Christmas goodies.

we started our festivities out with lunch at the Earl's on Christmas Eve.
Isaac was a great uncle and gave all the boys Slinky's and other boy toys.


Luke & Dallin loved the Slinky's


the best Christmas surprise we got was when Whitney & Jordan told the family that they are expecting a baby next August. how exciting!!! that'll be 3 new babies next year in mine & isaac's families.

later that night we went over to my parent's house for our Christmas Eve dinner. we had breakfast for dinner this year and it was awesome.


Carter, Kaden & Kye checking out the electric train under the Christmas tree. notice Keyan is making his usual pose and showing some 'tude.


My oh-so-good-looking husband cooked up a batch of scrumptious sour cream banana pancakes. they were obviously a hit because zane had him TRIPLE the recipe. yes, we do love leftovers.


everyone lent a hand in the kitchen


Grandpa Stan got out the bells and the grand kids performed a song with the bells. very beautiful music.


and it wouldn't be Christmas without our luminaries. Of course, one starting on fire and causing a small flame is nothing to worry about.


then the grand kids opened their gifts.


isaac and i went home and finished wrapping presents for each other and then quickly decided to start our own tradition of opening all our present on Christmas Eve. it was awesome! the blanket at the bottom of this pic is the one that i (and my wonderful family members) sewed for him. he loved it!


my Christmas stocking from isaac. it was FULL to the brim with m & m's, peanuts and other goodies.

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and had lots of joy in your hearts.

Christmas update

well, this might be the last post before Christmas. we'll see.

isaac and i have been super-busy the past few weeks. imagine. :)
we are both very much looking forward to having a few days off work for the holiday and being able to sleep in. whoever said that once you were married you would go to bed early was obviously not one of us. we can't go to bed early to save our lives. there is always something to do - watch a movie at 2:00 a.m., work on organizing our house and eating ice cream. we are so lame.

anyway - moving on.
last night we went to brigette and justin's house for dinner and decorating gingerbread houses with the kids. it was so fun. it's always fun to be around the niece and nephews, so this was a fun night.


the gingerbread house making crew


i helped Kye with his house and it was so funny to watch him master the icing and sticking things to it


Keyan was so proud of his creation


dianne and her house


another masterpiece


here is a pic of our first Charlie Brown Christmas tree. he's been a great tree - we just keep watering him too much and he pees on the carpet. see the great decorations?!?!? isaac had a great idea to buy jingle bells and hang them on the tree - and it is awesome when you walk by and they jingle.

So - we haven't gotten our Christmas newsletter done yet - i still have hope that it'll be done before the 25th. but, expect good things nonetheless. but just in case it doesn't hit the press before Santa hits the chimney - MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ONE AND ALL!!!!

the BIG news!!!!!

http://lorianddavid.blogspot.com/

scroll down to the bottom of her post from today, Friday December 19th to find out -


yay!!!!!!!

this is it!!!!

well, it's true - this is my last post from my Fall 2008 semester of my master's proram. i'm sitting in class listening to the last presentations and i've looked forward to this night for SOOOOOOOOOOO long.
i can make it to 10:00 tonight, knowing that next thursday i don't have to come sit here for 5 hours.

can i hear a whoo-whoo for Christmas break?!!?!?

and yes, i did horribly on my finals. dang it.

p.s. - stayed tuned for A VERY EXCITING POST tomorrow, Friday, December 20th. it might just change your life. it's definitely changing mine!!!!!!
any guesses?!?!?!

finals are tomorrow.

and i think that about sums up my happenings this week.

oh - and i just threw up in my mouth because of it.

happy wednesday.

before and after -

for those of you who haven't been to our new apartment yet (that's pretty much everyone) here are a few pics of our kitchen. i want you to know - i put everything away and got everything off of the floor, counters, out of boxes, etc. when we moved in. we were quite busy for the first few weeks of being married - so we needed to just get stuff out of the way.
well, my husband couldn't stand it any longer. he wanted our cabinets to be organized and to make sense. go figure. :)
so he took the job upon himself (bless his heart) and it took 2 days to complete. we had all our cupboards full of food plus 3 large tupperware bins full of food. if anyone gets hungry - come over. we'll have spaghetti.


here's a pic of all the empty cupboards - isaac pulled everything out and organized it to put back in.



what the??? oh yeah - i had to thank him for his hard work. :)

THE END PRODUCT


our spice cupboard. notice how nice and neat everything is





here's a close up of the spices - so you can appreciate how nice and neat and organized he made them. i'm amazed. i don't want to even touch anything for fear of messing it all up.


another cupboard


oh - my cute husband cooking me dinner after a long day at work and school, and after he organized my kitchen. he must love me.


and our new kitchen. see how nice and clean and everything it is? we left the cupboards open for this pic so you could see how great it all looks.

o.k. that's all for now. now we turn to organizing the rest of the house.

some pics -

here are some pics from the last couple of weeks - and our honeymoon


a sunset in wyoming - on our way to jackson - BEAUTIFUL!


the Tetons


us


us at a pretty lake - i forget if it was Jackson lake or Jenny lake. i think it was Jackson lake.


at the famous antlers in Jackson

and that's it. that's all the pictures we took on our honeymoon. sorry folks.

it's time.

for an update.

and it's thursday night. and what does that mean? it means i'm sitting in my economics class once again, totally bored out of my mind and not paying attention to the mind-boggling lecture that could save my life someday. or bore me to death. :)

this week is Festival Week which means that yes, i still have not gone back to work since i got married - almost 2 weeks ago! by the time i go back to work on monday - i will have had 2 1/2 weeks away from work. thank you to my lovely and talented cell-mate, Erin, who has had to deal with my workload while i've been absent. she's on the fast track to Heaven.

Festival has been AWESOME this year. it's been nice and chill, i've gone home early each night and things are going REALLY smoothly. of course, we still have 80 large trees to sell before saturday night, but i'm not going to stress about that until saturday at about 4:00 pm.

i can't do my Festival job until all of the large trees are sold, so it's kind of a stressor the closer to saturday night at 10:00 that we get - cause that's when Festival ends. so if anyone is in the market for a wonderfully decorated Christmas tree - come to Festival and take a lookie. and remember - it's for the babies.
:)

http://www.festivaloftreesutah.org/

here's a peek -

here's a pic that Brooke took of us from the wedding at the temple.

if you have nothing better to do - take a look here, too:
http://www.pacephoto.com/wendy08/3/

next up - FESTIVAL OF TREES!!!

yes, i can

my husband is sitting here next to me telling me that i can't blog on my honeymoon. and i told him i could. guess we all know how this relationship works. :)

well, there's nothing like being off work, having nothing to do all day long and wondering why all the places we've been to are totally dead during the work hours. weird. sorry to everyone out there who has been to work this week.

our honeymoon has been great. too bad it has to end. i think i could honeymoon for the rest of my life. there is nothing like being with isaac 24/7. it is so much fun and it has been so great to have him all to myself. it's weird cause sometimes it feels like when we get back to salt lake that i'll go to my house and he'll go to his - but voila!!!! we get to live together and set up our house and stuff. good thing we are getting back on thanksgiving day and get to have dinner at someone else's house cause we don't have any eggs or milk in our fridge yet.
:)

thanks everyone for your support and love and fun times we had last friday - it seems like it's been forever since that day - but what a WONDERFUL day it was. :)

ta - da!

well, my loyal fans, this is the last post to the 'ol blog before i become Mrs. Isaac Earl. wow. does that leave a warm fuzzy feeling in your soul or what?!?!
or, it could be the heartburn i'm feeling. :)

no, really. it is the night before the big day and what am i doing with my time, you ask? well, what better thing to do than sit in class for 5 hours. tonight's topic is interest and stuff like that. for some weird reason my brain just isn't grasping what my professor is talking about. oh well. good thing isaac is a math major and can explain it to me on the car rides during our honeymoon.

i would like to say thank you to everyone out there for the support, love, gifts, and everything else that you've supported us with. it's amazing how we are all a composition of those around us and the influence we have on each other. thank you all for your influence in my life.

and isaac - can't wait to be your wifey. :)

less than one week.

and that's all i have to say for today.

Grandma's Obituary

Mildred Hatch Carter
Mildred Hatch Carter 1912 ~ 2008 The children of Mildred Hatch Carter are saddened but grateful to announce the passing of our mother, age ninety-six. She died quietly at home of natural causes Friday, November 7, 2008, surrounded by those who loved her.Mildred was born October 10, 1912 to Curtis Legrande and Mary Alice Funk Hatch. She and her husband John Deloy Carter, who has preceded her by 14 years, were parents of 12 children, ten raised to adulthood, 54 grandchildren, 91 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren. She was our teacher, our mentor, our examplar and our most loyal friend. She was also a friend of those in need of temporal, emotional, and spiritual sustenance. None were ever turned away from her door unappreciated or unfed. Her grandchildren were the special beneficiaries of her loving care. She was a faithful daughter of Zion and an unfailing disciple of Jesus Christ. Her simple and unadorned faith was the foundation of our own, and it was by her knee that we learned our first prayers. Mid, as she was known, excelled in school. She desired to continue beyond high school, but she married young. Those were the early years of the Great Depression when surviving was the singular goal and expectation. She lamented her loss, perhaps not realizing that literary attainments cannot be compared with the wisdom gained in living and serving. Many have since eagerly sought her advice and counsel. Like their seven sons and one of their daughters, Deloy and Mildred served a proselyting mission together in Ventura, California. She served her church faithfully throughout her life. Her home and our lives are poorer without her, but we thank God for her example and memory. We will miss her beyond measure. John D. (Nadine) Carter, Jr., Bonita (Dean) Carter Thomas, Dorian L. Carter, Burton L.(Yvonne) Carter, Diane (Richard, deceased) Carter Wyatt, Vanevery L. Carter, (deceased) and Mrs. Donna (Stan) Schulz, Von H. (Janiel) Carter, Robert K. (Terri) Carter, Debra (Paul) Carter Hatton, Brett L. (Terry) Carter. Funeral services will be held at 12 p.m. Fri., November 14, 2008 at the Cottonwood 11th Ward Chapel, 1830 E. 6400 S., Murray. Viewings will be Thurs., 6-8 p.m. at Memorial Mortuary, 5850 S. 900 E. and Fri. 10-11:30 a.m. at the church. Interment, Holladay Memorial Park. Funeral Directors, Cottonwood Mortuary.

November 7, 2008

My Grandma Carter passed away yesterday afternoon.
She was 96 years old and almost 1 month.

A lot of our family members gathered at her house last night and it was so great to be around them. I have such a wonderful family and a wonderful legacy. I am so proud to be a Carter.

2 weeks........

well, i'll admit it.
i'm the most impatient person in the world.
it's 2 weeks until the wedding and i can't wait for it to come. (and be over with)

so there. if you think you are more impatient than i am - prove it. :)

the first snow....and a pain in my neck!

well, for those in the salt lake valley, you know that we got to wake up to snow this morning. normally i would have been excited. but you try driving down the hill on 9400 south in a car whose brakes don't want to work. not my idea of fun.
so, i called isaac. and i just want to tell you what a cool fiance he is. i told him about my brakes not working and how freaked out i was and asked if we could switch cars for the day, and he said yes. when i got to his house, he was brushing the snow off of it and it was all nice and warm inside. and off we both went to work.

thank you fiance for being so cool-headed and nice to me this morning. :)

trial run -

this afternoon i had my bridal pictures taken and then isaac came and we did a pre-shoot for our wedding day pictures. it was fun and weird at the same time to be walking around downtown salt lake city in a big white dress. cause nobody notices that at all. :)
i did get lots of people walking by saying congratulations and stuff so that was fun. i even ran into 2 of isaac's friends who work downtown and they just happened to be out having lunch when we were in the same spot.

wendell, our photographer, did a great job and was so super fun to be with all afternoon. i think my mom even had fun, too. :)

here's a pic of isaac and i that i had my mom take AFTER the professional had taken our pictures all afternoon. so - this is just a taste of what we look like in our fancy-schmancy clothes. i will say that it was fun to get all gussied up and feel pretty in my dress, but i don't think i could wear stuff like this all the time - i do like to breathe, you know.

bridal showers and pumpkin carving

this last saturday was a full day of festivities.
it started out with isaac and i apartment shopping. we found one that we really liked and will be moving into. it's kiddie-corner from Cottonwood high school and should be a great location. once we're settled and stuff - we'll invite everyone over for a spaghetti dinner. :)

after that, i went to my neighborhood / Granite ward shower at Sherry's house. (thank you sherry!!) it was so much fun to get a chance to visit with everyone and catch up.

*note to reader - sorry the pics are kind of blurry - i'm still learning to hold still when i take pics*


Keri, Renee, Shani and me


on couch: colleen, carol, marylu and mom
behind couch: sue and mamma-graybill


Sherry, Barbara, Laurel, and Pam

that afternoon we went to the Nielson family shower at my aunt juli's house.
it was so fun to get together with the fam cause we ALWAYS end up laughing and having so much fun. my cousing carrie was there who i haven't seen in years and we got to meet the newest addition to the family, cousin mark & erin's baby Josh.

me, cousin amy and cousin erin


on the couch - cousin kristin, cousin noni and cousin carrie.
behind couch - cousin marcie's daughter


cousin Amy, cousin Erin, isaac's sister Niki, and his mom Anne


haley, aunt juli, and my mom


me and the fiance


sisters....sisters....never were there such devoted sisters (insert the song from "white Christmas" here)


later that night we drove down to Whitta & Jordan's house to carve pumpkins with the fam. poor jakey-poo had to go to a dance that night, so he missed out on the fun. we had some yummy soup for dinner and had fun talking and then got into the messy project of carving our pumpkins. our pumpking was large, but dirty so we had to give it a little bath first.


another classic look from logan


go whitta!


i got to do the dirty work of diggin' the guts out


you can tell he's concentrating really hard cause his tongue is sticking out


Heidi and Logan - i love this face he's making


the Earl fam carving away


Jason & Niki


Whitta & Jordan


the newphews and the pumpkins
Bridger, Luke, Dallin & Logan


me with our finished project

this was such a fun day and such a fun night with isaac's family. (thanks whitta & jordan for letting us trash your house!)i can't wait for halloween now. especially cause we'll get to have the infamous "dinner-in-a-pumpkin" that night.