URS Lunch Party

So what do you do when someone you work with recently moved from a tropical area of the world, has never played in the snow, and is completely terrified of it!  We have a snow party over lunch to conquer her fear! I took a bunch of pictures at the party and have included a few here for your enjoyment! 

Juliepages Gets a Facelift

Julianna just updated her blog template.  The new site looks great!She did some work to add some style and new features.  For those of you that do not like checking websites all the time or just plain forget, you can now subscribe to her post via email!

Death of the Travel Blog

The Travel Blog is hereby dead. The posts in that blog have been included in this blog on the original post date. Some might consider it a tragedy; we just don't think we needed to have another blog. Continue to expect travel posts here in the main blog.

December 2007--Part II

Here's our second and final post for December.



Rob and I took Nate to see the lights on Temple Square on the 17th. We first ate at the Nauvoo Cafe on the main level of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Rob and I both REALLY enjoy their grilled cheese sandwiches dipped in the cheesy potato soup. Just perfect for a cold night out. Then we wandered around and took pictures of the temple and lights. This was our first time using our new camera at night so we were curious to see how the pictures turned out. Pretty tricky, but I think we got a couple of good ones. It was VERY cold, though, so we didn't stay long. Besides, I think Rob and I were having more fun taking pictures of the lights than Nate was looking at them. But it was a great night out together.

Nathan had his 2nd birthday on December 20th and we celebrated with a family birthday party on the 22nd. It was pretty fun! We had all the kids do silly games (races, bowling, popping each other's balloons). Nate really liked participating in the races. We thought he'd be too young to understand the point of it, but he thought it was hilarious. All the kids had good sportsmanship most of the time and there were only a couple tantrums and tears :) But that's to be expected from a group of this age. Then they all decorated their own cupcakes with colored frosting and candy. This went better than expected as there was total concentration on their works of art and no food fights. Success!

Then of course there was Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve with the Raines family and Christmas Day with the Snow family. We always have such a great time talking and laughing with family and love everyone dearly. Thanks to both families for all the wonderful and thoughtful gifts and especially for your unconditional love. We're very blessed.

December 2007--Part 1

December was such a busy month, as it is every year with an anniversary, a baby's birthday, and Christmas all packed into the same week! But we had tons of fun. The 17th was our 5th wedding anniversary!! We were thinking about all the amazingly fun memories we have together over that short span. We've moved a bunch of times around the valley, gone on lots of trips, both graduated from college, and are expecting our 2nd baby! WHEW!! I wonder what memories the next 5 years will bring...

In order to celebrate the big 5, we had Nate stay at his grandparent's house so that we could actually stay out after 8pm. That alone was pretty cool. We went shopping at Trolley Square, visited the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, had a URS work Christmas party to attend, and then made an appearance at another party given by a friend in the ward. It was all really fun.

Here are a few pictures from that day and a few of Nate driving (and crashing) Lighting McQueen. Isn't Rob the most handsome man ever?! And Nate the cutest boy ever?! Man, I'm one lucky girl!!

Poetica

So I have recently come across a very good local band called Poetica.  They are a very talented group; each member showing great skill and also blending well with the other members of the band.  I must admit at this point that by brother Kelly is the drummer of this band.  With that stipulation, I can honestly say that I was blown away the first time I went to their myspace page to listen to their first song.  I liked it enough that I just had to extract the song from their page to listen to it on my IPOD whenever my heart desired!  They are having a concert on the 18th (details here) that I am very excited to attend.  So if your looking for some really cool local music, check out my brother's band Poetica.  They come highly recommended.

Thanksgiving Festivities

Well here it is (the last few days of December) and I'm just getting around to posting pictures. Julie's sister Lisa and her husband Rodney were in town and it was nice to visit with them. (Unfortunately I had the camera set at ISO 1600 so most of the pictures were just too grainy to post here! grrrr!!!). My sister Breanna and her husband Gene were also in town (I had the camera setting right this time) so we got lots of good pictures!

We are very thankful for family, friends, memories, and the peace that the gospel brings into our lives.  We hope you had a great and reflective Thanksgiving, remember your many blessings, and carry those feelings with you into the new year.

Here are the Thanksgiving pictures and the rest of the pictures from November.  Enjoy!

Life is a Highway

Here are the last of our road trip pictures!

These are pictures from the memorable Green River, Wyoming. It doesn't look like it, but it was soooo cold and windy there!

Next are pictures from North Platte, Nebraska. I already blogged about Fort Cody while on the trip. Here's the link if you need a refresher Snow Family Blog www.rjsnow.com: Day 3 and Counting.

Here are the pictures from Chicago, IL. Here is the link to that post.

These are pictures from lovely Pennsylvania. It was so nice to get into some "mountains" and colorful trees after the barren wasteland of Wyoming and Nebraska!

Drum roll, please.....Our final destination of Meriden, Connecticut!

I guess that's it for our infamous trip across the country. Thanks for letting us take you all on this adventure with us.

As an added note, I have placed most of the photos from this trip on the flickr map. You can click on the map button near the top of the flickr photo page and it will give you a cool map view so you can see where we took the pictures.

Catching Up

We're finally trying to catch up on our backlog of pictures. It's been a crazy couple of months, but we're hoping to start posting more regularly now that things are starting to settle down (of course, December is still really crazy due to our anniversary, Nate's birthday, Christmas, New Year's and all the parties that go along with those events).

We've decided that we should cut down on the amount of pictures we keep, due to the sheer volume that we take. Now we're only keeping the really good ones, not just the average ones. They should be more manageable to look through now.

With that in mind, here are a couple new pictures from September end of Page 3 & Page 4.



Here are some new October pictures. As you will see, Nate just loves pumpkins. After I took him to pick some out, every time he'd see one he'd point and say "pumpkin" over and over again.

In Memoriam

I thought I'd post my brother's obituary. He was a great man and a great brother. We all miss him very much and think of him often.



I, Brian David Raines (1976-2007), passed away from cancer on Saturday, November 17, 2007 in Taylorsville, Utah. Beloved son of James and Michelle Raines, I was born July 16, 1976 in Fort Ord, California. I was raised in Mojave, California and Taylorsville, Utah where I graduated from Taylorsville High School in 1994. I was an Eagle Scout and enjoyed the outdoors and camping. I served an honorable LDS mission in the Maryland Baltimore Mission. I married the love of my life, Teresa Friel, on January 18, 1998 and was later sealed for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake LDS Temple on July 31, 1999. Together we have four children: Brian Chase (8), Justin Boyd (5), Addison Michelle (2), and Michael Robert (3 months). I worked in electronic and hardware sales for the past eight years with Newark Electronics and Bisco Industries. I had multiple interests and many talents. In high school I excelled in drama and debate where I earned recognition and awards for my accomplishments. I later developed talents in singing, poetry, home improvements, and was able to fix or create just about anything I put my mind to. I really enjoyed watching the BYU Cougars football program and had season tickets for the past two years. My primary focus, however, was on my wonderful family. In addition to my total love and devotion to my wife, Teresa, I was an exceptional father to my dear children. I was extremely involved in their lives and interests and very proud of their growth and many accomplishments. I am survived by my wife and children, my father and mother, James and Michelle, my sisters Dianne, Lisa, Julie, Colleen, and Karen, and my brother Mark. I am also survived by many nieces and nephews.



Thanks to all of our friends and acquaintances whose love, prayers, and donations to his family's fund are greatly appreciated. It's a really hard thing for a family to go through, but it helps immensely knowing that people really care. Please see the Raines Family Webpage for more information and for opportunities to donate to the family fund.