Locks, Cookies, & A Get-Away

We have had a really great December so far! School was great in December, and now I am happily but rather lonely celebrating for two whole weeks away from school! It has been a blast. But again this year, my students were so gracious with their gifts! I love my students. They are amazing. I hope they are all having a great Christmas Break! We had a really fun last day of school by having pajama day, a read-a-thon in the morning. We watched the movie The Best Christmas Pageant Ever after reading the book. So funny. We took a spelling test. We had a way fun gift exchange and ate treats, and then our entire school met in the auditorium to have a Christmas Sing. Each grade got a turn singing two Christmas songs that they have been practicing for the past couple of weeks. We sang Pine Cones and Holly Berries, and Nuttin' for Christmas. We even heard through the grapevine that our choreography and singing was the best out of the whole school. 5th grade rocks!

We decided that we needed to put a lock on our door downstairs, and Tyler thought that the best time to do that would be at midnight. We had to do some sawing and drilling and it was a little bit bigger of a project than I think we anticipated. But we finally finished and by the time we were done, I think I looked like a zombie.

We made delicious cookies to take to work parties and such. We made homemade oreos, peanut butter yummy cookies with hershey's kisses, and sugar cookies with candy cane kisses. They were all delicious. Tyler just gets too excited about the size of the cookies so we are working on making the cookies a little bit smaller now :) He is so cute.

For a quick get-away, we left for Ogden on the 19th to stay in Tyler's parent's condo. We only took comfy clothes, because we were planning on a few days of pure laziness and relaxation. We did bring our new sleds because we were hoping that it would snow and we could have some fun outside, but we were sad to only experience the snow on our way out the door to head back to Orem. We did buy delicious food to cook while we were there though. We made tacos, biscuits and gravy, but our favorite was spaghetti with italian sausage and yummy salad. We bought tons of snacks and just enjoyed our time together. We even got to go hot-tubbing! It was definitely a great get-away that hopefully we can do again soon!!

We know how to have a good time with our family. Tyler is always tackling everybody and tickling them. It's one of the things that I love most about him. He has the best sense of humor. Everybody else loves the tackling and tickling too (said sarcastically).

And last night, we did not want to cook, so we just made one of my Grandma Slaughter's specialties; Cereal, toast, and hot chocolate. She used to make that for my every time I would go over to her house or whenever I stayed the night. It is one of my all time favorites!!

And finally, in just a few short hours, we are heading to Green River to spend Christmas with my Dad's side of the family!! I can hardly wait! We are going to have such a fun time! I just hope that the roads are good and that we can finally use our sleds! Christmas is such a fun time of the year, and I can't wait to spend my first Christmas being married with Tyler!! He was so excited about the things that he got me for Christmas that he might have already showed me everything he got me. He thought that since he showed me my presents, that I should show him his, but I definitely have not, and he is just going to have to wait till tomorrow, or at least until tonight! He keeps telling me that I don't love him, but it's because I love him so much that I haven't shown him! Yay for surprises, family, love, and Christmas!

One more thing. We have become addicted to the show Prison Break. It is so intense and so good!! We love it and have even gotten coworkers addicted to it as well. It is on Netflix, so if you have netflix, you should watch it too! It is just so sad that we are on the 4th season and don't know what we are going to do after it is over!!! Who knew you could become so close to and supportive of convicts trying to break out of prison :)

Cel-e-brate good times, Come On!!!

There have been so many wonderful things happening lately. I can't wait to share! First of all, we celebrated my wonderful husband getting a new job at Goldenwest Credit Union by going shopping all day one Saturday for new clothes for him, and my my my is he the most handsome teller there now or what!!! Just a few of my favorite outfits that he got :)

Today we had the amazing opportunity to share Chelsea and Greg Sloat's special day with them. My wonderful cousin Chelsea got married today to Greg Sloat, and we had the opportunity to go to the temple and attend their sealing. They are now blessed to be with eachother as husband and wife for time and all eternity! Congrats Chels and Greg! I can't wait to hang out with you guys once you get back and all settled in! Here are a few of the pictures that Tyler and I took throughout the day!

Tyler made me yummy french toast this morning!!

Watching football...hmm...should be going to get a haircut :)

Out to eat at California Pizza Kitchen!

The remnants after our delicious crispy mac' n' cheese!

Tyler made the #3 :)

The only picture that I got of the Salt Lake Temple.

My awesome cousin Erika!

Our amazing friends Ruth and Steve!

My beautiful cousin Chelsea and her new husband Greg!

Now we are safe and sound at home, doing what you may ask....watching the BYU game of course! But at least we got some treats to enjoy while we watch! I love my sweet husband!

October Fun

We have had some really fun days in October so far, and I just thought I would share. Tyler and I slaved over the hot stove making delicious chicken tacos for dinner last week, and all Melissa and David had to do was bring over two very inexpensive pumpkins that we could carve for our date night. It was really fun though. They carved a very "Lady Gaga" looking pumpkin, while we stuck with the traditional scary face pumpkin look. You will have to vote which one you think is the best Halloween pumpkin. Let Melissa and David down easily though :)

Of course we watched the BYU versus Idaho State game on Saturday! What a win BYU had! Not that that's any surprise or anything :) BYU Rocks! And it just so happened that some of my favorite people were at the game. Of course the love of my life Tyler, but then Melissa Hart, Melissa French, and Kammie Morris! I just love those girls. It was fun to be able to spend some time with them during the tailgate before the game. We just visited and laughed and enjoyed the beautiful weather. At half time, Kammie met up with me and Mel and we gawked as the BYU basketball team forged their way through the crowd. We managed to get a sneaky picture with Brandon Davies! Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!

And of course me and my silly husband had to get some pictures! We just look so good together, it's almost unreal :)

What a geek burger :)

I wonder where he gets it from? Hmm :)

They won!!!

A Date...Finally

The past three weeks have not been fun. It started with fevers, headaches, and body aches for Tyler. We tried to figure out what was wrong by going to the doctor, and they knew it was mono before they did any blood tests. But when the first two blood tests came back negative for mono, we didn't really know what to think. They told him that it was just a virus that was just going to take time to get rid of. So miserable. But then one night, we really couldn't stand it any longer. Tyler was so sick, and feeling so awful, that we decided to go to the ER and see if they could find something that the doctor couldn't find.

In the waiting room at the ER.

They took more of Tyler's blood, if he had any left (he swears that they took 14 gallons of his blood), and again the blood tests came back negative for mono even though they were "positive" that it was mono. So we started to think of other things that he might have. Lymphoma, cancer of the immune system, was one of Tyler's first thoughts, which literally gave me a heart attack. His mom also suggested diabetes because of some of his symptoms. The doctor called and wanted to try taking his blood one last time. And FINALLY the blood test came back positive for mono. Hooray! They were able to give him some medicine for his symptoms, which really helped. And at last, 23 days later, it is looking like he is almost back to normal. Something kind of hilarious that I thought that I would mention was something that happened while we were in the ER. The doctor said that Tyler really should rest and not do anything very active to preserve the small amount of energy that he does have. I asked if that meant that he shouldn't go to the BYU game against San Jose on Saturday night, knowing full well that we were going to go anyways. The doctor was a big BYU fan as well, and said that was something that I would have to discuss with Tyler. We totally ended up going. My choice of course. :)

It was so cold! I was wearing 15 layers of clothing.

This brings me to the title of this blog. A Date...Finally. Tyler was so miserable during the mono infestation because he really is such an active person, always wanting to go outside to play catch, or go to Provo Beach Resort, or just get out for a while. He just didn't have enough energy to go out and do anything. So last night, after feeling tons better, he asked me if I wanted to go out. And so, we definitely took advantage of that. We went to Firehouse Subs, a delicious sandwich place that Tyler discovered on his mission in Georgia. YUM! We went to the mall, just to walk around. We went to one of our very favorite places, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory to get a caramel apple to share. A good caramel apple just gets me into a happy mood no matter when I eat one. To top it all off, we went to Provo Beach Resort! Tyler won at croquet and then I made him buy me ice cream so I could stop crying after such a sad loss. Delicious. I love spending time with my sweetheart. He is so funny and fun, especially when he is not sick :)

You will never guess what we are doing at this exact moment. If you guessed spending time with one another you are correct. But if you guessed watching another BYU game, you are even more correct. My favorite.

So Sick :(

My poor husband has been so sick the past week. It started last Thursday, and is still going strong. We decided on Sunday that enough was enough. We wanted to know what was going on. We never expected the doctor to say what he said though. They took some blood tests, and after a strep test being negative, the doctor told us that Tyler has mono. What the heck? How in the world did he get mono? I don't have mono, and we have heard that it is called "the kissing disease" for a reason. So who has my husband been kissing? Just kidding. I asked how you can contract this evil mono, and the doctor said besides kissing, you can get it from any kind of saliva from anywhere. Everybody is always sneezing and coughing and spitting all the time, (what a lovely picture I have in my head now) so it is kind of understandable. But boy has Tyler been sick. Cold sweats, fevers, headaches, backaches, fatigue, weight loss (maybe a good side affect?), and spleen enlargements, are just a few wonderful side affects of this awful sickness. Please pray you never get it. IT'S AWFUL! And after they took his blood, my poor husband needed a juice box and and band-aid and a kiss on the forehead to make him feel better. He didn't even have to go to work or school this week. Lucky. But I am the best wife ever, and I have taken good care of my boy. I hope he is feeling better today...cause we are going to the game no matter what :) By the way, BYU won last week 24-17 against Central Florida! Woo Hoo! I knew I would have good news after that game! Go cougars!

Isn't he so adorable? I think so :)

Rise Up

Last Saturday was supposed to be magical. It was my very first BYU game. Ever. We were all pumped and ready to cheer for the Courageous Cougars. We did our tailgating, we ate delicious food, we played really fun games, and we got to spend time with our family and friends. Tyler and I had pretty good seats in the stadium too. How much better could it get. Well besides getting to see Jimmer and President Dieter F. Uchtdorf... We watched the band, we saw the gigantic flag brought out by the military men and women, and then we screamed and cheered when the team ran out on the field. It was altogether so exciting, I almost couldn't control my excitement. Tyler can attest to that. But then the game started. By half-time, we were really thinking that BYU had a really good chance of winning, but by the 3rd quarter, we just wanted to hide under the bleachers. All you could really do with that game is feel so embarrassed for BYU. Secretly I wanted to start cheering for Utah. How terrible is that... But we feel strongly that BYU will make a serious comeback with their game on Friday. Hopefully I will have better news to share than a terrible loss of 10-54 this weekend! Good luck Cougars!

Our matching Rise Up shirts. So cute.

Holding our prized season tickets!

Our awesome seats on the South end!

Jimmer!!!

The football field sized flag!!!

Tyler's excited face!

Here they come!

They won. Boo.

President and Sister Uchtdorf!

On another note...We had a really fun block party on Thursday. There was a bounce house. Need I say more?

So exciting!!

The queen!!

I thought he was going to bounce right off of that thing!

But he is my superman :)

Red Rock Relay Rookies

I have never, and I mean never, been a runner in my entire life. I don't like it. I want to like it. So I run sparatically here and there. When I started dating Tyler in March, his family was talking about this race that they were going to do in September called the Red Rock Relay. I had never heard of it before. It is a 187 mile run starting at Brian Head ski resort in Cedar City, and it ends in St. George. They give your 12 man team 36 hours to complete it. Sounds fun right? Not really. I mean, it was, but it doesn't really sound fun. :) Well, when plans were being discussed on how this was all going to turn out, I was going to be a driver with Tyler's mom, which was totally fine with me. But then in August, Tyler's sister in law Katie, who was going to be running, broke her toe. So I took her place. What was I thinking? I ran a little the last few months of school, but then I took the ENTIRE summer off. I was a little preoccupied with other things. :) So without training, we left on Thursday afternoon for Cedar City. My first leg was Friday morning. 5.4 miles later, I was already pooped. How was I going to complete the other two legs? Especially when we started our second leg during the nighttime. With some encouragement from my amazing teammates, I started my second leg of 2.8 miles at 11:50 at night. It was quite the experience. I started to get a little spooked with all the night sounds. I even got a little discouraged after being passed by like 15 people. But I was able to finish. We were able to get a little sleep after our second leg. 3 hours of sleep is really not very much though, so we were super tired when it came to the last leg. My 5 miles was my last leg. The first mile was straight up a hill, then it went down a little, and then back up another hill. I thought I was going to die. But again, with the support of my teammates and an awesome girl who decided to run next to me, I was able to complete my last leg without perishing. Thank goodness. I love not being able to walk still from that adventure, and I am pretty sure I won't be running again for quite a while. But I can say that I completed the Red Rock Relay, which I am sure not very many people do in their life.

Tyler was tired after his first leg.

Wearing my "women's size medium" shirt.

He earned that first stripe.

The view from Melissa's first run.

Me before my first 5.4 miles.

Me after my first 5.4 miles.

We earned all 3 of our stripes!

Happy we are still alive, and feeling accomplished.