Merry Christmas!!!!

Turkey Time!

The semester is almost over!!!!!! The end is near!!!! Paradise is around the corner!!!!!! Ok, that's enough now. there's still a lot to be done before we can really say we're finished. Like finals. Yuck. Not going to talk about that. Instead, let's focus on Thanksgiving holiday!!!!!!

We decided to go up to Idaho Falls to visit my sister, Jaimee. Colter hasn't met a lot of the family I have up there, so it was a good opportunity. Unfortunately, a huge blizzad blazed through a day before, making 2 inches of pure ice on the highway. In other words, a 4 hour drive turned into a 6 hour drive. But it was worth it!



This is how we celebrate the long drive up. :) And this is how Jaimee serves ice cream.



We had Thanksgiving dinner at my wonderful Aunt Debbie's house! She was wlling to put up with more than 20 people for Thanksgiving, many of them being under the age of 10. I think my niece Liz developed a slight crush on Colter, considering this is only one of many similar pictures.



My cousin Alan and his wife Jessica brought some of their pets to entertain and teach the kids. Holy cow. BIG snake. Jaimee jumped on the table. Shanna stayed in the kitchen, and the kids, well, they pretty much were enthralled for an hour.



Of all the delicious pies, ice cream and cobbler, Liz and I go for the sucker.



Oh, and this is what Colter did the entire trip. And yes, he still loves me. What can I say, he's the best husband ever?! I know you're jealous. You'll nver find another man like mine.

In case you were wondering, of course we did Black Friday! We went to Walmart. Crazy. A small town of 99% Mormon Moms with 20 kids to each trying to get Christams presents. What were we thinking!? But holy cow did we do good!!!!! 2 dollar DVDs, a vacuum, and 2 sets of sheets. Boo-ya! Perhaps the most miraculous thing was no nail marks. After coming home at 4 in the morning, we slept forever. I don't think we would have woken up if it was Apocalypse.

After coming home, Colter's Grandmother took us to the Sing-along Messiah in Downtown Salt Lake! It was a ton of fun, though really heavy music. I enjoyed listening much more than singing.



Thanks for the incredible Thanksgiving week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Nightmare before Christmas!!!!

I LOVE fall!!! Falling leaves are possibly the most beautiful thing on the whole planet.






Halloween!!!!!

I love Halloween, but as many of you know, I lack the creative gene, and therefore dressing up and making cute cookies has never been my forte. BUT I love candy, and what holiday goes better with candy than Halloween??? If only we had a kid, it would make getting candy much easier. Until then though, we have to settle for having fun by ourselves. :)

Having said that, this week Colter and I have finally put aside schoolwork and work for one night to celebrate the ghoul-ish season. We relied on other people's creative gene and went to the Cornbelly Maze at Thanksgiving Point!



We finally arrived at Thanksgiving Point, after 30 minutes of sitting in pointless traffic. Stupid construction. Anyway, the first thing that caught our eye was the bull-ride. We didn't go on it, but we sure had fun watching people on it.



We found the kiddie play place and we thought these were too funny. Colter really wanted to be the dark pig... unrealized dream I guess. :)










I know I'll never be dark, so I stick with reality.
















Next was this beast! You had to crawl through the whole beast, including the heart. And best of all to end it- out the anus of course....!!!! We must be anatomically correct here, people!!! :0



They had corn/potato/pumpkin guns!!!! We choose corn, and was pleasantly surprised at the launching abilities. Who knew, right? I got it through the tire, while Colter "purposely" hit the pole... You decide the truth of that...




We were just in time to see the pig racing!!! So cute! I want a little pig now. I had no idea little pigs could be that fast either! We now can confirm that the little pig DID cry "wee wee wee" all the way home- or to his pigpen...



Next we tackled to Corn Maze! We decided to take the harder route, and excluding the inches of mud- made it through unscathed!!!!

















Sydney- this one is for you! :) This carriage was soo beautiful!!! I wish Sydney could have been there to see it.



The next adventure was the hayride, where two puppies in training sat next to us!!! We couldn't help but take a picture. The scary thing was that as soon as I stood up to get out of the trailer, I realized my phone was gone. After much panicking, we borrowed flashlights and walked around the whole trail looking for my phone. The guy running the tractor found it en route of his next riders. Tender mercy!!!!!!!!!



FINALLY, to round off this incredibly long post, tonight was our Ward Halloween Party!!! They held a chili contest and guess who won!!!!??? That's right! The non-chef!!! Moi!!! Thanks for the recipe, Dad! Guess people really liked it too- considering this is all that was left...

Happy Halloween Everyone!!!!!

Return of Scott Jarvie!!!

So, as many of you know, before Colter and I were married we had some photos taken up in Salt Lake City so we could have some great professional photos for our wedding. The guy who took the pictures is Scott Jarvie, one of the most amazing photographers I've ever seen in my life. His style is incredible. He never really guides you what to do, but rather watches you and captures natural moments. It never feels posed or placed, but completely natural and fun. This is one of his pictures from that photo shoot...




A couple of weeks ago Scott sent out an email to all of his past clients saying he was doing a free photo shoot. I immediately signed up- how could I not??!! So we drove up to the Timpanogos trail head and had another incredible photo shoot! He is incredible- everyone should have photos taken from him sometime in their life, no matter the cost.

This shoot was so much fun! It was somewhat early in the morning, so the weather was pretty similar to when we had our wedding photos done. Which was freezing, by the way. The whole ground was really moist and dewy, and as you can see, the shoes that I wore have a slick bottom. I also have a passion for climbing trees. Not a good combination when you add my shoes. So between photos I started to just walk on some logs, but being dewy from morning mist, I naturally slipped and fell right on top of it. You rarely see my right hand because it got pretty dirty. It's been a couple of weeks and I still have nasty bruises on my shins. I feel like a kid again!!!







These are just a few pictures. Go to my facebook to see the rest. Here's Scott's website- our photo is also the first one that comes up on his site!!!! You must look at his work- I have no idea how we got so lucky as to have him take our photos.

http://jarviedigital.com/
http://www.facebook.com/JarvieDigital
http://www.jarviedigital.com/blog

Recent Happenings!

Sorry I've neglected the blog for quite a while. We're discovering what boring lives we have right now, so reporting on recent exciting events is few and far between. Combine that wiht my non-creative writing abiliies and we have the answer as to why I hardly ever write.

Anyway, as mentioned aboce, the only thing we usually do around here is go to school, goto work, go back to school, go back to work, and sleep, though rarely. Colter only has classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which is really great for him. He has some really tough clases, but he's finally getting into classes for his major so he's really enjoying it- at least he will after this week when three of his midterms are over. Work is also going ok for him, he's hoping some changes will happen with management, and praying for opportunities elsewhere in case those changes do not occur.

I'm doing prety good myself. As many of you know, I quite (I would say retire, but it makes me sound really old) dance. Not dance all together, just team and the technique classes. It has been a wonderful stress relief. I have time to do whatever I want! Love it. I graduate in April, and I'm having a blast planning my last semester of college ever!!! Scary, but mostly exciting!!!!!

Last week was General Conference! We went up to Salt Lake to spend time with Nonnie and Grandpa and the family up there. Elliot was AMAZING at his football game- returning the football and running for a touchdown! He's going to be a professional athelete, he's amazing. Saturday evening I went and celebrated Grandpa Montgomery and Ron's birthday at Chuck-a-Rama (or up-chuck-a-rama). :) It was a lot of fun, and I went to Mike's place afterward and attempted to watch a scary movie. I say attempted because I didn't watch hardly any of it. I'm a chicken when it comes to scary movies.


Elliot's game. He's number 88. What an amazing place to play football- nice view!


The Montgomery's at Chuck-a-Rama!

We also got new bikes!!!!! We're trying to save our cars (gas and basic wear) so we've been looking at getting bikes for a while, and we finally were able to get some! We're ridin our bikes everyday to school, and for fun. Our butts are still getting used to it, but we're so excited. For those who don't know, I always name my big stuff. Picking a name for my bike was a lot of fun, and I finally decided on Char after my favorite character from the book Ella Enchanted. :)


This is Char! He is awesome. I don't have a picture of Colter's bike, but I know he likes his too. He's already crashed it once. :)

This past week was Homecoming week at BYU. Usually this is a stressful week for me, because the Ballroom Dance Company is always in the Homecoming Parade. Since I'm no longer part of the company, I was able to enjoy and watch the parade for the very first time! It was so much fun! We met up with Cara and Chad, good friends of ours. The parade is so awesome!


Colter and I at the parade!


Colter and the BYU marching band. And his new bike. :) He refuses to name his. Didn't I marry a good-lookin' man????!!!!!


Just chillin' and enjoing NOT dancing for 4 miles straight. Oh the joys of being a spectator. :)Oh! And check out the new-do!!!! yep!!! Got a new haircut!!!!!

Labor Day weekend!!

My sister, Jaimee, and her husband Mark, and their kids, and my parents all came down for labor day weekend. Holy cow- we actually managed to fit 11 people inside our tiny apartment! I still don't know how we did it, but we managed. Rather than explaining everything in a long paragraph, I'll just post some cute pictures. :)



This is how we managed to fit 11 people in one tiny, two bedroom apartment...



Mother, daughter, daughter... I still don't see the resemblance...



Aftermath of the water at Bridal Veil Falls. Cute little feet!!!



Yep- David fell in the water, though he was not the first one. Daniel wins that prize!!! I just didn't get a good action shot of Daniel falling in...



Say, "Strike a pose" and this is what you get. :)



Feeding the fish at Cabela's! No thankfully no one fell in the water here...

The Lion King!!!!

For an early Christmas present, Nonnie took all of the grandkids to see The Lion King at the Capitol Theater in downtown Salt Lake City!!!!!!! Oh my goodness!!!! it was incredible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everyone sould see it at least once in their lifetime. The costumes, music, singing, acting, and everything else you could possibly imagine was picture perfect!!!! Thank you so so so so so so much Nonnie for taking us. It's definitely something we'll never forget. I got to sit between my two favorite buds- Colter and Elliot. Poor Elliot was so hungry, just coming from football practice. It also was the last time we got to see Sarina before she and Tyler left for China for the whole school year! Sad to see them leave, but they're doing a great thing over there.



Everyone gathering at Nonnie's house before we carpool down there. Everyone looked so amazing! It's so nice to dress up fancy every once in a while.



Everyone inside the theater! I took this just before they yelled at us for taking pictures inside. Oh well... :)



Colter and I just after the show!!! Didn't I marry a good-lookin' man?!!

Cindy Visits!!!!!

The week before school started this semester, Cindy was ablet o come out for a whoel week to visit!!!! It was so wonderful to have her all to ourselves for a whole week. Though some others did steal her away some time. :) Colter took the entire week off of work, and it was incredible to spend so much time with him.



Colter and Cindy- having some much needed Mother-Son time.




Cindy and Grandpa- having some much neede Daddy-Daughter time. We went out to The Old Spaghetti Factory right before Cindy had to leave to go home. :(

oops...

I just relaized I forgot to post about Sarina's birthday! It's been a while, I just totally spaced it.

So, for those of you who don't know, our cousin Sarina had her 22nd birthday a couple of weeks ago! She wanted to see Toy Story 3 for her birthday. So I met up with Nonnie and we met Aunt Karen, Sam, Brody, Hannah, Tyler, and Sarina in Park City! We had delicious Cafe Rio for dinner and then the movie!!! I didn't knwo that we were actually seeing the 3d version, and as predicted, I was slightly sea-sick at the end. Anyway, it was a great night! Here are some picture!!!! Happy Birthday, Sarina- belated!

Men in Tights Song

This is what gets me through every final that I take. Whenever I get really stressed, this is my favorite thing to watch to help remind me to not take things too seriously. I thought I'd share this, considering that my last year of school ever will be starting up in just a few weeks!!!

The Hills Are Alive!!!!

Last week Nonnie took me to see the Sound of Music up in Logan! I've always loved the movie, but I've never seen it on stage before. It was amazing! There is so much talent here in Utah I can't believe it! I didn't understand why half the audience would stand up right before the play and during intermission. I chuckled to Nonnie that the President of the U.S. was there. Nope, but the the President of the church was!!! President Monson was there! I didn't get to meet him or anything, he was ushered out quickly.



We went to lunch before at the Bluebird restaurant, which is one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen. It was like walking into the 1920s. I felt like I needed to be wearing a floor-length gown. It had an old-fashioned soda bar and the most amazing chocolate shakes and caramel!

Dancing Queens!!!

I finally figured out how to post this video. I had to upload it onto youtube. Here's the link below. It's the video of Uncle Dan and Tyler dancing to the new Wii game "Just Dance" Make sure to grab tissues because you'll be laughing so hard you'll cry. Here's the link!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuWvt8OvO7E

Pouncing Nilla!

This is a video of Nilla, Hannah 's puppy, practicing her 'foxy-like reflexes.' She's the cutest thing in the world, and has a great personality. She's really fiesty and adorable!

4th of July!!

This past 4th of July weekend we went up to Salt Lake and Evanston Wy. to spend time with family! The first part of the weekend we spent with Colter's Nonnie and Grandpa, and their puppy Rusty! We had so much fun! We took Rusty to the local dog park, where he loved getting into the water and playing with the other dogs.

On Saturday, we went to Colter's Aunt and Uncle's for a BBQ and firework show. Cameron was estatic about lighting off his own fireworks. He had so many of them, I couldn't believe how long it lasted.

Then we drove up to Evanston to hang with another one of Cotler's aunts. Colter couldn't wait to go off and buy his batch of fireworks. We had another BBQ and played with our cousin's new puppy, Nilla the whole weekend. She's the cutest thing in the world!!!!