December 19, 2009

Family Pictures





so on thursday we had some family pictures taken in hopes of sending out christmas cards. here are a few of them. We're totally hyped about them. Our friend Scott took them. If you like what you see, which im sure you do... check him out!
www.ssbphoto.com

December 12, 2009

Ten days 'til...

... I get to see these cutie pies! I'm super excited to see my family. oh yes, meet Abi, Keaton, and little Jayden. They are my brothers kids and super cute dont you agree? Hopefully I can have kids this cute!

stay tuned for future pictures from our holiday adventures!

December 06, 2009

my new obsession

So last week at church we had a combined 3rd block. In that class they talked of the new Family History search website. And for most of you my age youre probably thinking the same thing right now as I did when I heard it......"Family history..(eye roll)... I'm sure my families is done. And if its not, I wont have access to any information past 4 generation. Theres nothing I can do with it..(eye roll).." or something along those lines. It's like pioneer stories.. you appreciate the pioneers and what they did, you just dont want to hear about it every other second. Well.... LISTEN UP!!!

Family History work is AMAZING!!! And I'm gunna tell you why!

So in the class they kind of gave an over view of what can be done. I was like the above mentioned and figured mine was done. I seriously thought we'd only have info like 4 maybe 5 generations back. But the website looked easy so I atleast wanted to go look. And oh my lanta!! TONS AND TONS!!! I have some records that date back to the 1700s! Drew's goes back even further!

After I looked through and realized there was so much I could do I just turned into a green arrow junkie (green arrows mean work needs to be done). I became so excited when I submitted the information to be done. I'm not kidding. I was skipping around the house!!! I would get so into it.. I'd be up past midnight going through the information still. Drew would tell me to come to bed, and I would say.."I cant yet. they are waiting for me. They've been waiting so long for this"

It truly is amazing. I went to the temple early this week to do some work for some of the names I had submitted and what an experience! I helped seal 7 kids to their parents, 6 couples together, 2 inititories, 1 baptism, and 1 confirmation! I didnt have any super out of the ordinary experiences like some do when they take through family names, but it did just seem to mean more to me even though I had never even heard of the people I did work for. Just knowing they were my family made all the difference.

So, I challenge those of you who have not done so already... check out the new family history site. Even if its just to make sure your 4 generation chart is up to date. But we're the "clean up generation" and we need to make sure our family work has been done. It's blessed my life so much and I've only been doing it for a week! Try it out.

Below is kind of a sample starter. There is tons you can do on the site. If you have any questions let me know. you can email me at nikki.r.solomon@gmail.com

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Let me tell ya how to get started. Well first off the website is new.familysearch.org
The website will have to register. For this you well need you member number (temple recommend holders.. you can find that number on your recommend) and also you confirmation number. They will have you set a user name and password to use each time you log on. Then it should take you to your information. The way I started my family predigree chart was to enter my parents names (if it doesnt come up already with your name)

On the welcome page go to add information. On the next page youre giving different choices.. for now select add family or individual that is connected to my family tree. The bottom portion of the screen will have the person you have selected and all their info. If your marriage was performed in the temple, your spouse should come up. Add parents names and birthdates. My whole ancestor line came up after entering my parents info. But for drews family I did have to add up to 3 generations. But it should all come up.. unless you are the only person in your family that is LDS then you might need to do a little more work.

But from there you should be able to see all of your relatives. There are a few symbols that lets you know the status of their temple work. If the relatives are still living there will be no box in the up right hand corner of their name. If a relative has died and all work as been completed there will be a temple picture with a check mark. If there is a temple with a yellow icon, temple work needs to be done, but someone has the information reserved. If there is a flashing green arrow, the work is available to do.

So select that green arrow and it might have you look over some possible dulpicates. Just look of the info and follow the prompts. Once that is complete (if the work does still need to be done) It will take you to the temple ordiances page. On that page any work you submit will automatically be assigned to you. You can chage it to the temple in the far right colum. Then you print off the page and take it to the temple for the to print the cards.
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November 30, 2009

just a little update

I'll just pin point some recent happenings in our lives.

+ Drew and I volunteered at the Arizona IronMan triathlon last week... drew did it for extra credit in a class and I just went along for fun.

+ We had 3 thanksgiving dinners. One with our neighbor the day before, one with drew's family the day of, and one with my cousins that evening. Loved it! I made my "famous" chocolate pie

+ I hurt my knee somehow. My doctor uncle thinks I might have torn my meniscus. I'm gunna have an MRI done on it probably the first of the year for insurance reasons.. but it actually hasnt been hurting too bad lately. hopefully itll heal and no MRI and no surgery.

+ Drew starts finals this week. The end of the semester is in sight!

+ We spent some time with our visiting out of state friends.

+I continue to be HORRIBLE! at taking pictures. But we should be taking family pictures soon for christmas cards

Um.. I dont know what else. Probably nothing. But we are super pumped for the semester to be done and head to Tennessee to see my family for christmas! Sooo excited. Just think... this time next year... Drew will be graduating from ASU and finding out where he got into Dental School. Oh how 2010 will bring some happy times!

November 09, 2009

I tag.. everyone!!



Copy and paste this into a new note. Replace with your answers.


1. HOW DID YOU MEET YOUR SPOUSE?
Well, back in Oklahoma I dated Drews cousin off and on for a long! time. so we kinda became long distant friends

2. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST DATE?
Um... this is tough. He had just gotten home from his mission so everyone was all over him for like two weeks straight. I think the first time we actually got away to go do something is when we went to the cannery and worked a 4 hours shift together. haha... we packed ketchup.


3. HOW LONG DID YOU DATE BEFORE YOU GOT ENGAGED?
4 almost 5 months-- mind you we'd known eachother 7+ years


4. HOW DID YOUR FIANCE PROPOSE?
let me just say, i knew it was coming. Drew and I were supposed to fly into utah around the same time over christmas break and get engaged shortly thereafter. Well, because of weather I was stuck in Kansas City, Missouri an extra day because of a freak snowstorm. So I finally get into utah the next day. Drew;s off snowboarding with a mission friend, I had to work for somebody. Still hadnt seen drew in like.. almost a month. So finally... prolly 9 pm we finally meet up, I'm beat- tired and looking. I lay down half asleep from the day and he starts playin me a song he wrote. Towards the end I think it said something like.. will you be my princess and let me be your prince charming. When the song was over he said.. soo...??? and pulled out the ring. haha! I cried through the whole song.


5. WHAT JOBS DID YOU TWO HAVE WHILE YOU WERE ENGAGED?
I worked for horrible Sears and Drew worked for Safeway Pharmacy


6. HOW LONG WERE YOU ENGAGED?
a little under 5 months

7. HOW OLD WERE YOU WHEN YOU GOT MARRIED?
I was just months short of 21 and he was even closer to being 22

8. WHEN DID YOU GET MARRIED?
May 16, 2008

9. WHAT WERE YOUR COLORS ?
Pink and green

10. HOW MANY BRIDESMAIDS DID YOU HAVE?
zero!! too much drama for me

11. WHO WAS YOUR MAID OF HONOR?
no one! my best friend at the time was bein a butt!

12. WHERE WAS THE CEREMONY?
Mesa, AZ temple

13. DID YOU HAVE A DJ OR BAND?
neither. I think we ended up with an ipod dock?

14. DID YOU HAVE A SONG YOU DANCED TO AND WHAT WAS IT?
nope, no song, no dancing. sad huh

15. DID ANYTHING GO WRONG AT THE WEDDING OR RECEPTION?
The florist completely jacked my bouquet. I mean horrible!! They were supposed to be multiple colors of pink with the slightest bit of green. Instead it ended up green with the tiniest bit of light pink. and my sisters tried to tell them to change it and they refused! So I had to go a lil bridezilla on them before i left for the temple. haha

16.. WHAT CAR DID YOU LEAVE IN AND WHAT DID IT LOOK LIKE?
Drew's accord. It was clean. No one touched it.. I kinda wish they woulda. Would have made for better exit pictures.

17. WHERE DID YOU GO FOR YOUR HONEYMOON?
we stayed at the Clarendon Hotel in Phoenix for a couple of days then went on tour with our reception wagon to Oklahoma and Tennessee. Ha! we didnt really have time for a honeymoon

8. WHAT WAS YOUR MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT?
um...looking at him across the alter in the temple during our sealing.

19. WOULD YOU HAVE CHANGED ANYTHING IF YOU COULD?
yes! a dj and dancing for sure. a different month even.. way too hot! and definately a lengthy non receptions involved honeymoon

20. HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN MARRIED?
a year and 6 months

November 05, 2009

look who got a haircut!

isnt he just a cutie!

halloween of champions

Well not exactly. This year drew and I didnt really have a lot going on for halloween. we both just kinda through costume ideas together and this is how it turned out..

I was goin for the ipod commercial.. i just didnt black out my face

eric foreman, anyone?