Goodbye 2009...Welcome 2010

Is anyone else still having trouble writing 2010 down instead of 2009?? I still am...I've been on a blogging haitus for awhile since we have been super busy! A lady in my department moved to another one so we are short a person and the hospital doesn't want to hire on another person. So my friend Christina and I pick up her hours as well as have our normal hours. So I have been working around 100 hours a pay period and well, have been super tired! But I figured I need to jot things down quickly before I get too far behind. Christmas was fun this year with just the two of us. It was super weird to not be with our families but what can you do?? Anyways Christmas Eve we played catch at the park (yeah it was like 70 degrees that day) and then did my family tradition of getting pizza and buffalo wings and watching Christmas movies in our new Christmas p.j's. I had to work that night so before I went Blake's family called so we could play the family Deal or No Deal. Last year we sucked and only won $35 and this year we were determined to make at least $200. The range is from .1 - $1500. And we won $350 :) It was so nerve racking I don't know how the people on the real show handle it. And out amount was not nearly as much! On Christmas we woke up and read from Luke the story of Christs birth and then opened presents! Well the remainig ones since we had opened 2 each before. We're bad when it comes to giving gifts. And then we went to breakfast with his teammate Ryo. I had to work again and then after we went over to our friends Ian and Crystal and had dinner and played games all night! It was fun! On New Year's we had some Chinese for dinner and then went over to another friends house and played games and ate junk food and rang in the new year. New Years Eve

Blake has been busy with basketball and they have won there last 3 games. Reedly (57-55), DeAnza (63-54) , and Gavilan (75-68). Blake went through kind of a slump before but he definitely picked it up the last 2 games with 18 points and then 30+ points in the last one! They are now ranked 14th in the state and have a game tonight against #8 San Jose City.

Anyways that was a quick ramble on whats going on.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Christmas Party

We had a Christmas party with some of Blake's teammates last week! So fun! And so much work to get ready for...we vowed to not host another party until we have a bigger place!

D.J playing egg nog pong

Blake and me...

Blake and Beau had a beard competition and so Blake shaved his into handle bars...ugh! I made him shave it the next day!

Gingerbread house competition

Oakland temple

Jacki, Amber, Chris, Ed, and D.J

Beau, Kyle, and Jonathan

Ian and Crystal

We also did a white elephant gift exchange...toy guns were very popular! Go figure since we live in Salinas!
Last weekend Blake had a tourney up in Santa Rosa...they didn't play as well as they wanted too...nuff said.
The primary kids doing the nativity scene....so stinkin' cute!

Happy Holiday's everyone!

May the new year bring you and you family joy and happiness!

MPC All-Tourney/MB Aquarium

Hartnell played in the Monterey Bay Classic tourney December 3-5 and did great. They started off rough losing to Santa Rosa 83-73. Blake had 29 points that game. The next day they played against Santa Barbara and won 102-80 with Blake having 24 points. They made it to the consolation game and won the #4 ranked Los Medanos 67-64 with Blake having 10 points. After the game the tournament director gave Blake an All- Tournament Award! :)



Blake's stats thus far:Games: 8 FG:49 3FG:12 FT:44 Points:154 PPG: 19.3 High Game:29 Hartnell plays this Saturday in Redwoods City against Canada.

We took a trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium yesterday! I love that place!

Chris, Beau, Colton, Blake, and me

Penguins!
Colton and me at the bat ray touching pool...except thats not a bat ray it's some other fish, the bat rays were being stubborn.

The jelly fish were pretty sweet...we have like 50 pictures of them alone.

Thanksgiving Holiday

Alot has happened in the last week or so and I don't know if I can remember everything...between Blake's school and games and my job we've been busy this last week. Scary to think one day we'll mix kids in there somewhere! Anyways...Blake had a game against the day before Thanksgiving against Skyline and won making there record 5-1 Blake had 20-something points...the paper said 20, the books said 28, and online it said 23 so yeah 20-something. After we went to Denny's for some grub and these 2 clowns walk in...well come in from the kitchen and they were kinda creepy looking but I hate clowns so I would say that. Anyways they went to every table and made balloon animals...and I'm talking like sophisticated ones too!

Meet Penelope

Blake had a game against Foothill the other day...and I wasn't there but Blake said they all played horrible and they lost, I didn't ask much questions cause he was upset about it (obviously) so they are currently 5-2, but they have the MPC tournament starting today so let hope we have some good games! I also made a blog for Blake's basketball year...you can click on the logo on the sidebar and it will take you to it.
Thanksgiving was spent at the Vasher's again (Blake's coaches house) after I got off of work we headed over there with 2 other guys on the team. The food was delicious and the company was great! I am so thankful for the Vasher family and all they do for us!
The day after Thanksgiving we set up some Christmas decor and our tree! I love it! The pictures don't do justice though!

It was also my birthday that day but I had to work so earlier in the week Blake took me to dinner and to see New Moon and then throughout the week we did other fun stuff. And then the night of my birthday after I got off of work the team and some of there family came over for cake and ice cream! :)

One of my gifts fron Blake was a Hartnell t-shirt to wear to his games! I think it's so cute!

Represent!

That was our holiday....fun and busy!

Little bit of this...little bit of that

I love this time of year! Basketball season has started and Hartnell basketball is doing awesome...as of right now they are 4-1 and ranked 9th in the north! :) They played Las Positas last week and won 61-52 with Blake having 22 points and then last Saturday they played Merced and won 60-58 with Blake having 17 points! Tonight they play against Skyline...hope it turns out well!
Now my main reason for this post...baking! I don't normally bake...and I never did when I was growing up, it just wasn't my thing, however I do enjoy eating baked goods. Well I, for some reason, wanted to bake everything pumpkin for the last few days. You name it...pumpkin bread, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and muffins, pumpkin roll and then I came upon this yummy recipe by Paula Deen from the Food Network. Try these pumpkin bars...they are delish!

Ingredients
Bars:
4 eggs
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
15-ounce can pumpkin
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
Icing:
8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until light and fluffy. Stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix at low speed until thoroughly combined and the batter is smooth. Spread the batter into a greased 13 by 10-inch baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting. Cut into bars.
To make the icing: Combine the cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the sugar and mix at low speed until combined. Stir in the vanilla and mix again. Spread on cooled pumpkin bars.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Gobble til you Wobble!

It's that time of the season...

Wow what a great week! And so busy! We barely had anytime to recover yesterday before the start of this week! On Tuesday the 3rd I flew back to Utah for another day trip! My parents and grandparents picked me up and we went to dinner at Tucanos! Yum! I ate my weight in food...I swear! I had some stuff with my ankles to do the next day and then I spent the rest of the day with my family before I flew back home!
This last weekend was Blake's first games/tournament! It was so fun to watch him play! His parents, his aunt, and two of his brothers flew in and we all stayed in a hotel in Fremont where the tournament was! It was alot of fun and Blake's team took 3rd! Blake played awesome even though he doesn't think he shot well. He averaged 14 pts. overall this weekend! :)

I felt very spoiled this week since I got to see both sides of our family!

No pics of the games! Sorry! I was really caught up in the games!

Also, on Sunday it was the primary program and it went so well! The kids worked so hard to memorize there parts and all the songs! Since the wards combine for classes (spanish & english) the kids had to learn a song in spanish as well! They sang it beautifully and it brought tears to my eyes! And at the end I shed a tear or two! ;)

Bowling in the dirty south...

Valley Center Bowling is the place to be on Tuesday nights! Such a happenin' place! No...not really but it's $2 Tuesday's and bowling 2 games for the both of us plus shoes is only $12 so in my book thats awesome and will definitely be considered for more date nights! :)

me, Darrin, Chris, and Eddie

I won! No it's not a great score! But I have never won in bowling!

It had to be documented!