O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree!

After much debate, we decided to go with a fake Christmas tree this year. Not as fun, but we have plans to go out of town and so we didn't want to have to have anyone come water it while we're gone. Anyway, here's our finished product. We like it. :)

**Clarification** When I said we were going out of town, that did not mean that we were going out of town for Christmas. Just between now and Christmas. (Is that better, Eric?) :)

Another First

So this week seems to be the week of firsts. The first time keys were locked in the car. And today, the first time that my car got stuck in the snow. Literally. Stuck. I arrived a little late to church this morning thanks to the fluffy white stuff. Our church has almost no parking, although usually I can find a space. However, due to the snow, people often forget how to correctly park in a parking lot, and so I was forced to park on the street.

Connor stayed home sick today so it was just me all by my lonesome. When church was over, I came out and walked through the deep snow to my car. I got there, turned on my car, tried to drive forward, and nothing. Uh oh. Then I tried to go backward, and I was able to move a little bit. Forward, backward, forward, backward. Anytime I would get relatively close to the road, my car would literally slide in the opposite direction.

After several minutes of trying, I gave up. I called Connor and told him I was stuck and needed help. He came with a shovel and literally shoveled me out. He's so sweet. :) After several minutes, he finally was able to help me break free.

(I want to know, why did no one from the ward who saw that I was stuck in the snow offer any help? It was pretty obvious.)

Anyway, that wasn't fun. Hopefully that doesn't happen again. If I hadn't had to teach today I probably just would have turned around and gone home, to be honest. However, it was all for the best and I'm pretty lucky to have such a sweet husband to come and save the day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This has been a memorable Thanksgiving for us. Aside from being our first Thanksgiving together (as a married couple), it turned out to be an interesting day. I successfully made a chocolate cream pie, sweet potatoes, and pink stuff (cool whip, cherry pie filling, and crushed pineapple). That's the most that I've ever made for Thanksgiving. I was pretty concerned about the sweet potatoes, but thanks to my mom's help they turned out pretty well.

The exciting event of the night was when we were about to leave. We went outside to put the food in the car and Connor turned the car on so that we could warm it up a little since it was like 15 degrees outside (unfortunately, not exaggerating). Connor left the key in the ignition, locked the car, and took his car remote with him as we went back inside to say goodbye to everyone. Well, when we returned to the car, the remote wouldn't work. The light was flashing on the remote, but we could not get the door to open. We tried to change the battery, but that wouldn't work either. After about 15 minutes, I called the local police to see if they would come open the car for us. Well, apparently they don't do it unless there is an animal or a child in the car. So then I tried to call a 24 hour locksmith (dreading how much this might cost us), and no one would answer. We even called the emergency line, and no answer. Then Connor had the idea that we should call our insurance company 'cause he thought they would cover it. Great idea! I called Progressive (nice plug for them) and since we do have Roadside Assistance on both of our cars, it was completely covered! Yay!

They told us that they would be there in about 30 minutes. It did take the guy a little longer to get to us, but it is Thanksgiving. Poor people that have to work on Thanksgiving. He came and had the car open within a few minutes. It was SO COLD outside but it was interesting to see how he got it open. We gave him 5 bucks for his help and coming out on Thanksgiving. Thank goodness some people work on Thanksgiving because we would have been in big trouble.

This Thanksgiving I am grateful for many things. I have a great husband, family, friends, job, etc. Life is good. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Virginia

This last week Connor and I went to Virginia! It was really fun to go back and show Connor where I grew up, and spend some time with my family. Connor had never been to that part of the country so we went around and saw some of the local sights as well.

We went to Arlington National Cemetery where we saw my Grandma Byrd's grave, along with some other really neat things. The Changing of the the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns was really interesting. They have that all coordinated so well, its amazing.

Connor loves Seinfeld so I thought it would be fun for him to see the Seinfeld Puffy Shirt that's on display at the Smithsonian. So we went to the Museum of American History and it wasn't even there! They had taken it off exhibit. I was disappointed that it wasn't there, but we still got to see some cool things.

Me with Dorothy's ruby slippers. I loved the Wizard of Oz when I was a kid.

Actually, I still love the Wizard of Oz.

It got dark around 5:00 so we got to see a lot of the sights at night which was really pretty.

We got some nice photos.

Some nice mennonite girls took this of us at the WWII memorial.

You can't tell, but we are standing in front of the Utah part of the memorial.

In front of the DC temple. It looks like my hair is doing something crazy,

but its actually the water fountain behind my head.

Since jetBlue flies directly from JFK to Salt Lake, we decided to drive up to JFK from VA instead of flying there with a 12 hour layover. We decided to rent a car and drive up. It was a really nice drive until we got to New York and got stuck in all the lovely New York traffic. It's hard to see in the photo the full extent of the traffic. I guess it could have been worse, though.

It was a really nice trip. I just wish I had gotten a picture with my mom and grandpa in it as well. Oh well. Maybe next time!

Happy Nine Month-iversary!

Today Connor and I have been married for 9 months. It's amazing that the time has passed so quickly. I'm sure that if anyone's reading this who has been married for much longer than we have will think that's not much, but it's big for us! :) Anyway, here are some of my favorite photos of what we've done over the last 9 months.

Technically this one was taken before we got married, or even engaged, but I really like it.

Wedding Day

Leaving the reception.

Honeymooning

With our easter baskets

Connor had a UFDA (Utah Funeral Directors Association) convention at the Energy Solutions Arena and we were able to go down on the court and play around a little.

This is when my mission president and his wife got home and we went to their homecoming.

In front of a pretty waterfall in Oregon.

This was one of our bridals/groomals. I just really like this photo.

Happy Nine Month-iversary to us!