Merry Christmas!

We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas.

Isaiah 9:6 - For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

"The Santa Visit"

Each year we get all the grandkids together on the Mauss side and visit Santa. Walker did really great last year - but he was only 6 months old - so I was a little bit nervous for this year. We have been talking about Santa and he even says "ho ho ho". Well from the picture below - we didn't do so well. When I set him on Santa's lap he was fine for a second, but once everyone was crying he lost it. But really - it's a classic picture. They will appreciate it when they get older:)

The older kids did great. Poor Luke really wanted off Santa's lap. I think we are going to take Walker and try again....

Family Pictures 2008

Thanks to our great friends Kim and Tim they have taken our family pictures for - what seems like forever! I really think like the last 5 years. They do such a great job!!! I keep telling them they should start a business and do pictures. They always know the perfect time to snap the picture. We went to Draper park and just took some quick pictures. Thanks again Kim and Tim you are the best!! If you need someone who can take great pictures or make cute Christmas cards - let me know and I can get you her email!!

TWILIGHT!!

Oh yeah! Twilight is finally out and I went and saw it Friday morning 12:10 am. I really liked the movie! It definatley lacked on the love story (which is why the book is so good)- but I was happy to see the movie! I wasn't so sure about Robert Pattinson playing the perfect man Edward but now I love him! Thanks to all the gals who came - and who wore the I Heart Edward shirts - keep them for the next one! Can't wait to see "New Moon"

Happy Halloween

Can you believe Halloween is already over?? I was excited this year to dress up Walker, especially now that he can walk! Before he was born I saw this cute chicken costume at Old Navy and I wanted to buy it. But I didn't. Luckily my sister-in-law Jill did! So I borrowed it from her. Walker looked so cute in it. It was so funny to watch him walk - he is still a little wobbley so it added that perfect touch to the costume. We did pictures with the Mauss grandkids at Enghs Gardens. Great place. Halloween day was crazy, but we went to Jake's work, with my older sister to trick-or-treat at Jordan School District (highly recommend- Great candy there), to my parents, to our neighbors for a great soup dinner, then finally out to do some trick-or-treating. Walker only lasted a few houses and he was done wearing his costume (can you blame him?) But it was fun. I love handing out candy and seeing all the creative costumes. Here are a few pictures:

This is the best picture I got of all the kids. How Cute!! Annie was Hannah Montana. I loved the wig. Jackson was the red powerranger, Walker the chicken, Bowen a dog, and Luke a monkey. Cute bunch of kids!

Just chillin in his chicken costume!

Going Domestic!

I had a great opportunity last week to can applesauce. I have never canned anything before so I was really looking forward to it. My cute neighbor, Tricia, has a red delicious apple tree in her front yard. So she provided the apples and jars and I provided the kitchen. We had such a great time. It took us from 9:30 to 4:00. We ended up getting 28 jars done. I really felt like a pioneer - canning my own food for my food storage! Walker loves applesauce so I am excited for him to eat it. It is all natural. She dosen't spray her tree for worms and we didn't add anything to the mixture. Thanks to Denise for coming upstairs and helping us. You saved us so much time!

Here is the process:

Cut up apples - we cut up two tubs of apples. You just cut them into quarters. You can even leave the core it will be discarded later.

Boil the apples - dump the cut up apples into a big pot and put it on the stove. You only want the water about 1/4 the way up the pot you don't want it to cover the apples. Cook the apples until they are soft to the touch - the softer the better.

Smash the apples- Tricia has this really cool masher. You put the apples in the top and shove them down with a mallet while the other person turns the handle. As you turn the handle the machine separates the core from the good stuff. and then you have applesauce!

Can the applesauce - make sure your cans are VERY clean. We even put them in the oven while we made the applesauce so they would stay warm and not collect any bacteria. Fill the jars, put them in the big pot - shut the lid - boil them for 20 minutes so they seal and WA LA - you have applesauce!!

Denise and Tricia cutting the apples. There were a ton of them! The first batch of apples waiting to get soft!

The finished product. Yummy! Can't wait to do it next year!!

What we have been up to...

Well - I finally found my camera cord to upload pictures - so I can finally do a post. We have had a fun couple of days around our house.

#1 - WALKER IS WALKING! finally. The past few days he has been trying so hard to be steady and not fall, but with our hardwood floors it is quite a challenging task. BUT he has finally mastered it. He is "prefering" to walk now. He will fall down and then stand up again and start walking. When he wants to get somewhere fast he crawls, but I am trying to put a stop to that.

I had this shopping cart downstairs that I forgot about - so I opened it and he loves it!

Here he is - such a big boy! #2 - The leaves are falling! That is right - the leaves are falling and we have to rake them up. Thank you Salt Lake County for bringing us bags. Great program they have going - they drop off bags and in a week come and pick them up. Last night we started filling a few bags and Walker was loving it. He wanted to help the entire time. He would take a handful of leaves and put them into the bag. It was really cute. We have also been enjoying the leaves on the ground. Walker loves playing in them and sitting outside watching them fall. Somedays it is like it is raining leaves. I love it!

I have to laugh at this picture - totally his personality.

Here he is helping mom and dad!

#3 - We have been to the see the Witches at Gardner Village! I love that place! What a fun place for the kids:) The first time we went was with Debby and Kim and their kids. It was such a fun day. Although we didn't get a ton of pictures - it was fun to see the kids get so excited about all the pumpkins and witches. p.s they have the BEST pumpkins out there!! Does anyone know if you can buy them?

Then we went again with my mom and sisters. It was a busy day there but we did everything we wanted. Walker rode on a tiny pony, went to the petting zoo, and ate lunch at Archibalds! I am so glad he has cousins around his same age. They play so well together and have so much fun on outings!

Walker and Colter - hanging out by the witches

Riding the pony at Gardner Village. Who knew they had this whole other fun section of animals!

Me, Whitney, Walker, Boston, and Ashton.

Walker LOVED this goat. He wouldn't leave him alone. If you can tell the picture is blurry on his hands because he was smacking the goat. Poor goat - he just sat there. I love the fall time and being outside when it isn't 100+ degrees!

Well we have had a busy few days - but we are so excited for Halloween and the beginning of the Jazz season!!! YAHOO!

St. George Marathon

We headed down to St. George this last weekend for our "annual marathon trip." For however many years someone in Jake's family has run the marathon. Jake, his sister, and brother-in-law didn't get in this year, but his older brother Justin did. We were so excited to see him run:) Saturday came - and it rained all day. Only the 2nd time it has rained on marathon day in 32 years. We headed up to the usual "mile 16" with Jill, Jackson, Bowen, and Jill's sister Alison to cheer on the runners. It was pouring rain - but it was fun. Justin ran with one of his young men from his ward and they looked great at mile 16. We also saw Jake's cousin Zack running and our two neighbors, Brooke and Tiffani. After we saw them we rushed down to the finish line so we wouldn't miss them (of course after I had to direct traffic - it is a one lane road and the workers were sending cars up the road to park - HELLO we need to get down to the finish line. I got out of the car and arms and all directed traffic - quite hilarious!) We made it in time to see everyone finish! I always get emotional at the finish line - it is such a great accomplishment for all of these runners. Months of training and menal toughness - they are amazing. Jake jumped in at mile 22 to run in his brother. He usually does that if he didn't run the race.

Overall, it was rainy, Walker now has a cold, but we enjoyed the weekend. Good Job to everyone who ran the race - you are amazing! Yeah maybe I will run it next year - NOT. Thanks Justy and Jill for sharing a condo with us. Good times had by all! The funniest part - 4 year old Jackson calling me from Jill's cell phone on the way down asking me if I really like the Utes. He still can't get over it. He is the #1 Cougar fan - and is so concerned that people like the Utes. He is the cutest guy around!

Walker and Jake at this really cute farm in St. George. We took the kids here to play. They have slides, animals, train rides, and all sorts of fun stuff. Walker loved it!

Walker at mile 16. I tried so hard to keep him dry - but he was all over the place.

Jill, Bowen, Walker, and I at the finish line.

We had to get a picture of us - we were so wet and cold.

Seriously our strollers were dripping wet!

Bowen and Walker playing in the shower at the condo.

Yeah - Fall is finally here.

Oh yeah! I love FALL! Don't get me wrong I do love the summer time too - but after a few months of scorching hot weather - I really look forward to the Fall weather:) There are many other reasons why I love this time of the year - here is my list - in no particular order:

- Season Premieres on TV. I really try an limit myself to how many shows a week I can DVR. Can't leave out Gossip Girl, 90210, The Hills, Runs House, The Office, and Greys. I do love The Biggest Loser - but I can't record 2 things at once and try to watch something else - so I try to "catch" The Biggest Loser.

- The changing leaves. I love living in Sugarhouse and seeing our street turn from drabby grey cement to colorful orange and yellow leaves everywhere. Although, I do hate bagging them.

- POST SEASON BASEBALL. OOO I really look forward to this. Tomorrow is the big day - Baseball all day!!! First game starts at 1:00 in the afternoon. (I am not accepting any calls after 1:00pm for the next week or so) ha ha. There is only ONE OCTOBER! GO SOX - and DODGERS!!

- JAZZ GAMES! Training camp offically started today. It makes me more excited to watch the sports segment on the late news - they always have interviews from the players. Got the D-Will jersey all washed and ready to wear for the October 29th opener.

- HALLOWEEN. Thanks to my mom - she has made me LOVE this holiday. This is my mom's favorite holiday. She used to draw on parchment paper "Linus in the Pumpkin Patch" (from Peanuts Halloween cartoon) on her front windows - I loved that every year. I am so excited to dress Walker up in his costume - he is going to be a chicken. (pictures to come!) I had to find a costume that didn't require a hat to be worn to know what he was dressing up as. He won't wear a hat.

- Cool nights. I sleep so much better when it is cold.

- Pumpkins. For some wierd reason I seriously LOVE pumpkins. I love to decorate with them, carve them, and buy the funny tiny ones. I think I might try to grow them next year.

- My anniversary. 5 years this year on the 8th:)

- Witches at Gardner Village. Even though they are almost the same every year - I love to go and see them. Anyone want to come. I am sure I will go multiple times:)

-Wearing hoodies. I love a good hooded sweatshirt.

So tomorrow starts off the best time of the year. From the looks of my list - if you need me I will be on the couch! ha ha!

ELLEN

Last week I had the opportunity to go and see the Ellen show at the Warner Brothers studio in Burbank, California! It was SO much fun! My sister Whitney was able to get tickets (after trying forever!) and so I went with her, my mom, and my other sister. It was a short 24 hour trip, we left Wednesday afternoon and flew home Thursday night. Our show taped on Thursday and aired on Friday. The guests were Neil Patrick Harris (aka Dougie Houser MD), Betty White, and this boxer kid who is only 7 years old! It was so much fun! We had to wait in a holding room for about 3 hours until they let us into the actual studio. During that time the employees for her show were walking around talking to everyone asking where they were from and they ended up taking my sister Whitney, along with 6 other people and interviewed them so that one of them could be chosen to play the game on the show that day. Sad to say Whitney didn't get picked, but the girl who did played the "Gold Digger" game and won $750.00!! We were lucky enough though to get FRONT ROW SEATS once we were in the studio! It was so much fun and so fun to see a live taping! They don't let you take your camera in and you phone has to be off - so we didn't get any pictures at the studio. AND there wasn't a giveaway (bummer) but it was still so much fun to be there and have a gals trip with my family. I LOVE ELLEN!!

Here is the only picture we got - eating dinner the night before!

Utah State Fair

Another year at the Utah State Fair. What a great place. Jake and I laugh everytime we are there. We went on Monday for family night with Jake's family. Although it costs about an arm and a leg to do anything, it is still so much fun! Walker LOVED the rides and Jake and I LOVED the funnel cake. Good times had by all! I wanted to try the deep fried PB&J, but the line was so long. Maybe next year - you know we are going back!

Hanging Out With Dad

I took this picture today while Jake was watching the football game. Walker was sitting right by him loving the game too. He is getting so big - I love to watch him grow and learn new things everyday!

Road Trip - Just the Gals

A few weekends ago Muranda and I headed out for a girls weekend. So much fun! We headed down to St. George for a few days to relax. It was great. We got pedicures, shopped, slept in, and ate junk food while we watched the Olympics. One of the nights we stayed at Iggy's all night watching Michael Phelps - he is awesome! We went to Vegas on Saturday to shop and see our friend Brittany and her cute baby. We had not seen her since the baby was born. It was great to finally meet her little gal, Serenity. We headed home Sunday, but it was great to relax and have some gals time! Thanks Mur for a good time! Same time next year??Shopping in Vegas - "that that that that don't kill me can only make me stronger" Hanging out at Iggy's. We ate so much food there! Muranda, Brittany, Serenity, and Me.

New York City

We had the BEST time in New York! I KNEW I would love it there! There is so much to see and so much to do - we could have stayed another week!! It wasn't your typical "relaxing" vacation, but we didn't care - we were so excited to see it all! We stayed at the Franklin Hotel on the upper east side of Manhattan. I loved it - it was recently remodeled and it reminded me of a Restoration Hardware magazine. It was REALLY SMALL - and I mean really small, but so nice and I would recommend it to anyone! It was right by the subway too so it was really convenient! We took a bunch of pictures, but I soon realized that we need to invest in a new camera.:) Sorry for the long post - I LOVED NEW YORK! Here is the rundown:

TUESDAY

We got there early Tuesday morning - tired (dang redeye flight) but excited! We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and headed to do the "touristy" stuff. We were told to take the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. It is free and it dosen't take as long. We loved it! Lady Liberty is beautiful and we enjoyed the nice boat ride:)

Then we went to the World Trade Center site. So emotional. It was so sad to see that there is still a huge hole in the ground. It was hard to believe that two huge towers once stood there and to imagine them crumbling to the ground. There really isn't a place to take pictures because it is surronded by huge chainlink fences and black tarps. There is a temporary museum type place set up right next door to the site so we decided to go in. It was incredible. I recommend it to anyone going to New York. They had artifacts there that were found while sorting through the rubble. There was an airplane window, coins that had been melted together, and a huge piece of the steel that one of the towers was made out of. It was totally burnt. There were free standing colums and on them were buttons you could push and hear the firefighters talking back and forth on their walkie talkies and quotes from people who expierenced it and text messages that were sent to loved ones. It was really hard to read and hear. They also had one wall that was covered with the pictures of the lives taken. That night we headed to the US Open. That was so much fun!! We had reserved seats at Arthur Ashe Stadium. This stadium usually holds the top players matches most of the Open. When you buy the tickets you don't know who you are going to get to see - they do the draw the night before - and lucky us - we got Venus Williams in the first match and Roger Federer in the second!! After his match we went down and got his autograph!! Hey Roger!!

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday was our day off from the sporting events so we decided to head out and test the shopping waters! We went to Canal Street. SO FUN! You know I bought a purse! I loved wheeling and dealing them! We spent a couple hours there and decided to do more "touristy" things. We headed to Magnolia Bakery and enjoyed a famous cupcake. Then went to eat luch at Papaya's - hot dogs only $1.25!

In the afternoon we went to go and do a session at the Temple - and it was closed for cleaning! We were so sad! I had heard so much great stuff about this temple and we were so excited to see it. It is so crazy how it is just on a busy street. Don't mind the picture - I totally cut off Angel Moroni.

Later that night we had dinner at Blue Smoke House - great BBQ place. We then headed to Times Square aka the Vegas Strip. I seriously felt like I was in Vegas. I liked it, but I think I expected more from it. We walked over to Rockafeller Center and checked things out there. It was fun to see all of the ads on the buildings. I even saw a huge Vitamin Water ad with D-Will in it - that was awesome. After a long day and night - we decided we better get some sleep!

THURSDAY

We got up early on Thursday to go to the Today Show. In case you missed it - we were on TV! Too bad Meredith was the only one there, but it was still fun. And I got some free wrist weights from the lady who was doing the ouside segment that day. We also went over to the top of the Rockefeller building. You go up 70 floors and you can see all of New York City. Of course, our camera battery died while we were up there - so no pictures. But it was really cool!

That afternoon we went to the last Red Sox vs Yankees game in Yankee Stadium. THAT WAS GREAT! Even though Giambi won it for the Yanks in the bottom of the 9th - it was still fun to see:) We were sitting in the upper tier on the third base line - they were great seats! The foul pole was right in front of us - we were hoping for a foul ball:) Yankee fans are hilarious - you mix direct heat, lots of beer, and overall Yankee craziness - and it was a fun game! Go Sox! Thanks Daryl for the tickets - you are great!

Thursday night we went to dinner in SoHo - on Daryl. Nice guy. Thanks so much!! We loved our dinner! After another long day - we headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep. We knew we had a big day ahead of us!

FRIDAY

Friday morning we were up and on the subway by 7:00 am - off to another day at the US Open. Only this time we had the grounds passes - which is basically general admission to any of the courts except Arthur Ashe. The gates don't open until 10:00 am, but we happen to know a guy who was going too so we went early with him - good thing we did - we got front row seats!! We watched tennis all day. We didn't leave until 10:30pm. I really liked these tickets. I would recommend getting them for one day. We saw the #5 player - Davadinko, we also say Robby Ginipri (USA guy) and Jo-Wilfred Songa! It is such a different game sitting that close to the court. The tennis balls would hit the board right in front of us - it was so great! 15 hours of tennis- can't complain!!

The last match kept stopping for rain so around 10:30 we decided we should leave to go and get dinner. John and his wife, who were our friends we knew, came to dinner with us. We ate at a sports bar, The Joshua Tree. Great place! Highly recommend it!

SATURDAY

Today was the sad day - we had to leave. Our plane didn't leave until around 5:00 so we met up with my cousin Kellen, who attends NYU, and he and his friend Kristina took us around Centeral Park. I think we were in the park about an hour and a half and we really didn't see that much of it. It is HUGE! But so great!

Here we are at the Castle in the park. Really cool!

We decided to walk down 5th avenue and check out all the "high roller" stores. OOO I loved Harry Winston! We also ate lunch at the famous Serendipity. Of course, we had the frozen hot choclate. Look how big their menus were. Hello?!? Thanks Kellen for showing us around!

Well, it's over - but we came home with so many great memories. There is so much to do there and we could have stayed another week to do it all. Oh well, I guess that means we have to go back! Fine by me! I keep telling Jake that we are going back next year for more US Open action! I really want to see Roddick play!

We really missed Walker but he did really great at Megan's and my moms. Thanks guys - we really appreciate all your help while we were gone:)

Mauss Family Pictures - the grandkids

Every few months or so we try to get all the grandkids together on the Mauss side for a cute photo. What a better time to do it - Josh and Becca were visiting from Michigan! They turned out so cute - even though it is hard to get 7 kids to smile at the same time! Thanks Megan for taking the picts!

Charlie, Walker, Luke, Annie, Bowen, Will, and Jackson

Walker just hanging out!

Megan took a couple of pictures of our little family - who knows what I was looking at - obviously not the camera! Walkers favorite place to hang out - dads shoulders!

We also celebrated mine, Justin's and Ashley's birthdays that same day! It was great! The best part - the cake that my sister-in-law brought! She is so great. She called me and said "I want to bring the cake" and I said to her "I bet it has the Jazz on it" (i was only joking!!) Lo and behold - it really did! After she showed it to me she said "I didn't know what to say when you said 'i bet it has Jazz on it' because I had already ordered the cake." Not only was the cake AWESOME - but it was so tastey too!! She knows me all to well. AND I am the #1 Jazz fan- her husband, Justin, is the #2 Jazz fan - works out perfectly our birthdays around the same time! GO JAZZ!