Temple Lights

***I've posted a bunch, so if you want to see them all make sure you scroll down.***
Parker and I enjoyed a fun evening with Grandma Hilton a couple days before Christmas. We walked around then stopped in the Joseph Smith Memorial building to warm up before heading home.

Nice 'stache, Parker.

2nd Anniversary

These pics are in the opposite order, but I can't seem to fix it, so here they are. For our anniversary Parker got me smelly-good lotion and perfume (and a piano, but he didn't give that to me until Christmas) and let me get these boots when we were at the mall that evening.

I got Parker the watch he's been wanting. This picture below makes me laugh a little...

Here we are on our way to dinner at Olive Garden! So tasty... Oh, and Parker went through a mustache/beard phase through December, as shown below. It started on the cruise over Thanksgiving and thankfully ended (at least for now) in mid-January.

Broken Ankle

Poor Parker... he loves to play basketball early in the morning before school. One morning in early December, one week before finals, I woke up to a phone call from him telling me I needed to take him to the Doctor asap because he just broke his ankle. Well, he didn't actually break it, he just tore a ligament and chipped his bone... that's close enough to broken in my opinion. It was extremely painful for him, and we went home with doctor's orders to keep it iced and elevated the rest of the day. Parker had to wear a boot for the next two and a half months. He finally got it off a couple weeks ago, and now has a brace to wear and is slowly able to walk again. His tendon's are so stiff he can't really bend his foot up or down. It's coming slowly, and most of all we're glad he no longer has the awful boot and crutches!

I love weddings.

I love being at a fun reception, eating tasty food with Parker.I love the beautiful decor.

I love being able to see family members and cute little cousins.

And, most of all I love being able to see the happy couple sealed together in the temple for eternity. Thanks for inviting us, Carrie! We were glad we could brave the snow storm and make it there... even though we almost didn't. :)

Christmas Tree

Parker and I bought a Christmas tree this year! It's a fake one because that's what works best for us. We really enjoyed the festive Christmas spirit it brought, even though it was quite sparsely decorated and didn't smell like a real tree. :)

We only have several ornaments, and I treasure each one... including the clothes pin raindeer I made in first or second grade, the Las Vegas bell Parker and I got on our honeymoon, and the shell star/snowflake we got on our recent Carribean cruise.

December!

***I wrote this post over a month ago... and for some reason didn't post it at the time, so here it is!***

Parker and I had a wonderful December. Some of our activities included:

• Attending the Talbot Family Christmas Party- always a good time!


• Braving a storm to get to my cousin, Carrie's wedding in Twin Falls, ID. We ended up extending our trip thanks to a very generous family who let us stay at their place so we didn't have to drive on icy roads to get home.


• Celebrating our 2nd anniversary with a Doctor's appointment (check-up) for Parker's broken ankle, breakfast at Kneaders, a long nap at home, then dinner at Olive Garden and shopping at the Mall.


• Finishing Fall semester of school! One semester closer to graduation!


• Lots of football watching (for Parker mostly). I can't wait for these bowls to be over, I can only enjoy so much football before it just annoys me.

This Christmas we stayed at home and didn't travel to either of our immediate family's for the holidays. We missed them, but enjoyed our Christmas break here. I, Maren, worked extra hours at work since the other three student employees were out of town. Unfortunately, I got sick with some virus that kept me away from work for a few days. On the eve of Christmas eve, Parker and I took Grandma Hilton to see the lights at Temple Square. It was so fun to spend an evening with her! On Christmas eve we had a delightful dinner at our Aunt and Uncle's house with Grandma Hilton too. Thanks again for having us! Christmas day began with Parker waking me up so we could open presents. We must have been good because we were both blessed with thoughtful friends and family who gave us wonderful gifts! Parker gave me the biggest surprise of the year with a digital piano! I had no idea that was up his sleeve. :) After opening presents we went to Parker's Aunt's house for breakfast with the Matheson clan, then over to Gram and Papa's for visiting and an early dinner. That evening we went to Grandpa Bob and Grandma Carol's for even more food, football watching and laughing as we played "just dance" on the wii. We went home stuffed and happy, and I finally got to sit down and play my piano after being away from home all day!

We had a fun new years eve too. I really wanted to have all the tasty snack food we often have so I made a lot of it, including onion chip dip, 7-layer dip, caramel apple dip with sliced apples, lil smokies, a vegetable platter with dip, and a cheese ball with crackers. It was completely overboard for the two of us, and I loved it. :) We could have had people over, but I still wasn't feeling 100% after being so sick so we kept it to just us. When we were about 2 minutes away from the new year I was reminding Parker that we needed to get our Martinelli's ready. He was a little slow about it, thinking he had plenty of time, and then was struggling to get it open, so our countdown involved me laughing at Parker as he was frantically trying to get the top off the bottle while saying a few choice words as he struggled with it.

It was so nice to not have to worry about school for a couple weeks... and now we're back at it! Someday it will end, right?