Michael and Christi Clayton

About time for an update... It's Halloween after all!!!

2011-10-30T19:21:00.000-07:00

Hey folks who look at this every 6 months!!! We are sorry we don't post very much! As it is Halloween, we are posting pictures of our costumes. Enjoy!!

Michael was a garden gnome.

Christi was a flamingo lawn ornament.

Together we made a fabulous pair of lawn ornaments!

As for other recent events that have been going on.... We both got jobs!!! That has been terrific! We are both super busy, but it feels nice to have an income!! We also bought a new car. If you want details on that story, you'll have to ask Michael about it. We went through a series of frustrating events with the car and are grateful that it is now working.

We have recently been through a series of patience-trying events (in which most have been resolved!!) and are grateful for the opportunities for growth. We are grateful for the continual family/friends support as we go through these things.

Until next time....

Double Happiness

2011-05-29T12:18:00.000-07:00

Happy Graduation to us!!!! Christi graduated this weekend, but we thought it would be cool to take a picture together in our robes!! :-)

Michael's Graduation

2011-05-08T12:14:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Michael for graduating from the University of Utah with a Master's Degree in Speech-Pathology!

Just in case you've been dying to know what we were for Halloween.....

2010-11-28T14:01:00.000-08:00

Family Picture

2010-08-07T19:02:00.000-07:00

Here's our most recent Bywater family picture. We were all together again for my Grandma Bywater's funeral, so we took the opportunity to get a picture together. :-D We should have more pictures to post in the near future, but I don't have access to them at the moment, so you'll have to enjoy this picture for now...

2010-05-16T15:10:00.000-07:00

UPDATE!!!!! Here are photos from holidays for the first 4 months of this year! We'll have to post pictures from our travels to Arizona later on..... Enjoy!

CHINESE NEW YEAR:

This is the window of our house. It has two red packets and a dragon. :-)

VALENTINE'S DAY:

Flowers from Mike. He also made me breakfast in bed. He did a great job!!

ST. PATTY'S DAY:

I am proud of this fruit rainbow that we made. And we LOVED eating it!!

Our "green" dinner. Green jello, green salad, green cupcakes...

Our St. Patty's Day couple picture. I actually DO have Irish blood and Mike claims to be a leprechaun....

EASTER:

The Easter Bunny was good to us this year... He even came by for a second visit a few days after Easter because he couldn't resist the bags of candy for $1.

Ok... I (I mean the Easter Bunny) couldn't resist. My little sister LOVED dalmatians when she was little, and I thought this was WAY cute.

MICHAEL'S BIRTHDAY:

Michael opening a package from my parents. He is in 7th heaven right now because of all the candy they sent him.

I had to put this one up because it's a pretty funny story. Michael picked this jersey at some thrift store a while back. I gave it to him for his birthday, and then we realized the jersey was actually a WOMEN'S jersey, not a MEN'S jersey. Luckily he didn't wear it BEFORE we figured that out. I now have a new jersey... haha.

I am proud of this cake I made for Mike's birthday. It was a LITTLE late, but hey, when you have Easter, Conference, and birthday on the same day, something has to give. It is a two-layered red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. It was great if I'm allowed to say so myself.

Pictures you all have been waiting for :-)

2009-12-20T19:45:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures from Halloween and Thanksgiving! Hooray!! We're only 1 1/2 months behind on pictures! :-)

Here is our Halloween costume. Kermit and Miss Piggy.

Here are some sugar cookie turkeys that Christi made for our primary class.

Here we are at the Radisson Hotel after eating a nice big meal with Michael's family. We are watching the Texas/Texas A&M game. Notice Michael's face, and then notice everyone else's faces. ;-) And just a hint, there was nothing exciting going on.

This is Christi and nephew. They are having a heart to heart chat about his girl problems at school. The drama of 1st grade love lives!!

This is our Christmas picture of the year. It is Michael's fault we clashed. He always seems to want to wear green when I am wearing green. I usually make him change.

We're Back!

2009-11-08T12:44:00.000-08:00

Let's see. . . since we last updated, we have:

-Graduated from BYU

-Celebrated our 1st anniversary in Vegas (no gambling involved, but a very cheap, and very nice hotel)

-Moved to Holladay, UT

-Been on a family cruise to Mexico

-Started graduate program (Michael)

-Started working at UVU as a transcriber (Christi)

-Celebrated Christi's 25th birthday

-Been called as primary teachers for the 7 year olds in our ward

-Gone to Singapore to visit Christi's family (along with the Philippines to watch Christi's sister's soccer tournament)

-Celebrated Halloween as Kermit (Michael) and Miss Piggy (Christi). Since the last Muppet movie Kermit has gained weight and Miss Piggy has lost quite a bit of weight. Now they are a little bit more balanced couple.

Life is pretty busy for the both of us with Christi having to commute every day and with Michael in a graduate program. We hope you can forgive us for being the worst bloggers EVER. We will post some pictures from our latest trip to Singapore. :-)

Pictures from our trip to Singapore and the Philippines:

At the botanical gardens.

At the Jurong Bird Park.

Christi getting a pearl.

With Christi's mom, Mary, at the Manila Temple.

Christi with her mom, Mary, and sister, Michelle, at Michelle's soccer tournament in Manila.

With our new niece, Brooke (Eddie and Peachy's daughter).

Brooke's response to seeing aunt Christi.

We're headed to Salt Lake City!

2009-03-08T21:42:00.000-07:00

So, we've been really bad about posting. Life has been incredibly insane. We wanted to post today though to inform the world that Michael has been accepted to the University of Utah for Fall 2009!!! He will be in the Communication Disorders Program. We're excited!! I'm especially excited to get out of "the bubble" and try something new! :-)

Another note: 47 days until graduation!!!!!! I'm excited.

This semester has been a nightmare for me (Christi) especially. The last semester should be fun, right? Well, I signed up for what I thought would be fun classes, but one is killing me.... you'll never guess which one.... SEWING! Yeah, I would not recommend taking that class at BYU. Am I learning a lot? Yes. Will it be impossible to get an "A" in that class? Yes... unless I want to spend 20 hours a week in the lab instead of 10...

ANYHOW, we're happy and healthy!!!!! We're excited that a lot of family is coming in a few weeks!!! We're especially excited to see Tina, Shane, and Ethan whom we haven't seen for 8 months!! Hooray! :-) We're ready for some Star Wars action!!! :-)

Welcome to Our Blog!

2009-01-11T22:14:00.000-08:00

2009-01-11T20:53:00.000-08:00

CHRISTMAS/NEW YEARS PHOTOS!!!!

Grandma Bywater and Grandpa Hemingway opening their gifts. I love their hats. They came from Christmas crackers (British tradition--my mom lived in England for a while) .

This is a photo after New Years Day dinner.

Back (from left to right): Dallin (brother), Don (brother), Michelle (sister), Christi, Michael, Julia (cousin), Jackson (cousin's boyfriend)

Front (from left to right): Dad, Mom, Levi (cousin), Grandpa Hemingway

Our annual Nativity act out. Michelle was an angel, Michael was baby Jesus, Christi was Mary, Dad was the donkey (as always), Dallin was Joseph, Don was the innkeeper, and my mom was shepherd/narrator.

The "Bywater" girls, Michelle, Christi, Mom. The background is our lovely apartment.

Family photo!
Back (left to right): Don, Michelle, Christi, Michael
Front (left to right): Mom, Dad, Dallin

George

2009-01-04T21:06:00.000-08:00

We would like to officially welcome the newest member of our family: George, the betta fish (Siamese fighting fish) that Christi got for Christmas. He's a beautiful (well, handsome) and active fish and we're happy to have him!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-26T09:12:00.000-08:00

It is Thanksgiving break and we are SOOOOOOO happy! :-) This is the first day-offs we've had since the semester started. Believe me, it is MUCH needed. I decided to do a quick post while I am waiting for Michael to go running (he's being a good boy and reading his scriptures).

Our plans this Thanksgiving??? Considering these are our first free day in months, we are going to.... RELAX!!!!! Also, we plan on getting our apartment more in order and buying Christmas presents (which I am super excited to do!). I also got a coupon yesterday for a cheap shampoo, hair cut, and style, so I am going today to get the job done (much needed).

On ACTUAL Thanksgiving, we are going to the Airport Radisson and eating a GREAT meal with Michael's family, staying up till late hours partying with them, then sleeping in a nice hotel room (all provided by Michael's grandparents). I'm excited that I can have a great meal without having to PREPARE IT.

Well, Michael indicates he is done, so I will end this...

Stay in tune for some PICTURES!!!! :-)

Welcome To Michael and Christi's Blog!

2008-10-17T09:37:00.000-07:00

Hello friends and family!
We've been meaning to start a blog for a while to keep people updated with what we are up to. It's kind of funny what finally got us started. I (Christi) had to do a paper for English in which I had to test out somebody's instructions that they had written. One of the instructions happened to be how to create a blog, so I decided to "hit two birds with one stone" and create a blog WHILE doing my English project. Hooray for multi-tasking!

Just for a quick update--
We are both in school at BYU. We both "finish up" in April of 2009. Unfortunately, both of us picked majors that require further education, so we really aren't "finished up." Michael will be graduating in Linguistics and Christi will be graduating in Audiology and Speech Language Pathology, both which require at least a Masters to do anything fun.

We are both working. Michael is at the NMELRC (National Middle Eastern Language Resource Center) working with various tasks in the office and Christi is with the University Accessibility Center transcribing for hard of hearing students. Christi also recently got a temporary job helping with some language research involving elementary school children.

We are currently the ward librarians at church--a calling neither of us have had before. It's different, for sure, especially since it doesn't involve any planning/preparation during the week. We basically do these three things: (1) show up, (2) tidy up, and (3) round up (missing supplies).

We are in the Family History Sunday School class right now and are learning much we didn't know about our family members! What a fun class! We are learning all about how to use PAF and how to use FamilySearch.org. We have much to learn, but are loving it!

Other than those things, we are adjusting to the newness of married life (and enjoying it along the way), playing with family (we love our nieces and nephews!), organizing our house, and preparing for Halloween!!! We are happy and healthy!