On the 12th Day of Christmas

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . .

12 Months of Marriage

Our one year anniversary is on the 28th, so I thought 12 months of marriage would be the perfect gift for the 12th day of Christmas.

Amy and I had our first kiss on a date that I took her on last year for her birthday. We went out to lunch, and then later in the evening I took her on a gondola ride at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Scottsdale, AZ. Then I took her to a man-made lake (Kiwanis Park in Tempe, AZ) where we laid a blanket down on the shore, played games, I sang happy birthday to her, we ate cupcakes, and she opened her birthday card which included, of course, coupons. One of the coupons was good for a kiss, which she redeemed immediately.

So for the 12th day of Christmas, 12 months of marriage means that we will be repeating this date, only this time we will have our wedding cake (saved from last year which follows tradition for the 1 year anniversary) to eat on the shoreline. We'll also be going to dinner and a movie with my parents, all my siblings and their spouses (called "spice" in my family since many mouses are called "mice"), which will also be celebrating my sister's and her husband's anniversary.

On the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

12 Months of Marriage
11 Scrapbook Pages
10 Favorite Coupons
9 Shopping Errands
8 Sibling Love Gifts
7 Holiday Favorites
6 Seconds Falling

5 Cell Phone Rings!!

4 Christmas Gifts
3 Mistletoe
2 Running Shoes

And a three-dimensional Christmas tree.

On the 11th Day of Christmas

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . .

11 Scrapbook Pages
(to be edited with her new scrapbooking software).

This was Amy's main Christmas gift. She wanted scrapbook software that lets her do scrapbooking digitally, and then print it into a book. Since the envelope had a star she didn't open it until Christmas day.

On the 10th Day of Christmas

On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . .

10 Favorite Coupons


I usually give Amy coupons for her birthday, but this seemed like a great opportunity to give her some more. A couple of notable coupons were washing the dishes, and making Sunday dinner; two things that Amy has said she would like me to do more often to help her out.

On the 9th Day of Christmas...

On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . .

9 Shopping Errands.

Although not a physical gift, I thought I'd help Amy finish the holiday shopping and it just so happened that there were exactly nine that we needed to do, most of which she had already done before the ninth day of Christmas. The card said that if she had finished them all already, then today's gift would be the good feeling that you get when something is finished (which I believe is one of the greatest gifts you can get). We still had my dad's Christmas present to get and we weren't able to do that because I was planning on getting him a somewhat specialized item that won't be available until February unless its ordered online, and in that case it won't arrive until after Christmas. I was hoping there was a shop in Las Vegas that we could drive to and buy it, but after I made some calls, I found out we can't get it yet except online.

So in the end, I didn't help her with any of the shopping she had done, and we didn't finish the holiday shopping so she didn't get the good feeling of being finished with something. Good thing I told her in advance that days 7, 8 and 9 weren't that exciting. 7 was a gift we already had, 8 was an activity that, although fun, is actually something she's helping me with, and 9 was something I was supposed to help her with but didn't. I think days 10, 11, and 12 are the best though. And she saved day 4 for Christmas. So the best is yet to come.

And I went jogging with her and she loves that.

Update: On Christmas Eve I ended up doing the final shopping for my Dad, and for Amy, so this gift was completed, just not on the 9th day.

On the 8th Day of Christmas...

On the eigth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . .

8 Sibling Love Gifts

I let Amy know that today's gift is a little more for me than for her, but that it would be a fun activity that we could do together. Every year my family does a rotation for each sibling to buy one other sibling a gift and then we each get each other a love gift, which is usually just a small gesture that costs little or no money. This year, for my love gift I decided to make a game show that I called "Theme Tune Recall". Its like "Name That Tune" but with TV show theme songs that I downloaded from televisiontunes.com. Amy helped me make the game board on a big magnetic white board and she was my lovely assistant ("Vana White") during the show, so she moved the game pieces and kept score. I was the host, so I explained the rules, asked questions and played the music.

On the 7th Day of Christmas...

One the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . .

7 Holiday Favorites
(Actually 6 holiday favorites and Cricket on the Hearth)

For the seventh day of Christmas I "surprised" Amy by giving her this DVD set which she bought a couple weeks ago at Costco. When I was deciding what to do for each day of Christmas, this was sitting on the table and it seemed perfect for the 7th day so I used it. I figured since my money is her money and vice versa, buying a gift for her is only a step away from her buying a gift for herself. In this case that's what she did. I warned her in advance that days 7, 8, and 9 weren't that exciting.

On the 6th Day of Christmas...

On the sixth Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . .

6 Seconds Falling

We had planned a few weeks ago to stop at 6 Flags Magic Mountain on our way home for Christmas. This would probably be the last time that we could use our season passes. Every time we went to 6 Flags there are two things that we always said we wanted to do sometime, but didn't because it costs extra money. I decided to give them both to Amy for Christmas. The first is the dive devil, a "15 story, 60 mph free fall". Basically they put you in these harnesses and strap you to a cable they have hanging from this really high arch. Then they pull you backwards (perpendicularly to the arch) with a pully system until you're almost as high as the arch itself. The whole time they were pulling us back Amy was saying, "I can't believe I let you talk me into this, oh, I don't want to do this" over and over again. The only thing I could was look straight down and notice how far away the ground was getting. Then they tell you on a speaker, "alpha, 1, 2, 3, pull" and you have to pull your own rip cord. For a split second your literally falling, but then the cable is taught and you begin swinging all the way down one way until you've reached the peak of the swing, then you swing back. After that you're still swinging a lot but those are the really, really, really scary parts.

The second was a funnel cake. They always have them at the front gate of the park where you enter and leave, and they always smell so good. Funnel cakes are kind of like noodle-shaped bread that has been fried together, so its a waffel-like scone. Amy's had chocolate syrup and powdered sugar and mine had strawberry toppings and powdered surgar. They were so big that we almost felt sick when we had finished eating them.

If Amy had chickened out of going on the dive devil, then her sixth day of Christmas would simply have been "6 Flags Magic Moutain", and if for some reason we weren't able to go 6 Flags at all (weather, etc.), then her gift would have been "6+ hours driving" to see here family in Boulder City for Christmas. (The drive is more like 9-10 hours). I'm glad it turned out the way it did. It was fun for us not only to do the stuff we haven't done yet, but to also go on our favorite rides the last time (at least for a few years). Amy's favorite ride is still the Tatsu, and mine is the X2.

(Amy opened her envelope on the sixth day, but we actually went on the seventh day, since my last final was on Friday)

On the 5th Day of Christmas...

On the 5th Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

5 Cell Phone Rings!

This gift is really for both of us. Rex has been annoyed by my ring tone for awhile now but I haven't done anything about it. He is going to show me how to download music to my phone. Thanks Rex!

P.S. Just in case you were wondering, I chose not to open day #4 yet.

On the 4th Day of Christmas...

On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

4 Christmas Gifts

Today's envelope has a Christmas star. That means that Amy has the choice of opening it today to see what her gift is, or saving it until Christmas. What will she decide?

She saved it until Christmas, so she didn't find out that the card really only revealed one of the 4 gifts and said that she had to wait until Christmas find out the other 3 anyway. This was my safety net for making sure she had gifts to unwrap on Christmas day. The 4 Christmas gifts were exactly what she asked for plus a piano hymn book that she needed since her old one was water damaged.

1. Spiraled Hymn Book for the piano
2. Exercise weights
3. Yoga/exercise matt
4. Jeans

On the 3rd Day of Christmas...

On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . .

3 mistletoe
(or two vaguely mistletoe-like things and a "missile" toe)


This was another gift that Amy received earlier than the day it was intended for. Last Saturday Amy mentioned that she needed some mistletoe for reasons we won't explain here. So it seemed like better timing to let her open the bag for her third day of Christmas then, which also meant that we got to enjoy it longer.

On the 2nd Day of Christmas...

On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . .

Two Running Shoes

Today's envelope has a Christmas star. That means that Amy has the choice of opening it today to see what her gift is, or saving it until Christmas. What will she decide?

I opened it! Two Running Shoes! I'm excited to try out Asics, I've heard they are good running shoes. Thanks for getting the podiatrist half off discount Rex!

On the 1st Day of Christmas...

On the first Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . .

"a three-dimensional Christmas tree!" (quoted from the card Rex gave me).

When I went out shopping last week I ALMOST bought us a little tree a few times and then decided not to because I knew we would be out of town for Christmas. Rex suggested pulling out the tree that his family sent him on his mission to hang up on the wall (yes, he saves everything!). I didn't really want to but then I figured it was better than nothing. So we taped it up on Saturday and decided we could tape the decorations to it on Sunday so Rex could study some more. He left to go study at the library and when he came home he brought me a little tree. He could tell that I was bummed about not having a tree so he went and got one. What a great guy! He informed me that I will get a little gift each day until Christmas. Stay tuned...

November Update

December is already half over and I still need to catch up on November. Rex has been studying hard and as of today he is done with 3 of the 8 finals he has to take. Pray for him next week! Here are a few things that we (mostly me) have been doing lately...

We finally hung something up on the wall after having lived here almost a year. It feels so much more homey now. I guess I should have done it sooner.

I went to see Twilight with about 30 women from my ward. Here we are waiting in line with a bunch of high school girls to get into the theater. It was the best ladies night ever! (Thanks for letting me steal pictures from your blogs.)

Don't Alice (aka Karen) and Britney look awesome? Watch out humans!

I've been busy babysitting, teaching Cubscouts on Tuesdays, and teaching a primary class on Sundays. Last Sunday some prophets came to talk to us. The kids LOVED it! Our new primary presidency is the greatest.

This pictures explains itself. I have been cooking and baking a lot! This was the first time I tried the Italian sandwich, the broccoli and cheese chowder and the rolls. The rolls turned out mini because our house was freezing cold and they wouldn't rise (or because it was about 11pm and I didn't want to stay up and wait for them). They all tasted yummy, but now I am seeing the negative consequences...does anyone need a running buddy?

We flew to Las Vegas to visit my family for Thanksgiving. I cut Rex's hair about a week before we left and told him I wanted him to grow a beard. Doesn't it look good? I think he looks hot but it is a bit scratchy. Anyway, we had fun with my family in Nevada. Steve cooked our turkey in a deep fryer. This was the first time we have tried it that way and it was DELICIOUS. If you haven't tried it before you need to at least once. We had fun eating, playing a little football, helping mom put up the Christmas lights and the tree, and playing Ticket to Ride. We also got to hike to some hot springs with our cousins.

We found one hot spring that was hot enough to get in but we decided not too. We didn't want to be wet and cold on the hike back to the car. We saw some pretty waterfalls and pools and enjoyed one another's company. By the end we got a pretty good workout. There was a lot of rock climbing involved in the hike. Thanks guys it was fun!

One More Angel

Susan Mortensen Turley
May 7, 1983-December 5, 2008

There is one more angel in heaven today...my friend Susan passed away last night. She was my friend and visiting teacher in Arizona while I was engaged to Rex. She also got engaged during that time and married her husband Justin in January. She found out that she had colon cancer in the beginning of July and has been dealing with everything that that entails since then. She was so strong and optimistic throughout her battle with cancer and she kept a blog of her thoughts along the way. What an amazing woman!

Although I am very sad to hear the news, I'm glad to know that now she isn't in anymore pain. At times like this I have always been comforted to know the Plan of Salvation and that families can be together forever. I am so grateful for my testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Having gotten married so close together, Susan's situation has greatly humbled me at times when I am impatient and selfish in my marriage. I've been reminded that I have to try harder to not let little things bother me and that I need to be happy now and live life to the fullest. Thanks Susan for your friendship and example. I will miss you!

Love Notes

The other day I found a little love note from Rex under the fruit bowl. Of course I loved that and thanked him right away. He told me that he had hidden another note and that it would be harder to find. I didn't think about it for awhile and then I found it. It really wasn't another note. Rex took a picture of the first note he wrote and I saw it when I was downloading the pictures off of my camera.

I also found this picture....

Rex wanted some proof that I hog the covers!
(I needed some extra warmth because Rex was staying up late to study.)

Voting and Proposition 8

I have a confession to make. This is the first election I have voted in! My excuses are that in the 2000 election I wasn't 18 yet when everyone was registering to vote during senior year. In 2004 I was on my mission in Canada. I know I could have voted by mail but I felt like I didn't feel informed enough to really vote. Rex and I have tried to do our best to follow the church's council "to study the issues and candidates carefully and prayerfully, and then to vote for and actively support those [we] believe will most nearly carry out [our] ideas of good government." So we figured out what we wanted to do and then we went and voted on Saturday at the courthouse. Rex has class almost all day on Tuesday so we decided to go and get it over with.


Although we haven't actively supported certain candidates we have been supporting Proposition 8. This topic has been one of concern, especially here in Berkeley. I attended a special church broadcast in October that urged church members to do everything they can to help support this cause. I have friends that deal with same gender attraction, I love them and believe that God loves us all equally. After attending the church broadcast I read an article called The Divine Institution of Marriage that I already posted about here. I also read an interview done with Elder Oaks and Elder Wickman on the issue of same-sex attraction. Both of these articles helped me greatly in understanding this important issue.


One of Elder Wickman's quotes that really stood out to me was this, "For openers, marriage is neither a matter of politics, nor is it a matter of social policy. Marriage is defined by the Lord Himself. It's the one institution that is ceremoniously performed by priesthood authority in the temple [and] transcends this world. It is of such profound importance… such a core doctrine of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, of the very purpose of the creation of this earth. One hardly can get past the first page of Genesis without seeing that very clearly. It is not an institution to be tampered with by mankind, and certainly not to be tampered with by those who are doing so simply for their own purposes. There is no such thing in the Lord's eyes as something called same-gender marriage."

Rex and I believe this and feel that it is worth standing up for. On Saturday morning some of our friends that live in Oakland called and asked us if we wanted to help by holding signs at a big intersection in Oakland. Although we got soaked to the bone by the rain and got many mean glances and words, we also saw others who were in support of our cause. I've never done something like that before and I have to admit that I was a bit upset when we drove by an hour later and all of the signs we put up were taken down (isn't that illegal?). However, I am glad I did it!

We talked with a couple of the No supporters that were there and I really wished I had a picture of our friend Derek sharing his umbrella with one of the No supporters. Seeing them stand there together, each with their opposite campaign signs gave me hope that no matter what happens that we can all treat one another with respect and love.

Happy Halloween

We didn't have enough time to get our great costume idea together so we decided to save it for next year. Instead of going to Rex's school party we decided to carve our pumpkin and watch a scary movie. Rex carved the witch pumpkin while I made some yummy pumpkin seeds. I made the little bat pumpkin the week before. We ended up watching the movie Fire in the Sky (the first scary movie Rex ever saw). I don't like super scary movies so that one was perfect.

Busy Weekend

I went to Utah last weekend for two major reasons, the first was my friend Catharine's wedding and the second was the first Roylance Family Reunion (well, at least for the younger generation). Did I take my camera to either of these events? No! I hate it when I do that!

Anyway, other than the fact that Rex didn't get to come with me I had a great time seeing my family and my best friends/roommates/mission companions. I flew in on Thursday night and stayed with my cousin Lindsay and her cute family. Thanks for letting me crash on your couch! She has a funny recent blog post for all of you mom's out there. Check it out here.

I realized on Thursday at about midnight that I forgot to bring my temple recommend for the wedding. So I called and woke up my bishop in CA super early to make sure I had the right number. When I got to the temple they said that they didn't need to call him because they can just check it on the computer with the new bar code. Sweet!

The wedding was beautiful and my friend Catharine looked gorgeous. It happened to be the first snow in Utah this weekend and it was freezing. Luckily Catharine was smart and had a cute red velvet jacket to wear with her dress. (All the other freezing brides were jealous of her I'm sure). I had fun with Kat and Laura at the luncheon and then we went and bought a wedding gift together.

All three of my siblings go to BYU and my mom and Steve drove up from Vegas for the weekend. That night I met up with them for dinner and got to see my brother's stitches. He went to one of those trampoline places where you bounce into foam pits. He jumped too far and hit his head on the carpeted edge of the pit. He got 40 stitches in his head and now he will have a Harry Potter scar!

Me and Brandon posing for a scar picture

Friday night I spent the night at my friend Jenni Mae's house. Her husband is gone for an internship in Washington D.C. for the semester so we got to stay up late and chat. On Saturday morning I got to go to breakfast with my friend Melanie and eat some yummy french toast. Then my sister took me to get my haircut which was long overdue. I was really excited about it but she didn't cut off enough (I asked her to cut 6 inches). So now I'm a bit disappointed. I was going to post before and after pics but you can hardly tell a difference. Darn!

Then we headed off to the family reunion where we had lunch and played some games. The highlight of the afternoon was the broom hockey game. My uncle bought about 20 brooms from the dollar store and every broom broke after the first or second whack at the ball. It was pretty funny to watch. Hopefully I'll get some pics or video of it soon.

After the reunion everyone headed off to the BYU football game against New Mexico. It brought back fond memories of my BYU days. They won the game, but sadly their undefeated streak is over after this past week. We still love you...GO COUGARS!

Me and Crystal

On Sunday I went with my sister to her BYU single's ward because it was the same one I lived in before I met and married Rex. It was fun to see the few people that were still there. After church I went to visit my friend Crystal who was in town from Arkansas. We were roommates at the Y four years ago and we finally go to see eachother again. After a yummy dinner and card games with family that night I was exhausted. What a great weekend!

The Divine Institution of Marriage

If you haven't read the church's article on marriage I highly recommend it! Click here to read it.
I know I am long overdue for a post. More to come tomorrow...

Lucky Weekend

Well, I guess it started off a bit unlucky with a little earthquake on Friday night. When we felt it Rex and I were literally looking through an emergency kit we just bought. Ironic huh?

Here are a few reasons we had a lucky weekend:

I went running on Saturday morning and happened to go by a garage sale that had the train game (Ticket to Ride) sitting out on the table. We've played it a few times with friends and thought it was really fun so I ran home and told Rex to go get it. He came home and said he bought if for $1 and when we opened it up we noticed that the cards were still wrapped in plastic. It was brand new!!!

That afternoon we went to Walnut Creek and Rex and his classmates played in their school softball tournament. They won the first three games to get to the championship game. I guess the luck started to run out a little in the final game but they still won $1200 for their class for winning second place.

DPMs Class of 2011. Go team!!!

Today our primary class of six 5 year old boys (our one girl wasn't there today) did awesome in sharing time and in class. After church Rex had to run back in to return a bat we had used for Stake softball. I was sitting in the car and one of our friends came over and invited us over for dinner that night. Thanks guys it was delicious!

This afternoon my long lost friend/college roommate called me (she found me through my sister's Facebook account). She lives in Arkansas and we haven't seen each other for more than 4 years. While we were catching up we realized that we were both going to be visiting family in Utah the same weekend in a few weeks!

I guess we'll see how the rest of the week goes...

More San Francisco Fun

I know this is a little bit out of order. Sorry! On August 14th Rex finished his test so he got to join my siblings and I for the next day of being tourists in San Francisco. We found a good deal on a combo package to get tickets for the Aquarium at the Bay, the Wax Museum and the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum. We started at the Aquarium which was very crowded but fun. When you go down in the basement you get to go through an aquarium with fish, rays, skates, and sharks swimming all around you.

Our next stop was the Wax Museum. There was quite a variety of figures and some were very realistic! I think the John Travolta figure was the best. They had a creepy section (which you can choose to bypass) with a fake electric chair thats pretty funny. I won't give any details just in case you feel like you want to try it out!

We ended up at the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum which turned out to be everyone's favorite of the three. The title of the museum is very fitting, it truly is hard to believe some of the stuff it shows you. We live in a crazy world!

The next day of their visit was my birthday which I already posted below. Then on Saturday we went to an Oakland A's game. They were playing the White Sox which was fun because when my brother Brandon was a little boy he idolized Ken Griffy Jr. He is getting old for a baseball player so we only got to see him bat a few times. (Some one else ran the bases for him). At least Brandon got to see him in real life and get a few pics. The A's lost but we still had a good time together. On Sunday they came to church with us and helped with our cute primary class. One of our primary kids (Nathan) looks just like Brandon did when he was a kid. So it was fun for Brandon to meet his mini-me. We had Sunday dinner with Matt (our cousin) and Mimi and their new baby Joshua. Then it was off to the airport. We had a great trip together. Thanks for coming guys and have fun up at BYU together!

San Francisco and the Redwoods

All three of my siblings flew in on August 12th and we drove up to Vallejo and went to Discovery Kingdom the first day of the visit. We had a great time but I didn't take any pictures. The next day we went to San Francisco and had a blast. Brandon came with some BYU friends before his mission, but Melissa and Scott had never been to San Francisco until now. Melissa seemed to LOVE everything about it. She wanted to see everything too, so we did the most we could! Our first stop was Lombard St., then Pier 39 to look at the shops and the sea lions, then on our way to Ghiradelli Square Melissa got her picture drawn by one of the street artists, and then we headed over to the jetty to take pictures of the bridge. However, Melissa wasn't satisfied with how far away the bridge was so we headed over closer and took a quick stop at the Exploratorium and Fine Arts Museum. Finally we found our way to where we could get out of the car and go walk on the bridge. We got our fill of pictures for the day!

One thing I want to remember about that day was that I set my sister up to get scared by the Bushman.
This guy hides behind tree branches and scares people that walk by. He has quite the audience on the other side of the street. So I made sure that we crossed the street at the right place and had Melissa walking on the outside so she would be right next to him. Sure enough he totally scared her and then exclaimed, "Last night I dreamed I would meet a beautiful redhead today!" It was great! Gotta love San Francisco!

If you think we did enough for one day you're wrong. After our photo shoot at the Golden Gate Bridge we drove over it and headed towards the Redwoods. We drove to Samuel P. Taylor State Park about 45 minutes away and hiked to the Pioneer Tree.

It was so big that all four of us climbed inside the trunk.



We were all exhausted by the time we got home but it was worth it!

Happy Birthday to me

On Friday (the 15th) I celebrated my 26th birthday with Rex and all of my siblings. They woke up early and cooked a yummy breakfast and set out some gifts for me. It was like Christmas morning! Next we headed to the Oakland Temple and Visitor's Center. Melissa loved to see the view from the temple grounds.

For dinner we decided to join the crowd at Zachary's for some yummy pizza.

Rex got me a keyboard and I'm so excited to have it! It was also a special present to have my siblings here to visit for the week. I'll post more about our week together soon!

Thanks everyone!

Brian Regan

Whoa! I didn't realize how far behind I got on posting...this will be the last one for today. On Friday night Rex and I drove to Saratoga to go to a Brian Regan show. He is Rex's favorite comedian and so I gave him tickets for his birthday in June. We got tickets with my cousin Matt and his wife, Mimi, and our friends, Jeni and Jared, who are all Brian Regan fans too. It was at beautiful outdoor theater up on a hill surrounded by a winery and a beautiful view. The show was hilarious. The best part for me was seeing how much Rex enjoyed it. He was laughing the entire time!

Waiting for the show to begin.


Us with Matt and Mimi (we couldn't use the flash so its blurry).


Brian getting lots of laughs. This picture makes him look farther away than he was. We could see most of his facial expressions. They are so funny!


Brian's biggest fan. Happy Birthday again!