Are you READY???!

I am!  I shall attempt to blog THREE, that's right, THREE times each week!  The blogs will compose of Thankful Tuesdays, in which we post the things we're grateful for; Catch-up Wednesdays, where I'll catch you all up to what we've been doing the past week; and Flashback Fridays, where Jordan and I will share one of our favorite memories, because our blog is our journal.

That was the longest run on sentence ever.

So today is Catch-up Wednesday!  This will be a long post my dears, because I haven't really blogged anything since December (with the exception of my Christmas vacation post).  It's not going to be in order either, because I can't remember when everything happened.

1. We decorated our house for Christmas.  I love getting a real tree every year.  It makes the whole house smell amazing!

2. Jordan and I went to Maymont (my favorite place in Richmond) for a Christmas celebration!  We rode in a horse-drawn carriage, got a tour of the civil war era mansion all decorated for Christmas, interacted with "characters" dressed in their period attire, ate treats, and roasted marshmallows over a bonfire while listening to carolers.  It was awesome.  In addition to seeing the mansion, we also saw some of the sets used for the filming of the "Lincoln" movie!  So cool!

3. Our ward Christmas party was so fun. I helped decorate a table for the dinner and was blown away by the creativity of some people's tables! There was a beautiful program and we felt the Spirit strongly testifying of the divinity of Christ.

4. Jordan and I celebrated Christmas on Hanukkah...because we would be in Utah for Christmas.  Haha!  I thought it was hilarious.  Jordan got me new pots and pans, Wii Zumba, and a shredder.  I got him a hand blender, a Nintendo 3DS, and some 3DS games.  It was very fun :)

5. I quit my job!  I'm quite glad.  I'll just leave it at that, haha.  My new job will start Feb. 6.  I'm so so excited.  The hospital is only a mile away, pays more than the other one, has amazing benefits, and (drum-roll, please) I'll be working DAYS!!!  Heck freaking yes!  No more sleeping during the day for me.  I'm still going to be working in Psych.  I love working with psychiatric patients.  The only downside I can see is that I will miss this view every morning from my other job...

6. Jordan likes to hold on to certain pieces of clothing.  Like a shirt he had from high school.  Needless to say, it had a ton of holes in it.  His mom had tried to throw it away and he "saved it" from the trash.  I tried to persuade him many times to throw it away and had no success, until he got the exact same shirt on our shopping trip in Park City.  He then agreed to put the shirt down, and I took pictures to document.

7. As part of the Richmond Mormon Chorale, we performed again at the Beth Ahaba Concert a little over a week ago.  It was wonderful!  We sang Peace in the Valley.  Sorry the video is fuzzy!

8. I have read 6 books so far this year, including The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, Magic Study, Poison Study, and Fire Study!  The "Girl" series is SO good.  Seriously.  Graphic, yes, but so good.

9. And lastly, a bit of humor.  Jordan cut his hair a few weeks ago, and decided to surprise me with a "transition" phase.

Thankfully, it didn't last long!  Bahahaha!

Christmas Vacation

This past Christmas was wonderful!  We were able to enjoy being with family and friends for an entire week (and that never happens).  We flew in on the 23, and came home on the 31.

December 23:
We flew into Utah around 6:30 PM.  While waiting for Jim to pick us up at the airport, we saw Colin's (Jordan's friend) dad waiting to be picked up too!  It was hilarious.  We went to a party at Jordan's aunts house and ate good food, got presents from Santa, and caught up with everyone.  It was so funny watching the little kids sit on Santa's lap, tell him what they wanted, and then get a present out of his giant bag.  Apparently, the guy who has played Santa has been doing it since Jordan was born!  I think that's awesome.

December 24:
We went to out to breakfast with Wendy at Kneaders (yummm) and then headed down to Provo to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie with my family.  It was so good and we both highly recommend it :)

Jared having fun in outside the theater ;)

After the movie, we had a nice Christmas Eve dinner with Jordan's family.  Afterwards, we had a Christmas Program where every family did something.  Jordan and I did Christmas song duets on the piano, and it was epic.  We enjoyed watching the little boys dance, heard a story from Josie and Micah, and learned to shuffle from Matt and Lindsey!  Then we opened pajamas and took pictures.

December 25:

The morning of Christmas, we went to Allie's ward.  The ward put on a HUGE production.  It was a nice production, but over the top.  We went back to the Henderson's for waffles.  This year for the boys, I embroidered their names and framed them so they could put them in their rooms.  It was so fun watching them open their presents.  

Then we drove to Mapleton and were able to talk to Jordan on the phone, all the way in Argentina!  He sounded SO good and had a slight Argentine accent :)  He is a rockin' missionary and has had so many amazing experiences.  If you want to read along with his adventures, go to his blog here.  He and I were able to talk in Spanish (amazingly) even though I haven't spoken in Spanish for about 2 years.  He loves the mission and loves this Gospel so much.  We then went to Grandma and Grandpa Cuthbert's to have Cafe Rio style dinner and enjoy catching up.  Then we went to my parents.  

December 26:

We decided to go tubing in Soldier Hollow with my family that day.  It was so fun!  After tubing we got lunch at a cute little hamburger place.  

We were able to see the movie "We Bought a Zoo" with Jordan's family.  HIGHLY recommended!  So good, that I cried twice!  

December 27:

We got up early in the morning to go skiing at Brighton with Des, my friend from nursing school.  We had the best time!  The snow was not icy like I expected, and got much more powdery after people skied on it all day.  I wasn't feeling so hot, so we only stayed half a day, but it was still fun. 

After skiing, we all went to lunch at The Soup Kitchen, one of my and Des' favorite places.  It was great!  We then headed down to my parent's for some panini and soup, puzzle making, and a Harry Potter marathon! ;) I love HP.  

December 28:

We spent the morning playing with the little boys.  Creighton got a Wii game for Christmas and Jordan obligingly taught him and all the others how to play a video game ;)  It was so cute.  He is such a good teacher!  

Apparently they like to stick their tongues out.  After playing Wii, we built a gingerbread house.  I don't know why, but this was one of the things I HAD to do while in Utah.  The boys had a blast licking the frosting off and biting little chunks of gingerbread off the roof.  

We then got ready for TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA!!!  Woo!  It was an incredible concert, and I would love to make it a yearly tradition.  Light shows, fire, fireworks, over 5 tons of electrical equipment - wow.  All I can say is that you've got to be an amazing musician to be able to literally run while playing the violin.  These people are SO talented.  I knew there was a good reason I liked them!

The Y shaped piece in the top right corner is a stage the lifts up and down.  So cool.  

December 29:

We visited Great Grandma Wood, Grandpa Larry, and Omi and Buppi in the morning.  It was so good to see them all and visit with them!  In the afternoon, we had a massage up in Layton and then went to the Beer's family Christmas Party.  There, we had another Cafe Rio style dinner, talked, and played games with the White Elephants.  All I have to say about that is some people give some interesting white elephants.  Risque!

December 30:

We spent the morning and afternoon in Park City with my family shopping all the holiday sales.  Jordan won shopper of the day with a pair of jeans from Gap for only $15!  We had a yummy lunch at Cafe Trang as well.  We then had dinner at Chili's with Jordan's family.  That evening, we had Big Jim's New Year's Eve party (I can never remember what it's called now - I always want to call it Big Fat Jim's Party, haha)!!  Yummy food, good company, and NERTS.  This year, we performed miserably and I was not a happy camper.  I apologize to everyone for my behavior!  We still got some good prizes and learned a super strategy for next year.  

December 31:

We departed early in the morning!  It was a fabulous vacation and we are SO glad we were able to see almost everyone!  Thank you all!

Why I Don't Cook

Since Melyn had work and a choir performance to do, it was up to me to cook dinner. Thought I could follow a simple recipe, but I think the results shown here speak for themselves. Notice how the chicken casserole doesn't go all the way out to the edges of the pan. Guess I'll stick to breakfast food and grilled cheese sandwiches.

Celebrations!!

So last Thursday, Jordan and I had tickets to go see Cirque du Soleil: Alegria! I was SOOOO excited! I absolutely love Cirque du Soleil and Alegria is one of my favorite songs in the whole entire wide world (anyone who knows me well knows this :) You can listen to it here :) :) :) :) Alegria means joy or happiness in Spanish. So, obviously, I was psyched for this show! Jordan - who is the best husband ever - bought the tickets as a surprise a few months ago!

We drove up to the E-Center and decided that we didn't want to pay the $10 for parking (gross!) so we parked illegally at the Cracker Barrel. After running to the front doors, we excitedly handed our tickets to the ticket attendant. The scanner beeped awkwardly as he scanned them and he looked at us and said, "You have come on the wrong day." WHAT?!?!???? We looked down and the tickets were for the day before - Wednesday! Oh my gosh, I was freaking out. We went to the ticket booth and showed the lady our tickets and explained the situation. She went in the back to talk to her manager. We waited nervously and then they both came back. The manager said, "Normally we wouldn't do this, but you guys can actually get in tonight (WHEW!!). Be really careful though in the future and look at your dates!" We were so grateful, because frankly, those tickets weren't cheap and we wanted to see the show! So the lady gave us AMAZING seats on the right corner of the stage, 5 rows from the front! It was incredible. The show was amazing. There were trampoline artists, dancers, clowns, contortionists, acrobats, and many other talented people from all over the world. Compared to the other Cirque du Soleil show I've been to, Saltimbanco, this one was ok. The main reason I wanted to see it was to listen to the song live :)

Oh, and Jordan and I had a bet to see when the song would play. He bet it would play at the beginning and I bet at the very end. If he won, he would submit me to tickle torture and if I won, I wouldn't have to do that. I won :) After the show ended, we ran as fast as we could to our car, and it wasn't towed! Yay! We aren't going to go through that experience again though, we would much rather know our car is safe and pay $10 than have to pay for towing.

Yesterday, my brother Jordan graduated from Maple Mountain High School at the UVU Events Center. It was a great graduation and we were so happy to celebrate! I feel so old - I can't believe my brother is graduating and my youngest brother is going to get his licence in a few months! Or that hubby Jordan and I are graduating this week! It is a week of happy celebrations. After his graduation, my family and Omi and Buppi went to Tucanos to celebrate. Tucanos is my brother's favorite restaurant, because it is all you can eat meat. Delicious!