Happy New Year

Happy 2009 everyone. I hope it turns out to be a great one.
Ray and I spent a quiet New Year's Eve together. We went out for Chinesse. MMM it is our yearly tradition to have Chinesse on New Year's Eve. We came home and watched "The Duchess". I have to get this book and read about her (Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire) What a life! This movie was based on a true story. She certainly had an interesting life.
Today we slept in, then went bowling with some friends. Ray BBQued (yup!, in the cold air)some steaks for dinner. We pretty much just loafed around.
Cynthia

Snow

This is the level of the snow now

This is the level of snow on the 16th of December.

Karen, if you ever wish for snow again, you will have to stick around to shovel it.

Cynthia

Christmas Day

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We did. It snowed most of the day and we stayed nice and cozy in our warm house with both fires going. If you look to the left of this picture you can see where the snow is piling up on the side of the deck. The wind was blowing so hard that the snow wasn't sticking to the deck.

We got a late start, ate some breakfast pizza. Then let Ray hand out all the presents.

Carlie's favortie part of the presents


We were all very happy to be together for the holiday's. Tucked in to our home with all of us together. Taking naps, eating, playing games, watching movies. I loved it.
Cynthia

Christmas Eve Mystery Dinner

This year we thought it would be great to have a mystery dinner for Christmas Eve.

It was so much fun.

I got the plans and downloaded them from here: http://www.mymysteryparty.com/chmumy.html

Every one dressed up. Michael was VIP the elf and won the best costume.

You can't see from this picture, but he is wearing tights.

I was Mrs. Claus, Ray was Santa, Carlie was Dap the Elf, (she is trying on Kendra's antlers in this picture). Kendra was Prisser the reindeer, Allison was Icy the Snowman, Ben was Ebbie Smoodge, Heather was the Gingerbread Man. We will definatly make this a yearly tradition.

Cynthia

Ray's Birthday

Ray turned 53 this year.

We started a new tradition this year for his birthday. He gets his own "birthday tree". One of our friends daughter's birthday is the 23rd and this was a tradition she has for her. I have adopted it. Thanks Lisa for the idea. He was thrilled with his "Harley" tree. We went to Carino's for dinner. I forgot the camera. Dang. Luckily we have pictures but they are on Michael and Kendra's camera. Thanks kids for being on the ball.

Cynthia

Christmas cookies

Heather and I wanted to bake some cookies for Christmas. She loves to make sugar cookies and decorate them for the holiday's. I like to make them, but the problem is I like to "eat" them too. Which is why we usually don't. This year one of our friends was having a bridal shower for her daughter in law to be, so we made all of our goodies then took them to the shower the next day. It worked out so good for us.

I made up a new recipe. I had these great cookies from the temple cafeteria a couple of weeks ago. They are like a little carrot cake cookie. I copied the recipe they had, but there were ingredients that I was unfamilar with. So I bought a box of carrot cake mix and added 1 stick of butter, some pecans and two eggs, dropped them by cookie scoop and baked them at 350degrees for about 10 minutes, let them cool and then frosted them with frosting with orange juice added. MMMM good. These are a new favorite.

Cynthia

So Behind on Posts

Ok, let me say again how bad I am at this blog thing. I really must update. I will find time to post all the terrific pictures I have been taking daily.
Cynthia

Graduation Day

Michael graduated from Utah State College. He earned a degree in Aviation Engineering. We are so proud of him. Karen and Trey drove up from California to help us celebrate.

It was a horrible day to travel. The snow started falling pretty heavily about the time we got to Ogden. The canyon to Logan was horrible and there were lots of slide offs. But, we made it.
I took this picture in Ogden

I kept my head down and looked through the pictures on my camera. I had over 400 images and needed to delete some. It kept me pretty busy while Ray navigated the snowy roads.

Cynthia

Dining room decorations

Here is the pretty dinning room all finished being decked out for the holidays.

Decorating the Tree

Ben, Heather, Carlie, Ray and I spent the evening decorating the tree in the Family room and having cookies and hot chocolate. I love having the tree decorated but, I hate spending all day by myself to do it. It is much more fun with help. This tree is 12 feet tall. I know cool huh!. The room it is in is two stories tall, so it would look really funny to have a 6 foot tree in there. It takes a really tall ladder and daughter to reach all the tall spots.

Ray gets to put the top on the tree, he also gets to bring it up from the basement and fluff it out. He does not do anymore of the decorating then that.

Cynthia

On the 4th day of Christmas

On the 4th day of Christmas my true love gave to me. A new washer and dryer.

The door bell rang at 7:20am, I was sound asleep. It was the only day that I was going to be able to sleep in for weeks. I was a little confused by the RC Wiley delivery man that was standing there telling me that he had come to deliver a washer and dryer. I had no idea they were coming. Ray had arranged a "surprise" for me, they were supposed to deliver these babies at 1pm while I was working at the temple (which was closed, if dh had had the foresight to check with me) I didn't know where to put them so I said, "let's just put them in the basement laundry room". Which seemed the best solution at the time. After the delivery guys left. I called Ray and explained the early delivery, and the fact that we didn't have an external vent for the new dryer that it required. Needless to say we spent the evening, with the help of a younger friend, moving the old set from the upstairs to the basement, and the new set from the basement to the upstairs.

When I saw the condition of the upstairs laundry room, after 14 years of living. I decided not to put the new set in until I painted. First thing the next morning I set out to Lowe's to get some paint to spruce it up with. I spent all day prepping and painting. (this was not included in the holiday planning) . I painted it "sparkling sage" kinda of a blue/green.

It looks wonderful and the new washer and dryer work fantastic.
Thanks Ray
Cynthia

Daily December

Ali Edwards is doing her Daily December album on her blog, here http://http//aliedwards.typepad.com/

I have already created the outline for the album and have begun taking pictures
Here is day 1 and 2 pictures.

Day 2: I am trying to make a cd of my favorite Christmas music to give to my friends and family. I started it last year and am just finishing it this year.

Day 1: getting out the decorations. I am still working on these.

Thanksgiving

TRay playing golf on the wii

All of us watching them playing

Ray slicing the Turkey

The Pies, yummy

Wow, has it been a week

I am no good at this. I can't seem to blog something once a day, or week. I will try to be better.
Last week Heather came to spend the weekend. Ben tore up there bathroom and did a total redo. New tile, vanity, sink top and paint, the works. Michael and Kendra came to visit us on Friday. We went to see the new Bond movie on Saturday. We all enjoyed dinner together on Sunday. I was made a Mia Maid advisor and was released from Cubmaster. I think that about sums up last week. I will have to post some more blessings from last week later.
Cynthia

This week I am grateful for

My creation
Originally uploaded by cynthia brunetti

The tree outside my back patio door, it is losing it's leafs and I will miss it during the winter.
My Street and my town.
My scrapbook room
The Savior
The Temple
My ulcer medicine
Hair Color
Lunch with good friends

I will be posting something I am grateful for, for 25 days of November. I plan on makeing a small mini book of them when I am done.

Hope you have a grateful day.

Cynthia

The street I live on

I took this picture this morning after I returned home from voting. I love the street we live on. It has such a quaint small town feeling to it. The leaves on the trees have begun to fall and winter is beginning to set in.

Joining the blog world

Well I finally did it created a blog that is public. I hope I am up to the challenge that this is going to be for me. Wish me luck!