Stories, Songs, and Rhyms of Christmas Time.

We participated in the Gingerbread house display this year. I think I mentioned in an older post I had never made one before, so it was going to be an interesting experience. Well it didn't turn out too bad. We decided to build an ice castle. It had nothing to do with the theme, but there were several that didn't follow either (the theme was stories songs and rhymes of Christmas time in case you didn't catch that).

Here is ours. It's the best picture I have the rest are on the old hard drive


This is part of the Polar Express. As you can see there are houses behind it and three more train cars. It was really really good.

And this one is the entire Little Town of Bethlehem. This lady did tons of people and a whole field of sheep.

Needless to say some people are really good at the whole gingerbread house thing. I was very pleased with ours. So much so that I think I will build one every year. I'm sad that we wont be around to participate in this display next year. But hopefully we'll be able to come back some day and see it again.

Another thing I really liked was that community members came. It was put on by our stake and they had probably 100 houses built. Then they open it up to anyone who wants to come see. Several people mentioned how great of a missionary opportunity it was for them. Very non threatening it's just fun to see.

Anyway I can't wait till next year. I've already been thinking about what I can make!

Let it Snow

Last night it snowed about 3 inches. Add this to wind and church gets canceled. This gives me lots of time to update our blog!

For New Years Lincoln's family came to visit. It was really fun to have them. We toured the Old Dodge house, (General Grenville Dodge, he was big into the railroad) and we went to see the gingerbread house display. More to come on that. It's an Andreasen tradition to have a movie marathon on New Years Eve so we watched 'How to Train your Dragon', 'Penelope', and 'Journey to the Seventh Planet'. We also played lots of games.

I didn't get many photos of their visit, but I did get these of Bryon and Judy playing the Wii






Christmas was lots of fun this year. We celebrated early in Disneyland with my parents, the Larson family, and Aunti Mitsie! We had a blast! Lincoln had never been and says it definitely lives up to all the hype. Here are some pictures. (I would have more but the hard drive died after we loaded them all...these are what people have sent me)








As for Medical School. Lincoln will start in August, so the plan is to move sometime around June/July. The school is in Downers Grove West of Chicago. Here is a link of a map. We're excited to be going. It will be a fun adventure!

Sushi with the Missionaries

We had the missionaries over for dinner last week. Elder Burton had never had sushi, Elder Johnson had a bad experience with wasabi, and Elder Peterson was the only one that was excited about it. We convinced them to try and they were super excited to make it themselves.





This is Elder Peterson rolling his sushi roll.


Elder Burton and Elder Johnson


Elder Peterson again with the finished product.


Elder Burton's sushi roll was very impressive. It's always the goal to get all the insides as centered as possible. Mine never look this good.



Elder Johnson's roll before we cut it.

Both Elder Johnson and and Elder Burton went away loving sushi! The night was a success and so much fun!

Quicky

So this post is going to be quick.

Our hard drive died last week. So haven't been able to post about disneyland, but I will I promise.

Because our hard drive broke we decided to get a new computer (which happens to be what I'm using now). And is also the reason why this is a fast post, Lincoln wants to use "his" new computer. More on this to come

Disneyland was wonderful. However I lost all of the pictures on the last computer, so I'll have my family send me some and then I'll post them.

And last bit of quick info.....Lincoln put a deposit down on med school!!!! Ready to here where we will be moving next July?

Drum roll...............

Chicago!

He will be going to the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine. Woot Woot.

Lots more to come....very impatient husband sorry.

Coming Soon!

DISNEYLAND!!!!

The Greatest Place on Earth

In 5 Days


Oh yeah and we will be in Utah for about 24 hours prior to this. I'm sad to say this is not long enough to see everyone we would like. We miss you all.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

This is one of the card designs that you can get from Shutterfly.

It's that time of year again and so much to do. Last year I tried to get Lincoln to let me send out a Christmas card. He objected. Probably because we weren't even engaged yet. Now that we are married I get to design a card and send one out. I don't have access to a good program like Photoshop, but thanks to Sam I am going to do them through Shutterfly.

I didn't know anything about Shutterfly previously to Sam's blog post. After looking at all there designs I found some that I really like. And they are a lot cuter than what I could design. I love them because you can do a folded card (which is what we will be doing) and write your own personal message or you can just have the basic picture card. Here are links to some different styles.
Chirstmas Cards: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards
Holiday Cards: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards

The folded cards are great because of the personalized message. Lincoln thought it would be lame to just have a picture of us. "People know what we look like," he said. He wants to share what we've been doing in Omaha. I think it's a great idea.

They also do the cutest picture calendars. I know lots of people that have them and this is a great way to do it. Especially if you don't have your 2011 calendar yet. I think we will wait till we have children to do one of our own, but they make great gifts. Check out this link: http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/wall-calendars

Another benefit is that they're cheaper than anyone else that I could find. It's fast and easy. Oh and they have a holiday promotion where you can get 50 free cards. Can't beat that. Time is running out though. Christmas is almost here!

Snow Queen

So I heard about the snow in Utah....No snow here just cold. But that is not what this blog is about. It has been decided. We are going to make the Snow Queen's (from the Nutcracker) Castle for our gingerbread house. I don't know if she had a castle but if she did it would look something like this..



Less purple more blue and of course lots of gingerbread. Our castle will not be as elaborate seeing as I've never made a gingerbread house before. How hard could it be? After all I did make this...



OK, enough of the bragging and in all honesty it's not even close to perfect. If anyone has some good tips on making gingerbread houses I'm all ears. Suggestions welcome!