Past 4 Months

I have been having a hard time deciding if I should make one REALLY long post or like 15 medium sized posts to recap the past 4 months. Ultimately I decided on one big post. This way my followers (all 3 of you) can just print it out and read it as a novel in your spare time.

You're welcome.

To start the school year off right, Emma, Eric, and I went to the Timpanogos Caves.
I remember Eric was in a hurry to get to the BYU Football game that night, so we basically RAN the whole way to the top. Let me illustrate that it is like 1.5 miles straight uphill. This picture illustrates how far up we had to go, and we were already like halfway down when we took this:Emma and I thought we were going to die. Nonetheless, it was AMAZING inside!

Our next big event was Eric's 25th birthday! Eric was especially excited for the festivities to begin that afternoon.
He had been out hunting the night before so he hadn't slept much... but once he saw all we had in store for him, he really livened up!
These are the FABULOUS cakes I baked him. In case you can't make out exactly what they are due to a blurry photo or poor resolution on your screen (because I know they looked perfect so it could not be any fault of my own), one was a football and the other was the football field. The sad part was I had intended to make it the Boise State field, but I had already, absentmindedly, made the "grass" before I recalled it should have been blue. No worries though, BYU is cool too. :)

While I'm sure he was really disappointed, he quickly recovered when he started opening all his loot!

new jacket

new tieAnd yes I'm aware I should never wear that hat. I'll go ahead and put that in my 72 hour kit. Only upon severe circumstances will that ghastly scene see the light of day. Oh, and let the record state that I'm sure I probably won "Pin-the-Tale-on-Whatever-Animal-Pinup-Jen-had-Chosen-From-the-Dollar-Store" that night, as I usually do.
There will be NO further investigation.

I guess October held no significance because we have no documentation of events, so it's on to THANKSGIVING! We went to the Teichert's for the weekend and ate dinner at Grandma & Grandpa Ball's.
Luckily, we did NOT have to eat the pheasant Eric so graciously shot for us. We left that as a "donation" to Eric's parent's food supply. :)
We did have a Thanksgiving miracle all our own this year... both Addi & Ruger (our niece and nephew) decided to acknowledge our existence, and a BEAUTIFUL friendship sprouted. In fact, Addi even pretended to be Eric's baby... in utero.
When we got back, Eric and I went to the Jazz vs. Magic game. The tickets were $3.25 each, so you can imagine how close to the action they were. When we had finally traveled all the way UP to our seats, got our nose bleeds under control, and got our oxygen tanks flowing... it was a GREAT game.
I can't remember the details, but I vaguely recall being down and then coming back to win. Although that could be a pure figment of my imagination. We could have lost. In fact, I'm not even sure who "we" is. I may have been rooting for the Magic... is there a way I can just block Eric from being able to read this?

Anyway, on to CHRISTMAS! It's the most wonderful time of the year! I love Christmas!!
We purchased this classy tree from Target... right off the shelf. It was the last one, had no box, and had been the display tree throughout the holiday season. We got it 30% off and it was in IMMACULATE shape when it left the store. Upon its arrival to our home though, it took a turn for the worst. In a joint mistake in which neither of us is to blame no matter who may, or may not, have been in control of the tree at the time, one of the legs of the stand may have snapped off. We couldn't return it because we had purchased it "as is," so we just had to improvise. We tried super-gluing the leg back on to the tree, but unfortunately we just ended up gluing the leg to the carpet, and the tree continued to crash to the floor. Ultimately we decided to strategically root it to the ground by positioning presents and other devices around the base to keep it steady. It was really white-trash, I mean... thrifty. "Yes Eric, I am gifting you that case of Costco brand toilet paper this year... just don't use too many rolls from one side of the package until it's time to take the tree down... I just don't want you to use it all at once... :/"
Here's some shots from our little Christmas before we went on the road to see family. Eric got me this picture of Christ. I'd been wanting one for awhile, and it is really beautiful so I was ecstatic!

This is Eric with his new tool set:
and his new sunglasses that he needed for obvious reasons...
His old ones had been struggling for some time:

Sorry the filming is so bad... I was trying to drive during the taping. Probably not the brightest thing I've ever done.

We only got to spend a few hours with the Teichert's for Christmas. :( We wish we would have gone to Boise for awhile, but you know how that hindsight is always 20/20. This is us in our stunning, matching pajama pants from Eric's mom paired with our flossy Miller's Honey shirts from dad.
We went to Blackfoot to stay with my grandparents and then the rest of my family met up here. Here's some pictures from Christmas day:
Jen in her new coat she can wear this winter while prego & loving life. My new hat! I better get to wearing that before the cold subsides... but it's kinda pointless to get dressed up when you haven't left the house in 4 days due to self-inflicted food poisoning (excellent weight loss technique btw).

Eric got his tent he wanted from my parents:
Eric's mom got us a camping stove so we got it out and pretended to be camping in the living room for about 5 minutes... then the wood floor started to make it not so fun. I'm excited to get some use out of our new goods... as long as there is a bathroom in the vicinity.

We got to spend some time with Oliver. Eric and him really bonded. This is Eric being such a good uncle:
and this is me being SUCH a good aunt and Ollie reciprocating the love:

Right before we had to leave, Grandpa turned 84! We got together with all the family and had a PARTY (it was really wild) for the little guy. Here he is with some of his new accessories.
On the way home, A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!!! We had the luxury of spotting the Bronco's trailer! I had to persuade Eric to not actually follow the trailer because we had responsibilities back home, but it sure got him excited for that Fiesta Bowl!! Btw, what a game right? Incredible.
Anyway, now we're back in Utah, with my LAST semester of school EVER underway, and with this food poisoning I've been to about 2 classes in the past week (but I'm still not sure it was worth it... I really wanted to die for awhile there).

Anyway, it's been a great few months and we know that we're so lucky and blessed to live such wonderful lives with great opportunities. We've especially noticed that this past week while I have been nursing an upset stomach while so many people in Haiti are suffering so much more. Our problems in life are so insignificant, and we thank God for that. We love our family and friends, and we're grateful for the Gospel and this great country we are so lucky to live in.