Paybacks a B....

I have noticed that Chels has been rather jealous of the overwhelming response of my singing performances, so being the good husband that I am I figured I would share some of my beautiful wife's hidden talents. You go girl!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Very Merry Christmas

Brett and I were very spoiled this year for Christmas. Between Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the day after Christmas we got to spend 3 whole days with BOTH of our families. We are so glad that we have families that live so close together that we are able to split the holidays. We're spoiled! :)

Christmas morning we went snowshoeing with Jadd and Rosie, Jake and Lauren (who just got engaged and we are so excited for them!) and us. We went up immigration canyon and hiked around for a bit and Rosie brought some sleds so we went sledding for awhile too. It was a great way to spend Christmas morning. It may just have to become a tradition! :)

Christmas Eve was quite eventful... We were at the Falslev's - we went caroling to people in their ward to deliver their Christmas goodies. We had a lot of fun. Here's some pictures to show off our nerdiness. We're just waiting for someone from Nashville to call so we can sut a record.... (NOT!)

We had a lot of fun and it was very fun spending Christmas with them. This was also Dillon's last Christmas before he leaves on his mission so we really enjoyed his company with us.

Brett showing off his new stuff from Christmas - new hiking boots, new swimming suit, new shirt, new biking gloves, new hat. What a good looking guy! ;)
We ventured over to the new house and scrapped out the ice and snow that made it in before the roof was actually finished. The roof was finished on Tuesday and my dad did a great job at leaving the house alone for a few days to spend Christmas with his family. Thanks Dad! It's coming along so well, they think that they will be starting to move in, in about 1 1/2 months, maybe 2. We're super excited for them. Hopefully the horses don't have their babies before Dad can get the roof on the shed... Here a picture of what the house liked just ONE MONTH ago and a picture of what it looks like now.

Christmas night we headed to the Petersen's for dinner and more fun. It had been snowing in Newton all day so there was about 5 new inches of snow already when we arrived. While we were there it snow about another foot. It was soo crazy! I couldn't believe it but we had to go outside to play in it. We had a lot of fun. Because it snowed so much the whole family ended up staying at Sparks and Suz's house. It was so much fun to have the enitre family there. I'm so grateful that we all get along and enjoy being with each other.

After we all watched the kids open their presents. It's amazing how one little kid can captivate a room full of adults. We love the nieces and nephew! They are adoreable! Unfortunately, Brooklyn (niece) and Sean (brother-in-law) got sick a little later that night and were puking and then Sparks (Brett's dad) and Emily (Brett's sister) got sick the next morning. Sparks thinks he may have broken a rib from puking so hard. We'll have to wait and see until he makes it to the doctor. Yesterday, Brain (brett's brother) called and said that he was now sick. So far we haven't caught the bug and hopefully it stays clear of our house! That was pretty much our Christmas. And now we're planning on a GREAT NEW YEAR!

So much to tell...

As you can see the month of December is pretty crazy for us (hence the lack of posts). The first of the month is my birthday, the middle of the month is our anniversary, mixed with all the holiday fun and excitement the whole month of December.

I've already shared the happenings of my birthday so I'll fill you in on the rest of month. First of all, we finished with finals week! Can we get a "Hallelujah"! We both had finals up until the very last day - December 8 so if was a busy, full, hecktic week. After I got done with all of my classes and finals, it was on to preparing the application for graduate school, which is due on January 1. I'll keep everyone posted on the happening of that as soon as I know. Cross your fingers that I get in here so we can stay in the valley for a little bit longer. :)

You can see Beark Lake in the background kind of.

For our ONE YEAR anniversary (can you believe that it's been a whole year already!) we decided since we've both been working so hard for the entire semester that we just wanted to do something really chill for our anniversary. So we did just that. We headed over to Brett's family's cabin at Bear Lake and did nothing but sleep, eat, and watch movie. Nothing like really turning your breain off for a couple days. It was so relaxing. We enjoyed a nice toasty fire, hot tubbing and just relaxing with each other. It was a MUCH needed break from reality.
I can't believe that it's been a year since we got married. I am the luckiest girl on earth. My husband is such a hard worker. He loves his Savior and is such a great example for me. I can't wait for him to be able to be an example to our children one day. He sacrifices so much for me and I am so grateful to have landed such a great catch. He's the best and I'll argue that with any other woman out there! Love you babe!

I got the house all decorated up for the holidays. Here's a picture of our tree, the ledge above our kitchen sink, and the lights in the window. Boy, I can't wait until a big tree fits in my house and I can decorate the whole outside of my house!

We went to Brett's work Christmas party. Great food. Great company. Great attire - you'll see what I mean when you check out my dear sweet husband's attire and Dustin's sweet sport coat. Gotta love the boys. They keep me laughing.

Last Saturday Brett, my dad, and Dearth built some shelves for our closets. I wish I had a before and after shot but I forgot to take a picture before the place was torn apart. But it was a much needed addition to our closets. They turned out great and the whole room looks completly different. Thanks guys!

That night was the Petersen Family Christmas party too. Natalie found out that my dad had dressed up as Santa for his ward party and asked me to find out if he would come to their party for the kids. It was fun to see him tease the kids (including Greg aka Dearth, or dad's girlfriend).

Us and Santa

Greg and Santa

Garrett and Santa

Yesterday I spent almost all day baking cookies for us to take around to all of our friends. It sure was a lot of work but I really enjoy baking when it's for other people so I found it quite enjoyable. However, I still hate cleaning up the mess so the dishes are still sitting in the sink a day later. Maybe i'll get to them at some point. I love the holidays and I love them even more now that I have my one and only to share them with!

I'm not sure if any of you have noticed (those of you who live in the valley) but the temple is no longer green. What I mean is there used to be a green hue to the domes on top of the temple. That is no longer so. The lights have been changed to a brillant white white and I LOVE it! The temple was easy to spot before but now it's even better! You can see the outline of the temple in Newton (that's about 15 miles away)! Just thought I would say the "newness" with you all! Hope you like it as much as we do!

Tis the Season

Well I certainly hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving because we sure did! I must say that after about 2 weeks of not being in your own house and living out of suitcases, I am glad to be back at our house. Ellis and Traci had a very successful, happy adoption and gained a new little guy just in time for the holidays. Megan and Zach arrived from Alaska last Tuesday night. So between staying at our parents while the Days were here and then staying there with Megan and Zach, we're glad to be back. We sure are grateful that we have such great family and they let us stay and eat their food whenever we want. :)

Thanksgiving was our first major holiday together. And let me tell ya, it was a little rough. Due to some miscommunication on both of our parts, we had a major "discussion". It was nothing serious and not a big deal at all but it made me realize two things. First, that both of us have such great families and we both feel so 'at home' when we're with both sides that it really doens't matter where we are for the holidays. And second, I realized how grateful I am to have a husband who wants to be with his family and is willing to spend time with mine too. Hopefully, we got all of the 'discussion' out about the holidays and we'll never have to have a 'discussion' again.

As I mentioned, Megan and Zach were here for about a week. They really couldn't have chosen a crappier time to come, considering that Brett and I both had so much homework, but during the time when they were with the Joneses, we managed to get a lot of work done. We were so happy to be able to share Thanksgiving with them and have them around for a week. Me and Zach sure do like to tease each other and it makes me wish they were around a lot more so we could hang out more together and do more fun things together. Megan, my mom, and I really enjoyed shopping together. Yes, I did manage to get nearly all of my Christmas shopping done - YAHOO! So I don't have to worry about that anymore. We did a lot of shopping for Megan's little "man baby" and it was so fun to be able to enjoy girl things with my sister. I sure do miss her and wish she was around more so that we could do more girl things together.

Decemeber 2 was also my birthday. I have to give props to Brett for trying to make my day special. My family was out of town taking Megan and Zach back to the airport so it was just me and Brett, with lots of homework to do on that night. We did go out to dinner with my family and the Petersen's the night before. It was really fun to visit with everyone and have everyone there. Brett gave me some sweaters and a pair of pants (all of which I picked out) on my birthday. And he did surprise me with one gift that was very unexpected - hiking boots! Yeah! I need some so bad and they fit just right and they are perfect! I had to laugh when I saw the wrap job, he used masking tape because he couldn't find the Scotch tape (which was sitting on the desk). :) He even bought me a lemon cake and sang Happy Birthday to me. He is such an awesome husband. Sometimes I'm not sure what I did to deserve such a great husband but I'm sure glad that he's mine. I'm so thankful for him and the efforts he went through to make my birthday special, even when he had a million others things to do. He's the best!

Suz and Gracie

Brett's wrap job

My new shirt and pants

Me and MeganMe and Brett

Me and Brett when we went shooting with Megan and Zach

What a week

Due to some certain circumstances, we've had to stay at Brett's parents house all week. And I've a ton of projects that were due this week so much time was spent at the library. So I didn't get to spend a lot of time out there but I did manage to get away from the homework and go to a concert.

On Tuesday I went to Carrie Underwood concert with my sister-in-laws and Brett's cousins and a few friends. It was an awesome girls night out! She came with Little Big Town, who I love, so I especially loved the concert. A little fact that most people don't know about Little Big Town - they are 2 married couples that have always loved to sing together and they've been playing for about 10 years together. Here are some pictures of the girls at the concert (the cousins sat in a different section so we didn't get a good picture of all of us).

Little Big Town
Heidi and Me
Heidi, Me, Em, Mallory, Carly, and Nat

Nat, Em, and Me

Cute Carrie

Unfortunately, this week was quite the killer for me with a few big projects that were due so I spent some much needed extra time at the library so I didn't get to spend as much time as I would've liked out west. But on Friday I did get to watch Garrett and Gracie while Em and Nat cleaned out the food storage. The little guy is crawling quite well and he LOVES his little tongue. I thought you'd all enjoy a little clip (sorry that I'm retarded and had the camera turned sideways - it's still cute though) of the little man crawling around. I love having the nieces and nephews so close. It's so fun to watch them grow and it's going to be hard to not be close to Megan when their little tike is born.

Mom helping out

So my parents have starting building their new home. Ok, so they haven't started on the house but they have started on the horse carrols and sheds and stuff for the horses. Hopefully, they will be getting a buidling permit for the house tomorrow and they can start on the house so they can have it up (or at least a good portion of it) before the snow flies.

My mom has been so willing to help out and found herself in a little bit of a trouble one day while helping out. She's been such a good sport about it - my brother-in-law, Greg, got a good picture of her helping out before him, my dad, Brett, and my brother Dillon pushed her out. :)

This was just too good NOT to share with everyone.

Hopefully, we will have a few more things done soon so I can take some pictures and share with all of you.

BuSy! bUsY! BUSY!

It's been a while since I posted an update. We've been super busy with school and haven't had much time for anything else it seems like. These past 2 weeks have been especially busy with all of our teachers having big projects due and lots of tests. So we've had our hands full. This is a picture of Brett so hard at work in the library on one afternoon. This is just to show you all how hard we really are working... :)

Ok, so we really have actually been quite busy. We feel quite old because we work so hard during the week and then when the weekend comes all we want to do is sleep, hang out with each other, stay home, and go to bed early. No there's nothing wrong with this but this past weekend was Halloween and we didn't really want to do anything. However, I did convince Brett (who has NEVER been to a corn maze EVER BEFORE!) to go to the corn maze with me. It was a haunted corn maze and Brett doesn't like being scared. But he was a really good sport and made me go through all of the scary tunnels first and everything. We really had a good time and enjoyed spending the evening together.
The next morning we got up early for the opening morning of the pheasant hunt. We headed out West to Benson and went hunting with my dad, my brother, and my brother-in-law Dearth. I slayed the most pheasants. I shot 2 pheasants (actually 3 - but my cousin Jason shot the other one first so I let him have it) and I even cleaned one of them on my own. Brett was kind enough to clean one for me. Brett got one and Dearth got one but they gave them away so they didn't have to clean them. But we did have them for Sunday afternoon dinner and they were quite delicious. Now I can lay claim to the mighty hunter of the family!

My sister Megan and her husband Zach are expecting their first baby in March and they found out today that IT'S A BOY!!! Congrats to them! We are super excited for them. We just wish they were closer so that we could hug and kiss them and watch Megan's tummy grow!
I also got some good pictures this last week. We had a little going away party for Brett's cousin, Tyler, who left to go work at a ski resort in Colorado and I caught this great picture of Dearth (he didn't know he had crap all over his face and I snapped a picture before he got wipe it off).

And Brooklyn was quite the cute little witch for Halloween - quite fitting I would have to say for her attitude lately. But we sure do love our little Brooklyn!

Brett also needed a hair cut really bad! So I gave him one and his bushy beard just looked quite comical so he decided to trim the beard. He looks so much younger, even with just trimming it - it's crazy. This is just a picture of him trimming his beard (notice all of the hair at his feet - that's all from his hair!)

The HUNT

As many people know, this week is the deer hunt. For any of those who don't know, the Petersen Family are 'die hard" hunters. They don't really care if they get anything, they go out everyday looking for deer, but they don't mind if they don't shoot anything - they just LOVE the outdoors. It's been a family tradition for about 60 years and will probably keep going as long as there are mountains to call home for a week. Deer Camp is quite the extravagant event. They really know to live up there in the hills. They all like to think that they 'rough' it for a week but heaven knows that they don't. They have quite the camp. It's really fun for the whole family and even the little ones can enjoy it because every tent is heated. Well, Brett has taken off for a week and left me a widow (someone has to stay home and be responsible). I don't mind because I get a lot done when it's just me at home but I sure do miss him. It's the longest we will have ever been apart - all for 'the hunt'. And when he returns - NO MORE BEARD! He's been growing it for 3 months and I almost don't remember him without a beard. He started going it early for 'the hunt' this year and soon 'the hunt' will be over and there will be no more beard. I will have to say that I do have mixed emotions about this. I have quite enjoyed the beard and will be sad to see it go but will once again have my husband back and not some mountain man.

I did get the opportunity to head up to Deer Camp last night and spend the night. We had a great time. Great food, great company, and a great time. I just wanted you all to be able to experience just a little bit of Deer Camp, especially my mother-in-law (who never makes it up to deer camp), to be able to know the true joy of her husband while he is away. He is taking a shower, with HOT water in the shower tent (I must say that it is quite nice - Craig said it's better than The Hilton). You can't really see anything in the video but the beautiful noises that you will hear are hilarious! If you look close you can see the silhouette of the shower tent and the light illuminating the tent. Make sure the volume is turned up...

This would explain where Brett gets his wonderful singing habits from. To see exactly what I'm talking about click here. Scroll down to the post: Brett loves Suma!! and watch the video.
This is a picture of us at Deer Camp, enjoying the fire.
Check out my sweet beanie – I think I’m going to wear it to school every day.
We were playing in the fire and were throwing ash in the air. I was able to snatch this picture of it. We thought it was pretty sweet and thought you’d all enjoy it too. If you look at it close it looks like a ball of hair on fire – kinda cool.

Go Aggies! Go!

As many of you know, the epic battle between the BYU Cougars and the USU Aggies took place last Friday night. With the Ags being ranked 116th in the nation (if you aren't aware, that's almost the very bottom...) and the Cougs being ranked 8th, we all thought it was going to be a blow out, that is everyone except for my dear husband, who says he'll never lose faith in his Ags even if they are at rock bottom. Luckily for me it shows just how faithful he is. Anyway, back to that game...
Brett's sister Natalie and her husband, Greg, attended BYU and are quite the BYU fans (needless to say, they are the outcasts of the family). All of Greg's family are huge BYU fans so we have a friendly family rivally between us all and Nat put a poll on her blog to see who Garrett should cheer for at the game. Sadly, BYU won, but of course, not without cheap play. Natalie and Garrett did attend the game and sat with Aggie fans and they both cheered for the Aggies. Here are just a few pictures of Garrett at the game (notice that he is extremely happy in the USU shirt and as soon as we put the BYU hat on him he started bawling) This kid knows what's up.

The Aggies put up a dang good fight against the Cougs and scored WAY more points then probably anyone thought they would. We only scored 14 but if they would've had one more play they would have scored another one. We got the job done and made them drop in rankings to 9th. :) WAY TO GO AGGIES!

Brett sported this shirt to the game... We loved it! His boss made a whole bunch of them and gave one to Brett. The school also made some that said "YBU" on the front and on the back it said: "Win or lose, you still live in Provo." Unfortunately, I did not get a picture.

Even with all the good things that have been previously mentioned this is my favorite... Anyone who knows the fans at Utah State knows that they always have something crazy going on. For example, no one likes to place USU Basketball at home because it's always SO loud in there and the fans are always taunting the other players. The Dee Glen Smith Spectrum is ranked as one of the hardest places to play in the nation, and it's all thanks to the fans. Our football standium would probably be up there too but it's hard to cheer for a team that isn't as good as they could be. Ok, so I'll get down from my soap box and tell you my #1 favorite thing from the game: It was this sign, which reads, "BYU - keeping ugly girls out of Utah State since 1888" and I couldn't agree more! Go Aggies!