Out With The Old In With The New part 5

Happy New Year!!! 

Guys can you believe that I have been blogging for over 5 years now? December was a busy and fun month and I feel like my holiday's just finished and I can finally get to posting my traditional end of year favorite movies post.  (I know you all have been waiting for it.) ;)

My favorite movie of 2011 with out a doubt had to have been Harry Potter Deathly Hallows part 2. I think I saw it three times in the theater & know it is going to be one of the movies that I will remember seeing in the theater for years to come.


Next up was The Kings Speech, really what is not to like about this movie, a marvelously talented cast & a story that pulls on your heart strings.


In my opinion the X-Men movies are what made comic book movies kick up their game and X-Men First Class did not disappoint. I believe I said this in a blog post already but a comic book movie that can make me cry is a good comic book movie!


Movies I liked were Super 8, Midnight in Paris, Jane Eyre & Like Crazy, even with its indie ending.

As for the New, 2012 is going to rock our socks off with movies! So many movies I am looking forward to seeing!!!
Obviously The Dark Knight Rises

My brother Mark and I were texting today about little things in the trailer, WE CAN NOT WAIT!

The Hobbit


The Hunger Games


I am also looking forward to The Avengers, Snow White and the Huntsman & Disney's Brave.

The Christmas Post

Christmas Eve my parents little brother Eric and I all went to Debbie's house where we had dinner then went and saw the Mesa Temple lights. 

My BFF wanted me to hold her (as usual) and she enjoyed telling everyone Merry Christmas!

After my parents and Eric headed home but I spent the night instead of waking up and just driving back over for Christmas morning. It was fun to help get everything ready for the morning.

The beginning of December Debbie called so stressed because she couldn't think of what she was going to do for the kids for Christmas, and I reminded her of things she wanted to do like a play house for the kids. Part of me wondered it would happen, and can I just say I am super impressed. 

Then we went in to open presents! Debbie has better pictures on her blog. 

Joe is just a pooh bear himself.

I helped Gracie make the Captain America shield and think it turned out great. 

After opening presents we went to church then headed for my mom's for breakfast lunch & opening more presents. Gracie helped me make the stuffed french toast she is such a little good helper. 

You guys would not even believe how excited I got about this steering wheel cover. My parents have one and I love it, I am so glad they remembered how much I wanted one. I also received a tiny porcelain tea set because if Grandma couldn't get one for each of the grand girls then the second best was aunt Connie.

Ain't no party like a tea party!

My cousin Amy sent us a link to a video of me, Debbie, my our cousins Chris & Steve singing "Everything I Do I Do it for You."

I would just like you all to see what a giant I was as a kid. My cousin Chris is six months older than me and I am like a head taller than him.
I am going to share the video but it is not all that embarrassing. I loved hearing Debbie's little voice talk and seeing how out of control thick my hair was. My little brother Eric does some nice dancing and singing after us.

The White Elephant In The Room

Our family tried out a new tradition this year, we decided to do an adult dinner and then a white elephant gift exchange. Personally I stressed over picking what present to get. I had bought Warrior before my brothers decided to come over and watch it. But I wanted it to be funny as well, then I saw that Anthropologie had Emma with this quote on the back. True it probably wasn't funny to anyone but me but I thought it was funny. 

I am happy because Debbie & Ashley were fighting over it and I really wanted a gift people would want. While I watched Warrior with my brothers the night before I wrote all 16 numbers out (yep that is my parents, siblings and in laws).

 After dinner we all went back to my condo for presents and desert. But first Mark and Ashley asked if they could use my bed room, when they came out they were dressed like this...

Here is my other brother Ryan modeling one of the fake mustaches he got.

There was lots of laughing and fun to be had, I am already looking forward to next years!

The Tom Hardy Weekend

Being the Batman fan that I am I went to IMAX to watch a special 6 minuet trailer of the The Dark Knight Rises before Mission Impossible 3. Here was my Instagram...

and here was Debbie's

In the clip they showed men being loaded onto a plane with their heads covered, I knew which one was Bane (Tom Hardy) by just his back.

I knew who Tom was from Wuthering Heights and I know most British male actors. But I of course fell for him in Inception.

So when my brothers wanted to watch Warrior together I said come on over.

It was fun to discover that my brother Mark has a man crush on him as well. 

Lucky Britt's got this Kleenex commercial of Tom & his sensitive side.

I am really looking forward to This Means War


Has anyone seen Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy yet?

Leaves

Here in the Valley of the Sun winter means fall and fall means playing in leaves. My brother Mark and his family moved to Nebraska so he could attend law school there. It has been so good to have them home for Christmas break. How thankful I have been for Skype so we could video chat with Mark, Ashley and Sam boy. They always try and get Sam to say Connie but either I couldn't hear him or he would say it but when he first saw me he said Connie & it melted my heart. 

Sam loved getting leaves thrown on him.

We had so much fun playing in the leaves and being together.

It's that time of year

My sister Debbie and I decided that we needed to enlist the help of an expert to help get our Christmas projects done. So this past Saturday we went out to our mom's and had a Super Saturday. I made our traditional popcorn cakes, with help from my mom of course.

The recipe we use is: 

1gallon of popcorn

1 stick of butter

1 lb bag of marshmallows

1 cup of candy of your choice

I decided to use dark chocolate & mint m&m's for my friend Melissa's popcorn cake and she seemed to really like it!

Stolen from her facebook page, this is after having it for 3 hrs. 

My best friend decided to help me out with the cakes and ran with me to pick up some supplies. We are super fast tough girls so watch out.




Here is one of our finished small cakes.




After we went and watched one of our brothers little girls dance recital, here are the sweet ballerinas.



Gracie had declared it the greatest day of her life, and I have to admit it was one of my favorites. I love working beside my mom & sister and spending time with my nieces and nephews. I think one of the reasons Christmas time is so great is the traditions we keep they remind us of past good times & make making new one sweet because we know we will look back at them with love next year.

Tennis, Tigers & Ballroom

I read about the band Tennis on a blog, their story is what got me to listen to them. The couple met in college after graduation they saved up money bought a boat and spent a year sailing the eastern coast. I had imagined them sailing & writing music but according to this interview with NPR they wrote the music after as a way of documenting their experience.

When I asked Mimi if she was interested in going she said she liked the opening band Miniature Tigers so it was perfect. I was excited to try out the newest venue The Crescent Ballroom. Which I liked very much it has some risers in the back which we went and sat in towards the end. Also if you are wanting to attend a show I would buy tickets online, there was a pretty long line waiting to get in.

Miniature Tigers

The lead singer of Tennis was pretty much the cutest person I have ever seen on stage, a girl from the audience even yelled out "you're adorable".













Tennis has a new album coming out on Valentines day this coming February, I am digging it, give it a listen.
Deep in the Woods by tennisinc

Origins by tennisinc