Christmas Treats :)

The amazing chef's!!

Kirsten thought it was SO funny that I wanted to use a stool to stir the rice krispies!  I didn't think it was that funny...but then again I do it all the time when I'm at home.  For goodness sakes people, when your a little on the short side, your arm starts hurting from holding it up so high after a while!

Making the Treats:

Step One:  Make Rice Krispie Treats just like it says on the box.  Then use either automotive funnels, or sometimes they have baking wear funnels that would work, and fill up the rice krispies all the way to the top of the funnel.  Then let them cool until they have settled a little bit.

Step Two:  Lay them flat on a piece of aluminum foil.

Step Three:  Wrap up your little hershey kisses!

Step Four:  Last but not least, make a little tag on them, just like on a real hershey kiss.  Our says "hugs and kisses," but it could say anything you want!

While we were making the hershey kisses, Kirst and I decided that this was the first time we had made Christmas treats without our mothers since we've been away from home!! :(  I remember helping my Mom make Christmas Wreaths for people and delivering them to our neighbors and home teachers, which I was informed they did just the other night!  But I guess life moves on and now it's my turn to make Christmas treats on my own...but at least I have fun people to make them with!  We delivered them last night and we got some pretty funny looks which was actually really funny... but oh well!  We got a good laugh out of it. :)  So Merry Christmas to you all and I love you a bunches!

FINALS WEEK!

Here is the countdown as of yesterday....

And here is the countdown as of Today! (Monday)

Finals week is finally here!  That's not usually what I say when Finals week comes around, but this time I am actually excited to take my finals, as weird as that may sound!  So this morning I put up my new "Finals Countdown" so I know exactly what I have left. :)  To be honest, I am just super excited to go see my family for Christmas time and can't wait to get to Arizona and the sooner I take my finals, the sooner I will allow myself to start daydreaming about playing with my family!!  Oh man..... It's going to be SO great! 

* Oh and just incase you were wondering, I will post another Finals Week post when I am all done!  Just because I'm excited :)  Love you all!

Christmas at Temple Square

The happy family :)

My sister Emily just happened to get tickets this year for the "Ring Christmas Bells" concert this year at temple square in the Conference Center, and of course she is in Arizona so she gave the tickets to us and it was absolutely AMAZING!!!  I love concerts and plays and stuff like that, especially listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir live, so I was really excited that I was able to go even with finals just around the corner.  Paul and I had already been to a concert at the beginning of the year in the Conference Center where a singer named Brian Stokes Mitchell was the featured artist along with another singer.  We really loved Brian Stokes Mitchell and we were so excited to find out that he was singing in this Christmas concert too!  

The concert was SO awesome!  After the concert we went out just on the balcony of the Conference Center to leave and we were taking pictures of the temple when all of the sudden something ran into me!  It kind of caught me off guard but I was worried about whoever fell into me.  I turned around and to my surprise, an older woman had tripped over something and fell into my legs and then onto the floor!  Poor thing. :(  I was so sad for her but I was thankful that she hit me first instead of slamming straight onto the hard ground!  She was a little shook up, but ended up being ok thank goodness!  

After that little incident we were able to go to temple square and walk around to see the lights and then head back home to good ol' Provo.  I'm glad that I was able to go to the concert and I am so thankful that I am close enough to Salt Lake that I can take advantage of all of these amazing performances that happen all of the time here!  

Thanks for the tickets Em! :)

This is Why I Love Oregon!

I took these pictures from the plane on my way to home for Thanksgiving and this pretty much sums up why I LOVE Oregon!  It's so pretty and there are trees EVERYWHERE!  There is a part on the flight into the Portland airport where there are seriously miles and miles of just trees and it is so pretty to see!  Just thought I'd let you all know even though most of you have probably seen it already :)  The world is just so beautiful and sometimes I just am in awe of the world!  I love it!

Christmas Time is Here!

Because Christmas is coming up so soon, I was thinking about why I love Christmas so much and why it is my favorite holiday.  So here is what I decided....

What do I love about Christmas?

1.  ..... How happy everyone seems and is so giving to others around them.

2.  .... Being home for two whole weeks without any homework whatsoever!

3.  .... The Christmas lights on all of the houses.

4.  ..... The snow on the ground (at least while I'm in Utah and occasionally when I'm home)

5.  .... CHRISTMAS MUSIC -- especially Winter on the Moors!!!!

6.  .... Giving gifts.

7.  .... When we sit down by the fire with Mom's famous hot cocoa :)

8. .... Shopping for NOEL presents!

9. .... Christmas decorations in the house and Christmas lights being on inside all of the time!

 10. .... Decorating the Christmas tree

11. .... Celebrating the birth of Christ :)

12. .... Christmas Eve traditions - can't forget sheets!

13. .... Burning the Christmas candle every night in December.

14. .... Reading a Christmas story while we burn the candle every night of the month.

15. .... Staying in my pajamas all day long.

16.  .... Cute wrapping paper.

17.  .... Shopping in Mom's closet to see our options after we open our presents :)

18.  .... Singing Christmas songs with my brothers!

19.  .... Taking a nap.

20.  .... and most of all --- BEING WITH MY FAMILY ALL THE TIME!  I LOVE THEM!

And that is why I love Christmas....Who wouldn't?!  :)

Mom's Visit to Utah!

This seems to be the only picture we took while she was here but we did so many fun things!  I was SO glad that she came to visit me...and I guess Paul and Lindsay too :) ... I LOVED having her here in Provo and even though she was here for just a couple of days, we made good use of the time we had!  It was great to go from talking to her a lot during the day (probably 3 times a day..shhh) while she was at home to being able to talk to her ALL DAY LONG!  I love my Mama and I don't know what I would do without her!  

OOPS!

I promise I didn't mean to do this :)  So.... here's a funny story to explain this picture.  A couple of weeks ago I had to do a presentation in one of my courses about me and I had to include a picture of me in the presentation.  So I was going through my pictures and I barely had ANY with just me in them so I ended up having to crop the other person out and print off only half of the picture.  Little did I know that when I printed it out, IT WOULD FILL UP THE WHOLE PAGE!  Once it started coming out of the printer like that I just started laughing and I couldn't stop!  It was way too funny and it was just one of those "Kelsey Moments" that my family will tell you about. :)  It's a good thing that it was just my roommates around because they have definitely seen me do silly things like that before on accident.  I mean seriously....the picture of my head is BIGGER THAN MY OWN HEAD!!  Just thought you could all use a laugh! :) 

Well I'm home for Thanksgiving break...Hallelujah!  So I decided that I probably have a little bit of time to update my blog since I have been so terribly bad at it lately.  Here are some new posts... and Star Valley pictures are coming soon!

They're Getting Married!!!!

I love Paul's red hair in all of these paintings!!  

The happy couple... I love them :)

There were three paintings on the floor that led up to the temple painting on the table

 

They are officially engaged so I'm allowed to blog about it now :)  This past Saturday, November 1st, my brother Paul asked his girlfriend Lindsay to marry him!  She is so cute and I love her!  On their first date they finger painted and then went to get some gelato in Provo....SO..... last night Paul took Lindsay to the same gelato place and a movie and then brought her to her apartment where in the mean time, my roommates and I, as well as Lindsay's roommates set up the apartment with flowers everywhere along with some finger paintings that Paul had done earlier that day of things that they like to do together.  It was so stinkin cute!!  I'm so happy for them and I can't wait for January 16th!!!  Congratulations Paul and Lindsay!

My New Purchase!!

IT FINALLY WORKED!!!!!!!!!  Yay ok for Rebekah and Erin who have been waiting for so long to see these shoes, I finally figured it out. :)

This little post is just for Erin :)  I totally forgot to put this up last weekend when I got them but I am just so excited about these new shoes!!  I usually don't ever buy things online, but I saw these on target.com and I had to buy them!  Yes, they really are yellow heels but they're not too high so they're still pretty comfortable and I'm really excited to start wearing them.  All I have to say is that Target really does have some good deals sometimes which I am definitely not opposed to every once in a while :)

Just Being Studious!

Well I know I've already blogged twice tonight but I just had so much to say!  Well tonight was probably the most fun I've had since I've been at Provo with these girls... we have been laughing in between all of the studying so hard that it came to a point when I couldn't breathe anymore and tears were rolling down my face!  haha You wouldn't really understand unless you were here but it was funny!  On top of all of that, we were about done studying and Tiffany said that she needed to take a quiz...so first she asked to use my computer, and then when I left the room she asked to use Kirsten's computer, and she also had hers right in front of her!!!  Next thing we know Tiff is sitting there taking this quiz with THREE computers and it didn't even seem weird to her at all!  It was so funny...so we had to take some pics because we didn't think that this would ever happen again!  Oh dear these girls are awesome and I am so glad that I had the opportunity to have them as roommates AGAIN this year!  They are amazing girls and I love them so much.....and of course we keep each other quite entertained! :)

Just Reminiscing A Little

Bekah and I on our little date before I left :(

I just came across these pictures again and thought that I would post them! :)  A couple days before I left to come back to Provo, I took Rebekah on a surprise date to go get her first pedicure!!!  She had no idea where we were going until we were there and she loved it! I LOVE pedicures so much and I knew she would love them too!  Afterwards we went to Starbucks and Bekah bought me a yummy milkshake...she is pretty much the best. :)  We had a lot of fun and I miss her so much!  I'm glad I was able to go home this summer and spend all summer long with her!  I love you Bekah Bee!

Nickelcade Night

Kirst has much more practice with shooting guns than I do...our little small town girl :)

Tiff and Kirst 

A couple weeks ago Tiff, Kirst and I were trying to figure out what to do one Friday night and lo and behold none of us had ever been to Nickelcade!  For any of you that can't figure it out, Nickelcade is an arcade where you only have to pay with nickels in Orem...pretty self explanitory I know. :)  But it was SO much fun!!  As I was growing up, I always wished that my parents would let me play the games in the arcades but they never did so we finally went and I went to town!  We played dance dance revolution, tons of Malibu car games, basketball, air hockey, and of course we can't forget the good old country shootin' game for Kirst. :)  Anyways we had a blast and we are definitely going back sometime soon!

Yummy Dessert :)

Here's one of my new favorite recipes! I made it this summer while I was at home and I forgot to post it so I decided to today! It's got lots of yummy goodness in it and you should try and tell me what you think!

Oreo Ice Cream Dessert:
1/2 C. butter
1 1/2 C. flaked coconut
1 large pkg. oreo cookies
1/2 gallon vanilla ice cream

Chocolate Sauce:
1 C. evaporated milk
1 6 ounce package chocolate chips
10 ounce package of mini marshmallows

1. Melt the butter - add coconut (stirred & toasted). Remove from heat and cool.
2. Crush oreos in blender. Add coconut mixture and blend. Pat 3/4 of the mixture into the bottom of the pan.
3. Cut the ice cream into 1 inch slices and cover cookie mixture. Chill in freezer.
4. Pour cooled chocolate sauce on top of ice cream and put remaining crumbs on top. Freeze for at least 2 hours.
5. Eat it!!

Mmmm now I really want to make it for me to eat! :)

Yay it's my turn!

Ok so I've been tagged by Sara ;) and here's the rule...play along if you want. Go to your pictures and post the fourth picture from the fourth file! It's that simple! Here's one of my roommates Kirst and I last year on a snowy day at Heritage Halls. :) We decided to go outside with another one of our roommates and all take pictures with our hats on! It was so fun and the pictures actually weren't too bad at all...this one just happened to be the one of the group where we weren't ready as you can tell by our faces. :)

Blog of a Lifetime! Holy Cow!

Wow I have seriously had some issues getting all of these pictures up here but....drumroll please..... here they are!  My NEW YORK PICTURES!!!!  I was so determined to get them up here because I've tried so many times that I had this rage building up in me (silly i know) against blogging! But here they are... and I tried to write this under all of the pictures but for some reason I couldn't figure it out so i figured this would work.  

anywho...

Can I just tell you that I LOVE NEW YORK CITY!  All of these years it has been one of my dreams to go to New York and tour the city and go to a broadway play and I finally was able to do it and it definitely was everything I thought it would be and better!  I could go there over and over and over again.  I flew from Chicago to Newark (which was an adventure in itself) and stayed with my roommate Tiffany and her family who live in a little town called Garwood, New Jersey which is about 20 minutes from the city.  Saturday we went to the New Jersey Shore and played on the beach all day long, it was amazing. :)  It's so crazy on the east coast they have fleas that bite you on the beach and those little guys are more painful than you would think!  It was so fun to catch up and just lay out on the beach not to mention it was a perfect day!  On Sunday we went to church and had dinner with the family and then drove over to Liberty State Park and walked around to see the Statue of Liberty.  

Tiffany's brother, Sterling went to college at Temple University in Philadelphia, so Tiffany and I drove to Phili with him on Monday and were able to go see the Liberty bell, Independence Hall, and the Philadelphia Mint.  I really liked Phili too... there was so much character to all of the architecture and so many fun things to do!  And of course I had my first Phili Cheese Steak while I was there in true Phili style and it has now become one of my favorite things to eat :)  They're so yummy!

Tuesday and Wednesday Tiff, her mom and I all went into the city and had a blast!  We did so many things I can't even remember them all!  We went to Central Park, toured NBC Studios, Top of the Rock, Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Temple, China town, Ground Zero, and so many other places!  We also were able to go see "Grease" on broadway with Taylor Hicks as Teen Angel and it was absolutely amazing!  I were also able to spend a lot of time with Tiffany's family and I love them so much!  I really wanted to spend the last night with all of them because they are just so much fun!  We played games with the little kids and just hung out.  They are an amazing family and I am so thankful to them for letting me stay and be a part of their family for a week.    

All in all I think what I really loved about New York was the energy that lives in that city.  The city definitely never sleeps and I love how there's ALWAYS things to do.  You don't even need to have a plan, you could just walk around and find things to do...easy!  I love the crazy people that you see all around you, and although they possibly could be a little scary or strange, it is something that you just don't see everyday in other parts of the country...especially in Provo, Utah! :)  So, here's my pictures and I hope you enjoy!  

I LOVE NYC!!!!!!!!

The Best Day of the Week

Two Sundays ago, Kirst and I decided to walk up to the temple after church and just relax and enjoy the amazing weather we have been having here in Utah...so we walked up and laid under a tree for about an hour!  It was so fun and SO relaxing and definitely the perfect way to get ready for school. :)  That's right...I'm back in Provo for yet another year at BYU!  I'm loving it here, but it is most definitely different than last year in so many ways.  I like mostly all of my classes which is always nice and it's all just keeping me pretty busy just as it should.  AND!  For all of you that haven't heard yet, I have officially declared my major as of about a week ago...drumroll please......  I am now an Elementary Education major!  Shocking huh? ;)  That will allow me to teach from first to sixth grade, and then I also do something called a seventh and eighth grade endorsement so I can have the option to teach in the middle schools.  Basically I just have to minor in a subject that I can teach in middle school, I just have to decide what that is!  Anywho, that is the official update for tonight!  I hope everyone has had a great week!  Love you all!

Trip to Nauvoo!

The Nauvoo Temple

Me, Rebekah and Brooke!!

Out to dinner :)

Our cute little bed & breakfast

I LOVE Nauvoo!

My Mom has been trying to take a family vacation to Nauvoo, Illinois for the past couple years and this summer it finally worked out!  It just so happened that Rebekah got into the EFY at Nauvoo with one of her friends so my Mom decided to make a family vacation out of it! :)  It was so much fun!  We stayed in Nauvoo for a couple of nights and saw so many little houses and different sites.  At first I didn't know if I would really like Nauvoo, but once you are there for a day or two you fall in love with that little town!!  We even got to stay at the cutest bed & breakfast in Nauvoo called the Ellis Sanders House and it was absolutely amazing!  We ate breakfast on the porch and had the most delicious food and we each of us even had our own bathrobe!!!!!  It was the best two nights ever!  They were the nicest people and the house was an original from the 1840's.  We learned so much about the history of Nauvoo while we were there and it was awesome to have the chance to live in it! :)

This Could Not Have Been Said More Perfectly!

I had to copy this from my sister Melissa because it is SO TRUE!! I love shopping with my Mom because it is always such an adventure and trying to keep it on the down low was always so exciting! But needless to say...when there is a good deal, there is a good deal!!! And that's all there is to it!

And just to add to all of this... here's a story that my sisters will love :) Mom, Rebekah and I went shopping a few weeks ago at the Woodburn Outlets. Usually when we go all the way out there everyone is pumped to find some good deals and do some bargain shopping...especially Mom! Well, we got there and Mom was so tired that she decided to let us go into the store while she took a nap in the car...that's where the weirdness began... when she got back, she was so quiet and wasn't really shopping...she seemed like she was just along for the ride! Usually she's the leader of the pack! Well, we went to a couple of stores and we took her back into aeropostale because they were having a HUGE sale! I'm talkin everything was pretty much 50-70% off, and Rebekah and I couldn't find much of anything. So we were standing in line to buy me a little backpack for school as Mom finds another purse that she just thought i HAD to have! "For peets sake Kelsey it is your color!! What do you mean you're not going to buy it?!?!?! Are you sure you can't find anything that you want? There's gotta be something back there that you like at least a little bit!!" She practically threw it at me while I was in line and was giving me no other option and made me go back to look for something else that I liked that was on sale haha... and then as I stood there looking at her in shock haha she just grabbed some t-shirts that were in a 50% off bin and added them to the pile! It was hilarious! And Rebekah, Mom and I could not stop laughing! Needless to say...I love the purse, and it is my color, and I'm glad she made me buy it :) Mother always know best. :)


After another successful shopping trip today I have to say....MOM, thank you for all of our past shopping experiences late into the weeeee night, or should I say morning......thank you for having a car that can get to the mall on autopilot or by just saying "Washington Square Mall"....thank you for telling us when there are amazing deals going on @ any store.....thank you for shopping year round and having a closet that is a mini mall so that when we were frantic to find something to wear in High School, we could always come to your closet and pull out a little bit of happiness out that you had stock up on...thank you for looking @ your watch @ 8:40 and although the mall closes in 20 minutes, telling us that we still have plenty of time....thank you for giving us the option to get up super early on Black Friday to get to Fred Meyer so early for donuts and socks and even though we were too young to understand the deals @ the time, I now know why it was so important...thank you for teaching us that men don't get excited about our purchases and to share your excitement with your sisters.....thank you for teaching us that there are those times that we just need to leave the bags in the car ( I may not have always understood this concept but as I have gotten older, I completely understand now )...thank you for also teaching me to put the bags in areas such as the laundry room or in areas that are discreet enough that we can pull the bags out when there are those that care to see our purchases around :)....thank you for teaching me about price adjustments.....thank you for understanding that girls will be girls and I'm sure all of your 7 daughters have benefited from your shopping skills. I will carry this on w/ my daughters for sure! We love you MOM!!

I Love California!

Me and the Boys... Parker, Riley, Austin and Carter

Melinda was so scared of the Ferris wheel! The Ferris wheel in California Adventure not only goes around in a circle, but the little carts you sit in sway back and forth and it kind of shocked all of us... especially Melinda! :)

Me and my Daddy at the Electrical Parade :) I love him!

Uncle Paul and Tanner...such a cute picture!

Well, I've kind of been on a blogging strike for about a week now so I guess its about time that I post something! Now let me explain... I got home from California and was so excited to post all of my pictures because this blog thing helps give me a reason to take tons of pictures! I made a slide show with TONS of pictures on it and of course it took forever because the computer that I had to use is kinda slow... so it took a little over an hour...(i don't know how I found that much patience for blogging that day- but i was so determined to get those pictures up!) I made the slide show and went to get the code to post on my blog and IT WOULDN'T LET ME!!!! I know that really has nothing to do with my blog website...only the slide show website but i didn't care one bit! haha i was so tired of sitting at the computer so I gave up and decided that I needed to do something else with my time. :) So it's been a week and I'm now going to put up some of the pictures from the family reunion in California that we just got back from a week ago! I'll put up the rest of them when I summon up enough patience to tackle the slide show again :)

But for now... here's my pictures from California! The reunion was so much fun and it was so great to be able to spend time with all of the family all together! I love it when we get that chance because it doesn't happen very often. At the last family reunion, my Aunt's and Uncle and my grandparents all decided that they wanted us to at least have one more, even if my grandparents were not around anymore. Well both of my grandparents have passed away since the last Sander's family reunion two years ago, so this one in California was our last. It was super fun but really sad at the same time because I always look forward to these reunions to spend time with all of my cousins and extended family. So thank you Grandma and Grandpa for setting up this awesome tradition that has brought me so close to my family for these last 19 years. Without their desire to have a tight knit family, I would definitely not have the kinds of relationships that I have now with the people that I love the most. So thank you!

The Joys of Living With Mom :) We love her!

Now you may be kind of confused about the picture above...but let me explain :) My Mom went to the dentist this morning (and for any of you that know my Mom, you know that she absolutely despises the dentist! She even asked the dentist this morning how he feels about being the kind of guy as a dentist of course that so many people hate coming to see haha! She is hilarious!) But she went to the dentist to get some work done and they gave her so much Novocaine that the whole right side of her face was numb!!! She walked in the door and you could tell she was a little upset...poor thing :( they numbed half of her face! This picture is of her smiling. :) Now to explain the bandanna that is on her face...she came down the stairs a few minutes after she got home with this on and I was a little confused...but they numbed her so much that her eye wouldn't even blink on its own! They told her that either she had to do it on her own with her hands or just let it stay open and it would ware off soon enough! haha! She really didn't want us to post this picture because she thought it was blackmail but I had to post it! And she's a good sport :) She always makes life so much more fun and exciting and there is always something that is making all of us laugh..including her.. when were with her...she's hilarious! We love our Mother!!!!

Silver Falls

Mom has been wanting to go to Silver Falls for these past couple of weeks...because she still has not been in all of the 17 years that we've lived here in Oregon! So they picked me up from work today at 3 and we all packed into the van and drove an hour away and hiked to a big waterfall! But we had a lot of fun and it was a beautiful hike! When you got to the waterfall it was so cool because the trail went underneath the rock where the water was falling from and you actually went behind the waterfall! It was so cool! So here's some pics of our adventure!

Happy 4th of July!!

Me and Bekah watching fireworks!

Happy 4th of July everyone! This year the we didn't have to go anywhere for fireworks because they were literally right outside of our house! One of our neighbors got together with another family up the street and did an awesome firework show for at least an hour. And these fireworks were insane! I couldn't believe they were letting them go off right in front of our house! The picture above definitely doesn't do them justice but I had to post a picture of what I could get :) Last year, our neighbor even came around asking us if we wanted him to spray the roof with water earlier on in the day before fireworks...and some people actually took him up which was a good idea I guess because the fireworks go much higher than the houses! It's pretty funny what some people do...and spend...for the 4th of July! :) But I guess I'm glad they do, because then I can watch a great show for free!! :)

Sunday Night's at the Brems!

Melinda, Rebekah and I

Tonight Melinda and Jonathan were able to come over for dinner...they usually come over every other Sunday for dinner...and they brought over some strawberry pie for dessert that they had just made with fresh Oregon strawberries!!!! Talk about YUM! It was absolutely delicious! Melinda is always making new desserts because that's what she loves...and we love that she always is looking for someone to try them!! :) Everything she makes is so good so the fact that this pie was really yummy was definitely not a surprise! We love having them over whenever they can come and we're so lucky that they live so close! So tonight we ate dinner and then played Apples to Apples and topped it off with some pie. It was an awesome Sunday night with the fam! :)

They wouldn't let me take a normal picture of the boys...this was the best of two. :)

Had to take a pic of the delicious pie! It was seriously to die for!

Here's the cook herself....minus Jonathan of course. He did make the pie with her and did an excellent job! :)