Christmas Stockings

Sewing project #2 = DONE. On Thanksgiving I made Sam and I's Christmas stockings. My mother-in-law, LuAnn, has made all her kids, their spouses, and grandkids such cute stockings that I decided I wanted to make Sam and I's stockings. LuAnn went with me to pick out fabric and helped me throughout the entire process... and I must say that I am SO grateful because I definitely could not have done it without her! I am still a beginner with this whole sewing business. It was fun to make the stockings though. They were not all that difficult and they turned out great!! I LOVE the fabric... neither are traditional Christmas colors/fabrics but I think they are super cute!

My stocking is on the left and Sam's is on the right.

My next project? A Christmas tree skirt. We will see how that one goes. Wish me luck!

Our Christmas Tree

Sam and I went and got ourselves a Christmas tree Friday night. And I must admit, it is a fake one. I grew up having a real tree EVERY Christmas, so I was a little reluctant to get a fake tree. Of course, we couldn't just let the little guy stay in the box, so we put up the tree as soon as we got home. We don't have any decorations yet, just lights, but I am still so excited about it!

Isn't it so cute? Our ceilings aren't very tall so it isn't the biggest tree. But I love it! Christmas season is my favorite time of the year. And I can't even tell you how much I LOVE Christmas trees. Whenever there is a Christmas tree up in my house, I always find a reason to turn the lights on and sit by the tree.

I am sure after this Christmas we won't have very many decorations on the tree, but I am excited to see what ones we can come up with! Hooray for the holidays! And that includes Thanksgiving too :)

Weekends are the BEST!!

It is so hard to go back to school and work after each weekend. They are just so wonderful! We especially had a good one this last weekend. Friday night we went to a movie which was exciting because that is not a common occurrence for us anymore. We even made it more exciting by taking Trax down to Gateway to see the movie! I don't know why but it was really fun!

A little blurry but this is us on Trax :)

We saw Moneyball... SUCH a good movie! We highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it yet. Sam and I aren't huge baseball fans but we still really loved the movie.

We also went to the Utah vs. UCLA football game this weekend... in the SNOW! For the first quarter (at least) it was snowing quite significantly. Before we left I wasn't really looking forward to the game because of the snow and the cold but it actually turned out to be pretty fun! I bundled up really well so I wasn't even cold at all. Plus, we won the game so that was great :)

I wanted proof that it was snowing a lot.

Just as a side note, Sam found this at JCPenney when we were roaming around and I thought it was SO funny! Plus it just looked ridiculous on him. And would on anyone for that matter I'm pretty sure.

Isn't he just the cutest? His face is priceless.

Needless to say I am not loving being back to the grind today... but I am very thankful I had such a fun weekend and that I have the most wonderful husband in the world!!!

Fall Fun

It is crazy how fast this year has gone by! It is almost over... which means that the semester is almost over as well. Thank goodness! Sam and I have really been enjoying the fall. We love the colors of the changing leaves, football season, going on walks in the crisp cold air, and snuggling up on the couch to keep warm. Hopefully the lack of continual snow holds up for a few more weeks! I am not holding my breath though...

Sam and I have done a few exciting things lately! Things that most people would probably think are really not exciting at all. A couple of weeks ago we decided we didn't want to sit at home (like we usually do) on a Friday night, so we ventured to Macy's. We still had gift cards from the wedding so we decided we would go see what we could find to spend them on :). We got a meat grinder attachment for our KitchenAid which we think is pretty sweet... AND, while we were there, I found this little gem... don't worry, I didn't buy it. I just thought it was hilarious.

For Halloween we really didn't do anything special, considering I had class the night of Halloween. We did carve pumpkins though... which I LOVE to do! Last year I pretty much did all the pumpkin carving myself and Sam tried to take credit for it (even though he hardly did anything). This year though, Sam will have you know that he did pretty much everything. The only thing I did was come up with what the pumpkin would look like. Otherwise, Sam did everything else.

Isn't it so cute? We love the little Utah mouth with the lonely tooth in it.

Just last weekend we had our niece, Lucy, over Friday night to hang out. She kept telling her parents that she wanted to have a sleepover with us and we would definitely not turn down an offer like that (since we are the favorite aunt and uncle after all). While she did not end up sleeping over, we still had a good time playing with her. We built a fort in our living room, moved the TV into the fort, and watched "Tangled." I had already seen the movie a handful of times but I would never say no to watching it another time... it's just so cute!

Cute Lucy in the fort waiting so patiently for the movie to start.

Last thing... I had been SO bugged by the completely bare walls in our room (seriously, there was absolutely nothing hung up) that I decided it was time for me to take action. It took a while for the project to get completed, but it is finally done! It is nothing extravagant but it is better than nothing! I am very happy with the finished product!

This is up right above our bed. I love it!!

Projects...

Once again, I have failed at blogging. Life just gets so busy sometimes! I really have been meaning to update this thing but just have not gotten around to it.

Nothing terribly exciting has happened around here lately. Just the same old school, work, homework, and (unfortunately) watching really sad Utah football games. (Side note: it is not fun watching your football team lose pretty bad game after game. The Utes need to get their acts together pronto!). We have, however, done a couple fun projects lately.  

For one, Sam and his brother Jon put bead board up on the back of our kitchen counter so it looks much prettier now!

One thing I did a couple weeks ago was make a cute Halloween runner for our kitchen table! And the coolest thing about it? I sewed it all by myself!! For me this was a HUGE accomplishment. I literally had never really sewed anything my entire life. Very sad, I know. Luckily I have a mother-in-law who is great at sewing and she taught me how to do it! Well okay, she taught me the beginning steps. She was very patient while I made the runner (probably took me a million times longer than it would take her) and let me/made me do all the sewing myself. For those of you who know me know what a perfectionist I am. This does not help projects like these go fast AT ALL. But I persevered and finally did it!

Isn't it so cute?! I must say, I am pretty proud of this thing. Hopefully my first of many sewing projects. (I am determined to learn how to sew well).

I especially like it with my cute pumpkin candle holder :)

As a side note, I just have to tell about something cute Sam did for me last week. Mondays I get home late from class and Sam is kind enough to make us dinner those nights. So... last Monday night this is what I came home to:

The picture doesn't do it justice (camera is still dead) but he bought me flowers, had a candlelit dinner, had romantic music on, and made some delicious food! Isn't that SO cute?!?! Seriously I was so happy I could hardly contain myself. I know I am a little biased, but I think I have the best husband EVER!!!!!

Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day weekend seems like forever ago now but we did such fun things so I have to share! The night before Labor Day we went camping... in our front yard. Daniel (brother-in-law) thought it would be fun to set up tents and camp out in the yard. So we did. The front yard at our house isn't terribly big but we made it work.

Our tent is the cute little gray and orange one.

I really did not help much with putting up the tent... but Sam sure did a great job!

I played with little Whitters instead :)

We all had a good time chatting and hanging out together. 

We even made our own campfire and roasted s'mores in the driveway!

Sam with cute baby Matthew.

It was so fun to see Lucy enjoy "camping" so much. In the morning she came and cuddled with Sam and I in our tent and told us the cutest things (like that we are her "best friends"). She is a doll.

I also have to note that Sam and I slept on a blow up twin-size mattress in our tent. I was not too excited about our sleeping arrangements at first but it actually wasn't bad! Sam kept me nice and toasty and I actually had plenty of room to sleep. Camping in the front yard was a pretty good time.

On the actual holiday Sam and I did the usual chores, bike ride, etc. Later that evening, though, we decided to make grilled pizza for everyone... and boy did it turn out to be delicious! We were nervous because it was our first time making pizza on the grill but it turned out to be a huge success! We made all different kinds of pizza... hawaiian, pepperoni, bbq chicken, and a super veggie one. What a great ending to a long, fun, relaxing weekend!

Sam in one of his mom's aprons. He thought this one was pretty cool because it had a towel on the front to wipe his hands on. I personally just thought he looked so cute in it!

The delicious veggie pizzas. We had grilled zucchini too (which is so so good)!

Some of the other beautiful pizzas.

What a great weekend to spend with our family and enjoy one another's company! Can't wait for another long weekend!

Go Utes!

Fall is always a great time of year for us... it means FOOTBALL season is here!!! One game down, many more to go! Here's to hoping Utah has a great season and kicks some serious behind! GO UTES!!!

Sam's 24th Birthday

Sam just recently had a birthday! His birthday was on August 23rd. Sadly it was the second day of the semester and Sam had class late that night so, as a family, we celebrated Sam's birthday the following Friday night... we had steak, baked potatoes, grilled asparagus, pistachio salad, and all kinds of delicious food! I also made Sam a birthday cake... that began as a complete disaster. I tried twice to bake two 9" round cakes but the cakes did not come out clean either time. Luckily we were able to save the second attempt and turn it into a pretty decent cake!

It might have not been the prettiest looking cake, but it sure tasted good!

The very cute birthday boy :)

Lucy helping Sam blow out his candles.

Sam holding Whitney.

As for Sam's birthday gift, he was in GREAT need of a bike jersey, so naturally I had to get him a Utah jersey.

We rode up Emigration in our matching jerseys and thought we were pretty cool :). Needless to say, I think it was another successful birthday!

Our new kitchen... and other fun things

I am so sorry that I have failed, once again, at updating our blog on a regular basis. Sam and I have been so incredibly busy! On top of finishing another semester of school, we had two funerals on back-to-back Saturdays in July because there were two deaths in my family exactly one week apart... but on different sides of the family (my grandpa passed away and one of my cousins was killed), AND THEN we did some home improvement on our kitchen! The home improvement included: laying down 98 tiles, new cabinets under the sink, bruised knees, dirty clothes, about 20 trips to Home Depot, and an incredibly messy house just to fix a $7 part. And yes, you heard me right... only to fix a $7 part. What the heck?!

Here is what happened... a couple of weeks ago I went to the sink in our kitchen and right after I stepped in front of the sink, my socks were soaked. I looked down to see that a LOT of the carpet in front of the sink was all wet. And I could not figure out where the water was coming from. Awesome right? I showed Sam and LuAnn (Sam's mom) after dinner and they figured out that the water heater was leaking and somehow came into our kitchen. Luckily, all we had to do was replace the plug to the water heater and we were good to go (hence, the $7)! Except that somehow we didn't stop there. We pulled up the carpet with the intention to let it dry but then discovered that the tack strips were coming up with the carpet and that it was just a mess underneath the carpet. LuAnn had been wanting to tile the kitchen downstairs for a while (we live in her basement apartment) so she figured now was a good time to do it. She also wanted to get new cabinets for one side of the kitchen, so we replaced those too. Basically, replacing the $7 part turned into a huge project. Quite funny if you ask me. It was my first time ever doing a project like this so it was quite an experience. I enjoyed it for the most part though. And to see the finished product (well mostly finished product) it was all worth it!!

We didn't really take pictures before we started the entire thing (with all of the stuff in the kitchen) but here is what it looked like before we started tiling (with the new cabinets already in)...

We signed the last tile before we put it in...

 Us putting the last tile in...

 Tired and dirty after a long day of hard work...

So this is what our house looked like for 5 days. I did not love the mess. I do not handle messes very well. I was stressed out about it most days and just avoided the downstairs all together.

Our new cabinets!! Plus a little bit of the tile.

Our new kitchen! Don't worry, it's not done yet. The back of the counter has to be replaced and so does all the molding along the floor. But it looks so pretty! And is SO much nicer! We are loving the tile.

Just a few side notes, here is a little project I did the other day that took hardly any time at all. I have been wanting a cute centerpiece for our kitchen table so I stole this idea off of this blog and thought I would give it a try.

Not too bad right?! The lady got the idea from Anthropologie and let's be honest, who doesn't love Anthropologie? I know I do. But their stuff is way too expensive for me. I thought this was a cute idea and it really was super easy.

As another side note, here are some darling pictures that Sam has taken lately of our cute nieces and nephew that we adore:

Lucy Goosey (aka Lucy)

Whitters (aka Whitney)

 Chewy/Baby Matthew (aka Matthew)... he fell asleep in my arms... how cute is that?!

Fourth of July

We had such a wonderful Fourth... it was SO nice not to have any work or school!! It was a much needed day off. Sam and I began the day by going on an early bike ride - it was great! The ride was followed by the infamous neighborhood breakfast. It has been going for like 22 years. It was my first time and it was way fun! The food was delicious and the parade that the kids put on was hilarious.

The rest of the day was filled with watching a rented movie (the newest Narnia movie), a long nap, a barbecue with some neighbors, and of course... fireworks!! We went to the Holladay fireworks. I had a hard time staying awake since it was past my bed time but I always love some good fireworks.

Hope everyone had a lovely holiday!

Latest happenings

I have been a total slacker lately about updating the blog... sorry about that. Excuse #1: My camera died and I have no idea where the charger is so picture taking is at a halt for the time being. Excuse #2: Sam and I have been so incredibly busy and have hardly had any time to do anything. It may sound like a lame excuse but it's true. After our week in San Diego we went right back into school. Talk about rough. Sam is working full time and is taking 3 classes and I am working part time and taking 4 classes... 2 of which are online ones which seem to be more time-consuming than in-class ones. PLUS, one of my classes is a 6 week course... so it is fast and intense. Thankfully it will be over next week though... that will be lovely. So work and school in and of itself keeps us mighty busy. It often feels like we don't see each other anymore, which really is not fun.

If that wasn't enough, Sam and I recently got callings in church: we will be teaching in primary, the CTR 5 class. We seriously don't know how to connect with 5 year olds but hopefully we can figure out how! Ha. It will be fun, we are excited. OH but on top of that, I also got double duty for the next 4 weeks: I also got called as the assistant camp director for young women. Apparently the camp director just moved, so the assistant was made the camp director and I am the new assistant. Holy smokes! I am excited. There are a lot of girls but they seem really great. The whole being away from Sam for 3 days without any means of communication will not be so fun though. Oh well.

And then... there is more. I also just started about 2 weeks ago "volunteering" (so I volunteered to do this but apparently I get paid to do it which is pretty sweet) to help my triathlon training instructor I had long ago (freshman year) with this drug-court exercise program. It is a class that the people going through drug-court can take to help with success rates and such. It is so neat! My former tri instructor, Shannon, is intense! She works these people hard. And it is so wonderful because she incorporates life lessons into the workouts and is just really powerful and motivating. I have no doubt that this program will change these peoples' lives and help them want to get out of the drug scene. It is a huge blessing to be a part of this program. 

Oh, and one more thing. I take the GRE (Graduate Record Examination) July 19... haven't had time to study for it yet and now I have all this stuff getting in my way. Like girls camp, it's the week before the GRE. Just hope I do well on it because I have one shot at getting into grad school (the U) and this is one of the many things that will determine whether I get in or not!

Anyway, sorry for the long post and lack of pictures. I hope to get my camera up and running soon! 

San Diego

Last week Sam and I spent the week in San Diego. It was our week break between spring and summer semester. We had such a good time! It was so nice to be able to spend some quality time with each other since it doesn’t seem like we get much of that lately.

Naturally, we had to take pictures of the states we went through…

Somehow we missed Nevada on the way there…

The San Diego skyline from Coronado Island. It was cloudy the first couple of days we were there.

So while in San Diego we decided to purchase a 3-for-1 pass to the San Diego Zoo, Sea World, and the San Diego Zoo Safari. We had a lot of fun but the places wore us out!

Our first adventure was to the San Diego Zoo. Can you say HUGE? Seriously, it is gigantic. We were there for about 5 hours. And a little over half way through we no longer stopped at every animal and exhibit. Needless to say, by the end of the day at the Zoo we were pooped.

I waved when this gorilla looked straight at me… he obviously did not like that because he moved to another spot and faced the other way.

Our next adventure was Sea World. It was way fun! And we got a little sunburned because we forgot that the sun burns people after 5 straight hours of being outside in it. The shows were pretty cool and the rides we went on were fun too.

Our last major adventure was the Zoo Safari. It is part of the San Diego Zoo but not really located close to it. It is really like out in the middle of nowhere. It is different from the regular Zoo in that it is on a LOT of open land and many animals live together… like they would in their normal habitat. It is pretty neat. Part of our admission was the African Tram. Basically you are in a giant bus thing with tons of other people and you get to go out around some of the habitats to see the animals. There are other adventures you can go on but they are wicked expensive. Like on one, you get to go on a car thing out by the animals and get close enough to touch them. You’ll see what I mean in one of the pictures. It would have been really neat to do that but we didn’t because, well let’s be honest, we are cheap and broke :).

The rhino on the right that is all by himself is I believe a Northern White Rhino… which happens to be the most endangered species on the earth. The Zoo has like 4 of the 7 that are left in the entire world.

We really did have a lot of fun in San Diego. We stayed in a condo in Solana Beach, about 20 minutes north of San Diego. We went on bike rides along the coast, ate at yummy local restaurants (shout out to Hodad's, a delicious burger place Sam's friend Julie from high school took us to... it was on the Food Network's "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives" so it is not healthy at all but SO stinkin good!), played pool, relaxed in the hot tub, went to the beach, took a stroll through Old Town San Diego, watched movies, napped a lot, and just enjoyed one another’s company. Oh, and we also did a session at the San Diego Temple… which is SOOO beautiful! Now one of our favorite temples. I highly recommend going there if you are ever in the area… and I know Sam would agree with that statement.

I tried to capture Sam’s angry face here. He got REALLYYYYYYYY frustrated with California drivers on our way home. It was kind of funny. But then kind of not because they really do suck at driving.