Tis the Season

Winter is fast approaching, and Eric and I have been very busy getting ready for the holidays, and enjoying the cooler weather. So last Friday night, yeah I'm playing catch up, Eric and I went to the South Jordan Plaza with our friends Jeff and Jessica from our ward. It was opening night so there was free ice skating and free hot chocolate for everybody! It was cold, but it was so fun, and once I got the hang of my ice skates, I did pretty good! :)

Sorry for the blurriness but our camera died within seconds after we got to the rink so we had to use eric's phone :(

We had so much fun! And I think Eric liked showing off his mad skills on the ice...I on the other hand looked like a baby giraffe trying to stand for the first time haha!

Saturday morning Eric and I woke up and drove right up the road to pick out our very first Christmas tree!! I of course was looking for tall, and Eric was looking for fat, so yep!!! You guessed we ended up taking home a tall fat tree! But it is seriously the most perfect christmas tree and smells AMAZING!!!

Eric had to cut the top off so it would fit!!!

I love my tall tree :)

The rest of the day Eric and I Spent decorating the house and the tree and listening to christmas music. and then Kyli & Dan Came over and we watched Four Christmas's with us! It was a really great day, and it is definitely beginning to feel a lot like Christmas in our little home!

Eric and I chose to do red and gold on the tree this year. The tree is still a work in progress but it looks very pretty when all the lights are off.

Some more little decorations

"And the stockings were hung on the mantel with care."

Our beautiful wreath... We had to do the classic beautiful white light this year. Still working on decorations but these were a few we have up for now :)

Turkey Day

A lot has happened since the last time I posted. Eric and I sold our car, bought a new one, had some fun weekends with the Hale family, and most importantly THANKSGIVING and BLACK Friday shopping. This year Eric and I knew with him working holiday hours there was no way we could go anywhere for Thanksgiving, so we brought Thanksgiving to our house! Eric and I invited the whole Hale family plus some of his cousins to our place this year for Thanksgiving and it was a blast. Yes at times trying to squeeze 13 people into a small one bedroom apartment was stressful, but we made it happen and it was a blast having the in-laws and all the nieces and cousins at our place for dinner. I promised my dad I'd take lots of pictures but I got busy playing hostess and forgot to so I only have a few but enjoy!

My turkey turned out AMAZING!

So Eric had to get a picture of me because I'm such a science nerd, and he said I was treating the turkey like a science experiment. ( honestly, I just had the gloves on cause I was afraid of getting burned hahaha) And I work in a laboratory, science is just what I do, don't hate because I know how osmosis works and used a method of it to make the turkey taste ten times better! hahaha

Eric carving our first Thanksgiving Turkey 

We of course had to do a little black friday shopping!!! We only stayed out till 4am this year which was a pretty early ending compared to last year. These are the girlies who didn't come cause they thought sleeping was a better idea hahaha.

We were able to drag my 6 months pregnant sister-in-law and my mother-in-law shopping though, and we had a BLAST!!! Thanks ladies it was fun. Deals I got: the movie RED for 5$, 4 bottles of soap from BAth and Body works for $15, and a pair of super cute moccasin shoes from target for $10. Hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!! Gobble Gobble!!

Weekend Traveling

On Thursday Eric and I left town for a long weekend to getaway before the Holidays get crazy and take over our lives. So that night we traveled to Mendon, Ut. where Eric's aunt Vicki lives. She has been asking us to come visit for some time now, and we finally decided this was a good weekend to go. Her house is HUGE and very beautiful. We both love all of her land and animals, and her home. It was so fun to visit with her, and for me to get to know her better. And she gave us the newest addition of the Better Homes and Garden Cookbook!!! I am so EXCITED to start using it!!!

Aunt Vicki's house, it's so big I couldn't fit all the house into one picture!

The barn/stable for the horses

The view from the top of the drive

Her beautiful kitchen...there is a hidden room where the pantry is!

Sitting area

Her huge tub, wish this picture could depict how big it was, and I loved the windows surrounding it. They overlook the mountains right in her backyard.

This is her sitting area in her bedroom

The yummy dinner she left us..so sweet! 

Hanging out in the loft were we stayed while we were there.

As we were leaving Vicki's house that morning heading into logan we came across all these wild turkeys!!! Perfect just in time for THANKSGIVING!!!

So after we left Vicki's friday morning we headed into Logan, Ut. to look for a car and run some other errands. I have never been to the logan temple so that ended up being the first stop! 

You can't tell here really... but it was so windy and cold..I had 3 jackets on!!!

My Handsome Prince Charming!

Side View

The front of the temple!

Next, we headed up to star valley and on the way we passed Bear Lake, also a place I've never seen or been to, so I took a couple shots! It is the closest thing Utah or Idaho has to a beach. We also went through Logan canyon and it was gorgeous with all the different colors of the leaves on the trees on the mountains, I wish I would have taken a picture.

More of Bear lake shoreline 

The Open Road

Once we got to star we visited with the parentals and Eric's nieces, and went bowling with Eli and and the girls that night. SO FUN!

Maddi

Kamdyn and Eli

Maddi with Aunt Lesley

Kamdyn was so excited to knock down 1 pin

ME

Maddi sad she didn't get more

Eric

We woke up Saturday morning to this! We left early that morning to head into Rexburg and IF. We also brought our niece Caellie with us. We went car shopping ALL day with no luck, but it was still an awesome trip and we got to go to dinner that night with all our friends at Texas Roadhouse, I even got to watch a little of the Bama Vs. LSU game. Purchases of the weekend included a new Iphone 4S for me, and I also got a beautiful new coat for the winter. Eric purchased a new leather hand bag to carry to the temple. We drove back to star valley sat. night went to church with the fam on sunday and then headed back to Utah.  

Caellie drew this for me and Eric

Us headed back to Utah so Eric could get to work. :( But overall the trip was great but we wished it could have been longer.

Halloween Midnight Trip

Halloween was not as much fun this year because Eric and I both worked late that night. We missed all the trick or treaters and all our Halloween candy went to waste. :( So after work, I decided to get all cozy and got in my PJ's and washed my face and teeth and got all ready to crawl into bed, and the next thing I knew Eric was busting through the front door with tons of energy and talked me into getting all dressed again to grab something to eat. So there we went at 11pm to find somewhere to eat. The only place still open was Applebees, yeah....I-hop wasn't even open. But we ended up having a blast being one of two people in the whole restaurant!!! bahahaha! Anyways, despite working all day, Halloween turned out to be OKAY! Eric kept making me laugh, saying he felt like we were back in college again strolling the streets at midnight for places to eat and just hanging out together!!! I just love that we've reached that point where we say that now..."back when I was in college"....hahahaha.

Our fun outing at Applebees

Everyone at worked kept asking me all day if I was dressed up as anything...well Eric and I decided I should have dressed up like Wednesday Adams with my hair braided like that. So this is me making my very serious Wednesday Adams face. 

Hope you all had a very Frightening HALLOWEEN! :)

Scripture Power...Not My Plan

Doesn't this picture just Scream Stress!!! hahahaha

Lately I have had a lot on my mind. Sometimes I let all the stress and worry I create get the best of me, and thankfully I have a wonderful husband who is patient and sweet and loving. Today sitting in church I realized that my plan isn't always the Lord's plan. Yes, I've heard that before but I don't think I always let words sink in like they should. I've always been very independent, at least when it comes to not letting others tell  me what to do, or sway my personal beliefs, in fact I'm kinda stubborn and bratty when things don't go the way I think they should, ask my family...hahaha or Eric for that matter. Anyways, life has been pretty stressful with trying to sell my car, and paying for grad school applications, and working a job that pays the bills, but you know you could be doing more with your education so going to work everyday is less than thrilling. Anyways I know everything will work out, it's not my plan, as much as I wish life was that easy....You know, submit your life plan to heavenly father and say here you go and he approves it cause it's full with righteous desires. hahaha Yeah that would be nice, in a perfect world right? Well anyways I know I'm not the only person out there who wishes their plan for themselves is the one Heavenly Father has for them, but I did add somewhere in to my life plan between Freshman and Sophomore year of college Eric would be my husband and I got exactly that and couldn't be happier. So if that is the only part of my plan I created for myself that Heavenly Father gives to me then I'll take it, because ERIC has and will always be the love of my life, and knowing that I am his is the best blessing I've ever received. "The church is true, then what else matters!" 

When I was a little girl my babysitter who was only 17 died in a horrible car accident. At her funeral they sang the song "I Walk by Faith", and now I can't sing the song without crying, but whenever I hit a bump in the road, or notice times get hard, I think of, Crystal and her faith and the love she taught me to have for my Savior when I was little, and I sing this song and it gives me strength. Even though she was only in my life for a short amount of time, her testimony was strong and it still helps me through times in my life when things are hard. Right after she passed, my dad told me that she would watch over me from heaven now, and sometimes I know she is there with me...my guardian angel, helping me through those high hurdles in life.  :) 

Oh yeah and seeing as how I'm on the topic of religion and church, I realized I haven't shared with you that Eric and I both have received callings in our ward....it was a couple months ago, but I forgot to share. Eric was called to be the Ward Mission Leader, and I was called to co-teach the CTR 6/7 class with a very very new convert named Anna who is 19. It is so fun being in primary. I love the kids so much, and preparing for the primary presentation has been a blast. I can't get the songs "Scripture Power "and "I hope they call me on a mission" out of my head. Scripture Power.... Watch this and you'll be singing it too, fist pump and all!!! :)

!Pumpkin Carving!

Last night Eric and I met up with our neighbors/friends Jeff and Jessica to carve pumpkins. So we headed out to a pumpkin patch right up the road from where we live but they closed right before we got there , so we ended up going to the local supermarket and picked a couple pumpkins. We then headed back to Jeff and Jessica's place to carve them. We had carmel apples, drank apple cider, and had a blast just hanging out and talking all night. Eric and I love this time of year, the cooler weather and the changing leaves, and all this fun fall stuff we're doing is really putting me in the halloween spirit.

Starting to carve

Pulling out the innards!

Ours was extra slimy. 

Jessica and Jeff eating our carmel apples

pretty much the final product! It's the superman symbol. Eric and I are both addicted to Smallville, and we are going as Clark Kent (superman) and Lois Lane for Halloween! Can't wait for trunk or treat. Being in a family ward has its plusses.  

See you next time with more fall fun...I'm sure there is more to come!