David Archuleta / Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Concert

I tried so hard to get tickets the the MoTab Christmas concert this year. Why? Well, not because they are the best choir in the world, not because they put on one heck of a good Christmas concert... but because the guest singer this year was a someone that maybe you've heard of...his name is DAVID ARCHULETA!!!!!!! To say the least I'm a huge David Archuleta fan. (See past post.) So I was utterly disappointed when I wasn't able to get tickets. I was considering buying them, or freezing my nose hairs off in the standby line to try to get in. But, then a Christmas miracle happened. My sweet co-worker, Chuck, who knows what a Archie fan I am offered me two tickets. I have bowed to him every time I've seen him since. How can you possible thank a person enough for such a kind deed?

So knowing that Brady would probably rather get a root canal than go to a David Archuleta concert, I invited my sweet mom. We had a blast! We got uptown way early and ate a lovely dinner at Little America. Then we took TRAX up to Temple Square and enjoyed the lights. We then got to our seats a full hour and a half early. (Which it was a good thing because thousands of people didn't make it in the doors and were turned away. I had no idea that any of that was going on outside.) But, the time went by fast because the choir and dancers were still practicing because we went for their dress rehearsal performance.

David Archuleta was AMAZING! His voice is like buttah! I could have listened to Silent Night 100 times. Of course by then I wouldn't have had any more tears left. It was simply incredible. After it was all over I just wanted to sit down and watch it all over again.

My mom and I took our time getting out of there. We didn't want to fight the crowds. We meandered through Temple Square and saw the gorgeous lights. Then once we got back to Little America we were so freezing so we stopped in for some hot chocolate... and had to sneak in a slice of cheesecake, too!

It was such a wonderful night and I will never forget it! The music was amazing, the lights were so beautiful, and most of all I loved sharing the whole experience with my wonderful mom.

San Francisco

Brady had a work conference in California last week, so we made a fun little trip out of it. We left Stockton home with grandparents for three days (the longest we've ever been away from him! It was hard, but a much needed break.) We spent two days in San Francisco. The first day we took a city tour and got to see a lot of the main sites.


Golden Gate Bridge was awesome! Can't believe they built it in 1937! How did they do it?


We took a fairy over to Sausalito and had lunch. Such a quaint little town, wish we could've had more time to spend there!


The Painted Ladies. This was one of the highlights for Brady because these houses are in the opening shots of Full House. He was so stoked that Bob Saggett had stood in this very spot! So when we got back to the hotel we had to watch all the many versions of the opening song of Full House several times on YouTube. Brady thought the painted ladies were famous because of Full House. I probably just should've let him believe that, because he was very disappointed when I said they were famous before that show and they filmed the picnic scene there because the houses are a San Francisco icon.


Stockton Street.


Lombard street. Yes we are standing in the middle of the road and that car is about to hit us. But, hey we're all tourists, so they were understanding.


Chinatown. A lot of people say they love Chinatown. I was a nervous wreck there. (Of course I'm a nervous wreck anywhere in public after a certain incident that most of you already know about. ) I think it would've been different if it weren't starting to get dark at that time. I wanted to go in some of the shops, but I was so scared for my safety I just wanted to get out of there more than anything.

We had a very romantic dinner at Scott's Seafood Grill.

The next day Brady's uncle and his family met up with us. They live about an hour and a half away from San Fran. They took us around to more sites. First we went to Muir Woods. (How does Brady have only a T-shirt on and I have two awkward jackets on?)

The Conservatory of Flowers at Golden Gate Park.

The Conservatory was GORGEOUS! So many exotic and beautiful flowers. I love orchids and there were hundreds of them in there!

Japanese Tea Gardens with Brady's uncle and cousins.

The view of the city from the top of Telegraph Hill at sunset. It was BEAUTIFUL!

Coit Tower. Too bad it was closed for renovations :(

We ended our night eating at Bubba Gumps Shrimp company (sooo yummy) and topped it off with a ice cream sundae at Ghirardelli Square.

We spend that night at Brady's Uncle's house and went to church with them the next day. I flew out Monday morning and Brady stayed for his conference for a couple of days.

It was such a fun trip! And I definitely want to go back!

Halloween Festivities

The Friday before Halloween we went to Gardner Village. Stockton loved just running around and seeing all the witches.

He was facinated with the witch flying on a bike.

We celebrated Halloween on Saturday like most Utahns. During the day we went to Haiders and picked out pumpkins from their garden to carve.

The Haiders had a HUGE pumpkin they had grown in their garden, it weighed 86.2 lbs. Check out the size of that "plug" compared to a normal pumpkin!

Stockton loved the big Jack-o-Lantern! It was bigger than him!

Brady carved a scary pumpkin and I carved one that looked like Elmo for Stockton. (On a side note: Yes, that is my mom in the background. Why is she at my in-laws house you ask? Well, it's because they were on their way to my sister's house and wanted to stop and see Stockton in his costume, so they came over to the Haiders since we were over there.)

Stockton loved his Elmo pumpkin. Turned out pretty good.

And Brady's was scary! It looked great!

It was such a cold, rainy night. We only took Stockton trick-or-treating to two houses. Then we snuggled in and had "Dinner in a pumpkin."

It's basically ground beef, rice, mushrooms seasoned with Worcestershire sauce (or soy sauce, either one) and brown sugar baked in a pumpkin. My friend Eli first made it for us a couple of years ago and it's kinda become a Halloween tradition. It's so yummy!

We only had a few trick-or-treaters. I had enough candy to give each of them a whole bag... but I didn't... so we now have a life time supply of peanut butter cups.

After Stockton went to bed, Brady and I watched a scary movie called "Stevie." Why is it that we love to scare ourselves out of our whits? I don't know exactly, but it's tradition.

Trick-or-Treating at Mommy and Daddy's Work

Stockton was so lucky and got to go trick-or-treating at both Mommy and Daddy's work.


I don't know which one is the bigger nerd! I was laughing so hard when I saw this picture! Like mother, like son I guess. But, I'm not just any nerd. I'm a structural engineer... since I work for a structural engineering firm. My outfit is complete with a pocket protector and a University of Utah tie to add to the nerdiness.

The two Sesame Street characters. The funny thing is, this guy's last name is Burt. So it was actually a pretty hilarious costume.

All the Reaveley Engineer's folk in their Halloween garb.

I switched costumes for Brady's work. Their trick-or-treating was a WAY bigger deal and there were tons of people there and so many fun things for the kids!

People had all kinds of decorations and music. Stockton is obsessed with pumpkins. So he liked this little pumpkin decoration.

One section of cubicles was even made into a spook alley.

Stockton loved it. This room was only lit by a black light. Stockton liked it when I smiled at him and my teeth were glowing! He was pretty enthralled!

We saw this tall pumpkin dude on stilts. Stockton very was frightened/fascinated.

Stockton knew just what to do. Take the candy and put it in his "buck-ock" (bucket.) He got all sorts of candy. Most of which he cannot eat... so that means mommy and daddy have to eat it!

Another Elmo? What the?!

It was such a fun day for Stockton. He was way into it. I'm sure next year will be even better!

Quick Visit from Anna

Anellina came for a quick visit a couple of weeks ago. They only had a little while to play together so they got right to it!

They were screaming and havin' a blast together!


Pretending to be airplanes.


Loving being with Grandma.

Talkin' on the phone to each other.

These kids LOVE each other. It's so much fun!

Happy Birthday Brady!

We celebrated Brady's B-day a couple of weeks ago. He got a new camera for his birthday. He took it out of the box and there were already pictures of Stockton holding a "Happy Birthday Daddy!" sign on the camera!

Unfortunately we all got a stomach bug , and we were all sick for his birthday. We had a fun night planned, but it didn't pan out.

So Brady took a day off once we were feeling better and went fishing with his dad. The fall colors were gorgeous and they had a great time.

Brady had a little bit of birthday luck as well. He caught the biggest rainbow trout he's ever caught! It was 25" long and it was some good eatin'!

We went out to dinner with Brady's family to his favorite place, SkyBox.

Stockton was so hyper, and everyone helped keep him entertained.

Happy Birthday Brady! We love you so much and appreciate all you do for us!