I apologize its been so long since I've made a blog post.  Merry late Christmas to everyone.  I hope everyone also had a nice Thanksgiving.  Jeff, Banks, Danny and I had the opportunity to go visit my sister Emily and her family in Semi Valley CA for Thanksgiving.  We had a lovely time!  The above picture is of Thanksgiving Day at Emily's inlaws: The Sycamores.

 Enjoying some delicious food on Emily's patio.  Also, enjoying the great California weather!

Allow me to introduce you to: the most divine cake you'll ever, ever, EVER eat!  There is this delicious bakery in CA called The Bread Basket Co.  And this is an epic cake from them.

This picture is from CA when we were visiting Emily.  Isn't this adorable!!?

Danny & I at the Sycamores..Thanksgiving Day

 

  

Santa Barbara, CA Zoo (Thanksgiving)

I loved every moment with these two.  AWESOME thanksgiving!

Banks, his cousin Ashlyn, and Daddy playing in the snow in WA.

Daddy and Banks jammin' on Grandma's grand piano.  (Banks loves to play the piano!)

With cousin Ryan!

Jeff found these in Wal Mart and really wanted him and Danny to have matching onsie/footsie jammies to match Banks.

Banks first time in the snow!  We've had snow in Utah, but he hasnt had any snow pants to play in the snow yet!

When we flew from Salt Lake to WA for Christmas, Delta lost Jeff's bag.  This is a picture of his ticket to call get additional updates/info on his bag.  We finally got it a day and a half later...whew!

We did some Christmas present opening before we came to WA.  These are tools Jeff got from Allan.  He was really excited about his new Dremel.  Thanks Grandpa Maruji (and thanks Brent for shopping for it all!)

So during Christmas I prefer not to give out sweets to friends because I feel like everyone is "sweet-ed" out.  I decided to give homemade sour dough loaves with yummy Carrabbas herbs that you add olive oil and balsamic vinegar to.  (dip the bread in the herbs)  I think people really enjoyed my our gift this year!

Our ward Christmas party was "A Night in Bethlehem".  We were supposed to dress up biblical.  I had a really cute picture of all three of us on my phone.  But unfortunately my phone is broke and I lost the picture.  :(  Anyway, the party was really fun. 

Banks and Daddy Christmas morning!

(Not the best pic, but...) Thanks Aunt Alayna for my new ssssuper cape!!  --Banks

We just got home from the Aquatic Center in Trail BC Canada.  Grandma, Grandpa (Maruji), Danny, Jeff, Banks and I had soo much fun!  My favorite part was the water was soo warm!

Danny and Jeff hitting the mountain during the Christmas Break in WA.

 

Guess who came to town to visit!?  Lyndsey ad Rowen!!  We were so excited to meet up at the Blue Lemon and go to lunch.  (If you don't remember, Rowen is 5 days older than Banks and the most beautiful little girl.  I miss Lyndsey very much.)

(This is a video...if you click on it, it should play)

Rowen giving Banks "love"

(This too is a video...if you click on it, it should play.)

This picture will have to be blown up and framed on their wedding day.

Jeff got to go to the Sema Car Show in Las Vegas with some friends.  He had a great time! 

Jeff had to take this picture because he say this company with a great name!  :)

Banks needed a haircut.

These are 45 pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes I made for my friend's daughters baptism.  I failed to get a picture of them iced :(  

 

I know this wasn't the most exciting post...sorry.  Jeff has been busy figuring out the whole Elders Quorum thing.  (He is doing such a great job!)  He is also playing indoor soccer.  I keep busy chasing Banks around, substitute teaching (a few days a month) at the hair school, and working at the salon.  Have a great week!

Banks was a lil monkey for Halloween.  (Quite fitting seeming how he eats at least 1-2 bananas a day.  Atta' boy!)

Banks and Daddy (aka Napolean Dynamite) at our old ward's Trunk or Treat.

Our new Chaise!

I threw a baby shower for one of my friends.  This is the dessert table.  

 

Mini cheesecake, sugar cookies, cupcakes, and texas sheet cake (someone else brought this).  Everything was homemade of course.

 Banks 's latest and greatest trick: unzipping his jammies.  If this isnt a proud face, I dont know what is!

Our neighbor is putting in his sprinklers.  Banks insisted on helping.....

Just enjoying some nice weather.  I try and let Banks play outside at least 45 minutes a day.

 

Napolean Dynamite and Deb at a friend's Halloween Party.  Good times!

 Oct 26th I ran the Provo Halloween Half Marathon.  It started up at Deer Creek and we ran down Provo Canyon.  This was my second half marathon (I ran this same race Oct 2011).  I had been training pretty hard (well, for me anyway!) for this race.  I was pretty excited for it because I knew I had trained a lot more than 2 years ago.  I finished with a time of 1 hour and 41 minutes.  An average pace of 7:45 minute mile.  WHICH....for me....was EPIC!  I never run that fast ha ha!  I got 38th place out of 1,028 women that ran!!  :)

 2 years ago when I ran this race I finished with a time of 1 hour 54 minutes.  So I shaved off 13 minutes.

Huge thank you to Jeff for all the support of watching Banks to allow me to train!  And thank to Jana and John who let me borrow their fancy Garmin watch for the race.  (Who is that nice to send a watch all the way in the mail for one race!!?)

 Banks LOVE LOVE LOVES to use the garden hose.  This is him after he got himself all wet but INSISTED on finishing the job ... gotta love this kid.

Some cookies n cream cupcakes for Danny's birthday.  I got a request for my first paid cupcake gig.  A friend of mine asked me to make 3-4 dozen for her daughter's baptism.  YAY!!!!  I'm so excited!!!

WARNING:  This blog post might induce extreme hunger.

 

Jeff and I made some yummy, juicy, bacon burgers with homemade onion rings.  Mmmmm! 

 

 We have had SO many cherry tomatoes we didn't know what to do with all of them..So Jeff wanted to make a salsa with them.  And here was the start of the beautiful creation....

With all our tomatoes, I've made lots of homemade marinara sauces.  I think this marinara sauce just might have been my very favorite of all of them!.. it accompanied Chicken Parmigiana.  

(I warned you!...Are you hungry yet?)  When I was at home in WA my dad smoked this (fresh and recently caught in AK by his very OWN fishing pole!) beautiful salmon.  It was so delicious!

Banks has been practicing his "kiss-y" lips.  He almost has it perfected.

Whats better than playing with all your toys?...Sitting IN the toy box playing with all your toys.

This is my new lil bush I got 50% off.  I can't quite remember what it is, but she's a Beauty, isn't she?

And these are my new raspberry bushes!....Cant wait for them next summer!

Theres a local cupcake shop that bakes great cupcakes.  Their fall cupcake is this really great pumpkin chocolate chip cupcake.  So in an attempt to not break the bank, I decided to make my own!  They....   were....  YUMMMMY!

Our new TV stand!

 Banks wants to go outside all the time.  So I want to cash in while the weather is still pleasant.

 The star ingredients to my "out-of-this-world" fresh marinara sauce:

 

And last but not least!..Banksy's new pet!  

(Yes are you as surprised as I am that I, myself, caught this!?)