Christmas!

Christmas is so great! We love our Savior Jesus Christ, it's almost impossible not to feel His love this time of year- whether you believe in Him or not. We love traditions and spending time with the ones we love. Oh and we love having no school.:)

First off is black Friday- probably one of my favorite days of the year. I love all nighters and chaos! AHAHA This year Jessie and I went black Friday shopping, and I felt honored to get to shop for mission stuff with her. We went to walmart when it opened. We spent our time trying to help ladies who were going crazy.. HAHA.. helped a lady gather all the stuff she had previously gathered until she turend her back and her shopping cart got stolen. We also went and found people we knew and videotaped me going up to their cart, putting my head down, stealing something ouf of their cart (or hands) and running away. HAHA the best reaction was a lady I used to work with.. classic. Our best purchases- me a much needed new fanny pack. Jessie- a bag for her mission.


Other traditions-
My friend party. This was the 7th annual friend Christmas party. We draw names for gifts, open gifts at the party, eat tons of junk food, talk, talk more, talk, write future questions, everybody writes answers.. This year I won "most likely to be famous" haha "most likely to go gray first" I HOPE SO!! I hope my hair goes PURE WHITE by the time I am 50- that would be SWEET!! "most likely to have a baby next" "most likely to live the longest" Guess they didn't notice my 3 pieces of pizza, soda, dunford donut, and my smoke break? J/k.. well about the smoke break.. not about my 3000 calorie splurge. "most likely to own a mini van" UHHH YEAH! I look on KSL everyday for a cheap van. Anyways, then we watch sisterhood of the traveling pants and fall asleep. This year only 4 of us had a sleep over- the rest have come to be responsible and had work the next morning, or didn't want to leave their husbands :)




Tamale making-
My Mexican family all get together for an entire day and make Tamales. The women cook while the men watch movies or football. Then the next day we have our Christmas party. We eat lots, we play games, and then we go around the circle and tell our favorite Christmas story/memories/whatever. I must say I love my Hispanic family- they speak a lot of spanish which is good for me, they are all short and HILARIOUS. My grandma CRACKS ME UP.. I love her.

Missing Brandee :(

Jeremy, Alex, and Malaki

Christmas eve-
The past two Christmas we have spent at Jeremy's sister's house. We eat a yummy dinner and then play minute to win it. Love the new tradition. Then we slept at my sister's house and got to wake up Christmas morning with my adorable neice and nephew.




Christmas day-
It changes every year. Last year I hung out with Jeremy's family by myself because Jeremy was sick with the flu. This year we spent half the day at Jeremy's parent's house and half the day at my dad's house. Again, we ate lots and lots of good food.

Bailey and I in our Footsie pajamas- I LOVE FOOTSIE pajamas.



Sadly we did not get to go see the lights this year. We also did not go to any Christmas concerts- we like going to the one in Alpine.

I'm excited for New Years.. New Years resolutions here we come. No more dunford donuts or frozen yogurt.. OKAY maybe only once a week.

ELEVEN!!! 11 11 11 EVERYWHERE!

Ever since middle school I have had an "ELEVEN" curse. I say curse.. but I consider it a LUCKY curse. Anyways, when we lived in Tennessee we were eating frozen yogurt with some friends and all the sudden my friend was like "So I have this crazy 11 thing where everything I do or see is 11" WWWWHHHHHHAAAATTTTTTT????? We had some crazy 11 things happen together while I was in Tennessee. We still call or text each other on the 11th of every month.

Some crazy things that happened in Tennessee-

1. She was showing me a picture of a cupcake tower her sister text her, and there were 11 cupcakes in the tower.. and the time her sister sent it was at 11:11

2. We went to dinner with another couple and the guy randomly had the number 11 on his back.


3. She had to get weighed for something and she weighed 111 pounds, which I guess she usually weighed something different.

4. Went to frozen yogurt again and both of the costs were $__.11

5. Just the other night her brother was number 11 on dancing with the stars. He called her right when he found out.. It's following him too!

6. The list goes on.. I wish I would have written them all down when I was there!

ANYWAYS- Tonight we went to dinner with some great friends Jacque and Curt. I Was telling them about my crazy 11 curse and Curt was like "Hey.. don't you live in building 38?" "Yeah.." "Add those together and you get 11!" AHHHH Then I think about it and we live in apartment K so I did the math on my fingers and I was like "PHEW.. For a second I thought K was the 11th letter in the alphabet.. but it's the 10th" JEREMY- Counting it on his fingers "No it's not! K is the 11th number in the alphabet!" HAHA Oh and our mailbox number is 11.

IT KEEPS GOING-

First let's go back to my middle school/high school days

1. Home phone #- 254-6521 Add the 1st three numbers=11 add the next two number=11
2. House address- 11353 So. 2480 W. The first number=11 add the next three numbers=11
3. Locker number- Every year from 7th grade to 12th grade= __11
4. Lunch number throughout high school- 31111
5. Locker combos- can't remember but they all had something to do with 11
6. I would wake up every night and it would ALWAYS be __:11 usually 3:11
7. Something crazy would always happen on the 11th of every month
8. The list goes on and on- my good friend Jessie Wilcock can attest for everything.. she is the only friend that truly understands EVERYTHING.

IT KEEPS GOING- THE BIG FINALE TO THE FIREWORKS

My favorite singer in the ENTIRE WORLD (Besides Jeremy) is Martina McBride. Seriously I could probably sing EVERY one of her songs backwards. She has been my favorite since I was a little girl. I NEVER would have imagined my FAVORITE SINGER IN THE ENTIRE WORLD would come out with this one day-


Title- Eleven
Release Date- 10/11/11 (Year 2011) (October 11th) ELEVEN ELEVEN ELEVEN ELEVEN!!!!
CD- It's her 11th cd
# of songs on CD- ELEVEN!!!

The End

Actually that was a dumb thing to write! It never ends! :)


Lucky number 11! This wasn't by coincidence though.. I am always number 11 in sports.

Our wonderful families

Time to introduce our families. We are so blessed to have such amazing families! Brad and Julie and the kids we miss you! (Living in India) Brandee and Ian and the kids we also miss you! (Living in Oklahoma)



Jeremy's parents and all of his nieces and nephews- Jeremy's parents are great. His dad makes me laugh and his mom has done SO much for us. I wish I would have been here to make a colorful shirt!



Brad and Julie and Family (Jeremy's brother, his wife, and their kids)
Their family is amazing. They live in India right now and have such cool lives! :) They are all so smart and wonderful.




Brandon and Nicki- Jeremy's sister and her husband
Brandon is a videographer and does a lot of church movies and other stuff. Nicki makes me laugh all the time. They let us live with them for like 4 months last year and we are forever grateful. Their kids are the following 3 pictures




Riley- Very adventurous and not afraid to try anything




Luke- Such a character! SOOOO FUNNY. He will choose his own outfits and they are SO COOL. Deathly allergic to peanuts.




Bailey- A sweetheart. Always helps everybody with everything.



Jeremy's brother.. or should I say lady antebellum?




Dad and Step mom- Our favorite thing to do with Candace's parentals are sing around the campfire.



Me and my Dad- such an amazing Dad.



My sisters



Sister Brandee and Husband Ian

Brandee and Ian's Kids are the following two



Liam and Brandee- Liam is so cute. He just had his very first soccer game on Saturday. He is 3



Brysen- Brandee and Brysen were able to live with us for a while as Brysen grew up. I grew so attached and love him SO MUCH.



My sister Amy and me- Amy is only a year older than me so we have always been really close.




Amy's husband Alex- He is the life of the party all the time. Not afraid to do ANYTHING in public.. can be embarrassing at times. :)

Amy and Alex's Kids are the following 2



Malaki- SO SMILEY! He smiles probably 85% of the day.




Taylee- So much like our mom. She will go to any stranger and in five minutes they are best friends. She is so sweet.



Sister Heather and her husband Fred- Fred is an amazing car mechanic. He has been so great and saved us SOOO much money on car problems. Heather is such a sweetheart.


Heather and Fred's little girl



Paityn- Doesn't like stuffed animals.. only likes blankies. She sleeps with three tiny little blankies.. they are each a little bigger than a hankerchief.

Our Beautiful Friends

Time to introduce some great friends on blog. Picture taken at Cassidy's shower. Jeremy and I did look a like pictures that I GET A KICK OUT OF everytime I look at them HAHAHA Brandee- if you ever look at my blog again.. I hope this makes you smile.. and my friends miss you. Becca wants to go jetskiing again. Cassidy (I FINALLY HAVE ANOTHER FRIEND ON HERE)HAHAHA- you are so cute.. cutest pregnant girl. Can't wait till the little guy is here. :)

Heidi- If you read this.. you are my TRUE friend (since you were my VERY FIRST follower!) haha so I wish you were in this picture. I will start off by talking about you- You make me laugh! And you are the greatest boss EVER. :) We gotta get together more with you guys.. yogurt run?! :)



Original picture- not the ugliest we have ever had



Sammy- Friends since 7th grade. Don't even know what to say about Sammy.. she is CRAZY and FUN. Amazing at any sport she tries. She can pick up a ball for the first time and have perfect skill after a week.



Jessie- Friends since 7th grade. I had the opportunity to room with Jessie for two and a half years.. and we would practice ugly faces in our mirror. This was one of them.. she has perfected it. She was such a good roomie- she would push me to do sit ups with her every night, and when we would "sit up" we would take turns saying a word in spanish. So not only were we six-packin.. we were becoming Spanish-fluent. We would also make sure we both read our scriptures and said our prayers every night. Now she is turnin in her papers to serve a mission!



Becca- Friends since 7th grade. "Milly" is the biggest goof ball anybody will EVER meet. So many great memories.. I could write a 30 page blog entry on funny memories alone.



Cassidy- I would have to say either volleyball or Mrs. Romph's choir class united our friendship. I knew the first time we got kicked out of choir we would be best friends. HAHAHA Then there was Willy Wonka's math class. We also have a "yolanda" hand shake. (Cass I hope you remember it!!)



Court- This face she is pullin is her "Jasper" face. And I didn't think ANYBODY in the world could pull such a nasty face.. UNTIL WE FOUND THIS GIRL. HAHAHA I lived with Court for two years at USU and had so much fun with her. Best memory- when she wet the bed.



ME- I have known her for 23 years. She is so cool and fun. HAHA J/K

Our Future Van

So every time we pass a toyota van.. I BEG Jeremy to get me one. I think they are THE COOLEST vehicles ever made. So.. I have been looking on KSL for one that I like.. and I found the PERFECT one. Unfortunately we are too poor at the moment to purchase my dream vehicle (which is extremely sad since it is only 1800 dollars) and so I have made the picture of the van as our desktop background.. and if the book 'The Secret" is real.. one day it will be mine. There is also a picture of a VERY nice car.. and the reason I put it up is because if I could choose between the two I would HANDS DOWN choose the van. No lie. Anyways, I will do a little remodeling to our van when we get one. I am going to put those cool spinner hub caps on. You can't tell on this picture, but the van actually has like two windows on the top, not sure if they are sun roofs.. I REALLY hope they are. So I will take and pick up my kids from school everyday in this van. Whenever I tell people ideas like this they always say "you are just like your mom" :)I'll take that compliment ANY DAY!

Music makes the world go round

Jeremy and I are spending a week in Seattle and he is recording music every day. Right this very second he is recording a Selena Gomez cover. Great song.. although the lyrics are a bit girly for a male to sing. Jeremy is EXTREMELY talented. Don't know how he does it! We get to the studio in the morning and he records or writes all day. I write with him.. but don't do any recording cause I am TERRIBLE.. although if Willie Nelson could do it so can I right?! J/k (kinda) Anyways, since I just sit in the studio for hours I decided I would add to our blog. Maybe I will add on to our Nashville experience.. that will be exciting! Well last I left off Jeremy hit a deer and we arrived in Nashville after many struggles. Nashville was SOOO pretty! Definitely one of my favorite places I have EVER been. There were only a few downfalls to Nashville
1) My hair looked like Miss Frizzle on Magic School Bus every time I stepped outside. (I don't even know if her hair was frizzy.. but going off her name it would be a joke if it wasn't.
2) There are like 400 freeways in Nashville.. You take one and get off the wrong exit on accident and you are on another freeway going the wrong way.. then you try to exit that one to get back to where you were and you are on ANOTHER freeway.. pretty soon you are in Canada.

That's about all the negatives I can think about actual Nashville. The positives
1) It is SOOO green!
2) GOOD restaurants
3) You go to the grocery store and see Martina McBride

Anyways.. Jeremy and I spent 4 months in Nashville and slept on the floor 3.5 of those four months. When we first got to Nashville we were so excited to FINALLY be there from our long struggle getting there. Well.. when we got there our apartment wasn't ready and they made us go find a hotel to stay at that night. Not a problem.. if it wasn't the weekend of the Music marathon! Every hotel 60 miles from Nashville was BOOKED! Actually there was ONE room left at a VERY nice hotel.. One that Kelly Clarkson would stay in when she visits Nashville. (Actually I believe she lives there now.. but you get the point) EXPENSIVE! Well.. we make our way up to the top floor of the hotel.. turn on the tv.. "Weather Alert: Tornado warnings in the Nashville Tn. area" Uh.. Jeremy.. I have never been in the whole tornado situation.. but I think I heard once it is not good to be on the top floor of a GIANT hotel during a tornado. Well.. we survived. Although it was very sad because that is the same weekend when all the flooding happened, many died and many lost their homes. It was pretty crazy to drive and see water EVERYWHERE.. covering entire houses. Well we finally got into our apartment. We were there for a whole three weeks when we were forced to leave because Jeremy decided not to do a job and the company was paying for us to stay there. It was a good thing he decided not to do the job though cause the company got in a lot of trouble and had to leave Nashville anyways. Well where were we gonna go now?! We looked on craigslist and found a GREAT place! It was the basement of the drummer of Chris Ledoux. No contract.. pretty cheap. EXCELLENT! Well.. i'm not sure about you.. but the smell of pot is not very pleasing. It was SO bad! I covered all the vents with towels and duct tape.. which ended up us still getting plenty of pot smell and no air from the vents.. which was kinda funny- lady upstairs- "How is the temperature downstairs? Lately it has been really cold upstairs so I turned down the air! If you guys get too hot or cold let me know!" haha all the cold air was staying upstairs and not going through my duct tape covered vents. Well it got so bad.. I think I started to feel high myself.. so we left. They did not give us our money back.. even though we were only there for one week.. more money lost. BUMMER! :) Well.. luckily my sister and her husband were near Nashville for the summer selling alarm systems. They were kind and let us stay with them. We were there for a week and all the sudden they come to us with the news "our company is moving to Arkansas for the rest of the summer" So we had one week to get out.. they offered for us to stay with them in Arkansas but that would defeat the whole purpose of us being out there for Jeremy's music. Soooo we found ANOTHER place to stay at. It was 300 dollar/month rent. Nice eh?! Not saying this in a racist way AT ALL.. but we were the only white people in the entire apartment complex. We slept on couch cushions on the ground the whole time we were in that apartment.. which was for a while. It was a bonding experience :) And I must say the couch cushions were pretty comfy! Well I have forgotten to mention that this entire time living there we were trying to find jobs.. and it wasn't happening. SO we were both delivering yellow pages for ten cents a delivery. ROLLIN in the big bucks now! We would run from door to door to try and get as much money as we could! That gets pretty dang tiring when you do that for 8 hours. Unfortunately I hurt my ankle doing it and could barely walk..jobless.. for a while.. then we went back to delivering when I got better. The funny part about that job is the rules are that you have to set the book up against the front doors.. no throwing the yellow pages on the driveway or you don't get paid. Well.. Tennessee driveways are like a mile long.. uphill. Ten cents an hour due to those darn driveways. I can't even tell you how many dogs attacked me.. at least 4 per day. I had to whack them with my yellow pages for defense. Anyways.. we finally got a driving job delivering medicine around Tennessee to hospitals/care centers/etc. We got the job and weren't able to start it for a couple weeks cause they required all sorts of stuff we had to have mailed to us from Salt Lake. We also had to prove we were residents of Tennessee.. and we were pretty much homeless and didn't have an address. So we asked a random girl at church if we could use her address. Nice girl.. she is a singer.. if you read this you should support her.. name Michelle Renee. Well to prove we were residents we had to open up a bank account in Tennessee and wait for the bank to mail something to us.. therefore we were not able to start the job until all this happened. We also needed Tennessee drivers licenses to start the job. So we went and got those. FINALLY we could start the job. Good things about the job
1) We got to drive ALL across the beautiful state of Tennessee
2) We got to choose our hours (which we were on call.. and we put our availability was 24 hours a day cause we DESPERATELY needed work.. and we would get annoying calls at 3 in the morning and had to go deliver medicine.)

Bad things about the job
1) It was a rip off job and we ended up losing more money than we made. hahaha! Stupid company. Our boss looked like Arlene on Garfield too.

Well we had to quit that job. What to do now?! We were SO beyond broke.. no jobs.. except for delivering yellow pages for 3 bucks an hour. Well.. we tried to stick it out for a while until the final breaking point.. I crashed and totaled Deborah (my beautiful blue car) WOOPS! I rear-ended somebody. haha That's when we decided we had enough and weren't supposed to be there. So seriously a week later we rented a car and drove back to Utah. HOME SWEET HOME!

Well.. Tennessee haunted us for a while after that. We got a ticket in the mail from the Tennessee police department for a red light Jeremy ran on the way to church one time. Be careful.. you never know when a stop light is taking a picture of your license plate. We also got a call from the Tennessee bank telling us we had all these charges.. had to pay those. And the worst haunting of all.. that we still go through this day.. We see yellow page bags ALL over.

OVERALL.. a crazy experience. BUT it was such a good experience. We learned so much.. spent a lot of time on our knees trying to figure out what we were supposed to do. We also made some GREAT friends there that we miss so much! Our friend Marabeth offered to let us stay at her house and that was extremely nice of her. She also found Jeremy a gig at a cancer fundraiser.. which was so fun! I would not trade that experience for ANYTHING. I LOVED Tennessee.. it was still such a good time even with all we went through. THE END!

One last funny thing I have to add on here for journal purposes that nobody else but Jeremy would understand.. "The biggest thing here in Nashville are the people.. and YOU on your way!" haha I also forgot to add.. BOTH of our laptops crashed in Tennessee.. so we had to go to the public library that was like 20 minutes away to do all our job searching. haha

"OH DEER!"

We spent our first three months living in Alpine, Utah. Then we decided to up and move to Nashville, Tn. Of course we wanted to go there for Jeremy's music.. but we also had a job lined up where Jeremy sold pest control all summer long. We had apartments all ready for us to move into.. a steady job.. and working vehicles to get us to Nashville. Sounds like a dream come true.. right? :) Well.. we say goodbye to our loved ones- not knowing when we would see them next.. we say our goodbyes to Chuck and Gretchin.. or "Gretch and Chuckin" as Candace always accidently says.. we get everything in storage.. and our adventure had begun. We decided to drive two separate cars since we didn't know how long we would be there. So Jeremy drove "Dub" and Candace followed in "Deborah." We decided to go the very scenic route.. I counted a whole 2 trees while driving through Wyoming. But I am very glad we were protected from the wind by those cool wind blocker things on the side of the freeway. Well.. things were going great! We were on our way to Denver, Colorado where we would spend our first night at Brad and Julie's House (Jeremy's brother). The first night? How about the first week! As We were driving into Denver, Colorado a deer decided to take it's life as he jumped right in front of Jeremy's car. I was traveling right behind Jeremy.. we were on the freeway.. and I saw the entire thing. Here's how it went. We were going about 80 miles an hour (don't tell my grandma.. she always tells me to not go the speed limit.. but to go slower) and all the sudden this cute little prancing creature decides he wants to play "chicken" and darts across the highway to try to get to the other side. Well.. he makes it about half way across the freeway.. until Jeremy slams into him. AND THIS DEER FLEW!! He did like three 360's.. which I don't want to do the math to figure out what that is.. but it is A LOT! And he flew off the side of the road. Instantly I was running over pieces that were falling from Jeremy's car. Well to make a long story short.. we pulled off to the side of the road and were helped by some very nice people. Jeremy's car was pretty damaged.. there were deer guts all over it.. and little deer hairs all down the side of it. We did not have enough money to get it towed away.. so we decide to drive another hour to reach our destination. Jeremy drove with his hazards on, and I followed behind. We got pulled over by about three different cops.. in which I learned that when a cop pulls over your friend that is in front of you.. don't pull off the road behind the cop.. but pull off the road in front of your friend. :) Lesson of the day! :) Finally we made it to our destination.. it was late.. we were tired.. and we just killed a poor little deer. We took it into the shop the next day and found out it was going to be two weeks before the car was able to be fixed. Now I know that Brad and Julie REALLY wanted us to be there for two weeks.. actually I know that Abby REALLY wanted us to steal her room from her for two weeks.. but we decided we needed to get to Nashville. So.. we piled as much as we could in my car.. we both hopped in.. and off we went. I must admit the drive was a lot more fun with Jeremy than it was by myself. Things went smoothly.. we were able to stop by Brandee and Ian's place (Candace's sister) and stay there in Oklahoma for a couple nights. We ate at a yummy Mexican restaurant while we were there.. and we walked along a pretty path next to a river. We had fun staying with them and we appreciate them and Brad and Julie for letting us stay with you guys! After a couple days in Oklahoma we headed to Nashville. To be continued.. :)