The Draper Temple

Tonight my family had the opportunity to visit the open house of the Draper, Utah temple. It was exciting because my whole family (minus the dad) was able to go and it was fun to be able to walk through a temple with my siblings who have never been through one. My 'big' little brother Coleman that has not shown much interest in the church came and even dress-up in a nice suit. He looked very fetching I might say. And Stu (who I am lucky lets me hang on his arm :)) looked dashing as well.

The temple was beautiful as all temples are. My favorite rooms were the bridal suite and the celestial room. The celestial room had a 30 foot chandelier that just sparkled in the light. The bottom part of the doom rotated ever so slightly and just created a magical feeling. It was breath-taking. Since one is not allowed to take pictures inside the temple-here is a link to the pictures that were released by the church: Draper Temple

After the temple we headed out to eat and ended up at TGI Friday's. It was so much fun to just hang out and chill with my family. That's what forever families are all about!Leah kissing Coleman, Stu & Sarah, Mom is licking her lips (she was hungry) and little Cannon

And the Utes came marching in...

To honor the Utah Utes winning the Sugar Bowl and becoming the only football team to stay undefeated in the nation, the state of Utah held a parade for them. Since I had some overtime that I needed to get rid of, I met Stu downtown to watch the parade. I was amazed at the amount of people that showed up. There were a TON. The parade ended at Washington Square where some key speakers addressed the crowd including coach Whittingham and the Utes quarter back Brian Johnson. It was fun to be a part of it. The only down slide was that in my hurry to get down town I parked in a spot I should not have and when we got back to our car we had a boot. $80 later we got the boot off. This stupid boot ruined the evening for Stu and I, but come Saturday morning the sun was shining and everything was okay.

Stu and Sarah at the parade

Look at all the Utah Fans!!

Stu and Sarah at the prep rally held after the game

Its the year for cotton

Vaughn Hixson (my boy BFF from high school) was making me a quilt for my wedding. Since I was married 2 year ago and this year is the year for cotton, I contacted him and asked him where my quilt was because I was excited to have it. Vaughn was so sweet and got it done one week after our anniversary. He did it all. He cut all the strips to make the squares, bound them together, tied it and sewed it all together. I love it!! So much love was sewn into this quilt. Thanks Vaughn for such an awesome gift! Now you need to make one for Alison!

Our wedding quilt

And a close up

Where did all the hair go?

Blue has needed a hair cut for quite some time now. Yesterday Stu and I decided to go and get him groomed at a new place called the "Dirty Johnson". Stu asked the groomers to cut about 1/2 an inch off his fur and clean him up. When I went to pick up Blue later that day I had to do a double take. My poor boy had no hair. He was totally bald, my poor Blue has no hair in the winter. He now looks like a puppy. I think he lost about 5 pounds of hair at the groomers. Stu has a new nick name for him-Cow dog. He says he looks like a dairy cow with all the spots that were covered up by his fur. I felt bad that we have taken all his winter coat during a cold winter, but I think he feels rejuvenated having less hair on his body.

Blue after his haircut

(What Blue looked like with hair)

2nd Wedding Anniversary

Today is our 2nd wedding anniversary. I can't believe that 2 years has come and gone already. I told Stu it was his turn to plan the anniversary. I told him I didn't care what we did...but to remember that I am a romantic. Till this morning I had no idea what we were doing. He told me we had to be ready to leave by noon so before we left we gave each other our anniversary presents. Since I am big on traditions, I told Stu right after we got married that we would give the "Traditional" gifts for anniversaries. And for the 2nd year, the traditional gift was COTTON. Stu got me a 100% cotton purple robe and 2 cotton roses. I made Stu an apron for him to wear in the kitchen. (Last time I sewed was in Jr. High, so needless to say...nothing but my love is sewn into his apron)

Our traditional gifts of cotton-a robe +2 cotton roses and an apron.

Wrapped up in my cotton robe was a note stating that we had a reservation at 1PM at the spa. We headed out the door and after a quick lunch at Cutlers, we arrived at Beyond Spa in Layton for a relaxing 50 min massage followed by a pedicure. Each place we went to had rose petals thrown all over the place. Honestly...it was really neat and very romantic!

Our massage beds

Stu and Sarah after their massage, it was AWESOME!!

Our pedicure chairs complete with rose petals in the water

We were given snacks to eat and sparkling cider to drink while we had our pedicure

Stu with his 'cool' eye patches

After our spa day we hurried home to get ready to Jake and Ashley's wedding. Stu met both Jake and Ashely in nursing school and with some pushing on Stu's part he finally got Jake to ask Ashley out about a year ago. When Jake told Stu they were getting married Stu was ECSTATIC. He asked Jake "When are you getting married". "January 3rd" was Jake's reply. Stu was tickled pink to know that they were getting married on such a special day in his life. We were invited to their wedding on the 23rd floor of the Wells Fargo building at 5PM. The wedding was BEAUTIFUL. Just breath taking. Stu and I both agreed it was a very nice anniversary gift to be able to spend a special day with Jake and Ashley. We left the reception so we could have our anniversary dinner at Market Street Grill and then came home to watch our own wedding video. Overall, Stu did an AMAZING job with our anniversary. Good thing I have a year to plan #3.

Sarah and Stu at the wedding

Jake and Ashley Savage, Stu and Sarah

Sugar Bowl

Sugar Bowl

Utah is now 13-0 The Perfect Season

What a game! #4 University of Utah played #3 Alabama for the Sugar bowl title tonight and OH MY GOSH. What a game. I know Utah fans, BYU fans, Utah State fans, any fan was watching this game. And boy oh boy, we were not disappointed.

To save the recapping I will just say Utah ROCKS!! They needed to win this title for so many reason: to show the nation that the Mountain West are contenders in BCS, to have those news casters eat their words when they said that Alabama was playing high school football with Utah. (I sound like I know what I am talking about right? Earlier this year I didn't even understand football, now...I am totally into it)

Stu and I went go Emily's house to watch the game. We were all so into the game that Josh & Kyrie's son Declan kept telling us to be quiet because we were yelling so much. Boy oh boy-what a game! Best present to start our anniversary tomorrow.


Sarah and Stu

The whole gang, they are totally into the game right now and couldn't even smile for a picture

Sarah, Stu, Josh and Declan who did not want his picture taken (again..)

In with 2009

Wow! Another year goes by and another year comes flying right in. 2009 started off on the right foot. Sleeping in, hanging out with my boys and not bothering to do my hair. Today Stu received a new Netflick movie and he sat down to watch Saw IV (yuck) and I decided to scrapbook. After the movie he played games till 11PM while I continued to scrapbook till 11PM. What a great day!
Since New Years is all about resolutions I want to put down our 2008 resolutions (to see how close we came to them) and the new ones for 2009.

2008 resolutions for Stu and Sarah:

*Get in Shape-Well we sort of did...we are staying healthy (how about that)

*Run another 1/2 marathon-Hobble creek 1/2 marathon. We both set a Personal Record

2008 resolutions for Stu:

*Survive nursing school-Finished his 2nd and 3rd semester. 1 more semester to go!!!

2008 resolutions for Sarah:

*Get caught up on scrapbooking-I almost had this one done. I got really close. I have put this one down again for 2009.

For the most part we did good on our 2008 New Year's Resolutions. Here are the new ones for 2009-

2009 resolutions for Stu and Sarah:

*Run another 1/2 marathon

*Travel to Europe

2009 resolutions for Stu:

*Graduate from nursing school

2009 resolutions for Sarah:

*FINALLY get caught up on scrapbooks

*Start teaching aerobics at the gym

If you have not set your New Year's Resolution, it is never too late.