Wo - It's Been A While

Let's talk about the Christmas party this year.

Who will be around. and when?

The Stevenson's are moving to UT (YAY!!) so I'm planning on the Andersons, Stevensons, Thaynes, Cranneys, Baumans, Waddoups, Whittiers and Hortons this year unless anyone else will be visiting, then we will plan it around you.

I think Salt Lake is probably the easiest meeting place, but it doesn't matter to me.

Any ideas as to what we should do? I was thinking an adult-only dinner would be fun, but then it's always fun to get the kids together, too. They have so much fun together.

Thoughts?

Logan Road Trip!

That's right--- we're going on a road trip and you're invited!

I'm long overdue on for a trip to Logan. It's been 1 1/2 years since I've gone for a visit!

Mark your calendars, because we're going back! Memorial Day Weekend! May 27-28 (friday-saturday)

We're getting  hotel rooms (if we said we were camping no one would come....) and we'd better get a poll going on the side bar fighting for what restaurants will be graced with our presence.(anyone know how to do that?) What's your top pick?

Perhaps we'll make s'mores at the dam, or visit pepperidge farm. What do you want to do? Are you coming? Any good hotel suggestions? We need a pool!

Fire Roasted Tomato Soup

Hey, hey! Here is the recipe several of you asked for for the soup I made for Carrie's bridal shower.

FIRE ROASTED TOMATO SOUP

1 T butter or olive oil
1 large onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 cans (14.5 oz each) fire roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
1 3/4 cups chicken vegetable broth
2 T chopped fresh basil leaves
1 t sugar
1/4 t crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 c whipping cream

In a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion and garlic. Cook 2 to 3 minutes, stirring constantly until onion is tender.

Stir in tomatoes, broth, 1 t of the basil, the sugar and pepper flakes. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat. Cover and simmer 15 minutes. Remove from heat and pour mixture into large heatproof bowl. Cool slightly (about 15 minutes).

In blender, place half of the mixture. Cover and blend until pureed. Return to saucepan. Repeat with remaining mixture. Heat over medium heat until hot. Remove from heat. Stir in cream and remaining 1 t basil.

YUMMY!
Enjoy :)

Carrie's big news!

Since I know that she won't post it on here herself (she's had this news for a while now and hasn't yet) I will do it for her :)

CARRIE ROMNEY IS ENGAGED!!!!!!!!!!

Yay! And congrats Carrie!!

She is getting married on October 16th.

Girls, plan on coming to a bridal shower for her sometime in September.
So fun!

And yes, she is getting married to that chiropractor guy she was telling us all about at Shandy's baby shower :)

Requested Photos

Due to many requests I'm posting more pics... but no, I haven't started a blog yet. I am at least contemplating the idea, just don't get your hopes up. Thanks for all of the phone calls and e-mails.
At 2 weeks and 3 days Katelyn made her debut at church yesterday. She was a perfect little angel!

Katelyn Rae Thayne

Katelyn Rae Thayne
arrived: March 4, 2010 at 8:47 a.m.
weight: 5 Pounds 11 Ounces
length: 19 and 1/2 inches
She loves to sleep with her hands up by her face!
She is great at eating and sleeping, and she is absolutely perfect!!!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!!

February 26th (Friday) at 6:00 p.m.

AT PEI WEI on 21st South and . . . hm . . . 11th east or so.

Everyone's invited!

Hey!

We haven't seen you guys in forever!

Can we get together for a big dinner?? I think SLC is probably central for most ppl.

Would Feb. 26th or 27th work for everyone?

Let us know

Shane and Jamie

* a logan get-together?? *

hello everyone!
so we are going to be in logan on saturday, november 7th and thought it'd be fun to get together for dinner if anyone else wanted to. i know it's a drive for everyone so if you can't/don't want to, we won't be offended :) leave a comment if you are interested and we'll figure out a time and place. hope you all are having a wonderful day :)
~andrea (and heathe & aiden)

IT IS ME!

I just wanted to let you all know that I am an official blogger. After fighting myself and having some sleepless night I decided to go with it. It will have no pictures of my children or husband... but I promise to supply you with some crazy interesting stories out of my life. Most of you are married and have moved past singularity but not me... I'll keep you up to date on what singles life is really like. Be prepared! Oh and P.S. Congrats to all you who will be having children soon.

*all in favor say "aye" *

who else thinks that we need to see a post from shandy and justin with pictures of their new house and shandy's cute belly? anyone else with me? or maybe i'm just nosy...

Thanksgiving

Blake and I are coming to Utah for Thanksgiving. We are arriving the Saturday before (Nov. 21st) and leaving the Saturday after (Nov. 28th). We would really love to get together with everyone, whether it be through a party or just meeting up with people. What day works best for you and your family to have a potential GROUP get together? We are pretty open, so just look at your schedule and we can plan accordingly.

The Stevenson's are in UTAH!!!

Hooray!
Sara and her little fam are in town and we want to get together!! :)
Dinner at Cafe Rio on Foothill on Thursday August 13th at 6:15 PM
Everyone come!!!
Leave a comment letting us know if you can be there.

Logan Family Get Together!

Let's get together! Jordanelle State Park on Friday the 21st-Saturday the 22nd!

We can't wait to see you all!

Who's coming?

Contact Tim and Kelly for more details. They are the *party planners!*

Win a free photo session

So one of my friends from high school has her own photography business and she is having an awesome giveaway! Check out her blog at :
http://angiesearephotography.blogspot.com/2009/06/100th-post-fabulous-downtown-salt-lake.html

Angie took family pictures for us to give my dad for Christmas last year and she did a great job!

All you have to do is leave a comment on her blog and you are entered in her giveaway! Leave me name in there too saying I sent you and I'll get another entry too :)

Hope everyone is having a super fun summer!!

happy birthday sara! (better late than never?)

happy late birthday sara!
oh my gosh...i can't believe we forgot to post on your birthday! we are so sorry!!!
i think i speak for everyone when i say that you are the best! you have brought lots of laughs and fun and we miss you out there on the east coast!!!! we hope you had a fun day :)

some awesome sarita pics...
and last but not least...
"i carried a watermelon?"

love ya sara!

hi

I don't think I have posted on here in a while....actually, I'm not sure if I've ever posted. I do read it sometimes though. Lots of you I haven't seen for a while, and Logan is not quite the same since you guys all left me here. :) As far as my life goes, I got laid off at Icon in December so now I work from home building websites for companies. It was hard at first but I love it now and it's probably the best thing that could have happened to me. I understand now why Tim wanted to have his own business so badly. I graduate in December with a Bachelor's in Information Systems, after which I'll probably move down to Salt Lake and get my MBA at the U. Last fall I sold the motorcycle I had and I bought a different one. It's a little faster..... Here's a pic: http://www.ksl.com/emedia/slc/680/68011/6801160.JPG?filter=ksl/gallery1 I love it, and it's not too hard to find a girl who wants to go for a ride either, which is nice. I gotta admit though, I'm kinda jealous. You guys all have families and stuff, and I'm still looking for my eternal companion. But the search continues. Also, congrats to Tim and Kelly on their recent announcement. :)

20 Facts about Blake & Maren

We haven't done this in awhile and Blake and I came up with these forever ago, so here are our 20 facts:

MAREN:

1. I love going grocery shopping by myself. It’s my free time.
2. When I write something (blogs, talks, this, etc), I have to read over what I wrote at least 3 or 4 times.
3. I can’t go to bed until everything is in its place
4. I have lived in 8 different cities (13 different houses)
5. I still have my baby blanket and am dang proud of it
6. I could organize my house all day and night (it drives Blake crazy)
7. I have been to 38 states and 7 different countries
8. If my room was dirty when I was a kid, my mom would purposely make me mad so I would pull everything out of my drawers and closets. (I was amazing at temper tantrums. After destroying my room, I would cry for the next hour and organize every inch. That’s how she got me to clean up.
9. When I was young I ran away from home at least a dozen times. I always made it back in time for dinner though.
10. I could eat crackers and cheese all day long, ice cream too.
11. I can’t go to bed if there are any folds in the bed spread (it has to lay flat)
12. I hated reading until Braden was born. Now I can’t get enough of it.
13. If Blake’s home, I can’t go to bed unless he is in the room.
14. I almost got kicked out of the College of Business during my senior year of school. (No, I won’t share this story and it has nothing to do with cheating or anything like that.)
15. I would love to go back to school to become a dentist.
16. When we move, I have the whole house unpacked and organized within 1, maybe 2 days. (Blake can’t stand this. He would let boxes be around forever.)
17. I am not a pack rat. I like to go through our stuff about once every month and make a trip to Goodwill. (Think of how much money we could have if I had a garage sale.)
18. My favorite part of the day is getting ready for bed
19. Although I love to read, I am terrible at pronouncing words. Blake has to correct me all the time. I usually know exactly what the word is, but read it how it looks, which sometimes isn’t how it sounds. With that, I have an incredible memory for spelling words.
20. I love to sing about anything and everything. I wouldn’t be making American Idol anytime soon though. Blake claims that he lives in a musical. I have to agree.
    

Blake

1. I was afraid my 1st grade teacher would eat me, so my principal had to walk me to school everyday. It didn’t work, I still ran home after we got to class.
2. I was held at gun point in Puerto Rico. They took the keys to my car & my cell phone, but not the car. It made things difficult because I was in the middle of no where.
3. I could read about the Utah Jazz all day long. (my wife hates this)
4. I am a good wood worker. I built a grandfather clock and desk.
5. It takes me forever to make a decision over stupid things (once again, Maren can’t stand this)
6. I had a dog that hung himself on his chain and another die of food poisoning from something he ate in the garage.
7. I helped my dad build 3 houses.
8. I like to eat a whole row of Ritz crackers or Oreos in one sitting, not both in the same sitting.
9. I never flew in an airplane or left the country until my mission.
10. I didn’t kiss a girl until after my mission. And then spent the next couple years making up for the delay.
11. I was voted Best Offensive Player of my high school soccer team.
12. I fractured my right pinky playing basketball in college, so I learned how to shoot with my left hand. At the time, I could shoot just as well as any of my right handed friends.
13. St. Patrick’s Day shares my birthday; however, I am not Irish.
14. I love to use big machinery
15. I got a speeding ticket test driving a vehicle, in a school zone. The cops thought I stole the car and had to call the owners.
16. I also pick my fingernails (and toenails) when I am bored, like Heathe (Maren can’t stand the noise).
17. Braden thinks I am hilarious, even if no one else does.
18. Even though I spend the whole day on the computer at work, I could spend the whole evening on it too. (Once Braden is asleep of course.)
19. I have had my picture in the Ensign twice. 2 issues in a row
20. I can never grow a beard or mustache. Maren’s happy about this, as she hates both.

We tag Cameron & Hillary

Happy Birthday Tim

We just thought we would give a shout out to our dear friend Tim who thinks "Bob Dole Makes Me Nasty." Happy Birthday Tim!

Easter Surprise