Friday night was my first ever piano recital! Yes, I've probably taught 100 students in my life, but I've never had my own recital until now. I thought it would be fun to have a little Christmas recital to let the parents of all of my new students get to know me a little bit, and the kids were so excited about it! I think I may have been more excited than my students though. :) I made invitations for the kids, then I made programs, I made cookies and bought soda, and invited my mom's little student Eli to join in too. It was a great night! (even though the recital only lasted about 15 minutes...) Word must be out that I'm an ok teacher because I have 2 (maybe 3) new students starting in January!

My mom was lucky enough to score 4 tickets to the Tabernacle Choir/David Archuleta concert so we made it a girls night out! Despite the boy in front of us being sick and disgusting (showing off his clogged nostrils and using his sleeve as a tissue) and the girl next to us not being able to sit still, it was AMAZING! I've never been a very big David Archuleta fan (at all), but this was the perfect setting for him! After the concert, we enjoyed a midnight meal at iHop. Josh and I were joking about how "Utah" I've become - complaining about how tired I am because the night before I went to a Tabernacle Choir concert and Ihop with my mom. :)

Josh and I are peanut butter cup addicts... So what does the mom do when she finds a giant size package of reese's? Buys them for us of course! That's two 1/2 pound cups, my friends... I imagine Heaven will be a little bit like this.

Twice in the same week!? I'm on a roll!

I'm watching the national news and all they seem to be talking about is the record snowfall all over the US. But what I'm wondering is this... WHERE'S OURS!? Today, I didn't even wear a jacket. Seriously. It feels like late April outside. If it doesn't snow by December 24th, I'm putting Christmas on an indefinite hiatus until I see some white stuff on the ground!

And remember how I mentioned last night that Josh was up to his earlobes in projects? I wasn't kidding. Only one more semester Joshy...

Yes, Christmas-time is here! I've gone MONTHS without posting so I thought now would be an ok time. This semester has been tough - Josh is taking 18 credit hours (all upper division classes) and he's so close to graduation he can hardly stand it! He also can hardly stand all of the projects and finals he has due this week... Poor guy lives on the couch right now, always reading, always typing. Me, on the other hand, I've had it a little easier. One more final - Accounting, one of my stronger subjects. But enough about school, here's what we've been up to the past few months:

July was my birthday and Shada, one of my greatest BFF's, met us in Vegas for the weekend with her family. We had planned on going to shows and all that Vegas stuff, but after dinner (at Emeril's, WOW) the first night in town, they returned to their hotel room to find their girls asleep. Alone. The nanny they had brought when them bailed and they never heard from her again. It was very unfortunate, but at least Shada's girls are hilarious! I didn't mind having them around... Shahad is especially cute. We had to wait over an hour to get a table for dinner and she danced the ENTIRE time. I swear that girl never gets tired! Salah should win the father of the century award - because of the nanny situation, he ended up taking Samar to the Justin Bieber concert. And bought her a poster. Something for Josh to look forward to someday. (And yes this is a picture of a picture... sadly it's the only one we got of the 4 of us!)


In August, we went to Yellowstone for a week with the Jarman clan. Joe, MaryJane, and Emily drove all the way from Portland and met us there. It was a GREAT week, filled with lots of "ribbits," "Saya Saya's," fishing, browsing tacky souvenir shops, and white trash t-shirts. Emmers is our favorite niece, and that has nothing to do with the fact that she's our only niece. (But it might have something to do with the fact that we're her favorite aunt and uncle). After Yellowstone, Joe and MJ were able to come back to SLC for a few weeks. It was SO great having them close for so long! One of my favorite pics of Emily and Uncle Joshy:



Fast Forward -- School -- Halloween (and dying my hair black) -- Thanksgiving -- Today!

Josh is leading "Operation Anti-Scrooge" this year because he's tired of not having Christmas spirit. So we've been going to every concert we can, watching Christmas movies galore, and decking our apartment (Falalalalalalalala). I'm so proud of our Christmas tree! I didn't know I was marrying the male Martha Stewart, but I'm glad I did!

The highlight of our week has been our "Date Night" with Ben and Jess (And cute little Savannah). Pie pizza, great conversation, and Star Trek on blu-ray. We are so blessed to have such great friends! Not very many best friends have husbands as perfect for each other as Ben and Josh. :)