Where to begin....

I have so much to catch up on...hopefully I get it all in. So School got out December 18 and what a relief that was, I was so ready for it be over, it was one of those dreadful semesters with lots and lots of work, and group projects, it was crazy. Then that night, Chanc, Randy, and Aidan came and I was so happy to have guests, especially those 3. They stayed until Sunday and we had lots of fun. Chanc and I hit the mall for a few exchanges, we met up with Kasey, Raylynne, and Callie for dinner on Friday night at Famous Daves, in lieu of Randy finishing a semester :) It was pretty good. Manuel had an instinct to buy Rock Band, so after dinner him, Kasey and Randy took off to Best Buy and us girls plus A-man went to see Raylynne's new house, and then we came back home and played a little guitar hero until the band showed up then it was super from that point, after we got the mic working that is. Saturday we just hung around the house, then went and did a little Santa shopping for Aidan and then we came back and made an oh-so-delicious mock salad from Costa Vida, fresh with Cilantro Lime Dressing, it was AMAZING. Loved it-. Sunday the Todd's went to Burley. Manuel had to work on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, and I had to work till Wednesday night, which was kind of a bummer being Christmas even n' all and it made for a nasty drive home. Christmas Eve day I brought Syd, Reese, Zoey and Charley over so they could open their presents from us and we could play...it was fun.

(Me, Reese, Zoey, Sydney, and little Charley Grace)

That night Manuel, Gordo and myself left Boise at about 11 and didn't get in to Burley until 4 A.M. it was crazy. We stopped to help a guy who had slid off the road, it looked like he had been there for a while(actually Manuel and Gordo, I just stayed in the nice warm truck, but I felt very bad that they were out there in the cold). We didn't have a tow-rope so there wasn't much we could do, but after he told the guys that he had called 9-1-1 to send some help, we waited with him, until another truck stopped by us and told us they had a rope, so Manuel and Gordo went back out to help pull him back on to the road, it took a while, the first attempt the rope broke, but he was able to get free...poor guy was getting ready to sleep in his car, he was waiting for a long time for emergency vehicles to respond and nothing...that's Burley for you though, they have "other" priorities, forget about helping when it's actually needed. The freeway should have seriously been closed, it was so bad out there. The guy who we helped was off the road just a little bit after Kasota Road exit and it took an additional 45 minutes almost to get to Burley, which is 14 miles away. It was a white out and it was very scary.

Christmas Morning- Manuel wanted to wake everyone up when we settled in for the night, after getting everything brought in from the truck. I was wanting to go to sleep but was wide awake, but after much begging we finally slept for a few hours and we (actually I did) woke up at about 8-I still didn't want to get out of bed then, but everyone was waiting on me (oops) We had a great Christmas, it was fun being with family and as always we were spoiled. Manuel got new paintball pants, a new jersey, a REAL-Cowboy shirt zick kit for his paintball gun, Blu-Ray DVDs (Batman begins, and Nacho Libre)

Manuel and his "real" cowboy shirt.

I got a new laptop --I dropped my Toshiba a few months ago by tripping over the cord, and ever since then this line has magically appeared on the screen, it would go away sometime if we moved the screen back and forth, but lately, I would turn the computer on and the screen would be black with all sorts of lines across the screen, I could see the computer was thinking because of the way the line were moving but I would have to turn it off and then restart it or take the battery out and then start it up. So we decided it would be best to get a laptop before my Toshiba completely went out. So Manuel purchased a Sony Vaio and I am pretty pleased. Its' a nice laptop, and it works great. So then this past Friday morning, Manuel went down stairs to get on the Toshiba (see...it was his computer now, b/c I got a new one) and the Toshiba is done with I think, we have turned it on, off, removed the battery, repeat by like 10 times and nothing still. It's kind of sad, it was a great laptop, definately been used though and put to the test a few time :( oops, I need and hope to be more careful, it was an awful incident, I couldn't believe how clumsy I had been. So back to presents, I also got a new coat from the Buckle, ---story time again---I told Manuel I wanted him to get me a little something that would surprise me b/c I haven't had a Christmas surprise in a while, he kept telling me there was nothing else to get me that he could think of..but I think he did a great job by surprising me with this cute, army green, fur hooded coat, it's oh-so adorable and I just love it. It was an excellent surprise/present and I think he should continue the tradition of surprising me. I also got Zumba workout DVDs and a Christmas plate and some snowflake hanging signs, which are adorable.

(My "lovely, un-presentable, Self, with the cute snowflake signs made by my sweet n' talented sister Chanc)

If any of you know my dad, it's a rare thing to catch a picture of him with a serious face, but that's what's great about my dad, he has a personality that is like no other, and I love taking pictures of my mother trying to figure out technology, she is very smart and so funny when she uses camera's she cracks me up!! Very great, generous, loving, caring mother and father that I have. Love you guys!

Christmas was definitely a white one, in the middle of opening gifts, G'Pa and G'ma Bench, along with Shaun and Deanna came out and G'pa needed to get the cows in, apparently with all the snow, they became "drifted In" so Manuel, Chace, Chad, and Shaun went to help G'pa and when they came back to the house, they were inside for just a few minutes then all of the sudden this little Dodge neon thought they could make their way thru all the snow in front of our house and with drifts so high (I have never seen so much snow in Burley) they became high centered...and for dodge neon's they don't have any tow handles apparently from what I learned last night, but I kind of figured that when all the guys were out in the middle of the road, digging the car out with shovels, and the four-wheeler. That person who was driving, said they thought they could make it thru, so get this...they stopped completely right before the drift, then gunned it....and viola, they sure made it all right....right on TOP of all that snow....it was pretty funny.


















Crazy snow in Burley. You can see in the first picture that the snow covers the entire trampoline, almost....Thanks for taking pictures Randy, so I could use them too :)




















I didn't get pictures of my brothers alone or even looking at the camera...shoot. Chace looks very intrigued at something, he received a new Ipod Nano from "Santa" and lots of other fun things and clothes and here is Chad opening a present...he left his "Santa" present to open very last, it was a Air Soft Gun along with some more fun things and clothes.


Randy, Chanc and Aidan Todd, I love this little family. Aidan is so cute and I loved being able to spend some time with him. While they were here in Boise, he didn't want to sleep one night, so Chanc and Randy left him with me and we had fun for the while that they were gone..they went to get some ice cream and then we were going to watch Mama Mia...It was great fun!



We wanted to play rock band 2 with all the family, so Manuel brought all the equipment...only to find out that we left the actual game in our Wii here in Meridian...We tried a few different places but to no avail, it was no where to be found. So we settled for Disney's wii sing it...--The mic that Manuel bought the night he bought the system, was crappy, it was wireless, but would hook up and then disconnect when ever it darn well pleased, so he took it back but couldn't find a different mic, so he thought he would buy me Disney's wii sing it...it was nothing that I was hoping the songs to be, they are definitely a little too "kiddish" for me, but it was fun none- the less with the kids at Grandma's....My not-so-little Brother, Chace totally rocked at singing, he is a fabulous singer anyway, but dang, he sure can sing like the Jonas Brothers, and he is very very good at it. So any ladies looking to have your heart melted by an oh -so Handsome boy, call Chace, he is the MAN!~~ (Chace there was a lady that posted she needed a Jonas Brother imitator for her daugther's 12th b-day party...thought about sending her an email with your number....hehe)

Friday-was just a low-key day. I had Aaliyah Jade with me whom I love having, she is my little side-kick when I am in town and I love every minute of. She's adorable, but we got ready, had lunch at TACO BANDIDO and then I dropped the guys plus Aaliyah off to play some B-ball and then I headed to Grandma's to hang with Chanc. We were there for the most part of the day, then we went to Grandma Asher's to visit and that was fun b/c I got to visit with my aunt's and cousins from Utah whom I rarely see, so it was fun. That night Manuel and I went to Marc and Lyndsey's to hang out but I wasn't feeling so good, so I was pretty bummed I zonked out on the couch and then Manuel woke me up and we went home.


Saturday---got up at 730 and make the trek back to Boise, it was sad leaving, we had so much fun with Family, but Manuel had to work that night.


I think I captured everything...funny how I remember all of that, but it was great time spent with Family, I just wish there were more time for us to be home, and enjoy every one's company and have fun.

We can add one to the blogging family....

Hello all!!! I have some very exciting news to share with you....Raylynne and Kasey have officially became "BLOGGERS" much to Kasey's dismay...(but he will soon love to appreciate it) anyway I wasn't sure how anyone would find her blog so I decided to do a post and share it with all the family... www.kaseyandraylynne.blogspot.com

I hope you all enjoy.

Holiday Cheer

So I will make this my final post for the day and possibly for a while. I feel like I have updated everyone and then some. My Grandma sent me an email of this, so I thought instead of sending out emails, because I am not a big fan of forwarding things, I thought I would post it and this way anyonne who wants to do it can copy and paste it on their blogs.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I love wrapping paper, but if I happen to find the perfect gift bag that works too.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial, I am terribly scared of spiders and I think they will infest my home if I bring in a real tree...{although when I was sharing this tid-bit of info with Manuel, I think he may have thought I was crazy}
3. When do you put up the tree? The day after Thanksgiving if possible.
4. When do you take the tree down? mmm...usually right after Christmas, this year it will probably be after New Years weekend.
5. Do you like eggnog? Not a big fan, I hear its like drinking a pureed cheeseburger.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? probably my Teddy Rubxin bear...I saw one at Costco in Twin a month ago and was shocked he came out again..it's been a long time
7. Hardest person to buy for? I have too many to list.
8. Easiest person to buy for? This year, probably my nephew, Aidan.
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, it's brand-new :)
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail, definately
11.Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I honestly don't think I have received a bad gift, but one year I guess I was really emphasizing I wanted a Winny the Pooh bear and all my christmas presents that year turned out to be Winny the pooh somehow. I received the bear, a sweatshirt and some overalls with him on there as well. I think I was definitely over him real fast and now I don't even think he's anybit of a funny/cute thing at all.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? All of them.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? mmm...I usually start in November, early December.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Not so much on this one
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? my Fathers oh so delicious YAMS...can't wait!
16. Lights on the tree? White ones
17. Favorite Christmas song? I think I pretty much love them all and start listening right after Halloween
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Travel to good Ol' Burley
9. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Yes, dasher, dancer, prancer,vixen, comet, cupid, donner, blitzen, and of course, Rudolph
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Rustic Star
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas morning? Before marrying my family would open gifts on Christmas Eve at Grandma Asher's house then open our on Christmas with the Bench Side. Now that I am married, I try to fit it all in, but last year we opened the gifts my mother and father in-law gave us on Christmas Eve.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Crowds, traffic and the rudeness of people. 23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I have pine cone strands, red bead strands, little red bells, a rustic star, and a few ornaments collected over the year
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Dad's Yams would do, but I would probably be rolling home if that's all I ate. Ham, Yams, Salad, Rolls, Mashed Potatoes, Corn/beans, Pie
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Hopefully Santa got my letter or Ques: I would like a Cuisinart Kitchen Mixer, Black please. Maybe a new pair of shoes, my favorite ones are ripping from the sole...I noticed yesterday.
26. Who is most likely to respond to this? .Anyone feeling the holiday cheer.
27. Who is most likely NOT to respond to this? The Grinch

I almost forgot...

This is the Nativity Scene set that my parents bought us. It's so cute. I really want the entire Willow Tree Nativity Scene set..but as I was checking prices yesterday....it was like $317...yeah I think my little one will satisfy me. It's a southwestern style...it's fun and definitely fits our household

Saturday 11/22/2008

(Us at Fremont Street)

(Vanessa and Gordo-Gambling their little hearts away)

(Frank-trying his lucky hand at the machines)

Friday Night 11/21/2008

(Manuel and I at the Excalibur)

(Vanessa and Gordo at the Excalibur)

(Vanessa and I at the Salsa Cantina)

Girls out for the Evening

(B-Shannon, Anna(bride) Vanessa

F-Me, Adriana, Liset(?), Trish)

Happy Holidays!

{Warning: Long post ahead without any pictures. I thought I would update, but the camera is in Manuel's truck and he is at work. I will post the pictures later}

Well Thanksgiving break is over and I am just now starting to tell you all about it. I am sad that it went by so fast, but I was pretty busy and well..only a few more weeks of this nonsense called School for a while. I must say that starting in January, I am officially a Senior at BSU...whoop whoop..that makes me happy.

So Thanksgiving break started off with a bang...a long drive to Vegas to see a really good friend of Manuel's get Married. It was great fun. The Vega brother minus one clan plus two wives were on the road at 4 a.m. Friday November 21. I was so excited to get out of Boise and to be able to spend time with Manuel without the interruption of homework, I couldn't sleep before we left, I was busy packing, checking my list to make sure I didn't forget anything, packing more, and doing little odd ended things, 3 A.m arrived rather quick and we left to go get the other travelers. I thought sleeping in the car was a good idea, I could hardly sleep though, it just wasn't as comfy as a bed would have been. The drive to Las Vegas, was rather boring, it's such a long drive and not very exciting. The talks between us all were rather entertaining. We arrived in Vegas around 12 p.m I think on Friday and tried to take a nap before the evenings festivities but instead we got ready and went to some casino's, walked around and then the girls and guys split for the evening. The girls went and saw Thunder from Down Under, and that was an experience in itself. It was rather comical seeing all the crazy single women going well crazy and some of the brides to be were rather touchy with the Aussies and our group, we were just calm...seeing that we had probably never seen anything like that before, it was fun. It didn't start off so well, Vanessa and I got put at the end of the table and well everyone else sat in front of us and we were having a hard time seeing, but that didn't stop the laughter, we got lots of laughing in at the old brides to be and some of the rather un-shy ones as well. People amaze me, honestly. After the show, Vanessa, Ana (the bride to be) and my self went dancing. IT was fun, although there were some creepy men at the club and wouldn't leave us alone. there was one guy who was watching us, so we moved, he moved as well. we then decided to step off the dance floor and check our phones, well lo-n-behold, the man made his way to the bar, perfect eye contact to where we were standing. FREAK- honestly. We decided to meet up with the other girls and we went to Salsa Cantina, the girls danced, and Vanessa and I decided to head to the hotel, we were exhausted. Good thing we left then, because the other girls stayed out till 5, crazy dancers! So back to us leaving...we decided we needed to get some snacks for our hotel, so we walked to Walgreen's for some water and pop. WE then decided we would just take a cab from there to our hotel. Well the guy was obviously in a hurry to get back because he was driving all crazy and freaking me out, he was honestly the first cab ride I took with out Manuel and he was also the scariest. So Vanessa and I weren't quite sure on how to get back to our hotel, but we knew that some of the streets, would just result in us having to turn around. He was rather a rude man too, we would tell him where to go and he thought he knew the way, turns out we knew better than him. so when we finally got to the hotel, it was $8.10, I gave him a 20 and I told him I wanted $11 back...when I said that he repeated $11, $11..Me- the oh so nice person at times, said yes 11. He was the worst and most rude cab driver ever, he deserved his .90 cent tip, Jack-...I didn't count the change, thinking he would give me 11 back,...come to find out he didn't think .90 cents was good enough, so he took $2 and gave me $9 back, but I didn't realize until the morning. He was like a cab driver in a scary movie that would take the ladies down some dead end road and attack them and leave them there in the dark...that type of guy, scary right?

Saturday, we laid around, ordered pizza, then got ready for the wedding. We went, after which went and sat at a bar to watch BSU win yet another game then we met up with the newlyweds for dinner at a delicious buffet with my favorite, Crab legs and Shrimp. DELISH! We split after that and the Vega's found themselves on Fremont Street. I can't believe Manuel and I never made it over there when we were there last year for our honeymoon. We were in Vegas for a week and the strip was all we saw. IT was so awesome the light show above us was pretty cool, the music and the entertainment. We finally got a call from some of the other wedding guests and they were dancing so we decided to go meet up with them. There was a little miscommunication between Manuel and Franky, we took a $20 cab ride to the Palms hotel to meet up with them when in-fact, they were at the Las Palmas, which was right by Fremont street. So Franky came and picked us up and then we went back to our hotel and hung out, we never did go dancing which was sad because Vanessa and I really wanted to. That weekend went by way to fast and wish we had longer time to spend in Vegas, there were things we wanted to do, but no time to do it in. It was fun while it lasted.

Now on to Thanksgiving. My in-laws came up to Boise on Thursday morning so we had Thanksgiving Dinner at Manuel's brother Frank's house. It was a great day. It started on Wednesday when I needed to make 3 pies and then I needed to take stuffing and the rolls on Thursday. Being the Martha Stuart I am, I decided I would make the pie crusts, (the time I made them with Vanessa, the first batch I made, well it just didn't turn out at all), I made the dough, followed the directions to put it in the fridge for at least an hour. When I returned to roll it out, it was hard as a rock. I let it sit out for a while, rolled them and one of the pie crusts turned out and the other just kept crumbling as I was rolling. So I made another batch, in the meantime, I made the pumpkin filling, sliced the apples for the apple pie and made the chocolate filling for the chocolate pie. I must say for my first time making these pies, they turned out pretty well. With only one mishap with one pie crust. Anyway, besides that the food was amazing and the company was even better. I love being around family, especially this time of year. It makes me reflect on all the things I have to be thankful for. I am so thankful for my husband and the hard work he does for us, how he has an abundance of patience for me, I hear I can be a tough one to deal with at times ;) and the unconditional loves he shows me I Love him .I am also thankful for Family. They all make me smile and I love the time I get to spend with them.

Friday was my first experience with shopping on Black Friday, I have never been a fan of the crowds the day after Thanksgiving. I fell asleep on the couch, and Manuel woke me up around 4 asking if I still wanted to go, I first said no, but then realized I didn't want to be home alone, so I tagged along. It was rather crazy, I have never seen so many people at one store at one time. We went to Wal-Mart for a blu-ray player. WE found them and planted our feet. Manuel kept telling me to move aside because things go crazy when they let the items loose. So about 5 minutes before they opened the items I moved back and watched all the crazed sleep deprived shoppers. IT was rather comical. Manuel did get the player but after a few attempts of grabbing the same ones as some other shoppers, he decided to duck low and take from the bottom. he got and we were on our way. He wanted to get Iron man on Blu-ray so we searched the store but to no avail we couldn't find it. So we stood in line to make our purchase. We then headed over to Circuit city to see what they had, (only because Linens-n-things wasn't open yet) We headed over to Best Buy, went to Breakfast, went back to Linens-n-things, then we were going to go home but we made one last stop at Ross for an HDMI cable. The Dvd player didn't come with one and these cables run from $30-125 and Manuel remembers he saw on at Ross a couple weeks ago for around $10. So we waited for them to open hoping they would still have it so we wouldn't have to buy the more expensive cables. We couldn't find one but then Manuel moved a few items and one was hiding behind some ear phones or something. We got lucky! An awesome deal on a blu-ray dvd player and a cheap cable! Whoop whoop! WE were home around 8:15 and we landed ourselves on the couch to watch a new movie and nap. (Yes, Manuel hooked the player up as soon as we got home)

My parents and brothers stopped on Saturday on their way back to Burley. They went and spent Thanksgiving with Chanc, Randy, and Aidan. They had lots of fun up there and couldn't stop talking about the little guy, I can't wait until they come home for Christmas, so we can spend some quality time with him ( I mean Chanc and Randy too). After some delicious Sweet and Sour chicken, Mom needed to meet with my cousin Aaron to buy him some shirts for his mission, so we all tagged along, glad I did. We went to Desert Book and I bought a few Christmas presents and then I absolutely fell in love with this little nativity scene set, it was so adorable. I was set to go back next week to purchase it, I had already spent enough there in one night. Well to my surprise, Mom and Dad bought it for us and she set it up as soon as we got home, except it took me like 3 hours to realize and the only reason I looked was because Chace spilled his drink and I looked over in that direction. I was super excited {I will take a picture of it and post it later}.

Well that's all in the long-kind of nutshell version of our lives. It went by so quickly and I have school tomorrow. I didn't do as much homework as planned over the break and I think I might have caused a little stress in my life but hey I have 6 days of actual school left and I can't wait...only thing is after school gets out I am studying my little butt off because I take a test at the beginning of the year...wish me luck.