The most wonderful time of the year!

We spent Christmas in Arizona this year. Marcus may have been opposed to the idea of missing the white Christmas in Utah, but we both had a great time. We stayed with my parents in Phoenix but spent Christmas night in Scottsdale with my grandparents and Brad's family (Brad, Jessica, and Ada). We had a puzzle going, like usual, which was finished on Christmas day, had our traditional omelet breakfast with Jessica's bread pudding addition, opened presents Christmas day (which was about 15 hours later than normal for Marcus), and enjoyed a fun lazy day. Most of these pictures are in no particular order-- I just added as many as I could before I had to leave Marcus' work (where I was stealing better internet). There are a lot of Ada pictures mixed around because she is so stinking cute, but all the pictures are Christmas Eve/day. I hope you all had a great Christmas! HAHA, LOVE THIS SLEEPING :) MOONEY (L) AND SADIE (R) JESSICA AND ADA THE PRETTY TABLE ERICA AND ADA ERICA AND TREVOR 'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS STOCKINGS MARCUS WITH HIS NEW TOYS ADA'S CHRISTMAS SURPRISES MARCUS AND ERICA G-DADDY AND ADA TREVOR BRAD PLAYING WITH (ADA'S) TOYS BRAD AND JESSICA MARCUS LEGO-ING ADA IN OUR NEW BEAN BAG CHAIR ADA FINISHING THE PUZZLE PUZZLE SKIP-BO DAD ADA SLEEPING BY TREE
THIS IS A QUICK VIDEO OF ADA GIGGLING AT TREVOR-- HE WAS WIGGLING HIS EYEBROWS AT HER.

I'm dreaming of a [desert] Christmas

Too many people keeping telling me that it's wrong to have a brown Christmas-- excuse me, I beg to differ! You have to admit all three of these following pictures were taken as Marcus and I drove from Provo to Phoenix, and they're beautiful! :)



This is my personal favorite! How can you not love the red mountains under the white and green?!



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My mom and I were running errands this weekend, and I wanted to see where the Phoenix temple would be going. If you're curious to what the site looks like, here's a sneak peek...

This is the church building that the temple will be sharing a parking lot with-- the temple will be in this lot on the west.

The site of the future Phoenix Arizona Temple!

This is the view looking from the temple site.

Winter Wonderland

We finally took some winter pictures up in Salt Lake-- thanks for talking them Cozette :) These are some of our out-takes...

Marcus' Bad Day

I had this voice mail from Marcus on my phone the other day:

....hi.... it's me........... i'm not having a very good day..........i ripped a huge hole in the crotch of my favorite pants, the grey ones i that wore the first time when we first hung out and for our engagement pictures, and it's in the crotch of the pants. i was just trying to get in the car, but i was wearing long underwear, and they stick to the pants and make them, like, tighter, and it ripped....and i'm really upset! and i love you, and if you get this, you should bring me treats. ....

I know that was a sad situation, but I kept laughing. I loved the whiny "i'm really upset!" part :)

This is the picture Marcus drew describing his feelings.

The poor pair of pants...

Up close and (probably too) personal

For the record, I had permission from Marcus to post this--the photos wouldn't load until I had verbal permission!

Something weird happened last night!

Ahhh- snow!

Sometime last night, I guess the clouds couldn't hold in it any longer. We woke up to the snow and it kept on comin' down... AND it won't get out of the forecast! At least we missed the first big snow when we were in Arizona last month! :)

Poor Sally- she is so cold! She didn't even know it was coming. Actually she probably noticed but couldn't get out of the way fast enough...

How sweet is he...out there scraping the snow off his car so we can get to church?!

Look how happy he is out there in that cold stuff.

This is one reason (but not all) that people on scooters can look a little ridiculous.

I won't lie, I think the snow is really pretty in the trees. Just don't tell anyone I'm admitting to liking snow of any kind.

Our church building covered in that white stuff

Don't worry, I'm only slightly traumatized. This year, I was actually ready with my winter clothes. It may seem ironic since I am not a huge fan of the snow, but I love Christmas. There's something about a nice, brown Christmas where you can go outside and walk around to see Christmas lights :)

Working for a school district is a lot of fun. This was the first Christmas present I received this year... it's from Makenzie in my orchestra :)

I'm definitely happy... and so is Marcus...

Slapsgiving

I must apologize right of the bat because I don't have any pictures from Thanksgiving. So I'll let Marcus paint a picture of the great event...

"The weather was cold, and the stuffing was bold... We really gave thanks for a nice break over Thanksgiving. It was a real treat to get out of Provo for a little bit and enjoy the antics of my family (which are many) and enjoy the simple things of life."

Thanksgiving really was great! A ton of great food and great company. Definitely a successful holiday, if you ask me :) I have had a lot of time recently to realize how lucky I am to have a wonderful life and amazing family. It is pure genius that there is a holiday to celebrate the incredible blessings in our lives, especially those we don't really notice or maybe take for granted.

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There is something that I always wanted to learn to do, but I figured I'd never have the chance, mainly due to how protective Marcus is. He would probably die if anything went wrong, but somehow, his grandma helped convince him that I should be allowed to learn to cut his precious hair.

I had great teachers :)

I would bet that smile is covering up how much he wishes he hadn't agreed to let us chop his hair. I know it has to be short for work, but it seems like all Hardys really love longer hair... especially Paden a couple years ago :)

And it starts... (name that movie)

HaHa... can you imagine if I had left it like this!!! Marcus probably would've killed me.

Thank goodness for the supervision... and help every few seconds ;)

Too bad you can't see the pile of hair that was swept up at about this point!

You can tell I was extremely focused-- there was another picture where my tongue was sticking out due to the intense concentration!

Hmmm... I guess we'll see if I'm ever allowed to try to cut his hair again.

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I had to add in a little teaser, since it is my favorite time of the year.

Our Christmas decorations are not quite complete, but I LOVE this guy! And yes, if you're wondering, Marcus did insist on the nutcracker that was a drummer.

PESP Employee of the Month

Employee of the Month Night

When Erica first started "our" blog, I more or less told her that I would likely have not much to do with it simply because I'm a husband and a blog is like...well...a scrapbook that has been made digital for all to see and there just wasn't much of an interest on my part in doing that. Lo and behold, tonight I bring you the first Marcus written edition of the blog. This probably won't happen to often...so enjoy it while it lasts. Given the fact that I tend to be rather verbose, you might think it is lasting a bit too long.

In case you couldn't tell from the pictures, Erica recently was awarded employee of the month by the Provo School District. Not just out of the nutrition department but out of the whole district. Given the fact that she has only worked there since the summer, I think it's pretty impressive. Little Mrs. Modest doesn't like to tout how awesome she is. In fact, getting this award is nothing short of legen...wait for it...LEGENDARY. It's a real tribute to what an amazingly dedicated, hard, honest, worker Erica is.

Erica received the award at a board meeting, where a very detailed description of her character and accomplishments was read. She shook the hands of all the board members, and they slipped her movie passes, some cash, and a MiMi's cafe gift card. We jokingly said that the cash was all going to the Provo PD for a reason that won't be disclosed here because I'll get in trouble if I detail it...but it reality, it's gone into some recent Christmas decor acquisitions.

I've always been a bit awed by the fact that I married a Valedictorian...those traits still shine through.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm being told that I need to go do my homework now...I'll give you one guess as to who is telling me to go and do that...


The Stuff She Got!