Christmas Break

Yet again, I'm dropping the blogging ball.  Oh well.

Christmas this year was fantastic!!!  I was able to get three days off work (plus we were scheduled to be off for four days) so we took the red-eye out of Salt Lake City on Monday the 22nd and arrived in NC Tuesday morning.  Chelsea lent us her car for the duration of our trip and it was such a blessing!  We picked her car up in Charlotte and then drove north to Greensboro.

My family just moved to NC at the beginning of November and so everything this Christmas would be new.  They bought a house just a few minutes from my dad's parents and his brother so for the first time in my lifetime, my family is living close to other family!  I loved being able to see my grandparents and cousins this holiday.

Zach was supposed to get home before we did but a job interview held him up in Ohio.  He finally got there late on Christmas Eve.  My family doesn't have a ton of Christmas traditions but one of my favorites is watching "It's a Wonderful Life" on Christmas Eve.  It took some finagling this year for us to all fit in the living room but it was worth it.

Grandma and Grandpa Tucker

 
For most of our visit, we slept at my uncles house down the road but Meredith wanted us all to sleep at home on Christmas Eve.  Since this house is significantly smaller than our last house with less than half the beds, we slept on the living room floor...  We were actually going to sleep in Noah's twin size bed but then just fell asleep watching Everybody Loves Raymond (what else is new) and stayed on the floor.  I'm so glad the majority of my siblings are teenagers or older now and appreciate sleeping in on Christmas.  I used to be a grouch when I was the only one who wanted to sleep in!

I think I'm still sleeping...

Nate finally got the Ipad he's wanted since before we were married!

Isn't he precious??  Socks, candy and scented candle wax in his stocking.  I'm the best.

We spent Christmas day lounging around and then went to Grandma and Grandpa's for Christmas dinner with the rest of the family.  Why didn't we get a group picture with everyone?!?!

My immediate family hasn't been all together since our wedding so we took the time to get a family picture.  Of course, not everyone wanted to be in the picture but that's what happens with six kids.  We took this picture on the land that they are going to start building a house on.  Next year we could have Christmas in yet another house!

Eli and Meredith decided to have a photoshoot in the field.  I wish I stole some of their pictures but I only have a few of the ones we took on our phone...

Our family gift exchange...I got a baby name book from my cousin.  It's the same baby name book I got him a few years ago and he just had a baby so he told me it was my turn.  He was nice enough to cross off Everett, since that's the name they used haha

The day after Christmas we headed to a cabin 2.5 hours away where Nate's family was staying for Christmas!  What a treat that we got to see both families even though they technically live in different states now!  While there, we went to a gem mine, watched some movies, played some games, went out to eat and just had fun!

View from the cabin.

 Breakfast (which was really lunch).  We found a FANTASTIC place to eat which was totally worth the forever wait.  The kids didn't love it as much as the adults as the food was a twist on regular breakfast flavors.

At the "mine"

We would steal her if we could...

On Sunday we left the cabin and headed back to my house.  We made it just in time for church where I happened to run into one of my friends from the Hill Cumorah Pageant and school.  After church we went to an extended family dinner with my grandpa's brother's family.  It was fun to meet some more of the Tucker clan!  The next few days were spent playing lots of games, watching movies, and relaxing.

Playing Five Crowns.  Obviously I was the only one who knew a picture was being taken...

Playing Charades.

This is how we fell asleep one night.  We're so cute.

One day we went to downtown Greensboro.  While we were there we went to the Civil Right's Museum.  The museum is located in the old Woolworth's dime store where the Greensboro sit-in's took place in 1960.  It was amazing to see this little bit of history and it is so well preserved.  Of course, you can't take pictures sooooooo yeahhhh.  I learned that my dad's middle school principal was married to one of the original college freshman who started the sit-in.  I also had never thought of the fact that my grandma grew up right in the midst of the civil rights movement in the south!  She remember the sit-ins happening and having to use separate bathrooms etc.

Both of the above pictures are from Wikipedia.

Walking around downtown Greensboro...

Meredith with her imaginary boyfriend.

If you're still looking at these pictures...you're crazy.  But I'm going to keep going!

The Monday after Christmas Zach left for Germany (that's a long story...) and then on Wednesday Meredith and Eli left for Ohio.  So with just Nate and I left at home we decided to abandon the family and go visit his family for the rest of the trip.  Back to Charlotte we went!  It was really great because not only did we get to see Chelsea's family, but Jessica's family drove up from Georgia for the New Year so we got to spend more time with them too.

The Smith's traditionally have appetizers on New Years Eve and throw a fun party for friends.  Since it was just us three families, we decided to do our own version of this and buy our favorite appetizers from local restaurants.  We got apps from probably 12 different places and it was delicious!!!  Such a fun idea!

Playing Tripoly to pass the time.

Getting ready for the big moment!

Peter put on a fireworks show for us so we all cuddled under the pergola Nate built when we were in Charlotte last year :)

Annndddd a few more pictures of the cute kiddos to finish the trip off...

Bailee doing my hair

 Just look at this face.  Adorable.

High School Musical

In some ways I feel like Nate and I have tons of high school memories and then in some ways I feel like we barely have any at all.  Last week we went to the local high school's musical and it brought back all sorts of fun memories!

Fall 2007 The Wizard of Oz - Junior year of high school I was one of the assistant directors for our high school musical and Nate played the part of the Tin Man.  I honestly think this show was where we started to become real friends and not just people that went to church together.  We could laugh and joke around and-- dare I say it-- flirt a little.  Gosh I just thought he was the cutest thing ever.  Sadly, once the show was over and we didn't have an excuse to hang out everyday, we stopped hanging out every day haha  I can't find a picture of us together so this one will have to do.  Ain't he adorable?!

Fall 2008 The Christmas Carol - Senior year I somehow convinced Nate to try out for the fall play (even though it wasn't a musical).  I still have no idea what I said that got him to go along with it but I'm sure glad he did!  I was cast as the Ghost of Christmas Past and I'm not even sure what exactly his part was called...a village person I guess haha  Well I also was cast as a girl named Caroline who was a poor married woman that Scrooge screws over.  At the time of the first read of the script, the part of my husband hadn't been cast.  Guess who got the part??  You got it!!  Our scene together was literally one page long and it seriously took every fiber of our beings to not crack up each and every time we did it.  Nate and I trying to play a concerned and loving husband and wife??  It was the most hilarious thing I'd ever heard of!  And I secretly LOVED it.  Especially at the end when he would put his arm around me as we walked off stage.  And we would put our heads really close together and just laugh our way off the stage as quietly as we could.

Nate is on the far left wearing the hat.  I am the ghost in the back.

I can still hear Nate say this first line of our scene.  It has been a running joke of ours ever since then.  A friend was being funny and edited this picture shortly after the show and I still love it.

Fall 2012 Beauty and the Beast- After Nate got back from his mission we started hanging out quite a bit.  I asked him to go see Beauty and the Beast with me at the local high school.  It was kind of last minute and we got there maybe 30 minutes before the show started.  It was definitely a popular show because there was a HUGE line for tickets.  We were seriously doubting if we would get into the show and almost left but stuck it out and were literally some of the last five people let in.  Sadly, once we got in, they dimmed the lights (it was already quite a bit past the time they were supposed to start) and there were only single seats available!  There wasn't anywhere for us to sit together.  At the time, I think I just wanted to see the show so I picked two end seats for us that were a few rows apart.  Nate was obviously frustrated we weren't sitting together.  Later, I would learn he was certifiably ticked since he didn't care one bit about the show and was just going to be with me.  Well, 10 minutes into the show the kid next to me threw up and so that family left and Nate was able to come sit by me.  Hooray for sick children!

Fall 2014 Seven Brides for Seven Brothers- I had the urge again this semester to go see a show and so we decided to see the high school musical again.  We showed up an hour early to avoid long lines and easily got into the theater (we were literally some of the first five people this time).  It was nice this time around to be able to hold hands and rub shoulders without feeling awkward ;)  My back was killing me throughout the show though so we left at intermission.  Oh well!

The empty theater and my new boots.  Booya!

The moral of the story is...we have a lot of fun going to shows and I love it!  I'm glad I'm able to share my love of live performances with my very best friend and that we have so many memories together!

Pumpkin Patch Pickin'

Last night we were able to go to a pumpkin patch with all of our awesome friends!  It was so fun!  I can't even remember the last time I went to an actual pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin.  I ended up picking like five or six pumpkins...oops.  In the end I just go three.  One to carve and two to paint.  I'm trying to be crafty nowdays!!

Isn't my husband one hunk of hunkiness?!

None of us had stuff to carve pumpkins with so we went to Walmart and then went to the other Smith's to carve and paint!  Tess and I went the artsy fartsy way while the guys and Caroline carved.  Granted, I did hollow out the guts of ours.  Nate just carved one pumpkin since space was limited.  We have another bigger pumpkin to still carve! 

Ours looks pretty good all lit up!

General Conference Weekend

I didn't even blog in September!  Soooo my excuse is that I haven't even gotten my laptop out in over a month.  I think I'll go and backdate some blogs that happened in September so that when I look back at my blog I don't feel like such a bad person.

Two weeks ago we headed down to SLC for General Conference!  We left Friday morning since Nate doesn't have Friday classes and I don't work on Fridays.  We had multiple things to get done while in Utah on Friday.  First, we stopped by Provo to see Eli.  He had stuff to do that evening and so did we so we only spent about 45 minutes with him.  We took him to Walmart though to do some shopping so it was productive time.

Next, we headed up to Lehi to go to the outlets.  It's our sick addiction.  Outlet stores are so tempting!!!  Nate got a new pair of Nike's and I got a new dress and sweater from J. Crew.  I think we've been to these outlets 4ish times and we always go to Nike and never buy anything so it was about time he got a pair of shoes.  I, on the other hand, always end up getting something haha  It's bad.

After the outlets we headed further north to Draper to hit up IKEA.  We got an unexpected gift of money recently and decided that furniture is what we wanted to spend it on.  Nate has been looking at furniture online for MONTHS so we thankfully already knew what we wanted.  I'll have a post about what we got in the future.

After IKEA, we drove further north to Murray, UT to head to our favorite Desert Star Theater to see Dracula!  This was the third show we've seen at this theater and we love it!!  Highly recommended for anyone traveling through Murray.  Family friendly entertainment, great actors and free popcorn!  It's a dinner theater and we usually eat somewhere else but this time we couldn't wait to eat so we got a pizza there.

After the theater we headed further north again to Salt Lake City where we spent the night.  What an exciting day!

On Saturday we went to the first session of General Conference.  With 20,000+ Mormons walking around you are bound to run into people you know.  On our way out I ran into one of the PAs I work with and his family as well as a guy I knew from doing the Hill Cumorah Pageant five years ago.  I'm kind of surprised I didn't see more people I knew haha  We watched the afternoon session in our hotel room and then the boys went to the Priesthood session in the evening.  During that time I decided to walk around the mall for a bit and then stay in my room and read a book.  It was nice to have some quiet time to myself!

After that session we all (Nate's parents and brother) went out to dinner at Texas de Brazil.  YUM!!  I've never been to a Brazilian steakhouse before so I suggested it and I sure am glad I did!  The food was fabulous and our server was hilarious.  She was from Brazil, close to where Nate served his mission, so they were able to talk Portuguese which was fun to listen to.  For the record, my favorite meat was the lamb.

Sunday was more conference.  We watched the morning session in the hotel and then had tickets to the later one.  I actually got pictures this time!

With our nieces Taycie and Kambrie.

After dinner on Sunday we headed back up to Rexburg.  Not my favorite drive but I stayed awake the entire time to keep Nate company.  I think we watched a movie or something but I don't remember.  Probably Everybody Loves Raymond actually...it's our secret-not-so-secret addiction.

Well, there ya have it!  One update on one thing we did in the last month together!  It really is fantastic having Nate back home with me.

The Straw Maze

Friday night date night is my favorite!  Especially when we get to go with friends!  Tonight we went to the Haunted Straw Maze with our friends Brian and Tess.  I have only been to a haunted maze one other time and a haunted house once.  Let me just say, haunted things are not my favorite!  I like adrenaline rushes from things like roller coasters....not crazy, bloody, creepy, scary creatures.  Tess and Brian actually said they were talking ahead of time about how funny it would be to go with us because we'd both be scared but Nate would probably act all tough anyways.  We haven't been friends for that long and they know us so well already :)

We had to wait in line for about an hour and then we were speedy quick through the maze and finished in about 35 minutes.  It actually wasn't too bad...although I did not let Nate get far from me!

Brian and Tess need to work on their scared faces.  We've mastered ours.