Merry Christmas

Christmas is always such a wonderful time of year. We got to spend last weekend with Alex's Family except for Hiromi who had to work :( we had a great time in Redding for a few days. It was rainy on the drive up to Redding and back home. We watched Christmas movies, played scrabble and ate waaaaay to much delicious treats. Collin and Lydia got sooo many gifts it was awesome and they were so excited when Santa dropped off their gifts early so that we could all celebrate Christmas together. Chloe is getting more comfortable with being around other people now she is a little less afraid of everyone now and was comfortable enough to walk around and cuddle up to people it was great I think she enjoyed the holidays.

I was lucky to have Christmas Eve and Christmas day off of work. My Grandparents and Carolyn and Genelle came to visit for Christmas Eve and Christmas day at our house. We hung out and had a nice laid back Christmas. It was a lot of fun. We played Hand and Foot a card game that we always play when we get together we had 2 games going on Christmas Eve night. On Christmas morning we all woke up around 8AM and got ready and sat around the tree and opened presents together. We again ate a lot of delicious treats that we probably shouldn't have, but that's what Christmas is about... eating a bunch of yummy Christmas treats and Sees candies and then going on a diet for your New Year's resolution.. which I am getting a jump start on this year as this week I am going to meet up with a trainer at the gym and start going regularly in January.

We got a lot of great gifts for Christmas this year. Alex and I got a Blu Ray player from his parents and we have already gotten some movies for it. I got an Amazon Kindle! Alex already has one, I am very excited about mine though Its gonna be nice to not have to lug around my huge books anymore and I have the scriptures on it and everything it so great. We got checks and gift cards and movie tickets. I got the Apples to Apples game and we played it on Christmas day. Alex got tools and I got a cook book that I am excited about. We are hoping to see my Aunt, Uncle and Cousins soon when they come to visit if the weather is ok.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Love,

Sherrie

2010 First Presidency Christmas Devotional

2010 First Presidency Christmas Devotional- Click Here

The Birth of Jesus (taken from lds.org gospel art book)

Christmas is near

I am so excited for Christmas this year. I love this season. I have really enjoyed the lights, decorations and events that all celebrate the birth of Christ. The Nativity Exhibit was beautiful this year there were so many beautiful Nativity's and they are all so different. I love the Christmas fragrances from Bath and Body Works. Their winter candles and lotions are amazing. I just got the Fresh Balsam candle and I love it!! It just might be my favorite thing I have ever smelled. I took some quick photos of the decorations that are in the house as of now.

Pumpkin Patch

Since Downeast is now rubble in the part of the mall that caught on fire.. I started looking for work and have had a few possibilities. I applied at Wells Fargo for a teller position because I would really like that and it would be a great job. and while I am still waiting on the results of that possibility I had also interviewed at the Pumpkin Patch and got a job there, so that's basically whats going on with me and work as of now. I should be hearing from Wells Fargo by the end of this week. I have had three in person interviews one of which was a group interview and I also had a phone interview. I am hoping it works out because then I could be full time between both jobs.

Alex is loving his basketball coaching experience. He really likes coaching and he is really good at it he might even be the JV head coach next year apparently which would be awesome, but he still needs to go back to school and also decide what he wants to do for a living... goodness..

I decorated the house for Christmas and by "I decorated" I mean it was really all me. nobody else did much decorating at all. I did both big trees and the little tree. I got everything out of the attic and all. I spent a whole day decorating and then half a day doing the big Christmas tree. Alex put up a few ornaments and mom helped me a little bit with the lights. The boys did put the lights up outside, but I get most of the credit for decorating this year. I wanna take some picturees and put them up in a post so hopefully I will find some time to do that :) we will have to wait and see.

I am really enjoying my new job. I really like the people I work with they are all awesome and I am learning a lot working in a new store. I am so excited for Christmas and I have most of my shopping done already thankfully, but I am sure as always there will be some surprises and I'll have to buy something last minute. I really enjoyed the Nativity at the church last weekend. I performed with the ward choir and it was nice I really felt the Christmas spirit singing the words to the songs about Christ's birth it was beautiful.

Love,

Sherrie

October Fire and Family!! (should not be combined )

Ok, So mid October some crazy guy decided to set the mall on fire right next to my store.. so that sucked... at first the situation didn't seem like a big deal and then it just kept getting worse and worse they evacuated the mall and then there was smoke coming out of the roof, then the fire was supposedly out... and then it burned for the rest of the entire day they were pouring water into the mall for Hours! it was terrible. and now everyone is pointing fingers and asking questions as to why it got sooo bad.






Sooo the stores in that part of the mall certainly are not gonna be open for black friday this year. and my store is one of them :(


We went up to good o'l Redding, CA for Halloween and brought Chloe with us. We had a lot of fun and discovered caramel sal ted hot chocolate from Starbucks! super yummy. Don't knock it till you've tried it! And yes, Chloe was dressed up for a shark for about 2 minutes because I thought the costume was cute (however it was too small, oops) I just didn't want to make Chloe wear it because dogs hate that.. Me and Anna carved a super awesome pumpkin of a spiderweb and also decided to wear spiderwebs on our faces!! October was an awesome month!!

Humdrum..

I have had a pretty good weekend. Worked a little bit and spent time with the family and watched general conference which was of course amazing! so many wonderful talks and inspiring messages over the weekend. It was so hot here this week and it finally cooled down today a little and sprinkled rain a bit this morning even. Alex and I have been enjoying taking afternoon walks lately with the dogs. I don't like how it has been getting dark outside earlier in the day now. I feel like the days are getting shorter and shorter. I am excited about the holidays coming up! Its gonna be so much fun! we just put out the Halloween decorations and the pumpkin candle scent in the air has me feeling festive.

Me n Chloe
Prince

i havent blogged in awhile..

So I have been kind of absent from my blogger account for months and I miss it I just am never on the computer. I seriously am lucky if I check my email once a week it's that bad. I really like blogging though so I need to make the time for it I suppose.

So I watched the General Relief Society Broadcast that came on yesterday and again today and it was so wonderful. There is just something so spectacular about hearing the prophet speak. I could be falling asleep or doing something distracting and once he starts speaking everything else is forgotten and I am intently listening and I can feel the spirit. I love the stories he tells and wisdom he shares along with the messages.

On a separate note I haven't really been up to anything super interesting to be honest. just working and working and hanging out. Me and mom had a ladies night while the boys were out on the father, son & son-in-law camping trip this weekend. We went shopping and went to a movie. We saw "You Again" with Kristin Bell and Betty White. It was pretty cute we both liked it. Alex and I went out to see Resident Evil: Afterlife in 3D and it was pretty awesome. We liked it a lot though I think it requires a certain taste in movies its not scary or anything its just kind of violent. The effects were so cool in 3d though i was really impressed with the slow-motion,action in 3d with the sound and everything they did it really well. I think it's like the 4th movie in that franchise and they are based on video games so its not exactly realistic. Oh and Dinner for schmucks was hilarious!! I haven't laughed that hard in a movie for quite some time!

Next semester were planning to take some classes. mostly pre-requisite type stuff so nothing all that fun.. maybe I'll try to squeeze a fun class in there somewhere. A friend and I were talking about taking a sewing class and I think that would be fun and beneficial for me as I have been spending money on alterations lately and I would like to be able to just do it myself. I currently have a hard time sewing on a button properly. The button will usually stay on but one side always ends up looking bad and has uneven string sticking out and the thread is all over the place.

So I was on amazon.com and impulsively bought Chloe a Halloween costume ( I know, I'm so weird for doing that) but it looked so cute and it actually looks pretty cute on her so I think we will put it on her for the trunk or treat or something take a few pictures and take it off. I think she will like it though because she loves wearing her BYU t-shirt for games and stuff. Chloe is going to be a shark for Halloween. Alex is planning to be a shark attack victim and I am supposed to be a lifeguard though I have no real intention of dressing up yet. Alex is kind of excited about it though.

I think I have written too much now for a single posting so I'll stop now and hopefully I will get back into the hang of posting more often.

Horsey riding

Robert and Alex










The seating was interesting at the basketball tournament.. this was actually the best seating we got the whole weekend. There were no bleachers to sit on!

Family weekends are the best

We are havinjg a great memorial day weekend with the fam in the bay area for Roberts basketball tournament. So far they have won 2 games and lost 2 and still have a chance of winning. We are planning to go horseback riding tomorrow and play cards and stuff somewhere in there as well. It is nice to get to spend time with everyone and my cousin who is here who pretty recently just got back from his mission in Argentina. We got to go to my grandparents ward today and the weather has been so nice that we have been eating outside and took a walk today around the neihborhood.

Chloè Says Hello!!

I love her a little too much I think..

Little Bits of Nature- Photography book assignment

Ok. So I have worked on these photos for my final in my class and they are all sitting pretty in my book to turn in tomorrow. depending on your computer monitor they may or may not look the way they are intended to. These are scanned in from B&W negatives and I did a little editing to represent how I print these in the darkroom and spotting etc. I did put watermarks on them because these are my original artwork so please please please don't use them without my permission or anything like that ok :)

Thank you- and enjoy

People should watch this to Educate themselves!!

So I recently watched the movie An Education, I hadn't heard about it from anyone but it was nominated for a bunch of stuff and got awards I guess. I didn't know what it was about except for the hint that the title of the movie gives about the plot. I really liked it and Alex didn't like it much. It's not like a movie to watch for entertainment though, no action or comedians. I thought it had a great message and story. So I am going to say that I would recommend watching it because I think it is moving. It wasn't like "tear fest" or anything I only teared up a little bit because you can somewhat predict what is going to happen and it breaks your heart when it does. This girl is smart, witty, clever, driven, and beautiful. She has so much going for her and you watch her go down this slippery slope. Drawn away from her dreams and goals to go to Oxford University. What was once important to her isn't anymore and she finds her morals and expectations slipping as well. She thought she was being smart and finds out that it wasn't smart or what she wanted at all. I think a lot of people have had experiences like this maybe not as extreme. I know I have as a youth. It is sometimes hard to protect ourselves from temptation especially if it is disguised at first and slowly reveals it's true self. We should never lose sight of what is most important to us; our goals, dreams, morals, and expectations, our future. We are here to make our own decisions and there is always a choice, even after we have made mistakes we can chose differently and we can change the path we are on.




And of course everyone knows that the movie The Blindside is amazing and wonderful. If you haven't seen it you had better! YOU WILL LOVE IT!

Hey there stranger..

So I know I haven't posted in FOREVER no biggie right? anyways I have been busy and obviously away from the computer since I haven't been posting to my bloggy. We went to Stony Ford and went motorcycle riding with the bikes and quad last weekend and it was a lot of fun but we were freezing and it rained a lot. it was fun splashing through the puddles though and yes that is mud all over my face. haha.

Stony Ford Trip

We ended up staying only one night because it was so wet and rainy we all wanted to take a hot shower and sleep in our warm beds after the first night cause we were soaking wet from riding all day in the mud. There were no serious injuries except for the quad. Rob drove it right into a tree and bent the bar by the right wheel so that needs to be replaced now. The trip was a lot of fun though we all enjoyed it.

We had a nice Easter. Alex and I went up to his parents Alex was there fri-sun and I was just there Sunday cause I had to work sat. Conference was awesome. I still have to watch some that I missed but it is recorded for me.

I bought the Love Never Dies soundtrack cause I heard some good things about it and it is pretty god I like it. I hope it is successful so we can see it sometime in the US hopefully in San Fran :) but most likely in NY is where it would open I bet. Alex and I listened to it on the drive on Sunday. Alex's favorite songs are "Till I hear you sing", and "Devil take the hindmost". My favorite is "Till I hear you sing" and Love never dies". We saw 2 rainbows and lots and lots of pouring rain the majority of the drive home which was not the best..

Spring break was nice to relax. I kinda wish I could have had lab time though at school but it was closed for the week. I wanna get my photo assignments done and be able to work on stuff that I want to do.. I made a funny picture from a photo of me in my photoshop class. I changed like everything in my face and just kinda had fun with it.. it's silly.

liquefy

Let the madness begin!!!

Time for NCAA basketball tourament! Last year I got third place in an NCAA bracket (with Alex's help of course). There was a good number of people in the competition though. All I really care about this year is BYU!! They are gonna rock this tournament! They are playing Florida right now NCAA tournament we are doing pretty well so far 13:11 GGGGGGGGOOOO COUGARS!!! GO Jonathan!!

Experiment

Alex and I have made a deal. Since I get frustrated with him playing video games and he doesn't want to watch my television shows with me we have come to this deal. For one week Alex will not play ANY video games at all, and I will not watch ANY television. I feel like we have already become more productive. This morning instead of playing Call of Duty before going to work Alex was reading a book. And well I.. slept in a little bit but I still got to work on time so that's good and I made time to make the bed this morning before leaving for work. The show I have been watching a ton of lately is Criminal Minds. They show a bunch of them everyday and they are not necessarily in order so I see sporadic episodes but I think I have a pretty good grasp of what is going on for the most part. Alex likes the show, but not as much as I do so when I wanna watch like 5 episodes in a row he doesn't want to. He is pretty much done after one. So quitting these for a week will give us a little more spare time to hopefully do some productive things and spend more time together. I think it will be nice though I am sure I will be itching to watch some TV especially when I have to wait almost a whole week to watch the next episode of LOST.



Love,

Sherrie + Alex

Morning person

Alex is more of a morning person than I am. He actually sets his alarm for the time that I have to get up so he can make me get out of bed- which only works sometimes. I am the kind of person who presses the snooze button for 15 minutes and then finally gets up. I don't know why I do this. I don't know why it takes me forever to fall asleep at night and only seconds to go back to sleep in the morning after pressing snooze. I think I am just a tired person. Maybe I need more vitamins or something. Most likely I need sleep. I love to sleep but it is hard to make time for everything that needs to be done in an average day there is work, class, work (I have 2 jobs), church, sports, TV shows, movies, music, friends, family, pets, etc. I wish there was a way I could just wake up in the morning and be ready to go instantly. I don't even usually take very much time to get ready but in the morning I will get out of bed at the last possible minute and start getting ready. I usually just grab breakfast and eat it later to save time in the morning. I am starting to put a little more effort into my makeup and hair in the mornings but I still don't spend much time on that. I really wish I could be a morning person. It would be so nice. I am the kind of person who can stay up late working on something, but even when I go to bed early I still don't want to get out of bed in the morning.
Chloé even does better in the morning than I do. Alex gets her up when he gets up so she can go outside but if she can get away with it she will stay in bed long after we have gotten up. Once she is up she is super hyper and bouncing all over the place and that really helps me get energized in the mornings though it distracts me from getting ready. Prince and Chloé are so funny and laughing at them and playing with them helps wake me up. I need to be one of those super early morning people who can wake up before the sun rises and get a bunch of stuff done before I have to go to work. Early mornings are so beautiful it is the perfect time for photography from 1/2 hour before sunrise to 1/2 hour after. So I am gonna really have to work on waking up better.





Love Sherrie, Alex + Chloé

Andrew Phillips- World Traveler internship

Please click the link and click vote to help my friend out getting this cool internship.

Thanks

Sherrie

The Man Your Man Could Smell Like

The Man Your Man Could Smell Like



Haha I love this. It makes me laugh. lol so funny. so random.

P.S. Make sure the music is muted when you watch videos on the blog.

San Francisco weekend

We had a very nice Valentines day weekend in San Fran. We spent Saturday and Sunday in the city and drove home at the end of the day. Saturday was 2 years after Alex proposed to me in Rexburg by the temple, and of course Sunday was Valentines day.Saturday morning before we left I made some Chocolate covered strawberries that were delicious! We packed some of them and brought them with us to snack on during the trip.
chocolate covered strawberries

We left a little later than we had planned so we sat in traffic for about 45 minutes getting into the city, but got there just in time to check into the hotel and get the car parked in the hotel garage. We got all checked in and thankfully we had the parking package because the valet didn't have space for any other cars than those who had already purchased the parking package so we lucked out there. We got settled in and decided to go to Haight Ashbury and Golden Gate park so we went down there and found a few fun things worth buying. I got a coat and Alex found a belt that he liked for 2 dollars each! We went into the Amoeba music store and looked around at all the records and cool stuff they have in there.
Amoeba Music Store

We went to Golden Gate park and looked around at everything, It is a huge park and it's very pretty. It started getting dark pretty quick and creepy people were around so we decided it was time to head back toward Union Square for the rest of the night so we could put some stuff in the hotel room and go out to eat.
We hunted around for a nice restaurant and looked at menus and I know we have a Cheesecake factory at home but the one in San Francisco has a really nice view and I wanted to have desert there anyways so we went there and dealt with the 2 hour wait to be seated. It was so busy and crowded but I don't even want to know what the wait was like for Valentines day dinner! can you imagine? It was delicious though and we ended up spending a lot less than we would have at the other places we looked at. We got the Red Velvet Cheesecake for desert and loved it! We were seated outside and It was a little chilly but the view was beautiful. I didn't get a very good picture of the view though it was dark
Cheesecake Factory Dinner
red velvet cheesecake

After dinner we went up to the top of the Westin St. Francis Hotel in the glass elevator and my stomach felt all floaty cause it was so high up there and the elevator was moving pretty fast up and down. It was really cool the view was awesome from way up there.
The next day we had a nice breakfast and checked out of the hotel. We drove over to the Exploratorium. I offered to drive but Alex drove and he was super nervous, it was not that bad except for a few cars that were parked really bad and sticking out into the street a lot. The Exploratorium was packed and there was a pretty long line to get in, but the lined moved pretty fast so it was not that bad. We went in and spent a few hours doing the activities and looking at stuff in the museum it was all really fun and interesting. The only irritating thing was all the noisy kids running around everywhere. I like kids and all, but this was a little much. I expected there to be mostly kids at the exploratorium though. We were in there for a few hours and went outside and walked around. It was so gorgeous outside, sunny and warm It really felt like spring is here.

Exploratorium

Exploratorium outside

We sat in the car for a while trying to decide what to do and people kept stopping behind us waiting for our parking spot and we weren't ready to leave yet, it's not like the car was running to make them think we were leaving either. I guess parking there got full that afternoon it wasn't so bad earlier that morning when we got there. So we decided to just drive over by the bridge on our way home and see if there was somewhere I could take some pictures. We drove around looking for the bridge and realized that we were driving the opposite direction of the bridge when we looked behind us. So we turned around and found this awesome beach that was a lot of fun to walk around along the water and watch all the dogs play and run at the beach. The Golden Gate bridge was on our left and Alcatraz was on our right








shoes

us

water


Love,

Sherrie + Alex