Merry Christmas

We're in Atlanta at the moment and I feel bad for not posting anything for months and months, but here is a fun pic or two from our Florida/Georgia adventure so far...


Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Magical

#1

Layne and I celebrated our one-year anniversary in August and decided to go away to Vegas for the weekend. When you live in Cedar, you really do sometimes need to just go away or else you'll go crazy...at least, I do anyways.

Because we took this trip during the time with no digi camera, we were forced to work the stone-age disposable camera and it was tough. I have to tell you we didn't get too many good pics because the flash wasn't on or we were pointing too high and cut off our heads or just goofy stuff like that where having a digital camera, you can delete and retake. AND...because we were using the "old" camera, I was too embarrassed to ever ask anyone to take a pic of us together, so they are all "self portrait pics" that we took ourselves.

The one year old wedding cake that didn't taste all that bad, but was definitely much too much cake for two people to safely eat (and no flash...sorry)

Me in our hotel room right before going to Layne's co-worker's rock concert--it was lots of fun

Us at the top of the stratosphere

It was a really fun trip. We also went out to eat at my fav, the Cheesecake Factory, and then went to see Zumanity at New York New York. Of course, being all dolled up, it was the one night that I completely forgot my camera and with Las Vegas strip traffic, there was no way we could just run back to the hotel and get it. Oh well! There is always next year!

Yankee Doodle Canyon

Do you remember the post I did back in March-ish about the genius idea we had to take a muddy back road to St. George? Well who woulda thunk that there would be a sweet canyon just a little ways off the road during the summer.

My dearest Aunt Jennie from California came for a visit this past summer and being the outdoor lover that Jennie is, her sister, my aunt Kimmie, booked a canyoneering trip during her visit. Layne and I were able to come enjoy the fun.

Aunt Jennie and me

My sexy hubs and me :) in our oh-so-attractive helmets

"The Drop"
I think that is Jennie WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY at the bottom

You can't see it, but you had to go over that ledge, backwards...
Heights scare me to death, so repelling was the hardest thing to do on this trip. And we had to repell twice! I cried the first time...and I got to the bottom and thought "oh, I can do this..." until we got to "the drop" which was about 3 times the drop that our first one was...and I was hoping it wasn't too late to turn back.
We survived!

All in all, it was so much fun and I am so glad that we went and could experience all of that.

Graduation 2009

Hooray for Graduation! Thanks to my wonderful mother-in-law, I have loads of great pics that I didn't get during Layne's graduation and who doesn't love pics? Don't lie...I know the majority of you just look at pics ;) So here are some of that fun weekend when Bryan and Lynn were in town, enjoying the fam and celebrating Layne's big accomplishment!
It was a full house, but what do you expect when SUU gets President Monson to speak at graduation? People were selling their tickets on T-Bay for like $100 p/ticket!There's President Monson 3rd in from the right in the black robe...his speech was excellent!

The in-laws and us!The proud wife with her smarty ;)

1 graduation down, 2 more to go Spring 2010! I will finally be getting my Bachelors of Business Management and Layne will be getting his Master of Business Administration!

Woo-hoo! Go us!

Parker Michael Passey

Seriously, how cute is he?? So cute I can barely stand it and cannot wait to meet him this weekend. Sorry, this post is going to be short because I don't have a lot of time, but I am going up to visit my bestest friend, Megan, this weekend who just had her second child last week, September 24. Being the crazy super baby-hungry lady that I am, I am so anxious to play and cuddle and snuggle and help Megs out with this little ball of cuteness.

And, we also bought a camera/camcorder the other day, so when I get back Sunday night, I am going to have a blogging party and update this baby (the blog). I promise.


**So C.S., when you check my blog next week expect new post(s) and you better comment on it/them...because I know who you are and I am totally cool with you blog stalking me. ;)

Slacking...

Yes, yes...I know...I've been seriously neglecting the blog lately...well, for the past few months in fact. Just know that soon...very soon...I will be posting fun stuff. I've had to wait for my disposable camera pictures to be developed and they were finally ready this past weekend, but Layne and I spent the whole time in StG and then the week started and I've just been too busy lately to run by and pick them up. Its been crazy (like that last super long sentence I just wrote). But my goal tonight is to remember to pick up those pictures and possibly post something even as early as tonight! Stay tuned! And again, sorry for the long wait on my updating.

No Camera

Good News: We have moved to a new place in Cedar City. A new duplex with a quiet neighbor who appears randomly at night to sleep and is gone before I leave for work every morning is heaven compared to where we came from with screaming, stomping, loud, obnoxious upstairs neighbors. We also have an extra room and a laundry room, complete with washer and dryer, for our very own use and don't have to share! And...the best part...a DISHWASHER! Yay! I am so happy that we (Layne) don't have to wash dishes anymore by hand. It really was a pain seeing all those dirty dishes in the sink all the time, waiting to be washed, and then the plastic giant drying rack that seemed to take up an entire counter all on it's own. Could not be more excited.

Bad News: my camera is dead

So until Layne and I get a new one, you are going to have to deal without pics of the new place.

We also had a pretty eventful June, well, I mostly did, and I have pictures from our adventures then, but they are on the computer and as of right now, we are internet-less. We called the company we want to get it through, but since we are renting, we have to get a permission slip signed from our Landlord because they have to put this antennae/receiver deal on the roof and the earliest that the company could come out would be next Wednesday. Then I will have to have a major blog posting day with lots of new posts and take lots of new pics.

My Sister's Keeper

I bought this book last night and cannot wait to read it. I always saw it at the bookstores and thought about buying it, but never did. Now they have made a movie out of it, and I am determined to read the book before I go to see the movie, since I won't do it the other way around. Its always so much harder for me to read a book after I have already watched the movie. With a book, I need that suspense of not knowing what is going to happen, and when I watch the movie, I lose that. (even though movies are NEVER as good as the books)

The movie comes out June 26th. Here is the trailer.

I miss this...

...so much.

Graduation

Layne graduated last weekend with his Bachelors in Construction Management. His mom and dad and brother came for the event and it was great seeing them all. And of course, I was horrible at taking pictures and actually didn't take any of the fam and only got a few blurry ones of Layne. I need a new camera.

The commencement speaker chosen to speak this year to the graduates was President Monson. It was awesome. I was bothered at how much "controversy" was going on because he was the speaker, but everything went without a hitch and his speech was great.

Sorry the pic is blurry, but it's the only one I got. He was walking too fast and my camera couldn't focus quickly enough, which is why I am thankful for a camera-happy mother-in-law who got some great pictures that day of us before graduation, so you can see him (in focus) in his cap and gown.

Yay! Congrats baby cakes!

Indoor Soccer

My soccer stud of a husband was invited to play on an indoor soccer team in St. George every Tuesday night. Here are the pictures from the first game. Coincidentally, the last game of this season was this past Tuesday and his team placed 2nd in the league, so they played a championship tournament Thursday night, where they sadly lost. They will definitely kick butt next season though for sure!Layne in the box, taking a break, waiting for someone to need a sub.
(not wanting to smile for the camera)
Layne in his goalie get-up. I love his striped socks!

Makin' a save! Go babe! I am definitely his #1 fan!

One of his injuries...but they were well worth it. They won!

I Am My Father's Daughter

Don't laugh. Okay, you can laugh, but only because I already laughed at myself when I realized what I was doing.

It was cold, so I was wearing socks, but all of my real shoes were put away in the closet and Lucky really wanted to go out, so I put my flip-flops on with my socks on. For all of you that know my dad, you know why I named the post "I am my Father's Daughter." :) I love my dad, even though he is crazy sometimes and I will want to claim we are not related...this picture confirms that we are.

For those of you who don't know my dad, you will probably think I am weird. But I am, so it's cool.

The kittens

The kittens have already grown and most have already found new homes. But I only posted one post from when they were first born, so get ready for some kitty pictures. Boo, the long haired white kitten was my favorite, but she found a good home with two sisters who adopted her and her sister. Hopefully they are happy and being well taken care of.

Even Porter came for a visit and loved the kittens

Three gone, two to go...any body know of any one who wants a kitten? :)

Relay for Life

One of my co-workers, Erin, was asked to put a team together for Relay for Life. I signed up because I have never done it before and thought it would be fun. Only 2 other people from our office signed up to be on our team though, so both of our husbands were also roped into participating. Who knew that walking around a track could be so fun? And it was. Until about 2 am when the temperature dropped, as it tends to do at night in the middle of April in Cedar City. And I froze. Literally, I thought my toes were going to fall off and I was going to get hypothermia. I chickened out at the end and walked my last 1/2 hour and went home to warm up. I crawled into my comfy bed, next to my uber warm hubby and I was in heaven, although I am sure he thought my cold feet on his skin was torture.Layne and Kyle (Erin's hubby) trying to make a wind blocking wall out of a tarp. But alas, the wind was too strong and later tore the wall down.

The crew from the Controller's Office at SUU: L-R Ed Z, Lori W, me, and Erin

One Year Older and Wiser, too

Happy Birthday to Layne! 2 months ago, that is. I said I was a little behind. I should have posted this mid April at the latest. But for some reason, I could never find the time.

My lovable hubs turned 29 on March 24th. Here are some fun pics of the event.

Thank goodness for Porter's willingness to help Uncle unwrap all of his presents. :)

All in all, it was a success.

S-L-A-C-K-E-R...

. . . spells: Crystal Burt (we've been married almost 9 months and I still have yet to get used to my new name). I have not blogged in what seems like forever! I have so much to catch up on, so get ready for like 10 new posts! First, the internet was never disconnected, as my previous post suggested. I guess that some people that were helping my landlord and his family pack up and move packed up the modem so it took a few days for us to get back up and running, but I was busy with finals and then graduation and family that I didn't have any time to post anything. So here we go! :)

P.S. I chopped off my hair. Again. And got bangs. Again. And this isn't the best picture because it was at the end of a very long day and I was super tired. :) But I really like it!

What do you think?

As Luck Would Have It...

...our Landlords are moving to St. George this week and neglected to tell us that they were shutting off the internet. I guess that we should have suspected they were going to since they weren't going to be here and new people are moving in upstairs, but is it too much to ask to just let us know? Give us a heads up on when? Now I have to scout out an internet provider so that I will be able to do my summer online classes from home versus spending who knows how many more hours at work after hours. No one in their right mind wants to be at work for longer than they have to be, let alone doing homework.

This also means that my plans for updating the blog at the end of the week are on hold. I was waiting to do it after I took my last final for my online class, but again, who wants to stay at work and update their blog after hours? Not me! So you all will just have to be more patient with my serious slacking in posting. We love you all and hope you're doing well.

Cousin IT

Okay, Okay, I don't have a cousin IT, but one look at my brother pre-haircut, and you cannot help but think he was the spittin' image of that famed Addams Family member. Case in point:

It was one of my "duties" while home to give my little brother a haircut because he refused to go somewhere and have someone cut it.

Of course, I couldn't help myself, and used some of my bobby pins to play with his hair before I chopped it all off

He didn't seem to happy about my styling techniques and seeing as how I don't have much experience cutting hair, it was an interesting experience, to say the least.

The first "chop"

The finished product.

Even though he didn't smile for this picture (he was sick of the camera), he liked the outcome and was glad that he could see again.

Big Sky Country

My week+ long trip to Montana could defintely be considered a sucess. The drive there was a bit challenging because I didn't sleep well the night before I left, but I made it safe and sound. I never take as many pictures as I want because when you go on vacation, you don't have the camera around all the time and when you do, you don't want to stop the fun every two seconds so that you can snap a shot. Here is a pic of my cute mom with her cute glassesI also got to go out with a good friend from highschool. She is one of the few that I have managed to stay in contact with and stayed friends with. We were able to go to a big art auction that was in town for the end of the week and weekend and then we went to dinner at Jakers :) Love ya, Becca!

And can I just say "Holy cuteness!" While home, I was able to visit a friend and her daughter for a hour or two and I have to say that Allie is one of the cutest little babes ever! My mom let her play with her phone, and here she is (Gina (mommy) in the background)

What a little cutie!

I see stars

Alright, so sometimes, I get to "blog surfing," meaning when I'm on someone's blog, I randomly click on one of their friends and then one of their friends, and so on...and I found this cute idea a while back and tried it out while I was at home in Montana. It consisted of peeling the paper off of your old crayons, breaking them up and then melting them into different shapes. I chose to make stars. This is how they turned out:

Pretty nifty, huh?

Montana!

Big Sky Country, here I (we) come! I am taking a week long vacation with Lucky (sans hubby) to the great state of Montana. I've been missin' my family an awful lot and with spring break just around the corner, I decided that it would be a good time to just go. Here's to 12 fun-filled hours, driving with a whiney dog, to MT! I'll be sure to take lots of pics while I am there, so be sure to check back in a week or two!

Spring Fever

Just when you think it's going to keep getting warmer (it's been around 60 degrees almost all week), Mother Nature plays a funny joke to remind you that it is not quite time yet:

Good Morning, Snow!

I'm glad that the snow came last night and not on, say, Sunday night when I would have to wipe it all off Monday morning and try to manuever my car out onto the street from my parking spot to work.

We even busted out Lucky's sweet jacket.

The view from the front yard.