New Family Member

We got ourselves an early Christmas gift and added another member to our family!

Please introduce yourself to Sadie!


She was born September 21, 2009 and is a Shitzu-Bishon mix, which is often called a "teddy bear."


She is super cute and very cuddly!



After her first big romp in the snow, Sadie needed her first bath.



She wasn't too sure about the water because it was so loud coming out of the faucet.



But she did really well as long as Jarad was holding her!


Our little one...all clean and ready to play a little bit and snuggle! We love her!!!

Christmas Time!

One night this last week, Jarad and I ventured out to find out annual Christmas tree. It was extremely cold and starting to snow as we went out but it was worth it! We were very shocked that we didn't see very many tree lots. A couple reasons we've thought of were that people here like to cut down their own trees and/or they all have fake trees because they don't believe in cutting down trees!

But luckily, we did find one just right for the little space we had available for it.


Here we are with our cute little tree!

The next couple of nights we spent getting out our decorations and getting going on our tree.


Jarad always does the lights. We had a few bad strings this year...but luckily Target is just down the street!


Here is our finished tree by day...

And by night!


I love to have the lights on all the time!

And I also love the $1 section at Target! I found this awesome silver plates for my table for a dollar!

Friendly Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving, we decided since we see our families more often and we really missed our friends, that we wanted to go back to Salt Lake to visit our friends! We were able to go from Wednesday to Sunday.

Tarina picked us up from the airport and we hit up the grocery store to get the goods for the weekend and most importantly for our Thanksgiving feast! We visited a few friends as well as Jarad's grandparents before we settled in for the night. Chris & Tarina recently bought a house and have been doing some DIY renovations.

The kitchen cabinet doors and drawers weren't quite finished but we all chipped in and got most of them done that night.


Chris in the basement- renovation station!


Jarad is putting on the hardware.


Kate just slept right through all the house work! Such a sleeping beauty!

After getting some ZZZ's, Thanksgiving morning we went over to Jason & Amy's new place to visit and meet their new pup.


Little Emi isn't so little anymore! She has grown so much!!


Thank goodness she still loved me though! (Probably helped that I had a present!)

While we were over there, they were prepping their turkey. Jarad volunteered to pull out the neck but didn't realize till later that he forgot the gizzards inside! YUCK!


Something is just wrong about this!

After visiting, we headed back and started in on helping cook the Thanksgiving feast!


HAPPY THANKSGIVING BABE!


This was Tarina & Chris' inaugural Thanksgiving dinner in their new house. It was great to have lots of help in the kitchen!


Here is the beautiful turkey just before carving.


They ordered a fresh turkey and made a fabulous turkey for us all to eat! Chris is ready to carve!


The table was set for the occasion!


Best friends! Thanks for a great Thanksgiving Wein!


The turkey is ready to go...


Just before we sat down to eat there was a little gravy incident (yes, that is what is flowing all over the table). Don't worry though...I saved the rolls!


Everyone is ready to feast! And feast we did! Everything was wonderful and we thoroughly enjoyed our Thanksgiving with friends!


Happy Thanksgiving Kate!!!

Although we were full of turkey, we, of course, still had to do a little Black Friday shopping and so a few of us went up to Park City to the Outlet Mall's big midnight madness sales. Little did we know that everyone else in Salt Lake was too! It was a little crazy but we found some good stuff and got some good deals.


The Crew- Amelia, Amy, Scott, Tarina & Jarad


T & I- I am glad we convinced you to come Wein! So fun! But my body is not used to staying up till 4 am!

We spent lots of time loving and playing with this sweet little girl during our stay! Love her so much!


She has the sweetest smile!

One evening, we went to see some more friends, Brian, Michelle & Fiona. We didn't get to stay long, but we loved seeing you guys and catching up!


Miss Fiona is getting so big and loved playing with my phone.


Jar, Fiona & I

Since we moved away, a few In & Out Burgers have opened in Utah. So we had to go and get some tastiness!


Tarina, Chris & Kate...Kate tried to chow Chris's double-double and got lucky enough to gnaw on the tomato.


Love us some In & Out!

While in SLC, we had to go to one of our old traditional breakfast spots, the Jade. If you ever go, only order the pancakes, it is the only thing we can vouch for!

Kate really liked the pancakes too!


We also have an after breakfast tradition...the Quarter Game! Pick a line on the sidewalk and everyone tosses a quarter, trying to get as close as they can without going over. The closest quarter wins them all! Tarina always wins...and did again today! (We couldn't be breaking tradition! :))


Kate thought she was so big eating pancakes that she even thought she could drive! HA!

The battle of all football games- Utah Utes vs. BYU- also happened to occur while we were there. Some of our friends came over to join us at Tarina & Chris' house.

Even though they cheer for the "other" team, we were so glad that Jason, Amy & their little one, Emi, came to hang out with us. We are so glad we got to hang out with you guys this weekend and can't wait to see you again soon!


They were happy with the outcome of the game. Well maybe Emi wasn't...she placed an emergency call towards the end of the game to report her sadness for the U's soon to be loss. HA! It was pretty funny.

Wearing the correct colors are Cole & Maura!

We loved seeing you guys, seeing all your home-improvements in your new place and are so excited to meet your little one in just a few months!

We also saw our friends Jenn & Ben. And to our very delighted surprise (and lots of others too)...they got hitched that weekend. They eloped to the temple and we couldn't be happier for them!

The Newlyweds!


Me & Jenn

I was also fortunate enough to get to see alot of my girlfriends from my old ward while we were there because they had the traditional monthly GNO (Girls Night Out) while I was there! It was so great to see all of you and to catch up!

Unfortunetly we had to come back to Colorado and say see ya later to Miss Kate and all our dear friends!!


Me & Kate


Jarad & Kate


Love ya Wein!

Thank you for hosting us Tarina & Chris! And thanks to everyone for making time to let us come see you! We had a great weekend and are very lucky to have such amazing friends!! We can't wait to see you all again soon we hope!!

Cannery with the Parentals

This past weekend, we went down to visit my family in Colorado Springs. While we were there, we went with my parents to the church cannery to do some canning for our food storage. We also got to see the backroom as well as the Bishop's storehouse next door since we were the only ones there. The couple that runs the cannery was very nice in assisting us and showing us around!


Here we are! All ready to can away!


It was fun to can with Mom & Dad. Since we've never done it before, it was nice to have their expertise! Jar, Mom & Dad getting ready to get busy!


Jar & Mom getting the oatmeal in the cans. Oatmeal was a bit messy!


Good thing Jarad is so strong so he could lift the heavy bags of food!


After we got it all into cans, my Dad put moisture packets in and sealed them up for us!

Fun to get more things for our supply! Hope to do it again soon!

Belated Anniversary Celebration-Wicked!!!

For our anniversary, in September, Jarad gave me tickets to Wicked! However, they were for November. So I patiently waited and the day finally came!


We drove down to the city...Denver- such a pretty skyline! Love the city!!


We are so excited! Finally there and parked...time to go in!


The show was at the Buell Theatre at the Denver Performing Arts Center downtown. It was a very nice theatre!


Just seeing the programs and paraphonalia make my excitement build!!


The map of Oz & the giant dragon! Such an amazing show!!


Thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and I am still singing the songs! You're gonna be popular...SO GOOD!!!
Thanks honey for the great seats and for being such great company!! Happy Belated Anniversary!

Pumpkin Carving

We carved pumpkins with Jarad's family this year and had a blast. It was fun to see everyone's design!

Jarad is so excited to carve!


Sienna thought it was so gross to gut the pumpkins!


Sienna, Steve &; Deahna- fun family home evening!


Jarad & his finished product...can you tell he had lots of fun! :)


Me & my finished product- no stencil for me! I did it all free-hand!


My pumpkin all lit up!


Jar's lit up...spooky!


All the pumpkins are done! (from left to right) Sienna's spider, Jarad's skull, Deahna's bum-crack with hands, Steve's spooky tree guy, Jar also carved little squash-man, and my Jack-o-lantern.

Fun times with the fam!

Low-Key Halloween

Jarad and I were Halloween humbugs this year! Sad to say, but it is true. We went to the corn maze, carved pumpkins, went to Jar's homeward party in the week before but didn't really do anything ON Halloween.

But, one of our favorite restaurants, Chipotle, had a free burrito night. All you had to do is dress like a burrito, taco, etc. and come in for your free burrito!


Here are our sweet burrito costumes. Jarad made his arm into a burrito on a plate and I wrapped myself in my favorite burrito toppings.


We have two Chiptole's close to us so we hit them both up! Here we are with our loot! YUM!!!

I Love to See the Temple

We haven't been exactly stellar in our temple attendance since moving here to Colorado. The nearest temple to us is about an hour and twenty minutes away which is a big shock to us as we are used to having at least 5 temples within less than an hour of us!

On Saturday, however, we decided that it would be a great way to spend our afternoon!

Yeah for the temple! We had a great time!


The Denver Temple is very pretty.


We are determined to be better about our temple attendance! :)

And it begins...

The snow that is...this week we got our first big snow! And it was insane! It started snowing late Tuesday night and didn't really stop until late on Thursday! Over 50 hours of snow and wind and coldness! I have decided that I am over the snow and should think about moving to a warmer climate. Luckily though, I did get a snow day and loved staying home and keeping warm under blankets and reading books and sleeping in!


Here is the view from just outside our front door- whiteness everywhere!


The first day Jarad was driving to work and slid into a median and busted up his car. :( As you can see...the tire is entirely too close to the wheel well.


This is Jarad's car before we dug it out so the insurance people could come look at it.


Here I am all bundled up to head out for a few errands.

Well...I guess I better get used to the snow for now! :)

Children of the Corn

Last weekend, we went to the Fitzler Corn Maze with some new friends from our ward. It wasn't too chilly and we had lots of fun! We bought a combo pass and were able to do a handful of fun things!

Here we are, ready to enter Scared Acres....ooooo....spooky! Jarad screamed like a girl...almost more than I did!



We also did a 3-D smaller maze and a giant blow-up dinosaur scare! The boys hit up the giant pillow trampoline and went back to their younger days!


They tried to double bounce each other as high as they could so they could do "tricks." Here's Jarad showing his sweet moves!


New Pals- Time & Ashlee, Robin & Aaron & little Taylor, and Us!