Christmas Eve and Day

Our first Christmas as a married couple was successful! We were able to visit both families on both days and we had a good time! Christmas Eve we went to Grandma and Grandpa Fraser's (Christy's) and did the traditional stuff there complete with a white elephant gift exchange. People play the game some different ways, some get stuff from their house that they are dying to get rid of but can't throw away and then wrap it up. Others (maybe the ones who are lucky enough not to have anything under that category) go to the store and buy things specifically for the game that are sometimes random, but usually good gifts. Scott and I were lucky enough to pick games from those kind of people, we got a game and a movie, both good ones. TT was also lucky, with his playdo.

Some, not so much. But it made the game so much more fun. Like when TT's brother, Sam, opened up a pair of flamingo salt and pepper shakers.

Don't you love his "smile for the camera" face? In all truthfulness, Sam actually loved his "birds".

Jacob also got an awesome gift: a twilight shirt. Just what he wanted.

Good thing it didn't say "Team Edward".

After all the goofy gifts, we gave Grandma and Grandpa a scrap book with everyone's testimonies written in it.

Afterward, we went to Grandpa Fred's and Grandma Dode's (Scott's) for their Christmas Eve. Everyone was sharing stories, talents and things they have been up to the last year. Unfortunately we came in late and couldn't easily squeeze ourselves in the room so we listened from the hallway and chased Carter around. We had lots of fun though.

The highlight of the night: we got to talk to Sandy! She sounded great and it was so weird talking to her on the phone, I felt like she was just over at her friend's house, goofing around. She is an awesome missionary and we are all so proud of her.

Christmas morning was great! We woke up in our apartment together, read Luke 2, and then got to open our presents from each other. Here's the loot:

We did pretty well!

I know what you're thinking: "What kind of a gift is a keyboard for a husband to get his wife? Especially when they already have one?" An awesome one! I HATE Scott's keyboard. It's one of those rounded ones with the letters split down the middle. I can't type on that thing at all! And every time I use it I tell him how much I hate it, so he was so sweet as to get rid of that thing and get a new one :)

My favorite part of the gifts from Scott was how he spent 3 hours in Target trying to decide what to get me, what color and if I was really going to like that or should he switch it for something else. Yes, he's a tad bit indecisive but it is sweet.

Here's another awesome gift from him:

Most people when they were unable to find the gift before Christmas, would just write out an IOU for one. Not Scott. I am now the proud owner of this artist's rendering of The Prestige/ an IOU for the movie.

Yes, we both got each other the same game. If your birthday is coming up, watch out! One of these babies might be coming your way!

After all the gift opening at our house, we headed over to our parents' houses where there was more gift opening. When we got to the Smiths' house they were still on their way home so we waited on the porch. We were looking at how beautiful their tree looked in the frontyard and thought it would be the perfect time to shoot some lovely fall pictures. Of course we used the timer on the camera which doesn't always turn out so great.

Overall, we had an awesome Christmas and can't wait for next year! Many thanks to all the people who gave us gifts, let us into their homes this holiday and have been there throughout the year. We love you all!

2nd Annual Gingerbread House Party

Last night we had a great opportunity to see some old friends and to have the 2nd Annual Gingerbread House Party! A couple of years ago we were just a bunch of single people, in the singles ward, hanging out whenever possible. Unfortunately, life has that way of making you grow up and saying goodbye to old friends. In the past 6 months, 2 couples (including us) have gotten married and another one has gotten engaged, not to mention that everyone seems to be moving all over the country. Our wonderful friend, Kristen, hosted the party along with her husband, Matt.

This year we made Gingerbread trees, which were very fun. Alex's and Kristen's turned out great.

Jared's, not so much.

He thought it was a good idea to pour the little candies over the tree instead of placing them on it. Hardly any of them actually stuck, so Jared picked up the ones that didn't roll off the table onto the floor, and threw them at his tree.

You have to give him props for trying though, some people gave up and just played Wii Sports. Guess who that was.

It was a very fun night though and I can't wait to see them next year!

Congratulations to Kari and Dave for getting engaged, for getting all the way through the engagement story, and for being a trooper and staying all night even though Dave was sick.

Worst Stocking Stuffer EVER!

This has to be the worst commercial on television. The sad thing is, it's not meant to be funny! That poor man, he will never date another woman in his life or every woman he does date will accept all his gifts with hesitance.

A Night in Naples

So, this evening, we (Steve, Ashley, Christy and I) decided to go take a nice little walk around Naples, Long Beach.


The residents of Naples have a tradition of decking out their houses and making them look like the Christmas spirit threw up all over them. Some houses look really cute, while some houses lean more towards the creepy side.


It's always nice to see how creative some of the residents are. Christy's camera doesn't have that great of a night setting, so just use your imaginations. The picture directly below is an umbrella skeleton decorated with lights. Very clever!


Clever wordplay here:


Remember how I said some of the houses lean more towards the creepy side? Well, this house is an excellent example of what I was talking about. Could you imagine coming downstairs for some water in the middle of the night? I would never go downstairs until it was daylight, those things look scary.


Some more creepy dolls. They were actually running at us in this picture, that's why it's so blurry.


So, the drainage in Naples isn't that great. Let's say you leave your sprinklers on for a little too long or it rains; Well, due to lack of draining, you usually end up with a nice little puddle such as the one seen below:


I had to manuever a potted plant in order for Christy to climb along a wall. Steve used the more direct, 'romantic' approach:


All in all we had a very enjoyable night, despite the fact I kinda got us lost and we had to walk for miles to get to our car. It was definitely worth it!

First Smith Christmas

Yesterday we celebrated our 6 month anniversary and we're so happy that we made it this far without killing anyone. It has been great so far and we're looking forward to the next 6 months, especially since it starts with our first Christmas as a family.

Scott was officially welcomed to the family with a traditional "Made with Love by Grandma Riner" stocking!

Yes, that baby is completely cross-stiched from calf to toe. Thanks Grandma, we love it! Since we don't have a fireplace, our kitchen wall will just have to do this year.

Our next step was to get a tree, and again, our space is limited here so we had to make do with this baby, which Scott is strapping to the roof of the car because it is just so enormous.

Is that the cutest thing you ever saw? Now getting the tree was the easy part. Decorating it, not so much.

Let's just say we're not the most spatially-oriented people. I added some candy canes to try and help it a little but I'm not sure if it hepled it or made it worse.

Ok, I was wrong. That tree skirt has to be the cutest thing you ever saw. Here are our first Christmas picutres together, complete with cheesy poses.


Look at it this way, we can only improve.

Hey There Delilah, I'm at the MTC

This is a really funny video, just wanted to share it with everyone!

Sam's Day Out

Our family had a very scary day on Tuesday. I (Christy) was at work on my lunch break when I got a text message from my sister, Melissa, that said, "You know Samuel (our nephew) is missing, right?"
Let me tell you a little bit about Sam. He is 4 years old, the son of Ben and Heidi Dimick and first Dimick grandchild. He has had some developmental problems, which mostly affect his speech so far. He started talking later than he should have and when he did, it sure was not in English. We're still trying to decide if it's German or Vietnamese. For example, he calls his aunt Christy and uncle Scott "Pussys" and "Bot". I don't know exactly where he gets that first one from. He is just the most adorable little thing and we would all do anything for him. Another one of his problems is that he is very OCD. When he goes to my parents' house he goes straight to his trains (his favorite thing in the world) and sets them all up. If you even think of moving anything out of its place he completely loses it. He has had some testing done and they have gone back and forth between blaming his speech problems on autism and chronic ear infections. He has been having speech therapy for a year or so now and is doing well. At this stage we don't know exactly what is going on with him but we do know that we wouldn't have him any other way!

This is his school photo from last year. Cute, huh?
Another of his quirks is that as soon as he walks into someone's house he promptly removes all of his clothes. The first time he came to mine and Scott's new home he didn't even think about it, just ripped everything off. He also really loves the kitties and likes to talk to them. Here's some awesome shots of both of these things.


So back to text messaging on my lunch break. I said, "WHAT? No, I did not know this." Melissa went on to tell me that he had been missing for about an hour and that he came home from school and disappeared shortly after, that the whole family was at their house looking for him and freaking out, that the police were looking for him and that they were about to call in some blood hounds. I started to freak out when my sister texted me again and told me they found him. Apparently the bus driver took Sam home and he ran inside and said hi to his daddy. The bus driver came to the door to make sure his parents were there and didn't see Ben, who had gone back into the back room and couldn't hear the bus driver, and upon seeing that Samuel was apparently home alone, told him to go back on the bus. So while everyone was going out of their minds and all of Orange County was looking for him, Samuel was having a nice ride on the bus taking all the other kids home.
The bus driver did the right thing since he is supposed to see the parents in order to drop the kids off, and I keep thinking about what that poor guy thought when he pulled up to the house and saw all that mayhem.
Now, the best part of this story is how our other sister, Katie, found out. If you think that it's bad that I found out an hour later through a text message, wait til you hear this. Katie arrived home and saw that there were no cars in front of the Dimick house, which was weird because there are 7 cars that live there and SOMEONE is always home. But, the door was unlocked and the TV was on, so she figured someone was home in some part of the house. What really had happened was that they had gotten the call and everyone ran out of the house so fast that they left the TV on and the front door totally unlocked. The phone rang a few minutes later and Katie answered it, noticing that the caller ID said Westminster PD. It was a recording that went something like this:
"Attention Westminster residents, there is a 4 year old boy missing...
That is slightly autistic...
And can't carry on a conversation...
Wearing a train t-shirt..."
Hmmm, wonder who that could be?

All that matters now, is our Samuel is safe and he doesn't even know anything happened! When he got off the bus he kept saying, "Why you sad mommy? Don't cry."
It just makes you remember to appreciate your family a little more. And maybe update each other on important stuff.

Restless Youth of Today

Pumpkin carving is fun, you find the perfect pumpkin, plan a design, and then execute it. This is usually what happens...but nothing can prepare a person for a mutant pumpkin! Christy and I were invited to our friends Michael & Allie's apartment for a triple date pumpkin carving extravaganza. All was going really well, we were all having such a great time. Until Christy let out a blood-curdling scream! I quickly rushed to her side to see see what was ailing her, only to discover, we were the unfortunate hosts of a mutant pumpkin! The insides were tainted with a brownish slime! It was truly disturbing to the psyche.
There was only one course of action that we could take, smash it before the plague could spread! And that's just what we did, we all marched out into the alleyway and prepared for the proper disposal of the bane of pumpkin-kind!




The world can rest easy once again, the nightmare is over...for now...

Who Directed These Videos?

You may or may not be familiar with this, but our new favorite thing is literal music videos. We all know how music videos are not always representative of what is happening in the song. These vidoes take the original music video and dubb new words over the old ones and some of them are really funny! Here's a few of our favorites, and if you don't like them at first, keep watching, because a lot of them keep getting better. If you have any favorites, send them our way!

My Super Creative Husband

For those who don't know, I (Christy) am a veterinary technician, which involves getting pretty dirty everyday. Whether it is snot, fecal matter, urine, blood, dirt or whatever, it doesn't matter much because I always have my trusty scrubs on. Well recently we had a small emergency which involved me getting a bit of blood on the front of my scrubs. For this purpose I prefer darker scrubs but that day I happened to be wearing light blue ones. I washed them in cold and forgot all about it until I pulled them out of the drawer one day and put them on. I thought, it's just a small spot, no one will really notice, and finished getting ready. When I was all ready and had about 5 minutes until I had to leave, I looked at myself in the mirror for the first time that morning and realized that everyone would notice. I could have just changed and forgot all about it but then what would I do? Throw out the scrubs? That's when I remembered what a creative husband I have. I said, "Scott, can you draw something on here to cover the blood? You have 4 minutes." He got out his sharpie and went to work, and 2 minutes later, exactly 2 minutes later, I was out the door.

Pretty good for 2 minutes, huh? Could you even tell it was blood? And I got compliments from all my coworkers. So those of you who know Scott know that I may not have the neatest husband, or the cleanest, or the most handy, but you do have to agree that I have the most creative husband.

The Long Haul

Last weekend we had one of many firsts together: going to General Conference. We drove with Melissa and Mike Waller to Utah and it was a verrrry long drive. We somehow turned a 10 hour drive into 12 hours. It could have had something to do with stopping in Barstow to go to Del Taco for BREAKFAST, stopping in Vegas to go to the Luxor, stopping in Mesquite for gas and lunch and pulling off somewhere in Utah at a Burger King for drinks. The drive was actually quite fun though- Fact or Crap??

We finally got to our destination and then on Sunday we went to the afternoon session of Conference.

It was a really great session and Elder Holland's talk was so awesome! We were all so excited about it and of course he's our favorite guy anyway.

After the session was over we decided to walk around a bit, but since Temple Square was closed and we could only view the temple from just outside, it didn't last long.




It was freezing cold and raining off and on so we went back to our car which was parked across the street from the Conference Center- we were lucky enough to get a parking permit for the Church Offices parking structure. This is the coolest parking structure: it has a full car wash and a mechanic's, which we assume is for the general authorities and the mission cars. We pulled out into this line of cars that was not moving at all. After sitting in it for 10 minutes or so we decided to look for a different exit, which required driving past the mechanics. As we did so, Scott said, "That was President Monson in there!"
"No, it wasn't."
"Yes it was! I swear!"
"Are you sure?"
"YES!"
So we park the car and everyone gets out and runs back to the mechanic. Of course it wasn't President Monson. It was ELDER HOLLAND! We all went in and shook his hand, he asked where we were from and he said that that was a great place to be from. He also said we were all very sweet for coming and patted Christy and Melissa's cheeks (which their husbands are not allowed to kiss anymore), and then we were on our way.

Overall it was a really fun weekend with some good testimony-building experiences. But man, we are so not gonna make that drive again anytime soon.

It's about time!

Hey, everybody! It's time for an update! So here's the deal: I'm still working at the law firm scanning and doing all sorts of things. It's really interesting and I learn a lot about the world of law and the beings who inhabit it. In more important, more romantic news, Christy and I were married on June 6th! We are loving the married life! I tell people it's kinda like culture shock in that I come from one tribe and she comes from another and when our customs mix, it's very interesting. I'm learning a lot of new ways to do things though. I love living with my buddy, she is so sweet to me. We're very good for each other in that she kicks my rear in gear and I downshift the gear that her rear is in when she's speeding and has no breaks in life. We're also learning a lot about insects. Our apartment is a haven for ants and spiders of all shapes and sizes. We're just grateful to have a home though. Life is going very very well and we are enjoying every minute of it.

"Take The Stairs"

So, I work at a law firm. I work full-time at said law firm, I work sitting down for seven and a half hours and I'm afraid that I'm going to get pneumonia from all this sitting down. I try to get up now and then and walk to the bathroom or to the kitchen for some exercise, but it just doesn't seem to cut it. I expressed my concern to one of my co-workers and she told me I should take the stairs when going between floors. Now, mind you, the firm I work for has two floors and sometimes it is necessary to go to the other floor to get or drop off a document. I usually do this by using the elevator because the stairs are just so out of the way. But with my new resolve to not get pneumonia, I decided I would take the stairs. So, as I walk out the door to the stairwell and it closes behind me, I forget that it is locked by a passcode. Luckily they told me the passcode on my first day...right? Right? Let me see here....Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep...move the handle...nope...no good. Maybe it was the other way around? Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep...come on, handle! Blasted handle! Maybe the code works on the other floor! So I go down the stairs to the other floor and try my hand at the keypad. Beep, beep, beep, beep...NOOOOOOO! Wait! Maaaaybe if I called my friend Jennifer and asked her what the passcode is, all my problems would be solved! Brilliant! I pull out my phone only to realize that no phone is going to get reception in between 20 feet of brick and mortar! So, I have two options: 1.) Stand outside the door and hope and pray that someone shares my fear of either gaining weight or getting pneumonia and they come outside the door to find the creepy new guy standing out there waiting for them or 2.) Walk all the way down to the first floor and take the elevator all the way back up. Well, I figure my second option would be the best in the way of exercise and so, I walked down every flight of stairs until, finally I reached the bottom floor. I then marched into the elevator and back into the office as if nothing happened. But I can't say I didn't get what I wanted.

The Latest

Well hello! It has been quite some time since I've last updated this thing. I guess I should let you all (all 1 or 2 of you who actually read this, I mean) know what's going on in my life right now. Well, it couldn't be any better! On January 1st I was offered a job at a law firm in Orange and I'm currently working there as a Clerk and it's very interesting. I do all sorts of things like scan documents, copy documents, email scanned documents to people, move boxes, sort files, etc. I actually really like it though! And my co-workers are all awesome! In other news, on January 12th I proposed to my girlfriend Christy. I took her down to the beach where we first started hanging out when we first met and we walked and then I compared the ocean to Eternity and how I want our love to be Eternal and all that mushy stuff and then I asked her to marry me and she said "Yes". Afterwards, we went to B.J.'s Pizza where we had our first date and first mention of marriage. So, life is going really well, I'm very happy and the Lord just seems to continue to bless my life and I am continually grateful :)