The Meandering Thoughts of Jan

Dec. 2nd -  A really cool family from our past ward left these cute snowmen cookies on our porch.  I consider this continual blessings of being a primary teacher, since we taught two of their sons. Dec. 5th - I went to an ornament trading Christmas party that my friend Lauren was putting on.  This is how the ornaments I made turned out. Dec. 9th - Danny and I went to the Utah Chamber Artists Christmas Concert. It was quite lovely. Dec. 13th - Danny and Me at the Conference Center in SLC. Dec. 13th - My cute parents.  We went to the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Concert with them and had a blast. Dec. 21st - We celebrated Noelle's birthday (a day early). Dec. 21st - Baby C and Me.  We got to babysit this cute boy while his parents went out to a movie. Dec. 28th - Because I have the prettiest, funniest, most clever best friends ever.  Melina, Talena and myself on the evening of our annual award exchange. That's right, not...

Boy, oh boy has Christmastime taken our lives by storm.  It has been one busy, joyful month so far.  So much so, that I'm just going to throw a tinsel and cup of Christmas cheer bomb of a post at you, jammed pack with everything Christmas that has occurred over the past couple weeks. Christmas Advent Calendar My sister Michele and I made these Christmas advent calendars while I was at her house for Thanksgiving. She found the idea on pinterest (of course) . This is probably one of the more time consuming crafts we have taken on, but I was pleased with how it turned out.  For each day of December there is a Christmas related picture to put up and a scripture or quote pertaining to Christ's life to read on the back. Christmas Ornament Trading Party My friend Lauren put on a fun little party, where a group of us came together with a batch of homemade Christmas ornaments and then we all traded.  It was so cool to see how creative everyone was!  The...

Christmas is all around us and I still haven't posted my November Instagrams.  November was a calmer month, which was good, since December has been busy, busy, busy!  I don't think we've had a free evening yet!  Christmas cheer post soon to come. Nov. 2nd - I mentioned this on the blog already, but Danny wrote the score for The New World Shakespeare Company's production of Macbeth.  I was quite proud of him for this accomplishment. Nov. 4 - I was sick on this day and Talena, being the wonderful friend that she is, brought me some homemade bread.  It was the only thing I ate all day.  I was most grateful. Nov. 6th - Here is my Thanksgiving crafting for the month. I thought it turned out cute. Nov. 14th - This Armadillo was sitting behind my head during our dinner at Texas Roadhouse.  I found it terrifying, so I decided to share the terror. I'm still cringing while typing this. Nov. 21 - We had a fun night of babysitting nephews. ...

Last week, we had a mini mission reunion. Ultra mini since it was just me, Jason and Jun, who is back in the US, plus spouses and kids, well one kid.  We went to Hires, such an eatery staple for us.  It was fun to see old friends and catch up. Jason, Me, Danny, Jun, Katie and Liza. The day before Halloween we had our neighborhood trunk-or-treat at the church parking lot.  I was asked to help out with the photo booth, since my job is helping set up photo shoots.  I'm not sure how great of an idea that was, because then I turned into work Jannifer who can be bossy Jannifer.  I had to walk away a few times so the young women who were helping out wouldn't hate me.  Ironically, I didn't get any pictures of this event. For Halloween night, we hung out with Noelle, Jared and Baby C.  We made Halloween pizzas, ate a little too much candy and watched "Edward Scissorhands", such a classic. Here's my jack-o-lantern pizza. Noelle's spiderweb pizz...

As I mentioned in my blog post below, my sister Noelle and I had a craft night together, which got us through the BYU/U of U game.  We made two different crafts which I promised to unveil once they were complete. First, a picture of the supplies Noelle and I in craft heaven. The final products! Now a how to: First, the wooden "Boo".  Noelle and I got this idea from our sister Michele's craft blog !  Even though Michele lives a few hours away from us, it was our way of still having a sister craft night together.  (Michele we missed you!)  For the "Boo", we used wooden cut outs from the craft store.  We traced the letters onto different fun patterned paper and used mod podge to glue the paper on.  We used ribbon, stickers and paper to add the little embellishments. For the second craft, Noelle found these paper pumpkins on pinterest. This blog is where we got the instructions. I would recommend using stiffer paper and paper wi...

This weekend was a whirlwind experience.  I realize I could split this up into like 4 or 5 different posts, but I'm just going to do one big, long post.  So get a snack, get comfortable and prepare yourselves. Friday Night:  Danny's Concert with his friends, The Atomic Thunderlips Danny performed up at the Layton amphitheater and rocked the house!  I really mean that, he did such  a fantastic job.  He opened for his friends, The Atomic Thunderlips, who also put on an awesome show. I had great fun clapping along to the music with my nephews who came and being a bit of a proud wife in the audience.  We all went out for a late night dinner at Iggy's afterwards, which showed me that I'm not in college anymore, because I got heartburn afterwards.   (Growing old, sigh.) Members of the family that came to support! Me and my nephew Dr. C before the concert. The boys clapping along. He can play with his eyes closed, he's that good. D...