...

We are ON OUR WAY

San Felipe here we come :)

Indianapolis, ID

I know these posts are backlogged MAJOR, but, better late than never I guess! Just a quick overview of our morning downtown:If you go on the right day at the right time, you can climb to the top!

This HOT CHOCOLATE was the BEST we have ever had!!! They melted actual chocolate into steamed milk, then covered it with actual whip cream (not the can kind) and shaved fudge/white chocolate on top. With a cherry of course. It was DELISH! We only got 1 to share b/c they were like $3.25 each, but looking back, we should have each gotten our own!

Here I am by the river. Indianapolis really does have a lot going for it!

This is a famous (read: sports stars and politicians had signed the walls) pizza parlor just opposite that big tower pictured above. Im holding a PIZZA stick, not a breadstick!

The few hours we spent downtown was a fun getaway that we will always remember!

We got together with a friend once who asked us, "What are we going to do to make a memory tonight?" I just loved that! It seems it is always better to do something unique and memorable when you have the chance! What did you do to make a memory today?

Christmas in November!

We celebrated Christmas as part of "Thanksmas" in November!

Santa Came early :) I LOVE how Santa lays out the presents so beautifully.

We all gave my parents a book detailing 1 service activity each of us did this year. This was the first year of our (hopefully) annual tradition. I think they really loved it!

The boys got tats. How cooool.

Heather has a rockin' costume box. I would say Bryan usually gets into character the best out of all of us. Mom and Heather give him a run for his money though :)

The kids always want a SILLY picture!!!
We had a great Christmas in November and
look forward to our California Christmas in December!!!

Happy travels (for all of you travelling) and
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Indy Raceway

The Indy 500 Raceway was pretty incredible.

We took Tanner and Shannon to check out the sites. Here is the finish line:

The historic name for the track is "The Brickyard" because it used to be all brick. Now, just this finish line has the original bricks. One age old tradition of the big race is for the winner to drink a jug of milk at the finish line!

Scott and I got to take a child under age five on the tour around the track with us. Shannon LOVED it! "We'we gonna gwo oun the bwig wracetwack!" Very exciting!

Here's the whole crew. The boys and Shannon! That metal gate has caught plenty of cars in it's time.

What a good day to be in Indianapolis :)

It's Just "Nothing"

I grew a cyst.

The doctor basically said that my cyst is "nothing" and I should worry when it's the size of a golf ball. What a nightmare!

Can you imagine?!?!?

It doesn't really hurt. Only kind of. It's just sore some days, and when something pushes on it, it hurts. Apparently it is directly over the nerves for my fingertips or something. I would need a hand specialist/orthopedic to remove it because of it's location. It is an optional or "cosmetic" surgery. That is code for NOT COVERED BY INSURANCE.

So, I guess it is nothing. I will go on living with this bump on my wrist. As long as it never grows to the size of a golf ball, I'm okay.

No problem :)

Christmas Tree Crafting

TOTAL COST: $8.29

Okay, maybe not TOTAL, I had all the ribbon in my ribbon stash, and 2 pieces of decorative paper from a garage sale earlier this summer. So really I just bought the wood cut outs and that beautiful gold pointsettia paper.

This project took maybe just over an hour, and was SO fun and easy! I watched 2 episodes of the Cosby Show with my Modge Podge, a pencil and scissors :)

I am sort of obsessed with this tree. Isn't that a beautiful damask? And the ribbon flows so naturally!

Scott is learning to appreciate crafts. As long as our house doesn't look like an explosion of Relief Society, he is okay :) But he does wonder why everything I make has to mis-match. The stockings, these trees, and a few other things I'm sure, are all mismatched! Wait until he sees our new Christmas tree skirt!!! Hahaha.

Not this Christmas, but maybe some day I will have a wood cutter in my garage that I could use to cut these wood blocks. I would have a LOT of fun with that!

Merry Christmas!

Stefanie

Eden round TWO

I haven't blogged for a YEAR which is a shame because we have been living very full lives in the meantime! We didn't take too many pics on our weekend away to the Kitchen Cabin in Eden, but here are a few:

Scott built Joey a KILLER igloo, but the camera was already in the house by then. Vess buried bacon in the snow to get her to go in, and now poor joey is convinced that she will find bacon if she just keeps digging!

We went to some Mexican restaurant Angie calls "Carlos and Harveys" but is really called "Roberto's and something else..." We are not super sure. But this dude was excited to have us all sign his guitar. For some reason he didn't even play for us though. I even asked.

And the lowlight of the trip was burning the brownies

You would have too if your controls looked like this:

We had a great weekend just relaxing and eating junk food and clementines (better than junk food!) I also took Christmas card photos for the couples up there with us. They turned out really cute, but I won't post them here so that they can be a surprise in the mail :)

I hope you get to a snowy cabin sometime this winter to RELAX and enjoy the season!!!

Merry Christmas!

TAG, I'm it!

I guess it took getting TAGGED to jump back on the blogging bandwagon!

4 Shows I watch:
1. The Cosby Show. My ALL-TIME Fav :)
2. The Amazing Race- it really is amazing!!!
3. I Love Lucy
4. I usually do projects while Scott watches NCIS- so I sort of watch that in my peripheral.

4 Things I'm Passionate about:
1. Photography
2. Crafting
3. Macs
4. Travel

4 Phrases I say a lot:
1. Are you for real?
2. Let’s GO!
3. Shoot, why not?
4. You get what you get and you don’t throw a fit!

4 Things I've learned from the past:
1. Always show gratitude toward the people around you.
2. Keep your commitments. No matter what.
3. Make sacrifices for family.
4. Life doesn’t have to be perfect to be wonderful!

4 things I did yesterday:
1. Ate delicious pineapple curry and missed Thailand
2. Scraped the ice off my car in a hurry!
3. Got prescription cold sore medication. And LOTS of it :) WOOOO!
4. Packed lots of boxes and moved some friends into a storage unit (their stuff that is!)

4 places I would love to visit:
1. Hike the Incan trail in Peru
2. Jump rope with African children
3. Cooking class in Tuscany/Italy
4. Island hopping in Greece

4 Things I'm looking forward to:
1. Going to the Festival of Trees in Sandy
2. H&M in California
3. Our next BIG vacay!!!
4. Being caught up with laundry and dishes at the same time!

4 Things I love about winter:
1. Snuggling

2. Stephen’s Hot Chocolate with milk
3. Cute coats
4. Just staring at the Christmas tree

TAG list (But only if you want to):

Ali Spencer
Noelle Bastian
Carly Curtis

'Tis the Season :)

We were not going to get a Christmas tree this year.

And then Saturday night, it just happened!

And it is the BEST. Ever.

The past two nights I have just sat and stared at the tree and loved my life. We really feel the Christmas spirit now :)

See how tiny that box is? Scott doesn't even have to worry about storage!

Now we have stockings AND a tree. Pretty posh eh?

He was having a bit of trouble wrapping that ribbon. Don't worry, it worked out later on...

I can't help but quote Scott as we were putting this beauty together. He's all

"I would say that we are a very good example that you can have classy things without spending too much money." All in all, this tree experience was less than $50 and will hopefully last for years to come!

And why not end the night with some YUMMY peppermint ice cream?

Tis the Season!

A quick overview of the weekend:

Here are the people who made the party happen!

Here are the 3 Thanksgiving pie chefs Good work ladies!

My birthday remains- what a GREAT day to be alive!

Harry Potter party! WOOT.

Here we are at the Indy 500 Racetrack! More details on this to come!

We even had a return of the Swedish Chef :)

After I get a nap and a break from laundry, unpacking, and getting back in my groove, I will post some more!

xoxo, Stefanie

The Spirit of Things

A Thankful Turkey.

It just helps me get into the spirit of things :)

In case the text is too small in the photo, this year I am thankful for:

Traditions

A job with insurance

Scott who is my advocate

Plane tickets to Indiana

Nice teeth (i know, i'm vain.)

Parents who raised me in the gospel

The Ensign in our home

Clorox wipes

Siblings as best friends

Destination:

Departure time: 4:45am, Thanksgiving Day.

We are headed out to stay with the Whitehead Wildcats for a long weekend with the WHOLE family!!!

Upon arrival, we will feast:

The next morning, festivities will continue, but this time CHRISTMAS style :) Since we will spread our separate ways come December, we'll celebrate on Friday instead!

Saturday is HARRY POTTER day! We will finally see the new movie, and there are rumors that we'll play our own game of Quidditch in the backyard. I hope I'm on Tanner's team.

Can you guess whose birthday is on Sunday??? Yours Truly :)
Any last minute things I should do while still 21?


And I think Monday we will relax before our flight back to
good ol' Utah.

Basically, we have a KILLER weekend planned, thanks (primarily) to Mom, Heather and Noelle. Let's just hope I get feeling better before our arrival!!!

FANTASTIC Show!

We were SO GLAD we could make it to Hale Center Theater's production of:

The Scarlet Pimpernel

This show was UNbelievable! And that's coming from a pretty tough critic. The costumes, the voices, the acting, the movement on that small, circular stage- it was incredible! When we first arrived we were a bit skeptical, noting the seemingly tiny stage and mere 10 rows of seating. But this circular stage was perfect for these actors. It was so cool to see their faces and feel the wind of their wake as they rushed on and off the stage. This show was funny, romantic, historical, suspensful, and just all-around a GREAT show! These were our two leads: Percy and Marguirite. SO great!!!

Even their wig artist was able to attach the wigs in such a way that they could all keep their natural hairlines. I'm telling you, it was perfect!

Scott even knew 2 of the actors. Here we are with Kristen afterward! Scott taught her in the MTC a few years ago...

While we were waiting for her to come out, I overheard an older woman saying that she is a "Pimpernel Junkie." She has been to over 50 performances of this show, and Hale's is definitely in the top 5! She had already been to their show 4 times, and was ready to line up at the box office to try to get in again that very night!!!

You can buy your tickets here!

A BIG thank you to Charlene and family for the invite!

Malaysia- backpacker style

Malaysia probably seemed the most mysterious of all the countries in Southeast Asia to me. But then we went. As we spent time there, it became less mysterious and just

so fabulous and foreign!

Here is our first meal- fish balls, mutton, a bunch of random protien items served raw on sticks, then you cook it in that pot in the middle. Malaysian fondue I guess, how great is that? We stayed at a nice place (read $20 US/ night) our first night in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I didn't know this at the time, but we probably did that just so Scott could iron his shirt for church. :)
This awesome family had us over for dinner after church. They are all caucasian, but this husband and wife (on the left) have lived in about 15 different countries and their kids were all born in different countries too! We had a LOT of questions for them!!! Then the couple in the middle were invited over for dinner too. They got married the week prior, and she (from Utah, went to BYU-I) moved out to Malaysia where her new husband is on a government assignment. Wow. Needless to say we had a perfect afternoon, GREAT food, and enjoyed the comfort of their penthouse which consisted of the top 3 floors of a skyscraper downtown. With a pool on the open-air top level.

After the big city, we headed out to the eastern jungle in Malaysia: One side of the river had a few (like 2 options) hostels and floating restaurants, and then across the river was the park/jungle. So every morning we took these boats over. I think it was like 5 cents/ ride. Probably Scotts biggest regrets was not sleeping over in this hut, which is right beside a salt lick where all the animals come at night. Here he is trying to see a leopard or something cool: One great thing we did do was hike to some bat caves. It was SCARY. The bats were HUGE, and I could hear them everywhere, see them everywhere, SMELL them everywhere, and even feel them hit my ponytail as they flew by. Gross.

I know this isn't a great pic of me, but it is DEFINITELY the most emotive :) My face really looks how I felt after a long hike up a mountain.

There is nothing to really scale this ant against, but let me tell you, they were HUMUNGO and always biting me. I guess I didn't get a disease!

It is obviously too dark to see, but here we are at a floating restaurant with some German friends. We did a hike with them and kind of hung out while we were both at Taman Negara. They were such a fun couple, and definitely knew enough English to make our time together enjoyable!

Another one of the awesome hikes was to and across this hanging bridge. You know that hasn't been checked for quality assurance :) Ha. They were SOOOOO long and rickety. But see how they were literally THROUGH the jungle- it was just so amazing. I sometimes think about this hike when I fall asleep at night.

Riding down the river in the longboat cost about $5 US more than the bus, but I would have paid $25 more for that experience! Jungle river with water buffalo on the side was SO much better than the hot sweaty bus we took to reach Tamah Negara.

Apparently they don't charge for trail maintenance like they do at National Parks in America:

I wonder how this cute girl got her clothes? During our explorations we came upon random tribes of people. So fun to see the kids playing and the parents building.
We were about 3 weeks into our trip at this point. So sometimes it was nice to take a little rest and read a book on our stoop. We each read probably 4-5 books over the course of the trip. I just thought I'd put this pic in for good measure. It was at a bus exchange site and by FAR the worst meal we had in Asia. I can't even describe it. Gross, sticky-ish sauce with some kind of noodle and unidentified seafood mixed in. It doesn't sound that gross here, but believe me, it was a BUST.Back to the city to see:

The Patronus Towers!!!

This noodle dish was MUCH better, and I got a smoothie to welcome myself back into civilization- best idea ever!

The malls there were OUT OF CONTROL. I mean in all the big asian cities. They were always so architecturally impressive and very clean, comparatively.

Here we are on our last morning in malaysia, just enjoying some bread, i mean breakfast and oj on the top of the building. That is one great thing about asia, they don't waste space- the top of buildings are always good for something!

The KL tower was a great way to see the city.

We took the audio tour and learned all about the city, past and present.

We definitely love Malaysia, but stay tuned for the next review on our favorite country: INDONESIA!

Congrats if you're not family and you made it through this long, long post!