Christmas 2012

We had an awesome Christmas this year with our families! On Christmas Eve we rode the Frontrunner up to Riverton and spent the evening there eating food, singing songs, and playing games. We were so glad we ended up taking the Frontrunner instead of driving because there was a big blizzard and who knows what would have happened if we had tried to drive! 

Us on the Frontrunner

We rode on the top level of the Frontrunner and everyone up there was so cheery and excited for Christmas that they sang Christmas songs the whole way up (I took video of it but I am having a hard time uploading it so I will have to post it later). Then the UTA workers gave everyone candy canes.

On Christmas morning Jon had to work but I spent the morning with my family eating yummy food, playing games, and opening presents. Jon came when his shift was over and then we got to wear our matching Christmas Pajamas!

Our Christmas PJs

We spent the rest of the night playing more games and singing Christmas songs. We didn't get anything for one another this Christmas (aside from the PJs) because we wanted to save our money for our Anniversary instead which is coming up in just a few days....but we will have to tell you about that in our next post. :)

We Wish You A Merry Christmas!

For those of you who didn't see our Christmas Card this year, here is the digital version:

To all our Family and Friends, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

First Tree

Yesterday Jon and I got our very first Christmas tree together! 

We wanted to get a little one this year. Maybe we will upgrade to bigger trees as the years go on, but for now, this one feels just right for us and makes us very happy.

Now our house smells like pine. It's great!

'Tis The Season

It's that time of year again and we are so excited for Christmas time (although, we are a little disappointed at the lack of snow)! We decided to celebrate the start of Christmas season with a little trip to the Riverwoods mall to look at the lights. If you haven't gone, we highly recommend going--its free and a great date night idea! 

This is our family's official kick off for the Christmas season. Let the countdown to Christmas begin!

A Birthday Weekend

Although I don't exactly love getting older, I did have a great birthday this year. I spent the day hanging out with my oldest nephew, Kannon. Then when Jon got home from work he spoiled me with an itunes gift card and then he took me out to Chic-fil-a. Then he was super sweet and then he took me to Thanksgiving Point where we watched Wreck It Ralph on the huge Mammoth screen! 

Mammoth Screen Tickets

Big Theater

Me and Jon right before the movie started (I just love him!)

Then a couple days later my Parent's had a little get together where everyone sang happy birthday to me and we had some delicious desserts that my sister made. 

They were amazing! Overall it was a great weekend and I am so grateful for my great family and my sweet, perfect husband!!

Election Day 2012

We voted today! We feel so blessed to be part of this amazing and beautiful country where we have the opportunity to do so many wonderful things including voting.

God Bless America!

Happy Halloween!

This year our Halloween was AWESOME. We finally had all the fun this year that we missed out on last year because Jon was in Idaho and I was in Utah during our engagement. We started out the evening with some yummy dinner:

Mummies 

And we spent the rest of the evening with some great people, showing off our costumes to whoever we could.

Jon even talked in his best Batman voice the entire night. Every time someone would say "Look! It's Batman!" He would use a deep, gruff voice to reply something like, "Hello, youth!" or "Will you help me find the Joker?" or "Have you seen Bane?"  It was pretty much the funnest Halloween EVER! I think Jon and I both agree, Halloween 2012 was a definite success!!!

Fall Festivities

Fall is here! Okay, so it has been for a while. But we just love it so much we had to post about it! After a big wind storm not too long ago, Fall really made itself known by practically showing up on our front door step:

And of course, we are getting really excited for Halloween. Even Milo is ready.

So with our Halloween costumes ready to go, and our decorations all set out, we decided that there was only one thing left to do before Halloween--carve our pumpkins! You have already seen the first three pumpkins from our garden, but here are the rest:

Skulls, Jekyll/Hyde, Gordon, Ichabod, Sophie, Odette, and Rapunzel

Here are the finished products:

Jekyll/Hyde

 (He never finished turning orange. So he earned his name because he couldn't decide what kind of pumpkin he wanted to be.)

Ichabod

Gordon

Skulls

TADA!

We decided to use Sophie, Odette, and Rapunzel to make more pumpkin puree. 

Now we are all ready for Halloween!

The Tale of Three Pumpkins

Once upon a time, in the city of Provo, there was a garden. The caretakers of this garden, whom we will call Caitlyn and Jon, planted a variety of plants and among them were corn, carrots, cantaloupe, cucumbers, and last but not least, pumpkins. At first, the pumpkin plants were small, but day by day they grew bigger...

And bigger.....

And bigger...

But there was no sign of the pumpkins coming from the plants. The caretakers were worried the pumpkins would not come, but they continued to wait patiently until one day a pumpkin was born!

After that first pumpkin came, several others followed. They grew so quickly that some of them were finished before pumpkin carving season had officially begun. So the caretakers decided to make use of the pumpkins in other ways. The first two were plucked off the vines by Caitlyn. The last was plucked by Jon, who accidentally broke the stem off it due to impatience. Having been officially brought into the real world. Caitlyn and Jon decided that it would be appropriate to name the pumpkins. The first pumpkin was named Stumpy, because he had short and stocky features. The second pumpkin was named Norman, because he was the most normal looking of the three.The last pumpkin was named Gimpy, because he was left without a stem due to Jon's impatience in getting him off the vine.

Gimpy      Norman    Stumpy

Caitlyn worked hard in the kitchen to prepare the pumpkins. She cut them in halves, cleaned out the seeds, baked them in the oven, and then with a spoon shoveled out the pumpkin insides and put them in a bowl to be pureed.

Then it was up to Jon to puree the pumpkins with a fork.

The puree was then drained and stored in the freezer for future use.

Instead of freezing Norman, Caitlyn decided to use him right away and made the first pumpkin bread of the season with grand results.

Yummy!

And that is the Tale of the Three Pumpkins. The End.

The Sleeper

I am a pretty light sleeper, and if I am going to turn over in my sleep, I usually wake myself in the middle of it. Jon on the other hand, is exactly the opposite. He is as heavy of a sleeper as they come. If I ever need to wake him up, it takes a good five minutes. I also tend to find him in the weirdest sleeping positions! Unfortunately I haven't been able to get a picture of all of them, but here are a few:

"The Feet"

"I Feel Pretty"

"Pillow Pondering"

"The Bum"
The last one is my favorite. He came straight home from work and fell asleep without even taking off his shoes! I always laugh out loud when I catch him in these hysterical moments. Luckily he sleeps too heavily to hear me.

A Sesame Street Birthday

This past weekend we attended a birthday party for one of our nephews. For Britian's 2nd birthday, his parents decided to throw him a party that was all about what he loves the most right now: Elmo and Sesame Street! The entire party was amazing--right down to the very last detail:

It's obvious that his mom went above and beyond to make his birthday extra special, and she succeeded. We could certainly tell that Britian had a blast!

Everything was AWESOME!!! And we loved the fun evening with pizza, birthday cake, candy, and family fun!