted with others and had a splendid time! However, later that night I did not feel so hot from the meat and it pretty much kept me up all night with a sick belly and way into the late morning the next day as well. Oh, but don't worry, it pretty much affected 2 other people from my work as well so we're pretty sure it was one of the types of meats...however, I still LOVE Tucanos and by late afternoon I was feeling better.

Friday night we had our ward Christmas party!! It was oodles of fun! Our calling this past semester was to be on the Activities Committee in our ward before it got disbanded so it was GREAT TIMES planning the gig. Randall and I were over the food so we ended up ordering from BYU Food to go which had pretty good food but the only negatives were A.) They got lost with the delivery and couldn't find us even though our building was right across the street from them. B.) They dropped a tray of chocolate brownies that couldn't be fixed so the substituted pumpkin bars in their place (not as good) C.) They forgot the chocolate cream pies so we had to somehow get a hold of them and they delivered them late. Other than those 3 minor inconveniences ;) life was good. We went through the food quick--young married students-go figure, and then we played these awesome Reindeer Games! They're like the minute to win it game show!! Randall and I helped set everything up and then we gave 3 million dollars to the winners! They were so excited! Ha-they wish, but they did win nice cocoa cups from Sams that we picked ou! We were running around making sure the food was good and then cleaned up afterward but the whole night was pretty much a blast! Go Wheelers! (co-chairs)

The last and best party of all of them was of course OUR party!! Now, if you're reading this and you weren't invited, its either because 1. I forgot to invite you or 2. you live too far away to be invited. SO don't feel bad or sad or offended..just get o. OH but it was a blast! We had an "Appetizer and White Elephant Party." Now, we were thinking..."Oh we'll invite a million people because probably only half can come because its the holidays and people are busy with other stuff." OMG, it was a packed house..it truly made me want to buy a house..like asap. We were expecting maybe 12..but I think about 18 or 19 showed up! It was awesome! I felt really bad b/c our apartment is itsby bitsy, BUT I was cool with it b/c most of everyone there had about the same size of apartments as well and could relate ;) As everyone arrived, we set up the appetizers and started eating. They were all scrumptious! We socialized and ate yummy food for a while and then we decided to play our white elephant gift exchange! It was so great. You can check out the pics below :)

Yay! Right before the party started!! We were getting everything all set up. We made this yum dip and delicious pin wheels!! We just LOVED our appetizers! Oh and my double jointed arms look kinda weird..look how long my hair is getting! Almost to my butt-->yeah right

Some peeps enjoyin the grub

This is my bro chattin it up with his lova, jk, they're just friends, I love Ben and Karin's faces in the background.

It's the Ohio Crew! Some of the friends Randall grew up with

Once we started the White Elephant Gift Exchange, Dave picked first and chose the Victoria's Secret bag--he of course got a Jacob poster and LOVED it, I think it's actually hanging above his bed now..haha

Camille was soo happy to get this bright and colorful, as well as educational United States Map Puzzle! I think she went home and worked on it that night

Scott was sooo happy with his Where in the World in San Diego game...unfortunately, we stole it and its been added to our game collection...sorry Scott!

Karin was so impressed with the Wednesday Letters book, she read the synopsis on the back in a heart wrenching kind of voice way and pretty much fell in love with the book the moment she saw it...sadly, it was also stolen by a huge Wednesday Letters fan

This pic is classic b/c you catch Jake and Liz's facial expressions perfectly. They hate popcorn and that's what they opened..sad times! or Happy times for us b/c they left them at our house?

Bun was so excited to open weird DVDs and play dough..too bad it was stolen 2 seconds later

Tyler loved this picture of a butterfly or flower or something..can't really tell, I'm pretty sure he put it right next to their wedding pic on their shelf at home ;)

Funnily, that's a word? Humorously, Ben won this creepy doll statue and had to keep it in the end b/c honestly, who would steal this?

Anyway, after the fun and games of White Elephant, we attempted to play Kuponk--the white elephant game John ended up with--having to deal with bouncing a ball in the cup in weird ways and it was great :) We all had a grand time and I'm glad we could throw a fun party, even if it was a little cramped...

Yay for Parties Galore week!

Turkey Week

SO Turkey Weekend was great this year. We thought we would be stuck going to Mimi's Cafe on T Day because all of our relatives were going to Vegas, however, we ended up being invited by my awesome brother Royce and his wife Heather to spend it with her family so we did! Don't get me wrong, I think Mimi's is amazing and has some darn good food on Thanksgiving, but we were way more excited to spend it with family--even if we're not "blood" hahaha, Rhett? Anyway, it was great!! We headed to Salt Lake on Wednesday night and watched the Game Show Network b/c we love it and who doesn't? Then on Thursday, we got up and Heather and I made a chocolate pie and green bean casserole..she made most of the pie but it was fun cookin it up together! This green bean casserole was FAR better than the regular one you make, no joke! We chilled most of the day and then headed over to Heather's parent's house where we enjoyed lots of food and more food and played fun games and spent a great afternoon with Heather's family.

And then came Black Thursday (not Friday)....

Don't you worry, right after Heather's family's house, we went right over to the mall where we got the deals of a lifetime at GAP!! Of course the mall was way ridiculously over crowded and people were waiting outside of Gap to get in b/c there were already too many people in the store and they couldn't break fire code, BUT Randall waited 2 hours in line to check out!!! Ok, so you might be asking..um..Crystal..why didn't you wait in line???!? SO, I went to get hot cocoa and by the time I got back I would have had to wait in this huge long line to get in the store so I figured I would just go roam the mall and see what was going on....poor honey :( BUT it was well worth it and we got some AMAZING deals on nice pants--since I really needed them--and they were all HALF off!! Anyway, I was kinda done with shopping by then and was WAY tired by the time we got home--12:30 am...so we hit the hay and slept in! Randall got up at 7:45 am to get a few Christmas Presents for others but I was mostly done..

Later that day we went and saw Harry Potter 8 or whatever number its on and it was WEIRD! But..it was still good and Harry and Herminie need to get o! Anyway, that was a lot of fun and we then went to Tai Garden for dinner which was SOO good! We've been before but we always love eating Tai food. That night we headed to bed because we were SO excited to go to Arches National Park the next day!

Arches was wonderful!! We just did a day trip because we're not all intense hikers so 3-4 hours over there was plenty for us :) It was pretty cold in the shade but pretty nice in the sun...so overall the weather wasn't too shabby! The sites to see were SOO cool and I'll explain a little more below

Amazing! I think this looks like King Tritan's castle in Little Mermaid...but not underwater..obviously

us in front of Falling rock or rock on cliff or what was it called again?

Randall made me crack up in this pic..that's why my face is in the daaaark

Us in front of falling rock

Heather is so happy in this pic because she's realized how strong the tips of her fingers are

This is totally a leaning tower of pisa picture!

Right before we had this picture taken, our legs were cut off and now we're all little people

Ahh hon bon in front of a breath taking view

This is falling rock? maybe? I'm sorry i should remember the names of all these but most of the time we just made up the names of the rocks anyway..maybe that's why I don't remember..

Me right in front of Delicate Arch! I'm so close I can touch it! Ha, jk, we didn't do the long strenuous hike cuz we didn't need anyone passin out..BUT we went up to the look out point and we got some great pics..good enough, right?

Look at them classy brothas

It looks like Royce is at the pyramids or something..

We chilled on some rocks for lunch...the view was amazing

This, by far, is one of the coolest things at Arches! It's butt rock!! I don't know if its officially called that, but I think it may be because when I googled it, this pic came up since I didn't get to take an actual picture of it! Pretty amazing what these arches can look like..

I think this was window arch or something? I'm probably wrong....but I like the pic

Even though you can see us here, we just thought it was neat that we could practically be in the arch! go us!

Landscape Arch was an inspiration for me to go to Arches because it may not be around when my future kids are grown up! It's soo narrow..it's pretty much not going to be an arch in like 20 years..I am SO glad I got to see it..pretty much one of my favs.

Us in front of Landscape Arch--Royce looks like the unabomber

Overall, the weekend was a blast and I'm soo happy we got to do all that we did, Arches was truly a site to see and I was very grateful we had the chance to go. Yay for Thanksgiving 2010!