So I mentioned that it was a "Grandparent's Christmas" in my last post, so I thought I would explain that. It was a really neat Christmas for a lot of reasons. On Christmas Eve, in place of the traditional pajamas, we got a blanket that she had made. When my grandma passed away a few years ago, my mom kept a lot of her clothes and dresses and made them into blankets! It was so fun to look at all the different squares and remember the different times she wore different things. There's her dress that she wore for her's and Grandpa's fiftieth anniversary, her Egyptian print apron that she always wore when she was cooking that no matter how many times my mom washed it still had stains all over it, funny nightgowns, crazy dresses, her white polyester pants, different blouses, and a square from her Christmas table cloth. The back was one of her sheets. My mom spent so much time finishing all of them. They were the perfect gift, and brought back so many fun memories of Grandma Tyler.

Then on Christmas morning we went over to the Young's where Danny's parents spoiled us! The neatest of the gifts were things from Danny's grandparent's house. I should have Danny write this part, because he knows more about the things we received, but it was neat for me, because even though I had met Grandpa Eddington a couple of times, it helped me see more of who he and Grandma Eddington were. We got a deck of cards that had been used to play Grandma Eddington's legendary game of bloody smash, and Danny got a stocking that had been put out for him at their house with one of Grandpa's paintbrushes in it. We got some wonderful books, both ones that he'd helped design, and some from off of his shelf, like The Three Musketeers and a Book with Dicken's Five Christmas Novels (which I'm very excited to read! We were at Barnes and Noble, and I had a copy of one with three Christmas novels in it in my hand and had decided not to buy it at the last minute). Danny was very excited about the stuffed gorilla :) and wooden mice. Danny and his two sibblings each got specific things they had wanted from their grandparents house. It was so great to watch what everyone received. It was so great of Danny's parents, especially his mom, to part with such meaningful things and share them with us!
Both mine and Danny's parents worked so hard this Christmas, and gave us such wonderful gifts! We are both so grateful to have parents who do so much for us and are such amazing examples for us. We've both been blessed with grandparents who also set, and some who are still setting such great examples. They are definitely amazing people!

Christmas trees and other traditions...

Does something look wrong in this picture? Danny and I have fixed it countless times, rotating the stand, standing it up straight, we even put wood down in the stand to keep it from tipping. I thought it was wedged in there tight enough that it would keep it from tipping again, but aparently I was wrong. Our home teacher came over on Sunday and I was sitting there trying to listen, but I couldn't help but think that it had tipped just a little bit further. But inspite of it all, it's a beautiful tree! Everything about a Christmas tree shouts "TRADITION" and ours follows that trend. All growing up I loved my Grandma Tyler's Christmas tree. I would have to say that it has been a "grandparent" Christmas (which I'll explain later). This picture doesn't have the best lighting, but there I am standing in front of her tree. Yes, it is white, but very magical. Every year she would put up this fake tree covered in all kinds of ornaments. We would go over for her Eggnog Party to celebrate the start of the season when it was up. Everyone would look all over to find the pickle ornament. We'd drink sparkling cider and look at all of her fun decorations. This year it was fun for us (me in particular) to be able to put up some of her decorations in our appartment. Some of our ornaments are off of her tree. We even found a box of bubble lights at Shopko. They only had one box left! So our tree has lot's of fun ornaments. Here are three of the ornaments- the first two are from my grandma, and the third is one Danny's grandma gave

him in '87. Isn't that cool? Anyways, it's been fun to have our tree. One of my projects was to make a tree skirt, but it's not quite finished (other projects took precedence). Hopefully it'll be done by the time we take the tree down. If not, we'll use it next year. Anyways, another of my favorite things that we got from my grandma was her carolers. The lamp behind them has a light bulb in it that flashes like fire, so it looks like the lamp is lit behind them. One of the best parts is that she made them herself. Each one has her initials and the year underneath. BT '77. Anyways, grandparents have a way of making Christmas magical. Christmas Eve we would always go to my Grandma T's house. Some of us would get to go early and help set up the luminaries. She always had a program, special gifts, games, and of course... the marching band! I wish I had a picture of that! This year Danny was initiated into the family by participating in the marching band. Each of us had some kind of little toy instrument, and we'd march around the upstairs to the beat of Jingle Bells. We loved it as kids. We'd also drop clothes pins from our noses, standing up straight, to see if we could get them to land into a jar. The prizes were always crips 1 and 2 dollar bills. Then on Christmas day all of my mom's side of the family would come over. This year I was happy to see that my Grandpa and Grandma Sharp brought taffys with Sharp printed on them. I'm not quite sure where it started, but I always thought it was cool that you put the word in them. My Grandma Sharp would almost always give us homemade gifts for Christmas. One of my favorites were the fleece blankets. Those blankets have come in handy, and have been through a lot over the years. You might notice that two of the skier ones are hanging up behind the Christmas tree. :) We love them. Well, this post took off in it's own direction and ended up longer than I thought. But those are some of my favorite Christmas traditions!

Christmas Shopping...

So... this has been a crazy month, and I keep telling myself I should post something, but it never happened. Finals were crazy, and as soon as that was over I had a couple of projects that needed to get done... so even though they aren't all done, things have slowed down a little bit. Now I have a week with no school or work at home (we've been house sitting for my aunt and uncle for the last week).
Anyways, Danny and I had a really cool experience I wanted to share! We left all of our Christmas shopping until after finals, so that Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday before Christmas we were running all over trying to get things done. There was a certain book I wanted to get my mom so we went down to Deseret Book downtown. We actually saw quite a few people we knew in there. And then as we were leaving, an older couple was coming in. The woman came in, and we waited to see if the man was going to as well, but he held the door open for us and leaned in to say something along the lines of "If you two are foolish enough to come out here then get out!" and laughed. It was Elder Perry! It was so crazy! I couldn't believe how tall he was! It was pretty neat to be able to see him. He just smiled and we told him him "Merry Christmas" as we walked out. He really was just glowing. I still can't believe how tall he is either. I looked it up. A website called LDSindex.com said he is just over 6'4". It also said that when he was up at USU (Go Aggies) his nickname was Stretch cause he was so tall. So we decided that Deseret Book is an excellent place to do Christmas shopping.

And by the way, the book I wanted to get my mom is called "The Life of Our Lord" By Charles Dickens. It's so good! Dickens wrote it for his children, and did not want it to be published. He wrote it from 1845-1849, at the same time that he was writing David Copperfield. I love the way he words things. This is the first paragraph:
"My dear children, I am very anxious that you should know something about the History of Jesus Christ. For everybody ought to know about Him. No one ever lived, who was so
good, so kind, so gentle, and so sorry for all people who did wrong, or were in anyway ill or miserable, as he was. And as He is now in Heaven, where we hope to go, and all to meet each other after we are dead, and there be happy always together, you never can think what a good place Heaven, is without knowing who He was and what He did."

I haven't finished it yet but from what I've read, he wrote it as if his children were all sitting at his feet as he told them the story of Christ's life. And even though it's not 100% doctrinally correct, if you need a good book to read I definitely recommend it!

Wedding Pics... Some Favorites

We finally have our wedding pictures! Yay! It's been a crazy semester, so they are a little late. More to come, but I thought I'd atleast put some on to start. I think that in order to fully appreciate these first two, you might have to know my sister Sarah (a.k.a. Biff). They are great! We opened these two up, expecting no one to be looking (I didn't even know that our photographer had taken them! Oh, and by the way, our photographer was Linsey Hale. She's amazing and I would definitely recommend her to anyone! Check her out... http://linseyhale.com -I have yet to figure out how to do that snazzy thing where you make her name as a link to her website. I'll have to work on that. But Linsey is awesome!) I don't even know if Linsdey was expecting this first one... But there she is... beaming front and center!! I love my sister!!

Sorry about the kissing picture... but I think that this is one of my favorites!
Yay! We're married! Danny says I look like I'm floating....The classic...

My sister Sarah took this one. It's definitely another of my favorites!

Here are my grandparents-my mom's parents. They are such wonderful people! I attribute my love for rootbeer and occassionally peanut M&M's to my grandpa for always having a stash in the back of his van and for always sharing with me!

I think these ones portray their relationship quite nicely. :)

Danny's family! I think Lincoln get's the award for Best Smile! What a stud.

Here is my family... Tom even showed up! What a good looking bunch (above and below!)

More to come!

Halloween Costumes!

I apologize that I've been so bad at posting. I look forward to next semester when I'll hopefully have a little more free-time. (I would hope so, going from 17 credits to 6). Anyways, I do admit I was a cowgirl for the elementary school carnival. I love getting paid for playing at a carnival. Anyways, Halloween night Danny and I had the best costumes ever. With our awesome homemade shirts and Mexican masks we went as.....

BATMAN AND NACHO LIBRE!!!!!

Aren't these capes great? We've been waiting ever since our honeymoon for Halloween to be able to wear them. When we were in Ensenada there were tons of wrestler masks- and they had these great ones for kids! They were a little tight... but well worth it! They even had pictures on the capes. Can't wait till next year.

Peanuts

I would say that, to a certain extent, I have always been a peanuts fan. I have read the comic and occassionally watched the show. I always loved it when they would talk to their teacher and the teacher would respond by saying "wa wa wa." My second grade teacher LOVED Snoopy, and had a mailbox with Snoopy on top in the classroom, and we could write letters to him (and he'd write back!!!). I thought that was pretty neat. But compared to Danny I would have to say my past interest in the Peanuts has been very small, and without realizing it, he has made me a bigger Charlie Brown supporter. When I got home from my mission last year in October, one of the first movies we watched (after Cars) was It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. We watched it again a few weeks ago. We also watched "You are Not Elected Charlie Brown" in honor of the elections. In the next coming weeks we are going to watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (which I have yet to see). On top of that, it being the start of Christmas music season, we bought the Charlie Brown Christmas CD on Saturday and have been listening to it all weekend! I definitely recommend it. It's good stuff! And best of all, our parents got us a Christmas tree permit so that we can go chop down our very first Christmas tree! We were laughing though, that with our appartment being the size that it is, our tree might not be much bigger than Charlie Brown's!

More on Pumpkin Carving

My dad supplied me with some great pictures from our pumpkin carving, so I thought I'd add them on...

Here is a side of Danny that you would never expect to see...

You would probably expect it more from Fred and me...
Fred adding on some final touches... And his finished product (I'm sorry if you have a weak stomach).The victims put up a fight... notice their spears in the pumpkins cheeks...

Then here is Biff with her mad pumpkin-carving-skills... (notice Bob in the background)

Here are some we took of ours infront of our appartment:

And last but not least... the coolest picture of them all... the grand finale...

The Art of Carving Pumpkins

Tonight my mom invited us over to carve pumpkins with the fam. I can't remember the last time I carved pumpkins! It was probably just before my mission, but I just don't remember. Last year, about a week after I got home, Danny and I painted pumpkins, but that was as close as we got. So tonight we dug in with Ted and Sarah and my mom and dad.

I was very impressed with Sarah's skills. I wish I had taken a picture of her pumpkin! Maybe I'll get one later. She did a wolf howling under the moon. How cool is that? (Note: the first picture was my dad's pumpkin)

I won't tell you where Ted got his idea from, but he sure did a good job of it!
I also wish I had a final picture of Ted's pumpkin. He poured karo syrup with red food coloring around it's mouth and hands and stuck army guys and starwars figures in it's hands and mouth. It's pretty funny!There are our pumpkins! (missing a few details still...)

One of the best parts of the night... yummy pumpkin seeds!

Putting Religion Back into School

You know when you find yourself getting so caught up in all that has been going wrong rather than what is going well? In the last few weeks it seems like there has been way too much to do in not enough time, and way too much of it wasn't going the way I had hoped. In my first class on Monday we went over our midterms. Unfortunately, it all made sense after we went over it, and I didn't do nearly as well as I had hoped (luckily it doesn't influence our grade as much as I had thought it would). It became just another item on the list of things that were influencing my stress level. I went to my classes with anything but a positive attitude, but that all change when I went into my last class of the day: Human Exceptionality.
Originally I took this class because it counts for two requirements and I figured who cares what class it is...you might as well hit two birds with one stone! But this class has been one of my favorites. It is about people with disabilities (any kind of disability), and how they are capable of living full with the help of family, schools, and the community. My professor is amazing, which I think is, in huge part, due to her passion for helping others. So I get to class, and she announces that we have two guest speakers coming to talk to us about burn trauma. A few minutes later, in walked a woman and her husband. He was missing most of his fingers, had very little hair due to scars, and one of the biggest smiles I've ever seen. They sat down and told us their story, of how sixteen years ago, as he was working at a chemical plant, there was a chemical explosion and he was standing right in front of it.
As they shared their experience, I found myself tearing up. It wasn't so much that it was an emotional or sad story, but more that as he spoke the spirit filled the room. He talked about his first moments after the explosion when he felt an intense loneliness until he turned his thoughts to his Heavenly Father. As he did so, he was filled with an incredible peace, knowing that he would be OK. His wife explained how hard it was for her and her four small children. She continually expressed gratitude for wonderful nurses, doctors, friends, family, and neighbors. People would show up at their house at the moments they felt the lowest. She said on one particularly hard night, her husband was struggling, and she didn't know how to help him, because she too was hurting. So she said a prayer, asking for help, and within a half an hour they heard singing, and as they looked outside, the cubscouts had come by singing Christmas Carols. It was just what they needed to get through the night. She encouraged us to follow promptings we have to help others.
Leonard explained that because of the intense pain, the doctors put him into a medically induced coma for the first 2 months in the hospital. He said that he'll never forget the day he woke up. Because burns covered his arms, his arms were in slings, spread out like airplane wings. As he opened his eyes, the feeling in the room was as that in a church or a temple, and he felt as though if he spread his fingers out even an inch he would touch the robes of his Savior. He compared himself to the man who tells the Footprints poem-that during those hardest times he felt carried through it.
Leonard was one of the most positive people I have ever met. He had an incredible sense of humor, and told his story in such an upbeat and hilarious way. He was blind for the first 10 months, and couldn't work for 19. He laughed at how he'd been "toasted", and joked about how his hands were like hamburger. But he brought a very strong spirit into the room. I was amazed at their presentation.
At one point, out of curiousity, I glanced around to see how others were responding to their references to the Savior. Many of them are not members of the church, and I wondered if they would be offended at this couple's openness, but everyone's eyes were locked on them, completely absorbed in what was being said. It first of all amazed me that he had lived through it all, and second that this couple could share such an incredible story, in a spiritual way, in a university classroom. It is sad to me that so many people (including myself at times) would leave such an important part of their story out because they'd be scared of offending others. It was so uplifting to hear their story. Many people were teary-eyed.
One of the most influential moments for me was when he said "you know, sometimes we get caught up in how bad things are for us. But when we do that, all we have to do is look at how bad someone else has it, and we'll realize that we really have it quite good. I'm alive, have a beautiful wife and wonderful children and grandchildren..." saying he had it good. Wow. All of a sudden I realized just how insignificant a midterm really is and how little everything else that has been going on really matters. I'm alive and have a wonderful husband! I really do have it good. It was definitely what I needed to hear.
I would like to say "thank you" to Leonard and his wife for sharing their amazing experience with our class, and for not leaving out the best parts because people might have been offended. I hope I can follow their example!

May the Astronaut Protect You...

I apologize that this is the third post that mentions our car accidents on a blog that has about five posts, but I've been thinking. Isn't it funny that our accident happened during the time period that our astronaut was MIA? He wasn't there to protect us! There is, however, good news. He's back! Ted was very kind and returned him to us. The story behind this astronaut, Homer Hickam (who could also be called Fred Z Randall A.K.A. Rocketman), starts before I was back from my mission. Ted, my youngest brother found him in the street, picked him up, and found that he fit quite nicely next to the glove compartment opener and it became his home. Look how nicely he fits in. The slot is a perfect size for his body, and his legs hang down so comfortably!

That's where he was when I got home from my mission (about a year ago), and has been there ever since. That is, until we got married and Ted took him from us. And then the accidents began. But as you can see in the pictures, he's back, and the protection has returned. There will be no more rear-ending (I mean to say being rear-ended).

Giddy Up!

I thought I'd give you a taste of just how festive Danny and I (and Spencer) can be on Halloween. I think I've been a cowgirl more than any other costume throughout my lifetime. But I love Halloween costumes! Just wait till this year...Don't we make good cowboys?

Hooray for October!

This is such a great month! There is so much excitement! Not only do we get a whole week off from school, but it's a month full of Halloween fun. My mom has already changed the flower box next to the front door into a fresh grave. Smaller neighborhood children cautiously approach the tombstone, slowly pushing their fingers into the dirt or pushing the toes of the shoes that are poking out at the end of the grave, waiting to see if they feel something... a body? Movement?? Ghosts appear in windows, candy is purchased, costumes are carefully planned. Little purple witches, Frankenstein, and ghosts fill homes and schools. Pumpkins are creatively carved for display and seeds are baked to be eaten. Leaves on trees follow right along as they change from their bright summer greens to golden yellows and fiery reds and oranges, and the fallen leaves crunch under your feet as walk down the street. Flip flops are put away for next year and jackets are taken out from closets. Maybe it's just because I work in an elementary school, but Halloween excitement is in the air!

An Unfortunate ReRun

Have you ever had the feeling of deja vu hit you so hard that it almost knocks you over? Well, it sure hit me yesterday. Literally. I was driving with Danny to drop him off to class in the morning, following behind a campus shuttle, when we got to that loop right above the stadium. As the shuttle was going through the lights were flashing that tracks was coming, so we stopped. I thought the lights were high enough and bells were loud enough to attract peoples' attention, but I guess not. Either that or they were hoping we'd speed through it. I always panic when the bells go off as I'm driving through the loop, thinking that I'm going to get stuck on the track and get hit, so I stopped. The next thing I knew I was thrown into the odd and uncomfortable sensation of being suddently and unvoluntarily jerked forward. My immediate thought was "Wait a minute...didn't this just happen? Is it happening again? You have got to be kidding me." But it was no joke. And it was no ordinary bumper, but rather two huge metal bars across the front of the jeep. Fortunately our rear bumper is still intact. We weren't hit nearly as hard this time, but hard enough to remind me and Danny of the back/neck pain that comes from such situations. I think our shiney new bumper (we got our car back just over a week and a half ago all fixed up and nice) was calling out to other drivers, begging for a scratch. Atleast now (for the moment... hopefully not for long) it's easier to identify in a parking lot full of four door tan/silver colored cars.