Go Cougars!!!

Just wanted to post quickly about what an amazing game BYU had last night. The defense looked awesome, the O-line held their own, Hall, Kariya and many others had great games and overall we looked like a team that belonged on the field with the #3 team in the country. Hurray for BYU- GO COUGARS!

We're Back!

We are back in Boston. Sadly, my already lacking blogging skills only got worse over the summer. But, we had a great time in Spokane and even got to spend some really fun time in Arizona. It was nice to be back West for a while and have a little breathing room. Tyler really enjoyed his internship at the Washington Attorney General's office and I had a great time doing stuff with my mom. :) We also got to go to Glacier National Park with my family and Lake Powell with Tyler's, both places are gorgeous. A couple of weeks ago we were lucky to get to go to Tiffany's (Tyler's sister) wedding and everything was beautiful. It was a really nice summer. As far as pictures go I am still working on getting better at that as well, but I do have a couple of pictures of the fire pit that Tyler and my brothers built in my parents backyard.

Tyler personally chiseled all of these lava rocks out of the wall in my parents' house where they used to be a fireplace that my mom hated. :)

This is the whole firepit area that all the boys built together. It was really fun to get to use a little before we left.

Tyler after a few very long days of hard work with his masterpiece.

Other than that we are just looking forward to the arrival of our little girl in about a month. :) We got to pick up her crib that mom and Dave gave us (it's beautiful thanks!) and we will post pictures of her room soon once we get it all put together. This last picture is just one of my and my ever-growing middle since I always want to see those kind of pictures of everyone else when it's their turn. :) So here it is . . . :)

My one and only contribution to our blog...thus far.

Since this is my first time posting, I guess I'd better introduce myself. I'm Tyler - the lesser half of the Tyler and Nicole blog. Anyway, I've received a few requests for a poem I wrote a few years back, and thought this would be the easiest and most accessible way to share it. Feel free to use/share/take credit for as much as you like:

Precious Above All

By Tyler Lloyd

From far away I saw the tree,

And grasped the iron rod,

And pressing forward through the mist,

The narrow path I trod.

But faltering along the path,

I must have dropped my gaze.

From shining light I turned and saw

A building through the haze.

It towered high above the ground,

And people fine and proud,

From ev’ry doorway beckoned me

To come and join the crowd.

It seemed both great and wonderful,

Yet filled my heart with dread.

I turned away and fixed my view

On path and tree ahead.

But ever as my feet moved on,

My thoughts dwelt on the crowd,

Which mocked my struggle down below,

In voices harsh and loud.

The mist pressed close around me now,

I felt its tender strands,

That pulled so softly at my feet,

So gently at my hands.

One strand sang sweetly in my ear,

A soothing melody:

“Why walk this path so long and hard?

Come with us and be free!”

Relaxing grip upon the rod,

And view upon the tree,

I slowed my pace and looked around,

Intrigued by what I’d see.

The fog obscured the distant scene

That I could not resist.

I soon had left the pathway and

Was walking in the mist.

The threads of shadow pulled me on,

My face and skin felt cold.

Yet warmed I was by thick’ning cords

That now took greater hold.

And now and then from distant tree,

A beam of light would shine,

And I perceived these gentle cords

Were chains of dark design.

Before the beams the chains gave way,

Defeated by the light.

But fearing now to lose their touch,

I turned into the night.

I stumbled down my unseen path,

Uncertain and confused.

O’er rocks and pits I fell until

My hands and knees were bruised.

The cords that led so gently once,

Now pulled me to a race,

And tripping down one final slope,

I fell upon my face.

Then glancing up my eyes beheld

A river dark and deep,

And kneeling on that sandy shore,

I soon began to weep.

I shuddered at my bitter fate,

Afraid and lost, alone.

Why had I wandered from the path,

And left the truth I’d known?

I stood once more on weary feet,

And summoned all my will,

Determined to retrace my steps

Back up the treach’rous hill.

But though I tried to climb the bank,

The cords would give no slack,

And whipping at my arms and legs,

They roughly pulled me back.

Then wrapping ‘round my chest and waist,

And strengthening their hold,

They dragged me down the sandy bank,

Into the water cold.

These chains, not soft but sharp and hard,

Now muffled out my scream,

And laughing in my ears they pulled

Me ‘neath the murky stream.

Then sinking down into the depths,

My mind caught on the tree,

And straightway from my heart I cried,

“Dear Savior, rescue me!”

Then suddenly a light appeared

Above me on the sand,

And Jesus, kneeling on the shore,

Reached down and took my hand.

And as he made to raise me up,

My heart was filled with peace,

But still the heavy chains would not

Their rightful prize release.

I wondered then “what could He do?”

I knew the law’s demand.

But reaching down he grabbed a chain

With his almighty hand.

The razor edges cut Him, but

The chain broke with a crack,

And lashing back in fury left

A gash upon His back.

He reached again and broke once more

A heavy chain of sin,

It too recoiled, biting deep

Into His precious skin.

And each strong cord that He undid

Sprang back with all its might,

And threw upon His arms and back

The fullness of its spite.

When I could bear no more I cried

“I don’t deserve such grace!

It is not fair that you should bleed

And suffer in my place.”

With no response, He carried on.

I heard one final crack.

He lifted me, from bonds set free,

And placed me on His back.

Then slowly climbed back to the path –

His blood mixed with my tears.

Somehow His love had conquered sin,

And banished all my fears.

I hoped that He would take me to

The tree with no delay.

Instead He put me on the path

Where first my feet did stray.

Then very gently placed my hand

Back on the iron rod,

And for a while walked with me

The pathway home to God.

And someday when I’ve reached the tree,

I’ll fall down at the feet

Of Him who drank the bitter cup,

And made this fruit so sweet.

Yes, Even at Harvard

So this will just be a quick post but I just had to relate my story of coming to work today. . .

So I was walking through Harvard Yard on my way to work this morning (Harvard Yard is the big area enclosed by the main dorms and buildings that make up Harvard College). Normally at quarter after eight there are some students milling around but it is more or less quiet. This morning however there was a big gathering of students who seemed to be formed into groups and were each wearing matching colors and holding big signs and banners. Needless to say I was slightly intrigued about what would bring these students out on a cold morning. I quickly found out. As I stopped to watch for a minute, a group of about 20 students burst out from the middle of the pack and began a lap around the Yard. . . in speedos and bikinis, yikes! :) I can only assume this had to do with some sort of initiation or something for the campus Frats and Sororities since they were chanting something I did not understand as they ran. Anyway, it was about the last thing I had expected to see but could only think, Yes, even at Harvard there are students who will run around in almost nothing in freezing temperatures. :)

Yeah, it's been a while

So it has been quite a while since our last post. And because we are lame we didn't even get our camera out during Christmas break. (I suppose in Tyler's defense he was studying for his first set of finals so it was probably my job to take the pics, oops). So here are some more recent things that have been going on in good ole bean town. Last Monday, Tyler and I got to go to the Celtics/Suns game at the Garden (thanks Mom and Dave!!). It was a lot of fun especially since Tyler is a pretty devoted Suns fan and I am quickly becoming a devoted Celtics fan. We even each had a t-shirt for our team.


You can kind of see our T-shirts here. For any of you who didn't watch or hear about the game, Tyler is making that face because, well, it wasn't such a hot night for the Suns. Luckily though, they won a game last night and have a chance to take out the Spurs this week so hopefully they can redeem themselves. :)

This is a picture of the scoreboard at halftime. You can't see it too well but the score is 64-34 and for the Suns it didn't get much better from there, but for any of my fellow Celtics fans-Go Celtics!



These next pictures are from Saturday when we went Candlepin Bowling with some of the other 1L (first year) law students in our ward. Candlepin bowling was actually invented here in Massachusetts and is actually a pretty big thing here in New England and Eastern Canada. It is mostly the same as regular bowling except for the pins are skinnny and straight up and down and the balls are much smaller. The place we went to has actually been around since the 1930's so it was a fun thing to get to do.

Here is Tyler in action he actually did really well, despite the fact that he would usually use his other arm. As you can see there is only one pin left.

Here's me also in action, though for anyone who has seen me at regular bowling, I am just as bad at this. :) This is a good shot though to show the size of the ball.

Here is a pretty bad picture of the pins, because the place is so old it doesn't have amazing lighting but I think you can kind of get the idea.

This is the group that we went with, all of the husbands are 1L's at HLS and one of the other girls also works at HBS with me. The girl in the middle works with molecular biologist at BU as a research assistant. Anyway, it was a ton of fun and for anyone who comes out to visit you'll have to give it a try!

Yay for Christmas!

So since our Thanksgiving consisted of Chinese food and Wii playing we were anxious to move on to Christmas. So I instigated a Christmas Extravaganza the day after and we got everything all ready for the season to begin. So Friday we drove out to Marlborough, MA and went to "The Tree Farm" and we actually got to walk around their little grove of trees and find our favorite and then we got to saw it down. Which, considering Tyler only has one arm and I am not much of a woodsman was quite the event. :) We also got some ornaments and lights and then took it home to decorate. Once we were done putting up decorations we had gingerbread cookies and watched Elf, hurray for Christmas. :) The other picture here is of the wreath I made at our ward's Wreathmaking Enrichment night. Now let me tell you, this is serious business. This activity has been going on in New England wards for the last 50 years and actually started in our ward so it is a very cherished tradition and has all the characteristics of an event that has had that long to grow. I was part of the committe that planned it and it was a bit nuts getting everything ready. But I must admit that it was a really wonderful night and I think my wreath even turned out pretty well too. :)

I think this picture doesn't quite show how big the wreath actually is, but it is bigger than you might think.

Here is a picture of pretty much all our Christmas decorations.

This is the nativity set I got last year for Christmas that I have been looking forward to putting up all year. I love the WillowTree statues and I especially loved the nativity. It always puts the right spirit in my heart when I see it. Tyler thought to put the tree pieces around it so that it didn't completely blend into the white blinds and window sill.

This is just a picture of our tree that we chopped down. Hurray for Christmas!

Head of the Charles, Halloween Pumpkins and Finally Pictures of Our Apartment

Sorry our posts are always so big. Hopefully they're not too big of a pain to load. The first pictures in this one are from an event we went to here in Cambridge called the Head of the Charles. It's a whole weekend-long rowing competition that apparently is really big. There were teams from all over the country that came to compete and race down the Charles River. I have never been into rowing much but it was pretty fun to watch,especially when you can hear the yellers in the front of boats when they are trying to pass each other. :) The other pictures are of our Halloween pumpkins and we finally put up pictures of our apartment for those who were interested. :)

In case it wasn't obvious Tyler's is the one of Gollum on the left and mine is the cutesy one on the right. :)



We love our stools-thanks mom and dad