Tradition

This will only be the third Christmas Nathan and I have shared together, so I mean it's not like we have developed too many solid holiday traditions yet. One thing we have been consistent about though, and something that I want to continue, is we each pick out one new ornament for our tree each year!

If you are from the Utah County area - we went to a Color Me Mine-esque place called Creativity by the University Mall this year for our ornament-pickin'. To you non-Utahns, it's essentially this little ceramics place where you can go and glaze cool stuff and they'll fire it for you and you take it home. It's pretty much awesome.

So TA-DA! The above are our 2014 ornaments. Nathan's is the lovely little tree on the left and mine is the blue thing on the right. Cool eh?

Nathan got really into it, which I found quite endearing. He's not one for 'art' usually, you see.

Now tell me, is it wrong that my favorite Christmas song is the Chipmunk Song? Please tell me this is ok. I cannot stop listening to it.

Well I sincerely hope that all of your guys' holiday celebrating is going as fabulously as mine! Next week is my birthday and I will be 22.... AH. Any suggestions as to where I should go out to eat for my birthday dinner?

peace.

Oh, Hi December

Whelp December snuck up on me rather quickly, but I am glad it's here.

In December I have quite the plethora of big events to look forward to. For one, my birthday. Two, Christmas (durrr), and three, my anniversary! And you know what's absolutely crazy? All those things occur within ten days.

Yep. My birthday, Christmas, and my anniversary all in basically the same week.

Sadly I had no control over the timing of two of those events, and why on earth I chose to get married like four days after Christmas is beyond me.

So pretty much December is a super exciting month in my life.

The above photo is of my grandmother's Christmas 'Shelves'. Which, if she were a normal human being that would be a Christmas Tree. She is the only person who I know on this earth that owns one, and I have put it up for her every single year since the age of 13. Every inch of tinsel and lights must be thumb tacked, and then we set up whichever of her eight million nativity sets she wants on the shelves.

It's quite the affair, setting it up. But after it's all said and done, and my thumbs are throbbing from all of the thumb-tacking, it really does get me pumped up for the holidays. It's kind of weird, albeit unconventional, untraditional, and according to my uncle Bean, completely ugly, but I like that tree (shelves? whatever it is). It symbolizes Christmas to me, and I have been setting it up for so long that I can't imagine a year without it.

A couple of exciting things....

//I got a new wedding band! Shveet huh! You like? I have been wanting one for ages, and we've been looking around for a long time, but I never could find one I liked. This past week when we went up to Idaho though I finally found it! Eventually I want to do more of a stacked look and maybe get one or two more thin bands, but that obviously will have to happen over time. Money don't grow on trees, peeps.

//I got into nursing school!! I feel so blessed and grateful for this opportunity, and I have to say I honestly did not foresee my life taking this particular turn. But I am SO excited, and also a bit scared. That's normal, right?

I Jumped the Gun

Typically, I profess to stick to the old 'wait until after thanksgiving' rule when it comes to Christmas decor, and music listening. I should probably just stop holding myself to such unrealistic expectations though because the last two years I have totally not even come close to that. Like, I set this baby up last week. We're six weeks out from Christmas and I'm already drinking egg nog and blasting Bing Crosby in the car.

What can I say, I'm a sucker for Christmas?

It all started with the first snow storm we had here in Utah last week. I couldn't help it. It made me feel so... cheery. Then I went to Target and heaven knows they had all their Santa Claus crap out and jingle bells was blasting throughout the store and before I knew it I had spent like $200 on assorted Christmas items! It was kind of like being brainwashed, actually.

So I'm sorry if I ever condemned anyone for setting up their holiday stuff before Thanksgiving because I'm going to go eat my words now.

I decided to go with the brown wrapping paper this year. Although I'm not a huge fan the gold sharpie actually (maybe if I had better hand writing?) so I bought some tags to go on the rest of the gifts.

I've been pinterest-ing up like crazy mad. Christmas pins everywhere. It's terrible. I have all sorts of ideas and only limited funds to execute them.

Help me.

Tell me I'm not the only one who has been suckered into this Christmas madness.

Flower Girl

There was a time in my life, long ago, when I aspired to be a florist. Things changed though, as they often do, and I set my sights on a different path, however I still love ALL things flowers and so I gotta little crazy this weekend and made about 2398487 flower crowns for my young womens class.

So behold the fruits of my labor.

I feel like just this past summer floral crowns boomed in popularity for weddings and I SO wish this was as big of a trend when I got married! Because I mean, who doesn't want to feel like a flower queen and wear a big fat crown of blooms on their head?

Does anyone else out there watch Once Upon a Time? My seester and I are mega fans but we don't know anyone else who watches it. Therefore I never have anyone else to discuss the craziness that is happening in that show! If you are a fan please raise your hand so I can see you, and let's talk. Thank you.

I hope you all have a great week, and don't forget to be awesome.

Cool Happenings

// My sissy's birthday was yesterday. She turned eighteen and we took her to the La Dolce Vida, which is an absolutely fabulous, legit (as in like, immigrants from Italy) Italian restaurant off Provo Center Street. Yumminess, so much yumminess. Their gnocchi is to die for.

// I gave way to vanity and couldn't resist posting a selfie. Sue me, but I just really liked the way my pony tail turned out and I never succeed at doing my hair so I had to share.

// AHH! I am getting my eyebrows tinted tomorrow and I'm totally nervous. As long as they don't end up looking like this, I'm totally cool.

(any Seinfeld fans out there? Eh?)

// Halloween is on Friday! I'm dressing up as a Witch. I work at a nursing home/rehab center and so we are doing a costume parade for all the residents, and then they vote on their favorite costume and the winner gets a prize. So I'm looking forward to that fun-ness. 

// I got an interview to the nursing program I applied to! Hip-hip-hooray!!! Now to see if I can manage to woo them enough to accept me... we shall see.

The Best Things

They say that two heads are better than one, and since I have been married I can definitely attest to the truthfulness of that statement.

Love is sweet, and my love is the sweetest guy ever. For instance, this weekend we watched the Sixth Sense with some friends and I had to get up to go to the bathroom, but was way too scared to go inside and go pee by myself (I mean hello there could've been a dead person) so Nathan came with me and stood outside the door and waited for me. That's true love, right there. I am such a lucky girl to be married to this dude, He puts up with so much from me.

One of my personal favorite things about marriage is cuddling, all the time, all the day long. No one can argue how awesome that is.

Another great thing about marriage is you have a sidekick for all of life's adventures. You never have to  worry about who is going to sit by you at church, and you always have a date to everything. So that's cool. Not to mention you have someone to share all your hopes and dreams with, and that same someone is there to help you realize them too.

Overall it's just nice to have someone to lean on, and live life with, and that's really the best thing.

I honestly can't think of anyone else I'd rather share my life with than Nathan. He is da bomb. Love you, huns.

Good Morning

Good morning to you all on this lovely Sabbath day! I have had such a fun-filled October and I seriously wish I was a better photo-documenter so I could remember more things, but I'm super lazy when it comes to picture taking. Also I lack a nice camera. That probably makes me only a sub-par blogger, but whatevs. I will just wow you with my awesome writing skills instead.

I finally made it to one of my little brother's football games. He had a nice ride in an ambulance a few weeks ago because of a concussion and as a result hadn't played in a few weeks, but he finally made it back onto the field! So that was cool to see him play again. Also do you guys like the new sweater I got? I do! Woo.

We threw a birthday party for the old man. He may kill me for revealing this information, but he turned 48 years old. What is crazy is I remember his 30th birthday party. Wow. He's still young though, I mean look at that Mickey Mouse shirt. It takes a true kid at heart to wear that. Also I might mention that isn't the only Mickey Mouse shirt he owns (and wears!). Now you guys know where I got my love of Disneyland from. It's hereditary.

This weekend my friend Ashley and her husband threw a Halloween party at their amazing home. Seriously they have the best view of Utah Lake and basically the whole valley. They dressed their dog up as the grandma from little red riding hood and it was so cute. The party was a blast too. We played Mafia and ate an excessive amount of sugary Halloween themed treats.

In other news, I should be hearing back about whether or not I get an interview for the nursing program any day now. Cross your fingers for me. I am hoping so freakin' hard that I get in! I just want to be a professional so so bad and have a career and make some real money. Some of you can probably relate. In the event I don't get accepted I have just decided that I'm gonna go get a second job and take Nathan and I to Disney World. I mean that in all seriousness, too. So whatever happens I suppose the end result is happy, ya? Ha.