Davies' First Christmas

Wow. Christmas break has been AWESOME, to say the least. It has been so nice to wake up whenever, do whatever, and hang out with whoever.
No school, no work... it's pretty much the best.

This year for Christmas, we kind of spoiled ourselves. I got a Kindle, which I have been playing with pretty much nonstop since I got it this morning, and Mitch got his beloved Detroit Redwings jersey that he has wanted his whole life, and for one reason or another, has never got. Well, since his wife loves him very much, that was of course the first thing that she checked off his Christmas list (clear back during Thanksgiving). He was so pleased :)



The kitties got this "mewvie". I realize this probably seems a bit crazy to you people out there who don't like cats, or who think that I am obsessing over my pets and treating them like my children. Well, for now, these pets are my "children" until I have the luxury of having school out of the way and a stable job...so I am allowed to spoil them until the real deal comes along :D Anyway the concept of this mewvie just sounded ingenious, and heck, if it keeps them "intellectually stimulated" and out of trouble for a good portion of the day, I'm sold. True to their word, the kittens spent a good hour staring at the screen and pawing at the animals. Here they are, enjoying their Christmas spoils:




We also had a great time with the family, as we were able to spend Christmas Eve and some of today with my grandparents and extended family! We had lots of food, presents, singing, and games, and got to meet brand-new baby Jensen Furniss! It was a blast spending time with everyone.

As far as our own little family goes, Mitch and I have started these Christmas traditions so far- making Christmas treats and giving them to neighbors, friends, etc; reading the nativity story on Christmas Eve; singing Christmas hymns on Christmas Eve (I'm still working on convincing Mitch of that one); and adding a few ornaments to our tree (real ones with sentimental value, not dollar store glittery balls). Some were gifts from family, and some we bought, but slowly we are building our own family traditions! It has been a fun ride so far, and we're excited to share many more firsts together through the coming year.

Merry Christmas!


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27 Ways to Procrastinate During Finals Week

1. Spend hours online picking out Kindle books and accessories (I made Mitch spill weeks ago that I was getting one for Christmas :D).


2. Drop everything you're doing and bake Christmas cookies! (These aren't actually mine, I haven't gotten around to frosting mine yet)


3. Play card games with the husband! (Our new favorite being Monopoly Deal!)


4. Watch countless episodes of mindless, hilarious tv shows. (LOVE Big Bang Theory)

5. Spend "free time" reading excellent children's literature (two in one week!)


6. Take a drive to go look at all the beautiful Christmas lights in town. (Click here for an awesome local music and lights display!)


7. Create your own Christmas Eve movie with favorite music and pictures of the Savior. (This one is one of my all-time favorites by Liz Lemon Swindle!)


8. Go visit Temple Square and bask in its beauty.


9. Prepare all last-minute gifts for family and friends. (I gotta finish making some of mine still...yikes!)




10. Spend inordinate amounts of time updating your blog...oops :D


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An Eventful Week!

By reading this statement and continuing to read this post, you hereby agree not to make fun of me :D

Eventful Thing #1
We got another kitten.

In my defense, we did it purely based on scientific research (right...). But seriously, based on Diego's behavior of late (scratching to get our attention, deliberately getting in trouble to get our attention, moping around the house, etc.), he was lonely, and probably needed a friend. SO we got him one. We looked all over KSL until we found the perfect candidate- an 8 week old (we think) stray kitten with the most easy-going and social personality. So on Tuesday, we paid 10 bucks for him, took him off the pound's hands, and brought him home! Meet Teddy:


That picture doesn't really do him justice, but he is a plump little ball of fur that loves to snuggle and play. He is just like a little teddy bear- hence his name.

Here they are, getting acquainted. I will admit, it took Diego about a full 24 hours before he was on board with this sharing his space thing. But now that he is, we can't keep them separated.


Day 2 :)


Day 4- I swear we didn't stage this. I was reading on the couch and they both hopped up on my lap :D

So far so good- Diego's behavior is near-perfect now that he has someone to romp around with, and now we don't feel bad leaving him home for extended periods of time.
What a nice Christmas present :)

Eventful Thing #2
Wednesday night, we saw Brian Regan live at Mitch's company party!!! It was so awesome!!! Nuskin is a ridiculously rich company, which is probably the only way they were able to convince him to come perform in Orem Utah's local university's basketball gymnasium. Probably one of the best dates we've had in a looong time :D I laughed SO hard that night. Like...crying and snorting and not being able to breathe. And I am not ashamed to admit it :D



Eventful Thing #3
At this same company party, every part-time employee was given $300 to spend at Costco the following morning. It's a tradition they do every year, where Nuskin rents out Costco for the morning and lets their employees run wild with free Costco cash. When they announced this at the party, we were shocked. We were expecting $100, which is the normal allotted amount. Anyway, we had literally 9 hours to figure out what we were going to buy at Costco the next morning with $300, so we brainstormed all the way home, looked some stuff up online, and decided to buy...

A brand new 32-inch flat panel tv!! whooo. Our old 27" Philips Flat Screen CRT is now up for sale for $40...if anyone's interested :D

Eventful Thing #4
After about a million papers and projects and mandatory attendance classes...SCHOOL IS OVER for this semester! Granted...I have 5 extremely lengthy finals to take next week, but today is about celebration, not mourning.

Also, can I just say how much I love this movie. I sense a Recess movie night sometime in the near future...

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Thanksgiving Week

This week I am giving thanks for Thanksgiving Break...I don't know how I would have survived this semester without it.

Needless to say, we had an awesome and well-deserved break. My family came into town, and it was so fun to hang out with them. Everyone is growing up so fast! Sophie is 12...weird, Emma is her same hilarious tomboyish self, and Ty is all grown up with no braces and will be breaking the ladies' hearts in no time, I'm sure.

We were so lucky to have two Thanksgivings, one with Dad's side and one with Mom's side...even though neither of those two actually occurred on Thanksgiving Day, haha. Here's one of them, with Grandpa Gene cutting the turkey:


On actual Thanksgiving Day, I went with the brothers and cousins to see HP7 (for the second time). It was so awesome.


For Black Friday, we started a new tradition (well, I want it to be a tradition anyway), of going shooting with the fam. Mitch took charge of this activity and did a great job of planning it. About 12 people went, we had 7 guns, and lotsss of ammo. Everyone had tons of fun, especially Dad, who needed a nice manly bonding activity, as well as an excuse to go gun shopping :D


Mitch is a little self-conscious of his "gay" eye protection...he got them for 2 bucks ok? :D


I cannot get over how attractive my brother is sometimes...bahaha


We destroyed about 20 of these targets.


All in all, it was a really fun, relaxing week! I was really sad to come back to school. But the good news is...only 17 days left of it until our next vacation :D

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presh

Well I had my last day of teaching 3rd grade...and it was a sad day. I have learned so much from these kids and I will miss them so much!! Thankfully, I have some precious letters they wrote me to remember them by! I hope you enjoy them as much as I did :D

from the quietest and brightest girl in class, who apparently is a little dramatic...


from the boy with a 12th grade reading level...


from the sweetest girl in the class...


from the most bull-headed and sociopathic little girl who was always getting in trouble...


:)

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oh love.

probably one of the funniest/truest things I've ever read!

Falling in Love is like Owning a Dog, by Taylor Mali

First of all, it's a big responsibility,
especially in a city like New York.
So think long and hard before deciding on love.
On the other hand, love gives you a sense of security:
when you're walking down the street late at night
and you have a leash on love
ain't no one going to mess with you.
Because crooks and muggers think love is unpredictable.
Who knows what love could do in its own defense?

On cold winter nights, love is warm.
It lies between you and lives and breathes
and makes funny noises.
Love wakes you up all hours of the night with its needs.
It needs to be fed so it will grow and stay healthy.

Love doesn't like being left alone for long.
But come home and love is always happy to see you.
It may break a few things accidentally in its passion for life,
but you can never be mad at love for long.

Is love good all the time? No! No!
Love can be bad. Bad, love, bad! Very bad love.

Love makes messes.
Love leaves you little surprises here and there.
Love needs lots of cleaning up after.
Sometimes you just want to get love fixed.
Sometimes you want to roll up a piece of newspaper
and swat love on the nose,
not so much to cause pain,
just to let love know Don't you ever do that again!

Sometimes love just wants to go for a nice long walk.
Because love loves exercise.
It runs you around the block and leaves you panting.
It pulls you in several different directions at once,
or winds around and around you
until you're all wound up and can't move.

But love makes you meet people wherever you go.
People who have nothing in common but love
stop and talk to each other on the street.

Throw things away and love will bring them back,
again, and again, and again.
But most of all, love needs love, lots of it.
And in return, love loves you and never stops.

LOVE:

DOG:

Thankful Thursday

With the extremely demanding nature of the teaching major/profession (I get up at 6 am, go teach class for 8 hours, come home and write lesson plans, eat dinner and go to bed. That is my life.), I have been suuuper overwhelmed the past few weeks. Basically I've been a giant lump of pessimism and irritability...just ask Mitch. In fact, I actually wrote a post a few days ago titled, "Some morons in my life right now" that really helped me vent and voice some of my issues with various professors and morons who I wish didn't have so much control over my future. Luckily I had the good sense not to post that one :D

Today I realized though, that through it all, some really awesome stuff has kept me afloat this week. So in honor of Thanksgiving in a couple of weeks, I have decided to make a post about the things that have been going GREAT in my life that I am very thankful for.

1- Reading The Hunger Games. Enough said. A good book=my sanctuary from the real world.


2- Purchasing my very first nativity! I am SO excited for Christmas, and my mom collects nativities so I have always loved them. It was really hard just picking ONE because I loved so many, but I wanted one that was small since we'll be moving soon. Anyway I saw this at the BYU bookstore and I loved the idea of Santa kneeling to Jesus. I thought it was a very visual way of putting things in the correct perspective. Also, it plays music. So here it is, my very first nativity:


3- Monster Madness Book Fair! I LOVE book fairs. The school I'm student teaching at this month just had their book fair and I had so much fun looking at books and planning the class libraries of my future classroom. Here are some of my purchases:


4-The New Harry Potter movie!!! I realize this is pretty nerdy of me, but I absolutely cannot
wait to see the first 7th movie. In fact, some friends and I may or may not be planning a Harry Potter party, where some of these treats might make an appearance.


5- Literary Minds Exhibit- A couple days ago when I was looking for anything to distract me from doing my homework, I decided on a whim to go to the Literary Minds exhibit in the BYU library. There, they had original manuscripts from over 15 authors- including Walt Whitman, Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Louisa May Alcott. Among the artifacts were a FIRST EDITION Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and a FIRST EDITION Treasure Island- two of my most favorite classics ever!! Sigh.
(it actually looked just like this!!)


With 4/5 of these things being book-related, I guess you could say that most of all this week, I'm thankful for books!!!