2015 Christmas!

It's been a good Christmas celebrating with our family!

I thought this was the most adorable thing ever.  Tannin scurried over to the nativity and looked at Mary and Joseph and then down at baby Jesus for 5 minutes.  May we all be like Tannin and remember the "reason for the season" #AllCreaturesOfOurGodAndKing

To start Christmas break, I finally got my MSCN certificate in the mail that says I'm now an MS certified RN!

Taylor got in a snow fight with Tannin to blow off some steam after his last final...

Christmas Eve Taylor and I opened up one present each that we gave to each other.

And Tannin got 8 fatty worms as her present....She'll be as big and jolly as ol' saint Nicolas soon!

Tannin also had to open up the presents for Mom and Dad...After all, "claws are better than fingernails," she says.

Taylor's gift to me included a poem.

 I finally figured out it meant the fridge and our "almond breeze" milk carton!

My cheese!!! This was actually a huge surprise since I've finally started to tolerated cheese again, and Taylor isn't a fan of buying cheese when we are lactose intolerant...

It was delicious.

My present Taylor opened was a Mickey and Minnie 1000 piece puzzle.

Tannin is expert at puzzling and deigned to help.

And per tradition, Taylor and I slept under our Christmas tree.  Tannin also tried to get in on the action by hiding under the Christmas tree...

Christmas day we had the morning together, and then went to the Drake parents.

This was some cool wrapping paper from Tim and Vanella.

 Taylor and Mom Drake

And also quickly stopped by the Justice parents.

Taylor made an amazing music box and arranged 3 of my original compositions to play in it.

First, he looked at the songs and picked up what measures he thought would be best in a short 16-17 measure piece.

Then, after he transposed the music to fit the music box's range, he cut the holes that would then pluck the strings.

The Justice side celebrated Christmas a few days later with grandparents and Carlie and Seth.

End of the Year Recap

Taylor and Kelsey Drake’s 2015 Story

We started the year with Taylor studying for the MCAT, while I got promoted to RN Supervisor…It helps pay for all his books and study tools…On our down time, we like to cook and bake.  We’ve learned to be dairy-free and save our intestines by making meals with soy cheese (since we’re lactose intolerant—not by choice). We love living near the mountains of Red Butte, and have done many hikes, including hiking our first mountain together—Mount Timpanogos in August.  Tannin (the best pet lizard  scaley baby ever) even comes along on occasional hikes with us on a leash.  Tannin usually passes the day looking out the windows, and even reached a big milestone of learning how to walk… on the ceiling of her cage! She’s very precocious!

We’ve had a few health issues this year again with Kelsey’s mom being sick, Kelsey knees,  back and thyroid, and Taylor‘s back beginning to hurt (he finally can commiserate with Kelsey!).  We were really excited about a research study Kelsey participated in to possibly heal her back, but that fell-through (after she was poked with huge needles in her spine and they decided her discs were too leaky)…But that doesn’t stop us from having fun going on vacations! 

A few vacations we went on this year:  Bryce Canyon in May to celebrate 2 years of marriage and to eat pickle and pinto bean pie; Indianapolis—where Kelsey had to work and Taylor joined her after meetings; Colorado—where Taylor took the MCAT and Kelsey drove up Pike’s Peak; New York with Dad Justice-it was Taylor's first time; San Francisco to Roseville; trips to nearby reservoirs to learn to kayak properly in an inflatable kayak; Goblin Valley camping; and the very last vacation Taylor took all by himself: a romantic vacation to Portland Maine while Kelsey worked...

Some cool accomplishments include:  Kelsey getting over her excessive fear of snakes by petting a huge 11 foot one at “Tails & Scales.”  Taylor not only studied hard for school and the MCAT, he worked hard at home by re-finishing furniture and constantly making Kelsey dinners, including creating whole-wheat crust rhubarb pie. Taylor also loves his new job at the Utah Lion’s Eye Bank where he works as a recovery tech.  Kelsey had fun helping RMMSC's infusion clinic grow to over 500 patient per month!  All these things and doing Cub Scouts keep both Kelsey and Taylor very busy.

Portland and snow days

A few photos from Taylor's trip to Portland Maine...

He stayed an hour after the sunset.

Then headed to Downtown to grab some fresh seafood.

Portland at night.

And his romantic hotel room...yeah, he treated himself.

While Kelsey stayed home alone and worked...

There was also a sale at Michaels, so she bought some stuff to decorate the tree.

 Taylor took a cool picture of Chicago on his flight home.

City in the clouds. Oz is real.

And after I picked him up, we ate chocolate pudding cake.

I prefer regular chocolate cake, but Taylor loved it!

Taylor and I made up this delicious, healthy recipe for fish tacos and chicken tacos, and we ate it 3 days in a row for dinner...then again 2 days later...

Work has been extremely busy with expanding the infusion suite, a new infusion drug coming up, and  having to open up a few Saturdays to make sure everyone gets their medication.

The new room!

Taylor and I hopped over to Red Butte on a windy day to take some quick photos for our year-end 2015 memories.

Also, even though Taylor was sick of eating out after his trip, he still took me to Five Guys, but instead of fries, we had to eat carrot sticks and snap peas...

Just kidding, we ate carrots, snap peas, AND fries!

 We took Mom and Dad Justice to Trolley Square and had fun walking around.

Afterwards, my parents treated us to the Spaghetti Factory.

I had fun over the weekend remembering how to sew with my MIL Michelle.

She also had to help me sew some patches onto the curtain for work.

Our crazy infusion week began with a crazy snow storm that turned my 15 minute commute to work into an hour or slipping and sliding while going 10 miles an hour.

But it was pretty to see the trees afterward and enjoy the lights.

 And cute lunch bags like this always make my day.

The start of December

Taylor and I have had fun playing Wii this last week thanks to Carlie and Seth who gave us theirs!

Tannin's had to endure gel stickers on her windows the last few months...Poor kid!  All she wants is to enjoy the view!  Instead, two huge Snowmen intimidate her while she's trying to sleep on her rock.

The wrap-around Santa sleigh is awesome though!  She told me so herself.  She just doesn't like cold snow so she automatically hates the snowmen.

And we got this train from my parents.  It's the train I use to look forward to putting out every year as a kid.  Since we have a kid who's old enough to appreciate such things now, we decided to set it up with her...

Will Tannin make it out in time?!

Mwahahaha!  I am Queen of the train; the Christmas Godzilla!

Yep!  I think Tannin was the right age to enjoy this train!

Faster!  Faster!

It was fun to get our nativities out again.

I love this one Grandma Linda made us last year!

And our cute drake duck nativity we made our first Christmas  married.

And the Christmas village is up again!

We made gingerbread houses with the Drake siblings.

Good enough to eat!

I love our home all decorated for Christmas!  Also, we put away some of our normal decorations, so it didn't get too crowded and cramped, and I think that helped make everything look cleaner.

We added some "gold trimmings" to our tree this year.

 

Woodland Santa and his woodland friends.

I had to drop Taylor off at the airport today for his interview.

I'm so proud of his hard work!