...a FESTIVUS for the rest of us...

I hope everyone's Christmas was as Merry as ours! I was thri-i-i-illed to be with my side of our family for the holiday this year! I love our Smith side, too, don't get me wrong, but I think that's the hardest part about being married and having our families live so far from each other, but such is life....ANYWAY, it was fun! Here are the highlights from that glorious holiday weekend:

Avatar...the weirdest movie I've ever seen! This is what we saw Christmas Eve. Was it entertaining? Yeah. Would I ever tell someone to watch it? Nope. Will I ever watch it again? Nope. Will I have nightmares about the creepy "love scene" for the rest of my life? Definitely. But it did leave us with a lot of awkard/funny quotes...I see you.

Mom got us all jammies for Christmas, and we opened them on Christmas Eve, just like the good old days!

Our little ghetto little tree. The white cord on the lights is a nice touch, don't you think?

I've got to be honest, I was expecting another gift dud from Richard (I'm not being rude, it would've fit right in with the other 3 Christmases, or any holiday calling for gifts, that we've spent together), but he blew me away. He did so well that we've decided to never do gifts again - it could only go downhill from here! My favorite present is my Celine Dion: A New Day dvd of her concert in Vegas. It's been on non-stop since I opened it as background music!

Aren't they cute? Chelsea definitely has her snowboarding goggles on over her glasses. Lovin' ya!


I love how my mom wraps the presents we pick out for ourselves!


Rich hit the jackpot on sweaters this year.

I made this picture frame thing for my parents. If they didn't absolutely love it I was going to kill somebody because I'm not a crafty person, and this was a pain in my you-know-what! Luck for everyone in the basement, they did.

Bug's snowboarding gear...now let's hope she even likes snowboarding...at least it looks cool.



The present says "Beefcake" on it. It's an inside joke from our fave show Chuck. I'm pretty sure when he saw this under the tree he panicked and went out and bought me a lot more presents hahaha

It's a new guitar case. I think he thought it was a new guitar at first, and was maybe a little disappointed, but he really was happy for the case - his old one had duct tape all over it!

Boo Boo got a new TV!

Todd hates what she's doing to him, but loves her enough to let her do it. BFF's 4eva!

The first of many gift cards...thank you!

What cute cousins we have!

Scuzzin' ya!

Grandma singing Christmas tunes.

Grandpa/Santa singing tunes with Grandma.

Sarah front and center at the Porter Christmas Sing-Along.

Rich getting Toady - I mean Kody - all riled up.

Where's mom?

Grandpa Tony/Santa on his Christmas throne at the piano...I miss the big tree at the old house...

Here are the Shepherds. Where are the Wise Men?

Dad's goin' rogue! Santa/Mom wrapped this as a gag and gave it to my dad...he clearly loves her. Sarah Palin was the best Christmas gift any of us could have asked for hahaha God bless us, every one!

Awesome Snuggie! Way to go Shirl.

Toady, Dad, & Richard rockin' out to Christmas songs.

Say cheese...

What a beautiful family!

We stopped to see Grandpa at Aunt Sondra's on our way down to St. George for Austin's missionary farewell.

Aus-train, Richard, & friends singing at the farewell...Richard later told me I shouldn't have taken this picture in the chapel. And now that I look at it, I think Austin is looking right at me, thinking the exact same thing!

Family picture time! I'm totally bending down to try and even things out.

Brotherly love.

Ummmm....

Cuties.

24?!, KISS-KISS & JumboTron

Sooooo, I've obviously been a super-slacker on keeping up with this blog of ours - and it's a crying shame because I'm sure everyone's just been dying to know what we've been up to hahaha! No really, this is kind of like a journal for us, so I am going to try and be better. No promises, though. Anyway, today I'm playing catch-up on my birthday, Halloween, and the most recent Jazz game we went to. Here goes:


This year I turned a whopping 24 years old, folks. Sounds like an actual adult age, right? Well, if you agree with that then you couldn't be more wrong! I mean, yes, I am technically an "adult." But so is my sister Sarah, and no one's calling her a grown-up (hahaha love ya, but I'm trying to make a point!), so stop acting like I am. I guess it's not that bad to be a grown-up, but when that term comes to my mind, all I can think of are old people....like parents and grandparents and really serious people. I guess I just like the saying "you're only as old as you feel." Because as I was thinking about that on my birthday, I decided that I don't know what age number I feel, but I feel pretty dang youthful and happy these days, so just don't lump me in the same group as the boring grown-ups, ok. I'm starting the Totally Awesome Fun & Young Grown-Up Club. I'm President, and Rich is going to be Vice Pres. We still need the rest of our cabinet, though, so get in line you other fun-lovers!

Rich met me in SLC for my fave sushi dinner at the Happy Sumo after I got off work to celebrate.

I've been wanting to dress up like KISS for the past couple of years, but we were never able to find another couple to do it with us (you can't just dress up as half the band!). Our friends Rachel & Spencer came to the rescue this year, though! We were a big hit at our ward's Halloween Stomp...they even played "Rock & Roll All Night" while Richard and Spencer danced and sang and got everyone to sing and dance with them. It was hilarious!!! You may be thinking "how fun could a ward party really be?!" But can I just tell you that we have the greatest & most fun ward in the world! It's a married student ward, and we have the greatest activities. At this party we even had a Limbo contest & a Dance-off! Also note, this is the first time that Richard has willingly danced with me in public - literally danced the night away to every kind of music you can think of. So much fun!

Richard as Gene Simmons

I was Ace for the night.

His spandies came from the same Girl's department at Target that mine did hahaha

We did each others' make-up! Impressive, right?

At the end of November, right before Thanksgiving, our ward had a Turkey-Bowl football game (yes, I played, too!). After the game, someone in the ward gave our friends Todd & Lacey 4 tickets to that night's Jazz game, and they invited us to go...well, I overheard the whole thing go down and started freaking out, so they probably felt obligated to invite us, but whatever, we went with them! We ate dinner at Litza's Pizza downtown, and then headed to ESA for the game. Our tickets were in the upper bowl, but I say pretty much any seat at the game is a good one. That being said, we couldn't help but notice how many empty seats there were in the lower bowl...even entire rows! Richard and Todd were busy scouting out the seats, while Lacey and I watched the game, but it paid off because at half-time we moved on down to the 17th row without a hitch! The seats were great, and it was an awesome game. That's not even the best part, though. The best part is that we got on the jumbo-tron! It's pretty much a goal of mine at any sporting event I go to (happened once at a Ute football game, but I was totally unprepared). We were watching the camera guy, flagged him down, and then it happened...all I could see were the stripes on my shirt jumping up & down, Richard's red hair, & one of Lacey's bright yellow sleeves. Good times! Thanks Lacey & Todd! And thank you cameraman!