An inkling of snow...

As you know, we are living in Portland. We got 2 inches of snow on Sunday and the hills got about 5 inches. We got a call Sunday morning saying church was canceled because of snow. I looked outside and the roads were not even covered yet! Growing up in Iowa we needed white outs, blizzards, or 2 feet of snow to ever get cancellations! I was extremely surprised. Tyler informed me that it usually does not snow here and does not get this cold. Turns out they haven't received this much snow since 1996! So, why the first winter that we move here? I wish I had taken a picture of it... but you have all seen snow before. However, because of the lack of snow the whole city shuts down... literally. They do not salt or sand the roads, or even plow them. Most of the streets are complete sheets of ice. Tyler did not have school on Monday because of this snow and it's finals week! They are expecting another 6 inches tomorrow! I am not sure what will happen, but I just find it odd that people do not know how to react to snow! It's a natural thing.

Our Little Peanut!

Yesterday we were supposed to find out what gender our little baby is! However, when we went to my ultra-sound they told us that I am actually only 13 weeks and 5 days along (according to the size that the baby is)... putting the due date on June 13th, 2009... mine and Tyler's birthday! I will have it induced if it's in the small percentage of babies that are actually born on their due date. We got some really cute pictures of our new little baby! It was so neat to see it moving around! It was doing flips and turning and really active. It's so weird to think that it's growing inside of me, but so cool! We were able to see and hear the little heartbeat, and the doctor said it sounds very healthy! That is so good to hear! I am so anxious to have this baby and meet it! I just love it so much!










Our little baby waving to us!











Sucking it's thumb! Soooo cute!











A great profile view! The ultra-sound tech said that our baby is very photogenic and loves getting it's picture taken! It was so good for the camera! :)











And another profile.


Hope you have enjoyed seeing these as much as we have! We are just so excited and happy to be having a baby!

DS 1 Christmas Party!

Our friends Willie and Anne put on an amazing Christmas party this past Sunday. We had a baked potato bar, an ugly Christmas sweater contest, and an ornament exchange. There was a really good turn out and it was so nice to get to know some of the other DS 1s. There were some great Christmas sweaters, but Anton was the winner! His was truly the ugliest Christmas sweater there! Way to go Anton!










Anton and his wonderful sweater! (Also, Stevenson and Tyler Scott)











People mingling before dinner.










Tyler and Megan Scott and Steve and Danielle Jackson.










Ornament exchange!











Tyler and me!


It was a great party and everyone had tons of fun! Thanks to Willie and Anne for putting it all together and making it happen! Merry Christmas everyone!

Lots and Lots of food!

This year we spent Thanksgiving with Tyler's family! It was so nice to get away from school and work for almost a week and just relax with family. The Bendixsens had lots of family over for Thanksgiving, so it was a busy house. More people just means more food! We had all kinds of food... turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, 12 layer Jell-O, spinach dip, artichoke dip, rolls, and of course lots of dessert. It was so very delicious! We were eating all this food for a few days! Unfortunately our camera battery died, so I wasn't able to get very many pictures of this blessed event. However, the few that I got or stole from Cameron will be included.
Here is Cousin Mary and Dad (drooling over the food).



The girls on Thanksgiving day. (Tess, me, and Cam's fiance, Camilla).

On Friday, most of the girls, (cough cough Milla) got up early and went up to Tri-Cities to do some Black Friday shopping! It was fun to shop with the girls! It has always been tradition that just the girls go shopping on Black Friday, but this year the boys came up and had lunch with us and finished shopping with us. It was a loooong day of shopping! I don't think I bought anything for Christmas, but was successful in finding a shirt for family pictures! :) It was lots of fun!

On Saturday we took family pictures and then headed somewhere in Washington (Walla Walla maybe?) to find the best Christmas tree! Apparently it takes a lot of people to find the best one ;), but we did manage to agree on one. It was beautiful and smelled sooo good! It fit perfectly when we got it home! It was about an inch from the ceiling!
Thanks for a wonderful Thanksgiving mom and dad!

Happy Hour!

I've decided it's about time to let everyone know about the greatness of Happy Hour here in Portland! For those of you not familiar, "Happy Hour" is very common in restaurants all over Portland. The "Happy Hour" menu is discounted a lot! The restaurants intentions are to make all their money off alcoholic drinks. However, since we are a bunch of LDS people we just get cheap food! It's amazing! We can usually eat dinner for $12 or less for the both of us! We have a group of us that usually go to enjoy it while we can! There are about 5 or 6 couples that go and we are always squeezed around these little tables. It is quite the sight! We will have to take a picture sometime. We usually get weird looks when we all order a round of waters (or pop if they make you do a drink purchase), but we're okay with that! It has been a lot of fun to try more expensive restaurants at a very cheap price! I would recommend looking into "Happy Hour" at your local restaurants. However, I don't think you will find any in Utah.

6/6 Tag

My friend, Heather Harris, tagged me! What I'm supposed to do is post the 6th picture from my 6th picture folder. I arrange my folder's alphabetically, so this is from my "Birthday" folder from this past June. It was our first birthday celebrated together! Tyler decorated our apartment with streamers and balloons to surprise me when I got home from class. I think this picture is actually already on our blog. I tag Danielle, Megan, Malorie, and Marissa! Have fun girls!

Big News!

I think we have waited long enough to announce our big news! We are pregnant! We are so excited for this little baby! I am ready for it to be born now, but we will have to wait until the end of May. I have had some pretty bad morning sickness (but it's all day long and worst at night). I am hoping that it will subside in a couple weeks when my first trimester is over! Tyler and I both have a hunch that it is a girl, but we won't find that out for a while longer. Tyler has been great at doing pretty much everything around the house on top of his school work because of how I have been feeling. I'm so glad he's amazing and willing to do all of it!

All Hallows Eve!

This Halloween was a blast! Our friends threw a rockin' Halloween Party! We bobbed for apples, ate dough nuts off a string, watched the Balzer's game, played some Wii, and ended the night with the greatest movie ever... Poltergeist II! (haha not really the greatest movie ever). Tyler and I had a few ideas for costumes, but finally settled on the easiest idea. It turned out great! I was a laundry basket and Tyler was static cling! So... here are a bunch of pictures!

Me and Tyler (obviously!)

Dr. Cameron and Dr. House AKA: Danielle and Steve Jackson

Biker Stud and Biker Babe AKA: Willie and Anne Fugere.

Cutest witch and die-hard UTES fan AKA: Megan and Tyler Scott

A scary clown and skeleton AKA: Jon and Malorie Hall

Obi Wan Kenobi, Princess Leia, and Yoda AKA: Stevenson, Marissa, and Spencer Smith
(PS I stole this from their blog because they didn't dress up for the party, but Spencer was the cutest little Yoda, I had to put it up here!)

The group of 1st years at the party!

Willie won the dough nut eating contest... he ended up eating off the floor! haha It was great entertainment to watch these guys!

My Tyler eating a powdered dough nut off a string!

And Tyler bobbing for apples with his head totally submerged in water! He got beat by Willie by .5 seconds! It was soo close!

Thanks for a great party Megan and Brittany! It was a blast!

I am Now the Bread-Winner of our Family

I finally have a job! After 2 1/2 months of searching, I got a job with KBC Management as an apartment manager. We will get free rent, plus salary. I will show apartments, collect rent, and keep the complex clean. The guy that was doing it before said it only takes about 10-15 hours a week, so that's something easy, and worth it! We are extremely excited to finally get income! However, this also means that we have to move! I am not looking forward to this. We just moved, and now we have to do it all over again. Hopefully we will stay put longer this time! So, mom if you want to come help us pack (like last time) I would love it! :)
We move in the weekend of the 7th and 8th of November, so in like 2 weeks! That's super soon, but it will be good for us. Luckily, we have friends that agreed to help us with the moving part.

The Life of a Wonderful Man

This past Saturday, Tyler's Grandpa Oldroyd passed away. We were lucky enough to be able to spend some of his last moments on Earth with him. He went very peacefully with all his children around him. His funeral is this Friday and all except 1 grandchild will be there. I think that is pretty neat!
Grandpa is the one that sealed us just 8 months ago in the Manti Temple. We are so lucky that he was well enough at that time to share that special day with us.

He is a great man and left a legacy here for us to live up to! We love and miss you grandpa!

Free Money

Last night one of the Fraternities at OHSU hosted a get together at the Artisan Dental Laboratory. Dental Labs are where they make EVERYTHING! They make crowns, bridges, dentures, veneers, etc. It was actually really neat to see how they do it. Artisan sponsored it and had a dinner before hand, tacos, which were really good. Then we went around and toured the place. At the end there were drawings for cash prizes! Tyler and I both have never won anything from a drawing before, so our hopes were not high. When we found out that there was a drawing we made a deal. If we won $100 (yeah right) then I could use some of the money to go shopping! I have been wanting to go shopping for a long time, but since I don't have a job yet I kind of can't. So... the 3 $50 cash drawings were over and we didn't win ... then it was onto the $100 drawings. They called the number 552 for the first $100 cash drawing and we won! We both kind of stood there at first waiting for it to register and then Tyler collected our prize! It's very exciting. And the best part is... I get to go shopping now!!! So, it was totally worth our while to go! Yay for sponsored events!

Oh... and on a side note! Today Tyler and I have been married for 8 wonderful months! Love you sweetie!

Beautiful Oregon

This weekend we got to spend some time with family! Tyler's Aunt Sue celebrated her 20 year anniversary on Saturday. They live in Corbett, OR. It is a gorgeous part of Oregon, and was perfect weather for a party. It was nice to finally meet Sue and see a lot of family, especially little Saylor!
After the party we went to the Vista House, it's on the Historic Scenic Highway from Portland to Hermiston. Tyler's parents came with us since it was on their way back to Hermiston. It was a really pretty drive and the view from the house was amazing!



This is overlooking the Columbia River. On the right side is Oregon, on the left is Washington. It was gorgeous!


This is the Vista House. It was built in 1913 for travelers to stay the night when making the long drive. It's no longer used for that, just a historic landmark. It's really pretty.

After the Vista house we drove to Multnomah Falls. I had never seen it up close and personal, just from the Highway. It is an amazing water fall. Apparently it is a little wimpy this time of year, but it was still loud and we got sprayed with mist.

This is from the bottom of the falls. The little bridge you can see is where the next few are taken from.

Us again... on the bridge this time.


I love Tyler's smile in this one! He's so cute!


And one of Mom and Dad in front of the falls. I think they look great in this picture!

It was a fun weekend! Weekends are the best part because we actually get to spend time together and it means that another week has past. Just that much closer to Thanksgiving break!!

Productive Weekend!

This weekend was great! We were able to watch all the sessions of conference. We really enjoyed them. After the Saturday sessions of conference we went to a Korean restaurant in Beaverton. The Fugerses came with us. Tyler said it was the best, most authentic Korean food he has had outside of Korea. Sunday we went over to the Jackson's and had breakfast with a few of the other dental couples and watched the morning session of conference. Then we came back to our place and watched the afternoon session with some of the couples again. Tyler and I provided Navajo Tacos for dinner! I think they were a great hit, and pretty good for our first time making them! We then played a few rounds of Farkel and called it a night.

This weekend was also successful because we finished a project that we have been working on!

We got this table at a garage sale for $10. It is very old fashioned and had a few scratches in it. We decided to take on the, what we thought was simple, task of re-staining and painting it. It was the table only, so we had been using our card table chairs to accompany it. They worked well and we were glad to have a table.
Throughout the course of redoing our table we only had to start over once! :) It took a little longer than we expected... but it is now finished and sooo worth it! We stained the top a dark cherry wood color and painted the legs black. Today we went to Ikea and found chairs that matched perfectly! It looks like an actual set. We are so happy that it worked out. We are also pretty proud of the fact that we did it all by ourselves and together!

I don't think it even looks like the same table. It's beautiful! I honestly did not think it would turn out this great!

Good Things!

There are two exciting things that I wanted to blog about!
The first is that my diploma came in the mail this past weekend! I called BYU again after I was no longer upset and explained to them what the situation was. She said, "Okay, we'll send it to you". I had no idea it would be that easy the second time around, but I was so excited!



So, I am now the proud holder of a piece of paper that states my graduation from college (aka: diploma)!
The second is that on Monday (Tyler's first day of carpooling with some DS 2s) Tyler came home from school and with him he had flowers for me! It was so sweet! They were beautiful! I am so lucky to have such a great husband, who thinks of me often! I used my amazing floral decorating skills to rearrange the flowers into 2 different vases.


I love this one! It's in a shallow square vase, and I just love it!


You can semi-see the square vase in this picture (it's blue).


These were just in a normal vase.

So, those are my good things! I am still on the hunt for a job, which is why I have blogged so much lately! :)

A Weekend of Soreness and Goodness

This past Friday, the 26th, Tyler finished his 5 week pre-term for dental school! This meant we had the whole weekend to spend without worrying about school! Saturday morning we got up and Tyler went to play football with the dental school. Only 1st years and 4th years showed up, so they played against each other. It was fun to watch! The 4th years had obviously been doing this for awhile evidenced by the fact that they called out plays such as "Blue Ribbon 52"... who knows! The first years lost the first game, but after warming up came from behind for a win in the second game!

The guys getting ready!

An awesome play!

And that's the back of Tyler!


After playing football we went to Raleigh Park with some friends and played Tennis, Dodge Ball, Bocce ball, and had a barbecue. I have a new found enjoyment for tennis. I really enjoyed it, and it was the first time that I had played in ages! I want to do it again! My hope is to become better than Tyler (which probably won't happen because he played in high school).

Tyler and Willie playing doubles, and you can see the beautiful park in the background!

Tyler had beautiful form while playing! I need to learn more from him! It was fun to watch him play!

Our men cooked our meat, and it was delicious! This is all of them around the grill being manly men! :)

And all the women around the food, ready to eat!

After we were done there we went over to Tyler and Megan's to relax in their hot tub! It was the perfect end to a wonderful day! Thanks guys!
After all the physical activity the guys are complaining about their abductor muscles (thank you anatomy!) being sore!
The weather was gorgeous this weekend and we were so glad that we were able to get out and enjoy it while it's still there.

Wii are Going to be Fit as Fiddles!

Tyler and I decided that we need to get into shape and become more active. Especially me since I don't have a job and don't get out much. So, we debated about what to do. I don't like running, Tyler doesn't have time to go to the gym, and we don't have a pool (for swimming laps). I was browsing the internet and happened upon Wii Fit.


It is a great workout "game" that goes with the Wii. We have purchased it and find that to my disbelief it actually is a great workout! They have Yoga, Strength Training, Balance, etc. They even help you get better posture! It really works out all parts of your body and we can do it right from home! I would highly recommend it if you aren't super motivated to workout. At the beginning it tests your BMI, weight, and height. It allows you to set a goal to lose a certain number of pounds (which you choose) by whatever time you choose. Also, if by chance we were to do outside activity you can just add it to your log, so it counts that as well! I think it's great. We really enjoy it!

The Quest for a Job

I just thought I would do a little update on what I have been up to (and Tyler as well). I still have yet to find a job. I have applied to many, many, many places since moving here about a month ago. I have only had one interview, and it seems to have been unsuccessful at this point. We would really like for me to get an apartment management position so we can have free rent, income, and a good job for me when we actually start a family. I am starting to hear from a few of these places, but nothing too exciting at the moment. I just got a letter from BYU yesterday saying that my graduation application has been put on hold. I will not receive my diploma until December because one of my professors did not submit my grade. I am not very happy about this, because I no longer "have a college degree", which helps in the job pursuit. Kind of a bummer.

Tyler is in his 4th week of school. He has had 2 tests (just had his second one yesterday). He did well on his 1st one. He got a B, and that is very good compared to the rest of his class. Out of 75 students only 18 got B's and higher, so I am very proud of him. He is handling dental school very well and seems to be enjoying it. He often says that he is learning so much already, and it has only been a couple weeks! I just tell him to think about the knowledge he'll have after 4 years! His pre-term ends on the 26th of this month, and then he starts a little bit more rigorous schedule on the 29th when everyone is back in school.
I am so proud of him and his life ambitions! He's the greatest!

Mini-Vacation

This weekend all the 1st year dental school students got to go to a cushy resort in Cannon Beach. They had a conference to attend. The hotel they stayed in was soo nice, too bad the wives couldn't go. Tyler had a really great time playing water polo, ultimate Frisbee, and having a sand sculpture contest. Their bridge (Fremont) built a putting green with a mouth. The teeth were sculpted amazingly. They did a great job!


A few of us wives went up to Cannon Beach on Friday to meet our husbands. We then proceeded to Cape Lookout State Park near Tillamook. We camped about a hundred yards from the beach on Friday night. The beach was gorgeous and it was neat to hear the sound of the ocean as we were falling asleep. We got to the campground around 4:30 and set up camp, found some wood, and started the fire.

Finding wood on the beach.


The guys trying to start the fire... we had "strike anywhere" matches... I don't think they were really strike anywhere though. ;)

Our tent is the one in the back. I like it. We decided to tough it out and sleep on the ground! It was actually quite comfortable!

We had tinfoil dinners and played a few rounds of Catch Phrase before it was "quiet time". The girls kicked the boys butts (like always!). =) The next morning we had eggs and sausage (thanks Anne!) and scones! I think all the food was a big hit! We were well fed. We went down to the beach for a little bit to hang out while Willie and Jon decided to Skim Board (I think that's what it's called). They were pretty brave because the water was freezing!

Just hanging out.


If you look closely you can see Jon Skim Boarding in the background!

After we had enough of camping we tore down camp and drove into Tillamook to have some lunch at a local diner and tour the Tillamook cheese factory! It was a lot of fun. We got to sample the cheese and bought squeaky cheese! We also had some delicious Tillamook ice cream! It was great!

Cows at the cheese factory! (Alicia this is for you!)

We had a fun weekend! It was nice for Tyler to have a break from school and to be able to hang out with our new friends!