Homemade Christmas gifts

I saw a picture of glass pans online that had names etched into them and I thought they would be fun to make for Viddy's family. It took a while, but in the end I think they turned out awesome!

Our Christmas Day

     We got back from the beach on Christmas Eve and planned to have a quiet Christmas Day. Viddy and I were able to talk to Brent and Timmy (my brothers who are both on missions) and then we Skyped with Viddy's family as they opened the gifts that we made for them - and since it is after Christmas, there will be pictures to follow! We had a pretty relaxing afternoon, Viddy read a book that he got for Christmas and I read some and slept some.
     Then around 4pm we decided to go for a walk. Little did we know that our night was about to become very eventful. We headed down the road planning to go on a fairly longish walk (about 4-5 miles) I was wearing thin jogging capris and a t-shirt and Viddy was in shorts and a t-shirt. When we started the walk it was about 70 degrees out and we had been talking about how beautiful the weather was. About 2 miles into the walk we decided to make the walk/jog a little longer, so we turned down a road that we hadn't been on before, but we knew where we were going.
     We were walking and having a great time and just enjoying each others company and then the wind started to pick up. For those of you not in the area, there were several tornadoes that formed all along the gulf coast and up through Louisiana that day. So we started to jog in order to keep warm and then the sun started to set and the temperature plummeted. We stopped jogging because we started to sweat, which just made us colder. Once the sun set it was about 40 degrees and getting colder and we were still at least four miles from home. We walked for a little more until it was too cold and we couldn't take it any longer. Then we called our friends and asked them to come rescue us. They picked us up and took us back to their house and set us in front of the fire to warm up.
     I had just bragged about the amazing weather that we had been having to my brothers who are in Virginia and Slovokia, so I guess it was only a matter of time before I got set straight :) Lesson learned: check the weather before you go out :)

Math Fail

While driving home from South Padre Island we drove by this sign and I thought it was so awesome that I had to turn around and get a picture. This shows the real world applications of reducing fractions!

Wedding Cake

We made a wedding cake for a couple in our ward who got married. The best part about this cake is that I made the cake and filling all by myself and decorated it almost all by myself - something that never happens. I think since marrying someone who can cook really well I have gotten a little lazy when it comes to baking. If Viddy isn't home to make cookies or if he asks me to make bread, I forget that there was a point when I wouldn't have thought twice about it, but now I think, "ahhh, I don't know how to do that!" That might be a little dramatic because if I put my mind to it I can follow a recipe, I would just prefer if Viddy did it because I know that it will turn out when he does. This however is almost my entire creation. 

South Padre Island for Christmas

Viddy and I stayed in Texas for Christmas this year and we decided to go to South Padre Island and camp. We heard the beaches we amazing and we were not disappointed. 

 We set up the tent in crazy strong wind that didn't ever let up. We went for a walk and when we came back we found that everything on the inside of the tent was covered in sand, and since we didn't want this to be us covered in sand in the morning, we packed everything up - which wasn't an easy task - and made our way to a hotel. I know... we're wusses, can't even take a little sand :) But we had a great time at the hotel. 

We brought a bag of stale chips, specifically not to eat and Viddy had fun feeding the seagulls. I have to admit that I thought it was pretty creepy. 

We went on a nature walk on the side of the island that is closest to Texas and we saw some great wildlife. It  is a great place for bird watching, and even though I don't know a lot about the different kinds of birds they were still fun to look at. Seeing this alligator was cool because we only ever see them in the water by our house. 

We saw lots of Portuguese man of wars.

On the last morning we were there we got up before the sun to go hunt for shells when it was low tide. We found lots of fun shells, but there was also an amazing sunrise that morning.  

 Going in the off season was great because the beaches weren't crowded and since we ended up getting a hotel, we got a great deal on a pretty nice hotel. And it was even warm enough to lay out on the beach with a good book and soak up a little sun. 

Private Tour of Nasa

We have a good friend who works for NASA and he invited us to take a VIP tour given by him. It was awesome. He took us to see Saturn V, which you get to see in the normal NASA experience, but then he took us to where he works. He works in the robotics department. I wasn't able to take pictures of the project that he was working on...something about if we took pictures then he'd have to kill us :) But he explained some other projects that NASA has been working on. 

This is a robot that can do repairs on the outside of the space station. He will be able to grab onto the space station with his feet and then work with both hands - the astronauts have to be able to hold on with one hand and do the repair with the other, making it much more difficult. 

 This is the backside of a rover. It is designed so the astronauts can get out of their spacesuit on the outside of the craft. 

The are life size replicas of parts of the space station where the astronauts go to practice things that they will have to accomplish while in space. 

This is definitely not part of the regular tour that you get when you go to NASA and it was awesome! 

Thanksgiving

The week of Thanksgiving got a little crazy around here. We had 3+ Thanksgiving meals and there was lots of traveling and spending time with friends. On Wednesday night we went to my friend Kate's house. Her parents, Grandma, and a friend from church were there. Thursday we had dinner with a couple families in our ward. Later in the day on Thursday we drove to Temple TX to see Tank and Jill. Jill and I did some Black Friday shopping while Viddy and Tank hung out with the kids and Viddy tried to prepare two talks that he gave the Sunday following Thanksgiving. Friday night we drove to Austin to spend time with some of Viddy's friends from college, Pamela and Matt. We had a Thanksgiving dinner with them on Saturday, and then Saturday evening we drove home so that Viddy could wake up at a ridiculous hour in the morning on Sunday in order to make it to his church meetings. We took pies everywhere we went. If all of the pies had been made at once I would have gotten a picture of all of them, but we ate and made pies in shifts. Overall I think we made around 12 pies, meaning that we ate way to much pie for our own good. All the food that we had was amazing and I'm glad that we were able to see so many good friends in just a short amount of time. 

 

Creepy Crawlers

Occasionally I'll see a freaky looking bug near by and I'll wonder why we live in Texas? So far I haven't seen anything awful in the house, but this guy greeted me outside our door when I got home from church the other week. 

Cory Visiting

My brother Cory came down to visit in October. Since he's been landlocked for a while and we aren't far from the ocean we spent a couple days in Galveston just hanging out. He's pretty big into fishing, so he spent some time doing that, while I just walked the sea wall and the beach. 

This is him crabbing. He didn't have any luck this time. 

On our second trip to Galveston. And yes ladies, he is single and will be at BYUI next semester :)

We went to some friend's house for a Halloween dinner and these were our contributions.

7 Layer dip

and jello worms. 

Cory was pretty successful with fishing down at the bayou by our place. He caught some catfish and some other type of fish that I can't remember the name of. I had a little bit of both of the fish that Cory caught and cooked, and as far as fish go, they weren't too bad at all. 

Birthday Celebrations cont.

While Jill was down she saw an ad in the newspaper about a cooking show in Houston. It was right around Viddy's birthday so I thought it would be fun to do. It was awesome and we will definitely be going back next year. There were lots of vendors selling random things, such as chocolate lasagna noodles, pancake mix, lemon cake, and odd salad dressings. All of which we sampled and bought. The lemon cake is one of the most delicious things that I have ever eaten. I could have eaten the whole thing, but once I looked at the calorie count and serving size I about had a heart attack... literally :)

We went to a couple cooking demonstrations by local chefs in the Houston area. Viddy went up on stage for  the Zelko's demonstration and was able to spin a honeycomb and harvest some of the honey from it.

Here's Viddy with some of the honey that he spun and the chef from Zelko's. It was fun sampling some of the food from different restaurants and being able to watch them make the food step by step.  

Birthday Celebrations

Our friends spent the weekend with us celebrating Tank's and my birthday which happen to be on the same day. While they were here we spent a morning at Kemah Boardwalk. Even though we got caught in a pretty bad downpour, it was still fun!

Viddy sat by a random kid on one of the rides and I don't think the kid enjoyed it too much, but that didn't stop Viddy from having fun.  

I love the look on Nixon's face in this picture. After riding this ride I don't blame him. You get going pretty fast at the end.  

Viddy and I made a chocolate tres leches cake in celebration of mine and Tank's birthday. While Hudson, one of Tank and Jill's sons, was eating the cake he turned to his parents and said, "um, this is good." It was so matter of factly and so cute. We couldn't stop laughing. 

Home to California

In August Viddy and I went to California to visit my family. We haven't been able to see everyone for quite a while, so it was fun to be able to spend time with people who I haven't seen in a while. 

We went hiking at Yosemite. I'm usually not this fashionable with the shorts, socks and boots combo, but I wanted to wear my hiking boots and it was a pretty warm day, so the shorts were necessary and since we weren't at home I didn't have a lot of options :)

We made a stop at the Jelly Belly Factory to pick up some belly flops. 

My dad and cousin hiking. 

My parents in front of a car that my dad helped to restore.  

I love being in the mountains surrounded by big trees! 

Viddy was only able to stay for a few days because he was starting school and had to be back to work, so after an action packed weekend he flew home and I went to my grandparents house with my parents. Some of my cousins came up and stayed with us for a couple days. We went fishing everyday while we were there. Although I'm not a huge fan of eating the fish, I like catching them for the people who do. 

Tim, Brett, Becky and the Girls

My brother Timmy came out before he left on his mission. It was awesome having him here! While he was here Viddy's sister and her family came to visit us, so it was one big party!!!

Me, Viddy and Timmy in San Antonio on the River Walk

We went to Schlitterbaun water park in Galveston with everyone. It was lots of fun, but I'm not quite sure what happened to my hair in most of these :) 

 This is part of the "lazy river." I got caught off guard by a wave that knocked me off my tube. And way to go Becky for capturing this picture right at the perfect moment. 

 Timmy and the girls having fun splashing each other. They thought it was a lot of fun to pick on Timmy and he was a good sport about it. 

At the beach in Galveston

  Timmy and Viddy at the Houston Museum of Natural Science

 At the Kemah Boardwalk

I'm pretty sure there's no such thing as having too much fun which is good because while everyone was here we had a blast! There were lots of goofy moments and good times. 

When I saw this picture I about died laughing. I think a caption like "Mad Cow Disease" would be appropriate.