December birthdays

We are doing this all as one post, because it's December, and life is crazy! So, here we go!
First, it was Daddy's birthday on December 8th! Yayyy! We sure do love him and he works very hard for all of us!

 We knew that he would be working late on the day of his birthday, so we had a small party the Sunday before. Here he is blowing out his candles. He's OLD!! 38!!

Here he is on his birthday opening presents, with the help of Davis and Reagan. They are great helpers, especially with present-opening!

He got some shoes, which is a BIG surprise. Davis wanted to try them on!

On the day of his birthday, I made buttermilk pie for dessert. He had been telling me about how delicious it was for many weeks, so I tried it out. And yes, it was delicious!

Reagan's birthday is December 11th!

She cracks me up, because she KNEW that it was her birthday, and told pretty much everyone at church that it was her birthday, and that she was a princess. Both of these things are true.

We got together with my parents and grandparents and the Meservy family for the celebration.

 As you can tell, she LOVES her new snow hat!

The kids enjoying cake.

MY birthday is December 16th. . . by the time we finish Reagan's birthday, I am done and would like to cancel my birthday. Especially this year, because December 16th was when my little brother decided to get married. So here's how the day went:

• We went to bed late the night before, because it was Casey and Hilary's reception, at which the kids got food ALL OVER themselves and thus needed to take baths before going to bed.
• At 4:00, I woke up to use the bathroom. At 4:30, I realized that I had left my temple recommend at home, which is not good when there is a wedding happening in 4 hours. I woke up Chris. He texted a member of our Stake Presidency, and then said that he could not go back to sleep, and went to exercise in the hotel.
• I made it into the temple with a temporary recommend. Phew!
• After the wedding, the kids came with Whitney's sister to the temple, which was fun. It was cold, but beautiful!
• On our way back to the hotel, Reagan fell asleep in the stroller. So, we waited until the last possible second to go to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building for the luncheon.
• We knew that we would have a parking pass to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, but the parking lot was full. So we parked in City Creek, and then found out that even though those parking lots are connected, you can't go through them. We didn't take coats, and it started to hail. Hard. We frantically ran to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, and by the time we got there, looked like wet dogs.
• It was awful weather during the luncheon, but we were inside. Oh, and my brothers and I chose a time when the elevators were out of order to work on decorating their car. So we ran down 12 flights of stairs to get the job done.
• After the luncheon, we searched for our car for an hour. We forgot where we had put it, because we were so frantic at the time. But, we saw old friends, and old students in City Creek, so that was fun!
• We finally got to our car, changed our clothes, and started on our way. Of course, the other cars going to Idaho Falls were quite a bit ahead of us.
• We pulled over at the truck stop in Downey, Idaho, and called my parents to ask if we should keep going. My mom said, "NO!!" Roads were terrible, visibility was bad, and there were a bunch of slide-offs. So, we decided to stay the night in Downey. The motel there is run by the truck stop. We actually had a somewhat decent meal at the truck stop, and then climbed in bed, which was great.
• The next morning, roads weren't fabulous. We were glad that we weren't on them during the night and in the storm.
• But when we got back, there was a surprise waiting for me:

• Chris had collaborated with my friend to leave cheesecake and flowers for me at my house. Isn't he the best? That night, we went to dinner and Star Wars with my parents, which was fun.

•  And, two days later, I opened up a small gift from my parents. Oh, the day before, I also opened up some other presents. So, all was not lost. 

Anyway, happy birthday to us!!

The final wedding pictures!

The wedding pictures are finally here. There are WAY TOO MANY to decide which ones are the favorites, so here are a few. They are pretty fun! Thanks to our wonderful photographer!
I love this picture with us and our cute parents kissing!
This is a pretty fun one of my brothers and I.
With our whole family

David McCullough

We went to see a fabulous lecture in the tabernacle a few weekends ago. David McCullough spoke to Utah-area History teachers. It was wonderful! To hear the speech, try this link.
After hearing David McCullough, we did a session at the Salt Lake temple. Doing a session there is always great, but it seemed especially fantastic.

In other news, we got our pictures back from the Georgia open house. Here they are! The password is Chris

Wedding pictures

Here are the copies of the thank you cards that we are sending out with our pictures on them. I am so excited to finally get the pictures, but this will work for now!

I think I might make it

What is the alternative, right?

Right now, I have a lot going on. I have to finish my practicum, and we are presenting on May 13th. I have to log 100 hours, which is kind of stressing me out. I am also having two observations in the next couple of weeks, which is bad timing because: 1) I am done with school, and 2) so are the kids. We shall see how that goes. I also found out that I have a history cohort meeting on Thursday of next week, which is bad news. It is on a B day, which means I will have no prep, and my Gifted and Talented class is on that day, and it is in the middle of my Practicum.

I also need to go to the Social Security office sometime and change my name. They close at 4. Great!

In other news, go to this site to see pictures of the Georgia open house. We are still waiting on the wedding pictures. I have seen a couple of them, though, and they are good!

Some wedding pictures

My wonderful sister-in-law took some pictures at our reception the night before the wedding. They can all be found here. I really love the slide show! Here are some of my favorites:
Right before Chris saw me in my dress for the first time
And here it is!
Our niece--she and I were both princesses. We both loved it!
Our nephew, Jack
Cutting the cake
Talking with my brother
My brothers-- aren't they handsome? This picture is one of my favorites!

The Honeymoon

We both think that in the history of honeymoons, ours was one of the best ever. It was a ton of fun! A lot of it will not be written, but some will . . .
We spent a night in Pocatello, then attended a ward in Pocatello on Sunday. After church, we drove to Salt Lake and spent a night at the Holiday Inn Express. We enjoyed a meal at Market Street Grill. On Monday morning, we flew to Disneyland and spent five fantastic days there in the park. We stayed right across the street from Disneyland, so we could go back to our hotel when it got hot and crowded. There was a spot where salesmen stood on our way back to the hotel. We think they were trying to sell some sort of timeshare. Every time we went there, they would try to stop us to sell us something. Finally, on our last day there, Chris told them that we were Eastern Orthodox and could not accept anything that they sold. I had to hide my face because I was laughing so hard!
We ate breakfast at Mimi's Cafe every morning that we were in California. We found a good trick to use at Mimi's--splitting meals. It is cost effective, and a good way to make sure that we didn't overeat. Half a breakfast was PLENTY of food for both of us!
We got a free pizza from the Pizza Hut in the hotel. We were so tired that we took advantage of it and loved it the first night!
We used FastPasses to our advantage. We very much learned how to use the FastPass system. We would go get a FastPass, then go on a ride that didn't have one, then when the time to get a new FastPass would come up, we would get a new one, then go on the original FastPass ride. It was a good system.



Chris got a new wallet. After 15 years, this is him saying goodbye to his old one. I think it was high time!

The Wedding

The day before we got married, we had the reception. A lot of people showed up to the Rose Shop in Idaho Falls. For a little while, the caterer was worried that there wouldn't be enough food! It was great to have the reception before, because we were able to go home, open presents, visit with family, and get ready for the next day.
It was a wonderful, even a perfect day. Chris had said that it would not rain, and, even though it fore-casted rain, he was right! We showed up at the Idaho Falls temple at 9:30 with our parents, and got the necessary paperwork done. At 10:30, we got married! Afterward, we took pictures for quite a while, and then went to the luncheon at O'Callahan's. Because we had the reception the night before, we left after the luncheon for the honeymoon. It was truly a spectacular day!

Here are some of my bridal pictures! The wedding pictures are still coming . . .