Ford Christmas Party

We had a wonderful time at the Ford Family Christmas Party.  This year it was held at Brad and Lisa's house.  We ate a delicious dinner including ham, funeral potatoes, salad, rolls, corn and candy cane cake for dessert.  After dinner, we enjoyed watching everyone do their talents.  This year EVERYONE was asked to participate.  Even my grandma and grandpa Ford did a rap.

This was my G and G Ford dressed up like rappers.  They did an awesome job and we all LOVED it! I hope to have them in the talent show next year for round 2. It's pretty funny to see you grandparents acting young again ;)

This was Shane's first performance on his guitar.  He played Dust in the Wind.  He did a very good job and I am happy to know that he enjoys playing the guitar and we hope to hear more performances.

Let's just say that our family let everyone down a little bit this year.  We always come up with something creative.  3 years back we did our own rap and had a little verse for each person on the Ford side of the family. 2 years back we did a light show using glowsticks to Manheim Steamroller. Last year we did a very funny poem with props and all.  Well this year we forgot about the famous talent show and so we had to resort back to an old talent we used 4 years ago.  We did the palm pipes and played Silent Night and Deck the Halls.  Even though it was a replay, as you can see we were all having a great time regardless.

Other talents included

Bob, Ellen, Preston, and Whitney in an elf show.  They put their faces on computerized elfs that sang and danced.  It was pretty funny and nice to involve Preston who is on a mission in Oregon.

Jason, Shannon, Keira, Steve, and Whitney sang an Aussie Christmas song....persuading their parents to take them to Australia for Chirstmas next year before the "baby boom".

Kevin, Kathy, Brianna, Josh, and Brooke sang "Big Girls Don't Cry".  It was really great to see Kevin reach for those high notes.  I think his voice was gone by the end.  Kathy, Brianna, and Josh were AWESOME back up singers/dancers.

Brooke also kept the piano talent alive with her Christmas piece.

Brad, Lisa, Austin, Justin, and Brylee played blew over bottles to play Jingle Bells.  Brad said he couldn't do the blowing and so he was in charge of jingling the bells. 

Even though it is takes preparation to come up with something new and creative, we always have a fun time watching everyone perform.  This tradition started with the grandkids performing piano songs, singing, and dancing.  Now that we are not so young anymore and can't always practice our talents, it has turned into an event where the whole family get involved: parents, children, spouses, and grandparents.  It was definitely the highlight of the night.

At the end of all this excitement we remembered the true meaning of Christmas and ended singing Silent Night. I am so glad that the Christmas season comes around, where everyone can remember the spirit of love and giving and especially to remember the birth of our Lord. 

Grandpa, Grandma, Brianna, and Kevin singing Silent Night.

Josh, Justin, Austing, Bob, and Ellen joining in with the family Choir.

Shannon, Jason, Whit, Steve, Keira, Shannon and Josh

Shane and the injured Amanda.  She cracked the ball in her arm socket snowboarding earlier that day.

The Ford Family Christmas party with always be remembered and we want to thank Lisa and Brad for all their efforts to make this yet, another memorable Christmas party!

Desert Star Playhouse

It's that time of year again when all the Christmas Traditions start happening.  On Thursday night we met up at the Pie in Murray to eat. We had a good time eating garlic chicken, pepperoni, and combination pizza.  We also loved eating their cheesy pull-aparts.  It was a lot of fun chatting,

Next we headed the the Desert Star Playhouse to see The Nutcracker: Men in Tights (Luckily there were no men in tights).  We always enjoy going and having a good time singing Christmas songs and having a good laugh.  They always have some good mormon jokes and political jokes scattered throughout the play that crack us up. 

I just liked how they hung ornaments from the antlers.  Very creative!

Josh, Shannon, me and Trav anxiously awaiting the play.

It's always fun to spend time with the family and keep the traditions going. We're really grateful for the Christmas season and that we get to spend time with both the Tidwell and Guymon sides of the family.

Festival of Trees

So my mom and dad invited me and Trav to go to the Festival of Trees Friday afternoon.  Travis had to sadly decline because of his overload of homework and studying before the Christams break. But I was super excited to have something to do!  Plus, I always enjoy time with my parents.  They came and picked me up around 3:30 and we headed to the already way crazy busy Southtowne Center.  The place was just filled with trees.  Large and small.  I felt like I was literally in a forest with a million other onlookers. They were all so beautiful and unique and were made for someone special that had passed away or who had survived something terrible at Primary Children's.  There were two trees that stood out to me. One was for a little boy that was in my parent's ward who died of a certain time of cancer as a four, just a few years back.  There was a tree  for my sisters friend's (Taryn) mom who had died of cancer this summer.  It was a shock to my mom and me because we didn't know they had dedicated a tree to her. 

As we looked at this particular tree, my mom said that Taryn had said the other day, "I really wish my mom was here to help me put up the Christmas decorations."  When my mom told me it brought us both to tears because it is so sad that many people lose their moms.  There were many special pictures and stories that were held within these heart-filled trees.  It was very touching.  After, we went and picked up Cafe Rio and all ate it her at our place so Trav could join us!  Thanks mom and dad for the fun night!

The tree for the Utah Utes that I really liked! Go UTES!

A picture I took for Travis because he loves BYU.  He was definitely happy they won Utah this year.

A sweet car that they were going to be auction off for Primary Children's.  My dad says it will go for hundreds of thousands.

Thanksgiving....A Week of Being Grateful!

Travis and I started of the Thanksgiving Break with a bang!  We went and saw Blindside!  Which I absolutely LOVED and Trav liked it a lot.  It really started the week off with me being grateful that I have food, clothing, and shelter.  That movie taught me a lot about how I should give to those in need and not be upset that I can't afford the latest and greatest phone.  I want to go see it again already.

On Saturday, Trav actually had time so we got to go shopping to spend the money Trav got for his birthday.  He got a lot of nice looking clothes, and plus he really needed them as well.  We celebrated his 26th birthday at our apartment with my family earlier in November. This was the best weekend and I loved every moment me and Trav were able to spend together.

Monday night we headed down to Huntington to visit his family, who we haven't visited since August.  We just can't find the time to make it down there with work and mainly pharmacy school. We had a great time looking at their newly remodeled kitchen that looks awesome!  We also were able to go to the farm and feed the calves which was a first for me.  When Ray asked me and Trav if we would go do it I was a little scared of being near the cows.  Then he adds, "Now Blue does bite."  I kind of chuckled and he said, "Really, you need to be careful."  (Now blue is a dog that was dropped off at their farm by someone.  It seems to have been abused by it's previous owner.  She wasn't very friendly when Ray first noticed her on the farm, but as he has fed her she won't stay away from him.  She loves Ray.) 

So later on that day we ate at Cindi's Cafe in Huntington. It is a little place on Main Street, but they had delicious food.  Trav said "We couldn't eat for this cheap at Wendy's and I am plenty full too."  Our next adventure was to the farm.  I was scared of the cows and now Blue.  We'll just say that Trav did most of the hay moving, okay ALL of the hay moving.  I sat there in my nice jeans and my black dress coat ( I wasn't prepared to feed cows) and watched.  When we headed towards the second corral of calves, I saw Blue.  I was scared and waited until Trav distracted her enough to jump in the truck.  I stayed in the truck while Trav got out to go get the food for Blue.  I figured once she was I need not be fearful.  It ended up that I just walked calmly around the cows.  She only looked at me, never sniffed me or even came by me, but she wanted Trav to pet and rub her face all day long.  It was also pretty funny to watch the cows as Trav would kick the hay into the corral.  They would all get scared and run to the other end.  It was a good time.  Never thought I would end up marrying a cowboy!... but I sure do love him!

Next we were headed to Trav brothers high school basketball game.  He is a senior this year and starts as a guard.  He did really awesome with 13 points and some rebounds.  It was fun to watch him and support him.  They won 92 to 56.  Good Job Mark!  Overall, we had a great time on our short visit to Huntington.  It's so nice to be a part of Trav's family who are so much fun and so supportive of us.  We're looking forward to being with them for Christmas.

Thanksgiving Day!

This brings us to Thanksgiving Day.  Trav and I headed up to Grandma and Grandpa Fords for our 1 o'clock Thanksgiving feast.  We had good turkey, corn, mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade rolls, candied yams, and my favorite STUFFING!   We had a great time chatting during the feast, and after we went around the whole table and said what they were grateful for.  I said that I am grateful to have the opportunity to go to school and get a good education and that is because I have a good job.  I also said I was grateful for the gospel and for my husband who works so hard to do well in school and makes me happy.  It is also good to verbally state what you are grateful for.  Once I got thinking about it, I couldn't decide which ones to share because I have so many blessings in my life.  Following the feast, we had banana cream pie and pumpkin pie.  Now I had pumpkin pie, not so much by choice, but by being allergic to bananas, I had no choice.  But it was still good. After all this we had a good time playing Trivial Pursuit, Camping and Outdoors style.  My Grandpa Ford bought the game up in Yellowstone and we finally unwrapped it.  We had a good time seeing if we are real campers. It's always a great time to be with the Ford side of the family.  We ended the night by watching Disney's "UP".  It was a good show, but I must say random.

To finish up the week, we made a trip down to the new "In and Out" Burger in Draper.  We waited about 1/2 hour for our food, but it was definitely worth it.  Trav and I were very happy to hear it was coming up to Northern Utah.  We finished off the week with the BYU vs. Utah game.  Trav was way excited that BYU won, and I was way sad that Utah lost.  That is all I'm going to say about it. : (

Great Grandma Ford, Grandma Ford and Grandpa Ford.

I love them all dearly!

The middle section of the Thanksgiving Table

and the tail end.

I couldn't be more grateful that Trav passed one of his many tests on November 20th, so that we could spend some good quality time together and with both of our families the following week.  It was so nice to just hang out and home and watch TV and even just to go to Walmart and shop together.  I'm so glad he is my husband and best friend.  I am already counting down the days to Christmas Break!!!

Happy 26th Birthday Trav!

November 8th was Trav's 26th Birthday.  He was really busy studying all weekend, but he managed to make some time so we could go out to dinner Saturday night to celebrate.  We went to TGI Friday's (Trav's favorite place).  I ordered a yummy bbq chicken wrap and Travis got the usual for him, the chicken and cheese platter with some seriously awesome mashed potatoes. We had a good time just relaxing and watching some tv together on the couch after.

On Sunday, (which was his official birthday) my fam came over to celebrate.  I made a new-found recipe of parmasan chicken for everyone.  I also made Trav a german chocolate cake (his favorite of course).  I also made a white confetti cake because I knew no one in my family but my dad would eat the german chocolate cake.  I was definitely right.  Amanda looked at the cake and was like, "what is that?" We never had it when I grew up so she didn't even know what it was.  It was pretty funny.  After dinner and dessert, we have fun playing guestures, even though many of us aren't huge fans of acting things out and Apples to Apples.  Thanks to my fam for making this a fun day for Trav!  And driving CLEAR OUT to Sandy! ;)

First 5K Run...

So at the beginning of the summer (May)  my family was talking and decided we would all work towards running the Centerville 5K on the 4th of July.  We were all excited and pumped to do it.  Well Travis and I were planning on going running and getting ourselves ready to go and back into shape.  We kind of slacked and didn't get serious about it until a month before.  We ran every other night at 10pm.  That was the only time we could both do it when it wasn't 100 degrees outside.  We had a lot of fun spending time together and excersising. It was nice to have a running buddy because whoever was feeling better that night helped push the other and we gave eachother encouragement. By the time the race came we had already ran the distance of a 5K three times.  

On the day of the race, we were all ready to go.  We were all axious and excited because none of us had ever ran a 5K before.  We started out and the first thing we had to run on was a nice LONG uphill slope. By the time I got to the top I wasn't sure that I was going to make it without walking (my goal had been to make sure I jogged the whole way) and to add to my stress my ipod wasn't working right and I couldn't figure out which button to push because it was in an armband around my arm and I was bouncing up and down so I just gave up.  So I was breathing deep and I could hear myself and it was making it a lot more difficult to keep going.  But I definitely was determined to make it.  I rolled in at about 31.06 seconds.  It was my best time and I was happy.  It was by no means a winning time, but it was for my personal goal.

After the race we took a pictures with our numbers and our red faces.  I wasn't on the winners board, but my dad and Amanda (the ones on the right) were on their for the age groups.  Good Job to all 6 of us that took this challange on!

Labor Day Golf Party

Sometimes I think my family is a little crazy, but I have to admit that we're alot of fun!!!  So we have an Annual Labor Day Party at my G & G Ford's house.  It always has a theme.  We play a lot of games and there are always prizes to be won.  This year we decided to do a golf theme.  Each family had to come up with their own homemade mini golf hole idea.  We ended up having 9 different holes.  We also had a chipping competition and a ladder golf competition. 

This was our hole.  It was called the "Cotton Candy Castle".  There were two places you could hit your ball.  Either in the middle or on one of the sides.  Now you can't see them but there were two tubes that came off the back of the castle.  If you  hit your ball in the middle then you got to put your ball down the tube that led to the hole.  If you hit your ball on the sides then you would  have to place your ball down the other tube which led you to a little longer route to the hole.  My mom and I made the castle one night while Travis, my dad, Shane, and Josh went golfing.  It took us a good 4 hours, but we had fun while we worked on it.

This hole was called "The Big Flush"  You had to start your putt at the hanging toilet paper.  The ball would either be hit straight and go through the green tube and somewhat launch into the air towards the hole, or you were stuck with going around the toilet paper obstacles.  The hole was the toilet seat.  This was the Ford's hole creation.  Way Creative!!

This was the Tidwell's hole.  It was called the "Rock 'n' Roll Hole".  You putted from the start where the picture of my dad playing the saxaphone is.  The pictures are of my mom, dad, bother, and sister being rock stars.  They are actually pretty hilarious.  Once you got past the picture obstacles, you had to make it through the swinging song note.  The note at the end of the rope would be swinging as you putted it down the path and it would sometimes hit your ball backwards.  Once you passed that you just had to make it in the hole.

This was the Wilson's hole and oddly enough they wanted to call theirs the "Big Flush" as well.  It is crazy that two families picked the exact same name for their hole.  This hole began at the very end of those long pipes.  You had to try to shoot it straight down the middle of the green thing which led it down a pipe to the green.  Because Kevin does sprinklers during the summer, this seemed very fitting because it was all made out of sprinkler materials. 

I didn't get a picture of all the holes, but they were all very creative and unique in their own ways.  We had a ton of fun and played in teams of 4 but were scored individually.  Jason took first place and Travis and Austin tied for second place.  Trav has golfed all his life so it was no suprise that he was one of the winners!

We had a great dinner and I always enjoy spending time with my extended family.  Thank you Kathy, Sheri and Grandma Ford for all the hard work you put in to make this a unforgettable memory every year!

Cait's Wedding!

Kylee, Katie, and I hosted a shower for my best friend, Caitlyn.  I had so much fun getting to see all my great friends from high school.  As one of the activities, we made Caitlyn a wedding dress and bouquet out of napkins.  As you can see we got really into it but it was a total blast!  The theme of her shower was "David and Caitlyn's Firsts".  They got gifts that went along with their first night together, their first fix-it-yourself, their first breakfast, their first time cleaning their apartent, etc. 

Unknown, Katie, Caitlyn, Me, Tara, Burgundy, Kylee

The classic "bouquet with only your eyes showing" picture

Cait and David Coming out of the Salt Lake Temple.

To celebrate, Caitlyn and David had a nice breakfast at the Joseph Smith Building.  We enjoyed a delicious breakfast while listening to close friends and family tell stories about the newlyweds and give marriage advice.

After the breakfast, it was off to the temple to see them get sealed for time and all eternity.  It was so exciting to see their happy faces and to be there for such a special occasion.  I loved it!

Tara, Me (slightly cheezy), and Kylee getting anxious to see Mr. and Mrs. Cotrell come out of the temple doors.

Trav and I had a great time catching up with all my friends and their husbands.

I was lucky enough to be one of the bridemaids.  Caitlyn has always been one of my best friends and I was so glad I could share this special day with her.  Thanks for being a great friend Cait!  Best wishes on your new life together with David!

"Car Curse"

Unfortunate Event List:


1. We have had quite the mishaps with our cars....It all began when Travis and I were dating. I was pulling out of the driveway to head to work in the morning. His car was parked in the street next to our driveway. It was a snowy morning and his car was white. I didn't see it and I back right into it. Luckily it only left a minor dent. The problem is now that is has been 2 years, the paint has chipped a little bit. I gave him the money to get it fixed, it never got done and then we got married and just decided to spend the money on something else.


2. When we lived in Salt Lake, I woke up one morning and looked out the window. I saw that glass was on the ground. We went to take a closer look. Our backseat side window had been broken out. They had taken Travis' bookbag, his nice winter coat and his TI-89 calculator. (They must have thought there would be a laptop in his back back). I don't know if I was more concerned about the stuff that was stolen or the fact that the window cost $150 ish to repair.


3. Travis got a large dent above his front tire. We don't know where it came from and no one ever said anything. He popped it out somewhat himself, but you can still see it.


4. I got a good size dent by my door. Actually it's more like a 6 inch crease. We don't know where it came from and no one ever said anything.


5. On our way to Travs parent's house is Huntington, a truck flipped up a huge chunk of something that was black and heavy. It hit the windshield and the cracks went everywhere. We had to get a new windshield.


6. On our way to go camping in the Uintahs a deer jumped out and we hit its rear end.





Here is the result...

7. And last but not least when we thought we were done with car troubles, we had another suprise coming. Once again, we were headed down to Huntington. We had just made it through Spanish Fork Canyon (thank heavens) when are car started to make a weird noise. Trav pulled over because he recognized the sound of a flat tire. Well let's just say when we looked at it, the tire was very worn out (we were going to replace them very soon, but apparently waited too long), and it was basically a minor blow out. I wasn't sure what to do and I was so sick of bad luck I couldn't even think straight. I was thinking we would have to have someone come and get us. Luckily, Trav is a handyman and pulled out the spare tire and it was fixed real quick. I wish I would have listened a little better when they taught us how to change a tire in young women's.

I think I may have caused this "car curse" on us from hitting Trav's car when we were dating and not telling him at that exact moment. I told him later that day. But hopefully when we get the real cars of our dreams, the curse will be gone.

Yeah for new couches!

BEFORE

We inherited these couches from Travis' family to use when we got married. They had been passed down from an aunt to grandma to sister to a different sister to Trav and his roommate when he was at the College of Eastern Utah to us :). They were seriously at least 15 years old and had been used the entire time. When we finally decided we would break down and buy some new couches trav said "We need to find out who made these old couches and write them a letter. You have to give them credit for how sturdy they were built and if they can last this long they are good couches." I thought that was funny. We also weren't quite sure what to do with them.... they were in pretty decent condition, there was just one spot that we would sit where you would sink down a little bit further than anywhere else and we wondered if they were DI worthy? Well since we had no idea where the dump was, we figured someone might be able to use them in a basement. (atleast they were just plain light brown and not some 80 or 90's flower design right?)

AFTER

Now when we went looking at RC Willey during the Memorial Day sale we really had no intention of buying anything. Well we came across this darker brown couches that we really liked and they were on sale for 33% off which was really good. So we went in just to look, and came out with a purchase of new couches. They look really great in our apartment. The RC Willy men who delivered them were barely able to get them into our basement apartment, so hopefully when we move, we can get them out! lol

A reflection back to the best day of my life!