Christmas is coming!

More pictures of our Christmas decorations! Here is our awesome tree we cut down today....

It looks great!

Christmas is around the corner!

My parents are in town and today we hung up our Christmas lights....

They look awesome!

More pictures of the indoor decorations and my parents visit coming soon! Just thought this would get people into the holiday spirit.

(my dad and Jackson helping me hang up lights)

12-0

Saturday night Madelyn and I cheered our Utes to another undefeated season and another trip to a BCS bowl. Since the game was on the MTN network, we had to go watch it at a sports bar.... we were the only Utah fans in the place! We were outnumbered by a large group of BYU fans. We're eager to find out which bowl they'll be going to.....

Utah Utes... busting the BCS again! Number 6 in the country!



The icing on the cake? We creamed BYU.... ;-) 48-24

New blog..

Lately we've been having an itch to post all sorts of blogs... but since this is more of a "what we're up to" type blog we decided to create another blog full of things we find or funny stories we want to share.

Come and check it out:

http://mandcstuff.blogspot.com/

House things...

When we moved into our house and decided to make the extra bedroom a "Project" room Madelyn had the idea of hanging a crystal/fancy chandelier. Well, a couple weeks ago Madelyn found the one she wanted and since I'm an expert on hanging light fixtures now, we hung it up. We think it looks great! Anyway, here are some pictures for those of you only able to get the verbal explanation over the phone...

One of the strange things about living here after living in Utah is that is doesn't really get that cold. But lately it's been dropping down to the.... 30's! One thing we didn't know is that when it gets near freezing you have to protect your plants, the people here cover their bushes and plants with old bed sheets. Our awesome neighbors let us borrow some of their old sheets. This is common place in Texas, but I had to take a picture for out Utah friends/family. The weather here has been nuts, last night it was 30 degrees and this afternoon it was 80! Making fires at night and opening the windows in the afternoon.

The other thing we've been loving lately is the "green space" across the street from our house. Our neighborhood has this great open area that maintained by our HOA.... the dogs LOVE it. As soon as we get there they just run and run! Anyway, here are some pictures:

(The dogs are way in the background)

Birthday Week.

Sorry we've been neglecting our blog... but we've been busy with our week long birthday extravaganza. My birthday celebrations started last Saturday and ended last night! It was definitely a crazy week. It started when my mom invited us over for dinner last Saturday night for one of my favorite meals and Kevin even made me a home made chocolate cream pie. The best part was that there were tons of balloons greeting me at the front door. Each one of them had a little message....

Sunday night we invited our friends over for a game night. This wasn't really birthday related, but it was still apart of the birthday week. Some people couldn't make it to the game night, so it ended up being Cody and the girls. We started the night with some Scattegories, but none of us could come up with any words... you can see the frustration in this picture:

After Scategories we moved on to Taboo. Our friend Heidi started the game saying "I don't really know how to play", but when it came to her turn she dominated. We got hustled in Taboo... big time.

The game night was such a success that we planned another one for Tuesday night. We had a game fever... and the only prescription was Scrabble. Tuesday happened to be my actual birthday (Madelyn had class that night) so our Scrabble party kind of turned into a birthday celebration. Lorena made me a cake and everyone let me win.... Madelyn came over after her class and we blew out the candles.

Wednesday night Madelyn took me out to dinner for my birthday since she was in class the night before. We stuffed ourselves with delicious Mexican food and came home and watched some of my favorite TV shows. For some reason we also stopped taking pictures.

Friday night was just going to be a normal night, we were at DSW looking for shoes. I went in, looked around for a bout 30 seconds, and I was done, Madelyn found some 2 dollar shoes but there was some sort of problem with the barcode, so the lady took like 10 minutes in the back trying to figure it out. Then, when we got in the car Madelyn asked if she could drive... which was weird. Then she started driving in the opposite direction of our supposed next stop telling me she knew somewhere that had cheap gas (although I had half a tank). So we drove and drove looking for this gas, we filled up, and then she drove me to one of my favorite restaurants. When we walked in all of our friends were sitting at a table! Come to find out that Madelyn underestimated the time it takes men to check out a shoe store, she asked the cashier if she could stall, then she drove all over to buy some time. I had no idea.... but it was a great surprise.

After dinner we came back to our place for some Rockband! Again, I didn't take pictures at dinner or of Rockband, but I did get a picture of Jessica and Rocky. We were all busy rocking out when I started noticing I didn't see Jessica, I finally found her lying behind our desk giving Rocky some serious pets. Rocky was just lying in her lap, staring into her eyes. Jessica is definitely Rocky's favorite person who comes over. They have a very special bond.

Last night the birthday celebration finally ended with going to the Alamo Drafthouse to see Quantom of Solace. It was the perfect end to my crazy birthday weekend extravaganza! Thanks to everyone who sent gifts, called, made food, and celebrated with me. It was by far one of the most memorable birthdays I've had!

Happy Birthday Cody!

Today is Cody's birthday and I wanted to honor him today by exposing embarrassing things about him on the internet, and telling everyone who visits this blog what an amazing person Cody is.

Cody is the most hilarious person I know. He is fun and adventurous and always makes sure that everyone is having a good time. He is very passionate and can't wait to share new finds with everyone he knows. He is the most thoughtful, caring, selfless person. He is also smart, hard-working, diligent, handy, entertaining, resourceful, supportive, responsible, dependable, helpful, loving, sensitive, a good listener, and the best looking thing I have ever seen. I hope you have a fantastic day today, Cody, you deserve it!

Our November crazy dog post

I've been spending the afternoon at home today while I wait for the cable man... So I took out the camera and decided to play with taking black and white pictures. Of course, who else would I try this new feature on except our two dogs?

I really need to get my dog portrait business off the ground!

Two Years in Austin

(The picture we took just as we crossed the Texas boarder with everything we owned in a truck...using my thumb as Oklahoma)

We just passed our two year Austin anniversary and I have to say we feel so great about the past two years. We literally came into Austin with nothing. We had no jobs, no place to live, no idea what we were going to do. We left our comfortable Salt Lake City lives for an Adventure in one of our country's coolest cities. It's been an absolute roller coaster with highs and lows... but here we are two years later with a new house, good jobs, amazing friends, two incredible dogs and a whole lot of "real world" lessons. As hard as it's been being away from our family back home in SLC I am grateful to have gotten to spend a lot of time with my Texas family especially with both of my great grandfathers passing in the past year. Our adventures in Austin, Texas will continue on... but it's just nice to reflect on an amazing two years! I can't imagine going through these adventures with anyone else. Madelyn has been an amazing partner through the lows and highs and I am so lucky to have her with me. Thanks for everyone who reads this blog... all of you have made these past two years amazing. We're extremely lucky to have our family and friends. Thanks! Below is a "best of" our blog... my favorite posts over the past two years....

2006

Our First Day in Austin

Our one month review of Texas

2007

Our first night in the Texas wilderness

Moving into our new apartment

Easter and Skunks

New Job

Anniversary Trip to Galveston

Madelyn's birthday message

Madelyn's parents first visit

Driving to Dallas to see the Police

Getting to go to the Decemberists secret show

Madelyn's first wedding with my family

The day we fell in love with Austin

One of Madelyn's many interviews

Subaru's obituary

Our first Texas Christmas

2008

The first time we met our awesome friends

The day we got Rocky

Voting in the primaries

Our fun trip to Gruene with our friends

Missions Tour with Madelyn's parents

Wilco!

Hanging out in Dallas with my little brother

NEW HOUSE

Sugar... another dog!

Hampton's Brunch

Keri's visit

Anything more recent then that should still be fresh in your mind! Thanks for reading... and I hope you enjoy our blog. Thanks for ya'lls support these past two years!

P.S. While I read through these blogs I noticed you get the impression that it all is written by me. Although it's in "my voice" Madelyn contributes just as much as I do... So If you're ever thinking, "Why doesn't Madelyn ever post a blog"? Well, she does. Every blog I write (after we decide to write one) is sent to her, she adds all sorts of stuff, proofreads it and then we post. It's a very collaborative blog! I just happen to be less busy then her.

Historic Night

What a historic evening. It was so fun to be able to share this moment with our friends Jessica and Lorena. No matter how you voted, this will be an election that all of us will remember for the rest of our lives. It's amazing to know that we all witnessed and participated in this election. We're really excited and hopeful that President Obama will bring about the change he's been talking about for the past two years!

More Visitors!

Last weekend Madelyn's parents, Robert and Kathryn, came into town for a visit. We had a great time showing them the sights in Austin and getting to spend sometime in San Antonio. Madelyn had planned on writing this blog but since she is working full time and now enrolled in classes (another blog topic), she's having trouble finding time to eat and sleep, let alone write a blog. So I'm going to take my best stab at this....

Madelyn and her mom went to a conference in San Antonio during her parents' visit called "Time out for Women". What it's about, what they talked about, who exactly was in "Time Out" are all details the men weren't let in on. So, the report was the conference was good.... Madelyn and her mom really seemed to enjoy themselves. Although the scheduling of lunch didn't work out so well (another story), we did get to have a awesome lunch on the River Walk in San Antonio during the lunch "time out" at the Time Out conference.

Another picture on the way back to the conference. Who isn't part of the original family? Could it be the guy who could easily be Photoshopped out of this picture? (J/K, LOL)

Since the girls went to "Time out for Women" Madelyn's dad and I took a time out for men.... or, a time out from women... whichever way you want to look at it. We hung out at the hotel and watched the movie Hancock, met the girls for lunch, and then went to Ripley's Believe it or Not. This is Madelyn's dad in front of a life size statue of the worlds tallest man.

This is me in front of a life size model of the worlds largest man....

Madelyn and her mom meanwhile were enjoying themselves at the conference. They asked a passer by to take this picture with one of the speakers and family member, Emily Watts. Unfortunately the picture is all out of focus... no, you don't need glasses.

Here is a much more IN focus picture of Madelyn and Kathryn in Time Out.

Besides stuffing ourselves at every restaurant in Austin, going to conferences, and shopping (yay for me and Robert!) there was also a plan to go through all of Madelyn's clothes and make a "give away" pile. I was SO happy Kathryn was in town for this.... I wouldn't have been able to sit there while each item was tried on and critiqued. Again, the men took a "time out" of their own and watched football. In a couple weeks Madelyn is hosting a clothing exchange at our house with all of her friends.... so anyone with good vision can call dibs on anything they see here.