Thanksgiving 2010

We had a great Thanksgiving this year! We were missing out on the blizzards in Utah while down in Arizona, in the 75 degree weather. So amazing. I didn't take pictures of anything but of our family at my grandmas... and most are not very good. Ha ha here are some of the awesome pictures we took, and not one had everyone smiling or eyes open... Oh well!


Ha ha sorry Raeg and Dad...


We got lots of Christmas shopping done the day after Thanksgiving which is always great! We are really trying to enjoy this Christmas season and not worry so much about buying a million presents like last year. The First Presidency Christmas Devotional last night really helped us to remember that.

Ryan and I left AZ on Monday and stopped in Vegas to go to his mom's Christmas choir concert. I didn't know what to expect and was blown away. It was amazing! They sang Handel's Messiah with the most talented soloists and a full orchestra. Ryan's uncle Randy was telling us how he didn't want to go because the concert gave him a headache with all of the "high" singing and he couldn't understand the different language they sang in... Ha ha ha!! It is all in English... Just Isaiah and hard to understand. I about died laughing so so hard and was super disruptive when the soloists started singing, because I could totally see how he thought it might be in another language. Maybe it was so much funnier to me because my dad would have said the same exact thing as him. Anyway, it was great.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving too!! I can't wait for Christmas and all the fun festivities!

Activity Days

So I am officially in charge of Decembers first activity day for the 9&10 year old girls. I am not really sure what to expect since I have been out of town for the last 3 achievement days and have never been... Ugh, I know, it is horrible. So I have been thinking about what we should make in honor of the Christmas season and I decided on making these Christmas lanterns/candy jars! They are so so cute... I got the idea from Here.

The tricky thing I didn't realize was making sure I had all of the supplies needed for this project for 12 girls. I am a complete crazy person. I go to a store and think,"hmm I have seen this item at a different store for cheaper, so I won't get it now." BAD idea. So I have now been to 100 stores looking at the same 5 things for days... I have even had dreams about this and I am the WORST shopper. This is so ridiculous for an easy project. I made one for myself and it took like 10 minutes... Needless to say, I still have not picked up all of the things I need. Tomorrow I am going to finish this.


If anyone has any other good ideas for this activity let me know!! Treats? Spiritual thought?? I don't know how it works! Let me know what you think!

Happy Birthday Ryan!

So yesterday was Ryan's 29th birthday and we had a blast. As he says, he is holding onto his 20's by the skin of his teeth ha ha. That is true. He better make this last year of having a 2 in front of his age count!! I feel like time goes by way too fast these days... It makes me sad.

We had so much fun opening presents in the morning, riding up the ski lift at Sundance, making treats, dinner at Tucanos, and cake and ice cream afterwards at our house. Ryan scored with tons of sweet presents. Thanks everyone who came and celebrated with us. It was so fun!



Happy Birthday Ry-Dogg!! You are the best husband in the whole world! Love you!

Summer Time!!

So we have had such a crazy summer so far, but it has been super fun! We have been back and forth from Arizona to Utah almost every week... driving! This is what we have been up to for the last few months:

1. I graduated from BYU in April!! Lots of family came up to celebrate and hang out with us. We had such a fun weekend with everyone. This picture is only a few of those who came. Thanks everyone for coming to support me! I am so excited to move on and figure out what comes next... More school??



2. I left for about a month to help my mom finish up tons of recital stuff as she finished up her school year teaching crazy kindergarten kids! The recital turned out so so cute and amazing. All of the girls did awesome!


3. Ryan was working hard up in Utah and then came down to AZ to join me and start doing some fun work in AZ as well.

4. Bree and Eric had their cutest baby Ellie at the end of May. It was so much fun to be there for it! She is the most perfect baby!


5. We went to our annual Carlsbad, CA beach trip over the 4th of July with all of my Davis cousins. We all had so much fun! It was a little cold on the beach this year, so we were bundled up in sweatshirts most of the time!


6. Ryan got a new calling as Elders Quorum 2nd Counselor.


7. We went to Ryan's Nelson Family annual cabin trip up near Brianhead! It was a blast!! Ryan especially had fun fishing the whole time at the new lakes his aunt and uncle built. They are amazing!


8. Ryan has been working hard on a house out in Phoenix to list in the next week. I wish I had some pictures to show...

9. Lydia graduated from college at BYU- Idaho, so we made a trip up there to celebrate! Congrats Lydia!!


10. My uncle Tom had is 50th suprise birthday party up here in Utah, that I missed out on, but my grandpa and grandma, aunts, and cousins came up to party. We also had a suprise bridal shower for my cousin Jill who is getting married in a couple weeks! We had so so much fun with everyone. We are so excited for Jill and Brock! I don't have any party pictures yet... so they will come!

Broccoli

So Laur and I were driving down State Street in Orem havin a good ol' time. We had just gotten a Red Box (Cloudy With a Chance of Meatbulbs) as well as some 4 for $2 candy cause we were gunna watch that movie in style. So we are driving and Laur says...

Laur: "Ryan! Did you just toot?! Eeew. Ryan." (She commences to roll down her passenger window with much haste.)

Me: "What? No. I don't even smell anything," I said, taking a quick draw of air to see what she's talkin about. (It is Orem State street ya know, so there is always weird stuff in the air there. But nope, our windows were up.)

Me: "I didn't even hear a sound, did you?" Thinking that maybe I let one slide without thinking about it, cause that sometimes happens.

Laur: "No, but it really stinks!"

A sudden realization hits me... This is broccoli brand. Lauren had just eaten chips with refried beans, cheese, hot sauce... and some raw broccoli to make the meal healthy.

Me: "Laur! You just burped!... Like a minute ago right?!? Siiiiiiiick. That was not me, and that was not a toot!" (I now roll my window down with great haste and take in some deep draws.)

Lauren is now laughing uncontrollably because she realizes she did in fact burp a deep burp, she did in fact eat raw broccoli earlier, and that the smell was indeed the broccoli brand.

Now I'm laughin. Cause that's funny. And sick. But more funny...cause for once it wasn't me and it was bad enough that Laur just thought I ripped a wallpaper peeler.

Oh man. This is what marriage is about. I love it. Good times for sure.

Two Things

So as most of you know, if you are ever with me, the two things that I have been complaining about the whole semester... my internship and online class. The last and final two things in my way before I graduate from BYU in April.

I really have had it pretty easy this semester; going to my internship and working on my online class. Everyone, especially my sister, dies about how much I complain about my only two things. But you must know why I dislike these two things SO much.

1. I guess I can see that the end is in sight and I must have SEVER senioritis

2. My internship is in all the way in Salt Lake. I drive there during rush hour at 7 and drive home at rush hour at 5. Yuck. (12 hour days)

3. I am in the Epidemiology Bureau, Department of Communicable Diseases and Prevention Program at the Utah Department of Health (UDOH) for my internship.

4. #3 is significant because in this bureau I work with HIV/AIDS, STDs, Hepatitis C, and sometimes TB stuff. Yeah, most of you would think that sounds really cool, which some of it really is, but I just do not want to work with this stuff longer than my internship. I have to go counsel and test usually gay men, prostitutes, drug users, or anyone else at risk, for HIV. Not that any of these people are bad at all, I have made some great friends there, and it is actually fun, but just totally out of my element. In this counseling session we talk about all the super fun things in life about how to prevent getting HIV. If you know anything about how these diseases are spread then you may know just a slight amount of what we talk about with these people. We have to be extremely graphic and straight forward. If you would like to know more about these graphic things that we talk to them about, email me. So if you know me at all... this whole thing is just kinda completely out of my element. It is gross, scary, and makes me totally nervous. Not to mention I had to get trained to give positive results to someone who tests positive for HIV. Um no thanks. I would rather not give these life changing results, find all of their partners, etc. when I dont even like talking about the prevention. HIV prevention really is a GREAT thing. You should get tested:)

4. Half the time at the health dept. I sit there super bored acting like I am doing lots of stuff for 10 hours (luckily I can work on my dreaded online class)

5. I am working on calling every substance abuse center in the whole state for a survey we are doing for Hep C. There are hundreds

6. My online class (English 316) has to be done by April 2. Final taken and everything. I started it January 11. Stupidest thing I have ever done. NEVER take online classes.

7. I have to get all the assignments for my online class done before I can request the final. Which takes 2 weeks until you can take it. So this means by next week, everything has to be completed and turned in.

8. I hate this online class a million times more than my internship. It is the only online class I have ever taken in my life.

9. Internship notebook, final papers, projects all have to be turned in April 13! Didn't know this until the middle of the semester so recently I have been going to salt lake to sit there for 30 hours a week to get it done.

10. Due to the fact that I have weird deadlines for both things, I look at the calender EVERY DAY, probably 20 times a day. I calculate my hours I need done for each day, everyday. Like it changes?

11. Finally, my semester isn't really that bad... I just am so close, about 3 1/2 weeks. Then we can play, go to AZ all we want, and go on fun vacations. Hooray for spring time!! Our tulips are coming up everywhere!! I love them.

12. I can't wait for everyone to come up to Utah for graduation in April!!! Only a few more weeks! Yay!

On a happy note. I had an amazing birthday!! Thank you everyone for all of your nicest happy birthday's and fun presents. I loved them all. It was seriously like christmas. So many presents and they still keep coming. Our car is also finally back and fixed and I love it so much. Don't ask how much it cost... And Ryan rocks.

Love Lauren

The Last 6 Months

So I guess we like to wait 6 months between each post now... Here are just some pictures and stuff of what has been going on in our lives since the summer. It is a really really long post, so beware!

Ryan did lots of golfing and fishing with his dad...

This one is golfing with his mission president and his son

We finally got to fixing up the outside of our house... Mostly that was Ryan too :)



Ryan's 28th birthday



We won the "Good Neighbor Award"


My family visited over their October break


We went to the Thanksgiving Point corn maze and festival and carved pumpkins

Lacie, Jenny, and I threw Raeg a little bridal shower up here with all the friends still in Utah...


Thanksgiving time we went down to AZ for the first part of the week to get ready for Raegan's wedding. We then drove up to Vegas to be with Ryan's family for Thanksgiving and drove back to AZ the next day for the wedding dinner and to finish reception stuff. It was a crazy break!

Finished my last semester of finals!!! Yay!! We went to the Tabernacle Choir Christmas Program at the conference center. It was so amazing!


Christmas time we went down to AZ! We saw some movies, ate tons of food, hung out with friends and family, rode the light rail, got tons of fun presents, even the cutest baby puppy in the whole world, and tons of other fun things. All in the 75 degree weather! So nice!


New Years we went to dinner with Eric, Bree, Kjersten, and Kevin, then we went and saw Sherlock Holmes, then watched the fireworks by Tempe town lake.