Big News!

It's a Christmas miracle! (And no, I'm not pregnant.) Snow is actually falling in Las Vegas!!! None of those little snow flurries; we're talking serious, stick to the ground, Utah-style snow. They are saying that it hasn't snowed like this since 1979, so this is definitely a rare occurrence. We had to take some pictures of this historic occasion. I mean, how often do you see a palm tree with snow on it? There is at least 4 inches outside our house and it is still coming down. We have noticed that the trees are pretty wimpy when it comes to handling the snow...many of them are drooping all the way to the ground with the weight of it.

Seth here, and I have to add a small rant to this post. Not because of the super crazy snowfall in Vegas (I actually think it's kinda cool), but because of the freakin' Las Vegas-ites that can't drive in it. I work 5 miles away from home, takes about 10 minutes to get to work. On the worst day it takes MAYBE 15-20 minutes. . . . or so I thought. I got out of work early to start driving home, and left around 4:22pm. It took me an hour to get home!!! And I don't mean that metaphorical hour that is an over-exagerated expression meaning it took a long time. I didn't get home till 5:29pm!!!!!!!!!! I mean c'mon people, it's just snow! I know you're probably thinking, "well there must have been some accident taking up all the lanes in the road." You'd think. . . . but you'd be wrong. I didn't see one accident, not one single flashing light the whole way! There was actually a time while sitting at a red light where I started to nod off. I was freakin' falling asleep people!!! Ok, that felt good. Back to Linz . . .

So besides the crazy drivers, the snow really gets us excited to celebrate Christmas in Utah with our families (let's just hope it isn't snowing when we have to drive home).

side note: Seth wants to send these pictures to Al Gore and ask him "What's global warming about this?"

Our Christmas Card

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Funny Christmas Shopping Story at the end of the post!

Sooooooo, a friend of mine had a co-ed baby shower. That's right, husbands too. Amazingly enough, Seth got pretty close to winning just about all of the games. One game was a word scramble, and the 3 way tie came down to a drawing of names. Another one was cutting a ribbon to match the length that would fit around her waist. Seth didn't even really measure, he just pulled out some string and cut, and almost won. . . but he didn't, and there is no prize for second place. The game Seth did win though was everyone that showed up got a little necklace. And if anyone gets caught saying the word "baby" at the shower then they give up their necklace(s). Seth ended up with 15 necklaces! (Insert mocking comment here! haha!)



It was also our fifth anniversary on the 22nd. We hadn't been to a Cirque du Soleil show yet, so that's exactly what we decided to do! Mystere was a pretty good show. We still want to see Ka, O, and Love.
Seth had to take a picture of me with one of my new favorite things. It's a Dyson! I have to say, this vacuum is awesome, and part of it is probably because our other one has been less than adequate for quite awhile now. I think I vacuumed the whole house 4 or 5 times that week.

The next picture is regarding Seth's new calling. He's now with the 11 year olds for Sunday School and Scouts. That means he's in the primary! Behold, the fruits of his labors!!
Here's something we thought was funny while we were Christmas shopping on Friday. While we were at the mall we stopped and looked at some snowman salt and pepper shakers for a gift. Now, when I see something that might be a bargain I show Seth, and he will sometimes act overly excited in a sarcastic kind of way and say things like, "No way! Linz! That's a deal!" or, "Linz, this is a holiday table runner, how can you go wrong with a gift like that???" Well the lady with 2 kids that was walking by heard it and stopped to look at all the stuff we were looking at as well. We're pretty sure she bought something where she wouldn't have even stopped had she not heard Seth. We went by Target on the way home to get some smaller gifts, and Seth did that same thing at least 5 more times. Each time, someone around us stopped to see what we were looking at, and at very minimum picked it up to examine it more closely. We kinda made a game out of it, each time laughing as we walked away. We figure we would be a good couple to hire to help a place increase sales because we were on fire! Anyway, we got a kick out of it because we realized that we probably do this quite often. After all, when we've been shopping for long periods of time, Seth has to keep himself entertained and/or distracted, and this is one if the things he does to cope. (Which in turn keeps me entertained.)

Turkey lurky dee...turkey lurkey dat...I eat turkey then I take a nap. - Adam Sandler

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with our families. We were so grateful we were able to spend the holiday with them. It's tradition to go out west of Fairview on Thanksgiving morning with the extended family and play a good ol' game of Annie Oakley with shotguns and skeets.

The "Singles" table

The "Married" table

Another Anderson Thanksgiving tradition is to set up our very own butcher shop in my grandparents' garage...
Yes...I said butcher shop. We process our own beef; steaks, roast, hamburger, etc. Some of you might find this weird, but hey, we know where our meat comes from, we know exactly what's in the beef, and we get enough to last us through to the next year.

All of my aunts kept asking me if I was going to put the "meat processing" part in my blog...and I guess they all now have their answer. hehe.

We had some killer games of killer bunnies: (Don't worry, no actual bunnies were hurt during the course of these games.)








We played a lot of Guitar Hero: World Tour




Wouldn't you know it. . . our battery died.

Since we had the whole Gonzalez family together, we took some pictures! This reminds me of a joke: How do you get 4 Gonzalez's into a tree??? Take the letter "F" out of "WAY"!!! Yukukukuk! (Joke inserted by Seth)


Seth and his little brother Stockton are best buds and both of them are sad when we have to leave again. We just want to give our thanks to everyone that made our Thanksgiving weekend a fun and successful trip. We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend as well. So now that Turkey Day is outta the way let us be the first to say, Merry Christmas!!!

Counting Down

We are so

to go to UTAH tomorrow!

Five

Flashback...5 years ago. November 22, 2003--it was a freezing cold morning with freshly fallen snow covering the ground. We were in the Manti temple being sealed for time and eternity with our family and friends by our sides. We were so happy and in love that day, but looking back I am realizing that we barely knew each other! The past 5 years have truly shown me the remarkable man I married on that cold and windy day and how lucky I am. We have moved 8 times, lived in 4 different states, been through ups and downs of school, work, and other big decisions. We have laughed, cried, fought, forgiven, trusted and learned from each other. We are still learning and growing and loving each other more and more each day. I am so grateful for this special day to remember the covenants we made to each other 5 years ago...I am excited for what our future holds. I can't even comprehend what it will be like as this happiness and love continue to grow throughout eternity.

Halloween & Such

Carving pumpkins with the Bollards

L to R: Lindsay's, Seth's, Bollard's

Our pumpkins won a prize in our ward's contest! (We won't tell you how many entries there were)

Saturday night Mimi & Lincoln came over and rocked out with us on Guitar Hero World Tour! We had a blast!

Random

So how random would it be to have your picture plastered to the side of a UTA bus and not know it? Ask my brother, Jared.

Apparently my aunt was stopped in traffic a few days ago and looked out her window and saw this:It says something about how 7 of the last 10 USU Engineering valedictorians came from Snow College, and that it's "SNOW"ing at USU. I thought it was pretty funny! Go Jared!

Zion's

Last weekend we ventured up to Utah to go camping with my family in Zion's National Park. Seth and I met up with the clan on Friday morning and the moment we arrived we headed off for the famous "Angel's Landing" hike. For those not familiar, it is a 2 1/2 mile jaunt up to the top of one of the high mountain peaks in the park. It was a very strenuous (especially for those of us who don't exercise regularly--ahem, mom & I) but enjoyable hike. The last 1/2 mile is spent on a narrow ridge with drop-off cliffs on each side of you and chains to hold to as you climb the rock. We felt such a sense of accomplishment at the top of the peak and the views were amazing in every direction! It was stunning!

It was so great to get out of the city and enjoy the beautiful surroundings in nature. I absolutely love this time of year!

We also went on a few smaller (and easier) hikes. We watched "Eagle Eye" on the giant screen theatre in the park (supposed to be the biggest in Utah) but were a little disappointed to find that they didn't utilize the entire screen for the movie...It was still good though.

And last but not least we attended the last showing of "Les Miserables" at the Tuacahn theatre in St. George. It was amazing, although I was reminded that I am still in a family of mostly boys and I'm not quite sure that they are the theatre type-especially dad! They made some pretty funny comments throughout the production...what can you do? (I'm thinking we need to do some sort of girls only trip sometime).

Yadda Yadda

I realized it has been a LONG time since I've posted anything. Is is just me, or did September fly by? Short recap:

We have enjoyed a lot of company the past few weeks. Seth's parents and little brother Stockton came down a few weekends ago on their way to Cali and then on their way back again. We had so much fun playing with Stockton and seeing Seth's parents.

We had a BBQ with some friends; some of which we haven't seen in months! We had a great time catching up and playing rock band.

Karen made us take a picture by the dessert I made...mmm

"The band"

Annual YM/YW pinewood derby. I am pleased to say that my car won Seth's 3 out of 4 times!

My awesome derby car

Seth's deLorean (back to the future car)

My entire family (minus Aaron) came down last weekend. My parents bought a condo in our same complex and we tore it up and put in new tile, new carpet, and painted...it was a lot of work! My parents came down again this past weekend to finish things up...They want to rent it out so if anyone knows someone that needs a place let me know!