Cori's Birthday

We threw Cori a birthday party on Saturday and celebrated by having a girl's outing and getting henna done. It was a ton of fun!

The Storm

New Furniture

We really need a new dining table set since every piece of ours is wobbly and can't be tightened anymore. We saw this table at Crate and Barrel yesterday and fell in love with it! It's got the rustic/quaker charm we love and it's bigger and has storage. Since the price tag is a little high, David said he could make it! I'm so excited!

http://www.crateandbarrel.com/family.aspx?c=885&f=10722

Snowboarding

Family came up this weekend and we went snowboarding! I have absolutely no gear of any kind but my lovely friend Cori let me use her clothes and board. Chelsea and I took lessons in the morning and then braved our way down some slopes! I actually did a lot better than I thought I would and saw improvement throughout the day. David's a good teacher and coach, and helped me even when I felt like my wrists were going to fall off. It was the first time I'd seen him snowboard- he's totally good! When I went with him he would slide down backwards and have me board down toward him. I wish I had gotten a picture of him in his gear, he looked so cute. I also got some Chloe time in!

England

Saturday Night

We had some friends up on Saturday night for dinner and a rock band session. Here's David, Jed, Greg and Dan rocking out.

Venice, Italy

So I never really finished posting our Europe pictures and I don't think I'll ever be able to really show everything I loved because we took over 700 while we were there, but I'm working on this really neat photobook that I'm able to make using iphoto and I'm realizing just how amazing our trip was- while we were there we were so busy moving sometimes it was hard to take it all in. Now that I look back it seems unreal. Anyway, I'm bored since I have no job and I'm sick of packing and cleaning so I figured I'd go through some of my favorites. Here's Venice.
Some vegetable market next to a canal:


One of the funniest things that happened to us was an experience with this little dog. We were sitting across a canal from it, figuring out where we wanted to go next when we noticed this little dog sitting in a doorway. When a jogger ran by he took off after him, barking and running as fast as he could. He disappeared for a minute and then came trotting back from around a corner to his post. I told David to go run by him and see if he could get the dog to chase him so he walked over a bridge and as soon as he got near the dog, he started running. The dog barked and ran after David.

Here's a shot I snapped and if you look closely you can see that both of David's feet are in the air because the dog tried to nip at him. It was hilarious!

The Harns' Sealing

David and I were invited to be at the Harns' Family Sealing on Friday afternoon. It was really exciting, because my family has been friends with the Harns since I was five. We were in the same ward in Yorba Linda for 9 years. Two years ago Kirk (the dad) was baptized, but their oldest son Chris was on his mission in Italy. Now that everyone's home they got to be sealed together! It was a really neat experience for everyone. We've been waiting for this day for a LONG time! While we were taking pictures of the family we saw Justin and Amelia Lyon who were at the Newport Temple doing a wedding. It was nice to see them.

Lights Out

That's right, we just got back from an afternoon down the hill and the power was out! The heater didn't work and we had to use our phones to find our way to some candles. We were kind of excited to spend a night cozied up in bed with candlelight and a movie on the laptop when the power came back on. So, we made some tea & soup and turned the lights back off. We're good at pretending.

Happy New Year!

What have we experienced and accomplished this year? Now I'm realizing: A LOT!

January:
1) Settled into the lower part of the house David's parents are renting sooner than we thought because our house flooded on Christmas Day-not a fun thing to come home to.
I started a little home business called Gourmet Girls.

February:
Celebrated our first married Valentine's Day by going to a mutual activity since David had to chaperone as Young Men's President!

March:
David turned 27 and we celebrated with friends and family at Yamazato of Japan and trifle.
David and his brother Brian built an addition onto the former bishop of Crestline ward's house. It was his first job by himself and he did an amazing job!
We splurged on a new mattress- it was much needed and probably the best investment we've ever made. Thanks Simmons!

April:
We visited Brian in Arizona and David helped him build a barbeque. Yum, Cafe Rio!


May:
David finally started the building part of a spec house he and his dad decided to build.


June:
I turned 21 on the 26th and we celebrated by going to San Diego for the weekend!
Three days later Blake came home from his mission in Brazil! Let's just say it had been a long two years for David. He was so happy to have his best friend home!! I was happy to have him home too.

July:
We celebrated the 4th of July at the dock on Lake Arrowhead and my family even came up to celebrate with us. It was a hot day!

August:
Was BUSY!
We went to Lake Powell for nearly a week and had a blast. David misses his morning swims and I miss my tan!
We went to Cedar City, Utah for the Shakespeare Festival. David's mom's side of the family (the Campbells) go every year and it was a neat experience for me. We saw a play, ate good food and got in plenty of Chloe time (and other family time).
On the 15th we moved into a new rental house since David's parent's house had gotten a little crowded for us.
We celebrated our first anniversary on the 19th. The year flew by! David surprised me by taking me to the Huntington Library in Pasadena and we went to Houston's for dinner. Yum!


September:
We decided to move to Provo-a bittersweet decision but we're excited to start something new.
We went to Mexico and stayed in the same hotel we had stayed in for our honeymoon for David's mom's birthday.



October:
We kind of randomly decided to go to Europe. This has been a dream of ours for a long time and we NEVER thought we'd be able to go so soon. We went from the 1st to the 18th and visited London (our favorite), Paris, Venice, Rome and Florence (where we spent time with Dresden who was studying abroad). It was unreal!

Chloe turned 1 and we celebrated with the family in Oak Park. Her first year flew!


We were evacuated from our home because of the fires. We stayed at my parents house in Corona for nearly a week.

November:
We had Thanksgiving at David's Aunt and Uncle's house up here. It was fun to have Blake and Ryan down visiting.



December:
We took a trip to Provo for me to check out since I'd never really been there. We had a lot of fun visiting the Conference Center and hanging out with family since Zac and Kara live in Salt Lake as does Amanda now, and Blake and Ryan are in Provo and Dresden will be soon. We also go to see David's friend Jon who got home from his mission earlier this year and we hadn't gotten to see him since then.
We celebrated Christmas all day long!
New year's eve we had everyone up at our house-Dresden, Brian, Keith & Nathan Birkett, and Dustin, Chelsea & Chloe came.