The Next Provo Temple

How exciting that we will now have two temples in Provo! We lived just blocks away from the old Provo Tabernacle and woke up in the middle of the night when we heard the fire trucks going to put out the fire. Today was the first time I saw a picture of what it will look like. Everything happens for a reason, I'm excited to go there soon!

Christmas Week

Christmas was such a great day this year. We were so grateful to be together, to go to church that day, have our traditions we continued, see our families, give and receive gifts.
This year i did the 12 days of Christmas to Chris. I wrote him notes on felt candy canes and hid them everyday for him to find. I also loved us doing service which really made us think of others than ourselves. I got shopping done during Black Friday so it was wonderful to do things for others. We celebrated Chris' bday starting the 23rd. We watched Mission Impossible and really liked it. On 24th Chris opened presents and we went to his families house for his favorite cream of broccoli soup and I didn't get a chance to make a cake so I got cupcakes In the shape of a wreath.



Later that day we went for dinner at Tucanos and played Wii when we got home (Chris got one for his bday). Before we went to bed we watched Luke 2, opened pjs, and relaxed.
Christmas we got some great gifts and went to church. We had an amazing message from our bishop. Later we went to Chris' parents house and had a great time with everyone especially our cute little nieces and nephews. This is the only pic we have from that day.

This week we are at my parents house and have a bunch of fun things planned.
We are so blessed. We have so much and always need to be grateful for what we have been given. Everday in December we would say something we were grateful for or how we served others that day. What a wonderful way to remember our Savior and serve Him. It's almost the start of a brand new year, so many opportunities in front of us to be there for others and think less of ourselves.

Twas the week before Christmas....

Some bad ideas to avoid next year during the week before Christmas:

Go to the mall (its been bad everyday but the 23rd was a nightmare)
Make your spouses bday cake.... Thank goodness I avoided that things get so busy the last minute.
Oh, then go to Target to get your spouses bday cake (just as bad, they don't have any birthday cakes, just Christmas ones)
Remember someone on your list you overlooked (i swear I went though my list of ppl but guess not)
Finding out you should get something for coworkers last second
Finding out my sister took one of my receipts to Michigan so I can't return something
Try to make personalized Christmas tags for every gift... Really stupid idea, it won't work
Parking ANYWHERE (such a joke, last year I got yelled at in the parking lot at the mall)
Try to attempt a last minute Christmas decor... It will not turn out the way you like in time for Christmas
Remember you need to get the little things for your traditions (ornaments, pjs)
Oh, and I totally forgot about stockings, but its ok, we did that the other day
To try to wrap Christmas presents w duct tape... Please don't ask, idk what came over me
Doing the 12 days of christmas to your spouse (which I really liked doing (but forgetting to do it haha)

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Hope you can laugh about the things that came up for us. We ate doing well and are excited to celebrate our second Christmas together. Happy Holidays!

President Monson's Talk About Christmas

I loved this talk about Christmas from President Monson. We listened to it for FHE and it is a great way to bring in the spirit of Christmas.

Tis the Season... To Make Stockings

Check out the cute stockings I made for us this year!!! It was a long process my first time, so I just included pics :)

Its Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

I love going to the Wood Connection and Poppyseed to find cute wooden projects to make like this:

I made cute candy cane cake pops for the fam:

We made gingerbread houses... also with a candy cane theme

Quick driveby... literally for some Christmas lightsMy work Christmas party up in by Alta

Jingle All the Way

We went to the Festivals of the Trees at the beginning of December. It was fun going around and seeing the trees and gingerbread houses etc.

My favorite tree... from UP!

My sister in laws made felt Christmas trees that turned out so cute.

We had a White Elephant party at the Pearsons. Santa came!

My hair was up like Little Cindy Lou Who but was falling by this point

Sunday Thoughts: Allowing Christ in our Lives

Christmas is in two weeks and it's a good idea to step back from everything and to see how much Christ has been the focus of your life. There is time this season and in our lives to do so much good and to reach out to others who need our help.

Black Friday Shopping :)

BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING!!!!!

It was a such a fun day. I had a few naps during Thanksgiving and was SOO tired when I got up at 3am. Nichole and I have had our master plan or a while and were excited to put it into action. She lives right by me so I picked her up and we were at the mall. We were going to Sears first but the line was huge and we couldn't wait to shop so we went to a few stores. Right at 4 (when Sears opened) we made sure to be inside at the huge opening and right when the store opened all of us ran in and we were in by 2 seconds.

We were about to wait in line for H&M but I'm glad we didn't because it was supposed to open at 5 but opened at 6. We waited in line for Sephora and ran in like crazy at 6am and got some of the $10 deals. We then went to H&M and the line to get in and the register was a joke. We went to some other stores after like BBB and Nordstrom Rack.

Yay, successful shopping day!!!! These are just Nicole's things. We got all of our Christmas shopping done so that was great. The day after Black Friday we put up our cute Christmas Tree and I had all gifts wrapped and under!!!! Of courses I remember a thing or two I still need to get, but still most everything has been taken care of. YAY!!

Mini Apple Pies

How cute!!! I made mini apple pies a few weeks ago and they were delicious, I liked the recipe and it was a lot easier than I thought.

Recipe to make 8 mini pies:

2 medium apples cut in small pieces

3T flour

1/3 c sugar

1t cinnamon

butter on top

Full Recipe:

6-8 medium apples cut in small pieces

12T flour

1 1/2 c sugar

4 heaping teaspoons of cinnamon

1/4-1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg (or you could leave it out)

4T of chilled butter cut into 24 equal portions

I've only made the smaller recipe and added everything together and put the butter on top.

I used Pillsbury Pie Crust and used a lid of a mason jar to cut out the crust to fit in a muffin tin.

I placed the uncooked pie crust in the muffin tins then filled it all the way with the apple ingredients, then put butter on the top, and some leftover scraps of the pie crust on top. Baked at 350 degrees for 13-16 min.
Yummy!!! Ice Cream with it made it delicious.

Thanksgiving Time

First of all, Black Friday was a big success (I'll blog about that later) but I wanted to say what a great Thanksgiving we had. We spent time with Chris' family and had so much fun talking to mine on the phone. We stuffed our faces, watched movies and football, and had a great time.

There is so much to be grateful for.

Our health, our families, a full fridge, roof over our heads, work, a bed, safety, our cars, the gospel, The Book of Mormon, a free country, a great ward, kind neighbors and friends, opportunities to do good, warm coats, etc.

We have so many things, we need to always show appreciation to the Lord and give to others not just during the holiday season but all year round.