So for the "Hardy Party" Christmas party, the family puts on a nativity scene. Basically the kids dress up as sheep, cows, a donkey, shepherds, the wise men, Mary, Joseph, etc.
This year, because there weren't enough kids, Dave got to help join in on the fun. He was dressed up as a wise man, but he looked kinda scary...and crazy...
It was fun watching him, haha. Santa (Dave's dad) gave us a visit, as well!
All in all, it was a fun party. I had a blast! =)
While visiting my family in Texas this winter (when I went down for Mary's wedding), Jenny was able to show me the MOST AWESOME CHRISTMAS HOUSE EVER!!!! It's basically what I want my house to look like at Christmas time!!! It's my life long goal!!! haha. (The ending is the best - it gives me goosebumps!)
When I got back to Vegas, I was driving down a street and saw it was decorated like crazy with lights...they had music with it as well, but it was a variety of songs, not all Christmas. It was pretty crazy, but I don't think I could get THIS crazy...I like the Lubbock house better - to the TransSiberian Orchestra with simple, but awesome lights - not too much to cram it up. Nonetheless, here's the Vegas house...
Mary is married!!! Yay! She got married in December 2009 in Lubbock, TX, and I got to fly down to go to it. It was very special to me to be able to be there and share the whole experience with her. She was such a beautiful bride!
Here's Mary and Phillip Johnson!!! The Newlyweds! Yay for marriage!
So, Mary had THE cutest boots on for her wedding shoes!!! Red cowgirl boots! Awesome!
Mary's sis, Missy, Missy's hubby, and Mary's 3 bros: Taylor, Reed, and Austin. Such a cute family!
Adding Phillip into the picture...he's family now =)
At the reception...
With my Mema...
They're cutting the cake!! Mary had a bit of a hard time cutting it...it was funny watching her try to do it! haha
So...while we are watching Mary and Phil have their first dance, I turn around and Heather and Jenny are both all teary-eyed! haha, it was pretty funny
While at the reception, some country music came on (it's Texas, you can't have a dance without country music!). Some nice fellas asked Jenny and me to dance, so we did! They were very good and knew their dance moves! We did more swing dancing to the music than anything, but I love to dance, and it was fun! Dave and I really need to take more lessons so we can dance together, but there isn't any free places like we went to in Provo!
Mary just looked great all day! This is them leaving for the night! Congrats you two!
I took a photo of Mary's wedding picture. I love it!
We also got to spend a bit of time with Clara, Missy's girl. She is so adorable!!!
Before driving back to Lubbock from Midland (where the reception was), we took some family photos. I love my sisters! We were sad to have missed Cheri being there!
My mommy and daddy! My dad and I drove back to Lubbock together and my mom, with everyone else, drove to Dallas. It was a nice chat with my dad on the way home. We don't get to just sit down and talk too much anymore.
For my birthday, after a long day at school, Dave took me to Melting Pot to eat dinner! It was so yummy! It actually inspired us to buy our own fondue pot for home cooking!!
Later that night, Steph and I went to see the "Twilight: New Moon" premiere at midnight. She made me a shirt that said, "Sorry, I only date vampires". She had one that was different style, but said the same thing. It was cute!
While I enjoyed the movie, I don't think I will be going to see another chick-flick on opening night. A little too much "oos" and "ahhs" when any hot guy would appear....annoying. You can bet this coming November I'm going to see the new Harry Potter movie, though - complete with all of us dressing up! I've already decided I'm going to be Luna Lovegood!
So, Dave is very good at being crafty, as I'm sure you all know. For Courtney's birthday, he created a huge Minnie Mouse paper mache head. It looked amazing! We hung it in the garage for all the kids to get a swing at it.
We had 2 Thanksginings this year! Actually, Dave had 3 (the 3rd with his friends when I had to work). On Thanksgiving Day, we went to the Zitzmann's house (Eric's parent's place), and had a nice relaxing day there. The next day, we went to a buffet at one of the casinos in town with all of Dave's family. After that, we went to see "Planet 51". It turned out to be quite a cute movie!
So, to start off this blog, I wanted to post this silly picture of Dave...he's so silly. =)
K, so there is this worldwide thing that happens around Halloween in bigger cities. There is a designated day that you are supposed to dress up as a Zombie and do the "Zombie Walk" at a popular location. In Las Vegas, it was Fremont Street. Me, Dave, Dan, and some of Dave's and my friends all dressed up as Zombies and just walked around (like Zombies, of course), freaking people out. Getting into character, I had a zombie baby, which got quite a bit of attention, and Dave was a dead business man, complete with a briefcase. Towards the end of the night, we started just staring down children. It was funny the different reactions we got from them. I think we made 3 kids cry. One dad actually moved out of the way, so Dave, me, and Dan could surround his 8-year old. The kid wasn't really sure what was happening, but then laughed as his dad came up and was like, "oh they got you!" Funny times.
Dave got some video footage of me staring some people down...
For Halloween, Dave made us costumes, of course, but since I refused to wear cardboard again (being a cardboard toothbrush was very uncomfortable), he made our costumes out of foam. It turned out really well. We were Gumby and Pokey. We realized times had changed since we were little when all the adults knew who we were, but kids had no idea. They thought Dave was a vegetable, celery, and a cactus. It was pretty fun. While trick-or-treating, Dave put on this roller blades, so he "slid" like Gumby did.
This is the outfit Dave was wearing under his costume...my shirt and pants...so hot.
Deanna and Eric were vampires...
...and their daughter, Courtney was a fairy. Deanna made her wings! They looked great, but they were huge! Courtney kept hitting everyone as she ran past! haha
Usually the family gets together and decorates pumpkins together, but that didn't happen this year. So, Dave and I decorated our pumpkins together. He did the skull and I did the haunted house. I was very proud of my pumpkin. I thought it turned out pretty well!
After trick-or-treating, we were all kinda wiped out, except the girls. They thought it was great climbing on Dan and Dave.
Yay for Halloween. It is Dave's favorite holiday, so we try to have fun with it. I still enjoy Christmas the most!
So it turns out that we were teased in thinking we were going to get our house so soon. The bank wanted 20% down when originally they told us 10%, so we didn't have enough money to put down. So, we lost the house. However, we are thinking positive and trying to find another way to get a house.
We will try in October to qualify again. If we don't, then we need to wait until next year to see if we qualify for anything. We hope in both scenarios that we won't have to put more than 10% down. We don't want to put more down than that! We'll be wiped out! If we don't qualify next year then we'll have to figure out another strategy...ugh. It's a lot more frustrating getting a house than I thought. Oh well. Just gotta keep on truckin!
On a more interesting note...Dave and I are going to be running the Las Vegas Marathon on December 6th! At least, that's the plan. For those of you who don't know how long a marathon is, it's 26.2 miles. That's crazy people! You are supposed to train at least 16 weeks for the marathon cause it's so crazy freakin hard. The first time we ran was last night, so we started a bit late (we have 9 weeks left), so hopefully we won't die come the race. Our goal is to just say we did one. Hopefully we won't have to walk any of it, but who knows! Danielle has been running a bit too, so we are trying to convince her to run with us. YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO DANIELLE!!! =)
Sorry still no pictures...I've just been trying to get caught up in school (of course I'm already behind, but only in what I'm supposed to have read by now). Hopefully soon. Until then...
Oh!!! Also, I changed the settings, so anyone can comment!!! I know you all have been wanting to, but didn't realize you couldn't! haha. Just an FYI.
Sooo...what's been going on with us, you ask? Well, we've done quite a bit of things!
This summer we took a week and a half trip to Alaska with 1 week of it being on a cruise! It was so awesome and loads of fun...many pictures to come of it!
After we got back, we had 2 days to catch up on our work and we were off to California for a beach trip. I mean, after Alaska, we had to do an opposite trip, right? We went to Dan, Danielle, the girls, Darren, Steph, and their boys. It was a lot of fun....pictures to come of that too.
Before school started, I got all 4 of my wisdom teeth out. I was super sore for a week and am still a little sore now...being like, 3 weeks later. But at least it's done!
Our computer crashed...it really sucked. That is why the pictures are to come because, luckily I still kept all our recent pics on the camera, I just need to upload them again. Basically the only stuff we really lost was all our music/books on iTunes, and all our pictures. The pictures are online on our Flickr site, but it's going to take a ton of time getting them off!!! Note: if you know a quick way to do it, that would be GREAT!
School started. I'm taking 14 credits, which isn't too bad, but they are all finance classes, so that's fun. I plan on graduating in May 2010, and I'm super stoked! It's exciting. Dave's still not sure what the heck he's doing with school...
And finally.....WE ARE 90% SURE WE'RE GETTING A HOUSE!!! We are supposed to be signing loan papers and closing papers this week and then we'll have it...if all goes according to plan. We are super excited and already have a ton of things planned for it! Again...pictures of the house are to come. We have some "before" pics of what we'll be doing and then we'll take some "after" pics so you can comment.
So, that's a short update. When I have more time, I'll put some pics up! Love ya!
So, Dave wanted to experiment lately to see what his facial hair was capable of....
He first decided to try a mustache...we think he looked like either a used car salesman...or a pedofile...
Dan decided to get in on the excitement and shave his facial hair into handlebars... and Damon joined in on the "manly" picture.
A few weeks later, Dave decided he wanted a neck beard, like Brigham Young. I don't think it suited him well. At least I didn't have to go into public with this look like I had to with the mustache!!!
Dave's mission buddy, Johnny Shaw, and his wife, Angela, were visiting family in St. George (they actually live in Salt Lake), so we decided to make the short 2-hour drive up there. On the way up, driving through "the gorge", it started raining SO HARD that we could barely see!! It didn't last for very long, but it was a bit scary to drive in! People were pulling over until it passed!
While in St. George we got to see the outside of the temple there. It was so pretty. We went to the visitor's center and also stopped by to see where Brigham Young's winter house was.
Do you see me on the steps??
Dave's friend, Johnny, and his wife, Angela. We went to a hibachi house where they cook the food in front of you at a grill on the table. So fun!
