A White Christmas

We spent Christmas up in Joshua with the Rodericks. 

We had a blast in the warm weather raking leaves and then letting the kids play in them.  Dave did scare little Caleb pretty good after he took off from across the yard and fell in this pile.  He had leaves everywhere after crawling in them!

We drove into Arlington on Christmas eve to see the famous Interlochen lights.  We had gone before, but this time we put the shell on the pickup and also stuck in a twin mattress.  We rode in the back with Tom & Katie while the kids rode in the truck with Grandma & Grandpa.  It was surprisingly very comfortable back there and what a fun little double date it was looking at all the beautiful houses.  We finished the night with some delicious Braum's ice cream :)

Christmas day we had a feast and enjoyed being together and exchanging gifts.







And mother nature gave us the gift of snow Christmas afternoon, (which I did not ask for)

For my mother-in-law, the day after Christmas is a very important part of the season.  She's taught me the art of hitting up the after-Christmas sales and this year for the first time I really got into it!  I'm sure I doubled our Christmas decor collection, all at 50%-75% off.  I had so much fun with her and I even did a little bit more the next morning back in San Antonio.  She's got me hooked!  

Basketball Shoes

I know it sounds pathetic, but sadly I had to say goodbye to my favorite basketball shoes this past month, our team shoes from my Junior year of high school. I've literally played hundreds of basketball games with them; high school, intramurals at BYU, pick-up games in Utah and Wednesday nights here in San Antonio.  I was crushed when the shoe started separating from the sole and insisted that I tape them instead of buying new ones.  Finally, the whole front of the shoe came up and I had no choice.  After trying on literally every womens and mens basketball shoe in North San Antonio, and despite my left foot being bigger than my right, I found the perfect pair...almost identical to my favorite pair from 9 years ago :)  I love them!

1/2 Birthday

I couldn't be happier with my sweet husband, he makes me so happy!  It's mine own fault for mentioning that the next day I would be exactly 26 and 1/2.  I woke up to half a donut and this cake.  We had a fun day and we love and kind of reason to celebrate.  I can't wait til my full birthday!

Thanksgiving (at our own place)

We kicked off the season by helping put together the Ward Thanksgiving Dinner.  It was a success.  It was a good opportunity serving everybody food, despite how hungry I was.  We decided to have a pie eating contest, the winner's table got to get in line first.  I guess some of our predetermined contestants declined, so I got called out of the serving line by Bishop to be a good sport and do it.  It would've been nice if I liked pumpkin pie or whipped cream!  The competitive side of me went for it and I came in a close 2nd.

(Dave affectionately captions this photo "The Conquistador" and loves my white facial hair)

 The next day my family flew in to visit us for the whole week!  Our new place is right across the street from a big shopping center with a nice hotel, all within a 5 minute walk.  My parents stayed there and my little sisters bunked in our living room (as tradition has it)

Our week was filled with beautiful weather, tennis, racquetball, board games, and shopping to decorate our new apartment. We also showed them our new office, went on a temple date with my parents, played TP dodgeball with some fun familes, decorated the walls of our apartment, took my family to their first horse race, brought them to our amazing race party with our group of friends.

Thank goodness our new place has a much bigger kitchen!  Thanksgiving dinner was delicious and it was so nice having my mom there to help with the cooking.  We all were in charge of a dish.  We have soooo many leftovers to eat now.

My dad was doing his best to contribute.  It's so fun having my family in town, oh how I wish they lived closer!

We've Moved!

We did not realize the apartment process before we moved down here with all of our belongings in the back of our 2 pickup trucks.  There were so many preparations, applications and fees.  Luckily we found a place that could get us in that day.  Sunset Canyon sounds luxurious, but it's not.  It was cheap, quiet and we had plenty of parking... but it was old and run down.

After 2 years of putting up with the big stains in the carpet and an AC that didn't work, we decided it was time for a change.  We decided to call in one day and just give our 60-day notice, then I started a crazy hunt for a new place.  We moved in during a tropical storm, so of course the day we move out there was also a rainstorm.  Luckily, we had lots of friends that were still very willing to help!

We found an awesome place, income based housing down the street that was new and nice!  And the coolest part is that we were in our own stand alone building and did not share a single wall with a neighbor, just 3 garages underneath us.  So many windows, meaning lots of fresh air and natural light!  The current tenant was being evicted, but they assured us that they would be repainting, recarpeting, redoing the counter tops and anything else it needed.  The new carpet really sold me!

So we thought it was the perfect place...  It smelled very strong like paint and glue when we moved in and after a couple days that faded and I just smelt smoke.  They came in and agreed to clean out our air ducts and also replace all of our appliances, getting rid of any possible thing where smoke could be lingering.  It didn't work.  I'm very sensitive to smells, so I was not happy!

They moved us into another apartment for a week while they repainted again with a special sealant and redid the carpet again.  We camped in the living room, Dave on the floor and me on couch cushions. We just brought the essentials, but went back often to check on the progress.

After all that, the smell just came right back.  I was miserable and even our clothes smelled like smoke.  It had been a tough month!  They offered us to moved into a bigger apartment and threw in a garage at the same price, but that would be available in 3 more weeks.  Management had been great and I really wanted to stay, but I couldn't wait that long.  They let us out of our contract and I found another great place a couple miles away.  It smells great which is all I really wanted.  I'm hoping we won't be moving again for a while!

Hair Cuts

 Just for the record, I think Dave is the most handsome man on the planet.  

However, I'm not the hugest fan of the fresh hair cut look (on anybody really) Dave used to cut his hair himself, and he would just use the buzzer.  When we got married I felt like I could say something by offering to do it for him, using scissors.  I think I'm getting better and better, at least he's always smiling afterwards.






Sometimes, if he really likes his hair cut, I get a special surprise message afterwards :)

Halloween

 I'm not one for dressing up.  I usually rummage through my closet and usually end up wrapping on a lavalava and a few leis.  This year the youth put on a church trunk-or-treat and after an hour of watching little kids run by with overflowing bags of candy, I grabbed a 14-year old and  we shamelessly joined in, asking for any leftover contributions.  I mentioned trading and before I knew it I was surrounded by 4 or 5 kids (ages 7-14) trading like crazy!  I was so happy, it's been years since I've done that!  I came home with a kleenex box full of only candy that I love!

We did go to a friends party. One of our friends was flying solo while his wife was out of town for work, so naturally he came over with everything we'd need to be the 3 amigos








My favorite part about Halloween...              the day-after candy sales

Texas State Fair

Texas has a lot to offer, so this past weekend we decided to try out the Fair.  We were also wanting to go visit Dave's parents and I was looking for an excuse to get up there because one of my best friends/roommates from college just moved to Dallas.  We went on an adventure and took the Dart (Dallas public train) and didn't have to worry about traffic or parking which was awesome!  We were greeted by the famous, talking "Big Tex as we walked in.

Whenever I mentioned the fair, people always bring up the fried food. There were fried twinkies, fried coca-cola, fried bubble gum, fried cheesecake and brownies.  You name it, it was probably there and fried.  We weren't too brave, we ended up getting fried corndogs and french fries :)

It was extremely crowded, so we walked around and saw all the free shows including pig racing, amazing Chinese acrobats, performing dogs and BMX biking.  There were also car shows and tons of vendors.  Someday we'll try out the ferris wheel, it sure looked fun!

I only wanted one thing from the fair...cotton candy.  I seriously love sugar and cotton candy is always a huge temptation for me at any public event I go to.  I picked out the biggest bag possible and I couldn't have been happier!  It was the best cotton candy I've ever had, it was so smooth and did not get all crystally, despite the crazy humidity.  It was a long and late 4 hour drive home but luckily I had that cotton candy to savor the whole way home.

We had such a fun weekend and I can't believe Cari Sue is here in Texas with me! Also, we're glad we finally got the Texas fair experience, it should last us for quite a while.