Rejoice!

We had a great weekend. Beau got us tickets to see "The Foreigner" at Pioneer Theatre Company. It is one of my favorite plays, and I thought Beau would enjoy it, so we went on Saturday afternoon. We both enjoyed it immensely. We had front row tickets. Beau always tells people that we were close enough to see the actors spit when they talked, so that was a big highlight.

Since we were downtown we decided to stay and eat at the Blue Iguana. It's a good Mexican restaurant. (Here's a tip for those people who get the newspaper here, every couple of weeks or a month there's a 2 for 1 deal for the Blue Iguana that you can use!) We had a good dinner, where we forgot to take the boxed up leftovers with us. So for the second time at the same restaurant, Beau had to run back to the table to snatch the box before it got thrown away. Good times!

After that we decided to go see the lights at Temple Square. It had been snowing all day, so we were worried that it would be cold. We got the blankets out of the trunk, wrapped them around us and headed off. It was a beautiful night, not too cold and not very crowded. It was fun to walk around and see what was different about the lights this year. It was a red tree year, so that was fun for me. (The red tree is one that is right next to the Temple that they cover in red lights. They used to do it every year, but since it's getting so big they trade off years. I was excited to see it this year.) The other thing that changed is the White Way of Delight (that's only my name for it) by the Assembly Hall is now the Orange Way of Delight. It was one of my favorite spots because it reminds me of the scene in Anne of Green Gables where they are driving from the train station, and they go down the road where the trees are in blossom. She names it the White Way of Delight, hence the name I chose. It's different with orange lights, but I can't complain because it is my favorite color.


Here are a few of the pictures we were able to get.



We got compliments on our blankets from one lady. Who knew they were "beautiful"?

















I love how you can see the lights through the snow. The lights with new snow is so beautiful!












This is part of the Red Tree, but the picture does not do it justice. However, Beau is good looking! (He didn't know I was going to take this picture.)

It was a great weekend, and we really got in the Christmas Spirit. Now we listen to is Christmas music a lot. We are excited to spend our first Christmas together, and with both our families. That's right, we are going to see both our families on Christmas Day. We are flying to Seattle on Christmas morning! We are so excited. My family gets together and has a big party on Christmas Eve, so we'll be here for that and be able to see them on Christmas morning, then we'll go celebrate with Beau's family, where we'll ring in the New Year!

We hope everyone is enjoying the season. It's a fun, busy time of the year. We are so grateful that Christ was born, bringing hope to the world. We are very blessed by the sacrifices He made. Rejoice is my favorite Christmas word because we have so much to be happy about. We wish you all the very best through this season, and through out the year!

Thank Goodness!!

What a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend (really it was almost a week)! We were able to go out to Arkansas on Tuesday and stayed until Friday. It was fun to see Joel, Becca, Colby, Keegan and Cam. Joel and Becca treated us like kings, and we had a wonderful FEAST! It was fun for me to get to know them all better, and fun for Beau to hang out with the fam. Here are some fun pictures of our trip.

Mostly I got pictures of Colby and Keegan. They also had a turn taking pictures, so here are the ones that turned out well.

Here's Colby doing his Spiderman moves.

Hey Cam!

Becca and Keegan saying hello early in the morning.

The last part of our weekend, I was very thankful for. We came back from Arkansas on Friday because we had tickets to the BYU vs. Utah football game at BYU. It gets pretty intense, so it's nice to have it done with. It was a fun game, except for about 20 minutes in the 4th quarter, when I had to give my self the it's-just-a-game-and-it's-okay-if-BYU-doesn't-win-speech. Without the help of my faith, they were able to pull off a touchdown with 34 seconds left. Then the defense stepped it up, and BYU won. It was pretty exciting. The fans rushed the field...ahh to be a student again. It was fun, and the most intense game Beau has been to in the two seasons he's been attending games. He was even clapping and yelling to help the defense. I'm pretty sure he's going to even BE a BYU fan one of these years. It took my brother-in-law (who is actually a U fan) 5 years to start wearing blue to the games. So, there's still hope for Beau. He wears blue, but it's usually a Utah State shirt. Oh well, it's fun anyway. Here's a picture of the field after the game. Go Cougars!!

All in all, it was a great weekend. We were able to go to church on Sunday, and then hang out with a couple in our ward. It was fun to get to know them better. Now, it's back to work... until Christmas break! Wahooo!

Football... a season of it's own.

We have season tickets to BYU this season. It's been fun, but the weather is so unpredictable. We go prepared for all seasons. Here is a picture from the Homecoming game on Oct. 20th. Yep it snowed big, puffy flakes for part of the 3rd and all of the 4th quarters. We could not see the other corner of the stadium. It was fun!

Here's a picture from the game last Saturday (Nov. 3rd). It was bright and sunny the whole time. Beau got sunburned, but only on the left side of his face. It was warm, but not hot so we enjoyed the day!

Beau is good luck, just so you know. This is his second season going to games, and he has never seen BYU lose at home. Hopefully that will continue as we play Utah at home this year.

Pumpkin Carving...sort of...

So, we went to Raquel and Eric's house to do some pumpkin carving. By the time we arrived (an hour late) most of the carving was done. So we just hung out with the family. It was fun to talk and hang out without having to go anywhere. So, here's the picture of our attempt at doing something festive. (I know there is nothing festive about this picture.)

As we were sitting there, Beau decided to try to make a master piece out of Haley's hair. Here's the result.

Hopefully you can see the result. She's really happy about it, can't you tell?

FYI--Beau had the pleasure of changing Haley's diaper because he said he'd never changed one before. Haley obliged, and Beau was able to change his first diaper. I'm pretty sure they have a special bond now. Way to go BEAU!

It's all Greek to me...

Last Friday, Jon and Donnarae came over and we made dinner. They do this cool thing where they pick a food genre then go to an authentic market and get the ingredients and make dinner. We chose to do Greek/Mediterranean. We made some stuff that I don't know what it called, but it was good. (You can look at Donnarae's blog to see what it was that we made, I'm sure she'll put it on there.) It turned out well. The cucumber sauce turned out to be garlic sauce, but other than that, it was a success. We didn't get to go to a Greek market because it was closed, but it was still fun. Then afterward we talked for a while. It was great!

Thanks Donnarae and Jon for hanging out with us!

Visitors

I stole this from Mookie's blog, but I thought it was so funny that I had to post it too. Since I have extra time, I'm always looking at people's blogs. I'm not sure I would keep up on this one... but it wouldn't surprise me.


Enjoy!

I'm still laughing...

All answers...

Kristi tagged me to answer these questions after she did, so I being the true tag-me-and-I-will-respond-kind-of-friend here goes. (If you want to see a really creative answer to this tag, click on Bassetts under the interesting reads, she did a great job!)

What were you doing 10 years ago? I was starting my first semester at BYU. Living on my own for the first time, living with roommates (two people I'd never met before), and trying to understand why it was so weird to have to buy my own toilet paper. I mean really, it was always there for 18 years, and then all of a sudden I had to take care of it. Basically, I was growing up.

What were you doing 5 years ago? I had spent the summer working at Oakcrest, and I was probably still trying to catch up on my sleep. When I wasn't sleeping, I was working at the Boys and Girls Club, specifically Copperview Elementary in Midvale. Oh, the stories I could tell about those kids... so funny!

One Year Ago. . . I was falling deeply in love with Beau, and wondering if we would end up together or not. I'm so glad I never have to wonder again! And I had just started working at Granger High School to complete my internship for my master's degree, and working at Redwood Elementary teaching social skills. Again, the stories I could tell about those kids... SO funny!

Yesterday. . . I worked all day (writing something akin to a grant, it's my lot in life I've decided), then I went home where my fantastic husband had our dinner already started (in the crock pot) and it smelled so heavenly. Then we ate dinner and watched We Are Marshall. It was so good, and yes I got all choked up several times, even though I'd seen it before. I know, me crying, what a shocker...

5 snacks that I enjoy. . . I'm working on letting Beau rub off on me so I want to snack on healthy things like carrots, Wheat Thins and other things like that, but it hasn't happened yet. There's still hope, I promise.
Starbursts
Fritos
My mom's fresh salsa and chips
pickles
popcorn (the really salty buttery kind)


Five things I would do with a million dollars...
Buy a house
Pay for Beau's schooling and go to school again myself
Build cabins at Bear Lake for my family
Quit my job and work at Redwood
Take my dream trip to Prince Edward Island (so I can finally pretend I'm Anne of Green Gables)

Five places I would run away to. . .
Nauvoo
Alaska (I've always wanted to be from there, I don't know why)
Oakcrest (only if I have no responsibility,and all the fun people that I worked with before come with me, and we get to make ash cakes and not carry any dutch ovens up East)
Bear Lake
Greece (just to see what it's like because I've never been there) and if I don't like that, I'll go to my parent's house because they pamper me.

Five TV shows I like... I know, these are all really boring, but ever since Alias took over my life when it was on, I don't want to get into any show that I have to watch all the time.
Alias
Ed
Friends
Reba
What I like about you


Five things I hate...
Cleaning (though I LOVE ironing)
Blood and veins (there are lots of vein commercials on KSL these days and it really grosses me out!)
When my dad is disappointed in me. (I'd like to know the secret to instilling that in your kids)
Missing the kickoff at a BYU football game.
Getting out of bed in the mornings. No I am not depressed. It doesn't matter what time it is, I just hate getting up. I think it's so rude to have to get out of a nice warm bed to go do something that can never be as nice as just laying there soaking in the warmth.


Five people that I tag...
Beau
Jen
Donnarae
Cricket
Aunt Delilas

Teenagers

So, we have been staying for the last few days with my nieces and nephews. This is the easiest "babysitting" job in the world. There are four of them, but they are in 11th grade, 10th grade, 8th grade and 4th grade. They pretty much take care of themselves. So for us, it's a time to hang out with them, and get caught up on the movies we haven't seen. It's great!
Last night the older two were out, and I was ready to go to bed, but I couldn't because they weren't home yet. Now my parents weren't the wait-up-all-night-until-I-got-home kind of parents. They were the wake-me-up-when-you-get-home-and-I'll-try-to-remember-that-I-talked-to-you kind of parents. I never really minded that much because even though my dad would sometimes ask me the next morning if I checked in, I was always worried that he would remember the times when I got home at 2 AM. I never had a curfew, so that wasn't ever a problem, except that I would feel bad.
Anyway, so I am very different from my parents. I would probably fall a sleep if I went to bed before they got home, but I wouldn't have really gotten any sleep. I would have dreamed all night about all the awful things that had happened to the kids because my brain didn't know if they were home or not. So, it's better for me to stay up until I know they are home okay.
I'm not really sure why I felt like sharing this with the world...except maybe to ask the question: do most teens appreciate when their parents wait up for them to get home, or do they wish the could come in with out bothering with parents? I'm just curious.
Lucky for me, these in particular teens are fantastic and called to let me know when they would be home, and it wasn't that late. What I'd really like to know is how you mold such good kids!?!

Some fun things we did over the summer.

I graduated from Utah State in School Counseling. You can call me Master Allisun if you would like. Only Kristi has eve called me that. The thing that got me through the hard times during school was picturing myself being hooded. This is me finally living my dream.

Thanks for the support!

Then we went camping to Current Creek with some family. We camped (in my parent's 5th wheel), went 4-wheeling and had lots of fun. It was a great weekend!
We went on a long 4-wheeling ride, and saw some beaver dams, it was pretty interesting. We got to enjoy a lot of nature as well. We were quite dirty when we got back.




Then we went to Oakcrest (a girls camp I where I worked for a couple of summers) to see old friends and support the new staff. It was fun to be able to show Beau a place the changed my life. And we got to see the beautiful sunset from the softball field, so it was perfect!


The we spent some time at Grandpa and Grandma Lilya's house. We got to be there for the reunion. We were able to go to the Idaho Falls Temple and do baptisms, confimations and sealings with aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and siblings. It was a wonderful experience, and one I will never forget! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

Bellevue Reception

Here we are at the reception in Bellevue. It was so beautiful. Ma Cartier did a great job planning and setting everything up. Thanks for making it so wonderful! And thanks to all those who helped! We had a great time!

The place was in this quaint shopping center. For those of you in Utah, kind of like Gardner Village. You walked up the stair and on one side were all the tables beautifully decorated with fresh flowers, mostly tulips, in all colors, orange votive candles and pictures. It was AMAZING!

Here's a great picture of the other side of the room. The table had all the food. There was fantastic chicken salad sandwiches on croissants and salad (so yummy!), and of course more flowers and candles. It was BEAUtiful!

This is the guest book table. Of course it was so beautifully decorated. Everything went together so well. Thanks to Jen for making our guest book!

This is what was in the middle of each table. Beautiful flowers and candles.

A fantastic idea! There was a candy bar. Each guest was able to fill up a bag with treats. They were all in bright colors to match the theme... SWEET!

There was also a cookie table, so everyone could have a cookie or take it home with them. They were also fantastic. Another fantastic idea!

Time for the Disclaimer: Beau will have to come in and update all the pictures with names of all the fantastic friends from Bellevue. (Then we know they will all be correct.) He's pretty busy these days taking a tax class and working a lot for mini tax season. Who knew there was such a thing, but there is from now until October 15th. Wish him well.

Our first dance. We had never danced together before, and I never wanted to dance at our wedding, but after our reception in Bellevue we couldn't pass up on the great dance floor. So they found some music for us, and we danced for a while. It was to "My Girl". The best part is, I really enjoyed it. (I learned something about myself that day. It wasn't dancing I didn't like; it was dancing with anyone besides Beau that I didn't like. Good thing we got married!)

See I'm even smiling!

Almost five months ago....

We were getting married. Mom said, "five months is a drop in the bucket compared to eternity." I figure that means it's okay that it took us so long to pick out pictures from our wedding. Here are a few highlights. (These are pre-Lindy-making-them-look-perfect, thanks Lindy!) We hope you enjoy them.

We will post the Bellevue reception pictures as soon as we buy a cord and get them off of our camera. They are good ones too, so don't forget to come back and visit.

We love you all! Thanks for making our wedding so wonderful!

Coming out of the Jordan River Temple. For Allisun it was a hometown wedding. She grew up in South Jordan, Utah and that's where all the festivities took place.

Aaaawwww.... so cute together.

Seriously, Beau is so funny!

Colby gave us this flower when we came out of the Temple, so Beau decided to wear it.

Again, so funny. What a great day! It was a little cold, so someone brought me my sweater to put on my arms.

A little garden nook on the side of the temple. Beautiful flowers!

Beau is doing his "cool guy" walk. Allisun is giving him a big belly laugh. Flattering for both of us, we know.

It was the perfect time to get married, the Temple grounds had the most beautiful tulips (Allisun's favorite flower) in beautiful colors. Even the trees were blossoming. It was a perfect, rainy, Spring day.

We're running accross the lawn... I'm not sure why...

This is perfect for me. Care to guess why?

The most fantastic cakes in the world. Ashlie made them all, and it was fantastic. Everyone should have Ashlie make their wedding cake. She is so easy to work with, and does great work! I might be a little biased because she has been my friend for almost 20 years. But the picture shows how great the cakes are. Thanks Ashlie! We served most of it at the reception. Cake and ice cream... it was more like a birthday party, but that's okay!

Most of the nieces and nephews. I wish we could have put all the pictures of them on here. They are all pretty funny. What a cute group of kids!

The Cartier kids.

Friends!! Thanks girls for keeping me sane! I love you all!

We had two beautiful receptions! Thanks for everyone who made them beautiful! It was such a wonderful day! We were delighted with how everything turned out. And we are so happy (can ya tell?)