My Roman Soldier

Blaine and I had our ward Christmas party last night at our church. The theme was "A Night in Bethlehem" and everyone had to come dressed in Biblical attire. It was pretty neat because the ward was taxed, meaning each person of every family needed to bring one can of non-perishable food for payment when coming into the church. The cans were then exchanged for a bag of coins, where each person was able to spend the coins at various food booths. It was fun! Blaine was asked to dress up and act like a Roman soldier at the party. We had a lot of fun putting together his costume! Blaine insisted on me taking the following pictures of him in his "gladiator-like" costume. So here is the wannabe Maximus Decimus Merideus...

A Day At the Dinosaur Museum

We celebrated part of my birthday on Saturday at the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point. I know it sounds kind of nerdy, but I am really fascinated by those massive creatures! I absolutely love learning about life millions of years ago and have always wanted to go to that museum, so we went! Apparently this museum has more dinosaur skeletons than any other museum in the world. So, if you are interested in dinosaurs like me, and haven't already checked it out, you should! Blaine and I had a lot of fun as we learned more about the ancient world and its first inhabitants! We also had fun taking pictures!

December Is Here

December is my absolute favorite month of the year. Not only do I get to celebrate Christmas, but also my birthday. And, now, my anniversary! Three big dates in just one month! Woohoo! I turn 24 years old on the 6th and still cannot get over this fact. Honestly, I feel like I am still 20 years old. I guess that is a good thing, right? Less than three weeks after my birthday, Blaine and I will be flying to Bend, OR to spend Christmas with my family. Then, two days after Christmas, Blaine and I will celebrate our one year anniversary! The time has gone by so fast. There are so many things to look forward to this month! With Black Friday behind us, our Christmas tree is up, Christmas music is on, yummy desserts are being made, presents are being wrapped, and the shopping is almost done. I can hardly contain myself!

Couple of Hillbillies

Now that Blaine and I have received callings in our new ward to be a part of the activities committee, we have come to realize that planning events is a lot of work! Not only do you have to organize the activity and put it on, but clean up afterward as well! Geeesh! Anyway, our ward party at church was last night and Blaine and I decided to dress up as hillbillies. Our costumes were super easy to round up. I bought our wigs at WalMart and we built the rest of our costumes with items we already had at home. Everyone loved Blaine's nasty mullet wig. The wig looked so natural on him that it scared me a little. :)

Erin has asked that I take to some time to contribute to our blog. Apparently the blog was feeling neglected by me and mentioned to her that it would be nice if I would spend some time with it. I guess I have been too busy golfing and eating out at work to notice my obvious neglect.

To clear a few things up:

1. I have only golfed twice at my job in the two months that I have worked there.
2. We do eat out everyday but I am forcing myself to eat salads so that I don't really enjoy it and it still feels like work.
3. I am not comfortable with my man boobs being posted on the world wide web for every weirdo out there to see.

I would also like to recount a horrific experience I had last night. After we returned home from a night of pumpkin carving and baby talk with Adam and Julie Newhouse, I was feeling a little under the weather. I decided to take some NyQuil and put myself to bed early. Erin stayed awake to do the things she does before she goes to bed.

As I was lying there in my sedated stupor I was suddenly awakened by an aggressive female intruder. I instantly thought about Erin and her safety, but it became very clear that I was the one the intruder was after.

I didn't know what the intruder wanted or who she was. But I did know that she was trying to force some sticky, potent substance into my mouth and nose. I fought the intruder with all my might, but I eventually had to succumb as she overpowered me in my weakened state.

When I finally gave up and considered myself a dead man, the intruder tore open the chest of my shirt and rubbed the goo all over my body. I laid there thinking, was Erin next? What was this stinky stuff? Why did the intruder continue to tell me this would make me all better? And why did she put Vics Vapor Rub in my mouth?

Pumpkins and Caramel Apples

I had never made caramel apples before so I thought I would give it a shot. I bought a bag of caramels and followed the recipe on the bag. It called for five gala apples and to melt the whole bag of caramels in a pot with 2 tablespoons of water. Once I prepared everything I went to work. While melting the pot of caramel, dipping the apples into the caramel, and then refrigerating the caramel apples for one hour, things seemed to be going as they should. However, something went wrong along the way. Don't let the pictures of the apples deceive you. Even though they look like soft and yummy caramel apples, they almost broke our teeth off! If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them. Blaine doesn't believe I followed the recipe right and I need to redeem myself. Suggestions please!

We were in the mood to carve pumpkins today so Blaine volunteered to go to the store after work and pick one out. I told him to buy a "decent" size pumpkin and he came home with a thirty pounder! I could barely lift the thing. Anyway, the pumpkin actually turned out pretty good. Blaine is pretty proud of his work and thinks it is the best pumpkin he has ever made.

Flashback over the year

Since we haven't been very good at updating our blog, I thought I would just put up some pictures of our life from our wedding day (last December), until now. Most of the pictures are from this summer. More current pictures will come once we start taking them!