Thanksgiving

This year we spent Thanksgiving in Annabella, UT. It is a tiny little town just outside of Richfield. It was a very short trip but we had a great time.

The day before we were supposed to leave, there was a MASSIVE storm warning. Everybody was talking about. People left work early and missed their classes just to get out of town before the storm hit. BYU's campus even closed down so that people could leave sooner for their Thanksgiving vacations. Well, all day I kept hoping for this so called "Blizzard" to blow in. And finally it did! Around 7 that night it started to snow and get really windy and I thought surely I was going to wake up to multiple FEET of snow the next morning. Well, my hopes were dashed. This is what it looked like at the beginning of the blizzard:

And it looked basically the same the next morning! I was so disappointed! I was glad that we could at least make it to Richfield to celebrate Thanksgiving but I was hoping to be part of the massive snow storm that everybody was talking about. Oh well. Hopefully the next time the weather men tell us about the biggest storm in years that is coming, it actually will come. They were right about the massive cold front though! IT WAS FREEZING! And it still is! The joys of winter. :)

Well, we made it to Richfield in plenty of time. We got there hours before anyone else in Preston's family did so we had some time to kill. We met up with our friend Tyson and his wife Kirstie. (See their blog here) We were able to grab some lunch with them and it was so fun to visit with them. Then Preston and I attempted to go hunt down a Christmas Tree. We were unsuccessful. :( We are hoping to get a real one so hopefully we can go hunting for one again this weekend!! 

Preston was SO EXCITED about all the snow! Either that or the fact that there was a little creek not far from us and he was so excited just thinking about the fish he could catch in it! 

It was FREEZING in Richfield! Thanksgiving morning it was -4! I have never experienced that kind of cold before in my life!! It makes you not want to even step foot outside! 

Overlooking the valley of Richfield/Annabella. 

Preston & I on Thanksgiving Day! Isn't he so cute?? I just LOVE HIM!

Preston's Grandma put Brit (my sis-in-law) and I in charge of a fruit bouquet. Neither of us had ever made one before so we were just going off of what his grandma showed us in a picture. I think it turned out pretty good for first timers, don't you?? (Check out these. They are just a little better than ours. haha)

I thought this was so cute of Joslyn. She fell asleep before Thanksgiving Dinner even started. I thought it was too cute how she was sleeping with her hands put "just so" by her face. 

And thanks to Preston's Uncle Gary, our Turkey had boobs. We all about died laughing! It sure was a tasty turkey though! 

Even though our Thanksgiving was short lived, we had a great time. Now it's back to school to endure just a couple more weeks of stress and then we can have a nice, long Christmas break. I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!

Fin

We now have a third member in our family!!! 

Introducing.....

Fin Bishoff :D

Yes, we are now parents to this little gold fish. His predecessor, Goldie, died right after we moved in to our house and we are just barely feeling like we can replace him. He lives right by the kitchen sink in an oversized mason jar. He loves it here-I can tell already! I bet he doesn't even miss all of his little friends at Walmart at all! After all, Preston and I probably make the best parents! :D hehe

Fin's new dwelling place. We promise to take better care of you than we did Goldie, Fin! Welcome to the family! 

My Inspiration

Being the procrastinator that I am, I always put the hardest things off until the very end. Like my English 312 Persuasive Writing Class. It's my last year at BYU and I saved that precious little (but oh so BIG) class until the very end. Lucky me! 

This class requires a Researched Argument Oral Report for our final project. A couple of things that I hate about this assignment: 

RESEARCHED YUCK!!!

ARGUMENT I am a terrible arguer....

ORAL I could do without speaking in public...

REPORT That one speaks for itself

I have put off preparing for this assignment, uh, um, lets just say ALL SEMESTER UNTIL NOW! Yeah, I know - you'd think I would have learned my lesson by now! And to top it all off, this report is supposed to last 20 MINUTES!! I am dreading it....

I came up with a plethora of different things that I could talk about and none of them every seemed to fit just right. Until today. I was sitting in class stressing about what to have my topic be while having about a MILLION different ideas bounce around in my head all at once when I decided that what I needed to talk about it, I really needed to have a passion for. It needed to be something that I could enjoy talking about and that is something that really is important to me. And thats when I thought of Emily. 

(she is this happy after getting soaked in a rainstorm)

Emily is my younger sister. She has a Pervasive Developmental Disorder that causes her to learn at a different pace then everyone else. But Emily is the absolute sweetest person I know. A lot of kids her age miss out on the sweet person that she is because they don't take the time to get to know her. But I promise if they did, she would be their favorite person to be around. I feel incredibly blessed to have her as my sister. She has taught me so many things about life by how she is always living life to the fullest without even realizing it. 

Emily wants so bad to be like everybody else. She made it a goal this year to be more outgoing and to make new friends. And she has done such a great job! She has learned that there is no point in being shy and she loves to live in the moment. She dreams of getting her license, kissing a boy, going to college, and getting married in the Orlando Temple and having her reception at Disney World. She is so passionate about the things she loves. You would never guess it, but she absolutely loves history and studying about the United States. She wants people to see her as a crazy, fun girl and loves to be told that she is. She can't wait to go to Prom and she loves experiencing everything there is to experience about High School. Oh and she LOVES to dance! I can't forget that! 

Emily may or may not accomplish these things, but my parents have never shut down any of her dreams. They let her dream big. And dream big she does! She has outsmarted the doctors that diagnosed her when she was little on a number of things. She can read and they thought she would never be able to. She is capable of so many things.

But this leads me back to my Oral Report. Emily has been my inspiration for the topic of my report. I am going to speak on mainstreaming special needs and disabled children into regular, every day classrooms and the benefits that those special needs students gain from being mainstreamed and the benefits that regular students gain fro interacting with those disabled students. I have been so blessed to have Emily as my sister and she has taught me so much about people that struggle with handicaps. I believe that if people were more exposed to those with disabilities, they would have a greater appreciation for one another's similarities and differences and come to understand that disabilities are a matter of perception and may be more of a social phenomenon than a medical one. 

If any of you know Emily, I encourage you to get to know her better. She will add so much dimension and life to your life and truly influence you for good. And if you don't know Emily, but know someone like her, take the time to get to know them. They are some of the choicest spirits of our Heavenly Father's. I love her and I hope someday she has the opportunity to bless your life too. 

Now, back to my Research. :D 

These are a few of our favorite things....

The other night, Preston and I went up to Salt Lake to meet up with my parents for dinner. They had some business meetings up there and they invited us to come and have dinner at the Little America Hotel with them and some other people in the Furniture business. 

Just as we finished filling up with gas to head up there, Preston pulls the truck over and says something like "uh, I need to check the truck really quick." I didn't pay much attention and just kept looking through my newspapers in search of some good coupons. Well, a few seconds later he hops back in the truck and hands me this:

A sunflower! They are my absolute favorite. 

I couldn't believe it though! There were sunflowers still in bloom right along the roadside - in NOVEMBER! It's crazy! I think Mother Nature is a little confused on the seasons right now or something. 

Oh well! If nothing else, her confusion made me all sorts of happy! Preston has made it a little bit of a tradition to pull over and pick me a sunflower along the road when he sees them. He's a cutie!

After our AMAZING dinner at the Little America and the fun time we had with my parents, we came upon a Ferrari dealership. Even though they were closed, Preston just HAD to stop. Boys and cars. Its funny to me just how much they love them. And Ferraris are his absolute favorite. 

And here is the ENZO. Apparently they only have these in a select number of dealerships in the whole United States. He just couldn't believe they had one in Salt Lake! Pretty cool!

I promise, he was a lot more excited than he looks in this picture. 

Our night turned out to be a lot more exciting than we had planned. We left feeling fuller than we have in a long time. I guess we weren't used to having so much food around us and we definitely took advantage of the opportunity. Thanks Mom and Dad for inviting us! And thanks to my amazing hubby for always being so sweet!! :D 

Busy Bishoffs!

Once again we had a busy yet fun and exciting weekend. I swear, we cannot sit still! It's impossible! So last weekend all of Preston's brothers and their wives were in town so on Friday night we headed up to the mountains for a camp-out. It was our very first experience using our camper!! And guess who didn't bring her camera along to document it.....ME!! I was so sad. But we had so much fun! We made dutch oven potatoes with bacon, peppers and onions in them and roasted hot dogs. So simple yet so delicious! And of course we had smores! MMMM! Love them. Sleeping in the camper was definitely the way to go. It kept us nice and toasty and was such a fun and cozy little place for us to sleep. I can't wait to take it out again! We'll definitely be getting a lot of use out of that little baby!

The next day, we headed back to Provo for the BYU vs. UNLV football game. My parents, little sister Emily and my home ward came up to the game and we were able to go with them. I love going to football games. I don't even necessarily like football but there is just something about going to a sporting event for your school that makes you feel so proud to be a part of such a great university. I love it. I embarrassed Preston by standing up and singing the fight song at every touchdown and yelling "That's another COUGAR, FIRST DOWN" at every first down. haha It was so much fun. And we won which made it even better! Plus, it was 75 degrees outside and we got a bit of a sunburn. It felt like summer for a day in November. It was sooo nice.

After the game we packed our bags and headed down to Moab for my sister Lindsey's baby girl, Claire's blessing. She was blessed on Sunday, 11.7.10, by my Daddy. It was a beautiful blessing. I loved being able to spend time with my family. I love them so much! After church, Lindsey put on an AMAZING luncheon of tacos and all sorts of Mexican food. It was so tasty. And then later in the day we were able to celebrate my niece London's 5th birthday with her. I still have a hard time believing that she is five. They grow up too fast. (I sound like an old woman saying that haha). 

BYU!!

Enjoying the game! 

Dad & Mom :D

Me & Em. She loves throwing a peace sign in every picture. 

Beautiful Maddy. 

Cute Corgan!! 

Cute little cousins! Corgan & Claire are only 4 months apart! Check out the difference in the size of their heads! Too funny! 

Baby Claire on her blessing day! My Mom made her dress. It was gorgeous! 

Mads, Me, & London Loo. I love these girls! 

London taking right after her aunts and loving to dance. She is so proud of her leg lift and is the only one in her class that can do it! Way to go London Loo!

Singing Happy Birthday to London. That is my Grandpa John aka "Papa John" in the right corner. He is so cute!

And Baby Claire showing us how strong she is! She is the cutest little thing! 

All in all, it was a GREAT weekend. This weekend is a little more laid back for us. I am making Christmas cards! I am so excited!!

Kotopoulo kapama

Or for those of us who don't speak Greek (including myself): 

The TASTIEST CHICKEN STEW EVER!

I made this today and I loved it so much I just had to share it! Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures during the process but trust me, it is SO TASTY!

THE INGREDIENTS:

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. dry parsley

1/2 tsp. basil

1/4 tsp. oregano

3 Tbsp. lemon juice

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into small pieces

4 Tbsp. butter

2 Tbsp. olive oil

3 cans (14.5 oz.) chopped tomatoes

1 pound thinly shredded cabbage 

1 small onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

4 cups chicken broth

1 tsp. sugar

2/3 Cup Arborio White Rice (or short grained rice)

2 cups croutons

1 cup shredded Parmesan Cheese

1. In a bowl, combine the salt, pepper, cinnamon and lemon juice. Brush this mixture on all sides of the chicken pieces and let stand for 10 minutes.

2. Pat the pieces dry with paper towels and reserve any excess marinade.

3. Heat the butter and oil in a large stock pot and saute the chicken pieces until nicely browned on all sides.

4. Remove the chicken from the pan and keep warm.

5. Add the tomatoes (if you are using fresh), garlic and onion and saute for 1 minute.

6. Add (tomatoes if you are using canned) any excess marinade, the cabbage, broth, parsley, basil, oregano, and sugar and bring to a boil. Simmer vigorously for 7 minutes.

7. Return the chicken to the pan, reduce the heat, cover and simmer 25 minutes. Add the rice and simmer 20 more minutes, until the rice is tender.

8. Serve with croutons and cheese!

Seriously, don't be afraid to try this. It is THAT good. It's a Greek stew and I was a little apprehensive about it at first because of all of the different flavors and ingredients it uses but I loved it! I hope you do too!!! :D

Happy Halloween!

Halloween may have not been exactly what we hoped it would have been this year, but we still managed to enjoy ourselves. We had BIG plans of dressing up. But in the end, we had no excuse to dress up and we both agreed we would feel pretty lame staying at home wearing our costumes. haha But there is always next year!! :D 

We began our Halloween festivities by carving pumpkins with Preston's brother John and his wife Christine. They had bought those pumpkin carving kits that you can make really complicated designs with. You know what I am talking about? Well I had never used them before so I was super excited about it! 

 I realized that while growing up, I NEVER carved my own pumpkin. I always drew my design on and then my Dad would do it for me. So this year, I had to be a grown up and do it myself. It started out a little rough but ended up pretty successful in the end, if I do say so myself. :D 

I cut my hole a tad bit too small. But don't you fret! It all worked out in the end! 

The super small hole.

Preston refused to use the pumpkin carving kits and did his free-hand. But between you and me, he didn't come up with the design on his own. He'll try and convince you that he did but he copied it out of the book! Little stinker! 

My goofy skeleton pumpking

John being so meticulous with the carving. 

Christine cleaning it out

Christine's pumpkin.

It looked like the abominable snowman from monster's inc to me! 

John's creepy werewolf pumpkin.

Preston's pumpkin looking like it literally was on fire.

And my pumpkin. Turns out mine only had a difficulty level of 1 (being the lowest). Can you tell?? haha 

The day before Halloween, Preston and I headed up Hobble Creek Canyon to this quaint little fishing hole. He had been there the day before and told me about the MONSTER fish that he missed out on catching. He had it all planned out how he was going to catch this guy. To me, it sounded like a sneak attack and I didn't know that you could even do that with fish. But apparently you can! And I saw the big ol' fish in the water myself! He was a big one! But unfortunately, Preston still couldn't hook him. It looks like we'll be headed up there again sometime! He did catch some other guys that seemed to be pretty good size to me. But what do I know? I'm just a girl....that's why I sat on the bank with my nook and indulged in reading the Hunger Games. 

Workin hard to catch a little fishy! 

One of his many catches.
He is wearing fishing waders, by the way. I laughed when I saw him put them on. They looked like Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum pants to me! 

Oops! He got his line stuck in the tree! I may or may not have been entertained watching him trying to get it out! 

Another catch! :D

Absolutely beautiful place!

And here I sat. On a log. Reading the Hunger Games. It was the perfect setting to read that book! And I finished it. It is SOOOO GOOD! So hurry up and go read it yourself! You will get caught up in it I promise! 

On our way back home, we came across this campground that looked like a fun place to take our camper. And all of a sudden this old man starts shooting towards our truck. It startled us and then we realized that he was shooting at a badger! Apparently these little guys are mean and are really harmful to people. Well Preston, being the avid hunter that he is, offers to help the guy kill him. This old man gladly agrees so Preston jumps out of the car, with his beebee gun (the only gun he had with him) in hand and chases this little guy up and over a mountain side. I stayed back in the truck and he was gone for almost an hour! He ended up being victorious and killing him, only with a beebee gun and big rocks. He was so proud of himself and I couldn't help but be either! He is such courageous man! hehe I love you babe! 

Then, after a dinner of Pumpkin Waffles, we made Halloween sugar cookies and watched Hocus Pocus. 

Goodbye Halloween! Maybe we will be more enthusiastic and actually dress up next year!