Worries with the Storm

The last couple of days headlines have been plastered with dangerous blizzard and severe storm warnings and as a result businesses closed early (including the Huntsman Institute and government offices), classes were cancelled, and basically the entire city shut down before the storm hit. Does Target shut down? NO! If you ever find yourself in the middle of a natural disaster and need some furniture or hand towels...don't worry because we will still be open. In fact when I called in to find out if we were going to close early the store manager said it would take "an act of god" for us to close early. It didn't matter we had 10 customers in 6 hours and the store was losing a ton of money. One of the customers we had was high off his rocker and thought he was in Idaho... he got very angry and yelled profanities at me for telling him he was in Salt Lake City, Utah. I guess it made him so confused he had to go smoke some more (in our store) and I had to call the police. Oh the things that happen at Target.

Not even close to how bad the roads were at midnight...no tire tracks at all!

Anyways, I was so lucky that I had to be to work at the beginning of the storm and leave after the roads had been covered in snow and ice. Jeff was so worried he texted me constantly making sure I was going to be alright and made me promise that if the roads were really bad to have him come pick me up. He was so concerned and really sweet of him. I knew he would be exhausted from working a 12 hour shift and having to get up early for another shift the next morning, so I didn't want him driving groggy in the middle of the night. Fortunately, no one is on the roads at midnight and I was pretty much able to drive home down the middle of the freeway. (FYI snowplows failed at their job last night.)

Holidays and Growing up

When you are a kid you don't really have a choice of where and what you do on holidays; you're parents have already decided and you just go where you are taken. Well Jeff and I have really realized that this is all about to change. I have two big families where I have always had to split my time on holidays. This has always made my holidays very hectic and involved a lot of driving around. As for Jeff, his family has a lot of traditions they do on holidays just as their family unit, because he's family is really small and he only sees the one set of cousins really. However, this year that is all about to change. We decided this is the first year that we are really going to be playing a balancing act between three families and work. This year Jeff has to work on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, which really sucks. Fortunately, he gets off work at 3:00. We are going to Thanksgiving this year at the Edminster's and the Longson's possibly for pie. The Moosman's do their Thanksgiving over the weekend after Thanksgiving Day, which works for our large family and easier to work around as a whole family. As for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we still have a lot of kinks to work out so we will see how that all works out when it gets closer. Wish us luck!

Babies Galore

Its no secret that I have a huge family on my dad's side. HUGE might even be an understatement; last time someone gave me a count it was in the 80s and my 70 something year old grandmother is going to be a great great grandmother at the beginning of next year. Since everyone lives in Utah county I don't get to see them very much and its hard to keep track of names and who each baby belongs to. Jeff's entire family, including extended family members, consists of maybe 20 people. When he came to our first family party he didn't know what to do or who was who. I still have to break down who people are and how they are related. I love my family and wouldn't change a thing.

We have always joked that every year there are 2 babies added to our family. This year that has grown. There is a group of cousins that grew up really close and between each baby there being a couple months or so. Now that we are all in our 20s the baby boom has begun. We added sweet Paisley to our family at the beginning of this year. Today my little cousin Cassidee had her little baby girl Addalynn Belle. Congratulations Cassi! I'm glad you and the baby are doing well.

Now there are still 3 more Moosman babies to come!

Trick or Treating

This year we didn't plan to do anything exciting, no dressing up or partying. We just planning to watch the Utes game and hang out with friends like we do every game night. The game was definitely an exciting one and kept us on the edge of our seats till the end. Yet, Utes pulled out another victory and are still undefeated! Go Utes!

Our night was filled with costumes and trick or treating after all. We got to play with Jamone all night and take him trick or treating. Earlier in the day Jamone was a pirate and went with Dani to get candy at South Davis Community Hospital. We were afraid he wouldn't get to go door to door, because it was an absolute down pour. It sorta cleared up and we decided to take him. Jamone started out as a pirate, but didn't like the eye patch and his outfit wasn't warm enough to go outside. So he went from being a pirate, to a power ranger, to a gangster, police man, and finally a Utes football player. The Foster's had cute little toddler football shoulder pads. He forgot his coat so we put him in one of Dani's sweatshirts and rolled up the sleeves and then put Jeff's jersey over the pads and sweatshirt. We ended up having to pin the sleeves and tie it up in the back cause obviously it looked like a dress on him. Since it was still raining we decided to take a car around to stay somewhat dry and warm. Jamone and I went door to door. He wasn't very good at saying trick or treat and sometimes he would just say Utah and point at his jersey. He was scared of pretty much everyone else in costumes and of any house that had decorations or pets. He was a good sport and loved getting candy. I think every house gave him extra candy for being so cute. It was funny that a lot of the houses thought he was my child, makes me feel old. It was a lot of fun to take a little kid trick or treating and we can't wait to take our own kids. This video is Jeff teasing Jamone when he wrapped him up like a burrito.

When we got back Jamone's brothers and their friends were scaring him with this creepy scarecrow mask. Jamone was terrified and went straight to Jeff and buried his head in his lap. He ended up falling asleep and spent the rest of the night on his lap. He hadn't even take off his sweatshirt or pads yet. When he woke up he stayed on his lap and watched Hocus Pocus with us. It was a great Halloween and better than any party we could have gone to.

You're a Jerk

I found this video on Jeff's phone from a couple of months ago. Jamone loves to dance and sing from songs he heres on the radio. I think one of his brother's showed him the music video to "You're a Jerk." He loves to jerk and here is him (before his hair got cut).

Pumpkins Through the Years

A tradition almost every household has at halloween time is pumpkin carving, except mine. I was such a busy child and an only child I never remember carving pumpkins. Jeff's family however always carved pumpkins as a group. When Jeff and I started dating we carved our first pumpkins together as a dance day activity in my back yard. Since then we have continued that tradition.

First Pumpkin Carving, 6 years ago



Senior year carving, 3 years ago

Jeff takes his pumpkin carving seriously and does an amazing job. He always picks the most difficult and scary pattern to do. I am a perfectionist so I try a medium pattern that is usually fun and crazy. Last year I did a buck-tooth monster and Jeff did a creepy scarecrow. This year I wanted to challenge myself and see if I could do a harder pattern, especially since I found the perfect shaped pumpkin.

Jeff's pumpkin was huge that he just couldn't pick just one pattern, he ended up doing 3! Mine was originally just the house, but I decided to add the ghosts to make it take up the pumpkin and have a little fun appeal.