LEGO: Santas Chimney- Limited Edition

 Santa brought these Legos of himself to Jake in his stocking for Christmas ;)

 Jake working hard on the Legos.

He kinda looks like an angry thin Santa....hahah maybe he got short handed on cookies this year?

 I like the cute holiday wreath.

LEGO: The Black Pearl!!! (4184)

For Christmas Jake got this Pirates Black Pearl Ship! He was so excited about it! So tonight for date night, we refinished some furniture, ate PF Changs, watched lots of movies, and Jake put together his Pirate ship all by himself! He did an awesome job! It only took him about 3 hours! That was fast for 804 pieces!

 Tuna helping Jake put the ship together.

 Working on the ship. So many little pieces....

 Ta Da! The finished product! Way to go Jake!

 Legos are a crack up. The little characters are so funny and really fun to play with!

 Captain Tuna.

Captain Jack Sparrow in the bottom deck looking on the map and having a drink.

Cozy Minky Quilt

My mom was so cute and made each family there own cozy christmas quilt this year for Christmas!

 I LOVE the one she made for Jake and I! She made 5 different quilts, all with a variety of Christmas fabrics! I feel Jake and I got the cutest one :) I have never had a minky quilt of my own and never knew how cozy this fabric is! My next quilt I make I want to do a cotton front so I can do a cute quilting pattern and a minky back so the quilt will be extra cozy to snuggle with and have a nice weight to the quilt. I think this quilt will stay out year round, rather than just Christmas :)

This blanket is big and cozy for several people to use while watching a fun movie!

I like the variety of textures and prints of minky! I never knew there were so many options of this kind of fabric! So fun! Thanks mom for the awesome, thoughtful present!

FINALLY HOME

After a long trip being away from home...like a whole month...it feels so nice to be home. I am so proud of Jake, he kept the house so clean while I was gone. I had such wonderful time with my family, friends and holidays, but it sure does feel so nice to be back home. I am soooooooo looking forward to hitting the ski slopes ASAP and reorganizing the house! Sometimes I get in go mood, and want to change things up...so that is this weeks plan for our home! Time to put decorations away and reorganize! I need to find places for Jake and I to put our bikes up on our stands to we can ride them because it is way to cold out side for me to ride. I also want to repaint some furniture! I am ready for some more color, because outside it is to cold to see lots of color out there during this time of year :)

 Tuesday when we got home, Jake was so excited and wanted me to open MORE christmas presents! Jake is toooo much. He is always so thoughtful!

Wahoo, some new book series and huge pirates LEGO sets!  Let the pirate battle begin! Party! Jake even got me a cool Hello Kitty Alarm clock (so I will actually wake up and not sleep in till noon everyday...) and a music stand. I played the violin growing up and Jake really wants me to get back into it. I agree, it would be a waste if I didn't and need to start playing again, so he is scheduling at least one week night of music playing each week for us to practice instruments. That should be fun! Hopefully we actually do it and stick with it.

For dinner we tried a new place in town called Firehouse Subs. We had a good experience. We both liked the subs we got and will go again someday.

Wednesday was a very productive day. You know those days you feel on a roll and so energized and keep going? Today was one of those days! I got done everything, and more I wanted to! It was amazing! Maybe thats what happens when I don't sleep in....... I got all my Christmas decorations packed up. I forgot I made a tone of these snow globes and never got to use them this year! Well, next year for sure!

When Jake got home, for some reason I was on a kick and wanted to make 72 hour kits. Its been something on my mind for a while and all of a sudden a felt the urge and want to do it...so I did. I rummaged the house and found things that would work for them and then made a grocery list of things to get to finish the kits off. Jake and I went to Walmart and then came home and packed our backpacks full of items for our 72 hour kits! Wahoo! Something I have really wanted to do finally checked off my list!

 After Jake and I finished our 72 hour kits, we went to the always delicious Cold Stone. We got our favorite, "Cookie don't you want some," but we got oatmeal cookie batter instead of what it comes with!

When Jake and I got home from Christmas we had a stack of mail. In that stack was a cute package with my name on it! I was so surprised and excited! It was from a cute friend name Alisa! Alisa and I got to do a study abroad trip together years ago and really enjoyed spending time together! We have been friends ever sense! She was so cute and knows I love to read and sent me this book! I am so excited! I started to read it and it is so fun! I had never heard of this book, and I called my mom to tell her about it, and she said she read it and really liked it! So thank you so much Alisa! You are the best ever! Alisa is now officially my new pen pal! :)

The "Secret" Book Series

Isn't this book so cute?! If you could judge a book by its cover, this is a good one. I liked the colors and the hard bound books have the cutest insides. The whole series are colorful and makes them even more exciting to read and look at.

If you are a reader who likes a book to end and conclude..this book is not for you. (just kidding...I am trying to sound like the author of the book ;) This book feels like it is going to end several times and never does. You have questions unanswered and new plots twisting......(back to Kelsey tone) But I think that made this book really fun! It defiantly is mysterious, hence the title of this book. I found this book so entertaining, I started reading it this morning, and couldn't stop reading it until I just finished it now! I am going to have to start the next book tonight....because I still don't know the secret and want to know what it is! The author did a good job of wrapping everything up so if you didn't want to read the next book you would be fine.

This seems so far like a fun, light hearted series to read, but there is lots of suspense to keep you reading! A lot of suspense! The author "Pseudonymous Bosch"-secret writer..... is quite entertaining. His writing is clever and he has fun tidbits he adds in the story.  I  think this book could give some kids some interesting ideas, but thats probably what makes it fun.  I feel like this book is something new, a new idea and something I have not read even though I made relatable characters in my own mind below.

One of the main characters reminded me a little bit of the Grand High Witch in Roald Dahls book Wicthes. Probably only because she wears white gloves. And the two kids kinda reminded me of the brother and sister in Rick Riordians The Kane series. I think that is why I really enjoyed the "secret" book so much. The author kinda of presents the book as he wants you to imagine what the characters look like, where they live, things about them and I think thats why I came up with what I did. I want to talk to someone else who has read the book, because I am sure there Cass and Max-Ernest are completely different than the ones I imagine. I am excited to start the next book tonight!

Book 2: I was disappointed in book 2. It was good, but I was so excited to read the next book in this series, I was bummed. It was my least favorite of the series. I would still read it though to it will fill you in on whats going on in the story! Now that your expectations are low...you will probably really like the book :)

Book 3: Book 3 and 4 were my favorite books in this series! Book 3 is all about chocolate! It has a really fun story line. I thought this was a really good book I didn't want to put it down, and right when it ended, it left it so I was dying to read the next book! Its fun because its predictable but not....like you can come up with your own conclusions what is going on, but when you find out what really is going on its a blast to read! That doesn't make any sense....

Book 4: This book was fantastic! It goes back and forth it time periods from present day to renaissance time when Cass is on a search to meet a Jester. You start to fill the story start to come together and get so excited and soooo close to finding the secret....

Book 5: This book really summed up the whole series. This is the book you finally find out what the "secret" is! I thought it was crazy we had to wait till book five for the secret! I think that made it fun! This book also took place in VEGAS which I liked! It also had alot of Egyptian stuff in it, which is really cool. You also learn out a secret about Max- Earnest about his writing skills that is a shocker.

This series was really fun! I dont know if I would recommend reading them one after the other though. I think they would be more enjoyable mixing up other books in between!

a quilt that took FOREVER to make!

Last Christmas, Aimee and I got together to make our first quilt. I decided to do a quilt that was going to take way to long.... and just barley finished it this Christmas (a year later) because I decided not to really finish it... If that makes sense. Here was the top of my quilt, and I was making huge pop out flowers I would have had to hand sew onto this blanket after it was quilted. After struggling with the back of this quilt and finding the right fabric for it and making large flowers that took forever, I decided after I got the quilt quilted I was no longer going to make the pop out flowers for it. I am happy with that decision! Maybe someday I will venture to make a pop out quilt, but for now....no way!

This blanket is huge! I think It would fit really nicely on a queen size bed.

Now that the quilt is all done, I like that it is simplistic and no big flowers on it. I think it would be fun to make this quilt with a "layer cake" and have all fun different fabric squares. Then there would also be no cutting, and it would just look cute and have a variety of fun fabrics. You can usually never go wrong with simple and easy fun.

VEGAS with Jerry Seinfeld!!!

When Jake and I left Arizona and headed back to Utah we made a stop in VEGAS! We love Vegas! We bought tickets to see Jerry Seinfeld three months ago and have been looking forward to this trip for some time. We love trying new hotels, so this time we stayed in the MGM. I am shocked to say..I think this may be one of my favorite Vegas Hotels.

Our room.

 Seeing the lions in the lobby.

One thing Jake wanted to make sure we did this trip, is go to the Coca Cola factory and try "tastes and flavors" from around the world!

We had a lot of fun trying the different flavors. We even rated them all and choose our favorite ones. We both thought the African Pine Nut was our favorite! It tasted like pina coloda. There were two that were nasty! I won't say which ones though..incase you go and try them for yourself! It was fun!

We then went shopping at Caesars Palace! I love the Forum Shops there! They have awesome stores! Then we grabbed a quick slice of pizza before we went to see Jerry!

AAHHHHH the show was awesome! I LOVE JERRY! He is so funny! I had no idea he is now married and has 3 kids?! Where have I been?! He put on a fully loaded two hour show! I would love to go see him preform again he is so great! and in this case Jerry, great does not = sucks.......

After the show Jake and I went to Max Brenners. We can't get enough of that place! We got some yummy food and our favorite chocolate heart dessert.

This was a wonderful trip! LOVED IT! LOVE VEGAS!