Christmas #1

Tyler and I celebrated our own little Christmas last Sunday, before the stress of working, packing, cleaning, and traveling began this week, and yes, it was just so hard to wait! Our tree has been full of presents for weeks, and neither of us could resist any longer!

It was fun in the days leading up to it, with Tyler reminding me, "3 days til Christmas....2 days til Christmas!....It's Christmas Eve!!" Now we have a similar countdown going on till we get to Seattle and start Christmas celebrations #2 with the Redds!!

Our huge tree is just so majestic looking in our not-so-huge living room!

(Cindy, this is the best picture of my gift wrapping I could find...I was also trying to do the whole artistic blurry thing you do so well..)

Stockings are my favorite part!!

And Tyler had no idea what I had put in his!!

Tyler got a new fireplace dvd, which he "has been wanting for years!!!!"

And he surprised me with this beautiful new "big purse"....apparently he was paying attention when I showed him all those purses I wanted!

Other gifts included a new belt for Tyler, The Nativity Story dvd and a little recipe book for Kelsey, and the gift I spent soo much time on, and still haven't finished..a homemade white robe for Tyler!

All in all, it was a wonderful Christmas in the Redd house!

Speed Rock Climbing Competition!

What: Speed Climbing. You have three 30-foot routes to climb, and 2 attempts at each to get your fastest time, then your best times from each route are summed for your total time!

This year, Tyler and I both participated! And it was awesome!

Tyler did great, he came in 10th out of about 30 very fast guys! His total time was 38.5, averaging hardly over 12 seconds per climb! (He was only 11 seconds behind the winner!)

I was serious about winning after coming in 5th last year...and...I did it! I took 1st place out of about 15 girls with a total time of 44.3 seconds! (My best time on a route was a whopping 11 seconds, which I'm pretty proud of!) Not only did I come in first, there was 10 second gap between me and the next girl!! WHAT!

Anyways, sorry about the lack of pictures, it was kinda hard to be snapping pictures when we were both climbing our little hearts out!

Ok, ok, this is actually from last year's competition..but it's the same idea...

Here I am with the winner of the guys division and the kids division (this kid is also a champion gymnast!)

And here's me with my prize: a fancy, new $70 harness!! (which actually fits Tyler better than it fits me, so Merry Christmas Tyler!!) We actually came away with a lot of other gear from prizes as well, which we added to be worth about $150 total...not too shabby!

It was a lot of fun, and we'll see if I can defend my title next year!!

Craft Blog

Well, I was going to attempt a craft blog-style post, but after getting half way through, I was spent...so here are the copy and pasted instructions:

Here's what you'll need:
-3 styrofoam trees: sizes 15x5, 12x4, and 9x4
-3 small candlesticks (you can find these at just about any thrift store for about 50 cents)
-spray adhesive
-glue: Elmer's glue for the glitter and a stronger glue like E6000 to glue the tree to the candlestick
-glitter in your favorite 3 colors (we found these awesome colors of glitter at hobby lobby)
-white spray paint




Here's what you'll need to do:
- give your tree a good coating of the spray adhesive. you can use the elmers glue for this part, but the spray adhesive covers better and gives a nice smooth finish, plus it's a lot faster. leave the bottom of the tree undone, this will get glittered at the end.


- once you have your tree coated in glue, cover it completely with glitter. when all 3 trees have been glitterized set them aside to dry.
- next take your 3 candlesticks and give them a couple quick coats of white spray paint. then let those dry completely.
- now take your E6000 and glue the candlesticks to the trees. it's best to let them sit overnight. (keep an eye on it though. on one of the trees the glue ate away some of the styrofoam and my tree tilted to the side. so just check on it for the first hour or so.)


- when everything is completely dry, flip them over and cover the remaining part with glue and glitter. (we used the elmers glue for this part)
- then all you have left to do is decide where to put them!!

Thanksgiving

This was our first year celebrating Thanksgiving on our own. Although it was sad to not be with family, it was exciting to start our own traditions!

Luckily, we weren't completely alone, we had our good friends, the Christophersons, over to celebrate with us!

And, they were even brave enough to take on the turkey! But look how pretty!

Michelle and I had fun watching the boys try to cut it!

Our feast turned out wonderfully! And I am just so glad to be eating left-overs for every meal since then!

In case you were wondering, my three pies turned out perfect!

Pumpkin Pecan Cheesecake Recipe

Blackberry Pie Recipe

There's no picture, but here's the recipe anyways...

French Apple Tarte Recipe

On Black Friday, instead of facing the crowds at the one store in Rexburg, Tyler and I went skiing/snowboarding up at Targhee for the first time since he proposed to me there!

It was kind of scary driving on the snowy, icy roads to get there, but when you're driving into this view, it's totally worth it!

Here's what it looked like when he proposed:

And here's the exact same spot 3 years later!

It was so clear and beautiful up there, and we had the most amazing view of the Tetons!

(This is for my brother, Devin, cause he really wanted to see the Tetons when he was here last summer, but it was too cloudy that day)

All in all, it was a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Winter Begins

In Rexburg, fall only last a few weeks, and now it definitely feels more like winter than Fall, and here's why:

We harvested all our carrots!

We had a huge blizzard yesterday! I loved the view of our little townhouse neighborhood.

And I made my first Christmas craft -- Michelle, Sam, and I each made one of these beautiful wreaths! I love the way it turned out and it will match my Christmas tree perfectly! (Post on my Christmas tree to follow)

Three Cases of Resiliency

So early in our marriage, I told Tyler I liked getting little potted plants more than cut flowers because the plants lasted so much longer...little did I know...

Since then, Tyler has given me little plants on special occasions, such as, the first day of a new semester, the day we moved into our new house, when I started my new job, etc. Tyler has such good taste and always gets me unique or exotic flowers! I love to take care of these little plants, and I don't know if it's my "green thumb" or if I'm just lucky, but here are three of my flowers that have surpassed all expectations!

When we moved into our new house last February, Tyler gave me this awesome cyclamen plant. At first they looked like this...

ok so they aren't quite as pretty now as they were back then, but the amazing thing is that for the last 9 months, they have always had at least a few flowers on them, nonstop!

I love looking into the bottom and always seeing more and more little buds! It's the never-ending flower!!

In September of 2009, Tyler gave me one of those little daisy plants. After a few months I had to switch it to a bigger pot, and again after another few months, until finally, it was too big for my biggest pots!

I finally decided to plant it outside along one of our fences and see how it would hold up...now it's over 2 feet tall and taking over that corner! And blooming more than ever! This is my first plant to live over a year!

The last and most astounding case of resiliency is seen in my beautiful hyacinth plant which Tyler gave to me in January of 2010 for the first day of my last semester of college.

(which looks like this when it's blooming, but this is at Temple Square last Spring)

They bloomed beautifully, but eventually withered and died. But I was not going to let that be the end! I even forced Alyssa to water "this dead plant" when she plant-sitted for us!

And, LOOK! It paid off! Amidst all the old dead parts, it just started to re-grow! Amazing, isn't it!?

So there you have it, 3 of my favorite little flower plants!

Happy Veterans Day

I don't want to let Veterans Day pass by without expressing my gratitude for those courageous men and women who fight or have fought for our country and the freedoms we enjoy here.

I especially want to honor one special Veteran today: My Dad

My dad was in was in the United States Navy when we were really young and living in San Diego. But I still remember going to different places to see and learn about the ships, planes, tanks, and other cool military stuff.

It wasn't until 2003 that my dad went overseas to Iraq as part of the United States Army Reserves Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was there for about a year, and we got a few phone calls (too bad there was no Skype back then) and lots of letters/postcards, some that even contained cool Iraqi money and stuff.

My dad said: "I lived on a ship similar to this, which is kind of amazing when I think about it now. No civilian job compares to this."

I remember one story my dad told me about a generous man who paid for a bunch the soldiers' coffee as they were in the airport on their way home from Iraq. Thank you, kind stranger, for showing such appreciation to my deserving dad, and the others who were with him. I hope someday to be able to be the answer to a daughter's prayers that her father will be safe and comforted while he's away like that man was to me.

Luckily, my dad made it home safe and sound...but I know not everyone is so lucky, so let's pray extra hard today that those who are currently serving will return safely back to there homes and families.

Thanks again to all who have served our country.

Happy Veterans Day

HALLOWEEN

This year's Halloween was different -- no trick or treating, no Halloween ward party, no dressing up, not even pumpkin carving!!

But we did organize and host a Halloween 5K!

To which about 10 people showed up and everyone walked away with sweet prizes from our sponsors!

And, since we are so excited to have the Jamisons over for a Halloween lunch tomorrow, we spent the evening baking up a Tarte aux pommes (French apple tarte) and passing out candy!

Of course, we wanted a little bit of Halloween spirit in our home, so we put out some decorations,

I styled my hair festively,

(that's my new favorite apron that I made with the help of my kind friend, Cynthia)

and Tyler was a "relaxed" Batman.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CINDY!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE BEST

MOM/MOTHER-IN-LAW!!!

Dear Cindy,

we love you because:

- you are the nicest person in the world

- you are so creative

- you cook really well

- you take so many amazing pictures and give them all to us free of charge

- you always know the right answer

- you're always willing to talk

- we had fun watching HGTV and Iron Chef

- you miraculously hit that squirrel out the the garage with a hockey stick

- you always have fun holiday ideas

- you want to celebrate Hanukkah

- you are selfless

- you are very, very patient,

and lastly, we love because

You're my mom.

Fall Climbing

I realized I hadn't taken any rock climbing pictures this year, so here you go!

Matt coming down after a hard climb!!!

Tyler being a careful belayer

Tyler chalking up during a hard climb

I love this face!

Getting ready to climb

woo-hoo!!! There's nothing betting than rock climbing!!!!