Merry Christmas!
Friday, December 25th, 2009
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men.”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men.”
We went skiing for the first time this year (and Whittney’s first time ever) last week. It was the perfect day—sun, snow, and Saturday. Whittney did amazing for her first time, as you can see in this video.


Whittney and I were too lazy busy to actually send out Christmas cards, but we thought we’d still wish you and yours a happy holidays anyway.
And thanks to Bryan for the photography!
I surprised Brett last night with a little after-work adventure. The boy loves anything to do with the outdoors or getting dirty. He was giddy.
It had just rained so the water was a little dirty and quite cold. Needless to say, I was not down with trying it. We’ll go back in a couple weeks when it’s a little warmer and a little less muddy.
This is why we still don’t have people over for dinner. Especially not when I cook.
-Brett
This is how I cook:
and…
.
.
.
this is how Brett cooks.
And that’s why we don’t have people over for dinner.
I was really scared to start a blog and if it weren’t for Brett’s continued insistence it would never have happened. You see, my dirty secret is that I HATE to write. I know, I know that’s really surprising given how much and how often I read. I am horrible at keeping up with correspondence, dreaded writing papers in school and was never really able to keep up with a journal, much to my regret. I guess I just feel that no matter how much I write, I still can’t seem to explain how I really feel by writing it down, as if the pen (or keyboard) is holding me back. Anyway, I was really afraid that if I started a blog it would end up just like my long-abandoned journals of yore - purposely forgotten. So with the attitude of no more regrets, I will put all this silliness behind me and enjoy being able to share all our fun times with the rest of you. You’ll just have to bear with me and my unfortunate love of commas.
Here we go…
Brett and I had the fantastic opportunity to spend Thanksgiving in Ohio with Jake, Ali, Noah and Logan. Brett was so excited he could hardly contain himself and was just about bouncing on his plane seat. It was extra special for me because I had a chance to get to know Jake and Ali better and to be able to see Brett interact with his brother. Brett and Jake really are so much more alike than I would have ever guessed and so much like Gary. We had such an amazing time and were really heartbroken to have to leave them. While we were there we went to the Bodies Exhibition (absolutely amazing!), the Columbus Zoo, and Historic Kirtland among other places. We loved everything about Ohio and see why Jake and Ali love it so much.
Noah is fascinated with airplanes and “big jets”, so adorable and so much fun!
Brett and Noah hanging out.
Me and Noah at the zoo watching the manatees. I love those fat, ugly monsters.
Kirtland Temple
Driving across Ohio - Isn’t he cute?
A week after we got back was my 24th birthday and Brett had some tricks up his sleeve for the occasion. First he surprised me with a massage to enjoy while he was at work (I stayed home that day) then when he got home he told me to pack a bag for the night and we were off. We had dinner at The Roof overlooking the snow falling on Temple Square and downtown SLC and then spent the night at the Hotel Monaco. It was so great to just get away and relax for a little while. He also got me my first pair of snow shoes! Now I’m not a big snow person. In fact, I hate the snow. I am happiest in t-shirts and flip-flops on a sunny day and this really upsets my cold-blooded, downhill-skiing, abominable-snowman husband. BUT I am honestly super excited to start snowshoeing (how do you spell that?). I’ll try anything and I think it will be something fun for the two of us to be able to get away and do together. And I will definitely be posting pictures of my first time. Those should be some real-nice shots of me on my face!
Dinner at The Roof
Enjoying the snow storm and the Christmas lights.
The next night we went out for sushi (our favorite food) with my parent’s to celebrate my mom’s, Brett’s and my birthdays, all in December! We also got our first Christmas tree! Brett really wanted to go cut one down but we just didn’t have time so that’s on our to-do list for next year.
Our very first Christmas tree!
After almost a month of keeping everyone in breathless anticipation of our inaugural post, here I am at the computer ready to type away. Except that I find I have absolutely no idea what to say. Brett is definitely the funny one in the family so I guess that leaves me the smart one?
We have finally finished putting away the majority of all our “stuff”. For those of you who don’t know, we just moved from Draper to American Fork last weekend. Neither one of us can believe how much junk we have already accumulated in our 9.5 months of marriage. And yes, Brett is still holding on to his duct tape pants despite my insistence on throwing them away. We’re pretty happy with our new place considering we have doubled the size of living space AND saved several hundred dollars a month. I guess that’s what you get for downgrading to Utah County, no offense. We’ll let you know how the neighbors turn out and what we think of the ward in the next couple of weeks. I’m sure it will be interesting.
It’s four minutes to ten o’clock right now and Brett is quite insistent that we are still going to go to Wal-mart tonight. Ever since playing Guitar Hero at Katie and Justin’s he has been absolutely obsessed with getting one when they come out for the Wii (our machine of choice). So it came out last week but we’ve been waiting til payday to get it. It is our Christmas present after all. So guess what today was? That’s right, payday. To his credit he does try to stay calm when he talks about it. Every once in a while though, he gives it away with a little giggle to himself and I know he is imagining himself on his knees wailing on his guitar. I am going to do whatever it takes to get a picture of him acting like the ten-year old I know is buried down in there.