Review of this Year

Here is my review of our 2011!

I've divided it down into sub-categories, because the idea of summing up an entire year is just far too daunting. And I'm sure I still left out lots of important stuff!

Trips: 
- Crawdad Canyon with Ryan & Kristin! 
- Many mini trips to Moab & Monticello during Andrew's work weeks, just to squeeze a little extra time in with the husband!
- 2 trips to St. George & Vegas- We saw Lion King & O, shopped at Urban Renewal (Julie's new favorite find!), bought a gun (Andrew's new favorite find!), and discovered Anasazi Steakhouse (Andrew & Julie's new favorite find!)
- Celebration of our 2 year mark in SLC! We spent a nice weekend in the big city with good food & entertainment!
-Even though Andrew wasn't able to come, Wasakee was definitely one of the best parts of 2011. It was such a wonderful place to spend some family time & celebrate my parents' 40th anniversary!
- Again, Andrew was absent, but I visited the great state of Texas for Jamie's wedding in August! I was able to see a lot of old friends that I love and miss so very much!

Best Books (for Julie, I can't speak for Andrew here):
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card
The Hunger Game series by Suzanne Collins

Netflix Obsessions: 
How I Met Your Mother
Vampire Diaries
Mad Men
30 Rock
Storage Wars
Breaking Bad
Community 
17/18 Kids & Counting
Bones

New Discoveries: 
- Pinterest 
- In 'N Out's secret menu
-Arshels Cafe in Beaver
- Urban Renual in St. George
-Anasazi Steakhouse 
-Lots of sweet thrift shops & antique stores


New Additions:
- We love our new nephew Jude. He has the sweetest demeanor and is a little snuggle bug.
- Paul & Kelsi got married this August and we are happy to call her a Nevin too! (And they have a little one on the way!)

Work: 
Julie:
- Started the year off by stage managing Ireland: A Dance Experience at the SCERA. She and Kendall discovered their secret talent of Irish dancing and the girls from Shelly's Irish Dance studio made it all possible... And because this video can no longer be hidden from the world, here is all the proof you need: The Great Irish Dance Off. 
- Had the privilege of working with Jerry Elison again on a SCERA Shell production of Singin' In the  Rain. She loves working and learning from Mr. E!
- Was the production stage manager for BYU's Fall Opera, (which was actually a combination of 2  Operas) Menotti's Help, Help, the GLobolinks!, and Amahl and the Night Visitors. This was her first
experience working on an Opera and it was definitely challenging and fulfilling!  
-Worked on the development of a new Muiscal adaptation of the children's book The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey all year long. Her role as production stage manager began in February for a staged reading, and lasted through the full production in December. It was produced by both BYU and the SCERA. It was a wonderful experience to not only be a part of a new work, but also to work alongside a couple of her favorite professors from BYU: Roger Sorensen (Director), Ward Wright (Playwright), David Morgan (title character). The music was composed by two wonderful musicians: Randall Wright & Marvin Payne.

Andrew:
- Andrew is still working at Frontier Drilling as a derrick hand. He loves the challenge of it and has many friends out on the rig (and now his brother, Matt!). He is located in Moab and works one week on and one week off. It is not ideal but between both of our jobs, we make it work!

Best Costumes: 
- Thor & Wonder Woman
- Pirates! (In celebration for Parker's 5th birthday!)


The Most Surprising Feat: 
- No moving of houses during 2011!!

THE Highlight of 2011 
On March 16th Andrew & I were sealed in the Draper Temple! This was definitely the best part of the entire year. It was such a wonderful, peaceful experience.

New Years Eve

Christmas Cookies!

Christmas Eve was spent with the Nevin family! We decorate Christmas cookies...

*Angel & baby Jude*

  .....and opened presents! 

(Paul & Kelsi both drew Andrew & me for Secret Santa 

and they got us Ticket to Ride - Europe! 

I'm pretty excited; we will definitely get a lot of use of it!)

Knight in shining armor!

Tiger Caden

Fairy wings!

Batman jammas complete with cape!

*Gramma & Grandad with (most of) the kiddos!* 

Happy Christmas Eve! 

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

O' Christmas Tree

Breaking Dawn!

As most of you know, the 4th Twilight series movie came out on November 18th! 

For each movie release Candis throws the BEST midnight-showing Twilight parties ever! Seriously. They are awesome. I have only been to two, but can attest.

She makes a iron-on decal and we all make matching shirts,* eat lots of food and enjoy the night! 

Here are some little pictures to prove the awesome-ness! 

 I feel like I really pulled off the Kristen Stewart I-have-no-emotion-other-than-pain look here. 

I thought you would like being so close to Edward, Carolyn...

and having your left hand on his thigh...

 Jessica's eyes say it all. 

*This year's shirts read: "Why am I covered in feathers?"

This is a story about how I am just a cliche girl

It was the most normal of days as I can recall. 
Andrew was in Moab for work, that was all.
I came home from rehearsal at the break of midnight.
I opened the door, unloaded my things, and felt for light.

Then, a most peculiar thing happened.
As the lights turned on, I thought my eyes were to deceive me.
I saw a thing on the floor.
A wee of a thing. Just about 4 inches, no more.
It was brown and it was furry.
When saw what is was, you can imagine my worry!

I froze in my place and dialed for husband to make me feel safe.
Overcome with sheer angst I whispered, "there's a mouse in the house!
What do I do? I'm afraid he will run around in great haste!"
In his absence and his wisdom,
He called for his father come to my assistance.

In a very short time Leonard arrived, tools in hand,
To take on this beast I so frightfully feared.
In the large net he was utterly caught.
Leonard picked up the mouse
and flushed him right down the pot!

Now, some may laugh and point fun,
that I could not catch that little of one.
But mice are gross, and weird.
Cute from afar, or in a glass jar,
but not in your house, not on the floor.
I do not feel shame in my digust,
Only pure gratitude in those I can trust! 

Halloween

It has been pretty crazy around here lately, and sadly we have not had time to plan for our usually awesome costumes for Halloween. For this year's holiday we spent it trick or treating with Lincoln, or should I say Darth Vader.

Like I previously mentioned, we had no costumes, so Lincoln and Shawn graciously lent us some of their own costumes from past Halloweens (or just from their dress up wardrobe)!

 

Darth Vader & Princess Leia 

 

Wonder Woman & Thor

Wonder Woman & Princess Leia

....and a good time was spent by all.

Paul & Kelsi's get hitched!

Paul & Kelsi were married this August! 

Everything was very beautiful (& delicious - see photo of Korbin below)!

As a newer Nevin myself, I can attest that she could not have married into a better family!

 I know what you are thinking: "Kelsi looks so beautiful in her dress!" - This is true. 

Side note: Carolyn also altered/made Kelsi's dress, which obviously turned out spectacular (per usual).

I know what else you are thinking: "Man, those kids are so cute!" - Also true. 

August Challenge

This month I am setting a goal to read the entire Book of Mormon straight through! 

I will read 8 chapters a day. 

I'm very excited!

Oh, yeah

 I got new glasses! 

Recent Obsessions

1. The Avett Brothers 

new album, "I and Love and You" 

2. Pinterest

If you don't, you should 

http://pinterest.com

3. My new cleaning products

(more about this later)

4. Bones

I know that I swore off Bones after the finale of season 3....but things change. 

Season 7 cannot come soon enough!

 

Happy 2 years to us!

I cannot believe that we are already celebrating our 2nd year of marriage! It seems to have gone by so fast. These two years have been most fantastic and I can't wait to see what the next years bring!

To celebrate we spent the evening in Salt lake. We ate at Ruth's Chris, which was super delicious! We saw Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the Hale in West Valley, and stayed the night in Hotel Monaco. The next morning we went estate sale shopping and scored some really great stuff.
To sum it up: perfect.

I don't want to get all sappy on here or anything, but Andrew is wonderfully supportive and the funniest person I know. He is the best company I keep.

Summertime

Look at these sweet faces! 

Zoo smiles! 

 Harry Potter! - "UnDesirable no. 1"

Lindon pool/park day!

I love spending time with the kiddos. They are the best.

Wausaukee, part one

In celebration for my parents 40th wedding anniversary, we decided to all get together at Randy & Elly's family cabin in Wausaukee, Wisconsin. Daddy helped arrange the whole thing, but we wanted to surprise Mommy with the reunion!
We have been planning this trip for over a year now, and holding in this huge secret from Mommy was huge! I was so scared I would ruin the surprise to her, I even dreamed about it!
But we did it!
She was completely surprised - success!
We spent the week relaxing on the edge of Elbow Lake with all the siblings & Randy, Elly, David & Elana! The 1920's cabin had so much character and charm, I think I could live there.
There was swimming, fly fishing, canoeing, sailing, porch-sitting, storytelling, and lots of ice cream! 

I do not have the pictures from the trip yet (hence this is "Part one") but I will share just a few that I have.

more to come...

Crawdad Canyon

In June Andrew & I drove down to St. George to meet up with Ryan and Kristen at Crawdad Canyon. 

It was our first time there and it was a great little camping spot. 

We spent our time playing with frogs

And kissing them

  

Swimming in the river

and soaking in the sun

and rock climbing...of course! 

We didn't try to catch any crawdads.
But that is what next time is for!

Target practice

Andrew recently bought his first gun.

He was pretty excited. 

(Although, if you ask him about it, he'll probably deny it.)

We went shooting up in the canyon.

It was my first time to shoot a gun,

And I shot better than Andrew!

(Although, if you ask him about it, he'll probably deny that too.)

Ari & Lincoln turn 4!

Both little boys celebrated their 4th birthdays this year. One Superman style and the other in Outer Space!

They are pretty great kids! 

 

Playing Catchup

My goodness, I have been MIA for the past few months.
You'd think I've been busy or something, but the truth is I'm always busy. So it is really just blog laziness.
So I now apologize for the outpouring of information from the last couple months of our lives.

Workin' Man

 So this week I made a little trip out to Moab to see Andrew (wait, make that 2 trips this week - but that is another story..). It was a beautiful drive and a nice little trip. 

 I stopped to take a picture of Wilson's Arch, which is the arch my family would always stop at when driving through Utah. My dad and I would climb to the arch in sun or snow!

I got to visit the rig:

 Now, doesn't he look so cute?

 Now that's more like it.......