Family reunion.

Tylers, moms aunt own a beautiful piece piece of land out in Nephi. It is amazing! There is a cabin and a dining area. We enjoyed hanging out on one of the many hammocks, playing on the kids toys, swinging on the swings that hang over a small stream, sliding down the HUGE water slide (in our clothing) and playing games with the family. I am so glad the invited us to come along! i'm also glad Cory isn't afraid of being.... funny :)

Tyler and I have the same favorite shirt, and will often be found wearing it at the same time. Like it yourself? I know a guy who will sell you one!

Update # 3

A few months back a friend of mine gave us some discount coupons to Lagoon (so nice of her). I have never been there and I just tried asking Tyler if it had been his first time, but he is too busy blogging to answer me, so I will assume that it was. We knew there was a good chance we would be bored going just the two of us (don't judge, we love eachother but standing in lines for a long time is not our strong point as a couple) so we decided to invite Cory, Heather and the always entertaining Chris along for the rides. We made the right choice... My bro-in-law Chris never lacks interesting topics of conversation. He and Tyler also won me some prizes throwing a baseball. We filled up on Cherry ICEE's which I had forgotten about and haven't had since, but loved.

We didn't stay long and didn't ride much, but had a good time.



Unfortunately we were not impressed with the park and decided to never go back... oh well!

Update #2

Toby.... I know everyone is wondering how he is doing.... right?

Well.... HE IS AMAZING! Toby is probably the best dog in the world, not even kidding. :) We are even a little impressed ourselves. Tyler has taken a liking to him (surprise to everyone) and works with him daily to become the best he can be. Toby can do what is called a double T, it is a hunting technique, funny enough we don't hunt, but it makes him listen better which is all we can ask of him.

Our trainer, John of Arrow Kennels, is nice enough to invite us to all of his home and garden shows to show off the tobster. Toby absolutely LOVES these things, why you ask? Because he can sit on a table for 8 hours and be pet by every single person who walks by. What dog wouldn't love that. We are so proud of how well trained he has become. Who agrees it's time for a second?

Update #1... of many!

Seeing as how I never blog, I thought maybe I could just have a goal of one blog post a year! This post will officially meet that goal!



Tyler and I have done so much this year. I probably cant blog about all of it, but maybe I'll do more blogging later... who knows!



It also may be easier if I work backwards as I seem to remember the most recent things MUCH better!



So... Last Monday we jumped the gun with some neighbors and decided to go get some pumpkins and carve them. It was soooo much fun. We have a few couples in our ward that are about our same age and we LOVE having them over. We planned on going to a pumpkin patch, but we all work too late so we ended up just going to Smiths which was alot more fun then I had expected. Once home we got to work! Carving pumpkins, even small ones, is a lot harder then I remember. I definitely needed help gutting them out, but I did the carving all on my own! Having never attempted anything other then a scary pumpkin face, I would say my puppy turned out great!































Unfortunately... Thursday morning my puppy was pumpkin mush in the street. I guess thats what I get for putting carved pumpkins out over the schools fall break. Dang kids!!















Aj and Lacey, are our neighbors down the street and they practically live at our house, which we love! However I have picked up a gaming habit from them and it has taken over my family room... we had to rearrange so I could see the TV better. Gaming is ok if you play with neighbors right?
















Tyler and I both celebrated Birthdays, but there is only one picture(of my b-day cake given to me by Cassie) as evidence. Tyler improved my quality of winter living by purchasing me some wonderfully warm snow pants! I can't wait to go tubing this winter.

End of 2009

I don't blog... not hardly ever, its too time consuming. However, I do love to read other peoples blog and I love following their lives!

This Christmas we sent out a couple of Christmas cards (not very many at all), but no Christmas letter. I just didn't have the time to sit down and write about myself and my husband. Also, how in the world am I supposed to remember a whole years worth of information? Luckily, I received many letters from friends and that got me thinking about what I would have written in my own. I have had the past few days off and have though even more about so I thought I would write a blog letter! So here it goes!

We have had a fabulous 2009! We took many vacations which included trips home to California and Indiana, a lovely cruise and St. George. I love to travel, Tyler hates it. We manage well :) We started the daunting task of decorating our home. I love it! I have learned what it means to take pride in my home and I now understand why my mom was always telling me to clean.

I switched jobs (THANKFULLY) from being an account manager to an orthodontist assistant. It was a nerve wracking switch considering my lack of experience in that field, but it has gone quite smoothly and I am thoroughly enjoying myself. Some of my biggest accomplishments this year are as follows:

I have continued to workout and eat healthy (most of the time) resulting in some much anticipated weight loss

Mastered my new job without permanently injuring any patients

Finished out the year without ANY car accidents! (I guess there is always today)

I can accurately predict (within about 20 seconds) when Toby will give us back all the water and food he has so quickly swallowed

I've learned that dishwasher soap cubes were the answer to all my problems

I can cook just about anything!..... in a crockpot (including desserts)

Learned that if I were to ever not work I would be bored out of my mind

I have met and made friends with so many wonderful people in my ward

I have gained a strong testimony of my calling as Enrichment Board Leader

Tyler continues to be an expert in his field. He is currently a coach, mentor, webinar instructor, frequent article writer for his company (the one most of his family works for). His job has only slowed down a bit and for that we are grateful. Here are some of Tylers accomplishments:

Tyler has:

Written over 50 articles for his companys magazine

Started and followed through (unlike his wife) with a fabulous blog that is all about the stock market and (because he wants you to know) has had 60,000 pg views this year

Taken on new responsibilities at work that include mentoring and teaching webinars

Become a first rate dog trainer and has taught little Toby many amazing things

Taken on the task of doing the dishes

Learned that if you don't shovel the snow after the first dump, you will sorely regret it

Learned that when buying a house, in a place that snows, make sure the sun actually hits your front yard

Become very involved with local and... not so local politics

Conquered the art of being an assassin (twice)

Brought the spirit into our home by honoring his priesthood and working his hardest at his calling with the Elders Quorum

Our lovely Toby is growing like a weed (a huge weed, like a tumble weed you find in your backyard). He now weighs in at about 86 lbs. We hope he is done growing. He has become much like his father and is quite the genius. Some of his accomplishments are:

Jumping over Tyler on command (without kicking him in the face)

Sit, stay, heel, front, down, off.... and all those other useful commands

Sitting in place whenever told to do so

Swallowing food and water so fast it comes back up looking the same as it did in his bowl

Never barking (unless you are wearing an Obama mask)

Shedding all that unwanted hair of his

Mastering the puppy face

Eating just about anything his teeth can chew through

Playing nice with little kids

We had too much fun this past year and we hope to continue to enjoy ourselves. We celebrated one year of marriage in August and honestly is was a good year! We already have many plans for next year and I can't wait to get started.

California

I love my new job! I am getting alot of time off to get things done! A few weeks ago I had the whole week off so I convinced Tyler to also take the week off and drive to California with me. We left on Tuesday night after his workday. We drove down to St. George and stayed in a sweet condo. That next morning we spent a few hours with our good friends Amanda and Jeff. Tyler and Jeff went golfing and Amanda and I spent the hours talking ( I miss having her close by! ). After our morning of sunshine we continued our drive on to Cali. We arrived in time for Dads birthday dinner. We spent the next few days visiting the beach and friends and family! I was excited because we got to do some temple work in the LA temple for my moms family. It was there I learned that my Grandma was a cradle robber (not my words, the temple sealers!!) My Grandpa (who had passed on) was like 9 years younger than my G-ma. The beaches were a bit cold and overcast, but it was still nice to visit. As you can imagine, Tyler, the kite flying guru that he is, loved the wind!

We had an excellent time over and hope to go back soon. My family is coming up in a 2 weeks for a stay out here. I hope they dont mind the bi-polar weather!

He looks so innocent right?? Today I got a call from Tyler telling me that Toby had chewed through his rope and run away!!!!! He put Toby out at about 11 and I got the call at about 6. We don't really know how long he was out for. I got home and started my search. I yelled into open feilds, stopped groups of kids on the street, then decided to pray. I felt impressed to check KSL. I got online and lo and behold there was a found ad for a dog in Eagle Mountain!!! I called the girl (annie) and told her what Toby looked like. I asked her where I should come pick him up at and she told me she lived in Hidden Canyon!! ( this is where I live) It dawned on me that she is my newest Enrichment board member!! I ran on over and picked him up. They are so nice! The kids were very friendly and told me that they had even BATHED him!!! I think Toby might be running away more often haha. I am so grateful for kind neighbors!

I truly think this was a blessing, because last night I was not as grateful for my neighbors. We are having trash can issues on my street due to some strong winds ( that blew all the cans around last week). The neighbor a few houses down took ours last night (because it had his serial number on it) so we found our number and found out that the beighbors across the street had ours! Tyler talked to them and promised that on trash day he would help them find theirs... Dang wind!!