Agility Schmgility

We designed an agility course for Sophie out of household items after watching some of these. It's grainy and hard to see, so I'll lay it out:

1- Jump over broom wedged between wall and laundry basket

2- Up one couch cushion, across the coffee table, then down the other couch cushion

3- Through the piano bench draped with a blanket

4- Through a cube wall hanging

5- Weave through the dry ingredient canisters

6- Back over the broom

She loves Cheerios!

A Sunday With Sophie

Once upon a time, when I was but a wee one, I asked my pappy for a puppy. He said "no". As I grew in years, I continued to prod my parents for a dear puppy to call me own. The answer stayed constant, a solid "no". I threatened my dad that one day when I was married I'd have three really BIG dogs, and I'd make him babysit them. He told me that he'd just open the door and let them run away. (true story)

Well, luckily for me, my husband gave in to my unrelenting pleadings for a puppy. Here she is! Our new Sophie!

She decided that this was "her" chair and she took her first nap of the day.

Five seconds later she rolled over and looked like this:

Right as she wakes up, she is ready to play. She loves her rope.

This is my first ever video on the blog. Sorry it's poor quality.

Sophie is so much fun! She is such a cuddler and I love it! She slept all cuddled up next to me for over an hour today. James was sleeping on the floor by us and all of a sudden, Sophie jumped up and started barking at him. I guess she was protecting me from the "stranger".

And we've only had to clean up a few "accidents" she is learning quickly though!

Here

So, I've had these pictures for quite a while, but I've been selfish and haven't shared. If you'd like to see our wedding pictures, look here. And while you're at it, check out our amazing photographers' work here, and here. We're SO happy with how they turned out, the day was PERFECT! Thanks Gayle and Brooke!

WHEW!!!

It's January already! Wow, time has sure flown by. I should probably make each of these sections into a post of their own, but I figure if I don't blog before school starts, it will never get done. Quite a bit has happened since I last posted, but I'll try to condense it as much as I can.

1. We're married! James and I were sealed for time and eternity in the Log

an Temple on the 16th of December. Everything went according to plan. We took some pictures before the ceremony with my cousin Gayle. It wasn't that cold... until it started snowing. But it was worth it for sure! From what I have seen, the pictures turned out great! We can't wait to see more.

2. Honeymoon in Jackson Hole, WY. We spent our first night at the Anniversary Inn in Logan, and then headed for Jackson the next morning. We had a blast! Snowmobiling was the highlight:

One of the colorful men we met at the gas station/RV park offered to take

this gem for us before we embarked. Notice our stylish snow suits.

We both had our own machine, which made it lots more fun for the entire time.

At the end of the afternoon, we decided to start back up the trail we started on, and we came upon a HUGE herd of elk. It was the highlight of the trip.

We waited for a random stranger to cross the street so he could take this picture.

3. Christmas came, and left. We spent Christmas Eve with the Dryden's, spent the night, and had Christmas morning there. Then, we spent the duration of Christmas Day with the Eddington's. It was so much fun to see everyone. This is our only Christmas picture we took:

The decorations were collected from: our wedding car, wedding gifts, Christmas gifts, and the one ornament we bought on our honeymoon (Eli the Elk).

4. New Year's Eve and Day. I worked until 8:00 on New Year's Eve, and then James and I had our at-home celebration. We made pizza:

And Root Beer Floats:

We hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's!

Thankful

Well, I'M BACK!

It's been a while since I've visited the blogging world. But I have a good reason--life is BUSY! We just passed our one month mark until the wedding yesterday. (YAY!) Time has been moving so quickly, but yet so slowly at the same time. It's getting to be crunch time! However, James is currently asleep on my couch after only getting one hour of sleep last night (I'll explain later), so I figure I have some time to post, and I'm also sick of working on my English presentation.

If my readers haven't noticed yet, I really like lists. I write multiple to-do lists daily, and I have a folder on my computer called "Lists" it contains more lists such as: "Life List", "Books to Read", "Places to Hike", and "My List of Favorites" among others. So, in honor of Thanksgiving which is coming up QUICK, I thought I'd write a list of things that I have been thankful for in the past few months, and there are SO many wonderful things that have just "worked out". I'm so thankful!

• We found an apartment. And a CHEAP one at that. Perfect for our tight college student budget. It's a tiny little ghetto basement apartment right below campus. It will be perfect for us, and we are allowed to do pretty much whatever we'd like to it. (paint, new cabinets, etc.) It definitely needs some TLC.
• James got a job. One thing that James was most worried about during our initial talks about marriage was the fact that he hadn't found a job and that he wouldn't be able to support us. He was recently hired at the Smithfield Lee's Marketplace as a baker. His shifts begin at either 1:00am, or 3:00am which is why he fell asleep sitting up at my kitchen table tonight as I talked with a roommate. This job has turned out to be perfect though, his boss Floyd has really been looking out for us and even offered James full-time so that we could have benefits and insurance.
• Things are pretty much planned. I have my dress, engagement pictures, invitations (they will be sent out here in the next week, so if you are reading this, and you aren't family, I suggest you get your addresses to me ASAP if you haven't already), a reception site, the temple is reserved and also my endowment session, centerpieces, a decorator, food, colors, we're all set except for flowers and tuxes pretty much.
• I have been preparing to enter into the Lord's house. I can hardly wait until the day arrives that I can enter into the temple! As I have been studying and praying about it, my testimony and my excitement have only grown. What a blessing it is to have so many temples here on this earth!
• I sold my apartment contract. After having my ad buried under a million other ads on the student center's board, I finally found someone to buy my apartment contract. And this all happened after the conversation with my dad where we discussed drastically lowering the price just to get rid of it. She even came to me, and I will be receiving my original asking price.
• James was offered another grant.

There are so many other blessings that have come into our lives in the time of our engagement, and also before. I definitely feel like the Lord had a HUGE part in bringing James and I together. I love him more than anything, and I can't wait to be together forever!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here is a sneak-peek at our engagement pictures:

Anxiously Engaged!

Well, the rumors are true! I'M ENGAGED!!! It happened last night, October 6, 2009.

First, James has his pilot's license, so we went flying:

The handsome pilot!

Looking over Logan. If you look closely, you can see my apartment

We switched places mid-air, and I drove the plane... not really.

Lookin' "FLY"

Co-pilot in chief

Then we climbed the Wind Caves up Logan canyon. This was also the destination of our first date:

This is how it went down: First, for the last week or so, James has been taking my CTR ring off my right hand and placing it on my left saying he is "just practicing". Well, we're sitting there drinking some hot chocolate, and I hand James the empty mug he takes it and puts it away in his backpack (this was when he grabbed the ring and put it on his pinkie). Simultaneously, he touches my face, and his hand is FREEZING, so I take his hand and try to warm it up (this is where he freaks out because I might grab the other hand and discover the ring too soon). He does some quick thinking, and feels my CTR ring "What's that doing there?!". James takes off my CTR ring and both of my gloves. He took a bit to put the "CTR ring" back on my finger, so this is when I caught on. I said "that's not the same ring!" (I couldn't see it, it was dark in the cave) and promptly put the flashlight on it. Then he asked me if I'd marry him, and I of course, said "YES"!

Texting the whole world the news.

The ROCK! I love it so much!

We will be married on December 16th at the Logan, Utah LDS temple. Can't wait!

Ideas?

So, I have this thing where I like change. I want a new title for my blog, but I can't think of anything creative enough. Anyone have any ideas? The winner gets their title choice on my blog!