Yuck. Sickness has hit. Poor hubby has a sinus infection, an ear infection and the flu. I'm having allergic reactions in both eyes to either my contacts or makeup.Can you say marshmallow eyes? Fish head? either one will do.  We're beautiful people this week let me tell ya! :) But in the mean time we have so much to be happy about! Here are some things I promise to get around to writing about!

• Thanksgiving (I know it was a long time ago but it was just so great!)
  
• Our new wonderful house!
• Moving
• Matthews brother getting to go to the temple in preparation for his mission
  
• Dad coming for the weekend 
  
• A GREAT Christmas with both Matthew's family and mine AND
• Our One Year Anniversary! :)

 This holiday season has been SO SO wonderful for us. We are so grateful for the many blessing we have had especially those that have come in the form of family and friends. I hope this year has been wonderful for you to. I apologize that I didnt send out Christmas cards this year, but know we love you and hope that you have been able to take some time to relax, be with your families and enjoy the holiday spirit!

lots of love!
                   Tiff

Aaaah! Matthew and I are officially real home owners - we have a mouse! The little rascal lives in an opening in the wall behind our oven. The home was build for a gas stove but we chose an electric so there is an open hole in the wall where the pipe comes out. I was looking in our pantry the other night when I saw something dart across the kitchen floor and looked over just in time to see him run out from under our stove. He sat there and looked at me for a second before scurrying back to his hiding place. Bah! I ran outside where my hottie honey was shoveling snow and made him pull out the pan drawer. (do those have an official name?) Sure enough he is chilling in the gas line hole. 

There is digging going on in the small field in front of our house to build some more homes, so somewhere in the back of my mind I expected to have a few of these little visitors, but I was still altra suprised to see him sitting there on our newly cleaned wood floor staring at me.

We have tried to lure him out for several nights now - we know he loves peanut butter. Somehow he manages to get it off the trap without setting it off - night after night. What a stinker. Tomorrow we're off to find a new kind of trap. :/ Sorry mousey but you've got to go!

Finally! A second to sit down and update! phew - its been a super busy few weeks!

Thanks to Matthew's parent letting us use a week of their time share - in mid-November Matthew and I got to take an early One Year Anniversary/ Honeymoon trip to gorgeous Cancun! We stayed at the Westin Lagunamar Resort. It was the perfect location and had beautiful pools and beaches. This was the view from our studio.

Priceless!
Matthew had been to Cancun when he was younger and already knew some things he wanted us to be able to do. He made sure that we had amazing adventures! We were there for a week and every other day he planned all day tours for us!

Day one: Selvatica Expedition!
Zip Lining through the jungle!

A van picked us up first thing in the morning and drove us for nearly two hours into the jungle. When we arrived workers strapped us in to repelling gear and we headed out! We climbs up into little platforms right at the top of a big tree and they hooked us up to a wire strung to another tree a good 40 yards away and push! I was flying through the trees! There were 12 of these zip lines - way better compared to the 4 that other tours offered us. (If you're heading to Cancun I HIGHLY recommend Selvatica) It was SO fun! Matthew was brave enough to go upside down - but we didn't get a picture of it! :(

Next they brought us back down to the jungle floor to race dune buggies! We wore goggles and masks to keep the dirt and rocks out of our faces but it couldn't hide what an awesome time we were having! Matthew was such a peach - I was too short to reach the pedals when it was my turn to drive so he propped me up with his arm the whole time! Aw.. Thanks babe!

Next was swimming at a near by cenote - BEAUTIFUL! After a short walk into the trees the branches parted to unveil what I thought was paradise! Pictures can't do this place justice.

Again Matthew proved how adventurous he was by doing tricks off the zip line into the water! We have a video of it.. I'll try to post it later!

What a beautiful day!

Day three: Scuba Diving! :)

Here's Matthew getting all geared up!


and he's gone!

I have to admit that I yelped and ran to the side of the boat when he first went in. I was so scared I wasn't going to get him back! (I love him ya know!)

Matthew was such a great scuba partner! I'm always getting lost when we go shopping because I stop to look at things and this was no different. :) Several times he swam back to get me because I was busy sitting on the ocean floor looking at fish or coral. :)

We had an amazing guide - I totally recommend booking with him if you are going (we can give you his name) . He took us out on two dives that were almost an hour each in two different locations. Each dive was between 30 and 35 feet down - not a bad for beginners! It was mind boggling beautiful!

This is probably my favorite picture out of the whole trip. It shows my true goober side.
(I'm a scuba hottie - I know)

I didn't know diving gear was so heavy! To get into the water you have to sit on the side and fall in backwards! I could barely lift myself up onto the side of the boat to get in the water. It was scary the first time - purposely falling out of a perfectly good boat strapped to 50 pounds of gear. It was so heavy that instead of landing on my back in the water - when I opened my eyes I was upside down!
I wish we had had an underwater camera. The reefs were so beautiful and spilling over with marine life. We made two fish friends while we were there. They seemed as curious about us as we were about them.

Day five: Chitzen-Itza!

The ruins were so much more beautiful than I ever expected!

Next it was swimming again! This time in a cenote twice the size and even more stunning than the size the first!

This is the view from ground level looking down into the hole. Its waay down there. There were fish swimming in the water with us - Mexico has the largest natural underground river system in the world. We look so tiny down there!

This is a shot from the platform. Those are tree roots coming down from the surface.



Here are a few more pics for your viewing pleasure:

Matthew and the rusty Pepsi


The dancers with the beer on their heads


Look how tall I am!


Dinner and dessert at the Chocolate Factory


mmm...


My hottie honey


My hottie hat


Our last night having dinner at the Oceano


and the most gorgeous sunset

In my previous post I mentioned that we were waiting to hear back from a short sale that we made an offer on - That home didn't work out, but we loved the community so much that after a lot of praying we decided to pursue a new town home in the same community, just one street over from the original we were looking at. And finally, after what feels like forever and a lot of stress filled nights later, we did our final walk through tonight and we are about to close on our first home! Wow - I struggle to believe that in less than 24 hours we will be home owners! :)
Tonight, walking though for one final time before it officially becomes ours brought everything together for me. I'm super excited to move in our beautiful town home, to meet our neighbors, our new ward and get to know Spanish Fork. Its going to be an exciting time. Most of all though I'm exited to move on to this next stage of Matthew and my life together. Woot! We'll post pictures as soon as we can! :)

Some of you know that we've been looking in to buying a town house in Spanish Fork. We really love it and are saying our prayers and crossing our fingers and toes that everything works out. The home is on short sale so there are some extra approvals that are required from the bank - which we're waiting to hear back from. I'm soo anxious to hear what they say. I ask Matthew two or three times day if he has heard anything - like he wouldn't tell me if he had. :)
I'd always thought that Spanish Fark as it seems to be called by the original locals - was super hick-ville - (not that theres anything wrong with that - I'm from Millville and Matthew's from Roosevelt and we turned out okay!) But I was pleasantly surprised when Matthew first took us out to look there. Its cute and cozy and everyone in the neighborhood around the town house seems super friendly! Anyone that I have talked to who lives there loves it. I love all the little stores up and down main street. I'm a sucker for antique shops, books stores and unique finds that seems to run ramped in little main street type shops. Its so irresistible and a place I'd be happy to call home! So - if you run out of things to pray about - feel free to include us and our little dream home! We will return the favor anytime! :)

I know its a little late for my Friday post, but if you know me I’m sure you know that I'm always running late so I’m not too concerned. But lets pretend that its Friday so I can post about how much I love my hubby and how awesome he is.
Matthew is so patient with my girly tendencies and is incredibly understanding, even when he doesn't really understand.
I'll just say that its been a trying Sunday. I'll somewhat explain. For the last year Matthew and I have been working as ordinance workers at the Provo Temple. We have loved it - loved it! Over the summer we took a leave because we both had classes on our assigned nights and though Matt still has a class Thursdays I began working again in August. Working at the temple has been a huge release for me amidst all the busyness of working full time, going to school, church callings and learning to be a wife. Along with Matthew working full time and then some, his classes, his calling and learning to deal with me learning to be a wife as well. :) Sighhh busy. Well, being able to work in the temple has really kept me going some weeks when I was sure there was nothing left to give. It was my "me" thing - you know that one thing you do for yourself that can cheer you up no matter what’s going on? - Yeah, that. Maybe your thing is scrapbooking, or decorating, running or updating your bog. Maybe its cooking or a new hair color. Everyone has something. (If you don’t I highly suggest you go out and find something - it feels so good!) I can't put into words how much I have loved the experience.
Anyway, today our bishop asked my permission for him to release me from my calling as a temple worker so that I could better fulfill my calling in our ward relief society presidency. It was so completely unexpected that I didn’t really process it until I was already out the interview door and on my way to Relief Society. Once it hit me that I was done theres no was to put it but that I just fell apart. Because of meetings, Matthew and I had driven to church separately and by the time I got home to see him I was a total wreck. I'm talking streaming tears and hiccups, snot and whimpering - needless to say I wasn’t the prettiest thing to look at, nor very easy to understand. I was finally able to collect myself enough to tell him what had happened. He was glad to hear that no one had died but was so perfect just to hold me and let me cry. I think every woman out there will attest to the power of someone just letting you cry and just listen you. No matter how silly it is. It makes a world of difference and I’m so so grateful that I have Matthew not only to be my knight in shining amour but also my comfy comforter. Although deep down inside I knew it would be fine, I just needed that time to be sad. Matthew always makes me feel like I am the most important person in the world when there is something bothering me. He drops everything to see that I'm taken care of and that I know that he is there for me. You cant buy love like that. He is amazing and the most perfect husband and friend I could possibly ask for.

Thanks babe for letting me wipe my nose on your shirt. I love you! :)

I don't know if anyone has looked outside today, but the last time I caught a glimpse of the outside world - it was pretty dark and gloomy out there. All is pretty quiet in our office and all the offices around and the silence as gotten a little bit eerie. I could definitely use a little pick me up and inspiration to brighten the day.
In thinking about it Matthew seems like the perfect place to start because he inspires me more than almost anything else and makes me so happy! So - here you have it. The first of my Friday "my husband rocks" posts. (yeah, I know its Monday, but if I don't start now I never will.)

My birthday was a little over a month ago (24 blah!) and for my big day Matthew got us tickets to see Keith Urban! The concert wasn't until this Wednesday so it has been something I've been looking forward to. Matthew was such an awesome sport letting me drag him there - I'm pretty sure the female/male ratio was 150/1! I LOVED it! We had a great time and it was so wonderful to be out with my hottie honey. We have been so busy lately between work and school and everything else, that we don't often get a free night to forget about everything and just have fun! This was a PERFECT birthday present! It meant the world to me that he would take time out of his busy schedule just to suffer through listening to my aussie county crush. THANK YOU BABE!

Also, Matthew saves me from stuff. Constantly. Take for example this bird. We returned home one night from a weekend in Roosevelt to find that this bird had flown through our swamp cooler into our house! I unsuspectingly wandered into the living room to put things away and suddenly there was something big and black (okay, medium and brown speckled) flapping and flying madly around our little kitchen! "AAAhhh!" I screamed and down the stairs came Matthew all ready to save his sorry damsel. Now we are bird free - but the sucker would probably still be living in our kitchen if I didn't have Matthew around to save me. I wont even mention the spiders. Okay I will. We get HUGE spiders in our little duplex. I'm not sure what kind the are but they are BIG - like comparative to the bird. and Matthew is extremely diligent at spraying for spiders and checking the house to make sure they aren't turning our pleasant home into a love shack. I have some serious fears of these nasty critters and knowing that Matthew is on duty makes me feel so much better.

All in all, my husband freaking rocks. I love him with all I've got and its gonna stay that way - always.

Something I look forward every summer is when Sarah and Paul come down to Provo to compete in the Special Olympic Summer Games! BYU hosts the Utah S.O. at their track field and its a chance for me to take most of the day off work and give some TLC time to my sibs! They are serious athletes! I was so impressed watching them race in the heat. They both won several metals for their track events and also in the softball throw. This is I'm so proud of these two! This year the games were at the end of May, so its been awhile, but I just loaded these to our computer and I just had to share how proud I am of them! Good job you guys!!!

Sooo I haven't updated our blog in half of forever... but I changed our background.. Maybe that counts for something? Well, despite our boring blog, we have been incredibly busy!
This last weekend was all out party, we went on our first camping trip up Spanish Fork Canyon - to a spot called Tucker. We got our first flat tire while we were there! Matthew did a awesome job at rescuing us, I was so impressed! After dinner we got rained out and finally decided to go home, but we had great time! Tin foil dinners and s'mores make any camping trip a happy one. I thought it was great, we got five or six hours of the mighty outdoors and still got to sleep in our own bed - perfect!
Saturday, Matthew was a stud and took me shopping in Park City! I think he just got tired of me standing in the closet every morning making grumbling noises when I realize that I STILL don't have anything to wear. lol... he is so patient! There we met up with Penne and Lane, who took us to the Leann Rhymes and the Utah Symphony Concert at Deer Valley Resort - amazing! I had only been to Park City once or twice before I met Matthew, so every time we go there I get so excited! It was such a beautiful night and perfect weather. It was SO fun to be there with Matthew's parents, I adore them! We took a picnic up and had dinner up on the hill. I couldn't have imagined a anything better than being curled up in blanket, listening to these amazing performers under the beautiful night!
Sunday we slacked all duties and went to Salt Lake to tour the Beehive House and wander Temple Square. We met some cute sister missionaries who were anxious to share all about the Beehive home. Before my family moved to Utah, we were here on vacation and toured the home, but I was just little, so it was like new for both Matthew and I. If you love antiques (which I certrainly do!) or are even just into the vintage fade -go and visit the Beehive House, its so beaultiful and the history of it only makes it better! I was tempted to heist everything and bring it all back to decorate our own place with, everything so was elegant and detailed, the restored pieces of furniture, lamps, books and drapes even down to the toys the children played with where really truly beautiful - everything was so beautiful! So many of the original decorations of the home took my breath away. The tour told a lot about the life style and personality of Brigham Young, and I was even more impressed with him when we left.
We also visited Gilgal Sculpture Gardens. Its tucked away on a little side street, and has some beautiful gardens. It was build in the 50's by a mason and is filled to brim with sculptures and stones engraved with scripture, poetry and some intriguing literature. It was so interesting, interesting being the key word. :) Salt Lake has so many hidden attraction you'll never see if you don't keep your eyes open...and drive around aimlessly!

I've been doing my best to keep Matthew well fed. When I was just cooking for myself, I thought I was pretty good that whipping up delightful dinners, but cooking for two has thrown me for a loop! Especially trying to compete with Matthew for Best Cook - He is amazing! My man has the Midas Touch when it comes to the kitchen - time and time again, he reaches into our refrigerator with one hand and to the stove with the other and magically creates something both beautiful AND delicious, when I was SURE we had nothing to eat. I'll never understand how he does it! But I'm grateful!

Out of fear of ruining dinner, I do very little experimenting while I cook. I mean really, ruining dinner is bad news bears! Not only have you wasted a lot of good food - but you still don't have anything to eat! Siiigh.

This weekend though, I forced myself out on a limb and did some ego-pumping up by creating my own bacon smothered chicken. :) Mmm... halved chicken breasts, stuffed with cheese and bacon, wraped in bacon strips. (precooked, and rubbed with brown sugar and pepper). Then baked them in cream of mushroom soup and served over white rice. YUM! I haven't been that proud of myself in a long time!

All in all - it was an amazing weekend! But how could it not be?.. We're newlyweds!

Weekends have never been better! I just cant get enough of those minutes between 5:00 pm Friday and 5:59 Monday morning! No one told me that once you are married the weekend turns into mini vacations every time! Conference was the perfect excuse to pull out the hid-a-bed, our notes books and pens and stay in our pajamas all weekend! Siiigh... Life can't get any better than this. :)

Conference was a good experience. As usual, I have a list of areas that I am set on improving in. I love our Prophet Thomas S. Monson with all my heart and soul and definitely have a secret old-lady crush on our LDS - silver fox President President Dieter F. Uchtdorf.

I watched conference this time with a little different view in mind. In one of my classes, we were assigned to listen to a speech and write an evaluation on it. A girl in my class, who is not religious - and is not very fond of the LDS Church asked me what time our conference was showing. She commented that she had to watch some of it in order complete our evaluation assignment and was sure to mention that she wasn't happy about it. I have really come to like her over the semester, and I spent most of conference trying to think of things as if I were her. Obviously there were a lot of things that I wouldn't understand, every time the "great and spacious building" was mention, I had to smile to myself, I'm sure a lot of the typical "mormon" terms are pretty confusing to people not familiar with our beliefs. We may even sound nuts! But over all, even trying to put myself in the shoes of the other 6,756,823,885 people in the world, who believe in something else, or nothing at all, I was as I always am, so impressed with how in tune the brethren are to the needs of the day. They know (through divine inspiration), exactly what is needed. I believe that. The principles that were taught this weekend will not only help improve the lives of our church members, but even if their council is taken at face value, as if it were just advice from old men, they could really change the world if they were applied to the lives of the masses. Imagine, if six billion people were a little kinder to each other - judged each other less, gave to the poor a little more, had more hope, tried to be more educated, more honest, what if six billion people suddenly got more involved in their communities and more importantly, what if 6 billion people got just a little more involved in their families - imagine the difference it could make!

I know that the instruction we heard this weekend was more than just good advice - it was divine commandment. and I am SO proud and grateful that I belong to a church that promotes such goodness! Dang straight I'm proud!

It was mind opening experience though, to try to see our teaching through the eyes of someone with different beliefs. I remember growing up in Washington, being one of two LDS kids in my school, and how different things were - I have gotten pretty used to living in LDSville and I think it can be hard to remembered that there are others out there. :) I hope my classmate watched a talk that struck a good cord with her. I'll have to ask what she heard.. Maybe it will improve her view of the gospel or at least, like it did for me, open my mind up to the thoughts of others.

Matthew is heading to New York this weekend for a business expo with Orange Soda! It will be a great trip for Matthew though. He was a NYNYS missionary (New York, New York South Mission) and I'm sure he will be stoked to trek over his old mission places and see people he knew while there. He will also interview with several companies while he is in the big city - he promises that they are just for his practice and experience, but everything he lays his hands on turns to gold, so I'm a little bit wary.

While I'm so excited for him, I wont lie, I'm going to miss him like crazy! He will be gone for 6 days - the longest time we've been apart since the day we met. And while I don't think of myself as a clingy person - I have to face the facts. I'm madly in love with him and I don't want to see him go. :)

Work has been pretty slow lately and after looking through mountains of online recipes for two, decorating tips, do-it-yourself projects and "how to be a better wife" guides (I've even combed Wikipedia for the Jonas Brothers - I have to make sure my sister's celebrity crush is worth while...) I have extinguished my desire to every be online again. BUT boredom reigns and here I am once more. I've decided to revive the blog idea. Possibly to Matthew's chagrin. :)

I want to throw a thank you out there to the many many people who were so helpful while we planned our wedding. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! Also we appreciate so very much the many gifts we were showered with. Several of them were recieved without a name or card, and we want everyone to know how much we appreciate your kindness. Thank you for helping us get started as a family! We have been so blessed! Listed below are some of the gifts we recieved that had no information attached. Please let us know if you know where these came from, we want to make sure everyone knows how much they have meant to us!

A double set of White Towels: These were recieved my bridal luncheon in December. We searched but could not find the givers name, these have been so wonderful! THANK YOU!We are loving these towel sets!
A 44 piece set of dishes from Bed Bath and Beyond. Somehow this came with no information, and BB could not tell us who it was from. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Ah! Here we are! The Yack's are one month old and kickin! Yesterday we celebrated our one month "anniversary" as a family. I cant believe its already been a month!
We are mostly settled into our little apartment. I use little relatively, its much bigger than we expected to find! We live in a split level four-plex near Barnes and Noble. With two rooms, one and half bath, living room, dinning area and kitchen - it is PERFECT for all the junk I hauled here! Matthew has done an amazing job at getting us all let up! In the last four weeks we have outfitted our home with a a kitchen table, couch, easy chair, computer desk and hutch, book shelf, entertainment center, and finally a washer and dryer! I feel like a queen in my very own hive, Matthew however must feel like a worker bee.
and so we're off! Between work and school we are pretty swamped. But we still find time to play!