Flannel... Finally

(Paul sporting his flannel/teaching "Singing in the Rain" to Mongolians)

A few months ago, Paul and I were on a very rare shopping outing.

We stopped by Abercrombie and Fitch where I tried on a flannel shirt and fell in love with it.

Paul had just bought a flannel for Mongolia which I stole on occassion (photo evidence below) and decided I needed one of my own.

The problem?

The pricetag.

$80 bucks for a shirt?

College student budgets just can't handle that.

But for the past four months Paul and I have both been looking everywhere for a flannel to match this one's awesomeness. No success.

We've both been checking on abercrombie's Website for it to go on clearance. No success.

...Until this morning...

After waking up from my strange Lake Powell/Harry Potter dream (yes, I dream about Lake Powell about 3 times a week), I got up to see if Susan was on TV for her big Thanksgiving Event (I didn't see you Susan, but the event looks awesome.) I was browsing the internet (for a new skirt, actually) when I decided to check if that flannel was on sale.

Yep. It was. I bought it immediately.

:)

Paul's flannel (which I am sporting on our trip to Midway)My long awaited flannel....

Merry Christmas to me :)

Leaf Day

Sunday was Leaf Day.

What is Leaf Day you ask?

Every year this tree in our backyard dumps the majority of its leaves all in one day.

Our family celebrates it.

This tree was a good friend growing up. There is an easy-to-climb up spot with perfect hand and footholes. Easiest with bare feet, though you have to bear the ache of sharp bark if you choose that route.

There are lots of big branches for a few friends or siblings to sit on and play on.

There are tall branches if you are feeling brave.

Best of all, there is a huge swing... a little off-balance... but really fun. Especially when my dad would give me an underdog and I thought I was going to touch the electric wires.

And every year, it takes the stage by dumping and dumping those leaves.

So we celebrate it.

We're going to miss Utah I think.

Aunt Stine

I love being an aunt.

This is a pretty new thing for me, but when I married Paul I inherited ten nieces and nephews. In the past 16 months... 4 more. So awesome.

I got to watch Mykita yesterday. Nothing like having a little baby snuggle up and fall asleep in your arms.

Last weekend we went trick-or-treating with the twins, Ian and Isaac and their little brother Luke. It made me feel pretty cool when they wanted to hold my hands the whole time.

(Paul was a Mongolian, I was a pig- but wish I would've been the Swine Flu. Meghan was a witch and Justin a cowboy.)

This week I will get to see nine of them when we see our newest niece, Jovi, be blessed.

This handsome nephew, Reuben, just turned ONE. He's been battling cancer and is a trooper. The happiest baby, really. We wish we could fly out to Pennsylvania all the time to see him and his family- but at least we did get to go once this past summer.

So thanks Paul's siblings for having kids that we love a lot.

I love being "Aunt Stine" :)

(Ellee couldn't say Christine, so she just took the last half of my name.. and sometimes called me Paul-stine.) It's pretty much caught on with the rest of the family too.