Sunday, December 26, 2010

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.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Happy Birthday Brittany!

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

Monday, December 20, 2010

"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!

Friday, December 17, 2010

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.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

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!

Thursday, December 9, 2010

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!

Monday, December 6, 2010

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...