"Marry" Christmas

What a wonderful Christmas!! It was so much fun being able to spend it with my husband!! We have had other Christmases together, but this one topped them all. It's so wonderful being with someone you love so much on Christmas. Here are some pictures of the day.Us on Christmas eve. We watched Christmas movies, I made batter for coffee cake for Christmas morning, and then we slept with out tree lights on listening to the 100 hours of Christmas on FM 100.

The top picture is of our cute tree with the presents under it, the next is of our stockings all filled up, and the other two are Sam and I opening some of our gifts. Besides the snuggie, I also got really good perfume, a string for my violin so i can pick it up again and a stand for my music, a Kate Nash CD, LOTR Fellowship of the Ring extended version, and a picture of the temple that says "where our family became forever." Sam sure spoiled me this year!! Besides the stuff though, Christmas was just so wonderful. We were together, we visited our family, and of course remembered the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Christmas was just awesome. I can't wait for many years to come.

Days go by...

Boy oh boy! Time goes by so fast!! A year ago today, December 23, 2008, Sam asked me to be his wife!! I had been expecting it for months before it happened; Halloween, Thanksgiving, pretty much any weekend we were together. The poor guy didn't have even a chance to make it a surprise. He wanted to go to Temple Square that night so once again I thought "oh its tonight!" Well it was, and my heart was beating fast and my palms were sweating as he tried to dig the ring out of his pocket. I said yes and here we are, a year later, happily married forever!! I still can't believe it!! Love you Sam!!

The Donut Shop Cop

Introducing the newest member of our family, the one, the only, Officer Watts, the Donut Shop Cop!! Creepy? Yes. Awesome? Yes, that as well. Sam and I were walking around town today when we walked by this shop, called Zims, that is going out of business. There were creepy displays in the window, so we thought heck, why not take a gander inside. Upon going in the shop, we first noticed an old people musty smell. It was great fun. We found Officer Watts right off. He was only $5 so we decided to buy him. I mean why not right? That is one deal the Tappana's can't pass down. So we grabbed him. As we were looking around the shop we found other treasures. Some stuff outside the door were free even, but they were to creepy to take home, like old naked dolls from the 70's and old naked barbies as well. We also found old wedding planning books from like 1995. Sure wish I had that when i planned mine!! Anyway, it ended up being such a fun afternoon at Zims and we are so happy about our purchase of Officer Watts. Best $5 spent ever!

My Hubbyspend.

I love Sam Tappana. And that is all.

Tis The Season

Its December, and I'm in the Christmas mood. Last night was a really fun night! Sam and I set up our tree!! It used to be my brothers tree, and before that it was my Grannys tree, and now we welcomed it to our home!! It is a very loved tree. It has a few snags, well only 2. One, it already has lights on it and half of them are out and two, it sometimes falls over, but we love it! After we put the tree up, we snuggled on the couch and watched "The Santa Clause." It was a very relaxing and wonderful start to the Christmas season!!

SNOW!!

Last Sunday it snowed, and a Christmas feeling came into the air. I love snow this time of year. I can never have enough of it. That night after we got home from our dinner with my family, we went on a walk around Temple Square. On Gilmore Girls, Lorelai says how something good always comes with the first snow fall. Its so true. Besides the scraping of the cars, the slippery roads, and the salt everywhere, snow really is magical.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was so much fun this year! Wednesday night we had a family dinner with the Tappana side. It was such a fun time. I forgot my camera to take pictures, so that was upsetting. On Thanksgiving Day we had dinner up at my sisters with my whole family, including aunts, uncles, cousins, and my granny. I haven't seen my granny since my wedding, and it was hard seeing her, but I was glad I was able to. She is in the late stages of Alzheimers, and it makes me sad. All in all it was a wonderful time, and I am thankful for so much. I am thankful for the gospel, Temples, my family, both Tappana's and Binghams, a husband that treats me so well, our jobs, our little apartment, the scriptures, Harry Potter, and food. The list could go on and on, but I will stop. Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving.

To eat, or not to eat...

Tonight Sam and I went and saw "Julie and Julia." It was a great movie and it made me want to do 3 things.

1. Eat more
2. Learn to cook better
3. Blog

So here I am doing number 3. I'm blogging. To be honest, I think I have a fear of cooking. I don't want mess up the food, so therefore I don't do it or I just stick with the stuff I know how to do, which gets old. I'm don't have a lot of time, but I decided I'm going to cook more and try new things. How else am I going to become good at cooking? I'm not saying I'm going to be the next Julia, or even the next Julie by cooking all 500 and some odd of Julia's recipes in a year, and then blog about it. I'm just going to try more. Trial and error. It will save money and not to mention calories in the long run and it will be fun! If i totally mess up something, there is always the very cheap and always reliable Wendy's just down the street. It will be a great adventure. I just hope Sam doesn't mind the clean up!! Ha ha. If anyone knows tasty recipes, let me know.

Wish me luck.

The First 6 Months!

Wow! Sam and I have been married for 6 whole months, already a half year! Its has flown by, and it has been a wonderful adventure!! I still cannot believe that I married him. He is such a wonderful, amazing, loving, fun, patient guy to have for eternity. He knows how to cheer me up when I'm down, or how to calm me down when I'm upset. He makes me laugh, and makes me feel funny in return. On days I feel totally ugly and gross, he tells me how beautiful I am. He shows me each and everyday how much he loves me. Here are some fun activities we have done this past 6 months.
Our adventure started out when we went on our honeymoon to St. George and played around in Zion National Park. It was so much fun to finally go on a trip with just us. We were poor, so the first night we stayed in a wonderful Honeymoon Suite, and the rest of the time we stayed in a Motel 6. Worst motel ever, but such fun memories!We love to go on walks in our backyard, which is Temple Square. Especially when it was warm, we would often end up on Temple Square and just walk around, or just sit and talk. We have had many good conversations on there. One time, we took a blanket and our computer and watched Harry Potter on the lawn there. We are so excited for the lights to come on and take advantage of living so close!!
We got Lagoon season passes this year, and went so often I was getting sick of it. We had so much fun though!!We also had a wonderful time camping with my family! It was fun to share a tent, and it was a very fun trip!!
A few times we went and fed ducks.It was fun and cheap date. Wendy's, ducks, and a dollar movie. Such fun times. Its amazing what kind of activities you can do when you have no money, but want to go on a date. Some of our most fun times were the cheap dates!

Life is good. These 6 months have been bliss, and I'm so glad i get many many years with Sam!!

First Halloween!!

Halloween was a fun event. It was our first Halloween as a Mr. and Mrs. As you can tell, we were nerds. I think we pulled it off pretty well. It was a fun day, and it marked our 8 year mark! I can't believe it! 8 years ago, October 31, 2001, Sam and I were hanging out. All night we wanted to hold each others hands, and finally, our friend Terra encouraged Sam to just grab mine. I had on black nail polish that night and he picked up my hand and said "I like your nail polish," then he didn't let it go! That is what started us, and now we have been married almost 6 months! Ya!! Anyway,Halloween night was very fun. Brigham and Kari through a great party with a lot of fun games. It was a lot of fun!!

The Wonderful City of Cedar!

This weekend was a weekend I'll always cherish. Sounds cheesy yes, but I will. Sam and I went down to Cedar for the weekend. It was homecoming at SUU, and it was so much fun! My friends and I had planned to join up in Cedar for Homecoming for months. It came slowly as I was waiting in anticipation, and then of course it went by way to fast.

We did some super fun things. Friday night we had an old 11th Ward reunion. I loved this ward so much and I loved the bishopric. Bishop and Sister Adams came to our wedding, and it met a lot to me that they would come. The reunion was at there house and it was so much fun seeing them again as well as all the other ward members. It was so nice having Sam there as my husband. The last time I was at the Bishops home, Sam lived in Salt Lake. I loved showing him around. I loved him being there. That night, after we left the bishops, I became a true T-Bird! I wanted to do it for so long, and even though I'm not going there anymore, I still consider myself one! This is us standing near Old Sorrel after we became true T-Birds. I can now check that off my "dreams I have" list and move onto the next one.

Saturday was an early morning. I threw my best friend Mel a surprise bridal shower! It was a lot of fun. Her and my other friends did wonders for me when I was engaged, she deserved it. I wish I could do so much more for her, but alas, she lives in Vegas and I live in Salt Lake. LDR's are tough. After that, we went to the Cedar City parade. It was so much fun! After the parade, we went to the football game!! We won by a long shot! Ya ya!
This is the gang at the pre-game fest. Wendy's is always a delicious treat.
Us at the game! Go T-Birds! Woot Woot!
After the game we just hung out, then went to the Pizza Factory for dinner. It was one of the best weekends ever. I really needed this vacation, and it was wonderful to see all my friends. Cedar is such a special place for me. Its where i found myself again after Sam left on his mission. For the first time in years, I had best friends, and they will always be that to me. I love them all!

Frightmares

This weekend was another fun one. Friday night Sam and I finally made it back to Lagoon for Frightmares. We got season passes this year, so we went to Lagoon quite a bit, and almost got sick of it, so we didn't go for a while, but Friday we went back. We both decided we like Lagoon better when its for Frightmares. The lines are shorter, its a lot cooler, and there are fun spooks everywhere, not to mention some Haunted Houses. Of course, it being October there aren't any water rides, but guess who managed to get wet any way? We did! We were heading across the park on the Sky Ride going towards the Jet Star. There was a fountain that was squirting up water, and it was squirting really, really high. Well it went off right before we went over it and I thought to myself, "that is high enough to get us." Since it went off right before we got there though, I thought it would miss us when lo and behold, the water came right up and got our seat! It just had to happen to us.

Sam got the brunt of the water sprayed on him, as you can see by these pictures.
I didn't get too wet, thank goodness!! But my poor husband!! Where the water hit him, it looks like he wet himself.

After a Haunted House we went in, we were standing in line for the scrambler. There were two little boys in front of us, probably about 8 or 9. Sam asked them if they had been in the haunted house. The conversation went something like this.

Sam: "Have you been to the Haunted House yet?"
Boys: "no"
Sam: "Its really scary, you would pee your pants"
Boys: "No we wouldn't"
Sam: "Yes you would its scary"
Boys: "Did you pee your pants"
Sam: "no"
Boys: "Yes you did! Your pants are wet!"

Ha ha! They totally got him! It was so funny!! I guess you had to be there, but it was seriously so so funny!! I laughed about it the rest of the night. It was a great night! We had a lot of fun together. I was kind of sad when I left becasue we have had so many fun times at that place our first married Summer together, and this was most likely the last time we could make it. We made good memories with Lagoon. It will always be a special place for me now.

Surprise!

Today was a great day! I am so in love and happy. I had a day off of work so i mostly just cleaned all day. Sam came home for lunch and when he did he was carrying these flowers! I was so surprised and Happy. They are beautiful and very festive. I am so in love with Sam! I love him more and more everyday, and its not just because he gave me beautiful flowers, its so much more then that. Thanks honey! They are beautiful!

Conference weekend with the BFFFF8

This weekend was wonderful!! I loved listening to General Conference, and I loved attending the last session with Sam and my newly engaged friends, Justin and Mel! I really wish i could have seen them more. They came up from Vegas for conference. Mel had no idea that Justin was planning on proposing, but he did Saturday. She was so happy and I kept glancing over at her to see her checking out her new ring during conference. I remember doing that. I still study my ring because i just think its so beautiful! I am so happy for them, the future Justin and Mel Harrison!! Hopefully they get a blog soon.

Conference was so uplifting. I'm excited for the Ensign to come out and read some of them over again. I especially loved Elder Bednar and Elder Uchtdorf's talks during the Saturday morning session and Elder Hollands powerful talk today. I am so grateful I had the oppertunity to listen to conference. I am also grateful for my wonderful husband. He is the best thing that has ever happened to me. Sometimes I think I am very hard to live with, but he puts up with me and loves me back. I still can't believe I got such a wonderful man to fall in love with me and marry me. He is so important to me, and I know he knows this, but I love him very much, and I feel like I can never tell him enough. I am so glad he is mine for eternity!!

Weekend Wonderland

I love weekends!! So far this weekend has been So much fun. Last night after eating a delicious dinner at Olive Garden (first real restaurant we have been to for quite sometime) we headed over to Fairmont park to feed the duckies. We had done this another night but we had a bunch of old bread we didn't want to just throw away, so we decided to feed the ducks.

Here are the ducks quacking after our bread. They weren't as fun as the first time we did it. The whole pond would follow us around wanting bread. These ducks weren't very aggresive, but it was still lots of fun!
This is us after feeding them. Notice how they realized the bread was gone and they are no longer surrounding us? Off to find other people to get fed from.

These are just us having fun. I think Sam was going for a nice picture in this last one!! Feeding the ducks was a blast. After, we just rented Marley and Me which made me want a lab really bad.

Today we spent some time at the Farmers Market at Pioneer Park. We got some nummy tomatoes and peaches. There was a cool guy there that did cool tricks. We paid him a dollar, even though he asked for ten. Here are some of the cool things he did.
This is him Juggling, but he is on a unicycle. Not a normal one, he three wheeled one. It is a bad picture but you get the point right?This picture he is balancing on all that stuff. He used the pole to help him up. It was so rad!! He was hilarious too!!

I just love weekends!

First Blog Ever

So I did it. I caved. I got a blog, and I'm not so sure how good I'll do on it, but I figured since I was married, it was about time to start one.

Sam and I have been Married for 4 wonderful months now. Marriage is the best thing ever! Sam and I had such a long courtship, and it seemed like marriage would never come, but come it did!!

Back in Jr. High, during a seminary end of year party, I wanted to take a picture of one of my friends I thought was super cute. This friend pulled Sam into my picture. I didn't think anything of it until i got the film developed and saw Sam in the picture. I thought he was way "hot" and I would joke that he would be my husband. The next year, I went to Kearns High, and Sam went to Taylorsville High. Our schools were playing each other for the Kearn homecoming football game. There was a tailgate party before at the Seminary and Sam was there. I wanted to meet him so my friend Jake Calderwood introduced us. We immediatly hit it off calling each other "best friends." About a week later while I was home sick, I got a phone call. I answered and I hear a voice say "is Caitlin there" I said it was me and he asked if I knew who it was. I told him I didn't and he said "it's your best friend!" I was so excited. We started dating on and off after that. We dated almost all our sophomore year, and then again half our Jr year. As seinors we didn't date, but we were still friends. After high school, I was dating another guy, but Sam wouldn't have it. He would just keep coming around and being there for me and soon I realized that I loved him and we became boyfriend and girlfriend again!

Sam served his mission in Nashville TN, Spanish Speaking and I waited for him. He came home September 10, 2008 and we picked up where we left off. After much impatience on my part, he proposed to me on December 23, 2008 on Temple square. I was living in Cedar and he was in Taylorsville so it was a hard engagement but we made it!! We were married May 16, 2009 in the Salt Lake Temple and life is great!!