Hoover Dam

January 2 we left Layton, stopped in Lehi to caravan with Gramma J--Paul went in her car and Glenn and I were in the CR-V.  We drove down to St. George and spent the night at her house there.  Audrey and Lane had also come down and were spending the night there too, so we had another fun night of family and games.  We had dinner together and played Qwirkle, Fantasy Forest and Dominoes.  It was a fun evening.

The next morning Gramma J wanted us to stay and visit longer.  We wanted to, but we had a long way to go.  And Glenn was really struggling to breath.  She has a cat and Glenn's allergies was making it really difficult for him to be comfortable.  Sorry Gramma!  We sure loved spending the time that we could with you!  We love you and are grateful you opened up both your homes to let us stay with you!

One of the fun things about driving to and from Utah from Texas has been the opportunity to see things along the way.  We took the fast way going there, but because Paul had some extra vacation days from work, we decided to make the most of it.  We took a slight detour over into Nevada to see Hoover Dam.  

Leftovers of December 2014

Before heading to Utah, we opened a gift from Grandpa Dennis and Grandma Robyn.  It was a huge Generation Map.  It's incredible the work they've done in connecting so many of their ancestors!

Tree House Children's Museum

On December 30th, we braved the very cold, very windy day to meet Lena and her kids at the Treehouse Children's Museum in Ogden.  Before leaving, Glenn and Paul helped with some snow shoveling.  Again, I watched from inside.  It was too cold for me!  The temperature was in the low teens and the wind was blowing at 24 mph with gusts up to 50 mph!  Brr!  We could see the snow blowing off the tops of the mountains when we were inside the building.

Paul's Birthday

Sunday was Paul's birthday.  After church I made grilled cheese sandwiches on Mom's new griddle.  It was a lot easier making several sandwiches at the same time!  Cheryl came up in the afternoon and spent the day with us, playing games and talking.  That evening we had a few other guests.  We also invited Clarisse and her family to come, but weren't sure if they would make it.  Clarisse was having some pregnancy pains, but they eventually came.  Before they did, our best friends, the Jardines, stopped by.  They were on their way south from Logan.  Since we hadn't heard from Clarisse at that point, we invited them to have dinner with us.  So then when Clarisse's family did arrive, we had a full house and a great dinner party!

Games and White Elephant Party

On Saturday the 27th, we had a scheduled game day at Mom and Dad's.  We didn't get started as early as we all would've liked, but that's how it goes.  We did get in a few games though and that was fun.  Paul, Kirsta and Morian played Dominion in the front room.

The Day after Christmas

The day after Christmas was a good, lazy day.  We played games, relaxed on the couch, read and lounged most of the day.  

Anyone remember the game Mall Madness?  Well we still had it in and Glenn wanted to play.  After digging out the old and rusted batteries, Dad was able to get the game working again.  We were so excited!  Hearing "Attention Mall Shoppers, there is a clearance..." brought back so many memories!  It was a lot of fun!

Christmas Day

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

Christmas Eve

After spending the morning and afternoon in Provo, we headed north to Clarisse's house to spend Christmas Eve with them and Cheryl. Glenn had fallen asleep in the car so when we brought him into the house he was still kind of sleepy.  His cousins, Evelyn and Felicity, wanted to play but he wasn't quite ready.  They climbed on him and gave him kisses and got right in his face.  He isn't used to that, but he took it well.

Dogs to Dawgs and Everything in Between

After going to Temple Square with Kirsta and her family, we headed down to Provo.  We spent the night at my other sister's apartment.  Sirie and Spencer let us hang out at their house for a couple of nights while we visited with them and with Kirsta's family more.  

Sirie and Spencer have two cute dogs--Lily and Twix.  It was a lot of fun to have them around.  We like dogs--from afar.  I don't know if we'll ever own a dog or if we'll just enjoy our friends' and neighbors' and family members' pets.  But it was certainly fun being around these two dogs for a couple of days.

Temple Square with Kirsta's family

A few days after going to Temple Square with my parents, Kirsta asked if we wanted to go there with her family.  Sure!  We made a fun date out of it and got to see different things, making it worth the second trip.

As we were driving down to Salt Lake again, we got to view a beautiful sunset.  I love the sunsets in Utah!  I don't know if it's because of the mountains or what, but they are gorgeous to me!

Snow!

December 15th we left the nice warm weather of Austin and drove to Utah, spending the night in Albuquerque on the way up.  We saw little bits of snow here and there, but really only dusting.  Glenn had been looking forward to Utah and the possibility of snow.  A couple days after getting there, Glenn woke me up, excited to show me that it had snowed!!  He and Paul went out and played in it.  I however, stayed inside and took pictures of them from the warmth of the house.

Temple Square and Anniversary Dinner

My parents' anniversary is December 17th.  We were in Utah by that time and got to spend the evening with them.  We went down to Temple Square in Salt Lake City.  My parents did sealings in the Salt Lake Temple while we walked around and looked at the lights.

December in Texas

Even though we knew we were traveling to Utah for Christmas, we still wanted to set up some decorations at our home.  Glenn wanted to help set up the tree this year.

SeaWorld's Christmas Celebration

December 6th, we headed down to San Antonio to go to SeaWorld's Christmas Celebration.  

Everything Else in November

November came and went so quickly, it seemed.  We had fun days and fun moments throughout the month.  Here's a sample of what we did!

Happy Mo-vember.  I think that's what it was called at least.  For some reason November was mustache month and several of Paul's friends were growing a mustache.  Paul had just gotten started when he had to shave it off.  Why?  He was called into the Bishopric in our ward and can't have facial hair.  So his mustache didn't last long...

And here's a snapshot of the new Bishopric of our ward.

Mark Christenson. Bishop Aldridge. Paul.

Fun with Neighbors

We really are grateful for our wonderful neighbors all around us in our apartment complex.  There really are great people everywhere!

We've recently met another neighbor and he and Glenn have become fast friends.  Caleb is an only child as well, is 6 and is similar to Glenn.  They play so well together and have such fun!  One day they were outside having adventures, collecting treasures and having a blast.  It was one of our chilly days we've had here and I had them come in and enjoy some hot chocolate. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year for Thanksgiving we spent with several friends from our ward.  We all signed up to bring different dishes, so it was a fun combination of traditional dishes from each of our families.

Our friends the Denson's hosted the event.  We also had the Fairbanks, the Breinholt's, Uncle Bob (of the Denson's), and Paul's co-worker and his friend.  So 11 adults and 5 kids.  

A New Car!

Paul and I had been thinking about buying another car for a while...But we didn't really put a lot of thought or work into it until the last month or so.  We decided that we wanted another car that was bigger than our Civic, especially in the storage area.  That wasn't hard to do because our hybrid Civic has only 12 cubic feet of storage.  So...we then decided that we wanted a small SUV.

We test drove many different models but ultimately we liked the Honda CR-V the best and felt most comfortable in it.  After doing research into the price and the year and all that, we decided that the one we test drove was the one we wanted.  We went back to the dealership the next morning--the first customers in the door--and asked for the guy who helped us the previous night-Justin.  He wasn't in yet, but Aaron was willing and able to help us.  We started walking toward the desk where they keep all the keys and we were telling him about the car we drove--the make and year and I even remembered part of the stock number!  As I was saying it, another guy was walking away from the desk and started saying it with me--because he was taking the car out right now for a test drive.  Wait what?!  He had gotten a request to drive it last night but the guy had to postpone it to the next morning.  So he was about to take it out.  

Our hearts sank.

We were definitely nervous, but Aaron said not to worry.  He had a good feeling for us.  We wanted to believe him, but we weren't sure.  We didn't want to go through the entire process all over again.  Not that it was the only car in the world for us, but it was nice that it was what we wanted at a good price and here in Austin.  So we got started with paperwork and getting into the system and all that.  It seemed like the others were gone a long time, but I'm sure they weren't.  When they returned, Aaron got the keys from them and was not going to let anyone else have them.

It was going to be ours!

So we sighed a huge sigh and finished all the paperwork.  Then I wrote the biggest check I've ever written--but it sure felt good to pay with cash!  And it was ours!  We finally had another car!

Happy Halloween

I can't believe how quickly the month of October passed.  It seemed to come and go so fast!

It also was a pretty warm month.  I am used to Utah weather--so it's definitely not summer anymore and it's autumn.  Not so much in Texas.  It was still so warm that some of our window clings melted!

October Extras

October was a fun-filled month!  We had a good time watching Joanie while daddy helped their family move to a new apartment.