We have lots to celebrate this Christmas season!

Happy Holidays!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Merry Christmas!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Holiday Magic

I am absolutely loving the Christmas season this year! Christmas has always been my favorite holiday. I'm sure Christmas is every kid's favorite holiday but it has continued to be mine throughout my adult life as well. I love all the traditions, the decorating, giving gifts, the movies, the music, etc.

However, this year my love of the holiday has been re-energized because of Gavin. He has been talking about Santa since before Thanksgiving and it is so fun to watch him absorb it all.  I can't wait to pass along all of our traditions and to make Christmas morning as special as I remember it growing up.

Speaking of traditions, we have a bunch that we do every year. Of course, decorating is one and Gavin wanted to help with everything.

We love going downtown to see the lights. Unfortunately we picked the most crowded day of the year so it was hard to see everything, but we still had fun.

Another tradition is making gingerbread houses with my family. It's always an interesting night filled with lots of frustration and lots of laughter.

AMAZING

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT!

SNOW

Last weekend was our first big snow storm and the boys couldn't resist playing in it.

Of course Gavin only lasted five minutes, but that's not surprising.

Rivalry Week Food Drive

Every year my office and my students are in charge of the Rivalry Week Food Drive.  This year is no exception and the food drive continues until Saturday.

There are so many ways to donate and you can find all the info here: www.alumni.utah.edu/rivalryweek

This year we are holding an online auction with some amazing U of U stuff including a birthday party with the Utah Gymnastics team, autographed helmets, MUSS tix for Saturday's game and much more. There are also Jazz tickets, hotel stays, ski passes and more. If you are interested in bidding on any of these items please go to www.biddingforgood.com/rivalryweek.

All proceeds go to the Utah Food Bank.

GO UTES!!!

Windy City

Our trip to Chicago was awesome! The city is amazing and everywhere you looked there was something wonderful to look at.

This was the view from our condo window; amazing!

On our first night we went to a Chicago Blackhawks game. The picture didn't really turn out, but it was so much fun being in that arena! NHL games are such a blast.

The next day we were walking around the city and we stopped to play at this very strange piece of art.

By the river.

Eating Chicago-style pizza.

We took a boat tour to see the architecture of the city. It was amazing and so much fun to learn the history of all the buildings.

We visited Soldier Field and the boys visited Wrigley Field. And then of course, we got to see the Notre Dame campus.

This is the view from our seats at the football game. The game did not turn out like we had hoped but I'm still very glad we went. The trip was a lot of fun and I loved exploring a city we had never been to.

Our team is ready to redeem themselves this weekend and I can't wait.

GO UTES!!!

Black Saturday

As I'm sure you will be able to tell, all these pictures were taken before the game was played on Saturday. That is why we all look so happy. :)

I know this will shock most of you but I did not go to GameDay on Saturday morning. This pregnancy has taken so much out of me that I did not have the energy to get up at 5 a.m. Jesse went and had a good time.

Tailgating with the family.

Jesse and I were able to go on the field before the game.

It was a horrible, awful day but we stayed until the very end and will continue to support our Utes not matter what. I can't wait for our trip to South Bend!

No, I'm not fat!

Just pregnant!

ETA: May 21, 2011

St. George

The fun we had in St. George.

My Pride and Joy

http://www.gapcastingcall.com/GapCastingCall/EntryDetail.html?id=172418



Utah Man

My office and The MUSS adopted this classroom at the Palomino Intermediate School in Pheonix, Arizona.  We sent them a bunch of Utah stuff and will continue to be in contact with them throughout the year.

This is one of the coolest things I've ever received and it makes me so happy!

The S-L-C

I've had a nasty cold this week which left me in bed all day yesterday. While in bed I watched DVD's of Laguna Beach which are wonderfully entertaining and helped keep my mind off being sick.

My first thought while watching the show was how much drama these girls have in their lives. I couldn't believe how dumb they acted, how much they talked about each other, and how they let boys treat them. I thought "if they had followed me around in high school they would have been pretty bored."

Then I thought about it some more and started to remember things from my high school and college days. I realized the only difference between my school years and the girls from Laguna Beach was that my experience did not involve alcohol, and when I talked about "hooking up" it meant making out with a guy, not going all the way.

I realized if cameras had followed me around during high school and college it would have made a pretty entertaining show. Lots of drama, lots of laughs, lots of trouble and lots of boys. I think it would be funny to go back and watch a show of how you acted in high school; I'm sure I would cringe at many things. I would also have to hide those video tapes from my parents! :)

All Dogs Go To Heaven

Sadly we had to say goodbye to Apache today. It was a horrible day but it was time. He has been with us for fifteen years which is much longer than we ever expected. He was the most wonderful dog and we are going to miss him so much.

Blog Neglect

I love that September is here because that means football has begun! It also means that my life revolves around the University of Utah and the MUSS, which isn't such a bad thing. However, I apologize for my serious blog neglect.

Some fun things we have done these past few weeks are celebrate my dad's birthday with Led Zeppelin, celebrate my mom's birthday with family and celebrate a win with our awesome Utes! I will try and post pictures soon.

GO UTES!!!

Denver

Since we had so much fun last year my family decided to go to Denver again this summer. Marcus' favorite baseball team is the Rockies so we planned the trip around two baseball games. It was great because Jesse got to come with us this year.

Downtown Denver is a million times better than Salt Lake. They have awesome shopping, restaurants, condo's, business buildings and parks. We stayed in a condo downtown and everything was within walking distance. We found this cool park area with these fun fountains to play in. Gavin was in heaven.

The next day we took a free shuttle to the edge of downtown and then walked to this great park. There was this beautiful river where people were playing and learning to kayak.

That night we went to our first baseball game.  The Rockies were playing the Cubs and the game was packed. Another reason we went to Denver is because my office was throwing an event before the game that night. The owner of the Rockies is a U of U alum so every year they hold a "University of Utah Alumni" night at one of the games.

Here is Marcus meeting Charlie Monfort, the Rockies owner. Marcus was so excited to meet him!

For this game we sat in the outfield which was really fun. The game was amazing! In the eighth inning the Rockies had 12 runs and we ended up winning 17-2. We even witnessed a major league record that night.

The next day we hung out at the mall where Elise got to meet "Taylor Lautner" and "Zac Efron." Even Gavin wanted to get in on the action.

That night we headed to our second baseball game. It was against the Cubs again but this time we sat near first base. This game was even better than the first night. The Cubs tied the game in one of the late innings and I was worried we were going to be there all night! Then on the first pitch in the bottom of the eighth a Rockies player hit a home run and the entire stadium went nuts!  It was so cool and both games were probably the best baseball games I have ever been to.

It was a great trip and it was fun to see Marcus so happy. I swear someday we will take a vacation that doesn't revolve around a sporting event but for now they are hard to resist!