Jingle All the Way

We went to the Festivals of the Trees at the beginning of December. It was fun going around and seeing the trees and gingerbread houses etc.

My favorite tree... from UP!

My sister in laws made felt Christmas trees that turned out so cute.

We had a White Elephant party at the Pearsons. Santa came!

My hair was up like Little Cindy Lou Who but was falling by this point

Sunday Thoughts: Allowing Christ in our Lives

Christmas is in two weeks and it's a good idea to step back from everything and to see how much Christ has been the focus of your life. There is time this season and in our lives to do so much good and to reach out to others who need our help.

Black Friday Shopping :)

BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING!!!!!

It was a such a fun day. I had a few naps during Thanksgiving and was SOO tired when I got up at 3am. Nichole and I have had our master plan or a while and were excited to put it into action. She lives right by me so I picked her up and we were at the mall. We were going to Sears first but the line was huge and we couldn't wait to shop so we went to a few stores. Right at 4 (when Sears opened) we made sure to be inside at the huge opening and right when the store opened all of us ran in and we were in by 2 seconds.

We were about to wait in line for H&M but I'm glad we didn't because it was supposed to open at 5 but opened at 6. We waited in line for Sephora and ran in like crazy at 6am and got some of the $10 deals. We then went to H&M and the line to get in and the register was a joke. We went to some other stores after like BBB and Nordstrom Rack.

Yay, successful shopping day!!!! These are just Nicole's things. We got all of our Christmas shopping done so that was great. The day after Black Friday we put up our cute Christmas Tree and I had all gifts wrapped and under!!!! Of courses I remember a thing or two I still need to get, but still most everything has been taken care of. YAY!!

Mini Apple Pies

How cute!!! I made mini apple pies a few weeks ago and they were delicious, I liked the recipe and it was a lot easier than I thought.

Recipe to make 8 mini pies:

2 medium apples cut in small pieces

3T flour

1/3 c sugar

1t cinnamon

butter on top

Full Recipe:

6-8 medium apples cut in small pieces

12T flour

1 1/2 c sugar

4 heaping teaspoons of cinnamon

1/4-1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg (or you could leave it out)

4T of chilled butter cut into 24 equal portions

I've only made the smaller recipe and added everything together and put the butter on top.

I used Pillsbury Pie Crust and used a lid of a mason jar to cut out the crust to fit in a muffin tin.

I placed the uncooked pie crust in the muffin tins then filled it all the way with the apple ingredients, then put butter on the top, and some leftover scraps of the pie crust on top. Baked at 350 degrees for 13-16 min.
Yummy!!! Ice Cream with it made it delicious.

Thanksgiving Time

First of all, Black Friday was a big success (I'll blog about that later) but I wanted to say what a great Thanksgiving we had. We spent time with Chris' family and had so much fun talking to mine on the phone. We stuffed our faces, watched movies and football, and had a great time.

There is so much to be grateful for.

Our health, our families, a full fridge, roof over our heads, work, a bed, safety, our cars, the gospel, The Book of Mormon, a free country, a great ward, kind neighbors and friends, opportunities to do good, warm coats, etc.

We have so many things, we need to always show appreciation to the Lord and give to others not just during the holiday season but all year round.

Sunday Thoughts: Chris

No matter what, we have been given so much. Sometimes it might be harder to be grateful, but we are so blessed and have so much more than most of the people on Earth. We need to recognize our blessings and always be thankful for what we have. There is always something to be grateful for.

Something I am so grateful for is my wonderful husband. This week has been difficult and he has been so kind and thoughtful to me and has praised me with compliments and kind words as he always does, but this week they were something that I really needed. We had friends come over for FHE and our lesson was on gratitude. Chris told them the things he was grateful for and said that how "God has blessed [him] so much because He gave me Elise". I still am teary-eyed over that one when I think about it. He is such a great example to me, he is always pushing me in the right direction and helping me not to give up, he has helped me have a greater perspective of things and has helped me increase my faith in our Heavenly Father. He does so much for me and others and always has something so kind to say and to pick me up.

When that couple was over last week, my friend said she couldn't think of anything she was good at or any gifts she had. Chris stepped up and complimented her saying how she is such a kind person and how she was the first to become my friend in the ward and welcome me in. Chris is an example to me of how we need to look for the good in others and there are so many good things in everyone and we should let them know.

We have gone to the temple so many times this year and have our goals in different aspects of our life. Our goals help our priorities stay in place and help us grow even closer to eachother and to Heavenly Father. He is such a great man, I love him so much and I am so glad we are sealed together FOREVER!!!!

Make sure this holiday season to tell your loved ones how much you love them