More Celebrating

To celebrate my birthday with my Bestie, Andrea, we went to Islands for lunch. YUM! After lunch, we hurried over to the movie theater and saw Burlesque. It was better than I thought. I had read reports that Christina Aguilera did horrible acting, but I thought she did pretty good for her first movie. The part I liked the best was the music.... AMAZING!

To finish off the birthday celebrating, we are going to dinner at Knollwood's then heading over to Cinema City to see Disney's Tangled. I am so excited to see this movie. I have been looking forward to this movie all year.

Birthday Celebration 1 & Disneyland

This year I turned the big 24! For those that know me, know that I like to celebrate my birthday. We celebrated the week of Thanksgiving with my family. Then on Friday we had lunch at Club 33 in Disneyland. After lunch we spent the rest of the day with our good friends and Disneyland buddies, Mike and Katie. We had so much fun!

Jared and I in front of Club 33.

Jared, Me, Blake, Rachel & Chloe

Haunted Mansion: Nightmare Before Christmas

Christmas Balls in California Adventures

California Screamin'

Space Mountain

Disneyland Christmas Tree

Disneyland Castle

Baby Mortenson's Blanket

I made this blanket for Baby Mie Mortenson. Whitney wanted a pink and brown blanket and I thought it would be fun and different to do hot pink and brown. I am so happy with how this one turned out.

Thanksgiving 2010

For Thanksgiving we ate at my grandparents house. It was so yummy! I think I ate my weight in Thanksgiving food. Jared's Nona came to dinner with us, along with my grandma's sister-in-law and her cousin from Danville, IL. We played some games and watched Toy Story 3 in their new theater room. It was such and nice and relaxing day.

Our Thanksgiving Spread!

There are so many things that I am thankful for...

I am so grateful for my wonderful husband, Jared. He is the best husband in the whole world. I am so grateful for everything that he does for our family. I am grateful that he puts up with all of my craziness and my Disneyland obsession. You are my best friend and I love you with all my heart. I am so grateful for these wonderful past 2 1/2 (almost 3) years of marriage, and I look forward to many, many more years.

I am grateful for my amazing family. They are always there when I need them. I love that we live close to both of our families. I love my in-laws. I had heard horror stories about people who dont get a long with their in-laws and I am so grateful for mine. They are so great and have always made me feel like part of the family.

I am grateful for my job. I love that I have a stable job to help provide for my family. I am grateful that I work with both my dad and my little brother. I love all of the people that I work with and I love that I have known most of them since I was a little girl.

I am grateful for my membership in the church. I love that no matter how hard things may seem, I can always turn to my Heavenly Father for help. I am grateful for my church callings. I love my Activity Day Girls and I love teaching in the Relief Society... even though the teaching gives me anxiety sometimes.

I am grateful for my best friend, Andrea. I dont know where I would be without her. She has helped me through some tough times and stuck by my side. She is always someone that I can call when I need to vent. She is my bestest girl friend!

New Cousin

Jared's aunt had a little one last week. I made this blanket about a month ago and I am finally posting the picture.

San Diego Trip

For Halloween weekend, we decided that we needed a little vacation. Over the summer we purchased a membership to the San Diego Zoo. It had been a very long time since I had been to any kind of zoo so I was so excited. After work on Friday we went to a hockey game. One of Jared's bosses has season tickets so we get to go every once in a while.

After the game we drove down to San Diego. Out hotel was probably the oldest hotel that I have ever stayed in. It was nice but at the same time a little creepy. Jared, of course, had to keep pointing that out and freaking me out. We stayed at the Park Manor Suites across the street from the Balboa Park.

Below are some pictures from our Zoo trip.

We took these fun things over the Zoo to the other side instead of hiking over there.

Jared loves the Gorilla's

Jared with the Panda's

I love Koala's. They are so soft and cute!

This guy spent 15 minutes trying to get his bone out from between two rocks, just to play with it for 1 minute and put it back. I am convinced that he was hiding it from his friend that was in the same area as him.

Jared bought me this little guy. I named him Po.

Jared kept playing with this little guy. He liked him.

My hand is so tiny compared to a Gorilla's

Mr. Panda Bear

I love Panda Bears!

Were Still Here!

We have been really busy lately so I haven't had much time for blogging. Here is what we have been up to lately.

Jared - Jared has been working really hard at going to school full times and working part time. His school classes are really hard this semester and he is working really hard. Along with this he also has his calling at church where he has to go to mutual on Wednesday nights and teach 1-2 Sunday's a month. He is also working hard on creating an app for the Driod and he is so close to releasing it.

Amanda - I have been super busy with work every day. Once I finish one thing there is always something else waiting for me. I am also taking a business class online. It doesn't take too much time. I have quizes and a small paper due every couple of weeks, so its not too bad. Also, every other Thursday I have my Activity Girls. Thankfully I am a co-leader with my mother-in-law, so planning the activities is easier since I see her at least every other Sunday for dinner. In my spare time, as everyone knows, I am sewing. There are so many people that I know and love having babies and I of course have to make blankets for every one of them. Along with the baby blankets I made a large blanket for my best friend for her birthday and I am now working on one for my sister-in-law and one for my brother for Christmas. Somewhere in the mix of all this crazy I find time to do the normal wife things like laundry, cooking, cleaning and watching my favorite shows.

The past couple weeks have been insane because my parents have been out of town so we have been taking care of my little sister. She is 10 years old and so much fun, but she is an extremely busy child. Not only does she have homework every day but she has swim practice everyday, a swim meet last Saturday, Activity Days, and tutoring twice a week.

We have been really busy the past few weeks, but we have been having a lot of fun. I love getting to play 'Mom' to my little sister while my parents have been gone. Its just great practice for when Jared and I get to become parents.

Blake & Rachel's Wedding

September 4, 2010
I can't believe my little brother is married. I am so happy for him and his new beautiful bride, Rachel. It was so much fun getting to be a part of their big day. The wedding and reception was held at our grandparents house in Anaheim Hills. The wedding was absolutely beautiful! Below are some pictures from the wedding.

Beautiful Bride

My new Sister-in-Law!
All the bridesmaids Wedding Party

Jared and I waiting for the ceremony to start.

Chloe and I at the reception. Chloe was a flowergirl.

The happy couple cutting their beautiful cake.

August Birthdays

August is a big month for us with birthday's. First Jared's little brother, Jake, turned 3 years old on August 2. Then, my Dad turned 50 on August 12, Jared turned 25 on August 16, and my little brother, Blake, turned 22 on August 20.

Jared and I decided to take Jake to Disneyland for his birthday since he could still get in for free. It was so much fun to be at Disneyland with a little kid. We went on the Winnie the Pooh ride, Dumbo, the Carosel, and the Tea Cups. Jake's favorite ride (and mine) was the Winnie the Pooh ride. We got some fun pictures of our adventure.

Jake on his Carosel horse.

Jared, Jake & Me

Jake on the Tea Cups showing off his big muscles.

For Jared's birthday we went to Hibachi Steak House with his parents and later in the week we celebrated with his family. I decided to make the cake. I thought I would be creative and make him a surf board cake. I wasn't too proud of it, but it was the first cake I carved, so that has to count for something.

Jared's Birthday Cake

Later that month we had a family party to celebrate all of the August birthdays. Usually my grandma makes the birthday cakes but she decided to let me do it this year. My cake was really yummy. I made a white cake with strawberries and homemade buttercream frosting. Yum!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JAKE, DAD, JARED & BLAKE!!!!

Mexico Cruise, Part 3

MAZATLAN

Our next stop was Mazatlan, Mexico. We did the Cactus Island Tour. Well, things weren't what we thought... I was expecting a beautiful beach that we could be lazy on, instead it wasn't very pretty and we did a lot of different things that took up the whole day. The best part of the day (now that I think about it) was kayaking around Cactus Island. It took us a little over an hour to get all the way around. It was a lot of fun... but here is the kicker... the water was full of these little jellyfish. So I was kinda freaking out that one was going to sting me, since my brother's fiance got stung before she got into her kayak. After the kayaking we got back on shore and took a Mexican limo (that is what our tour guide called a tractor that was pulling a large wagon) to a restaurant that took over an hour to get a couple things of nachos.

Cactus Island (shows how far we had to kayak)

PUERTO VALLARTA

This guy was completely covered with sand.
Jared and I in front of Puerto Vallarta

I had no clue what these were but they looked cool.

These guys made a bunch of things out of sand.

The perfect sand castle.

Climbing some crazy metal ladder to nowhere.

Mexico Cruise, Part 2

CABO SAN LUCAS

Our first stop on our Mexico cruise was Cabo San Lucas. Jared and I went with my brother Blake and his fiance Rachel to go on the Cabo Canopy Tour. We drove for about 45 minutes into the desert and got outfitted to go on the zipline. Jared and I had done this before in the Caribbean, but this was another story. This was like survivor! We did a lot of zipline, rock climbing, walking across a tight rope and a shakey bridge, and to top it off it was HOT!! We werent allowed to bring out camera's on the tour with us.

Jared and I after the tour.

Blake and Rachel after the tour.

This was the long zipline at the end.

Jared and Blake did the repelling... Rachel and I were too exhausted.

Jared had a lot of fun!

Rachel rock climbing

My baby brother ziplining.

Me on the zipline... it was so hot!!

Hot husband!!

This was our group with our guides (the three in front).