Merry Christmas!!!

(If you want to share this video, please don't copy and paste, just give a link to this post on my blog.)

Okay, I saw this post on my friend, Mandi's blog. It made me laugh out loud and I thought you guys might enjoy it too!

"Looking for a last minute Christmas present?

For some reason the title of this book made me smile. I love the chocolate chip cookie dough. Seriously, how did they let this slip through? It's out of print, but people are selling old copies for mucho dinero here. "

So much to blog about! First off, my wonderful husband surprised me by flying back out to Utah to be with Daniel and I for the weekend. We had been apart for 1 1/2 weeks and none of us were happy about it, or the fact that we still had 2 more weeks of separation left. I'm a wuss, I know it. I never realized just how dependant I am on him. (especially as far as Daniel is concerned! He just adores his Daddy) It was soooo good to see him and have him around for a while. It made me feel very content and happy to have him by my side. (not to mention it was nice to have someone drive me around while my vision is still blurry!) So Thanks Honey! I love you! I'll see you soon!

I seriously don't know how other people do it. My sister-in-law is my hero. Her husband has been at boot camp for 4 months and she has two little girls. I wouldn't be able to cope. We're all so excited though, he's done this next week! Yay! We can't wait to have the whole family together for Christmas!

Speaking of having the whole family together, mine is about to be separated for a while. My parents just got a mission call!!!! They're going to Auckland, New Zealand for 18 months to work in the family history center there. I'm so excited for them. I'll just have to stow away in somebodies luggage to get down there to visit!

Now a blast from the past for all of my friends from the BYU School of Music, remember this?

I was able to go and see the Celebration of Christmas concert this last Saturday. I have to say that it was very nice to be on the audience side of things. No numb toes from standing for hours in heels, no sweat dripping from the hot lights and sheer amount of bodies on stage. No elbowing from Women's Chorus girls trying to get closer to the Men's Chorus boys. (no disrespect meant, I was there once! ;) And to top it all off the music was beautiful! Two of my favorites from the evening were when the BYU Singers performed "Little Tree" by Eric Whitacre (gorgeousness!!)(will be available on CD next year sometime, check the link at the side of the page...) and "Carol of Joy" by Dan Forrest. Carol of Joy was somewhat of a surprise for me. I was touched by the composers obvious belief in the words he had chosen to set to music. It gave me chills. Take a second to read this: (or listen to the song here: http://www.danforrest.com/?page_id=65

Carol Of Joy
Green leaves all fallen, withered and dry; Brief sunset fading, dim winter sky. Lengthening shadows,Dark closing in…
Then, through the stillness, carols begin!

Oh fallen world, to you is the song– Death holds you fast and night tarries long.
Jesus is born, your curse to destroy! Sweet to your ears, a carol of Joy!

Pale moon ascending, solemn and slow; Cold barren hillside, shrouded in snow; Deep, empty valley veiled by the night; Hear angel music–hopeful and bright!

Oh fearful world, to you is the song– Peace with your God, and pardon for wrong! Tidings for sinners, burdened and bound–
A carol of joy! A Saviour is found!

Earth wrapped in sorrow, lift up your eyes! Thrill to the chorus filling the skies! Look up sad hearted–witness God’s love! Join in the carol swelling above!

Oh friendless world, to you is the song! All Heaven’s joy to you may belong! You who are lonely, laden, forlorn– Oh fallen world!Oh friendless world!
To you,
A Saviour is born!

Text by Eileen Berry.

Between the concert and the snow (tons and tons of snow, I SO would have ended up on my tooshie if it hadn't been for my darling hubby!) I finally felt the Christmas season was off to a start.

Just to prove that I do still exist...

Daniel's "Christmas Sprinkles...." Daniel begged and begged for a Christmas donut and Grandma spoiled him and got one. Of course when we got home he tore into the donut and refused to eat the "yucky for me" sprinkles. Don't know what I'm going to do with this kid!

I have now joined the elite club of people who have had a shot in the eyeball. Yep, in the eyeball. Not fun. Anyways, my eye problem was (mostly) the reason I haven't been on here in a while. Sorry! I was all excited to do a lot of photography while I was here in Utah and haven't gotten to do any yet! Off to try it!

Utah:

We're in Utah right now soaking up all the family time we can handle and loving it. Bryan's still in Columbus at school but will join us soon. These are just a few of the things we've done so far.

Went swimming:

Bryan's parents kept the pool warm enough for us to swim! We were so happy and excited to jump in. (and glad it wasn't snowing at the time!)

We get to see our cute nephew and can't believe just how much he has grown!!

Thanksgiving:

We had 2 (yes 2!) wonderful Thanksgiving dinners at both of our parent's houses. It was a day full of family and incredible food. I even tried my first Sushi!

AWESOME!!!

In this picture you can see two faces, Max Hall's and my husbands!! This was on the front page of the newspaper today. This picture doesn't show it, but Bryan actually carried Max Hall for a bit. Crazy boy.

Bryan and I got to go see the BYU vs. UofU football game on Saturday. (Thanks Grandpa!) What an incredible game! We were sitting next to two Ute fans in a sea of blue. They were actually pretty classy about the whole thing. I didn't see much ugliness about the rivalry. (except, I'm sad to say, some of the older men that weren't too gracious ..... who knew?) It was just incredible to be there with all the action and noise. I swear that there is nothing louder than cougar stadium when they play the Utes! The last few minutes were incredible, I thought for sure that we'd lost the game, but my cougars pulled it out!! Go Cougs!

Kirtland Ohio:

Okay, so if you don't like history, religion or lots of pictures stop reading here and just pretend this post doesn't exist.

Still here? Great, on we go...

Last Saturday Bryan and I FINALLY made the trek up to Kirtland Ohio. We've been talking about doing it almost every weekend since we moved here. The 3 day weekend proved to be enough to get us there and it was a lot of fun. First we travelled to Hiram, Ohio where the John Johnson Farm is located. I drove the 3 hours, Bryan tried his best to study and Daniel tried his best to get his Daddy's attention.

We were very impressed with the condition of the farm and the restoration that had gone into it. They have stripped all of the paint to find the original colors and repainted using the same ones. I couldn't believe their brave use of colors! They used oranges, teals and yellows. It made the place bright and cheery, but wasn't overpowering. I would never have imagined it though.

I had forgotten how many important things had happened here. The above picture is of the "Revelation Room" where Joseph Smith held many meetings and received many sections of the D&C. The picture below is of the room that Joseph and Emma stayed in when they lived here for a year. This was the room that he was pulled from to be tarred and feathered and where one of the little twins they had adopted died.

Joseph would preach off of the front step and they would build a Bowery for hundreds of people to sit under and listen. If you ever get the chance to go to Kirtland, make sure you stop by the Johnson Farm in Hiram.

Our next stop (after getting lost a bit) was the Kirtland Temple. We didn't get to go inside because we were running short on time and the only way to get in is to take an 1 1/2 tour. But the grounds were beautiful! Maybe it was just that the leaves were all golden, but it was really something else.

The temple was originally a light blue/gray exterior with green doors and a red roof! I had never known that. They repainted the doors green and are planning on returning to the original colors in the next couple of years. Next time I make the trip up I am DEFINITELY going to go inside. Can't wait.
LDS visitors center and Newell K. Whitney store,etc.

Below is a picture of the inn. It's been beautifully restored and houses visitors information. (videos and models of the city, etc) This was Joseph Smith's private study above the Whitney store. You can't really tell in this picture, but the trim is all a mustardy yellow/brown. The table in the picture is the very same one that Joseph used in this room. The School of the Prophets was held here. It's a very special room and you can feel that when you go into it. I also couldn't believe that they used to fit so many men in here at once! This is the ashery where they made ash to sell and help support the church. It's a beautiful building, it's been built on top of the original foundation. It was kind of surreal standing inside of the Whitney store. It looks just like you'd think it would, kind of like the store in "little house on the prairie"

It was a great day for us, getting to spend time together as a family. We'll definitely do this one again!

5 Years Ago.....

Wow I was just thinking of where I was 5 years ago and it's amazing how quickly time flies! 5 years ago I was in college, single (I think I was dating someone at the time, but I'm not sure... yeah that's how memorable that relationship was;) I had just finished Performing in Carmen at BYU and I was inexplicably ahead in my classwork. I was preparing to give my hour long senior recital and singing in BYU Singers. I had stumbled upon some of the best roommates I ever had. 5 years ago I also found out that my sister had leukemia. I think that's why everything else is a bit of a fog. That one instance is so clear and precise in my mind. It's amazing how so many things can get lost in the shuffle and yet some things stay untouched, almost as if you carefully wrapped up the memory and put it high up on a shelf to be undisturbed by the humdrum of everyday life. It put a lot of things into perspective for me really fast. All of the little things I worried about so much were not even on the eternal radar. I had so much to learn. The past five years have served me well. I met and married Bryan and joined a wonderful family who adds so much to my life. I had a wonderful little boy who teaches me daily of God's love. I've learned to let go of some of the things that weigh me down. It's incredible to see not only how much my life has changed, but also just how much I have changed. I so grateful that the Lord is patient in giving us the time we have on this earth. Because for me growth is all about time.

What were you up to 5 years ago?

Halloween Columbus style....

Halloween was practically perfect for us. Bryan came home and we went out around 6:30. When we left I was worried about it being too early to go out. For some reason I've always felt like it had to be dark to go out.... maybe that's just part of being raised in a family of night-owls? But when we got to the neighborhood we were t-o-ting in there were kids everywhere. We went to a neighborhood across the street from us since there wasn't much Halloween life in the complex. ( I bought a big bag of candy thinking that all the neighborhood kids would be going around, but we only had one trick or treater..... who we had to invite to come by!) Daniel had a blast going door to door. He never spoke to anyone above a whisper and everyone thought he was adorable. (of course they did, right? I couldn't be biased at all could I? Nope, definitely not) We only went on two streets but Daniel got quite the load of candy. (especially when you consider how much we still had at home! I was going to mail it out to my nieces and nephews, but I don't think my siblings would appreciate that, so it'll go to Bryan's lab partners or into the trash!) When we got home Daniel ran inside, dumped his candy out all over the floor and stripped down to his diaper! He was ready for his candy binge. He actually did really well and only had a couple of pieces of candy that night. I've put it up on top of the fridge to slow him (and me!) down. One interesting tidbit I learned from my neighbor who is in dental school is that cavities aren't caused by how much sugar you eat, but by how often you eat it. So maybe I should just let him go all out one day and get it over?

I had fun getting ready for Halloween by decorating our little place. Living far away from family gives you lots of time for other things! We went on a drive a couple of weeks ago and saw some GORGEOUS fall colors. (You really need to click on this to get the full effect, it was gorgeous!)

We stopped at a farm while we were out and bought a ton of pumpkins.(for way cheap!) I love me some pumpkins! (those are also the infamous hurricane vases I spent $5 and a lifetime at walmart for)

I made a Halloween banner that I finished at about 8pm on Halloween. Oh well, I guess I've got it for next year! I'm thinking about laminating the individual letter blocks to make it easier to store and make it last longer. Do you think that would destroy it and make it look chintzy?

I got the idea from Candice Stringham's blog (link on the right of this page). I used Halloween-ish fonts and printed out/hand cut the letters. Then I glued glitter on them and mounted and matted them all. I was a good outlet for me. For some reason cutting paper is really soothing to me. (I'm a weirdo, I know)

Another creative endeavor I am working on is painting our apartment. The main room is mainly a color called "Pebble Path," but I bought a Butternut Squash yesterday (going to make some soup) and it's almost exactly the same color! )(Just pretend you don't see the mess!)

Our accent wall is a stormy gray/blue in suede texture.
I've been planning on painting the kitchen area a lighter shade of blue or brown to kind of just blend in with everything, but I bought a pomegranate the other day that looks stunning with these colors. I can't decide. I may have a red kitchen...... it's all an experiment. It might just be too overpowering. I'm trying to see if I like to be surrounded by color or if I like the feel of a more "clean" pallet. We'll see I guess. Any thoughts?

Hi, My name is Suzanne... (collective response from my readers, "Hi, Suzanne") and I'm a picture-aholic. It's been way too long since I've posted and I've got a ton of photos to unload on you all. I only hope you can stand how cute my little boy is! We stopped at Dairy Queen the other day and Daniel had his first ice cream sandwich (I think) He LOVED it!

Okay, so maybe he's a little too excited about this icecream, but isn't he cute??Then we went to COSI (children's science center) to see the Bob the Builder exhibit. Daniel couldn't stand still again, we spent the whole time running back and forth between the stations set up.Afterwards we stopped to get some costumes for a party at our friend's house. It was a lot of fun and we got to get to know some more people better.Daniel was a "dragon" (dinosaur costume) but loves wearing my witches hat. He's started to close his eyes when he sees me pull out my camera. Maybe that should tell me something.....

This was him the other day. I was folding laundry and he kept asking me for cheese, I told him just a minute a dozen times or so. And then he stopped coming in and asking.... I went out and he had gotten the whole block of cheese out of the fridge and was eating it chunk by chunk. Little punk! He sure loves his cheese!

Bryan and Daniel take short walks every morning before we take Bryan to school. Daniel lives for his short walks with Daddy.

The other day Daniel and I went and explored more of German Village. I can't get enough of that place. It actually reminds me a lot of my grandmother, no clue why, she wasn't German, but the quaintness of the area makes me think of her. I know she would have loved it. There is this really awesome tree there that is very unique....

After the park we stopped at Cup-O-Joe for a hot chocolate and muffin while we waited for the bookstore next door to open. It was soooo good! It reminded me of the hot chocolate I had in Italy last year, yum! Daniel sure liked the muffin too.

The bookstore we went to was incredible. It's called The Bookloft and it has 32 rooms of books! I could spend way too much money in there!!!

The other day Daniel discovered the joy of playing with bubbles in the tub. Luckily they were made with the "no tears" shampoo!!!