Christmas!

Our Christmas started out on the 23rd at my Mom's house. It is a Danish tradition to have "Lille Jule Aften" at my mom's house and eat "Ris Alamande". For anyone who doesn't know what this is....Its a game, where you shave an almond and put it into a big bowl of rice pudding. Then, you stir it up so that nobody knows where the almond went. Everyone gets a bowl of the pudding and you just eat and eat until someone finds the almond. But, the person who has the almond, hides it in there mouth and tries to act like they DON'T have it (so that everyone else will eat until they explode). Anyways, it's a lot of rice pudding, and you are FORCED to eat it until you want to die, because you want the prize for having the almond. Fun huh! :) Trina won, like always. LAME! AND, Trina and Aaron gave Gary his one piece pajama's. He found them like a year ago and has been dying to get some ever since. He's embarrassing, but I love him! THANKS Trina and Aaron! 

On Christmas Eve, we went up to Gary's Grandparents (Pete's Parents) house to see all of the Fam on that side. It was fun to see all of them. Then, we went back to my Mom's to celebrate with her and my sisters. We had dinner and opened presents and I ate a TON of marzipan. 

On Christmas morning, Gary and I (and Griffin) did our own little Christmas here at our house in the morning. Then, we headed up to Gary's Mom and Dad's house. We ate breakfast and got to talk to Brent, so it was awesome! After that, we headed to Orem to see my Dad and Kym. It is funny because they are renting a townhome right now until their new house is built and almost everything they own is in a storage unit. But, they had the townhome decorated so cute! We gave them the Cabo book that we made. It was fun to look through it and remember our awesome trip! Then, we made one last Christmas stop at GJ and Grandad's (Vicki's parents) house for more presents, and....more food!  

The next day, Bree and Jay made it to Salt Lake from Phoenix. On the way here, they ran into really bad weather and had to spend Christmas in KANAB! Ha ha ha! Kind of funny now. It was fun to have them here for the Holidays. Jay is MUCH more fun then someone else that used to travel home with BreeAnn. I won't mention any names, but I will say that we are SO happy to have Jay around.

We had such a great Christmas! I always get a little sappy around the holidays. It's true, just ask my family about the neighbor gift on Christmas Eve.  I love that this time of year brings out the best in people. Even the smallest of gestures feel HUGE! But, this time of year really makes me appreciate all of the wonderful things that I have been given. Gary and I both have AMAZING families who we love so much! We are so lucky to have every one of you! Thanks for all that you do for us. I am also so lucky to have such an awesome husband. Gary does SO MUCH. And he puts up with a lot too. :) He is just the BEST! 

Well, Enjoy the Christmas pics......

Help!

I need help! I am trying to make a slideshow of my 2008 pictures on iDVD on my mac. When I set the pictures to music everything works fine. So, I get it the way I want it, and preview it, and everything flows and looks good. BUT, when I burn it to a DVD and play it on the DVD player, all of the music skips and the pictures don't transition very well. I have looked into all of the obvious solutions like...maybe it's the DVD player or something. That's not it, and I have tried burning it twice now just to make sure the 1st one wasn't like a fluke. But it does it every time. Has this happened to anyone else? If so, HELP! 

United Title Christmas Party

Last night we had my work Christmas party at the Grand America. I feel like I am lucky to even have a job right now, but even more lucky to work with such awesome people! I just love all of the people at United. It is also a plus that Mandee and I get to work together. We had a blast last night! The dinner was so good and the dancing was even better. THANK YOU WALT AND KAREN!!! Oh, and look how cute Gary looks!

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year, we went to the Little America with my Dad and Kym and some of our family from their side. For the past few years, Gary and I haven't been able so celebrate Thanksgiving with them, so it was really fun to spend it with them this year. Gary and I have 3 families, which is awesome and we love it, but it makes it a little hard to make it to every body's Holiday festivities. After the Little America we went to Gary's Mom and Dad's house to celebrate with Gary's family. They closed off the back patio and put in heaters so that we could all sit at one huge table. It was funny though, I wore contacts all day, and after I wear them for more then a few hours, my eyes start to really hurt. So I went to take them out and put my glasses on, and.......I forgot to put my glasses in my purse. SO, I had to wear my prescription sunglasses for the rest of the evening. It was so embarrassing! Everyone kept calling me "HOLLYWOOD" or singing that "I wear my sunglasses at night" song. Oops! We didn't get to celebrate Thanksgiving with my mom this year because she flew to Arizona to be with BreeAnn and Jay. But I am sure that she had a lot of fun. My mom hates the winter so Arizona is perfect for her during the Holidays! I am also happy to say, that no Turkeys were harmed on my behalf.

My Family at Little America

My Dad, My Grandma Pearl, and Kym

Miss Taylor Addison

Me and Gary

My Turkey cupcake. No real Turkey for me!

Mandee, Derek, Me and Gary

The best thing about Thanksgiving

Vicki and Derek

Grandad, GJ, Vicki and Whitney

Go Utes!

For the BYU vs. UTAH game, Gary and I went to the Salt Palace for a tailgate party. He has "bonus nights" every 6 months with his work, and this year, it ended up being on the same night as the game, so they did a whole tailgate theme. It was fun to meet some of the people that Gary works with that I hadn't met yet and we also got to hang out with Brannon and Lisa, which is always fun! It was a blast and them winning made it even better. Go Utes!

Thank You Mandee!

As promised, Here are some more pictures that Mandee took. She is amazing! Oh, and the one of us holding Griffin's hands is our favorite! I think it may even be Christmas card worthy. Enjoy!

Hubby Tag

What's your husband’s name? Gary Ray Grunander

How long have you guys been married? 3 and 1/2 years

How long did you date? A year and 3 months ish.

How old is he? 26!

Who eats more sweets? Oh ME! Gary has a MAJOR weakness for Chocolate/Chocolate Doughnuts though.

Who is the better singer? Neither of us have any kind of musical talent. Sad, but SO TRUE!!!

Who is smarter? Gary is by far! AND he is kicking butt in school this semester! He works so hard and I am pretty PROUD!

Who does the laundry? Gary does it most of the time. I REALLY hate folding clothes or hanging them up. It's the worst. So, when I know there is laundry to be put away, I find random things to do around the house and Gary gets stuck with it. Sorry Gary!

Who pays the bills? He does. He works at our bank, so it's way easier for him to do it. Well, that's my excuse anyways. Really though, he is way better with that kind of thing, I would forget.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I do. And I hate it. I really want to sleep on the side that Gary sleeps on, and I have ever since we got married, but he won't let me. 

Who mows the lawn? Gary does that too.

Who cooks dinner? Ha ha ha! Gary does. Just kidding, I kind of do that sometimes. I am pretty much the worst wife ever!

Who drives? Gary does. We both think it's kind of weird when the girl drives. Plus, I SUCK at driving!

Who is the first to say they are wrong? Ummmm, I think we both have our fair share.

Who kissed who first? That's hard to say. He thinks that he kissed me 1st, I think otherwise. All of those who REALLY know Gary, would probably side with me.

Who asked who out first? I don't really think there was any "asking out" done. I met Gary through my friend Erica and after that, we just kind of started hanging out together. 

Who wears the pants? Which pants? He wears his pants and I wear my pants. But, he did wear my pants once. He looked better in them, so that was the end of that.

I tag: Jana, Erica, Kira, and MANDEE..... ;)

For Chelsea and Mandee

Chelsea, I am posting this response because I realized that I didn't give Mandee her much deserved credit. So.....Mandee took the picture that is at the top of our blog. We had her come with us to Wheeler Farm to take pictures of us and also some with Griff. Ha ha ha! There are some really funny ones with Griffin. She is just amazing and I will be posting more of them sometime soon. THANK YOU MANDEE!!! You are the best and we LOVE YOU, and you are an okay sister too. :) Oh and Chelsea, I am sure that we can get one printed out for your house too. :) OR, I won't be mad if you and Alex want to copy. :)

Real Salt Lake Game

On Saturday, we went to the REAL game with Jason and Heidi. It was a really good game (we won) and it was fun to see the new stadium. After the game, we went back to Jason and Heidi's house and had dinner with their cute family! Their kids are so cute and so SMART! We got the royal treatment at dinner and didn't even had to dip our own chips in the salsa. :) We had so much fun with you guys! THANKS JASON AND HEIDI!!! (Oh, for some reason we only got pictures of us at the game, which is kind of silly since we have a million pictures of us. But, here they are anyway)

Walking With Dinosaurs

Gary just told me that these Dinosaurs are coming to UTAH! We are so excited!!!

We have EXCITING news!!!

Brent will be home on January 29th!!!!

My Birthday!

So, it was my birthday last week and here are the pictures. The only reason I am posting them, is because I look really tan. Ha! And, Taylor and Sadie were being so cute at my mom's house. They were sitting on the couch together and Taylor kept sucking on Sadie's shoe. I have the cutest nieces! 

For Mandee

Yes, I stole that Greg Laswell song from your Blog. So, no need to bring that to my attention. :) Oh, and I tag you for the survey below.

Tagged

Three names I go by-
1: Dana
2: Danes
3: Ummmmmm, that's all 

Three restaurants I love-
1: Cafe Rio
2: Red Rock
3: Ha ha ha I love Del Taco

Three trips to plan in the next year-
1: We REALLY want to go to Denmark
2: Baltimore with BRENT!
3: Scotland of course

Three things I want badly-
1: New flooring in our house
2: That new book that Mandee got
3: That's all, I have everything I want!

Three pets I have had-
1: Griffin!!!! He's our dog
2: Mia, my mom's cat
3: Tasha, our dog when I was little

Three things I did yesterday-
1: Worked 
2: Went to dinner with my fam
3: Watched Dexter

Three things I ate today-
1: A Burrito
2 : Tootsie Rolls. I can't get enough of them!
3: String Cheese

Three fears I have-
1: Any kind of Natural Disaster
2: Losing a loved one
3: Car Accidents

Three things I plan(ned) on doing today-
1: Working
2: Watching Dexter
3: Finishing a project on iphoto

Three things I plan on doing tomorrow-
1: Working
2: Clean out my closet
3: Finish my book

Three favorite holidays-
1: Halloween
2: Christmas 
3: Our Birthdays

Three favorite beverages-
1: Dr. Pepper
2: Apple Beer
3: The Blue Goodness Bolt House Farm juice

Three things I can't live without-
1: Gary
2: Our Families
3: Floss (it's new)

Cabo!!!

Well, we are back.  It is crazy how fast this trip came and went. I can't believe that it was almost one year ago that we all got our sombreros. We had such an awesome trip and we are kind of sad to be back! We did so many fun things and our resort was insane! We went parasailing, horseback riding at sunset, snorkeling and kayaking to name a few. Oh, and I even tried SUSHI!!! When we went kayaking, Gary and I got tossed our of our kayak and all of our stuff scattered into the ocean. It was so funny! Then, when we were returning our kayaks, I was out in the ocean and got stung by a fish. AND I had to pee on it. True! We also had a great time hanging out at the pools at the hotel and some of the best parts were going out to eat. But the best part by far was just hanging out with our family! We had so much fun with all of you and are so glad that we got to experience all of this with you!  So....THANK YOU FAMILY!!! These are awesome memories for us! We love you guys so much! And Thank you Dad and Kym for such an awesome trip! Can't wait for Scotland next year!!! Ha ha!

                                                             

                                    

                                                    

                                                                        

                                                     

                                                               

                                           

                                                         

                                         

                                                 

                                                

                                                        

                                                      

                                                    

                                                                         

                                                         

                                                               

                                                                      

Sorry for the long post, but it was worth it right!