Happy New Year's 2009

This was our Christmas card we sent out this year. We wore the actual player's jerseys and helmets. We miss everyone and wish you all the best of holidays, even though we are late.




We have never been big on New Year's. We like to just hang out and keep it low key. And almost every New Year's, one of us gets sick. And this year was no different. Spencer's teeth were bothering him and he had to take pain medicine.


We played with the dogs out in the snow. And then we came back inside and cuddled and played NHL on the PlayStation. Then we went out to Outback for dinner. Then we came home and watched Dick Clark's New Years. Fall Out Boy (our favorite band) played a couple of their new songs. We just chilled and rung in the New Year together.









I think that 2009 holds a lot of promise and that some great things are going to happen to us. I have a really good feeling that this is going to be an awesome year!!

Sugar Cookies

Spencer loves to make sugar cookies at Christmas-time. So I try to do it with him every year. Somehow in the move, we lost our cookie-cutters. And no matter where I went shopping, I could NOT find cookie-cutters. We decided to make them anyways. However, we had to cut shapes with a knife. This was difficult, but the good new is that we could be extra creative.

Here is Spencer cutting sugar cookies.





Here you can see what we were doing. Spencer is cutting an octopus or spider-monkey or something. I'm not quite sure.

I made a moose and a football and different fruits. Spencer made a football helmet, a snail, a star, and some other unidentifiable animals.

Then we decorated them. It was fun to make different colors of frosting.

A Very Sabres Christmas

We had a good Christmas this year. It was quiet and simple and we both had to work, but it was still really nice.

Here are our stockings. Yes two of the stockings are Sabres stockings. Each year, there seems to be a theme to Christmas. Our first Christmas was football helmets. Our second Christmas was Vikings. And this year, it was the Sabres, since that is Spencer's new obsession.

Here is our little tree. Yeah! for fake trees. They are so simple. And the lights are already on. You just pull it out, stack the pieces, and fluff the branches. Then just add the decorations and wa-la. You can't see the ornaments very well, but they are an assortment of BYU, Buffalo Bills, and Buffalo Sabres. Underneath are all of the gifts from our loved ones. Everyone was so nice to spend the extra money to ship us gifts. It was so sweet, thank you everyone!!

Santa didn't forget us this year. We got a DYSON vacuum that is good at cleaning up animal hair. It is awesome!! I recommend everyone gets a Dyson. We used to live with hard floors and didn't really need one. Now, we have mostly carpet and this vacuum is a life-saver, especially for Spencer. He really hates the hair.

We also got street hockey sticks and pucks so that our passion for hockey can continue. We like to play it gently in the house against the dogs (well, mostly Brady). We pass the ball back and forth and try to play keep-away from Brady. If he gets it, we tell him to drop it, and he does. He is a good sport. This is another useful way to get out the dogs energy. We haven't used it outside yet, but I hope that we do.

We got a lot of movies and cd's. We also got Sabres jerseys. We got some games from our friends, some jackets from our parents, a toy helicopter to chase the dogs with, and a lot of other great gifts.

I really wanted some warm gloves for Christmas because my mittens were old and just didn't keep my hands warm enough during Bills Games or skiing. My parents got me some AWESOME ski mittens. I love them.



Sorry I look like crap. We had to get up early so we could do Christmas before work and I didn't even put on any make-up or brush my hair.

The dogs got some treats from Homely and Joyce. They also got some bones. I even got them a goose and beaver toy. Mia loves to get out the squeakers. These ones actually lasted more than one day.

In this picture you can see a little piece of the goose stuck to Mia's lip.

After we opened Christmas presents, we had to hurry to work. Yes, the Bills had practice on Christmas. And of course the hospital never closes. Although it was a very quiet holiday.

We all had a good Christmas. Thanks again to Spencer's parents and my parents for going above and beyond on giving us gifts. We are so grateful to everyone. Thank you. I hope that everyone had a wonderful and safe Christmas. We missed you all so much.

Bills Christmas Party

Before Christmas, we received a mysterious package. We opened it up to find a giant chocolate football. It is the size of an official NFL football.





Inside was an assortment of chocolate coins and buffalo chocolates.




We also went to the Buffalo Bills Christmas Party. It was held at the stadium in Jim Kelly's Club House. It was really fancy. There was valet parking and lots of lights and decorations. Everyone was all dressed up. There was a huge buffet laid out with caviar and shrimp and fillet mignon. Our favorite things were the chocolate covered strawberries and cheesecake. There was also a bar and we ordered our Roy Rogers and Shirley Temples. Spencer's co-workers actually have some on-going jokes about how he needs to be careful how many "drinks" he has (of Pepsi or Coke) and that he may not be able to drive home. They also joke about his Mormon coffee, which is hot chocolate.

It was funny to see some of the players dancing and having a good time with the music. We didn't stay for very long. I kind of felt out of place, but it was a surprisingly good time.

I am really grateful that Spencer has had this wonderful opportunity. It has been a lot of fun and just a neat experience. Go Bills!!

Our New Sport

When we moved to Western New York, we noticed that people were more interested in the Sabres than in the Bills. People here just LOVE hockey. They think that it is the greatest thing ever. They seriously go crazy for it. At one of our favorite restaurants, Duff's, they even have an alarm like they have at the hockey games for when the Sabres make a goal.

This kind of peaked our interest. One of Spencer's friends, Mark (aka Big Sweaty), is obsessed with the Sabres. He was so excited to find out that Spencer had never been to a professional hockey game. He has season tickets and so he told Spencer that he wanted to be the one to take him to his first hockey game. He talked about it like it was this wonderful, and magical experience.

So, in November Spencer attended his first hockey game. It was the Buffalo Sabres vs. the Atlanta Thrashers. It really was something magical. Spencer was hooked. Since then he has fallen in love with the sport. He loves to watch it. And he has gone to a few games since then.

And finally, in December, I was able to go to my first professional hockey game. It was really fun to watch them get into fights and hit each other. It reminds me of soccer, except more violent.

Spencer got the NHL PlayStation game for Christmas from Greg. This was by far his favorite present. He plays it all of the time. And we often play together. It has been fun to become familiar with the sport and it's rules. We are officially hockey fans. More specifically, we are forever Sabre's fans.

Here are some pictures of the ring and of the players warming up.

Spencer's favorite player is Patrick Kaleta because he instigates fights. He is a Buffalo native. He also likes Jochen Hecht and Derek Roy.

My favorite is Paul Gaustad because he is tough and a team player. He also reminds me of Spencer. And his nick-name is Goose...like Moose.

Mia Loves To Bound

This is a video of Mia bounding in the snow. It was a lot funnier when the snow was deeper.

Brianna Biffs It

When we were playing in the snow with the dogs, we kept Brady on a long rope so he could run without running away. We don't trust him. Well, we tied the other end of the rope around Brianna's waist. In this video, Spencer caught Brianna eating it hard because the rope caught her feet from underneath her. Sorry for the shaking. Spencer was laughing pretty hard.

Snow Days

When we were little, we used to get one or two Snow Days every winter. These were days after big snow storms when we couldn't get to school, so it was cancelled. There was a Snow Day here just before Christmas. The Bills cancelled practice and all of the school cancelled. I was already scheduled to have the day off, so I didn't have to work either. It was really fun to have Spencer home for the day and to be snowed in.

So, we took the dogs out to play in the snow. It actually ended up being more like swimming in the snow.

Mia loves to bound through the snow. It was really hard for her when the snow was this deep.

A couple of weeks after this, we took the dogs out to play in the snow again. The snow was much more shallow this time.

There are multiple benefits to taking the dogs out to play in the snow. One, it's something fun to do to get out of the house in the winter. Two, it's good exercise. And lastly, but most important, it makes the puppies tired.

Even Brady was too tired afterwards to play ball.

Yes, It Snows Alot in Western New York

Since we found out that we were moving to Buffalo, and the whole time that we have been here, there has been one big question on our minds: Does it really snow a lot in Buffalo? We have spent a lot of time looking up the answer online and asking our new friends and neighbors. We have gotten a variety of answers. But now, we have discovered the answer for ourselves.

Yes. It snows a LOT in Buffalo.

The good news is that the city does an amazing job at clearing the streets and highways during and after the storms. I have never seen such a good job done in any city I've even been in during a snow storm. It is impressive. We are even able to get around in our Honda Civic shortly after the storm is done and even while it is still storming because they clear the streets and parking lots so well.

In the weeks before Christmas, we got a lot of snow. We got over four feet. Here are some pictures around our house of our own Winter Wonderland.







Even our apartment complex does an excellent job of clearing off the snow as soon as possible. They spend the whole day clearing snow during the storms. It's nice not to have to do it.



The dogs of course love the snow. We have been taking them out to play in it. They love to eat the snow and bound through it. The only real problem is that Mia does not like to go to the bathroom in the snow. It's hard enough to find conditions that are satisfactory for her to do her deed, but in fresh snow, it is a lost cause.



Mia looks like the Abominable Snowman when the snow flakes are flying and they stick to her face. It's really cute.



One morning we awoke to this disaster. Yeah. It was like three and a half feet of snow all overnight. Awesome!




We were nearly snowed in. It took a lot of shoveling to get out.




Then we had to figure out how to get our cars out of the snow. Here is our new car. Thank goodness we got it before all of this snow. We would not have survived well without it. I definitely would have been snowed in at work at least once and I would have had to stay at the hospital overnight. Ugh! Again thank goodness for the new car.







Here is our poor little snowed in Honda. It took a long time to get him out of the snow drifts.

I thought that the icicles on our house were so pretty....until...

They turned into the icicles of death! These are icicles on our roof. They form cold jaws of sharp icicle teeth that can come crashing down at any minute. They are all connected and when it starts to warm up, the pieces of ice and snow come crashing down off of the roof. It makes a horrible noise when you are inside. It scares Mia to death. And if you are outside, you'd better watch out. It could cause some serious damage.

The snow isn't all that horrible. There is a lot of lake-affect snow, but it's not so bad that you can't get to work. And it's kind of fun. It reminds me of when we were little and used to get a ton of snow back home.

A Brand New Car!! (like on the Price is Right)

Since we moved to New York about six months ago, we have been getting by with just one car. This was a challenge because we both work almost every day and we work in different places. We did pretty good at it, though. I found a couple of friends at work that would let me mooch rides with them to work. They have been so sweet and understanding about it. I would pay them gas money and I promised them to drive when we got a new car.

We had planned to get a car in October, but it didn't turn out that way. We started looking at cars and prices and how much it would cost per month. We kept going back and forth on if we would need four-wheel-drive or not. We didn't know what to expect with the winters here. We had heard horror stories and we had also heard that it wasn't that bad. We were also nervous about monthly payments. We wanted to make sure that we could afford the car that we bought easily.

So, for about two and a half months we searched for the perfect car. We finally decided on the Toyota RAV-4. We bought it December 11. Just in time. The next two weeks it snowed like crazy. Four-wheel-drive was a good choice. We love our new car. I named her Betty.