Christmas Trees and Missionaries

Not too long ago my dad gave me a stash of pictures from the last year or so. My dad takes tons of great pictures. Sometimes we know he's taking them... and sometimes we don't. Here are some of my favorites from 2007's Christmas tree search. It's a fun tradition. This particular year was a blast. We stopped half-way up and messed around on a frozen river we found. Notice our cool chuyos (beanies) from Peru.

This one is my dad's favorite. Yup... that's me "sitting" down on the ice.

This one is my favorite. It's me taking my brother down. He won't admit it but it happens a lot. :)There we are with our tree! This was fun because it was just after I got home from my mission and right before my brother left.

Since I mentioned missions... here are two more pictures that were in the stash he gave me. This one was in the airport (after probably the longest flight ever) when I got home and got to see my cute nephew Max for first time!

Then just a month and a half or so later when we took T to the airport to head to the Brazil MTC. Fred has definitely changed since last year!

I can't believe that T has already been gone for over a year...

The Last First Day EVER... we hope....

Back to school! It's been an interesting week as we both have started our last semesters. It was so nice sitting there and thinking "This is the last time I'm going to have to go through a syllabus." I only have two classes, so I went in thinking that it would be easy. And it will be easier then last semester... but after going into my second class I realized that it won't be as much as I expected. You know back in third or fifth grade when you had the mean teacher, and you were terrified of her? Yeah. That's how I feel. Imagine the lady from The Incredibles, Edna, that designs the costumes, only a lot meaner telling you that you should not expect to get an A in her class. I had spent the morning at work, and there was some drama (well, a lot of it) with some of the middle schoolers so I left a couple of minutes late for class. Usually, you walk in to class, the professor just keeps talking but hands you a syllabus and you sit down. No biggie. Well, not Edna. I opened the door maybe 5 minutes late to make sure it was the right classroom, and she stopped what she was saying to give me the harshest crusty I've ever received. She just stood there waiting for me to walk in. Her name was on the board so unfortunately I knew it was the right place and couldn't just walk out. She had been speaking in Spanish when I walked in, so when she "who are you???" in a not-very-nice-or-patient voice, I said "Leah Yo...uh... Tyler," almost forgetting that at the U I haven't changed my name, which just made things worse as she gave an even worse look that said "Pathetic. You don't even know your own name." Maybe that's not what she said, but that's what it looked like. So I sat down, luckily spotting a few friends, and continued to listen to her tell us that we are expected to attend all classes, and that things like work, appointments of any kind, and weddings are not acceptable excuses. And as she talked about the tardiness policy in her class, her eyes kept coming back to mine, as if she was trying to burn it into my head that I had made a big mistake. If you leave early then it counts as an absence. I'm sorry Edna, but life happens. Unfortunately she controls the grades. I was told that as long as you get on her good side it's not so bad. I'm off to a bad start.

Anyways, sorry to rant and rave about my class, but it was traumatizing. My other class seems great though. Spanish Civilizations. It kind of feels like... a high school geography class, only in Spanish. I'm excited for it. And even though my first day of my other class wasn't so great, I can't (shouldn't?) complain. It's only one semester, and it doesn't even compare to Danny's class load. I'll just have to find out how to get back onto Edna's good side.

Number 2!

So once again this is a post in honor of the U Football team. Number 2 in the nation! They are even doing a parade downtown in their honor on the 16th! And the MUSS is invited to walk in it. How many times has Salt Lake had a parade? Well, they always do on the 24th... but they do that every year. Ranking that high is a first for the U. They'll also be spotlighted during halftime of one of the basketball games. They deserve it. I don't think there was anyone who, at the beginning of the season thought "I'll bet that the U makes it to the top five this year." They definitely surprised a lot of people by coming that far! Way to go Utes.

By the way, these are pictures from the U vs BYU game...that was such a great game...

Oh, and during the bowl game, the announcers commented that the Utes had the highest record of fans rushing the field after the game...

Reunions!

It was a fun weekend as I got to see two great friends... First of all, Spiffy (AKA Kristen) got home from her mission. We all went to Sparkle's house for a fun little reunion. She looks great and sounds like had a wonderful mission! So here we are: Jenn, Spiffy, Splash, Hoopz, and Giddy.
Then I got to hang out with Hermana Christensen. She was my last companion, and my only North American companion in the field. We were only together for a month and a half, but it was a blast. We had a lot of random fun as we worked, doing a lot of goofy things that the native companions just didn't seem to understand. Like using squirt guns that were in the shapes of soda pop cans with labels like "Spirit" instead of "Sprite." Or fully enjoying a box of nerds. And because we were the first gringa missionaries in Ayacucho we had special soccer jerseys made that said "Las Gringas Ayacuchanas" on the front with numbers 1 and 2 on the backs with our last names. All of my areas were cool, and I had a lot of great companions, but my one transfer in Ayacucho was definitely unique to the rest! We had a blast remembering all the great experiences we had in Ayacucho and all the awesome people we met and taught.

Good times were had in Ayacucho!

13 and 0!!!

All I can say is... GO UTES! Was that not a great game?? Danny and I went out to Mom and Dad Young's house for gyoza/sugarbowl game, which was both delicious and surprising. We definitely were not expecting that first quarter, and it was obvoius that Alabama didn't either! It was a great way to end the season and show up all those cocky sports analizers that said that we didn't belong in the BCS. So once again ... Go Utes!!!

More Christmas Excitement...

Before starting this post, I want to mention one of the very most exciting things that we found out about on Christmas... Danny's brother and his wife are expecting!!! We are so excited for them. Their announcement definitely made Christmas all the more exciting.

So with that said, I want to mention one more great Christmas tradition. As I said that Danny was thrown into the family through marching bands and dropping clothes pins from his nose, the Youngs have their own fun Christmas Eve tradition... the nativity! Everyone dresses up and as Danny's dad read we acted it out. With Spencer and Andrea's new exciting news, they fit perfectly in the role of Mary and Joseph. Cute Jackson, who's not so little anymore, was the baby Jesus, and ran around with a hook in his hand making slashing noises. Uncle Joe, Danny, and I were the wisemen in our awesome robes given to us at our wedding luncheon by Natalie for this specific purpose. We've had them safely gaurded and were excited to be able to get them out! Here's a picture of the whole gang in all of our Christmas glory. I hope Natalie doesn't mind that I stole the picture from her blog...

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...