Holiday Weight Gain

Ah, the holidays....fun, family, and treats, treats, treats. We've gotten so many, plus the candy from stockings, Tanner has suggested we start just walking around with little bags of it and give it to anyone who will take it. I tell him, no, we don't need to give all of it away, we can control ourselves and then if I have a chocolate craving later, I can have a few pieces. But then, 23 Hershey's kisses, 4 Reese's Christmas trees, and a few peppermint patties later: he's right, I give up.

I have no will power against their chocolatey goodness and because of that, my arteries and my tighter fitting clothes are suffering the dire consequences. Oh school, I dread and welcome you at the same time, at least I won't be able to get bored around the house and eat. Thankfully this semester my clinicals are at night, so I have time to work out Thursday and Friday mornings, and please pray for me to have the drive to go. Christie, I'm counting on you to help me get my booty (which is possible growing this very moment) to the gym. Next year I'm going to ask Santa to put Slim Fast in my stocking.

Our Christmas

Our awkward family pose :)

Tanner trying to look intellectual

Our freakin' sweet pajamies!

Gosh he's cute!

Christmas was great this year, we got spoiled! Thanks to our parents, we love them and owe them so much. I know there are a lot of pictures of Tanner opening presents, but he's just so cute, he's like a little kid he gets so excited! We can't wait for some real little kids to watch open presents! :)

Christmas Joys!

The Fullmers have had another great Christmas! Christmas Eve we rushed to the Fullmer family party and ate lots of food and had a great time. They have a program on a little stage in the basement, and it always begins with reading Luke 2 and at the same time the little kids are all dressed up in costumes from the nativity, it's so cute with the blankets on their heads, especially Tate's that was leopard print. :) I was so nervous because Tanner's grandma asked me to read Luke 2 for the program, but Tanner informed me I didn't shame him and I did ok. Then the grandkids have a little talent show, singing, dancing, playing the tuba, etc. The funnest part was "The 12 Days of Christmas," something his family made up themselves where they sing the song and have special moves to go with it. The Lords'a'leaping verse almost turned into a mosh pit!

After we ran to my family's and played games and ate even more food, I'm pretty sure I've gained back my five pounds just over the break. Christmas day I worked, but we ran and saw all three families after, it kept us nice and busy. We had a wonderful Christmas, that night after the running around was over I had some time to sit and think about the Savior and I thought about how I would feel if I had been there at his birth to come and worship him. Christmas is a wonderful opportunity for us to serve others and our families in remembrance of his service and sacrifice to us. It made me that much more thankful for my family and increased my love for the Savior. I hope everyone else had a wonderful Christmas!

These are a few pictures, one of the snow in West Jordan, we were only planning on staying Thursday night, but it snowed 15-21" Friday, so we had to stay another night! This is Friday night, Tanner was actually brave enough to hold and even feed Noelle (he's scared of holding babies cause he thinks he'll hurt em). Aren't they precious? Sweet uncle Tanner, he'll be the cutest daddy!

Too fun not to post

Dropping Aly off at the MTC, I'm so glad I got to go, we were all bawling of course, but I'm so happy she's there and know she'll be an amazing missionary. She's serving in the Spain Madrid mission and is already in the Madrid MTC and doing great! Those are Tanner's parents (not hard to tell, he looks just like his dad), Aly, Taylor, and Lindsey (Noelle's mama!).

Hermana Fullmer!

All the Fullmer gals

I love Ashley's face in this one :)

Bonjour!

We looked like really, really white Muslims!

So I know Halloween was two months ago, but it took me awhile to get these pictures uploaded to my computer and I love them, so I wanted to post them. This was the witches night at Gardner Village. It was me, Aly, Ashley, and Laura (Ashley's sister). We (Aly and I) weren't as cool as them with their costumes, but still had a great time!

So stinkin' cute!!

I just have to show ya'll how adorable our little niece Noelle is, she is now at home and doing great, this is her the week she left the hospital, then here she is now, she's getting so chubby, I love it!! (Sorry Linz, I stole these off your blog, but only to show everyone how gorgeous she is!! :) )

I love that lil' double chin, love it!!!!

Home Crap Home....

Thank goodness the health department doesn't make house calls
Because this is what they would have found:

I know some of you are saying, that doesn't look so bad, but we have been living like this for months. There are a couple days it might be clean in between, but pretty soon it's right back to this. If we had children, they would be taken away. If the kitchen picture was a scratch'n'sniff, it would smell like barf and rotting vegetables, it is disgusting. We couldn't even walk into our room without stepping all over our clothes. But now thanks to the semester being over, our house is now livable for a sweet two weeks. *Sigh.*

Freedom!!!!

There's my nerdy, I'm so excited this is almost over face!

Ashley lecturing Christie about something

Ashley, Lindy, and Selina

This is our clinical group at Davis Hospital (except we're missing Angie), we had so much fun together. That's our instructor Rick, who had a good 'ole time making fun of me, but he's still awesome. For our last day, we went out to Rumbi's together, yum!

Well, the semester ended Thursday, I passed my first semester of nursing school, it's finally over!! One down, three to go. Tanner's finals ended yesterday, thankfully his was in the morning before the huge snowstorm closed down the campus, what a relief! We are so excited to have some time together, last night we snuggled on the couch and watched a movie without having to worry about studying, it was divine. I'm so happy!!!! I thought this picture described my feelings pretty well, though I'm pretty sure Ashley is going to send me some hate mail about it, I think she looks adorable! This was after our last day at clinical, she was so excited, she had to stick her head out the window, man she's hilarious! Though I complain about nursing school, we do have plenty of good times too, as you can see.

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire..

Christmas is almost here and we can hardly wait! Really though we love the feeling of building up to Christmas, going to see the lights, the family parties, it's great. I love Christmas day cause everyone finally gets to open all the presents you've gotten them, but then in the afternoon it's kinda over and a little sad. So we've been endeavoring to enjoy this festive season despite the evil forces working upon us not to (*cough* nursing school and Tanner's math professor). Tanner just got the urge to buy a turkey last Saturday cause it's his favorite and all, and you know what he did? He woke up at 4 am Sunday morning and cooked that turkey! It wasn't quite thawed, but by 3pm it was done and after carving it up and some just-in-case nuking it in the microwave, we had 3 large tupperwares filled to the brim...mmmm.....turkey..(drool here). We also got our tree that day, now it feels like Christmas is really coming! We both are advocates of the real Christmas tree, not to bag on the fakees, but it just feels so Christmasey when you walk in the house and it smells like the tree and I love going to pick it out, it's so much fun. And Tanner refers to the year his mom got a fake tree as "the year she started ruining Christmas," so obviously we had to go with a real one, though I must say, I think it was a little harsh of him to say. I'm so excited for all the parties and reading Luke 2 together, seeing all his cousins acting out the nativity at his grandparents, Christmas really is so magical!

Aly is doing well and in the Spain MTC. I miss her lots already, but I'm so excited for her out there. And some more great news, our niece Noelle was released from the hospital a couple of weeks ago and is now doing well at home with her parents! We got to hold her for the first time last Sunday, I almost cried seeing Tanner hold her close for so long (Tanner is usually uncomfortable holding babies, so it was so sweet) and smile at her like that. When I held her, I already knew she was part of the family and we all love her to death! She's so tiny still, but so cute! I'll post those pics when I get them. I need to catch up, but finals are next week, so I'm a little slow. And though it's been said, many times, many waaaays, Merry Christmas....to you...in case you can't tell, we've been listening to a lot of Christmas music.

The best ab workout

Today I had clinical up at Davis Hospital, it is not fun waking up at 5 am to get there by 6:30. But thankfully, I have made some amazing friends up at school, particularly, Christie, Rachel, and Ashley. I've made a lot of great new friends up there, I don't mean to leave anyone out, it's just me and these gals in particular just clicked. We all have a lot in common and have so much fun together! I have been having severe lack of motivation syndrome with these last couple weeks of school (2 weeks left today!!), but having them there makes it so much easier to go. I know I probably sound like I'm in high school saying I like school because of my friends, but they just make it that much better and today we all laughed so hard on the way home from school. The kind of laughing that makes you cry, have to pee a little bit, and your abs hurt at the end, but you feel so good after. I am so grateful for them and having someone to relate to and listen to all the events of my life, and I love hearing all of their stories. I would go absolutely crazy without them because my life pretty much is school and sometimes work, and since I practically never see my amazing, hot, sweet hubs, every day would be torture. I am so thankful Heavenly Father answered my prayers and helped me get into nursing school, and blessed me with more wonderful friends, you guys really are a blessing in my life. Ok, now I'm getting a little too sappy, even for me, so I'll stop, but thanks for the laughing with/at/around me, it makes the day so much better, I loves you guys!

Christmas is coming!

So now that Thanksgiving is over, I have to say how excited we are about Christmas!! We were practically drooling this morning talking about Christmas break. No school, sleeping in and snuggling cause it's a little chilly, then waking up, eating a yummy breakfast, snuggling on the couch to watch some sweet claymation Christmas flicks, the Grinch, It's A Wonderful Life (my personal favorite), and sip hot chocolate. Oh I could die it sounds so good!

I've just had a full week off of school for Thanksgiving and I'm trying to find the strength within to go back. I really, really, really don't want to. But part of me says I can do it when Tanner tells me it won't feel as good to relax if we haven't worked our butts off first. My last final is the 17th, Tanner's is the 19th, less than 3 weeks left, we can get through this.

Enough school, more daydreaming about Christmas. This year I really can't think of much I want, probably because we never have any money, so I'm used to not worrying about things I want. But I'm excited for the feel of Christmas, walking around Temple Square, which I know might seem cliche, but I absolutely love it! Wrapping my coat as tight as I can and running to Dee's for hot cocoa, hobo sledding, the sound of snow crunching under your feet, or the feel of that slushie snow we all know we love to step on and squish, family parties, white elephant gifts, it's all so fun! The only thing I don't miss is driving and wondering if we're going to make it to the parties alive, but that's part of living in Utah I suppose. Everyone just seems so happy and we all make time for friends and family. It does make me sad that it has been so commercialized, some days I hate Christmas shopping just because people aren't their jolliest at the stores and the meaning of Christmas is lost. But that's another reason I'm grateful for such a wonderful family that shows us the true meaning of Christmas and we can feel the Spirit.

Thanksgiving was wonderful, we all went around the table at Tanner's grandma's and said what we were all grateful for; one of Tanner's little cousins said he was thankful for church, family, and the temple; he's 8 and wasn't raised in the church, hadn't ever been until recently, it was so sweet. My family was great too, my uncle Brent and his daughters came over and we had a great time and Tanner loved having all you can eat turkey since it's his favorite food.

Well, this post is long enough, but before I go, I have to post a pic of this leaf I found outside our apartment, that is not a washcloth it's on, it's a dishtowel!! It's the most ginormous leaf I have ever seen and I thought I should share it with all of you to mark the end of fall. Happy Holidays all!!

Tanner Michael Fullmer: Mouse Surgeon

Tanner is working in a lab where they are studying heart attacks; like if having multiple small heart attacks decreases the likelihood that a larger one will be fatal, rather than only having a severe MI first; or they have diabetic mice and they create heart attacks and see if insulin has any effect on the death of heart tissue in MI. It is so freaking cool! So Tanner begins by catching a wee mouse by the tail, then injecting it with heparin. After it has time to circulate, he then catches it again and injects it with anesthetic. He has to leave it alone until it falls asleep by itself, otherwise, they never go to sleep. After it's out, he lays it on its back and uses tweezer things to pull up the skin over the thorax, then snips off the skin. Then he can see the diaphragm and he actually cuts open the diaphragm to view the heart, rather than through the chest so they don't risk damaging it. He has to be really careful because he has to remove it while it's still beating, so he carefully cuts it, then quickly stretches the aorta and hangs it from a cannula, which is hard to see in the picture cause it's so small, but it is hanging from it and some nutritious solution is running through it that mimics blood..yeah, that heart is still beating up there. Then they stop the solution in parts of the heart and create a heart attack like it talked about before. I just found this whole thing fascinating, and Tanner is so excited, it's such a neat opportunity. Isn't that awesome????

Thankful

I know everyone is doing things like this, but I probably won't be blogging tomorrow since we have three different families to visit. So here are some of the things I'm most grateful for in my life:

~My Savior Jesus Christ, his Atonement, and love for me individually. I am so thankful to have found this church and feel the happiness and true joy it has brought into my life, I can't begin to count all the blessings the Lord has given me.

~My wonderful hubs Tanner. He is so great. I know I say it a lot, but that's because he is! I love him so much and could never imagine my life without him.

~Family. It really is what life is all about, and I am so thankful for that knowledge, and that we really will be together forever.

~Tithing. Being in nursing school has dropped me down to one-third of my old pay every month. We though we were tight then and didn't think it would work out, but we pay our tithing faithfully and somehow it has all worked out, we even have a little extra and Tanner got a letter in the mail yesterday saying the U owed him $200, another amazing blessing from tithing!

~Friends. I have so many wonderful friends that have truly touched my life, from my best friends from high school to my awesome new friends in nursing school, I can't name all of you, but know that I love you and am so thankful for you in my life.

~Good health. I never looked at it as much of a blessing until I began working in healthcare, but it is a tremendous one and I'm glad I am healthy.

~The opportunity I have to be a mom someday (hopefully). The closer it gets to us knowing we'll be able to start trying, the more I think about our future children and the kind of mama I want to be for them and teach them the truth and love them so much!

~Food. I know that sounds lame, but it's Thanksgiving, and I admit, I love food!! I can't wait for the stuffing and mashed potatoes and gravy, I even love the memories of my pops making me pull out the turkey neck and all the gizzards, mmm! There are too many others to list, but these are my main ones, happy thanksgiving everyone!

Happy Birthday Dillon!

This is my little brother Dillon, he turns 15 today, woot woot! He has been taller than me for a couple years now, which isn't hard to do, but here's a little shout out to my awesome brother! Happy birthday bro, hope it's a great one!! Love you!

Wisdom Teeth

So I have finally gotten my wisdom teeth out. I had to get them out when my dentist showed me my xrays that they were impacted, but he wouldn't give me a copy, so I had to improvise:

The teeth in the yellow circles are my wisdom teeth, and as you can plainly see, they are pushing right on the rest of my teeth. Ya'll probably never realized either how apparently hideous and pointy my teeth are, it came as a real shock to me too.

The swelling on the right side of my face isn't too bad, but the left side pretty much makes me look like a bulldog. But it's for the greater good and thanks to Ibuprofen 600 and Lortab I haven't had any real pain, though the Lortab doesn't even knock me out, I was awake pretty much all day yesterday. Thanks to my wonderful mother-in-law who was so sweet to drive me there and back, and listen to me try and talk to her the whole way home with my mouth full of gauze. And thanks for the milkshake, it was delicious! It was funny though after she left and I went in the bathroom and saw that I had chocolate milkshake all down my chin, neck, shirt, and even some on my garments...they really numbed me up good, it was hilarious!! This is the only pic I have so far, and most likely the only one I'll post, even though it's so hot you're probably all begging for more.

A plethora of posts...

Jefe: El Guapo, we have gotten you many pinatas.

El Guapo: Jefe, would you say I have a plethora of pinatas?

Jefe: [pause]....yes El Guapo, you have a plethora.

El Guapo: Jefe, do you even know what a plethora is? Because I do not know why you say I have a plethora when you do not even know what a plethora means!!??

The Three Amigos, if you haven't seen it, rent it, love it.

Halloween Rivalry

Mr. Coolpant's Pumpkin

Neener's Pumpkin

So here are some pumkin carvings we did the week before Halloween and I am asking for all of your expert feedback on my pumpkin, because Tanner seems to think his is way better (even though I can't deny its smile is adorable) and kindly named mine the special needs pumpkin and promptly burst out laughing. Now I beg to differ, I think my punkin has some very endearing qualities. I leave it to the people to decide!