its all fun and games until someone loses an eye... or freezes a radiator...

BEFORE:

"yay! its snowing! how fun! i love the cold weather!"

AFTER:

ok... so you're probably asking yourself how these two pictures are related...
well sit back and let me tell you a little story.. its long, so bare with me...

like i said before, we went up to nephi utah for my grandpa's birthday.
i loved being up in the snow and the cold. something we definitely dont get here in arizona.
the trip was short, but alot of fun.
until we woke up sunday morning to drive back home.
we get in the car, its literally 0 degrees outside. yes, ZERO.
cosmo goes to start the car and the heater is not working.
we had to go pick up alisha and brodie at our other grandparents house where they were staying and we hoped it would warm up on the short drive over there.
nope.
instead the car starts overheating. in ZERO degree weather. i didnt know it was possible.
so to make a long story a little shorter, cosmo and my grandpa whimpey work on the car for a while and come to the conclusion that the radiator is FROZEN.
down here in arizona, we never worry about antifreeze...oops.
we also think the radiator is cracked since it keeps leaking.
we finally decide to borrow my uncle richards truck to drive home since we had to be home for work on monday and they would keep our car and see if they could get it fixed up there.

keep in mind, its me, cosmo, alisha and brodie and brodie is in a carseat.
my uncle's car is a truck. with the little extended cab with the fold down seats on the sides. so we were SQUISHED.
grandpa and cosmo loaded all of our luggage into a big plastic case meant to be strapped to a car, but they just strapped it into the bed of the truck so our stuff wouldnt get wet.
thats the above picture..

but the fun doesnt stop there. oh no. its just beginning.
so we have our stuff packed up and its the afternoon by this point and we are getting ready for a long drive and alisha starts throwing up. we go back and forth as to what we should do, when we decide to just get a bucket and get on the road.

about 20-30 minutes outside of nephi, brodie starts throwing up.
we are all so tired and frustrated by this point, we stopped the truck and tried to figure out what to do.
then alisha asked cosmo to give brodie a blessing.
the second cosmo put his hands on brodie's head, he stopped crying and fell asleep.
i am so thankful for a husband that holds the priesthood.

so we decide to keep driving.
we made it to st george where cosmo's parents live and stopped there for a quick bite to eat and a short nap. we had only been driving a little over 3 hours but it had been such a long day.

after we were re-energized, we packed ourselves back into the truck and drove all through the night. alisha and brodie were still sick, but brodie was able to sleep for the most part and alisha is an amazing mom. she was sick herself, but he was always a first priority.

we finally made it back at about 4am.
i was never so happy to be home.

so to wrap it all up:
yes, i love the snow and the cold, but not when it breaks your car.

the end.

"grandpa, tell me 'bout the good old days"

happy 80th birthday grandpa!

at the beginning of january we took a trip up to utah for a surprise party for my grandpa sperry.

he was able to have all of his kids, grandkids, and great grand kids all there.

grandpa sperry and me

just some decorations they had up.
i LOVE this picture of my grandpa in the army.
he served our country in the korean war.

waiting to eat.
dont worry, we took about 8 pictures and this was the most normal face he had in any of them..
sigh..i love him.

each family got up and had a little presentation for my grandpa.
this is just my family singing.
then ALL of the family got up and sang to just my grandpa.

"grandpa, tell me 'bout the good old days.
sometimes it feels like this worlds gone crazy
grandpa, take me back to yesterday,
when the line between right and wrong didn't seem so hazy
did lovers really fall in love to stay? and stand beside each other come what may?
was a promise really something people kept?
not just something they would say
did families really bow their heads to pray?
did daddies really never go away?
oh, grandpa, tell me 'bout the good old days"

these boots are made for walkin'

grandpa sperry is known for his cowboy boots.

i couldnt even tell you how many pairs he has. lets just say its A LOT.

they had his boots as decorations around the room,

so at the party, a few of us decided to try them on.

i was even able to coordinate with my outfit!
so what do you think? should i add them to my wardrobe? ;)

in honor of grandpa sperry

"...and as we kiss hard on the lips we swear that this year will be better then the last..."

happy 2009! (a little belated..)

this was our first attempt at a picture of our kiss at midnight.

and then i looked at it later and noticed his face.... which he did on purpose...

so i made him do it again...

and OF COURSE it came out blurry...

left to right: jeff, lafe, cosmo, sean, dick
we brought in the new year over to our friend lafe and bea's house.
they played 'the office' board game.
i only watched and listened, and good thing i didnt play because i could only answer 0.5% of the questions.

brodie and alisha chilling and eating pizza.

this is what a hard night of pizza and martinellis will do to you!

"yes virginia, there is a santa claus"

this is one of my favorite pictures ever so i had to share it.

date: christmas morning december 25th, 2008

time: 6:00am

me: "garrett are you excited to go downstairs and see if santa came last night?!?"

and this is the reaction i got:

i think it captured the mood perfectly.

"He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished......
No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood."

its a christmas miracle!

santa forgot a present for cosmo back home at the north pole so he personally delivered it to him on christmas morning.

he's still not sure whats going on...

good thing it was from santa because i would have gotten in trouble...

santa made him promise that this wouldnt affect his grades and he couldnt neglect his wife.

the sheer excitement and joy!

'twas the night before christmas....

christmas eve was full of family and fun and lots of traditions.

one of our christmas eve traditions is a simple easy dinner of chicken strips and french fries on paper plates (easy clean up!). it drives my mom crazy every year because she wants a fancy dinner, but we all rally together and have won the battle year after year. it IS tradition, after all.

martinelli's is always on the menu.

cheers!

recreating the story of the birth of Christ

the night was finished out with garrett putting on a dance concert for us.
this kid has moves.

my favorite tradition we have that i didnt get pictures of, is we draw names and have to make that person a gift instead of buying it. we open these presents christmas eve so they dont get lost in the shuffle of the presents on christmas morning.
when you get married, you get kicked out of the rotation, so me and cosmo made presents for eachother and joined them when they were exchanging their homemade presents. i made cosmo a carrying case for his crokinole board (awesome canadian game if you havnt heard of it, come play with us!!) and he gave me markers with a dry erase picture of himself with his hair gone, so i could do his hair however i wanted, since i am always trying to groom him. cosmo is a little creepy looking bald, but it made me laugh!

i love this time of year spent with family.
it cant get much better then this.

happy hip day!

yesterday marked the one year anniversary of cosmo breaking his hip while snowboarding.

so to celebrate, he went to solitude to go snowboarding with his brothers.

i was not thrilled.

but he promised to "take it easy" and i have to admit, he looks pretty hot snowboarding...

he said the snow was perfect powder

david, cosmo, and trent

david, trent and cosmo on the lift

he came back in one piece, a little sore, but no broken bones this time.

which made me happy, and as we know, thats the most important thing...

away in a manger

its a tradition in our family that once you get married, my grandma hand paints you your own nativity set. i have watched my mom set hers up on top of the piano year after year since i was little, and it is one of my favorite things about christmas.

i never thought the day would come that i would get mine, so literally one of the first things out of my mouth after cosmo proposed was- "yes!! i FINALLY get my nativity set!!!" (this is a true story. cosmo can vouch for me)

i was so excited to get it this christmas and it was one of my favorite gifts received.

after we opened it and unwrapped all of the figures, cosmo was comparing it to my parents set and realized that we didnt have a camel like theirs. my grandma kindly told him that only some of the first sets made had camels because she hasnt been able to find them. cosmo then so kindly told her that he would not be satisfied until we had a camel.

i figured it was a friendly argument that was shrugged aside and forgotten about, but when ken and delaina came down later for christmas, they brought a small package for cosmo. he opened it and there was our camel.

he apparently opened a flood gate because now everyone else wants one too...

sorry grandma.....

but thank you so much for our nativity set! it means so much to me and i will treasure it forever! especially cosmo's camel.