Happy Anneversary :)

I can't believe it will be 2 years on Saturday since we got married! It seems like we've been married for so much longer, and at the same time it seems like it was just yesterday! It has been a wonderful 2 years.

I knew it was crazy to get married 3 days before Christmas, but it's hitting me more now that we want to celebrate our anneversary and don't have any money to do it! But it's ok :) We plan to go to dinner and finish our Christmas shopping and just hang out together. I am so very grateful for Sean. I am blessed to have a good, kind, hard-working husband who loves me very much and makes me laugh all the time :)

Happy Anneversary!

Whew!

Well I made it through the week!

I sang at Enrichment Night and felt really good about it. I was so nervous to sing for a bunch of women! I don't know why, but that is really intimidating to me. But I really feel like Heavenly Father blessed me to do my very best. Everyone was really nice and complimentary after.

My choir concert at the Cathedral also went really well. It was SO fun to sing in there. And we had a HUGE audience (comparitively)! I was REALLY nervous for my solo and I didn't do as well as I did in rehearsal, but it's pretty much impossible to sound bad in there! Everyone said it sounded good and I'm relieved that it's over! Now I just have to sing it one more time this Friday.

Our recital was so much fun! After those two nerve-wracking performances, this was a piece of cake! It was just fun to have friends & family come and participate. My sister-in-law Kirsten sang a solo and did a really nice job. My cousin's family sang and their daughters played the piano... it was SOOO cute! And my mom did a piano solo. Sometimes I forget how well she plays! Heather played wonderfully, as always. I am so lucky to have such an amazing accompanist on hand :)

And finally we had some time to relax & enjoy the weekend on Sunday. We went to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir & King Singer's concert/The Spoken Word in the morning. It was AMAZING. President Hinckley and President Eyring were there and it was awesome to feel the spirit when they came into the room. We also went to Temple Square last night to see the lights. It was a crazy and fun week and I'm glad it's over! Now I can get my Christmas shopping done!

UMC in the Clipper

Hey Everyone! I thought you might be interested to read the article in the Davis County Clipper about the Utah Master Chorale. Follow this link to read it:

http://www.clippertoday.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=74&twindow=Default&

Our first Christmas concert is tonight at the Cathedral of the Madeleine at 8:00pm. And I'll be singing a solo on "I wonder as I wander". Wish me luck!

Crazy Week, Jewel Trees

I may or may not make it through this week... I have 2 choir rehearsals and our concert is on Friday. I'm also singing for the Enrichment Christmas party on Tuesday and my recital is on Saturday! That's a lot of singing in one week! Hopefully I still have a voice for the Recital :)

Anyway... here are some pictures of the jewel trees! My grandma was a very fancy lady and had lots of costume jewelry. She made a Christmas tree with some of her jewelry and it was always my favorite decoration at her house during the holidays. After she passed away, my mom inherited the tree but the lights were broken. So a few years ago I picked all of the jewelry off of it and remade it. We had tons of jewelry from her house so I made another one, too. And here they are:

They're so sparkly and pretty! I missed them when I got married and moved out... so I made my own! They don't have as much sentimental value, but I love them all the same and they remind me of my grandma. These are mine:

December.... and SNOW!

I can't tell you how happy I was to wake up to snow on Saturday! And so much of it! Sean and I got up early and headed to Kaysville to do a few things and the drive was so much fun. I was having a hard time getting in the Christmas spirit... but the snow inspired me! I finally put the lights and decorations on our tree. Sean put up the tree last week, but I was procrastinating the hard part :)

My family (well at least the women in the family) goes to hear the Salt Lake Children's Choir sing at the Cathedral of the Madeleine every year for their Christmas concert. So my mom & I went last night. It is always an AMAZING concert and in such a beautiful building. And the best part is at the end when the audience gets to sing too :) It got me really excited for our concert at the cathedral. The acoustics are so great there... it would be pretty impossible for us to sound bad!

UMC Christmas

The Utah Master Chorale will have 2 concerts this Christmas season:

Friday, December 14
Cathedral of the Madeleine
8:00 pm

Friday, December 21
Bountiful Community Church
7:30 pm

For details, please visit our website: http://utahmasterchorale.org/.

Thanksgiving!

Well we had a wonderful Thanksgiving break. Wednesday I played with my sisters & my mom. We went to a movie called Lars & The Real Girl... I recommend it to everyone! It was hilarious and so sweet. Then we went to lunch at my favorite chinese restaraunt, Joy Luck. My sisters stayed at my house pretty late drinking hot chocolate and watching a seriously cheesy Christmas movie. Thursday I watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade (of course!). We had our Thanksgiving feast at my parents house. The whole family went to see Enchanted... which was also hilarious and sweet! Sean and I drove up to Jackson Hole late Thursday night and stayed up there until Sunday with Sean's family. It was really fun! We went shopping, played games, watched movies, had devotionals, went to see Santa, etc. It was freeeeeezing up there... but no snow :(. Anyway... the weekend was really great until I got super sick on Sunday night! I was up the entire night throwing up. I swear on my life I'll never eat guacamole EVER again! But Sean did a great job of taking care of me! Well that was our Thanksgiving and now I'm back at work!

Please Snow!

I am pretty bummed that we haven't had any snow yet! I'm really hoping we'll get some before Thursday. There wasn't even any when we went up to the cabin last weekend. And to add to my frustration, it's not even cold outside! I'm really looking forward to cold weather & snow & hot chocolate & the lights at temple square & sweaters & turning on the fireplace! So... please snow!

Holidays

I'm so happy it's almost Thanksgiving! We are spending Thanksgiving day with my family. Then we'll drive up to Jackson Hole late Thursday night or early Friday to spend the rest of the weekend with Sean's family. Jackson Hole is a Thanksgiving tradition for the Smith's. This year we are going to Florida with the Smith's over Christmas break. We leave on Christmas day and come home on New Years day. I am really excited for the vacation, but I'll miss being home, too. Next year Sean promised we won't go anywhere over Christmas break! This will be 3 years in a row! I love being home for the holidays, but I'm glad for the opportunities that we've had to travel as well.

Fried Alligator

Well I haven't posted in a while. Last week I went to Arlington, Texas with my mom for a seminar. It went really well & it was fun to spend some time with my mom. We didn't really get to do much besides sit in the seminar from 9am-5pm, but it was fun! At least I can say I've been to Texas! AND I ATE FRIED ALLIGATOR! No joke... they serve it at this cajun seafoood restaraunt we went to. It was pretty good, actually. Anyone going to the Arlington area should try Pappadeaux. They also have a wicked good greek salad.

Yesterday we had our first choir concert of the season at the Kaysville Tabernacle. I thought it went really well. We were told halfway through by a 2nd soprano that the 1st sopranos & altos were flat.... hmmmm sounds fishy..... maybe it was the 2nds that were flat..... but I thought it sounded great. And it was FUN! I think Cameron (the director) was really proud of us.

For anyone interested, our next concert is this sunday at the University of Utah School of Music. You can get details at the website: http://www.utamasterchorale.org/.

Oh and a fun fact: There was a lady on our flight that was wearing a tailored pantsuit made of gold plastic. Looked uncomfortable. And I can only imagine how sweaty you would get wearing a plastic suit.... yuck.

Giant

My father-in-law emailed this picture to me. He took it when we were up at the Steve Young/ Jerry Rice golf tournament. The giant next to Sean is Shawn Bradley. I guess he played for BYU or something??? I really don't know... all I know is that he was HUGE! It was hilarious to watch him golf! And he could barely fit into the golf carts :) That was the highlight of the whole trip.

Happy Halloween!

This is a picture I took just before the storm came in last night. It was a really beautiful sunset. Anyway... Happy Halloween! Sean has to go to school tonight, so I don't really have much planned. I'll be going to my parents house to eat chili and my mom's delicious homemade rolls and help pass out candy. I couldn't even wear a costume to work :(. I miss the good old days of trick-or-treating.

Sisters Night

On Friday, Sean took me on a way fun date. We first went to Barnes & Noble and he let me pick out a couple of books (I chose Dracula and A Company of Swans). He knows how much I LOVE to do that :). Then we ate dinner at the Olive Garden. I have decided that the most delicious entre there is the 5 Cheese Ziti. It is amazing! Anyway... then we went to see Dan in Real Life, which I LOVED. It was soooo cute and good and hilarious. I love Steve Carell. Plus I think he looked hot in the movie! It was a super fun date night.

On Saturday I played with my little sisters all day. Annette is in town because it is UEA. We went with my mom to see Dan in Real Life (yes, I really liked it THAT much) and then we made chicken chili at my house. I have a super yummy recipe for it. Then we picked out pumpkins at the store and carved some masterpieces, obviously. Annette did the ghost, Heather did the cat, and I did the headless horseman. The little man's head actually fell of when i was pulling out a big piece, ironically :). I had to put it back together with a tooth pick! It was a blast!

Sunday we went to a farewell for one of Annette's good friends. He was soooo cute. I hope Annette marries him when he gets home :)

Christmas

Haha what a great picture :). I've been getting really excited for Christmas lately! Heather and I have been practicing music for our Christmas recital. It will be on December 15th. I'm super excited. We didn't think we'd get around to a recital this year and I'm glad we'll be able to do it. And have an entire program of Christmas music! I've been listening to Josh Groban's new Christmas album today and I love it... you all should buy it. Plus there is a track that he sings with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Anyway... yay Christmas!

Our House

This is random, but the other day I took some pictures of our house. I'll be honest... it really was because I've been imagining selling it and moving back to Kaysville :). I love our house, but I would love to be closer to our families. I know we will be eventually... I'm just impatient! Anyway... here are a couple of the pictures I took.

Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday we celebrated my father-in-law's birthday. We went with Sean's family to the pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins and then to his parents house for dinner & carving. Here are a couple of pictures I took. It was a gorgeous night! I love my little nieces :)

Halloween Party

On Saturday we had a Halloween party at our house :). It was a blast! We all dressed up and ate yummy treats and played games and watched a movie. In this picture is: Jim & Pam (from The Office), a witch, Miss Am-Erika, me, a weird vampire with no fangs & the phantom of the opera! I look slightly drunk in this picture, though I assure you I am not :)

And here we have Ariel (flapper girl) and Sean (vampire with Elvis hair). Hehe that was a fun night.

Also this weekend, Sean and I had a great experience which included our neighbors howling dog, staying up until 1:30am and waking up at 3:30 (and every 15 minutes in between), and me sending an angry email to the Home Owners Association :) Please contact me for details... if you really want them. I think that was pretty self-explanatory.

Choir Performances

For any who may not know, this is my 2nd season singing with the Utah Master Chorale. We are coming up on our Fall concert series. Here are the dates and locations for anyone who might like to attend!

*November 11, Sunday- Kaysville Tabernacle- 7:30 pm
*November 18, Sunday- University of Utah School of Music-
Thompson Recital Hall- 7:30 pm

Here are a couple of the dates for our Christmas concerts as well. I'm especially excited to sing at the Cathedral of the Madeleine... finally!

*December 14, Friday- Cathedral of the Madeleine- 8:00 pm
*December 21, Friday- Bountiful Community Church- 7:30 pm

Hope to see you there! If you want addresses or any other details, visit the website: http://www.utahmasterchorale.org/.

I almost forgot....

Sean was upset that I forgot to add this picture of him in the golf cart. We were at the CordeValle golf course in California :)

Chicago & California

Sean and I were able to go to Chicago and San Francisco these past couple of weeks. Sean gets to travel with me when I have seminars for work. We left a couple of days before the seminar in Chicago so we could spend some time sight-seeing. We went to Buckingham Fountain, Grant Park, The Field Museum & Navy Pier. We went on a sunset boat ride off of Navy Pier and it was BEAUTIFUL! Here are some highlights :)




We actually did get to go to the beach while we were in California. We went to the boardwalk in Santa Cruz. Here are a couple of pictures:

Blog

Welcome to our blog. It's still in the works and probably no one is reading this, but here it is anyway. Let's see if this works.