Back to School

On Brad's first day of school, I came home from work to find him like this. Completely asleep, with the book over his face. Poor kid. He's got a pretty tough semester taking Genetics, Microbiology, and Chem 2. They all have labs, and he is still tutoring Physiology. He is one busy boy. I appreciate how hard he works in school, and I have no doubt all of his hard work is going to pay off. Here's to another semester!! (only 2,39476t72,932948273 more to go!......Just kidding)

Golfing

So a couple of Friday's ago, we had a Curtis family party to go to in Sandy. It was Brad's last weekend before school started again. So, i told him he could choose whatever he wanted to do. We had a few hours until the party, so we went up and went to the Driving Range to hit golfballs. It was a pretty funny experience. Luckily, the driving range was heated, so i wasn't too cold with my gloves and sweater. To begin, I didn't even know how to hold the golf club, and I completely missed my first 3 tries to hit the ball.

Here is my horrible, horrible posture.

 And my terrible swing.

 Brad was a pro, and I couldn't even see where his golf balls were going. He hit them so hard. 

We had lots of fun! Brad taught me how to hit golf balls correctly, and i'm proud to announce that I hit 3 good balls that actually had some air, and went a little further than 20 feet. :)

 When we were done, I took my glove off and this is what we found. Seriously, my two finger tips were BRIGHT white, and very numb. I have issues. It wasn't even cold! The place was heated for crying out loud, and it was nice outside! They stayed like this for like 10 minutes after we got back in the car. Pretty funny! 

We really enjoyed this night together! We went strait over to the family party, and I won the BINGO game! :) I got one of Grandpa Curtis' famous toys as my prize. After the family party, we went to Chris and Heather's and played games with them. I'm so grateful for my fun husband and his family!

New Years!

We began New Years Eve by going over to Chris and Heather's house. Marty and Keri were there, and they had lots of snacks out for the party! We visited with them for a while, and then the boys were right out to light fireworks Marty brought. It was freezing outside, so i wasn't too patient to stay out and take pictures. But they lit all of them! 

 After Chris and Heather's, we went over to the Whittaker's for the party there with the Taylor's! They had lots of yummy food, and it was fun to play games and visit with everyone. 

Right before the clock struck midnight, we had to hurry and take one last 2011 picture

 And then the midnight kissing began....

 2012!!!

2011 was a big year for the both of us, but we know 2012 will be even better! Brad says this is his year, with 12 being his lucky number. I'll have to agree with him. I know he will do great things this year succeeding in school, and being even closer to medical school! We can't wait!

Christmas Day

Christmas day was a full day of lots of family! It was a little bit longer than we had expected, but it was so great to see most of both of our families! Holli woke us up Christmas morning, and we went and met everyone downstairs. At the Curtis house, it is a tradition to sing a Christmas song as you walk up the stairs to  see the Christmas tree. So we sang 'Up on the Housetop' as we all marched up the stairs. We couldn't believe how many presents were under that tree. We all opened up our stockings, first. I think the stockings were my favorite part. Keri sure knows how to do stockings right. It was like an endless bag of GOOD stuff! That stocking could have been my Christmas alone, and i would have been a happy girl. 

Opening our stocking!

After we got through our stockings, we opened up our sibling gifts. Chris and Heather got us a scanner/printer/copier. Oh my goodness, we were so excited. No more late runs to my mom's house to have to print something off :)

The boys were pretty excited about their Stater Bro's shirts that Holli made all of them. They claimed themselves the 'Stater Bros' when they went on the family vacation this last summer to Oceanside. Their sign is the 'I love you' sign, but the pointer finger is only half way up, to signify just a 'little bit of love'. They are crazy, and were soo excited about these shirts.

Marty and Keri did wayy too much for us this year! We got lots of clothes, which were much needed. And they also helped us with our gym pass! We seriously couldn't thank them enough. We loved everything we got!

Marty's gift to Keri (and himself), were new running shoes for the both of them! It was fun to see Marty pretty ecstatic about them! 

As soon as we finished opening presents, we all had to hurry to get ready to make it to church on time. Church was at 11, and it was only an hour long Sacrament Meeting. It was fun to be in church with the whole family and take up an entire row!

After church we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Curtis'. We love them! Grandma Curtis graduated from American Fork High School as well, so her and I had a nice little chant singing the 'Dear old AF High' fight song together! It was pretty funny. She was telling us all sorts of stories, when her and Grandpa would go dancing everyday at BYU, and do the Jitterbug. All of her stories are priceless. It was good to see some more Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins at their house too! 

We also went to Grandma and Grandpa Record's house. Kenny and Heather, and Brad and I were the only ones there when we got there. It was so good to talk to them too. They are sweet, sweet people. 

After we made our Grandparents in Salt Lake, we got all of our stuff and headed down to Provo, to see my Grandma Cook. My parents were there too, so it was fun to go eat lunch and visit with them. We stayed at Grandma Cook's for a while, and eventually all of my cousins and Aunts and Uncles were there too. It's always a big crowd in that house when everyone goes over there. Brad and I hadn't seen a lot of people since our wedding though, so it was fun to talk to everyone!

After Grandma Cooks, we finally went over to my parents house and did Christmas with them! They did wayy too much for us as well. They gave us some clothes, and money. Just what we needed :) They gave us lots of yummy treats too! It was fun to see what they got for Christmas too. 

Finally, by 10:30 at night, we made it home to do Christmas with just Brad and I. We were so tired, but i knew Brad had multiple secrets hiding from me, so i couldn't wait to see what it was! 

Here we are in front of our first Christmas tree, Bruce. (Brad named him) He is a real tree, and is kind of sad looking. We didn't really have many ornaments or anything to put on it, so bows had to do for this year. We didn't really take care of him, and he was pretty dead when this picture was taken. Better luck next time, right?

We traded off opening presents. Brad got me a nice big pack of Diet Coke. YES!

We got Brad a couple of shirts, that he already knew about..but pretended to be surprised about them. :)

Brad got me a cute purse! It was soooo badly needed! I'm so proud he picked it out by himself. I love it!

I got him some new shoes that he was surprised about. Thank goodness he liked them!

Brad also got me some earrings, and i got him some new headphones. (Because i lost his nice ones)

But my favorite present was this necklace that Brad got me. I had seen it a while ago, but didn't buy it, cause it was sort of expensive. But Brad figured out where and which necklace it was (thanks to Angela), and surprised me with it. I love it!

Christmas really was so fun, and we are so grateful for both of our families! We couldn't believe everything they did for us. We felt very grateful all day for the most important things in life....Jesus Christ, each other, and our families! 

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a really fun day for us! We got back from the Cabin in the early afternoon. We got cleaned up and showered (finally!) , and everyone took a little rest for a couple of hours. When i say everyone, that excludes Keri, who worked her tail off all day to make our Christmas Eve dinner so special. She really is amazing. The dinner was  incredible, and she started a fun little tradition this year where we each had a candle on our plate, and we each went around the table and said something we love about the person sitting to our right. Once we said something, we were able to light our candle...and have more light. It was a really neat moment for all of us. Marty also gave a great Christmas thought, and the spirit and tone for the rest of the night was incredible. What an amazing family we have! 

After dinner, Korver and Pryson got in their new Christmas pajama's, and got the cookies out on the plate to leave for Santa. They were so cute, and so excited for Santa to come. 

 In the meantime, Jeff and Brad played a LONG game of chess, which almost ruined Christmas. Holli and I were so mad at them, and wanted them to stop so we could all start playing a game or something. But they kept playing chess FOREVER. Luckily, it didn't ruin Christmas and the game finally ended!

 
After the little boys went to bed, it was game time for the rest of us. Kenny and Heather introduced us to reverse charades, which is one of our new favorite games. It was so fun to play especially with this family. Everyone is so competitive, and stubborn. We got a good laugh watching eachother! I have to admit, Marty man was my favorite. He just makes all games so entertaining.

We all stayed at Marty and Keri's that night, so we could all be together opening presents Christmas Morning. It was soo fun being with everyone, and we definitely had some good laughs.

Cabin with the Curtis Family

This weekend was the moment we had all been waiting for! Kenny's family has a cabin up at the Timberlakes, and they were so sweet to let us go up there for a few days before Christmas! We got there the Thursday before Christmas, and came home on Christmas Eve.    

Right when we got there Thursday...everyone immediately bundled up, and made the snowboard and skiing path. The boys had to move the big log that was in the way. We were ready to play!

And my charming husband immediately started eating all the snow...

It took me a little longer to get outside with everyone, because i was determined i was not getting cold and spent like an hour layering, layering, and layering some more! With the help of Marty, this is my new outside attire for the winter season. Boy, was i warm.

The little boys had fun playing in the snow! They looked so cute all bundled up!

Kenny would pull everyone up the hill on the snowmobile, and everyone would just ride down on their board and ski's. Here is Jeff going up on his board...

Heather doing the splits :)

The next day, we woke up and had a wonderful breakfast (thanks to Heather Ann), and went right out to play.

Brad off the little jump...

Chris' board touch off the jump, that he was SOOOO proud of! :)

Jeff, havin a party like always!

Grandma Keri helping Korver as he sled down the hill! He is always a happy boy with his Grandma Keri by his side :)

My favorite landing of all...Kenny's head right in the snow! So classic.

The time finally came for me to learn how to Ski for the first time. I was pretty excited, but i knew i would be no good at it. Marty, Heather, and Brad all combined forces to teach me and most importantly, not let me die. 

Step 1: Brad and Marty took me to the frozen lake (flat ground) and i held onto the rope behind the snowmobile as he pulled me to learn how to steer and stop. I liked this part! 

I was really proud of myself after Step 1 :) 

Me and my best ski instructor, Bradley.

Step 2: Ski down the mountain, back to the cabin. Using my poles and no one to help me. Yikes. I did pretty good though. It was a nice wide road with gave me lots of room to actually not have to steer very much :)

  Step 3: Go down the skinny little hill that everyone else was going down in the back yard of the cabin. Not a success. I fell, and couldn't get up. Everyone just laughed and took pictures of me. :) It still was fun though! 

 That night we went on a fun snowmobile ride with the adults! Brad and I both realized that snowmobiling is a little more difficult than we had anticipated, but we had a great time. Kenny was being crazy on his snowmobile, so we all just watched him and enjoyed ourselves.

 Once it got dark, and game night began, the Curtis family gets to be a little crazy. Especially Brad. Everyone was hanging out while Chris and Heather were putting the boys to bed, so we could play games, and my husband comes out in his famous pink onesies doing his little dance. I had no idea Heather Marie packed these for him, and I was gonna strangle him. He knows how bad i despise those things. Oh wait... it looks like i did strangle him. :) 

All of us around the table playing games! We would stay up til midnight doing this both nights. Everyone knew when i finally hit my limit, cause i started to get pretty mean. It was a crazy party though. We all had way way way too much caffeine in us. I think Holly and I completed the entire pack of Diet Coke with Lime. But wow was it good!

I think when Brad is done with finals, and out of school...his brain completely shuts off. This picture is evidence. He was so weird and crazy that night! I loved seeing him have fun and relax and not have any stress in his life. We try to enjoy every second we have with times like these.

The next morning was Christmas Eve, and we ate breakfast and got all packed up to go. We loved being up in the mountains away from everything but family, and with no phone service. It was just what we needed! We are forever grateful for Kenny and his family letting us go up there!