Oh Christmas!

I was waiting for a certain someone to email some pictures from Thanksgiving and I'm still waiting. Thanksgiving was great, most of Kurt's family was able to come down for it. We had a fabulous dinner and great week with the family.

We found a christmas tree at Walgreen's for a great deal! We went on Thanksgiving day, it's pre-light and 6 feet tall...only one Andrew Jackson. We also got some cute decorations to go with it. It's a good tree for now, although it doesn't hold all of our presents underneath it. :(  Kurt loves to pose in front of it.
We had two Christmas party's to attend on the same night. One was for my work. It was fun, we got some pots and pans because I won a game. (we already have pans, so I got a $40 credit to Ross) We also won a game called Pictionary Man. We are excited to get a lot of people and play that game. They fed us dinner, which was okay. We bailed right after dinner though, because they were having dancing and everyone was getting a little tipsy, plus we were late for our ugly sweater party with our friends.

 The one on the left is mine..the candy shop. Kurts is the right one...the Toy Shop.

We made gingerbread houses, man that was a mess. Afterwards we played a game that has been quite funny. It's called The Game of Things. Its a really fun game that one day I will purchase. 

Today is our two month anniversary. Crazy how time flys so fast! It has been a great two months, Kurt would agree as well. I went and bought Despicable Me, and we are going to watch it tonight. We haven't seen it since our first date! Kurt's finals are this week and he has one left, on Friday. Thank goodness. And now we will have some more time with one another. Next Thursday, we will be traveling up North to join my family for Christmas. We will be there until the 26th, for we both have work to get back to the following Monday. Short trip, but oh well, it will just have to do for now.

Playing Mommy & Daddy

Kurt and I got the wonderful opportunity to watch our nephew and niece: Austin, who is 4 and Alayna, who is 2. Kurt brought his homework with him thinking that he would be able to get it done. He must've forgotten that he is Alayna's favorite uncle. From the time that we got there till the time that we left, they were both jumping and climbing on Kurt. I thought that it would be fun to take them out to Golden Spoon to get some frozen yogurt. It was so funny to be driving in the 'family' car with those 2 in the back. Kurt and I both thought it was so funny. It really felt like we were parents. Of course we only got them the kiddie cups. Austin had told me that Alayna likes the pink kind. So we were tasting them and she tasted the strawberry kind and she's pretty shy anyway, but she didn't say much about it. So I had her try the chocolate one to see if she liked that one more. It took her a while to decide. Austin had already gotten his. And as soon as she saw Austin's, which was vanilla with sprinkles, she wanted the exact same one with sprinkles. All the time and she just wanted vanilla. She is so cute. Austin ate all of his, Alayna ate like 2 bites. She didn't want to sit down, she just wanted to run around.

 our cute little 'kids'

 Kurts cheesy smile and Austin's cute smile

I thought that they would be a little bit tired when we got home, the ride was dead silent. Nope, we played tag around the house until Rakel got home. Every time that we tagged Alayna,  she would fall to the floor and act like she was hurt. She is so funny. We had a great night with them and had to stay up a little bit longer that night, because no homework was done, like I said.

A New Name, A New Life, A New Doo

  The Wedding Party

  Sweet Mustaches

We finally got our wedding pictures back!! Woo Hoo! All three hundred and sixty eight of them. Now we can pick and choose if we want any hanging in our home. No more just engagements pictures.

I tried on Kristine's wig the other night and it was short, brown looking and Kurt really really liked it. He actually told me a few days prior that he would like to see what I look like with short hair and some blonde in it. After putting the wig on, we sent a picture to everyone seeing how they liked it. Some of them new that it was a wig, and Kristine's in fact. I haven't cut my hair in like forever, and so I decided to do it. We were going to have my little sister do considering she is in hair school, however we did not know when the next time we would be making a trip up north. I wanted to do it now. I remembered Tim and Kaysie's cousin was in hair school down here in St George. So I gave her a ring and she had me in that same day. I wanted to surprise Kurt, so I made sure no one told him. He got home at 9:00 that night and I had my hood on until I was ready to reveal it. He didn't believe I cut it, he thought it was a wig. It was way funny. But he loves it and I really like it, it's a change, something that seems to be a big thing in my life right now.

This is Hallo-WEEN

Kurt and I have successfully been married for two weeks. I think we are going to make it. I think I did hear somewhere while I was in the temple that there is a 30 day marriage trial. I have 30 days to decided whether or not I want to be married forever to this kid. I think so far, it's a yes. 

Last week, we both had Wednesday off and we were able to spend some time together. We ate out for dinner and then went and saw Thriller at Tuacahn. Kurt had never seen it and I haven't seen it in like 3 years, so I decided we were going to go. I bought the tickets a few weeks ago, so we were able to get seats in the 3rd row. We had a lot of fun, especially not having to worry about anything: no work and no school. Just each other.

For Halloween, we invited a few of our friends over to eat some broccoli cheese soup in a bread bowl and carve pumpkins. It was my first time ever making broccoli cheese soup, and it turned out pretty good.  When trick or treaters came, Kurt dressed up as a crazy old grandma with a mask and his mothers bathrobe and slippers. It was pretty funny. His mom and I could not stop laughing every time he answered the door. 

We also had our openhouse on the 23rd, my mom and a few of my siblings were able to come down for it. The backyard turned out beautiful and it was a lot less stressful then the actual wedding day. Just glad that is over as well. Luckily we had Katie Rae there as our photographer. She did a good job at it.

Our Story

 I moved down to St. George for the summer not knowing a few months down the road, my life would be completely different.  His name is Kurt Wayne Gardner. He is the man, who I didn't know at the time, but changed my life forever, for the good. We were both in the same singles ward together and I started hanging out with some of his friends. A month after living here, Kurt finally got the guts to hang out with me. We went boating with a few of his friends. It was fun, I thought. That night, we watched a movie at his house. Let's just say I didn't return home until early the next morning. We just hit it off real quick. Since that day, we have not had a day where we have not talked to each other. The only reason why we may have not seen each other would be because of trips either to Lake Powell or up north to my home town.
He apparently loved me right away, it took me a little bit longer to realize, but it wasn't too much longer after. I took a lot of thought into this guy and couldn't figure out how he could have everything I've ever wanted. No guy has ever even come close to this kid. I always wanted to be with him and I could be with him all day long and never get sick of being around him. Seeing how I could not pass this kid up, nor him I, we decided to get married. Our plan was next spring, but came to realize why wait that long when we know it's right and we knew we loved each other. So we figured out a date that would be great for Kurt's school schedule-fall break. Called the temple and had exactly 7 weeks to plan the wedding. It was a long 7 weeks, going up north about every other weekend whether it was to ask grandpa permission, bridal pictures, or bridal showers. Some of those weekends were  very long without Kurt.
The day finally came, Friday the fifteenth of October. The weather was fabulous! No need for any kind of jacket. Woke up at 5 that morning to get ready, hair done, make-up done and then off to pick up my lovely fiance. Sealing was wonderful, finally married to man of my dreams.
I am more than excited to have him be the one laying next to me when  I wake up every morning and the one I say goodnight to. He loves me and I know he does by the way he shows it. There is nothing in this world that could pull us apart. I have been blessed to marry such a wonderful man who is going to make a grand ol husband and in the future, a fantastic father. He holds the key to my heart and the  missing puzzle piece to my life. Now is the beginning to a new life with each other. 4 days ago, my name was Amber Dawn Mikkelson, it is now Amber Dawn Gardner!