Christmas Time Tag

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Definitely Hot Chocolate. Although on rare occasion I don't mind a swig of Egg Nog.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Wrapped. Everything was wrapped. Our stocking gifts were wrapped. After we opened everything we had a huge mound of wrappings that our cats used to love playing in.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Colored. We have white on decorations but outside and on tree definitely colored. More christmasey:)

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No. Humm...where do you get some of that?

5. When do you put up your decorations? The weekend after Thanksgiving.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Well I love ham and potatoes, and homemade anything. I love food!

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? As a family on Christmas eve we would drive to the Layton park and see the lights. While we were driving we would try and find Rudolph's nose. Of course any red blinking light we swore was Rudolph.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? Oh sad I still remember this. I wanted to know for sure and my parents told me. I was really sad.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yes. We would open one gift from our siblings. That was fun. I still remember one Christmas we gave my little sister Jamie some type of art thing that was supposed to raise when you paint it. Sounds cool right?? but Jamie being 5 or so had the saddest little face. We tried to hype it up but to no avail. I still feel bad...we should have gone with a doll.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? We get a real tree every year. My mom loves the smell and I do too. So this year I convinced Daron of the importance of a real tree. I think I've converted him. We decorate with colored lights, thin tinsel, and any ornaments we have. We hide the not so pretty ones in the back.

11. Can you ice skate? Yes. But I get bored. Something about going around in circles doesn't thrill me. Ba humbug!

12. Do you remember your favorite gift? When asked what I wanted to be when I grew up I would answer ...a cashier. I thought they were the coolest. One year I received a toy cashier box with fake food and a scanner and everything. I took out food from our cupboards and started scanning. I loved it.

13. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Being surrounded by the people I love. I love attending many holiday festivities with my wonderful husband. We had a blast this year. And Of course the celebration of Jesus Christ. I enjoy singing in the church choir for our Christmas performance.

14. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? So now it's a dessert huh. Well I love my mom's homemade peanut butter cups. Also Daron received some chocolate, Carmel pretzels...so good!

15. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Growing up my sisters and I would wake up at 5:30 or so and go see our presents out by the tree. We would giggle and whisper. Then we go wake my parents up at 6:00 just to find my dad all ready with a camera waiting for us to jump on their bed. Good times!

16. What tops your tree? Well we didn't have anything this year so we had a bit star ornament that we stuck towards the top of the tree. It looks good.

17. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? I'll admit I really like both. Although this year it's been so fun and fulfilling to be the giver.

18. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Carpenters, chipmunks, Faith Hill, Martina McBride. I like all those holiday albums...oh and of course Bing Crosby...I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

19. Do you feel Christmas is too commercialized? yes, but there is a lot of good too

I tag anyone who would like to do this. It's my first tag and it was kinda fun:)

3 Years...already?!!

It's true Daron and I celebrated our 3rd year anniversary last Wednesday. That day was much like our wedding day three years ago. Cold, a little snowy, and...cold. I tried to find some of our wedding pictures to show how truly cold it was, but I can't seem to find them. Uh oh...that will be my project for next week:) I truly am blessed to have a wonderful husband. We have so much fun together and he keeps me smiling. Here's to another 70 years...or more:)

Upside Down Frown

Frown-
Last Saturday we were sad. Our annual BFF Christmas party in Logan was going on without us because of a ginormous snowstorm that left at least a foot of snow on our front yard between Saturday morning and Sunday night, and is continuing today.

Enter friend with tickets

Upside Down Frown-
Yay! We had a friend call and offer us two tickets to the Jon Schmidt Christmas Concert at Kingsbury Hall. So instead of driving to Logan in a snowstorm, or staying home sad, we were able to see Jon Schmidt, who was as amazing as ever.

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank the Wilsons for their generosity :)

Dates and Nuts

For the past two Fridays, my wonderful wife has taken me on two fantastic dates.

Date #1
This one was a secret, which was a lot of fun because we got to explore Salt Lake City on foot, which is something we haven't done before. Come to find out it was all just to take up some time because we had a couple hours to kill before...The JAZZ game! Yes everyone, my wife got some tickets from a fellow teacher, and took me to the Jazz game. I haven't been to a game in a long time, and it's been even longer since I've been to a game and not sat in the nosebleed section.

Oh, but before the game we were looking for a place to eat. We are not what you would call "connoisseurs of cuisine", so we were just looking for someplace new that looked good. We must've been on the wrong side of town though because every menu we looked at was at least $25/person, unless you wanted to be cheap and pay $15/person for a hamburger. No Thank You! So we found our way back to The Gateway and took whoever had the shortest wait possible, which was Applebee's, and we enjoyed our meal, then the Jazz game!

And the nuts...
We rode trax for the first time that night, and it appeared that some Jazz fans don't hold their booze (not to be confused with Boozer, the guy who sits out because of a sore earlobe) very well. Let's just say it was a very interesting experience, and we'll leave it at that.

Date#2
Yesterday, once again, my wife took me on a date. And once again, she got tickets from a fellow teacher. And once again...ok, we didn't go to a Jazz game this time, but our date was more fitting for the season. We went to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square Christmas concert. It's amazing how they turn the Conference Center into a performance hall, full of fancy decorations, a stage for dancers, and they even had our own Davis High bell choir (along with some other bell choirs). The decorations were beautiful and the music was incredible! The Choir sang with Brian Stokes Mitchell, whom we've seen twice now this year (last time was at A Capitol 4th concert in Washington DC), and they had Edward Herrmann share Longfellow's Christmas (the story behind "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day") and the Christmas story from Luke 2. I recommend that if any of you have a chance to see Motab's Christmas concert that you take the opportunity. It's worth it!

Our House, in the middle of our street...

Yes, we are finally getting around to blogging about our new house that we've been in for over a month.
We closed on the house on September 19 and started moving things in the next day. A week later, voila, we are in our new house. The inside has been completely repainted and carpeted, which is very nice. The outside is a different story. Lots of work to do, including taking down 3 or 4 trees, and removing another huge stump. We are very grateful to Reed and Diane for allowing us to save up money by living in their house while they were on their mission to Montana. Now if only I could get Lisa to go through and unpack and organize all of her boxes of which I was unaware until moving day...

And in case you were wondering what the inside looks like, well you'll just have to stop on by! (We do have a spare room with a queen-size bed in it, and we are more than happy to be your bed-n-breakfast :)

Still an Aggie

Last week Daron and I had the wonderful opportunity to go to the BYU vs USU football game. I knew that we (the aggies) didn't have a chance to win. Honestly, I was just hoping we would make 1 touchdown or even a field goal and I would be happy. Daron's parents bought the tickets for us, so there we were sitting amongst the fanatic BYU fans wearing our USU Aggie "Show us your A" shirts.
I felt a little intimidated walking up the stairs to our seat I just knew everyone was giving me the evil eye. Then I remembered that conference was the next day so really they better be nice or they would have to repent. Anyway the game started and what do ya know BYU came out fast with a couple touchdowns. Suprise ....surprise. But the best part of the game was when the Aggies actually scored...not just once but TWICE. YEah buddy! IT was pretty much the coolest thing ever. I was just praying they didn't fumble it when they were so close to scoring and for twice they didn't. So I gave the old guy next to me (yes he was the only other aggie fan in the section) a high five and together we smiled for the next 5 minutes until BYU would make another couple touchdowns.
When all was said and done we had a good time and even though we lost we atleast scored. Oh there was a funny sign that a BYU fan was holding. "Show us your A, and we'll bring the Woopin". Mean...but clever. Go Aggies.

I'm an Aunt!!

Introducing Jaden Keith Van Noy, the cutest little boy ever!! My sister Sarah had her baby last Sunday. We are very excited since this is the first baby on my side. On the way to the hospital my parents and my little sister were going crazy. They were soooo excited to meet this little guy, and of course Daron and I were too. Now we try and make up excuses to go see them just so I can stare at Jaden. He has cute big eyes and lots of hair. Welcome to the family Jaden we love you lots and lots!!

Missing the Moose

This was almost our car.

Last weekend, Me, Lisa, Kimber, and Kyle were driving from Fruit Heights, UT to Carter Creek, UT (HAFB) by way of Evanston, Wyoming, to meet the Barlow family. When I noticed that it was starting to get dark, the following thoughts started going through my mind as I was driving:

Q: Where are you?
A: In Wyoming, the middle of nowhere.

Q: Is it dusk?
A: Yes.

Q: What often happens when it gets dark in the middle of nowhere Wyoming?
A: Big game (Deer, Elk, Moose) begin to come down out of the hills and possibly come onto the road.

After this series of thoughts, I felt like I needed to put my glasses on and drive a little slower. This turned out to be a greatfully heeded prompting, as a big bull moose ran out in the middle of the road. I slammed on my brakes and skidded into the oncoming traffic lane, but there weren't any cars that were coming. The moose followed us into the other lane and finally stopped when after we had come to a complete stop.

After letting our heartbeats return to normal we then were able to drive past the big bad moose and continue to the campground with no harm to the four of us or the car. It was definitely a blessing!

This is our moose's twin that I found online since none of us had a camera at the time.

Wedding Day

Erin, Brittney, and I wearing pink and we didn't even plan it!!

I know it's been awhile but a little over a month ago my wonderful friend Kathy got married. It was a beautiful day, even though it was about 100 degrees. I think I would take the heat over snow like at my wedding (although I wasn't in a big dress). Anyway the day was perfect. We had a luncheon after the ceremony where we heard from the new couple. Friends and family were also able to share stories about the bride and groom. Erin and I had to relive some high school moments. Which I'm sure Kathy appreciated!!



So I'm not sure how to rotate this picture...but tilt your head and you can see how gorgeous she looked!


Erin and I...what you can't see is that Erin is wearing hot pink high heels. That a girl!!

At the luncheon Daron found that the grooms suite had a huge big screen tv as well as what any guy would want...a video game system with Halo. Yeah it was pretty funny to see the differences between the bridal suite and the grooms suite. Clever.

Aaah.... Vacations....

It's been awhile since our return from Washington DC, but I had to document our fun times we had. We arrived in Washington DC late at night. We were tired and hungry. Our destination was Alexandria where we would be staying with our wonderful friends Chris and Deidra Hartwell. The only problem...how to get there. Our problems were solved when our great friend Clint said he was on his way to pick us up! What great friends. He took us on a car tour of DC by night. The monuments were lit up and looked amazing.

Deidra was able to give Daron and me a private tour of the Capitol. It was so cool to see the places where history has been made. My favorite part of the Capitol was the old Supreme Court room where Marbury v Madison and other great cases were held.



You can see the monument behind us. We were going to rent some paddle boats and go around this lake, but we decided why pay for something that is going to make our legs sore and tired???

We walked up 99 stairs (yes Daron counted them) to get to the top of the Old Post Office. This is the view at the top!

Cute Daron in front of the White House. He was a bit disappointed with the size of the White House. He said "They make it look bigger on the TV show the West Wing."




High School reunion at the Temple. As you can tell Shaun was very excited.



We couldn't help ourselves!


We went to Mt Vernon which was amazing. Next time we will plan for more time there. It was a really hot day, but well worth the effort of going. Daron and I decided no matter how much deodorant we used, we'd be coming home sweating anyway. Darn humidity.

Deidra and Chris made a wonderful 4th of July breakfast. We were truly spoiled while staying with them. This is two years in a row we've been with the Hartwells on the 4th. Let's continue the tradition!



Capitol Hill was packed!! We had to get a stamp in case we left the area and wanted to come back in. We felt like celebrities when all these people wanted to get in and the police wouldn't let them, then we came up, showed them our stamp and they parted the way to let us through! We really are cool.
We were able to watch the concert right before they did the fireworks. It felt so patriotic being there on Capitol Hill with hundreds of people waving their flags. I love the USA!!

Garden Fresh

My aunt gave me a fair warning that they have never had success with their garden. So Daron and I put that soil to the test. We decided we might as well plant as many things as we could in hopes that something would come about. To our surprise almost everything has worked! Daron and I go out daily and look for more greenery or signs of life. Our most exciting things are the HUGE potatoes and the peas that are actually already there. Yay for us. I think gardening will be something we continue to do forever.




These are our HUGE potatoes...you must see in person...they really are big


This is Daron standing by our Squash...can you tell which is which???


Farmer Lisa. Need I say more?

Fish and Ice Cream

This is me.

So, as newly indoctrinated bloggers, you'll have to cut us some slack until we get into the habit of blogging about our adventures in everyday living, or as we'd prefer to call it, the wondrous and exciting adventures of D & L. The real reason we started this blog is because NBC approached us about filming a sitcom based on our lives, but they said they need a script first. So here it is! (Ok, now I'm off topic.)

Anyhow, we wanted to go fishing a few weeks ago but since we're beginners we didn't know exactly where to go. With Lisa's sister Kimber and her husband Kyle, we decided to go up around Pineview reservoir, which is up Ogden canyon for those of you who don't know Utah. We started in search of a quiet place on the Ogden river where I could try out my fly fishing skills. After finding what looked to be a relatively (and I mean relatively) slow spot, we got down to business. We only lasted about 30 minutes though because the water was way too fast and way too muddy. Since the whole river was like that we decided to go to Pineview and see what we could catch. But let me tell you, if you want to fish on a lake that you don't have to hike to, it's gonna cost you! So, discouraged at the fact that we'd have to pay to find a decent fishing spot, we drove around and found what we thought would be perfect! Little did we know, until we walked about 100 yards, that Pineview was so high that most of the beaches were gone, and the only ones that were still there were being occupied by either jet skis, or kids swimming.

Kimber and Kyle

At last we gave up and decided that since we had come this far, we might as well enjoy the scenery. We pitched our chairs and just hung out for about an hour before deciding to go home.

Still happy with no fish or ice cream

One final note:
If any of you have been to Pineview you will be familiar with a certain gas station where you can get a cheap soft serve, and self serve, ice cream cone. This was our final hope. But, as was the theme of the rest of the day, the machine was broken. So we left for home with no fish, and no ice cream to show for our struggles.

Oh, and this is my wife that I am so proud of for learning how to eat sunflower seeds!

Day 1- The Sunfire has set

Our new car- Pontiac Grand Am

Day one of our whole new blogging experience. Daron said I get to write first so ...here goes nothing...Since we don't have any kids to talk about and show pictures of I thought I would talk about the next most important thing...our car. Yes our first car died a few days ago so we felt we should say a few words in remembrance. Yay car thanks for all you did ....the end.So now we've moved on and bought another car. The story is a long one on how we got this new car but let's just say our plan to get only hotdogs and ice cream at Larry H. Miller didn't quite work out that way. I also found out that Daron is a born negotiator. He was awesome and got the price down almost half. Anyway stay tuned for more pictures of our incredible exciting life with cars.