WOAH

So go to http://willkristin.wordpress.com/ if you want to catch up on most of Matt and I's Christmas fun.

When we got home from their house after staying a few days there were 9 foot mountains of snow in the yard (from the snow being plowed and Matt found this hanging off the building across the street. My Dad and Matt hurried to shovel the foot or so of snow off the walk ways and drive way so we could pull our car in. It was CRAZY weather!

I am all ready tired of snow by the way....

Never eat yellow snow!!! Matts Post

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. That is a great way to look at life, although, you should never confuse your lemonade, with yellow snow. This is one of the important lessons I am trying to teach Jason. We had a chance to make use of the awful weather to our benefit. We had a great time sledding on Saturday afternoon. We tried sledding when he was one years old with very little success. The concept of holding on was quite a failure. Now, we have seen great progress in his attempts to go sledding as he did not face plant it, even once.

Most of our conversations during the sled day went like this..... Jason: That hill is easier!

Matt: But this one is faster.

Jason: I wanna go on that hill.

Matt: Do you wanna go on this hill?

Jason: Yep!

Let's hope he works on his negotiation skills as he continues to get older.

I thought it was funny that you can see both our smiles from here. It is interesting to see how he copes, with me making the sled rides more extreme. I will say this, he does trust me. He probably thinks that if I am doing it, it must be okay. A lot of pressure comes with that responsibility. Colton and I once made a paraglider out of sheets and PVC pipe. (Nope, it didn't work)

We finally were able to implement those vice grips of his, and allow Jason to go down by himself.

This was especially funny. We decided to go down on our stomachs. The way he decided to overcome his fear, was to cover his eyes. I guess, if you can't see it, it is not really there, right. He covered his eyes all the way down. Once he found that it worked, he would just cover his eyes any time he got scared.

I was very impressed with his courage, so it was time to test that courage by going down backwards. There are two videos which show the awesome ride. The first time we wiped out, that that's why we tried it again.

Whew I am glad that is over

So both Matt and I are done TODAY with all our finals. Man I thought they would never end. I came out with 3 A's and one uhh B maybe worse. That is the last final I took and I am not so sure about it :( At this point though I am ready to be done with that semester. We'll have to see next week for sure what our grades are. Matt has his last final in a few hours so wish him luck and say a mini-prayer. Now, Bring on the Holidays but not the snow, oh wait way too late for that. :)

Oh the weather outside is HORRIBLE!!!

So good morning all, welcome to Utah! This morning this is what I woke up to. Jordan and Michaela drove in last night so we could take them to the airport this morning. YIKES! Well the south end of the valley was horrible but the north end wasn't too shabby. It only took us about 50 minutes to get to the airport and it took me about the same time to get home. Needless to say I am working from home, I didn't want to have to brave more inclement weather all day in time to get home and make soup for a church function tonight at 5:30.

Here is Ryan's Car. He has been in California since the 10th I told him when he comes home his car would be covered in snow. :)

Here is the front yard, normally you should be able to see the street... wait where is it? (You wonder why I don't want to drive any where)
I decided to stick a ruler in the snow to see how much we get today. As of right now its just below six inches. Its supposed to snow off and on the rest of the day so we'll have to see what it is tonight!

Snow plows are just barely coming in right now. Man oh Man I thought it was supposed to snow the hardest tomorrow!? I guess we'll see what that brings. Just in time for Matt and I's last finals. Oh and Jasons birthday.... go sledding!

Oh the weather outside is frightful

So funny thing is it was dumping down SNOW on Saturday at our house so we loaded up in the Jeep and went down to go sledding with the Jason and Sierra. What? no snow around Kristin and Will's house? Lame. We ended up watching movies, painting crafts and hanging out instead. Later that evening Suzanne, Will, Matt and I headed over to the Marriott Center for a Mens Basketball game. BYU played Portland St. BYU won by a large margin but it was still a fun game to watch. BYU is now 10-0 and have a 52 home game winning streak! Go Cougars!

Matt was wearing a beanie all day so his hair is a little wild. We sat right down front and it was awesome.

Here is my favorite player on the team. Jimmer Fredette, yeah I didn't spell it wrong it's Jimmer. He is so good and only a sophomore. He does have some room for improvement, I mean who doesn't but all and all he is a great shooter and defender. Matt and I love watching him go coast to coast, take it to the hole with 3 guys collapsing on him, do a SWEET looking layup AND draw the foul only to make his free throws. Now that's exciting stuff I'll tell you what! The last couple games hes been dunking it on his fast breaks as well, man I wish I could dunk wouldn't that be awesome?

During half time "Jeans dance company" came out to do a little cowboy dance to Alan Jackson's song "Good Time" It was Hilarious! There were 50 women over 50. Jean the oldest lady right in the middle is 92! At the end she stayed on the floor and danced with Cosmo Cougar then did the full on SPLITS! Matt, Will, Suzanne, and I were cracking up and clapping along. Matt said those ladies got away with some moves the Cougarettes aren't even allowed to do. Jean also reminded us of Matt's Memama. (His 95? year old great-grandmother)
On Sunday we went to church then headed over to Holly's new house for our cousin Cons little birthday get together. It was great food (thanks to chef's Eric and Holly :) and great company with tons of family! A special thanks to Mickey for making Sweet potatoes, Matt LOVED them!

Now it's back to another week of finals and the reality of finishing gifts, buying a little more, wrapping everything, then mailing it all off in time to be there by Christmas! Also this week is supposed to be more and more snow. Sorry to all you traveling around here. Drive safe this week everyone!

Concerts and wait does it smell like burning hair?

Last night we attended an EXCELLENT Christmas Concert at the Conference Center. It started at 8 pm needless to say it was chilly waiting outside. I know, I know, never wear a turtle neck bulky sweater in pictures, it makes you look chubby yeah yeah. But like I said it was COLLLLLD. Of course Matt looks dashing as usual. Here is Suzanne and her friend Maria. The music was wonderful and masterfully sung. The concert was about 90 minutes and I enjoyed every minute! Hey did you know that when Hallelujah from the Messiah is sung that you stand up? Or was that just last night, I don't know someone will have to confirm or deny that for me. All of us were complexed as to why everyone was standing up.

Next story, this morning was the Garbett Christmas Breakfast Party kind of thing and I came early to help Sheila, the office manager set up. We we were putting out all the food in the warmers (eggs bacon potatoes and stuffed french toast) I grabbed a lighter to light the little caro things that goes below the warming trays. I lit all of them then individually started putting them underneath each tray. Well when I leaned over to put the first one under I hear a sizzling noise and saw black and orange out of the corner of my eye. YIKES MY HAIR IS ON FIRE! Okay now I have a new uhh haircut? I didn't burn much at all in fact no one could tell but then Sheila said, does it smell like burning hair? My response was "Yeah well I cant handle lighting things with out burning my hair." HAHA so not a major casualty but enough that now all I smell is burning hair. Yuck.

My own

So during these last 2 weeks of school I have woken up every morning to more and more acne... okay too much information but seriously my body and mind are STRESSED! One final down 3 more to go. I have it within my grasp to get straight A's but I am thinking it will end up 2 A's and 2 B's. Let's be honest a diploma is a diploma no matter what my GPA is, (which is actually still pretty dang good) AND I don't really want to go to Graduate school so hey I'll take a B or two!

In the midst of all this studying and after my last post of my 2 songs that I hate more then anything I thought, "What are your top 5's?" Will and Suzanne got me thinking about this... So here is my list! I am interested to hear from everyone else as well. It's hard to narrow down top 5 favorite songs but here is my attempt. So this is my own made up TAG thing if anyone wants to play along.

WARNING MY TOP FIVE MOST HATED SONGS CAN EASILY BE STUCK IN YOUR HEAD JUST SKIM THE LIST!! YOU ARE HOSED IF YOU REALLY TRY AND THINK OF EACH!

Top 5 Most HATED songs:
1. "Brick House" by the Commodores
2. "Shout" by Tears for Fears
3. "Ain't Nothin but Mammals" by The Bloodhound Gang
4. "I Kissed a Girl" by Kate Perry
5. "Last Christmas" by WHAM or whomever else tries to sing it.

Top 5 Most LOVED Songs:
1. "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen (and others by these guys)
2. "Say it ain't so" by Weezer (NUMEROUS others by these guys they are my fav. band!)
3. "Stranded in a Limousine" by Paul Simon (Love a lot from this guy too!)
4. "Indian Outlaw" by Tim McGraw (He's my favorite singer!)
5. "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz ( Summer 2008 song, go get a tan!)

Runner up? "The Spectrum Song" by Professor Ludwig Von Drake

I picked all of those because I seriously rock out to each turning up the radio quite loud and singing on the top of my lungs... I am sure I have ballads and more country that I really like as well. So looks like I am not much for chick singers eh? I like a whole bunch of stuff so it was hard to narrow it down, BUT this is what I came up with. Good luck on yours!

Tagged

All right I was tagged by my cousin Katy. The 7 weird/random things about yourself tag.

1. Whenever I am tired and still on the couch, I slowly take my socks off under the blanket. I start by scrunching them around my ankles then as I get more tired they end up off my heals then as I get more tired they end up just covering my toes and eventually when I am about to fall asleep I kick them off. It really creeps Will (my B.I.L.) out for some reason :)

2. I realized as I was watering my Christmas tree this morning that I don't have any plants in my house. (Well besides the Christmas tree currently) 3 years and no plants? Man I need to get a little plant and put it somewhere! I really like vegetation.

3. I think a lot of movies and t.v. shows are really funny (i.e. The Office, The Big Bang Theory, Music & Lyrics etc...) but rarely do I laugh out loud about them. I'll just smirk usually. Matt on the other hand laughs out loud at everything down to silly commercials.

4. I hate driving in snow (ask me why I live in UTAH then?)

5. I have really good veins for giving blood and a really awesome blood type to be a donor but I refuse. I always claim I am not over the weight limit :) In all actuality I HATE NEEDLES I know it doesn't hurt blah blah blah I just hate it. I get it from my dad. In fact when I was a child at the dentist my mom would have to lay across my legs and a hygienist would have to hold my arms and another would hold my head while the doctor gave me a shot to numb me up for fillings. Same situation when I was 12 getting my booster shots, running around the doctors office until a nurse/my mom could catch me and if you all remember correctly I was one speedy little girl :) I am not that bad now but I still hate it. I get really shaky and almost cry every time doctor or dentist.

6. I wish I had an endless supply of money (who doesn't right?) so I could quit my job and go to school as long as I want (minus the tests). So much to learn so little time!

7. There are 2 songs that I absolutely can not stand and if I have any sort of control over the choice of music will change the song as soon as possible they are "Brick House" by The Commodores and "Shout" by Tears for Fears. Now I am telling you all this in confidence that you will not torture me with these songs but just be aware that I really really don't like them.

California Cutie

I bought my first batch of the season, yum. They are one of Matt's favorites this time of year! I love smell mixing with Christmas tree and Cinnamon. I put a bowl of them on the kitchen table lets see how long they last my guess is 2... 3 days at best :) HEY JACQUE even Shane should be able to do those by himself they peel so easily! ( I just remembered that Shane likes you to peel his Oranges for him because he doesnt like to get all the stuff on his hands, the things you do for the one you love)

Black Friday

I decided that on Black Friday I would brave the crowds and go to Wal-mart for a couple of the good deals they had, I can really say what they are because none of it was for me but for those on my list :) Ryan decided he wanted to go as well because they had 2 dollar DVDs. We got up and left just before 5 o clock and thought that would be good enough time to run down to the Wal-Mart 5 minutes away. WRONG. There was traffic, then the parking was horrendous, then by the time we got in there all the movies we ransacked and everything else that I wanted was gone. So note to self get to Wal-Mart early next year. Regardless Ryan and I got somewhat of what we needed. We got home around 6:30, the lines took forever. I went back to bed and Matt left for work. I slept for another couple hours then Suzanne came over and the fun began!

We went and bought a CHRISTMAS TREE and a few more decorations. I had some things from last years after Christmas sale but others I didn't. Its a real one so the house smells nice and festive. I was so excited about it. Matt could care less if we have a tree so I had to make sure I did it. Man those things suck up a TON of water TOO! Anyways so here we are decorating the tree and putting out a few decorations that we have.

After Matt got home we just hung out and were really bored, (The Wu's ignored us all weekend so of course we had nothing else to do) so we made a dumb video of me trying to jump on Matt and have him lift me up... ha ha

Saturday Matt and I cut out all the wood for that Christmas Tree Advent Calender and sanded everything(Look Dad, safety goggles even, Matt insisted that I wear them...Good thing I could have gotten dust in my eyes :). Right as soon as we were finishing up Suzanne called asking if we wanted to go see "Into he Woods" a play that my cousin Kelly was in. We said sure ( THANK YOU RAY AND LINDA WE ENJOYED IT THOROUGHLY) and hurried to get dressed and made it just in time. Kelly played "Little Red" wonderfully then afterwards we went to my favorite restaurant Outback for dinner.

Sunday morning I woke up to an early phone call from the Choir director of our ward saying one of her sisters that was supposed to sing with her in sacrament meeting was sick and wondered if I could sing with her instead..... Well I guess, I am decent at sight reading. So before choir practice we sang through it twice then started with regular choir practice. (Side note: since being released from the YW presidency I now have time on Sunday morning to go to choir practice, I haven't sang in a long time and I really like it!) Then we ran through it half way one more time before church then you guessed it we went up (there were 4 of us) and busted it out. We sang "Come Thou Fount" Matt said it sounded great and others complimented as well. I some how managed to remember the harmonies and sing them right... that wasn't all me pretty sure the Lord helped big time with that. Anyways but it was actually fun I am not the type of person the gets anxiety about things like that so for me it's no sweat. I am glad I could help :) Too bad my sisters are too shy to sing in front of anyone or else we could all sing in church all the time. Wouldn't that be fun!

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin passes away

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin passes away
December 2nd, 2008 @ 7:14am
(KSL News) Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, who was the oldest living apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has passed away at the age of 91.
Elder Wirthlin had gone to bed at his Salt Lake City home last night and died peacefully at about 11.30 pm of causes incident to age.
According to the LDS Church Web site, his oldest daughter, Jane Wirthlin Parker, was present. A member of the family had been staying and caring for Elder Wirthlin, whose wife, Elisa Young Rogers Wirthlin, died in 2006.
He had continued to work at his office up until the Thanksgiving holiday.
Funeral arrangements will be announced.

One Day at a time...

Okay Thanksgiving! We'll start with that day. I got up at around 8 a.m. to finish the last layer of Jello and make the apple pie needed for the evening. About an hour and a half later I put the turkey in the oven, thinking "Okay, it will take about 4 or 5 hours to cook that should be perfect for dinner around 2-3" (that's how we have always done it in the Bragg family its not really dinner, more a mid-afternoon thing)

Matt got up a little while later, deciding not to play football. So he went and exercised instead, while I continued prepping for the day. I walked up the stairs to put something away and as I was walking down the stairs at about 12:30 I heard something click... I thought no way it cant be.... YEP you guessed it the tender timer clicked the turkey was done! Anyone ever heard of a 14 pound turkey cooking in a little less then 3 hours? I had the temp right and everything. So called my mom and dad, they said "wow maybe your oven cooks a little hot just put some foil over it put the oven as low as it goes and continue on... pull it out when you need it." So I got dressed and Suzanne came over then the fun began!


I told her about the turkey and she laughed, then I said okay we need to start peeling the sweet potatoes. I grabbed the peeler and began.... Oh no! The flesh is white I bought the wrong type of sweet potatoes! So we ran to the Smiths down the road to get the orange fleshed ones to not trip Matt out. He is the only one who likes sweet potatoes and I only make them once a year so I cant screw them up! Anyways after running around and getting everything ready ( oh and thanks to my mom I called her multiple times with little snags :) dinner was done at 3 on the spot. We had Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Rolls, Jell-O, Corn, Carrots, Olives, Sweet Potatoes, Stuffing, and did I say TURKEY? :)

We ate then headed over to the 5 o'clock showing of "Four Christmases" with Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon. We all thought it was pretty dang funny, especially Matt and I the way they talk to each other is somewhat similar to the way that we talk to each other. After the movie we went bowling (of course what else would we do) and I was beating Ryan until the last frame the BAM he gets 2 strikes and a spare in the 10th frame to smoke me. Suzanne came in dead last and Matt beat us all by a large margin.

After bowling we went home and ate pie, Pumpkin Pie, Apple Pie and Rich Heath Bar Cheesecake. The cheesecake is REALLY EASY to make and VERY YUMMY if you want the recipe leave me a comment and I'll e-mail it to you. That evening we played the Disney "Are you smarter then a fifth grader" and Matt and I won with out even using a cheat! Ryan and Suzanne technically lost at their 2nd grade level but we let them continue on anyways...then I believe we watched Wall-E or Fred Claus. I cant remember I fell asleep! Thanksgiving was a great day, all the food was great(including the Turkey and the gravy was FABULOUS), the games were fun, and the company was wonderful.

Tomorrows post? ... the day after Thanksgiving :)