Christmas Eve / Christmas

Starting off with a little train ride to see Santa :)

Then Lauren took pics of me to show me how to use my new camera

Our pretend Christmas card this year..

Christmas Eve beauty mask..

"Can you OD on facemasks?"

It's the Small Things

This December I am really trying to soak up the Christmas spirit. I have yet to build a gingerbread house or do anything snow-related (I mean I guess it's only the 11th).. HOWEVER, this is the first year of my short life that I have focused on getting more than just one or two people presents. It feels like such an accomplishment. In the past I have always felt like a bad gift giver. I never knew what to get people so I just procrastinated finding something until it was too late.

This year I think I felt extra motivation because being married I acquired nieces and nephews, and the thought of not getting them a gift just felt wrong. So after thinking of them I came up with a whole list of people that I felt I needed to give gifts, to show them that Ryan and I love and care about them. We don't have a tree so we just have piled the gifts on the wall next to our bed.

On top of Christmas, one of my BEST friends is getting married this month, on the 22nd!!! So that has been a blast getting ready for as well. We had her bridal shower and it was so much fun. I never thought a winter wedding could be a good idea, but now I'm realizing how cute and magical it can be to get married during this time. I have my bridesmaid dress picked out and her bachelorette party is this upcoming weekend. I can't wait to get all dressed up and have a girls night out. She picked the Melting Pot, so we will be living the high life for the night. :)

I was also able to take my little sister on a train ride to the North Pole when Ryan's parents gave me their tickets which was really nice! Trin is just at that age where she still believes in Santa and can still appreciate the fun. My favorite part personally was the cookie and hot chocolate they gave us. My sugar addiction is very well encouraged during the holidays.

THEN, Ryan and I got to see JIM GAFFIGAN this last Friday night!! We have listened to all his recorded sketches and we love him, so seeing him live was seriously AWESOME. These are our happy faces after the show. His opening line to the audiences was...."Okay, okay, I'll convert, sheesh!" Haha.

I am so blessed with a great job, an amazing husband, close friends and family and the chance to make new memories. My grandpa has a new winter picture he created that I am in love with and hope to get a framed copy of soon. I know there are people out there who think Christmas is a scam and hate it, but I think it's fabulous.

I am also obsessed with candles that make my house smell good and have burned through them faster than usual these last few weeks. We have a scentsy burner that has cinnamon in it currently, and I also have 3 candles that I'm loving right now. Target is my best friend when it comes to candles. I used to only buy them at anthropology, but Target has shown me good quality for a better price!

I took this pic after I took the one of the candle to show Ryan's favorite place to be: wrapped up in his blanket playing his xbox one when he isn't studying or working on school projects. He loved the intrusion. ;)

I can't wait to see what the rest of this month holds.

Thanksgiving

Here is how life is going right now. I feel loads better about things than I did last time I posted. Ryan and I have most people's Christmas presents ordered or already wrapped, and I'm so excited for Christmas!!!!

It was our first married thanksgiving this year and I'd say it went really well. We went to my grandmas at 12 and brought the veggie tray. For some reason I wasn't really in the mood to be surrounded by the dozens of children (my wonderful cousins) that were running around. I think my weekend desire to be around kids has dwindled quite a bit due to my job as a pediatric dental assistant. So I guess I was a little on edge. But then we ate, and I got over it. After all they are my family and I love em! Towards the end of the meal it was time to share poems. My family has this awesome tradition where we write poems for thanksgiving. They are always my favorite part of the day. This year Elias, Jenny, my mom and her "friend" Gideon, Trinity, and Winslow all shared.

After the poems Ryan and I got back in our car and went to his parents house for second Thanksgiving. I made a banana cream pie exactly the way my mom makes it and I ended up eating 3/4ths of it by the next day. It was mostly Ryan's immediate family there joined by a few other family members. We ate for only a few minutes it seems like and then we were off again.

Ryan's mission friend turned cousin in-law wanted to head to target for some Black Friday deals. We went with him and his wife Kylie and stood in line for an hour waiting for the store to open. Once it did we rushed in and us girls calmly browsed around as the boys ran to get our Black Friday prizes. Ryan ended up with an XBox One and something else that was supposed to be a Christmas surprise for me.

After Target it was time to go to a thanksgiving movie. Ryan's family chose Moana and I was really looking forward to it. It ended up being us 4 Target shoppers joined by Ryan's sis, sister-in-law Sharlene and her kiddos, and Ryan's parents. The movie was better than I could have imagined. Ryan and I were obsessed with the music and the fact that Jemaine Clement plays the crab who sings about being shiny.

When we got back to Ryan's parents house it felt like midnight, but I don't think it really was.. Ryan decided to open and play with his new Xbox that he was originally planning to sell... *cough cough*, and I sat next to him and I geeked out looking up all the facts about the story of Moana and who Maui was and such.

We eventually went to bed and then I ate a bunch of the pie I made the next morning for breakfast! It was a busy day and a good day.

October 31st

Today is Halloween, and the end of October. I have done more this month than I expected. I married someone who loves October as much if not more than I do, so that has really helped. We have watched Halloween movies (even a scary one, which is still scaring me), we went to a haunted house, drank pumpkin steamers, ran through the fall leaves, gone to parties, dressed up, and soaked up the season.

On an un-Halloweenie note, Ryan found a bread maker at a thrift store last week that he was SO excited about. He has made pizza and bread sticks from scratch with doe from the bread maker that we've enjoyed in our little basement apartment together.

Today I slept in because I don't have to be to work until 2. I put on Hocus Pocus and watched it by myself. Now I'm sitting here just kind of waiting for the time to pass and wondering what Ryan and I are going to do tonight. We don't have any parties to go to, we don't have any kids to take trick or treating, and our October budget for activities is spent. We will probably be going out to Chinese for dinner using one of the gift cards we got for our wedding. And we will watch the new Ghost Busters movie.

It's okay that we won't be doing anything crazy tonight. We have had such a good month.

Can you tell how happy he was to be a dinosaur? That's called last second costume planning. :)

August 17th 2016

Our wedding day was one of the most sacred and important days of my life. I married the person I had been attached to at the soul for a long time.

I married the kid who asked me to junior prom. The kid who I went to Ikea with after school one day when we realized we both wanted the same shelf for our rooms. The same kid who I would dodge in the halls at school after we stopped dating because it was weird. I married the kid who took me snow boarding and showed me Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service. I married the kid who gave me the best 'first kiss' I've ever had.

I married the guy I shared my personal growth with on so many levels, the guy who I would sit in my car and talk to for hours; the guy I could cry to about my deepest concerns. I married the guy I said goodbye to on June 20th 2012 as he left to serve his mission. I married the guy I called from England on Christmas morning to tell him I wanted to serve too. I married the guy who watched me as I went from a girl with little faith and no religion, to one who would live for what I believe and know to be true.

I married the guy that I wrote for 2 years and 9 months. I married the guy that would send me voice recorded tapes and tell me about his week, and I would do the same. I married the guy that I didn't know if I'd be with when I came home from my mission. The one who I cried over, and who cried over me.

And I married the man who came back to me. The one who said he was sorry, and that he missed me. I married the man that I said sorry to. I married the man who told me I was amazing for reasons I couldn't see. I married the man who made me feel at home whenever I was with him. I married the man who told me countless times how much he loves my family, and who appreciated their quirks the same way that I do. I married the man who let me lean on him when I was breaking down, and who told me that I can do and be anything that I want to be.

The morning of our wedding I had no idea what it was going to feel like inside the Temple. Our temple recommends ended up being in Taylorsville when we were in Provo ready to get married. I knew it would be okay, but the tears were coming anyway. I wanted to marry Ryan so badly, and I was so ready. The temple workers were so incredibly kind and helpful and assured both of us that we'd be getting married that morning. Ryan's cousin Kylie was amazing and brought our recommends to the temple for us so we could proceed. They had us go into the celestial room and wait for a little while. I have never been so close to heaven as I was during this time. Ryan and I were so happy and the mutual feeling we shared of actually being at the place we were is indescribable.

Being sealed to Ryan was sacred and beautiful. Having so many of our family members and our best friends with us sharing in the moment was overwhelming. Our sealer was the sweetest man. I honestly don't know how to explain what it was like. It was Heaven.

I know that what we did is forever. I know that God's hand is in our marriage and relationship.

The rest of the day was so much fun and I just couldn't believe all of the love and support we received from everybody we love so much. But our sealing took the cake. Every time I think back to it I feel so much warmth come over me. Being sealed to Ryan is God's greatest gift to me.

The Best Time of Year

It is October. One of the great months of the year. Ryan and I love this month. The first October he and I were together is one of my most magical and cherished times, and I'm always looking to get that change-of-season-crisp-colorful-slightly-spookie-warm-fall-time feeling. 

So how do we celebrate the changing colors of the leaves and significantly shorter daylight hours?

First, we LOVE movies. We love Tim Burton and Henry Selick directed movies. We like to watch the things like Nightmare Before Christmas, Coraline, Edward Scissorhands, Frankenweenie, Paranorman, Corpse Bride, etc. Very genre specific. Ryan loves actually scary movies... but me, not so much. So we stick with animated pseudo horror and it keeps us both happy.

How else do we embrace the season? Well, there's pumpkin steamers (SO, SO sweet but SO, SO yummy), pumpkin and autumn scented candles in our home, walks on the pipeline trail in Milcreek Canyon, runs through our tree-rich neighborhood, haunted 5k's (photos to come), and Witches Night Out at Gardner Village. That last one is for me and the women in my family. I can't WAIT.

There is also music. I was reading some autumn playlists on different blogs and it inspired me to think of mine. I decided to put together a more Halloween specific playlist. Music that gives me the Halloween vibe. So here it is:

Aliens Exist- Blink 182

Lonely Town- Brandon Flowers

Spaceman- The Killers

Skin of the Night- M83

Stay Young, Go Dancing- Death Cab for Cutie

The Shade- Metric

Grand Hotel- Regina Spektor

Running With the Boys- Lights

Nightlight- Silversun Pickups

So there you have it. I'll try to document this beautiful time as much as I can.

Men Are That They Might Have Joy

General Conference 

October 2016

Here is one of the thoughts from conference this fall. My spirits are lifted and I feel so inspired to really be the best version of myself that I can be, and more than anything to be HAPPY.

"Life is filled with detours and dead ends; trials and challenges of every kind. Yet, we are here to have joy? Yes!"

"Saints can be happy under every circumstance.. We can feel joy no matter what is going on in our lives."

"When the focus of our lives is on God’s plan of salvation.. and Jesus’ gospel, we can feel joy regardless of what is happening—or not happening—in our lives.  Joy comes from and because of Him.  He is the source of all joy."

"When we feel the atonement working in our lives we will feel JOY."

- Elder Russel M. Nelson

My Fairy Tale

When I was 17, my friend Alyx asked me if I'd ever marry Ryan. She asked casually in our senior art class. Ryan and I were dating, but not seriously. I told her yes. I would.

And I did it 6 years later! After going to colleges 3 hours apart, going on missions at different times, hundreds of emails and letters, a few breakups, a few heartbreaks, and a lot of amazing times, we made it.

Our first trip as a solo couple. We weren't even engaged yet. Zion National Park.

Family Trip to Southern Utah

Oregon / Seattle Pre-marriage trip

This was taken before the M83 concert.