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Sunday, January 23, 2011

Playing Catch-Up: The Rest of 2010

If you haven't noticed, I've taken quite the hiatus from blogging.... not so much by choice - mostly just circumstance. Life around the Potter household has been crazy busy the last few months, and blogging always seems to get the lowest priority on my list of things to do. So here's my attempt at documenting some of the highlights from the last part of 2010:





Aaron graduated with his bachelor's degree in business strategy in August. And though that in itself is quite the accomplishment, he graduated from UVU in April with an additional bachelor's degree in aviation. I think that might be the ultimate definition of constant multi-tasking.



Nick's mom, Becki, and his brother Casey came to visit over Labor Day weekend and we all got to go to the BYU football home opener. We lucked out and caught one of the winning games of the season!


My sister Marissa came to visit! The last time she was in Logan, Nick and I were selling in Orlando and I didn't make it home. This is the first time both of us had been back home together since they moved in Summer of 2008. The timing worked out great and we were all able to be at the LHS homecoming parade to see Scott drive out on the field with the rest of the homecoming royalty. 



I can't believe how grown up my little brother is! He's bypassed all of us in height, and he's still not done growing! He just found out last month that he got accepted to both USU and U of U. So crazy to think he'll be in college in a few months! 

Marissa's husband, Dan, is a third year medical student. We were sad that he couldn't make it out to visit this time with his busy schedule, but we're hoping that we'll all be able to take a (complete) family photo with him soon!

People always say how similar these two look, but what kills me is that they always accidentally dress alike, too!

We took advantage of the beautiful autumn weather and took an awesome Sunday walk up Logan canyon. This picture makes me laugh every time - my Dad thought he'd be funny and clip Kona's leash on Eliza's jacket. She was so confused and couldn't figure out what was happening. Her face says it all!


I was so lucky to take a break from work and school to be at my parents for a few days during their visit. Liza is the ultimate girl - she loves everything about doing hair, painting nails, and pretty much everything that is pink. She couldn't wait to play with grandma's doll and jewelry Play-Doh collection after breakfast (hence the pajamas and huge Play-Doh earring).

This little girl turns 4 years old in just a couple weeks - it seems just like yesterday we were in the hospital visiting her as newborn. I'm so excited to have my sister and her little girls visit again next month - they've grown up so much even since they came in September!


One of my good friends, Chelsea from my Italy study abroad, was in town from California visiting family in Utah over Thanksgiving. I haven't seen her since my wedding, so it was a lot of fun to get together for lunch with her and Jo. We missed Emily - the other part to our group of four - who was finishing up an internship in Washington D.C. Hopefully some day soon we'll all have a reunion again!

We topped off our lunch date with a trip to my favorite dessert cafe, The Chocolate. Simply delicious!

My cousin's wife, Julie, just had her baby this month and we I got to go to a fun shower for her with some of my cousins and my aunt.  Julie, (second from left) was 8 months pregnant in this picture, but she was so tiny you can't even see her baby bump! It had been at least a year since I had seen all of them and it was so much fun to catch up. 

One of my favorite parts about the Christmas season is all of the music and concerts going on. We got to see John Schmidt in concert at Kingsbury Hall with my grandma and uncle. Besides the Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert, it's probably one of the best I've been to! 

My other favorite part about the season is Christmas lights! The Riverwoods mall did an awesome job with their Christmas decoration this year - and they were even doing horse-pulled sleigh rides. We celebrated finishing all of our final exams with a trip to Tucanos - such a great ending to a crazy semester. Sorry for the blurry picture - it's the best I could get with the lighting! 

Christmas 2010

Even though we had so many exciting things happen during 2010, Christmas came faster than we expected! During a busy semester, I think time seems to go buy twice as fast. Nick's absolute favorite holiday is Christmas, so we tried to prolong the happiest season of the year as much as we could by getting our decorations up as early as possible. 

I don't think I've ever posted pictures of our apartment, so here you go!





Hobby Lobby was my hero for Christmas decorations this year. It took some work to make space for everything in our tiny apartment, but the nice thing about having a small space is that it doesn't take a lot of decorations to fill it up!

We spent Christmas in Colorado with Nick's family this year. It was my first Christmas with his family, so it was fun to take part in all of their traditions that I always hear about. 


These little girls love their uncle Nick. I think the Christmas holiday is always so much more exciting with little kids in the house. We had so much fun getting all of their presents ready to go under the tree after they went to bed on Christmas Eve - and watching them the next morning was priceless!



We spent the last part of our holiday break in Logan at my parent's house for New Years. I'll admit that I'm terrible at remembering to take pictures - I don't think I got one family photo the entire time we were there! haha. 
Our New Years Eve wasn't glamourous, but it was pretty relaxing and just what we needed. We had a movie night, lit some fireworks at midnight, and then topped it off with breakfast at 1:00am!

Our midnight breakfast wouldn't have been the same with out my dad's famous scrambled eggs. He uses the leftover honey baked ham from Christmas... a-mazing! 

We had a blast celebrating a "second" Christmas with my family. My dad spoiled us with lots of stylish loot from his overseas trips - I think he might be a better shopper than I am!
Kona was loving the pampering from Scott with the new head massager tool we got Aaron. I wish I would have taken a video - she couldn't get enough of it!

This dog never ceases to entertain us. My dad found some e doggie booties in China that he thought would help keep her feet warm in the snow, but she couldn't figure out how to walk in them. We got some great entertainment from watching her. Haha. 


One of my proudest accomplishments of my Christmas break was conquering the French Macaron. I've been obsessed with these little sweets ever since the first time I went to Paris. I've been seeing recipes all over the internet, but always hear about how difficult and labor intensive they are to make. But after one not-so-great trial run, this batch turned out beautifully!

And in case you're wondering.... they taste even better than they look! :)