New Years Eve 2010

For New Years Eve we got together with Andrew & Jessica and Brandon & Kim and had a fondue party. We had so much food, but it was all so good. We each choose a sauce and then brought the stuff to dip in it. Jessica did the caramel sauce and Kim did the chocolate sauce. We brought two cheese sauces and at the last minute I made a Strawberry sauce too. Andrew made a Sausage dip that was so good. All the food was so good!

For the cheese sauce we had:

French bread cut into cubes

Broccoli

Cauliflower

Celery

Carrots

Chips

For the caramel, chocolate and strawberry sauce we had:

Pretzels

Apples

Bananas

Angel food cake

Pound Cake

Rice krispies (that Kim cut into cute stars!)

Cheese cake

Cream puffs

Several kinds of marshmallows

Gummy Bears

Raspberries

Donut Holes

Then the men had Lil Smokies and Elk steak so they could eat real food. 

 I blogged the recipes I used for my sauces on my cooking blog HERE. 

After dinner we hooked up the Wii's and started playing. Everyone (but me) played Guitar Hero. I thought it looked hard so I hooked up the second Wii and played Mario Cart while watching them play their game. Josh liked Guitar Hero, but it was a lot of work for him to finally be able to get through one song. 

 Kim thought it was easier if she held it like a violin. 

 Blowing in the New Year. Welcome 2011.

 We ended up staying until 2 AM; we were having so much fun! It was so cold when we left (-15) that my car wouldn't start. Luckily we had drove down separately because I had to work for an hour and Josh didn't want to go grocery shopping with me. So we drove home in the truck. I can't remember the last time we stayed up so late for New Years. I can't wait until we get together again. 

Winter Kits

I did the Jingle kit several weeks ago, but as I put it away today, I realized I never blogged about it. 

 I made the winter kits a few weeks ago, but I just got the snowtex put on yesterday. I was going to put it on at craft night, but it takes several hours to harden and I didn't want it to get scraped or bumped when I took it home. I also tried to bling it up by sprinkling glitter on top. 

 Thanks again Idea Closet for some super cute kits!

Menu Boards

This fall Kim, Jessica and I saw these super cute menu boards at the Holly Fair. The Holly Fair is our area's version of a craft/sales boutique. I usually go most years and look around, but rarely buy anything because I usually think I can make the stuff I like myself. Most years I don't follow through on. I was really struggling with ideas for what to buy my best friends for Christmas, then I remembered the menu boards and thought I would try them. I bought all of the stuff and was ready to make them, but then I started to stress over choosing the best paper that would meet their personalities. So I told my friends about the gift and offered to make it for them, or if they wanted we could get together and make them together. I'm so glad they choose the get together. Not that the boards are that hard to make, but just because I love getting together with them.

We were going to make them a few days before Christmas, but the weather turned nasty and I ended up having to spend a night at Jessica's because Josh was pretty sure I'd never make it home. So that meant all of the stuff we needed was at home and we had to cancel. But last night we were able to get together. It was so much fun.

We all thought it was pretty cool that we all had the same basics, and yet each board is different. I brought SEVERAL Close to My Heart paper packets to choose paper from and then my 8 Cricut cartridges. We each choose different paper and different fonts. I was the only one to choose brown vinyl. Jessica started with some super CUTE damask paper, but it was too dark so she traded out for something else. She is hoping to find new damask paper that isn't so dark so she can get it to better match her kitchen. I was going to use the cowboy themed paper from the Sarsaparilla paper kit, but I grabbed the wrong package and it didn't have enough paper in it. So I choose something else. I'm still deciding if I want to change it out or not. The kit I love is a little dark and I'm not sure if it will work or not. I'll experiment with it one of these days.

The boards are pretty simple to put together. We started with some pictures frames, I had brought 11x17 frames. We disassembled the frames and cleaned the glass. We later learned that cleaning the glass first is pointless, because you will have to clean it later. After choosing our paper (we needed 2 matching sheets of 12x12 paper) we had to cut them to size and try to make the seam disappear. The board I made last week was so much easier to line up because there wasn't so much to the design. I had to retape my paper 3 times before the lines matched up perfectly.

Then we each choose our fonts and cut the words out on vinyl using my Cricut. I've had my Cricut for YEARS, but I don't use it often so it was fun to learn how to do vinyl. The one thing I wish I had taken the time to figure out was how to flip the letters so they printed backwards. Then we could have put them on the underside of the glass instead of the top. I have my Cricut book found and I will be reading up on it this weekend. On the board I made last week I think I went with 1-1/2 inches on the words, but these boards were a little bigger so we did 2 inches. After cutting the vinyl we put it on the transfer paper, lined it up on the glass and applied it. Then we cleaned the glass again and put the picture frames back together. They turned out so cute!

 Jessica's Menu

 Randi's Menu

 Kim's Menu

 My Menu

Josh's 29th Birthday

Josh turned 29 yesterday. I wasn't able to get the day off, but I still tried to make it a fun day for him. Before I left for work I let him open one of his presents, the newest Cabela's hunting game for Wii. He has tried to buy it several times now and I had to keep stopping him because it was hiding under his brother's bed. So he was able to play his game yesterday and just relax.

Then last night we went to his parents for dinner. His mom is such a great cook so we talked her into dinner so I wouldn't have to cook after working all day. I was a little bit late getting home, so as soon as I got home we went to his parents for dinner. His mom made a chuck roast that was wrapped in bacon. It was so YUMMY! I have learned that our dinners at home are quite boring. Dinner with his family is always full of laughter, usually over funny stories of stupid things we've all done in years past. Preston cracked me up. He didn't want any meat so he took it all off of his plate. Then there was a battle over a butter knife. When he found another one, his attitude just cracked me up! The towards the end of dinner he suddenly wanted meat on his plate. I just love those little guys. 

After dinner we took the cake and ice cream and cherry chocolate cake down to Josh's grandpa's. It takes a while to light a cake with 29 candles, especially if they get blown out a few times before you are ready.

After eating cake we went back to the house so Josh could open the rest of his presents from me.

He received:

The 2011 Wii Cabela's hunting game with a gun that has a scope

A new CD case for his truck

2 Call of Duty games for the Wii

A subscription to Bugle Magazine

A new vest and a hat to keep his bald head warm.

It was a wonderful day. Now in two weeks we get to do it again for my birthday. :)

Blogger is being difficult and I can't get my pictures in the order I want so they are just kind of jumbled together.

I think that look is him telling me "Why didn't I get this for Christmas? You know how much I wanted it."

 

Your cake is on FIRE!

Tyler gives the chocolate cake 2 fingers up. And a fork. And a spoon. And an ice cream cone. He'll eat it anyway he can.

I love all I'm starting to get similar pictures of Ally and Buddy. I have pictures of each of them climbing the screen door. The below picture reminds me of him hiding under the recliner when he was little.

Happy Birthday Josh

Happy Birthday to the most amazing man ever.

Christmas Card 2010

This year I was able to find another great deal on Christmas cards. Seehere.com ran a promotion of 50 4x6 cards (with envelopes) for FREE. I only had to pay $5 for shipping! They did the sale later this year so I only got the cards a week before Christmas. Then I decided to include a family letter so it was 2 days before Christmas before I got them mailed.