Merry Christmas.....

Christmas is kinda a big deal at our house, and we do like to decorate our little house as much as we can.

It seems like everybody has a herd of deer living in their yard during the holidays. Yep so do we.

JD keeps saying that one year he is going to go Clark Griswold on our house and go nuts with the lights. He is already planning ideas for next year. LOOK OUT!!

At one of our Christmas parties we decorated ginger bread houses, here is ours complete with a fishing pond and a fishing santa.

We hope you all have a wonderful and safe Holiday's, and we look forward to spending as much time as we can this season with friends and family.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

Montana by Bus...

So for some reason one of us thought that riding the student bus up to Missoula Montana for a Weber state football game would be a fun idea.
WELL, this trip was one of the most memorable trips we have ever taken together, keep in mind that most memorable does not necessarily mean it was a good trip.
The bus ride up was pretty tame except that the bus creamed a deer in the middle of no-where Montana and we didn't get to the hotel until 1 a.m. When we arrived at the hotel we were informed that Alisha and I would be in separate rooms. Alisha's room-mates kept her up until 6:30 NOT FUN!!
So game day comes and all us WSU fans are very excited,
after all, WSU hasn't been this far in the playoffs in FOREVER, and they were playing against a team that they had destroyed earlier in the year.
But keep in mind, this time the game is in Montana, in early December, and in front of 30,000 screaming Montana fans.
And did I mention it was cold?
Well this time around the game didn't go so well for WSU, or its fans.
We had crap thrown at us the entire game, called pretty much every name in the book, and were convinced that "the bird" is the state symbol. Oh yeah and WSU lost the game.
Well game over and back on the bus, we get on down the road and decide to stop in Deer Lodge
Montana for food and to gas up the bus which is all well
and good except for the fact that the good ol' school bus wouldn't start back up again.
So long story short, a bus full of WSU students including US are stranded in the middle of no-where Deer Lodge Montana for 8 1/2 hrs.
Oh yeah fun times!!! and we really needed to get home a.s.a.p for a baby blessing the next day.
Thankfully, Alisha's brother Mike felt sorry for us and decided to come up to Deer Lodge Montana and rescue us. Otherwise we wouldn't have been able to make it to the baby blessing. As it was we didn't even get home until 7:45 a.m. Sunday morning, while those that had to wait on the student bus didn't get home until after 10 a.m.

So like I said, a very memorable trip but not really in a
good way.
Also, there is no way on earth I will EVER be able to
talk Alisha into going on another bus trip as long
as I live.
But at least we can both just look back and laugh about it now.

Alisha is such a good sport to put up with me and my crazy ideas and adventures.

10/25/08 Pony Rides In Farr West

We started out the day with big intentions, and a list a mile long of chores to be done before the snow comes.
We wanted to get so much done before the big WeberState football game on TV later that evening.
Well, here's what ended up happening.
First, we ended up having a spur of the moment football party as we watched the BYU game on TV with Alisha's oldest brother. Well we had agreat time watching the BYU game, good company and of course good food.
As soon as the BYU game was over, it was time for the WSU game to start. We knew that we would be having more company coming over to watch the WSU game, and most of the group would be little kids who couldn't care less about the game.
So with that in mind we made arrangements to have
the horse avaliable so that the kids could go on pony rides in our front yard.
All the kids seemed to have a GREAT time riding "Smokey", and for some of them it was their first time ever on a horse.
The only set back to having pony rides on your own front lawn is the fact that when a horse has got to go he just goes.


Lets just say it's a real good thing that we have a really big scoop shovel, and a big empty field right behind our house.

We all had a good time, but as far as our list of chores goes, we didn't get one single thing crossed off of our to-do list. The garage didn't get cleaned, and the yard didn't get winterized, but sometimes there is more important things to do.

Thank you very much Heidi for helping out with the horse and the kids, it was very nice of you to share your riding time with all of us.

Friday Night Date Night

So we had a date night this past weekend,
but then again we have a date night every weekend.
So for this weeks date night it was decided that we should go hiking. It was after all a beautiful fall day, and we may not have many more of these nice weather days left.
Anyway, we decided to go on a hike up near Snow Basin Ski Resort on the "Green Pond Trail"
If any of you have never been on the Green Pond Trail, we strongly recommend it, especially if you have kids who like to get out and hike a little bit. This is a beautiful hike on a very easy trail.

What a really cool place, we had a great time,
and even had a few really good laughs, especially
when Alisha decided to sit on a log to take a break.
Well Alisha didn't look before she sat down, and
apparantly sat on a log with a lot of "pokey's"
on it. And well needless to say she ended up

putting a hole in the back seat of her pants.
The whole rest of the hike she was very worried about this hole in her pants even though there wasn't anybody else around the whole afternoon.

Pretty funny stuff.

So is this Fall or Winter?

What a fun month this has been. We have gone to a lot of Birthday parties, soccer games, Weber State football games, and Alisha got to experience her first "Bunco" party. Check out this Awesome game used football jersey we got for our nephew CJ. We found it for $4 and it even has his real last name on the back.

And while at CJ's birthday party, Blake learned how to use his Uncle JD's cell phone. So if any of you get any strange calls we are sorry, it's probably Blake playing with the phone.

We also went to the BYU vs Utah St. football game with some of Alisha's family. Thank goodness it wasn't very cold that night.

We also got to go to the Weber State vs. U of U football game, and of course we were cheering for WSU. Alisha knew that she was marrying into a Weber State sports family, but I dont think she realized we were as die-hard as we are.
We are very excited for fall to be here, but we did wake up to snow this morning. We are NOT ready for winter yet, but we are ready for Halloween, Thanksgiving, JD is ready to do some hunting, and of course MORE FOOTBALL GAMES,

Meeting the new nephew, and soccer starts.

Well this week we had the privilege to meet the newest member of the family. His name is Owen and he was born the day before labor day. Too bad he couldn't hold out for one more day to really make it a labor day for his parents. Owen is the 6th niece/nephew on Alisha's side, and he is REALLY cute. Congrats to Scott and Sarah for the birth of this healthy little boy.

Also this week was the start of soccer, so that means we will be busy going to as many of our nieces and nephews soccer games as we can. It is really so much fun to watch all these kids try and figure out the sport of soccer. It's interesting to see which kids are aggressive and which ones really aren't. We saw one kid who was more interested in watching the butterflies than he was in watching the ball (kinda reminds me of me when i played.) Alisha wants everyone to understand that it wasn't her that used to watch butterflies while trying to play soccer.

So if ya want us to come to your soccer games let us know when they are.

Drive-In Movie

We decided to have a drive in movie at our house last weekend, and i must say, the side of our garage is a really good place to hang up a movie screen.
We had Alisha's family over and each of the kids made there own car to watch the movie in.
We had a great dinner of grilled chicken and many really good salads.
The movie we watched was the new "Little Mermaid" movie, and we all had a great time until the lightning storm and the micro-burst winds hit.

Almost halfway through the movie we called it a night and we all decided it was time to run for cover from the storm. We are just thankful that none of the tree branches that came down hit any of the cars.
All in all we had a great time and the kids had so much fun decorating the cars, and much to my happiness, they all took the cars home with them.

Chicago, and the never ending road trip...

"Holy Cow" what a wild and crazy week it was. We had the opportunity to fly out to St. Louis last Wednesday to help Alisha's oldest brother and his family move back out to Utah.
On Thursday morning we got up very early and made the almost 5 hour drive from Collinsville, IL to Chicago. What an awesome time we had!! We only had 1 day to spend in Chicago, so we wanted to make the most of our time, and believe me we did. First we played at the Navy Pier, and then we took a boat tour on the Chicago river which winds through the city of Chicago which was really very cool. We then took another tour of the city, but this time by trolley which was also very fun.

Then it was off to try some "Chicago Style" pizza, which is something everybody should try at least once in a lifetime.
We then took a taxi ride over to the Hancock Building which is 100 stories tall and has the fastest elevator in North America in it. The views from the top of the tower were amazing, you could overlook the entire city of Chicago, look forever across Lake Michigan, and from what we were told you can also see into 4 or 5 different states.
When we got out of the tower we decided to walk back to Navy Pier and try some "Chicago Dogs." These hot dogs were far better than any you can ever buy in any store.
Well after we got done eating the world's finest hot dogs, it was time to load up the car and head back to Collinsville. We just want to say thank you to Mike & Shanda for showing us such a great time in this wonderful city, next time we go out there though we will have to catch a Cubs vs Cardinals game.

Well Friday morning arrived and it was time to get to some serious work. We all worked very hard packing and cleaning the house, and loading the moving truck. We were rewarded for all of our hard work with an excellent dinner, and then the best custard in the world for dessert.
Saturday morning came very early and once again we worked very hard to get everything done, around 4:30 p.m. we had everything loaded and hit the road to Utah. Everything went smoothly and we arrived in Lincoln Nebraska at approx 3 a.m.

Sunday morning is when the real fun started, we woke to discover that one of the tires on the trailor was not just flat, but had blown up sometime while we were driving Saturday night. So we had to wait around for awhile until someone was able to come and replace the tire.
This same exact tire decided to go flat yet again somewhere in the middle of Nebraska, so we had to wait yet again for someone to come and replace the tire. Once that was replaced, it was back on the road for us. We were convinced that we would never get out of Nebraska, but then we finally saw the "Welcome to Wyoming" sign and we were all very excited to finally be out of Nebraska and into Wyoming.

We stopped for the night in Cheyenne, and then the next morning it was on to Utah. Believe me, driving from Illinois to Utah is one heck of a long drive especially when you are with a moving truck that was lucky to get above 65 mph and on several occasions never got above 55mph.

We were happy to go and help Mike, Shanda, Parker, and Landon move back to Utah, it is great having them here, but if they ever move again then it better be at least in the same time zone as Utah.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!

Well, we recently celebrated our 3rd anniversary. What did we do to celebrate you may ask? Well JD went to scout camp for a week and Alisha stayed home and worked while JD got to play all week in the mountains.
But before JD left for scout camp we were able to go to the Ogden Pioneer days rodeo, go camping, and also go to Bear Lake for a family reunion.
We both love spending time at Bear Lake and go up there as often as we can.

While JD was up at scout camp he got a chance to join the "polar bear club." To join the polar bear club you have to sit under this water fall for 10 seconds, and the water temperature is 36 degrees.

Alisha has been going to a weekly class to learn how to work with wild mustangs and other horses that have been abused. She has had a great time and has learned a lot about how to work with these very pretty animals. It's sad that this class only meets 2 more times.
It is amazing how fast this summer has gone. We have had so much fun this summer spending time with family and friends, and spending as much time together as we can. It has been so much fun, and we never seem to know what kind of adventure is up next, one thing about it, we havn't been bored at all this summer.

What a Week!

What a crazy, busy wonderful week this has been for us. Alisha's brother Mike and his family came out to visit from St. Louis and we loved being able to spend time with them as well as many of our friends and family.

This week was full of cookouts, swimming, baseball games, golfing, pizza parties, going to the farm, going to movies, and mud football.

Thanks to Mike we learned how to make the BEST pizza on this planet, so if any of you wan't a pizza party let us know(JD would love to practice his new found pizza making skills).

We also learned how to make mouth watering grilled pork tenderloin, who knew a pig could ever taste that good. We also tried to have a family picture with all of Alisha's neices and nephews, it only took 30 mins for all 5 of them to sit down long enough for a picture together.

JD got to play mud football, and lets just say when he got done he was as happy as a pig in mud! These pictures were taken after he had already rinsed off twice with the garden hose. Those clothes we sacrificed in the name of fun, and Alisha got her fun out of being able to spray JD off with freezing cold water out of the hose. I'm sure our neighbors are still laughing at the site of JD running around the back yard trying to avoid the cold water, while Alisha is spraying him like he was on fire.

What a great summer this has been so far, and it is only going to get a lot more hectic for us. It is amazing how fast this summer has flown by and that it is already the middle of July. We are hoping to be able to find time to have more cookouts, swimming, golfing, baseball, camping, and fun with our family and friends.

First Blog, first post

Ok, so we are both new at this whole blogging thing, but after viewing the blog's of friend's and family we decided to give it a shot. We have a lot of friends who live a long ways away from us, so this is an easy way to stay in touch.
So first a little bit about us, we have been married for almost 3 years now and it has been great!! We dated for 3 years before somebody finally got the guts to ask a cute little blonde to marry him, and of course she said YES! We live in Farr West Ut, and we both love it here. For those of you who have never been to Farr West it is an old farming town that is having a lot of new homes being built and having a lot of new people moving in. We live in an awesome older home that has a lot of character.
We stay very busy, we both love the outdoors, and spending as much time as we can with family and friends. Our church callings also keep us very busy, JD is the scoutmaster and Alisha is a primary teacher who has a lot of patience.
Well, that's probably enough rambling for now, hopefully you all find our adventures as entertaining as we do.