Christmas Surprises

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! From what I see on your blogs, it looks like everyone had a nice holiday. Thanks to everyone that sent us Christmas cards, we got excited every time one came.

This year we stayed with my family on Christmas eve. Christmas morning Scott was up at 5am ready to start the day. We made him go back to sleep, poor guy. Around 7:30 or 8 we woke up again :)

When we were all gathering around the tree, not quite ready to open presents yet, I heard a faint squeaking sound. I turned around and noticed it was coming from a big wrapped box in the corner. I got closer and put my ear to it and yep, there was definitely something squeaking in it!

I was curious, and I guess I finally just assumed it was for me. Without waiting for anyone, I opened the lid and peeked in the box. I saw a tiny furry thing run from one end of the box to the other and I threw off the lid!

Scott bought me the cutest little hamster for Christmas! I have wanted a pet for six months, but never thought Scott would want us to get one, let alone go and buy me one! What a sweetheart. (Scott, not the hamster. Well, actually she is too...) I was beyond excited and was so happy! We named her Belle.

I think I surprised Scott with his gift too. When we were in New York two years ago, he saw a shiny gray suit at a store in Soho and fell in love with it! He didn't buy it (partly because it was $400) and often says he regrets not getting it.

Well, gotta love Amazon.com, I found him an awesome shiny suit for less than half the New York price! I don't have a picture of him in it yet, it's getting hemmed, but this is at least a picture of the suit. Trust me, he looks incredible in it :)

Later that day we went to the Cutler Christmas party at my grandparents house, and it was so nice to get to see everyone.

On Saturday we went and saw Princess and the Frog with my family. It was pretty cute. More than anything, I was just happy to be seeing an animated Disney movie again.

That just about sums up the weekend. I'm excited to wrap up this year (which has been an awesome one) and start 2010 now!

P and E

I was so happy to be able to go down south this last weekend for my cousin Paul's wedding! His twin brother Matt was married on Valentines day this year. Paul found his perfect match Emily this summer and he has been so excited to marry her. I didn't get to meet her until the wedding, but I love her already! What a sweetheart. Both of these brothers found amazing wives, it is so fun to have new people come into our families.

As everyone down south could tell you...I was pretty sad that Scott couldn't make it :( He had to work this weekend. I still miss him quite a bit when we're apart for a few days. We were so excited to see each other again Sunday evening! I was at my parents house having dinner when Scott called saying he was on his way up. My parents hurried and set up two table settings for us and lit some candles to give us a 'romantic dinner' for two! It was too cute.

I have another run of Nutcracker this week, and need to squeeze in some Christmas shopping somehow! Violin and shopping seem like a good combo to me though, it should be a fun week.

A post by Scott

Thanksgiving was special this year we had the whole family together with the addition of Grandpa & Grandma Hendrix.

HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

Having Grandma to represent the "WestSide" in Jeffs Baltimore Orioles hat. And playing her favorite game Dominoes (chicken foot) where the boys completely dominated.

I took a minute to teach Grandpa & Grandma about new.familysearch.org while Grandpa wore Darren's big headphones. A bunch of regular thugs at the Hendrix home.

We took three hours to get to know Grandpa a little more and it turned out to be the highlight of the trip for me. He talked about what his youth was like, his parents, birthdays, holidays, car accidents, and his one and only fight. Don't mess with Grandpa or you may just end up with a head ache.

Julie and Heather played some violin pieces for us and it was beautiful as always. Then Heather took a minute to let the neices fiddle (double meaning) with Julies little violin. The girls were very good at it and Heather makes a fine (double meaning) teacher.

Fishing as usual ended up with Dad catching the most and Brad coming in second. But I didn't get skunked.

On Friday we went shopping, and one sister in law (who I won't name in case she joins shoppers anonymous) went six times in a 24 hour period.

We returned home Saturday and during the BYU Utah rivalry football game, Heather accompanied me to the showing of New Moon.

After work today we hopped in the Xterra and went in search of our Christmas tree. We found the perfect one and hauled it home.

We are enjoying the holidays (except for us both being sick!)

Monday again?

I'm kind of getting into a routine of posting on Mondays, I wonder if it will stick?

First of all...GO RSL! Woohoo what an amazing game yesterday! We are the champions!!! Scott and I are hoping they'll have a parade (like the Yankees did when they won the world series). Last week was great! I'm glad the snow waited to come until I was done with the ballet-commuting :) It was lots of driving going up to Ogden every day, but luckily my bro played in it also so we ended up just getting to spend lots of time together! Can't go wrong there.

I'm excited for Thanksgiving this week, we're going up to Idaho to be with family for a few days. We're very excited to see everyone! Those of you that know Scott's side of the family know they're an incredibly fun group. We laugh so much when we all get together.

This Sunday night, the 29th, is that Messiah performance I mentioned, it's at Northridge High School at 7pm.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! I'm definitely grateful for all of your friendships. I'm glad that these blogs can help keep us all in touch, especially since lots of you are far away!

I'll be tired

Lot's of surprises this weekend- we got to go to Park City for a night at the beautiful Marriot right on Main street. Our Aunt Elaine and Uncle Mont have a time share there and were staying with family for a few days, but left before their week was up. They let us go use the rest of their stay (thanks!). The night we went the snow was falling quietly- it looked like cotton balls. It was really stunning.

We had lots of fun seeing Scott's sister Kari and two of her girls. We love having visitors, and we were excited to have them stay in our newly decorated guest bedroom! (Scott's interior design class is paying off.)

Saturday Scott had planned a surprise date for us. We went to Tepanyaki and then to see the Utah Symphony! I was in heaven! The new Conductor was great- so entertaining to watch.

Speaking of music...it is that time again, remember this post last year? I am about to play more violin in a week than I do the whole year (hence the title of this post...I'll be tired). I'm excited though! I love the Nutcracker. Some of the music is challenging (got to love Tchaikovsky) so it keeps me sharp. I've played the ballet enough now that I have realized that I definitely have two favorites (out of the 90 minutes worth of songs). Here is a clip of one. It gives me chills!

The Grand Pas De Deux with the sugar plum fairy and her cavalier. BTW I looked on youtube a long time to find a cavalier with pants on (instead of tights). The last 2 1/2 minutes of this song make my heart sing!

Some links to my weekend

On my day off I went up to Logan with my sis-in-law Marilyn to tag along during a couple of photo sessions. It was a lot of fun, it seems like a cool job! She has a cute new website http://www.elliecutlerphotography.com/. While she was taking the pictures, I hung out with my adorable 8 month old niece. We played in the leaves and had a great time. I love that little girl!

On Saturday morning, I went to a rehearsal for a production of Handel's Messiah that I'm in. It is some powerful music, I'm excited to be playing it. I'll give you more details as it get's closer!

I got to spend the rest of Saturday with that awesome husband of mine. In the afternoon we watched two more of our nieces for a bit. We love having all these little girls in our lives! How lucky are we to have eight?!

Scott and I both like horse races and have followed the big ones this year. The Breeders Cup was Saturday and we went crazy watching this race! As our neighbors could probably tell you, we were screaming and yelling at the TV. You must watch it...like most of America, we were rooting for #4.

That night , Scott needed to see another play for his theater class, so we went to Beauty and the Beast. It was a very cute production. The last time I saw it was when it came to Capitol Theater about 10 years ago! Jenna and I had front row tickets then- it was amazing. Except for the part when my camera was taken away by security (right Jenn?).

A great Sunday dinner at my parents house wrapped things up, and that covers it! Fun days for sure.

Oops

I think it has been long enough ago that I can laugh at this. My co worker and I decided to spend last Wednesday completely cleaning out the storage room at work. It was the first time in three years that I could see the floor of that room. We spent hours going through everything and finding a nice neat place for it. It was beautiful!

We finished and were standing in the room putting a few odds and ends away when all of a sudden we heard a low rumbling sound. Before we knew it the entire wall of shelves CAME OFF THE WALL CRASHING INTO US! We didn't even have time to move (although I swear it looked like it happened in slow motion).

All our hard work :( So I was near the doorway when it happened and only got hit in the thigh by a box of play scripts. (The hole in the picture is exactly where I was. And the heavy box of scripts is on the left). My co worker was in the MIDDLE of the room standing right behind that metal dolly in the right side of the first picture. The dolly saved her! She would have been crushed by the shelf! She got pelted with many things and has some nasty bruises the poor thing.

I had to literally dig her out of there- she was covered to her knees! We were laughing to the point of tears the whole time (cuz if we didn't laugh we probably would have cried).

When I told Scott about it (with sound effects and re-enactments) he just laughed the whole time! He thought it was a little funny how traumatized I was by an "almost, sort of, could-have-been near death experience" (my words).

He just said, "Heather, do you have any idea how many times I've almost died at work?"

What? That led to a whole other conversation

crafty

We recently had our first fire of the fall season. We love our wood burning fireplace- there's nothing like the sound, smell, and coziness of it! It is one of those things that make the cold months more bearable.

A few of you have asked if I started doing craft projects on Fridays. I posted a week or two ago about my Fridays off during the slow season at work. I have done two projects that were very simple (for my simple skills). Emily C. suggested I make a fall wreath, and that was my first project! My sister Ash was here and made one too. We had fun walking the aisles at the craft store trying to decide what color flowers to pick. My wreath ended up costing just under $20 to make.

On Saturday I also finished up a project I started a long time ago. My sister in law Bri has a dry erase calendar on her fridge and I thought it was brilliant, so I made one for us. It is so handy. It is just scrapbook paper that Scott drew a grid on for me. I laminated it, and now I just fill in the month, the days, and our events each month. To finish it off, I made a shopping list to match, and made three magnets using the paper scraps .

So those are it for now!

Violins, Wedding, and Friends

So this is one of the new microphones for our violins...it's a band that somehow picks up the sound. I have no clue how it works but it is incredible! (Nice photography Scott!)

On Thursday, the Presiding Bishopric of our church had a luncheon on the roof of the conference center. There were people there from all over the country that had come for training. Bishop Burton wanted it to be western themed, so they needed fiddlers to entertain! Our name came up, and we were asked to play during the lunch.

It was a big honor for us, and we had so much fun! Everyone was so nice and the venue was beautiful.

Scott was our roadie! It is always neat to have him at performances, it is a great feeling to look over at him and see him smiling.



This is us talking to Bishop Burton. I have to admit I paid extra close attention to his talk in General Conference a few weeks ago...I knew I would be meeting him soon and wanted to be ready in case he gave me a pop quiz or something! Ha ha.



On Thursday night, we went to Scott's hometown for a wedding! We are so happy for Carly and Kyle, they are two great people. It was so so fun to spend time with friends all weekend! We also got to go to lunch with Grandpa and Grandma Hendrix.

This picture must be on a hill or something. There is no way I am THAT much shorter than everyone right?


This is Jason and Terrin, Gracie, Sean, and cute baby Gavin. And us. We wish we got to see everyone more often, because we have so much fun when we're together!

Picture-less post

Winter is our slow season at work, so we are closing the office on Fridays to save money. That means I have a three day weekend every week!!!! It has been going on for about three weeks now and I am loving it!

I thought it might be fun to attempt a fun craft project on these days off (I am amazed at the cute things you all make!) but I usually just end up cleaning or something. Our house and my car have been much neater this past month. It's a good feeling.

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We are looking forward to several things this week, so I'll probably have some more interesting things to post about next week. On Thursday my sibs Ashley, Luke, and I are the entertainment for a gathering in Salt Lake. We are very excited about it. My dad even went out and got us our Christmas present early- a SWEET sound system so we can all amp our violins. It's amazing!!! THANKS DAD!

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On Friday Scott and I are going to Reno/Fallon Nevada for a close friend's wedding! Love those! It will be great to see lots of friends and family. We were hoping to fly but unfortunately it would cost $600 for the two of us to fly to Reno!!! That is so crazy, it's usually a third that much. Darn.

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So...to wrap this up if anyone has any simple craft ideas, let me know!

OR...if you have a sweet name for Ashley, Luke and I's 'band' put it out there! Right now we are called Cutler Family Fiddlers, but we do more than just fiddling so we want to change that.

TDW (three day weekend)

Scott and I both had Friday off so we went on a GREAT weekend road trip up to Idaho to stay with Scott's family.

On Friday, we went to the Idaho Falls Parade of Homes. You can probably guess that Scott and I were in HEAVEN. Interior decorating is something that we both LOVE (Scott is even taking an interior design class this semester). We got some beyond-awesome ideas from things we saw :)

On Saturday, we woke up early and went golfing with Scott's brother Jeff, and three cousins. I was glad that Avrey came so that I wasn't the only girl. I think it was her first time golfing and she hit some great shots!

That night, we went to a demolition derby that cousin Cody entered. It was his first one- he was in a tiny subaru called "32 cents"...because that's what he spent on the car. Cody put on a great show, the crowd LOVED him. And he won! He seriously won- it was awesome. We all lost our voices cheering for him so loud.

We spent the night at Cody and Avrey's new house which was huge! Between the parade of homes and that, we are very very house hungry!

At church on Sunday, Julie was part of the primary program. There are few things as entertaining as watching those cute kids sing their hearts out (or cry their eyes out, as was the case for a few four year olds we saw). Julie looks so adorable right now because she is missing several teeth. Ah the joys of being six!

Hope you all had a nice weekend too!

p.s. shout out to this handsome brother...he is now 17!








Luke is talented, creative, funny, sensitive, cool, and we couldn't imagine life without him! He makes us so happy








I love my siblings SO MUCH!











p.s.s. these pics were all taken by ellie cutler photography

Maize Days

I get to do some fun things at work, but I usually don't think about posting about them until after they're over. Well, we have a two day event this weekend and I thought I'd just let you know about it in case any of you local gals want to come check it out!

We're calling it the Maize Days Festival- it's free admission to come, it will be in Layton Park. There are arts and craft booths that will be selling their stuff, food vendors, live entertainment, and my favorite...a children's art yard with free projects for kiddos.

Anyways, it's Friday from 3-8 and Saturday from 8-8 with a ticketed concert by Voice Male Sat. at 7pm.

Another work related story:

Sometimes when my boss is gone, I'll talk to reporters to give quotes. Recently...I was talking to someone about Maize Days, and the article came out today. It cracked me up!

I guess I hadn't realized yet that reporters literally write down e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g you say. I thought in the interview I said a few intelligent things...but the only quotes that came out in the article were my silly, random, side comments mixed in with giggles! Not my finest moment, but definitely one I can laugh at.

Here are the literary gems that are sadly from yours truly:

First the reporter wrote, "The name of the festival was inspired by the Layton area’s history of farming corn, a connection that organizers know that residents might not necessarily make. "

And then she quoted me saying....drum roll please....

"A lot of people have been calling and asking about 'Maisy Days', so I don't know if the corn thing has really come through," said DAC Executive Assistant Heather Hendrix. She laughed. "It's really cute."

Nice huh? It even says that I laughed! Ah! Then...about the singing group Voice Male.

"For some reason, everyone in an a cappella group is always so personable and funny" said Hendrix. "I swear, they're just the nicest guys."

I have no clue why I said that! I've never even met the group. It is just what popped out when she asked me why I thought people liked watching a cappella performances.

Hmmm....I'll work on it. Any advice Allison? I'm sure your pro :)

Bear Lake...and bacon

Well we just got back from a WONDERFUL vacation with my side of the family in Bear Lake. Scott and I didn't take a single picture, but my family did. I might try to steal a few of theirs to put on here. It was a blast.

One quick boast: Scott, Jeremy, and Luke (those are my two brothers) went on a bike ride AROUND THE ENTIRE LAKE! Wow. They rode 50 miles on Saturday morning. I am so proud of them! I rode 6 miles on Tuesday and was a little sore just from that... I can't imagine how they are feeling!

So...here is a picture that I stole from my friend Kym. She worked with us this summer as a marketing intern and there was never a dull moment with her around! We came away from the summer with many inside jokes.

Well last week, we finally tried something we've been talking about for a while. One morning on a radio station I heard the DJ's talking about a fad of eating bacon on maple bars. It sounded so gross to me, but the DJ's tried it and said they loved it.

We all wanted to try it for ourselves, and one morning Kym surprised us and brought in the maple bars and bacon.
You'll just have to take my word for it...it was SO GOOD! The 3 of us that tried it all liked it. In Kym's words "Its was just like having pancakes, syrup and bacon all in a neat little package...It was so good with the salty and sweet flavors, and the crunchy bacon with the soft doughnut."

Crazy I know.

Our Anniversary

I really can hardly believe this all happened a year ago. Time is a funny thing! I can easily say this year has been one I'll always always look back on with happiness and fondness. Scott and I have had the best time together. We have had so many blessings come our way it is unbelievable!We had fun celebrating our anniversary this weekend. We had an amazing time Friday going to the Salt Lake Temple with my parents. It was so special to go back to that beautiful place where we were married. My parents took us out for a nice dinner after, it was a lot of fun! And we loved riding in Dad's mini cooper.

On Saturday we went to Park City. We went to the Olympic Park and rode the zip line, which I've always wanted to do. It was so fun. (the pic is not of us...but for those of you who haven't seen what that zip line is like- here it is!)

After that, we checked in to our hotel, The Sundial, at the Canyons. It was awesome I loved it.
Then we had a light dinner at a great sushi restaurant on Main Street.

When we were getting up to leave the restaurant, I looked down and Scott had somehow sneaked a present on the table! It was a beautiful opal necklace that brought tears to my eyes! How special!!! I'll always remember our first anniversary when I wear it.

After dinner we stopped by the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and shared an 'apple pie' caramel apple. These treats are incredible.


Anyways, it was a perfect little get-a-way to celebrate one great year.

and they call the thing a...

We went up to Preston, ID on Friday to watch the PRCA rodeo with Joe and Lisa! I can't remember the last time I went to one; it was a lot of fun. We stayed there for the entire thing so we saw all sorts of cowboy (and cowgirl) bravery.

One thing Scott and I decided is that it would be hilarious to have our future kids do this:






Mutton busting cracked us up!!!

He Came! We Saw!

Remember we got to see Wicked in April? Well Friday we were able to check another 'entertainment must see' experience off our list. The king of country George Strait was here in concert on Friday.
We have always wanted to see this show. The last time George was in Utah was 10 or 11 years ago! He was just as wonderful as we hoped. Man that guy has 57 #1 hits. Every song he sang in that two hours was a song we knew. Here we are in the car after the show...waiting in a line of 10,000 cars to get out of the parking lot. Scott is sporting my 'poser' cowboy hat. I got a few looks from some of the many true cowboys there; I don't think they approved of my little straw imitation hat :)

p.s. quick update: look who came home today (Monday)! Jenna and I are excited to have her back. Her homecoming is August 9th at 11 am.

workin 9 to 5....or later

I love my job. You all know that...but that being said, let me just say that this week I am very tired and weary from said job. It's just that usually we have about 3 concerts a month and come Saturday we have had 3 in the past week!

Three concerts means I have already hit 50 hours for the week, it means there were a few fires to put out, there were a lot of things to organize, and a lot of people to please! Our humble staff of 4 feel drained at this point. We all come to the office with the same look on our faces.

Something that has helped get us through these long days with smiles has been our music selection. We have all gone through our most embarrassing CD's and get such a kick out listening to them. Some favorites have been N'SYNC, Mandy Moore, Backstreet Boys, and Christina Aguilera (who I'll admit I STILL love). There has definitely been some Britney Spears, Beastie Boys, and Matchbox 20 in there too. I encourage you all to go dig out one jr. high CD this week and jam out in the car to it- it does wonders!

Three-day weekend

Our fourth of July holiday started on Friday with Scott's brother (Darrin)'s baseball game in park city. We were glad that a lot of Scott's family was down here for the weekend!


Later that evening we went to dinner with my family at Rooster's in Ogden. We were celebrating my parent's 30th wedding anniversary!!!


After dinner we had fun walking around 25th street, stopping in shops and looking at art. It was a really nice time.



Jeremy and Marilyn were there too...but I guess I didn't take a picture of them with my camera.










I don't know why I didn't take any pics on Saturday or Sunday either.

Saturday morning we had a fun breakfast with our neighborhood- we got there at 6:30 am. After that, we went home and slept for a few hours. Scott went golfing with his brothers and had a lot of fun.

In the evening, Scott's family came over to my parents house for a BBQ and fireworks! It was a lot of fun- they hadn't seen each other since our wedding. It was so nice for us to be able to be with both families at once! After eating we all went over to Layton High to see the fireworks. It was so fun to have Jenna and Frank there too. The grand finale this year was so great- we were all screaming and cheering. I love the fourth!!!

Here is the video

Luke Fiddling

It's here! We figured it out.

what a handsome 'devil'

My oh-so-talented brother Luke competed in a contest put on by my work last Friday. We had 80 people audition for 'Show Layton your Talent'. A group of judges chose 16 of them to perform at our season opener. The concert was a blast, there were so many talented groups!

Luke was of course the highlight for me- he can fiddle faster than anyone I know. He played "The Devil Went Down to Georgia".

love those weekends

The weather cooperated with us this weekend, so we were able to camp in the mountains behind our house on Friday. It was a lot of fun! Scott found a beautiful quiet place down a hill.










It was pretty cold that night, but we were just happy it didn't rain on us.












In the morning Scott made pancakes, hashbrowns, eggs, and sausage. Wow!









The view was so gorgeous.









On Saturday, Luke went with us to the air show to see the Thunderbirds. It was awesome as always!

Scott's Day

The day before Scott's b-day we traveled back from Fallon Nevada. We had been there for 4 days for a family wedding and surprise birthday party for his mom. We had a GREAT time. I love going to visit his hometown, although the talk there is often about 'bunny blasting' and I get terrible allergies. Aunt Diane taught me how to make strawberry jam and we brought a bunch home with us. The wedding was beautiful, it was neat to see Grandpa Hendrix perform the ceremony. Can you believe both of Scott's Grandpa's can marry people?

Unfortunately the entire TOWN got a nasty 24-hour flu virus!!! Seriously it sounds like at least 20 people got sick. It missed Scott but I got sick on Tuesday...his birthday. I threw up every two hours on the dot, I was miserable :( (I am a self-admitted wimp).

We tried to make the best of it. I gave him a few gifts, the grand finale being George Strait tickets. CAN'T WAIT WE LOVE THAT GUY. Scott wanted to try out our barbecue so he cooked himself a steak, corn on the cob, and grilled pineapple. I almost threw up from the smell, but it looked nice. Then we watched Mall Cop, which cracks me up to no end.

Anyways, just wanted to let you know we really did celebrate Scott's birthday, however pathetic the party might have been. We tried :) (My family gave Scott the apron- I love it!)