Christmas Is Here: Knitting/Crocheting Edition

With traveling to Virginia for Christmas and packing for two people, for two weeks in just carry-on luggage kind of limits what you're able to bring for Christmas presents, so since we bought our tickets to come to Virginia I have been knitting and crocheting like crazy so I could make some gifts for Neil's family.



1. Is a hat I knitted for Tanya
2. Is a headband/ear warmers I knitted Tamara, the flower I twisted up using light cotton fabric
3. Is a headband/ear warmers I knitted for Haley, the flower is crocheted
4. Is a hat a knitted for Kenly, the flower is crocheted

Neil and I are having a wonderful time in Virginia enjoying being with friends and family and we're hoping you are also having an amazing Christmas!

One Year of Bliss

One year ago today Neil and I started our amazing journey through eternity together.


We've had lots of laughs.


And lots of these romantic leaning against a fence post and moving in slowly for a kiss moments, haha.


Pretty much this last year has been the best year of my life. I'm so grateful for a wonderful husband who is always so understanding and aware of my feelings. He is perfect for me and I'm trying everyday to be perfect for him. I can't wait to spend forever with him, but I'll gladly take my time doing it. I love you Neil!

Christmas With David A & The MOTAB

Neil and I were lucky enough to get tickets to go see Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square on Thursday night. It of course was freezing that night so we bundled up (as much as a girl wearing a skirt and tights can bundle up) and set out to Salt Lake City.

We hadn't gone to Temple Square to see the lights yet so after the cold journey from the car and a walk through the Visitor's Center to defrost, we walked around Temple Square and saw the beautiful lights.


They have nativities from all different cultures set up around the temple which is one of my favorite parts.

And since it's Christmas of course they had millions of lights.


I think Christmas lights + The Temple = The most beautiful thing EVER...well other then my husband of course, but you get the picture. I could have looked at them for hours...but it was windy and freezing (literally), so I'll have to talk to the prophet about putting up the lights in July so we can all enjoy them more, haha.

After walking around Temple Square for a little bit we decided we should go and take our seats in the Conference Center which were surprisingly close to the stage.


The stage was beautifully decorated and the program was amazing! We'll definitely try to get tickets again next year.

My New "Do"

Today I went from this...


to this...



I'm not sure how Neil feels about the change but he was supportive of me chopping it off and I love it! The next time I get it cut I'll probably go even shorter in the back just for fun.

Neil's a Big Boy Now

Neil's birthday was Saturday so I had lots of fun stuff planned for his big day.


Friday night we went out on a hot date to Thai Siam in Salt Lake. It was crazy good...especially the curry Neil ordered so I decided that Neil would order for me at restaurants from now on because his food is always better than mine. Afterward we walked around the local mall and spent a good hour in Barnes and Noble and then when we got home we watched a movie and I let the birthday boy pick, so he picked 2 Fast 2 Furious.

On Saturday (his actual birthday) Neil had to go to work super early for a few hours and I had made him a goody basket to take to work, but of course I forgot to give it to him but he didn't seem to mind. When he got home he got to open his present...which he had already opened a few nights before because I was just too excited and literally had to beg him to open it early but eventually with some groveling on my part he begrudgingly opened his present...sad I know.


But I wrapped it and he opened it again on his actual birthday and he still liked it which was good, haha.


I got him something from his favorite store, Cabela's. It's called Star Target and pretty much you shoot it and it explodes. We saw our friend use it to explode a pumpkin after Halloween and it was so cool so I made a mental note and got it for him for his birthday but told him that we couldn't used it until summer because I want to enjoy seeing him use his birthday present because it's so cold now.

That afternoon we went over to our friend Mattie's house and spent some time with him, eating pizza, brownies and ice cream and playing Beatles Rockband (the best game ever).


Mattie and Neil also played some zombie killing game or something while I cooked, cleaned and knitted, haha. (Neil makes the funniest faces when he's playing games.)

Overall the birthday was a success...so much so this is turning into a birthday weekend and Neil keeps saying "but it's my birthday weekend" to get his way...and it's kind of working, haha.

Christmas Came A Month Early

We had a super yummy Thanksgiving dinner with my family on Thursday...and I was very proud of myself because I didn't eat myself into total oblivion. After dinner Neil and I planned out our Black Friday travels and at 10 o'clock p.m. Neil and I started our Black Friday adventure at Toys R Us.

It was my first Black Friday ever, but luckily Neil was a veteran and prepared me as best he could. Toys R Us was a mad house...the line wrapped around the store and went down the street quite a ways. After Toys R Us we went straight to Walmart and I thought I was prepared, but I was not at all. The deals we were there for started at 12:01 a.m. and they were all on crates wrapped in plastic wrap so people couldn't start grabbing them before the appropriate time...but at like 11:56 p.m. everyone started ripping the plastic wrap off and I started freaking out. Neil only put me in charge of grabbing 4 things while he got 10 things, haha,and luckily we got everything we wanted!

Our next adventure didn't start until 3 a.m. at Kohl's but we went home after Walmart and fell asleep by accident and didn't end up getting to Kohl's until 6 a.m. and then Neil went straight to Pep Boys and we finished Black Friday with True Value and Ace Hardware.

After a full night of shopping Neil and I were very excited to look at all of our presents we got :)


This is me and all of my presents :) I got the movies 17 Again and 27 Dresses, as well as a vacuum cleaner, crock pot, 10 piece frame set, a mini chopper, and a spice rack!


Neil with his goodies...he got 2 portable power systems so we can jump start our cars and one has a tire inflator, he also got a dremel set, some extension cords, and he got the movies Spider-man 3, the first three Fast and the Furious movies, X-Men: The Last Stand, and I Am Legend.


Together we both got the games KerPlonk, Chinese Checkers, Othello, Scrabble Slam, and Yahtzee. We also got a few movies that we both love like Batman Begins, Walk the Line, Ice Age, Casino Royale, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith, we also have The Dark Knight and all six Harry Potter movies on their way.

We saved over 330 dollars so lets just say I am converted to shopping on Black Friday!

No Work So I'll Knit Instead...

My work is kind of on the same schedule as the Alpine School District, so we get a Fall and Spring Break, two weeks off for Christmas, and three days off around Thanksgiving...it's really nice.

Since it's been getting cold and the holidays are coming up I've been knitting a lot, and since I didn't have work today I pretty much knitted all day and between gifts for other people I decided to make a little gift for myself.



I've seen the headbands on various craft blogs and decided they couldn't be too hard to make, so I made one. It is really easy and took me less then ten minutes, so I decided I that I'm going to make a lot of these in various colors because they're comfy and they make a pony tail look cuter if I may say so myself.


(Just ignore that I'm not wearing any makeup...it's my day off)

Thing's are Getting a Little Hairy Around Here...

When Neil and I met in 2007 he was always clean shaven, and then when we started dating in 2009 he like never shaved and this trend has continued, so today was the last straw and Neil had to cut his hair and shave off his beard!


(Neil wanted me to add that he was trying to look crazy in those pictures...but he's just letting his true colors shine, haha. Oh and the pictures on the right he combed his beard to make it crazy puffy and yucky looking...which he thinks is funny for some reason...)


And finally the scratchy beard is gone! He looks like a completely different person...I'm constantly looking over and then remembering "Oh yeah, he shaved off his beard." He kinda looks like a baby without all the facial hair doesn't he? Haha.

...so Neil and I will be making our way there for our 1 year anniversary and also for Christmas, and we're so excited!

A Magical Halloween

It's so crazy that Halloween has come and gone already! Neil and I had a very good Halloween season.

First of all we carved a pumpkin. It was Neil's first time carving a pumpkin so he was very pumped about it, haha. He gave me the pleasure of taking all the gross goo out of the pumpkin. His excuse was that he didn't know what to do since he'd never done it before.


Neil then carved the pumpkin, and he did an amazing job. He made sure it was perfect, and as you can see (hopefully) our pumpkin turned into Pirate Jack. Neil was so excited when it was done and we put a candle in it. He'd look out on our porch constantly and kept talking about how awesome it was...it was really cute. And as you can see in the picture below Neil wanted to bring the pumpkin in every night because it was cold/snowy, and Neil even watched television with the pumpkin :).


I'd been bugging Neil about what we were going to dress up as for Halloween, but he didn't want to dress up and claimed we would have no where to go, so I took care of that problem by signing up to bring dessert to our Ward Halloween Party. Since it was Halloween after all I decided to make a Pumpkin Cookie Cake. We had to borrow the pizza pan from my mom, and after I'd made the dough and put it on the pizza pan I went to put it in the oven, and it didn't fit! I was stressing out like crazy while Neil of course was calm and rational. He called his cousins who live on the next street over and we went to their house to cook the cake, so our crisis was averted.

Our costumes for the Halloween Party were a bunny (me) and a magician (Neil). The entire week before the party we were shopping and brain storming about what we could be, but since we were incredibly short on time most of our ideas weren't possible, so we started thinking of the easiest costume we could do and decided on a magician and bunny.


The Halloween weekend was so fun! Full of parties and eating sweets while watching movies like Ghostbusters (1 and 2) and Harry Potter! We already know what we're going to be next year and I'm going to get to working on it ASAP :).

Not Ready For This One

This morning I woke up at my usual time to get ready for work, but as soon as I woke up I knew something was very wrong. I innocently peeked outside and I saw it...six ugly inches of white, fluffy, disgusting snow.


I should have seen it coming...it's been flirting over falling for a few days, but I just really wasn't ready. And sure, it looks nice and inviting...it's saying "Make me into a snowman" but what it really means is "When you're driving I'm going to get you stuck on hills and make you spin 360's just to laugh at you!"

So I'm cautioning you, snow is armed and dangerous, and yes he's here and here to stay.

Just Pokin' Around

Neil and I came home from shopping tonight and saw something crawling around under our front stairs. We weren't exactly sure what it was, but then we noticed some very large spikes coming out of it's back and saw that it was a PORCUPINE!


At first we freaked out because we weren't sure if it was going to charge us or run it's pokey bum into our ankles so Neil, being the brave husband, got out of the car and crept up the stairs to see if it was safe. The porcupine was completely still for a while and then it started crawling out from under the stairs-during this I was sitting in the car helpless and screaming my head off telling Neil not to go near him because I was fearing the worst. When it was on the move I was freaking out thinking that he might go up the stairs and attack my poor, courageous husband who was stranded up there with no keys because I had them in the car so that the headlights were shining towards Neil for safety precautions.

The porcupine luckily didn't go up the stairs, but went and hid in a bush instead. He is really quite cute when he's a fair distance from you and his bum is facing away.

Little Miss Business Lady

So this past weekend my friend Aly and I went to Kansas City, Missouri to the Division of Early Childhood International Conference. Aly and I had a really good time, and she was the perfect person to go with because she and her husband got married the same day Neil and I did, so she was having withdrawals just like I was. The three days I was in Kansas City were the first time Neil and I had been apart for longer then like 8-10 hours since we've been married, so I missed him a lot, but he was very supportive of me going.

It was the first time Aly and I had ever been to Kansas City, but we were instructed by Neil that we had to do one thing, and one thing only...eat barbecue, so for our first meal in Kansas City Aly and I ate at The Three Little Pigs, and I got Kansas City Burnt Tips which was what Neil told me I had to get, and they were amazing!


Friday and Saturday, my day consisted of listening to lectures/presenters, eating, sleeping, eating some more and watching television. Since Saturday night was our last night in Kansas City and we hadn't really seen the city at all, Aly and I went exploring!

Our first stop was this adorable store that sold soap, lotion, bath crystals and a bunch of cute crafts and everything is homemade! Let's just say we got a bunch of cute craft ideas, like those button rings, the necklace, and cute coasters. Also those delicious pastries aren't pastries at all but adorable soap that this family made to look like cupcakes and pie, etc., crazy huh!?


We then went to the Union Station which was beautiful. The ceiling had amazing tile and the building was so big! It's no longer a train station but there is a Dinosaur Museum in there now, haha.


We also got to see the World War I Memorial which was also amazing!


At the end of the day there was a beautiful sunset as Aly and I got ready to say goodbye to Kansas City.


I am definitely not in Kansas anymore...I'm back home in beautiful Utah with my amazing husband, who missed me as much as I missed him, but Kansas City was a good time while it lasted.

One Jazzy Night

So last night was the first Jazz game of the season...okay it was actually the preseason but you get the picture. Neil and I went on our first date to a Jazz game so I have a soft spot for them, and plus they're so dang fun!


As you can see Neil and I really enjoyed ourselves :)

It was so fun to see the new players-I'm a big fan of Gordon Hayward, and Neil likes a lot of the new players too, like Raja Bell and Al Jefferson. And the Jazz got a new logo...well it's actually their old logo with some color changes, but it looks so much better, and their jerseys are way better too.

We were playing the Trail Blazers/Jail Blazers and we were looking pretty good. We played a little sloppy, but that's to be expected for the first game, and the starters weren't playing for a lot of the game, but our new boys were doing really well.



The halftime performance was the Wheeling Jr. Jazz-boys and girls that had spinal injuries that played basketball in their 2500-3000 dollar wheelchairs. They were amazing to watch...if only I had arms as strong as they do, it's incredible.



Jazz Bear was also entertaining as always...He's crazy, as you can see he's on like a bajillion foot tall ladder, and he walks up the railings on the stairs, and he sleds down the stairs.


Here is the score board before we left the game, and the score did not change in the last 7.2 seconds, resulting in a Jazz victory!


And as you can see the crowd was going wild! GO JAZZ!

New Eye Decor

I have had the same glasses since before I started college, so I was in need of an update. I wanted to keep the same style of glasses, but decided to go a little green on my new pair...drum roll please...


I have recently learned that there is something wrong with my cornea...apparently it's supposed to be smooth and mine is bumpy, so I'll be wearing my glasses pretty regularly from now on. I was a little nervous to get these since they're you know...green, but I have really liked them so far, and they make me feel like a cool kid, so I'm happy with my decision.


I know this picture is pretty much useless because you can't even see how they look on me, but when taking a picture in glasses there tends to be a reflection, but trust me they look fabulous, haha, well at least Neil says they do which is all that matters right?

Triple Timing It

So apparently there is a National Forest like 15 minutes from our house, so for one of our last summer outings, we went to the National Forest and hiked up to the Timpanogos Caves.


We got to the park at 8:30 and we had to be up to the caves by 10:10, so we started walking up the mile and a half trail. The Park Rangers tell everyone to plan an hour and a half to walk up the trail because you gain 1,065 feet in elevation...meaning the trail is like straight up the entire time. So we started walking and then I looked at my watch and said to Neil that we weren't going to make it for our tour time, so we started booking it. We were like 100 yards from the cave and then I looked at my watch and realized that I had read my watch wrong and it was only 9:00! So we walked up that crazy trail in a third of the recommended time. Needless to say, after that I knew my body would be killing me for a week which it did. But the cave was really cool!

This is where we stopped to rest for an hour before our tour time...I don't know how people hauled babies up that trail I barely made it just myself...oh and as you can see from my insanely red face, I was feeling the burn.


After we got to our hour long resting place we could enjoy the view, and it was beautiful



That little stone building to the right is the bathroom, cool huh?

Our tour through the cave was about 45 minutes long, and it was way cold in there, but it was refreshing compared to how hot it was outside.




Neil wanted me to inform everyone that the guy in the yellow with the yucky sweaty back is not him.




The Park Ranger that took us through the cave was way cool, except for the fact that she kept talking about how we were due for another earthquake, so it was a relief to get out of the cave alive.