Happy Birthday To Me!

I pretty much had the best birthday ever this year. It all started with birthday week. Birthday week, for me, consists of getting as much free stuff as possible because it's my birthday. This year we officially got one free meal at Red Robin, a huge ice cream cone at Baskin Robbins, a free 'like it' sized icecream at Coldstone, and a free meal at Sweet Tomatoes (my favorite restaurant!). It was great- we went out almost every night!

Then for my birthday dinner (because four nights of fun wasn't enough!) Doug came home from work and made me an amazing dinner. Stuffed chicken breasts, hot ciabatta bread, four cheese pasta and salads with homemade poppy sead dressing. YUM.

My favorite part was the presentation. He made everything look so fancy. While he cooked I set the table- I even starched our cloth napkins. Then we got all dressed up (Doug's pretty much the best husband ever) Doug in his tux (when we got married we found one on ebay that was cheaper than renting one so now he has his very own) and me in my dupioni silk dress. I went all out- french tipped my nails, pulled out my nicest jewelry and even figured out how to get my hair in an updo (a major accomplishment considering it's 11 inches shorter than the last time I did that). It was like prom, but way better.

We ate dinner in our kitchen and then headed to the Olive Garden for some delicous dessert (after all, when you're that dressed up you've got to go somewhere!)


The day after my birthday Doug's family came down and we had a joint birthday dinner for Doug's brother Carl and me. It's a lot of fun for me to have family birthday parties. I'd never really thought about it before until this year when my parents were planning what to get me for my birthday. My mom was just going to have me go pick up my gift at the store to save on shipping and my dad was all- No way! It's not a birthday until you get a package in the mail! ha ha- what kind of family did I grow up in!? He was totally right though- I don't remember ever having a birthday without getting a package in the mail from an immediate family member. It really wouldn't feel like a birthday without going out to the mailbox to find a big surprise inside! I guess we're just really talented at living far away from each other.

Anyway, it's a lot of fun to have family close enough now to do things together like birthday dinners. And because it was a joint party, I still got to make the cake (lots of people think it's weird if I want to make my own birthday cake, but those are just the people who don't know how much I love making cakes). Carl got to pick any cake he wanted and he suggested german chocolate- so here it is! yum yum yum. We're still eating left overs!


On Sunday my Aunt Janet invited us over for dinner. To my surprise her whole family knew about my birthday and had even made me a cake! It was so fun to have them remember! I feel so blessed to be surrounded by so many amazing people.

Happy Birthday Jessica!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today is Jessica's Birthday. I have been thinking a lot about how amazing she is and how lucky I am to be married to her. I am sure all of you, as Jessica's friends and family can agree with me: Jessica is the most caring, wonderful person alive. I am sure most of you have had the experience of Jessica going to great lengths to help you are make you happy. That is an easy assumption for me because she seems to be helping someone just about all the time.

I love My Dentist

Dear Dr. Crawford, D.D.S,

I know I have bad teeth. REALLY bad teeth. People always tell me that I was lucky that I never had to have braces, but I still think I'd take braces if, along with them, I'd get to have a mouth full of those teeth that magically stay healthy with only a mindless brushing twice a day and a floss here and there.

My teeth are so bad that to this day I'm pretty sure my dad still doesn't believe I brush them. What he doesn't know is that I DO brush them. Morning and night. AND that not only do I brush them, I buy only soft bristle toothbrushes and hold my toothbrush with only the tips of my fingers rather than my whole fist to protect my gums. I also brush in a circular motion and count to 30 as I brush each quadrant to ensure I've cleaned for at least 2 minutes. I swish with anti-bacterial mouthwash in the morning to protect my gums and with fluoride at night to protect my teeth. I even floss daily. DAILY! No one flosses daily!

I go to my six month dental check up every six months. I don't drink soda or chew gum or buy sticky candy like fruit snacks that could ruin my teeth.

I know that despite all efforts, my gums are receeding and that a two cavity count is pretty good for me when I go to the dentist. I don't know why! Maybe my body just decided to take the energy needed for creating strong tooth enamel and put it into making me 6 1/2 inches taller than the average female. And the truth is, a two cavity count is pretty good because.. well... four is much more likely. Until today.

Today I thank you, Dr. Crawford, for pronouncing my mouth clean from all cavities for only the second time in my entire life. (the first being before I was tall enough to see over the receptionist's desk). The next six months of my life will be brighter because your little metal poky thing didn't stick to any of my teeth.

Sincerly,

Jessica

Georgie

For Christmas this year Doug got me a kitten. It makes such a big difference to have something alive with me at home all day long! Her name is Georgie and she's about 9 weeks old right now.
Here's some of our favorite things about her-


-She learned how to climb into a crack under our cabinets and climb up the inside of our drawers. (when they are all closed, mind you) She'll get up there and be stuck. A couple times we'll hear her meowing and have to figure out where it's coming from, (the first couple times it tooks us a while to find her) but other time's we haven't been around so she'll just curl up and go to sleep. Nothing quite like opening a drawer and finding a kitten inside! (I'm kinda excited that she'll be too big for this one in a couple weeks!)


-She's a really social cat and loves to be around us. She'll follow you right at your heals like a little puppy where ever you go.


-Cat naps. She'll just curl up by me and cuddle all afternoon while I work on the computer. The first day we got her I was reading my scriptures and she crawled up on my back and just fell asleep

A Stacey Visit

We got to see my brother Andrew and his wife Lauren for an afternoon when we got back from Idaho. It was so fun to see them, and I'm always so grateful when people can make time to come see us (our family has approximately one bazillion relations in Utah, all of whom would be sad if they knew you were close by and didn't drop in- making a one week visit a very busy one.)

Andrew served his mission in Italy and they made us an Italian dinner. It was SO good. You'll notice I took a picture of the almost empty lasagna tray. It was just that good. I'm really excited to try out the tips I learned from him!

Projects

Doug's dad has this amazing shop up at their Idaho Falls house. We planned to take advantage of it while we were up there and make a bench to fit into our bay window. Doug's dad helped us a ton- making the bench a lot better than I'd even imagined! Unfortunately Doug and I did a lot of lazing around and not enough working on the bench.... so the unfinished product is still up in Idaho... looks like we'll having to plan another trip up there some time soon!

The best part of the story is- I totally got a math problem right that Doug got wrong! Yep. adding fractions. It can get to even the best of 'em... I have to mention it because this will be the only time in all of history that it will happen. But, for all generations to come- here's proof that it did in fact happen once !

Idaho Falls Christmas

Christmas Morning #2- a George family Christmas complete with Chinese food for Christmas Eve dinner, homemade Egg McMuffins Christmas morning and bananas and oranges in our stockings (do you like how all their traditions revolve around food? I sure do!) It was a great, relaxing Christmas morning spent with Doug's parents and brother Carl.

Christmas Treats

Who doesn't love a Christmas full of delicious food? Doug and I put our love of cooking to work this Christmas while we were up in Idaho... home made caramel, christmas cookies, steamed Christmas pudding, fresh mozzarella cheese, kugel, latkes and corned beef...mmmmmmmmm...... I can't wait until next Christmas when I can justify baking so many delicious things.....

Pre-Christmas Christmas Morning

I've really decided that Jewish people have this celebration thing down. I mean, eight nights of presents? Yep. That wins. Way better than one rushed morning that inevitably leads to the downer felt by all on Christmas afternoon when months of preparation and anticipation have been ripped open and an entire year stands between you and the next big day.

I've come to this conclusion after the past two years of celebrating Christmas with Doug. We decided a while back that having our own Christmas morning with just our little family was something important to us. That's a lot harder to do than it might sound, Christmas being the time for extended families to get together and all.

So what do we do? Well, we took some advice from all those Jewish people out there. We don't celebrate for eight nights, but we do have two Christmas mornings. The first with just us and the second a day or two later with extended family. I actually really like it better! It's like a whole week of Christmas and by the time it's over I'm ready for it to be done.

So here's some of Christmas #1, celebrated before we headed up for Idaho Falls.