The Grimm's Fairy Tales

In the spirit...

We all know that in just over a week, we'll be stuffing our faces with all the yummiest food ever. I love Thanksgiving. I love the feeling. I love the family. I love the food. I love the smells, the laughter, the memories.

Thanksgiving is a time to remember all we have and to actually look around and be thankful for everything. SO In an effort to be more thankful, over the next few days until Thanksgiving I'm going to post a little bit every day about the thing I'm most thankful for: My family. Sure, I'm thankful for loads of stuff, and I'm sure that will come out in these posts, but none of it would be worth being thankful for if not for my family. If not for my family I wouldn't have the gospel (I'm sure it would find me, but without the foundation laid in my heart, I'm not totally sure I would accept it.), I wouldn't have some of my very best friends. I wouldn't have the life I have today. So Without further ado: Thanksgiving Project 2009 has begun.

I AM SO THANKFUL FOR MY LITTLE FAMILY!

I have the greatest husband I could ever have asked for. He works so hard for me. I'm always asking him to do one project or another while I'm at school or doing another project myself. He's always so helpful. I'm in school and attribute most, if not all, my success to him. Sure I do the work and get the grades, but I wouldn't be back in school, working towards a career I know I'll love, if it weren't for my wonderful husband. He works so hard to pay our bills too. I'm so grateful for a responsible, loving husband.

He lets me sleep in when I need it. He takes care of me when I'm sick. He's the absolute best choice for me as an eternal companion. We've had our fair share of trials and hardships already, and I'm sure we have many more to come, but I can't think of anyone I would rather have by my side, holding my hand, and leading me through than my wonderful TR. He keeps me strong, and faithful. He reminds me of what is really important when I can't quite get a grip on reality. He honors his priesthood which is such a blessing in my home. It's such a comfort to know that I can go to him any time, night or day with any problem and he can help me through it. He keeps the Lord at the center of our home. He keeps me on track when sometimes I stray. He's such an example to me. I love him, and he loves me back which is the greatest gift he could ever give me.

Our little Mimi is such a sweetheart. Sure, I can get frustrated with her when she barks all the time, or whines in the middle of the night, but she's such a joy in my life. You may laugh at me or think I'm weird to refer to my dog as a joy, but she really is. She makes me laugh all the time at what a spaz she is, and sometimes you just need a good laugh. She's gotten to be so well behaved lately, and she makes me so happy just by being there.

She's always in the same room as me (unless she's getting in trouble). She's happy to simply curl up and sleep on the floor while I'm watching a movie, doing homework, or working on my latest sewing project. She's always happy when I come home, and she's so energetic it makes me tired just to watch. She's been such a blessing to me in my home while going through some hard times. Both of my dogs have been.

Our little little Linus is the sweetest, most even-tempered dog I've ever met in my life. If there really was such a thing as Lewis Carol's "Galumphing" Linus would have it down pat. He's the perfect companion dog. Even from the time he was a very small puppy (yes, he used to be a very small puppy) he's never had to be on a leash. He never ran off like Mimi did. He's got such a happy personality.

He loves being around people. He loves when the kids hang and play all over him. He is just perfect for our little family. As Aunt Jen put it at this year's family reunion "Sometimes you find an animal that was just supposed to be part of your family." Linus is definitely our little baby. At this stage in our lives and in our marriage we're so thankful to have our puppy "kids" that we can love, spoil, rejoice in, and cherish.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

PUMPKINS!!!

'Tis the season...for PUMPKIN CARVING!

I have a secret. Ready?

I. LOVE. HALLOWEEN.

Really. No lie. It's my favorite holiday of all time

One of my favorite activities is carving pumpkins. I love to lay out the news paper. I love sitting on the floor. I love cutting the lid off. I love getting my hands all goopy with the seeds and pumpkin inards. I love carving it out and seeing the finished product all lit up. I love it. (did I mention I love carving pumpkins?)

I generally watch "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" while carving pumpkins...which may be a little weird to some, but I love it.

This year we had Sam and Andrea come over, and with my hands all goopy and such, I didn't take pictures. But I did get our after pictures! Not Sam and Andreas though, cause they went home right after we were done.

TR did an Autobot symbol on his, all freehand, and mine was just a crazy skelly from the package of patterns we got.

Aren't they cool?

The other best thing about carving pumpkins? The weeks worth of pumpkin seeds I get to sort out of all the goop (I love it!) and bake. MMMMM!

Thursday, October 22, 2009

I love this picture of my dad.

I'm not even really sure why. He's not smiling or happy or anything like that. In fact, he looks kind of mad which is totally not my dad, but I just love it.

Kayla's so adorable.

Even when she's cold...

And a little bit crazy.

These were taken when Lizzie Beth (Sarah Elizabeth Tanner) was born and we were waiting to see her. Kayla was cold in the room (those silly pregnant women and their obsession with AC) so she went and borrowed the Tinkerbell blanket from my car.

As much fun as it was to take pictures of Kayla acting all weird, Lizzie definitely stole the show.

Anniversary Trip!

I thought, that since it's been about...two months since TR and I went on our anniversary trip it might finally be time to blog it. A bit behind, don'tcha think?

For our second anniversary, TR and I decided to take a little weekend jaunt down to Las Vegas. We found a really cheap hotel, and even though we were going for a few days, it was nice to get away. I love staying in hotels. I love having someone else make my bed, and clean my room and I especially love how they fold the toilet paper so that it comes to a point. I'm weird, but I'm comfortable with that fact.

On our way down there, TR and I were pleasantly surprised to pass at test zone where the speed limit was raised from 75 to 80. That was kinda fun. It was sort of interesting to guess how fast the other travelers were going based on our speed. Made the time pass quickly, which, when you're with your best friend, time doesn't ever quite go slow enough.

TR took a little nap on the way over, since we had stayed up long into the night (and past our bed time) cleaning the house and getting everything ready to go in the morning. He was entitled to a nap. I love this picture.

I think Steve was ready for some R&R and wanted to soak up that beautiful sunshine. He's missed his Vitamin D lately. He had to bring his umbrella so as not to burn his nose of course.

This is for our Arizona family. I felt a little bit closer to you, but I didn't want to make Jen sad (like last time I called her from the state line) so instead of calling, I just took a picture.

While we were down in Vegas, TR and I decided to have lunch at In and Out Burger. I'm a cheap date. And we had to take some pictures for Grandaddy of course!

After that we headed down to the Hoover Dam. They're building a HUGE bridge over the water way so that traffic doesn't have to go over the dam. It'll be faster and safer. Last time we were down here they hadn't even finished the supports on the side of the mountain! Look at it now!

Can you imagine climbing up all those ladders when someone needed you at the top? I'll be they take their lunch breaks right up there. We saw guys going up and down there all day long.

I absolutely LOVE our flag. I love it. I have a greater appreciation for it too since taking my American Heritage class. I think it's so cool that when they're building something as monumental and time consuming and dangerous as this bridge, they take the time, however short or long (think of the stairs!) it may be to put an American flag on top. Now I think that's pretty cool.

I know that some people say it's impossible, but here I am...two places at once. I just want to point out that I think it's funny how itty bitty my Sasquatch feet look in this picture.

So close, so close, and still so far. Maybe not worlds away, but states away for sure!

I just want to note here...my husband thought I was silly for taking this picture, and I sort of was. I wanted to take a different picture with us holding hands across the state line (say with me, AWWW!), but no one was around at that exact moment in time, so I had to make due with what I had.

And another one for my Arizona family. We thought about you the whole time we were in Arizona. (Tee hee hee) We miss you!!

On our way home Steve and I were soaking up the last of our yummy vacation sun, and a truck passed us with the most GIGANTIC tires I've ever seen. We were trying to figure out what they would go on. By the time the truck was out of sight TR had me with stitches in my sides and tears rolling down my cheeks. I love that man!

At the end of our trip, we have a lot of good memories, a whole lot of laughs, some pretty decent pictures, and two years of bliss behind us with many more to come. Three states, three days, and a beautiful sunset. A spectacular ending to a spectacle of a trip.

Wow, What a day.

So, let us take a pause from all our adventures....

Oh wait, I haven't blogged any of our adventures yet. Oh darn. Well then, let us take a much needed break from the paused adventures! We sure had one tonight.

10:00 pm: TR calls and tells me that he's coming home.

around 10:50 pm: We prepare to get in the car to get last minute things for our impending trip to St. George tomorrow. While on the way to the car, TR proudly shows off how he got Scaredy the Scarecrow to stay in the ground, but just to make sure, he pushes down on Scaredy's head.

10:55 pm: The bamboo stick that provides Scaredy stability pokes through his head and into TR's hand. This bamboo stick has a pointy tip, and drives it's way about 3/4 of an inch into TR's palm.

11:05 pm: In a panic, as I'm rushing to the store to get gauze and tape, I notice that by some tender mercy Nate and Jessica's light is still on. I call Mom to ask if I should maybe try and call Nate and have him go look at TR's hand. Mom tells me I should, and I do so. Jessica answers the phone, tells me Nate had just gotten into bed, but, again, by a tender mercy, was not asleep yet. He comes over to check out TR's hand.

11:10 pm: I finally get back from the store, and Nate is on the phone with Amy telling her what happened. Amy then passes the phone to Dad, and Nathan repeats the tale with a professional tone which makes it seem more serious to me.

11:30 pm: We pile into Nate's car and head down to Dad's office. Dad was worried that it had cut a tendon and TR would need to have surgery, but after looking at it he determined that it barely missed both of the major tendons that it could have hit. The spike had slipped right past them.

11:45 pm-12:45 am: Cleaning, numbing, and stitching the hole in TR's hand. This part was actually really fascinating to me, and I got to provide emotional support for my fantastic husband.

around 1 am: we arrive back home, stitched, bandaged, and with an antibiotic prescription which I am going to go fill at the Walgreens down the street as soon as I'm done with this entry. Just wanted to type it out while it was still fresh in my mind.

I'm so tired.

But tomorrow is another day! Now TR can compare battle stories and scars and all that with the best of 'em. (Glen, I'm really looking forward to hearing the two of you tell your war stories. I'm sure we'll have many more to come).

I'm really looking forward to our Vacation tomorrow. And #1 priority when we get back: health insurance.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Tubular Tuesday!!

This...Is the Kraken.

24 inches across
Too big for TR and I to even eat half!
A specialty of Pirate Island Pizza in Orem.
Tasty Tasty!!
And doesn't TR's face just look funny in this picture? I didn't realize the pan was so hot. >.<

This is just one of the many adventures we've had. Once school gets settled (and paid for, but that's a different story all together) I'll be able to blog more about all our fun adventures.

Thanks to Sarah, Johnny, Branson, Daniell, and Savannah for helping us finish this baby off (there was still four pieces remaining when we left Sarah's house) and for letting us hang out for a little while this afternoon! We love you!!

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Two Years? Really?!

I have some fabulous pictures of our fantastic anniversary trip, but...I have other post-vacation things to do before blogging about it. I just wanted to throw a quick note on here though.

TR and I have been married for two years. On one hand it seems totally bizarre that it's already been two years. On the other, it feels like it's been forever, and it's exciting to think about eternity.

One thing I know for sure though: I fall more and more in love with him every day.

He's my very best friend. I don't have a clue where I'd be without him, and I'm really really glad I don't ever have to find out. He is always there for me. He works hard and is very good at what he does. He makes our living a comfortable one. I'm pursuing my passion because of him. He helps me take joy in the little things in life. Most important, he doesn't ask me to be anything than what I am. He loves me, and that is the greatest thing in the world.

Happy anniversary sweetheart. I love you.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Family Pictures

Misty was nice enough (that doesn't seem a good enough descriptor. Cool enough? Awesome enough? Rockin' enough? I'm open to suggestions) to take our family pictures the week!! I got them back yesterday and WE LOVE THEM!! Here's a small sampling.