Christmas!

This Christmas was my first away from my family but luckily we did get to spend it with Andrew's family! It was fun to learn new traditions and see the different ways that other people celebrate. We had a wonderful time and were sad we had to leave so soon but we're learning to live with the constraints of being full time workers these days! :)

(And my mom did do a good job of making us feel remembered...we even got a stocking-in-a-box in the mail before we left for Georgia.)

This was probably the biggest Christmas tree I'd ever had for Christmas (my family can attest, my mom is kind of into the Christmas "plants"--don't ask...)

back: Andrew, Erika, Leslie (mom), Scott, Melissa (holding Abbey)
front: Brent and Aubrey

Brent and Aubrey -- ( April 26 is the big day for Brent & Aubrey!! Yea!!)

Scott and Andrew playing the Wii...and apparently Abbey (the dog) was smelling up the room at the time...:)

Aubrey got Andrew this shirt and although it's the BYU football team's new motto, it's soo true! We're both Fully Invested in the "Y" (we call the YMCA the "Y" also now so it can be a bit confusing :))

Melissa, Scott, Aubrey, Alan (dad), Erika, and Andrew

Zoo Lights

On Monday we got to go see the lights at the Cincinnati Zoo for free! (yea for free! :)) A couple of our friends have season passes to the zoo which entitles them to have a guest and free parking...so Andrew rode with one friend and I rode with the other so we didn't even have to drive. It was great! But it was a little chilly...

We were told that no personal photos were allowed in front of this tree so we made it quick! :)

Emily, Austin, and Jared (some of our buddies from our ward)

Austin, Julia, and Lina enjoying the characters at the zoo...

And this photo is for my mom who will definitely like to see the goats. This is how they keep warm! Even they were cold!!

Christmas Candy

Last Saturday I woke up at 8am all ready to go shopping! And not really Christmas shopping because Andrew and I finished that on the day after Thanksgiving. But Andrew and I had some errands we wanted to run and there was an awesome sale on sweaters at New York and Company so I was all set to leave at 8:30--yes, I know record time for me to get ready. Well the thing is that we had helped our new neighbors move in the night before at 11pm until 1:30am. Why were they moving so late you ask? Well the forecast said snow early Saturday morning. But being the optimist I am I didn't even think twice about it. So on little sleep I got ready and of course it snowed a lot!

But fear not! While it snowed I slaved away on these delicious Christmas candies. And yes it did take me all day. The hardest thing to make this year was definitely the peppermint pinwheel cookies. Even the divinity and almond roca didn't foil me this year.


And the best news of this story? The rains came and the snow melted so I got to get my sweaters after all! Yea for sweaters!! :)

For those of you who have do not live near me (which is pretty much everyone who views this blog)...perhaps this Christmas candy will entice you to at least visit. :)

FAITH IN AMERICA

The following is a little synopsis of what Mitt Romney said during his Faith in America Speech. It was REALLY good. Even Chris Matthews, a HARD CORE democrat, said that this was the most presidential he has seen any candidate to this point.

"He shared his views on religious liberty, our country's grand tradition of religious tolerance and how faith would inform his Presidency. Here are a few excerpts:

"When I place my hand on the Bible and take the oath of office, that oath becomes my highest promise to God. If I am fortunate to become your president, I will serve no one religion, no one group, no one cause, and no one interest. A President must serve only the common cause of the people of the United States.

...

There are some who would have a presidential candidate describe and explain his church's distinctive doctrines. To do so would enable the very religious test the founders prohibited in the Constitution. No candidate should become the spokesman for his faith. For if he becomes President he will need the prayers of the people of all faiths.

…

"The diversity of our cultural expression, and the vibrancy of our religious dialogue, has kept America in the forefront of civilized nations even as others regard religious freedom as something to be destroyed.

…

"In such a world, we can be deeply thankful that we live in a land where reason and religion are friends and allies in the cause of liberty, joined against the evils and dangers of the day. And you can be certain of this: Any believer in religious freedom, any person who has knelt in prayer to the Almighty, has a friend and ally in me. And so it is for hundreds of millions of our countrymen: we do not insist on a single strain of religion - rather, we welcome our nation's symphony of faith." "

Read what some are saying below and watch the full speech at MittRomney.com.

First Snow of The Season

Well snow has hit the Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati region and oh man was it a doozey...I mean, just look at this picture from the newspaper. This guy is almost knee deep in snow, it must be bad...
The truth is that yesterday on the news they forecast 1++ inches of snow. And well, let's just say that business was good for Kroger all day yesterday. And sure enough, that 1++ inch came. School is cancelled everywhere (meanwhile, Andrew & I are at work) despite the fact that the newspaper headline says "Snow Less Than Expected". People just aren't taking their chances around here. Safety first, is our motto.

I'd like to say to my friends back in Utah, when you're driving in that 2 feet of snow, just remember, if you lived in Kentucky you'd be sipping hot cocoa in front of the fire right now. :)

Thanksgiving at Home!

For Thanksgiving we had the opportunity to go to Washington. It was a pretty long trip (12 1/2 hours total travel time from door to door) but so worth it. And if we drove it would be at least 40 hours so we can't complain. We spent most of the time in Vancouver, WA where my sisters live but did get to spend a little time in Belfair (my hometown). It was wonderful to see family and friends and I'm only sad we didn't take more pictures or get to see more people!

I am excited to announce that we did wake up at 5am to do day after Thanksgiving sales. For one, my body is on Eastern time and I was in WA on Pacific time so that felt like 8am--sleeping in! :) And for two, it was really not that crazy at all. I'm just excited about all the money we saved and the fact that we did all of our Christmas shopping in just 5 short hours. Luckily Brandie was a crazy person (she woke up at 3am!!) and took us along for the ride. Not sure if we'll do it again next year but I loved it! :)

Erika and Brandie (my oldest sister) helping decorate at the restaurant Amber (my older sister) works at.

This is baby Cooper...Amber and Ryan's son. This picture is my favorite because he actually thinks he can get into this can by squeezing the sides.

Ryan (our devoted blog viewer) and I at the turkey fryer--although much faster than oven cooking a turkey, it was much more expensive. But lots of fun! :)

Andrew and me in the 'Couv

The Landaker Family (and spouses/kids)...sadly this is the one time all year that we're actually all together (yes this is mostly my fault for living in Cincinnati!!)

Trip to Indy

This weekend we went to Indianapolis to see the Utah Jazz play the Indianapolis Pacers...well let's just say that prior to this game the Jazz were 7-2 and the Pacers were 0-6. The new results? Jazz 7-3, Pacers 1-6. Ouch....

But we still had a lot of fun. We had a slight detour to make in Louisville (1 hour south of us) and then back up to Indianapolis (2 hours north of Louisville). Turns out it's only about 1 1/2 hours from Hebron to Indianapolis. We took a walk downtown, ate at P.F. Changs, went to the Conseco Fieldhouse for the game (which is much nicer than the former Delta Center now Energy Solutions Arena) and stayed at the Courtyard Marriott by the Indy airport. It was a nice little getaway even if the Jazz didn't come through for us! :)

Andrew by the canal walk in downtown Indianapolis (and yes we forgot our camera, thank goodness for camera phones!)

Do I look like this statue or what?

This is at a war memorial along the canal walk...

Who knew the NCAA headquarters was in Indianapolis?

My new best buddy in Indy.

Andrew going back to his roots (these are Mastadons not just elephants).

Baby's Warm Welcome

My coworker has taken on community project called Baby's Warm Welcome that provides blankets to mothers of new babies in need. She organized a day for those interested in participating to get together and make these fleece tie blankets. Of course, we'll be in Indianapolis at a Jazz game (the locals will think it's a Pacer's game) on that day. So I decided to may a blanket ahead of time to donate. So here is my first attempt at blanket making. Yes, I know these are the easiest blankets to make ever but it was fun. It was super hard to find the right fleece and matching solid fleece. Let's just say this material wasn't my first choice but it turned out pretty good. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the results. Now I just need a sewing machine so I can make more involved blankets! :)

(I flipped up the corner so you can see the back)

Emergency Preparedness Day

Today Andrew and I had our own little emergency preparedness day. Okay so the ward emergency preparedness lady organized the ordering of water barrels but we bought one... :) So today we cleaned and filled them in our basement. And then we decided to get our 72-hour kits put together. I know we have most of the things that need to go in them, it's just a matter of actually putting them all in one place. I got a few things in it but it's not yet complete. But it's a start! :) (Hopefully we don't have another tornado watch until I can finish though...)

Andrew devised a flashlight water-line method to see where the water level was during the filling process. It was very high-tech.

Truth be told...I did most of the filling while Andrew did the water level watching. :)

And here is where we are storing the barrels--in our unfinished walkout basement--right next to the rough-in full bath. It's fun to think what we could do if we finished the basement but um...it probably isn't going to happen anytime soon. For now it's a great storage place!

Pumpkin Patch...or something like it

A couple of weeks ago when Andrew was at a scout training all weekend, our friends Jared & Emily McCombs were nice enough to let me tag along to a pumpkin patch with them and their one year old, Austin. It's no Thanksgiving Point but it was fun to get outside and take a hay ride. :)

Me, Emily, and Austin pretending to be a ghost and a pumpkin...are you fooled?

Austin...the reason we didn't look like 3 weird adults chillin' at a pumpkin patch. You always need a kid at these things to fit in. :)

This pic is for Mom. Do you like the pig? I know he's not pink!

Jared, Emily, and Austin...and can you see how pathetic this corn maze was? The stalks are usually thicker and typically taller than 5 ft! Don't worry, there were signs all over justifying the sad corn maze due to rain shortages. :) (Not anymore!!)

Rain, Rain Go Away

As you can see from our five day forecast below...our days of sunshine (like yesterday) are going to be few and far between. It feels a little like home... :) Don't you Washingtonians feel closer to me now? Well I got off work a little late today because I had to sit in on a SWOT analysis with the executives. It was actually pretty interesting to see the principles I learned in my capstone course actually being applied. Who'd a thought they actually use that stuff!! (j/k) But my step class is only on Monday nights and starting next month my teacher is only teaching every other Monday. I can't afford to miss a night! So needless to say, I hydroplaned the whole way home on the freeway going 60. I know that sounds pretty fast but I usually go 80 on this freeway and there was no possible way of going faster than 60 in the downpour we experienced. I guess we're making up for the 21 inch deficit from this summer...

Back By Popular Demand

No we haven't fallen off the face of the earth...we just haven't been quite as exciting lately. However, it has been an inexcusable amount of time since we last posted. And thus, you can view this lovely picture of our back yard and if you look closely enough you'll see what was not too long ago a tobacco field. I noticed it a month or two ago just before they harvested it. I had no idea what in the world in was. But have no fear, our neighbors took great care in explaining the harvesting process and let us know how to make the most money off it...haha. I think I'll take that up next year. :)

This? Oh it's actually just a tobacco field in our back yard...yeah, don't you have one too?

It is actually been a beautiful Fall so far--75 degrees or so today. A couple of weeks ago Fall came: It was a lovely 95 degree October day one Monday morning and then Tuesday it was 55 degrees. Talk about an extreme change. I was freezing! But I've acclimated down to the 70's and am looking forward to wearing my sweaters. :)

Anywho...Andrew and I are doing great. Watching BYU games on the Beckstead's cable, working on choosing colors to paint our walls, and just working, working, working! :) More fun updates to come...

(*THIS POST IS DEDICATED TO RYAN BEARDMORE, OUR MOST DEDICATED BLOG VIEWER*)

BK's Visit to Hebron

My mom came to visit this weekend and although she only stayed for two short days, we tried to pack the time chock full! :) We're glad to say that now at least someone from each of our families has seen our new place. We hope to have many more visitors in the future as well! (I mean seriously, look at how much fun we are).

Among the first of our visits was to Skyline Chili. You may not know but Cincinnati has a special chili recipe that includes cinnamon, nutmeg, and I've also heard chocolate. It doesn't have beans either. Let's just say that this visit was the last time I'll eat the stuff--just not my favorite combination.

We visited the Underground Railroad Freedom Center just across the Ohio river in Cincinnati. In just 3 hours there we barely scratched the surface of the many amazing exhibits here. Luckily we live here and can go back anytime.

This picture hardly captures how small this slave pen was. Apparently the men were chained up on the top floor while the women cooked downstairs in these tiny quarters.

A trip to Kentucky wouldn't be complete without a stop at the horse track. This weekend was special because not only did it have live races, it also had a rib cook off that we got to enjoy.

Andrew and Erika just prior to post (post = the start of a race).

Mom and Erika living it up at the horse track. :)

And they're off! That's #9 in the lead who did end up winning.

Cincinnati Reds

Andrew and I have had the opportunity to go to two Reds games now...for FREE! Yea! The first time a guy in our ward got free tickets from his office for the Reds vs. Braves game but then the guy bailed out so it was just Andrew and I and one of our friends. Andrew was definitely there for the Braves and we stayed 12 innings!!! (and of course had to be at work the next day)

Last night we went to the game with tickets my office gave us for free. Apparently they have season tickets and if no one is using them, they're free game. So we took advantage! It was the Reds vs. Mets and we brought a new couple in our ward with us.

Great American Ballpark

This is one of those super sweet shots that you can only get when one person is sitting closer than the other and you have someone next to you take the picture...you know and one person looks like they have a big head. Yeah, that's me this time. :)

I believe this is Ken Griffey, Jr. who is supposed to be the home run hitter. Well at this at bat he hit a baseline hit that the first baseman got immediately. It was sad....

Adventures in Memphis

Andrew and I got to take a little weekend trip to Memphis to visit with Suzanne and Rand Blair. It was sooo much fun! Suz is one of my original BYU roommates (I say original because in total I've had about 40 roommates--geez louise!! and the original 6 at BYU were the ones I had for an entire year and probably some of the best roommates ever!). We are so glad we were able to make this trip!

This is the Peabody Hotel in downtown Memphis where the March of the Ducks takes place every day at 11am and 5pm so these little ducks can make their descent and ascent from and to their home on the roof each day.

These little quakers were just part of the fun little tour we took called Ride the Duck. We rode an amphibious vehicle from WWII that took us into an inlet off the Mississippi River (apparently going into the actual Mississippi would've been to dangerous since it goes pretty fast).

Suz & Rand with their adorable little baby Cayden. He was such a sweet baby and always happy and smiling. We were so glad to meet him!

This is just one of the old mansions in downtown Memphis that is now a museum.

This of course is the infamous site of MLK, jr. assassination.

This is Beale Street...a pretty famous place in Memphis and apparently quite the party spot at night.

Other side of Beale Street.

New Do'

I know it's tragic but I've finally decided to chop off my hair! :) Nine inches later...here it is folks. I just did it today so it'll take some time to learn how to style it but I'm excited to have something new. For those of you sorrowing over my lost locks, don't worry--I'll probably grow it out again. I was just ready for a change! :)

(Andrew thinks he's tough)

My grandma gave me these silk calla lilies, too bad she doesn't use internet any more for fear of trojan horses so she'll never see that I have them in my house... (As a side note, calla lilies were also my wedding flower. However, my dear friend Zsofi informed me that in Hungary, they are funeral flowers. And then her sweet husband said, they are here too! Thanks, Rebers. What would I do without you!)