Garth

Garth....again

NASHVILLE! sorry it's long

My work trip this year was to Nashville, TN so of course we were able to see a lot of great country singers. I didn't realize who these people were at first until I heard their songs.

Dolly Parton was supposed to be there but she got really sick & had to be flown somewhere I guess. This was all in downtown Nashville at the Wildhorse saloon.

This first girl is Jessica Andrews & you probably know the song Rosemary's Granddaughter.

This guy is Dierks Bently & the only song I know that he sings is "What was I thinkin." It's a pretty funny song.
This scary looking guy is Ronnie Dunn from Brooks & Dunn. He was the last singer & his wife came out afterward with her purse on her arm & a drink in her hand & talked to us for a bit. I think she had a bit too much to drink!

We heard many other singers too but I only put the ones I know on here.

Okay, funny story about my pink skirt in the below picture. Every year we have a formal night & it's always a hassle finding a modest, not dressy but not too casual dress. This year I found a Kimono type dress for $12. I didn't love it but hey, it was $12! The night before I flew out, I went to Provo Towne & while I was there decided to look in this one store for fun. I ended up really liking this skirt & decided to buy it, after MUCH thought, since I really wasn't in love with the $12 dress. I didn't tell Jared though. So I roomed with 4 other girls & one of the girls had my $12 dress. But don't worry, I had my pink skirt that I bought at the last minute!! I found a cute shirt to go with it at the outlet mall by our hotel.

This is the African Children's Choir & they were amazing! All the kids have either lost one or both parents & come from low income families. It's a really neat story! Such cute & talented kids!

Our last night there we went to the Grand Ole Opry & Garth Brooks put on a private concert for us. For some reasons, we got to sit on the very front & center row!

Before the concert we were able to go into a room & meet Garth & get a group picture with him. It's weird because he just feels like some some old country guy that I could've grown up with. He's very friendly & down to earth.

He had us laughing all night & he even sang one of "Ms. Yearwood's" songs and at the end said, "I never thought I would stoop so low to sing someone else's song."

Back Online

We are finally up and running. A guy in our ward came over last night and helped us get our internet working. So I am sure that Heather will start catching up on her posts, she is making me some pancakes as I write this, life can't get any better than that. We are still waiting for visitors to make it this far south, especially those that live in the valley namely Gardners, Clarks, and stoddards. All the rest of you I expect a visit next time you are in town and if we find out you were here and didn't call us then our friendship is over, Ryan McGiven!!!! Can't wait for the party next week, Lindsay call us with the details and where you want to host.

The J-Man

Still nothing

We are still working on getting a new computer so we can use our internet. Our laptop disc thing doesn't open so that's a problem. Our house is getting pictures on the walls & really feeling like home, thanks to my mom & Thai Pan Trading. Don't worry we will be planning a party soon . I believe we have one set for March 7 right Lindsay? That's all for now. I know, boring post!

Update

Heather wanted me to post a brief update so here it goes. The good news is, is that we finished our house, passed our final inspection, received our certificate of occupancy, and moved in this last weekend!!!! Saturday night was our first night at our home and it is great to finally be in a new place after months of hard work. The bad news, we are currently stuck in the in between stage, therefore, we have no internet access, and no way of showing you all of our pictures; evenmore, we are still trying to get settled in so we really don't have the time to post an update. So please be patient with us as I work on getting us back online and getting our house into a "house of order." We sure hope that all of you are doing well and we sure do miss all of you.

Pictures :)

There isn't much to see on the outside, just the garage & front door. The door hasn't been stained yet so the color doesn't quite match yet.

The cabinets are all in and the appliances should be there on Tuesday.

I know it's hard to see the wood floor under the powder but it's there & it looks good. It was Jared's first time laying it but I guess it wasn't too hard.

And now for the dreaded tile work that seems to go on & on. The floors are all done, now it's just the showers that need to be finished. It's hard to tell how it really looks from these pictures but at least you get an idea.

A few things

Ok first of all I haven't posted any updates on the house because when I do have my camera I'm so busy painting or too exhausted to take any pictures. So far Jared has finished the wood floor & is working until 12 or 1 every night trying to finish the tile before we get cabinets put in on Wednesday. I will post pictures once the cabinets are in. Second of all I CANNOT wait until it is done. And last, I am already excited for summer to be here!

I posted this hydrangae picture because I absolutely love them & am determined to plant them around our house this summer even though I hear they won't do well in our climate.

Happy Birthday Jared!

Jared turned 27 on December 31. He was sick the day we left to Bear Lake & had a stomach ache the whole time but luckily he felt good enough in the afternoon to celebrate a little. It was nice to have my grandparents, parents, sister & niece & nephew come have some fun with us.

Austen especially loved the frosting!! I got the cute cupcake feet from Casey & Mel for my B-day, aren't they cute!!

Early that morning Jeremy made a nice snowshoe trail for us in the deep powder so Stefanie & I tried it out later. It was great weather but really cold in the shade & at the top. The view always makes it worth it!

A white Christmas

It's always fun to wake up to fresh snow on Christmas morning!

Santa delivered presents to everyone (naughty or nice) later that day!
Jared & Tim wii boxing. It was pretty funny to see Tim getting into a video game!
And even funnier to see Pat get into it.
We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!!

From zero to three!

Jared & I had the opportunity to babysit 3 adorable kids while their parents went to the BYU game. It was a lot of work but they were really good for us! We made sugar cookies after they decorated the little aprons they are wearing. Abby (below) ate a TON of cookie dough. She is so cute and loved to cuddle with Jared. The girls went over to a friends house earlier that day & Abby came home with pink eyebrows. It was very hard to get off!

Sophie is 7 1/2 & very smart.
Nicholas was a lot of fun but loves to scream whenever he doesn't get his way. We tried teaching him to walk but he's pretty content with crawling.
Our cookie dough mess!

Jared's new thing

Jared has decided he wants to go into landscape architecture design. So he has began practicing with graham cracker houses. His family makes these every year & Jared loves to have the biggest one & even started an hour earlier than everyone else this year.
I didn't put a picture of mine on here becuase it's not too exciting & it looks the same every year anyway.
He was very excited about doing a winding staircase.

Santa Claus is coming to town!

Every year these people have the best display in their family room & I finally got a picture of one.
The guys decided to get together Wednesday night & go bowling since Derek is here from Oregon. The only bowling alley that wasn't packed was BYU's so that's where we went. Stefanie & I were the only wives so we had a nice time chatting & playing with Ellia.

The latest with Brother Morris

Jared just finished his 10 day teaching assignment with Payson Jr. High. He said it was a very talkative class & that he was constantly telling them to pay attention. He did have one really good day that he was excited about. His class was all ninth graders :} The class filled out evaluation forms at the end of the 10 days and it sounded like they really liked Brother Morris & a lot wrote about how the class was noisy and didn't respect Brother Morris. I'm proud of him for his hard work in preparing the lessons (from the Old Testament none the less) and for putting up with the 9th graders. Now we wait to see if he moves on to the next course.

Updates on Santaquin

Here's an update on the house. The cement is all poured, the insulation is in & they will be working on drywall this week.

I guess we were pretending to stay warm even though we were freezing! Don't make fun of my boots, they are the only ones I have here and they were an end of the season purchase one year to go tubing at Soldier Hollow.
This was just taken on Saturday the 1st. They're set up to start doing our stucco work soon.