Christmas Eve

I know that Christmas Eve seems like forever ago, but we had such a great Christmas it is fun to look back and remember how fun it was. That day we went to church with Lance's family. It was a great program that his Aunt Leslee put together as the choir director. Aunt Leslee and her two daughters sang a song that Leslee wrote and composed. It was beautiful and a good reminder of the true meaning of Christmas. After the services we had dinner at Grandma Burnett's house. Lance is the official meat carver at her house and he likes to wear this apron that makes him think he is the Boss. After the meal we read the Christmas story in the Bible and talked about Christmas traditions of the Tolmans and the in-laws. So I got to share of the Redd family traditions. We then opened presents. The Tolmans have a tradition of giving 1$ store gifts. My favorite dollar gift given by Lance's mom (sorry Rick I did like the foam pig for my toes too) was a corn ornament. It's very appropriate for their family since Papa Tolman works with National Corn Growers Association, you could say he is the King of Corn. I wanted to join in on the tradition so I found this perfect tie at Honks for King himself. It was this tacky Santa tie that lights up and plays music. Unfortunately I think we might be seeing this tie every Christmas holiday from now on. My great idea may have back fired on us.

After our day with the Tolmans we drove us to the cabin to spend the night with my family. It was such a beautiful night with thousands of stars lighting up the sky. When we got to the cabin, Becca and Dad had put out candles to light the path so we wouldn't trip getting to the door. It was really beautiful. We then got to eat a second dinner, which was fabulous! We read the Christmas story again. We read the same passages four times that day, but it never got old. I love hearing that story. And I just love Christmas time when we stop thinking about ourselves and what we have to do and focus on family and making each other happy. One of the Redd Christmas traditions (which mom and dad thought about retiring----thank you Becca and Dillon for not letting that happen!) is to open one present on Christmas Eve. Mom lets us think that we can choose our own present, but its always the one she gives us and it is always p.j.'s! We had Grandma Redd and Ponkey spend the night with us so they got their own pair too. Grandpa was pretty eager to get his on and just put them over his regular clothes. It was a great night. Trevor, Dillon, Becca, Lance, and I all slept in the family room waiting for the morning! It was fun and it reminded me of when all of us kids were younger and slept in the same room before Christmas morning. Luckily we don't wake up at 5 in the morning anymore, but we were still anxious to get up early.

And the winner is..............

Garth! Our studies show that Uncle Richard would most likely be mistaken for Garth Brooks rather than Goldberg. We are sorry Lance, but the survey says.....Garth. Thanks to all that participated in our survey, it was very amusing for us. This picture, taken in D.C. a while back, proves that Richard is a cowboy at heart and not a wrestler. Richard came to visit our family when we first moved there and he got asked a couple times on that trip if he was Garth. It's kind of fun to have such a famous Uncle.

A Brunch and Sledding with the Preeces

The Saturday before Christmas we had a brunch with Lance's cousins. They made us a wonderful meal of pancakes, sausage, eggs, and fruit. The meal gave us the energy we needed sledding down the hills in their backyard.

The sledding got a little extreme. We even had a few injuries.


For Lance the best part of the day was beating on his little cousin, Benny. Benny makes Lance feel more like a man, a tough man, because he can twist Benny around by his underwear. I feel sorry for the guy, but Benny is pretty tough so in a few years Benny just might be holding Lance by his underwear.

Temple Square with the Tolmans

The Friday before Christmas we met up with Lance's family at the Lion House for an early dinner. It was very tasty, especially the banana cream pie. I'm glad that Grandma B. insisted that we all got dessert, because it was the best part of the meal. After dinner we went to see the Joseph Smith movie at the Joseph Memorial Building. As everyone has said before me, the movie was incredible. Watching the movie just increased my love for the prophet Joseph Smith and my gratitude for what the early Saints went through so that we could have so many of the blessings we enjoy today. When the movie was over we walked around temple square to look at the navities and lights. For me the highlight of the night is when we walked into the visitors center and I ran into two of my good friends that are serving on Temple Square. One of the sisters is from Thailand. I met her when I was asked to translate at the MTC for her. I was also able to translate for her when she went through the temple for the first time. That was such a special day for both of us. It was especially scary for me because for some reason they didn't have part of the script translated and I had to do my best to translate. I also saw my friend Christie, which was equally exciting. I just love going to Temple Square, I always have such a great experience there.

Lance and His Carvings

So one day Lance asked me to run some errands with him and some how we ended up spending an hour at a carving specialty store. We walked out with tips on carving and sharpening knives and a new knife for Lance. This is Lance's new hobby, wood carving. Below is a picture of his first carvings. The Santa he made for me for our Christmas tree, the giraffe was for his boss (she has a large collection of giraffes), and the soon to be reindeer was for his bother and sister-in-law for Christmas. The reindeer turned out really cute with its antlers. We screwed in little hooks and tied ribbon on his carvings to turn them into ornaments. He also did corn for his parents and a Santa for my mom. Both looked great. The weekend before we had Heather's shower, it was Saturday night, Lance was carving and I was quilting. We laughed at how old we've gotten. It was really funny to think that a year or two ago we would have been out at a party or something and here we were quilting and carving.

Provo's First Storm

O.k. Some time has passed since we last updated our blog, so I'm sorry everyone but we are going to back up a month. These pictures are from Provo's first snow fall. We got dumped on, and the sad part was the mountains got nothing! Something weird is going on this year. It was a pretty good storm, nothing like what Denver got, but our car got slammed from every direction. This is after Lance cleared the car off for me, but before there was even inches of snow caked on the side windows. Some people would have been depressed to see all this snow, but those that know me well know that I was so excited to see the snow. There is just something about snow that is so peaceful and beautiful, plus there are so many fun sports that require SNOW!!!!!

Heather's Baby Shower

On December 18th we had a baby shower for Lance's sister, Heather. It was at Grandma Burnett's home. We had a great time. Linda did a great job preparing some fun games. I made my mom's yummy brocolli cheese soup, chicken salad sandwiches, and strawberry poppyseed salad. Ashley Tolman (married to Lance's oldest brother, Brandon) made some delicious cookies and probably the best brownies I've ever had.
Lance's dad, Rick, is so excited for his first grandboy that he is constantly buying him gifts (usually anything that involves camo). Rick bought baby Lester (everyone's nickname for the baby to come, but don't worry they aren't really naming him Lester) a cute little bear wearing a camo hat. He can't wait to see baby Lester running around with his camo hat on. The picture above is Lance's two sisters Heather and Brooke holding the bear.


With the quilting skills I learned this summer with Natalie (my cousin) I attempted to make baby Lester a quilt. It didn't turn out too bad.


These are two of Lance's cousins, Kelli and Kara. Kara sampled all of baby Lester's toys just to be sure he would like them. Grandma Burnett found the cutest sailor outfit for the baby. Heather's husband is a navy JAG Officer so the uniform is a perfect fit for their son.

The Chef of the Year

Taylor came out to Utah to visit us and his friends before he left on a mission. We had a great time hanging out, going to movies, and BBQing! Taylor has been working for a BBQ cater service and wanted to show off his new learned skills. He said he combined some tips from Papa Showmaker and his work to make these delicious ribs!




We had a great time eating and visiting. Some of Taylor's friends came over to sample his work too. Maybe I'll get his permission to put his BBQ secrets on the blog. Unfortunately it wouldn't be a family function without someone getting hurt. This time it was me, I cut my finger on a knife. It wouldn't stop bleeding and we didn't have any bandaids, so I had to use a paper towel to keep the blood from going everywhere. I think I offended a few people with my bandage, but in my defense it was very uncomfortable.

Goldberg or Garth?

On Lance's behalf we found a picture of Richard that resembles Goldberg. So you are welcome to recast your votes if you really feel that you need to change it.






O.k. we are taking a poll.......whose who? My uncle Richard gets mistaken for Garth Brooks quite often, especially when he wears his cowboy hat. However, while we were in Cancun a few people (including Lance) told him he looked a lot like Goldberg the wrestler. My vote is for Garth, but I think my uncle Chris looks more like Goldberg. Lance's vote is with Goldberg.

Fishing at Deer Creek Reservoir

Tommy (Jessica's cousin) has been nice enough to help me learn how to fly fish and let me just say it is AWESOME.

A couple of weeks ago we headed up to Deer Creek and had a great time. We found some great spots for fishing. In one hole we estimated there were about 60 fish between 12-20 inches. It was amazing you could see them hit your bait. It was quite an experience.


Tommy showed off by catching this monster.

Coming home from the south

On our way back to reality we had a layover in Houston. Pat and Jen decided to come pick us up from the airport and introduce us to Houston life. It was so fun to see them. Jen made a sign with our fantasy football names and waited for us with the rest of the chauffeurs in the airport. We then went to Subway where Jen got way too many cucumbers on her sandwich. We saw some real Houston mobsters and we were also introduced to the Chocolate Bar. It was the best layover EVER! See Jen and Pat's blog for pictures and more Houston adventures.

More Fun in Cancun

I didn't have time to finish telling about all of our adventures in Mexico. Since I already covered our daily activities, I will tell you about our off-site fun. On Sunday we grabbed a taxi to take us downtown to the church. They have rebuilt the church since the hurricane. It seems to be double the size of what I remember it being in 2004. The building is really beautiful I wish I had a picture, but we forgot our camera that day. My next offsite adventure was with my uncle Richard. He left in the middle of the week and before he left he wanted to go jet skiing. The waves were breaking pretty far from the shore that day so we had to stay far from there. We had fun, and got a lot of air off some of the waves. Another day we went shopping at the mall. My favorite discovery was a little step stool at the ice cream shop. How come we can't have one of those step stools at all of our ice cream shops! I hate having to either slouch down or stand on my tip toes just to see the ice cream, that dang bar hinders my vision every time! One night the young couples got to go downtown together. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner and walked around finding crazy statues to take our picture with.
One morning we woke up and played tennis with my grandparents. We thought being the young couple we might be able to run the older around the court. It was just the opposite. It's embarrassing to say, but they killed us. Grandma would hit the ball anywhere we weren't. It was a humbling experience and a lot of fun.
Probably our favorite time off the resort was at Isla Mujeres. We woke up one morning and took a bus and a community mini van to ferry that went over to an island (Isla Mujeres). We found a small boat and crew that took us snorkling at a few spots, where we saw turtles, sea urchins, an eel, parrot fish, barracudas, and other tropical fish. Our favorite part was when the guide pulled out some crackers and left them in front of Lance's face. Lance put his head in the middle of hundreds of fish trying to eat the crackers. The fish kept running into Lance's mask. I put my arm in the middle of them and once they hit me a couple of times I wasn't brave enough to put my head in the middle of that. For lunch they grilled up some of the barracuda we had been swimming with, it was delicious! If Lance would allow me I would tell you about the beautiful shell I found at our lunch spot, but he is still upset because I used our last peso to buy it! We are lucky we had Niki and Philip to help us get back to the resort. ;) We also saw a sand shark, one of the few vegetarian sharks.
We ended the week with a birthday celebration at a fun Mexican restaurant down town. Our usual place, Pericos, was reserved for some big party so they recommended this new place. It was very similar some of the waiters carried plates and drinks on their heads and a mariachi band played to keep everyone entertained. We had a great time and they even brought out an amazing cake. Lance and Levi were nice enough to share with all of us. Levi (niki and philip's baby) turned one and Lance turned 25!
Overall we had a wonderful week. It was so fun to be with family and baby Levi was definitely the center of our attention. For those of you that haven't spent time with him, he is such a fun baby.

A Week in Paradise

Well we were lucky enough to get an invitation to spend a week at a great resort in Cancun, Mexico. My grandparents have a time share at the Royal Sands and we decided to crash the party. We left right after Lance's birthday so this was his gift and I just got to benefit from it too. I'm going to have a tough time next year finding something to beat this year's gift. We spent the week with my grandparents, my cousin Niki, her husband Philip, their baby Levi, and my uncle Richard.

Every morning we would wake up and go shelling. The first two days we were there were kinda stormy so the waves brought up some great shells and sand dollars that had not been broken. We found a lot of stuff including sunglasses, turtle eggs, shells, and money (pesos).


We did a lot of relaxing in the pool and playing in the ocean. We also had our daily 2 o'clock volleyball game on the beach. It was a lot of fun and Lance and I got to find out how out of shape we are. Our favorite time of the day was between 3 and 6, HAPPY HOUR. You can't beat 1/2 price virgin pina coladas and strawberry daiquiris with free chips and salsa. We also had fun painting ceramics, going to karaoke night with Richard (my uncle), and participating in water aerobics one morning (once was enough for us).

By request...

Here are pictures of Jessica modeling my "ACCIDENT". I wish you could have seen her trying to put it on, it was pretty funny.

Whoops!!!

Well Jessica is always trying to tell me what to put into the laundry and what not to and what goes in the dryer and what doesn't, but as you can tell by the picture I don't listen to her. That used to be a sweater she wore. WHOOPS!! (For the record Jessica is speaking to me again, and i dont ever have to do the laundry again-so I think I won this one, it was all part of my plan).