Happy Holidays!

Just writing to wish everyone a VERY Merry Christmas!!! Today is our last day of work and then we get to go home to California tomorrow! Oh the excitement! We just keep praying that the road conditions will be good to us. Today has been bright and sunny so let's just hope that it continues through tomorrow. It has not been fun having to stay in Utah to work and waiting to go to Cali until Christmas Eve, but we're making the best of it. Last Saturday, Bryan's brother, Daniel and his wife Sarah came over and we went to see such pretty lights in Spanish Fork. They do this thing every year called the Festival of Lights and you drive around this cool display of Christmas lights. I recommend it to everyone who is stuck in Utah for the holidays. It is only five bucks per car and 15 minutes away and you get to stay warm with the heater on. We had fun :) Yesterday was nice. Both Bryan and I work on campus at BYU and we received an email around two o'clock saying that the supervisors had permission to shut down their offices due to bad weather conditions. So we got to leave three hours early!! It was nice, BUT, Bryan had scheduled to take his online class midterm and then he was going to request his final, and yesterday was the last day he could do it. So we walked over to the Independent Study building (in the bad weather conditions that they shut down the school with) and of course, we get there and they are closed! So we trudged back to the opposite of campus to get in our car and go home. We were VERY wet by that time. But on the way to the car, the ducks at the pond on the south side of campus were all gathering around these people who were watching them, thinking they had food, but they didn't. So I convinced Bryan to get bread with me and come back to feed the ducks. They are SO cute!! I thoroughly enjoyed feeding them. They all have different personalities too, it's so funny to watch them. We decided that when we have a house with a pond in the backyard, we are going to buy some ducks :) Well, that's the excitement of our lives. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and that you all get what you wish for. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

A Saturday to Remember

This past Saturday Bryan and I got free tickets to the BYU basketball game at the Energy Solutions Arena, in Salt Lake City so we decided to make a day of it. The first thing we did was go see the Disney movie Bolt in 3-D. It was a really good movie and I recommend it to everyone! Even Bryan loved it too! We cried. The movie started at 1:30 and the game started at 5:00, so after the movie we walked around the Gateway mall for a little bit. It was nice just to walk around and not be tempted to spend any money (since we don't have any). We then headed over to the Arena which was just right across the street from the mall. We had great seats! We were in the 5th row just behind one of the baskets as shown below:

BYU played Utah State and there were TONS of people there from the other school! Each school got half of the Arena so the other team's fans were across the court from us. It was such an exciting game! The scores were close the whole, with BYU constantly in the lead. We, however, came out the winners with a score of 68-63. :) After the game we went to one of our favorite Maxican food places: Albertos! We used to eat Albertos all the time in California, but the only place we have been able to find it in Utah is in Salt Lake. The food was sooo nummy! Finally we ended the day with walking around temple square to see the Christmas lights. Bryan had been waiting for this part all day. Temple Square was extremely crowded, but I have to admit, the lights were beautiful!

It was definitely a good day :)

I also wanted to add that we have a Christmas tree!!!!! I looked online for all the best deals and found one that I really wanted at Walmart! It was only $35 so we decided we can afford it and went down to Walmart to go get it. When we got there, we discovered that the tree was 6.5 feet tall and started to debate whether we needed one so tall or not. We looked at the four foot ones, but they didn't have what I was looking for at that height. Finally, after about a half an hour, Bryan said "That's it. I came here expecting to pay $35 dollars so that is what I'm going to do!" So we bought the (fake) tree that I've always wanted! It's big and came with lights already on it and it's WHITE! Our ornaments are a work-in-progress though, but I love it! I made the snowflake tree-topper all by myself too! I was so proud of myself!

(Pictures are courtesy of Johann and Deborah who let us borrow their camera. Thanks guys!)

The Charleston Elves

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

California

Bryan and I had the fantastic opportunity to go home to California for Thanksgiving. Before I mention anything else though, my younger brothers, Kaleb and Derek, received their mission calls!! Their calls came so quickly and we just happened to be in Cali at the time. It was crazy because Bryan and I were at his cousin's house heating up the jacuzzi and playing pool when I got a call from my sister-in-law asking me when we would be back at my parent's house and she said my brother's mission calls had come. It was funny because nobody had checked the mail all day and finally at night my dad went to check it and he started running down the driveway saying "There here!" I was SO anxious to get home! So without further ado, Kaleb is going to the Washington Seattle Mission which is where my dad is from and Derek is going to the New York Rochester Mission which is where the Sacred Grove and other church sites are!! I am so ecstatic for them!!
Left: Kaleb with a picture of Seattle; Right: Derek with a picture of the Sacred Grove

Moving on now. Bryan says our trip was wonderful... We had Thanksgiving dinner with my family and dessert with Bryan's parents. We didn't do anything too exciting while we were home, but it was just really nice to play games and just sit around with our families and just to be with them since we rarely get to see them, living in Utah. It's so nice to have both of our families in the same city (even though we do live a half an hour apart). Our families were able to get together Saturday evening and we had hamburgers and hot dogs and watched the USC vs Notre Dame game. Now just a couple more weeks of school and then we shall be off to California again for Christmas!!

Naughty or Nice?

Go to this link to see whether Bryan has made Santa's naughty or nice list:

http://family.go.com/santas-list/video/132-bryanandnataliejones/

I thought this was pretty coolio. Merry Christmas!!!!

Halloween!!

Bryan and I had the best Halloween we had experienced as a married couple. Last year we stayed home, watched scary movies and handed out candy to only three groups of kids that came by. This year, however, we had the wonderful opportunity to go to our friends, The Bassetts, house in Lehi and go trick-or-treating with them and their most adorable kids! The oldest, unfortunately, was sick and didn't get to come with us, but we still collected candy for him anyway. Bryan and I were Dodgers, of course. The baby slept, the youngest girl, Bella, was a mouse and the oldest girl, Sammy, was a pirate. We didn't get to take any pictures because the battery for our camera has officially died and doesn't want to recharge anymore. We will buy another one someday though! We have discoverd that Utah is very generous on Halloween. We have to admit, we did collect candy for ourselves as well and got a TON of candy just by going around the block! Someone was even giving out full size candy bars! There was also a family giving out Stephen's hot chocolate for the adults which was very yummy! After trick-or-treating in the rain, we came back and made dirt cups and watched the movie Casper on their projector. It was so much fun to go trick-or-treating with them. Bella was so cute because she kept dragging her heavy bag of candy around, but when one of us offered to carry it for her, she would refuse. The girls were also very generous with giving us even more of their candy, but I would feel bad so I made sure they would only trade with me. We seriously had the best time! Although we did miss out seeing our nephew Henry on his adorable scarecrow costume. I told Johann and Deborah that they will have to dress him up for me another time.

This picture is not from Halloween, but it's just to show the cutest girls from the family that we love in Lehi. Bella is on the left and Sammy on the right. They absolutely LOVE when Bryan and I come over and don't leave us alone until we leave! That is ok with us because we love them too!

Yes on Prop 8

I have officially voted! Yay! So I just wanted everyone to know where I stand on Proposition 8, which would change the California Constitution to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry and that only a marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California. I have indeed voted YES on this Prop. I have nothing against those who choose to lead the same-sex lifestyle and I do have friends who choose to live this way, but it is important to me that I live in a state that shares my values and standards regarding marriage. I just learned recently of an incident where a man was arrested in Massachussetts for wanting to know ahead of time what his child was to be learning in school. This child brought home a book called "Diversity" which sounds like a book about the different ethnicities right? Wrong. This book promoted homosexuality and that it was ok to be heterosexual or homosexual if you choose. This child was in Elementary School! When his parents found the book, they went to the school and asked that the school inform them of what they are teaching their child so that the parents can choose whether to allow the child to go to school that day or not. Instead of talking things out and reasoning with the parents, they threw the father in jail. That is terrible! I do not want to have to worry about going through that same situation in California when I have kids the same age as this child. I feel that it is my right as a future parent, to be able to teach my children what values and standards they should uphold. It is the same thing as teaching your children about religion. Public schools are not allowed to teach religion, so whay should they be allowed to teach about homosexuality? The fact is, they shouldn't. And that is why we need to vote Yes on Prop 8 so we do not have to worry about what reprocussions may come in the future.

On November 3rd, the member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is asking the nation to fast for Prop 8 at 10:00 am for 24 hours. So I ask everyone who reads this and is willing, to please fast for this Proposition and pray that it gets passed in California so that we may sent the standards for other state who are still allowing same-sex marriage. Thank you everyone! I love you all!! :)

We're Going to the Playoffs!!

DODGERS UPDATE: For the first time in four years the Dodgers have won the National League West Championship! In your face Diamondbacks!! They start the postseason Wednesday at 4:30 MST against the Chicago Cubs and you can bet Natalie and I will be watching it! Our hopes are high that they could win the World Series! If anyone wants to come see the games with us on Wednesday, Thursday, or Saturday, you are more than welcome to come to our apartment: BSF+D (bring some food and drinks). But please make sure to call us before you come so we can make sure our apartment is spick and span!

As a surprise, I ordered this picture for Natalie from a game we went to in June.

Birthday Madness!!

Today is Bryan's birthday!!! And he sure had a wonderful one! (In my opinion and his as well). It started with me waking up at 6:15am to make him a delicious breakfast in bed including pancakes, eggs, toast, chocolate milk and yes, chocolate cake! Then off to school it was, but not before he found the few love notes I left him in his shoe and such :) We really got to celebrate his birthday after work when we went to the Brick Oven with my brother, sister-in-law, and 3 month old nephew: Johann, Deborah and Henry. We love hanging out with them! They also paid for our dinner which was so kind of them! We had lots of pizza and the waiters brought him some chocolate mousse and sang to him. After, we headed over to our apartment for cake and presents (Bryan's favorite part). It included all of us previously mentioned and Bryan's close friend Kevin from his work. I made him chocolate cake with chocolate icing, per his request. From Johann and Deborah, Bryan received a really cool Dodger cup that you can put in the freezer and it will keep your drink cold when you take the cup out and they also got him a movie gift card. We LOVE going to the movies so it was the perfect gift! Next he opened the gift from his parents which was, of course, his favorite Disney movie that just came out on DVD: The Nightmare Before Christmas!! Finally, he opened the waffle maker that I gave him (which, yes, he has been wanting one for about 6 months now, it's true, it's not for me I promise!). And then for the last gift, his most favorite of all, the DAVID BECKHAM JERSEY!!!!! Oh man, that sure made him happy, which indeed makes me happy. It has been a great day (besides having to go to school and work on his birthday-nobody should have to do that). So Bryan is officially 23 and still young. I'm just so grateful that I am able to share this day with him and really hope I made it worth his while. Oh, also, we ordered a Spanish card deck, which are cards that they have in Uruguay and Paraguay, and they arrived today, so we just included that as one of his birthday gifts as well. It has been a nice day :)

Dinner at the Brick Oven (I'm not sure what Bryan is doing here...)

A couple of Bryan's gifts: The Nightmare Before Christmas and David Beckham jersey

Nice pose ;)

Blogging Bandwagon

Well, it looks like we have jumped onto the blogging bandwagon and have created our very own blog. One of my friends unknowingly gave me the idea of using the blog as a journal, since neither Bryan nor I are very good at keeping our own journals, we thought we could just print this out at the end of each month and keep it in a folder. Sounds good so far! Let's keep our fingers crossed that we can keep up with this!! To be honest, our lives aren't too exciting, however, there are some things we were able to do this summer that we have thoroughly enjoyed. Just last weekend we had the chance to go to Idaho to visit Bryan's brother, Daniel and his new wife Sarah. They're lucky to have a two bedroom apartment and invited us to visit them for a weekend. The best part of the weekend was when we went tubing down Snake River (it was my first time, so I was a little nervous). It turns out, there was nothing to be afraid of and we had a blast! Although, I didn't think to put on sunscreen so I did get just a little sunburned. We also had the wonderful opportunity to visit the fairly new Rexburg Temple and do sealings for the first time. There is nothing more beautiful than the spirit that is felt in the Lord's temples. We made it back from Idaho just in time for the BYU football season to start and went to our first game! We got to sit in ROW 6 in the endzone! We were so close we could almost touch the field! Even though we're not the biggest fans of football, we really enjoyed the game (of course, it also helped that we are students at BYU). Oh, BYU smashed Northern Iowa 41-17. We are unfortunate to report though, that we do not have any pictures of these events due to the fact that Bryan's camera is on the DL (that's baseball termonology for the camera being on the disabled list because it needs a new battery).

DODGERS UPDATE: The Dodgers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 8-1 and now are only 2 1/2 games behind Arizona. Also, Jeff Kent (my favorite player) just went on the DL and is in need of knee surgery :(