Six years of good luck

There are a few defining moments in a man's life. Birth, baptism, mission, marriage and now, participation in the ancient Celtic ritual of the "tigloo." A few Fridays ago, Melinda was on a walk with Bree when she happened by the home of our friendly neighborhood Irish family, the O'Connors. Among other things, Paul O'Connor is a cross-country skiing Olymipian.

No joke.

He competed for Ireland in the 2002 SLC Olympic Games. He is probably in his forties, but it is hard to tell because he looks and acts so youthful. (And by "youthful," I mean I believe he's part-leprechaun, who we all know have much longer life spans...)

Paul handed Melinda a flyer advertising the one-day-only exhibition of an ice tigloo at the O'Connors' house. The whole thing was to raise money to benefit a close friend who had been seriously hurt in a recent car accident.

We showed up that night to support the cause and to enjoy cookies, doughnuts, hot chocolate and the story of the Celtic tigloo, a snow arch decorated with lights. Legend has it that whoever kisses underneath the snow arch will have six years of good luck along with several other cool "legendary" things happening. Melinda and I need all the luck we can get (or at least so said the craps table during our last weekender in Vegas...), so we did the honors and then got our picture taken under the tigloo.




It seems Paul O'Connor had turned on that ol' leprechaun mischief though, because we also found out there is no such thing as a Celtic tigloo. They almost never even get snow in Ireland, and certainly not enough to build snow arches and create traditions and rituals around them.

In spite of the lies and deception, we had fun at the O'Connors. We'd had some laughs with friends, helped a girl in need and learned a little more about the Emerald Isle.

We left in high spirits (and blood sugar levels...).

Where did she learn THAT word??

Brett is home!!

My brother got home from his misssion a few weeks ago and Bree and I went to Colorado to celebrate!! We love you Brett and so glad you're back!











Also Bree was kidnapped by Warren Jeffs (the FLDS leader) at least that is the only explaination for the hairdo:)

The Holidays-I am finally ready for you :)

Is it just me or did the holidays fly right by!! WOW. So here are our highlights:
Thanksgiving:
Colorado yes we drove. Bree did pretty good in her carseat watching "stien" (though Becca your kids are troopers! our drive was only 8 hours!!)
Mom in Hospital (she is ok but we were all pretty freaked out and glad we were home to be supportive)
Grandpa Kay lost his battle with cancer
River Dance for an early Christmas gift
Matt Clayton flying out to take our family pictures!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Christmas:
Here in Provo with our little family and Joseph's family. We wish we could have gone to Texas but this year it just didn't work out.
Bree got some toys from the lady I visit teach :) And she loved them. Plus some rockn' tea pot from grandma and grandpa Brady. Plus a cute hat and blanket from Nanna and Grandaddy.
Went to little town of Bethlehem. Wednesday night we went to this "production" if you will, of Bethlehem. It was a little Utah for me but there weren't any testimony's given and no weird sayings on the wall like "Jesus said, I never said it would be easy I only said it would be worth it" and NO Costco cake was served :) It actually was pretty cool and we loved it so much we went back the next night and took friends with us. Anyway, this family puts together a "Bethlehem" where people are selling things, there was a Hebrew school you could go and learn to write numbers in Hebrew. They had soup and bread and lamb/chicken/beef cooking over a fire. There were geese and chickens and lambs and everyone was dressed up. There were Roman Guards and even a tax collector. They reenacted the Christmas story complete with an angel and everything! It was cool.







My visiting teacher gave Bree a cool "gum ball" machine toy thingy. And a remote control car! Santa didn't bring her anything...apparently she has been naughty this year :( (Unlike the Strawn girls....HELLO LORA AND IAN that "doll house" was amazing- that's all just AMAZING!)We loved being together and not doing anything!! It was really relaxing actually-then I got a little stir crazy and cleaned the whole house, but that is besides the point.









I just really love her! She was super fun even though she didn't really get the Christmas thing.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The Best was NEW YEARS! Joseph and I had talked about what we wanted to do and decided we wanted pizza, cider, movies, and snuggle time. Then Matson ( my brother-in-law) called....one thing led to another and we (meaning ME ) were throwing a NEW YEARS fondu PARTY!!! At my house, and I was cooking.And by the way it started in an hour-so I was freaking out but it turned out super fun!!! I am not a night person. And the only thing going on at midnight around here is sleeping-so I tried super hard to be extra fun because I knew I was sleepy. There were fireworks at the mall and we got to see all of them (did I mention that you can spit and hit the ghetto from our front porch?) so HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Worst Mom of the Year Award goes to..........ME!

I had to run into the mall yesterday to grab Joseph's last Christmas gift. For those of you who don't know I hate to shop. I think it is the devil especially with Bree-she also hates to shop :) I was wanting to run in and run out so I threw Bree in the stroller and ran inside JCPenny (where I had a coupon for 10bucks off a 10buck purchase YEAH). I stopped to look at some stocking stuffers and WHAM-Bree fell out of the stroller!! OH MY GOODNESS. Bleeding everywhere! I, of course, have no wipes or kleenex so a diaper had to be the gauze. All these people were surounding me and trying to be helpful but I just wanted to crawl in a hole and comfort my little princess. I felt so dumb and helpless. Then the JCPenny's lady made me fill out a report and she asked me if Bree was buckled in....I had to respond "no" beause I am the worst mom ever and did not buckle her in. I called Jospeh when everything calmed down and was just in tears over my hurry hurry mode and not saftey saftey mode.

Good news is though I took her to the hospital nurse and they checked her all out. No stitches no concussion. And good news for her she is getting one of these for Christmas :) It even comes in PINK!! Who needs toys?

Yeah for a warm fall!

Yes that is a Slurpee and yes she loved it
Fall-beautiful!


Yes we know that Taylee is supposed to sit up with Bree but she needed a nap:) And Bree would have killed her


The other day we took Auntie Afton and cousin Taylee for a quick bike ride:) We loved it! Except possibly Bree...

October brings lots of news:)

Started off the month of Halloween with a date to Thriller! Our favorite October tradition!
Then we went to a Halloween party where we won the $25 prize for the best costumes:) Can you guess what we are???

We went on a trip back east to check out some schools Joseph is applying for his MBA at. We left Bree with my parents and off we were! I was super excited to see Boston in the fall and I've always liked the idea of living on the east coast for at least some of my life.

So to be honest this was THE WORST vacation I have ever taken. I will try and focus on the positive but just know that among this one thing that was positive EVERYTHING else was really bad, really. I will not bore you with the never ending details but know that they include-getting lost for two hours trying to find our hotel, pictures falling off walls hitting Joseph in the head during dinner, walking in the pouring rain for who knows how long with our luggage, almost missing Joseph's interview TWICE, almost missing my flight, aunt flow coming to visit two weeks early, long nasty black hair in our curry, panic attack (yep haven't had one of those for five years) and my husband was stressed-something I have never seen so I didn't know how to handle it.....I could not wait to get home!! Anyway-positive think positive

He had an interview with Dartmouth in Hanover New Hampshire that went well (he thinks:) I also was able to have lunch with a girl who is supporting her boyfriend as he is in his first year there. She was super nice and I was glad she spent an hour of her life answering my questions. It is a small cute town where the people are actually kind and not fake kind but really are willing to help in anyway they can. They are opinionated but also allow you to have yours. I was expecting more of a New York City feel and that is not at all what we experienced. We loved it :)









Boston was nice too. We went to the Museum of Science because there was a
HARRY POTTER EXHIBIT! Hello how could we pass that up???? It ended up being super expensive and we were not allowed to take pictures!! Hello do you realize that I love Harry Potter and I need a picture or two???? They had crazy no picture natzies all over the place-but since when do I follow really dumb rules???? never (don't tell Joseph, it will ruin his idea of me. He is a rule following boy) So here are a few of my sneaky shots:)
Yule Ball outfits! Can you guess whose they are??


He who should not be named- wand. They told us that each charactor has around 6 wands each because they break and get lost all the time

Hagrids clothing

Mandrake-yep they even screamed! And the prompt said that the prop people for the movie had a hard time keeping track of them because the teenagers kept stealing them to play jokes on each other:)

THE wand:) Glasses and Marauder's map PLUS his letter of request from Hogwarts.

Also, I got sorted by the sorting hat!!!! Gryffindor!!! But do we have a picture to prove it? Nope, Joseph was not having any part of breaking the rules. EVEN IF HIS WIFE WAS BEING SORTED BY THE SORTING HAT.....come on!!!

Two hours before we left for Boston Joseph received a new calling. We are now in our Stake Singles ward. Joseph is in the bishopric and I am just there for now. But guess what that means?? NO MORE STATE HOSPITAL! That was a hard calling for me-really. So we are grateful for the opportunity and now I actually have to go to FHE and ward prayer. I never went to FHE or ward prayer as a single person so I guess I am making up for it now. I think ward prayer is the dumbest made up BYU thing in the world!! What are we Catholic? I just think if we want the singles to mingle then call it something like meet and marry or something but WARD PRAYER?? Who is presiding and what do we do?? I just hate it.

Halloween was a blast. We went to Amy's and got a little crazy with the gummy eyeballs! Boy do I love Draschil's!





Any guesses as to what we are dressed as?? Think childhood??? I know you recognize us....

CandyLand!!!! I am Queen Frostine, Mr. Mint and Bree is Princess Lolli. Her hair is purple though she was having nothing to do with her crown:(