The Holidays

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is not really much of a holiday for me because it comes right before finals so I need to study the whole break. But we went to the Crosby's home in Eager for the break and Reed had a great time with his family while I studied up in my room. Mostly he just watched football but he also played some football and basketball and went shooting with his brothers. I did surface momentarily for Thanksgiving dinner though so we managed to capture one picture of that.

We also snapped a couple pictures of our niece London and nephew Kingston in their cute snow hats. Here is one of the best ones:

 Oh and here are these two waiting for Thanksgiving dinner:
 

















Christmas 
Christmas was much more of a celebration for me than Thanksgiving because school was over! Yay! I still have almost a week of freedom before we start up again and I am sure enjoying it. Before leaving Provo Reed and I did a couple fun Christmas activities such as going to the Festival of Trees and the David Archuleta concert. We were actually at the concert when he announced his decision to serve a full-time mission, it was really neat. He is an incredible guy and a great role model, nobody deserves the success he has had more than him. We didn't take any pictures at the concert but here are a few from the festival of trees:




Then we went to my parents home in St. George to spend the rest of the holidays. We didn't really take pictures actually because I wanted to get my hair done before taking pictures (my highlights were like halfway down my head) but then nobody would do my hair until after Christmas so it took us a while. But we did finally get my hair done and convince my little sister Tracie to photograph us...We really like a lot of them....Here are some of our favorites:

It's also important to note here that Reed gave me this entire outfit for Christmas (including the jewelry) and I did not help him pick it out at all. Isn't he great at picking out clothes?! The goofy photo down on the left is Reed's favorite. He always likes the silly photos the best.

As far as Christmas presents go...as you can see I got some nice clothes and jewelry from Reed (as well as others that are not in this picture). In keeping with tradition, Reed/Santa gave me some new supplies for my popcorn machine and Reed also gave me a cute jewelry holder, a new curling iron and some perfume. I gave Reed some cologne, a couple new church shirts and ties, some regular shirts and a football. My parents and younger siblings gave us some great kitchen supplies (we always love new things for the kitchen) and new clothes, Jaimee gave Reed a pocket knife that looks like a rifle when opened up and gave me some lovely scents from Victoria's Secret. Dana and Jason gave us gift cards to a really nice steak house. Reed's parents gave us some honey for food storage and some Christmas decorations. Our favorite present to give was to Randi and Shane. We joined with Dana and Jason and gave them a 16 x 24 canvas picture that I had taken and edited for them. I think they really liked it and we were super excited about how it turned out. Oh and we gave Smoochie a bird pinata :-).

The things I do for a T-shirt

Year one: The Fresh
I thought it would be fun to throw an ultimate Frisbee team together my freshman year so I got a bunch of guys that lived in the dorms with me to play.
Result: Championship game, 2nd place finish... no t-shirt :`(

Year two: The Fresh Reunion Tour
We got the guys that were back from their missions and put together another team. We were missing some key players but picked up a few others.
Result: Semi-finals, 4th place finish... no t-shirt :`(

Year three: The Fresh Elite
We put the team together with some additions and had a great season.
Result: Championship game, Heartbreaking loss, 2nd place finish... no t-shirt :`(


Year four: The Fresh Elite
Last year we had an awesome team, even had matching t-shirts for games, and have a sweet highlight video of the season.
Result: Semi-finals, 3rd place finish... no t-shirt :`(

Year five: The Fresh Elite
This will be most of the team's last year so we made the most of it.
Result: Championship game, 1st place finish... Sweet t-shirt!!!

This T-shirt has eluded us for over 6 years and we finally got it, so when you see me wearing it way too much, you'll know why.

Some of my best friends at BYU are because of this team. It is sad that it might be over. Some of the team (including me) will be around one more year but we will have to appeal the NCAA for a 6th year of eligibility... If granted, I will be posting next year about our repeat.
Here I am sporting my sweet shirt. I'll bring it home for Thanksgiving so many of you can see it in person.

And here is a highlight video of last year's team.

Seven + 1

So my wife is an amazingly busy person. She studies so hard at the law school and does really well with that. On top of studying she is a Teaching Assistance for a writing class, she spends hours every week doing assignments for law review, and she even has time for this:





Yeah, I know, it is really impressive. Natali was in a crew called Seven+1 for BYU's Best Dance Show held in the Wilk tonight. They were the best crew there. She spent hours every night for the last couple weeks with the crew making this perfect. She is really talented and loves dancing and I am really proud of her for everything she has been able to do and still keep me under control. Oh and just a side note, the very first part with the feet is something I have never seen before. Dancers have done tutting with their hands for a long time but I have never seen people do it with their feet. It was Natali's idea. Pretty amazing!

Two Year Anniversary

Today is Reed and my 2 year anniversary! We didn't do much because we had school but I think Reed has some adventure up his sleeve for this weekend. He did make me a lovely breakfast and then I made him a kinda fancy romantic dinner of salmon, potatoes, asparagus and a chocolate fondue dessert. Anyways, in honor of our anniversary I wanted to post a couple wedding/bridal shots to reminisce and this darling poem Reed wrote about our first date (he wrote it right before we got engaged). I will treasure this poem forever. Reed writes great poems.

 

First Date

There comes a time in a man’s life

The moment he tries to find his wife

But every story must have a start

A time or place where a girl steals his heart

This story begins with me sitting in class

Professor Holland had a question to ask.

So he called his TA’s to go help him out

And carry around mikes so we didn’t have to shout.

The girl that stood up really caught my eye.

Fifteen minutes I stared at her, I cant lie.

During that time I didn’t hear a word

But I told my buddy, “I’m gonna go out with her!”

Three weeks went by without any luck

To get her alone so that we could talk.

So finally I said “Today’s the day!”

I knew exactly what I would say.

So after class I finally manned up

And followed her out like a little scared pup.

I went up to her right then and there

And blurted out, “I love your long hair.”

I found out her name so I went online.

If she would accept my friend request, that would be a sign.

I also looked up when she taught in the lab.

Yes, I’m a stalker. Is that bad?

So I’d go and get help from that hottie TA

Madison and Marbury.. now who were they?

But I still didn’t have the guts to ask her out

Would she say yes? I had my doubts.

She speaks French so I translated a phrase

And carried it in my pocket for days and days

So finally I gave it to her in a rush

My face turned red and I started to blush.

 She wrote me some French that I couldn’t read.

The ten numbers on bottom were all I would need.

So I called her that night and I set up a date.

Saturday November 22^nd, I just couldn’t wait.

I thought and I thought of what we could do

Something fun and exciting but romantic too.

So I called and talked to my family and friends

To get ideas and updates on the latest dating trends.

The big night arrived and I went to her door

I can still remember the shirt that she wore.

We went to Bajio to get something to eat.

What happened next is embarrassing to me.

We got our food and we both sat down

She grabbed her fork and started to chow.

I stopped her right before the food reached her face

I said, “Excuse me, do you think we can pray?”

Somehow she continued that very first date

So we went to watch hockey and that started late.

I taught her Zambonni and she was impressed.

Who won the game? I couldn’t care less.

Then we went to Color me Mine

To paint some pottery and have a good time.

She painted my cup and I painted hers.

Red, black, blue, and green: she loves those colors.

Then back to her house with starbursts in hand.

Who can unwrap one first? She says she can.

She got a phone call and talked in French

While I ate popcorn and sat on the bench.

Downstairs we went to play the Wii.

Beating a girl in Nintendo, how hard could that be?

Bowling, boxing, Tennis, Baseball.

You name the game, she won them all.

Then we decided to go old school

At Super Mario I looked like a fool.

She knew all the secrets cuz she played a lot.

Beating the castle she was soo hott.

A few other games and then Bubble Bop.

We were addicted and just couldn’t stop.

Finally we ended at a quarter past three

It was the greatest first date ever, if you ask me.

Dallas

So I have finally finished interviewing for 2012 summer associate positions. It has been crazy. For the past month and a half I have spent almost every Thursday and Friday flying around for interviews. Since my first interviews were in the summer time, Reed and I decided to make a vacation out of my week of interviewing in Dallas. So here are some pictures of our time in Dallas. Oh and BTW, after spending much time considering our different options we have decided to spend the first half of next summer in Palo Alto and the second half in Dallas so that I can compare my two top firms and we can both compare the different areas etc. Reed might actually spend the bulk of the summer in Palo Alto and I will go to Dallas alone if he gets an internship that wants him for longer than 7 weeks. We are really excited about the opportunity to discover both areas. I have been so blessed to get offers from the firms I did, all of them were really great firms and it was a hard choice. But I'm extremely grateful that it was a choice I had to make since it's so difficult to get any job offers in this economy.

Dallas- I wish I had gotten better photos of the city and especially of the freeway system in Dallas because it's seriously like a spider web but supposedly it works really well at keeping traffic quite minimal for a big city.

   







Dallas Arboretum- We loved walking through these incredible botannical gardens in Dallas. It was pretty hot while we were there (it was during the time when Dallas was setting a record for the most consecutive days over 100) but we went a little earlier in the morning so it was not too bad. Inside of the arboretum there are a bunch of little houses/huts etc to show the story of some of the history of Dallas.

We also braved the heat to go to Six Flags in Dallas. We didn't like it as much as Six Flags Magic Mountain, particularly because it was SOO hot (which is why we went on a water ride almost immediately and got soaked) and also cause it's a lot older so some of the rides gave us a bit of a headache. We felt like old people when we were ready to leave after just 3 hours :)...we held out a little longer and managed to stay for about 4.5 hours but we were EXHAUSTED when we finally left.