Legal!

That's right, I'm finally 21! That means Nick and I can go party now.... just kidding. But I'll finally get to change my drivers license -- big news, right? 

I was so lucky to get to celebrate my birthday for over a week this year! Nick's sister, Tiffany, and her cute family actually stayed over at our house on their way to Durango from Elko. We hadn't seen them since October, and it was so fun to see how much the girls had grown. They brought an amazing chocolate cake to celebrate my birthday a week early. 

Last Sunday, my dad was released as bishop in his university student ward. It's amazing how much has happened in the three years that he has had that calling! I was so glad that I was able to be there to hear both my mom and dad speak. 

Another perk of being home is that I actually had time to cook! I've had the weird urge to make a red velvet cake for months, which is funny because I'm typically not a huge fan of cake. My excuse was that I wanted to make my own birthday cake. So here it is -- the finished product:

But the best part is the color of the inside!

Nick is always the king of surprises. This weekend, he planned a surprise party with a lot of our good friends and a new pizza restaurant in Provo. I had no idea until I walked in!

Two of my best friends, Emily and Jo, were the party planners and decorated all of the tables with a beach theme. They even got me a sweet leopard birthday hat! 

Thanks for the great birthday, everyone! 

Holiday Festivities

We had such a wonderful Christmas break this year with my family in Logan. It was so nice to have a couple weeks to just relax after finals.. and before we all started school again!

One of my favorite parts about Christmas is all the decorations that go along with it. One of the traditions in our house is my mom's "memorabilia"tree. I'm pretty sure she's been collecting ornaments since she was a little girl! Every year we put the tree up as a family -- and it's so fun to pull out so many ornaments that have memories of our childhood and all of the places that we've traveled. 

I took a few pictures of the ornaments that I remember most on the tree. My mom got the ornament below when she was nine!

This ornament was another favorite as a child. Each one of us would take turns moving it around to our favorite colored light!

These other ornaments are also from my mom's childhood -- It still amazes me that they're intact after all these years!

And of course, another one of my favorite parts of being home is seeing my sweet dog, Kona! I couldn't help but take a picture of her cute winter coat. 

We started a new Christmas tradition this year of making a gingerbread on Christmas Eve! I had never made one of actual gingerbread, so of course, I loved it! I was surprised that all of the boys got pretty excited about it too. haha. 

The finished product...

I was "Santa's" helper this year... and spend a whole afternoon wrapping all of Mom and Dad's presents for the family -- I think the total count was 45! Good thing I enjoy wrapping presents, right?

Traditional Christmas morning picture with everyone in their pajamas.. and Nick and I with our morning faces! haha. 

My Grandma and Uncle Mark came to our house for Christmas dinner along with two guys from my dad's ward. We love having visitors in our house!

If you know my dad, you know that he's always looking for a better, more efficient way to do a job. Nick was helping us cook Christmas dinner, and my dad came in with goggles and rubber gloves for Nick to cut onions with! He claims it keeps your eyes from tearing, and your hands from smelling like onion all day. But you have to admit, it's pretty clever, but looks hilarious!

The day after Christmas the family went ice skating together. I was pretty rusty after not going for a couple years, and took a pretty comical spill, but we all had a great time. 

One year ago on New Years, we got engaged at Temple Square! It's so amazing how fast a year can pass by.

Nick had to go back to Provo for a few days to work, but I was so glad that he could come back to Logan for New Years weekend! Aaron and Scott decided to take a quick trip to Cancun that week, but ended up getting back in to Logan that night as well. We celebrated with some Martinelli's, lighting off firecrackers, and mom's tradition of banging pots and pans outside.

Scott was at a friend's house for the midnight celebration, and Aaron was feeling a little left out with out a "significant other," so he just had Kona fill in:) This picture was all his idea!

Tis the season

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is going to see the lights at temple square. We were so excited when we got tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert with Natalie Cole. One of the best concerts I've been to in a long time!

I love that the sets for the concert change every year. This year the decorations, the dancers, singers and the orchestra were amazing!

We had two extra tickets to the concert so we had Aaron bring his date, Diana, along with us. 

And of course, I couldn't leave without getting a picture of the beautiful lights!

This week was Nick's company Christmas party with OrangeSoda at the new Sleepy Ridge golf course club house. I didn't even know that this place existed, but it's really beautiful - inside and out!

(I couldn't really take a picture of it in the dark -- but this is what it looks like!)

It was so fun to put up our first Christmas tree together this year! If you know me, you probably know that I love black. No, I'm not gothic, but I have tons of black clothes, I decorate my apartment with black.... so you can imagine how excited I was to find these fun black ornaments! I just love them. 

This treat has been my addiction this season. Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies with hot chocolate. The cookies are probably my favorite part of the combination though. I freeze a whole batch of them so I can pop them in the oven and have them whenever I want! 

Don't worry, I didn't eat this all by myself! Although I probably could have.... :)

Back in November, we took a quick trip to Durango to see Nick's family. My favorite part was that they turn the famous railroad passenger train into the Polar Express for the season. It's exactly like the book --all of the kids even wear pajamas and they give you hot chocolate a long the way. We didn't actually go on the train, but it would be so fun to go with little kids! 

Autumn!

Autumn is probably one of my most favorite times of year! I've been trying to enjoy every last minute of it before the first "real' snowfall hits Provo.

We've had a pretty busy last month or so, but here are some of the things that we've been up to...

The end-of-the-year Platinum party was mid-October in Salt Lake at the Gateway. We had a great time seeing our friends from Orlando for the first time since we left!

My friends happened to be in Salt Lake from Logan that night as well, and it was so fun to be with them-- they never cease to entertain me!

Nick and his friends, Travis and Dan, decided to go all-out for the BYU homecoming game. ( I told Nick that this is what he's going to look like when he's 60). But despite their Cougar spirit, our team ended up getting killed by TCU. But we all still had a good time :)

Possibly the funniest, and most random, story of the month. We had to take Nick to the ER! He got a really sudden infection in his toe -- which swelled up to probably two to three times its size. It looked pretty scary so we decided to go get it checked out. It turned out the be Cellulitis, but the doctors immediately put him on IVs and gave him x-rays. We were really glad that we didn't wait to go to the hospital!

I'll spare you the up-close picture of the toe, but believe me, it was huge!

When Nick's family heard the news, they decided to come see us for the weekend -- along with their three doggies. It was so fun to have them here, and Nick definitely loved having his dogs in the house!

And last, but not least, some of my favorite Fall pictures! Provo is so beautiful this time of year.

This is the view from the stairs up to our apartment.

Nick and I drove the alpine loop through Sundance. It was the first that either of us had been up there, and it was absolutely breathtaking! It was a great Saturday drive.

Thanks to Lindsey for finding my wedding bouquet on UtahBrideBlog!
(upper left corner)
I was so lucky to work with Studiostems and Blush as a great photographer!

A Few Updates...

Here's what we've been up to the past month

Our first REAL Salt Lake Game

New member in our household....

Great win at the USU game

Along with the family who came to cheer on the Cougars

Followed by watching General Conference from the Press Room to write my articles for the Daily Universe

And luckily my parents found extra tickets so Nick and a friend could come with me :)