I'm thankful for...

You!! :) You guys are all awesome friends. I love this holiday because being thankful means eating a lot of food. I agree, no Christmas stuff until after Thanksgiving. Starting Friday I will be celebrating Christmas in full force the entire month of Dec, including parties, a NY trip, plays, etc. I hope I can see at least some of over the Christmas break! We should all get together. Also, if you ever feel like coming out here to visit, I'd love it! You're all welcome to stay with me anytime.

I hope you all have exciting plans for the weekend--I'll be going to my grandparents' (and probably be the only person under the age of 50).

HAPPY TURKEY DAY

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I can't believe how fast this year has flown, especially how fast November has gone. I have to say I'm a bit jealous of Nicole for becoming a Layers distributor. They are probably my most favorite shirts. I think I wear them almost every day, either as a shirt or as an under shirt since they are modest and LONG! Hallelujah for that! :) The long torso-ed people need a little break sometimes and luckily long shirts are the "in thing" right now. We just need more people to sell long inseam pants. I went to Express the other day to get pants for work and only a select few styles came in long. What's the deal with that? Don't they realize that there are tall people out there that don't enjoy walking around in either floods or the same pants every day because they don't come in long? I'm not talking about jeans...I can find those at my favorite jeans store...Buckle, but work pants are hard to come by (at least I think they are). So there's my plug for 2 clothing lines...Buckle and Layers! :) Well, I really didn't have too much to write about! I just hope everyone has a happy holiday this week. And after tomorrow (turkey day) people can put their Christmas decorations up. I don't know why but it really bugs me that people already have their trees and lights up already. What about Thanksgiving? :) Bryce told me that I'm letting it get to me too much, but I guess I have my own opinions right! Well, have a fun weekend everyone!
Love ya, Karen

Layers Clothing

Hey everyone! I wanted to let all of you know that I am the newest distributor for Layers Clothing company! I am really excited and think it will be a really fun thing. Yesterday I got my starter kit which has 19 samples of their Autumn line they are currently featuring. Now I'm ready to throw some parties!! Here is the website if you would like to check them out. They have some really cute shirts right now I must add:
www.layersclothing.com
For those of you who have never been to a "tee party" as they are called, here is how they work. First I give you (the hostess) invitations to invite all your friends and family that you want to come. You send them out about 2 weeks before your party and then call and see who's coming if you want an idea and to remind people! Then I show up on the date you choose and bring my samples so that everyone can try the shirts on and figure out what size they are. I have catalogs with me showing pictures of the whole line including the sizes, colors, and prices for each.

The great thing about being a hostess is that you earn free shirts! The hostess benefits are 8% of the sales of your party before taxes towards any Layers shirts. Also, you receive 20% off towards any five shirts (I assume you would do this if you wanted more shirts after your 8% ran out).

If you have any questions or are interested in having a party or you know of someone who might, let me know! Give me a call or email me! I own a few of their shirts that I bought previous to becoming a distributor and I love them. They are no only cute, but they are also comfortable and of course modest!

Finally

First of all hello to everyone! What a fabulous idea! I hope everything's going well for everyone. These are my babies Hallie and Blake on Halloween, as you can tell Hallie is really excited about carving pumpkins. All's well at the Button end, our house is nearing completion but not there yet. We hope to be in sometime in January, but we all know construction is never on time. Hallie is sick now, but is mainly an angel. She speaks fluent Chinese Jibberish and is now working on the Engish language, putting 2 or 3 words together at a time. It is so much fun to hear her start to talk, her latest is sound, she starting to wonder what she's hearing. Blake is sleeping through the night now and is close to crawling, but not yet. Ryan and I are going to be using our wells fargo rewards points at the end of this month to go to Kauai! We are so excited, Ryan probably more just cuz I'm the mom and have some kind of attachment to my kids. It'll be a nice break before kids start coming again.

Anyway, today I was watching Oprah and this remarkable woman figured out the baby language. She has photographic sound (don't quite know how to say that). Christine is the only one with a newborn so she will have to test it. All babies make 5 sounds (words) out of reflex. Since this lady has amazing ears she figured it out. Hear's the site.
http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200611/tows_past_20061113.jhtml
Now all of you can start having babies! Yea!

Ryan's kind of freaking out, the computers making crazy sounds but there are three pages to read and it tells you the "words" they make it is fascinating!

See ya later!

Jewelry Party!

Hey everyone! I am having a jewelry party this Saturday, Nov. 18th at my mom's house in Sandy from 11 am-1 pm or whenever. I hope most of you have recieved an invitation by now. A few people in my family have, so hopefully you have. I would love for everyone to come and also bring a friend or your mom, sister, whoever! I have invited all of our friends and my mom has invited some people in the ward. It's just going to be an open house, so drop by whenever.

The company is called Lia Sophia. I went to a party in September and thought it would be fun to do with our friends and anybody who wanted to come! You can look up their website and check out their jewelry if you'd like at http://www.liasophia.com/nora. Also, if you can't come on Saturday but you would still like something, just let me know and I can order it for you, even up to the following Wednesday I believe (the party doesn't officially close until then). Even if you don't want to buy anything you can come and look and just chat with everyone! It's totally a no pressure thing.

I look forward to seeing all of you! If you have questions let me know!

Nicole

hi everyone!!! I have looked at this friends blog a few times, but have never had time to figure out how to post something, but I think I finally figured it out...so we'll see if this works. This is such a great idea, it's so fun to hear how everyone is doing. By the way, Meredith- I loved your guys' halloween costumes!

Me and Ty are doing well, we're living in Provo (but I still hate BYU football- probably even more than before). We're both in school and graduating in April!!! Yeah!! I'm in dental hygiene school and really love it. I'll actually be sad when I graduate. Nicole and Justin came in to our clinic to get their teeth cleaned a couple of weeks ago- it was so fun! Ty has a job in Los Angeles, so we'll be moving out there at the end of the summer. Before we move, we're going to go to Thailand for 2 months (hopefully with Nanette and Jared!) for our last big trip before we start working our lives away. But if anyone wants to go to California next year, you'll have a free place to stay!

It's so fun to see all the new baby pictures. Christine- Claire looked SO adorable in that little pumpkin, I can't believe how much hair she has! Well, I really have no exciting news in my life- but I'm glad I finally figured this out. I hope to hear from you all soon!
love,
em

Halloween

Hey everyone! I hope everyone had a happy Halloween. Personally, I'm sad it's over because it's one of my favorite holidays. Adam and I were a cop and convict!

I'm glad I finally joined this blog! I miss all of you and want to hang out with everyone sometime! I think Ginger is right, we should all do something for the holidays.

Just for an update, Adam and I are living in Murray. I officially graduated from the U in August with a BA in English. It feels so good to be done! I work at the U for a former professor who has a business called Yourstory: Record and Remember. We record people's life stories onto CDs (usually older people). It's really fun, and if anyone wants to have me interview one of their grandparents or anything, give me a call (243-4978) or e-mail me (meredith.rock@gmail.com). The website is www.yourstory.utah.edu. It's a really good family Christmas gift to give everyone a copy of your grandparent(s) life stories. Plus it's good for geneaology/family history work!

Adam is working on his Bachelor's in Communications at the U. He still works at Mstar, an internet/cable/phone service provider. He is so busy that lately he has been working all night long! We are going to Phoenix to visit his family for Thanksgiving. I'm excited!

Well it's really good to see everyone's updates! Congrats to everyone on recent babies! See y'all later!

p.s. Laura and Meghan, cute pictures!

Yay for posts!

I'm so glad that people are finally posting! Hopefully this is a regular occurence! Ginger...I can guarantee that you will be so happy to be done with school. Coming home from work and having no homework is one of the best feelings ever! I still enjoy it and I've been done for almost a year now! :) I really don't have a lot to say because there really isn't anything exciting in my life that often! All I do is work all day and sit at home all night while Bryce does homework! But work is fun! :) We do go on vacations every once in awhile, so that's fun. The only reason why we go on vacations is to watch football though! If any of you have ever seen Fever Pitch...that is pretty much Bryce, but he likes all college football rather than just one team. We went to Chicago in October to see Notre Dame play Stanford. It was definitely fun and I got a vacation out of it so I'm not complaining. I don't have any of those pictures on my work computer though so I can't post any cute pictures. We are already planning next year's football trip and we might be going to a Tennesse game. That will be exciting because that is my favorite team (besides the U of course). I chose Tennessee when we first started dating because I liked their colors the best! Ha...girls and football! :) Anyways, sorry I don't have any exciting news but I do hope that everyone is doing well! Have a happy day!
Love ya, Karen

Figured it Out

Hi everyone! I am not sure if I am doing this right- but I guess I will find out soon! I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween. I like this blog thing!

Laura Bird

Happy Halloween!

Hey guys! I hope you're all doing well. Congratulations to Christine and baby Claire. I'm happy to hear about the Firths too. I just moved back to DC last week and I am so glad to be here, other than it is freezing cold! I wish I had something really exciting to tell you all, but I don't really. Oh, Jeff (my boyfriend) will be doing Washington Seminar (an internship program through BYU) next semester from Jan.-May. Yay! I can't wait. I have so many things planned for us once he gets here. As for now, I am back working regular hours, which is a relief. That's about it. Have a spooky Halloween! :)
p.s. We need to encourage all of the rest of our friends to post on here so I have more to be entertained with while I work!

Hello everyone! It's been so fun reading all of your posts....it took me this long to figure out how to post one myself. I'll give everyone a quick update on the Firthies......we are both graduated and working up at Primary Childrens. It's stressful, but great! We were both able to take care of those conjoined twins that were separated last month. I have not been working much lately becuase I have mono....not fun. Anyway, life is good. Ash is moving out and leaving me all by myself. We won't be connected at the hip anymore! The love life is interesting.....isn't dating always that way? Since we are the few single friends left, you'll actually still get updates on that. :) I'm still dating that boy I've been dating for a year now, but no marriage yet. Ash ws dating his best friend, but that ended. Now she's dating like crazy and I have to approve all of them! (She doesn't know I'm writing this)
Hope everyone's doing great and has a great Halloween! Hope to see everyone soon! Congrats to all the pregnant ones, new moms, birthday girls, and friends with new houses.

Love the Firthies!!

Great Pumpkin Cake

I made this cake yesterday for a former roommate get together. You can find the recipe on www.kraftfoods.com. It is probably one of the easiest recipes ever!! Looking at it from this angle, it doesn't look the greatest (since you can see the icing that dripped to the base of the cake holder--oops!) but from the side, it looks fabulous!! And it looks more orange in real life (it seems maybe the camera didn't do so well, I don't know). Anyway, it was super easy and I got LOTS of compliments on it! Not only did my old roomies think so, but even their husbands or bf's! Also, I was walking over to the girl's apt. where we had dinner and on my way over this random girl said, what a cute cake! Then she said, did you make it? Ha, like I am some gourmet! Anyway, if you want lots of compliments and a yummy cake, try it! All you use is a cake mix!! You can use any kind you want and then you just put a cream cheese frosting on top and the stem in the middle is an ice cream cone. Right now this cake is the featured cake when you go to the website--it's the one right there on the web page.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Buttermilk Syrup Recipe

For those of you who know me really well, you know that I love pancakes! And breakfast foods in general. Well Justin came home from work last weekend and said he had the best syrup on his french toast for breakfast there last Saturday (he works at a school for troubled adolescents and they have a cafeteria) and that we should try it. I am never opposed to trying new recipes, especially when it may involve a yummy breakfast food. So this morning I tried it and it was REALLY good! I thought I would share the recipe with anyone else who is a huge lover of pancakes, french toast, and anything else you may think of to put syrup on!!

Buttermilk Syrup Recipe

1/2 c. butter
2 c. buttermilk
5 c. sugar (I know it's a lot, that's why it's so good!)
1/4 c. corn syrup

Combine all ingredients into a large pot and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer 5-10 minutes.

Add:

2 T. vanilla
2 T. baking soda

Wisk until it triples in size. Serve with french toast, pancakes, etc.

*I halfed the recipe since there are just two of us and there was still plenty left over (I thought it would be too difficult to third it or I would have tried that!!)

**Also, if you don't have buttermilk laying around (which I never do) here's a substitute: mix 1 T. lemon juice (yes, I do have that laying around!) with one cup of regular milk, stir, and let sit at least 5 minutes.

It will look all white and frothy when it's done (but it's supposed to!). Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Whitney

Whitney! Happy Birthday to you! I hope you have a great day today and that you have some fun plans for the weekend!! Have a good one!

Love, Nicole

I lost my phone!!!

So, I am a genius, and left my phone outside of the meteorology building where somebody else picked it up. Now I have no phone numbers! If you guys could email me your number when you have time, it would be good to get everyone's number again.

my email address is nanhosen@gmail.com

Things are going well. I am pretty overwhelmed with school and work. All I know is that I cannot wait to be finished!! I think that I will probably go to grad school in hydrology once I graduate, but I am for sure taking a year off to work. I have a job with the National Weather Service, so it will be go to be able to go to work, come home, and not worry about the 18 tests that I have that week.

I hope everything is going well for everybody. Whitney, happy birthday in a few days!!!!

I've got a GOOD one!

I just have to brag for a minute about my wonderful husband! Yesterday Justin picked me up from work and on my seat was this beautiful flower arrangement! He asked me if I remembered what day it was. I had to think for a minute, but luckily I remembered that it was the day of our first date two years ago! And he remembered, I couldn't believe it! He bought food and made me dinner too! Anyway, I just thought I would share! Aren't the flowers gorgeous?!

Home Update

Happy LATE Birthday Nicole and Kathryn! I love birthday's and I hope both of your's was perfect. Needless to say, Jake and I found a house that we really liked. But, it was technically already under contract. But the sales rep told us they didn't think it was going to go through... long story short, it did and we didn't get the house. Oh well! We will for sure be in a house by April. We just extended our lease at our apartment, so we've got another 6 months in this place. Nan, 600 sq. ft is reason alone to pack your bags and move over that big hill. You'd LOVE denver, i went to Ft. Collins a few weeks ago and you should definitley look at grad schools here. I would love it if you were here! Anyway, happy late birthday guys!!! Love you all!
Whit

Hello all! Happy late Birthday to Nicole and Kathryn! Congrats on getting old. Just kidding. I just got back from a road trip to San Diego, for the Utah Sand Diego St. game. It was such a fun weekend. If you want to see something funny go to www.alumni.utah.edu/muss/
Whit, i hope the house thing goes okay. That is very exciting!
Love you all! Have a great conference weekend.
Cami

Happy Birthday to Nicole!!

Thanks Nicole!

I hope you had a wonderful day! I have a feeling that 23 will be a great year. I can't believe it's been 5 or 6 years since our surprise party we had together. Hope the circus was fun and it was great talking to you today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Happy Birthday Kathryn!! 23 today! You are so old! :)! I hope that you have a fabulous day today and that you don't get overworked if you have to be at work! Make sure to have fun and get some fun things! By the way, you need to check out Google because they have a birthday cupcake. They are eight years old today! But just pretend like they knew it was your birthday!! Wishing you all the best today and for this weekend when you will be in town! love, Nicole (your twin sister!)