We Are Nichols

Our blog has been unreachable for the last little bit, and I’ve missed it! Although I don’t know that we have much to update everyone on…but knowing me I can turn “nothing” into a very long post!

Let’s see, Tyler started working for the SCI Institute at the U since Christmas break. New Year’s Eve, we had some friends over and played games and watched a movie and almost got locked out of our apartment. We got the biggest tax return I have ever gotten in my life, so went on a shopping spree, while still able to put a big chunk into savings as well! Tyler got his dream tv that he has been talking about for months! Tyler saw the UPS guy coming, so ran out to help him bring it upstairs, in the meantime he forgot his keys so locked himself out! So he had to come to my work and get my keys. Good thing I work close by! I got an ipod…I feel like I’m about 5 years behind everyone else, but hey I finally got one! We’ve only been skiing once this whole season. I can’t believe it! We still have two more times to go, so we’re hoping the snow will still be good for us! And then I am totally ready for spring! Work is going pretty well for me. One of the girls spits up on me at least twice a day, I should probably just start wearing a garbage sack or something to work. The kids are so cute, though, besides that. I was looking at pictures of them the other day and it is amazing how easily I could forget about all the spitting up and other frustrating moments, just by seeing how happy and adorable they all are! One of my boys is moving up in the world in the next couple of weeks and I’m not sure I like that! I have become quite attached to this cute little guy. Anyways, some day hopefully I’ll be able to write about my own cute kids, but for now my surrogate children will have to do!

Well we had a pretty great Christmas this year! I got to leave work early on the 23rd and we went and helped my parents set up for the Bunting Christmas party. We had some yummy food and played Christmas Bingo! And Tyler and a lot of the boys snuck down into the basement to watch a football game.

We spent the night at my parent’s house for Christmas Eve. We had a delicious candlelit dinner, which is a new tradition for us this year, and I LIKE it! The excitement of Christmas morning never really goes away, at least for me. I never sleep well Christmas Eve. Finally at 7:00 in the morning I gave up on sleeping. We waited til about 9 for Heather and the boys to come up for their own little Christmas. It was so fun watching the boys open their presents. My parents got a Jeep for all the grandkids…since Thomas and Sam are the only ones, they get to have lots of fun with it! Then we had a yummy breakfast. My mom makes delicious cinnamon trees which I always look forward to. Anyways, we had a good day and then went home and crashed!

Todd and Heather moved out of their place in Tooele yesterday so we went and helped with that. They are sad to be leaving but we are so excited for them to live closer to us. They will be moving into the University Village as soon as the three bedroom opens up!

Anyways, I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

I took the Monday after we got back from Washington off so that I could unpack, clean, do some shopping, and most importantly decorate for Christmas! We were in Washington for two weeks for Christmas last year and I didn’t decorate. So this year I was way too excited and even decorated before my birthday! I had tons of fun, but couldn’t have done it without my moms! My mom gave us her old fake tree and some lights. Julie gave me some really cute ribbon and other decorations, and I have ornaments from both! I bought some stockings and decided we needed a fireplace to go with it! Kind of silly, but I had fun with it and am very pleased with the results!

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend! Tyler skipped school and I took work off on Wednesday so we could drive up to Washington. Chelsie and her friend Rob that lives in Kirkland drove up with us. It was a very long drive as always, but definitely worth it! Tyler and I kept checking the weather before we left in hopes that it would be clear. I was so grateful that we didn’t get any snow at all. I love leaving really early in the morning because we got there at around 4 or 5 in the afternoon, which is awesome! Ken’s oldest daughter, Jenny, and her family arrived just a little bit after us! It was a lot of fun getting to know them better.

Thursday morning Carmen and I watched our boys play some flag football. Tyler had a lot of fun. I left a little before the game was over so I could help Julie with the dinner. It was delicious! My favorite part about Thanksgiving dinner is always the rolls and mashed potatoes. Everything else is ok, but I chow down on those two things! Everyone else had room for dessert right after, but not me! I took a nap first and then had some yummy apple pie.

Friday was a lot of fun. We went up into the mountains with some of Tyler’s family friends to get Christmas trees. Obviously we didn’t get a tree for us, there is no way we could bring one of those home, but it was so fun to be out in the fresh air for a few hours. Plus I had a chance to take some cool pictures. Later that night we went to Seth and Carmen’s and played a game and then went go kart racing! That was a lot of fun.

Saturday morning I went downstairs to get some breakfast and to my surprise Julie was making some quick quiche and they told me they wanted to celebrate my birthday that day! Julie took me and Chelsie to get our hair cut, and then we went to Target for a little bit of shopping. We came back and watched the BYU/Utah football game with the boys. All my life I have been a BYU fan, not that I really care at all, but my dad went there, I have some cousins that are big Y fans, so it was only natural. I kept forgetting that I am supposed to be cheering for Utah now, and Tyler wasn’t very happy about that. Then we all went to dinner at a place called Melaques, which I had heard a lot about from the Nichols but had never experienced, so I thought it would be a great time to find out!

Sunday came around (way too quickly) and we got up early to make the long drive home! Again, the weather was great and we didn’t have any problems getting home. It was a very fun trip and I’m so glad we were able to go! I definitely missed my family of course, but I guess we have to share! Now Tyler only has about a week left of school and he is very much looking forward to the break!

My birthday isn’t for about a week, but we celebrated it early with my family this weekend. First, all the girls went and saw “New Moon.” Its definitely not my favorite movie but it was lots of fun to go do something with my mom and sisters. Heather was excited to be at a movie without kids! Then we met the boys at Applebee’s for dinner. That was delicious! After that we all went back to my parent’s house and had cake that Tyler and Thomas decorated for me! It was pretty much the best cake ever! Tyler did great at surprising me with presents. I had NO IDEA at all what he was planning on getting me, so it was a very nice surprise. I got some great gifts from everyone else too!! Thanks to my wonderful family for such a great day!!!

I was trying to get a picture of us three but right when I pushed the button, the hostess called our name to go to our table!

My totally awesome cake!

Our bedroom looks a little nicer now that we have matching lamps!

We’ve had some fun things going on the past little bit. We made gingerbread houses, Tyler’s parents came down on an impromptu visit, we played skip bo with the Perkins and Shumways (our car got booted that night which was not so fun), I’ve been able to leave work early a couple times, Todd and Heather decided they are going to move into our apartment complex (they’ll probably be here by January!), and we’re just enjoying our life together! We are going up to Washington for Thanksgiving this year. We’re really excited and can’t wait! We’re just hoping for good weather since we are driving. And then I can’t wait to decorate for Christmas! I didn’t decorate last year because we were gone for 2 weeks over Christmas so I guess I just didn’t see point. So this year I am way more excited than normal!

Anyways, so there’s a little update on us!

We went to Dan and Amanda’s last night with Brittney and Justin and had an early Halloween party! We carved pumpkins, watched Edward Scissorhands, and played a game. Brittney and Justin brought some dry ice so we had fun with that in our drinks. Normally when I carve pumpkins, I just do something really simple, like a couple of eyes and a mouth. But this time I decided to try something a little more intricate. I was pretty pleased with how my spider turned out!

Today we are going to my parent’s house for our annual Halloween dinner there. We will be having such things as newt eyes, monkey brains, bat wings and maggots. YUM!

We took a short trip last weekend down to Phoenix to visit Brad, Britany, Tana and Taylor. We had a lot of fun. We got a really early start Friday morning so that we would have a little bit more time to spend with them. We went and saw a movie that night with Brad and Britany. Saturday morning Tyler and Brad played football for about 3 hours. Us girls just sat at the park and watched them play. Then we all went to the zoo for a little bit. We played lots of games and watched a couple movies and just had a good time. We were so impressed by Brad and Britany’s self control. They are on a very strict diet right now and they’ve had more than just us stay with them while on the diet. Here we were eating all kinds of yummy food and snacks and they just stuck to their diet. Anyways, we had a lot of fun and were so glad we got to see them for a few days! Thanks Brad and Brit for having us!