Justin's Airplane

This post is a little late because Justin has had this airplane for a few months, but I still wanted to post it. He bought it with some money that he got for graduation because I told him that he had to actually get something fun for himself because he never does. So, this is what he bought.
He went to the hobby store and practiced on the simulator and was constantly researching planes online. I didn't think that he was ever going to buy one, but sure enough. One day I came home from work and found him sitting in the living room putting it together.He went out and flew it one day while I was at work, but the first time I saw him fly it was over at my parents house. It was pretty funny because they have a border collie and as soon as Justin had the plane in the air she took off after it and chased it the whole time he flew it.
In the picture above, Justin was letting my dad fly the airplane. Needless to say, he wrecked it, but he had all the supplies to fix it also.
The plane has seen some hard times. Another time Justin flew it, Hollie started trying to "herd" the plane when Justin was trying to take off on the ground. The plane started moving and Hollie tried to bite the wing to get it to stop. It was pretty funny. However, Justin's crash was the best.
Justin decided to land the airplane on top of the roof at my parents house. My little sister had to go and rescue the plane. It was great!

Role Reversals

I am stealing the idea of my blog title from my brother's blog because it reminded me of how our life has been too. It seems as if Justin and I have switched roles these past few weeks. I go to work and he does everything else. That isn't an exaggeration either. I wake up, go to work, stay at work, stay at work a little longer, come home, go to bed. The next day is followed by the same mean cycle.

While I am at work Justin proceeds to the following: makes the bed, laundry, dishes, clean the bathrooms, mop the floor, graduate school, homework, dusting, fold the laundry, puts the laundry away (which he needs to work on a little bit seeing how I ended up wearing his church socks to work today because he put them in the wrong drawer. Yes, you might be asking how I didn't notice, but it was like way early give me break - anyway back to what Justin does), clean the bathtub and the stupid glass doors on the shower, makes himself dinner. Pretty much, Justin is a stay-at-home-dad without any kids.

Pretty much he is amazing! It makes things so much easier to know that I don't have to come home and worry about getting the cleaning done and such. However, the majority of the cleaning is from messes that he is creating because I am never home to make the mess, so it's not like he is really cleaning up after me. Just kidding. He is awesome. I have given him strict instructions that he isn't allowed to dry any of my work clothes, so when I come home on his "laundry days," my clothes are hung all over the bedroom drying - even the ones that could have been dried - I think he is just covering his basis.

So pretty much in a nutshell, my husband is the best husband ever and the best "stay-at-home-dad without any kids" ever!!!From his expression in the picture, I would have to say that he completely agrees with me too!

A Little Late

I know I am a little late on posting this, but I have wanted to and just haven't found the time for awhile. Justin and I had a really fun New Year's Eve. Our friends from West Valley came up and we played games all night. It has been tradition since forever that our parents play games in one room and the kids play in another room.
Here are the old folks playing games upstairs at my parents house. Jay and Joan are on the left and my parents are on the right. Jay and Joan are really more like family than anything else. They are always there when you need help with something or if you just want to have fun.
Our party downstairs was a little more fun. Justin is rocking out on the drums (even though you can't see them in the picture) and Jillian and I are jamming on the guitars.
Mike was pretty good at the guitar, and JaNae was awesome at the vocals.
You can see our other friend, Scott, in the background. He came up from Utah County to hang out with us. I think one day he will learn that Cache Valley is really where all the cool people all. We had a fun New Years. We just hung out, played games, and ate snacks. What else could you ask for?

Ice Fishing

Justin and I went ice fishing the other day with my family. It was pretty cold and the fish were not biting, but we still tried to have some fun with it. My little sister and Justin decided to make more holes when they were bored.

Then they decided to go and make snow angels.

Justin's snow angel was very pretty. He is debating dropping out of graduate school and making it his new career.
Jillian had a different technique and tends to make fatter angels.

Dad decided he didn't like sitting in his chair and opted to take a nap in the tube.
Mom just made sure that Dad put the correct bait onto her fishing pole, even though he refused to put the "red eggs" on.
I just diligently fished the entire time.
Jillian was the only one that caught a fish.

Christmas in Leeds

This year for Christmas, Justin and I went to Leeds for Christmas. We left during a snow storm, and let's just say, both Justin and I are grateful for ditches. We were able to spend just a little less than a week with his family and it was a lot of fun.
We started the week off by giving their dog, Sandy, a bath. She doesn't really like to get bathed but she enjoyed being brushed afterward.Our brother-in-law got a new puppy for Christmas so it was a lot of fun playing with the puppy. She was pretty cute, and it only made me want a little puppy even more.
We also spent some time playing Rock Band on the Wii with Justin's family. Justin is the star on the microphone. He is just a singing machine!We all just took turns rocking out on different instruments. In this picture, Michelle is on the drums and Stephanie is on the guitar.Justin's friend Scott came over one of the days and showed us how the drums are really supposed to be played. He claimed he didn't have any rhythm, but he blew us all away.
We tried talking Justin's mom and Dad into playing, but they were content watching. We were able to get them both to play the drums, but they weren't interested in singing or playing on the guitar.
Grandma Stirling came over and had Christmas dinner with us. She also made us Christmas breakfast. It was really good to be able to get to visit with her so much.Clayton and Michelle also came over for Christmas dinner. We were excited to get to see them multiple times in our trip.
Here Justin is with Michelle and Stephanie. The only thing missing this Christmas was Stacey, Brandon, and Trey who couldn't make it because of the new baby!
This picture doesn't really show it justice, but we even had a white Christmas in Leeds!
Justin did all of the driving on this trip because I hate driving in the snow and he enjoys it. I gladly gave him the opportunity to drive in the snow. On the way home Sardine Canyon had restrictions for four wheel drive vehicles only, so we decided to stay at my sister's house. I think Nathan was excited to see us.
We had a great Christmas this year and enjoyed spending the time with Justin's family.

Early Christmas

My brother and sister-in-law live in Tennessee. At the first part of December, they came to visit us. It was great having them back. I definitely think that they need to move back to Utah! We mostly just hung out, visited, and played games while they were here.

Matthew believes that he should be in every picture taken, whether you want him in it or not.

Matthew also believes in taking very creative pictures and finding new poses.

Here he is trying to get Lisa's face in an ornament.

I think it turned out pretty good. All in all, it was great having them here. Hopefully they will come back soon!

Mom, Jillian, and DadMatthew and LisaJustin and me
Cammie, Dan, and Nathan

Winter Drive

On the Saturday before Christmas, Justin and I decided to take a drive. We ended up going to a canyon near Richmond. It had been snowing for the past few days so the trails were covered with snow and the trees were covered and everything was beautiful. We ended up having to wait a little bit for a lama to get out of the middle of the road.
A little ways up the road we came to a teenage boy, about sixteen or seventeen years old, and his faithful dog stuck in a snow bank. From the looks of it, he had been there for awhile. I've never seen a more grateful expression as the one the boy gave Justin when he offered to pull him out.

It took a little bit to pull him out, but no worries, the purple truck came through for us.
It was a pretty drive. We ended up driving around Richmond and then took another trail off into the snowy mountains.

It was really pretty. We had a lot of fun just getting away and exploring.

Justin took this picture because he wanted to show how deep the snow was.

Don't you think Justin is pretty photogenic?We had a fun time. We enjoy going out and exploring. It is a very pretty time of year in Cache Valley.

How to Make Cookies

Justin and I decided to make some Christmas cookies. I was still feeling a little sore, so I just made the dough and Justin pretty much did the rest! He is the Ultimate Cookie Maker. Let's go over the steps on how to make the perfect Christmas Sugar Cookie.

Step One- Make the dough. (No picture provided)
Step Two- Get some dough from the bowl Step Three- Roll the dough into just the right thickness
Step Four- Use the cookie cutter to cut out the Christmas shape desired
Step Five - Put the cookies onto the cookie sheet and into the oven for cooking (important note- contrary to the belief of my mother, cookies should not be cooked for the full time stated on the recipe)
Step Six - Put the cookies on the counter, make a complete mess, and get ready for frosting.
Step Seven - Decorate cookies with frosting (made exactly how Justin likes it with various taste tests in the process) and sprinkles as desired. (Justin does not believe in using sprinkles sparingly)

And there you have it. The perfect Christmas cookie!

For those of you who don't enjoy reading, please feel free to watch the above movie of "The Ultimate Redheaded Chef" making the cookies himself in a step by step process. You will have to turn your volume up pretty loud.

Congrats Justin!!

Justin finished up his last final as an undergraduate student on Tuesday!! We are so excited to be able to move onto the Masters Degree. I am so proud of all of his hard work that he has put into studying and earning his Bachelors of Engineering Degree.

I am so proud of Justin and all that he does. He has been so focused with school and making sure that he has the best grades possible. He is the best ever.

Congratulations Justin!!!

In Memory of Kyrri

Kyrri

September 2001 - December 2008

I ended up having to put Kyrri down the other day. She got sick about a month ago so Justin and I moved her into a flat cage without any perches because of problems she was having with her claw that wouldn't let her balance anymore. At first I felt really bad about making her be on the flat surface, but we later realized that she enjoyed it a lot. She would run all over it and rearrange the mirrors and toys that we had put in there for her. Even though she was sick she still wanted to wrestle with us (she would play fight against our fingers...she loved it).

She had been a good bird. She learned to whistle the same way that we used to whistle to call my puppy to come to us. Kyrri enjoyed trying to make more noise than Justin when he would start singing. She was fun to play with and to have around. We will both definitely miss her and her cute, little personality.

Too Much Puppy

Well, plans have changed for us. After spending a week with Zoey we have learned that she might not be the best fit for our family right now. She has bounds and bounds and bounds of energy and needs more attention than we can give her under current circumstances. We are taking her back to where we got her today so her original family can find what they believe to be another good family for her.

It'll be sad because she is adorable, but in the end it will make things easier. For a ten month old pup she was extremely strong and didn't respond to her name at all. I'm sure we'll all sit back and laugh in a few days as we remember our short time with her and all of the Christmas decorations that she would grab and take off running with, when she thought that she was tougher than the horses, when she would try to fit every dog toy on the floor in her mouth, how she only wanted to play with the toys Hollie was playing with, or even just when every time she layed down she rolled onto her back so somebody would rub her belly.

I know we will all miss Zoey and her big, floppy ears and her gigantic puppy paws. We can only hope that she can find a home that can truly give her the attention that she deserves.