Christmas Day

L: Me and Mom's beautiful Christmas tree C: Kneesha hides amongst the presents...and bites on a few R: I feverishly work on Joel's blanket.

Christmas Eve 2007

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! I made it safely back to PA on Sunday, although it was a very long day. Christmas Eve was filled with cooking, wrapping presents, the Cypher's Christmas celebration and going to mass. The Cypher's Christmas was in Chicora at Aunt Janet & Uncle Ted's home...here's a few pics from last night.

L: Aunt Terri, Ian & Manon C: Lacey, Aunt Janet & Me R: The Ryder family--Uncle Bob, Aunt Mary, Chloe, Sophie & Noah

L: Uncle Bob, Aunt Pam, Lacretia & Aunt Becky C: Newly engaged Greg & Amanda R: Me, Uncle Ted & Uncle Rich

L: Mom & I C: Amanda & Phil R: The chaos of the 1st Cypher white elephant gift exchange

Home for the Holidays

Watch out PA, here I come!! At the close of business today, I'll be on vacation for 11 big days. Woohoo! I don't have the internet up at the house yet, so you probably won't be seeing any posts until I get back home on Sunday. Hopefully I'll have some snowboarding pictures to post, as Justin and I are hoping to hit Mt. Rose up tomorrow morning. Here's to not flying home with a broken leg! :o)

Nevada Water Resources Holiday Party

Last weekend was Justin's office Christmas party. It was a fun time and the white elephant gift exchange was pretty darn funny!

L: Us C: State Engineer and Deputy State Engineer and their significant others; super fun people R: Justin and Mark, who helped us a ton when we moved

L: Me and Mary (fellow Steelers fan!) R: What a bunch of us had going on after the holiday party...not good!

USGS holiday party

I was mostly in charge of our office holiday party this year, and it seemed to come off pretty well. It was quite daring on my part, but I hired a DJ this year instead of doing the traditional white elephant gift exchange. I was amazed at all those scientists dancing! A good time was had by all....I believe.

L: The Carson CREW ("Communication and Recreation for Employees at Work"--the group that plans most of the social events at the office) C: Pose in front of the tree. I have 3 pictures of us in front of a tree at my office holiday party now! R: Doing a little swing dancing!

Thanksgiving extras

Here's a few pictures Justin's Aunt Linda sent me from our trip to Las Vegas over Thanksgiving.

L: Dinner at Aunt Linda's....so good! C: Justin's parents and us at the BYU volleyball game R: Aunt Linda, Uncle Allen & Amy after Amy's game.

1st home project

The same night we moved in, Justin busted out his saws and took to his first home improvement project. A really nice side-by-side refrigerator/freezer was left for us in the garage, the only hang-up was that about an inch of the overhanging counter top on either side needed to be cut off for it to fit. We're going to be redoing the kitchen at some point anyway, so the power tools were allowed to run amuck.

The saw on the right most picture was a gift from Justin's grandfather, so it was really cool to see him use it!

The finished product!

Decorations

Because of the move this year I haven't been able to decorate for Christmas like I really enjoy doing. Here's a picture of the few things I had up at the old house before I had to tear it down and pack it all up. Bah-humbug!

2304 Harriett Dr.

And the next huge excited topic...our new house! Yesterday was crazy! It was cold (started the morning picking up the U-haul it was 21 degrees) and snowing most of the day. Here's a few pictures of the day and the house.

L: The 26 foot U-haul C: The house R: The kitchen looking to the dining room from the door connecting the garage to the kitchen

L: Part of the livingroom looking toward the front door (I love the front door!) C: View from livingroom down the hall toward the bedrooms. 3 bedrooms in all. R: Hall bathroom

L: Main bedroom C: Master bathroom attached to main bedroom R: View from sliding glass doors off main bedroom

And I forgot this one of the kitchen.

Engagement details

Sorry for the delay in details, and pictures!! The computer is about the only thing left in the old house and I was told it would be cruel to not post pictures before Monday. :o) So Friday night Justin and I went over to our new house to check it out empty and clean house (we had a cleaning service come in after the owners, our friends Rich and Sarah, moved out). We made our way through the house and finally ended up on the back deck. It was cold and a little icy, but Justin looked at me and said "Well, I guess there's just one more thing to do...." And he went down on one knee. :o)

Engagement!!

Justin and I are engaged!! He proposed last night at the new house. Lots more to follow. Today is moving day, so it's pretty chaotic. Sorry!

2007 Arenacross Races

Ok, so this was a few weeks ago, but we attended the 2007 Arenacross races in Reno with Mark, Jen, Eric and his family. Kinda loud, but pretty fun!

Red Rocks hike

Our last afternoon in Vegas we drove out to the Red Rocks state park for a hike.

L: Loaded the dogs in the car (Shadow and Willy) C: A look at the red rocks R: We took this trail up just into the canyon in the distance.

L: Some local vegetation C: Justin and his parents R: Justin and I

L: A closer view of the canyon walls C: Sunset on the hills R: Blurry, but the moon came up on the drive back home and it was HUGE! The picture doesn't do it much justice...is that called a harvest moon?