Happy ThAnKsMaS!

(Left to Right: Matthew, Laura, Kristy, Dan, Kim, Heather, Tanner, Kenzie)

Happy Thanksgiving/Christmas at the Nordstrom's!
Tanner & I made the scary drive from Provo to Redding in a whole 14 hours. We saw every semi-truck pulled off putting on chains and about 9 slide-off accidents. Glad we made it safe thanks to my husband's good driving skills!!
Although the boys moaned and groaned about it, we took family pictures finally! YAY!

After the amazing Thanksgiving feast, it is a Nordstrom tradition to drive up to Lassen National Park and cut down Christmas Trees! Uncle Keith, Aunt Candace, the Nordstrom clan and Travis and Jennifer joined us this year and we cut down a total of four trees. I think we may have left a bare patch in the forest!
The snow as about 3 feet deep and our puppy Sadie had a blast pouncing around the white powder!

I, of course, did not bring snow pants and was soaking wet from the knees down. Who cares though! I picked out my first real tree for Tanner to cut down and bring all the way home!

Since all the kids were in town for Thanksgiving, we decided to do a Thanksgiving/Christmas combo because Dan could not come home from Afganistan for Christmas. Thanksgiving was Thursday, cutting trees and decorating was Friday and Christmas was Saturday.

Dan had roasting skewers made for all the kids by a blacksmith in Afganistan.

These are some determined faces! We had such a nice time in California with Tanner's family. We are so grateful for Dan and Kim and for the hard work they do to give us kids such a nice Holiday.

What A Great Summer!

Our Family Picture!

Last weekend I drove home because Dani had her baby! Little Olivia was born on Thursday, September 16th. She is beautiful and both Mom and baby are healthy. All of the Floyd girls came in town for her birth!

It was fairly warm for an early September weekend, Courtney's son Colter decided to strip down and play in the water in his birthday suit!

I got so lucky that weekend because my cousin was also taking out her endownment at the temple and invited me and my family to come along. It is an indescribable feeling to be at the temple with your entire family.

That same day was Mikaela's bridal shower! It was so fun to see one of my best friends, Jennie!

The end of August, Tanner surprised me by booking a little bed & breakfast in Odgen for the weekend! It was a little cabin up the canyon. It was beautiful! He also attended a concealed carry gun fighting class. He had a great time.

An Eventful Holiday Weekend

The monday after the fourth, we invited a few friends over for a BBQ. Below is my sister-in-law Laura & me.

(Left to Right) Telley, Shawn, Matthew, Laura, Me

Stadium of Fire!

Carrie Underwood was so amazing. She is such a good performer.

My Birthday present finally arrived over 4th of July weekend... MY PUPPY!!!! Her name is Sadie and she is so much fun! She is very playful and really like attention. Kim drove all the way from California (12 hours) with 11 puppies in her van so they could sell some here in Utah. All those puppies were in our backyard at one point.

Hogle Zoo and Supercross Races!

Last night Tanner & I went to the Supercross Races at the U of U in Salt Lake! We knew it would be pretty cold so we tried to bundle up. Right after they announced the starters of the race, it began to sprinkle a bit. After of few minutes of this non-sense, it really began to come down. It rained like cats and dogs, then hailed, then snowed then rained some more.... the whole race. We were prepared with ponchos and blankets and stayed for the whole race because we're (well Tanner is) the ultimate fan.

Tanner met a good friend of his from Rexburg, Jake, and his wife at the races. It was so good to see them!



On April 17th, we met Tanner's sister Erin and her family at the Hogle Zoo in SLC! We had such a good time look at all the animals and exhibits they had. I don't think it would have been near as fun if we didn't have the kids with us. :)

This is Tanner and his niece, Olivia, whom he insists to spoil.

I'd never seen a giraffe in real life so I had to take a picture! Tanner didn't seem as enthused because he, "played with them in Africa." Well cool for you!

Me and Erin's youngest son, Aiden.

A rino's rear...

Embarressing Moments....

You know when you're new in church or in school and you're asked to fill out a sheet about yourself? What's your favorite food, or your hobbies or your most embarressing moment? I can never put anything in the embarressing moment part; not because I don't get embarressed, oh no. Because I can never remember what my embarressing moments are. Well this week, I gave myself not one, but two embarressing moments to fill out that section... AND THE WEEKS NOT EVEN OVER. Oh dear.
Sunday morning: woke up early, especially since I felt very unprepared for our first lesson in our new calling as Sunbeam teachers. Gave myself plenty of time to get ready and read over the lesson and say a good prayer for me and Tanner and ask for major help with our Sunbeams. I lost track of time and grabbed my white pea coat as we ran out the door to walk to church. Our building is about 35 steps away from our house and as I walked into the cultural hall for Sacrament meeting, Tanner grabbed my jacked and pulled me back into the foyer. I was mad as heck that he yanked on my coat thinking he may have ripped a seam or something, but then I noticed what he was holding in his hand: a pink plastic coat hanger! I walked all the way to church with the hanger hanging on the back of my coat on a little belt sewn onto the back of my jacket. I was mortified! I brought a coat-hanger to church with me! I don't even want to know how many ward members walking to church behind us noticed the hanger just bouncing back and forth on the back of my coat. I'm sure they got a good laugh. :)

Embarressing moment #2: I have a day off on Wednesdays. That is my day to run errands, go to the gym, clean my house, do whatever I want. The only downside is I used to do all those things on a Saturday with Tanner, now I have to spend the day alone. He surprised me this last Wednesday by showing up around lunch time (I guess not actually JUST to see me... I thought I broke the washer) and we got to go to the lunch together! We got an In N Out gift card for Christmas, so we decided to use it for lunch. Of course In N Out is always packed, so we wait in a big crowd of hungry people for our number to be called. We got a drink to share, so Tanner let me pick what I wanted to drink. I walked up to the fountain drink area and stood there looking at the ice dispenser. There was no little lever to pull or little button to push to get the ice to come out. I thought In N Out was just too advanced for me, so I stuck my cup under it thinking it was motion sensored. I kept putting my cup under it and pulling it back, putting it under again and pulling it back and finally I whined, frustrated to Tanner "How do you work this thing?!" He could not stop laughing at me and pushed the little plastic dispenser thing that says ICE on it and miraculously out comes the ice. He will not let me forget about that one.

So this week has been pretty eventful. I guess I was pretty embarressed by those two stunts I pulled, but it's what makes life fun! What can you do other than laugh at yourself?

*Christmas* 2009

Merry Christmas!

We always get plenty of snow around here in Provo around this time of year. Tanner spent a lot of time outside, shoveling our driveway. I can't count the number of times he begged me for a snow blower. Sorry hunny, maybe next year.

A few weeks before Christmas, Tanner's sister, Laura, had a winterfest Chior concert. She is a part of the Women's Chorus at BYU. Tanner's parents came into town for the concert. It was such a great way to get into the Christmas spirit. All the numbers the chiors sang were absolutely beautiful.

We spent Christmas this year in California with the Nordstroms. We arrived in Sacramento on tuesday before Christmas, and spent the day there as a family and attended the temple. We had family names Kim, Tanner's mom, prepared that we did work for. It was an undescribable experience.

After we drove back to Redding, we spent much of our time together playing games and doing what I love best about the holidays; EATING! Below is a picture of Tanner & his uncle Keith carving some delious meat!

The girls also did a baking night! We baked and decorated Christmas sugar cookies. Messy, yet always fun!

One evening, we had a crab feast! Tanner's dad, Dan, brought back loads of fresh Alaskan crab. It was my first time really eating fresh crab. It was great!

We spent lots of time playing games. I wipped Tanner at guitar hero!

Boy, our week in California went by fast! We were so blessed to be able to travel to be with family for the Holidays.