Soeur Scott

She made it to Switzerland!

Christmas Day!! 2010

We had our own Christmas morning in our apartment this year. It was a fun morning. We were able to Skype with Tyson's parents in Thailand and I made my Mom's Christmas Casserole for breakfast.

Our little tree and my not so little belly


We ventured out to the Phoenician Hotel where the Pastry Department had made a Giant Gingerbread house. The sign said something like 500 lbs of Gingerbread was used to create it.

Christmas Eve Breakfast with the Smiths

A scrumptious breakfast with the Smith Family- waffles, bacon, sausage, orange juice and Christmas Tree Bread!


The Smith Ladies playing Wii "Just Dance." We can really shake our booties. And I really shook my pregnant belly!

The Streets Filled with Lights

How sweet are the trees! I asked Tyson if we can do our trees this way


One house had what seemed like millions of christmas villages on display. We got out and gazed at the mini village people.

Happy Birthday Brittany!

Happy Birthday Brittany! What a great way to celebrate the end of your finals! We love you!
Love B&T

"Man Party"

This is the only picture I have of the events from this weekend!
(Cortney, Sandy & baby Tyson, and my Tyson at Devin's wedding reception)

Tyson went a "Man Party." One of his friends from high school got married this past weekend and the night before, (Friday) a bunch of buddies from the high school days got together. They watched the Phoenix Suns game, ate food, and lit firecrackers in the canals (because now they are legal). Tyson had a lot of fun!
Saturday was the wedding and I was so sad I couldn't go. (Work) I wish I could have met all of his friends. They are all back for the holidays now and I don't know when the next time they will all be together again.
One of Tyson's good friends had a ASU Graduation party this weekend too. I was looking at all the decorating and taking in the ideas for Tyson next semester.
**I drove past ASU campus on Friday (graduation day for winter semester) and starting crying. I saw everyone in caps and gowns and I thought of Tyson and how hard he has worked and how excited I am for him to graduate in May! He is brillant**
I thought it was fun that there was a Girls Night out and Man Party for this week!

Happy Birthday!

To Tyson (the elder!)
Have a great birthday! We love you!

Girls Night Out

Us girls decided to have a Sushi night (thanks to Chelsea who works at RA and can get 50% off for all of us!)
Now I know what you are thinking. Pregnant and sushi? They don't mix!
If you are careful (and go with Chelsea who knows everything about each roll) you can enjoy a few!
Don't worry- nothing raw was consumed by me.
It was delicious and us girls had a lot of fun
I think I am mastering the art of Chop stick-ing.

How it all started...

First- you have to know that Tys and I had been talking about decorating our little apartment on Dec. 5th- the first Monday of the month because it wasn't going to be too busy of a day for us. We had the Christmas music going and I headed to our storage closet just outside our front door to pull out our decorations.

It was dark. I was having trouble getting the key in the door knob. I thought I had the wrong key. So I tried 3 more keys. No luck. Tyson came to try. Got the right key in the knob (because he is superman) and turned the key.

SNAP.

The key broke. The door was still locked. And all our decorations were in that storage closet. Shock and disappointment. Called the head office to have maintenance fix it.

One Week later...( with phone calls to double check they were still coming)

No maintenance men. No new key. No Christmas decorations. Sad Smiths.
Tys had a conversation with one of the couples in our ward that lives 3 doors down. The guy says the apartment key works for the door too. Really??!!?? Said Tys and I. (half way not believing because why else would they give us a storage room key if the apartment key can do the same thing.)

It worked. Hallelujah. We dropped everything and decorated. Christmas music back on. So excited to have it really feel like Christmas in our apartment.


We placed all our ornaments on the tree. Including the "Our First Christmas" ornament from last year (thank you Merrill's!) and our cameo ornament made from one of our pictures (thanks Jen&Tyson!)
I really like our lil' tree. It was our first one. It's small enough to fit anywhere and it's colorful!
Loved that the night ended with just the glow of the Christmas tree and music playing. We were so stoked to have our decorations up finally!

Temple Christmas Lights

We hope to make this an Christmas Tradition! Going to the Temple to see the beautiful lights every December would be a great thing to do with our little family next year and the year after etc...This year seemed to be way more colored lights than a remember and I really liked it. We also ran into people from my parents ward in California which surprised us because we were in Mesa, Arizona and it was a random Monday night!

We were tempted to mix into one of the ward gatherings that are always going on in the parking lot of the church behind the temple to get some hot chocolate but then realized we had Stephen's at home- Mint Truffle to be exact! :) And we have our Christmas decorations up! Pictures to come!

Tempe Annual Art Festival

Every year Tempe holds an Art Festival with tons and tons of amazing art, jewelery, and people to look at. I say people because half the time I was people watching and the other half I was looking at babies in strollers.

This was amazing. It rotates with the wind and turns every which way. I loved the comment I heard as I stared at it. The lady said, "But does it go inside your house or in the yard?" Exactly what I was thinking.
It was Tyson's idea to venture out to the art festival early on Saturday morning and I am so glad he happened to mention it! About 5 minutes before we went to bed on Friday he said it was going on the next morning so we quickly figured out parking/bus transport etc... and made it a date!
I think we were about the only people going against the crowd the whole time. We even tried switching directions with each street. How is that even possible?!?!
This was a highlight. He was a riot and really knew how to get the crowds' attention. Some people have great skills...

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Breakfast. We wanted to do something special in the morning because I had to go to work. We went to our "Secret Park" which includes ducks, ponds, and plenty of benches
Love me some bagels and cream cheese!
And the donuts!

My sister- in-law and niece made these adorable place settings! I thought they were so clever!
The Smith Family! Thank you all for making this such a fun day! Games, movie (Tangled is the greatest!) and amazing food.

I must have cried about 5 times in the car as I headed to Thanksgiving Dinner after leaving work. I was SO excited to be with family. I am so grateful to have great in-laws! I am very lucky!

A couple of days before Thanksgiving, Tyson and I spontaneously listed off things we are grateful/thankful for. It's crazy to think about everything we have gone through or done together this past year. Can't wait for more!

Happy Birthday Jana!

Happy Birthday Jana! We love you and hope you have a great birthday!
Love B&T

That time of year...

It smells like "cold" outside **

We've enjoyed some good cups of hot chocolate

I'm listening to Christmas music right now

I can now where long pajama bottoms

And I'm loving this time of year

**"Cold" is my way of saying "snow" in Arizona. Winter brings on this incredible smell that I just die for. When the air is crisp and cold in the early morning and There is a certain smell that comes with it. I've experienced this before when visiting the snow during Christmas time. Now living in Arizona, I will refer to it as "cold."

26 weeks and growing!

A glimpse of our first year together

Happiness- the word for our year!

Couldn't be happier to be married for One Year already! I love you!

Halloween!

Halloween was spent at the Booth's home with great food and conversation. We did "Reverse Halloween" for the kids' friends/teachers in the neighborhood. You make goodies and deliver them -giving instead of receiving!

Andrew and I rolled out the sugar cookies and made tons of pumpkins and ghosts for decorating! Andrew has natural cookie cutting skills!

Tyson and I had fun making on our cookies (we each ate one!-delicious!)

Caleb, our nephew was our entertainment for the night. He loved this head massage tool and would make the funniest faces if you did it to him. We caught some on video!

Pumpkins and Fall

photo by Wiki Visual

Everything pumpkin! It started with pumpkin chocolate chip bread. Then that led to Pumpkin waffles, and there is my all time favorite pumpkin roll that is due to enter my belly any day now. I love it! Last night as I was leaving work the air was still and there was a slight chill. Yup, that says it all right there. Fall. And how I missed you! I love opening the door in the morning and feeling the very cool air!

Now the fact that fall apparently lasts only 2 weeks in grovery stores and that now all I see when I go there is Christmas is still a little strange. But it's has me thinking of all the wonderful baking, cooking and decorating that makes this season so much fun.

Last night, Tys and I enjoyed our first cups of Stephen's Mint Truffle Hot Chocolate. Yes- I bought my cans early this year. We all know what happens when you finish off your first can in mid December (memory from 2009). Sold out! Everywhere! So I am trying to be like the boy scouts. Always be prepared, with an extra can of hot chocolate that is.

In other news, Tyson finished mid-terms! Yay! But now has the worst cold ever (this is his body's attempt at trying to recover from all the stress and lack of sleep during the past two weeks.) And this guy never gets sick. Sad day. But he is heavily medicated on DayQuil/Nyquil and those amazing throat lozenges that taste like candy (sugar free of course!) Better days to come!

The doctor's good report!

I always look forward to my monthly ( bi-monthly soon!) OBGYN appointments. I get a good check up of our baby's health and my health. And what more could you ask for then healthy news all around!?!

Our lil' guy is growing at a great rate with healthy ultrasound reports and a great heart beat!

He's moving and kicking all the time and I am feeling him more and more (and he's kicking harder and harder!)

My doctor told me I am doing excellent in the weight category. Gaining an appropriate amount and not too quickly. She was really impressed with that and my very very low blood pressure. Today it was 100/60. Great!

It makes me feel so good that my efforts to try to stay fit and healthy for our baby and me are working! I told Tyson in the beginning that I really wanted to watch my health during this pregnancy and I hope that everything will turn out to be great in the end!

22 weeks and doing very well!

Our almost One Year celebration

Can you believe that in 3 weeks we will celebrate our official One Year anniversary!
So we decided to celebrate a little early in this beautiful place...

Laguna Beach ...it's where we took a slice from the top tier from our Wedding Cake to eat!


and loved every bite! (Bavarian Cream and Strawberries with Buttercream frosting!)
We had the best wedding cake! And our baker remade the top tier of our wedding cake FREE for us to celebrate our 1st year anniversary. We asked to pick it up a few weeks early because we won't be in California on the official date. We loved celebrating a couple of weeks early!

Like a Kid in a Candy Store

We took a little walk down the boardwalk in Laguna Beach on Saturday night for fun! I introduced Tyson to the Candy Baron which sells salt water taffy in a billion different flavors and so many other candies were featured there as well! They all just burst out of the wood barrels! We picked up a few pieces of taffy and headed on our way. We had to get away fast because everything looked so good~