Simply having a wonderful Christmastime...

On Saturday, it was a gorgeous day, so even though it was Halloween.....we put up our Christmas Lights!!!! Don't worry, I promised David I would wait until after Halloween to turn them on, but the fact of the matter is...they're up! I'd still like to add a few more things like lights in the bushes and stuff, but that can wait. Next step...Christmas tree! Thanks for being such a trooper David! I'm sure I drive you crazy making you climb on the roof two months before Christmas to put our lights up, but you didn't complain and did such a great job.

And this is what I was doing while David was playing around on the roof.....

Holding the ladder and taking pictures of my reflection in our big front window.

Merry Christmas everyone!

THIS IS IT!!

Michael Jackson changed lives. Period. I don't care how weird you think he is or how much you don't understand him, he had a greater impact for good on this world than probably any of us will ever have. David and I saw the "This is it" tribute movie last night and wow! He understood music, dancing and entertainment better then anyone I've ever seen or heard of. He had so much control and paid such close attention to EVERY SINGLE ASPECT of that show. What a remarkable entertainer and what an incredible concert that would have been! He out-performed everyone on that stage and he was 50. Rest in peace, finally, MJ.

Go david!!

David is on the BYU swim team and I have been having SO MUCH FUN cheering him on at his swim meets. He had one swim meet vs. UNLV on Friday night and one on Saturday morning vs. ASU...who BYU SMOKED by the way! In the 200 Breastroke, David took second and BYU overall took 1-4th place! Impressive. He's having a great time swimming for the team again and continues to get faster and stronger every week! I have really enjoyed watching him be a part of something big and fun and exciting. David amazes me in so many ways and is SO GOOD at so many things. Good job babe!

David is wearing a white BYU swim cap, so that should help you find him amidst the other guys.

P.S. David is the one on the right getting ready to start his race.

We don't tell ghost stories......

......We just take Ghost PHOTOS!! We had fun carving pumpkins with our friends the Sheens last weekend and David even bought some dry ice for the occasion. All the little kids are gonna love our house this saturday!

CREEPY Max with his legs facing one way and his head facing the other!

David Photoshop'd this one, so it looks extra creepy...straight out of a horror movie!The end result. Pumpkin carving has got to be the best thing about Halloween,
that and seeing all the little kids dressed up!

Happy Halloween!

Some people may think I'm crazy....

Today was an EARLY morning! I woke up at 5:40 am (nobody should ever be awake at that awful hour) and went to the Health and Justice building to stand in line for my swine flu shot. Yeah, that's right, I somehow got out of bed in the dark and the cold and waited for 3 hours to be poked with a needle. The needle part actually wasn't so bad in reality, but the anticipation could have killed me. I went with a couple of friends and luckily we got there so early because we were in the first hundred people to show up, but the line continued far behind us and I would estimate that about 1500 people showed up! Fortunately we made it early because just as I drove in to work right after it began to snow!

The groupMe and Traci just waiting in line...

This is the line ahead of us and the photo below is a small portion of the line behind us. The rest of it wrapped around in the parking structure a few times, but you can't really tell because the bottom pic is so dark.As soon as I walked in the room where the shots were being administered, all I could hear was small children crying. The slightly older kids knew what to expect and were crying out of fear and the younger ones who were naively happy only moments before were crying because they had been tricked! I am officially protected against H1N1 and it seems to be a pretty big deal here in Utah county, especially for those in the high risk category and since I'm 24, I fall into that. Apparently 1000 people have died of Swine Flu in the U.S. and it's supposed to rage out of control this winter, but I doubt it. Either way, better safe then sorry.

Back in the saddle

I find myself painting again and loving it. My landlord has been trying to get me to do a painting of Mount Timp for the past two years and began jokingly threatening to kick us out if I didn't do the painting, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I think it turned out okay, what about you?

In other news, I took on the massive challenge of painting a family portrait for David's brother Jon (did I mention that the painting is 2 feet by 3 feet, yeah...it's huge!). We drove out to Colorado a few weeks ago to take their family photos so I could have good pictures to work from and although it was extremely intimidating, yesterday I had at it and got a pretty good start on the painting. The best part about it is that I spent the big bucks for the nicest linen canvas possible, so it's like painting on silk! It's been like eating dessert all weekend long!

At this rate maybe next summer we really will buy a boat. Anyone interested in buying or commissioning a painting, let me know!

Renovations...there's no end!

Speaking of Mr. Fix-it, David suggested we do a little remodeling this summer and it turned into way too many overwhelming projects, but we are now nearing completion and we can't wait! We painted the whole upstairs, we fixed up the bathroom mirror, I made new curtains for our bedroom, we got a couple more chairs for our kitchen table and stained a few coats on them (then decided to stain the rest of the chairs and two table leaves again), did a new painting for the kitchen, got new living room carpet, and the only thing we have left to do is touch up the baseboards with white paint and hem the curtains. We are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but the sad part is that even with so much work it still looks close to the same as it did. Oh well, we still like it.


Here's a little video David made while we were in the process.

Ward Campout

I am so grateful that I married a man who takes care of me and who knows how to do EVERYTHING handy. Seriously, everytime something breaks he just figures out how to fix it. Including car stuff. He changed my spark plugs in the Jeep and saved us $300 dollars!! I told him that I'd rather buy him the tools he needs to fix it because then he can fix it next time too, so that's been added incentive for him in adding to his tool collection. :)

I just thought of all that as I remembered our ward campout and how he was so capable with the tent. I never have to worry. What a guy!

Yep, that's right...I'm back!

Yes Melody, I know it's been a while ( I single you out since I know you're probably the only person who reads this.) and maybe if I posted more I would bring a larger audience, but oh well.

So it's October, but I am going to play catch up for all the summer posts I missed...starting with My Birthday in august. David treated me like a queen as always and we had a blast. He took me to a waterpark, got me some sweet sunglasses, took me shopping, and then we were off to a pro soccer game and later "Color Me Mine".

Going to Color Me Mine was so nostalgic and reminded me of painting ceramics at Melanie Meinharts house. Crafts and creativity are crucial to childhood and I hope I can have the patience to always make time for creativity for my kids. Even if they don't appreciate it quite like I do. One day they will, just as I do now. P.S. The MJ hat was one of my birthday gifts :) Isn't David so hot? I love that guy so much. We always have so much fun together and this was no different. Thanks for making it memorable David!

Del Mar Beach Trip

We had so much fun visiting Del Mar and working the fair. We walked to the beach from the fair and then had to trudge around in swampy sand under the train tracks as a short cut back. We also worked and David just loved it. Lucky for him he speaks fluent spanish, so he was chatting it up with the mexican cooks the whole time and would even slip up when he was talking to me in english. He grew a mustache and can't bear to shave it now. We also got to have a barbeque with my mom and mark and charity and ryan, and that was a blast as well. We haven't had too many barbeques out here, so it was a fun summer thing to do. We loved seeing the family. I also organized a little reunion soccer game with my old spartan teammates and it was great to see everyone again and to play soccer with them again. I got a hat-trick! (For those of you who don't know what that is, when you score three goals in one game it is called a hat-trick.)

We love the Fair!!

Two weeks ago we flew down to work the Del Mar Fair in San Diego and it was so fun! David worked for the first time in my dads Mexican Food Stand and was such a natural. All of my dads cooks are Mexican, and he fit right in speaking practically only Spanish all weekend long. :) The cooks were also glad to have someone to relate to. Chair and Ryan and Mel and Matt surprised us and it was so much fun to see them all. We got to hang out with babies, toddlers and kids all weekend long from Corban to Connelly and it was hard to say goodbye. Luckily, we get to go back next weekend!!! Can't wait. I have worked the fair since I was twelve, and this was the first time I've been back to work in four years, so it was a much needed visit. My dad even let us get badges, so we went on rides, visited with Grandma Dee and got some corn and David had all the churros he could eat. I can't even list all the reasons why I love the fair!

Two years went so fast...happy anniversary!!!

I know this post is a little behind, since we were sealed on May 4th, but who's counting. :) I can't believe it, we've been married for over two years now! David is more amazing today then when I married him and I'm sure it will only get better. We have been so blessed with such an incredible marriage. I can't imagine a better man or a happier life.

For our anniversary, we decided that since we couldn't go to a broadway musical or a sweet concert (Salt Lake City has very slim pickings on entertainment), and we already had a weekend getaway for Valentines Day in Park City, we thought it would be fun to go out to a high class dinner in Salt Lake, each wearing a new surprise outfit for the occasion. We both had a blast picking out something nice that the other person would like and then David surprised me with reservations to the Roof Resturaunt at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. It is high class, hear you me with every good dessert you can think of. We felt like royalty.

No explanation needed

I probably eat way too many cookies. However, they are so delicious.

Just another Friday at work

So on Friday's most people take it easy at work, or have a casual day or something like that to keep people motivated before the weekend. However not too many places will let you fire a 9mm handgun on the job. Friday Tanner, Matthew (Tanner's sister's fiance), and I drove up around Utah Lake and shot some firearms for a package that was in today's newspaper. I got to shoot a 45 caliber hand gun, 9mm, 12 gauge shot gun and an AR-15 assault rifle. Just another day on the job.

Facial Hair

Brittany really likes it when I grow my facial hair out. So this last week when we went to the river, I decided that I wasn't going to shave for a few days. Here's 5 days without a razor.

Drag races rock, Tim says

So on Thursday of last week I was assigned (by myself since I am the photo editor) to go photograph the media event at the drag races in West Valley City. It was rad. We got to ride in a dragster and on top of that, they let us race some Pontiac G8 cars on the drag strip. Needless to say it was perhaps one of the top ten coolest days of my life. They gave us wristbands to wear so that they could tell us apart from the non-media so we could go pretty much anywhere we wanted.

BYU swim team commercial

Recently the BYU swim team decided to have some commercials filmed for recruiting and promotional purposes. It was a lot of fun being able to participate. For two nights we were in the RB pool until about 1am filming for this commercial. Brittany came to watch and took some video of her own, so this is as close to pirated footage as it comes. Take a sneak peak at some commercial filming.

My first swim meet of the summer

So this weekend was my first swim meet of the season. It was the first time since July 2004 that I swam in a meeter pool and so I was a little intimidated to get back into the saddle. I'm sure that I wasn't the only one who was intimidated since this was an open meet, and anyone could sign up. I was racing a 12 year old kid in the lane next to me. We were probably both glad to just finish the race.

Riding Bikes

Saturday Brittany, Amber, Myra and Mark and I went bike riding down Provo Canyon for fun. Oh and what fun we had. Brit kept getting mad that I was taking all these pictures and videos of her riding her bike, but I was just having so much fun. Anyway, it was raining all day and it finally stopped when we got to the top of the canyon and began riding down. We only had 4 bikes, so I had to ride my longboard, but I didn't mind. Anyway, enjoy the post.

My Cute New Haircut

I chopped off all my hair and no, I didn't donate it. I know, I'm a jerk but the truth is they only accept "virgin" hair and I have definitely dyed my hair in my lifetime a time or two. I have been meaning to post pictures since last Tuesday when I cut it, but I had to wait for a good hair day and then get David to take one, so alas...below are some pictures. I haven't quite figured out how to style it yet, but I'm learning quick. I showed my stylist exactly what I wanted it to look like from a Katie Holmes google search and she cut it fabulously, but I can't seem it get it to look the same ( I think it has more to do with my lack of expertise than it does the cut :)). The last picture is my attempt at trying to make it crazy like Katie's and a picture of her cute hair is below as well. Maybe someday soon I can get it to look like that, but for now I am thrilled with how cute it turned out. It's been a fun change and is definitely the shortest I've ever gone. P.S. David LOVES it!!

I love toddlers!!

Aren't they sweet? I love toddlers, it is definitely my favorite age. So much personality, so much laughter, they are so funny! Trevor and Julia made funny faces for the camera (Julia does anything Trevor does, she looks up to him so much!) and Connelly is such a good big brother. He's always taking care of his little brother and sister and now he'll have one more to look after. Chair is such a good mom, I'm excited for her to have her fourth! She always takes the time to play with her kids, even though she's 7 months pregnant! These pics are also from our river trip to Parker, AZ.

We love wakeboarding!!!

Here's a few pictures of David and I wakeboarding, and even one video of Dave crashing after a jump. For only going wakeboarding 6 times, he's pretty good, don't ya think? Of course he brought his "camping guitar". I don't think he'd go anywhere without a guitar, it is a good thing he is so good at playing so I never mind listening. The picture of Amber putting the pacifier in her eye is totally legit! The rubber was actually touching her eyeball and chair couldn't get the pic, so it took 10 tries, it was hilarious! The water was FREEZING and it was only 75-80* outside, so we didn't get in much, but this is a picture of all the guys jumping in together. We hada great time at the river last month!!!

Aren't they cute....

This post is dedicated to the adorable Odells. We had so much fun spending time with you guys in Parker and hope to see you again soon! We love you. Corban is just the best, look at how cute he is in these pics! Mel - feel free to steal any of these off my blog for your collection. :)

Here is a photo of Jordan, Brittany's little brother jumping over the wake at the river this past weekend. We had a great time, just wish the wind could have been a little calmer. Jordan is getting pretty good at wakeboarding these days.

End of the Winter Season

Friday Brittany and I went snowboarding for the last time this year. It was really nice, we both cut out of work early and drove up to Sundance for a bit of afternoon snowboarding. It was so warm that we both wore t-shirts and kept taking our gloves off on the lift because our fingers were getting sweaty. Thanks to the Coppertone SPF 30 we were not burned, and no one on the swim team will be suspicious why I wasn't at practice on Friday.