Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! Here's a picture of part of our house and our pretty Christmas tree. I wanted to use a lot of unique ornaments we've accumulated over the years. I loved it.




Mandy and Kennie came in town for Christmas so we all had a big slumber party and spent Christmas morning together. We all had a really nice time together. Tom and I gave Kennie the big, blue Care Bear. It's a night time, snuggle bear and she sleeps with it every night. She gave the cutest reaction when she opened it...she took it out of the bag, gave it a huge hug and then layed on Trevor and snuggled with it. Good present choice, Tom!

The rest of the day was spent with our families. We had a wonderful Christmas being with the ones we love.

Cruise...Food

Here's a taste of some of the beautiful and tasty dishes we had throughout the week.

Raspberry torte.


Roast beef with Yorkshire Pudding.



Molten Chocolate.

Florida fruit plate.

Beef stoganoff.

Vegetable tofu wrap.

Beef wellington.

Lobster and seafood plate with asparagus.

Some chocolate delight with gold leafing.

Cruise...Boat stuff

Getting on the boat, checking things out. Before you leave the dock, you do a mandatory safety drill. During the drill, this massive military boat was floating by. It was huge. Look at those choppers! Go Marines.

Here are some dinner pictures. The two main restaurants were Venetian and Aqua. The food was delicious and endless.

There was TONS of entertainment. There was a performance (dancing and singing) company, a comedian, magician and a comedy group called Second City. Those acts performed in the Stardust Theatre. Here I am in the Stardust Theatre hallway.

Just a random picture. There were endless things to do every day/evening on the boat. Lounges with different piano players, bands, a cinema, gym, karaoke (which I participated in one evening....Tom wouldn't do it), etc. They also had themed evenings like "Monte Carlo," "Country," where they had line dancing, "White night," "Viva Las Vegas" and more.

Cruise...Excursions

Tom and I decided to go cruising again, this time just the two of us. It was amazing! We didn't want to come home. We boarded the Norwegian Dawn (Norwegian Cruise Lines) on Saturday, November 29th out of Miami, FL and came back on Saturday, December 6th. 7 days!!!

We ported 4 times while on the cruise: Samana, Dominican Republic; St. Thomas; Tortola and Great Stirrup Cay. We took advantage of the excursions offered and did some really neat things.

In Samana, we went on a Hike, Bike and Kayak. It is so green and the beach we Kayak'd at, was gorgeous! Our tour guide was really nice and it was a really great experience.

In St. Thomas, we went Scuba Diving. Tom had been before (in a lake) but I hadn't. I was a little intimidated by it at first....so many things to remember (i.e. equalizing your ears, what to do when water gets in your mask, breathing techniques under water, signs to communicate under water, etc). We aren't scuba certified but if you go with someone certified, you can go down 20 feet. It was so worth it! We both would LOVE to do it again. After our trip to the underworld, we kept our snorkles and did some snorkling. There were tons of fish all around us.

In Tortola, we just chilled and walked around.

NCL owns Great Stirrup Cay and has for about 30 years now. We layed out on the beach and went snorkling. The water was kind of cold because it was a little overcast but still beautiful.

Anniversary and Thanksgiving

We were married 6 days before Thanksgiving in 2003 and celebrated our 5 anniversary on the 21st....6 days before Thanksgiving, again. How cool! I am so thankful for such a wonderful husband and for the life we've established together. Looking forward to the years ahead!

We had a great Thanksgiving spending time with our families.

Hanging out with the girl

We babysat Kennie today. Can you tell we absolutely love her?! She is our favorite. She was having major laugh attacks while at our house. We were cracking up the whole time.

Kennie's 1st Birthday Party!

Today was Kennie baby's 1st birthday party! It was just the 5 of us (Trev, Mandy, Kennie, Me and Tom). We had so much fun together.


We're singing and Kennie is eyeing the cake.


Starting to work on it...

Sugar rush!!! She is such a fun and happpy baby!

Halloween

Happy Halloween AND Happy First Birthday Kennie!!

Tom and I took advantage of the holiday to get dressed up and have a good time.



Tom as a "bad boy"



Me as a "cop"



Me and Mandy, hanging out with some friends.

With the birthday girl. Go OWLS....Owls, Owls, HOOT HOOT!

We went to see our friend's 80's cover band, Flux Capacitor, play a show. It was a fun night!

Families are Forever

When Laura was in town from BYU, we decided to do some familiy pictures. It had been a while since we had gotten a semi-coordinated family piciture, so it was time. I think overall, they turned out nice. I "picnik'd" some of the best photos. Picnik you might ask? It is one of the best kept secrets (unless you are in college and since I am around college girls all the time, I found out about it). You can upload pictures and add all sorts of effects, graphics, you name it. Plus, it's really user friendly. Here's some of the family photos.

Mother- Daughter Time

I took the day off as a mental-health day and spent the majority of it with my mom. We had so much fun! It was good to do errands at my leisure and then spend time with my mom. Although we may live close, we don't get to have Mother-Daugther time a lot. Here are some pictures of our day together.


Ezekiel Bread...in the works.


The finished product. It is so good, really easy and fun to make. We even ground our own ingredients in the wheat grinder. If you want the recipe, let me know.


We decided to make apple crisp while we were at it. She had some apples to use. I love baking!


I love my family so much and it was great to be able to spend some much needed one on one time with my mom.

Happy Birthday Tom!!

Today we celebrated Tom's 29th birthday! He's in the last year of his 20's! We went to dinner at Red Robin. Red Robin is a west coast thing but has made its way over here in a few places. He first ate there on his mission in Seattle, WA and it was love at first bite. It's his favorite burger joint. There is one at the Forsyth Avenues. They're known for their gourmet burgers and bottomless steak fries. Below is the cake I made for him...completely by scratch. It's one of our favorites. So moist and chocolatey!! I added reeces to the top for some variety.




I love you babe!!