"Our" Christmas

Nick and I have become very close with a couple of great families here in Las Vegas. Since it was Christmas time, it was the perfect opportunity to express our gratitude and appreciation to these families and show our love for them. We decided that putting together some Christmas goodies would be fun! I made homemade oreo's chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate pretzels(you know, the ones with m&m's and melted kisses?)! :)



I made tags for each one! Using wax paper and tissue paper, I stuffed these Christmas containers full of goodies!!


Here is the finished product! We ended up making 5 of them. We delivered them the "knock and run" method because of the number we had to deliver and the distance between each persons house. We are usually pretty sneaky at "knocking and running", but this time we got caught everything! :) Each person ended up calling us afterwards and visiting with us! :) It was great! I love doing simple and fun things for other people. We are truly grateful for these families and others who have been so kind and welcomed us to Vegas. Living here as been SO much better than I had hoped for. Nick and I have LOVED it and have these kind welcoming families to thank! Merry Christmas!!




Nick and I decided that it would be fun to have "Our" Christmas together before going home to Wyoming for Christmas. We decided that Saturday the 20th would be a great day to celebrate for 2 reasons. First, we leave for Wyoming on Monday; and second, the 20th is special because it marked 6 months of being married to one another. Man... how time flys!! We had a great day! Nick got home from work that morning around 10 am. We had breakfast and then opened presents. As you can see from the picture, the present on the right is the one that Nick wrapped for me. :) It's a pretty large present for such a little girl huh? And you have to admit that the wrapping job is classic! Nice work babe!!

We enjoyed watching one another open each present. Afterwards we watched "A Christmas Story" while I finished preparing Christmas Diner/lunch. :) We did our first Christmas ham, mashed potatoes, rolls, ceaser salad, and green beans. It was pretty tasty!! :) I was surprised that it all turned out so well. After that we had planned to go sledding with the tube that Nick got us for Christmas...BUT... our planned had changed due to FOOTBALL!! :) Nick got a call from Jason and Claire right as he arrived home from work telling him that he had free extra tickets for the Las Vegas Bowl. Let me explain how big of a deal this is!! Nick had been looking for FREE tickets for the last month for him and mostly his dad, and finally gave up and then we get this phone call. SO... we changed our plans. How could I tell him we weren't going to go to the game after all the nice things he always does for me? Plus the tickets weren't exactly cheap and we got them for FREE. So after diner/lunch we took a nap and then got ready to go to the Las Vegas Bowl! :)

This years Las Vegas Bowl was Arizona vs. BYU! Right when we got to the game, Nick called his dad to rub it in a little, and he was SOOO upset that he couldn't be AT the game. Nick explained the situation about the tickets to his dad and of course he understood. By the end of the game his dad was glad that he didn't go sit in the cold to watch BYU loose! It wasn't exactly FREEZING outside that night, but it wasn't WARM either. We got ALL bundled up, but since I'm such a wimp he gave in a took me home at the beginning of the 4th quarter. It was a pretty fun day! That tube will just have to wait until we get back from Wyoming! :)
Check out all our pics (Since it was "our" Christmas morning, I made it look that way as I hadn't showered or gotten ready for the day!)

P.S. My family will probably be the only ones to know how much this means to me... BUT... Nick found out that my FAVORITE Christmas songs are by, of course, The Oak Ridge Boys! :) Nick searched and searched all over Vegas and he got me their Christmas CD!! :) :) :) Now we can make it our tradition to listen to it when decorating the tree and house!! :) Thanks babe!


This week Nick and I also found a Condo that we'll be moving into once we return home from Wyoming. We're moving out of this house sooner than we had planned, but we're VERY EXCITED and can't wait to have our "own" place! We've been very blessed to be able to stay in this house as it has allowed us to save money and learn a great deal of responsibility. With the challenges we both faced trying to "keep-up" this house (replacing water heater, having rusty water, cleaning out the pipelines, cleaning the pool, digging up plants due to the HOA's request and finding out later we dug up the WRONG ones), we've decided that houses are TOO much responsibility and we'll be happy to live in a condo the rest of our lives!!! (kind of joking!!) We're also excited to get all the moving done before school starts again! Moving in the middle of a semester would not have been very much fun! Our condo will be closer to school and work for the both of us and now we wont have to spend 1 hour trying to travel only 10 miles because of the ridiculous traffic!! It will be a 10 min drive traveling maybe 5 miles. Things are going great and we're very excited for the upcoming year and the things that it will bring! :) I have to get back to packing now... we'll be landing in Montana in exactly 24 HOURS!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS to EVERYONE!!! Have a GREAT week with all your loved ones!!

A Few Things....

First of all... I know it's below zero in Wyoming right now and I'm soo sorry for those who are dealing with that... BUT IT SNOWED IN LAS VEGAS TODAY!!! Can you believe it?? :) Not that is stuck to the ground or anything, but it's still amazing!! In fact, Claire said to me today, "Lindi you brought all the snow to Vegas with you!!" Sorry Claire!! :) I just had to share... anways...
Finals were over last Thursday for both Nick and I. We were VERY relieved to get them all over with. Nick's first semester went very well and he's decided that he likes school, but is VERY excited for the break!! My first semester at UNLV is over and I'm happy about that. This semester was NOT my favorite. I'm hoping that it was just because of the courses I took. I'm very excited for the break and have high hopes for next semester!!
I got sick over finals week and Nick being the sweet husband he is, surprised me with a professional back massage on Saturday! :) It was VERY relaxing and took A LOT of stress of my back. Thanks babe! We also did our Christmas shopping on Saturday... well we tried to get MOST of it done! We found some great deals! The MOST exciting thing about shopping was that we're taking all the things we bought HOME FOR CHRISTMAS!! We missed our families in Wyoming for Thanksgiving and we're so excited to go home for a week for Christmas!!
We also weren't able to make it to Bob's Graduation on Friday because of finals. We would have loved to be there Bob!! Looks and sounds like you did great though! We're proud of you and admire your will to do it ALL!!
With one week left before we go home we're just getting things ready for Christmas and enjoying NO SCHOOL!! :)

We love you MOM!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Mom!!!! :) I wanted to take this opportunity to express my love and appreciation for my mom. Mom was always FULLY involved in us girls' lives. Her and dad's famous line is "Remember who you are at all times... Somebody is always watching you!" This was such great advice as it warned each of us to always be constantly choosing the right.(Ya... sometimes we didn't do what they advised!) BUT... we tried!! :) My mom never missed an event that we participated in. In fact, she was always there 30 mins ahead of time! ;) She fully supported us in every GOOD thing that we involved ourselves in. My mom taught us how to cook, clean, and care for the things that we've been blessed with. She was always helping us if we asked for it and always making sure that we put nothing less than 100% into everything we did.
As most of you know, my mom is a VERY talented woman. I've learned SO much from her and Dad's examples. You know that saying, "Parents don't know anything?"... well, this is exactly what I thought when I was younger. I thought that I knew more than my parents and could learn my own way. WELL... I sure have learned a lot on my own AND I could have saved myself a lot of mistakes if I had just listened to my mother's counsel. Parents DO KNOW EVERYTHING!!! I knew I was blessed to have such great parents to guide me throughout my life, but as the years go by and I grow up more, I realize that my mom is an amazing women. If I could tell anyone anything, it would be to listen to their parents. Mom spent her life devoting it to her kids. Now that we've moved out and their empty nester's, my dad and her have been able to spend more quality time together and have a lot of fun. I'm so thankful for that because they are such great examples for how I want our marriage to be when we're older. You both deserve to be able to spend that time together and I hope you're enjoying it. I want to thank you, Mom, for being a better mother than I could have ever asked my Heavenly Father to send me to. You have taught me so much and I have been so blessed because of your testimony and example. Thank you for everything that you do for me and Nick. We hope that you have a GREAT birthday and we love you! Thanks mom!!



hey this is nick here...just wanted to say happy birthday real quick too...happy birthday! and thanks for everything that you've done for lindi and i...it's been a blast having you as a mother in law...i always have a good time listening to you and matt and your stories and just hanging out...it's a good time and we're looking forward to being with you all again here soon...thanks for everything! happy birthday...

Our First Thanksgiving (A little late... I know!)

We had a good Thanksgiving this year. It was espically exciting because it was our first one as a married couple. :) This year was my first Thanksgiving away from home. It was a new experience for me, but because of Nick's great family here in Vegas it was a very good Thanksgiving! Nick is used to being away from home for Thanksgiving and so it was not such a big deal for him.

We had a very eventful day as it started by going to Nick's Aunt Vicki and Unlce Keith. Nick got see a lot of cousins that he hasn't seen in quite some time. I also got to meet to each of them and their kids. We had a very delicous lunch of turkey, potatoes, corn, rolls and salad. The kids all exchange their presents on Thanksgiving each year and so we watched them do that. After mingling and munching, we headed onto the next families house that we were invited to. :)

Nick's cousin, Daniel's wife Aurbi, invited us to dinner with her family. Meegan, Aubri's mom, is the sweetest lady ever. She called me ahead of time to give me a food assignment. I had been thinking that I wanted to try to make my mom's chocolate cream pie that she makes every Thanksgiving. I told her I would bring that (if it turned out) and she told me just to send her the recipe so that SHE could make it for ME!! She explained that since it was my first Thanksgiving away from home that she wanted to do something for. I really wanted to learn how to make this pie and so I insisted on doing it myself. Thanks for the sweet notion though Meegan.

Aurbi's family is so sweet and considerate. We had a good time getting to meet everyone and visit with them all. We ate LOTS and LOTS more there too!! :) So we got all sorts of good food and company. We got home around 5 pm that night and since had not gotten any sleep that day, we both went straight to bed and were knocked out until 12 pm that night. :) I guess all that food did it for me! Nick had to work at 1 am and since I didn't have class or work the next day, I joined him at work. Since it was a holiday there weren't many costumers and we were able to watch movies together and snack on goodies all night (I know, really healthy)!! Even though it was a Thanksgiving away from home, it was a good day with LOTS to be THANKFUL FOR!!! :)

The following Saturday we decorated for CHRISTMAS!! I'm extra excited for Christmas this year!! I was telling Nick that I think I took for granted the time I got to spend with my family on holidays, because when you're away from them and not spending the holidays together, you can really tell the difference. I am so grateful that I was able to be with Nick for Thanksgiving and we're even more grateful that we will BOTH be able to spend Christmas with BOTH of our families. Anyways.... We didn't want to spend a lot of money for lights outside because we will be moving into an apartment soon and won't need outside lights for some time. So we went through the Christmas stuff in the garage. :) I usually only like to use one solid colors of lights when decorating anything for Christmas, but the only lights we found in the garage were multi-colored! :) Great huh? Well, we(I mean Nick) put them up anyways!! :) Yes it looks very hott!! :) He did a great job and would be willing to compete with brother BOB anyday!! :)

We also went a picked out a REAL Christmas tree. This was super exciting for me because my mom is allerigic to pine and so we always have a fake tree. The smell this tree is filling our house with is WONDERFUL!! :) Sorry that you're allerigc mom!! :( We picked the most beautiful tree ever! :) For a real tree is sure does look fake because its SOO full. We figured that since we will buy a tree every year, that it would be worth our money to buy clear lights and some things to decorate the tree with. :) We got some great things at Michaels and Nick picked out our stockings!! I think he did a pretty good job!! :) Decorating our first Christmas tree was kind of a big deal because Nick says that our FIRST tree topper has to be our tree topper FOREVER!! So as you can see the main theme for the tree was important. The results turned out pretty cute! As you can see we don't have ornaments yet, and so I picked things that would still make our tree pretty and not bare. What do you think? We also made the "Tree Juice" and poured it in. This was also a new experience for me because of having fake trees my whole life. The way we brought the tree home was also a BLAST as people driving by were looking at us like we're CRAZY!! :) Check all the pics out!!

I still have to take pirctures of the lights outside and the stockings that Nick picked out!!