Secret Love

I LOVE mashed potatoes. A lot. Always have, always will. Whether they are going down my throat, or being spit out of my 31 year old sisters mouth in her "Potato Masher" imitation. (That one I only love because it's hilarious.) So the Willey is generous and gives all their employees 50 lbs of potatoes for Thanksgiving. Very giving of them and I appreciate it. However, I am a college student. What am I going to do with 50 lbs of potatoes? Donate them to Thanksgiving dinner with the Olpin's of course. But that will only get rid of a fraction of them. So I pick mine up and Brandon says, "Hey, while we're here, let's get mine too." So I currently have 100 lbs of potatoes in my trunk and we have no cluuuuue what we are going to do with the majority of them. Oye. If you have any great potato recipes, do tell, I plead.

Meanwhile, I made mashed potatoes pretty much by myself last night for the first time ever. I knew the basic ingredients and my roommates just kept an eye on me to make sure I didn't destroy them. Tegan provided some gravy which got through dinner but didn't make it to left overs, so I resorted to an old secret that I love...thus the title of this post. Green peas with mashed potatoes. It sounds nasty I know. But it's the next best way without gravy. Ta-duh!

(And I really am serious about any potato recipe you may have or a need for potatoes in your life.)

To Be As Clean As Earth Right After Rain

Yesterday morning I woke up to beautiful blue sunny skies with a fresh layer of snow on the ground. Possibly one of my favorite things to wake up to, it is just so pretty. I crawled out of my warm bed earlier than normal on a Saturday because we had a very special family event, my niece Jami Sue was getting baptized and I didn't want to be late.

We gathered in the chapel and the service began. She had asked my dad to give the talk on baptism. He went up and directed his talk to Jami and her best friend Kat, because they were able to be baptized on the same day (which brought back special memories because one of my best friends, Becky, and I were baptized together in November exactly 13 years ago). As my dad spoke I couldn't help but feel such great love for those around me. I had my family on every side of me and couldn't be happier. They are my favorite people to be with, I love them all so much.

Jami didn't stop smiling the whole time. She was washed by the cleansing waters of baptism and just like the primary song, she was "as clean as earth right after rain", and I couldn't help but think about that morning and how beautiful it was with the freshly fallen snow. She was so excited and even though she might not fully understand at this age the importance of what she did, she knew it was important and was happy to make the choice to covenant with our Heavenly Father and to enter The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

It was a great opportunity to reflect and think about how much this gospel means to me and it made me want nothing more than to stay true to the covenants that I have made and will make throughout my life. The Church is true and brings more joy to my life than I could have ever asked for.

Troy's whole family

Davy and Jami

Danielle, Jami and Troy

Jami and Troy

Me and Jami

Fall Festivities

Well...I think it is officially time to say good-bye to fall, and I have come to terms with it. But I have not blogged much with my recent activities so this is my final fall post.

One thing that has to happen in the fall is the corn maze at Thanksgiving Point. Not just for the maze, but also for all the fun carnival type things after. :D Brandon and I went and did the maze with his FHE family and had a great time.

We finished!!

Pumpkin Patch.

Another must for autumn is football. I haven't been able to go to many games, but I've made it to a few, which will have to do.

Best friends at the game

Me and my dad and brothers at the game!!!

Then a first for this fall was going to a haunted house. I don't typically go to haunted houses but I figured I'd try it and I actually had a good time. Brandon and I went to the haunted forest in American Fork. It was super creepy but we also had a lot of good laughs while we were there.

Our group at the Haunted Forest

Another fun thing I did is kind of a repeat, but for our family activity that Troy's family planned was the corn maze in West Jordan. It doesn't have all the extra's that Thanksgiving Point does, but we still had a lot of fun, I mean let's be honest, it's my entire family. When is that not going to be fun?

The whole fam at the corn maze.

And then there is of course Halloween. Which I love. A lot. Work was hilarious, we all dressed up and had some pretty awesome costumes. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera on me for the first time in a year, so the pictures are copied, but Katherine and I had awesome costumes.

Check it.

And then I just went home for the night and kicked it with my family. It was fun to be around the little kids and all the trick-or-treaters for the first time in a few years.

Rylee in her costume

Another fun thing that my family tried this year was caramel apples. They looked really festive but the caramel was SUPER hard. Brandon definitely burned his hand making his apple, but other than that, it was fun.

And then last night we just went to a couple stores because Monica and I felt like seeing each other because it has been months.

Me and Mona on the little Old Navy Bench

One Up This

Fact. Everybody hates getting one-upped. But let's be honest, we all one-up other people at certain moments in time. I have been working on getting better at trying not to one-up people, because I hate it when people do it to me. So when we watched this Brian Regan video at FHE tonight I was busting a gut (particularly because I only had two wisdom teeth pulled). I've seen it before but this guy just cracks me up all the time. So I figured I share the laughs with you and give you the rights to call me out if you ever catch me trying one-up. It's dumb. People shouldn't do it.

Preciate it

My last post was just a little note to Mother Nature pleading for a little more autumn time. And guess what? We got it. The last few days have been simply glorious weather wise. I was hot at one point even. I studied outside between tests on Monday and just took in the air that was as crisp as the leaves under my feet. Bliss. I love autumn. Thank you Mother Nature.