The Durhams

First Wedding Anniversary

2010-06-13T21:14:00.000-07:00

Today was our first wedding anniversary. I can't believe we've already been married for a year. My mom saved our top layer of our wedding cake so we decided to be brave and try a bite. It actually wasn't that bad, just a little dry. I'm so grateful to be married to my best friend. We've had so many memories already and I know we will only add more. Today I couldn't help but think about how in a week it will be my parents 30th anniversary. I think it's so amazing that two people can love each other so much that they want to spend the remainder of their lives with each other. I look forward to each anniversary with Dan. I love you babe!

Major Updates

2010-06-13T20:42:00.000-07:00

Since it has been so long I thought I should update everyone on what Dan and I have been up to. I have quit working at Big 5 Sporting Goods and am now employed at Schreibers with Dan. I had been trying to get on their for over a year but haven't been able to for a couple of reasons. First, they weren't able to work around my full-time school schedue. And second, it's a very competitive place to get hired on at. I don't know if it's true but I've heard that for every one position they hire for there are 150 applicants. I am extremely grateful for getting the job and have tripled my earning income each payday, which is very exciting because Dan and I are saving up to buy a house. Dan took the LSAT (Law School Admission Test) about a week ago and will find out his score at the end of this month. What we are hoping for is that he can get accepted at the University of Utah and we would stay living here so that I could continue working at Screibers and Dan would just commute to school. He would quit Schreibers and just concentrate on his schooling. But life doesn't always work out the way we want so we could be moving anywhere in the country. I have yet to graduate from Utah State but am only 2 classes away and will graduate in December with an Environmental Studies degree with an emphasis in wildlife. We have planned a trip in August to go to Washington DC. There is a university out there that might be another possibility for law school that we are going to visit as well. Well that's what we have been up to lately. I will try to keep everyone updated more often.

Mother's Day

2010-06-13T20:33:00.000-07:00

Wow! It has been forever since my last post. I definately need to keep this blog updated. Anyways, for Mother's Day this year we surprised my mom with a nice dinner. My parents had been in St. George for most of the week and were coming home on that Sunday, so we decided to surprise here at their house with dinner. I have the best mom ever and am so grateful for all that she does for me and dan and the rest of my family. I love you mom!!!

This should explain why I'm so crazy and goofy!

Blog 10- Tagged

2010-03-16T18:26:00.000-07:00

So the deal is this, I just have to write 10 honest things about myself. Honest and somewhat surprising or entertaining. After my 10, I get to tag people. So here goes.....

1- I guess I will start out with the most obvious one first. I LOVE my husband so much! He is the best a girl could ever ask for. He works long hard hours (sometimes 90 a week) to provide for us. He always compliments me and makes me laugh (which another honest thing to add here---when I laugh really hard it makes me have asthma attacks, it's called laughter induced asthma...and yes, it is a real thing). Dan is my best friend and I am so luckly to be his wife.

2- I love my family! Family has always been so important to me. It doesn't matter what has happened to me throughout my life, my family has always been there for me. I have great in-laws too. I married into a big family and I love it. I always wanted a bigger family when I was younger and now I got my wish. I have gained 1 father in-law, 1 mother in-law, 7 brother in laws, 8 sister in-laws, 12 nephews and 16 neices. Dan's poor mother had 10 kids! Just for that I admire her!

3-I absolutely love the outdoors! I love doing most anything outdoors. Some of my favorites include- fourwheeling, mountain biking, hiking, skiing, boating, fishing, photography, camping and having bonfires. I don't know what it is about nature and the outdoors but it just makes me feel so full of energy.

This is a picture I took when we were on our honeymoon in Jackson Hole.

4- I have a fascination with wildlife. My major at Utah State is Environmental Studies with a Wildlife Emphasis, which should tell you just how much I love animals. I love all wildlife but the ones that I'm just captivated by are deer, bears, wolves, and the birds of paradise. I know I'm such a dork when it comes to this but oh well it's who I am and what I love to do. Dan sometimes makes fun of me because something will come on tv about some animal and I will just be glued to the tv and be oblivous to anything around me.

5- Most girls like having a little car to drive around...well not me. I am a truck kind of girl. I love my Dodge Dakota and almost cried when I had to leave it in Idaho last year for about a month and a half. My dream vehicle though is a black Dodge Megacab....now that's a sweeeet ride. I love driving up in the mountains with my dodge and taking it camping. In my opinion once a vehicle hit's 100,000 miles it becomes a beater...well I only have 400 miles to go before my 'baby' is officially a beater.

6- My favorite TV show is Mantracker on the Science Channel. Once again this classifies me as a nerd because 1: it's on the science channel and 2: its two people running through the mountains with mantracker on his horse trying to find them before they reach the finish line....not your typical tv show but I sure do love. It's a goal of mine to be on this show and beat mantracker...although the show is filmed in Canada so I guess I will have to take a trip there sometime. For those of you who haven't seen this show...you should watch it so you can know what's it all about. New episodes air on wednesday nights at 10!

7- A new hobby of mine is playing raquetball. Who would have ever thought that chasing a ball around an enclosed room and smacking it against the wall could be so much fun. It is so much fun to play and I get a good workout too, it's great.

8- I am a certified Hunter Safety Instructor and have been for just over four years now. I mainly just help my advisor from school teach his classes. It's a lot of fun and will be great to put on my resume when I graduate.

9- I love taking pictures and think it would be a lot of fun to have my own photography business. I love going up the canyon and just taking pictures. I guess you could say this is another hobby of mine.

This picture I took up at 3rd Dam in Logan Canyon.

10- Some of my other favorite things are: I love Oreos and could eat a whole package in one sitting if I would let myself. My favorite actor is Christian Bale...he is smokin' hot. My favorite movie is 8 seconds...I could watch it over and over. My favorite flowers are Gerbera Daisies. And last but not least...my favorite color is blue.

These are the people I tag: Hollie Barber, Kandra Plot, Lisa Rigby, Britnie Sphar,and Jen Seegmiller.

Dallin's Baptism

2010-02-06T20:06:00.000-08:00

We made a quick trip to Vernal this weekend for our nephew Dallin's baptism. It was so fun to see some of our family that we don't get to see very often. It was definately a lot of driving, we left on Friday about 3:30 in the afternoon and got there just before 8pm. Saturday morning we went to the baptism and then to a lunch after and we left for home at 1:30 and got home just before 6. I would say that it was worth it though! Well for the rest of the weekend, we will be teaching our sunbeam class and then heading out to my parents for a birthday party for my dad. I will make sure to take some pictures to post.

Mom's 50th Birthday!!!!!!

2010-01-24T19:18:00.000-08:00

My mom celebrated her 50th birthday this year on January 5th! So obviously that meant that we just had to rub it in. My brother made some wood crosses to put out in the front yard and my dad painted some different sayings on them. This is what they said, "1960-2010", "Dearly Departed", "Died of Old Age", and "RIP". I also made a sign that said, "Honk Pam is 50!" and we hung it up on the garage for everyone to see. On the Friday before her birthday we all went out to eat at the Texas Roadhouse. After dinner we came back to our apartment for cake and ice cream. Dan and I had spent all afternoon making a special cake for her. Let me first give you some background for why we decided to make the cake that we did. I absolutly love the TV show Cake Boss. On the show they make some amazing cakes, so I thought that it wouldn't be too hard to make a cake for my mom's birthday. Boy was I wrong. It took us about 4 1/2 hours to make this cake and it looked so terrible. We tried making an old lady sitting on a wheelchair going "over the hill". We used rice krispie treats for the body, the hill, and the wheelchair and oreas for the wheels. We left it sitting on the table while we went to eat at the restaurant and when we got back the head had almost fallen off. Anyways, we had a wonderful time together and the cake was a hit, we were all laughing so hard! I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Christmas 2009

2010-01-04T17:34:00.000-08:00

I'm finally getting around to posting some of our Christmas pictures. Although we spent the last two years together at Christmas this was our first Christmas together as a married couple. It's tradition in my family to spend Christmas Eve at my parents house. We have a big dinner, open a couple of gifts, and play lots of games. This year my Uncle and two of my cousins came up to spend Christmas with us. We played the game Curses and we all were rolling on the floor with laughter. It was hilarious! If you haven't ever played this game I highly suggest you make the purchase, it is well worth the money! On a different note, this Christmas was a little sad because last year at this time my Grandma was extremely ill and we knew it would be our last Christmas with her. I thought of her often throughout the holidays and longed for her to be there. Even though it was hard without her I knew she would want us to enjoy the holiday and so we all made the best of it.

Grandma Walker

Grandpa Walker showing off his new helmet

Dad giving his tools a big hug

My Dad had been joking around with my mom that he was going to buy her a snuggie for Christmas. She said "Don't you dare buy me one!" Well, of course he bought her one and to make it even better he got her the leopard print. It looks to me like she was rather excited to get it!

My "special" cousin with the gift Dan and I gave him! (we call him special because of the Curses game we played, it's an inside joke and won't make sense to anyone that wasn't there- sorry)

Dan and I both got ski passes from my parents! We can't wait to hit the powder!

My uncle gave us all weird fuzzy socks this year! This is the gang showing them off.

Dan showing off his purple striped socks

My brother Jason

Me and my hubby

My brother's dog Max. He fell asleep with the ball my parents got for him.

Max playing with his present

The whole gang- minus myself

Stacey showing off a gift

Cathy's Wedding

2009-11-28T14:42:00.001-08:00

My friend Cathy from work got married back in October. I was one of her bridesmaids. The wedding turned out great and it was a lot of fun practicing my photography skills.

These cake pictures turned out perfect with the sunlight shining through the window.

Elizabeth, Melissa, Cathy, Amber, Me, and Sokum

Big 5 Girls!

Fishing Tales

2009-09-21T20:15:00.000-07:00

On Labor Day weekend Dan and I went camping and tested out our new float tubes. We decided we wanted to try out Tony Grove lake. Although we didn't have any luck we still had a lot of fun. The next day we decided to do one of our favorite types of fishing...river fishing. Dan decided that instead of the regular live bait (nightcrawlers) that we bring, that he wanted some other 'natural' live bait. I can almost guarantee that you will laugh at this....so while we were at our campsite we each grabbed a 2x4 and starting running around chasing grasshoppers. I'm sure we looked real funny running around smacking the ground with these 2x4's! Once we had our bait we went to test it out. For all the trouble we went through, you think we would have caught at least one fish with a grasshopper...well you guessed it-we didn't catch any with our 'natural' live bait.

Dan and I absolutely love fishing together but we never have very good luck....although we sure do have fun with each other and always walk away some crazy fishing stories and some great memories.

Dan's 25th Birthday!!!

2009-09-21T19:48:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Dan's 25th birthday by going boating at Hyrum Dam. It was a lot of fun and was a good end to my summer since it was the last weekend before school started again. I would have to say that I came up with a pretty great gift for Dan. I was able to come across an AMAZING DEAL on a float tube at my work. It was such a great deal that I just had to buy one for myself too. And of course, when you buy a float tube you have to buy all the other gear. So he also got waders, boots, and flippers.

Little kids can fall asleep anywhere. This is my niece Taryn, asleep.....but still holding on.

Dan and my Dad battling it out on the tubes.

Finally getting around to posting my bridal pictures...

2009-08-30T17:44:00.000-07:00

Here are just a few of my favorites.

My Grandma Moss that passed away at the beginning of the year gave this bracelet to me awhile back. A couple of weeks before she passed away she told me that she didn't know if she was going to live long enough to be at our wedding. I was her only granddaughter. I was really close to my grandma and was devasted that she wasn't going to be there. I wore this bracelet at our wedding to honor my grandma, in a way it also represented her and made me feel as though she were there with me.

I couldn't decide what shoes to wear for the bridals....so I just decided to wear all three! Out of all the shoes I own, the cowgirl shoes are my absolute favorite, I've had them for years. There's no story for the pink shoes I just thought they were cute. Ever since I was little I always said I was going to wear flip flops at my wedding, so that's exactly what I did!

Officially Husband and Wife

2009-08-05T20:31:00.000-07:00

Now that we are married and we have had some time to get settled into our new place, I hope that I can be more consistent with keeping our blog updated. As for now, I have a lot of catching up to do. First on the list of course was our wedding. Dan and I were married on June 13th in the Logan Temple. I would have to say it was the best day of my life. After three years of dating I finally married my best friend. I'm so grateful that we found each other and that we were able to be sealed in the temple for eternity. I've got tons of pictures to share and I've tried to just pick out some of our favorites.

This is one of my new nephews, Isaac. He is so adorable.

This is one of my favorite pictures.

What can I say, girls are expensive.

This is the reception set up in my parents backyard...right before it started downpouring and we had to move everything to the church an hour before the reception was supposed to start. I'm just so grateful that we have such awesome family and friends that were there to help us out...and thank goodness we had a backup place for the reception.

I absolutely loved my cake. Our friend, Crystal, that Dan and I used to work with made it and did such a great job, so if you know of anyone getting married I highly recommend her.

Of course, my uncle Jeff had to show off his shirt before he left. We thought it was hilarious and just had to get a picture with him.

Since one of our favorite desserts is brownies and ice cream we decided to have it at our reception, along with a topping bar. It was so tasty!!!

The Handsome Groomsmen...notice how tall the Durham boys are compared to my brother Jason...haha

The Bridesmaids...I'm so grateful that I have such awesome friends.

I don't know why, but I just like this picture of my brother and his wife.

Although our wedding turned out wonderful, we are both glad that it is over and that we can relax. We also want to thank everyone for all that they have done to make the day special and for showing us all your support.

I admit it....

2009-06-03T10:37:00.000-07:00

I admit it....i've kind of neglected blogging for the past while. I've been so busy lately that I haven't even had a chance. Anyways, I just wanted to share some of our engagement pictures. I am not going to post any of my bridal pictures until after we get married because I'm sticking with the old-fashioned tradition that the guy isn't supposed to see the dress until the actual wedding day. So everyone, you are just going to have to wait. I still can't believe that me and Dan will be married in 10 days. Don't get me wrong, I am so excited. We hope that everyone will be able to make it!

These are just a few of our favorites.

Wedding Flowers and Colors

2009-03-30T16:39:00.000-07:00

For our wedding we are having Gerbera Daisies and our colors are pink, orange, yellow, white and lime green. Since it's a summer wedding we thought the bright colors would be perfect. The wedding plans are coming along great. My mom has done a lot to help out and we're so grateful. We are waiting for the weather to get warmer and for the snow to disappear before we take our engagement pictures and I take my bridals. I do have my dress but I'm sorry to say that I'm not posting any pictures of it because I'm sticking to the old rule that Dan can't see it until our wedding day. We also need addresses for everybody, so if you haven't already please let us know your address so we can send you an invite when it's time. Thanks for all the help and support we've received so far. We are both so excited to finally be getting married.

Wedding Cake....

2009-03-30T16:09:00.000-07:00

Dan and I got bored the other night and were racking our brains for something to do. Don't ask us how but somehow we thought we would try and make our 'own' wedding cake. You can obviously tell that we are going to stick with our friend Crystal making our cake for us. Although our masterpiece didn't turn out like we wanted it to we still had tons of fun making it. We learned the hard way that you don't use the regular icing that comes in the little container, it's just too runny and won't go smooth or hold it's shape. Our flowers don't even look like flowers! Believe it or not it took us about 4 hours to create (that's including baking time).

Valentine's Day

2009-02-17T16:54:00.000-08:00

Dan and I had such a great Valentine's Day. He definately spoiled me and he shouldn't have. I had to meet with a lady out in Smithfield that afternoon and when I got home he was at my apartment. He came running to the door and told me that I had to close my eyes. He then led me into the kitchen and told me to open my eyes. He had cooked me a candle light dinner and there was 4 dozen roses sitting on the table (he even tried getting the flowers in our wedding colors). I had given him a little gift earlier in the day and when he had opened it he just started laughing so hard. I had bought him a little stuffed dog that stuck it's butt up in the air and on the butt it said 'love ya'. I thought it was funny but apparently not as funny as he did. Well, come to find out he was laughing so hard because he had bought me the exact same one. After dinner we actually watched a 'chick flick'. Yes, can you believe it? It was such a wonderful day and I'm so grateful to be marrying someone that is so amazing and wonderful.

In Memory of My Sweet Grandma

2009-01-11T17:57:00.000-08:00

On Jan. 5, 2009 my Grandma Moss passed away after strugging with cancer for three years. I am extremely sad over the loss but we know that she is now in a better place. I loved my grandma dearly and will miss her quick wit, kind heart and the love that only a grandmother can share with her granddaughter. I miss you Grandma.

Christmas 2008

2009-01-11T17:11:00.000-08:00

I know I'm a little behind, but I've been really busy the last few weeks. We had such a great Christmas this year! We both love Christmas time and are so grateful for being blessed with such good family and friends. This year was a little different because of my Grandma Moss being so sick but we tried to make it the best for her.

We went out to Ron and Celeste's house the day after Christmas to visit with Dan's parents.

Dan gave his Dad the military painting he did. He has been wanting it since he first saw it last year.

I love this picture. Mom was so excited to get a mixer.

Dan and I thought it would be funny to get my Dad this jumbo-sized remote. (and yes, it really does work)

Lego Star Wars, Sweeeeet!!!

Drinking glasses....yay, how exciting...

What a handsome man!

Wahoo!....scrapbook stuff.

Now you know where I get it from.

The Fam on Christmas Eve.

Me and my sweet Grandma.

Dan and I gave Jason a toolbox.

We've got a Twilight Fan in the family (actually more than one).

Family Pictures

2008-12-30T16:08:00.000-08:00

This year my mom decided that we needed to have family pictures. I think they turned out pretty good. The photographer was a lady named Cathy that works with my mom at the salon. Cathy is also going to be the one taking all of our wedding pictures. It was so cold outside when we were taking pictures, we were all freezing. I want to make this a tradition every year, at least with me and dan. I always love having tons of pictures.

The Two Coolest Elves

2008-12-14T18:50:00.001-08:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

We're Officially Engaged!!!

2008-11-23T10:17:00.000-08:00

Dan and I are officially engaged! I'm sure that all of you are going to ask how he proposed so I will just tell all. We had decided to take a drive up Logan Canyon to take some pictures (which is something that we enjoy doing). We drove up to 2nd dam and started walking around. When we came to a spot that was surrounded by trees Dan started fumbling with the camera case. Of course I just thought he was getting out the camera, but he turned around and he had the ring box in his hand. Since he was so nervous and excited at the same time he just started laughing...which made me start to laugh. (I know...isn't that romantic...haha). Well he got down on one knee and asked me if I would like to be the one to make him laugh for the rest of his life and make him the happiest man alive and then he asked me if i would marry him. It was short but sweet. Of course I said yes! I am so lucky to be marrying my best friend.

We haven't picked an exact date yet but we do know that it will be the beginning of June (we are maybe thinking of June 13th). We hope that all of you can make it. I will keep you all posted on all the details.

Our First Blog...

2008-11-19T19:03:00.000-08:00

I've decided to create a blog so that my family and friends can stay in touch with me and Dan. I am still attending Utah State and am majoring in Environmental Studies with an emphasis in wildlife. I only have 3 semesters left! I'm working at Big 5 Sporting Goods and also at Old Navy, so i've definately been staying busy. As for Dan he graduated last May with degrees in Political Science and History. He is currently working at Shriebers and will hopefully be getting a promotion soon.