fried what?!

This past weekend, I had the chance to go to Texas and visit Grant (only 3 1/2 weeks!) and my family!  My family had tickets to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo so we were able to go and have a blast!
The rodeo is full of tons of rides but, being pregnant, I had to sit out of most of them.  Granty still went on a lot of them with Stevie, and his friend Shianne.

One of my favorite parts of the rodeo is all of the delicious (although terrible for you) food there is to try.  There was even a place called "Fried What?" where they had everything from fried pickles to fried kool-aid!! We tried our fair share of fried foods, including:

fried cookie dough on a stick

fried oreos

fried red velvet cake

and fried snickers (my personal favorite!)

Stevie liked it so much, he had to have two things at once!

After all of that eating, we headed into the rodeo to digest for a while before taking on more rides.  I LOVE the rodeo!  We saw cowboys riding bucking broncos and bulls, barrel races, cattle roping, and even muttin bustin' (5 and 6 year old kids riding sheep)!

After the rodeo, we stayed for part of the concert, where Luke Bryan performed.

When we got back out, it was dark and all of the lights were lit up across the rodeo.  We rode the ferris wheel (I could actually ride that one) and got to see the view from up above.

We had a great time and I'm so glad I got to be there for Grant's first Houston rodeo experience. 

We didn't get to see a lot of Fleming over the weekend.  Her best friends were in town for The Woodlands Marathon, so she and her friend Shannon spent all of Saturday biking around town to cheer on Emily.

I can't wait to visit again next weekend, and I'm even more excited for Grant to come back two weeks later!  We're almost there!!

do the math

the most wonderful time of the year

I'm very sad to say that Christmas break is now over and tomorrow I will be heading back to work.  I am excited to see my kiddos again, but I'm missing Grant and the rest of my family.  We had a great couple of weeks, packed with lots of fun activities!
Grant and I started a new tradition this year of getting new pjs for Christmas.  Our tree looked beautiful and Fleming helped us experiment with candy cane pictures...

Here's my favorite present:

We were able to do a lot during the week...

We cooked:

We played putt-putt (and I beat everyone!  that's never happened!)

We practiced archery:

We danced:

We went to the bowl game:

and I even got to try out my new cricut:

I do miss Grant, but one good thing about coming back to Provo was getting to see my old roommate, Sarah, who just got back from her mission.

Happy New Year from the Zinns!!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I'm sure there are many people who share with me in the feeling that this is the absolute best time of year!  I love the weather, the food, the music, the gift-giving, and, of course, the decorations!  We didn't do a whole lot with our decorating this year since we don't have a lot of space and we won't be here for most of the holidays, but we were able to do a little bit to get into the spirit of Christmas.
But before I get there, I want to show our fall wreath since we completely skipped over the last month and a half of our lives in the blog world.

I don't love the way the flowers turned out, but it was still fun and festive.

Now to the good stuff... Here's a peek of Christmastime in the Zinn home.

And now for my pride and joy... I'm very excited about my latest accomplishment.  I found the idea on pinterest (of course) and I'm really pleased with the way it turned out... it is my ornament wreath!!!!

Do you like it?  I LOVE it!!  In the works are an advent calendar and possibly a centerpiece for our table.  Maybe next year we'll have a full sized Christmas tree and I'll get to complete even more of my "pinned" crafts, but for now I'm loving our little home and it's fun decorations.  Merry Christmas!

punkins

Ever since I was a child, one of the most important Halloween traditions was carving pumpkins.  I remember going to the pumpkin patch, picking out the perfect size to carve the perfect pumpkin.  After taking it home, laying out newspaper in the garage, and picking out the best design for the year, then came the best part...gutting the pumpkin!  Don't you love that slimy feel in between your fingers?!  Then, it would be time to carve.  After abandoning those cheap, plastic, store-bought knife sets, I'd end up grabbing a huge kitchen knife to really do the job.  I'm surprised I still have all my fingers!  Oh, those were some fun times.

This year, Katie decided to try my commitment to that tradition by continually suggesting that we take a much different approach for decorations (and much thanks to pinterest for that).  No, it wasn't to make them bigger and brighter, nor was it to make them more frightening and terrifying.  She wanted to paint them.

What?!  No gutting?  No slime?  No carving?  I admit, I was hesitant for quite some time.  Anytime we were out running errands, she would always ask if we could go get pumpkins.  I wasn't sure if I could come to grips with painting pumpkins!  I finally came up with a clever response to combat her pleadings.  I told her, "Only one pumpkin is allowed in our house, and that's you!"  (Cheesy, I know.  But we are still newlyweds!)

I eventually caved.  But I must confess, it was a blast!  We had a lot of fun together.  And if you ask me, I think they turned out pretty darn cute!

I largely worked in the argyle one.  I'm pretty proud of it!  Last minute, we thought the pumpkins would look better if they were raised a bit.  Katie got the idea to use a box we just got and paint it.  I had recently thrown it away but I went dumpster diving for it and recovered it!  I think it definitely adds, especially with Katie's already cute wreath she made a couple months ago.

Happy Halloween everyone :)   BOO!

Have yourself a bluebell country day!

Provo just got a little bit better.  There is a little shop in Provo now serving blue bell ice cream, exclusively.  Blue bell is one of the things I missed the most about Texas when I left.  There are a few restaurants in the area (outback and cracker barrel) that serve blue bell with their desserts.  But they only have vanilla and if you want to buy it you have to get it in the 3 gallon size.  Eve, a fellow Texan and great friend, was kind enough to buy us one of those very large containers of blue bell for a housewarming gift.

It lasted us several months, but I've been deprived since, and definitely needing some other flavors.  Then, last week, Eve made me aware of the new place in Provo.  It's called "I Like Ike's Cream," and since they opened on conference weekend, the girls got 1/2 off during priesthood session (the boys also got 1/2 off if they came in a shirt and tie afterward).  Since Grant was in Salt Lake for most of the day translating, a few of my old roommates and I went during priesthood session and had a little girl's night.  

Yes, my ice cream was way bigger than theirs.  Don't judge me :) Needless to say, I was very excited!  I can't wait to take Grant there!  Who cares if it's freezing outside and already snowing?  I'm sure we'll be making another visit soon :)

P.S.  I got a new present!!!!

It's been great to be able to come home and sit at the piano.  I've missed that a lot.  I'm also going to be playing the piano for our school choir, so now I can practice!

3 down, 3 to go

My roommates and I kind of defied the odds at BYU when none of us got married until our senior year.  That just doesn't happen here.  My roommate Christina always said that once one of us "gave in" the rest of us would follow shortly after.  She was right!  I married my wonderful husband in December and since then two more have been married. Jill married Mike in July and Christina married Jackson two weeks ago.  And the best part about that is they're now our next door neighbors!  It's nice having someone I'm comfortable borrowing "a cup of sugar" from.  Congratulations Christina and Jackson!!  We're glad you finally "gave in" and joined us in the married world :)