Since it is oficially 2010 I thought i would sum up the last 3 months of 2009 with a few pics. Starting with December and ending with October.

All I wanted for Christmas was a White Christmas... well I got it and I was so happy. It was freezing cold, but it just felt like Christmas.

Christmas breakfast... PULLAPARTS. My most favorite Christmas Tradition. It makes me smile just thinking about them.... yummy

This cute girl was so much fun!!! I loved being there for her first Christmas.

The whole Hallows Clan at Grandma and Grandpa Hallows'.

A few weeks before Christmas Landon and Sammy came down to visit. We took them to the Christmas display at the Belagio, along with Drew and Loke and their cute kiddos.

At the Belagio... loved having these two, plus summer, at our house! They are always so much fun to be with.

Us with the Phillips Fam

Us at the best Christmas Party EVER!!! Merry Christmas....

This is the first weekend in November. Landon and Sammy had Summer's baby blessing in Aurora. The whole family got together. I think it was the first time since our wedding we were ALL together. Good times.

All of the Grandkids... they are a cute little crew!

Happy Halloween! We had our first annual Family Christmas Party. We all dressed up, ate some good food, played some fun games and then later we went on a Denny's run with some of the cousins.

The whole fam, minus Rhett and Shauna's girls. We had lots of fun getting dressed up, or down in my dad's case, for our party.

Well, thats about it for the last part of 2009! It has been a great year for us. We hope that you all have a wonderful new year!!!

1/4 of a century

To my wonderful hubby….

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Yes it is true today is my wonderful Hubby’s Birthday… he is officially one quarter of a century old! :O) Wow, where did time go… I swear yesterday we were just 18 and high school sweethearts! Even though he will never read this, I just want to tell him he is the bestest in the westest! He is so good to me, such a hard worker, and makes me laugh EVERY SINGLE DAY! I am pretty sure I tell him he is crazy at least 25 times a day…. Cuz he is cRaZy!! And I love him for that! I hope you have a wonderful Birthday babe… you deserve it!

Just one of those Days....

Why is it that Satan works in such tricky ways?? I have had a lot on my mind lately, and so has Zack. So we decided that a trip to the temple was needed. We have many questions, and have spent many days praying for help. So what better help than to be close to our Heavenly Father? And then it happens…. I have a HORRIBLE day at work. Things happened that made me think and even speak not so nice words. And as I was thinking about the events that transpired at work, and my reactions to what had happened… it hit me! Of course it happens today! Satan is so tricky. It is the small things like this that make it hard to feel the spirit, and to be a good person! We are tested! So I sit here, taking deep breaths, trying not to let what happened at work affect me so emotionally that I cannot control the thoughts that were raging inside as my blood was boiling. And I am grateful that we are all human, and we all have these moments. And grateful that our Heavenly Father understands that we are only human! The blood has cooled, and the thoughts are a little more humane! Good thing work is almost over :O)



O and PS.... I'm an aunt to a BEAUTIFUL Summer Gracie :O) HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!

Yesterday... Takes the Cake!

A friend of mine at work had a baby shower yesterday, and her mom had asked me to make a cake for the shower. I was so excited, because I love to bake. And I am always looking for a reason to make something sweet :O) My good friend Loke graciously offered to help me make the cake. I was so excited because we always have so much fun together, and I am always grateful for another person's opinion. Well, Friday night we started our adventure (it was the first time either of us had attempted to use fondant and the first time either of us had tried to tackle a two tiered cake) Well, after 8 hours of hard work we were done....

This is the cake minus the cute umbrella on the top because it still wasn't dry

These are the super cute 3-D flowers that Loke made out of the fondant

We were both so excited because for first timers we thought we had done a pretty good job. We went to sleep very satisfied with ourselves!

Then at 8 am Saturday morning I got a phone call.... Loke?

Groggy and a little incoherent ( the phone call woke me up) I can hear the uneasiness in Loke's voice. "Tori you will never believe what happened! I woke up this morning and McKayla -her 4 year old daughter- snitched in the cake. I need you over here for damage control!"

I was still trying to wake up, and was a little unsure if I heard her correctly. We talked for a minute, and I was on my way back over to her house. We kept the cake there because I didn't want to try and transport the cake from her house to mine all by myself and at 2 in the morning. With my tool box (cake decorating supplies) and Kitchen Aid in hand I walked into the house. Loke answered the door with tears in her eyes, apologizing for what happened. I really didn't think it could be that bad!! Her daughter is the best behaved 4 year old I know!!! I was assuming she stuck her little fingers in the icing to take a little taste... totally fixable, right? So I went into the kitchen, reluctantly, afraid of what could have really happened. And this is what I saw..........

This is the picture after I had started "Operation Fix Baby Cake" I took off all of the fondant pieces and the green dot borders before I realized I should take a picture... eventually I would laugh about this, right? She had taken about 4 big chunks out of the cake just like this one, a few smaller ones, and added some extra fondant dots and flowers. We had also made some cupcakes to go on a cute cupcake stand. She had managed to touch every single one of those as well. How, I have no idea. She is always so eager to help whenever we get together to do little projects, and I have a feeling she thought she was just trying to help on this one as well.

Well after another 3 hours of adding another layer of frosting, and adding the decoration back on we ended up with this......

Not too bad, eh?!?! I can't tell you how happy I was that we were able to fix the cake. And how glad I am that Loke was able to help! We learned a few lessons tho...

1. Keep cakes (no matter how well behaved your children are) up up up and away! Those little fingers, and adoring eyes can't help but "snich" a little taste

2. Frosting can do, and cover, about anything!

3. After all is said and done, you will laugh about what happened :O)

ITS FRIDAY

ITS FRIDAY!!!!!! WOW THIS HAS BEEN THE LONGEST WEEK EVER!

hope you all have a great weekend :O)