Merry Christmas to all

Nate and I had a wonderful Christmas together. We spent the 23rd and 24th with my family. We had a great dinner and did some fun Christmas activities (skits, poems, the Nativity, etc.) Then we came home Christmas night so Nate and I could have Christmas morning together at our house. We spent most of Christmas day with Nate's family. A good time was had by all. Here are some pictures.

Pretend his eyes are open ;)

I made this jean quilt for Nate.

Above are the gifts I gave to Nate and below are the gifts he gave to me. He did such a great job! He is a very thoughtful gift giver!

HOWEVER...the day after Christmas was one of the worst ever!! Nate and I got some kind of food poisoning from our breakfast we think. We were both SO SO sick!! I will spare you the yummy details and just tell you it was the longest day. Now, 2 days later we are feeling mostly back to normal although still weak! But the thought of food doesn't make me want to barf so that is a good sign. May you all be blessed with good health and be careful of what you eat!! Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Random Stuff

So if you have been wondering "Where is Tami? Has she fallen of the face of the Earth?" You are not too far off. Things have been so crazy busy for the last few weeks. I made lots of blog postings in my mind but never got even close to having time to post them so you could actually see them. So here is my quick up date on what has been going on in the last month or so.

For Thanks giving we went to my Grandparents house in Ogden. None of my siblings were there and that was kind of a bummer. But we still had a good time and ate lots of good food. Then on Saturday we had another Thanksgiving dinner with Nate's Family. That was fun too. It was great to have time off school and just relax. This is me and Nate at my Grandparents house on Thanksgiving Day!

Last week we got to go to Temple Square with some of Nate's family. I am always AMAZED with the lights on Temple Square. There is just a special feeling of peace there that I just can't get enough of. If you look hard you can see the Temple in the back ground.

Then on Saturday we got to go the BYU's Christmas Around The World. WOW!!! It was so awesome! If you have been you will have to agree it is amazing. If you haven't been, I recommend you do all you can to go. I am amazed what some people can do with their feet. There was beautiful costumes and fun music and dancing from all over the world.

We actually got our Christmas tree over a week ago and the poor thing just sat there, undecorated, until just a few days ago. But I love it. I love real trees, there is just nothing like it. I love this time of year and I am so excited for all the joys that it brings!

Well, that is pretty much all the blogs that I posted in my head over the last few weeks and now you can actually see them. Great day for you huh? Thanks for reading. I love when you leave comments. It makes me feel special! Even if it is just a quick hello.

Disney Land Pictures

I finally figured out how to make a slid show for my Disney pictures. You have to scroll down a bit to my post about Disney Land to check them out. I am slid show challenged and I don't think I will be making more anytime soon. A 3 year old could have done that faster than I could. I didn't realize that it automatically added music to my slide show. So I thought I had it all figured out yesterday and was finally happy with the whole thing. Then I get on today and there is this rap music blasting out of my speakers (I made the slid show yesterday with the volume turned off). So, LONG story short.. I think it is ready now for your viewing pleasure.

Happy Halloween

Nate and I had a lot of fun for Halloween. On Thursday we went to our ward Halloween party. Nate wore this Comunist uiform that he bought in the Czech Republic on his mission. (He said it was only like $12.00...cool, huh?) I was a...well, my hat is a birthday cake. Prety creative, I know! I think he looks so handsome! Here are all 12 my neices and nephews! (one is just a friend, along for the fun) I love them all so dearly! We all got together on Halloween night at my parents house and had a great time. We had a fun dinner of Halloweiners (rolls wraped around hot dogs:) and home made root beer. Emma and Baily! Cute little faries ! My brother Troy with their youngest, Zach.

Disney Land

Yes, my dream came true this week when Nate and I got to go to Disney Land! If you know me well, you know this was as good as Christmas for me! I considered it my reward for making it through my first year of teaching and paying off all of our student loans in a year. We got to be there for 3 days and we did hopper tickets for Disney and California Adventures. Here are some of my favorite pictures. (thanks Rae Lynne for helping me figure out the slid show thing:)

BYU 21 - New Mexico 3

Nate and I got to go to the BYU game tonight. We had a blast. My parents have season tickets but are out of town this week. So they gave us their tickets. It was a little cold but not as bad as we thought it would be. Nate is a hard core BYU Football fan and since we have been married he has converted me. I have discovered that football can be a lot of fun when you actually know what is going on. He is so patient to explain everything to me and answer my 100+ questions. I sure love that man!

The mountains were beautiful! I just kept talking picture after picture. I love fall!

Mission memories

Saturday night I had two mission reunions. One for my first mission president, Pres. Young and one for my second mission president that I was with for only a month, Pres. Call. This is me with Pres. and Sis. Young. I absolutely love them! I would go every year just to see them. They were so good to me and I learned so much from them. I feel so grateful I am able to know them. This is me with Amy (the mission nurse) and Rachel (the Call's daughter). I love these girls! Isn't Amy's baby cute! They have announced that a Temple will be built in El Salvador. They have actually started and are scheduled to finish sometime in 2010 or 2011. I can't wait. Words cannot express my joy at hearing this. When I was on my mission I always told the members that one day there would be a Temple in El Salvador. The people there are so good and they are trying to do what is right. I love the people of El Salvador! Because of my reunion I have been thinking a lot about my mission memories. I had so many wonderful experiences on my mission and feel so grateful for that time in my life! It was one of the hardest things that I have ever done but one of the most fulfilling things as well. I met so many amazing people and learned so much. I am so grateful for the Gospel and for the chance I had to share it with others. While I served the people there I think I was the one who gained the most. I am just overwhelmed with gratitude and don't quite know how to express it! Here are some of my favorite pictures from my mission.

This is my trainer or mi madre and me at some old ruins called Tesumal.

There was a cute little family that lived behind us in my first area (I only had 2 areas) and the kids would come over all the time and ask me to teach them English. They were so cute!

El Salvador is so beautiful! Just for fun I wanted to put in a picture of Nate. He served his mission in the Check Republic. I think he looks so handsome!

A few weeks ago, both of my sisters ran in a half marathon! They were amazing and I am so proud of them! They want me to do it with them next year...I said "fat chance". That doesn't sound like my cup of tea. But I fully support them. I love you Tara and Tausha! My dad with some of Tara's kids waiting for them to come across the finish line. The half marathon was in Providence. So we all stayed over night at my grandparent's cabin up Logan Canyon. We got up early Saturday morning to go see them cross the finish line. We all had a great time. Here are some pictures of our fun.

My cute Nate! He looks a little sleepy!

Here is my mom with some of her grand kids. She is the best Grandma and mom this world has ever known! How I love her and want to be just like her !

This is my sister Tausha with her youngest, Malia. She is such a doll!

Here are my cute nieces and nephews playing the "ha ha" game. They are the best!

Need a good laugh?

Nate and I drove with my brother-and-law and their kids down to see my sisters come in from the half marathon. I sat in the back seat with my niece Kylee and Nephew Tyler. I started taking pictures then we just couldn't stop. We had a blast. We laughed for so long. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Here are the pictures.

Never knew I had so many chins, did ya? I hope yo you still want to be my friend after you see these pictures. I love you Kylee and Tyler. Thanks for giving me such a good laugh!

Hey, I am looking for some new books to read. Any suggestions?

I feel like a little puppy dog waiting for it's master to come home each time I check my blog to see if anyone has left a comment...Silly how reluctant I was to start a blog and how excited I get about it now. I guess it has been a while since I wrote anything but there hasn't been anything picture-blog-worthy. Does that make since? I did start school this week. Things have gone okay! I think I am going to really enjoy most of my classes. I think there may be one class (there always seams to be one) that will be a bit more challenging. But it has only been a few days and so it is hard to tell. I am hoping for the best. Some of the kids are just so cute, especial my 7th graders. They are so sweet and excited to be there. One girl cam up to me today and as she gave me a hug she said "This is something I give to all the teachers I really like." I thought that was so sweet. There has been a lot of students from last year who have come to visit me. One kid was introducing his little brother to me and said "Mrs. Higbee is an awesome teacher!" I said "I am?!" And he said "Yea!" It warms my heart and makes all the hard days worth it. Puppy dog here, signing off.

Our Las Vegas Trip

Nate and I just got back from a fun trip to Las Vegas. We went for about 3 days and had a great time. We went for one of those time share things. So, they paid for our hotel and in turn we went to their little 3 hour tour and they tried to get us to buy it. Much to their dismay we said no. We didn't want to take out a $50,000 loan at 17% interest! We are weird, huh? Well, here are some pictures of us melting in the 110 degree heat!

Here we are in Ceasars Palace.

This is us in front of the Bellagio waiting to see the cool fountain show.

You can't see this very well but there was this restaurant called Nathan's...something, I can't remember. So of course we needed a picture in front of the sign!

This is Nate and I when we were on top of the Stratosphere tower. That was pretty cool. The time share people gave us free tickets to go up so that was even better!

My dream come true...well one of them. Yes! We got cheese cake from the Cheese Cake Factory!

The Stratosphere

I love to see the temple

Saturday the 12th, Nate and I had the opportunity to go to the temple with all of Nate's family. Nate's little brother is leaving on a mission in about a month and a half and so it was his first time through the temple. It was really special to be there with all of his siblings an parents. I really love the temple. I love the feelings of peace that I feel there. I am so grateful to live so close to so many of them! Nate and I also got new callings. Nate is working in Young Mens with the 12 and 13 year old boys. I just got called to be the Relief Society Secretary. I think that will help me to get to know more people in our ward so I am excited about that.