Last Night in Utah

I'm now back in sunny San Diego and have to admit I am missing Utah. We had such a fun week with our families, its always hard coming back home knowing it will be awhile before we can visit them again. On our last night in Utah we went to the Gardner Village for dinner, partly to say bye to everyone and also to celebrate Jake and Brittney's third-year anniversary. We had a lot of fun, and the food was amazing. We just wanted to thank everyone for the awesome trip, we had a blast and can't wait until we can visit again (hopefully after the snow is gone).

Fella's Festivus

We were actually in town this year for the Annual Festivus Party. Tyler has remained very close with the guys he went to high school with and ever year they get together for a fun Christmas party. Last night we met at Red Robin for a great dinner and then headed over to Andu's for dessert. Below are just a few pictures from the evening.

Jack, Nick and Josh

Peezly (I'm probably spelling it wrong), Adam and Chris

Ryan, Adam, Jack, Josh, Eric, Peezly, Tyler, Nick and Chris
Chris, Kathy, Katherine, Diana and Ashley

Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve is a day we usually spend with Tyler's family. That evening we gather together with all of his extended family and have a great party. They put on a talent show and have tons of yummy snacks. It's always a great time. On Christmas morning we spend at Tyler's family where we open presents and have a wonderful brunch (somthing I look forward to every year). We played with our new toys and had a great time.

Later in the afternoon we head down to my brother Mark's to celebrate with my side of the family. This year was strange not having my parents around, but we still had a great time. Little Trevor received a remote controlled helicopter from Santa, it was the hit of the day. My brothers Mark and Doug played with it all day, I'm not sure if Trevor even got his turn. We spent the afternoon opening presents and hanging out. Nicole and Natalie prepared a yummy dinner and salad.

Last year on my trip to Germany I got Tyler this great sweater. At the time Doug also bought one, I didn't think much of it and never thought it would be an issue since they live in different states. So, we were all surprised when we showed up and they were wearing the same thing! They look like twins!

Our family is kind of bad at getting professional pictures done, but we do try to get a family picture taken every Christmas. After we left Mark's house we headed straight to Tyler's grandparents house. Tyler and Laurel have been working hard to put together something nice for Grandpa. They have put together an amazing plaque to show Grandpa's awards during his time in the Air Force. We're also working on a plaque that will be put on the Veterans Memorial at Mt Soledad (La Jolla, CA). It was an amazing night and Grandpa was really blown away. He is such a remarkable man and it was a pleasure to do something to honor all his service.

Snow Days

Last night we went to dinner with my family to our favorite restuarant, Johnny Carino's. We had a great time there, and I want to wish Doug congratulations again for his new job as bank manager at US Bank. After dinner we went back to Rob's house with the intent to watch movies but ended up playing Scene It: Friends instead. We, or at least Natalie and I, had a great time.

Tyler and I were a little worried about how Charlie would adjust to all the snow here in Utah. He is so used to the sunny weather of San Diego. Luckily, he loves it! At first he was a little timid, and tip-paw (tip-toe) around, but once he got use to it we can't keep him away. He loves to jump around, dig, and just have a good time. Whenever we take a walk he prefers to walk in the snow instead of the street, and he still loves to play fetch in the snow. I think he would play fetch anywhere, anytime.
Here is a video of Charlie playing Fetch at the local elementary.

Utah Trip...Day 1

We finally made it home to Utah! We were planning on making the 11-12 hour drive in one day, however the weather had other plans for us. We ended up staying the night in St. George and driving the rest of the way on Saturday. Our first stop was at my brother Rob's so his lovely wife could cut my hair. Anyway, we spent a nice time visiting with them and then met up with my other brother Doug for lunch at one of our favorite places...Crown Burger. I really enjoyed seeeing my brothers and sis-in-law, whenever I am around them I realize how much I miss spending time with them. After lunch Ty and I headed to his parents house, where we will be staying this week. Their dog Porter was SO excited to see Charlie, he could hardly contain himself. We spend a nice afternoon visiting with family and getting settled in.

Tonight we celebrated Grandma Hart's 80th birthday. Donna Mae is an amazing lady, she is Tyler's grandma on his fathers side. She has always been so welcoming and we always enjoy our visits with her. Below are some fun pictures from her celebration dinner. Her kids planned an amazing party for all her family and friends. They had a nice program which included a great movie of Grandma's life. I'm so glad that we made it into town in time for this.

Birthday Girl (DonnaMae) Tyler and Kathy

Brooke, Kathy and Tyler

Happy Birthday Gradma!

A Disney Christmas

On a previous post I showed our recent trip to Disneyland. Ty's family comes down ever year over Halloween to visit Disneyland, this year we bought 3-day passes but were only able to go for 2 days. Since we had the extra day we decided to go up on Saturday to see all the Christmas decorations. We invited our good friends Resh, Lindsey and Owen to come along, I'm so glad they were able to come. We had a blast hanging out, and I especially loved Lindsey's stroller pass, I was able to go on all the rides twice!

The Disney tree is just amazing, I can't imagine how many lights and decorations they use to fill up this entire tree. It looks so pretty at night when all the lights are on, and they even have fake snow that falls over Main St.

Lindsey, Resh and Owen. Owen is the sweetest thing, he was so good the entire day, and is just the cutest little guy.

This didn't turn out great, but Main St looks amazing at night. I love all the cute Christmas decorations throughout the park. I forgot (conveniently) my coat and it was so cold, so Ty bought me my cute blue Mickey jacket.

Charlie Update

It has been awhile since I've blogged about Charlie. Charlie came into our lives in March 2008, at a lovely 10 weeks of age. He wieghed a little under 1 pound. He was (is) so adorable. It's hard to picture him as small as he used to be. I wish I would have taken more photos and videos. Owell.

About nine months later and Charlie has reached his full size (hopefully). He weighs about nine pounds and is still adorable.

This is Charlie in his Christmas coat, my parents gave him for his trip to Utah. Charlie has never seen snow, or experienced cold weather, so it will be interesting bringing him home for Christmas.

North Carolina

I spent last week with my parents in North Carolina, visiting my parents on their mission. It was such a great experience. Tyler asked me if my parents were different as missionaries, and honestly I couldn't tell that much difference. They have always been a great example to me and really lived the gospel, so being missionaries was a very easy transition for them. They are living in Whiteville, NC or as the locals like to pronounce it "why-it-ville". They love their little branch and are having a good time getting to know everyone there.

My parents really planned a fun trip for me. We went all over N. Carolina, and we were able to see so many cool places. Our first day we spent in Raleigh, which was beautiful. We also went to Fort Fisher, Southport, Willmington and of course Whiteville. Below is a picture of the capital, the N. Carolina Temple, the Govenors Mansion, the Bellamy Mansion, Fort Fisher and the battleship N. Carolina.

On Sunday my parents were asked to speak in Church. I was excited to be in town on a Sunday where they would be speaking. I got a nice front row seat and was eagerly awaiting them to begin when the branch president came up and asked if I would mind sharing my testimony as well. How could I say no? I don't care for public speaking, but it actually went okay. Luckily, it is a small branch and everyone was super nice so I wasnt quite as nervous as I normally am to speak in Church. I was kind of grateful for the opportunity to share my testimony and glad that I have one to share. I know I need to more often, so I was happy that they asked me to speak.
Here are just a few pictures from their missionary apartment. All their furniture is from the mission home, including the double beds. Its actually a really cute place, a little old, but nice. The quilt they are holding is one I made for my Pop right before I went out there.

Okay, one of the most amazing things I saw in N. Carolina was the cotton fields. I never really thought much about cotton before and so I was kind of blown away with it. I made my Pop pull over so I could pick some, and it is just amazing. What a blessing from Heaven that we have cotton growing on bushes. Doesn't it look like snow?
I really wanted to find an amazing barn photo to have my mother-in-law paint for me. Below are a few that we found, but I don't know if any of them were really what I had in mind.

We went looking for alligators, which are really popular in the area. Unfortunately, it was too cold so all I saw were turtles! There were so many of them, I couldn't believe it.
Below is a collage of this really cool swamp area near my parents house. I wish I had been there a few weeks earlier when the leaves were changing.

I'm so glad I was able to spend this time with my parents. It is nice being able to picture the people and places my Mom is always telling me about. They are wonderful missionaries and I know that their branch is so happy to have them there.

Twilight: The Movie

If you haven't seen the movie yet, you might not want to read this review.

Tyler and I saw Twilight Wednesday night, finally. I've had mixed feelings about seeing the movie. As most of you know, I absolutely loved the book. I still remember a year ago when my friend Jessica sent me an email telling me that I had to read this book about vampires called "Twilight". I went out that day and bought the book, and finished it that night. Movie's are never as good as the book, and they usually end up changing everything anyway. I haven't been too excited about the casting, and really just thought they would ruin the whole thing.

Luckily, I ended up liking the movie. It reminded me why I originally liked Bella. She is normal, not some angry teenager, despite the fact that her parents are divorced and she is moving to a town she hates. I like that she isn't angry at her Father, and is appreciative of the things that he does for her. It seems like teenagers are always shown as ungrateful, angry and self-absorbed. Also, often times in movies the heroin is just unbelievable, amazing at everything, a fighter, etc. Bella is clumsy but confident. She is a normal girl and easy to relate to. After seeing the movie I really liked the casting of Bella. I think Kristen Stewart was a great a Bella.

I still have mixed feelings about the casting of Edward. Personally, I don't think Robert Pattinson is that attractive. At least, he doesn't match the very handsome Edward that I had pictured. After discussing it with Tyler, who actually really liked the movie, I've decided that Robert did a good job portraying Edward. He and Kristen had good chemistry together and actually look pretty good as a couple.

As for the other casting, for the most part I was happy with everyone else. The only complaint I really had was with Jasper. I felt the casting there was way off, he didn't look like the Jasper I had pictured at all. And, did he even have any lines? I can't remember even hearing him speak? The other thing I will mention is that fact that Edward in the movie seems to like climbing trees. I've read the book a bunch but can't remember that being one of his talents. I thought that was a bit cheesy and should have been left out. He isn't a monkey.

So, overall, I did like the movie and hear it's even better the second time around. If I'm lucky I can talk Tyler into taking me again this weekend. We'll see.

Eight Things About Me

8 FAVORITE T.V. SHOWS:
1. The Office
2. Biggest Loser
3. Smallville
4. LOST
5. Heroes
6. Chuck
7. The Bonnie Hunt Show
8. So You Think You Can Dance

8 FAVORITE RESTAURANTS
1. Chili’s
2. Olive Garden
3. Cheesecake Factory
4. Blue Plate Diner (Rhode Island)
5. Vinny’s (Virginia)
6. Blue Moose (North Dakota)
7. Claim Jumper
8. Original Pancake House

8 THINGS THAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY: (Saturday, November 15th)
1. Took a walk with Charlie and Ty
2. Went to The Grubbery for breakfast
3. Went to the library
4. Went to Wal Mart
5. Played Mario Kart
6. Cleaned the kitchen
7. Went to the movie Eagle Eye
8. Ate a hot fudge sundae

8 THINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TO:
1.Thanksgiving
2. My trip to North Carolina
3. Trip home to Utah for Christmas
4. Christmas presents (I know its not about the presents, but I do love ‘em)
5. Teaching Charlie to sneeze on command (he is starting to pick it up)
6. The Twilight movie
7. My five year wedding anniversary
8. Baby

8 THING I LOVE ABOUT FALL:
1. The leaves changing color
2. Wearing sweaters
3. Holidays
4. Spending extra time with family
5. School supplies
6. Looking forward to the next year
7. Quilting
8. Hot Chocolate

8 THINGS ON MY WISH LIST:
1. Baby
2. Seeing family
3. Visiting my Parents, and them having a successful mission
4. Piano
5. New living room set
6. New lense for my D50
7. Baby
8. Travel to Hawaii, Australia, and Alaska

8 PEOPLE I TAGGED:
1. Natalie
2. Christin
3. Jessica
4. Jill
5. Shannon
6. Jamie
7. Stephanie
8. Brittney

Happy Birthday Marines!

Last night we celebrated the 233rd birthday of the United State Marine Corps. We had a lot of fun, and the dinner was great. Brig. General Salinas, the base commander, made a few comments and also the guest of honor a retired Lt. General spoke some encouraging words.

Tyler, Kathy, Patty and Cody

Kathy, Liz and Patty
Medal of Honor winner (I'll get his name later) and Tyler

Greg, John, Mike, James, Dave and Tyler

Me and Ty

It's a bird, It's a plane....It's Superman!

Okay, I'll be the first to admit, I'm a huge nerd. I absolutely love Superman (he could kick Edward's butt). I thought it was about time that I did a post about my all-time favorite superhero. Today, Tyler surprised me with a 4-disc collection of the Superman movies. You see, the past few weeks I have been trying to catch up on the TV show Smallville. It's all I talk about lately, maybe that's because I'm watching so many episodes back-to-back, but I love it. Tyler thought it would be a fun surprised to get me the movies, and he was right. I've only seen the first two, and I know they are cheesy but I still can't wait to watch them.

A couple years ago they released a new movie, "Superman Returns". I thought it was a great movie, except for a few things, I really enjoyed it. It was actually this movie that made me want to re-watch the older ones. From my understanding, "Superman Returns" is suppose to pick up after the fourth movie? Some of you may remember the TV show "Lois and Clark, the Adventures of Superman". Well, I was hooked on that show as well. I admit, I loved curling up at the foot of my parents bed every Sunday night and watching a fun episode of Lois and Clark. I have purchased all four season, much to Tyler's dismay, and still think it was a fun series, a little cheesy, but good clean fun.

And of course, Smallville. My new favorite TV show. One thing I really like about this show is that for the most part it is really clean. Especially the first four seasons while they were in high school. I found that pretty refreshing. It is a fun take on the Superman story, and I think they did a great job with the casting. I love the Clark (Tom Welling) and Lois (Erica Durance). I can't wait for them to get together.

Anyway, here are a few reasons why I love Superman. He has super strength, super hearing, super fast, super breath, super flying, super x-ray vision, and that just naming a few. He is also super sweet, and is suppose to have super values. In most editions he always makes the right choices and is a great role model.

Ward Christmas Party...any suggestions?

Tyler and I are the activity chair-people for our ward. What that means is that we're in charge of the ward Christmas party. Can I tell you how excited we are? Last year, our ward went all out and had a fun Night in Bethlehem. I've heard it was a great success, but a lot of work. Our ward council has let us know that they would like something a little more simple this year. We're thinking of having a traditional Christmas dinner, and maybe a little program or have someone read the Christmas story. Another idea would be to have breakfast with Santa, which would be a little less stressful, but I think would be a lot of fun. Especially if we could get people to dress up in Christmas PJ's. Anyway, I was wondering if you have any good ideas that would help us out. What have you done in the past? And, if you're like me don't you think a breakfast activity would be fun? I know Christmas morning has always been my favorite. Any suggestions will be gratefully received!

Disneyland 2008

It has become somewhat of a tradition to go to Disneyland on Halloween with Tyler's family. His little sister Brooke loves Halloween and they have been going for quite some time. Luckily, she has invited us along the past few years and I love it. My parents took me once when I was about eight years old and I have fun memories from that trip. Whenever I go now I can't help but think about my first time there as a little girl. It was truly amazing! It is such a fun place for kids, and adults. Below are a few fun pictures from our trip:

Laurel has a great picture of Brody, Barry and Tyler on this cannon when they were little boys. Last year Brittney, Brooke and I did our own version, and this year Tyler and I thought it would be fun to get one with just us.

Here are just a few fun pictures of Tyler and I. We love Disneyland, and I am always reminded when I go there that Tyler is my prince charming!
Disneyland is decorated so cute for Halloween, they have the best decorations. I probably should have taken more pictures. Not only are the decorations cute, but you get to see a lot of fun costumes.
I took a ton of pictures, but these are some of my favorites. We tried to see as much as we could at both California Adventures and at Disneyland. They have amazing rides and so many fun activities to do.

We tried to decide which ride was our favorite, but it seemed to change depending on what ride we just finished. So our top three favorites are:

-Indiana Jones

-Pirates

-Space Mountain

Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal

Congratulation Tyler! Yesterday Tyler received the Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal. This medal is awarded to members in the Armed Forces for performing volunteer community service. I am so proud of Tyler, ever since I have known him he has always done volunteer work, he is always willing to help those around him and genuinely loves people and lending a helping hand. Tyler received this award for his work coaching little league football, being a scoutmaster, teaching Sunday school and also doing pro bono legal work. Keep in mind that Tyler did all things things, among many others, while working and going to law school. Tyler is the best and no one deserves this award more. Again, I am beaming with pride, I love you so much!

Below are the requirements:
1) be to the civilian community, to include the military family community
2) be significant in nature and produce tangible results
3) reflect favorably on the Military Service and the Department of Defense
4) be of a sustained and direct nature.