glasses

Here is my Dan in his new glasses.  I think he looks smart and handsome (but i always think that).

We celebrated his birthday with Kneaders french toast, opening presents, a game of tennis (yes, in mid-December... it was awesome), relaxing, new glasses, dinner at Outback, and watching the new Pirates movie (Dan thought it was ok, i fell asleep).  Today the celebration continues with a yummy dinner and chocolate pudding parfaits for dessert (Dan loves pudding).

Happy Birthday!

To my most amazing husband!  Here he is with all his presents (spoiled! haha... but he more than deserves it):

What he wanted most this year was a recliner.  We ended up driving to Cedar City this week to get the one he wanted.  It was quite the trip!  We got there and it was 17 degrees!  I forgot what freezing felt like.  I also failed to mention we were both in sweatshirts- dressed for St. George winter, not Cedar winter!  It was also quite the task trying to fit the recliner in the back of the car and we stood in the cold for about 20 minutes trying to get it to fit (thanks to the worker who also stood in the cold to help us).  Luckily it fit and we were so happy to get back to our 38 degree St. George.  It always baffles me how just 40 minutes away it is sooooooo much colder.

Regardless, it was worth it.  The birthday boy (i mean man) needs his birthday throne :).  Happy Birthday, Dan!  I love you!!!

Family Pictures

We got our family pictures back!  Dan and I haven't really had any professional pictures taken of us except for our wedding.  It was fun and I really like how they turned out.  Thanks to my friend Jessica for taking them for us!  Here are a few of my favorites... I'm not posting the one on our Christmas card though, you'll just have to look in the mail (but don't look too soon... i won't be sending them out for a week or so).

Thanksgiving

We loved having family visit us for Thanksgiving!  We had a great time!  Here are a few pictures from our Thanksgiving celebration:

Cute nephews!

More cute nephews!

Jannifer's turkey veggie tray- I thought it was impressive!

The food!  So good!

Food time!

Eating time!

Hiking in the red rocks.

Playing in the dirt.

More hiking!

Tuacahn live Nativity.

The camels were the best part.

Nephews at the Nativity.

Tuacahn lights.

Now bring on Christmas! :)

books, pictures and christmas trees

Finally! I have some things to blog about.  It seems I haven't been blogging much because we've just been working and that's about it.  But... here are a few things from this past week.

1. On Friday at my school I found out all school employees got 50% off at the book fair.  I was so excited!  I love collecting children's books.  So... I bought 3 pictures books.  I am most excited about "If You Give a Dog a Donut."  It's the newest addition to the "If you Give a..." collection (ya know, If you Give a Mouse a Cookie, If you Give a Moose a Muffin, If you Give a Cat a Cupcake, etc).  I wanted to buy more books, but I restrained myself.  In just a few weeks the school district is having a big book warehouse sale and all books are 50-80% off.  I figured I would wait and see what they had there.  If anyone is looking for a specific kids book for x-mas, let me know.  Maybe I'll find it at the book sale :).

2. We just got our family pictures taken on Friday.  I can't wait to get them back!  My friend Jessica did them in downtown St. George and I really think we got some good shots.  We wanted something for our Christmas card and also we've never really had professional pictures taken of us before (aside from our wedding).  I'll be sure to post the best ones.

3. Yesterday we went to the Jubilee of Trees!  It's St. George's version of the Festival of Trees.  It is definitely not as big as the one in SLC, but I was fine with that.  I was always done about half way through the trees at Festival of Trees anyway.
We had so much fun!  I loved looking at all of the trees but we kind of wished it took place after Thanksgiving because we celebrate every holiday in this family!  No Christmas decor til after Thanksgiving here.  They even gave us slips of paper to vote for our favorite tree.  I also thought it was cute, they let every kid vote for their favorite tree too.  The last 2 awards they were going to give out were Viewers Choice and Kids Choice.  So fun!  Here are the trees we voted for....

I chose this tree.  I loved how it had Santa's workshop underneath.  Pretty awesome!

Dan chose the palm tree Christmas tree.  He said he had to because we live in St. George.

A few other favorites (too bad we could only vote for one).  The Harry Potter tree!  I really just liked the sorting hat on top.  I thought it was pretty clever.

The Angry Birds tree!  This was made by one of the elementary schools.  I thought it was cute how they had the birds shooting at the tree and the tree was tilted.  Oh and one thing I loved about the Jubilee is they had trees in different sections.  They had a whole section of just trees from the elementary schools.  Festival of Trees needs to do that too!  I remember decorating a tree in 5th grade with my class and when I went to see it at the Festival it took FOREVER to find.  Way to be organized, Jubilee!  And sorry I am not mocking Festival of Trees.  I always loved going to Festival of Trees.  I was SO happy to find St. George had a similar event so we could continue the tradition.

That's about all that's been happening in our house.  We are just looking forward to family coming this week for Thanksgiving!