Christmas in Washington

This year we spent Christmas in Washington with Nick's side of the family. We had a great time relaxing, eating food, talking, playing games, watching movies, and sledding. Here are some pictures of our awesome trip:

This is Nick's mom's delicious caramel popcorn. Warning: Addicting. She also made a bunch of other delicious treats that are irresistible!

For Christmas Eve me, Nick, and the grandkids all played some Christmas songs.

The grandkids acted out the Nativity scene. Mae was Mary, Porter was Joseph, James was a shepherd, and Brooks was one of the wise men.

Isn't Brooks cute?!?!

Nick and James

Nick's dad carving the Turkey. (more like pulling it off the bone cuz it was so tender)

The kids table

Christmas Dinner

Our First Christmas

Nick's mom made this cute blanket for us.

Nick and I in our new Christmas PJ's

Coming out Christmas morning

Christmas Morning

We drove up to the mountains to enjoy a day playing in the snow.

Here we are with the kids building a snow fort.

Nick's dad made us all hot chocolate with his camping stove. It was delicious!

Nick's mom and dad

They conquered the sledding hill!

Silly faces!

Sledding

Birthday & Christmas

December 5th was my birthday! The big 21! On Saturday Nick came home from work with a rose for me and then took me down town to the Roof Top Restaurant. The view was beautiful and the food was delicious! We then walked around temple square to see the lights but that didn't last long because it was raining. Here are some pictures:

On my b-day we decorated our little tree and put up some other Christmas things. We don't have a ton of stuff but what we do have is pretty cute!

Here is our little nativity and advent calendar which is filled with Reese's and Almond Rocas.

Here is our little Christmas tree. Most of the ornaments my mom made from a cookie dough and then painted them.

Here you can see the beautiful rose Nick got me and our little poinsettia.

New Job

At the beginning of October I received and e-mail about a dietary tech position at Intermountain Healthcare in the NICU. I was really excited and started filling out the really long application and then I started to get stressed as I tried to study and finish all my projects at the same time so I decided I wouldn't submit the application. A few days later I got an e-mail from HR asking me to finish the application because they wanted to set up an interview. I was flattered and not stressed at the time so I finished it(well tried, the site wasn't working) and had the interview. I didn't think anyone from my classes really applied because I hadn't heard anything but while waiting for the interview a girl from my major walked in and I thought I had no chance. The interview went well though. I had prepared for a typical interview where they ask your strengths and weakness and all that but this interview was much more relaxed. I was asked to pretty much share my life history/background. A few hours after the interview HR called me and said I needed to do one more part of the application because I did really well at my interview. I finished it right away and then HR called the next day and said I got the job and that I would start on Monday!

Monday was a full day orientation at the hospital for all new employees. The orientation was kind of boring but later that week I began training. Two weeks ago I started the real thing. I have to wake up at 5am and be to work by 5:30. Myself and a few other diet techs gather information from each baby's chart from the previous day and condense everything it says so the doctor and dietitian have an overall picture of what is happening and how the baby is doing (the babies are so cute!). There are a lot of little rules and exceptions to remember so I think it will take me a little while longer to really get it all down.

It is fun to work in the hospital! It is cool to see what actually goes on and how doctors, nurses, and dietitians all interact and contribute to helping a tiny baby. We are so lucky to have so much medical knowledge and technology. So many lives are improved and saved because of it!

Homecoming

This weekend we went with Meri and Robbie to homecoming at BYU. We first enjoyed a delicious meal together at Los Hermanos and then we headed over to the dance to bust out our moves. We had a lot of fun and I finally got to see some of Nick's dance moves! Here are some pictures of us:

Check out that foot pop!

Here we are dancing to the Barbie song.

The group

Our New Home

We are finally all settled in! We moved into our new place last Tuesday. We lived at my sister Meri's place while her family was out in California for Robbie's internship. They were so nice to let us stay to the end of the month until we could move into our new place even though they moved back.

Last Wednesday after we moved in I came home from class to find the power was out. We didn't know that we had to call and set up the electricity our self so it was turned off for almost 24 hours. It made me realize just how much I love electricity and need it.

Our apartment is great though! It is only a 10 min walk up to campus and has great sound proof. We have lots of storage space (I could always use more though) but not a big kitchen. I went to Ikea on Saturday and bought a shelf for the microwave so that I could have a little more counter space as well as a dresser which we put together. It was actually kind of fun! Here are some pictures of the place:

I still need to get the wrinkles out of the curtains as you can see.

I had to put this second picture up of the family room because yesterday Nick came home from work with a rose for me! He is the best!

See that spice rack? I made it. I also put together this shelf that I got from Ikea.

Those are my trivets. There were already nails there and I didn't know where to put the trivets so it is kind of decoration and storage.

There is our tiny oven/stove top for me to cook my delicious masterpieces. It isn't that bad. A jelly roll pan fits in length wise and the pizza stone fits so it works. The cupboards are pretty worn. If we decide to stay for our two years left here maybe I'll ask if I can paint them. There aren't many cupboards but we have a little closet pantry (no pict) where all the food fits.

These cannisters were my Grandma Bonnie's. I don't like using them for flour and sugar so I decided to put all my utensils in them. I really like it because it keeps it all organized.

I don't really know what's up with the fridge but it is king of tilted back. We don't have a dishwasher so we have a drying rack on top of the fridge. I do like how there is a rod to put the towels on and hand my hot pads.

This is in our bed room. Here we put all our text books and my crafts. :)

Our laundry baskets that Nick picked out.

Our wonderful bed! Nick picked this out too! He has good taste!

This is the dresser from Ikea that we put together and there is our large closet.