Merry Christmas!!

Finals are finally over, and we have some time to relax! It has been awesome to spend time with our family and our friends! We love this time of year! Since we've been so busy, we haven't had time to send out the Christmas card that we, and by "we" I mean I (Katie), made, so I decided to share it with you anyway! Those of you that are the lucky ones will actually get a real copy. I hope you like it!

Sorry this hasn't been the longest post ... since finals are over, we haven't had much to do! We have some fun holiday parties and friend get togethers planned, so we'll have a lot of pictures to post soon!

We hope you have had a great year! Have a VERY Merry Christmas, AND a happy new year!

Christmas is coming!!

So, the last two weeks have been SO busy! I really do mean to post more often, but school and work get in the way. We have done a bunch of fun things recently too, so it all evens out.

First of all, Thanksgiving break could not come soon enough! Thank goodness for the "blizzard" that got USU to close school early, we were able to miss traffic and horrible weather through Sardine Canyon. On Wednesday night we went and saw Harry Potter 7 with Tyler's family. It was everything we hoped it would be. We can't wait until part 2 comes out!On Thanksgiving we were able to spend time with both families -- it was great to see everybody, play games, and get some rest!

This past week of school was rather hectic, Tyler had a chemistry test on Wednesday, and I had a HUGE paper due for one of my least favorite classes. We just need to keep reminding ourselves that in two weeks the semester will be done!

On Saturday we decided to get a Christmas tree! It was so fun being able to put the tree up and to decorate it. Thank goodness for Shopko and a $30, pre-lit tree!

My awesome husband putting the tree up and fluffing up the branches! Don't worry, I helped! At the time I was turning paperclips into ornatment hooks so that we could actually decorate the tree.

Here's the final project (Unless we try and find some more fun ornaments, but I like it how it is)! Tyler is really great at decorating Christmas trees! I finally had him finish off the decorating because his side looked better than mine.

At this time of year, we are both so thankful for our family and for all that they do for us. We sure appreciate our family and friends for their good examples, and hope that everybody will enjoy this holiday season!

P.S. Happy Birthday Linda! We hope you had a great birthday!

Halloween!...and everything since then!

Sorry it has been a while since I last posted! School has been keeping us very busy these last few weeks! So, let's go back to Halloween! Tyler and I decided to be Waldo and Wenda (from Where's Waldo). It was a quick, easy, fun and cheap costume thanks to the DI, ebay, and making our own hats!

I know, we are too old to go trick-or-treating, unfortunately. However, we did go to a fun Halloween party at Adam and Natalie Norris's! There were lots of fun treat, some fun costumes, and a some Mario Kart on the N64! We are so lucky to have such fun friends that will throw parties! I know, I know, you want to see pictures of our costumes, so, here they are!

What do you think of our costumes? I thought they were pretty good. :) They were comfortable too! It's too bad Halloween is only once a year!

Another exciting thing that has happened recently ... Aggie basketball started!! We were able to go to the game against Weber State last night! Aggies won 77-65! Not only is Utah State a great place for school and home of a great basketball team, Utah State is also home of Wild Bill! One of the stars at the basketball games! You'll understand once you see the pictures ... this is for you Mom!



 The secret to Utah State's home court success!

We were excited for our first game of the season! Go Aggies! We look forward to many more Aggie basketball games! You should come visit Tyler and me and come to a game! Anyway, we have another busy week ahead of us! We'll try to do something exciting and blog-worthy! Have a great week!

The Pumpkin Smash!

We didn't actually get to smash pumpkins ... last weekend Tyler had the opportunity to play in a tennis tournament up here in Logan that was called the Pumpkin Smash! It was really fun to watch him smash his first and second opponents, but the third match had all of us a little worried ... it was a very intense match and we weren't sure if either of the players were going to last through three sets.

This last weekend was way awesome because we got to see a lot of family, and we made S'mores Ice Cream again (it just doesn't last long enough)! On Friday my parents came up to watch Tyler play, and on Saturday Tyler's parents and Kevin came up!

Tyler thinks I'm retarded for making him take a picture with his trophy... what can I say? I just want to brag about him!

I definitely think that we got our money's worth out of that match! Tyler got a t-shirt just for entering, AND he got that super cool trophy! Good job Tyler!

Some more fun things that have happened recently ... the movie How to Train Your Dragon finally came out on DVD! I think that is one of our absolute favorite movies of all time! If you haven't seen it, you must do so ASAP! I probably love this movie way too much, but that's alright!

One of our new favorite things to do on Sundays is to have movie marathons and just be kind of, well, lazy! A few Sundays ago we watched Pirates of the Caribbean 1, 2, and 3. They were all on TV. Then the other night Harry Potter 1&2 were on (it wasn't Sunday, but I was doing some homework while I was watching it, so I thought it was ok.) The TV didn't really have any good movies on, so Tyler watched Gladiator while I worked on more homework, but we decided to put in The Proposal as our last movie! Do you have any good movie suggestions?

I think that's about it as far as the last week or so goes ... this weekend we have a Halloween Party to go to! There are costumes involved, AND pumpkin carving. I'll be sure to take some pictures and post them! Have a great week everybody!

S'mores Ice Cream!!

We are still as busy as ever, but we still manage to have fun! This last weekend was fall break! It was nice to have time off of school, and it was especially nice to have another day around both of our families. There is something I have been meaning to blog about for a while though ... our discovery of S'mores Ice Cream! We found the recipe online and decided to try it out! We changed the recipe up just a little bit, we turned it into ice cream sandwiches instead. Take a look!

Here's the recipe if any of you are interested:

S’mores Ice Cream (makes 1/2 quart)

1/2 package marshmallows

1 cup milk

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1 bar Hershey’s Chocolate

3 Honeymaid Graham crackers

Place Marshmallows, cream and milk into a large saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly until the mallows are melted, and the liquids blend nicely with the mallows. The texture will be thick, gooey, and wonderful. Remove from heat and let cool for only one minute, stirring occasionally to make sure the marshmallows do not cool too much, making the mixture sticky. Pour mixture into ice cream maker that has been frozen according to manufacturer’s instructions, and churn for about 30-35 minutes. While the ice cream is churning, cut chocolate into chunks about 1/4-1/2 the size of a regular s’mores piece. This is different for everyone, so choose accordingly. (This is where we just stuck the ice cream in the freezer and made sandwiches the next day.) Break graham cracker pieces inso larger pieces, you want them to stay in tact so that they will freeze well, and still resemble graham cracker pieces after the freezing process is done. After churning is completed, turn off ice cream maker, and fold in chocolate pieces and then graham cracker pieces. Be gentle when folding in the graham cracker pieces, or they will break. Of course a little break here and there is fine, but you want to have a few, good strong pieces in there; just like men in your life. :) Serve right away or store in an airtight container. If the ice cream is a bit softer than you want, it’s because the mixture was added when it was hot. So just place in the freezer for an hour or so before serving. Enjoy!

This is the picture that sold us on the ice cream! I think this is one of the most delicious treats ever! I can't wait until we get to make more. Let me know if you decide to try it!

Have a good week! I'll try to post again soon!!



Sunday Socks!!

Just a quick one this time! Tyler does love his Sunday socks, so one day after church I decided to be funny and put some Sunday socks on too. We kinda like each other... just a little bit though. :)

It's a Boy!!!

Good thing he's not our boy! :) On September 24, my sister Kelli had her baby! His name is Austin Cade Lee! Congratulations Kelli & Parker, you did good again! He's so cute! We decided to come down from Logan so that we would be able to meet baby Austin!

Tyler was very VERY excited to be there!

Payton was so excited to be with his little brother, and he just couldn't hold him enough! Austin already started out as the best little brother ever though -- he brought Payton a football player robot!

I'm lucky to have such cute nephews! Congratulations again Kelli and Parker!

Tractors!!

So, here's the deal, life has been way crazy lately! There hasn't been much time to update this blog, but I'm finally getting to it! The week of Sept. 20th was Ag Week up at Utah State, which means there were tractors EVERYWHERE!! I had to take pictures of the tractors for my nephew Payton, but I'm afraid if I don't do something with them, I'll forget to show them to him. I thought they were pretty cool anyway, even if nobody else does.

So, there you have it! There are some seriously massive and intimidating tractors out there! But of course, only at Utah State would there be tractors on campus. :) Go Aggies!

P.S. How about that USU vs. BYU game!?

Quick Update

I can't believe that it is already the third week of school! I guess time just flies when you're having fun...or something along those lines. Just to follow up, last week I got the job in the computer labs! Thank goodness! I've already worked a couple of times and I think it's pretty fun. It hasn't been too difficult yet. The hardest part was waking up at 6:00 so I could be to an opening shift at 7... the good thing about the opening shift is that it doesn't really get too busy. Anyway, enough about the job, more about what Tyler and I have been up to!

We've pretty much gotten most of our pictures up on our walls! It was really fun to be able to put all of our pictures together and also to see our apartment come to life! If I think about it later I will post some pictures. Last Saturday we also had some of our friends over for a little barbeque! It was really fun to get together with everybody.

On Sunday we actually went to our ward up here in Logan...let's just say that we'll be trying a new one out next time. There were too many babies, and, nobody really likes having church at 1:00 anyway, right?

Yesterday we were able to go pick up our washer! We hooked it up last night only to find out that there was a small leak in one of the hoses. Oh well, that's not bad for a free washer! Thank you Grandma & Grandpa Landgren!

I think that's about it for this week. We're both doing really well, we're just going to school, working, and having fun!

First Week of School!

Tyler and I both started school this last week! I think that this semester is going to be tough, but it will also be very good for both of us. So, keeping up with tradition, we took our very own "first day of school" pictures! Take a look!

Had to get a picture together!

This is Tyler (obviously) being so excited for school to start! You also can see a little bit of our backyard! 

 Now it's my turn! This last week we also decided to try and hang some pictures on our walls! Let me know what you think...

This is just about as far as we've gotten with our pictures, as soon as we get it all figured out I will post more pictures! Thank goodness for those 3M velcro strips -- they're one of the only things that worked to hang the pictures.

This next week I have a job interview for an on-campus job to be an IT Lab Consultant, the same job that Tyler is currently doing. Hopefully next time I post I will be employed!

Our New Apartment!!

This last week has been very busy for us! We packed up all of our things and moved up north to Logan! It was sad leaving home, but it is so great to finally have our own apartment! We would just like to say thank you to our parents, Rob & Linda and Bruce & Karen, for helping us move in! You guys are the best!! So, as promised, I have some pictures of our apartment! Luckily we were able to unpack all of our things fairly quickly...So, lets take a look at this last week's adventures!

This is the Uhaul that we rented for the day! It fit all of our things really nicely, however, it was a pain as we tried to return it -- the place we tried to return it to was locked up, so we couldn't even get in. We found a different place to take it back to, and everything worked out great!

Welcome to our apartment! We live in apartment 29-D! You should come visit us sometime!

This is our family/living room! We love our couches and coffee table (thanks Shawn & Mary!), and we especially love our TV (thanks Sandy)! We're so grateful for all of the furniture and other items that were given to us!

A candy dish! This was Tyler's idea, and I love it! Unfortunately the M&Ms don't stay long enough.

This is our dining/kitchen area!! I wish we had a little bit more counter space, but it gets the job done! It's just perfect for us!

Our AWESOME bathroom!! Tyler and I decided to do something fun and bright that we both would love, and I think it turned out great! The colors make an otherwise dark bathroom bright and happy!

Our bedroom is bedroom "B." Single people used to live in our apartment, so I guess the housing people thought that the grad students would need help remembering which bedroom was theirs... or else "B" just stands for "bigger" because our room is the bigger of the two.

This is our bedroom! Our bed is really high, and sometimes I have to get a running start so I can make it up on the bed, but I like it! The only problem is that I hit my shin on the bed frame at least once a day...maybe one day I will remember there is a sharp corner to avoid.

This is the best piggy bank, and it really adds a lot to the room! I just hope that one day it will be full! Most importantly though, it's great for a laugh!

We are so happy with our new apartment! We hope that all of you guys will be able to come see it at some point! We'd love to see you! Thanks to all of you who have helped us out with getting ready to move, it means a lot to us! Next week is the first week of school, so we'll let you know how it goes!

Jack Johnson!!...And some other fun things we've done this week.

This past week has been a great week for us! Last Friday our roommates, Adam and Natalie, got married up in Logan! Since they were getting married at 8:30 a.m. we decided it would be better to stay over the night before...we got a room at the Super 8, and can I just say that it was SUPER classy? It really wasn't bad, they had great pillows, and a good breakfast! What more can you ask for? We were lucky to have had the opportunity to share Adam & Nat's special day with them, and we are so excited for them!

Friday was a very busy day for us! We decided that since we are going to be moving in to our apartment in Logan on August 21st it might be a good idea to go to get most everything that we'll be needing from Bed, Bath, and Beyond. It was so fun to be able to go get fun things for our new apartment, and having gift cards to pay for it all made it even better!!

After Bed, Bath, and Beyond we went to Tyler's parents' house to show Linda our new purchases, and also to visit Tyler's siblings, Kylee and Parker, who haven't been feeling too great lately...we hope that they will get well soon!

I think Tyler would agree with me on this one though, the highlight of the week was the Jack Johnson concert that we went to last night at USANA Ampitheater. I got Tyler the tickets for his birthday, so we decided to go to dinner before as part of the celebration as well.

We decided to go to Outback, mostly because we had a gift card, but it sure tasted good! I decided to just get the classic Steak, but Tyler was lucky enough and got some Shrimp too. Now, I'm not a shrimp eater, so whenever he gets the chance to eat it, he'll take it!

We had to head up to the concert quite a bit early so that we would be able to get decent seats. We were just on the grass, so we wanted to get as close as possible, I think we did alright. One of the funnest things we did while waiting for the concert to start was watching the funny people around us! We found this guy with hair that was to-die-for, I was lucky enough to snatch a picture, take a look...

Isn't it fabulous?! Another way we tried to pass time while waiting for the concert to start was by taking pictures of us, and of some of the things around us... unfortunately, the sun was right behind us, so it was slightly difficult to get decent lighting in our pictures. Even though the lighting isn't the best, I still like the pictures!

After a lot of waiting, picture taking, and people-watching, the concert finally started!! Jack Johnson is a great musician! Some of the songs he sang included Banana Pancakes, Bubble Toes, The Horizon Has Been Defeated, and Sitting, Waiting, Wishing.

The Jack Johnson concert was so fun! I am so glad we were able to go! I think it was one of the best things to do as the end of summer is getting closer. We're both excited to move up to Logan, but we will sure miss being so close to everybody! As soon as we can we'll post some pictures of our new apartment!