Christmas 2009

Well Christmas came and went way too fast. I always get a little sad after Christmas. It means we wait for a whole year again before we get to celebrate. Yeah the presents are great, but I love how the famly gets together and we get to play, and there is Christmas music, lots of food and candy, and just the whole Christmas spirit. I know I'll be seeing family throughout the year, but there is just something special about coming together at Christmas. Anyway, I'm not trying to be depressing, I love Christmas time but it's sad that it has to end.

We did have a wonderful Christmas. We spent it with Dave's family this year. I'll start with Christmas Eve. We had a very large and delicious dinner, like Thanksgiving. Then we loaded into the car to look at lights, sing carols, and deliver goodies to friends. When we got back, we all shared a spiritual/inspirational Christmas story. It was great to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas. Then we watched a video called, Joy to the World, which is the nativity story. Then we went to bed.

We woke up at 8:00 and waited at the stairs for the annual picture taking on the balcony. Then we got to come downstairs and look in our stockings. All the presents are passed out and then starting from youngest to oldest we open a present each until they are all opened. Then we ate cinnamon style goodies for breakfast and then we started playing with toys and games. We took it pretty easy all day. I even snuck in a nap. I called and skyped with all my family and then before you knew it it was bedtime again. I sure do love Christmas. Here's what Dave and I got for Christmas: clothes and some jewelry, movies, games, money, a handmixer, reading books, songbooks, a webcam, candy, a Leatherman, decorations, and few other little things. It was a wonderful day and I hope the spirit of Christmas found you this year too! Merry Christmas!

Mom finishing up the chocolate covered candies.

Waiting for storytime.

"Oh Christmas Tree."

This is Dave trying out his new Leatherman.

Playing on the new Wii.

2 YEARS OF BLISS

Today is Dave and I's 2 year anniversary. Dave went to breakfast with his friends. I had to work. Then tonight, we had a party at his parent's house with lots of family and friends to watch the BYU Bowl Game. BYU won! I know what you're thinking. That is the coolest anniversary ever. Right? Well maybe you weren't thinking that. It's not exactly what I had in mind but we are going to celebrate tomorrow when neither one of us has things going on. Celebrating your anniversary is hard when it is in the middle of the week and especially during the holidays. We actually did a little bit of celebrating about a month ago. We went to the zoo. We did it early so that it would be warmer. It was a really nice day and we enjoyed ourselves. Tomorrow we are going out to dinner. It'll be great. So here are some pics of our real day but I'll post more later when we actually celebrate it.

Dave having breakfast with our friends the Smiths and Harrisons. They're not in town very long so I'm glad Dave got to see them while they were around.

We had a full house for the BYU Bowl Game. There were almost 30 people there watching the game, eating, or playing games. It was a really fun night.

I'm so grateful for Dave. I'm glad we get to spend eternity together. He is a wonderful husband and is so good to me. He has such a strong testimony and helps me to be a better person. He is very patient and has a great sense of humor. He makes me so happy. I'm very blessed. I love you Dave and Happy Anniversary!

Photo Shoot

I was getting bored of our pictures and decided Dave and I needed a Christmas picture. The setting is our apartment. Here are a couple we took.

This is one of my favorites. I was getting mad at Dave for not being serious in the picture.

This is us reenacting an engagement picture.

We were testing the camera. I was thinking of using the pillow as a prop, but that has a high dork factor.

Another picture. The end.

Thanksgiving Break

Dave and I went to Utah for Thanksgiving. On our way down to Enoch, we first met up with some of my old roommates. We went to Thanksgiving Point and visited, ate some great ice-cream, and goofed off at the store. It was great to see Alicia and Betsy. I miss those girls and my other old roommates. We sure had a great time when we were living together and so it was really fun to meet up. Here are some pics.

Here we are strategically posing in front of a Christmas tree.

Poor Dave is forced to do whatever we want when us girls get together.

Dave does what we want because we are so hard core. Don't mess.

After we were done goofing off, we drove down to Enoch. Thanksgiving morning was a blast. We had a Turkey bowl with all the cousins. We had been challenged by the Richey clan. Catherine Richey is one of my best friends and it was all her family we played with and against. We didn't divide teams by family, we did it by birthdays, the beginning of the year vs. the end of the year. Luckily this way made it so I wasn't chosen last. It was really fun. As many of you know, I'm not a huge football fan, but playing is different from watching. It was touch football, and then someone had flags and so we changed it up a bit. The game was a tie at the end though some think otherwise, but a tie sounds good to me. It was great. Sadly, I don't have any photos of the glorious game. After working up a sweat, we cleaned up and headed next door to my aunt's house for the magnificent feast. So yummy.

Lots of the family, lining up to get some grub.

Poor boys, don't know how to handle the feast.

The day after Thanksgiving, we have our family Christmas party. We eat pizza, make some kind of craft, dip candies in chocolate, do some service project, and have fun.

Dipping chocolates. Mmm Mmm Good.

Of course the boys were by the TV.

We left Saturday night to head back up north and this is the weather we had for about 30 minutes, but then it cleared up. At least I had some what of a white Christmas before heading back to California.

I Am Thankful For...

These People...

Meet Dave, the love of my life.

These are my parents. They taught me everything I know.

This is my oldest brother and his family.

This is my other brother and his family.

This is my sister and her family.

These are my adorable nieces.

These are my other parents. I'm glad we live close to them.

These boys are my brother-in-laws (and my husband). They're pretty cool and crazy, but I sure do love them.

My family is what I am most thankful for and I'm glad we get to be together for eternity. I'm also grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and Mother and my savior, Jesus Christ. I'm grateful for the gospel, the scriptures, a living prophet, and all those who paved the way so that I can worship freely and enjoy all that I have today. I'm grateful for my friends and all they do for me and the fun we have together. I'm grateful for food. Mmmmm good. I'm grateful for a job, a roof over my head, and transportation. I'm grateful for this wonderful country. I'm thankful for beautiful scenery, colors, music and other sounds. I'm grateful for my body and my health. I have so much to be thankful for and I'm glad we have this time of year to think about and remember all that we have been blessed with. Happy THANKSgiving!

Sacramento Zoo

Dave and I went to the zoo yesterday and it was great. I got so excited once we stepped through the gate. I felt like a kid again. It has been many years since I've been to a zoo. It wasn't huge but it was good enough for me. It only took us a couple of hours to walk through the whole zoo but that was enough time especially since we both got hungry. Here are a couple of pictures of some of our favorite animals.

Flamingos are such unique and pretty birds.

This was some kind of horned-billed bird. He sort of played shy and ran away but then would come back and run back and forth in front of you for awhile.

This little guy is one of my new favorites. The Red Panda. Cool. That's all I have to say.

Dave made the comment, "That's how I used to do my hair." If you can't tell from the picture, the Emu has his hair parted straight down the middle and kind of slicked down. It made me laugh, especially since I've seen pictures of Dave with his hair like that.

It wouldn't be a trip to the zoo without a tiger. Scary.

One of the other cool animals we saw, was the parrot who could talk. Some of his phrases were, "Hello!," "How are you?," "Pretty bird.," and "Was up?" He even mimicked a lady's laugh. I was really impressed. Anyway, we had a great time and I can't wait to go the zoo again!

I (Dave) feel like writing something

Hi everyone. I haven't written for a while, but that's because I've been way too busy lately playing video games and pumping iron. I admit that part of me is embarassed to admit that I still play video games when I'm 26, but why should I be? Why do people always mock video games, but encourage reading Harry Potter and (ugh!) Twilight? Those books are not educational, no matter what my wife says. At least video games increase my hand eye coordination (some games) and make me feel a sense of accomplishment when I save the world from marauding minotaurs or North Koreans. Or both. And most games have a storyline in them that makes it just like a book, except you get to take part in the action instead of simply sidelining it. It's like a "Choose Your Own Adventure." (I loved those, but I kept getting sucked out to outter space and have my head explode or fall into a black hole in my space ship book...) The moral of the story is that Twilight is stupid, and Harry Potter could never take on a North Korean-minotaur hybrid.

In other news, I'm weighing in at about 153 these days. That's legit.

I played tennis today for about 3 hours with my friend Chris Pritchett. It was intense. It would have gone much faster (we only played 3 sets), but we almost always botched our first serve. No, I didn't wear the little tennis skirt. Since you were wondering, yes, I won.

I wish I had something important to write, but Kathryn always covers all of the "practical" stuff, and we don't have any kids to laugh at.

I've been doing a lot of medical interpreting, and I've been talking to a lot of old people about their potty habits. Why do the old men always feel the need to show me the catheter bag with their pee in it? Is that really necessary? (the answer is YES!)

The end. Thank you for your time and patience.