Christmastime is here!

Lizzy asked for it!
Here are some pictures of our pad

A nativity I bought in Venezuela

Most of our decorations were wedding gifts.
Most of our decorations are snowmen.

This is my favorite nativity.
So simple.

This year I decided to decorate our place like a
college dorm! I figure we're only
going to enjoy the decorations for 2 weeks
so I better pull out all the stops.

oh tanenbaum!

One of my favorite things in my house.
I love my family.

Tis the season, y'all.

Au's Bed and Breakfast

Anna and Brigham have church at 8:30,
so we did not expect to eat before we left.
But who did we hear up at 7 am,
rattling around in the kitchen
BRIGHAM!!!
We had the most delicious breakfast:
Texas toast (of course), hash browns, bacon (spam for Brig)
and orange juice.
We love them - like family.

Our (Jon's and my) first hockey game!
Anna has the sweetest hookups at her
job so she scored these tickets.
I love the lady behind us trying to get in the shot.

Que rico . . .

Eli's cousin (far right) lives in Dallas
and invited us for an 'asado'
-Argentine bbq-
It was the best asado we've had this
side of the panama canal.

It was so delicious!

Eli and Mike and their mate:)
They are engaged to be married
in May at the DC Temple.

It was the first time in 8 years that
Jon and Eli saw each other. It was
a sweet reunion.
We skyped her family in Argentina...
amazing!

Thanksgiving in Dallas

Me and Jessica painting a
Christmas ornament

Jon, Dallin, and Jessica

A tribute to the missionary

"The Feast"
Shan's family
Me and Jon
Eli & Mike
Brig & Anna
I told Shannon she should be proud
of herself. She fed Brigham
and still had leftovers:)

Love these two

Wrapping up November

The third weekend in November
we went to Asheville, NC
(a sweet little artsy, hippie town in the Smokies)
to go to a concert with Sara.

George Winston (classical pianist) was great
but the highlight of the night was
catching up at the 'chocolate lounge' after the show.

UNC basketball game...

and the flying lizard.

lots of titles

lots of 'carolina' blue

lots of happy
(for the free tickets!)

While we were playing soccer the other night
Jon and I were asked if we were
'hermanos.' Do we look like siblings?

Weekend #2

Gary Olsen
Jon's friend at BYU
Our friend at Vanderbilt
Married Myriam Heath in the
Orlando Temple. It's only 8.5 hours away
so we went. We drove 4 hours to Savannah, GA
spent the night, woke up, drove the
rest of the way. Orlando
Temple is so
beautiful.

So were the bride and groom.

After the sealing
and a little dinner, we hopped
back in the car and headed back to Savannah.
We spent the night, woke up, had breakfast,
cruised around Savannah for a couple of hours and
ate lunch at a Scottish pub
(the only place showing the Brazil/England soccer match!)
We tried to find the Argentina/Spain
friendly, but it was not televised, so we ended up parked
outside of the Holiday Inn, just close enough to pick up
their internet and watched the game
on our laptop in the car!
Argentina lost 2 -1,
but it was an entertaining game.
When we got back to Raleigh we found out
that Real Salt Lake made it to the MLS
Finals . . pretty sweet!

Savannah has a really cool, European feel to it.
There were lots of plazas and great architecture.

Olsens & Wades
One of Myriam's friends, who was at the wedding,
was standing in the elevator with us when she asked what our
names were. When we told her she asked Jon where he was
from. He said California, and she said, "Oh my
gosh, you're Alli Wade's brother!" Turns out she was one
of Alli's best friends from BYU.
Alli Wade is like Alli Redd...she knows everyone!!

Beautiful temple

A month of sweet roadtrips

November has been jam packed with some great trips. The first weekend this month we headed to the Outer Banks (a group of islands off the coast of NC) with a group of friends. Some of them were running in the marathon/half marathon . . . we just went for the fun. We all rented a beach house and had an incredible weekend. The weather was perfect and the company fabulous.
Here are some pics:

Dan and Janet Weed, me, and Ryan Halverson at
'the dunes.'

One of many lighthouses that make the Outer Banks
so picturesque.

Chillin' on the porch

I always load my picture opposite of how I want them to post!
This was a license plate cover on a car parked outside of our
apartment the day we left . . . it was a good omen
for the trip!

One little word

Congratulations.

I was at Rite Aid the other day buying
prenatal vitamins
(have been taking them for the last 5 years)
when the cashier, a really cute bubbly lady, scanned
the bottle and said, excitedly
"Congratulations!"

I told her I wasn't pregnant, just trying.
Then she said,
"Oh, well good luck!"

At first I thought, how cool would
that be if she were the first person
to congratulate me on being pregnant . . .
then, two days later, we found out we
weren't pregnant, again.

One day I will hear that beautiful
word and it will be for real.

Lu's Christmas gift

This one is just for comic relief.
We went to the dunes,
we jumped off the ledge, I fell, and
I plugged my nose!

The one we have has little ornaments
that hang off the buttons. We could do the same
but just have the ornament be a mini picture of ourselves
(in the shape of an ornament)
with a christmas message on the back.

One great weekend

Jon's mission companion, Jeff Marshall,
was in Raleigh for a southern fair experience!
He treated us to a Segway tour of the city
and then we enjoyed a night at the fair.

You know that's a demolition derby
going on in the background!
The hand dipped corn dogs were off the hook
and you could treat yourself to any fried food you could imagine
(fried twinkies, cheesecake, pb & js, ANYTHING!!)

Lulu would be proud!

Wade Ave, Wrightsville Beach, and ...

LIBBY LANE.

I love it.
We love her.
And so does East Tennessee, we see!

a favorite quote

Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort
of feeling safe with a person;
having neither to weigh thoughts nor to measure words
but to pour them all out,
just as it is, chaff and grain together,
knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them,
keeping what is worth keeping,
and then, with the breath
of kindness, blow the rest away.
George Eliot

Top 10 reasons

Ted should come to Raleigh!!!

#10 - when is she going to have a chance to live it up on the east coast with two 30 year old fogies?? I mean, seriously!
#9 - she gets a chance to drive whitey, taking corners at 90, and help us reach our 300,000 mile goal!
#8 - there's a sweet picture of Don Quixote hanging in her room to help you dream the impossible dream
#7 - Jon will make us French crepes every morning . . . in our dreams!!
#6 - we live 2 hours (exactly) from wrightsville beach www.exitcoast.net/.../UploadedFiles/WB.jpg
#5 - we are planning sweet road trips to Washington DC, Virginia, Philly, etc., etc., (maybe even Boston:)
#4 - I make a killer chicken salad sandwich (seriously better than Arby's)
#3 - we can watch the Lord of the Ring trilogy until we can quote every line
#2 - she can teach us your Keva 'secrets'
#1 - we love her and would give our eye teeth to be graced with her presence!

Highlight of our trip

Dibbs, Spackmans, Wades and ??
Can't remember their last name, but they
know Melinda's sister and they hooked us up with
a delicious lasagna dinner.

Maura Lee was in Knoxville that night
and drove 1 1/2 hours to see us.

I love kindred friends.

Mt Mitchell

The pics of us camping go with these.
The camp site was at the base of Mt. Mitchell,
the highest peak east of the Mississippi.

It was beautiful and super hard.
Never have I hiked anything like it:
5 1/2 miles straight up ... and
5 1/2 miles straight down!

armed and ready

thanks to Rob for these sweet hiking shoes
he gave me a few Christmases back.
(is that how you write plural christmas???)

The leaves are just starting to change,
it was amazing.

goal

For my 30th birthday, I made a goal to read the entire
standard works during this year.

From Genesis to the Articles of Faith.
2,476 pages = 6.78 pages per day
so far, so good.

I've made it to II Chronicles and have really loved it.
For me, the lesson of the OT is GOD IS FAITHFUL.
I've felt akin to Sarah, Rebekah, Hannah, & Rachel.

I'm grateful for the scriptures.

I like what Sis Holland once said about scripture study:
'it's our opportunity to have an exhilarating encounter with God."

I loved reading by the fire with the trusted
head lamp..and Jon loved trying out the
settings of our camera.

this makes it look like i haven't even made a dent!

camping NC style

Life couldn't get any better for Jonny Lingoa little mate around the fire

the best s'more he's ever made

delicious tinfoil dinners (hence the smoke:)
I added mushrooms and green peppers
to the usual - they were bomb

the pics were supposed to be in the opposite order...oh well

the roadtrip ritual: if jon fills the tank, i clean the windshield
i learned that from brian who i think has written a book
about roadtrip etiquette!