Cutting Down the Tree

The first day that we got to Oregon we went out to cut down our Christmas tree. Darren's family was nice enough to wait for me to get there before they got their tree. We went to a Christmas tree farm and picked out the very best tree. It was pretty cold and rainy but it was still fun. There were so many trees and they all smelled so good! It is funny how the trees don't look very big until you cut them down and bring them inside. I took my turn trying to saw down the tree, but I could barely get the saw to budge. Who knew cutting down a tree was so hard? Anyway, it was a fun new experience and we got a beautiful tree.

Early Christmas

This Christmas we spent up in Oregon with Darren's family. Before we left, my mom mailed us our presents so we could open them at our house and not have to haul them home from Oregon. We skyped my family so they could watch us open our presents. It was a fun little night and we were excited that we got to open our presents before Christmas. My mom and dad made us our own set of chimes and a chimes song book that we were pretty excited about. We also got a Chipotle gift card to use in Oregon. We went there 3 days in a row! I love Chipotle. Darren got some new razor heads, and a new shower head for our shower. I got some facial stuff and a frosting thing that I had been wanting. My mom also sent a few presents for us to open in Oregon. One of the presents was all of our old family videos that had been put onto DVD's, edited and organized. It was seriously one of the best presents of my life. I am so glad that I can watch our old family videos now and I know that they will be able to be preserved. It was a great Christmas present!

Darren and I also exchanged gifts and he got me a Sea Glass book that I have been wanting and I got him some cologne. 

It's Christmas at the Smith House

We decorated for Christmas about two weeks ago. We actually had our tree up before Thanksgiving but we didn't decorate it until the Monday after. We both love Christmas and I love how homey our house feels with all of our Christmas decorations up. We won't be having Christmas in Rexburg this year but it is still fun to decorate and have our own tree. We are going to be spending this year in Oregon and we leave on the 15th. All we have to do is get through finals first!

We even put up a mistletoe! :)

Our Refinished Chair

We bought a chair quite a while ago at DI and we wanted to refinish it. It took us such a long time to do because there was so much sanding! Darren worked so hard and spent so much time on our tiny balcony sanding our chair. He also took off the big hunks of wood that were on the sides of the chair and on the bottom. I think the chair looks MUCH better now. I didn't really help with the sanding, even though I wanted to. The chair was just too stubborn and no matter how hard I pushed I couldn't sand any of it. Darren just must be really strong. My job was to work on the cushions. I took the old cushions apart and used them as a pattern to make the new pieces. I learned how to sew piping in the process and I think they turned out pretty good. Just don't come over and inspect them!

The actual chair was I think 25 dollars but I can't remember exactly. It was definitely near there. We also didn't spend much on fabric at all since we found this great place in Idaho Falls that sells upholstery fabric for cheap! Serioiusly cheap, I am talking as low as 3 dollars a yard, and it is on the wide bolt. Our fabric was 5 dollars a yard but that is not bad at all considering the upholstery fabric is 40 dollars a yard at Michaels and that is what we initially looked at. I was so glad we found the cheap fabric store or else it wouldn't have been worth it to refinish the chair. We could have just bought a new one if we had to spend a lot of money on fabric. 

Here is the before and after:

 We still haven't put the little things back in the holes on the left picture (I have no idea what they are called). We are working on sanding and staining all of the little plugs to put back in the holes, so don't mind the little holes in the picture.

Overall, we are very happy with the chair, and it is very comfy to sit in. Here is Darren relaxing from all of his hard work!

Darren's 25th Birthday

Darren turned 25 a few weeks ago! His birthday was on the same day as the election, so we were pretty depressed when Romney lost. I think I have mostly gotten over it, but it was very sad for a few days around here. Since we were too busy on his actual birthday watching the election coverage we decided to celebrate his birthday all week, we actually ended up celebrating it for two weeks. Me and Darren always say, "In this house..." and then we make a statement about what we believe in our house. So during his birthday we decided that in this house, we celebrate birthdays all week long. On his actual birthday, November 6, he opened a few presents and we got some barbeque from his favorite place around. It is actually a little restaraunt in a gas staion, so it is a little bit ghetto but those are the best places. Then, on the Friday after his birthday we went out to Applebees with a few friends, and with a giftcard that he got from his sister. After dinner, we came back to our house to have dessert. Darren requested "Darren's Delight" which is really called Cherry Delight, but has been nicknamed Darren's Delight in his family because he loves it so much. For Darren's birthday he also wanted to see the new James Bond movie, Skyfall. We didn't go until last weekend because he asked for movie tickets for his birthday and they didn't get here in time to go during his birthday week. So this past Friday we went down to Idaho Falls and did some fun Christmas shopping, went out to dinner, and then went to see Skyfall. I have been known for not liking "boy" movies very much so I was not that excited to see the movie. I don't know what it is that I don't like about them. I mean I like boy movies like Adam Sandler movies, and I love shows like 24, but I guess I never really got into superheros and movies like that. However, I was really surprised that I loved the James Bond movie. We even watched another James Bond movie with our friends the next day. I know Darren is pretty happy that I like James Bond movies now.

Funny side note: I just found out that my great grandma used to love the James Bond theme songs. She   played the organ and after each new James Bond movie came out she would ask my aunt to go buy the sheet music for the theme song and then she would play it on the organ. I think it is so funny to picture a little old lady playing a James Bond theme song on the organ. I never met my great grandma but I was thinking of her while watching the movie.

Family History, I am Doing It

This semester I am taking a family history class. I took a family history class a few years ago in my ward, and since then I have really learned a lot more about doing family history work and I love it. I am obsessed actually. I always used to think people who were obsessed with family history were weird. But now I get how they felt about it. There is something so fulfilling and satisfying about finding your ancestors, learning about them and doing their temple work. I get so excited to see birth certificates, death certificates, marriage certificates, and census records with my ancestors on them. There is just something so fascinating about learning who your ancestors were, what they did for a living and where they lived. It's addictive to me. A lot of people think that their family history work has all been done, but that is never true. There is always more work to be done. People also think that they don't have time to do family history and they will work on it when they are old and retired. That's not true. There will never be a time when you are not busy and you can always find an excuse to avoid doing family history work. Family history work is very time consuming, but it is one of the most worthwhile things that I can think of doing.

This past conference, Elder Scott gave a great talk about doing family history. He said, "Do you young people want a sure way to eliminate the influence of the adversary in your life? Immerse yourself in searching for your ancestors, prepare their names for the sacred vicarious ordinances available in the temple, and then go to the temple to stand as proxy for them to receive the ordinances of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. As you grow older, you will be able to participate in receiving the other ordinances as well. I can think of no greater protection from the influence of the adversary in your life."

I love how he said that he can not think of a greater protection from the adversary. That is amazing, really if you think about it. When people are having hard times they often turn to the scriptures, they might pray more or read uplifting books. All of those things are great, and we should do all of those things, but how about trying family history. When we are researching our ancestors we are more protected from the adversary's influence. I love that. I think that all of Elder Scott's talk was so great and I know the church is really pushing family history. A few weeks ago, we had a letter from the first presidency read over the pulpit. It was also about family history, and it was encouraging members to take their own family names to the temple, or to do ward members family names. There is such an emphasis placed on family history, yet no one in the church seems to heed the council to get started. In my family history class today, I learned that only 3 percent of each ward is working on family history. My teacher said family history is the most failed thing in the whole church, and I can really see why he said that.

There is so much people can be doing to work on their family history. One of the greatest services you can give is doing indexing. Indexing takes records from all over the world and transcribes them so people can find their ancestors more readily. No one gets anything out of indexing for themselves, but you are offering such a service to others.

I love the work of family history, and I have already learned so much from my ancestors. My ancestors have sacrificed so much to allow me to be where I am today. I am thankful for them, and I know that there are so many souls who are waiting for their temple work to be done. Doing family history work has made the spirit stronger in my life, I know that it is the Lord's work. I am also thankful for all of the knowledgeable volunteers and missionaries who are working in family history centers ready to help people with their family history.

So, in the words of Elder Scott, "This work is a spiritual work, a monumental effort of cooperation on both sides of the veil, where help is given in both directions. Anywhere you are in the world, with prayer, faith, determination, diligence, and some sacrifice, you can make a powerful contribution. Begin now. I promise you that the Lord will help you find a way. And it will make you feel wonderful."

Do your family history, and give the great service of indexing. It will change your life.

October

October flew by! Darren and I have been so busy with school and work and I haven't had much time for anything else! Okay, we have done a few things, but there has been no time for blogging! We went to the hay maze a few weeks ago with some friends and it was really scary! It took us about 45 minutes to get through and I screamed a whole lot! 3 years ago, Darren and I first held hands in the hay maze. I can't believe we have been together for over 3 years! We also carved pumpkins this month. Darren tried to carve a Mitt Romney pumpkin but it did not turn out so well, so we don't have an "after" picture. We ate quite a few pumpkin desserts this month, and on Halloween we made mummy pizzas, ate lots of candy and popcorn, and watched one of my favorite movies, Hocus Pocus. Holidays seem so boring now that we are married and lame. I guess they will become more exciting when we have kids. 

If your name is Amy Smith or Linda Smith, well actually any of the girl Smiths don't read anymore because your Christmas present is on here!!

Also, during the month of October we have been working on refinishing a chair. We are sort of obsessed with refinishing furniture and we want to buy so much furniture we see at DI we just have no room for it in our house. We have been really wanting a chair though, and we found the perfect one a few weeks ago. It is quite a large piece of furniture, but it rocks, literally it's a rocking chair, and I love it. Here is a picture of the before...

It's pretty ugly and it looks like it belongs in a hunting lodge. We have done SO much work on this chair, well Darren has done so much work, especially sanding! I have sewn one of the cushions, and I am working on the other one. We have stained it twice but we are going to give it one more coat. Because we don't have anywhere to stain it except a little balcony, we thought that we would stain it inside. We tried to put it in our extra room, but the chair is too wide and it could not fit down our narrow hallway, so we stained it in the kitchen. We thought we were going to die from the smell, and we were both getting really bad headaches so we slept with our sliding glass door open when it was snowing outside. We just kept the heater on in our room, and it was fine. It did take a day to reheat our whole house again but at least we didn't pass out from the fumes! It seems like we have been working on this project forever, but it is almost done!

Really, Amy or Linda don't read anymore!

Lastly, this month, I have been working on making hand stamped jewelry. I have been in love with hand stamped jewelry for a while. Darren bought me a necklace 2 years ago for my birthday and I love it. I decided that I could make it, and so I asked for an early Christmas present and my mom got me all of the supplies to make hand stamped jewelry. I wanted it as an early Christmas present so I could make Christmas presents for my family. I have really enjoyed doing it so far, and with a little practice I think I have gotten pretty good. Here are two of the pieces I made so far.

So, that is what we have been up to lately. We are also super into politics so you can find us listening to talk radio or watching the news. We have turned into our parents. Darren's birthday is November 6th, and guess what we will be doing? I hope Romney wins, it will be a good birthday present for Darren!