New Slippers

When we got home from Idaho, I had a package waiting for me from my best friend, Becky. She sent me these adorable monkey slippers. Aren't they just so cute?!

Yes, I should be working...

The Recipe For Chrystal

3 parts Enchantment 2 parts Fun 1 part Shrewdness Splash of Beauty Finish off with a squeeze of lime juice

What's the Recipe for Your Personality?

Um... shrewdness???

Home again, Home again

We are BACK from an exciting trip to Idaho. I was itching to blog about it, but was unable to before we left (on Dec 22nd) because it was a SURPRISE for Dan's family. We drove up and spent Sunday and Monday night at our home in Salt Lake. Then, early (and I mean EARLY) Christmas morning we drove to Pocatello, Idaho for the big reveal. :) They were super surprised to see us!! And it was very funny because they thought that our friend Chris was driving to Texas to surprise US.

The drive from Dallas to Salt Lake was VERY trecherous. We drove through a major front coming across the top of Texas and Colorado. Then we hit construction & traffic in Denver. Finally, we battled 65-mph wind gusts across Wyoming. But, we made it safely.

We were able to see Jen in West Jordan - it was so good to see you! Thanks so much for the gift! And I LOVE the FHE plaque. It turned out so well. I hope little Emily is feeling better soon!

For Christmas, I received a tripod, a new lens, and a wireless remote, all for my (I mean Dan's) Nikon D50. I had soooo much fun using them and took over 300 pictures in 2 days. I even set up a small family photo shoot in the basement the day after Christmas and took all kinds of family portraits. I'm excited to share them soon. Which means I have to upload them....

Anyway, we are back safe and sound in nice WARM Texas.

I hope you all had a very, very special Christmas. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Just the 4 of Us

Which of Santa's Reindeer are you?





Blitzen


Like Blitzen you are sharp and a good coordinator. People look to you for direction and you always seem to have the right answer


Find out which of Santa's Reindeer you are at Quizopolis.com

Keeping up with the Lyn's

Can't let Lyn have all the bragging rights!!

Just couldn't resist

These pictures of the puppies and Dan are so cute! I had to share with you!

That's one loooooong stem!

I was having a rough day on Monday, and Dan came home with this.
Now that's a long stemmed rose!! (And yes, it's real.)

Texas Christmas

I thought you might enjoy this.... I got it here.

Twas The Night Before Christmas (Texas Style)

'Twas the night before Christmas, in Texas, you know.
Way out on the prairie, without any snow.
Asleep in their cabin, were Buddy and Sue,
A dreamin' of Christmas, like me and you.

Not stockings, but boots, at the foot of their bed,
For this was Texas, what more need be said,
When all of a sudden, from out of the still night,
There came such a ruckus, it gave me a fright.

and I saw 'cross the prairie, like a shot from a gun,
A loaded up buckboard, come on at a run,
The driver was "Geein" and "Hawin", with a will,
The horses (not reindeer) he drove with such skill.

"Come on there Buck, Poncho, & Prince, to the right,
There'll be plenty of travelin' for you all tonight."
The driver in Levi's and a shirt that was red,
Had a ten-gallon Stetson on top of his head.

As he stepped from the buckboard, he was really a sight,
With his beard and moustache, so curly and white.
As he burst in the cabin, the children awoke,
and were so astonished, that neither one spoke.

and he filled up their boots with such presents galore,
That neither could think of a single thing more.
When Buddy recovered the use of his jaws,
He asked in a whisper, "Are you really Santa Claus?"

"Am I the real Santa? Well, what do you think?"
and he smiled as he gave a mysterious wink.
Then he leaped in his buckboard, and called back in his drawl,
"To all the children in Texas, Merry Christmas, Ya’ll"

{Under the Weather}

So I'm back in Houston this week, and it has been an adventure! Tuesday I started feeling ill... went to bed early Tues. night, and by the time I woke up Wednesday morning, it hit me like a ton of bricks. My head was throbbing, my throat was sore, I lost my voice almost completely. I didn't even make it to the office that day. And let me tell you - it is bad being sick when you are at home, but it is WORSE being sick when you are not at home. Hotels do NOT cater to sick people. Luckily, there is a CVS across the street, so I was able to stock up on Nyquil, cough drops, etc. I'm still not back to 100%, but at least I'm back to work. *sigh*

Christmas... in November

So like they say, if you can't beat 'em.... join 'em.

Had to update the header to join in the festive fun. For the record, I would normally wait for all things Christmas until December 1st, but this year for some reason I have been really excited for Christmas. Maybe it's this warm Texas weather!

Bentley Update

Well, we finally were able to pick Bentley up from the hospital this morning before church. He seems to be doing much better, keeping some soft food down, so they took out the iv and let him come home. He has been doing very well. In fact, he has been sleeping most of the afternoon. I think it's probably from all the medication he is still on! Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. He really is part of our family, and we're grateful that he is getting better.

Elves

Check this out:

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9591280012

Thanksgiving....and the aftermath

We had a super fun-filled Thanskgiving with the Price family. All the traditional favorites - turkey, stuffing, potatoes, green bean casserole, and pies galore. It was soooo yummy, and a big thank you going out to Lyn for all her hard work!! Good food, good conversation, and good friends, what more can you ask for on Thanksgiving?

And, of course, it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without football - the Packers even pulled off a win!

When we got home, however, we were met with a very sick puppy. Bentley has been sick (I'll spare you the details here) for the past 3 days, but I thought it was just the flu or a cold or something. No such luck, though. He woke Dan up at 2 AM... and at 6 AM Dan woke me up and said that Bentley had blood in his stool (believe me, this is an UNDERSTATEMENT). SO, having just moved here, we of course don't have a vet yet.... so we found an emergency animal hospital online and decided to take him there.

Poor puppy is now in the hospital with IV fluid and medications. They ran all kind of (expensive) blood tests, but everything came back normal. They think it is HGE (basically a GI tract infection). It's terrible to see him in such pain, but we're glad that he's getting the care he needs. I think we'll be able to pick him up tomorrow.

Bella, our other little schnauzer, doesn't know what to do without Bentley. She has been mopey all day. She is so sad.

Let's hope the weekend gets less eventful from here on out!

Where's Bella?

So I was going about my pre-Thanksgiving Day business this morning, when I heard a faint scratching noise. Usually, this is a noise made by Bentley when he wants to go outside (which is, like, 50 times a day - and no, I'm not exaggerating!!). BUT, it wasn't Bentley because he already WAS outside. I poked around a bit, and when I went into the bathroom, the sound got louder. I pulled back the shower curtain, and this is what I saw.

She has been in and out of the tub all morning... and all on her own. What a silly puppy!

While I had the camera out, I also took a picture of my new cute shower curtain hangers. I just love them!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Back at HOME

Wow! After many, many weeks on the road, I am finally home for the next 2 full weeks. Dan (not to mention the dogs) won't know what to do with me around so much. I'm back to being a full-time wife. :)

We are planning a quiet Thansksgiving, hopefully punctuated with a Green Bay win on Thursday. Even better, a Dallas loss. hehe.

AND, I wanted to give a little shout-out to my new friend Kari. We "met" in Jessica Sprague's NWR Class (probably U&R, too, come to think of it). I think she's GREAT, so go check out her blog here.

HAVE A HAPPY TURKEY DAY!!!

Last LO for this Class

Well, this digi scrapbooking class has been challenging for 2 reasons. First, it was a LOT of pretty advanced material, and Second, I have been out of town for 3 of the last 4 weeks, which makes actually finding time to scrap a little bit difficult. :) BUT, I finally got around (only a week late) to doing the final lesson. Jessica Sprague announced that she will be running a Digi 3 class in January, and I am very excited for that!

Now, time to think about the holidays... :)

Family pictures with the Price's

We took some time to take some family pictures yesterday with the Price family. We had a LOT of fun, although we decided that 3 boys and 2 dogs don't really make for the best of photo opportunities!

We're going to use one of the shots for our Christmas card, so I can't show you that one, but here's one of my favorites (after I tweaked it a bit in Photoshop, of course). I'm planning to post some more soon.

Live, from Houston!

Even though I am in Houston this week, I still completed my Week 3 assignment for Jessica's class. AND it's my first 2-pager!! Woohooo! Check it out!

Pebble Beach

While we were in Monterey, we took an afternoon and drove the "17 mile road" along the Pacific coast. It was beautiful! We took our time and got some really great photos. Here is a sample. :)

Winslow, Arizona

On our way back from California, we stopped in Winslow, Arizona, made famous by the Eagle's song "Take It Easy". Sorry both the pictures are of me, but Dan wouldn't pose for the corny pictures on the corner of Winslow. By the way, this is the "only" corner in Winslow.

I'm also playing with adding a "vignette." Jen showed me how, and while these probably aren't the perfect pictures to showcase my new skill, at least it proves that I tried!

The Race

Last weekend, we spent some time at Laguna Seca raceway in Monterey, CA. Dan's Acura NSX car club was invited to the race by the American LeMans team because this is Acura's first year racing in this series. So, about 100 guys came with their NSX's.

If you're like me, you're wondering, "what is the American LeMans race?" Well, let me give you the short version. It's basically an upscale car race. Race teams include Ferrari, Porsche, Corvette, Panoz, Audi and now Acura. The President of the LeMans association, gave some opening remarks to us (in the hospitality tent) before the race. I love how he described it. He said, "If NASCAR is the Walmart of the racing world, LeMans is the Nordstroms."






We were asked to do a parade lap on the track before the race. We also go to visit the Pit.

First Layout from NWR!

We have been suuuuupppppeeerrrr busy these past few weeks, and it doesn't look like it's going to slow down any time soon. We took a mini vacation this past weekend to Monterey, CA (more to come on that), and the next installment of Jessica Sprague's Now We're Rockin' with Photoshop class began Monday. I didn't have a chance to even look at the material until today (Wednesday), and it's been killing me!! Here's my first layout. This class is markedly harder than the first one, but it's really fun, and I'm learning a TON.

Blue paper: from the Impressions: Idea kit by Trish Jones (SBG)
Torn paper template: from the Paper Reveals Layered Template No. 2 set by Katie Pertiet (DD)
Journaling paper: from the Crush Bubbles kit by Trish Jones (SBG)
Alphabet: from September Afternoon kit by Meredith Fenwick (SBG)
Grungy-edged frame: from Distressed Diva kit by Trish Jones (SBG)

Hola from Miami

Well, like it or not, I've spent the past week and a half in Miami on business. The weather is beautiful, but unfortunately I have not had time to enjoy it. I've got some great pictures, and can't wait to post them.

Also, I'm super excited for round 2 of Jessica Sprague's digital scrapbooking class. Starts Monday!!

Funny Looking Dog

So I eluded to this a few days ago, but we had to shave all Bentley's hair off because he was getting all kind of mats. I attribute this to #1. we've been cutting the dogs' hair ourselves and while Bella really doesn't mind (okay, she probably doesn't like it, but at least she holds still), Bentley puts up quite a fight, so we don't do as good of a job on him, and #2. they were both stuck in their kennel for 24+ hours (aside from potty breaks) while we drove down to Texas.

At any rate, here's what he looked like before:

Pretty handsome, I have to say. :)

And here is the poor puppy this week:

I've been calling him Chicken because he looks like he has chicken legs. :) Big fluffy head and feet with skinny little legs. Hopefully, it won't take too long to grow back. And yes, we've learned our lesson and he will be going back to a professional groomer from now on. (I think we'll still do Bella ourselves, though.) Between our inexperience and Bentley's general discomfort, it took us over 2 hours Sunday night. Whew!

Gotta be fair, here are some other pics of both puppies.

New Look

Thanks to Jennifer's blog, I decided it was time for a blog facelift. She directed me to Matie Kay's blog. Matie Kay has some great blog templates, and best of all, they are FREE. :)

What do you think?

I think I'd better get back to work....

Texans now....

It feels like it's been forever since I've posted. With the move, packing, driving, unpacking, and some work travel thrown in for good measure, we have been extra busy the past few weeks. We are, however, super excited to be Texans now. Okay, so we're not "official" yet - I still need to get our car inspected before we can get new drivers licences, etc. But we're close. :)

Our apartment feels tiny compared to what we have been spoiled with in the past, but it is very nice, seems to be in a good neighborhood, the commute isn't terrible for Dan, and the ward is super friendly. Plus - and this is the real reason we chose this place - there is a nice fenced-in back yard for the puppies. Don't know what I would do without that!

For now, we're just praying that our home in WJ sells quickly, so that we can start looking at homes in this area. Patience is not one of my strong suits.

That's about all for now. Stay tuned for some funny pictures of Bentley. We had to shave him because he was developing far too many mats and even the groomer couldn't take them out. Poor puppy.

Scrapbooking fun

So I've been taking a digital scrapbooking class, and have learned a TON of fun stuff! Here are some previews of my work!


As you can tell, I've been trying to get caught up with our travel pictures. Thanks for taking a peek! You can see all my pages for the class at : http://jessicasprague.com/index.php?option=com_copperminevis&Itemid=33&place=thumbnails&album=lastupby&uid=897

Day at the Zoo

Dan's parents and Marsh & Emily came to Salt Lake to visit us for Dan's birthday. Despite temperatures over 100 degrees, we ventured out to the Hogle Zoo and had a great time!

This white alligator is one of only 10 in the world!

I was also playing around with the Macro setting on my camera and took some good closeups of some flowers.

Anniversary Celebrations

Can you believe we've been married 4 years already?!?

We spent our anniversary cruising around Yellowstone National Park & Grand Teton National Forest, then drove home through Jackson Hole, WY.

On the drive up to Yellowstone, we stopped in Rexburg, Idaho, so Dan could show me his old college stomping ground. We also stopped to see the progress on the Rexburg temple. Pretty impressive!












Our first night was spent at Mack's Inn, ID. There are several reasons why I don't camp, and Mack's Inn pretty much reinforces all of them. Even though we stayed in the "lodge", I still consider this camping. Here's some proof:






Despite less than stellar accomodations the first night (we had no idea what we were getting into. In fact, when I called to make the reservation, the man told me they had been "recently renovated." Hmmm...), we had a great time at Yellowstone Park! Here are some of our favorite pictures.

Some might say I went overboard with the pictures, but this was my first time to Yellowstone! (OK, so maybe 553 pictures in 3 days is a little over the top...)