Flip flops to shoe...Warm sun to cold snow...

Yes in fact as you may have guessed it, Adam and I went down yet again to warm, sunny Arizona. We went down for his cousin, Janessa's wedding reception. She got married on 12/31/2009 in the San Diego Temple, Adam and I could not afford to go to both the wedding and the reception so we decided to go to Arizona. We left last Wednesday and drove through the night, after I got off work, we left at 8pm and got to Mesa, Arizona at 8am. It was a long drive, normally it does not take us that long to get there.....but we hit the snow storm in Beaver and ended up going 30-35mph on a 20 mile stretch through the Canyon. Then we both got really tired and could not stay up any longer, so we took a power nap of 40 mins. It's awesome what a power nap will do.
For those of you who have never eaten at Nelson's Frozen custard...You should go right now. They have one in Bountiful, Salt Lake City, and St. George...The best one though is in Mesa Arizona. I felt so guilty while down there I had one every day and on Saturday(our last day there) I had TWO! TWO...can you believe it...but to be fair one was a small and the other was a normal size.
The Reception was wonderful, Adam and I help set up for it and it took us 3 hours...Lets just say I should not have worn my high heel boots during that time...My feet were killing me after we got back at 10pm. One thing I loved about her wedding was her gift table. It was under a tree, and we hung all different kinds of bird cages in the tree. It looked awesome and I was not smart enough to take a picture of it. Darn me.
Ha Ha I almost forgot the best part of Arizona..besides being with family...the Fruit...I love the fruit we get while we're down there and we get to pick it of the trees ourselves(since Adam's family has the fruit trees in their back yards)...we got oranges, Lemons, and Grapefruit.

our yummy oranges

You may not be able to tell, but this lemon is BIG...it's about 5.5inches

Our lemons, and grapefruit

On our way home we stopped by the cliff Dwellers(at lease that's what they call it.) This lady back in the 20's car broke down and she loved the area so much that she later bought it and build her house around the rocks that had fallen.

Adam standing in front of the ladies house that she build around the rock

Back side of the house

Me sitting on a very cold rock...and behind me is the outhouse

Who wants ice cream?

Different rocks...the one in the middle looks like a nose to me.

Adam being Adam

I think he's hiding from the rock monsters

Yesterday was Adam's birthday...I can't believe he is 26 years old now.

It was really nice because I had the day off to get everything ready. I cleaned, cooked, and wrapped presents. Since Adam already got his big present at Christmas(His shotgun) He got a couple of small gifts...Scrubs season on DVD, awesome cuff links, Bedtime stories on DVD, oh and his favorite Dr. Pepper(but this time it was the new Dr. Pepper made with Real Sugar). His birthday dinner was small, but that's because we are going to Ruby River on Friday with his brothers and his sister. Last year you may remember the gun cake I made for him, well this year was not too exciting, I made him better than sex cake. Everyone loved it, which I'm happy about since it was my first time making it. I love Adam so much, and would do anything for him. I hope you had a wonderful birthday my Love.

TOday...

TOday is my wonderful sister in law's baby shower. She is having a baby girl sometime with in the next 4 weeks! I'm so excited...I have decided that it is really hard when buying things for family members....why you may ask...because I want to buy so much! There are way too many things that I could buy. I ended up making a Diaper cake, if you have not made one before there are very fun to do.

The front view

The headbands my mom made for me, and the bows I made.

Things I got for her..Shoes, med giver thing, a nursing cover(it's the brown and polka dot thing).
Lotion, bum powder

The cute outfit I got for her

I'm so excited for Alli and Jon...Both Adam and I can't wait to met Little Alli.

Christmas TIME...Warning...Picture overload.

So Christmas was a blast! I just loved watching Adam open his presents...the best one was him opening his Gun( I got him a Remington 870 home defense shotgun), and then opening his bullet shaped cuff links.(if you didn't know Adam loves cuff links, he is always wearing them to church)




Since we had to be at his parents house at nine we woke up at 7:20 and opened our presents from each other, I am so grateful for Adam. He listened to what I wanted and got it for me. I got a ring to wear to work-because I don't wear my wedding ring to work, due to the fact that I once had a diamond come lose and had to get it tightened again-I really don't want to lose my diamonds. I got cooling racks, a wonder bra from Victoria secret-I love it-, pants, Scrubs season 1 on DVD, candy, and other stuff I can't remember at the moment.

He's getting so excited to open his presents

Yesterday was my Dixon Christmas Party, I love going and spending time with them. We had lots of fun, we went sledding with the cousins. Adam and I have not gone sledding with each other before, and it was a blast. We went to a ladies house that lives by my aunt in Bountiful, who decorates her house for Christmas and goes all out for it. It takes her 2.5 months to do it all. There is a Christmas village that she has and it takes her two weeks just to put that all together. The have so many Christmas trees that I have lost count. Every room has one in it, and even the bathrooms a decorated. Every time you walk into a room you get a different smell. This lady has been doing it for 30 years now. I just can't imagine doing that every year.

Every year during our Christmas party each family does something to add to our Christmas program, besides just having a nativity. This year Adam read a book that his Grandma would read to them every Christmas Eve. It's called, "The Cat on the Dovrefill". All the little kids enjoyed the story, my cousins mouthed a song while using the lips as the mouth, and their chin as the nose and head. It was pretty funny to watch them do it.

Adam making a pose before going down the hill

The boys racing(left to right: Roscoe, Adam, Jacob, Ricky)

Me taking a picture of me

Us sledding for the first time as a married couple

Adam reading the story

This is the quilt that my mom is making for my brother who is in the army, she is almost done with it, and then we can send it off to be quilted. Everyone in my family helped make the blocks for it. I did the two of them, one is the 3rd from the left and 4 down. The other one I did is the bottom right corner.

(Left to right: Savanna, Rebecca, and Jessica) Sing their hearts out

This is at the ladies Christmas house. She made a village in her window above the sink.

I only took pictures of two of the Christmas tree, this one has the village under it. That takes two weeks to build.

Other side of the village

Christmas tree at the top of the stairs

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.


Just a note to my Wonderful Aunt, Here is the recipe for the White Chili I made:
Ingredients:
1lb. Boneless, skinless chicken breasts. (cute into 1/2" cubes.
1 medium onion, chopped
1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 Tbsp. Veg. oil(or canola)
2 Cans(15 oz each) Great Northern Beans. Rinsed and drained
1 Can (14 oz) Chicken broth( I use bullion cubes and make two cups worth)
1 Can (4 oz) chopped green chilies
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. Oregano
1/8-1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper( I do 1/8)
1 C. Sour cream
1/2 C. Whipping cream
In large pan, saute chicken, onion and garlic powder in oil until chicken is no longer Pink. Add beans, broth, chilies, and other seasonings(besides the sour cream and whipping cream). Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 30 mins.Uncovered(I put my stove at low) After that add in Sour cream and Whipping cream.
For the batch that I made for the party I made 1 and a half batches of it. Hope you enjoy it.

Tis' the Season...

Tis' the Season to be Jolly and Joyous...
It really is the Season of joy and happiness. I love this time of year because it's when you start to make tons of goodies to give to neighbor and friends. Adam and I started last year by making bread for our neighbors(because we were poor newly weds, and we still are poor), and each of them love Adam's bread. So there was no way we were going to get out of NOT making the bread this year. Over the weekend our bananas looked about right and we make 6 lofts of banana nut bread. We also make 2 batches of home make caramels! I love making them, I got the recipe from my wonderful Grandma Dixon. It's one you do in the microwave, but it taste just as good as any other recipe you do on the stove with out the mess of it.
Another thing I love about this time of year is putting up the Christmas tree and wrapping presents...Yes I did say I love wrapping presents. I loved it before I got married and would wrap presents for my mom. Then I got married and Adam wanted to get REAL ribbon to put on the presents. I tell you what, it makes the presents look that much better. I love making the presents look pretty.

Don't get me wrong I know Christmas isn't about the gift and that. I know we need to remember the true meaning of Christmas. Next week in Nursery we get to teach the children about the true meaning of Christmas and tell them the story of the nativity. I can't wait, I just hope that they are in a good mood that day and are not running around driving me nuts.


Merry Christmas to you all!

It was a good Saturday

Yesterday was such a great Saturday. I got to sleep in with Adam til 9 o'clock, which never really happens. If you have ever heard of "For Every Body Outlet"-which is in Lindon. Every year around Thanksgiving they have a sale and you can get candles that are normally 6 dollars and up for like 2.50. My mom and I go every year, I always have to get the blackberry tart. It smells so so good. I love going there every year with my mom, and there is always so much I want to get but I have to limit myself so I don't spend a ton of money. ha ha I'm sure you all know how that is.

My sister-in-law is having a baby is February and I keep thinking of stuff that I could get her. Well I decided I really like Korker ribbon bows. So I search how to make them and I did it last night. I love making craft stuff! I think they turned out so good, and I could not stop making them. I even made more when I got home from church, because I decided they would make great Christmas gifts.

Three of the different ones I made last night.

Here is all the ones I made last night. I don't have pictures of the ones I did today.

layoffs, and babysitting.

This weekend has been a little busy but full of fun for Adam and I. Just to rewind a little...last week Adam's brother Jon told him that Goodfellow(who Adam works for) was going to have layoffs soon. We didn't think it was actually going to happen because they have said it before and it never happens. Well they did they layoff 4 people in the shop, which now leave 4. Adam was not of them to get layoff, which I am so happy! Now that there is only 4 people in the shop Adam will be a little bit more busy at work.

Yesterday while I was at work my sister in law Dacie called me to see if we could watch her little girl Jocilynn. Of course we said yes, so from 5:30-9:30 we watched her while Dacie was at work. Dacie said that she had not had a nap that day and would probably fall asleep right after dinner...Boy she was wrong. She stayed up the whole time she was with us, we even pretended to be asleep in hopes that she would fall asleep....any who, we again watch her today. Surprise!...Darcie said that she did not sleep very well, I'm thinking it's Adam's fault because he kept being the nice uncle who gives kids candy. I kept hoping she was going to fall asleep all morning, but she didn't. Then 2 o' clock rolls and around and she wasn't playing like she normally would with us. So I picked her up and started to cuddle with her, and about 1-2 mins later she was out. YES! yahoo! I'm so happy she is taking a nap, maybe she will stay asleep til her mom gets here.

Well that's just a little update of our weekend. Now it's off to finishing laundry, and watching the horrible snow fall on my lawn. Bring on the cold!

The Birthday Cake

First off the only cake that I am really good at making is cheese cake. I have only make one other cake since being married and that was Adam's birthday cake that I made back in January...and my was the one who helped me make it. Anyway on with the story of the birthday cake...

.... So I was not going to put the cake I made for my niece Brielle's birthday. Only because it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to. I had this great idea of what I wanted it to look like, which we all know when we do that, something always has to go wrong. Which it DID! Sunday I was frosting it and it just kept falling apart, and there ended up having cake bites in the frosting. Then I ran out of frosting, so I had to hurry and make some more, luckily I had an extra thing of cream cheese in the fridge. Then the frosting just was not doing what I wanted and I got to the point that I just gave up and left the room, and my wonderful husband finished frosting the cake for me. Which I am so happy for, because if he didn't I would have thrown the whole thing out and just went to store and got one. When I came back to finish the cake the tail part of the ghost was now starting to fall off. I couldn't take it any more. I wanted the cake to look so good, just because I was making it for someone I love.
Well I finished it, and I still was not happy at all how it turned out. I thought everyone would hate it, but I got just he opposite reaction from everyone. THEY LOVED IT! Brielle even told me she wanted to eat the head...and she did.
Adam come up with the boo-day part. As you can see the left arm is now falling off, but everyone loved it. It was a three layer cake...bottom:chocolate, middle: orange( I used food coloring), and the told layer was green(also done by food coloring and it was the layer that started all the problems.)