Recent Events in the Redd Home:

Tyler's Birthday

Tyler got quite the stack of gifts

it's funny because he felt so spoiled!

He loves his pink cake with pink frosting

In Other News:

Recently, we made one of our newest most favorite treats!! Skillet Cookies

Today, Cynthia and I made another birthday cake!! Much simpler than the last one!

It's killing the birthday boy to not touch it till his party on Saturday!

Lastly, Tyler brought Valentine's Day to our house early this year! He said he just couldn't wait to give me these beautiful tulips!

Happy Birthday to My Wonderful Husband!

27 Reasons Why I Love My 27-Year-Old Husband

1. He is so handsome!
2. He is so nice to me and always wants to help
3. He is strong
4. He is smart
5. He is green: he has never driven to work, only bikes or runs, no matter how cold it is!
   


6. He loves his bike!
7. He always gives me a few bites of whatever food he prepares for himself.
8. He's never made me clean the toilets
9. He goes skiing with me
   


10. And he pretends like he can hardly keep up with me
11. He stays with me when we do races or triathlons
12. He looks so good in a suit.
    


13. He helps me cook.
14. He tells me I'm pretty, no matter what!
15. He makes me floss daily, but doesn't get mad when I refuse
16. He prays for me
17. He loves his family
18. He wants to be a dad
19. He is the best Spanish teacher in town!
20. He is so kind to everyone
21. He is an awesome rock climber!
22. He looks so cute when he cuddles up with his favorite magazine
    


23. He carries me up to our bed when I'm too sleepy to walk up the stairs
24. He combs his hair every morning
25. He encourages me to make it up the big hills when we ride our bikes in the summer
26. He lets me sleep in
27. He is the best husband ever!

NASA Space Center

Ok, I know this took me forever, and I still have so many pictures from Christmas break that I haven't even looked at, but here are some sweet pictures from NASA in Houston!!!

Hawaii??? No....Clear Lake, TX!! This was the view right out my mom's window! Tyler and I enjoyed some nice runs along the lake with our favorite furry friend, Kody!

3...2...1...BLAST OFF!!!

We thought nobody would be there on a Monday morning...Wrong! It was soo crowded! We even ran into our friends who used to be in our ward up here!

Inside the anti-gravity rocket!....just kidding! Tyler could have fooled you, but not I...

My family with the first men to walk on the moon!

And here they are in real life!

This make me so proud to be an American!

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!