Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and the semester in which we will never see each other!

Christmas was an enjoyable holiday for both of us. Daniel and I had our second Christmas together. Daniel wanted to open presents on Christmas Eve so we could sleep in the next morning, I wouldn't let him! We went to my parents house after we did our own thing, had a breakfast of delicious sour dough pancakes and buttermilk syrup, and then exchanged presents. Daniel then went on to play Jared's new game for the Wii for the next two hours, Cabela's Big Game Hunter. I finally had to pry Daniel's fingers away from the controller to get him to the car to get to Orangville and Ferron to visit with his family. We had visited my Grandma Wilson and Uncle David in Huntington the night before Christmas Eve, so went straight to Orangville to visit Grandma and Grandpa Luke. From there we went to the Luke's and had Christmas there, and watched Daniel play nintendo with Conlee for a few hours (Which is why we do not have a Nintendo of any kind.. nothing would ever get done, and Daniel would have bad grades) We had dinner that night, yummy roast and cheesy funeral potatoes, and frog-eye salad.

For New Year's we traveled down the Richfield to visit Grandma and Grandpa Hansen, Uncle Brian, Aunt Debbie, and the kids. We had a blast down there, even though Maddie still won't give Daniel a hug even if I am there to help her. :) We went sledding with the kids, Brigham was a stud going down any hill, and Daniel would carry him back to the top because his legs got tired. Maddie loved eating the snow, Maren missed out because she was still taking her nap back at the house. I made cookies for the kids to decorate, Jake, Maddie, and Maren were my helpers and boy did Maren love the sprinkles! We didn't stay up to welcome the New Year, we're old now and like our sleep. The next day we built a snowman with the kids and played in the snow.

We came home Saturday and did some deep cleaning, I finally have that big pile of shed horns out of the front room! Well, most of them. Daniel did haul a lot away, but still arranged some around the lamp, but I can now vaccum my carpet!

This week is bringing a lot of new beginnings, Daniel is starting school for spring semester, taking on 19 credit hours, and telling me he is going to try and work 40 hours for as long as he physically can. I get to go to Logan for two days next week for a mandatory student teaching orientation, and then start my first student teaching block the next day on the 13th. It's going to be a busy 16 weeks for both of us, and maybe we will get to say hi to each other once in a while, but I keep telling myself that it will all be worth it. I graduate in May and will be done! I am very happy for that to look forward to, just a few more hoops to jump through. Daniel is liking his classes so far, so we will see how things go.

Also, our friends the O'Neil's had their little baby girl. She is the New Year's baby here in Price, born January 1st, 1:43 am. 7 lbs, 5 oz. 20 inches long. She's a cutie! Congratulations to them!

Finals are over, and now the season can begin! Happy Holiday!

Daniel and I both survived our finals, mine were not as gruesome as his were. He has had a difficult time with his trebuchet group through CEU and their willingness to work and pull their own weight. We are both very happy that he is finished with that project and his pre-engineering class. He has worked hard over the semester and is hoping that his hard work has paid off in good grades. For now he is back to working fulltime for Nielsen's through the three week of break before spring semester starts. I hope that there will be time for him to have a little bit of a break and have some fun, but while the snow is covering all of the unfound sheds I'm not sure what he has in mind.I gladly survived my Level III practicum. The classroom experience that I had in Mrs. Gagon's 5th grade class was wonderful and made all of the homework and stress that I had in the beginning of the semester worth it. I am hoping to receive high grades in all of my classes, but we shall see how hard my professors grade my practicum work. The day of finishing my practicum I signed up to be a substitute teacher in the Carbon School District, only desiring to sub at the elementary schools. Luckily I have been able to sub a few times in the class were I worked for my practicum, and will work there again Monday. I would never want to substitute for a profession, I would rather have my own class, than deal with the students who like to test the substitutes :) Good thing I am becoming a teacher!

Plans for the rest of the month include Nielsen's company part tonight. We will go have an enjoyable evening with Daniel's parents, Cody and Daniel's sister Maegan who Cody invited to go with him. Sunday there is the Christmas Music Program that our Stake puts on with a few other churches in the area, where I, my dad, and little brother Chantz will be singing and/or playing my flute. Then next Saturday is that day that I am very excited for!! Linda bought Daniel and I tickets as a thankyou for helping her at the studio so much. We get to go see "The Nutcracker" at the Capitol Theatre in SLC. Daniel isn't overly excited, but I told him we could go each at Sizzler as it now seems bearable to him. :) He owes me for my willingness to go hunting, shed hunting, and putting up with all of his sheds in the middle of our living room floor!

Hope everyone is having a good holiday season! Be safe with the snow that is falling, and have a Merry Christmas!

Long Time No Blog And No Time To Do So...

Nothing overly exciting has gone on in the last month in which we haven't been blogging. We have both been busy with school and now it is getting down to the wire for both of us.

I have loved being in the 5th grade classroom I am in at Creekview Elementary.. I don't want to leave when next week is over. I would love to do my Student Teaching in that same classroom, or even at the same school. I actually feel like a teacher, and it excites me to see the kids grasp and enjoy what I teach them. :)

Daniel is working to get his final trebuchet changes done before the 4th when they will be launching milk jugs full of water. He has his schedule set up for the next semester, we are glad he decided to stick to school, only bad thing is he's taking 19 credit hours to stay on track and that means he will be busier than he is now. :(

We are still alive and kicking and hanging in there. It was nice to have a little bit of break for the Thanksgiving Holiday, hope everyone's was safe and enjoyable!!

Happy Happy Birthday Daniel!

Wednesday, the 28th was Daniel's 24th birthday. :D Unfortunately it hasn't felt much like his birthday with it being Midterm week at school, and his busy trebuchet project that he hasn't been receiving very much help on from the other group members.

Sunday night I made Daniel's favorite dinner knowing that I would have class and not have time to make it on his birthday. We had cheesy (funeral) potatoes, ham, and my rolls that Daniel loves.

Daniel informed me that it was his "Birthday Week" and that he was going to try and drag it out to 5 days this year instead of 4 like last year. I had to try very hard to not let Daniel open his presents early. I have that problem, where I get so excited to give presents that I hate waiting to give them to people....

Luckily I made it - I need to get the pictures from the camera on here, but these will do for now. Daniel received Transformers II and a Porter Cable Orbital Sander from me, the new Brad Paisley CD from sister Mindi, gun sling from brother Conlee, and Wrenches, Four-foot level, and yummy pickled eggs from Momma Jan and Papa Eric. Daniel is hard to shop for :) especially since he will always want tools.. and I am not good at picking out the "right" ones :D. This is also why my parents haven't figured out what to get for him yet.

Daniel was able to see his family on his birthday, but only for a little while, because we had to be to the church so they could set him apart as 2nd counselor in the Stake YM Presidency... they think he's not busy enough...

It was a good day, but I wish it could have felt more like a birthday for him.. Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

My First Buck... It's a Trophy!

This past week Daniel and I have been making every effort possible to find me a deer to shoot at. Last Saturday we happened to see a 3 point running.. unfortunately, no shot. Then Tuesday night we were with Daniel's cousin Travis hunting in Orangeville and happened to surprise a two point with his lady friend. He stopped at about 100 yards, during the time that Travis and Daniel begin to freak out and tell me to, "Load a bullet! Get out of the truck! Shoot the buck! Hurry before me runs away!" I was breathing hard because of all the hoopla that had happened already, and finally got the gun on the shooting sticks. I tried to shoot the gun three times before realizing I had failed to take it off safety.. and then I shot under the buck! Talk about being stressed, excited, and having a true hunting experience.

A little disappointed we headed back out to try and find me a buck to shoot at before it got dark. At the last possible moment Travis and Daniel spotted more deer, and confirmed the presence of horns on one. There were about five does with the buck, and Daniel had to point the scope so I could find them because I couldn't find them with my naked eye (I'm blind). Daniel told me, "Wait til he walks out in front, okay, now he's the front deer looking back at us, take your shot when you're ready."

Luckily Daniel hadn't put the safety on or I think I would have had problems again. I took a shot at this lovely little buck below at about 150 yards, he was quartering away, and as Daniel says, "You nailed him clean pilgrim!" (Jerimiah Johnson) And therefore, I was overjoyed and very excited to have shot and killed my first buck. He only went about 30 yards before he was down - and if you can't tell, he is a spike by 2.

Travis told Daniel to rest my 25-06 on his antlers... :) As you can tell it needed a little bit of help from Daniel.

See it forks on it's right side, I promise!

This seems to be the tradition this year from Daniel's family, Mindi did this with her elk, and his Aunt Nettie with her deer. So, I joined the club. I think the feet are cool, you can watch the tendons move as you move the hooves. Happy Hunting!

A break from school work. . .

On Labor Day, Daniel was able to go down to Greenriver and spend the day with Cody hiking all over and finding shed horns. They had a blast and also had a very productive day as is shown in the pictures below. Between the two of them they found about 40 horns.

Daniel with about 20 heavy horns on his back.

On saturday the 12th, Daniel and I traveled back to Greenriver to take mules up with Cody and pack the horns out. Along the way, I spotted this shed from the truck. :) It's the biggest deer shed I have found thus far, and isn't much compared to all those elk sheds, but I was happy.

While riding up to the horns to pack out, we stopped and glassed across the ridges with our binos, and Daniel spotted this horn by seeing only one tine. He hiked up to it and found a good 6 point shed.

Daniel and I sitting on our mules

Cody looking estatic with all the horns on Otis

The haul from their Labor day adventure, plus a few more horns, including my deer shed in front and to the left.

All the sheds in the back of Cody's truck. A huge pile that we took with us to Ray's Tavern for dinner and parked directly out front so the boys could keep an eye on their treasure. They also picked up two more deer sheds on the way down.

Fun was had on both days, and it was a nice break from school and good stress reliever!

Two new additions to our family..

Monday, Daniel was able to shoot at this big buck at 20 YARDS!.. He is still on cloud 9..

Unfotunately, I didn't get to see the shot, I was waiting on the four wheeler to pick him up after a "short walk" that turned into an hour and a half. After calling me on the radio to come get him, and after I had started the fourwheeler, he called back "Kiera! Turn off the fourwheeler and stay where you're at!" I had no idea what was going on.. til he said "KIERA! I just shot the BIGGEST BUCK I've ever had a chance at!!"

Daniel's buck green scored 168 and 6/8 with a 27 and 7/8 outside spread!

This is the first new addition to our family.. eventually it will hang in our house. :)

On Tuesday, we were blessed with another new addition, Raegan RuthAnn Richens, 8 lbs 1 oz, 21 inches long. My brother and sister-in-law had their first child. We haven't been able to see her yet, but we are very excited to!!

Being held by Grandpa Richens... She is going to be able to get whatever she wants from him..

Sleeping on Grandma Richens' lap, precious and sweet. Brown hair like her daddy :)

Being held in mom's arms