Trees are cool.

We had a moment a few weeks ago... it was the, "Holy crap, we're adults" moment. This happened when we drove to a lot, bought our very own tree, hurled it on top of the car, lugged it inside, wrapped tiny lights around it, and hung glittery balls from its branches. This shouldnt be anything new, being as this is our second Christmas together as a married couple... However, last year, living on the top floor of our apartment complex, and being ridiculously busy with multiple jobs, and school..... we didnt get a tree. We did have a nice tree scented candle though. So that helped. But THIS YEAR! We did not wimp out. No, no, no. In fact, Spencer was so thrilled with his "Im a man" moment, that he insisted I document it. This is rarely done. So I am very excited to share with out our Adult Evening.

This is our Tree, its a miracle it fit on top of our car! But we were prepared with blankets, and tie downs.

Once we brought it inside and filled the tree stand with sugar water, which the hubs is convinced that makes the tree stay alive for a really really long time, it looked like this:

YAY!! how exciting! Now from here on out was my favorite part. I was brainwashed by my mother in thinking that having 5-8 light strands on one tree is perfectly fine.. in fact, its normal. Ha. Well I was wrong. Spencer only let us have 3.... and he still thinks thats a lot. (he'll come around eventually) So this is our finished tree. All lit up and decorated!! With the stockings made by my dear mama-in-law!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Birthday Bash!

Happy Birthday to me! Happy Birthday to me! Happy Birthday to Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!
I had a WONDERFUL birthday weekend!!!! Spencer is such a great husband, and I just love him so much!! I spent the day lounging and relaxing, my wonderful mother took me out to lunch (girl time! ) And then Spencer and I headed up to Salt Lake to meet up with some friends. We did a little shopping, then went to dinner at Tucanos! Yum, hu? I mean, who doesnt like endless meat, and grilled pineapple?! I know I sure do. 

After dinner we headed over to Temple Square to see the lights! I absolutely LOVE this time of year, and especially all the Christmas lights found everywhere... but I must admit, Temple Square does it best. They definitely know what they're doing, and as usual, it was gorgeous! We went on a Saturday night, so unfortunately, we were totally eaten alive. The gobs of people there.. it was unbelievable! I now have a glimpse of what Joseph Smith felt like when he was in the middle of a mob. I swear if Spencer wasnt standing directly behind me as a shield, I would have been trampled, and left for dead. Note to self: never go on a Saturday night. I dont even know if I'll be brave enough for Friday night!! Im thinking Tuesday. That should be a calm mild evening. We'll shoot for Tuesday night next time. However, we did have fun, and I always love seeing the Temple all lit up at night. The phrase "Look and Live" would definitely apply here as well. Sometimes I wish I could live on Temple Square. Now, obviously that is not possible, because then I'd be a bum.... and Im not. At least not on a normal occasion. But back to my original comment, its just so beautiful!

Seriously, who WOULDNT want to live in a castle?

I saw someone comment on a picture of the Salt Lake Temple one time and this is what they said, "Wow, that is BEAUTIFUL!! Is that a castle or a church?!"

Is that a castle or a church? Well, sweetie, its kind of both. Its a Temple. 

And this is what it looks like in December, with Christmas lights.

Isnt that beautiful?!

We had a blast walking around with our friends Chad and Kristin. Chad had NEVER been to see the lights, so this was a new experience for him!! And of course, we were all laughing our heads off, because when with the Roschers, thats all you can do!

Mawaige. Mawaige is what bwings us togebah today.

On November 19, 2011
Britni Smith, my dear sweet sister, joined forces with the one and only Timoteo Guillermo Ponce.
(its his true name. look it up.)
In the Salt Lake Temple they were sealed for time and all eternity! Mr. and Mrs Ponce looked ravishingly beautiful, as any newly married couple should. The day was full of smiles, and laughter. (and a few tears... but only the happy kind)
We began the day by waking up at 7:30ish to do everyone's hair...(poor girls at the Smith home didnt get to bed until after 2am.) Unfortunately some of the babies decided to spread some weird sickness about and we also woke up to a crying 2yr old who had just barfed in the crib. Perfect way to start a wedding day. So after much gagging and more aerosol spray than I could possibly begin to describe, we were all fresh and clean and ready to go!
While in the process of doing the Bride's hair, I was introduced to garlic scrambled eggs.. now, that look that you have on your face right now, I had the same one. However, my motto is Dont Knock It Til You Try It! So, I had a teeny tiny itsy bitsy little bite, and VAVOOM! I was hooked. These eggs are to DIE for! They totally changed my world when it comes to breakfast foods. Garlic eggs and toast with a tomato avocado spread? mmmmm. Im salivating at the mouth as I type. But really though, you should try them.
Once the Bride was all glammed up she took off with her mother dearest while I stayed to do two more heads of hair before running off to do two more! I guess thats one good thing about having a beautification lady in the family, you never have to go to a salon again. (my niece calls me "the beautification lady")
The Temple was gorgeous as it always is, and the couple was stunning. Pictures were freezing, but we all froze a smile to our faces and giggled at how loud our chattering knees were. Its always fun to have a family member getting married because it seems like during the family pictures there is always some child running amok. This case was no different, we had children running through dirt and splashing in water. Thankfully there were no flowers to destroy because they were preparing for the snow that we still havent received. After pictures were all over we parted ways to grab food and meet at the reception. Everyone in Brit's family except for Spencer and I went to the Lion House for Lunch/Dinner. We had to drive around to find gas first before we puttered to a pitiful end on the freeway towards Thanksgiving Point. In this way, we totally lucked out! For two reasons,
1. All but one who ate at Lion House recieved food poisoning!
2. Britni's sister Jen actually DID putter to a pitiful end RIGHT on the freeway. poor thing.
There are always a few mishaps at weddings, nothing to serious, just things to laugh about after the occasion is over. The reception was held at the Thanksgiving Point Garden Room. It was BEAUTIFUL!  There were more photos, and a line, of course. There was also an ice cream bar, which I have to admit, was one of the highlights of the night. Throughout the course of the evening, we realized that no one had been dubbed the "get-away car destroyer". There was pandemonium for a few brief seconds until we asked the staff if they had any cool whip, saran wrap, and weird candies we could throw on their car. They said yes, and we went off to destroy...... however. we were not aware that in freezing cold temperatures, cool whip... melts. You read that right. It M.E.L.T.S. One would think the effect would be just the opposite, right? Well, you're wrong. And Im glad to be the one to educate you on this, even though I wish someone would have educated me, and then we would have used lip stick instead. BUT it didnt happen that way, so in the middle of our decorating we noticed that all of our "work" was sliding down the windows!! We thought fast, and secured the whole thing with saran wrap. In the end, it looked pretty bad, but it was fun.
I am so very very happy for my little sister!! Married life rocks! And Im also glad to now have Tim in the family, he's funny and witty and they're absolutely perfect together!

Happy Wedding Day Mr. and Mrs. Ponce!

New Etsy account = a WINNER!!

I dont know who even looks at this blog, but if you have seen my blog then you might know that I sometimes make little designs on baby onesies. I recently made a Harry Potter halloween costume out of two baby onesies for my dear friend Kayla. And in return, she helped me set up an etsy account! However, I am very new at this whole etsy selling thing, so she's helping me. 

(depending on what gender they would like, I have some boy onesies, and some girl onesies)

Good luck everyone!!!

Primary Program

I am currently the teacher for the 8yr old primary class, they are adorable! And for the primary program this year I brought these treats. The kids loved them, and they were SOO easy to make!

I just drew out the CTR shape with a permanent marker onto some wax paper, then placed melting chocolates into a Ziplock bag and piped it out. So simple. When its dry just peel off and place on top of green frosting.

Halloween "Booing"

Spencer and I were able to watch our cousin's kids or a weekend while they were in Vegas for the Ragnar. They have four BEAUTIFUL girls! Thats right, I said G.I.R.L.S! Anyone who knows Spencer, probably knows that he wants only boys. 4 boys would be perfect to him, so watching 4 girls... well we thought it might be a tad bit of a challenge. However, he handled it beautifully!! I think that was God's way of telling him he'd be fine with only girls. Especially because we can only ever agree on girl names! It took us two years to come up with a single boy name that we both kind of, sort of liked. (I like to tease him about that) Anyway, we had a BLAST with these girls! We played loads of games, made adorable owl cupcakes, and went to the Spookapalooza at the Expo Center. I only got to take pictures of the cupcakes with my camera, everything else is on Nancy's camera. So I'll show you our cupcakes that we made, but otherwise just imagine lots of duct tape roses on pens, face painting, jump houses,  and Spencer playing baseball in the back yard... with girls. :)

Bring on the tunes!!!

These are going to be CONSTANTLY playing throughout the next two months.. with a few others mixed in.

If you are about to tell me that I am skipping a holiday, I assure you, I am not. There simply arent any classic Thanksgiving songs that I care to listen to. (including Adam Sandler's rendition.) So, I am just lumping Thanksgiving/Christmas together! And I just so happen to LOVE Christmas music. Sometimes I listen to it in June. Dont hate. If you think Im crazy.... just be glad you dont live with me. :)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!!

(Im so happy we can start saying that!)

Halloween fun!

Our Halloween festivities started out with pumpkin carving at Sam and Jen's with all the nephews and nieces. (Kylie isnt the only girl cousin in Utah anymore! Thanks Reagan!) Everyone had a blast! Gabe invested in my help for his pumpkin.. to say that this kid is obsessed with the Vikings would be a HUGE understatement. I mean HUGE. So these were his pumpkins... 

awesome right?

And this was my inspired pumpkin for this year... it didnt turn out how I'd hoped.. maybe next year.

Also, my dear friend Kayla has a new little bundle of Joy in her home this year!! Dont get me wrong here, he's almost 3 months old.... but he JUST came home last week, so we are SO happy that he's doing well!! You can read his story here. But he is seriously such a doll!! And his darling mother is incredibly just a tad bit obsessed with all things Harry Potter. So of course, with the new one in tow, she wanted to be the whole clan. Harry, Hermione, and Malfoy. She asked me to make Stetzyn's Harry Potter Halloween costume, I was SO excited! So this is what we came up with.

Isnt he just the cutest?
Anyway, Kayla's going to help me set up an etsy account, so if anyone wants a personalized, one of a kind onesie for your kiddos, hit me up!! And have a happy Halloween!!!
(Also, be expecting LOADS of cupcake pictures to be popping up on  here... we barely had any trick-or-treaters, so now we are dealing with candy overload! .... who wants some cupcakes?!)

Not a leftovers eater?? Now you will be.

For all of you who know Spencer, you know he is NOT a leftovers fan. Like, not at all. He hates microwaving ANYTHING but popcorn, and even then, he prefers the air popped kind. (too bad you cant air pop kettle corn) However, I found this lovely recipe online the other day and decided to give it a try, we both love chicken, and we love rice, win win right? Well it turns out that this recipe makes WAY MORE than we eat in one evening. It fills a WHOLE 9x13 glass pan. And I mean FILLS. Awesome. Im thinking to myself. I'll eat this for lunch for the next two days then I'll have to throw it away because I'll be so sick of it. HA! Boy was I wrong. Its been two days since I made it, and I havent had a single bite for lunch yet, so today I thought I'd pull it out and have a bit. there was only a tiny corner left!! Spencer had eaten the whole thing in two days!
Shocked, I just stared for a while. Dang, this must be one heck of a meal.
So, for all of you NON-leftovers eaters, Im giving you something new to try.
Also, I really like putting a (pre-sliced!!!!!) slice of cheddar cheese on top of mine after heating it up, and then zapping it for a few more seconds so the cheese melts all over.

mmmmmmm.. cheesy goodness!!
ENJOY!

best thing since sliced bread??

I have decided that the NEW best thing since sliced bread is....

PRE-SLICED CHEESE!!! Oh man, I can not even tell you how much time this saves me! And I know that this is nothing new, there has always been pre-sliced cheese... but it was always that gross fake kind that tasted like plastic. You know the one Im talking about. anyway, I am thrilled to find that Tillamook sliced cheese is always at my closest grocery store now! Thank you for pre-slicing my cheese Tillamook. :) I love you.