Our New Love - Guitar Hero!!!

When Kevin and I were home for Christmas, we were introduced to Guitar Hero, but little did we know that just months later we would be the proud owners of our newest favoritist game in the whole wide world!!! Seriously, Kevin and I are the lamest people in the world - we stand in our living room holding plastic guitars that we decorated with the cool rocker stickers that came with the game and play songs by pushing 5 colored buttons while notes stream forward on the TV screen...and we love it! I feel super lame, but at the same time it is so much fun! I have never really been into video games before (mostly because I am super incompetent when it comes to those stinkin controlers!) but can actually play guitar hero and have fun (unlike playing first person shooter games where Kevin just kills me over and over again!).

Part of the game is forming a band and performing without getting booed off the stage and right now Kevin and I are playing on Hard and Medium respectively. Yes, I have actually spent enough time playing to advance from easy to medium (and yes, Kevin has actually spent enough time to advance to hard!). Hopefully Kevin's grades don't suffer because he is seriously getting good at this game!

Kevin's rockin' out!

See how cool my guitar is!

Just in case you've never seen what it looks like :)

This is an invitation for all of you to come over and play with us and feel like a real rocker! I promise you'll love it and after a couple of songs you'll get the hang of it!

A Weekend Trip to Raleigh, North Carolina

Living in Williamsburg, Virginia has a lot of perks - but its "proximity" to a temple is NOT one of them. Kevin and I have both been spoiled by growing up in states with temples within close driving distance, so moving to Virginia has been somewhat trying in terms of how close we are to the temple. Sure, Washington, D.C. looks to be pretty close to Williamsburg on the map...but try driving it, going to the temple, and then driving back - it is a MISERABLE experience! For some reason, Virginia hasn't realized that the I-95 is a highly travelled road and might warrant more than, say, two or three lanes! Virginia has awful roads...but that is a rant for another post.

Kevin and I knew that it was about time we get our hinies to the temple, but we just couldn't bring ourselves to battling traffic for 3 hours each way...so we decided to make a fun weekend out of going to the temple and decided that we would rather drive 3.5 leasurely hours to the Raleigh temple than the 3 hours of white nuckle driving to the Washington DC temple.

Kevin planned the entire trip by himself and had a couple of surprises along the way. We drove down Saturday morning and stopped for lunch at Panda Express - conveniently located just a mile from the temple! As a side note, Kevin and I just love Panda Express, but the closest one to us is about an hour way, so whenever we go home to Utah or California we engorge ourselves in Panda just to quench our thirst for orange chicken!

The Raleigh temple is one of the smaller, cuter ones and it was a beautiful day, so we snapped some pictures for all of you to enjoy!







After the temple, we checked into our hotel room and took a much needed nap (doesn't it always seem like you need a nap after?). We took a wonderful nap and then got ready for dinner - Kevin had made reservations at Sullivan's Steakhouse and so we drove into the downtown part of Raleigh and ate dinner at a very delicious (very expensive!) restaurant - they had VERY good food!

The next morning we slept in and then drove home, but we stopped for lunch at the most amazing place - Logan's Roadhouse. If you have ever been there you would know why they are so amazing. The food is mediocre at best, but the serve fresh and hot buttery rolls that are to DIE for - if you ever see one, stop and enjoy a hot roll!

Anyway, I am just so glad we could get away for the weekend. With my work, we couldn't take a vacation for spring break, so I am glad we could get out of town - if even for a night!

A Californian Christmas (2007)

It seems like Christmas was ages ago, but it was really just 2 months ago (as of tomorrow!)...how time flies! For this Christmas, we went to my parent's home in Yorba Linda, California - the home that I grew up in and the only home that my parents have ever owned. What? You've never heard of Yorba Linda? For the history buff, Yorba Linda is the birthplace of the late Richard Nixon and now houses his Presidential Library. Yorba Linda is located in Orange County in Southern California next to Anaheim (think Disneyland) and 45 miles outside of Los Angeles.

The last two Christmas' we have spent in Utah, so I was really excited to spend Christmas with my brothers, sister and my wonderful parents (not that I don't love a white Christmas with the Grady's!). Here are just a few shots from Christmas morning:

Say hello to my sister-in-law, Tracy! Tracy is married to my oldest brother Steve - they make a great pair! I love Tracy!

Say hello to my little sister, Stacie, and my second oldest brother, Mark - Mark is pretending to be asleep, I guess!

Stacie and me!

Me and my honey!

This is my brother Steve. Steve is a pilot in the Airforce and after flying F-16s now flies jets for Special Ops.

So, funny story - On Christmas morning, my dad received a very strange gift from my mom - a bunch of headbands? My dad is bald (as you can see) so, was my mom being ironic? No, she just mislabeled the box, but it was pretty funny when my dad opened the box and pulled out several cute headbands and then gave a very confused look...

I had to get a shot of him wearing one!

I love Christmas and am so fortunate to have wonderful parents and parents-in-law that make sure that we can celebrate Christmas with our family, whether we can afford the very expensive plane tickets or not...thank you! One day (when Kevin is bringing in a paycheck!) maybe we won't need to have our parents buy our tickets! So many things to look forward to! It sounds silly, but I am so excited for the day when Kevin and I are actually financially stable and independent. Mom, Dad, Artis, and Lionel - thank you for getting us to that day!

Looking Back - Thanksgiving 2007

From time to time, I want to post some older pictures that predated our blog, and I am going to start with last thanksgiving. Just like many married couples, we are on a holiday schedule that enables us to spend time with both of our families over the holidays and to be there at the same time as our other married siblings. Well, in 2007 we spent Thanksgiving at the Grady's in Cedar City, Utah and Christmas at the Chapman's in Yorba Linda, California.

Traditionally, when we visit Utah, we plan our trip around a ski day at Brian Head, just 45 minutes from the Grady house...but unfortunately, this was a snow-less Thanksgiving and we were unable to go skiing. Kevin and I were very disappointed! So, instead of skiing, we took a day and went to Zion National Park, which is about an hour from Kevin's parent's house. We had a lot of fun hiking and picnicking in the beautiful park.

Here are some of our pictures from our day at Zion:

Kevin is looking at something - not sure what!

On the trail...

Me on the trail...

Looking up at the steep canyon walls...

We made it to the end of the trail!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Taking cue from many of you, I decided to take pictures of everyday things around my apartment to post and to show you...and what is better than V-day decorations? I love holidays and always decorate our apartment for the appropriate season...but I never have to buy my decorations because my wonderful mother sends me a package full of fun things for every decoration-worthy holiday (thanks, mom!). So, here we go!

A cute pink platter with heart shaped sparkling candles and yummy raspberry kisses.

Harry the Wild Thing came to our little family on our first married Valetine's Day and has been with us ever since - he has survived a couple of moves already and hopes to see a few more in the future!

I love teddy bears!

Now, I apologize if this piece offends any of my blog visitors, but it is dear to my heart! At BYU I was a humanities major and this is a miniture version of my favorite statue that I studied - The Kiss by Rodin. I think I told Kevin early in our marriage that I loved the piece and on my last birthday he surprised me with this marble masterpiece! It is such a beautiful statue!

My husband is such a wonderful man! He started our Valenine's Day celebration a little early this year as he surprised me with roses in my office today - it turns out that flower delivery is $10 cheaper the day before Valentine's Day so Kevin had them delivered today. Some may find that cheap, but I don't! I now get to enjoy my flowers all V-day long!

Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful Vday too! I love you Kevin!

Blog Insecurites

I have now spent HOURS searching online for a template I can live with...and I can now say that I love our little blog! I found a great template (the background of the one you see) but it was all in black and white and while I love the look, I wanted just a little more color....so, being the genius that I am (not really!) I manipulated the HTML code to bring in the light blue and you know what? I think it looks pretty great! I was so worried about the blog looking cute mostly because I have seen so many amazing blogs (all of yours!) and I have to keep up in cuteness. I have also noticed that many of you are quite amazing photographers (check out the Moon's blog for cute everyday shots - you are amazing Elizabeth!)...I guess I need to carry my camera around with me more. You all inspire me!

Christmas Card Pictures

Just in case you didn't receive our Christmas card (sorry!) I wanted to post some of our favorite Christmas card pictures. A special thank you, of course, to our fabulous photographer Kelly Crawford! She did a great job and we were more than pleased with her gratis work - thanks Kelly!

This is the main photo that we used. It almost looks like a fake background, but I promise it is real!