Christmas 2008

Well I can't believe Christmas has come and gone already! Since we spent Thanksgiving at home with family we decided to have a very laid back Christmas. I worked the night before and Ryan surprised me with Christmas breakfast when I got home. We opened a few gifts then took a much needed nap. Later in the day we made Christmas dinner together and learned the consequence of not giving the turkey enough time to defrost :) This is our first Christmas not spent with our families but thanks to my dad, brother, mother in law, and Ryan we all got our webcams up and working and got to see and talk to them. It was very cool and it felt like we were there with them. I highly recommend it to all you out of staters!

We put up a red themed tree in honor of the Utes and went with the "old traditional" look for our $10 real tree

We realize that we are very blessed and lucky to live the lives that we do. We are sure grateful to have loving families and great friends who think of us and spoil us often. We appreciate all the fun cards and thoughtful gifts we've received . We love you guys! Merry Christmas!

Ode to Eddie

As some of you may have heard, our little dwarf hamster Eddie died on the 13th. We had been married about a year and a half and I was dying for a pet so Eddie became our first "baby." I had just had surgery and for some reason felt inclined to name Eddie after my surgeon (don't ask me why, it's a cute name). I remember picking him out and spoiling him with a fun cage and toys. It made me smile everytime he would run up to the cage door to take a peanut from us. We sure love him and although he was with us for a brief time (average hamster life) we enjoyed him and will miss him very much!Sorry for the blurry awful close-up picture but I couldn't resist

Our first family picture

Norris always kept a good eye on his brother


On a brighter note, we had some friends over tonight for a Christmas party. Most everyone in the ward is staying home for the holiday so it's nice to have each other to celebrate with. I'm sure grateful for such awesome friends!

Oh and one more thing. We had a crazy storm yesterday and as you can see from the picture, it dropped more than 6 inches in less than 8 hours! I get really anxious driving in the snow but we had to finish our shopping but good old Elias kept us safe. Poor Ryan though, he ended up digging an old crazy guy's car out on the freeway, helped our neighbor get a new battery, dug out our neighbor's neighbor, and dug my car out of our driveway twice! Love ya hun :)

All I want for Christmas is...

this little goat...


that will live on this little farm with us in Virginia!


Don't worry, we're not moving...yet anyway. I just like to dream. Isn't that goat cute?! Her name is Grace. Oh and the farm, I love it! 6 acres in Virginia with a guest cottage and garage with studio, what more could a girl ask for :) Even Ryan likes it. I've always loved animals and am lucky that I had cool parents who got us the coolest pets and taught us to take care of them. Since we've been in Michigan and "real life" will start soon, I've decided that I want a zoo. Not a farm because I don't want to grow crops, I just want the space to have all my animals. And since we returned from our road trip to Virginia I can't stop thinking about the possibilites. But who knows, we could end up smack dab in the middle of Boston or LA with my luck. Guess we'll just have to wait and see...

I'm Baaack...

finally! I can't believe we've been home for a week and I still haven't posted but we've been busy catching up to real life. We went back to Utah for a nice long Thanksgiving break and had a great time! Both of our families are there, about 30 minutes apart and we were able to spend a lot of great time with both of them. A few highlights were...

*Seeing Twilight opening night
*Enjoying the play at West Jordan High that my brother built the set for
*"bUTEifying Ryan's parents house for the big game...go Utes!!
*Meeting up with friends for lunch
*Getting a workout at my sister's water aerobics class
*Enjoying a photo shoot and the wonders of photoshop with Kelli (I'll post pics soon)
*Of course enjoying 2 Thanksgivings
*Ryan survived Black Friday shopping at Walmart of all places (minus a small battle scar on his nose from fighting for a toy)
*Celebrating my 25th birthday
*Enjoying the lights on temple square and the Sunday broadcast in the Tabernacle
*In honor of my Grandma Ann who always decorated her Christmas tree with red glass ornaments, Ryan helped me decorate the tree above her at the cemetery. I love seeing the sun shine on the red ball, I think it's her smiling. Love you grandma!
*but mostly just lots of great time catching up with our families. We love you guys!