we're alive

heres proof.

happy new year. ill see you soon.

its been a heck of a week.

ill post the juicy details after my finals are over.

if you were 80

what would you do for your birthday?

well sams grandpa t decided he wanted to go cruisin'.

so thats exactly what we did.

but first we stopped in joshua tree for a visit to jenny and nicholas'

then it was cruise time.

here we are opening grandpa t's gifts. shauna made this incredible book. everyone wrote grandpa a letter with a memory or whatever they wanted. it had pictures and everything! so awesome!

grandma t

i love this picture! sam took an aloe vera leaf and made it look like a dinosaur tail! (if you couldnt tell :))

we enjoyed a nice day of karaoke! i sang my heart out to dancing queen!

at thanksgiving dinner.

singing family songs! it was lots of fun to be introduced to new traditions!

we had lots of fun!

And i cant forget to give a little congrats to these three sweeties!

allie aka alice got her mission call- Madrid, Spain! she is going to be the best missionary out there. not only is she the sweetest girl you'll ever meet but she is the most solid down to earth person you could know!

and miss carli aka carcus! shes getting married! Cody is one lucky man! carli is the most tender and loving person in the world! she is so much fun to be with and will make an amazing wife!

and ADDIE! she is getting married next week! she is just the best in every way! so wonderful!

i love you girls! congratulations on all the excitement!

i hope you all had a good thanksgiving.

its december... holy crap.

marriage.

im so thankful that at the ripe age of 19 years-1 month-and 5 days old i decided to marry the man of my dreams.

i guess im a part of the mormon marriage statistic. and guess what? it was the best decision of my life to "join the crowd" :)

on your mark. get set. go!

"just cuz" i want you to know my husband is amazing!

on saturday he ran a half marathon! he has been training for a couple of months to prepare and it was well worth it! he did amazing!

my husband # 55 samuel t.

here he is just getting ready. he is talking with callie ward

steven and sam! gearing up!

the theme was flower power! some people really got into it. our group- not so much!

here they are warming up! get a load of the polka dot guy!

lots of flower power love going on here! they are starting their timers.

the entire 205 runners!

YIPPEE! sammy is done! he did a cart wheel through the finish line! he still had enough energy after running 13.2 miles!

he finished 89th out of 205 people. he ran it in a time of 2 hours 01 minute! i dont think ive ever been as proud as i was on saturday!

rob and britney did awesome too! they both ran it in great time!

showin off his just cuz pride!

steven sam rob and britney. they all did awesome!

i am so proud of these guys! what an accomplishment to run 13.2 miles! im going to try really hard to be in shape for the race next year!

WAY TO GO SAMMY! im so proud of yoU!

until next time

x0x0

maybe ill go running?

this is halloween.

this is halloween

halloween

halloween

halloween...

here are some spooooky fall photos i took on halloween day.

we had a pretty good night. it was kind of thrown together last minute, but we had a little halloween dinner party. it was fun and the food was awesome- thanks brianne for the delicious dinner in a pumpkin!

sam and i were bikers. me a cyclist. him hardcore. his facial hair was SICK.

i hope your halloween was full of tricks and treats.

even though i was very unprepared this year- i always love halloween. it is definitely my favorite holiday and time of year.

farewell halloween- until next year

x0x0

what happens

when you wake up at 8 in the morning and need to go to the bathroom?

but when you get out of bed you notice that your house feels a bit.. (ok a lot) colder than usual.

and while your walking from your bedroom to the bathroom you notice that in a completely dark house the entry way of the living room is as bright as can be...

this is what happened to me this morning. as i peeked around the wall to the door way i saw that our front door was wide open.

im not going to lie i was a little spooked.

nothing was missing and no one was in our house, so im assuming the wind unlocked and blew open our door...

after making sure everything was in its proper place, i got back in bed.

then i heard it something...

sam and i looked at eachother-





MEOW...

it was a freakin cat!

a cat had taken refuge from the cold in our house!

after 1o minutes of chasing the dang thing around we finally got it out.


moral of this story- when you wake up to your door wide open and your house freezing, dont worry about a burglar, worry about those wild felines!

x0x0

today

im wishin that i was in

O-H-I-O 

with my mom, taranch and little miss p. 

i guess ill have to wait three weeks till they come here...

lifes little reminders.

sometimes i forget whats important in life.

ive been thinking a lot lately about where im at and what im doing. i know there are a ton of things that i need to work on, but i have also begun to understand that i need to rely on the Lord to help me. i cant do it all alone.

im grateful for a husband who is willing to help me with everything and loves me even if our house is messy and dinner never gets made.

ive had this quote on the sidebar of my blog for some time now, but i read it today for the first time in awhile and am thankful i did.

"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with grass stains on my shoes from mowing Sister Schenk's lawn. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someones garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived."-Marjorie Hinckley

this is the attitude i want to have.

im working on it...

x0x0x

Let the CounTDown BeGIN!!!

(this post was done by Stephanie Flower on the Tin Thimble)

Our craft for November is SO CUTE! Since our craft night is set for the week before Thanksgiving, we see this as a good opportunity to make a CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN!!

THIS IS WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE:

We are ordering these in kits from the fabulous Windmill Lettering, so thank you to Emily Ward who directed Me to this blog! {pictures also courtesy of Windmill}

These consist of two blocks that measure 3.5" x 3.5" and sit on a 8" x 5" board. They are super fun and cute and who doesn't need more Christmas decor in their home?

Oh yeah, and...if you are more of a Halloween person, they also have CUUUUTE Halloween countdowns available, and you're welcome to order one of those, even though you'll have to wait until NEXT YEAR to display it : )

The kits are quite cheap. However, shipping is not so cheap.

So...the cost for this month is going to be $15.00.

It is a little higher than we would like, but just keep in mind...you'd probably pay $20 to $25 if you did this for a Super Saturday or something with your ward. One of the last crafts I did with my ward was about this same size and I paid $25! Seriously, $15 sounds like a good deal to me!

The kit will include: wood blocks, vinyl, scrapbook paper to cover 6 sides of each block, and instructions. (that means we will bring our own paint, glue, mod podge, etc.)

HOWEVER, if any of you know anyone who would CUT OUR WOOD FOR US and save us a little money, please email me immediately and I will get the dimensions. This would save us a ton on shipping costs and knock the fee down to $10 at the most (because we would still have to buy the wood).

NOW HERE'S THE CATCH:

Because they are so amazing and everyone loves them so much, Windmill is a little backed up on orders until November 1st. THEREFORE, I will need to know if you are interested, and I WILL NEED YOUR PAYMENT by MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2009 at the very latest! I know that only gives you a week, and I'm sorry, but in order to have our supplies by the 19th, we have to have our order in by the 3rd! 

RECAP:

Craft Night: November 19, 2009 7:00 p.m.

Craft: AMAZING Christmas Countdown

Fee: $15.00 needed by MONDAY NOVEMBER 2ND!

Please email Stephanie @ 

thetinthimble@gmail.com

 or leave a comment and let me know if you will be joining us! HURRY!

PS. This month, it seemed like everyone pretty much brought some kind of treat. Let's do that again, it worked out pretty nicely. Anyone who is willing can bring a small treat to share! This way we wont charge extra for treats either.

It should be a TON of fun! so please let us know if you are coming. Also if you would like to be invited to the Tin Thimble blog let me know!

x0x0

a primary song.

#206 dearest mother i love you.

gentle words i hear you say. your kind hands help me each day. you're my mother kind and true; dearest mother, i love you.

tonight sam went with his brother to the alice cooper concert in idaho falls. i was happy to stay home, but was feeling really overwhelmed with the giant tornado that has had my house in shambles since the beginning of september.

when i say this, im not exaggerating. my house was disgusting... anyways i called my mom just to see what she was up to- as we talked i told her i was about to put on my sterile suit and fight for my life- her response: let me come help.

so she did.

i am so thankful for the selfless person my mom is. after three hours of hard labor my house is sparkling. 

i dont think i showed my mom how grateful i was for all she did for me growing up, but i dont know if i really understood her sacrifice and love for me. i do now. and i am seriously humbled by the angel she is. 

she is always there to help, love and give support. i love you mom. please know how thankful i am. i really really needed you tonight. so thank you.

love you.

 kyrst.

fun in the sun (and by fun i mean a FLIPPIN' BLAST)

well we went to hawaii last thursday. it was amazing. i felt so unprepared because we didnt plan anything-no plane tickets, no hotel, no activities, nothing. we didnt even find out when we were leaving until tuesday. but im not gonna lie i liked it that way! it was so relaxing to just go and enjoy ourselves.

for those of you who dont know, the reason we went is because of sams work. they take the top ten salesmen on a trip each year, and we were fortunate enough to get to go.

wow. all i can say is if anyone is thinking about doing summer sales, these are the guys to go with. i know there are a ton of great companies out there, but these guys really are awesome!

our trip was short but it was incredible! it was my first time and sams second going to hawaii and ill i could keep saying was you WILL do your masters program here. i want to live there so badly!

there were 18 of us who went and everyone there was awesome. we had tons of fun! we stayed in an 8 bedroom 5 bathroom beach house!

here we are getting SUPER excited about going to hawaii!

yes they rented 5 convertibles for us to use. 

one of the fridges loaded with drinks

this is me sam and one of our bosses doug doing back flips off a rock at waimea beach

most of the group

body surfing!

the famous shaved ice. yep it was delish!

the sunsets were so beautiful on the beach every night

we went to the pcc. lots of fun! it was a cool show!

all of our group! two of them sold with us this summer and are going to school at byu-hawaii so they just met up with us one night

me and kari with our hawaiian flowers

here we are in one of the submarines or ships or something at pearl harbor

this is the uss arizona memorial. it was beautiful

sammy playing the ukulele at the swap meet.

see beautiful sunsets.

the bosses rented surf boards and boogie boards for us to play on

vanilla plant

all the girls. from top left- nicole, heather, sarah, melissa, kari, lisa, sara, me

the temple. it is so beautiful. they are remodeling it so we didnt get to do a session.

it was an incredible trip. like i said it went so fast but it was so nice to take a little break from life and enjoy the sun! 

thank you homeshield! you guys are awesome!

it was shags last volleyball game tonight. they played poky. she is awesome. i like this picture because you can see her true cheerleading self coming out! :) ha so funny

also we had a sewing group last night and i sewed my first burp rags. kinda bad-but i had cute fabric and it was my first attempt so i dont care! :)

also ive been doing a little thrifing lately. i got this cute jcrew top at the di. love it

also i got this cute table cloth. i think i might transform it into something else though. (its never been used)

a new apron. 

and craft night was a lot of fun! there werent a ton of us there but it turned out great!

here are some of the bows i made.

i hope everyone is having a good week!

until next time,

x0x0