a christmas-y and homey home

So remember when the house we bought was siiiccck nasty??

Like tabacco spits in the grout, red- haired beard shavings in the bathroom crevices, carpet stains from who knows what, fist punched doors, beer and katchup splattered walls, and a micowave, toliet and oven that hadn't been cleaned EVER kinda-nasty?

Yeah me too. Barf.

With A TON of help and many many hours deep cleanin' and scrubbin'... it's starting to look like a home.

Steven and I both wholeheartedly agree that KSL classifieds is the 3rd best thing of all time. Right after Disneyland and puppies of course. If it weren't for KSL, we wouldn't have ANY furniture. But luckily we got a steal of a deal on so many things! Actually, we literally did on our fridge. We might have stolen it from some African ladies in Rose Park. Unintentionally of course, and we drove straight back with the money.. but still. Basically though, KSL is heaven sent.

The TV room before....

and after! Yes, the carpet stains actually did come out, thank goodness.

These pictures just don't do justice to the bathroom's night and day difference after a full scrub down. Before.. when you walked in there you could feel things crawling on you. I'm convinced it was the  mutated bacteria growth from the many years of non-cleaning.

 

Our baby boy is just growing up to fast! He has slowly become a toddler the past couple weeks, but the good news is... he is learning how to potty in his litter box! Hurray!! He is only waking us up 2-3 times a night! We are such proud parents.

After watching this video I realized something. Steven and I have become one of those people. The people who totally act like their pet is their child. Dressing them up, showing off their pictures, and taking them EVERYWHERE.

(i.e. grocery shopping, movie theater, chili's, the christmas carol play... you get the drift)

But you know what? We are not ashamed.

We took Flynn over to my parents house to meet his Uncle Chuck. But aparently, Uncle Chuck is not too fond of children. And when I say children, I mean puppies.

Last night we got to go up to "This is the Place State Park" for my work party. Steven was foolish, and didn't bring a coat. Even though I specifically told him to dress warm. It was kind of a chilly night to be wandering around a pioneer village without an eskimo suit.

Best part of the night by far though, was when Steven heard Santa Clause was there. He basically ran the whole way. Almost as fast as I ran to the cookies and hot chocolate. (Even if he says it's just because he "was cold"... uh huh. Sure it was.) And it got even better. When we ran up the stairs, no one was there. We might have stood there awkwardly for a couple minutes before Steven asked if he could sit on his lap. Or he asked if I could sit on his lap... I don't remember. Either way, I wasn't going in there alone, so I took him down with me. Poor Santa.

I must really love you Steven.

But I also think you owe me a bag of almond hershey kisses for that one.

Once Upon a Time...

Steven and I discovered a new favorite show. Don't you just LOVE it when that happens?

And since USA network's "Psych" (aka the best show EVER) is about to take it's seasonal break, we found it just in time.

Heard of the new show on ABC's Sunday nights called Once Upon a Time?

No? Well, I just did you a huge favor then.

The title basically tells what it's about - fairytales!

If you know me, you'll know I'm an absolute sucker for them.

I won't try and summarize what it's about, because this trailer covers it perfectly.

(gah! I love the actress who plays Snow White/Mary Margaret, she's gorgeous!)

It's beautifully done. The actors, makeup, costumes, storyline, effects, and sets are incredible.

Super entertaining, and facinating. It takes all the fairytales we know, and digs in so much deeper to them.And the best part? It's a 100% family friendly show.

And for a bonus? Half of it takes place in Maine.

I sure do love Maine.

And good news! It's only six episodes in, and all the previous are on Hulu.

Happy Christmas.

natural disaster + puppy = awesome

I love eventful weekends. Actually, just weekends in general.

For all those non-utahn-davis-countyer's... you shoulda seen the storm that hit us Thursday!

106mph winds. For reals.

It went all through the night and I'm pretty sure no one slept.

We woke up to no power, but figured to go about our day normally anyways.

On the way to work, Steven almost had his car door ripped off it's hinges at the gas station, and watched a man get blown over while crossing the street. Crazy!

I got ready in the dark, and decided no shower was way better then a cold shower.

When I tried to open the garage to leave to work... it wouldn't open. I smacked myself on the forehead for being so silly in thinking it would while the power was off.

I pulled out my phone to call someone for a ride, then come to find it was dead dead dead because I hadn't charged it at night. I was stuck. No car, no phone, no internet, and no food.

As a last effort, I went outside and clinged to the walls to knock and see if any of might neighbors were home. No dice.

I went back inside my freezing house, lit the leftover tea lights from the wedding, and finally gave into the massive pile of thank you notes still needing to be written. I wrote until my fingers froze up, then crawled into bed defeated. Basically, I don't know how the pioneers survived. And I'm a total wuss when it comes to the cold.

Steven came to my rescue at lunch after he couldn't get a hold of me all morning. I spent the rest of the day at my in-laws house keeping warm by the fire with family.

The damage that the wind had caused was unreal. Power lines hanging all over, massive trees ripped right from the ground, fences blown to shreds, debris and shingles everywhere...
I'd never seen anything like it.
 

This is the only picture I actually took, but you get the idea.

After spending an entire morning alone in a big empty house, I decided I needed a dog before another natural disaster hit. Long story short, we weren't planning on getting a dog till Spring. But one thing led to another and we ended up finding our dream puppy, and we were smitten.

This is our sweet boy, Flynn Rider. He is a 7 week old yorkie mix and will get to be about 5lbs. He just wants to be held and cuddled all the time and cries whenever he isn't close to us. We can't believe how much personality he has already, and how crazy smart he is. He is so so fun and too stinkin' adorable. And he loves his daddy :)

Here's a couple videos to make you happy. He's the bomb.

Mexican honeymoon

First of all, I had no idea where Steven was taking me. He kept it a secret for months! Impressive? I'd say yes.

So after our wedding luncheon, he finally told me. A cruise, to the Mexican Rivera. I died. Neither of us had been on a cruise before, so it was going to be a new adventure for both of us :)

We stayed Friday night in Salt Lake City because our cruise wasn't leaving till Sunday. And because Steven is the most amazing and thoughtful husband ever, he took me to Disney on Ice at the Delta Center... Or Energy power plant... Or whatever they are calling it these days.

He knows how much I love Disney, so he had bought tickets for later that night. And let me tell you what, that show was AWESOME. The skaters are incredible, and the show was just plain magic. (duh.)

The next morning we caught our flight to Long Beach, California and went shopping for some last minute essentials in the city. And when I say city, I mean thug-town-gansta-ghettoville... I might have been a little freaked out. I had never seen a more crazy Walmart.

But, we did survive. Barely.

We caught a shuttle to the port the next morning and boarded onto the Carnival Splendor. Checking in wasn't too fun, but we were pretty excited to finally be on the ship... annnd of course have lunch at the all you can eat buffets. Bonus.

On Tuesday we got to Cabo San Lucas. The weather was 90+ degrees and the water was sooo clear and warm. It was heaven. And having Steven speak spanish fluently was so helpful. And attractive. We were able to get such good deals on everything from the locals!

The first day there we were able to get a boat to go snorkeling and to a beach. The water was so clear you could see at least 30 feet down, and the fish were so cool and brightly colored.

We were gettin' ready.

Steven and our cruise ship...

We might have not brought any sunscreen.... or even bothered to get some until the third day out in the sun. um yeah, ouch. And stupid.

They had a baby lion. A REAL one. I might have freaked. And begged to Steven to see it every time we walked by. He had to convince me that it's not worth $25 just to hold a lion and get a picture with it. Agree to disagree.

Later that day we rented a little scooter bike to ride around the city of Cabo. We definitely got lost a couple of times, and were almost run over multiple times, but it was so fun to see how the locals live. And to see the real Cabo, not just the tourist part. We found a little hole-in-the-wall authentic mexican restaurant to have lunch at, and I totally forgot to take a picture! But the chicken quesadilla I got was surprisingly amazinggg.

Our second day in Cabo we got out early to go and find someone to take us parasailing. I couldn't believe how relaxing it was! So quiet and peaceful up there, and so so warm! It was definitely one of my favorite things.

We took the scooter again and talked to a local guy to find a beach that wasn't swarmed with tourists. We ended up finding a pretty gorgeous one.

...and one that was completely empty. Yes, it's for real.

Needless to say, we spent quite awhile there soaking up some rays and enjoying it all.

I think we both would go back to Cabo in a heartbeat.

Our third day we had traveled over night to a much more tropical place called Puerto Vallartas.

We took a little ferry boat to a private beach, and on the way got to see a bunch of wild dolphins and do some more snorkeling!

It was another day of relaxing in the sun and pure amazing-ness I think I want to move to mexico and just be a beach bum.

The last couple of days on the ship were at sea, and we were able to spend them doing blissfully nothing.

Our days consisted of wake up, eat, take nap, eat, watch movie, nap, eat, repeat. You don't get to do that do often. It was lovely.

I think we had a hard time coming back to reality. Thank goodness, we came back to Thanksgiving break and wedding presents. I wish i would have taken a picture of our tv room piled with presents, because it was unbelievable. People were way to generous to us!

I did get a video of my brother sam in the trash, which may give some idea of how crazy it was...

We basically spent the whole week getting everything put away, organized, and livable.

But oh my, how fun it was. Being married is the best thing EVER. Love it.

Day of a million smiles

It's kinda fun waking up knowing the next couple weeks will be the best of your life so far. We went off tradition a little bit, and decided to have our reception the night before. Best idea EVER.

I was able to spend all morning rushing around getting things done for displays, my hair all fixed, pictures ready etc. So when 5pm rolled around, everything was ready to go.

I got super lucky with my dress. I knew exactly what I wanted, and found it at the first store I tried. It was initially totally sleeveless, which made me a little hesitant to get it. But thank goodness their in-store seamstress was a sewing-magician and was able to alter it just the way i wanted. AND made it look totally seamless.. amazing. Totally would highly recommend Bridal Image at Colonial Square/The Square in Bountiful!

Steven and I were super fortunate to have a lady in his ward offer to do our cake as a gift. And oh my goodness, she made my crazy dreams come true! See that flower design? They came right off my invitation that I made. It was hard enough doing those flowers in Illustrator, I can't imagine doing it with frosting! Amazing.

Here's our invitation for those who didn't get to see it. Can you believe how amazing she did the icing flowers???

Notice how I'm carefully putting the cake IN his mouth, not ON his face.

I must love him.

We weren't actually planning on dancing, it just kind of... happened.

Our wedding coordinator lady at the reception place came up to me after we cut the cake and was all, "It's time for your first dance!!"

Steven and I thought it might be kinda silly, considering we weren't even married yet. But, it ended up being one of my favorite parts. I had no idea what song we should dance to. But, being obsessed with all things Disney, I went with the song "I See the Light" from my recent favorite movie, Tangled. It felt perfect for us. And I think all our little nieces and cousins were pretty excited about it :)

Steven and I with our parents.

I was able to wake up the next morning feeling so calm and not having to worry about a thing since the reception was already over. It was soooo nice just being able to focus on Steven, the temple, and the sealing. The weather was gorgeous. I couldn't have hoped for anything better in November. The skies were clear, it wasn't too cold, and all the leaves managed to stay on the trees!

Being sealed to Steven was easily one of the best experiences of my life, and I will never forget it. We made our promises to always be there for each other, and to love each other always. And we keep our end of the deal, we can be together forever and ever. There is nothing more amazing then that.

It was one of the happiest, if not the happiest day of my life so far. Being surrounded by family and friends, and feeling so much love and joy you could drowned in it.

I'm not sure how it is for other people, but I always use to imagine what my wedding day would be like. What my dress would look like, how my hair would be, what colors I'd have for my reception... etc. It's funny how when that day finally comes, those things really don't matter. You just don't care about them, because you are so completely wrapped up in the fact that you are getting married to your best friend, in the right place, and the right time. Everything feels perfect. Everything feels complete. Like placing the last piece of the puzzle in it's spot. And just the overwhelming feeling of peace and assurance that you made the right choice, and are doing exactly what was meant for you all along... is priceless.

Thanks for picking me to be yours forever Steven, love you always.