blog tracker

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

CHRISTMAS!

ChRiStMaS tImE!!! Me and Aaron and also Val and Taylor drove up to Yakima, WA for Christmas. That week was soooo horrible with snow pounding everywhere across the nation, and it snowed pretty much the whole 13 hours there. At one point, I thought we were going to die driving through La Grande and Pendleton, OR because it was so snowy and blowing at night and you couldn't even see the road. I was just glad Aaron drove us and not me! But we made it safe to my dad's house and had such a wonderful week. I love Christmas time!
The day before we took off, we resorted to opening a few of the presents we got each other, to not have to pack as much into the back of the truck for the blizzardy drive. Aaron's pretty excited here about the new hat I got him.Opening Christmas presents early.. gotta love it! Back at Dad's house: Every year, Santa's elves leave a letter to us kids in the mailbox, letting us know what time Santa is coming early in the morning so we should be asleep in bed. Family tradition, however, includes us hiding and watching Santa bring in the presents! Here's Melanie and Luke holding the letter from Santa on Christmas Eve
Christmas morning: Both Mia and Luke got little cars to zoom around on.
The family Christmas morning!
Gotta love the Christmas morning pics when we are ALL looking our best, straight outta bed at 6:00 am to watch Santa!
Christmas Day we went to my Uncle Bennett's house for dinner and games. This is one of my cousins, Celeste, wearing my shoes in the kitchen- it was hilarious!
Ahhhh little Mia playing with guns... so cute.

Silly Kent got ahold of my camera
I love little babies, and my littlest sister, Ali was the CUTEST thing ever, I could never put her down during the whole break! She's 6 months old and so smiley and happy, I miss those kids!

The boys playing games: from the second they woke up til they went to bed at night, all they talked about was Acquire. In fact, this particular day, my dad never even showered and stayed in his pajamas all day, it was hilarious! Dad just recently taught me and Val's husbands how to play Acquire and they, along with Kent are now hooked and that's all they talk about. However, it was so fun for me to see them getting along and how much fun Dad had with Aaron & Taylor. My Dad seemed so happy that me and Val had married so well. =)

So funny story:
On the drive back home to Utah, the weather was beautiful and clear- we couldn't have asked for better. However, we made our dinner and gas break in Burley, ID at Jack in the Box. The place was SO filthy- no t.p. in the bathrooms, trash on the floor everywhere, sticky countertops, and they were all out of soda!! The dumbest thing was that every customer would order a combo meal and be given a cup to get soda, and the employees wouldn't tell anyone there was no soda.. so they would all come back to the counter and complain. Get a freakin brain!! My wrap I ordered came with no lettuce, which I asked for later, then it showed up like 10 minutes later, after we were all done eating!! The whole restaurant was a joke....
THEN, we're probably 30 miles away after we left, and Taylor realizes his wedding band is missing!! Aaron said he remembered Tayler had it in the bathroom when he was washing his hands. So, we google and call up Jack in the Box and ask them to look in the bathroom for the ring. No luck.. so Taylor thinks he might have left it on the tray and threw it away! As gross as it was ( and funny to us), Taylor asks the dude on the phone if he would check in the trash. The kid on the phone was very polite and says sure, lets down the phone to start digging through the garbage when Taylor sits up, and finds his ring under his seat in the car!!! He tries to talk to the garbage-digging kid asap, but he's already looking in the trash!! We LAUGHED OUR HEADS OFF.. we were so mad at the restaurant, but wouldn't ever want them to go digging through their own garbage, cuz that's mean and we felt bad, but in a small way they deserved it! Taylor hung up and tried calling them back so we finally got ahold of someone else, who said they couldn't find the ring. As to not look like that whole call was a prank, Taylor just said thanks for looking and hung up. It was waaaay funny at the time, but maybe you had to be there...
We made it back to Utah safely and start pulling our garbage sacks filled with our stuff outta the truck when Taylor realizes a bag of his stuff had flown out... ohhhhhhhhh Taylor. Luckily we ended up finding it buried under other bags, so he lucked out twice on this trip!!!!

JENNETT'S WEDDING!

One of my best friends, Jenna married my cousin Bennett on Dec. 20th in the Salt Lake Temple! After being engaged for what seemed like forever to us, they finally tied the knot =) Me and Bennett's Grandpa performed the sealing and everything was so beautiful (and cold!)
My studly cousin Bennett

Me and the cute hubs

Reception/Dinner was at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, it was so pretty! And don't even get me started on Jenna's dress.. it was gorgeous!! She looked perfect and I was so happy to get her married into our family!



Tuesday, December 23, 2008

I've Been Tagged
8's8 TV Shows I enjoy watching:
1. 24
2. LOST
3. What Not to Wear
4. America's Next Top Model
5. American Idol
6. So You Think You Can Dance
7. The Biggest Loser
8. Extreme Makeover

8 things that happened yesterday:
1. Shopping for 5 hours in the place of my parents who haven't finished buying Christmas presents for the kids!
2. Watched the Grinch Who Stole Christmas with Jim Carey
3. Played the piano
4. Got stomped by Aaron in Rummikub
5. Played with the cutest kids in the world- my 3 little siblings age 6 months to 3!
6. Had Family Night with the family.. which meant 5 minutes of singing childrens songs
7. Ate some dang good manicotti
8. Ran on the treadmill for a half hour.. trying to delay the seasonal weight gain as long as possible!

8 things I'm looking forward to:
1. Britney Spears concert in a few months!
2. Getting back to a normal schedule again although Christmas break has been WONDERFUL
3. Going to a movie later this week
4. Finishing my online class after I take the final when I get back to Utah.
5. Quitting dang birth control
6. Staying busy again with a full semester in January
7. Getting new clients at work in January
8. Working out hardcore again and getting into better shape

8 things I love about WINTER:
1. The snow- I love how pretty it is (just disregard the horrible roads that I hate driving in)
2. Aaron & how cute he looks in sweaters.. I don't like wearing them as much
3. BOOTS
4. hoodies
5. Christmas decorations, lights, music, etc.
6. ice skating.. I really want to go!
7. being with family for Christmas
8. all the reminders of the Savior's birth and Atonement & how peoples hearts are softened this time of year

8 things on my wish list:
1. more BOOTS
2. clothes. I love clothes
3. anything cute for our house
4. clients after Christmas break
5. easy classes
6. that's really all... I just really wanted to be with my hubs and family for Christmas! I can't get enough of my cute little bros and sisters.. pictures will be posted later and trust me they are CUTE

8 people I tag:
1. Amber
2. Julie
3. Jamie
4. Lindsey
5. Angelica
6. Aubrey
7. Sharee
8. Andy & Kela

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Go JAZZ!

I've lived in Utah since 2002 and had never been to a Jazz game. Aaron had promised to take me, so I snuck out of work early last week so we could drive up the Salt Lake for the game vs. Portland.
It should have been all fine and dandy since Aaron had looked up tickets online and called a guy to buy them from, who promised to meet us there. Well, we call him as we're driving into Salt Lake and arrange to meet him at the Karl Malone statue or whatever, and after we park and try to call him back, looking for him, he DOES NOT SHOW! Doesn't answer his phone, totally ignored us after we drove all the way up there to get his tickets. Luckily, we got the same price from scalpers and were able to get in & watch the Jazz smoke the Trailblazers, but I just couldn't understand how people can be so rude!!





Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Christmas and babies!

For several weeks now, I have been wanting to make gingerbread houses for Christmas-the fake ones out of graham crackers and frosting. And it was great! Our partners in crime, Bennett and Jenna (aka JENNETT) came on over and we had a great time! The finished projects: Here's Jenna's cute house
And then there's Bennett's..... It needs explanation:
It is actually a Mexican pueblo with a frosting lid decoration as the satellite dish haha! The colored candies on the ground are the Mexican farm, so he's got some orange trees, corn?, and who knows what else? That red circle or licorice is an old wagon wheel. And there's a well somewhere too. I tell you, us Packards get pretty creative sometimes!

Mine is pretty normal, but Aaron would have commented on my lioness hair as he calls it...

And then there's Aaron's.... yes it is a Catholic church for some reason but his turned out nicely. This is why: he spent FOREVER building his! Everyone had finished and were watching Ice Age and he was still decorating, but then again, he did make his foundation really strong so it won out of the 4 for longest lasting.

Our little village of finished houses. Bennett looks kinda hungry..



Julie's Baby Shower!!
One of my best friends from Yakima, WA- good ol Jules is having a baby this week! Well she's due this weekend so me and my sister, Val threw her a little shower. If you can't tell which one she is because she hardly looks pregnant(!) it's the one in the orange. =)

Me and Val are twins now!! She dyed her hair dark brown- the first time in her life she's not blonde. I think it looks good =)

Some girls at the party having a good ol time

Jules opening some presents for her baby boy-to-be

The Yakima girls: me, Julie, and Val

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving in Arizona!
We got a little break from Utah and flew down to Chandler to Aaron's mom's house for the long weekend. Lots of food and lots of relaxing.. and lots of shopping! Apparently Aaron and Ryan had once determined they could marry a girl that passes the test of being able to go on a road trip with the 2 of them.. We only drove probably 30 miles and whether or not I passed the test isn't even relevant.. cuz it's too late- we're already married! I did feel like I was sitting right in the middle of 2 of my brothers though in the car...We went to the Frank Lloyd Wright architectural school the day after Thanksgiving and that was really interesting, especially since my knowledge of artwork and architecture is definitely lacking. But the weather the whole trip was SO nice.. I never imagined experiencing perfect weather in the beginning of December!There were lots of statues outside and of course, we didn't know what many of them were.Just messin around on the piano in one of the "living" rooms.Ryan and Aaron by the statues, in front of the citrus grovesHa, this picture was awesome.. it's hard to see but this is Aaron's Aunt Debbie and stepdad Steve behind her riding the Merry-go-round at the park/train station. They were pretty dang funny!Aaron with Dad and stepmom Susan. Good times =) Aaron's mom was so sweet and got us an awesome Christmas present.. a red Kitchen Aid!! I'm pretty excited about it.