A Southern Utah Christmas Story

This year we decided to cut down our own Christmas tree because thats what most of our friends do around here. I always loved when my family would make trips out in the snow to cut down a tree that we got to pick out. Carter's family never did this so I thought it would be a fun adventure for our first Christmas tree.

After getting our permit and a saw, we drove out to Pine Valley to find ourselves a tree. The first trip was not a success. We obviously had the wrong spot. We should have been tipped off by the fact that there were no Christmas trees in the area. Just MUD!

The next Saturday, after Sealant Saturday at school, we drove up again, this time even higher into the mountains. As many of you know St George is a different climate than were we both grew up. The trees that grow are a little different than the ones that others cut for their Christmas trees. It was hard to find one that was tall and not too wide. After walking around in the snow for a couple hours we finally came upon the "best" one. This year is going to be a Charlie Brown Christmas!

Alissa and my smiling to find a tree because our feet were cold and wet!

Carter showing off his muscles (and his bum crack) carrying our tree.

These trees are very prickly. Carter has cuts up and down his arms from putting the lights on.

I love my desert Christmas tree!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Is one week before Halloween to early to decorate pumpkins?

I have been asking Carter all October long if we could carve pumpkins.

I finally got him to agree.

Because Carter is so competitive he had to put a bet on the line

about which of ours would be better.

After making a mess of the living room this was the final product

Lights out

Who's do you think was better?

Carter's

Or

Brittany's

After a long voting process mine was selected as the BEST overall ;)

2nd place!!!

This weekend was the Dixie State College Homecoming Parade. It was the 100th year of Dixie so it was a big deal. I am the head of the special project committee and was in charge of the float. We had so much fun planning it and building it. After hours of planning and hours of building the parade was a success! Our float was way fun. There were prizes for the top floats and so we were aiming high! AND IT ALL WAS WORTH IT 2ND PLACE!!!!

This is our whole group in front of your float

Funny Faces

The costumes for our float

Me as Toothpaste

Best buds :D

Dancing to "Brush your teeth"

What a fun day.

After the parade we went straight to Sealant Saturday

where we do free sealants for the community.

Overall it was a crazy day of running around from 8-5....

Hiking with friend

Recently, we went hiking with a group of friends. None of us had ever been to the narrows in Zion so we decided because we lived so close to it we better do it while we are here. This was a wonderful decision! We all loved it!

When you first start out the walls are high above you and the river is wide. The further up the river you go the narrower the canyon gets and the higher the walls around you go.

Its amazing to think of the beauty we found in deepest parts of this canyon hidden from the world.

After hiking for a while the boys decided it was time for a swim in the freezing cold water!

Me and my two best buddies from the Dental Hygiene program!! We always have so much fun together!

After hiking for 3 hours and the temperature started to drop a little part of our group turned around when we got to the fork in the river. Aly, Race, Carter, and I decided to continue with the hike for a while. We were so happy that we did. As we started up one side of the fork it narrowed a ton making things more interesting. We ended our hike up at this beautiful water fall!

The wheels on the bus....

For our community class at school we get to go out into the community and teach schools all about teeth. First we went to a preschool, it was so fun! We taught some really cute kids.

First we start with a little puppet show.

Then we split up to teach brushing ...

The next week in taught 3 classes at the elementary school. We taught two first grade classes and a forth grade class. It was so fun!

It was fun to be creative and just have fun with little kids instead of the usual stress of school!

Weekend Fun!

This weekend Dani came to Utah!! She just got off of her mission from New York. While she was gone her family moved to Arizona so its been a long time since we've hung out. She wanted to see the side of St George only the locals know. The first night she was here we went up to Dixie Rock and climbed up "The Crack" and hiked around the rocks in the dark. Because it was dark i got attacked by a HUGE spider... GROSS! The next day we went to the river to try out some skimboarding which is a big deal in St George.

This was the water fall at the river

I lost my favorite glasses while taking this picture :(

Carter was a natural at skimboarding!

The Crew

Desk Disaster

Since Carter started school there has been a real NEED for a desk so that he can study at it (dont worry that i have been asking for a desk for 2 semesters now). So we decided to get one!! We went to DI and found a great looking desk that was perfect. We have refinished a couple other items before so we thought it would be no big deal.... boy were we wrong.

This is what we had to work with

We borrowed an electric sander from a friend and thought that this project would be a piece of cake because we wouldn't be sanding by hand like in the past. Things were going great as it started to grow dark and we were hurrying to finish before we ran out of light. All of the sudden we heard one of the worst noises for our situation with the 3/4 of the desk we had painted...the sprinklers. As Carter was trying to figure out which ones were coming on, I was getting drenched trying to get him to move the desk with me. He looked around to see why he was not getting soaked, and saw it was because our newly painted drawer was shielding him from the sprinklers. The desk is too heavy to get up the stairs to our apartment without help, especially when it is covered with wet paint. So we did our best to move it where the sprinklers couldn't get it. By then it was dark and we had to inspect the damage in the morning.

The next morning we came to find that things weren't as bad as we had thought. The only problem was the desk top would need to be re-sanded and repainted. Carter went a little wild with the sander and the then we had bigger fish to fry.

After 5 days of working on this desk and a lot more money then we wanted to spend (you know.... repainting after the sprinklers and filling in the sanding hole) we are happy with the finished product, even though up until the final coat of paint, and after a little antiquing, i had very little hopes that i would even like it...

To bad we just realized we still have an un-sanded unpainted chair!

The Dr Seuss Cake

School started this week. There have been crazy moments this week as we try to adjust to new schedules, figure things out, and find patients for me. Among all this craziness I decided to make a cake! Gotta do it now before I get to busy with Homework!

My Mother-in-law always makes this amazing cake. Ever since she has started making it I have wanted to try! So i decided to just go for it. Mine didn't turn out quite like Terri Jo's but looks dont really matter as long as it tastes good right?

This is what the cake should look like...

Instead it looks a little like this... (thanks to photoshop!)
Maybe next time! :D

One Year Ago....

One year ago today was the beginning of the best decision of my life!

I knew the question was coming I just didn't know when. Carter had plans to get his tonsils out, when the hospital called and said they had a cancellation and he could get them out the very next day. He accepted and it was CRUNCH time! He left work early to figure out the plans. Ran to his apartment in search of help but no one was there. He had no idea what he was going to do (as usual). Around 8:30 or 9 ish i got home from FHE and he called me to see if i wanted to go get a bite to eat. We grabbed some food and went to the park for a picnic. Carter was always spontaneous so it didn't make me wonder. Once we got there he threw me a blanket and told me to go set it up. As I turned around he pulled stuff out of the trunk (to much for him to hold and making tons of noise!). Before he got to me he said to close my eyes. When I opened them he was holding a candy poster sign and some flowers. Then he told me why he wanted to marry me and it was super cute. Then he moved the poster and was already on his knee and popped the question.

Love you babe :D