Christmas 2010

We had a wonderful Christmas this year! We both had Christmas Eve Day off, so we ended up spending the day with my parents! We had lunch at Beehive Grill, went to "Tangled" (which was ADORABLE), and then headed out to their house to celebrate Christmas a day early!


*** If you know anything about my family, you'll know that any time we get together, a card game or two will be played! My sister in PA found these awesome huge cards & sent some to my parents & to Nate and I for Christmas!

We had a very relaxing Christmas morning at home! We slept in, opened gifts & relaxed for a bit before heading out to see family!


*** Silly socking stuffers are a tradition at our house! This year, our nephews helped us pick them out!

Nate's parents came home from New York to spend Christmas with the family, so we spent the rest of the day over at Joe & Ollie's! We had a great time catching up and watching the kiddos get so excited!!


We are so blessed to live near family and to be able to celebrate the holidays with them!

Christmas Card Photo Shoot

A few weeks back, these two adorable ladies agreed to get a few photos of Nate & I for our Christmas Cards!


Toni & Britney are Nate's awesome cousins and we LOVE that they live in Logan!! I've been waiting for them to tell me their "artist name", but I've yet to get one, so just know that the shooting credit for these go to Toni & Britney! I edited these ones, but I'm looking forward to the photos that they've edited and I'll be sure to post them when I get them!









While we were out, I was able to grab the camera and get a few shots in as well:





We had a fun stop at First Dam where Britney braved the geese and a cute little couple offered to get a photo of all of us in exchange for some photos of them feeding the geese!



We had such a great time and are so happy with the photos that they got! We laughed A LOT during the shoot and had a great time with Toni & Britney!


(www.shutterfly.com)

2010 "Blizzard"

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, the city hunkered down in preparation for the blizzard that was headed our way! The schools closed down for the afternoon, businesses closed and the grocery stores were full of people stocking up on their emergency supplies! The storm blew in quickly and I happened to be out in it, picking Nate up from work! We snapped these pictures on the drive home with my cell phone.






The end result of the "blizzard" was kind of a let down, but it was nice to have a cozy night in while the snow fell and the wind blew!!

Merrill Cazier Library

I spent a lot of time at the library this Semester and throughout my hours of studying, broke out my phone and snapped a few pictures to break up the monotony of studying and lesson plan writing!

This first picture was taken at 7:00 (literally) in the morning! I was the first student let into the library (I was there before the doors were unlocked)! The library & I got to be pretty good friends this Semester!






Anyway, there ya go!!

... we are grateful for ...

November 1st: Caffeine ... (it has been a really long day)
November 2nd: Quick & easy dinners
November 3rd - November 13th: We are grateful to have survived the last ten days of seriously stressful schedules and hope to make it through the next ten. We are also grateful for take-out, Zicam, Advil and our Chiropractor.
November 14th - November 20th: We are grateful that we survived my head teaching week! 40+ hours at the Child Development Lab, plus work and homework made for a very busy 6 days, but we survived, and we are extremely grateful for that!
November 21st - November 25th: Is it cheating that I'm combining all of our days together? Too bad if it is, because that has been our life lately! We are grateful that we have been able to re-coup and to spend some time together!
November 26th to the end of November: We are grateful that we survived November! We had a fabulous Thanksgiving and have much to be grateful for!

Our Happy Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year we headed out to my parents house!

We spent the afternoon eating a yummy Thanksgiving Dinner:


We skyped with my sisters and their kiddos,

And we played a very humbling game of Hand & Foot (my mom & I got schooled)!


We witnessed a truly spectacular Thanksgiving Sunset:


We went to my aunt's house for a few minutes to visit with family from Idaho,

And we spent the evening at Nate's brothers house with his family who was in town! We were able to skype with his parents & brother as well, making our day complete!

We had a fabulous day with our families and are so grateful for them and the blessing that they are in our lives!

... grateful ...

I have a long list of things that I am grateful for this year! Included in that list is my wonderful husband - the love of my life, our Rascal, our families and our wonderful friends! The saying that "I am a part of all that I have met" keeps popping into my mind as I think about my loved ones and those that have influenced me and the person that I have become!!

I hope that all have a wonderful Thanksgiving day and that you will be surrounded by those that you love and those that love you!

Sisters Weekend Vegas Style - 2003

Yup! You guessed it! I'm gunna reminisce again! I've been missing my sisters a lot lately and when I found these pictures as I was browsing through my computer last night (because now I have time to do things like that), I couldn't resist a post!!


In May of 2003 we all met up in Vegas for our Sisters Weekend!! It seems like it was such a long time ago, in fact, if you look closely, you can see that Jess & Amanda were pregnant with Hallie & Indy - and it's really hard for me to imagine a world with Hallie & Indy, so yes, this was forever ago!!

We booked a room at The Excalibur and spent a wonderful long weekend shopping, lounging by the pool, and seeing the sights that Vegas had to offer!


Ha Ha. I remember Jenny and Amanda saying that they wanted to get a picture with some "Roman Guards" - they got the "ok" from the guys and then pushed me into the picture. I was slightly mortified! Aren't sisters the greatest?


I don't know whose idea it was to kiss the bear. Really, this is quite a silly picture.


I promise there was no drinking at our sister's weekend. The flash in this picture obviously caught me off guard... but look at the Eiffel Tower behind me!!


Amanda & Jen Fen!


Takin' a tour of the M&M Factory - because you can't go to Vegas and not see the M&M Factory!


Stopping for a sugar rush on our shopping day!! This picture doesn't show the many bags that were sitting at our feet! Hooray for outlet malls!!


There goes that flash again...


Sassy ladies @ the Mirage!


Lord of the Dance = Amazing! To quote Chandler Bing, "their legs flail about as if independent from their body!"

We had such a great time on our trip! I am blessed to have such wonderful sisters and to know that despite the miles that are between us, we still love one another and there isn't anything we wouldn't do for each other!

That being said, I suppose I ought to give my little bro a shout out too! Love ya Blake - but until you find a wife, no one from your house will be invited to our sisters weekends ;)

... We Made It ...

My Head Teaching Week is over!!! We made it! This week included a lot of advil, vitamin C, Theraflu, fast food restaurants and 9:30 bedtimes, but we made it! Overall it went pretty well and I am so grateful for Nate and for ALL of his help! I literally could not have done it without him!

... my new home ...

technically, i don't sleep here, but over the last several weeks, i seem to spend all of my time here.

what kinds of things do i do here? i play tag, i dig for buried treasure, i explore the jungle, i create art, i watch, i listen, i work hard and i laugh.

today (a saturday) i spent six hours here. i spent a little time with this guy:


(he is a madagascar hissing cockroach - and yes, he really does hiss)


and i made sure these two were fed:


(mr. furret. yes, that is his real name)


(licorice)

this is the child development lab. this week, i will be the head teacher. scary? not so much. hard? not so much. time consuming? extremely. exhausting? completely.

today was the first of my prep days. nate built an awesome igloo (i'll post a picture once it is complete) and i gathered and sorted and prepared.



it may not look like much now, but add tables full of open ended activities and 20 spirited 4 and 5 year olds, and the place gets pretty wild!

it has been a very stressful semester. my schedule has been crazy and nate has been working like a dog to pick up my slack around the house (for which i am extremely grateful). although it has been crazy, i really do enjoy my time in the lab! the children are adorable and it is fun to be able to interact with them on a daily basis!

so, if you're wondering where i've been or how come i never seem to be around, it is because i've taken up a new semi-permanent residence. if you'd check in on my husband for me from time to time, i'd be grateful ;)