Christmas!!! And birthday...

My birthday was awesome! It was the first birthday i had with my friends in years. Usually everyone is home for Christmas and so am i so i don't get to have a party or anything. It's normal so it's not really a big let down but this year was extra great because i did a lot with friends! We went out to dinner at Tucanos downtown then went back to our house to have cheesecake and play games. It was super fun! Awesome birthday! The flowers above are a birthday/Christmas mix. David got me flowers a couple days before my birthday and then still wanted to get me flowers on my birthday, and my Aunt sent us an arrangement for Christmas! Aren't the flowers beautiful?! I love flowers.

Christmas morning our stockings were waiting for us. It was kind of weird to just do each other's stockings this year. There weren't too many surprises but it was fun.

Meet Ray Ray. He is our dog. We got him the day before my birthday and he is so cute and so sweet. He is a Maltese and Yorkie mix. He's tiny and full of energy. He's 7 months old and loves to play. He has been an outdoor dog so we've been working on house training him and he has done really well. He has some anxieties leftover from his last owners but he's getting over them and he's a good dog. He's in desperate need of a haircut and he's going to the groomer tomorrow to get all spiffed up. We love Ray Ray.


David's stocking stuff.

Me and Ray Ray. That toy is Ray Ray's Christmas present.

He loves to play with it and mostly tear all the stuffing out of it.

For Christmas dinner we had all of our friends over. We had a gift exchange and everyone had decided to get Sam drinks in addition to his gift. He's always our drink guy so we thought it would be a good joke. It was.

We had Roclette for dinner. Roclette is really cool. It's a griddle and it has trays for you to melt cheese in under the griddle. So you grill meats and veggies on the griddle and melt your cheese under the griddle. Then you pile it all on top of a potato and enjoy. It's wonderful. We've decided that it will be our traditional Christmas dinner.

Just hanging out.

And what is a post without a picture of cute baby Alice. She's still adorable.

Hope you all had a merry Christmas! We sure did!

Just putting some thoughts down...

David and I teach Sunday school for the 16-18 year olds at church. We've been doing that for the past month since we moved up to Salt Lake. It's a challenge. Some days are great (last week was fabulous) and some days are frustrating (teenagers can be really chatty and not contribute anything at the same time). We've learned that there is nothing wrong with coaxing comments with lifesavers, the kids we teach are really good kids, and teaching is really really difficult sometimes.

Today was one of those difficult days for me. The lesson was on being good citizens. I knew that talking about being involved would lead to politics and that would lead to me getting frustrated because I'm more liberal than the average Mormon. So the kids were pretty chatty which was frustrating but not the worst thing. We got into the lesson and sure enough when i asked "How can we contribute to society by upholding the government?" i got the response, "Vote republican." Oh my. From there it just kind of got worse with the 16 year olds talking about how the country is going to socialism, and how Obama is just like Hitler. We ignored those comments, made it clear that the church does not endorse any political party, and tried to move on with the lesson.

We got through the politics part and moved on to the community service part. I thought it would be a much more neutral part of the lesson and that they would have more to contribute and that we could end on a high note. I was disappointed. I asked what they can do to improve their community and I got nothing. They didn't really bring up any service small or big and the only thing they brought up was that they could improve their school community by getting rid of the gay club. I wanted to cry. Intolerance and hate hurts my soul. David finished his part and it was my turn to leave the last thought and close. All i could say is that the Savior loved everyone regardless of what they did. Everyone, no matter who they are or what they do, are children of god and they deserve respect and love. It is our responsibility to respect others regardless of whether we agree with what they do or not, look for the good that they have to contribute to the world, because they contribute something good to the world, and we should try to make the world a little better. Then we had a prayer and ended.

We had finished a little early so David and i took a couple things out to the car and talked about how the lesson went. We both agreed that it was a tough one and that it highlighted many of the reasons that we never wanted to stay in Utah. Those type of beliefs are so prevalent here.

The whole experience today got me thinking. thinking about who the Savior really is and what he really thinks of us. I do believe that he loves everyone regardless of their choices. I don't believe that he excuses sin (i won't even start to go into what is and isn't sin and what we should and should not do to prevent/punish sin, that's not my place to judge) but i do believe that he loves us in spite of our sins and weaknesses and he wants us to become better and is willing to help us do so.

How dismal the world looks when we look at every one's faults and mistakes! How much better it is when we look at what every person contributes to the world! How much brighter the future seems! How much more love there is! How much more peace! How much more genuinely Christlike the world is!

I admit I'm not the best at finding the high points in life or the best traits in people. But I'm trying to be better. I hope I'm getting a little better everyday and i hope that people forgive me when I'm not super positive about life or people. It's a weakness of mine that i am trying to improve. The experience today helped me to refocus on my goal of becoming a truly tolerant and loving person. And my Christmas wish for the world is that everyone would be a little more tolerant and look a little deeper for the good in others.

That wish goes along with my favorite Christmas song, "I heard the bells on Christmas day":

I heard the bells on Christmas day

their old familiar carols play,

and wild and sweet the words repeat

of peace on earth, good will to men.

I though how, as the day had come,

the belfries of all Christendom

had rolled along th'unbroken song

of peace on earth, good will to men.

and in despair i bowed my head:

"there is no peace on earth," i said,

"for hate is strong and mocks the song

of peace on earth, good will to men."

then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

"god is not dead, nor doth he sleep;

the wrong shall fail, the right prevail,

with peace on earth, good will to men.

till, ringing, singing, on its way,

the world revolved from night to day,

a voice, a chime, a chant sublime,

of peace on earth, good will to men!

Merry Christmas! I hope you all have a peaceful holiday.

PS. thanks mom. I realized that i get my hate of intolerance (kind of seems like an oxymoron) from you. You are probably one of the most tolerant people i know! I love you!

Christmas Baking

It all started with fruitcake, Duke loves fruitcake, surprisingly. My grandma has a fruitcake recipe that everyone that i know loves. I can't remember trying it but my mom and dad and aunt and anyone else who has tried it likes it. But man that stuff is a pain to make. the recipe she had make 4 loaves of it. we had to split it into two large bowls to mix it. It managed to conquer the hand mixer that David used to mix his bowl. RIP mixer. so the baking started out with some frustration but after we got the fruitcake out of the way it was all better.

Ever since i have lived in Utah i have done Christmas baking with my grandma. So after church yesterday we drove down to Provo, picked her up and headed to Carolyn's for Christmas baking. It was pretty fun. I felt like i bored my grandma to death because i was just cooking the whole time but she enjoyed playing with Alice and just watching us. We made three different kinds of cookies. Sugar, Gingersnaps, and Pecan Sandies. There were a lot of cookies. it's a good thing there were three of us to split them up between.

Carolyn and i and all the cookies.



Me, Carolyn and Alice. Oh that adorable dress Alice is wearing is the one i got her for her Christmas dress this year. It has a cute little jacket that goes over it too. I have gotten her one every year (which doesn't seem like a lot when she's just almost 2) and i plan on getting her a cute Christmas dress until she thinks my taste in clothing is lame. LOL.

Naughty or Nice?

Yesterday i was driving to get my H1N1 vaccine and i passed a car wash with a little statement on their sign that stated.

"Satan's coming to town, don't forget to get your car washed."

It cracked me up. I'm sure they meant Santa but that was just a classic one. Wanted to share.

Festive Weekend

Friday came this week and i decided that i needed a festive weekend. I haven't been enjoying my job much so i needed something to brighten life. So we decided to go see the lights at temple square for our date night. We drove to salt lake and parked a few blocks from the temple. We stopped to get hot chocolate on the way there. Then we enjoyed the lights. It's so great that the church decorates every year. It's fun to go see the lights and reflect on the season. We had a wonderful time taking in the views and talking and holding hands and just unwinding from the week. It was a great date! Enjoy some of the picures i took...

Then saturday we continued the festivities. We went to the festival of trees with sukie and wudan. I guess they do this every year. People decorate and donate trees and then they auction them off and the proceeds go to the primary children's hospital. They also keep the trees up for a week and the public can go enjoy them. In addition to the trees they had wreaths, quilts and ginger bread houses. It was super fun to go look at all the trees and talk about creative ideas of our own. I look forward to going to the festival of trees every year. It was fun. Here are some of our favorite trees.

This one is for you Susie :)

Star Wars

Ginger bread "UP" house. We watched that movie for the first time last weekend and it is one of the cutest movies i've seen. I love that movie.

Castle gingerbread house.

We also decorated our house yesterday. We bought a real christmas tree for this year. David made that wreath with the branches we had to trim off of it. We are both so excited about the wreath. I think it's something we'll try to do every year even if it's an artificial one. Isn't my husband crafty? :)

Our christmas tree. It's very simple and we love it. I love christmas and i was so excited to get a real tree this year and decorate it and enjoy it. Yay for christmas!

On a side note this morning our toilet was leaking a little and of course we noticed it right as we were about to walk out the door for church. so we turned off the water to the house during church and left. When we got home it was fine and it seems like maybe it was just sweating from the steam of our showers so that's good. The funniest thing about this though was after church David told me that he wore his older suit just in case the toilet exploded or something and he didn't have time to change it before he rushed in to the bathroom. Cracked me up! He is so cute.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. I hope they are treating you all as well as they are treating us!

The house...TA DA

My favorite room of the house. Our family room. This is where we spend most of our time. It's very cozy and fun. Our new TV fits in nicely. Oh and we do have a fireplace, it's behind the TV box. And that's David and his sister Bridget. His family came out here for thanksgiving and we hosted it. Despite my minor stressing things turned out very nice. The turkey cooked all the way but not too much. We had lots of friends and family including, old roommates, parents, grandparents, siblings, and friends. It was a great feast with great food provided by all. Thanks for a great thanksgiving to all our wonderful family and friends.

Old TV. New TV.

We did our black Friday deal shopping on thanksgiving. David's dad got a paper and read all the deals to us. We (mostly David) have been shopping around a little for a fancy TV. There were great deals yesterday so David stopped at the store on the way down to Provo to get my grandma. He got his baby. LOL. It is very pretty and the picture quality is nice.

We had a house warming party on Halloween. This is the only picture i have of it. Cute baby Alice the cowgirl. She's a doll. Oh we were crazy to host a party a week after we moved in. I was stressed to the max trying to get everything ready. Boxes unpacked, rooms put together. It was horrible. But at least it got us to get the house put together quickly. Man was i tired after that day was over though.

Living room.

Finished product. It's kind of shadowed here but the walls are beige and the bay window is a mossy green (same as the next picture). I love color and we opted for several accent walls instead of lots of color through the whole house. I think it turned out great :)



Dining area.



Our bedroom.

Kitchen. I really like the kitchen. It's a great size and very functional. I eventually want to put up a nice tile back splash. That should give the kitchen a little more character.

Our backyard. It's very nice and big. We love all of the trees we have. We have 5 total. It made for a lot of leaves (30 bags front and back) but I'm sure it will be so nice to have the shade in the summer. We love our house.

We have a couple extra bedrooms too and a half basement that is unfinished. But those are boring for now. We'll liven those up when we have kids in a while. Finishing the basement will start next summer. I also want to put hardwood down on the main level and tile in the entryway, kitchen and bathrooms. We're working at it slowly.

Welcome to our home.

Easing my way back into this...

I have tons of pictures of the new house to post. Lots to say about the move and the transition to being homeowners. Lots to tell about our new jobs. But my camera batteries are dead and i need them to be charged, also i can't find the cord to upload photos. so that will have to wait.

Just wanted to share this funny little tidbit. We have had leftover candy from Halloween because we didn't have many trick or treators because Church trunk or treats have killed real Halloween. but so we've been bringing candy to work for dessert with our lunches.

today after work David said to me, "I've been waiting to ask you this all day. I ate nerds today. Does that mean I'm a cannibal?" Lol so funny. he's such a dork. I love him.

That's all for now.