on the 4th date of Christmas

we went to a Christmas party thrown by some of our good friends! (saturday night)

aside from throwing a great party, they also asked everyone to bring a toy for Toy for Tots or clothing for the Salt Lake City Rescue Mission. I thought that was such a great idea to keep the spirit of service in the season. i picked out a cute teddy bear, and when devin saw it, he said "well... I want one!". no. we didn't keep it. even though we wanted to.

the party was awesome. so much good food. seriously. i will never get over the pulled pork sandwiches. or the salami. or the peanut butter ball (yeah. i'll post that recipe soon. already have plans to make it for christmas eve parties!) we left a little early because a) i have NOT been feeling good and b) we forgot to bring white elephant gifts.

the rest of the day, before the party was spent by devin, finishing his project (the project i talked about with all the lumber.) and i did some more christmas shopping (we have 2 more little errands and then we're DONE! hurray!). devin brought home his finished project and we put 2 coats of paint on it right then, and it was done! we had it in it's place before we were out the door. it's amazing. i'll post about it soon.

on the 3rd date of christmas...

we celebrated Kylee's 21st birthday!

i have always tried to make it a point to separate kylee's birthday from christmas. i don't wrap her presents in christmas paper. i don't use christmas decorations. but it still counts as a date of christmas. after all, we ended the night by watching Elf as the crowd filtered out of our home.

we had a pretty big crowd gathered in our little home last night! it was such a great time! lots of good food and good people, and even a funny game! devin and i, kylee, david, tracey, kameron, shelly, kaylee, ryan, valeri, garrison, bailey, kelly and travis all came, and i am so glad that they did! 

this party was the perfect excuse to get together a group of friends that doesn't get together very often! this is the typical crowd for our "girls night"s, but i made it a point to invite the husbands and boyfriends this year. 

the cake i was so stressed out about? turned out great! i didn't decorate it very cute, but it is pretty creative. and this picture of it is all i have to show for the whole party. i was too busy being at the party to think about taking pictures of it, but i had to document the cake! plus also? it tasted good. chocolate cake with raspberry frosting between the layers and chocolate frosting around it. winning (duh).

a tutu and a cowboy hat

if Aria wakes up from her nap and I don't hear her, more often then not, she will dress herself and come downstairs. this is a prime example of these days:

exhibit A: a tutu and a cowboy hat.

she loves calling herself a princess. she will ask me to hold her up so she can see herself in the mirror and she will say "pretty!" and twirl in circles saying "princess" over and over again. she is also the one that wanted some pictures. she knows how cute she is. oh, she cracks me up! (sorry i'm posting so many. believe it not, these aren't all of them! she loves the camera sometimes.)

cleanse

Devin and I decided to take a facebook break until 2012. 

we were talking about it last night. about how you don't realize that you actually are truly ADDICTED to it. we both admit to logging on multiple times a day. and to what? read useless information about people we hardly know? yes. 

it's kind of embarrassing to admit. and even though it's only been like 10 hours, it's already been a challenge. i have 3 hours of down time while the kids nap, and i spend the majority of that time on the computer. to do this for the next 2 weeks and avoid facebook will be a real challenge, as sad as that is!

BUT it will be worth it. between the computer, our phones, and the TV... technology does too good of a job distracting us. especially from each other. i think this facebook cleanse will help us get some more quality time together, and i know it can't hurt!

i'm tired of Facebook being the cause of any drama. i'm tired of it being the source of why i worry about things that have nothing to do with me, or shouldn't matter to me. i'm tired of it making me feel like things should be important to me when they aren't. it's become too much. 

i enjoy the mindless entertainment of facebook. i enjoy how easily it allows me to kill time. but that doesn't go without paying a price. facebook owns us. 

we'll see what kind of changes this makes. even though 2012 is only 2 weeks away, it's going to make a difference. how big of a difference, i don't know. i'm sure i'll blog more often (as if once, sometimes twice a day isn't enough...) to fill up my time, haha. 

i'm glad devin and i are doing it together.


*oooh! i almost forgot. i updated the "The Ashby's" and "Stories" tabs. fyi.

on the 2nd date of Christmas...

we cooked dinner together last night!

(i only took this one picture. the cooking was all too involved. i just took it to prove that it happened, so you just get a photo of the giant mess we made making all this stuff!)

and by "cooked dinner" i mean we:

• bought a rotisserie chicken from target
• devin made biscuits
• i made 4 cakes
• we made a huge batch of homemade salsa

and we ate that chicken off one plate with forks like wild vultures. we didn't even bother carving it, or even splitting it onto our own plates. we have some serious class, people. some serious class. 

devin was craving biscuits, so being the genius he is, he found a recipe online and added his own interpretations and used some weird pancake mix that was in our cupboard and they were delicious! 

the cakes and salsa weren't for dinner, sadly. they're for dinner TONIGHT!

because you know what tonight is? it's the highly anticipated birthday party of Kylee Hillman thrown by yours truly. 

i'm so excited for tonight, mainly because it's been too long since ive seen everyone that's coming, and i've spent the last 2 weeks working out food assignments with my friends, and i can't wait to pig out. oh, and to celebrate how kylee is 21 and all.... that too. haha!

we put ourselves in charge of making the birthday cake, homemade salsa, and of course, devin's guacamole. the birthday cake is stressing me out. the only cake pans i have are ones with scalloped edges, which means they are really adorable, but also, they will be hard to frost around all those little bumps! Devin gave me the great idea to just carve it into a circle, so we'll see what turns out. kylee requested chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, but that's a little too boring for me, so I think i'll add some raspberry frosting between the cake tiers. 

as for the salsa? we've made homemade salsa before, but devin hates tomatoes, so he doesn't always love it. i try to make it as non-watery as possible, and he had an amazing idea to fix it! TOMATO PASTE. Am I the only one that didn't know this secret? it worked like a charm! 

SO... here's an updated homemade/fresh salsa recipe: (can you still count it as "fresh" when you use paste? i don't care. i do!)

3 large tomatoes (i'm talking like... the biggest ones you can find.), cored, diced (remove the seeds if you want. i don't care to. they don't make a difference.)

6 small tomatillos (or 4 large. target didn't have any big ones. they were so tiny!), diced

1 medium white onion, diced

2 small cloves garlic, finely minced

1/4 bunch cilantro, finely chopped

1 small can tomato paste

juice of 2 limes

we cut everything up and gave it a stir and then put it in our little... I don't even know what it is. it's like a food processor I guess? sort of like a blender? It's awesome. It basically puree's the stuff without getting rid of the chunky-ness. the cool thing about salsa though is that you can put whatever you want in it, pretty much. devin wished there was a jalepeno. i forgot a green pepper. it's totally up to your own interpretation. this is just our favorite! 

taste test? pass with flying colors.

let it sit in the fridge over night before serving. YUM! i can't wait to eat it.

devin's guacamole has to wait until right before the party, because avocados brown so easily.

and i will frost the cake when i get home this afternoon. it's going to be a great party! 

on the 1st date of Christmas...

that's right! Devin and I are doing The 12 Dates of Christmas this year!

it all started when I originally planned to do the 12 days of Christmas for Devin, but I quickly realized how unrealistic that was, just with the way our month has been, and found this awesome solution!

These are going to be a GREAT 12 days, and an awesome way to count down to my favorite holiday, if I do say so myself!

on the 1st date of Christmas we went to my younger brother, Kyle's Christmas concert at Mountain View High School!

He is such a stud! He sings in the Men's Choir, and also got to play a "toy soldier" for some other pieces in the other choirs' songs. I loved it! It's weird to see Kyle, the youngest in the family, 6 years younger than me, perform in the same concert I did for 2 years in a row when I was his age! Also? Rosie, the choir teacher, has been there since Kelli (my oldest sister, 3 years older than me) went to MVHS. It's awesome to see all of us taught by the same teachers, even though we are pretty far apart in age.

This was a great way to kick off our dates of Christmas! We didn't stay for the whole concert (thanks to my incredibly short attention span), and just watched his choir sing, but I loved their "Silent Night"! It's awesome to hear that sung by a group of young, teen boys! They sounded great! I also loved that they sang "Rise Up Shepard" - one of my favorite holiday choir pieces!

Kyle is easily the most amazing little brother anyone could ask for, and I'm glad I get him as my own! He takes great care of his 3 older sisters, and we sure love him! Even though he quickly passed us all in height this past year or so!

It seems like now that we've start our dates of Christmas, it's really time for the holiday season. If only it would snow...

things that are brewing

there seems to have been a few trips to the lumber section of both Lowe's and Home Depot this week. Devin and I have both started projects. His is a pretty big deal.

mine, much more simple. And girly. And crafty.

 

but truthfully, I'm more excited for his.

here's the newest haul, along with a very excited Mr.

(i'm pretty sure his brain is going 100mph here, thinking about this project in his head!)