Christmas '10

It's so so sad to say that Christmas came and went. But it was a good time (despite the weight gain from all the goodie plates and fudge mmm). After uploading the few photos I have, I'm mad that I didn't take hardly ANY. I'm trying to convince our personal home banker (Jeffrey Michael Giles), that we are in need of a camera but until then, my phone will do and me forgetting to take any pictures. I feel like we have like 10 pictures total to show for our first year of marriage. Anyway, this was the first year trying to figure out where to spend the holidays and Christmas worked out perfectly. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day with my family and then left that afternoon and spent a couple days with Jeff's family in Mesa, AZ.

This year was different and didn't spend it doing all our traditions with our extended family like we usually do, so just like Thanksgiving it was just me and my small (but awesome) family. My mom wanted to do something different and go to another church service and worship with them. She wanted to go to a Catholic midnight mass but my dad refused and said he's been to enough of those in his lifetime haha (he was converted when he was 26). So my mom found this church called The Church of South Las Vegas. haha. But it was awesome! There was a live band playing Christmas music. I felt like I was in the House of Blues or something. They did really cool versions of different Christmas songs. And then the pastor did a little sermon about the Nativity and then we had a candlelight service and everyone sang Silent Night. It was really cool. The people there were SO nice. I'm glad we went to a different church because it's just neat to go and worship with people who love Christ like you do.

Afterward we went back to my house and had a huge dinner and then went to my Aunt's for dessert and got to see some cousins I haven't seen in a long time. Then we came home and sat around the tree and read the nativity story from the scriptures. The next morning, Jeff and I opened our own gifts and then went to my parents to be there while they did their gifts. My brother, Sam, became my all time favorite brother because he got us 2 free tickets on Continental Airlines!! He works for JetBlue and they had a Christmas party and did a drawing with different prizes and he won 2 tickets on Continental and gave it to us!!! Ahhh I'm so excited! Hawaii here we come!!! After the gifts we went and saw True Grit and then drove from there to Arizona.

This is the candelight serivice on Christmas Eve. Not a good picture but there was a ton of people there.

Arizona was really fun. We weren't there for long at all, but it was so great spending that time with Jeff's family. I have the best in-laws! They're so fun. I love being over there because it's such a change for me with so many sibling and spouses and nieces and nephews. We just hung out and went to the dog park and played with the kids. Monday, 3 of Jeff's sisters and I went shopping and to lunch and it was really fun. I love them. I finally get sisters and they're hilarious and fun to be around.

Dallin thought it was hilarious putting a bow on Jeff's face. That kid seriously loves Jeff.

Some of the grandkids opening of gifts from Gram. It was pretty much chaos from that point haha.

It was a good weekend! Now I can't bring myself to take down Christmas lights and the tree.

So Christmas is coming FAST. I feel like it hasn't until the last couple days. But I love it! I'm so glad we've had our house decorated since the beginning of the month and I've been pretty much done with shopping for a while-- first time ever, I usually run to the mall on Christmas Eve. Classy, I know. I just love everything about Christmas and the feeling it brings. I'm glad all the "Christmas-y" stuff is all done, so I've been able to enjoy Christmas and not get caught up in running around at the mall and forgetting what we're really celebrating.

I looove looking at Christmas lights that people put up. Sure, big Christmas displays at public places are nice, but I love driving through neighborhoods to look at lights because I know that these people wanted to put them up and not get paid to do it because it was a display at some public location. I love when people get into the the Christmas spirit! So anyway, the other night we were driving home and I'm looking around to see if there's houses that have been decorated that I haven't seen yet, so I see a couple on one street so I made Jeff drive over there so we can see them. We get to this one house and I'm ooh-ing and ahh-ing at what they've done on there house and then we look closely and there's a picket sign on their front yard that says "Courtyard's Christmas House Decorating Contest-- 3rd place winner".

There's a decorating contest in our neighborhood?! I love it! If we would've known, we would've gone all out on our house! So I then make Jeff drive around the whole neighborhood to find the 2nd and 1st place winners. I said I need to see our competition for next year. They were dang good, too! But... I think we can beat them.

I think this was 2nd place. I didn't get good pictures of the other houses. I think the owner's must've thought I was a creep for photographing their home. After I took this picture, someone opened the front door.

Yesterday was my birthday and it was a great day! We both worked all day, so in the evening we went to BJ's for dinner and then to a movie because we had free movie passes. We saw How Do You Know. Um, yeah it was lame. I was so excited to see it, too! Oh well. We had fun. Then after, we drove around different neighborhoods to look at the Christmas lights. I don't know why I love doing this so much.

Last week, my mom wanted us to take a picture with Santa, like every year, so we went to the Bass Pro Shops at the Silverton and there was a HUGE line. So we sufficed for a picture on a sled in the front of the store.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

'Tis the Season

Last night we had our little date night thang.

It went as followed:

Ate pizza and watched Curb Your Enthusiasm (Jeff's fav show now that it's on regular cable and we record all the episodes)

After that we went to Starbuck's and got THE best thing ever-- Caramel Apple Spice along with pumpkin bread

Then we drove around our area and looked at all the Christmas lights that everyone did in the neighborhood, as we sipped our cider drink from heaven and listened to the Christmas music radio station. Love it.

Afterward we went to Wal-mart and got us Christmas lights and decorated our own house.

Our cute little home!

Thanksgiving '10

So this year we had a ghetto Thanksgiving and I would laugh every time I thought about what our plans were haha. Every year since I was born we would go to my grandparent's cabin and have a huge dinner and be there all weekend and pick out a tree in the woods, cut it down, and haul it home and that would be our Christmas tree. But this year it was a little different... a lot different. Instead of our huge family, it was just my immediate family. Which means, my parents, my two brothers, me and Jeff. My mom didn't want to cook ALL day just for 6 people (since she does that every day as it is), so in light of giving my mom a break, we decided to have a ghetto fabulous holiday and go bowling and then to the Sunset Station buffet. haha. I love it. My brother Sam had to go to work at 4 anyway, so we just got together before then.

And sorry for the crappy pictures. We don't have a camera, so our phones have to suffice.

Apparently, Sunset Station's senior discount is 50 yrs old, so my dad was pretty excited about saving the $5 bucks.

Did I mention my whole family went to Hawaii last weekend without me? Oh, well, they did. So lame. But while they were there, my mom was body surfing and hurt her leg pretty bad from getting slammed by a huge wave (the only thing she was concerned about was being too old to body surf now). So her leg was hurting while we were out, so we wheeled her around in a wheelchair that day.

Thanksgiving 2010 Bowling Competitors. Despite me throwing up #1 signs, I'm pretty sure I came in last.

My mom's hurt leg came pretty handy when it came time for the buffet. There was a HUGE line to the buffet (I thought for sure it'd be empty, but who knew so many people ate at buffets on Thanksgiving?) the wait was probably like an hour, but since my mom was in a wheelchair, we conveniently made our way to the front of the line! Thanks mom. And thank you big Hawaiian wave for making this happen.

The tender parents.

Not really sure why me and Sam ended up making the same face.

It was a good day! We came home after eating the whole casino down. I couldn't move for a while. My mom had recorded Little Miss Sunshine on TV, so we came home and watched that and just relaxed.

Then on Sunday my mom had felt bad that we didn't have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, so she made a full on dinner with turkey and stuffing and the whole deal. It was delicious! On the upside, since the holiday was over, everything was on sale and they got like a 15 lb. turkey for 6 bucks! And then we went around the table and said one thing we were grateful for and why. It was really nice. My family doesn't get all tender hearted often at all, so it was a nice.

Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving! I'm soo ready for Christmas!

Happy

Since it's still Thanksgiving, I can still write my thankful list. And thinking about my blessings just makes me happy.

• a ridiculously loving husband who makes me happy everyday
• my amazing parents who having given me more than I deserve and taught me so much.
• I wish I always had a sister (but thanks to Jeff, I've gained 4 :)), but man do I love my brothers! We have so much fun together and they're hilarious
• the piano... I could listen to any kind of piano music for forever.
• my car... I can't imagine riding the bus everywhere or having to bum rides off people all the time
• hot showers
• Dr. Pepper
• air planes and being able to see some really awesome places
• my health
• unlimited texting
• cameras and photos so I can remember the happy times
• playing ping pong with Jeff
• Sunday dinner at my parents
• lip gloss
• my DVR that jeff finallllyyy let me get
• being able to spend all 3 hours of church with Jeff and the crazy 5 yr olds we get to teach together

Jeff's list: (I made him do this because I was curious what his list would be)

• I'm thankful my wife isn't one of the idiots on 16 and pregnant (she's watching it now)
• a wife who is kind, thoughtful, pretty, smart, an excellent cook and many other things
• the house that we have to live in
• the ping pong table in the garage
• good health
• the jobs that we have
• that we have everything we need
• my wonderful family: wife, mom, siblings, nieces, nephews, in-laws
• the gospel of Jesus Christ that gives us a much better perspective about what really matters

Lucky to Have My Half

Nothing notable has happened this week, except for just realizing how great it is to be married to the person you love the absolute most. Sometimes I accidentally forget that. I mean, I always know, but at times I don't fully recognize the meaning of how wonderful it really is. The sweet times that make you reflect for an instant how much you have a deep love for that person.

Like when I do silly things like make up songs and just sing about whatever is happening at the moment, he just laughs (even when it's like the 10th song that day haha) and kisses me on the forehead and tells me I'm funny.

Or like last week we went to go look at gigantic model homes just for fun and he got so into it, acting like we were actually going to buy one of them (we're talking like 4,000 sq. ft. homes for like $500,000) and excitedly gave his opinion about the layout/design and yelling "Now THIS is what brings a family together!!" (talking about how open the upstairs was) and being dead serious. It was seriously the hardest I'd laughed in a long time.

Or no matter how dead we are laying in bed and on the verge of REM sleep, he shakes me and says lets say prayers.

Last night we had our usual date night and at the beginning we had to run over to his Uncle's house to pick something up. His uncle coincidentally lives a block away from the house I grew up in from age 2 to 13. So that neighborhood is so special to me. Driving there flashes back a gazillion memories from my childhood. And I was telling Jeff a ton of little stories while we were driving through the neighborhood. And he's the one person that cares about little stuff like that, like my past, because he knows how meaningful it is to me.

When we spoke in church a few months ago, I told a story from when I was 9 and used it as an analogy about our relationship with Christ. The story was one time my friend and I walked to McDonald's and for whatever reason we didn't feel like walking home, so we hopped on some random city Cat bus thinking it was going to drive straight to my house and drop us off on my driveway and we ended up driving around the city for over 2 hours until the bus driver finally pulled over and walked to the back of the bus to help us and long story short, we ended up getting dropped off at bus stop directly across the street from where we were initially. So anyway, when we walked to McDonald's, we walked through a big ditch with railroad tracks on it (on the other side of my backyard wall, was that ditch). I really wanted to see what my old backyard looked like, so Jeff insisted we parked at that McDonald's and walk on the railroad tracks-- it was probably a half a mile walk-- so we could peek over the wall into my old backyard that I played in for so many years.

I thought that was so sweet. This whole area had no sentiment to him, but he knew it did to me, so we walked all that way in the pitch dark just to see my old backyard. That's especially when I knew he's such a great guy. Because he'd insist on doing that just for me.

I just love him!

And I'm writing this as he's working til midnight doing his second job, valet, because he wants to earn some extra money. And he doesn't complain. He just works hard. He's so great.

and Ps- I know you're probably wondering how the heck that short bus story could've been a gospel related analogy, but I made it work :)

Every time I see a dog my heart gets super sad and I just want one! About this time last year, we put our sweet dog, Sadie, down. I got really sad about it. Like really sad. It was the first time Jeff ever saw me cry, and I never cry. Ask anyone. He basically didn't know what to do haha. My dad surprised me with how down he got over it (because the first time we brought her home he was NOT happy about it). Her little dog collar still hangs in his rear view mirror. So tender, right? He wouldn't let my mom throw away her food bowl for months after she was gone (it sat in the same spot for years). We got Sadie when when I was about 6 years old. Hello, that's a long time! She was seriously THE best dog ever. My brother, Sam, will try telling you it's HIS dog, because when I was like 9, me and my brothers played a game of Uno and bet Sadie. So whoever won got to keep her.

I try to convince Jeff that we need a dog so we can "practice being parents". baha. He's not fooled.

This was taken the day my mom took her in.

Is it pathetic I'm posting about Sadie? Probably. Bah! But this is like journal ish so whateva.

On a lighter note, I'm just 2 measly math classes short of a lame Associates degree. I know, even more pathetic than dog reminiscing. I honestly have a massive load of hatred for Math. It's strictly a hate hate relationship. That's why when it was the only thing keeping me back from said degree, I said forget it and moved on to Esthetic school-- what I really wanted to do. So, 3 years later I figure I just need to suck it up and DO IT. But it's such a PAAAAIN. The whole process of figuring out which Dixie math classes are equivalent to CSN's, talking to counselors from both schools, being put on hold over the phone for centuries, etc. and I still have yet to sign up for my class. I know, I'm so whiney right now. Math puts me in a terrible mood. I better feel accomplished once I pass these stupid things! okthatsallbye.