New Pets and New Phones!

Some pretty exciting things happened this week! Tirza got a new pet :) On Saturday we went to lunch with Tyson's mom and then headed to PetsMart without telling Tirza where we were going. Lisa bought Tirza frogs! She got a light one that she named Sticky and a dark one named Explorer. Tirza was so excited! We got a little aquarium and some cute stuff to put in it. We all worked together to get the tank ready and Tirza put one of the frogs in it. She did a better job than I did! The rest of the weekend she would randomly wander over to their tank and watch them and then go back to whatever she was doing. We are all very excited to have them!

Another exciting thing this week is that Tyson and I got new phones! I switched to T-Mobile and we got a killer deal on our phones. It was buy one get one free, plus they gave Tyson cheaper pricing on our plan since he's been with them for so long. We also got a referral credit since I moved from Verizon and I get 10% off through my work! So instead of paying $80 for my plan and going over every month we are now paying less than $130 for unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and a data plan on our phones. I never have to worry about going over my minutes again! I am so happy about that! Tyson and I have been with different carriers for 2 years and its been very frustrating. Now we both have the MyTouch 4g which is the coolest phone ever, and we never have to worry about going over minutes! I am very very happy about this. Tyson did a ton of research before we bought our phones and the MyTouch 4g is pretty much the best phone out there. It outperformed the iPhone and has a ton of cool features. We can do video chats, project pictures and videos onto TV screens, and you can customize everything! It is a way cool phone. I loved my Dare but after using this phone for 10 minutes I knew I could never go back. There is a ton of cool stuff for it and since Tyson is techno savvy he can show me everything and fix the phone when I screw it up!

Tirza is in Girl Scouts and has started selling girl scout cookies. She has set a lofty goal of 500 boxes and after just this weekend of talking to family and friends we have sold almost 100! I really hope that we can help her reach her goal. It helps that the girl scout cookies are so good!

I mentioned in my last post that I had gotten Troy's amazing salsa recipe. I have been working on perfecting it and then getting rid of the evidence so that I can try it again! Since I made the first batch 3 weeks ago I have probably made 5 batches since then! I have been sharing it with family, friends and neighbors and getting everyone's opinion to make sure it is as good as I think it is :) I have been wanting to make this salsa for a long time and am very glad that I get to make it and share it!

Tyson and I have not watched very much this last week. We have watched at least half a dozen episodes of season 2 of Big Bang Theory but besides that we only watched Karate Kid with Tirza, which we've both seen. We've had a Netflix movie for about 3 weeks so this week we will try to watch that so that we can get another one!

We took Tirza to Chuck E. Cheese on Sunday and she had a lot of fun. We went with Brandie and her kids since Page is out of town. The kids had a blast! I am proud to say that I won 25 tickets for Tirza. She got almost 200 tickets by the end and got a necklace, a T-Rex coin and 2 packets of Pop Rocks which are probably one of her favorite candies. She loves all candy and will devour it as long as it has massive amounts of sugar so it is hard to tell which is her favorite! I was glad she had fun because Chuck E. Cheese is definitely not my version of fun. Its too noisy, crowded and was woefully understaffed for how busy it was. At least she had a good time! She loved playing the games and Tyson and I cheered her on.

On Sunday I braved the pouring rain and drove to Sandy to see my family. I hadn't been down there on a Sunday in a long time and was determined to make it! I brought some fresh salsa and we hung out and talked. It was so nice! I really enjoy just hanging out and chatting with my family. I like to know what is going on with them. I couldn't stay as long as I wanted and had to head home to make sure Tyson was okay. He wasn't feeling good and couldn't make the drive. Luckily he rested and was feeling better when I got home!

I hope everyone has a great week!

Get ready for pictures!

The best way to start a blog- with a smile!


yay us!

Train! Some poor person got roped into taking this picture!


Pretend like we're not freezing!



Tirza helping with salsa
Eating some of the cotton candy I got from Classic Skating :)
Fairy tea party time!

Evelyn catching some air

Whee!
Ooh what's that?
Whoosh!

Evelyn approaching warp speed

Marissa and Jackson
Marissa and Wesley. It is still weird to say he's her husband!
Brandon and Adalie
Brandon's shadowbox
Rachel's shadowbox
Marissa's shadowbox
My shadowbox. My mom found the black and white picture in his wallet. I have the other 3.
Us in all our aproned glory!
Adalie and Jackson
Evelyn in her glass slippers
New blankie!
Hugs from Grandma!
The twins investigating.
Nap time
Gangster Eva eating candy while no one is looking!
She saw me on the couch and she came and snuggled under the blanket!
The best kind of chaos :)
Marissa, Wesley and my mom made all of them! Evelyn didn't want to take Tirza's off!
Me and Tirz in our matching aprons!

Oh yeah. She knows what that's for!
My awesome runner!

So I know that it has been a long time since I've written. I write this blog mostly for my sisters and since the reason I did not write in it was because I was hanging out with my sisters I figure that is ok! This has been a crazy couple of weeks.

Tyson and I went to Temple Square with my family. Tyson and I have never been to Temple Square together and we've been dating 2 years! It was really fun. We got cold (and bored) so we made a train and were tromping down the sidewalk. We got a lot of stares but it was really fun! One of my favorite things about Christmas is LIGHTS! I love love love Christmas lights so Temple Square is awesome! I was really bummed that I haven't had time to go the last 2 years. I had a really good time and Tyson and I walked arm in arm and looked at the displays. I love Christmas!

So Christmas was a little rough for me this year. I was so unbelievably sick and spent Christmas Eve in bed alone (I didn't want Tyson to miss his family get together). I had terrible stomach pains and couldn't keep anything down. I felt a little better on Christmas and was able to tolerate a few crackers but I spent the day moving from couch to couch pretty much. Luckily I felt much better the next day after 12 hours of sleep but most of my family ended up getting it too!

Tirza made out like a bandit this year! She spent Christmas morning with her mom (next year is our year for Christmas morning) and we picked her up at 1. We went to Grandma's house first and she tore through her presents. She got a dessert maker, some fun games, new clothes and candy. We took her home after and she opened her gifts from us. She got a Tinkerbell tent set, Disney Apples to Apples, a color wonder book, some craft stuff, a leapster game, a tutu, 7 bows, the Tinkerbell movie, Tinkerbell and the great fairy rescue, Barbie's fashion fairytale and the Dark Crystal. I put together a stocking for her and put some Tangled stickers in it, put her ornament on it and set the tutu around it. I have decided to continue my mom's tradition and get everyone a new ornament every year. This year I got Tirza a Princess Tiana ornament from Princess and the Frog. I got Tyson a Snoopy ornament that has Snoopy sleeping on top of his house and its got Christmas lights and a wreath on it. I got a silver PEACE ornament with a ribbon hanger. I am so excited for this tradition!

A few days later my family came up and gave Tirza her presents. My mom got her Nanny McPhee Returns that she has been desperately wanting to see since it came out in August. It wasn't in theaters very long so we didn't get a chance to take her. She was so excited she kept jumping up and down and hugging my mom. She loved my apron when I showed it to her and she was so excited when she got one that matched! She wore it for a while. The next weekend we had her she got to use her Christmas presents. She helped me make salsa and we both wore our aprons. I finally got Tyson's dad's salsa recipe! I have made it twice and it is so good! We had a tea party after with her Tinkerbell tea set. She had just seen Nanny McPhee so she was talking with a British accent. It was so cute!

Christmas was a very good day. I got some amazing things. My family went all out this year. Rachel sewed me a table runner and I love it! Marissa made me an apron and she made Tirza a teeny one to match! My brother made beautiful blue earrings and my mom got me a hair dryer that I desperately need! I swear my hair dryer was going to over heat and burn down our apartment one of these days. She also made us all shadow boxes. She filled them with things about our dad and we all cried. It was so special and amazing and I'm going to keep it forever! Tyson got me Despicable Me, The Karate Kid, and the Collector's Edition Avatar. Tyson's mom got me super cute black heels with laces on the front, a gift card to Old Navy, nail polish, jewelry and a bunch of cute little stuff. Tyson got Nintendo Monopoly from me, a Grinch T shirt and hat from Marissa and Wesley and a Mario shirt from Brandon. From his mom he got Microsoft points, a camera case, a Skull Candy iPod dock that he LOVES, and an air mattress. After he got his Grinch hat at my parents, Evelyn found it! Everyone went in to the kitchen to eat and no one was watching Evelyn. I was on the couch so I hear a crunching sound and I look over and Evelyn is happily sitting on the couch raiding her stocking and eating a candy cane with Tyson's Grinch hat on backwards. When I look at her she grins and holds it out and says "look at my shepherd's crook". It was so cute! She was adorable when she opened my present and I was so excited for it! I got her Barbie light up heels and Brandon got her a Fancy Nancy book to go with it. She opened the heels and Rachel says "What are those Evelyn?" With her little voice full of wonder she said "Glass sippers." She loved them! She was sliding around on the floor but she loved wearing them.

So as far as movies go I didn't think that we had seen very many. I looked through my journal and was surprised to realize that we'd seen quite a few! We finished Firefly which is sad because it ended in the middle of the season. I made Tyson watch Willow because I loved it as a kid even though its horribly cheesy. Tyson slept through half of it! The best line is "I don't love her- she kicked me in the face!" Tyson got me Despicable Me for Christmas which is one of my favorite movies ever! I couldn't wait to watch it so we saw it the day after Christmas. He also got me the special extended edition of Avatar and that was cool! It even comes in this super fancy case. We rented Knight and Day because we saw a trailer and really wanted to see it. It was hilarious!! I love that movie! Tom Cruise does crazy REALLY well. It had a ton of hilarious lines. I want to buy it! I saw Secretariat with my mom and Rachel and that was a good one too. The ending is amazing! I watched Nanny McPhee Returns with Tirza and it is just as good as the first. Tyson and I watched a lot of Big Bang Theory! We finished Season 1 and are almost a third of the way through Season 2. Tyson didn't seem very interested in Season 1 but the second one is better so he likes watching it more. Yay! I saw Tron and Tyson and I saw Tron Legacy.

Brandon decided to have a nerd party. Our whole family showed up and a couple of his friends. We watched the original Tron from 1982 and then went and saw Tron: Legacy in IMAX 3D. It was so much fun! It was interesting to see the special effects of 1982 compared with today. I was also thinking about how Tron must have seemed back then. It was talking about the internal workings of a computer which is pretty common knowledge now, but must have seemed so alien back then. I wonder if people even knew what was going on! Seeing it IMAX was amazing! It was like being there! I really liked the new one. The old one was a little slow moving for me but still good. After we saw the new one Brandon made ribs for dinner and everyone brought a side dish. It was so good and Brandon's ribs were amazing as always. We were all in a food coma after dinner! We hung around and chatted before going our separate ways. Brandon's nerd party was a total success!

Seeing Rachel while she was here was a lot of fun. When she was here for Marissa's wedding I didn't get to see her and her family very much so I was kind of bummed. We did a lot while she was here! I got some one on one time with her and we went shoe shopping and grocery shopping. She and Logan played Last Night on Earth with Tyson and I which was cool. We got to have everyone over to our apartment in Layton for dinner and it was wonderful chaos. The kids were playing with toys and exploring new things and we all had a really good time. We all hung out on New Years Eve and played games and had fondue. Tyson and I got to kiss at midnight! I was in Ohio last year and really missed him. We took the kids to Classic Skating the last night Rachel and Logan were here and it was so much fun! The kids were intrigued by the bouncy castles and slides. They loved it! A nice stranger gave them some bouncy balls to play with and they weren't entertained for a long time! Evelyn loved it and Rachel took her to the Dimecade after. Brandon won a bunch of tickets and she got some toys. Marissa and I bought cotton candy and I held Evelyn so that she could see how it was made. It was a lot of fun! I was very sad when they had to go home but I was very glad that I got to spend a lot of time with them. I can't wait until they live closer!

So now it is the start of the job hunt and I hope that this year will start out well. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year's and I hope 2011 is a great year!

So this week involved a lot of sitting and relaxing and then a few exciting days.

I went to Sandy on Monday and got to spend the day with my family which was nice. I ran some errands with my mom, we had lunch with Marissa and then hung out with Brandon when we got home. I miss them and wish I could come down more often! There are days when it is very hard being so far from everyone. I got home with only 20 minutes before I had to login to work. It was awesome!

We haven't watched very many movies this week. We watched 5 episodes of Firefly and we only have 3 left! We watched a few episodes of Big Bang Theory and are probably half way through the first season. I watched the first episode of the Dresden Files which was an okay show but it probably gets worse since there is only one season. I hope it gets better! It has an interesting plot. A wizard uses magic to solve crimes. It sounds cheesy and there was a little cheese in the episode but not too bad. I watched the Grinch with Tirza, Brandie and her daughter McKenzie since Tirza had never seen it before. She seemed to like it! I don't think Tyson has ever seen it and I don't think he wants to. I'm not Jim Carrey biggest fan but I thought he did a really good job with the it.

So this week I found out that I am NOT pregnant. I thought that I was pregnant because I looked up the symptoms and had a lot of them. Mood swings (poor Tyson!), nausea, cramps, cravings, extreme thirst, exhaustion, headaches, etc. I was waiting to take a home pregnancy test because I wanted to take it when I was sure it would be accurate. On Wednesday I woke up and I felt awful. I had really bad cramps and I never get cramps when I'm on the Pill. I was in a ton of pain and couldn't get a hold of my doctor. When Tyson came home I starting crying and panicking and he made a doctor's appointment for me. We were worried I was having a miscarriage because of my symptoms. The doctor did a blood test and found out I wasn't. My first thought was 'Then what the heck is wrong with me?!' The lab had closed by that point so he said he'd run some tests in the morning. We still don't know what it is because the tests for diabetes and a thyroid issue came back normal. At least I know for sure!

Tyson is still not feeling great. He almost completely lost his voice Saturday and is finally going to make an appointment. We both have been exhausted because he's been sick and I think I've been fighting off whatever he has. I haven't gotten sick but I've been very tired. Hopefully he gets some meds and is feeling better by Christmas!

We had 2 Christmas parties on Saturday. We had the one for Tyson's extended family and the one for my extended family. With his family we had lunch and played games. We passed around cards with cartoons and had to guess which Christmas song they were. Then we drew Santa on a big piece of paper taped to a door and each person took turns drawing a body part. He looked awesome when we were done! At my family party we talked to a few people and did the white elephant gift exchange. I got a puzzle. I HATE puzzles. I'll have to figure out a way to make Tyson do it! Tirza got a Reese's in the kids gift exchange but really wanted Brite Crawlers. She doesn't like Reese's so we gave it to my mom and got her some Brite Crawlers the next day. Poor kid. She was pretty bummed! At our Christmas parties we showed pictures to our families that we'd had printed and everyone said they looked great and then they said that Tirza looked like me! I was very flattered and surprised. I picked Tirza up from Girl Scouts on Friday and the lady who was hosting it said the same thing! In our Christmas pictures we have practically the same eye color. Its crazy!

This week will probably be a little bit busier with Christmas so we'll have more to post next week. Merry Christmas!

This has been quite the busy week! The best part was that Thursday was the 2 year anniversary of when Tyson and I had our first kiss and started dating. Its crazy because it doesn't seem like its been that long and at the same time I can't remember what life was like before Tyson. I must say that I think I got really lucky! Tyson is a wonderful person with a big heart and he is so kind. Tyson will do anything for his friends and he is always there for everyone. He is patient and loving and giving. He is a wonderful father. Seeing him with Tirza is the sweetest thing. He is so sweet to her and she just adores him. Hopefully this is just the beginning of our relationship and life together. Tyson is so easy to be around and I can definitely see myself being with him forever! I love him so much!! It was a really fun night and we had a very nice dinner at the Olive Garden and our server was really nice. He gave us free Zeppoli! We went and saw Tangled which I absolutely loved and Tyson really liked. I think I'll watch it again when it hits the dollar theaters and then buy it when it comes out!

As for the other movies we watched this week there aren't very many. We watched a few episodes of Firefly and we only have 8 episodes left which is good because we have acquired about 3 new shows that we need to watch after! I got seasons 1 and 3 of Big Bang Theory and season 2 has shipped so we'll be getting that soon! We have watched 3 episodes of that and I can't wait to watch more! I think that show is so ridiculously funny.

We got some new stuff this week! On Tuesday we got our new dishwasher. This of course happened after I decided I couldn't take the growing pile of dishes in our sink and hand washed everything- you guessed it!- on Monday. Oh well. I am very grateful to have it and since we live in an apartment we didn't have to buy it! We just washed our first load and it is so powerful and loud that while sitting in the office it sounds like a wave is coming crashing down the hallway. The other new stuff we got is our dressers! We finally have a matching bedroom set for the first time in either of our lives! We didn't unload the stuff out of the old dressers the night before they delivered the new ones so we now have FOUR dressers in our bedroom. It is getting pretty crammed! Thankfully we have a pretty big master bedroom. I unloaded most of my stuff into my dresser (I have so much crap I got the bigger one :)) and Tyson will load his dresser when he is feeling better. They look so good!! I will post the after pictures once we get the old dressers out.

This week has not been a great one for Tyson. The poor guy is very sick and has had a sore throat most of the week. When he woke up during the week his throat was so sore he could barely talk. He started getting congested and feeling worse just in time for the weekend. Work has not been helping either. The new company that took over requires the employees to pass exams on their policies. The graveyard guys have not passed all of their exams and Tyson had to get up at 3 am Friday morning to go in and train them. They had to have their exams passed that day. He was so exhausted that when he came home after the furniture delivery guys left he passed out for almost 4 hours. He is going to make a doctor's appointment so hopefully he'll be feeling better soon!

We played a few fun games this week. We played Carcassonne on Wednesday with Tirza and I won for the first time ever! It was with Tyson's help of course since he's played it more and knows how to strategize. It is a game where you build a map tile by tile and create cities, roads and a river. Everything is worth a certain number of points and there are certain pieces that give extra points. Of the 150 or so total points I got, 50 of them were from one city! It was a lot of fun. We also played In a Pickle with Tyson's brother Brandon, his wife Ashley, and friend Jared. There are 320 cards in that game and we spent 3 hours playing them all! The game starts with 4 cards in the middle and each card has a noun. You can put something that is bigger or smaller on it and it goes from there. So you can start with an airplane and then put microwave on top and the next card has to be something smaller than a microwave. Whoever puts the 5th card on the pile keeps it. We played all of them! It was a lot of fun! The best one was that one of the starter cards was a pear tree. I said "Wouldn't it be cool if there was a card with a partridge on it?" and Jared drew the partridge card! We had a partridge in a pear tree :) Surprisingly we didn't play Last Night on Earth this weekend but I'm sure we'll play it soon!

Tyson's family Christmas party was Saturday night. Everyone was coming over for the UFC so Lisa decided to make it a party. She prepared a ton of food for everyone and it was so good! Troy made his famous salsa that I am addicted to and I watched him make it and he told me what he did. I can't wait to try it at home! In all, the people who were there was Ashley, Brandon, Jared, Robbie, Brandie and her sons Lucas and Kayden and Troy and Lisa of course. We had so much fun! The fights were pretty good and Georges St-Pierre won the championship fight which is who we were rooting for! We hung out until midnight and it was so nice to get to talk to everyone.

Next week is probably going to be just as busy or busier and I can't wait!

I know that I am posting a little late but we are just barely recovering from the weekend. The good news is that we are done with Tirza's shopping and thanks to my awesome neighbor Hannah her presents are wrapped! Present wrapping must never be done solo because it sucks and takes forever. I had fun and Hannah's help made it go by so fast!

This week we have watched several episodes of Firefly and will be done with it just in time to start watching Big Bang Theory. Seasons 1 and 3 should be arriving next week so that we can start watching them! We watched Two Weeks Notice which is one of my favorite movies and Tyson has never seen it. We finally watched a movie that I've seen and Tyson hasn't! We watched the Sorcerer's Apprentice with our friend Brandie because she and Tyson have never seen it. I love it! We also watched From Paris with Love from Netflix. I loved that movie!! Plus it didn't hurt that Tyson looks a lot like Johnathan Rhys Meyers (Tyson is hotter though!).

I got to catch up with my friend Amber this week. I met her in the 7th grade since our older sisters were friends and we used to push her cat around in my doll stroller. She lives in Salt Lake but just happens to work at the Krispy Kreme down the street! She stopped by after work one day and we got to talk for a while. We made lunch and it was really nice to see her again. Hopefully I'll get to see more of her!

A lot of this week was spent in preparation for Tyson's friends Christmas party. Tyson has a unique group of friends. They grew up in the same neighborhood and have known each other almost 15 years and they all get along (mostly). It was a little nerve wracking meeting his friends for the first time when they've known each other for so long! This party is special for me and Tyson because it is where we met 2 years ago and now we're hosting it! We bought new decorations for the tree on Wednesday and it took 3 hours to put them up! My favorite part is the gel decorations on the mirror in the bathroom. It says 'Wish Big' and is green and red with a red present and red and green stars. They look like Jell-O! We moved some stuff around and cleaned the apartment on Thursday. I did most of it since Tyson was stressing and it was my day off. I must say it was pretty darn clean! On Friday we got some more stuff for the party and some paper plates and stuff since our dishwasher is broken. We are having dinner at the party and I did not want to hand wash all the dishes! The party started at 6 and went until almost 1 am. It was a lot of fun! We had 14 adults and 6 kids in our 1300 square foot apartment. It was chaos but fun chaos :) We had a full turkey dinner with veggies, fruit, rolls, chips and dip and cookies for dessert! The adults did a white elephant and the kids did a gift exchange. Tirza was very happy with her Tinkerbell scratch off activity book. The adults played Liar's Dice and had a good time talking. We were all completely exhausted after the party and I didn't end up making it through my entire graveyard shift. I also learned a very important lesson: clean after the party.

Saturday was also a day of parties. Tirza had a tea party in the morning and then a birthday party at Classic Skating that afternoon. She had gotten roller blades for her birthday in March and had just taken them out of the box. She wouldn't get off the carpet but I told her I'd hold her hand if she skated in the rink. That independent little girl held my hand for about 3 seconds and then she was off on her own! She would completely face plant and then get right back up again. She is such a determined kid and will try and try until she gets it right. She asked her dad to skate with her for the snow ball and it was really cute! Tyson is such a good dad. It was adorable seeing them together and I got some great pictures! The fun didn't stop after 3 parties. We went to Brandie's that night and all got together to play Last Night on Earth. It was a very busy weekend! Next week will probably be just as busy with the new dishwasher, new dressers and our 2 year anniversary!

Pictures!

Our Christmas tree! We got all new stuff this year.

Ashley and Brandon at our party. I think we officially have more pictures of them than us.
Brandie and Lucas
The boys
The girls!

Page and Tyson. They are good friends!
We will be getting a new dresser that has cubbies for electronics!
We are getting a new dresser to replace this!
The new furniture that we got in September. The dressers we ordered will match!

This is Tyson's brother Brandon and his wife Ashley on Thanksgiving.
One group shot before we took Tirza home!
Grandpa Russon (Lisa's dad) was eating nuts and got the shells on him so she vacuumed him!
Pirate Tyson playing Sequence.
The boys on Thanksgiving. They were watching the game but we stole Tyson and he played games with the girls. I wouldn't know what to do if he liked sports! The pictures are posted separate because it was such a pain to post them that I can't imagine typing around them!