Ugly Sweater Party

A couple weeks ago we went to an Ugly Sweater Christmas Party that our friends Jillian and Jonathan had. We had a pretty hard time finding ugly sweaters since we went to the good will store last minute but others had some pretty good ones.

The hosts, Jonathan and Jillian

Marc and Chelle
Marc's sweater reminded me of a costume from Blades of Glory.

Liz and Scott

Baby William (Liz and Scott's baby) wore a Christmas elf suit

Janis and Troy. Troy won the contest for Ugliest Sweater. He took branches off a real Christmas tree and glued it to a sweatshirt with 2 candy canes. So creative!

Thanks for a great time!

Decorating for Christmas

Choosing our Christmas tree this year was so easy. We went to the gym one night and then stopped at Mikey's Christmas tree lot which was in the same parking lot. They had great trees and it only took us a few minutes to find this one.


Decorating the Tree

The finished product

Aaron getting out the decorations

We still put out our little Christmas tree we had our first Christmas married

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving we were able to go to Manteca and celebrate at the Carter's with the Hoffman's. We went down Wednesday night and I spent the night making pies, while Dee prepared the potatoes.

For some reason the crust just wouldn't stay together! Notice the side that fell off. It was very frustrating but ended up tasting delicious.
The finished products

Hillary also made delicious pumpkin bars

Here is what Aaron spent the night doing

playing on his i phone, which he does a lot these days
Thanksgiving Day
Dee with the yummy turkey

The beautiful table. Notice the sugar rimmed glasses. Mmmmm.

Hillary pouring the punch

Lori and Hillary

Carla and Buzz

Me and Aaron

Jim and Dee

Aaron and Eric

After our delicious meal, we played Apples to Apples. It was so fun that even after Aaron won we continued playing.

By the end of the day we were so full all we could to was lay around.

Pumpkin Carving

just a little late...
Even though we went to the pumpkin patch when we were visiting Alamo, we didn't get pumpkins because we thought we would go again and could get pumpkins up here. Of course it never happened. We decided we were going to carve pumpkins with Wes and Lani the night before Halloween and we still hadn't bought pumpkins. I don't recommend doing this because we had to go to 3 stores and even then, only found the bottom of the barrel pumpkins. Luckily you can't see their deformities.
Here we are carving

The finished products

Wes and Aaron mimicking their carvings

Lani and Me

A close up of my ghosts

A close up of Aaron's goblin holding a trick or treat bag

On Halloween we went down to the Carter's and had dinner with Aaron's immediate and extending family. We didn't make it in time to see the trick or treaters but here is a great picture of tiger Landon.

Hillary's Volleyball Game

Aaron's little sister Hillary recently finished her last year playing varsity volleyball at East Union High School. She has played since her Freshman year. Her games were always too early for us both to make it down to watch, but Aaron was able to go after school one day and got some great footage. In this clip, the other team is serving. Hillary is the first to touch the ball after the serve, #12 on the left side of the net. Then watch her get the point.


Team Huddle


Her name up in the gym on display - Carter #12


Aaron and Hill after the game


Her games have always been so much fun to watch--we're sad it's over! Congrats on a great volleyball career Hillary!

Upgrade!

On Thursday as Aaron and I were eating lunch I had a brilliant idea. I thought, "I wonder if we can exchange the free ipod touch we got and upgrade to an iphone?" I decided to call Apple to find out if they would do an exchange without a receipt and with a used ipod touch but had the worst time getting ahold of someone. Finally I was able to get through and after talking to the lady, didn't have much hope. She basically told me that without a receipt she didn't think I could do anything. She also said I would have to find out where it was purchased.
I was able to call the company that gave me the ipod touch and found out that it was purchased at Best Buy. I tried calling Best Buy but once again had the hardest time getting through. I finally talked to someone that told me I almost definitely would need a receipt (but of course I didn't have one since I won it) but to come in and try anyway. Aaron and I went to Best Buy with very low expectations and were ecstatic when we found out that they would do it! We were able to exchange the ipod touch for a new iphone and since Aaron had an upgrade available through AT&T for his phone, we got the special price. We left with a new iphone for Aaron and a Best Buy card with the remaining credit. Amazing!!!
I inherited Aaron's ipod classic and now he has the iphone with the same ipod capabilities as the ipod touch. We are both happy.
We went from this

to all this

FOR FREE! Well, except for the upgrade we had to make to our cell phone plan, but now we get internet.

Eight

(originally tagged by Mel for 6 Quirks but can't think of any)

Eight TV shows I like to watch:
1. Survivor
2. Lost
3. Chuck
4. Biggest Loser
5. Heroes
6. The Office
7. The Amazing Race
8. America's Next Top Model

Eight things that happened yesterday:
1. went to work
2. ate a Safeway sandwich for lunch
3. watched Biggest Loser
4. read blogs
5. emailed
6. played Mind the Blox on addictinggames.com
7. went visiting teaching
8. booked a flight to Utah for Feb 5-8 Woohoo!!!
Not the most exciting day ever...

Eight Favorite Places to Eat:
1. Cafe Rio (Costa Vida in CA)
2. Red Robin
3. Chili's
4. Chevy's
5. TGI Friday's
6. Taco Bell
7. Panda Express
8. La Provence (just went there for the first time. It was divine)

Eight things I am looking forward to:
1. Thanksgiving
2. Christmas
3. Going to Utah in February
4. Going to Mexico with the Carter's in June
5. Going to Hawaii with the Coons' next November
6. Aaron graduating
7. Seeing Don and Brad on Saturday, along with the rest of the fam
8. Twilight on Friday

Eight people I tag
(unless you've already done this)

1. Melanie B.
2. Mandy T.
3. Tari B.
4. Anna C.
5. Lyndsey C.
6. Mom
7. Lani C.
8. Adrienne E.