OMYHECK

Oh my heck.  It should be Christmas winter all year round.  I do NOT mean dirty-snow-February-winter all year round.  I mean Christmas winter.  That period before Christmas when each new snowfall is still a miracle and it's okay to eat 5 cookies a day.   It's a magical time...and here's why...

 MoTab Christmas concert Sunday morning.  As we were ushered to our seats, the usher really checked out our tickets.  "Sister! You are sitting in the chair Mitt Romney sat in last night.  Make sure you really enjoy that chair!"  I did feel almost presidential (I'm pretty sure Mitt feels almost presidential, too).  I really enjoyed that sit...I'm pretty sure the seat was still warm...creepy. Thayner sat in Ann's chair, bwah ha ha ha!  We couldn't have enjoyed the concert any more.  Alfie Boe (famous Brittish tenor) and Tom Brokaw were the special guests and I was blown away by Alfie's singing ability and Tom's talking ability.  If I could ask Heavenly Father for one talent, it would be a beautiful singing voice.  In my opinion, that is one of the more legit talents one can have.  Music cuts through all layers right to the soul.  We were so grateful to enjoy such a touching and beautiful Christmas performance in such an almost presidential manner.

BAM!  In our whole lives, Thayner and I have never placed in a Davis competition.  Let's just say second to our wedding day was last night when we placed 2nd in the gingerbread house making competition.

 I think when a business has an honest-to-goodness Christmas party, they have reached "we are a company" status.  It's basically an IPO in my eyes.  Outfityours.com had its first Christmas party at Rodizio Grill = we are a company!  We got drunk off delicious Brasilian delicacies like quail eggs, turkey wrapped bacon, chicken hearts, pan de queso, and grilled pineapple.  Serious note: I am so proud of Taylor and Thayne for creating and running this company.  They are the perfect partnership and have worked so hard to make this dream a reality and I couldn't be more happy for those two.

 So we found the "Thayne Davis" of Christmas trees the other week.  Glen compares the journey of finding your Christmas tree to finding a spouse.  You search all over for the perfect tree (spouse) and you walk hours and hours checking out all sorts of trees (BYU, high school, stake dances, FHE, ward stare, dating in general) and finally you are just like "what the heck! this one looks fine" and you chop it down and take it home (marriage).  Our journey this year was identical to what happened to us.  We drove for like two hours to the tree patch and saw an awesome part of the river that looked like it had some great trees...we drove past and checked two other places for like 5 minutes each. We both wanted to go back to the river bottom because we knew the ONE was down there.  We pulled off the side of the road, took two steps down to the river and basically ran into the most perfect Christmas tree that has ever graced this green earth = Thayne Davis.  It even looked like Thayne...thick and full and very symmetrical and it smelled delicious.  We chopped it down right away (5 months after my mission) and it is glowing in the corner of the living room as we speak (Thayne gives me eternal joy, happiness, and contentment on a continuous basis and makes my life lovely, but doesn't live in the corner).  I love my tree.

Drool.  Cookie-fest 2012 has come and gone.  First Friday of December was spent elbow deep in butter, sugar, and sprinkles.  Think I'll go have a cookie...nom nom nom!

In conclusion:

Christmas winter = THE best

dirty-crusty-snow-February-winter = still pretty awesome

We look forward to spending Christmas with the families and in Argentina, exploring the major cities and Patagonia to the south.  We feel so blessed with family and friends who are such stellar people.  We feel grateful for this time of year when we can focus even more on the Savior of the world.  We hope to make greater efforts at centering our little family on Jesus Christ who is the best foundation anything can be built on.  

feeling a little like this...

Finals are over and I'm feeling a little like this.

I wish I could've seen me....

Quick story. I went to my mom's aerobics class this morning at the church across the street from us. My mother is a stallion and can out aerobicize ANYONE.  That's not what this story is about, but my mom is amazing.  So, I walked home feeling pretty good about myself and there is a thin layer of snow on the roads and on the grass.  Walking across the yard, I slipped and my whole body hit the ground at once = NO grace. I let out a loud "whoooo" as I went down and was up as quickly as I was down.  Then, I pulled the classic "started-jogging-towards-my-door-while-looking-around-to-see-if-anyone-else-saw-laughing-and-shaking-my-head-so-those-people-who-saw-me-die-would-know-I-knew-how-awesomely-stupid-I-looked".  I hope somebody saw it and I hope they laughed and I hope it made their day.  Watching someone fall down is one of my favorite things on earth (as long as it causes no injury and said person is < 35 years old). I really wish I could've seen me.

PS-Thayne wanted me to write this: His professor fell down the other day and broke his shoulder.  This = NOT one of my favorite things on earth.

losing a loved one...

Our beloved Jeremy Davis ascended into heaven while simultaneously descending down the toilet drain today, December 9, 2012 after a brief struggle with swim bladder disease.  Jeremy is the late pet of Thayne and Emily Davis, who purchased him at Pet's Mart and is survived by his parents and brother, Mr. Fish. Jeremy was an avid swimmer and really enjoyed the fish pellets that appeared floating at the top of his home each day.  Upon his demise, Emily cried like a big, dumb baby for five minutes.  Jeremy lived a wonderful life and brought joy to all those who knew him.  He will be missed.

thanks!

Our trip to Mexico started off right.  Thayne and I unsuspectingly laid out our travel outfits Sunday night for out 7:15 AM departure to beautiful Cancun, Mexico....lo and behold, when Monday morning came...

The classic "I-laid-out-the-exact-same-outfit-as-Thayne-again" Davis family curse.  It happens around once a week.  I made Thayne change outfits so the other couples on the trip wouldn't be jealous of how compatible and in love we are.

 What would a trip anywhere be without...fishing?!  Thayne, James, and my dad took a morning to go bone fishing and caught some fearsome barracudas along the way!

I know this is an inappropriate amount of photos of us in these awesome lifejackets, but I couldn't pick just one.  On a day trip to Isla Mujeres (Woman Island!), we took a little boat around the bay to esnorklear (as the Mexicans say) and see the beauty that lies beneath the water. Sadly for James, the island was not full of mujeres.

We met a bunch of tropical fish and some friendly barracudas that were nice enough not to eat us.

We also made good friends with this shark who has apparently lost the will to live.  If I were him, I'd have chomped through that homemade cage and any human who got in my way and swim to freedom! Speaking of illegal, as we were walking past this little sandy area on the beach, we noticed some hotel workers watching about 100 baby turtle struggle their way out of the sand.  We witnessed the miracle of life on this trip and it was amazing.  Later in the evening, we were allowed to come down and set the baby turtles free into the ocean.  We, of course, drew a line in the sand and raced them to the ocean.  This = Federal Offense in the USA?

Picture on the left: obviously we all gained 5 pounds this week. Picture on the right: this is a tower where Mormon cried repentance unto the wicked people.  Joke, but seriously, Chichen Itza was incredible.  What a great opportunity to step into the past and see what this great Mayan civilization could do! We also learned about December 21, 2012...you know, the end of the world.  It's apparently going to be pretty epic.  Too bad we have the Davis family Christmas party that night, the Mayans will have to reschedule.

 All in all, the trip was about family.  We had such a fun time just being together, eating anything we could get our hands on together, getting horribly sunburned together, getting lost on Mexican highways together, and eating some more together.  I am so grateful to have a family where every single member is important and contributes something unique (and I mean UNIQUE) to the whole of it.  Thayne and I both felt such gratitude for both of our families and the support and examples and friends they are to us.  We are grateful for the covenants and promises that bind us together forever.  We are thankful we can mess up and be forgiven and we are thankful for the wonderful week we had with the Bourne's.  Mom, dad, mikey, ash, havey, jamesy, katie, sam, sophie....WE LOVE YOU!  And we are also grateful for food.

why it pays to have people think you are dumb

Well, friends, let me let you in on a little secret.  Most people who see my resume and don't know me think I'm a smarty pants...Master's degree, second language, love to read the classics, involved in all sorts of jazz...blah blah blah. They are called the first level of people. The second level of people make me laugh the hardest because they think I am 100% an idiot. I think it's the whole friendly, smiley vibe that I try to put off.  The second levelers know me from class or work or from down the street.  The few who know me down to the soul (the third level of people=Thayne, my parents, etc.) know that I'm really dumb with just a few, certain things...like adding numbers or remembering peoples' names. I'd like to  focus this post on the second type of people.

duhhhh.....

Dear people who think I am dumb:  Thank you.  That Advanced Corporate Tax 2 class project that the six of us were assigned to was weighing on my mind.  The six steps of that merger of a corporate entity turned S-Corp with the partnership followed by a negotiated, tax-fee exchange and a Section 355 split up to divide the assets properly among the shareholders was a DOOZY!  So thank you for writing a special email to me saying that I am special and you have collectively decided to assign me the portion of the paper and presentation that covers the step that our professor claimed was so easy a "drunk dog could do it".  Cool!  Definitely leaves me more time to glaze over an not accomplish anything.  

Conclusion:

So, blog people, make sure those around you think you are dumb because nobody will expect anything of you = less work for you.

someone's in trouble...

This little beauty is courtesy of my handsome husband.  Gerbers are kind of our thang.  I get them on special occasions like birthdays and President's day, randomly as a thoughtful surprise, or sometimes (very rarely)when Thayner gets in trouble.  This particular flower is penance for Thayne not being able to read my mind...obviously he should be able to...then he would've known to swoop in and do the dishes and then finish vacuuming the house.  I never thought I was one of those psycho women, but the tongue-lashing Thayner got last night begs to differ.  Hence, I got a beautiful Gerber, an even more beautiful "thank you/sorry" hybrid card, and a great evening cross country skiing with my perfect husband (details about eight inches down).

My husband is a super hero.

 Speaking of super heroes, did I mention how cool my Young Women are?  For Young Women's in Excellence, we are doing a super hero themed extravaganza and tonight we started preparing the decorations. Good thing Claire was there, or Miles would've fallen into that city skyline...

 Remember how I said that Gerbers were our thang? Well, we have decided to make cross country skiing our Thang with a capital T. We went last night up in midway and saw deer frolicking and stars twinkling.  The photo below is our backyard.  I came home from Young Womens and Thayner was making his third lap around Canyon Rim Park (aka our back yard).  2014 Olympics, here we come!

boo

As my very wise friend, Katie Swanson, said yesterday: "Halloween is my favorite holiday because it's the only one that I don't have to think about a deeper meaning."  So here, for your viewing pleasure, is a smorgasbord of our 2012 Halloween memories.

Tanna had us over for a lovely apple-dippin, donut-eatin extravaganza, my mom was a gypsie, the Knudsons killed us in the pumpkin-carving contest, and Janene made donuts while Glen gave 2-year-old bumble bees panic attacks.

We love you and hope your had a spooky Halloween!  Ps-As a grandpa, Thayne is going to be a major hottie! 

Score me: 1 old age: 0

welp...

it's fall.  And it's lovely and I love it.  I have been crunching through the leaves, driving while blasting Spanish music in my car, and enjoying the chilly sun.  I mean people, come on!

The only HUGE downer, however, is that basically all of the people immediately related to me are really, really far away.  The Bourne clan is in Florida seeing wild animals and going on awesome rides and the Davis' headed up to Sun Valley to enjoy my favorite place on earth.  I get to stay in Salt Lake all by my lonesome and take four tests in Provo. yay!

Luckily, I have a way cute husband who leaves me notes....

and awesome moms (in-law) who send lovely pictures to keep me in the know.  LOVE YOU GUYS!