Nephew News..

My nephew actually rolled over. Collin is two weeks old and he rolled over all on his own. We were shocked!!!!!! He has gotten really close to rolling over many times since but we still can't believe how strong he is. He is already able to hold his head up, too! It has been so fun spending time with my family!! 

Christmas events part I

This is our first married Christmas together! It was so nice to spend it together and not go our separate ways at night! The other bonus is not having to work on wedding announcements. We spent the entire break last year doing wedding stuff. 

 Shaun and I enjoyed our Christmas decorations for a few weeks and after school was out we packed up and headed to Idaho. Shaun and I didn't want to take our Christmas gifts with us so we had a quick pre-Christmas at our house in Utah. Shaun gets SO excited for Christmas. I think he gets more excited than some of my first graders. I love this about him!  He definitely had no objections to pulling out the gifts before Christmas! 

Christmas break has been SO much fun! Shaun and I made it to Idaho in between storms. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we were literally dumped on with snow. It was so fun to watch it snow and even better having no where to go!!! 

My family is doing SO well!! It has been so much spending time with them. Shaun is even enjoying his stay with the in-laws! 

More to come with pictures!!

Do you have a hacker on your computer?

It's me (Shaun) again. I'm really excited about a new interent search engine called Chrome from Google. If you've already fallen asleep, wake up; I won't make this too boring :) . Just to make you aware, Internet Explorer (IE), which is used by 70% of population, is a great way for hackers to steal important informaiton from you. The latest and biggest problem in the history of IE has affected millions of users. Apparently there is a flaw in IE's software allowing hackers to infect your computer with a Trojan horse virus which scans your hard drive for personal information. This virus infects every version of IE to date, even IE 8 Beta 2. 

There are much better and safer search engines out there. I've used Mozilla Firefox for years and it has been better and much safer, but I dumped it two days ago for the best search engine yet. It's called Chrome from Google. It is a million times faster than IE and it has a simple interface. I put it on Nicolette's slow school computer. It was so slow that she had to check her email at home before she went to school. After installing Chrome her internet was faster than ever. She loves it too and feels it is so easy to use. For the safety of your online bank account information, and all of your user names and passwords, dump IE and treat yourself to Chrome. You can download it in seconds from http://www.google.com/chrome, and for more info go to http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/features.html. To read more about the Trojan horse, here is a link for that as well http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24813650-661,00.html.

Shaun's a Law Breaker

Since I finished my finals yesterday and Nicolette is at school, I've decided it's time for me to post again.

I've determined that Provo police have nothing better to do than give out parking violations. I'm beginning to think that the entire city is built on the backs of paid parking tickets. They've done nothing to fix their parking problems; my parents remember having parking issues when they attended BYU decades ago. Action to correct the parking problems would stop Provo's revenue. (Okay, it's not really that bad. Mainly I'm just bitter that I lost the bragging rights to driving eight years accident free without even getting pulled over.) I got my first parking ticket. Luckily they don't appear on your driving record.

I had to pay $30 dollars because I parked within 15' of a fire hydrant that was next to a dirt field. I know, the dirt may have spontaneously combusted in December and may have even burned Provo to the ground. I thought I was safe because the curbing was red-lined for about 8' from the hydrant until the curb dipped for what will someday be an entrance to an apartment complex. I also see someone parked there daily. I bet that violators have complained hundreds of times that the curb is not red-lined out to 15'. That spot just makes Provo too much money for city officials to care.

Frankly, I had completely forgotten the exact distance a car must be from a hydrant. To remind everyone of the parking rules they have forgotten from Driver's Ed, here's the checklist printed on the parking ticket to expedite ticket writing and prevent hand-cramping:

1. Blocking a Driveway - $25
2. 15' of a Fire Hydrant - $30
3. 20' of a Crosswalk or Intersection - $25
4. Parking on Sidewalk - $30
5. Painted Line/Curb/Sign Violation - $30
6. Red Curb - $30 (I don't see how this is different from number 5; maybe it's an attempt to create a list of 10 violations.)
7. Time Restriction - $25
8. Registration/Plate violation - $30 (Yes, they did forget to capitalize violation.)
9. Disability Space Violation - $125
10. Facing Traffic or 12" From Curb - $30

Don't worry I promptly paid Provo City their $30 dollars, and they made it simple. Just log onto www.payprovo.com. They accept BOTH Visa and Mastercard.

Drive safe in the snow, and mind where your park :)

My Nephew is here!

My Sister had her baby! Yea! He is the cutest thing ever! He was born on Wednesday, December 10th at 5:00. Weighing 9 lbs 7 oz. and he was 22 1/2 in long! He is one big boy!!
They named him Collin Murray Talbot.

My Brother-in-law is currently in Medical school so when my sister was rushed to have a c-section he was able to be part of the action! My sister and Collin are both doing great!!! Ü

This is my mom! She flew out to NY to help with the new arrival.

My sister is amazing! Collin looks exactly like her! Big eyes, cute nose, and nice lips!
I really look up to her! I can't wait until it's my turn to hold Collin!

a few of my favorite things

Christmas Season is here!!!! This year it has been so fun to actually decorate our own place for Christmas. Sorry if you are getting tired of looking at our house. That is about the only big thing that seems to change in our lives. Ü
Anyway, Shaun and I first began the process by pulling out what decorations we had. AKA, my box of stuff. Last year my sister gave us some fun Christmas balls. That was a great start. My mom also let us borrow a fake Christmas tree. Yea...2 for 2.
Then, we went through all of the random things I have collected. To put it nicely, most of these items were rejected...let's just say tacky teacher gifts! Their were a few keepers that I was not giving up. Shaun was good about letting me decide what I wanted to keep.

Santa srame...a gift from school last year! I Love this big guy and put a
picture of my family in there.

This was a gift from a coworker. It goes perfect in our bathroom vanity!

We can't leave out our nativity scene! This was a gift from my sister. I can't get over the little baby ducky. He is attached to the mom. Ü

Our Tree! I loved how it turned out!
When we were at Robert's Shaun fell in love with the little owls.
I was not too hot on them at first, but I gave in and bought him some for our tree.
When I went looking I literally bought the last ones in the store.
They wouldn't let me buy the one off of their display. :(
I really really love the baby owls. Shaun was pleasantly surprised, to say the least.

Now for the shelf...This shelf has been my favorite to decorate.
The tree on the left is SO cool. Shaun and I both loved it.
We got it at 50% off. Yea for coupons.
The only other requirement I had for Christmas decorations was berries.
We also found these strands on sale.

The final touch:
All through high school I was in a performing group. Each year we sang literally 40 + Christmas concerts all around the community. Although the extent of my singing right now is the ward choir, one of my favorite things is to have Christmas music playing all of the time. The song I added to our blog is Josh Groban's "Thankful" song from his Christmas CDs. Take time to listen to the lyrics and I promise it will put you in the Christmas spirit.
Merry Christmas to all!